The Thoroughly Enjoyable Lightness of Being

Apologies, Mr. Kundera, for twisting around your story's title into something that you may not even remotely recognize. (Although, there should really be no problem if you can't even remotely recognize it. :D )

Whatever! No title fits better, so I decided to take a bit of prosaic license (to kill) with your title.

Thankfully, good days at work are becoming the norm. While working yesterday, I was a bit scared of barking up the wrong tree, and going rather off-track, but in today's meeting, my thought process was praised, and said to be in sync with the vision of one of the leaders. Yeah, pretty impressive, I know! But I ain't gloating! (yet!)

What made my day yesterday was one of my friends/juniors making it to XLRI, after a long wait on the dreaded waitlist. This chap was a bit down-in-the-dumps till the 'Agony Uncle' act by yours truly. (I ain't gloating even now! So, wipe that forbidding expression off your face! Please.... )

Today, the day's been made by a very special blogger friend - Corinne, whose Everyday Gyaan keeps me rejuvenated. You see, I've been nominated for the 'blogger friendship award'. :D



(Yes, you can frown now, for I AM gloating now. HMPH!)

I would like to thank the autorickshaw drivers in Bangalore, the (expensive) laundry service, the (unpalatable) food, my awesome colleagues, Microsoft (my 'employer'), Google (for creating blogger.com), Hathway (the ISP), Dell (my laptop maker), my cat*, the spiders in my room, and my dear readers, of course, for making my blog more active and readable.

In addition, I'd further like to nominate the following people for this prestigious award: *drumroll*

Scriber - for being so creative and awesome!

Kaddu - for her pragmatism laced with that touch of irony/sarcasm.

Nikita - for the oh-so-brilliant humour, and for allowing Abk, Nik and me to run riot on her blog. :D

Choco - for being so unique, so tongue-in-cheek, and so hilarious!

Shreyans - for taking such thoughtful perspectives each time.

Tangerine - for being one of my first friends here in Bloggersville.

Ishu - for making it to this list despite using a word that I have an aversion to - 'jogging'. :|

Harshad - for being a fellow sufferer at the hands of profs (and encouraging me to try couchsurfing. :P )

Aquarius - for belonging to the "As the Aquarian thinks, so shall the world... in fifty years." clan.

Deepti - for being her adorable self.

Div(y)a - for some brilliant and creative writing.

Sindhu - the name says it all! Hakuna Matata - no worries! :)

*drumroll**drumroll**drumroll*

Yes, that's a long list. But then, these folks are worthy! Also, the list is not numbered, because the names are in random order, not ranked, ok?

Thank you everyone, for sharing snippets of your thoughts on your blogs. :)

P.S. I think I have some kind of psychological disorder. Songs get stuck in my head, and keep on playing in an endless loop. Since yesterday, the needle is stuck on 'Can't help falling in love with you' by Elvis.

Edit: I forgot to credit Mr. Kundera. Thanks!!

Busy-ness!

I like it! Suddenly, someone seems to have reached over, and turned the 'speed' knob of my life a notch faster. I seem to have more things to do, and once again 24 hours seem so short (just the way I like things)!

(No, I'm not a masochist! However, whenever you meet me, I'll display some of my distinctly sadistic tendencies to you... BWAHAHAHA)

Work is starting to become more exciting and challenging. It's an interesting project, at an interesting turnpoint. And the best part is that I get to choose the direction it goes in. That's both exciting and scary at the same time. However, the fact that I'm learning a lot is nice. I just love the company, the coworkers, and the overall atmoshpere which is so conducive to employee development.

In addition, I'm trying to launch a web startup, in collaboration with some friends. Nothing too fancy or path-breaking but innovative and different for sure! After many frustrating weeks when we were held up by something or the other, finally we seem to be getting there. Even though progress seems slow sometimes, and I get despondent, the energy of some folks in the group infuses new life, and I get up, to traverse another mile. (One of them is to be thanked in particular. Thanks KJ!!) I'm sure we'll get it going before the summer is gone!

I also have a confession to make. I am an addict. I think I need to join 'Prison Break Anonymous' or some such society. HELP!! All those who call themselves friends, and all those who don't but are reading this with unbridled joy!

Next week could be hectic, with me planning a vacation this (extended) weekend, and possibly travelling for official work for most of next week. If I'm still here, then hopefully, I'll be able to lift the veil on the startup. Let's see!

...

I was just randomly tracking down the traffic to my blog. I do it to get some weird kicks sometimes, even though I'm not into SEO and stuff.

