What a lovely life it is!

Happy Birthday Prem!

Sat, 23 May 2009 16:37:55 GMT

He wishes many of us by posting our Birthdays on his LJ... time for us to acknowledge and wish him on his Birthday!

Here's wishing a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to premkudva !!

Sparkling!!!!.

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:43:19 GMT

Popular Quote doing rounds post Lehman brothers, AIG, Merryll lynch fiasco....…
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"There are two sides to a Balance Sheet.- Left & the Right (Liabilities and Assets respectively)
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on the Left side there is nothing right.. and on the right side there is nothing left "

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:06:28 GMT

LIFE

is.... one BIG BLACK HOLE

B)

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:12:12 GMT

After 30 plus years of having gotten rid of those bothersome thingies called spectacles...I shall soon have them again!

Thus spake Ophthalmologist!! Aaaaaaarrrgggghh!! B)

One World... One Dream... Free Tibet

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:38:40 GMT

If you own a Flickr account...and believe in the Tibetan cause...do go there and post a picture supporting the 'Free Tibet' movement today - Monday 14th April 2008.

This is a silent movement to show solidarity with the cause of the Tibetans and people like us can help spread the word...

Being non-techie Idon't know how to make a hyperlink on my blackberry...what I can do is type the address and hope it shows up as a hyperlink on my post...

Please visit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezee123/2411698336/
for more details on this silent movement!

Friend stories.....continued!!

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:09:47 GMT

This one friend of mine deserves special mention! She has been with me every step of the way since June last year. I met her just as I was about to change jobs. I was worried I would get lonely when I would have to be away from friends and familiar environs..travelling...being away from home more than two weeks in a month! She promised to keep me company no matter where I went. Its a promise she has kept to this day!

She gives me company wherever I go! She has travelled across the seas with me. Her delicate shoulder..always there for me to cry on...and her beatific smile never fades! Mood uplifter... that's what she is! I love to watch her as she pirouettes tip toed... her delicate pink dress billowing all around her as she dances merrily..just to make me feel happy! I love the little wreath of wild flowers that adorns her pretty head of jet black hair!

Her smile reassures and the happiness she exudes can only be infectious!

Have to thank Pinky's momma....for letting her spend so much time with me! I know you are reading...so here...take a bow from me Pinky's momma dearest! Your little baby is my very precious friend!

Friend Stories!!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:33:58 GMT

Feels really great when one gets calls from or speaks to some really old friends!! And I have been feeling great! Have suddenly been in touch with some very very dear friends! It has been a series of calls/ meetings with friends over the last couple of days! April 10th - a friend's birthday! (We speak to each other only on birthdays!!) I call up to wish her and find out that she has just had a baby! Congrats Anita! Wonderful news! Later in the day I phone yet another friend to wish her on her birthday and find out that she is in the USA!! (Way to go Malini!!) Cool! Later last night I get a call from another friend..after a very long time! I was waiting for this call and hoping it would come (one of those cases where you are sure you don't want to call unless the other person does!!) It was wonderful speaking to him..way past midnight! Coolio... Mama...that was fun!

11th April - Josh...that's what I call my very very dear friend Nupur...it is always lovely to talk to her..whether birthday or not! Whether in India or outside! I spent nearly half an hour on an International Call ... and this was only a Birthday wish call ;)

12th April - was the birthday of yet another friend ..we had been together in school way back in 1980! I Called up to wish her and had a lovely long conversation...apart, of course, from getting an invited to spend some girl time together at her place in the tea gardens in Alipurduar !! Our little gang of four had come together in Loreto House, Calcutta, quite uniquely, in 1980! Navina was from Carmel Convent Calcutta, Sangeeta from Frank Anthony Public School, Delhi and Neelanjana and I were, coincidentally, from Loreto Convent Lucknow! We found each other only in Loreto House, Calcutta and we studied together for barely two years! In 1982, Sangeeta moved to Delhi, I moved to Madras while Navina and Neelanjana continued in Calcutta! Somehow, we kept in touch...mostly through snailmail...there was no email back then!! We had decided that we would make an effort to come together and meet at a common point on the silver jubilee of our first meeting...and WE DID!! January 25th, 2006 was special...Neelanjana came from USA, Sangeeta from Alipurduar, I travelled from Madras..just for two days, to Calcutta, where we all met at Navina's place! OooooH! Much fun was had! Way back in 1982 we had taken a photograph of the four of us together! We took another photograph of the four of us together..one of those touristy sketch thingies (one minute computer sketches) done at some random mall in Calcutta! Sangeeta...our chat today brought on such a flood of wonderful memories!

