17/04/2010, Sat: Before you guys start making some wild assumptions, it's not a baby, in fact it's not human at all. But she acts every bit as human as possible, starting from understanding to what we tell her to scolding us. She is our pet kitten, kitty. Thank my bro for the name; he came up with something that was very easy to remember about a kitten.
He found her when she was trying to be a heroine trying to cross a busy street, and he tells me that she was very calm and quite the whole day. In fact, she was sleeping on his lap the whole journey from the captured spot to home. Mom, like usually downright refused to her in. But after a small amount of pleading from bro's side and with the promise to get rid of her in the morning, she consented to let the kitten stay for the night. The next day onwards, she was so playful and cheerful, that my mom just didn't have to heart to give her away (typical, this isn't the first time too). And so now she stayed. [Based on account from my bro and mom, unfortunately I couldn't witness it]
Anyways, when I went home on the beginning of April, there she was sleeping like a baby (which she is). I had the misfortune of wake her up due to the noise I was making walking around, and the reaction I got, is the same I would get from any human in her place, was a nice long scolding. The only difference being that hers was more cat like, will a lot of loud meowing. After that she just turned around and slept off again. J
One this that I have to hand it to her is her punctuality (which me n my bro are successfully making her loose). She has very specific timings for going on a walk and waste removal. I believe she should have been a dog, but got the body of a cat instead. I have never seen any other cat chase her tail around so much like kitty does. And that quite a lot in fact! But for all her mischievous acts, she had truly captured the hearts of all the people in the colony, especially with the way she runs. She is the only cat that I know which runs in a 45o angle. She keeps her body at 45o then run forwards, its looks more like a very weird hoping, but she manages to reach her destination.
Just hope we are able to see more of her in the years to come.
15/April/2010, Thu: I guess that enough reason for anyone to be home. Same here! Thankfully unlike all her other activities, my manager never rejects the applied leaves of any of her team mates. Reached home on the morning of the 14th, this was the Tamil New Year. Now, another importance of this Vishu is that the entire family was together after 6 months. The last time all of us got together was in during October, 2009 in the previous house. Moreover, it's the first time everyone is together in the new house for the first time (house-warming ceremony not considered). On the 14th, all the preparation was for the main event of Vishu, the Vishu Kanni, which literally "the first to be seen on the Vishu day". It consist of a ritual arrangement of articles like raw rice, lemon (fresh), golden cucumber, Areca Nut, betel leaves, the yellow flowers konna, metal mirror, and holy text and coins, in an uruli (bell metal vessel) in the puja room of the House, with a lighted nilavilakku (bell metal lamp) is placed alongside. Now all this arrangement has to be made on the previous night. It was my main job to climb up and get the kindi, uruli, and nilavilakku and dad was helping with the fruits to be kept. Mom did all the major arrangements. As for my bro, he was not feeling well having got food poisoned, after eating a green apple. ("An apple a day; keeps the doc away", definitely wrong in his case. He had to always visit the doc when there is an apple involved). On the day of Vishu, we got up before dawn (occasionally it's not an issue at all) and went to the puja room with our eyes closed so that the Vishu Kkani is the first sight of the new season. And it was a beautiful sight, really pretty with the lit lamp and all the decoration. Then comes the Vishu Kaineetam, which is mainly giving coins (notes these days), to the younger ones of the family. Well, i got around Rs 500/- from my dad, but it was my bro who hit the jackpot, that guy got 500 from dad, 1000 from me, another 500 from mom... HA HA HA... It was really fun. Both, myself, and my dad were helping mom in the cooking, with me chopping the veggies and the dad with frying and cooking a bit. We left bro for the supervision since that was the only thing he was strong enough to do at that time. Anyways, the preparation part was really fun. I didn't lose my touch of cutting things up. The rest of the things was prepared by mom. And then the Sadhya, with a total of around 10 items (istew [made with coconut milk and potato], chakka thoran [made from jackfruit], aviyal [mixed veggies with coconut], kootukarri [made of channa, cheenna, coconut] to name a few) together with the two main dish (sambar and mango kaalan), mango pickles, and semiya payasam all on the banana leaf. Wow... now that was a feast. I was stuffed to the core. J The only thing missing was the Vishu Padakkam, bursting of firecrackers. Apart from that an amazing and wonderful Vishu.Vishu, one of the most important festivals for keralites. Being celebrates in the new for the first time.All the family has a chance to be together after quite a long time.
12/04/2010, Mon: It was towards the evening at ECC [Employee Care Centre] (one of the only good spots in the Mysore campus), since both myself and Dot forgot to bring the swimming trunks, ruling out swimming, we decided to go for a steam bath. Eventually, it was just a bath.
Coming out near the swimming it was a sight to behold, with the sky having darkened to a hellish degree. In fact, it gave an impression of an extremely angry bull, approaching. That was when I first heard the thunderous roar of the storm to come. As if on auto drive, I gave all my belongings to Dot for safe keeping and ran out into the open. I made it on time, with the rain striking at the exact moment.
Guess what was the next move? Walked towards the dolphin juice centre and order a mango milk shake. In fact, the guy over there thought I was crazy making an order rite in the middle of a down pour. Having cold mango milk shake rite in the middle on a rain is amazing, especially a hailstorm, which automatically provides the ice needed. It was Mango Milkshake on the Rocks. Although nothing beats having hot pakoda with hot black tea, during the rain. Mouth-wateringJ.
It went on for almost 2 hours. And what a rain it was. Absolutely satisfying! Soon after the rain, was followed by a continuous display of lightning flashes and bolts. That was the first time I have had the opportunity to see something like that, it was just so terrifying yet at the same time so beautiful and mesmerising. Just wish that I get to see that again.
