The year that was...

Its been an year...and it still hasn't sunk in...being married to the best guy in the world:)...


The times of fun..madness...crazy little things we have done...
me fighting..and yelling..and u grinning through it all..:)..The fights over the food choices...and every little moment of madness...being with you has been the best thing that has happened to me....and through it all...i havent just realised how one year flew by:)


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY P...


may the madness never stop!!!!

Everyday Lessons...:)

For all those who don’t know, Rufus is a little golden retriever we adopted a month back. He is the new member of the family and of course the cutest too…

I have always been an ardent animal lover, and it is that love which makes me do a little of things which sound weird to a lot of sensible people. And when it comes to dogs, I am on a different wavelength altogether. I have always had dogs around me. Even as a little kid, my undying love for them was pretty evident to everyone.When I was 1 month old, I preferred playing with the 2 huge dogs my father had rather than the chunks of toys lying in my room.I would spend hours playing with them,sleeping over them,pulling their tails,and irritating them,as they happily obliged. After months of living in the fear of seeing her little daughter play gleefully with the pets,my mom made peace with the fact that it probably runs in the family....and after 30 years of being married to my father…even she finally has it in her…

So, recently when we decided to adopt the little Rufus, family wasn’t too surprised..

And, now that he is around us, there are so many things the little one teaches me on a day to day basis…and some of them kae a lot of sense too.I am sure the lessons are going to continue with each passing day...and more often than not, I shall be mentioning about them.

So,starting today in the series of lessons from Rufus,this post is rightfully named as lessons from Rufus-I



1. There is never a wrong time to eat. Eat to your heart’s content…and still wonder if you missed something.


2.Peas,carrots,apples,oranges,cabbage,capsicum,
make healthy side dishes on a lazy Sunday afternoon!!






3.The best place in the house is the kitchen.
If you settle yourself near the area,

chances are that you will get to eat every hour







4.Bath tubs make great swimming pools. It s all in the mind.














5. Bean bags make lovely beds.
The more the better…!!!















6. Eating grass is fun, digging it is even better.

7. Noisy kids don’t make great company. Kids with football do.







8. Good looks are always attractive, so keep your self groomed even after all the mess you have created around you.



9. Car parking is a fun place to take a walk, you see a lot of things, and you otherwise won’t get a chance to.




10.Cute things you do, may distract people to the extent of accidently banging their heads against the wall. Sometimes, your master could also be one of them.


















11.Women like well behaved men, so every time you cross one, look at her with the cutest expression you can gather, she will surely come and say a sweet hello. She might even come and pat you and tell you how cute you are…. And if it’s really your day, she might as well pick u up and sport a little kiss.

The top 3 Tag

So, Akash has tagged me...The nice guy that he is...trying to get useless people like me to get out of the self proclaimed Writer's Block...

...and here I am with my list of Top Three's

I wish there were more categories…but then ,if there were…I would be more troubled…listing out these was tough…coz there are so many things…where I have multiple faves…

But then …a rule is a rule.. is a rule...!!!

Here I go...

1. 3 Favorite Actors
• Johnny Depp (hes awesome in all senses)
• George Clooney (I can drool over him all the time)

• Heath Ledger (He was brilliant…I so wish we could have more of him)

2. 3 Favorite Actresses
• Julia Roberts (Never seen a better smile)

• Angelina Jolie (She is oh-so-gorgeuos)
• Kajol (She is awesome…)

3. 3 Favorite New Stars (Bollywood)
• Abhay Deol (What a chilled out guy…!!!)
• Sonam Kapoor (So pretty…and yet can act!!!)
• Darsheel Zafari (I wish he doesn’t get stardom to his head…this boy indeed is talented)

4. 3 Favorite Sports
• Tennis
• Tennis
• Tennis

Yeah..I don’t understand any other game...!!!!

5. 3 Favorite Sportspersons
• Rafael Nadal
• Steffi Graf
• Roger Federer

(Obvious choices!!)

6. 3 Favorite Politicians
• None

• None
• None

(I cant stand the sight of any of them…because I think all of them are simply good for nothing!!)

