End of a beginning

This is the last day of my internship at C_____, B_______. Though I can cross back the threshold of C____, it would be only as an employee. The thought saddens me. I know that this is only the end of a beginning, the beginning of my career. So, my mind and reason stress that I should move on and let the next change in life take over. But, my heart tugs on saying that I should atleast give a good goodbye to the internship period before I move on to become an employee. For most people, this might sound like a ridiculous idea because the internship and employment in the same team would be similar. But, no, it is not!

As an intern, I am only responsible for my part of the project and I am allowed to make mistakes, even silly ones. Also, I can put in only certain hours of work and plan my work to finish it within the stipulated time. I have not been in the office after 8 pm during internship period(save for one day when we did for the pure heck of it!). Also, I reach the office by 9.30 and leave at 6-7. I've been without a care in the world and have immensely enjoyed myself these past few months surrounded by friends. I've done things when I wished, learnt to survive in a new city with none to aid, learnt a new language(I can pass muster in K____), learnt to travel in buses and to move in a crowd, gone shopping for 11 hours non-stop(yeah rups, me, a shopaphobic, have become a decent shopper with some good shopping experiences to my credit(Guys! It IS very important to know to shop well in the female world... don't underestimate its importance)), met with friends from different parts of the country and generally learnt to manage at any place on my own. This has given me more confidance on myself and has helped me know myself in a different light.

As an employee, I'm sure the scenario will be different and that I would learn a lot more in the corporate world. But before a new beginning, a good round of farewells to the past always reminds me of various events and helps me write the past as sweet memories. The entire team(GSBU) has been cool and its been great working with them. Though there were times when I was at my wits end, they were few and far between. A special thanks goes to each one of them(esp. MD,M,N and SK) for making my internship period a memorable one. During our time as interns, we had a few new additions like SKrish and MK into our team. I also got to meet with Bill, Eric, Joanna and Kevin from our team in US and had an interview with them which was good(I also brushed through the basics of ECE and CN in order to attend the interview.... only then did I know how much I had forgotten in six months time. From what I've heard, this seems to be the case. Once we are into the industry, we seem to remember only the information necessary for the job at hand and comfortably forget the rest... with my memory, I tend to forget even faster :)) I also met up with the W___ people in our team(A,SD,AKG) during the lunches that we went when Kevin and his team had come. I've already told a lot about my team. So, lets move on.

About the house where I was a paying guest for so long, it was a fun place. All of us there have had some great time together(I can't forget the sundays when we'd lived, shopped, dined and slept without a care. This was the first time I never hurried through my life. I took my own sweet time to do something. Life at C__ was a perpetual whirlwind compared to this. I had something pressing to do all the time.) And the food and care given there was amazing. Had I gone into any other place, I doubt if I would have so easily adapted to a life outside home after living a cloistered life so far. Thanks to Janani for suggesting that place! Also, I've learnt so many good things from Geetha chechi, Anjus(both of them), Doss, Bhar and of course, Vidya. All along, S has also been quietly advising me on so many issues that I have so far never thought of or have taken for granted. Thank you, folks!

Now, back to my office. I would like to remember and thank every person, right from Asha(my concierge) to Amita(my HR) to RR. And, special thanks to all other interns from Tech who made life more interesting :) Let us all move from being interns to being employees together, either at C____ or at other lucky companies that have hired you. Further come my gtalk friends, who, whenever I was running tests and didn't have much to do, came to my rescue and pinged me :) There were a few others who patiently listened to my incoherent ramblings whenever I was bored. Thanks guys! :)

Finally, coming to SG and a few other friends who made life at B____ seem bliss. Whenever I've needed something, I've made them a call and they'd pitched in. I've never felt lonely with this gang around me. All those calls, all those treats and all those talks! Wow! I feel that these few months have brought me closer to them than any other period of my life. I would not be thanking you because I feel that the fun that we shared is too good to be true and I don't want to spoil it by bringing sorrys and thank yous into the picture :) But you all know my heart and I'd surely yearn for the lovely times that we spent together in this beautiful city. Looking forward to lots more of fun wherever we meet on Mother Earth. :)

Ok! Now, I'm done with the round of goodbyes and am looking forward to joining as a C_____ite. I'm going on a vacation for a month's time to spend some time with family and friends back home. I'll keep you posted on things that I come across during my vacation(there are some interesting things planned ;) Shhhhhhhhhhh) Hope all of you have a great time in your lives too. Take care, Ciao!!

Five things the world doesn't know about me!!

