The Lost time....

The first thing i realized on walking into office today was... i had lost it! the one precious thing... that has been so attached to my hand & heart for three years now.. had deserted me... leaving me all shattered & dejected. I had never really bothered to check out the time hinted by those prettly little needles unless someone on the road had wantonly asked for it! neverthless, it was a part of me, ticking away harmoniuosly with my heart beat and the tune of my life... well, to those of you who are smirking & sneering "it's after all a watch!", well... not exactly. it meant a life that was... an ocean of love that was.... but long forgotten in the tides of time.... this little piece of beauty had been presented to me by a loved one 3yrs ago and since then it has slipped off my hand so many times... on the busy black roads of Chennai & Bangalore... only to be retrieved by me hastily.... amidst the speeding trucks, angry buses, reckless 3wheelers & mocking pedastrians!

But, this time it was different. it was the rush hour and i was running like my-pants-were-on-fire... with a host of things in my hand... ranging from ID card, purse, papers, lunchbox to hair pin,comb,banana(my breakfast) & my lovely wrist watch. i climbed onto the pillion of the Hero Honda and Praveen accelerated it with full force to join the maddening stream of vehicles on the road leading to my office.i did sense a not-so-light object striking my leg and falling off with a clink! but, dismissed it as some stray piece of rubbish from the road caressing my leg during the speeding journey. Only on reaching office... it all came back to me through the good old flashback spiral!! i instantly hired an auto albeit the driver had charged an insane fare of 80 bucks for a distance of 5kms... and went to the same spot near my residence. i must be awarded the "Ms.Nut of the year" award, to have desperately believed that the piece of shining gold-plated watch would still be lying half asleep on the lane for half an hour... waiting for my cosy touch... for being caressed... for being restored back to the warmth of my skin..., with a plethora of slum dwellers in the vicinity sincerely struggling to get their hands on any property on this street that has been left alone for more than a minute!!! i sadly searched for my dear watch... knowing that it had gone off to foreign hands... hands that had throttled my hopes and doomed my dreams :(

i returned to the auto stand in disappointment.... and took an auto back to my office... knowing that there are more battles to be fought and more tears to be shed... i reached my cubicle just in time to make the customary call to my onsite co-ordinator at the US of A... and discuss project issues (which afaic is a redundant term... for my project has nothing else but problems.. problems... and perennial problems!!!) The call went on for about an hour... during which i was lending an ear to the chidings of the onsite fellow (who suspects whether i have cleared at least my pre kg exam papers), mourning the loss of my pretty "timeless" possession, brooding over the uncertainty of Praveen's current job,sinking into depression at the thought of continuing in this horrible SW engineering field despite hating it with all my heart,silently wiping a tear with the edge of my dupatta & replying in affirmative to all the rot that comes through the phone line... from across the seas!! "Multitasking" i call it!

After the sunset of all the drivelling project talk & technical discussions that mean nothing to me... i disconnected the call, changed the status in "Office Communicator" from "Do not Disturb" to "Available" and set about on the ordeals for the day... with a "barren" left hand, a heavy heart, swollen eyes & a cold insensitive computer! The wall paper on the cubicle facing me, read "Today is the first day of the rest of your life!" hmmm......

A world of my dreams!

This week has been yet another dull, uneventful week of this month, ever since i joined the sickly project.Nothing much to do except start my day moodily with an onsite call... listening to the cracking voice of the drill master... clicking his tongue & complaning about my lack of skill & poor performance,mutter meek "Ok"s & "Yeah"s to every statement/question of his,assure myself that iam not gonna put up with this for any more time,frown,fret,fume & stare red-eyed at the tiny monitor, blink occassionally at the troublesome piece of code, rack my chunk of brain in an effort to fix the Number Format & Null Pointer exceptions,smile foolishly everytime i realize its just the presence or absence of a paranthesis that made the world of difference to the code,keep clicking on that friendly "Save Project" button just to avoid the threat of losing all this rotten work & the torture of doing it all over again,chat with my virtual network of friends,glance through newspapers,talk to mom at native,lunch,read blogs,realize there's very little time left to complete my task for the day,slog, stretch till 10.00 or 11.00,upload the completed scripts to the shared workspace,report status to all concerned,let out a huge heavy sigh,rush off to the parking lot... to be picked up by Praveen,plan to have a light dinner at any hotel on the way but end up cooking at home since no eat-out seems to wait for a prospective customer at 11 in the night, gobble whatever it is that comes out of the pots & panes,check my mails one last time before hitting the bed,content that the day has ended with no significant events & most importantly no stinkers from the client,indulge in a bit of conversation with my husband about his "day",promise ourselves to wake up early next day to accomplish all that is pending since last weekend,crawl onto the bed & get lost in deep slumber even before the hadn unconsciously switches off the night lamp. Tomorrow, is yet another day of this dull, uneventful yet fast moving week of November. And what has kept me alive & breathing throughout these 5 days is nothing but the prospect of plunging into my favourite passtime... my well nourished dream... during 2 whole days of the weekend!! These oxygen masks (err... i mean Saturday & Sunday :D) are the only things that aid me in maintaining my sanity & blood pressure at normal levels!! :)

Ok i can hear u all excited guys screaming "What's your this favourite passtime u r talking about?? Winning beauty pageants? Helping Obama chart out a neat economic strategy? Helping the ATS & Army men tackle the terror situation at out homeland? Saving US banks from sinking?" :P :P :P well.. well.. well... nothing on those lines buddies.It is plain simple house-hunting!! that fuels my day dreams throughout the week and makes me float on pink clouds during the weekend :) i am obsessed with the blue print, design, construction & architecture of buildings! A "concrete" passion that has been floating in my blood, my genes ever since i was born!! i love running my hands on the tender "butter paper" containing the design drawing of the building,marvelling at the creative brains of the architect,watching the first few blocks of stone being laid, the subsequent layers of bricks coming in to the family of the building, the toiling labourers giving nutrition to this growing construction,the site buzzing with activity, the light rain that disrupts the work & leaves puddles of water on the mixture of cement, gravel and/or concrete,the naked rooms of the semi constructed house/apartment/office with no doors or windows to conceal their privacy,the crude patterns on the walls left by the labourers or their offspring,the dusty interiors,the day the carpenter's babies are brought in & laid harmoniously at each yearning corne,the secret smile of each room as it peeps through the newly laid window bars/grills,the smell of fresh paint touching each exposed nerve of the building & covering it in a warm embrace,the birth of a new building,smile on the face of the builder,pride on the face of the buyer,content on the face of the engineer/architect,relief on the face of the worker - this is the joy of a lifetime! a joy that fills the heart of self as an onlooker!! :) i only wish i could be watching this birth all my life... But, nowadays, very few of us get the chance to buy a plot of land & fund a construction there... so, most of us settle for ready-to-occupy houses/apartments to be acquired for a lumpsome amount of loan + cash!! In pursuit of such r-t-o apartments, we set out on each Saturday/Sunday looking at different flats of different builders at different locations of Bangalore.Its either the quote or the design or the amenities that arent pleasing enough for us, so far.But, frankly speaking, i have no intention of buying any apt in the near future.... simply because it would kill the ecstacy of visiting varied constructions with a multitude of design variations week after week and the absolute bliss of living in those dream apartments for the rest of the week, till the next hunt begins!! :) So, it is just a day away for my real life to begin... amidst concrete jungles & stone havens!! till then, work work & more work my friends.. C'ya!! :)