10/04/2010, Sat: Actually it was not like we had a choice. Our maid had not shown up for over 2 weeks. Which means the state of the house was pretty messed up, especially with three bachelors living together. Like my mom usually says, such places lack a feminine touch. So true!
Any ways, thankfully, that morning the electrician showed up. The ceiling fans in both mine as well as Dot's room had completed their tenure and needed a good tune up. With him being there, we had to move the beds around. And I don't know what happened, but it inspired both of us to finish with the cleaning of least the bedrooms and the bathroom. Being armatures, I can say that we did a pretty good job, especially with the bathroom. The bathtub is sparkling clean now. The only thing that is stopping us now from having a bath in that is the amount of water it would consume.
We were feeling pretty satisfied with the result, when enters our absentee maid. I and Dot had to leave for the campus, and so we couldn't make her do any work, leaving that job to our third room-mate. By the time we had returned, the entire ground floor was sparkling clean. And talk about her luck, since the first floor was all taken care of she was spared that headache. Talk about lending an unintentional helping hand.
For all those who are working, have u ever had the privilege of having your manager act as your English teacher. Don’t envy the guy who got the chance. It’s definitely not a pretty sight/experience. But like I say you just have to act well.
So on Friday (26th March, 2010) noon, this guy (Three Guesses Who?) goes to his manager’s room. The reason being he had just come to office at 1pm (the office timing start at 9:00 in the morning). And surprisingly there were three missed calls from his manager at three different times (9:30am, 11am, and 12:30pm). Now, this guy has an amazing knack of getting into trouble with his manager given any circumstance and that streak continues.
So when he goes to his manager’s cabin, he is made to endure her usual string of speech about how much she is worried about the team, blah blah blah blah... during my college days blah blah blah blah... professionalism... blah blah blah... trainee graduates... blah blah blah... Mohit... blah blah blah... Next level... blah blah blah... etc...
Now when the guy was enduring this, she suddenly changes the topic (shocking in a way) and tells him that she wants him to go to the library to get a book named ‘I moved my cheese’. Reason: she wants him to improve on his writing skills. So, she wants him to go through the whole book and give her a whole summary for 20 mins on Monday. And what can he possibly do, it’s not like he can downright refuse her as well. Poor Guy!
Now, the first phase of the assignment is over, the book has been issued from the library. The reading is remaining. Let’s just hope he gets the urge soon to start reading that book, otherwise the trouble streak is going to further increase.
That sure was a surprise when we got the mail regarding the project party. There was no prior intimation about the same. In fact, am still not sure why there was a sudden project party in the first place. Anyways, it was the worse date that would have been chosen. On the same day there was another symphony being held in the campus. A choice had to be made and almost all of us selected the party, after all who can refuse free food (not free really, we had to pay for it, but still).
It was held at Hotel Grand Maurya (believe me there is absolutely nothing grand about that place) for the entire department. Even then many failed to turn up. But that didn’t really matter. I didn’t have a means of transport to reach there, so Kid (refer to previous entries) agreed to drop me. Both of us misjudged the place and there was a small goose chase. But we reached there in the end. But she wasn’t interested in coming. So I had to go on from there.
The rest of my gang was already there and were busy having a drink. Well, after I spoke with them I went to where the song was at its loudest. And believe me, it was not a pleasant sight. Since, there isn’t much to do or watch without the youngsters dancing. Well, I had no other choice, went back and dragged the team out. Once, all of us were gathered there, and then it really turned into a party. It sure was amazing, and the songs were really good as well.
Well, the main point of going to the party is definitely not the dance, it’s the food. And that was exactly what I went looking for in the middle. After two very fast exploding songs (“Manmada Rassa” and “Appadi Pode”), Man! It was tiring. So, I did the next possible thing. Went to have my dinner (Roti/Nan, Fried Rice, Paneer Butter Masala, Channa Masala, Gobi Fry, Raita/Curd, Vanilla Ice Cream) and the food was really good. Had a full stomach and then went back to the dance. Thankfully, I wasn’t missed. When the dance was over, all the rest went for having their dinner. But then they were so exhausted from all the dancing, that they couldn’t even have a proper dinner, especially DOT and he being a foodie, it was equivalent to being totally tortured.
But then, once that was over, me and DOT walked back home, while the others went using some other mode of transportation. But then, it was a really nice time. Hope they organise more of such project parties in the future but on a more suitable date.
Have you even sat down with the full heart to finish something, only to the disturbed at the exact moment? Am sure it would happen to all of us, especially when we think we have been bitten by the concentration bug.
That is the same situation going on over here with me. Every time I would sit down decided to write a topic, am sure to be disturbed as trivial as a power cut, which would totally spoil my mood. There are times when I don’t bother about anything around me and continue to work. But such things happen when I am reading a novel with an unbreakable will.
But when I have ever tried to do something else, like say Study. BANG!!!!! Gone with the wind!!! Come to think of it, even wind isnt this fast. The speed at which our attention changed from one object / subject to another is just mind blowing.
The fact that my latest blog entry took so long to be published itself is a sign of that. Cant help it, although at times I get really good ideas am just too lazy to type them. I am sure that is one of the most common cases with almost all the people. But in the end, it all boils down to how much interest u are having in doing the task. The more the better, then concentration would automatically fall into place.
About Me
- Sathya
- Chennai / Mysore, India
- Am just a calm guy who has just started getting a taste for travelling and enjoying. Not to mention have a very good set of friends. So I am sharing my experiences with you, hoping that you will have a great time reading them as I had enjoying them.