Later in the day I had gone to the Salon for a usual grooming routine...I enter, take my seat and turn to look around out of sheer curiosity, and lo and behold, sitting right next to me, I find Rekha, a very dear friend of mine from college! We used to hang out together all the time and had been touch even afterwards for some years (I had even done the bridal mehendi for her when she got married)...just that of late both of us got kind of busy with our own lives and even though we knew we would be able to pick the threads up from where we left them, we didn't really pick them up!! And today, the one hour that we were in the Salon getting ourelves attended to...was brilliant! Not only did we catch up on all the news, we also caught up with yet another good friend from college (mobile phones - great invention) and made plans for a reunion in the coming couple of weeks!

On returning home, I was joined by another close friend...who came over spend the afternoon. We had a good time together! Chatted, ate, relaxed...till it was time for her to leave for her Saturday late matinee movie at the club, and for me to leave to meet yet another dear dear friend. Divya and I had not met for over a year! She had called me a couple of days back saying that she was waiting for me to return from Gurgaon and that she wanted to have some 'hygienic Chaat'!! I had promised her some home made chaat ...so she could eat without worries. I did wonder, though, how I would manage that, what with full work days and yet another upcoming trip to Gurgaon! The solution - if she couldn't come over home for the chaat, the chaat could go to her!! So, it was Alu Tikki with dahi and chutney that went to Divya's parents' home in IIT Madras...for dear Divy to enjoy! 'Hygienic' home made 'chaat'!! It was most satisfying to watch her gorge on the alu tikkis going "yum yum yum yum".. baby style! There was enough for her brother and parents to have as well! I felt happy and gratified!! As I left her place, in true Tam Brahm tradition, her mum gave me vettrilai paakku and handed me an armful of
I had missed Divya's Valaikappu as I was away in Delhi! (Aside: I love glass bangles! I have a huge collection of those...some of the oldest ones in the collection go as far back as 1976...when i was in school!!)

I returned from Divya's only to log on to the net to check my mail and, guess what.. found that yet another friend had just found me on Facebook!!

Yipee!! Life is good!!

Damn Damn Damn ......

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:52:39 GMT

2:45 in the morning and sleep eludes completely...Not my normal style...I sleep well on a normal night! But damn...this is something else! I can't sleep because of a #*@*# e mail!!
Have been away from home nearly 3 weeks to get this piece of work sorted out...and,,,damn...I could just as well have gone back and been at home....less than half the effort would have sufficed...and damn...all this enlightenment happens in retrospect!! DAMN!! What a waste of time,energy, effort and emotions!!! DAMN!!!
Is this what my spiritual Guru of sorts had been warning me about? Could be! He had forewarned me of some such occurrence and advised meditation to help me tide over the likely adversity...I had followed his counsel.... erratically...! I might have slept well had I been regular in my practice..
Ah well...on the flip side...as I lie awake, the wind is whistling through the tiny gaps in the doors and windows of my room! Bolts of lightning light up the sky and my room intermittently.. .the usually dusty and smogfilled environs of Gurgaon appear to have been wiped clean of all the grime and the city lights are shining brighter...I can see far into the distant horizon even as I type this post!The heat of the day has all been washed away by this rainy breeze...it feels almost like a thunderstorm, though not quite!

And my thumbs hurt from typing so long on this tiny BlackBerry keypad (sureshot prescription for RTI)...if only I could forget it all and just sleep...."After all", like Scarlett said..." tomorrow is another day" ... DAMN...or may be Fiddle dee dee!!!

Thanks for a nudge with perspective!!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:59:41 GMT

A random chat with ezee123 made me realise that I had not posted since hubby returned from hospital..repaired and much better than before (in terms of health and lifestyle)!! Thanks buddy for reminding me that my last post (that sounds spooky :D) was from Hospital and I have been out of that hospital for a fair bit of time!!

Not much time to update given my very hectic and rather crazy work/ travel schedule!! Have done enough travelling over the last three months to get two tier upgrades on the airline I use most! Haah.. Soon Silver shall turn to Gold...and this is NOT a fairy tale!

Loads of stuff has happened since I last posted *chuckles* changed my job ! Life has been moving at a pace hitherto unknown...it seems like days morph into weeks morph into months morph into a new year...and the pace is yet to slow down!

