a few more happenings..

A long gap, loads of happenings….Kinda hafta keep track right?

As mentioned earlier, Neha’s at US. She’s having fun there in her “studenthood” as her Orkut profile proclaims..

And Life @ bangy is going on as usual, albeit with a few little changes.

Ramana, Anil and Abhiram were already rotting in AT&T , er.. I mean working super hard and honing their skills (Hee Hee) , almost 24*7 at office , sometimes getting a ‘leave’ on weekends.. :P
Reena ans Santosh joined the account too, to work their ,ahem!! fingers off! Call it a sardonic twist of fate or his own “dhoola” (4 d lack of a better word), Gouse also chose to join this grumbling group too. Chaitu is into a new account ‘Sprint’.. by the way, he’s bought a new bike, a hot, red CBZ Extreme.. I and Ezra continue to work (or not) in our mundane accounts almost 3-4 hrs a day.. Though my work’s getting a li’l troublesome these days with me having to put in almost 8-9 hrs on some days!!!

Abhi received a Thanks award from his delivery manager!!! For his wonderful work.. no surprises thr!! He always does a gr8 job..
Gues what guess what!! Even I received an appreciation e-card from the client!! Finallyy!! I thought this day would never come….

And others must’ve received accolades too , but this is all I know of.. will post soon if I come to know more..

Ok, brag time! The Newsletter of my account, of which I was the part since its inception has become a huge hit! I recently conducted a competition of sorts, whr we asked people to send in names for the newsletter .. I got almost 175 mails.. even from Onsite crowd… Overwhelmed!!.. Finally named it Capsule!! Gifted the best 3 name senders a copy of ‘Dilbert- how to have fun at the expense of ur co-workers’ from our account. I persuaded my account head to host a little party for that.. we got a huuuuuuge cake n stuff for it.. Ain’t I the world’s biggest money waster?? But then I think the whole concept of inventing money was to spend it right?? LOL…

K then.. post stuff later.. kinda busy today.. bbye…

Missing neha..

Well, one of the most horrible feelings of all is to miss someone.

Neha left for NIU for pursuing her MS. She’ll leave for US at the end of this month, but she’s left life-at-ibm-bangalore.

As I hugged her goodbye that day, I couldn’t help remembering everything! A lot of moments came whishing by my mind - a cornucopia of memories..

The day long induction at Le Meridien, elation on the first day at IBM, excitement at moving into the PG with her, mad,insane fun during training, sorrow when the training ended and all of us got separated, moving into the new PG as roomies, madness again..
Countless shopping sprees, Maggie, coffee… sharing secrets, bitching about some people..washing clothes.. laughter.. waiting on the terrace like idiots for some “newspaper informed” meteor show..

One whole year I’ve had her next to me in everything… d day she left banglore..it was something like losing a shadow for a while.. we’ve seen everything together.. been there for each other..

And one day, I went to the PG after work, and found the room empty.. her wardrobe door wide open.. empty!

Saw her the next day at her cousin’s place.. and it was an awesome farewell bash!!! Anil,Abhi,Rumz, Chaits Reens,Ezzy,Gousie, Santosh,Neha n me.. had loads of fun way upto 3 am. Even had a police patrol vehicle warning us to keep the noise down.. and lots of yummy food.. thanks to Neha's mom...hmmm…

Well, Neha left banglore, but we all have one year full of wonderful memories to cherish.. experiences tucked away carefully into some corner of our minds.. (in my case, captured in pages of my diary).. wonderful happy memories ..

All of us wish you a very happy studenthood Neha! Have a rocking time with all those firangi dudes.. all the best.. Needless to say, We’ll keep in touch.. Of Course!

N yeah.. keep reading this blog .. lol

7 of us went up the hill..

Seven hills… Seven people… six hours… in the rain

Here’s how it started..


11:30 pm Majestic Bus Depo,Bangalore:

I,Neha,Rumz,Neel,Abhi,Santu and Chaitu boarded the bus to Chittoor.
Reena,Ezzy and Gousie weren’t able to make it. Missed them.

