Tagged again...

... this time by Kanu. The rules: "Its a very simple questionnaire....kindly keep the answers limited to a word or a phrase". Here goes:

1. When I look at the stars... it calms me
2. Rains... dance
3. Happiness is... a state of mind
4. Books... bedtime stories
5. Men/Women(Whichever applicable).... Women
6. Love is.... a concept I believe
7. God... a concept I don't need to believe
8. Summer of 69?... those were the best days of my life
9. Pride.... is what leads people to excel
10. Life... is calling. Where are you?

Tagged

Tagged for the first time in my life. Woodie tagged me, when I commented in her "tag" post that I never understood the concept fully. From now on, I will be careful with what I comment.

Anyway, here goes... my deepest secrets revealed...

A) FOUR OTHER JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:

1. Private tutor
2. Secretary in a sports organisation
3. Faculty in a computer education center
4. Physical education trainer for school kids

B) FOUR MOVIES I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER AND OVER:

1. Lord of the rings trilogy
2. As good as it gets - any good comedy, really
3. Matrix series
4. Ben Hur

C) FOUR PLACES WHERE I HAVE LIVED:

1. Kolkata
2. Chittagong, Bangladesh
3. New Delhi
4. Bangalore

D) FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH:

1. Travel shows
2. Monster House
3. English premier league soccer matches
4. Adventure challenge

E) FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:

Too many, listing four from this year:
1. Ladakh
2. Masinaguddi (jungle in Tamilnadu)
3. Coorg (coffee plantation in Karnataka)
4. Hyderabad

F) FOUR WEBSITES I VISIT:

1. www.google.com - my customized home page gives me a snapshot of things I need to know.
2. www.wikipedia.com
3. www.orkut.com
4. Several blogs

G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS( IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):

1. Kababs
2. Chinese
3. Maggi
4. Eggs

H) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE IN RIGHT NOW:

1. On a hiking trail anywhere
2. Delhi – hanging out with friends
3. Singapore – shopping with my cousin / niece
4. Rishikesh - rafting

There's something about Saree

... that makes ladies look good. Especially when you are used to seeing the same girls wearing jeans / t-shirt or salwar / kurta to office almost everyday. Then one fine day, they all decide to celebrate Diwali and wear ethnic wear. These girls (from the next process - same floor as me) are not coming to office on Diwali day itself, so it is an advance celebration for them.

Now, they should have told us, right? Why? Let me give you a few reasons:

As I entered the floor, I actually had to check if I am on the wrong floor! Then, I was in two minds, whether to put the sunglasses back on again.

The newest member of the team, barely legal age to work, makes it a point to stop to say hi and shake hands everyday. Yesterday, I was standing right in front of him, and he didn't notice! Of course he didn't notice! He was busy checking out other interesting subjects.

All the boys in my team took extra breaks! There was even a discussion, unofficially titled "Saree - what makes it so sexy - a scientific analysis". I haven't seen the performance stats for yesterday in isolation, but I have a feeling...

And if you thought all ladies were very productive, think again. They were last seen discussing "Chiffon vs. South Indian silk vs. 1024 other sarees". Heck, they ogle more than men do.

I could have got my camera and taken some cool portraits.

P.S - Accompanying picture courtesy Deepti Siwal. You can check her digital art here.

Shoot, photo shoot

This weekend I attended a photography workshop conducted by well known wildlife photographer Sudhir Shivaram.

Saturday, Sudhir discussed the concepts of photography. The emphasis was on how to take control of the camera and not use the presets. Although I was aware of the basic concepts, it helped me understand how those theories can be applied practically. It also helped that Sudhir gave practical examples from his vast experience.

Sunday, we went for a practical session to the Hebbal lake, early in the morning, where Sudhir helped us to understand the do's and don'ts. Later in the day, he explained the post processing workflow. I didn't have a clue about this before. He explained it in details and we learnt by doing it on our own laptops. Although the results of my first post processing was a mess of a nice photograph, I got the concepts. Now I will have to practise them. Be ready to check some of my post processed photographs at my photoblog.

Night shift

I am doing night shifts - as per EST time. That means

I am in office at around noon IST and home by 10 in the night. :-)
So much time at home; so less in office. :-)
I don't meet my roommates :-( Today was an exception though - they came late and I woke up early :-)
I don't get to chat with some of my usual chat friends :-(
I eat both lunch and dinner :-) And I have put on weight :-(

I kinda like this shift.

Off to a day off

Some people had some problems with the state line between Maharashtra and Karnataka. They called a 12 hr bandh. What that meant to me? For me it was an unexpected off day in the middle of the week. What did I do?

Woke up at 4 in the morning to entertain some friends from office for an impromptu party. They left at 5:30 for office to beat the start of bandh.

Started and finished reading Chetan Bhagat’s “Five point someone”. I enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t hold a very high opinion of him going by his second book “One night @ the call center”, which I read sometime earlier. I think my friend Kanu will do a much better job of writing about life at call centers when she finally puts together her short stories. But Five point someone was different. Mr. Bhagat wrote it very well. Maybe because he was there in IIT for several years and the experiences were real and first hand. Maybe short visits to / reading about call centers is not enough to write about them.

Cooked cheese omelets and a variation of that with bread (proprietary recipe) for breakfast. Oh, by the way, breakfast was at 2 in the afternoon. Lunch was, a movie and a cat nap later, at six. The movie was “The devil wears prada”, playing in the new DVD player Sushant has bought.

Connected my Creative Zen mp3 player with speakers and let it play long playlists. Played all kind of music - from Bangla bands to old hindi to Pink Floyd to Rock.

Saw two more movies later - "Below 8" starring Paul Walker and several husky dogs; and "Under siege", the Steven Seagal / Tommy Lee Jones starrer.

Such a unproductively productive day!

Pujo - for me

Then: Pujo meant hanging out with friends on each night, for the whole night.
Now: What day is today? Shoptomi (the second day of Pujo)?

Then: I would get clothes as gifts for each day of the four / five days of pujo.
Now: I buy clothes on Oshtomi (the third day of pujo) because that’s a weekend – that too since Ma insisted.

Somehow Pujo is not the same outside Kolkata. It was still enjoyable in C. R. Park, Delhi, since it is a mini Kolkata, at least for this time of the year. There is another factor - both in Kolkata and Delhi, there is a change in weather at this time – you feel the nip in the air. In Bangalore, the weather is always so nice, it’s hard to tell its fall.

Subho Bijoya / Happy Dussehra to all.