Priorities have changed drastically and LJ has reached some bottom rung that rarely gets to see the light of day! Not sure if my friends even ~~bother to check if I posted~~ remember me! Ah well.. anyway...!! Been travelling a lot.... on work mostly, a bit for fun as well.... for anyone who may be interested..

The farthest that I went...

The highest....

The funnest...

..and the holiest... :-)

Hope to be able to keep posting every once in a way... :-) And Thanks ezee123 for that chat nudge!!

Life.....

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:36:28 GMT

Room 508,M.... Hospital!...the husband is admitted here...today is our 22nd Wedding Anniversary. Expected calls have been received, many people have forgotten as well...that really is not a problem...
IMCU-the neighbouring ward.. bed G... Mr.KK passed away this morning...the wife and two little daughters are distraught..the older daughter cannot be any more than 19...
Life...is such an irony...

Happy Diwali

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:57:50 GMT

Thanks to a marvellous piece of technology, here I am, wishing all my friends on LJ a very Happy Diwali!!

Hail blackberry!!

Applause for a fellow LJer...!!

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:48:29 GMT

Just a tiny update.... Here's congratulating ezee123...who has been selected as one among Five Fantastic Flickr Photographers..

For details...click here

Celebrating Friends!!

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:41:41 GMT

A post just to record a happy day spent with friends! One of them is relocating outside Chennai very soon...! I may be travelling when the move happens! It will be kind of empty when Sam leaves Chennai. He is a really sweet friend and great company.

I cooked a Bengali meal for this dear Bong friend today. A whole Bengali Vegetarian (!!!!!) meal! And, I think it turned out pretty well! (going by the happy noises made by Sam at least!)

For those who would understand, we had Chholar Dal, Aloo Posto, Panch Melesh (That's what its called I think!), Begun Bhaja, Luchi and Bhat! Woohoo... quite a spread! The only thing missing was Mishti Doi (my personal favourite)..Anyway, Amul Shrikhand was used as a poor substitute! Sad we don't get that divine Mishti Doi in Chennai (If at all we do, its sold very far away and is not a patch on the original Kolkata stuff)

There is a picture of the spread somewhere...on Sam's Cam! Shall be put up as soon as it is received! [My camera is malfunctioning :(]

I had a super time cooking. Cooked after a very long time...gladly, it appears, I haven't lost my touch!! ;) Reminded me so much of of my mum's cooking and her amazing attachment to Kolkata and all things Bengali. (I guess it must have rubbed off on me) The greatest satisfaction came from the fact that everyone liked it! Nothing like a good meal appreciated :)

It was a nice relaxing day, despite all the work. I enjoyed myself thoroughly!...and..the house still smells of Mustard Oil :P

The world looks so good...

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:45:59 GMT

.....when things start looking up for your friends and yourself almost around the same time!!

From my last post to this one...time and tide have changed a bit and life's more beautiful!

:)

Crazy crazy world....

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 17:58:17 GMT

It is a crazy world....really and totally SO crazy...

A friend of mine is in quite the same predicament as the one in which I had found myself in about three months ago...a totally UNFAIR deal at work.

My heart goes out because I can actually feel the pain. I find myself so helpless..so totally unable to help...I SO wish I could.

How, just how to convince someone that very often its a crazy world that works against a good person...invariably the person concerned ends up blaming him/her self when s/he need not at all.

They say its all fate/stars/destiny/karma... whatever...!

But I hate this feeling of helplessness. I have been talking to my friend and trying my best to ensure I keep confidence levels up...today I think I failed miserably...

May God bless you my friend...you take care..because I know you are good...don't allow this crazy world to make you believe ANY other way! Just DON'T

South India Heritage!!

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:51:59 GMT

Hmmmm....! Food for thought! After having been a member for over a year, today was the first time that I attended a meeting organised by the Madras Book Club! Never attended all of last year because I could NEVER make it on time for the 7:00 p.m. meetings on Wednesdays or even Fridays ...that's when most meetings took place. It was good, then, finally to have attended a meeting today (after a great deal of hemming and hawing to my dear friend / co conspirator/ partner in crime and everything else... Tins!)