I’ve been tagged by a friend of mine(actually she tagged me almost a month back and I’m in the process of catching up!!). The tag is “Five things the world doesn’t know about me”. Well, what does the tag mean by “the world”? Is it people whom I have no idea of their existence and they of mine? Nah, it can’t be. If they don’t know of my existence, then there’ll be a million things that they don’t know about me(not just five!). So, lets take another try. Is it people I have met once(either online or offline because nowadays all of us lead two lives.... well, the cat has nine, its high time humans had atleast two. What say, folks?) and then moved on in life’s course of time? No, that cannot be true too because these are people whom I might never get to meet again. So, why should they cram their minds with five things about me? Doesn’t make sense. Or, does she mean that I have to fill this tag for people who are my world? The chances are meager because the people who are my world know me very well(sometimes too well... but that cannot be helped :) A small price for such love and trust ) Ok, my guess is that (since I have exhausted all other options) this tag is for people who have met me more than once and have liked me enough to come to this blog and keep reading(if not, dear reader, I would suggest that you stop! Because the following information will not help you in any way! Nor me, if you read it).


Ok! Now to the tag!
1) I can gaze at the sky anytime, anywhere for hours together. When I was a kid, cloud gazing was one of my favorite hobbies. Even now, I try to use any little opportunity I get to look at the sky. I love the sky’s vast expanse and would love to soar like the eagle in the blue, blue sky. I love the sky during sunrise, sunset and anytime in between(day or night). My favorites are the moon, the pole star and the Venus. In fact, I find that poetry or prose or painting depicting the sky is a tad better than the rest.

2) I can read any book( right from kids story books(Doss, remember the afternoon where I read the entire comic collections in the bookstore while you were looking at other books?) to serious ones drenched in philosophy). Novels, especially those that have a historical or magical touch to them, are the best. Humor is a must, though.(Check my latest books section and the favorite books section for more details!!)

3) I love to eat anything red in color. I feel that if something is a deep red, it would have an extra taste to it. Need I say that beetroot is my favorite vegetable and red chillies figure frequently in my shopping list?? (But I’ve not tasted red wine, so I can’t comment on it ;))

4) I love doing things on the computer. There are two reasons behind this. One, I get a personal thrill when I know how something works and when I create something similar(the basic logic-and-program connection). Two, I can easily multitask with a computer doing more than one thing at a time(I feel that my throughput would be higher that way(of course depending on the combination of jobs queued up) and the efficiency would be more. However there are times when this basic law has been deflected in strange cases(like when I have to turn off all other jobs in order to study something I hate) and then my efficiency would really suffer. In such a case, I would have to reduce my throughput to increase my efficiency. Strange, right?)

5) I love a good discussion on any topic. Even listening to a good one is bliss! Nothing to stimulate you more than a good discussion with good buddies who enjoy it all. If the swords and daggers cross, then all the better ;)

Now to the most interesting part of tags. I tag
Princess Banter(Princess, do tell about your daily life too!) and
Confessions of a Psychic mind(Here's a chance to go deeper into your confessions :))

The results

She was tired
She was tensed
She was waiting

The results came
A mixed bag of fortune
A bittersweet concoction

The voice saw
The voice sighed
The voice waited

Her reactions came
A mixed thought
A languid response

The voice wondered

She clarified

Hers is the power
The power to show emotions
The emotions in response to situations

The voice had the power
The power to know her innermost thoughts
The thoughts that can fill the entire universe

She had the desire
The desire to win
And this was only a battle
A battle where she has had a setback

The voice had the responsibility
The responsibility to guide her
And this was the universe
A universe swathed in darkness

A name like Nakki!!

What's in a name? There are lots of issues involved! Even wars have been fought over names. Basically they are used for identifying a person in a group. It increases or decreases the chances of identification of the correct owner based on how unique the name is. The more unique it is, the lesser two people in a room can have it and so, more easy to identify the owner easily. In India, names like Rahul, Sonali and Payal are common in the North while Priya and Arun and Karthik dominate the south. Names like John, Bill, Ann, etc. are famous the world over(like John Chambers or Bill Clinton or Bill Gates and so on). They are like handles for a person. Having a name like Nila or Surya ensures more success than names like abhithagujalaambal or tudelin morchovosky because of the simplicity and ease of pronunciation of the former group of names to the latter. (Ok! I'm stopping here because this post is not in praise of names... but I hope you got the importance of names).

I have the habit of trying to read people's names whenever they wear a tag or ID card. Now that I'm into the corporate culture, I read people's tag first and only then look up at their faces. This is especially true when I am bored and am in a meeting with a large number of people or when I get onto a lift. This is one of the most entertaining things and you can get to know a lot of information about a person in a very short time. Some of my friends share a similar taste and we usually try to find out unusual names. We also quiz ourselves about the origins of that name, why it is unusual and so on. It makes for lot of enjoyable time pass and we've had some great times with this hobby.