Reached Chittoor in the early hours of Saturday and checked into a hotel. And before we could get a few winks of sleep, it was already time to take off again. Dawn was beautiful!!!



The Sumo started off on its 2 day long journey. We reached Kaanipaakam and had a darshan of Lord Ganesha. The temple was beautiful!

Next stop was Sri Kaalahasthi with a breakfast of this n that on the way. Took the blessings of Jal Ganesha ( a small temple which gets flooded during the rains) and entered the Kaalahasthi temple.

There was a huuuuuuuge crowd and it wud’ve taken us almost 3 hrs to get the darshan in the queue, and we didn’t have dat time. So, bribed the security guys, side-sstepped the queue and took a short-cut 2 direct darshan. ( well, it wasn’t our idea.. d security guys do it all d time.. n we did feel a li’l guilty).

Finally reached tirupati around afternoon. Zoomed up the 58 turns, round and round the hill in the Sumo and reached the top. The air itself was so pure and serene. Loved it up thr. Dumped the lugguage in the room and zoomed back down. The view on the way was breathtaking!!! We cud just stay there and stare and stare…..

And then, reached the foothill where the Mega journey up the hill on foot was about to begin..



Step 1, Step 2,Step3…

Water, mirchi bajji, buttermilk, gossip, songs on anil’s mobile..

Step 499, Step 500…

First milestone..BIG rest.. it started drizzling

Step 501,Step 502..

Gasping for breath, more frequent breaks, Waaater, more rain

Step 1000 something.. Gaaligopuram.. Interval

Sat down and had super yummy dosas!! One of the best meals ever!!
Going ahead from here was harder.., the feet were finding it harder to pull our bodies stuffed with food.

Step 2499, Step 2500
Rumz and Santosh keep going at an unbelievable pace, so agile and seemingly comfortable still

Rest of us dragging ourselves forth, and Abhiram quite comfortable with the climb, but walkin slowly for us.

Deer-park on the way.. they were sooooo cute n gorgeous



Step 3000

Me totally out of breath, feet aching inhumanly, partially blistered.. Rumz, Santu Abhi ploughing on.. Neha and Chaitu quite commendably going gud... Anil being slowed down coz of me.. :P ..I andAnil made up a silly crazy song ”mango-tangy”..

Mokaalla Parvatam.. Step something..

Supposed to be the hardest.. but wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Rain still pouring down, we making jokes n laughing..

STEP 3550..
Finally !!! The number I’d been waiting for, for almost 3 hours!! I felt like doing an African war-dance or apna hyderabadi ‘teen-maar’ in celebration, and the others looked like they felt the same.

Dinner was a blur.. reached the room, hit the bed,, BLACKOUT!

Woke up (dunno how?!?) in just 4 hours, got ready and went for Darshan. Can’t put in words, the deep feeling of contentment, devotion and happiness and thrill during those 10 seconds!!

A brief rest at the room and a long Sumo ride to Talakona Waterfalls.. A trail through the forest, nature at it’s best! And a looooong walk.. met a couple of mountain monkeys.. dunno who was scared of whom..



And then, back to Chittoor , a 2 hr wait for the bus and the long-awaited 2-day journey came to an end. The last tour with Neha before she leaves 2 US.

2 of the happiest, craziest,most wonderful days during life-at-bangalore!!

We visited a cursed land...

“Oh! So this is what early morning looks like…”
It was a rare occurrence. We were awake at 4am.

Anil,Ramana,Abhiram andChaitu arrived in the tempo traveller at around 6 after keeping us (me, Neha and Reena) waiting for half an hour..(Not their fault.. they got lost n went round the wrong streets).. We picked up Gouse and the two Deepthis and started on our way to Talakad- the cursed land!