7. 3 Favorite Comedians
• Vinay Pathak

• Cyrus
• Saif Ali Khan

(ok!!the Saif lovers don’t kill me-he does a fab job when hes comic…you gotta give me that)

8. 3 Favorite Indian Male singers
• Mohammad Rafi (No one can beat him...what a voice)

• KK (This guy rocks everytime he sings…man what bundle of talent)

• Mohit Chauhan (subtle and awesome)

9. 3 Favorite Indian Female singers
• Shreya Ghoshal (Lovely voice)
• Lata Mangeshkar (She doesn’t need words)
• Sunidhi Chouhan (Powerhouse)

10. 3 Favorite Corporate Honchos
• Jack Welch

• Ratan Tata

• N R Narayanamurthy

11. 3 Favorite News channels
• CNBC TV18
• NDTV 24x7
• CNN IBN

12. 3 Favorite News anchors
• Rajdeep Sardesai
• Pranoy Roy
• Barkha Dutt

13. 3 Favorite Hindi Entertainment channels
• MTV
• Channel V
• 9 xm (I love bakwaas band kar)

14. 3 Favorite English entertainment channels
• Zee Studio

• Zee Cafe

• Star World

15. 3 Favorite TV Shows
• Roadies
• Friends
• Sex and the city

16. 3 Favorite Writers
• Nicholas Sparks
• Erich Segal

• Ayn Rand

17. 3 Favorite Movies
• One Fine Day
• DDLJ
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This list is so not fair…I am still thinking on the list of fave movies…!!!

18. 3 Favorite Indian Holiday destinations
• Kerala
• Kodaikanal

• Rajasthan

19. 3 Favorite Professions
• Media Planner

• HR consulting
• Banking
(...the irony is that...I am in currently in my most unfavorite profession...!!!)

20. 3 Favorite Mobile Brands
• Nokia
• Blackberry
• Sony Ericcson

21. 3 Favorite Laptop Brands
• Dell
• Apple
• Sony

22. 3 Favorite Cars
• BMW 7 series
• Audi
• Honda

23. 3 Favorite Apparel brands
• Levi’s

• Versace

• Indian Terrain

24. 3 Favorite Deserts
• A chocolate cake dripping with chocolate chunks and soaked in chocolate sauce

• Caramel walnuts with icecream(if you haven’t tried this-go to a good Chinese restaurant and try it!!!)

• Mom made Besan ke laddoo

25. 3 Favorite Cuisines
• Italian
• India(I wish Punjabi food was a cuisine)
• Mexican

So I am done...and waiting for all others for their own...

All those who think are really suffering from the Writer's Block...Go ahead..and take this tag...

Its a great way to exercise the rusted mind and take it off that dreaded laptop...and ofcourse..it gives you a new post as well...:)

Off you Go!!!!

The Thank you Email

When I joined my work place..I had mixed emotions...which gradually changed to something of utmost hatred..
Times passed and eventually,I started liking the place where I work.Well,there are a lot of factors to it..I have a role change..which is likeable..my manager and I are more like on the same level...and its one kind of a case where the manager works more than the subordinates...so kinda feels nice too.....the team I have is good fun to work with .. then there are morning meetings
....
and then there are times like this when I get emails of the sort,which keep me absolutely thrilled...:)

Hi All,
Thanks for your patients in listening the demo
Please find the attached excel sheet with the spread details.
Thanks,
XXX


Couldn't ask for more:)

Of love...and life..

I claim to understand a lot of things in life…and then there is love..!!!

Its not about any of my romantic dreams,or some beautiful book I read..

Its not even about my perceptions on love..and nor of others…

Its just about how I wonder when people lose their mind in the wrong way when they are in love.

I have a friend at my workplace.Nice and sweet guy and truly, madly deeply in love with this girl who stays in Dubai.They have known each other for ages…. and finally started seeing each other a couple of years back…and for all this while the relationship has been long distance.

So,everyday at lunch time I would be bombarded with their long love filled stories,and I used to feel terrible that two people who were so much in love couldn’t be together.

He would plan nice little ,big ,huge surprises for her everyday..and when he was not working,we all knew where to find him..He would always be in the pantry talking to his sweetheart.We all totally loved having him around….and he would give us all reasons to.

He would often come home and we would strum the guitar and sing on for hours while Vin recorded our amateur performances…

He and Vin gelled along like brothers…and I kept getting my cooking lessons from his mother..And a thousand miles away from home,it indeed was a little family situation we were a part of…

But some how gradually I noticed that the sweet smiling boy had started getting jittery about little things. He would often get finicky, and weird .He was thinking a lot, was always on the phone and eventually started taking a lot of leaves too...Initially I presumed it was his back that kept troubling him like in the old times..On a few occasions me n Vin went to visit him over,his parents seemed distressed … but they would still try n be the merry people that they are… And some how things didn’t seem right..

Finally after a gap of 2 weeks, he came to work...and as we caught up for lunch, he told me..”Rich I am leaving”..

I didn’t quite understand what he meant by that…but on closer look at him,I knew what he meant .He was quitting the job to go ....to go and be with his lady love.

I first thought he had finally got a job in Dubai and was moving there,when he told me that he didn’t have a job…and was going there to look for one…I was shocked..

I knew..and so did he…that in the pathetic market situation like this, where people were being thrown out of their jobs ,he had taken a huge risk by quitting a well paying job…only because his girl friend felt that he didn’t want to be with her.

