Nothingness?:)

Everybodys left early , this being a combination of a day before a State holiday , a possible long weekend , and a blissful Diwali week waiting ahead.Its 6PM and all I can hear are the sounds of my hands tapping the keypad , my floor mate G's voice as she pulls her colleagues leg , my friend S's groan(she's got a lot to do this week and apparently can't even *think* of a day of respite), I like this feeling , of having some work to finish off , of not having too many heads around me(sounds so gory eh?) , of the thought of polishing off a pastry at the cafetaria plus a cup of coffee , messaging Alto a Good morning , of telling Amma that I will reach home in time for our serial...errrm now I'm thinking "Do you think I'm asking for trouble?"

All in the family

Now , just before I decided to do a post about it , I did ask my Mom if she had any objections to my content. As always she said she did , and as always I choose to disobey , so here goes..

I think my family has a strange strain of sadism running through it that has gotten better with each generation.With that Dhamakedar opening , I shalt resort to using less fancy words.You've knitted your brows? You wonder why it is so? RM patti will tell you why.Here's why.Shall I commence now? Or now?

See what I mean?

Let me start at the very beginning.I was born in Secunderabad(besides that , I do not have any attachment or sentiment attached to the place ) .During the formative years of my life , my Mother and Altoidster led me to believe that I was actually a Muslim (No offense meant to the religion ,more to do with regionally) woman's throw-away baby and my original name was "Raziya".To make matters worse , during throes of "Im-an-unwanted-child-who-loathes-studying" , I was led to believe that I had not one but TWO sisters far away in a hostel , and the reason I didn't see them was because they chose to come down during my summer vacations in Sec'bad!
I bawled my heart out and talked to the mango tree while the Mom and Sis exchanged glances and whispered
"Where's she"
"Under the mango tree"
"Did she hug it yet?"

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Now , we will introduce the C Maama , my Mother's equally sadistic brother.
After a heavenly lunch of Rice-Vetha Kozhambu-Vadaam-Thayir shadam-pickle-Banganpalli mango , I would wander around the book-shelf aimlessly(i think sometimes people can't bear to see my happy face), and then C mama who would be seated on the reclining chair would catch hold of both my hands and wouldn't let me go. He would then say " This is how the crocodile caught hold of the elephant in Gajendra Moksham ..Heeeeehahahhaa" .And I would wail around uselessly to an empty audience and promptly fall asleep.

*Thinks*

*Pouts*

*:(*
****************************************************************

Yes , there's more

There was/is this muslim family who were our neighbors in Sec'bad. And apparently a kid called Mujaheed who was around my age lived there too . Yes you guessed right.

They had arranged for Mujaheed and his long lost Raziya to be united in Holy matrimony on the 2nd of some month , some year.

And I nearly died of palpitation as the day neared...


The only saving grace in this whole situation was probably the Dad ... someone who'd frown sometimes , look on amusedly at other times...

So I kid you not when I quote

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.
~Linda Sunshine

On a related note , Altoidster has designed this template for me , and it is SO me , the colors , the illustrations et all. Ty Ems :)

Diverse are we

I believe
Diversity is a part of the natural order of life
As natural as a billion shapes and shades
Of the colors of spring
Or the leaves of autumn

We had "Diversity Day " at work this Friday . A day to acknowledge the fact that we were a French-American organization with one of the branches in Southern India with one of the campuses next to Bangalore's largest drain.Yes , diversity in all shapes and forms there.

"Do your floor" was one of the bullets in the To-Do list.10 heads came together on the first day with cups of coffee and a board marker .

K: "All the floors will do the cliched color paintings and colored lights"
L:"Last year , we did nothing , When the judges came in , we were still cutting color paper, we were the worst decorated floor, we got a pity award"
S1:"Maybe we should shift to the HR's floor , they always win"
S2:"Its full of women , man .Theyve got loads of time to kill"
RM(looks murderous):"Ahem"
S2:"Heheh , didnt mean that.. I just meant HR's have a lot of times on their hands"
RM(looks murderous):"Grr"
S2:"Whats your problem ?"
RM:"BAH"
K(The efficient floor captain instincts surfacing):"Ok shut up everybody and listen to me"
L:"Thats what we did last time , then we decided this time we would be democratic and take a poll"
S1:"I opt for democracy and opt out"

*** General pandemonium where everybody tries to get S1 back into action***

Minutes of the Meeting : We agree to be democratic

Day 2:

S1:" I think we could do stick paintings to depict the software development lifecycle"
T:"Why dont we show diversity in different ages"
S1: "It wont work , our floor always loses"
RM(looks at S1):"I wonder why"
S2:" Ok , lets show diversity in work , starting with the cave era , the jungle age , the medieval and the Space age"

MOM: We have a THEME!


Day 3:

K: "S2 takes Space , RM takes the cave,S3 takes the jungle , and I take the medieval"
RM:" Good lord , the cave age?"

Many ideas , inputs , good ,bad,eccentric flowed in and finally the day before the D day arrived.

I had 6 handy and happy helpers to create my cave :)

S4:"What are you guys doing in this cubicle , I have WORK!"
RM:"Shall I call Mrs K?"
S4:"Whos Mrs K"
RM:"Our Director and someone who mailed saying we had to celebrate Diversity Day"
S4:"Ok , do what you want , just dont upset my desk"
RM:"Haha fat chance"

After spending 10 minutes trying to stick brown paper to the ceiling and having it fall unceremoniously all over us , we rethank our thunk

B: "It looks too straight "
V: "Hmm"
RM(Glares at the unforgiving brown paper):"Double sided tape with a drop of Fevi-kwik"
V:" Chutki mein chipkaye hehhe"
RM"Grr"
B:" lets stack dustbins and cover it with brown paper , it will have that uneven effect"
N:" (sweet smile)"
I personally love N's smile , its so unaffected and sweet :)
After 3 hours of foraging for dustbins , standing on desks , stretching our (by that i mean mine) five feet forms to reach the ceiling , we had some weird sinister looking brown sheet hanging structure that swayed gracefully!

But at the end of the day ,when I was riding home at 9:30PM , I learnt that

1. I had a new found friend in S5 , especially after we set out on his bike at 8:30 to look for more brown paper and adhesive
2.The tissue rolls (:D) play a good roll in making as clubs used by cavemen
3.You get to see the best in your colleagues
4.You never knew you had this big an ego to live up to!

To cut a very long story short , our venture was a success , we actually ended up with the second prize.
yes , yes the first went to the first floor with all its creative HR's :D

These are a few of my favorite pictures ..

"Happiness is a toothless smile"

Taken in a village very close to Muthathi , you'll find a representative from each generation, different people , same smile :)

Kaladi , Shankaracharya's birthplace












Murudeshwara , a few days before lightning struck the idol










Somebody's very pretty house in Mangalore :)

Urrm , any single guys inhabiting this place ?:D