The drive in our tempo traveler was punctuated with songs and clicking of seriously mad pics.... However, there was almost no dancing this time, except for Deepthi grooving a li’l for some song, and Abhiram, Anil and Gouse unsuccessfully trying 2 imitate my signature move. Anil wasn’t his exuberant dancing self this time and we were left wondering whether it was coz he was missing Ezra a lot, or a li’l ‘orangy’ sumthing.. :D Well, we all did miss Ezzy and Santosh..

First stop was a li’l hotel where we had a gud-enough breakfast, the only proper meal we got the whole day.
We reached Barachuki Falls sumtime during mid-morning. There were around 100 steps to descend before we reached the water. While we went down, the Sun was trying to fry us, I was trying not to slip and break my teeth, others were trying to race each other, and Neha and Chaitu were trying to click a pic of everything. Their Photo-fetish makes me believe that in their previous births, Neha was a super model and Chaits was a star photographer. But nyways, it’s thanks to these two that we have all these wonderful moments captured safely.




When we finally reached the water, we saw loads of little fishes in it and a li’l snake which caused a bit of yelling and jumping around. Round boats called “theppas” took us to the waterfall, where everyone got completely drenched while trying to keep their balance on the super-slimy rocks. Was really fun.. the water was lovely.. Splash splash splash!!!




Now came the big ordeal.. going UP those dreadful steps in the scorching sun!! was hard.. I was almost half dragged up by Rumzy. : ) After climbing up we discovered that coconut water was the best thing in this creation. The next stop was Talakadu. After a horrible lunch, we changed and charged straight into a little river (with ugly moss floating around) and had a great ball-game. After a while we cameout of the water and played sumthing similar to rugby which Abhiram had thought up. Gousie, Ramana,Reena and Abhi proved to be fantastic players.





After dark, we reached the actual cursed land of Talakadu. Started with a beautiful Shiva temple. Fom there we were led by a guide to other small temples which were buried under sand and had to be excavated by the Archaeological dept. It was dark, with only moonlight guiding us.. a jungle path with occasional eerie sounds – a perfect setting to hear the tale of an ancient Curse!

Ages ago, there was a queen who, when attacked by the king of mysore, gave a curse that the land of Talakadu would always be covered under the sand, the king would lose all his treasure, and would be left without an heir.

Nyways, the moon-lit walk on the sand in the jungle was really wonderful!!

And then we returned home, (watching a couple of mad movies on the way)..
Exhausted, but happy!

March 18th: This Day, That Year!

I spent most of yesterday's morning cursing and swearing (Lately, I have come very good at this) as I was made to sit in a training session which went over my head and more, which I can hardly relate to the work I do (Well, the work I do  these days can easily be defined by a single word 'nothing' :D ). Exhausted with all that 'knowledge-sharing', I reach my desk to find six-seven mails remainding me of 'March 18th - A special day in our life'. Oh yeah, this was 'the day' two year ago that gave us the tag - IBMer. The day (two days actually) changed things for most of us (for better, I tempted to say, but may be not). I wish all of us many more such days (days that carry such proud moments) in the future!!

Ciao,

Ezra.

And yeah, here's what Manasa had to say about 'this day that year' (She asked me post it and not to mention that she wrote it in half-hour's time. Has a knack for this, doest she?): 

Two years have passed,

Yet I can still see,

The turmoil of two days 

And their glory

Feverish excitement, bated breath,

Nervous smiles and  furtive glances;

The last minute prep,

We could take no chances.

The triumphs of day one

And slight foreboding too;

A few hurdles we’d crossed

But some more were due.

The never-ending wait.

Bad food, hot sun!

GD and interviews

Phone calls and fun.

The final burst of excitement 

To hear our names there

Yells of delight, hugs

Proud madness everywhere!!

And for me,

It was the most wonderful day

When I boarded the Big Blue

And the journey’s been wonderful

Because of  all of YOU

Counting Thursdays...