It was a book launch we went for. I was hesitant... I had expected a great deal of speechifying and self promotion and the general panegyric that ensues at such events...pseudoness and high browness all pervading. But, no, I was pleasantly surprised by the motley crowd that had showed up. Some people I could recognise... parents of old acquaintances, teachers from many years ago at College, a freelance journalist whom I had met at a recent family do, N Vittal, the famous Vigilance Commissioner (retd.), and many others whom I did not recognise, but must've been scholars in their own right. There was a pleasant air of erudition around! A complete lack of the 'oh-I-must-be-seen-at-this-event' type la-dee-dahness! It was good.

The book being launched - 'South India Heritage - An Introduction', edited by two eminent Historians from Chennai - Dr. Prema Kasturi & Dr. Chithra Madhavan. It was a short and sweet function. An introductory speech by Chithra was followed by a short piece by Dr. Nanditha Krishna who presented the first copy of the book to the Chief Guest, Mr. GV Ramakrishnan (Retd. Chairman SEBI) He gave delightful speech himself. It was good to hear the passion in the editors' voices and the hard work they had put into this venture came through in their voices quite clearly.

I did buy myself a copy of the book today, after having resisted picking it up at my favourite book store just last Sunday! (yes, the book has been out in the market already for the last couple of days!)..and...got myself a Rs.100/- discount as well! Cool deal!

Came back home and checked if there was any information on this book on the Internet...ahem...and this was all I found after a lot of dedicated Googling!

The book itself is a collection of well researched pieces written by at least 47 different authors. There are 500 such short pieces of writing covering an entire range of information on the South Indian History, Art and Culture. Neatly laid out, the book is easy to read. The editors pitch it as an 'Introduction' to the South Indian Heritage, a ready reckoner for the quintessential NRI who, when faced with questions on the History and culture of his native land, answers more with blinks rather than insights on what he grew up surrounded by. Well, I am quite sure this book will be useful for that class of people...and will be very useful for someone like me too...someone who just has a crazy curiosity for why things around me are they way they are!! Ahh...this should be a good read!!!

Deja Vu!

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:25:51 GMT

The date today reads 24th June 2007! Exactly one year and three days ago, I had placed unsure steps into the LJ world... and enjoyed immensely! It was a period of transition in my life back then!

One year has gone since! 368 days to be precise...yet again, I stand at a similar point... its transition once again! For a normally stable and rooted person like me, this transition has come too quickly. The speed with which events have taken place, has all but unnerved me!

I stood at the threshold of a new life last year at around this time. I stand at a very similar threshold once again this year! One year flew away so rapidly, I am still trying to catch my breath.

An eventful year to say the least! A transition that was expected to bring hope and better tidings .. did not! Support systems that were supposed to have stood by and helped, collapsed when least expected. All in all, six months brought some sort of a slow destruction and the next six months were spent rebuilding... painfully... piece by tiny little piece...a semblance of normality. (Normal?.. what is normal? Normal is such a relative term... hence 'My Normal' is what I am referring to here)

May have been that lack of 'normal' feeling that kept me away from LJ. I am not the best of people at articulating pain and the reasons for it, even though it may have helped to share! Unhappy events, IMO, are not what I am best at writing about... so I kept away. Life's serious pace was just too quick for me to sit back and smile at the beauty that surrounded me! Pretty much like driving on a beautiful highway... one knows that the beauty around is breathtaking, but the speed of the car allows only blurry images for the driver... and I did not have the time to slow down...for fear of other fast moving traffic mowing me down! Cryptic? Yes, but that's the reason I have been away from LJ.

Aah.. does life come full circle...I am unemployed once again, for a couple of days and 'Amethyst' and 'Little Italy' have featured again as my favourite hang outs...not very different from last year! The farewells have happened! Amazingly enough, the number of people who wrote to me appreciating my contribution in the short span of time has been large! One particular message was really nice...something like, "you have been here for a short while but have managed to influence many people's lives... I think your skills were underutilised here. The system could really have used you better"... now that was a thought that made my day! Apart from that, I have made a lot of friends here. I hope I will be able to sustain the contact and ensure I don't lose touch!

Onwards ho! To the new job... a challenge that I have taken up... a risk by "normal" standards... to walk into an unknown future....

After all, given my experiences over the last one year, I never imagined that future could be so unpredictable...so...what's the point getting worried about it...

Think positive and move on.... my mantra now..as I begin a totally different assignment and a very unfamiliar lifestyle!!!!!

Uh OH! I forgot to celebrate....