Imagine my surprise when I found that this blog appears on Google's first page, if one searches for 'Love in December'. Actually, that's the name of a really cute play from IIT Mumbai, and some of you might remember reading a post about it in the past.

I guess I should track down the guy who made the play, and seek royalties. :P

What say?

XLent times!

Thursday was a holiday here in Bangalore, because of the elections. Yes, it is probably shameful to treat an event of national significance as a 'holiday' but then I had strong reasons for not voting (or so I think). Because of so much regional politics, it is difficult to know what is being done by which party, in which state. So, I see no reason to vote in Bangalore, when I don't know enough. All my life, right from school elections to college elections, and to the Lok Sabha, I've voted 'rationally' – taking into account the candidate's profile, manifesto, the party's national plans etc. When I don't even know the names of the local candidates, I don't think I ought to vote.

So, it was a very pleasing feeling to have a day off. Consequently, on Wednesday, a friend from XLRI and I decided to meet up for dinner. Over a Subway meal, we were called over by another chap who is interning in Bangalore. So, off we went and parked ourselves at his serviced apartment. (The opulence of it all staggered me – a TV, a refrigerator, a cook, and an elegant apartment made me shut out the image of my cluttered single room with stuff strewn about untidily all across.)

After watching the Indian Premier League, we proceeded on a lengthy chat session (which went on till about 5 in the morning). Bushed by then, we were dead to the world (and our phones) for the next 7 hours. After that, we decided to go to Brigade Road in the afternoon and grab some lunch.

We got ready and reached Brigade Road, only to find that most eating joints were closed due to the elections! UGH!! So, we spent the next one hour roaming the streets and looking for a place to eat at. (And you thought that man foraged for food only in the Neanderthal or whatever ages.)

Anyway, I suddenly broke that despondently trudging formation that resembled a collection of Manchester United players after their 4-1 drubbing by Liverpool, and made a beeline for a nearby shop. Nope, even though my frame (and my exchange with Nikita) indicates otherwise, it was not a restaurant or a sandwich shop. It was a shop called 'Magazines' and it caught my attention because there was an alluring sign proclaiming that back issues of US/UK magazines were available at only a 100 bucks each. (No, you pervert! I wasn't after 'those' magazines… I was looking for something on football.)

But of course, football magazines were out of stock, so the formation reassembled itself, looking more and more like Arsenal's walking wounded at the end of an average football season. Finally, we found an open restaurant that was called 'Stars n Stripes' but was advertising 'sugarcane juice' and 'chicken biryani' on banners outside. Weird, huh?

Still, food is food, and some (disastrous)pizza, Schezwan noodles, and chilli mushrooms, washed down with chilled sugarcane juice and Thums Up sent us on our way. Of course, the waiters seemed to think that we had unlimited time and were very leisurely about the whole affair. So, we gave them a few decidedly unfriendly stares before we left.

Then, another friend was supposed to join us, so we went on to one of Bangalore's landmarks – The Corner House (that's an ice-cream parlour). As recommended by Bangalorean friends earlier, we ordered for a 'Death by Chocolate' aka DBC which was liked by two of us, and detested by another two in equal measure. Anyway, after some random discussions on DBC, the next argument was about where to go. One of us was very keen on going to a restaurant that had a karaoke night tonight, but the rest of us vetoed the idea and decided to go to some place where we could chit-chat. So, off we were to Garuda mall – where we sat for a while, ate, blabbered away and then decided to leave.

Of course, the damned auto rickshaw drivers had to put an end to what had been an otherwise perfect day. They were demanding totally outrageous fares, and refusing to go by the meter. One of us retorted, "Bhaiya, auto khareedna nahin hai, sirf jaana hai!" (I don't want to buy your auto bro, I only want to travel in it). Those chaps got irritated and started giving us gyaan. We walked off in a huff, with a couple of us constantly turning back, muttering angrily and glaring at them.

But eventually, it was good to get back home and reminisce about the lazy day.

Takeaways:

1. Bangalore is a paradise for book lovers. Every nook and corner has treasures waiting to be discovered. (Someone get those pirated books away, please! UGH!)
   
2. If I had my own conveyance, and my own cooking arrangements, Bangalore would've been the ideal city to live in.
   
3. I suck at air hockey. Gloating over my victory in the first match 4-2, I got thrashed 1-7 in the next one. K
   
4. One ought to do this kinda stuff more often. It was so much fun!