Email ka kamaal

I had written a few days about my job and that I had to commute 120miles everyday to work. I am losing atleast 3 hrs in driving. Naturally I was not very happy about this. I decided to talk it out with my managers ... but they did not pay any attention to my pleas. So of sheer frustration, I wrote an email to the company CEO. I had little hope that he / she would read it, let alone take any action. I just wanted to get my frustration out .... email was the only means I could think of at the time.
I was thrilled to see a response to my mail from the CEO of my company .... I didn't know what to say. The CEO had forwarded my mail to a senior person in the company and it trickled down to my direct manager in a matter of 3 days. Now my manager along with the HR was wanting to discuss my concern and address it. I explained to them that the work location was too far to commute for me and that I would prefer working from a nearer location. After a bit of discussion, we concluded that the manager would work out a plan for me to work from home for 2 days and commute 3 days to work. I am quite satisfied with this arrangement. (its been just 2 days since ... so I am not complaining :)
Anyways, the whole idea of writing this blog was to express my elevated respect to my company CEO. Thank you Sir / Madam for understanding and addressing my concern.

Almost an insurance claim

I have this unique habit of praying before and after I do a lot of activities. For Eg: Up from bed, Driving, Writing exams, starting my day at work etc etc. Calling weird .... well I don't mind. Praying gives me some mental peace and confidence before I begin my activity and it takes just a few seconds ... of couse, I have to thank god for everything, so the end prayer :)
Anyways, today as usual, after reaching the office parking lot, I parked the car at a convinient spot and started thanking god for the safe trip I had made. When I opened my eyes, my car was not in the spot I had parked. I was puzzled .... I didn't know where I was. The next fraction of my second, my brain asked me to look at the rear mirror. I looked and applied the brakes ... I was almost about to hit the car parked behind mine in the parking lot. It was a very narrow escape. I then realised that, I had not applied the hand break and instead of putting the car in the parking gear, I had put in Reverse gear. (for those uninitiated, the gears are in this order: Parking, Reverse, Neutral, D4,3,2,1) Thankfully I had turned the engine off and so the car was moving very slowly.
I thanked my stars and of course God .... I was this close to getting my insurance money increased ... touch wood, it didn't happen :)

Riddles - Mind ticklers

Here are some riddles I heard on the radio on my way to work. I found them amusing. ... hope you do too.

1. I am heavy forward and not backward.
2. What is better than the best, worse than the worst, the poor have it and the rich need it. And if you eat it, you will die
3. If 2 is company, 3 is crowd, what is 4 and 5 ?

Keep thinking ... :)