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:43:38 GMT

my first anniversary of being on LJ! Tee hee!! Time it is... to start updating once in a way! Well... at least I am not late by too many days!!!
:)

Life seems to have come full circle in my one LJ year! Details to follow...maybe!!

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:38:30 GMT

A very Happy Wedding Anniversary to deponti

Never mind that your spouse is F-A-R away this Anniversary. Just wanted to remind you that both of you are well loved and cherished by all your friends and relatives! here's wishing you many many happy returns of the day...

Have a great day!!!

To one of the most special people in my life....

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:40:59 GMT

This post is dedicated to someone very special. She has been in my life for 25 wonderful years now and I am so happy that she has been there right through. If I could say thank yous to God for having brought her into my life, I would say one for every single day that I have known her AND then add some million more...(HAAAAAAAAAAALP!!! Math experts..please caculate!!!). I admire her for...

Her constant and so very unflinching affection (now that's very personal to me, yet I am sure all her friends would agree too!)

Her very helpful nature. Her shoulders upon which many a tear has been shed and the owners of those tears have found much peace and support.

Her amazing knowledge about SO many things under the sun

Her fantastic sense of humour...she can have anyone in splits for every minute that they spend with her.

Her sense of involvement and dedication to anything that she takes on

Her truly fantastic talent in music

Her amazing ability to make so many friends and to maintain those friendships. I know very few people who have friends in the age range of 5 to 95 and are loved and cherished so much by them all!

Her brilliant skills at home management - she keeps a lovely lovely home...one that has a sense of true warmth even in her absence

Her interests that range from music to art to theatre to nature to photography to wildlife to people to....just about everything...AND..

Her amazing spirit and enthusiasm for life..... she personifies 'youth'....

Oh this list is endless...and I could fill the entire LJ friends page with it...So I will not add more to this, BUT , what I will do instead, is request all of you who read this post to add your thoughts on her here because I want this to make this a very special gift for one of the very special people in my life deponti, some one who introduced me to LJ, someone who has an amazing number of friends not just in real life but also in the e community, someone who is dear to so many people... dear dear deponti

deponti I miss you... you are one of the most precious people in my life, you and KM and DnA. I wish you were here!

I have to go to work now, yet I hope you will see this post and will know how much I am missing you right now!

Take a biggggg e huggggg all the way from YINDIYAAAA!!!!

2007 arrives! Goodbye 2006!...

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:15:30 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

It has been a fun six months on eljay! I have not posted much in the last year, I hope to be more regular in the new year that has just about arrived in India! No, it is Not one of my resolutions, hence has a lesser chance of being broken! :D !

2006 has been an eventful year. It was made up of so many flavours of life, I really cannot complain...it had amazing variety. It has passed too quickly, this year has! There was just too much happening, each month has a story to tell. I will try and recall for the sake of recording some of the highlights of the year..for me..

January 2006 : A most wonderful trekking holiday to Mukurthi, with my closest pals...

Here's the Mukurthi peak we climbed!

Sitting outside the Fishing Hut at Mukurthi...mmmm...wonderful

February 2006: An endless series of lunches and dinners with a friend who was leaving the country!

March 2006: Lots of work and lots and lost of it. A good friend at work announced her decision to move on to a different job. Turmoil turmoil...too many things to think about, what am i doing with my life?

April 2006: The Annual awards at work need to be coordinated. Work is hectic...days move quickly.

May 2006: I get my promotion letter...and I get an interview call...the latter within minutes of the former. Life is difficult. I need to make some quick decisions about my career. The Actuarial Academy needs to be set up....work ..commitment...more work.

June 2006: I announce my departure from my current job. Many of my colleagues did not expect it. I had been there too long. They were quite sure I had grown roots! I can't leave until July, when the projects being managed by me come to a close. I register myself on LJ. It ought to get interesting...

July 2006: The Actuarial Academy is up and running. Its time for a change. I leave the warm and welcoming familiarity of the old job for an uncertain environment in the new job. My last day at that job ... recorded here for posterity...

August 2006: The new place is SO different. I buy my NEW Car. Its really cool! I find it difficult to believe...its MY first car ... I mean, I have arrived...after a fairly uphill stretch, hard work HAS paid off! The new job makes me travel. To Kerala and up country Tamilnadu. The travel is hectic but very interesting!

September 2006: Work gets hectic. The month ends with a wonderful holiday... for the consecration of a temple built by my dad. Much religious activity is followed by an exciting adventure.