Every Thursday at IBM, we clock the hours we’ve put in at work.
The time we were in (never honestly), the no of hours we’ve worked (sumtimes honestly) and what we’ve worked on (heights of imagination here)

Every Thursday, I realize another week has passed at IBM. Another of the many weeks. Nothing special about it. Many have passed, many more to come. Just a another week, just another Thursday.

No. of hours actually worked……. God knows! ( a few may be)

Information overload?…………….Yes

Stuff learnt…………………………loads

When will it be used?....................... maybe tomorrow, maybe never..

Improvements?..................................uh-ummm

Degradations?......................................No, no no

Goof-ups?..............................................of course yes

‘I’m proud of myself’ moments?............. a few..

Added business value?.............................. ha ha ha

Every Thursday, I ask myself the same questions, get the same answers. Solid consistency. It’s as if life had become a count of Thursdays.

But wait, why am I thinking of Thursdays? Today is Wednesday!
Wednesdays are fine. But Monday, I tell you, is the most detestable day of the week. Everyone hates it! But it still comes shamelessly every week, after the darling Sunday.
Someone coined the term ‘Monday blues’ to represent the fact that everyone is gloomy on a Monday. But I just don’t understand why do ppl have to associate such a beautiful colour with gloom. No! I call it ‘Monday Grays’.. dull and boring!

I feel like starting my annoying chant-

‘I.. hate mon-days.. I hate mon-days..
Dirty nasty stupid days..
Coming after Sundays
Oh- so boring Mondays!!
“
I wish I could tell u the tune too.. but no… Make up your own!!!..

Tuesdays are fine,somehow. Thursdays are well.. Thursdays!
I love Fridays! Coz they bring the weekend with them. The weekend starts in my head around 5 on Fridays. Fridays are good.

Now that I think of it, I wonder how the people in AT&T account at IBM feel about these days. They go 2 work on weekends too. So I guess they don’t hate their Mondays, don’t love their Fridays.. it’s a li’l sad.. I hope they at least like what they do..

Nyways, things at my account are fast changing. Lots of new developments shaping up. Things promise to exciting in the future.. almost to the point of dangerous…

So let’s c how things turn out.

Maybe there’ll be more to the Thursdays in future..

Achievements!!!

Things keep happening at IBM, but then I’m not able 2 document all of them. However, I shall be posting from time to time.

Let me start by listing out the achievements made by our people..

Abhiram, the coder, has created a Simulator, which gives a GUI for the RSA which can be used even if the RSA isn’t installed in the system (abhi, sorry if I’m wrong, but that’s what I understood).. I think he’s gonna be the first one among us to get promoted! 

Ramana has been appreciated by a client for his work.. She’s put it in writing, so ppl, remember 2 take an appraisal party frm him, coz he’s surely gonna get one!

Anil’s being made to attend training which is meant for managers, where he was apparently asked to give work to ELTPs (ha ha ha!) That shows what confidence his manager has in his capabilities and expertise. (Don’t laugh ppl, I’m not kidding!)

Ezra has also been appreciated by his Team Lead.. (again, in writing (I think), so party no.2 coming up!).

Neha battled with a lot of issues, in totally unknown environment and resolved all of them successfully, emerging victorious.

Amit, has ben working really hard, in conditions of extreme pressure and has achieved a utilization of above 140!

My achievement is that I managed to NOT get fired, inspite of some database disasters and minor server mishaps.. Hey n by the way, after all the drama, my team lead told me those stupid databases were not important!! Should I sue IBM for giving me mental trauma over useless databases?? Let me know what u think!!

I vaguely heard something about Chaitu solving some probs at work, but am not really clear abt it.

Gouse’s achievements? Well… ummmm… actually…. u know… ahhh… mmm… well…

Reena and Santosh are valiantly battling on with boredom and uselessness.. and the fact that their immense potential is not being tapped properly! Don’t worry guys, u’ll do gr8 things, we know.. Reena has created some impressive excel sheets though!


So kudos to all out achievements, good work people.. lets all have a bigg party to celebrate all of this,, wat say?