A Day at Work...

A Day at work

Act I. Dreams

** Lost in a world.. far far away..... scenes slipping out of sight.. strange sights and sounds... nothing in focus..........**

Woken up by the loud beep of the alarm.... d spell is broken.. fumbles clumsily in sleep.. hands scrabbling frantically to find d stupid mobile n drown the sound... finds it and ends the nice start to the day.....

*snore snore* gets lost in sleep again.....

a loud voice emerges from some corner of d brain.. WAKE UP !! OFFICE TIME !!!

gets up with a jolt.. rubs eyes vigourously.... sees the clock..

damn... late by 10 minutes..... it'll sure cost a bus or a train.... damn...

jostles out of bed.. grabs stuf..... bathing and brushing teeth all mixed up...

realises that der's no paste and just d brush has been workin since the last 2 minutes..... damn....

brushes ... goes for bath....

gets done with it..... pulls out a pair of clothes.... a minute is spent (wasted) on pulling another pair out (damn... shud've done it last night)

gets ready... doesn't bother to comb (is windswept after travelling anyways- who cares !!)

stuffs lunch and water bottles in the bag, thows d purse n pass, looks at the time... squirms.....damn...

gets everything in the proper places,,, after a harried goodbye... rushes off in full steam to realise d mobile is missing..... damn.. doubles up, takes the cell and dashes off...

reach at full steam at the station. its not just the train which barges in at full speed.....

just makes it.... and prays (thank god ,,, the next one is 20 minutes later)

Act II. Travel

catches up on sleep..... for 2 stations...

den goes at the door..... d train snakes its way through over the sea.... the wind blowing across the face gives the sensation of flight...... drives away sleep....

as soon as the station comes.. jumps off it..... dashes underground across several stairs.....

comes out and sees the bus just arriving ..... runs again....

just makes it (thanks god again !! dunno when the next bus is due)

and sleeeeps.. through bumps and turns on the road.... helps to keep track of the destination....

finally alight at the company gate.....

almost sleepwalk till the building.. last vestiges of sleep still haunt.... luckily the lift is there....

keeps bag out,, goes in with i-card... logs onto the system (now the day officially starts!)

goes outside.. the life saving beverage vending machine is there.. it is akin to an ATM when u r in utmost need of money.... have 2 foaming cups of tea....

washes face with cold water....... finally conquers sleep.... time to work..

Act III. Session 1- Service 1

begins slowly,,,,,,

*blinks at screen for several minutes before finally remembering what is to be done*

remembers all the things to be done..... and starts...

for a couple of hours.. all concentration is focussed on the shiny black screen....

the tea is working........ nothing but the *tap* *tap* of keys and the *click* *click* of the mouse is heard... like the sounds in a battleground..

finishes the work.... wraps up service 1......... breathes a huge sigh of relief...

looks around,.. half the people have come in.......... smiles...... wishes a good morning to everyone (silently wondering in the mind that some people's mornings begin so early while the others are blissfully submerged in their dreams)

shakes off the thought.... goes for breakfast..... gets a small breather....

Act III. Session 1- Service 2

Major activity processed.... goes a bit easy with the minor one....

d day feels more interesting........

lot of time is spent with peers........ discussions, opinions, little gossip. misc.stuff

sees time and gets a shock... how can it move so speedily now after all the delay in the morning....

does work in full steam.... completes the same along with huge hunger pangs..

the noise rumbling in ur ears.....

finally Lunch... :)

Act IV. Lunch

Goes upstairs to the pantry..... quickly grabs a vacant chair as though its a round of musical chairs..... joins friends...

lunch goes by in chatting and tasting every cuisine packed by early-rising mothers for their children... (some are not generous though,, so gets to taste hotel food :) )

finishes lunch amongst laughter and all the unproductive talk in the world....

looks at the clock and remembers... there is an alert to be processed,,,

dashes again downstairs...

Act V. Session 2- service 1

Finishes process in 10 minutes.... *phew*

now all is calm.....

ambles through the rest of the day...

wrapping up all minor work.....

leans back in the chair and cracks a lazy smile when some1 asks for help in his/her process...

grumbles a bit but realizes the old proverb.. a friend in need...

finishes d work..... and sarcastically asks is there anything MORE to be done with a straight face (hoping the answer is no)

fortunately... friend says no.. so *phew*

yawns... stretches limbs... looks at the watch....some time left...

looks at the desk piled with innumerable cups of tea... leaning precariously like the tower of Pisa.... gets up and throws away the trash in the dustbin..

*sum physical activity done at last !)

gets a friend to pursue the virtuous line of sports...

has 2-3 games of table-tennis... feels good winning a match,,,,, play stops after the win (;))

heads down... has cold water......

reads the headlines of a couple of newspapers....grumbles....

looks at the watch,,,, Freedom.... cracks a shameless grin... dashes to the floor to log out.... when there's a summon by the head for a meeting..

*damn*

goes into a 4x4 cabin..... maintains a serious profile... nods head at whatever is being said,,,, paying more attention to the watch than to the points discussed..

finally.. freee....

announces loudly about departure.... some smiling faces... some faces looking relieved .. some unhappy (he's going so early!!)

takes bag... and steps out... enjoying the freedom like a bird freed from its cage... to experience what's left of the day....