October 2006: Work work work... gets more and more hectic. I also find a new friend. Looks like the beginning of a rewarding and enriching friendship...It is a bridge across generations...a wide gap, I hope the bridge remains...

November 2006: Work eats into more and more of personal time. 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. becomes routine. LJ takes a back seat. I am not thinking ... life just goes on at a break neck pace. I actually have a severe pain in my neck. Perhaps due to long and continuous hours in front of the computer. Prakriti - the Kotakkal Arya Vaidya Shala's outlet close to my house comes to my rescue. The Ayurvedic massage for one week, without a break..helps a lot.

December 2006:

Hmmm...my birthday approaches. My most valued possession in life...my friends and I plan to drive down to Pondicherry on my Birthday Weekend. It tuns out to be wonderful! Most of it unfolds as a surprise. I LOVED the drive (the car is really superb). I return from Pondy and head straight to Hyderabad on work...'hectic'... did I say 'that' before??!! I make a short trip to Bangalore over the Christmas weekend...just to shrug away the intense pressures of the job. I return rejuvenated. Work has caught up again. Working six day weeks is tough. There is hardly any time left to oneself. Many things at home go unattended...life is difficult. Work is also difficult...grrrrrrrrrrr. Before I can say 'Jack Robinson', it is the end of the year. Party time!!!...We go to 'Level 4'... a brand new roof top restaurant at the Chennai City centre, for the New Year Eve Dinner. It turns out beautiful. OH MY GOD....the year is over already.

And ...as the early hours of 2007 are here already, here's yours truly ..... wishing all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR -- May 2007 brings with it plenty of hope and happiness for everyone....

What are we producing?

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:03:26 GMT

My Company participated in a Job Fair held over yesterday and today. No, I was not directly involved, but I did drop by to see my colleagues and figure out if they needed any help.
What struck me, as I watched my colleagues go through several profiles and interviews, was JUST how sad the state of affairs was! There were thousands of job seekers at the fair...literally crawling out of the woodwork...swarming all over the place. Yet, only an incredibly low number of these teeming millions appeared employable!

I was chatting with my colleague who manages recruitment in my organisation (and who was doing a lot of the interviewing etc. at the Fair), and he was telling me about how he had interviewed scores of MBA Grads who had passed out with phenomenally high scores, yet had pathetic communication skills or the ability to think/ apply!

I am sad... sad to see that this country of mine, has such an immense pool of resources, most of whom are getting a good education, yet the education that they receive seems to to have failed in preparing them to be employable.

Somewhere, our education system has gone terribly wrong. The focus is on getting high marks in examinations (never mind if exams are but tests of memory and our youngsters here, masters in parroting stuff!), rather than evaluating how the knowledge gained is applied in real life situations. How can we teach these youngsters that a whole world exists outside text books and notes. A world that thrives not just on memory to reproduce pages after pages from text books, but on the ability to communicate, to get one's point across, to hold an opinion and hold it well even in the face of opposition, if one truly believes in it.

I feel sad to see that this vast young population, is not breaking out of the obsolete systems where doing well in studies means getting 80%- 90% (or more) marks in examinations (even in humanities, mind you) by the sheer power of the memorised word.

At the end of a two day Job fair, we were able to zero in on 2 people. Now that's a poor rate ... considering that 16 working hours and more (multiply that by the number of people who were there to conduct interviews etc.) were spent on this exercise.

Would it not be a good idea for Industry and Academia to join hands and work towards a common goal - that of producing employable people...the kind that industry looks for? Industry needs to join hands with Academicians and ensure that the population that comes out of educational institutions is prepared and readily employable from word go. The need to focus on communication skills, on encouraging independent thought and expression thereof cannot be ignored any more. Someone, somewhere needs to stem the rot...before we turn into an entire nation of highly qualified yet totally unemployable people

A Wonderful Birthday......

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:23:35 GMT

Before the day is over, I have to say thanks to a very precious bunch of friends who made by Birthday today so very special!

I have never been coy about celebrating my own birthday. But this turned out to be a very different birthday....one that I did not quite plan for myself. It happened and happened so wonderfully that I had to look up to the heavens and thank that li'l Guradian Angel of mine.... She must have been hard at work, I am sure, to make the day so wonderful and special.

A drive down the East Coast Road to Pondicherry with Bela and Sam and meeting up there with friends who had come down from Bangalore... WOW!! Just wonderful. The drive was perfect, the company...priceless!

