Life is slowing down

Finally I see some slowing down in my life since April this year and hence the post. Well "hecticness" is the excuse I have been giving myself for not blogging. The last time I decided to post something fate was against me. I wrote this really long post and when I realized it was not getting anywhere close seeing the light at the end of the tunnel I decided to copy it onto a word doc. The minute I did select all the whole damn thing just disappeared and that was the end of that post. Well this time I am not going to make that mistake and will keep my post short because my blog doesn’t like me posting long stuff. Anyways loads of things have been happening and I am already half way through my course. I cannot believe I am just another six months away from graduating. I have still not made up mind if a one year MBA is good or bad but a MBA definitely makes you look at things differently and gives you an option to do what you really want. Well it finally depends on us like it always did as to how we make use of these options. On a lighter note I will be doing my internship in Hyderabad with this firm called Acumen Fund (http://www.acumenfund.org/). I am really excited about it and hope to do a good job there. I hope to blog regularly for another month from now. Let’s see if I keep up the promise at least this time.

State of the mind

One decision taken led to
A resignation waiting to be submitted
A loan waiting to be taken
Loads of to do lists waiting to be made
Bunch of mails waiting to be sent out
Number of apprehensions waiting to be appeased
A whole lot of networking waiting to be started...

Shopping that I hate!!

It’s high time I get used to the idea of shopping for stuff I am not interested in. My grandma has taken it upon her to drag me to each and every jeweler in Madras. Even though the date has really not been decided and there is a good possibility it is almost a year away she has gotten into the groove. It has taken her 2 years now to come in terms with the fact that I am going to get married to P. Now that she has, there is no stopping her. I have already visited fifty percent of the jewelers in Madras and I am praying real hard that it stops with this city.

The other day I saw her bent over a book and concentrating real hard on writing down something. I was surprised cuz’ it was that time of the day when she is glued to the television watching her tamil serials and refusing to acknowledge anything happening around her. When I went close by and tried taking a peek she gave me a sheepish look and told me that it was a list for my marriage. Well what could I say, it just brought a smile to my face.

I am shocked at her sudden change in attitude towards the whole thing. For the orthodox people that my grandparents are I never even once remotely believed that they would agree to me and P getting married let alone my grandma shopping with me for the same. They have given up a lot for my sake (especially their strong beliefs) and I think it is only fair of me to do a few things for their happiness, like jewels shopping although it is not exactly my favorite sport.

Stop me!!

Brownie and vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce oozing all over it. Oh my God… Oh my God… Oh my God….. Somebody stop me from going to Barista!!!

iPod- My Sevettu machine (hearing aid)!!

It takes me an hour to get to work in the mornings. I travel in this vehicle (can I call it one?) which is a cross between an auto and a mini van. It is called a share auto and makes more noise than 4 Enfields put together. The auto driver is more annoying than the noise itself. He fills the auto with 15 people when it can actually accommodate nothing more than 9 people of which there are seats only of 7 and the other two get to sit on upturned wooden boxes.

I am still half asleep when I get to the bus stand to take the auto at 7:45a.m. I give a nasty dont-you-dare-take-more-than-9-people-into-this-auto look at the driver when I get into it. By the time its 15 minutes into the ride I am extremely annoyed cuz there are already 11 people and invariably I get a very very fat lady next to me trying to push herself into the seat which can fit only her finger. I start off with asking the auto driver where he is going to fit the extra people he keeps loading into the rickshaw and it comes to a point where I tell him that maybe he should ask a few of them to sit on his lap. This happens practically everyday and I am in a very foul mood by the time I get to work.

In order to avoid this entire ruckus I decided to carry my iPod with me today so that I can just close my eyes and throw myself into the "Kanne Kalai mane" and "Dumaro Dum" instead of the "DUD DUD DUD" of the auto and the "thalli okkaruma" of the auto driver. I was feeling calm and proud of myself for not picking up a fight when an old lady got in and sat next to me. She kept throwing me a very I- feel- so-sorry- for- you look every once in a while which I could neither understand nor ignore. I decided to increase the volume at this point to distract myself and heard the auto driver as usual asking me to move a little bit more so that he could fit in the 16th person into the auto. I pretended like I did not hear him when the old lady sitting next to me practically screamed into my ears asking me to move and kept making some actions with her hand. I did not have a clue as to what she was trying to do with her hands. I decided to go back to my music when the same thing happened and the old lady screaming into my ears and making fervent actions with her hand. I was totally frustrated and was about to ask her if she was mad when my stop came and I had to get off. I decided it was not worth the effort and was pushing people to get off when I heard her telling her neighbor "paavam antha ponnuku kadhu kekadhu pollairuku, sevuttu machinea nee pakkala?"

Senti Feeling

It starts off as a silly fight... like today I asked her to be careful with my laptop for the 100th time. I know it can be very annoying when somebody keeps saying the same thing over and over again. But I can be really mean sometimes (sometimes?!!). I keep telling her how irresponsible she is and how she is gonna find it very difficult in life if she stays the same way ( I think staying away from home for a couple of years and I know everything about the world). If she says something back to my complaints about her, I will pick on something else and there will never be an end to it till our mom screams her lungs out and puts an end to it.

This has been happening since she was 2 and I was 4. There was this once when she got so pained with me that she downed an entire mug of hot cocoa on to my head. This is just one incident and there have been innumerable ones worse that this.

But at the end of all that I get extremely bored when she is not around. I call her and bother her when she is in class. I ask her to come home early when I have a holiday. I love gossiping and shopping with her. I have realized that things have changed a lot in our lives since I left home for college. It will be very difficult to catch up with all those things we have missed telling each other in the last few years. But at the end of all that she is my lil’ kid sister I will always remain protective about her.

Meetings and I

This is how an official meeting I attend typically proceeds:

A bunch of people seated looking solemn and stiff working on some ppt which is probably full of crap ( a fact which the guy who is presenting as well as the others know), while I sit around staring at each and everyone of them.

Mathangi (typical thoughts): that guy has a long nose, this one here is wearing an ugly looking tie, that female definitely has an attitude and she has terrible dressing sense, ooooooo yuck this guy has hair sticking out from his nose... disgusting!!!

Boss: Mathangi do you have your presentation ready?

Mathangi (still lost): wow that guy is really fat... obese is the word... I hope I am not half as fat as him.

Boss: MATHANGI DO YOU HAVE YOUR PRESENTATION READY???

Mathangi (comes back to reality and is all flustered): oh ya I do (digs through the purse to find the pen drive)..................... (quite desperate now cuz’ its not there).

Boss: Mathangi yours will be next.

Mathangi (asshole... I told him I wanted to do it in the end): Boss can I excuse myself for a second?

Boss: Yes but remember you are next.

I run to my desk to find the damn pen drive sitting right next to the comp. Pick it up and run back puffing and panting. Enter into the conference room and the guy is saying Thank You. I see my boss desperately looking around for me. I do all the initial setting up which I should have done while the other guys presentation was going on. I see some irritated looks cuz’ of my delay.

Mathangi: (Not like these guys have loads of things to take care of when they get back, they just pretend like they do not have the time).

Mathangi : Good morning everybody... (That guys head is so bald and shiny.... wonder what he puts to make it look like that)........