Happy Father's Day

Last friday, during my long drive to office, I was listening to this radio station where people were calling in to share the best advise they ever got from their dad. Some of them very hilarious while others were sensitive and cute. One particular advise that I really liked was "If you want to do stupid things, be prepared to be strong" ... isn't that a cool advise. As expected, I drove down my memory lane, reminding myself of all the cool advises I got from my dad and all the precious time spent with him. In our house, mom has been a more strict parent than dad ... but then dad always supported mom when she tried to dicipline us. Those were rare occanions where dad actually had to raise his voice to straighten me. He would say he stored a "Buddhi Kolu" in the attic and that he would not hesitate to use it if required ... those magic words would somehow work and all the tantrums would be given up. Dad also took keen interest in ensuring that I recited my "Bayi Paatha" every day. The bayi paatha included rhythmic recital of 12 months (Hindu calendar and English calendar), 7 days of week(Kannada and English), Lunar days (Padya, Bedige, Tadige etc), 60 samvatsaras and the constellation and stars in Kannada (Ashwini, Bharani... etc and Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna etc). This would be followed by a quiz of math tables. Dad would ask 16 * 8 and I had to come up with the answer immediately ... even a slight delay would not be acceptable and I'd have to write the tables backwards from 2 to 20 that day. This backward writing of tables stayed with me through my engineering days. Whenever I got a slate and chalk (rather "balapa") , I would write down the tables. (yes, I used slate and chalk through out my student days .... it was my kinder garden slate and I refused to give it up ) Dad also was very innovative in generating interest in Maths. Atleast 6 hours a week was reserved for maths and it was not just textual. Even today, if I solve a problem / puzzle I owe to my dad. He introduced me to simple puzzles, problems very early and sharpen my ability. I must add that my grandpa who stayed with us, contributed quite a bit in this as well. Being a teacher himself, he knew the type to questions to be posed for a certain age group. As I grew older, I followed my dad / grandpa and would come up with tricky problems for my sister/ cousins. Dad always said that he could never get over the fact that he had scored 97 in maths in 10th and wanted me to complete the century. I am really glad I achieved it ... I can never forgot that day when the 10th results were out .. dad's face was beaming with pride. Through out my student life, I have participated in numerous competitions.... be it mono acting, singing, poem recitation, debate, elocution, story telling etc, Dad had a big role in this again. Initially dad wrote the script for most of the competitions (obviously not singing ... that was amma's department). Dad also introduced me to voice modulation. Being a good dramatist himself, he knew the importance of voice modulation. Slowly, I was asked to come up with a basic structure and dad would contribute to it. Now, my cousins ask me to help them in their competitions ... and I owe this to daddy. Another thing I am proud about my daddy is his memory. Last year, he visited us here in the US and was putting my daughter to bed. I was shocked to see him use his primary school poems as a lullaby for the little one. (for those of you who know, these poems, he remembers, Dharani Mandala Madhyadolage, Tunga teerada balagadeyalli, some quotes from Someshwara shataka etc) I have had many many more amazing learning experiences with dad and to put down all of it in a single blog is beyond my ability. All I want to say is "Thank You Daddy. Hope you had a wonderful father's day !"

Am I weird ??

One of my fellow bloggers (Anu) tagged me to write 5 wierd things about myself. As I read through her blog, I said, well, I should be able to list some things about myself as well. But wait, introspection is more difficult than it is. After much thinking here is what I can come up with.
* My friends and family find me weird that I do not like to watch any movie at the cinema hall. I just can't ... I like watching movies mind you and try to catch up on atleast 2 a month. But I am not for watching it on big screen. My idea of watching movie is very different. I like to watch movie while I discuss something interesting with my parents / husband. I like to watch movie, while I am blogging, emailing, ironing etc etc. You get the idea right ... I simply hate to waste 3 hours doing nothing but just watching movie.
* True friends hold a very special place in my heart. But I hate to make a conscious attempt to keep in touch with them. Most my friends know that they can count on me when they need me ... but I am not good at reaching them via phone / email on a regular basis. People who know me little find it weird that I call myself a good friend, but have not communicated with "my friend" for sometime.
* People think I was a book worm during my school days ... well, I wouldn't call myself one, but yes, I like to get immersed in an interesting trignometric equation or a Logical gates problem and solve it. I like reading Tinkle, Chandamama, Sudha (Kannada magazines) or Amar Chitra Katha or Panchatantra. But I can never complete reading a novel. I've tried several times, but have never been able to successfully complete one. (until recently.... I completed R.K.Narayan's Talkative Man)
* I was a quitest of the quiet kinda of a person before marriage. I would simply say a hello to guests at home and politely excuse myself from them. Of course my discussion with people dear to me would go on for hours ( Cricket with my Chikappa, Tennis with my friends "D" and "P", Local Politics with my ajja etc) Strangely after marriage, I have become quite loquacious... weird, I didn't realise when this change happened !!
* I have been thinking for atleast 4 hours now and I know there must be atleast 1 more weird thing about me ... but I can't tell ... hmm... thats weird ... isn't it??