I asked him if he had thought about what he was doing?The answer to which was,

“I cant let her be alone….”

I was pretty shocked again… because I knew she lived there with her family..and was in no way all alone and by her self…But I knew that he had made up his mind and as expected ,all that I was trying to explain seemed gibberish to him.As the conversation proceeded… I kept thinking on what caused such a wise guy to do something so foolish …

When you are an only child..and your parents have retired…I guess there is a huge sense of responsibility and in those situations,if a person,who is incidentally a good friend too…makes such decisions,you cant do anything but feel helpless at the irony of the situation.

So finally,he applied for a 1 week leave( he finally listened to me and did not resign),and left for Dubai.

The very same week,came a shocker at our workplace,when about 100 people were fired as a part of the cost cutting measure by the company.

The process was simple,the people who were to be fired were called in for a meeting by their respective managers,and while they were being given the notice of termination,all their access were revoked.

And I don’t know why I was really scared about the whole thing.

I informed my friend about the situation,who by then was pretty happy being in Dubai..and making up for all the years he lost out on.

I knew once gone,he was not coming back until he had a job in his hand…and that’s how it has been till date

Its been 4 weeks since he’s gone;he hasn't called his manager to inform him of reasons on why he’s not back yet..

He is still struggling to get a job there …and its unlikely that he will…because the ever flourishing Middle East too is in shambles of the Recession...

This morning,he pinged me to tell me that he couldn’t connect to the vpn…he couldn’t access his outlook…his accesses were revoked…I tried talking to the IT guys,but I was directed to his manager,who seemed totally cold whe I went to him to talk…

I didn’t know what to do…I don’t even know whats happening…

Some how I don’t feel sorry for the state he is in..he asked for what he has got…But I do feel really sad for all that has happened..and I so wish I could reverse it completely..I wish I could make him think sane.

And in the middle of it..all I can remember is a saying…”people rise in love”

..And then I wonder why that girl,for whom he took so many pains,didn't understand that just because of her own selfish interests,she made him lose out on a lot.

And I wonder why…even after all this, he hasn’t got a lesson..to rectify his mistakes…

..and why he is not thinking of his parents who he has left all alone here…

…why is he so blinded by the cursory illusions of fame,power and quick money…..

This is just a person in my life who I came across...I am sure there are so many other people like that..who do not rise in love..but get drowned..who do not realise a lot of things untill they have messed them.

I have been through that phase too...but before I could lose myself in my own shadow,I came out of it..But then not everyone gets that chance in life..

I wonder why…when in love ,you are so blinded that you don’t realize your wrongs…

I wonder …..if it is really love…or just the illusion of it..!

The 7 am hiatus...

Ok so I know I have been hibernating for so long that most of the people have even forgotten that I ever existed….and now that I have had a long enough break, I so hope that I will have something to write about on a more regular basis.Well..i am back…and this time for the good…

So,while I had been spending my time away from the blog world, it really wasn’t for the good…The generally jobless me was overloaded and bombarded with work...Well I know I should be happy that I finally got some work after months of boredom in my office, but the saddest part was that the work that I eventually got to work on was more boring than the non work that I didn’t have…Alright…Yeah…it’s kind of confusing…so be it...I never understood it anyway...

So, for the past one month, I have been living with meetings. Meetings that start at 7...and end only when I am on the verge of collapsing...I start my day with one...and of course end it too with a couple of them to haunt me through the night.Well for those who know me, they also know for the fact that my mornings don’t begin before 11.All the 4 years of college, I could never make it for the first two lectures; In Gurgaon, mornings started at 10, but this new job wasn’t too emphatic with my state.… and with much difficulty, (and umpteen efforts for 6 months), I finally clocked my self to get up at 8 and somehow reach office by 10,an achievement that my family celebrated for quite a few days. As days went by, I started getting adjusted to my 8 am mornings, and suddenly one evening as I was comfortably sitting on the easy chair planning my next meal, I got a sms from my manager.

Now, my manager deserves another post to be written about since mentioning her in just a few lines would be a injustice to her kind of a personality.So, I will make sure that my coming posts do talk about her.

Coming back to the discussion, I got a message from her, stating that there is a review meeting scheduled for 7 am the next morning. I was aghast!!! What was she thinking,7 am is no time. It was almost midnight…I read the message again,and again..and when I realized that the words were just as I was reading them,and didn’t appear to change,I called her to confirm if she really had lost it completely. Talk about being curt, she wasn’t even apologetic for calling me on such unruly hours…and I knew I didn’t have a choice but to go.Vin tried to console me by saying that it wouldn’t happen again, and just once I could manage it…and so I did and the rest is just history……

But such is the irony of life... that fateful, horrendous and freaking day marked the beginning of a never ending torture on me.And now,I reach office at 6:45 am…attend meetings till 4 pm,and end up getting yelled at for not giving any work stats reports which should be out by 4 pm anyways.And so, the poor me has been juggling with trying to please one and all…and getting nowhere.To make things better(read worse..Iam in my sarcastic mode), 3 of my super bosses are on a visit to the India office .So this lady(lets call her V) has taken a step further to leave no stone unturned to impress each one of them.Dont know how many are impressed, but the whole process has surely killed me.

