I'm Back!!

Gosh, its been a looong time.... my last post was on December 9th, which means I have been bloggarly inactive for four months now..... not good!!!

Actually its thanks to the person who read my last post and left a comment that I'm even writing this.... the fact that I had a blog had kind of slipped my mind until I saw the comment in my inbox...thanks dude!!

So basically I was reading what I had written last year and realised one thing...lots and lots of typos!!! Its like I've forgotten that spell check exists! But not any more, henceforth, typos shall be kept to a bare minimum.... I’m not going to say they won't be there at all, after all to err is human.

Which reminds me of an sms Berty sent this morning "To drink is human, to drink coffee is divine!" - absolutely right Bert, from one coffee addict to another.

That’s all for now folks, this was just a hi, hello kind of thing, me being at work and all. Will write more when I have the time..I promise!

Ok, I found something to do....

Last weekend I was in Bangalore....
And it was without doubt the most spontaneous trip ever!! i decided on thursday night that i wanted to leave the next night , but by friday evening i still didnt have train tickets, plus a cyclone had hit chennai so it was raining elephants and tigers! And not a single travel agancy was able to book my tickets. Luckily, one my colleauges, gave me the number of a guy who sits AT the station and who'll book a ticket any time!! and another friend who was leaving on the same night gave me a lift to the station....And thereI was, with soggy shoes and all (the streets were flooded!!) on my way.

The trip was loads of fun...I met Aarthi, Amarantha, Zubair and Berty who was there on a project. The only problem was my return ticket. I managed to get a bus ticket, but Aarthi's parents called and said that the roads were really bad, and that the bus wasn't such a good idea. So guess what, i got an extra day!! managed to get a train ticket for monday night and was back in Chennai on Tuesady.

The point here is not to rave about MY trip but to encourage all of YOU to make spontaneous trips!!!
I mean , whats the worst that can happen ( other than missing a day of work :) ) ?? And the good part is you'll have even more fun than usual coz it will be completely unexpected.

Nothing to do....

As the title says....Im jobless...which means I am at work but have absolutely nothing to do!! Do you know how annoying it is to be forced to sit in front of a PC 8 hours a day and NOT be given any work??? add to that, that you cant access the internet and you'll know how i feel right now. And if you have to do this more than two days in a row...now that is REAL suffering!!
Luckily for me, its a friday....hopefully I'll have work by monday!!!

The really annoying part is...i could be doing so many other USEFUL things right now.....like yoga, for example (Okay i havent done tht in ages, but i would start if i had the time!!), or get my eyebrows done, or go to to Brithish Council library and return my looong overdue books and dvd and hope the fine isnt too big!

As it is im reduced to reading and sending fwds on the intranaet, drinking coffee, playing minesweeper and using my neighbour's comp whenever he isnt around coz he has net access (how mean!).

Having said that, i really shouldn't be complaining should I? I mean its not like im starving or sick or homeless or in danger or broke......but i am BORED!

The curious incident of the bee at dawn.....

There is no mystery here......I killed the bee....or more correctly varishama(my maid) did on my orders.....
so why was i killing bees at 5.30 am? well, i had just finished sahri and was waiting in my room for the fajar azaan so i coud pray.....and who should come in but a 2 and a half inch long, monstrous and ugly, red bee.....im dead scared of bees....what if it stings me?

so i ran out of my room, and stood in the doorway, ready to shut the door in case the bee came too close, and hoped that it would just leave....but i thnk that evil thing was scouting my room for a place to build its hive!!

and then came the burning question...would Hit(the stuff you use for cockroaches) kill a bee???

now this is an important question, coz if the Hit doesnot kill it, but bothers it, it could turn around and sting. and i wasnt brave enough to find out. so i called in the cavalry...

My very helpful guide to getting rid of bees:
now, heres how you get rid of a bee....
u take a stick in one hand(the longer the better) and a bottle of Hit in the other.....
1. you spray the bee .... this weakens it
2. and then push it with your stick. At this point it might fly around a bit. so just wait for it to settle down and try again.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have managed to push it out of the window...
and dont worry it wont sting u....it didnt sting varishama!!

Shoeshop phobia and i think im a little autistic....

I think am a little autistic!
Tht sounds crazy doesnt it?? but really, i read this book called.....well,i forgot what its called but its about an autistic kid who sees a dog that has been killed and then sets out to find the murderer, its totally from the point of view of this kid, what he thinks and feels and its really good. its called....the dog that died? the dead dog? who killed the dog?....something like that!!
ok, i googled and found it - its called "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by Mark Haddon and its awesome!!

So, as to why i think im autistic.....when i was reading the book, i could totally connect with this kid (ok not completely!), like when he talks about not understanding subtext, what people actually mean when they are saying something else, the need for every thing to be logically spelled out.....but most of all .....information overload!

from what i could gather from the book and what ive seen on tv, autism is a disease, in which the person in question cannot process information like a normal person can. To make that statement clearer, i flicked the following from a book review....