First day at new work

Today was my first day at my new work place. As I had written in my earlier post, I have always had long commutes to work. This office was no different either. In fact, it beat the race by more 30miles ... yep.... my current commute back and forth is approximately 130miles. Phew ! It tires me even to think of the distance and it is still the first day :(
I could hardly sleep last night except the wee hours of the morning. Of course it was the time I set the alarm and was supposed to wake up. I convinced myself to catch up the few more minutes of the divine sleep pleasure and finally woke up 15 minutes later than decided. I got ready on time and left home by 6:45am. I was warned by a few experienced commuters that my drive time to work would be atleast 90mins. I had already spoken to the team of my early work schedule, so that nobody would give me weird looks when I started early from work. I was hoping to reach office by around 8:15am. I was told that my manager would be at work by 8:00am. I gave 15mins window, in case he did not show up on time. His presence was critical since, I had to be signed in to get into the building. You see my badge was not processed yet.
So my surprise, I found the drive not very bad .... touch wood. I reached office 8:00am. Not a bad start at all .... I said to myself. I called up my manager on his cell, only to hear a harsh voice (sounding as though he had just gotten up from bed) answering the phone. To my luck, another colleague of mine was at work and he helped me get into the building. I had no clue how to access the office parking space and so I parked the car in front of Wells Fargo bank. There was clearly a note that read "Parking for Wells Fargo Customers Only". But I didn't have a choice, since the place was new to me. I had no clue about the area and the Wells Fargo bank was right across my office. I feared, I would get lost, if I looked for other parking spaces and went ahead, parked my car there.
After the usual introduction and some project overview, I politely reminded my colleague that my car was parked in Wells Fargo Bank parking space and that it was not the best option. He gave me instructions on the office parking spaces and also showed me direction using google maps. I thanked him and went to my car. The driving direction given to me were fairly simple so I did not find the need to write the same. I was to make a right turn from Wells Fargo and would hit the desired road. Within .2miles of the road, I would find the office parking lot on my right. My present office is in the downtown and as with most downtowns I have seen, there are too many one way roads. Its very confusing and I have always hated driving in the downtown.
I drove my car out of the Wells Fargo parking lot and promptly made a right turn. I went straight for less than .1miles when I hit the signal. It was red and I patiently waited. I saw that that the car from the perpendicular road was making a left turn and was coming in the same road as mine.... oh wait ... it was coming almost in the same lane as mine. What a bad driver ... doesn't know to make a neat left turn, I thought. A few secs later another driver did the same mistake. Now I lost my cool and just looked at the surprised driver. Soon, our signal light turned green and since I had not located the road I was supposed to go to, I made a left and started going straight. At this time, I also cribbed about my colleague who had given me wrong directions. I drove atleast a mile and still was not able to locate the road I was looking for. I decided to make a U turn. On my way back, I easily found the road I had missed. Not just that ... I also discovered why the drivers were making a wide left turn. It was because I was in their lane !!!! Yes.... for some reason, I had got confused and had driven in the wrong lane .... my Indian driving skills shadowed my American driving knowledge and I convinietly made a free left turn !!! It could have been disatrous ... thankfully there was no cop or large vehicles approaching... if not I am not sure what would have happened. The expression on my face had to seen to be believed ... I had turned pale .... I couldn't believe myself and for a second could not think.
I got a convinient parking space in the office lot and the rest of the day went by smoothly. But my driving disastor haunted all day long !

Kaale Ghane Baalon ka raaz

One of the first complaints you hear from people who travel to the US from India is about their hair fall problem. So far, I haven't met anyone who has said they have not faced this problem. Its gotten so worse for me that I pity myself when I don't see my lustrous hair that I had back home in India.
My mom took extra effort to take care of my hair. When I worked in Bangalore for sometime, my aunt took the same care too. My mom ensured I washed my hair with any one of the following:

• Hibiscus leaves paste
• Mehendi
• Castor Oil / Sikakai
• Methi soaked and ground as a fine paste

Shampoo was taboo .... I don't ever remember using shampoo in India. It felt so refreshing so get a hot oil head massage and then wash it with "Hande water". I really miss that now. These days all the above are unknown territory to me ... all I know is Shampoo. The result is quite evident ... a thin strand of lack lustre hair :(

Sorry mom .... your efforts are wasted !