Hanging out at coffee dot com (thanks Sukrit for showing the way to some of the coolest places in Pondi)... followed by super dinner at 'Satsanga', a walk in the rain and a drive down to a deserted beach in the middle of the night...amazing...wonderful (am I repeating myself...where have all the adjectives gone???)

Imagine then, my complete surprise, when at the stroke of midnight...suddenly, a cake makes its appearance from nowhere!!!!! And this in the middle of the night in the middle of a dark deserted beach....the silence broken only by the noise created by the eight of us there!! A candle was hardly missed when I was asked to blow out a lit matchstick instead!! :D

The cake was yummy and... easily understood by the followers of the H2G2 cult....had this written on it -

'Happy Bithday Rachna, life, universe and everything'

WOW!!! I was so completely pleasantly taken aback by this surprise...so completely mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wonderful!!!

The cake was had by all even as droplets of rain started to fall..and we made our way back to the resort ... and continued the party under a little thatched roof with the rain falling around us!! It was coool... the weather and my friends and my birthday... 'brought in' in style and continued in style...

Thanks to each and every single one of you my dear dear buddies for making my day so very special.

I hated it when we had to go away,...Bela, Sam and I continued to relive moments after moments of our great time together right through the wonderful drive back home. The drive itself was therapeutic...took the blues away quite a bit!

And if thanks yous could be made any BIGGER.... here's a BIGGGGGGG thank you to Amogh, who, it appears, had conspired this entire pleasant surprise!!!

BIGGGG Thank Yous to all of you... Amogh, Appu, Steve, Sandy, Sukrit, Sam and Bela.... GUYS... u all are the best!!!

I have a very early morning flight to catch to Hyderabad, and I know work will be FAR pleasanter with all these wonderful memories that will live with me forever!!

And Champion Conspirator Amogh....whatever I say about you... can never be enough...hence shall let it remain unsaid!!!!

The Chocolate & Cheese wager update....

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:42:45 GMT

Here's a quick update...

The stalemate is broken... The question now is...did Chocolate lose??... or did Cheese?!!

All hyperactive imaginations, let's hear your version of what happened next... ;)

Watch this space for more!!

Huh! ... 6 weird things about me... well...

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:51:37 GMT

deponti seems to louwe tagging me for memes! I have just been tagged to state 6 weird things about me...(whaaa... ONLY 6... notfair...I have more!!)...shall try and restrict myself to the top six!

Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you". People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I love to drive around by myself...especially late in the night. No, not to distant places, but I love driving down a long and free stretch of road close to my place...along the famous Marina Beach. I do the same stretch over and over....just driving crazily! I love doing the same stretch on my two wheeler even more. Before the new car had been bought I used to do the same stretch riding super fast on my two wheeler... the wind blowing right through my hair and whipping on the face.

2. I just love getting wet in the rain. I would run out to an open space, when the first rain of the season comes down, just to get the raindrops on my skin... never mind how hard it may be raining.

3. More than the rain, I love the smell of the baked earth when the first drops of rain fall on it! Its the same smell that one gets when one fills water in a new mud pot! The same smell that you get when sipping hot sweet tea out of clay cups while travelling in the North of India. I have bitten off tiny pieces of those clay cups just to have the fresh wet clay smell linger longer in my mouth!

4. I hate dirty feet. If I feel my feet have the slightest amount of dirt sticking to them, I must scrub and wash them immediately. (Yes... as soon as I return from getting wet in the rain, the first thing I wash..my feet). I must wash my feet before getting into bed..I just MUST.

5. I love curds...('dahi' in Hindi) so much... ever since I was a little kid. I remember my mum, dad and brother making fun of me because I used to save my cup of curds (at every meal) for the last. I would not combine it with any other food, in fact, used to have it even after dessert! My mum used to say that I could be locked up in a room full of curds and I would be happy even if I never got anything else to eat for the rest of my life!! I still love curds...and must have that at every single meal.. in between meals as well if I got the chance!

6. I am petrified of birds flying close to my head. I love watching them from afar, but I would die if one came flying anywhere close to me. I would not be able to hold one in my hand for the very same reason. I completely freak out at the sound of wings flapping anywhere within touching distance of me.... phew... even the thought of it is... well.. weird!!

And now... who shall I tag...

shortindiangirl
chaibacca
oldhen
hamdamn
kadambarid
joylita