One of my friends in the same office said that there was a person with the name "**** Nakki". We were, as usual, interested to know what this name means, its origin,etc. So, where do we go but Google? The mother of all search engines and one of the best. We found the following results:
1) There is a Lake Nakki near Mount Abu, said to be very clear and surrounded by breath taking scenery. A must visit for trekkers and nature lovers.
2) The Hotel Nakki Palace in Shirdi with its 36 rooms.
3) The Nakki Khan(in history) who is a friend of Mangal Pandey, the rebel(by British history) and the revolutionist(by Indian history).
4) A nakki (hopefully a word for an object) in marathi
5) Nakki means to have licked(in tamil)
6) It can be twisted from nakkal (teasing in tamil)
(The last two were my additions... of course, did you think Google would have thought of twisting a word to get another... come on! it is still a search engine and not human. Though that day is not far off)

Also, the next question was what sort of a person can have the name "nakki". This was far more difficult to comprehend because I have very less experience in this and am really poor at predicting what a person can do(except of course very few people... and I should know them well enough(which in itself is a rarity)). We made up some interesting assumptions and were quite freely talking about it when the proud owner entered the cafe. We were flabbergasted! Imagine if you were talking about a person and he/she materializes out of thin air! Then, we tried to change our topic(because we weren't sure of how sharp his ears were) and still tried to see if our predictions were true. Sadly, not one of our predictions were right :( Now, here is a challenge! Predict something about a person who is named Nakki. Lets see if they match.(I can assure you that it makes for some good time pass) :)

Mother's Day!

This is among the oh-so-many forwards on Mother's day. But almost all of them bring a warm feeling in our hearts because the people, mothers, are so special in every person's heart. Two of them which I really liked are:

Reflections
Today, I looked in the mirror;
Curious as to what I would see.
I expected to see my reflection
Staring back at me.

But as I looked, I saw something more
In the face that was there.
I saw the reflection of my mother;
A woman filled with care.

Each year is another year closer
To looking like my Mother.
I see her in my reflection,
In one way or another.

May I not only look like her
But, reflect her heart as well.
For, it's full of love and kindness;
God's goodness in a nutshell.

Another year closer to looking like mom,
That only makes me glad.
For, I love my beautiful Mother.
She's the best reflection I've had.

Mothers
Mother's are special,
With their own brand of love;
Filled with warmth and compassion,
From our Father above.

They can tell when you're happy.
They can sense when you're sad.
But, they're always there for us;
Through the good times and bad.

Their lips fill with praise
Because you've made them so proud
When your report says all A's
And you stand out from the crowd.

Mother's are nurses,
And teachers, and such.
They'll do anything for you,
because they love you so much.

And you'll never find
A more loyal friend
Than your mother or mine,
Because they're a God send.

We know Mother's are special.
So, we'd all like to say,
"This love wish brings blessings,
On your Special Day."

Happy Mother's Day!
To all mother's everywhere!

Unnalae! Unnalae!

Unnalae! Unnalae!
Vin aala sendraenae!
Un munnae un munnae
Thee kaatraai nindraenae!

Oru sottu amutham nee, oru sottu vishamum nee,
oru sottu heavennum nee, nesithen!
Oru sottu inbam nee, oru sottu thunbam nee,
oru sottu hellum nee, yosithen!

[English translation is:
Because of you,
I went on to rule the skies.
In front of you,
I stand as a mixture of fire and air.

You are one drop of nectar, one drop of poison, one drop of heaven.
I like you!
You are one drop of happiness, one drop of sorrow, one drop of hell.
I think of you!]

Easy and Difficult!!

This is one of the forwards that get passed on through mail. But a very interesting read! Hope you like it.

Easy is to get a place is someone's address book.
Difficult is to get a place in someone's heart.

Easy is to judge the mistakes of others
Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes

Easy is to talk without thinking
Difficult is to refrain the tongue

Easy is to hurt someone who loves us.
Difficult is to heal the wound...

Easy is to forgive others
Difficult is to ask for forgiveness

Easy is to set rules.
Difficult is to follow them...

Easy is to dream every night.
Difficult is to fight for a dream...

Easy is to show victory.
Difficult is to assume defeat with dignity...

Easy is to admire a full moon.
Difficult to see the other side...

Easy is to stumble with a stone.
Difficult is to get up...

Easy is to enjoy life every day.
Difficult to give its real value...

Easy is to promise something to someone.
Difficult is to fulfill that promise...

Easy is to say we love.
Difficult is to show it every day...

Easy is to criticize others.
Difficult is to improve oneself...

Easy is to make mistakes.
Difficult is to learn from them...

Easy is to weep for a lost love.
Difficult is to take care of it so not to lose it.

Easy is to think about improving.
Difficult is to stop thinking it and put it into action...

Easy is to think bad of others
Difficult is to give them the benefit of the doubt...

Easy is to receive
Difficult is to give

Easy to read this
Difficult to follow

Easy is keep the friendship with words
Difficult is to keep it with meanings.