Travel...........

Home.....

Dinner....

Act I reloads..............................

Disclaimer-

(The above is purely a work of reality. All the characters, incidents and places in the above are real. Resemblance to any person living or dead or to any incident or place is purely intentional)

:) :) :)

-

Aravind K.

19.05.2010

The Nineties

You Know You Grew Up in India in the 90s if…

1) You know the words to ‘In-pin-safety-pin’ and ‘akkad-bakkad’ by heart
2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly
3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics
4) You’ve watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
5) You have some ‘NRI’ relatives.
6) You couldn’t wait for it to be December so you could have the Toblerone chocolates your NRI relatives brought you
7) You watched Cartoon Network, and then the late night movies on TNT
that came after Cartoon Network ended.
8) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie
9) You were THRILLED when McDonald’s opened in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away)
10) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat
11) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
12) You still remember the theme song of Hum Paanch. (Hum Paanch, PamPam Pam Paanch!)
13) You have played hours upon hour of running and catching, chor-police, lagori, saankli, ‘Doctor, doctor, help us!’, ‘Lock and key’
14) You have seen girls play ‘Amina Super Sina’ more times than you can remember. (And you still don’t know what it means!)
15) Dog ‘in’ the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
16) Much of your free time in school was spent playing UNO.
17) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
18) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents or cousins
19) Your parents, at some point, told you ‘Dark Room’ was a bad game to play. But you still loved playing it. ;)
20) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
21) You know the song ‘Made in India ’ by Alisha Chinai
22) You have seen many many many episodes of ‘Antakshari’ on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Annu Kapoor.
23) Many evenings have been spent watching little kids gyrate vulgarly on Boogie Woogie on Sony.
24) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
25) You learnt LOGO and BASIC in school!
26) You couldn’t wait to start 4th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!
27) You often used terms and phrases like ‘two-say’, ‘same to you, back to you, with no returns’, and ‘shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.’
28) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized about singing songs in mustard fields as in the movie.
29) You have seen David Dhawan and Govinda movies and laughed at them.
31) You have said ‘haw’ or ‘yuck’ when you saw people kissing in English movies. (nowadays kids are used to it!) LOLS..! :P
30) Titanic was your FIRST favourite english movie.
31) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
32) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were doing when the earthquake occurred (yes, this happened in 2001, January 26, 2001, to be exact — but this group is about the things that Indian kids that GREW UP in the 90s remember and identify with).
33) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls?
34) You thought ‘imported’ clothes were definitely way better than ‘made in India’ clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before ‘Made in China’ started appearing on EVERY existing thing)
35) "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai Pata Chala Hai! Chaddi Pehen Ke Phool Khila Hai Phool Khila Hai!" You watched "The Jungle Book" every Sunday morning at 9.a.m" and just loved mowgli, bhalu and bagheera. A few years later, you watched Disney Hour, which had cartoons like Aladdin, Gummy Bears, Tail Spin, Uncle Scrooge! Juz luvd it..!
36) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
37) Captain Planet was your first introduction to environmental consciousness.
38) You have tried to convince people around you to not burst crackers on Diwali, and then gone straight back home and burst them yourself.
39) You have had endless packets of Parle Gluco G biscuits, and of Brittania Little Hearts biscuits.
40) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
41) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
42) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq .
43) You watched Baywatch on Star World when nobody was home even though (or because) your parents said you shouldn’t watch it. :D :D :D
44) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazos. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
45) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
46) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
47) You spent a good part of 1998 drooling over the Hyundai Santro and the Daewoo Matiz , debating which one was better.
48) You used to Fuzen gum. You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
49) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
50) You thought Mario and Contra were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
51) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
52) You can imitate Sushmita Sen’s winning gasp to perfection.
53) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
54) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, DTPH, KKHH actually make sense to you..
55) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
56) Baskin Robbins ice-cream was THE thing to have!
57) You know what Campa Cola is. And you also knew that Coca Cola was THE drink.
58) You would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and loved Bret Hart "Hitman"! really thought Undertaker had seven lives and he made an “actual” appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka
Khiladi.
59) When all backpacks (or ’schoolbags’) and water bottles and tiffin boxes had strange cartoon characters that were hybrid versions of seven or eight different characters, and you still bought them, because a green man wih a water pistol, boots, a jet-pack, Johnny bravo hair, a rajasthani mustache, gloves, and underwear (long johns)
over his pants, called ‘Mr. X’ was OBVIOUSLY a status symbol.
60) You remember the Nirma tikia jingle.
61) You remember the Nirma girl.
62) You remember the ‘doodh doodh piyo glass full doodh’ ad and also the ‘laal kaala peela, gulabi hara neela classic hai badia bristles wala’ and 'roz khao ande' ads.
63) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much cooler than reading Tinkle.
64) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!
65) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you were with cousins! “Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!”
66) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
67) Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
68) If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation’s obsession with Mahabharata on TV
69) In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too
70) You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course, those with the most bands loved to show them off .
71) Backstreet Boys' "Quit Playing Games" was one of the first english songs that you LOVED!
72) This list made you smile.






