Quarter-ed?

I’m blogging after almost a quarter. The last time I blogged Q1 was just starting… and now we’re almost a month into Q2…

I’ve been working with Google for just over 2 years now and one of the things it has given me (apart from the extra weight ;)) is a new unit of time-’quarter.’  I’ve actually started measuring my life in quarters. It’s like living from one quarter to another :) I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad but it has subconsciously become a part of me and a lot of people around me.

That reminds me of a really funny incident… Someone asked one of my friends in office “How long have you been married?” and she replied saying “Just over 3 quarters now!”

A War Zone ?

I’m writing this at a time which is slightly unusual for blogging. Unusual because I’m in office and at this time of the day I’m usually loaded with work. Well it’s the beginning of the quarter and work is light :) So, what am I doing right now?

I’m sitting in the cafe and gazing out of the window… but the view is not as pleasant or beautiful as you’d like it to be :( There is a huge under construction building blocking the view in fact it is the view. The sun is trying really hard to shine but the fog is unrelenting. The steel girders, bricks and concrete blocks lying around coupled with the almost gloomy weather gives you the feeling of being in a war zone. It feels like the scene from one of those ‘The day the earth stood still’ kind of movies where you see broken buildings and structures against the back drop of a dark gloomy sky…

It makes we wonder if I’m seeing a small glimpse of the future… hmm… no these things only happen in movies and lets hope it stays that way :) !

One eventful year… Thanks :)

My blog completed a year :) I received this blog as a new year gift last year and it’s been one of the best gifts I ever got. Thanks Manas :) I should have said this a long time ago.

When I look back it’s been quite an eventful year… I haven’t been as regular as I should have been with updating my blog and I’m hoping I’ll do better this time around.  I’m looking forward to a lot of things this year hopefully more fodder for my blog… :P

Tags: gift, personal

This is taking longer…

This time they’ve come closer to breaking our spirit… and it’s not city A or city Bspirit… it’s the entire nation. There is this seething rage and anger which can be felt from everyone. We’re expressing ourselves through peaceful marches, blogs and candles. We’re not trying to get over it but instead we’re looking to bring about a change…

Inspite of all this, I’m in two minds about visiting a busy market place over the weekend… have they really hit me? I hope not…

Now Mumbai :(

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai prove yet again how vulnerable we are as a nation. The frequency and nature of these attacks make makes one believe in the futility of life… We don’t know if we’ll walk back into our houses once we step out of them. We’re apparently one of the strongest economies in the world with a growth rate of around 7%. But the kind of infrastructure our government has to fight terrorism and the weapons they provide our officers to fight terrorists are ancient to say the least. They have the spirit and the courage but these alone are not enough to  combat terrorists who use weapons that are way more advanced. Let’s face it-a service pistol is no match for an AK-47. Looking at everything it seems that terrorists are more determined and well prepared to kill us than we are to save ourselves.

After every terrorist attack we as common people are expected and encouraged to bounce back. We hear time and again about the undying spirit of Mumbai/Delhi etc… but the question is till when before we run out of it?

Finally I bought (my first) new phone… :)

I’ve been working for more than two years but I bought my first phone a few days back. No, I haven’t been living without a phone :) Who can?

I got my first phone in college but it was not new it was passed on from my brother. I got my second phone when I was in third year because the first one stopped working and my dad decided to change his phone. Yes, I got my dad’s old phone :) The next time my dad decided to change his phone… I got my third phone!

Finally, after much deliberation and consultations/opinions/reviews I bought an ASUS P320. A very decently priced phone for it’s features (GPS etc), pretty sleek and good to use. It can be a little slow at times but they had to cut costs and compensate somewhere ;)

My sister has been down with viral fever for the past one week and I’ve been working from home. At home for four straight days… I don’t remember the last time I spent so much time at home. It gave me the feeling of being in college when we had vacations :) Talking about vacations… I can’t recall the last time I went on one. Either I’m suffering from amnesia or I haven’t had a vacaation in a very long time. Of course it’s the latter :)

It’s high time I go on a holiday!

Which class do you study in? :P

A funny thing happened with me a few days back. I went to a boutique to pick up my clothes. While I was waiting for my packet to arrive the lady incharge started talking to me. The conversation started with the general small talk like where do you live etc. The next question was ‘Which class are you studying in?’ I looked at the lady smiled demurely and said I was working. She was visibly surprised but the expression when I told her that I had been working for two year was worth seeing. Her jaw dropped and she just kept looking at me for thirty seconds then finally she managed a smile and said “uh.. oh ok.”

It’s not the first time someone mistook me for being a school going teenager but it’s the first time I’m blogging about it :)

Engaged… finally :)

The title of the blog looks a little deceiving I know :) 

I’ve been catching up with old school friends on Facebook for the past two days. It was nice to recall all the small memories from school. Then suddenly among all the nostalgia the enormity of the time that had passed after I left school struck me. It’s been 8 years since I left CJM Waverley (Mussoorie) but it still feels like yesterday. I can still recall small things like walking up the slope, sweating it out on the field for sports day and going shopping for friendship day. 

There was this funny tradition or you may call it practice we followed as kids in school.  We would make it point to write statements like ‘don’t forget to invite me for your wedding’ or dated till you get married in scrap books and friendship day cards. At that time it felt like eternity and now when I look around so many of my friends are engaged and all set to get married :) Then I think yes it’s really been that long… and time actually flies… :)

Are we used to the violence?

The Gujjar community in Rajasthan has been protesting for the past few days and the violent nature of the protests has already claimed more than 60 lives.

About a week or so back blasts rocked the pink city of Jaipur.

Both these incidents happened less than 250 kms from where I stay… But they don’t induce a sense of fear or insecurity in me anymore and not in anyone around me either. Have we become insensitive to the plight of others? Or, have such incidents become so commonplace that they don’t matter anymore? I don’t think we’ve become insensitive. We feel sad we do… but somewhere deep down we say ‘Thank God I wasn’t there.’

For news channels that are multiplying by the dozen, such incidents are ‘revenue.’ To some extent I think these news channels are responsible for inducing that element of insensitivity in the way they report these incidents. This reminds me of something I saw on a popular news channel and I realised that news channels had reached the peak of commercialization. Almost a week ago a 14-year old girl, Aarushi Talwar, was brutally murdered in her house and the murder has been shrouded in mystery ever since. Crime is something that evokes human interest without effort and crime news always has a ready audience. News channels went berserk reporting this incident covering every possible detail and drawing up every possible theory. However, this particular news channel (Star News) went ahead and actually made an ad based on this incident. The message of the ad was something along the lines of we bring you every detail of the Aarushi murder case the fastest!

It left me stunned.