So, one of these fateful meeting days of mine, I was struggling with discussions since 7 am. It was already 1230, and along with being hungry, I was damn sleepy and yawning shamelessly (well not really, I was trying really hard to control it…) as the VP was addressing us. I don’t know if everyone can relate to the pain of being hungry and sleepy at the same time, but it surely is a deadly combo for me.And right when I was on the verge of getting stoned, this fun loving VP(lets call him C) of ours decided to have some fun session, and he wanted our feedback on whatever nonsense he was trying to utter.Me being me,thought I could really get away by trying and being moderately responsive and sleeping with eyes wide open…And so it began..the discussion on Perception…C was trying really hard to sound like a cool guy (at 50, he is neither cool, nor funny,and the least interesting)..
C:-So guys, lets talk about perception and how we can turn our perceptions into a world class thought process of a world class team.

While everyone raised their hands like 5 year old nursery kids, I was still trying to get back to my senses...and trying to understand what he was really talking about...

C-So Richa, you look contemplative..lets start with you…

“(Huh..why me?I don’t even know what you are asking..contemplative…man..Iam dying of lack of sleep..and im starving all in an effort to tolerate your nonsense.…and you call me contemplative….!!!grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!)”

Some gibberish that I uttered,somehow saved me from being caught red handed in my sleeping act.

C:-Great Richa…so now let’s hear you all…

Phew..….Some more futile and silly questions later…..as we dug in deeper to understand what Perception meant…

C:-Ok guys, how many of you have been to the US

Voila…I was safe here..I grinned and grinned ,I have never been to the mighty US..and there was no way he could have directed the question to me..and so I fell back and started to go back to my relaxation mode..

Everyone else was looking at each other,so it was obvious that none had been…V was observing everyone in the meantime in a hope that some one will raise a hand..and when no one did,she decided to volunteer.(No matter how sleepy I was,I could bet,she had never been there…and she was faking…)

C:-Ok V…so Can you tell me what do they mean when they have 55 MPH written on their expressways.?

Now,this was getting interesting,and I woke up to see the most priceless expression I have seen on some ones face.She didn’t know..and it was evident.But now that she was trapped in her own oversmart move,she didn’t have a choice.So ,after an initial hiccup,she started to speak…

C:-“It means the same like it means here in India,It is ofcourse the maximum speed limit and it means that people cant go beyond 55 mph and the difference between US and India is that people there follow rules”

It seems that she went a little wrong with her overboard answer..I didn’t know until C got uncomfortable with her silly answer.and suggested that it really was the other way around..

And as C continued the discussion with how 55 mph means the minimum speed limit and not the maximum, there she was…embarrassed…and irritated ofcourse…and as she tried to confirm that she meant the same… I burst out in a laughter(to my amusement,everyone felt that I was coughing…as they passed me a glass of water)…I finally had a jump start to the rest of the day….What happened to her…?Well she hasn’t raised her hand for any of the questions till date..I guess she will take some time to gather her thoughts..
And what happened to me after that…well..I got a new manager..The 7 am meetings continue…but this time..I am not complaining…!!
P.S.:-I realized that this is my first post of 2009…16 days since the new years went by…And that just reminds me that I am yet to make my new year resolutions for 2009...I have already started Contemplating..contemplation is good for me...:)

Happpy New Year…!!!

A little short of words:)

Okay...so I am finally out of my long hibernation..and even though Im still suffering from a major writer's block(talk about self obsession,I already consider myself a writer...;)),Im writing this post as I have been given an award by Urv...:)
Thanks buddy for atleast bringing me out of the dead...

and I hereby pass on this award to my dear friends at the blogger world...a few new..and a few who have stuck by through the passing years:)...

Nidhi,Priyanka ,Toonfactory,Akash,The army guy ,Preeti

and ofcourse Urv..I dont know how good is the idea of giving back the award to the awardee..but then u deserve it too:)...

and for all of you like me who will not understand what this means.. here goes the full description(courtesy Urv...:D)

"Blogs that receive this award are 'exceeding charming'. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."


and in a simple my kinda language..it simply means this..
"For all the charming blogger friends of mine..who are wonderful bloggers..and more wonderful friends too:)

Cheerio guys...
Hopefully I will soon have something to write about:)