And I miss that age, it was sooo awesome!

Walking Alone

Walking Alone

Neither sin nor holy deed,

Can unchain me from my need,

To hear your voice,

To feel your touch,

I never would have thought,

I'd miss you this much.

From the moment we parted,

I began wandering the uncharted,

To have truly loved,

And truly lost,

I stole a piece of heaven,

And must now pay the cost.

The world seems so void,

And I am terribly annoyed,

That no matter what I say,

No matter what I do,

No matter what the time,

I still think of you.

The hardest thing is not to call,

To sit and do nothing at all,

To agonize in solitude,

Over my terrible fate,

To walk into the future,

Without you, my perfect mate.

Freedom

I look out of my window,

And see days and months transforming into years

The Earth smells afresh, watered anew,

The Sunlight weaving in and out of the cold clouds,

The Rains brings together the wet memories of childhood,

The Winter reminds me of the songs , my mother sung to put me off to sleep.

They say its not your land, yet it feels like mine,

He tells You're not like me yet he seems the same.

I, Prisoner of old, look out through the iron rusted bars of my cell,

I see an Angel coming yonder from the land of dreams,

She shows me the warm prospects of life,

From her words, I feel like living once more,

Her promises and oaths drive me to experience life anew,

They say she is nothing,

Then why does she fight the world for me,

They say she is unlike me, but yet for me, she seems the same.

I look out through the darkness of my cell,

I see a new life wrapped in the colours of my land,

Fulfilling my wishes, she has forgotten her desires.

Serving my people, she has forsaken her own.

I wish- May all the happiness in the world be for her alone,

For her, I wish to live life again- once more.

They say my land is not hers, but still in my house she stays,

They say she is unlike me, but yet for me, she seems the same.

I, Prisoner of old, look at the world outside, through my cell,

And see Life inviting me to live once more.

I beget death to wait for some more time,

I want to live life, a little while and then I can sleep peacefully, forever.

Friends

Friends are what we live for

They're never not around

They'll be there for you

When life throws you to the ground

Nothing's ever too much trouble

They'll always gladly be there

And never start shouting

When you've gone wrong somewhere

It's never too late at night

It's never too early in the morning

They'll never make you plan ahead

They'll be round with five minutes warning

Unlike 'love' for that special someone

A friendship should never end

There's no point in having a person

Who's only a five-minute friend

They need to always have you near

They can't go on without

It's awful when you fight with them

You hate hearing them shout

But sometimes friendships are broken

With no explanation at all

Friends grow apart and move on

The bond between you will fall

Never let a friend drift away

If you love them enough then you'll know

That living without them is nothing

That's the way life is, it's just so

That's why my friends are important to me

I keep them all close in my heart

Through arguments, tears and laughter

To say I love ya is just a start

So open your arms and hug them

Incase it's the last time you do

Share everything with them you have

And then they will too...

Drifting

Drifting

I sometimes find I'm drifting

Through this life without effect;

I often wonder if I'm truly

Worth what I've been blessed.

I search through days that have been hard,

To try to understand,

The many trials that I have known,

The life that I have had.

You see me in my daily grind,

So confident and strong;

Yet when I am alone, I question

Just where I belong.

I often try too hard I find,

To analyze and guess,

To scrutinize, investigate

My life I will confess.

For somewhere deeper, there must be

Some meaning to this life,

Some way to make a difference,

Give a reason for this strife.

Is there some hidden meaning?

Some agenda to be found?

A greater purpose waiting

If I care to hang around?

It teases and it taunts me,

Always slightly out of sight;

A hazy vision out of reach,

Where darkness hides the light.

I struggle to bring clarity

To what awaits me there,

And yet this weak illusion

Always fades before my stare.

It seems the harder that I try,

To focus through the haze,

Just serves to add more questions,

Through my endless, tired gaze.

Perhaps I'm trying just too hard,

To understand it all,

For can we ever truly know

Just what we have in store?

Each incident, each moment passed,

Just adds upon the next,

But in the end, will I find truth ...

Or will I be perplexed?

Perhaps I make it harder

Than it has to be sometimes,

But will my searching bring to me

My meaning over time?

Or will it leave me broken,

And confused as I feel now,

While questions bring no solitude,

To this, my wrinkled brow.

Arched Across The Sky

Arched Across The Sky

Rainbows created my imagination
As it arched across the sky,
On one end there, sat You
At the other end there, sat I.

Imagining I could slide across
Over the rainbow to the end,
There would be my pot of gold
The sweet love of my dear friend.

The rainbow is a connection
Like a bridge from me to you,
It appears joined by sunlight
Then the grey skies turn to blue.

Arriving after the rainstorms,
It became so evident to me;
Thoughts of love follow rainbows,
They arched right across the sea.

A colourful arching rainbow,
It has no gate, it has no door.
It reaches from friend to friend,
It arches from shore to shore.

I smiled up today at the sky,
How far would my loving smile go,
It slid right over to the other side;
The other end of the coloured rainbow.