TATA bye bye

My 5 years in my first company has drawn to an end. And as I look back, I know that it has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride.
I learnt how to actually use a computer - 4 years of engineering and the internet age couldn't make me do it, but work did.
I moved from calling IT and Computer Science engineering graduates as IT guys and included myself in that group of 'techies'.
I was forced to learn computer languages ;0 Harder than that was learning 'People interaction skills'.
Work is never really painful when you look back, but I remember complaining, cribbing that it was so hard and never finished.There were lots of late nights where friends would wait for each other to finish. Then there were the fights - cold war style with so many people who had made life mini-hell for me.Turns out every incident good-bad has actually taught me something, while there are still somethings that I continue to repeat for the heck of it, some are real lessons about what to stay away from.
For the longest time, I hated the open politics or at least the un-acknowledged undercurrent that runs through every team, every office, every group of people. I hated,still do, it when I saw people 'butter' their way through life, though I had lots of people telling me to fit in , I think I took pride in stubbornly staying me. One of my achievements, 5 years in an IT company and I am still BLUNT. Guess thats why only my friends can stand me ;0
I did get a chance to go abroad to the US of A. lots of new things that opened up.
I have made friends for life - that's my favourite part of all the above lot.
It really is funny that at the end of such a long 'journey', it's the smallest things that come to mind.
When I was leaving, I remembered the first time I walked into a lobby and how awed I was at the receptionist talking smooth and juggling 10 calls a minute. I remembered being wow-ed by the entire wall in the ladies room being a mirror.My first look of a cubicle that I had heard so many jokes about.My first manager, the first late night stay, the first appraisal, the first friends, the first team outing, the first salary, the pride in buying something on your own, and so many more. And of course, I did get married while I was in this company.
Sigh, no matter how prepared I was for leaving - 1 month notice is a lot of time - putting on the tag one last time, submitting it to the HR , it did tug at my heart when I saw the big name board on the building one last time, I felt so senti when I was taking my vehicle out the parking lot for the very last time, and the worst was when I was passing the gate for the last time as an employee - I knew it was over - no more turning back.

There's no place like home

This was written while waiting for my connecting flight to Bangalore at the Mumbai airport, in the wee hours of the morning , having just landed back from foreign shores. I was so excited and so unable to sit still that I needed something to occupy myself and I took out the laptop and started writing what I was feeling, it is incomplete of course, since I was more interested in hearing the call that 'The Bangalore flight is ready for boarding'.

The first thing that I see as soon as I land in India is the dis-obeyal of rules. Made me smile.Then there was the queue to get through migration and we had the usual jostling and 'breaking of queue', people slipping in left and right and the concept of personal space totally violated.There was this lady who seemed to think that shoving her bag into my back was a way to move faster.and hence my first irritated expression which I haven't felt in the last 10 months, at least not for the same reason.Then there was the airport security check, they had just one row for a few hundred passengers and having said that I must mention that it moved very fast.security did seem lax for there was a water bottle in my bag which almost always resulted in a personal human baggage check and me having to lose 15 mins extra coz of that, but here, the bag was just kept aside and I could just pick it up and go my way.The staff was helpful though, turns out the metal detectors that are used for the ladies, seem to pick up the back pocket buttons also! that was a little weird , the lady kept trying to check what made the beep and it was quite some time before I realised that the pockets had buttons on them.
and finally !! most importantly, the first thing I thought of when I landed was "Yeh jo desh hai mera , swades hai mera" and that put on the biggest smile on my face.There seemed to be not as much excitement as I expected considering that I spent the last 7 months waiting to get back home, but honestly , being in a flight full of Indians(I just typed desis and had to erase it and make it Indian, coz of obvious reasons). There is something that totally tugs at the heart strings, the feeling of being back in India, of being back home, seeing all ladies in sarees.. It doesn't seem anything like people warned, I was told there'll be a 2 month withdrawal period before you get back to accepting what I spent 23 years of my life in.Well, maybe early to say so considering all that I have seen is the airport only so far.
But baby, It feels great to be back home! I am loving it ! No more McD's , no more SUbways , plain old masala dosas and vadas and sambars and chutneys ... Yummmmmmmmy !!
Friends, family , familiar surroundings... sigh, what I have been pining for for the last 10 months, almost since the day that I left .... I am home . I keep saying that to myself as I sit here in this airport lounge and wait for the last flight that I want to take in a journey that started exactly on October 25 last year.I think outside of home and office, if there was a place that I spent time in , it was in airports.
I really do wonder if I achieved what I set out to do, a part of me wanted to explore more than the limited pond that I seemed to grow up in , another part of me wanted adventure and something new and exciting... a part that wanted something new ... I wonder if I found all that in the last couple of months, I know for sure that when I got my tickets in hand to return to Blore , the first thought that ran through my head was "Is it 10 months already, what have I done in all of these months, I am going to go back home and everything is going to be exactly the same, nothing has changed , nothing will, I am probably the same that I was 11 months ago, just feels like the page of a year of my life has gone by without much having happened" but then I also know that I have grown up, learnt to be a little more self-dependant, learnt to be my own person and have sort of formed an identity of my own, I have had to face all my shortcomings in the face, I had to face my worst fears, I had to learn to depend on myself, in the same breath, I also learnt that the actual independance that I was seeking is impossible,man is a social being, nothing can get done in the best possible way if you don't have the support or advice of someone who's been there before or done it.

HaPpY nEW yEaR !!!

Time again to round up the year ... I think I should make this a habit starting with last year, i know I know, Jan 1st is just a date, like any other... but whats life if you you don't find a reason to make everyday special (wah wah ;))
hmm, so what did happen this year. oh wait I got a good one,

I got MARRIED !!!!

that overshadows anything else :) (smiles coyly)

and with becoming a Mrs, other changes trickled in.
I have my own home now. I have my own kitchen, I cook and clean and do all that home stuff that we generally leave upto our mothers to do. And you know what, it actually feels good to be in charge. I got to play hostess to friends, cook and run from the kitchen to the hall and act all fussy just like my mom.
I get to decorate my home with all sorts of knick-knacks (that Vc doesn't have the heart to throw away :)) )
I visited a couple of new places ..
Top of the list is Leh, Ladakh (Kashmir)
Then there was a lots of local trips, Mangalore-Udupi, Skandagiri, Sakleshpura and of course Bhadrachalam, which I visited twice in 2008 (that's a big deal coz I haven't visited in the last 10 years before that)
and of course it was the Skandagiri trek where I took a tumble and put a stop burning a hole in Vc's pocket( read no more trips to pretty locales, no more shopping, no movies/outings, heck, I stopped getting out of bed too)
Oh an update on my housemaid's knee , I am feeling a lot better now, another month or so and I should be all back to normal and I so need to get there and shed the 15kgs weight that I have put on. It really hurts, I have taken to wearing sarees and all the oversized clothes I used to crinkle up my nose at coz none of my daily salwar-kameezes fit me anymore. sigh. Well, few more months and I can get back to being an M, get back to going on more trips, (I so want to lay my hands on an SLR and click away some exotic nature stuff this year) , and shopping a ton to make up for the 5 months I spent without new stuff and of course most importantly, be able to walk like a normal person.
Which brings me to having fallen terribly sick twice.
Right after 2 awesome throwball tournaments, one where I was actually approached by the referee who asked me to come for the Indian national team selections.
not bad for a year huh ?
and for this year, what I ask for is good health and a reason to smile everyday and spread it. For me and for everyone else!!
Happy New Year 2009 !!!