Oonjal (Swing)

Whenever I enter my mama’s (uncle’s) house in Chennai, the first thing I notice or sit on is the oonjal they have in their living room. It’s strategically place in such a way that it does not hit any furniture around it even when swung very fast. I sleep there, I eat there, and I read there. Wish I can have one here in Mumbai. Unfortunately flats in Mumbai do not offer the luxury of space.

My Trip to Tirupati

History

My mother decided to visit Tirupati by walk, if my brother gets into IIT. He did, three years ago. We could plan the trip only now. We reached Tirupati by train.

The climb begins

After registering the luggage through their transportation service, we started our journey at 2pm. The hills were steep and initial climb was only through steps. We took breaks every 250 steps initially but it decreased to 100 later. We saw people with kids and infants walking up. Some were applying haldi & kumkum to every step. Some were lighting camphor on each step. It was hot & tiring. After 2300 steps & 2 km later the journey looked easy when I saw a road.

Shock

My parents, who have taken this journey before, assured me that the next few km will be through the road. But we saw lots of steps after a small walk, which seemed like an impossible task now. But another 500 steps later came the promised easy route. There were long and small steps. It was cool & there was breeze. We also saw a deer park on the way. It started to rain & the next 3 km climb was very enjoyable.

The mountains

As we moved up, we joined the road that can be taken if one is not willing to climb. Small droplets of water fell on our face; there was a breathtaking view of the mountains from the road. All the exhaustion vanished, but the legs were still aching. Around 2 km of walk & 2900 steps later we reached a big gopuram.

Another set of stairs

These final stretches of stairs were the worst. We were all very very tired. But we started to walk up with the final bit of energy we had. The following 400 steps almost killed my legs. Then we started to walk up the slope with longer steps. The final walk took us to the seventh hill where lord Balaji resides.

Total steps: 3600
Total length: 9 km
Total time: 4 hours 15 minutes
Lesson learnt: My parents have more stamina than me. I really need to work on it.

The Temple

After a night stay, we went to the temple at 4-45 am. Thousands of people visit this temple every day. The way the management manages accommodation and Darshan is simply amazing. After one and half hours of walking along a queue, we got a darshan of 1 sec. The entire shrine was plated in gold. People were standing in queue to donate money in the hundi. Lord Balaji is rich!

Sweet Memories

I was clearing up my personal folder in my PC & came across a folder I hadn’t seen for ages… “Trivandrum” It read. Inside I found some sweet memories. TCS mandates training for all freshers they recruit. I attended the training in Trivandrum, located in God’s own country, Kerala. We are taught a foreign language there. Luckily our batch was present during the foreign language week celebration.

We were asked to prepare for a singing competition. I am a terrible singer even in the bathroom, but the child in me dominated and nominated me for the same. Thank god there were no auditions. We were supposed to sing in French, a language I had been learning for barely 4 weeks.

We were given a tape and the lyrics in French. French is most non-phonetic language I have come across. We heard and wrote down sounds in Hindi. Got the song translated from the French professor. After lots of late night practices, we sang it on the stage. The video of the same is embedded below. Enjoy!!!



For all you know French, here is the lyrics, in French.

L'oiseau et la bulle.

Un poisson au fond d'un étang
Qui faisait des bulles qui faisait des bulles
Un poisson au fond d'un étang
Qui faisait des bulles pour passer le temps

Un oiseau vient près de l'étang
Regarder les bulles regarder les bulles
Un oiseau vient près de l'étang
Regarder les bulles c'est amusant

Que fais-tu joli poisson blanc
Moi je fais des bulles moi je fais des bulles
Que fais-tu joli poisson blanc
Moi je fais des bulles pour passer le temps

Plus j'en fais plus je suis content
Plus je fais des bulles plus je fais des bulles
Plus j'en fais plus je suis content
Des rouges ou des bleues selon le courant

Le poisson tout en discutant
A fait un bulle a fait une bulle
Le poisson tout en discutant
A fait un bulle pour monter dedans

Et la bulle portée par le vent
Et la belle bulle et la belle bulle
Et la bulle portée par le vent
A pris son envol le poisson dedans

L'oiseau est tombé dans l'étang
En voyant la bulle en voyant la bulle
L'oiseau est tombé dans l'étang
En voyant la bulle du poisson volant

Maintenant au fond de l'étang
L'oiseau fait des bulles l'oiseau fait des bulles
Maintenant au fond de l'étang
L'oiseau fait des bulles pour passer le temps

For translations... Use google language Tools....

My Team

A lot of friends treat their office as just a work place, but I differ. What makes my work a lot more appealing is the team I have, with an interesting mix of people. I am leaving in a couple of weeks. Actually I must say I am hopeful that I will be leaving in a couple of weeks, if my managers ever find a replacement. Anyway, life goes on, but I will miss them all…

I have worked with Muktesh the most. A serious looking chatterbox! He also happens to be my rakhi brother, so naturally I am very fond of him. All thanks to him for my Hindi vocabulary improvement. In the beginning, I barely understood all the words he spoke. Now I do. I don’t know whether I have improved of he has worsened. His ability to recite impromptu poems few pages long without taking a pause to think, amazes me.

Seshadri came across as a very serious and intense guy at first, and then I saw his fun side. Now I am getting to know his sensitive side. My first impression of a person has never been so wrong before. He is smart, intelligent and creative; He writes poems in 3 different languages (Hindi, English and Tamil). He is the only Mumbai guy in my team.

Prabhu is my confidant. He is a sweet guy whom I can call any time in the night, just because I am bored. He knows everything about the current affairs in the project, the policies, the application and always has an opinion on any problem we face.

These three never leave a chance to pull my leg or trouble me. But I can’t do without them at all.

The most striking feature about my module lead is his long hair & wrinkles near his eye when he smiles. Abhishek is a shayar too. My team is damn creative. He is a Bhopal fan just like an ex-team mate, Ankit, who also happens to be a good friend of Abhishek. I love pulling pranks on Ankit, which is fun because he always falls for it.

Subhashree is a very quiet girl. But with the ruckus we create she has been successfully tempted to joining in. She reads palms & she is good at it. Probably because she said very nice things for me ;-). Naïve. That’s what I thought of Sumanta at first, but probably he is just masquerading. He always has interesting comments on all at any situation and always blushes at the mention of his “mandu” (GF in Oriya).
Sunil is quiet but witty. A silent listener. I fear people who fall in this category.

People around us have expressions of great gravity on their faces and look up to us for the free entertainment we provide. But I think the day is not far away when we will be thrown out of the office for the poetry and palmistry session we hold.

The team is incomplete without our client, Amit. He is a born manager with remarkable technical and business knowledge. A lethal combination. My interaction with him is personal and friendly, thus it is a pleasure working with him. He is always more than happy to join us in all our fun sessions!!!

I don’t think I will ever find a team like this for all these people aren’t just team mates or colleagues. They are friends, very good friends!!!

Distraction

Sick and tired of being depressed about Richard.
I need a plan, a plan to get over my man.
What’s the opposite of man, jam?

This is what Monica (from the famous sitcom Friends) says when she is questioned about the obsessive jam making spree. Bottles of jam cannot solve heart break, but distraction can… Jam did that for her.



The picture above is an art called long stitch. I bought it for a well deserved distraction from work. I got the idea from the episode featuring the above “philosophy”. I started stitching in January and finally I have finished it... Planning to get it framed this weekend.