"It takes the reader into the chaos of autism and creates a character of such empathy that many readers will begin to feel for the first time what it is like to live a life in which there are no filters to eliminate or order the millions of pieces of information that come to us through our senses every instant of the day. For the autistic person, most stimuli register with equal impact, and because these little pieces of information cannot usually be processed effectively, life becomes a very confusing mess of constantly competing signals. "

Coming back to me, mom was in town yesterday and we went to spencers, and the first place she walked into was a shoe shop......now, i hate shoe shops(except sunil's)....always have.....but i never understood why...always thought it was because i wasnt tht interested in footwear......

but yesterday, i understood.....we went into this place with the most dazzling array of shoes in like every color imaginable....and i just couldnt look at them...it was too much.....a complete inormation overload!! atleast if they were color coded....u know, blue shoes on one side, then green and so on, it would make some sense, but they were all mixed up...different patterns different colors......it made my head spin. i actually like the men's section of the shoe shop better.....they mostly have only blacks and browns.....i tell u, guys have it made!!!

in fact this happens in a lot of places, even clothes stores, but its easier there, because i only wear a certain type of clothes, so i dont have to look at everything.....

i think that all of us have some quirks of craziness, just tht some have it more than others......

The bookseller of Kabul

This book swings my mood first one way, then another......i become sad, angry, frustrated, angry, fascinated, angry...
what is it with people??? especially those Taliban in Afghanistan?
how can they take a religion and mess it up soo much that it sounds like something a sadist would dream up when he is totally drunk??

and then there are the others....the "moderate" muslims...God, how i hate that word! those people who have such an apologetic attitude towards islam, those who say, yeah im muslim, but i dont follow the rules and stuff! or even better....its so anti-women. Hello??

On one side we have the almost illiterate (according to the book) Taliban who think that the Quran is the only book worth learning.....forget education and science and research and humanity while your at it...

and then those educated, forward muslims who accept(very willingly) parts of the religion they like, (like haveing more than one wife) and happily ignore the rest which includes treating them both equally, giving women a choice in whom they want to marry, ...

[And im not passing judgement here, im not very good myself, but we digress...]

The book is absolutely amazing, Asne Seierstad has done a wonderful job, she's managed to portray the life of Sultan Khan and his family so u feel like they are in the room with u.

Ive got to the point where a 16 yr old girl was beaten up by her family coz she went to meet her boyfriend..................and i cant go on...
and the only other choice for a girl in her situation would be to marry which ever guy (could be 40 or 50 years old) her parents approve based ofcourse on how much the guy will pay them....basically like being sold...

I wonder.....

1. There is a sign outside ATM centres that says, among other things, 'for your security and convenience, do not wear caps or bandanas inside the centre. Is this because the security cameras wont be able to capture ur face properly or is there some other reason?

2. When you have a gut feeling that a guy has a crush on you, are u right even if its a very unlikely situation, or is it just
your imagination??

3. when ppl blog, do they do it with the hope that someone, somewhere will take notice and read it??

4. if frying is the worst thing u can do to potatos, why do potato chips/french fries taste soooooooo good??? (ok, this is not really a question......)

5. Why do some people feel the need to correct your spelling when they read your blog??
(Diya and Lekha especially!!! i mean, they came home and read it, and then laughed their guts out coz i had spelled potato with an 'e' ... come on....it could have an e)

My first blog...

ok, im bored....isnt it crazy, tht when u have a lot of work, u just want some peaceful time to urself, and then when u have just tht...ur bored!

the reason im so bored at 1 o clok on a wednesday afternoon is tht today is Vinayakar chaturti and i have a holiday at work... and i told my friends tht i wouldnt be joining them coz i wanted to spend some time at home....right!!

actually i do have a lot of stuff to do, but cant do anything coz my scooty messed (what do u think amu??) up. stopped 4 times this morning, once under a bridge and it was raining so i got generously soaked in muddy water by every passing vehicle...finally i managed to park it in a apartment compoud.

stuff i have to do today:
1. go to salim uncles house and ask him if he can courier the CAT forms (this one probably isnt going to happen)
2. got to a kodak showroom and figure out why zubeda's camera isnt workin (this one might..)
3. buy butter (coz i made waffles this morning....love it with butter!)
4. buy chicken (well, its too late for that...)

ive been thiking of doin this blog thing for a long time....in fact created loads but never actually wrote anything...lol well, i hope this one fares better than the othes (it cant be worse!!)

i dont know whether i want to create a blog for other ppl to read (like a way of keeping in touch) or whether its jus for me...like a pesonal diary....so this is going to be a bit of both..

right now im havin trouble figuring out a username at blogspot...every conceivable name is taken...lord, its annoying!!! in fact i typed...'imgoingmad'...even that is not available...jus gives u a perspective of how many ppl are on this thing and how desperate ppl mest have got searching for a user name...;-)
ok..i got one. not one my favourite names but its also my yahoo id so atleast it will be easy to remember!