The last time I took a seven month break, I went and got married. Well, now it's been a two year break!! And no, I haven't re-married...we've just had a baby :-)

Behold, Declan Noah!
He has (unfortunately) inherited my horrible temper and impatience. And the stubbornness is from his Dad.

Of course, this photo was taken when he was a week old. Obviously, I didn't have any spare time to blog...or do much else at the time. Now he is nearing 3 months and I felt this urge to get back to blogging.
So here I am, with Declan wriggling next to me. Haven't even spent 5 minutes on this and he's wet and angry. And so, I must leave you for now.
I am, after all, his loyal slave ;-)

Postcards are back!

Check them out on zimoz.com !!!

Fond memories

Tomorrow I will wake up to a new job. And so tonight, I am especially nostalgic about my old company- the many friends I made there, the many crazy things we did, the many good times we had.

Looking back, I had a very decent run- rather, an excellent one, in those two and a half odd years. First and most important, I met my husband there :-)

L to R: Sripriya(teammate) and Aldrin(husband and teammate)

I was privileged to have worked under the two coolest project managers...

L to R: Kartik (Second PM), Manisha(First and Last PM), Amol (teammate),
1/4 Nihar(teammate)

...and honored to have the very best people in my team.

L to R: Jisha, Vidhi, Harshada, Rohit, Me with gift, Ganpati, Shalaka, Gaurang, Amol (all teammates)

We made sure that all our work was great fun and learnt a lot in the process. I miss them all very much, and hope they enjoyed the ride as much as I did!
Some pics from our last party-



[1: Rohit, Arpit(mentee), Vidhi, Jisha] [2: Gaurang, Lokesh, Ganpati, Harshada, Rohit, Arpit, Vidhi, 1/2 Jisha]
[3: Match from previous pics ;-)]

Back at last!

Here I am after ages!!! And married to the most wonderful man !

And yes, everyone does look at me critically and wonder why I haven't put on some weight. Not that I need to, but just as a general observation.

They probably follow the logic that happiness=fat.
The more content you are, the more weight you put on.
So does that mean that everyone is stick thin before they get married, pining away for a soul mate?
If they're fat before they get married, will they get fatter after marriage?
If they get thinner after marriage is it because they're not happy?

Strange indeed, but by whatever logic or lack of it, I'm married, not so fat [just a bit chubby ;-)] and never been happier... so there!!!

Counting Crows

I detest crows. They've been the bane of my life, and my unfortunate association with them goes back a long way.
Our school was located bang on the beach. Which was wonderful. To balance that, we had scores of casuarina trees in our compound. And on those trees lived hundreds of crows. Greedy, malicious crows. Crows that would swoop down on you and pick your sandwich right from your fingers. More crows that would hop around you waiting for a scrap to eat. Even more crows eyeing you everywhere you looked.

Then there was this street which was white. We called it crow-s*** street. I don't think anybody walked down it without being favored with crow droppings. Especially when wearing white.

And these days, the railway station has become their new favorite haunt. During the morning rush, there are these fisherfolk walking out the station with baskets of fish on their heads. Bad enough we have to keep an eye out for people spitting on you, and also look ahead for wretches who walk on the right instead of the left, you've also got to avoid the fisherfolk for fear of fish water dripping onto your freshly laundered clothes and having your colleagues wrinkle their noses in disgust. Especially the vegetarian ones.
To top it all are those blasted crows. They pick fish from the baskets and then perch on the beams above to feast. If you don't look up ahead and mark those creatures, and hence make every effort to avoid them, chances are you'll have fishy body parts dropped on you.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about!

Finally, there's this crow which, quite literally, does not know when to keep it's mouth shut. It insists on waking me up rudely at some odd hour in the morning, or cawing desperately all afternoon on the weekends. I'd like to get hold of an air gun and shoot it, but PETA might chase me. I took a picture of it though:

Wretched creature!!!

Not quite cricket

And once again, our cricket team is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Once again, our traditional Indian attitude rears its ugly head.

Greg Chappell was called in to whip our team into shape (presumably because our own guys here didn't have the guts to call a spade a spade). And now that he's doing it, our spoilt, pampered team is up in arms. And I'm quite sure that certain higher-ups are watching in glee as Chappell does their dirty work. Of course, he's the fall guy at the end. He's expendable. Even our bookies are growing richer at his expense.

This controversy once again demonstrates the one part of Indian attitude that needs to change. Complacency is a way of life. Just look at our government organizations and even some private ones. They reek of poor management and general sloth.

Apparently, several senior Indian cricketers(anonymous of course) told the Times of India that "the way Chappell has gone about seeking to change the order virtually overnight smacks of lack of taste. “This is no way to deal with players who have served the game with distinction,’’ said one of them. “Look at Sourav. He has an enviable record both as captain and batsman. You can’t suddenly turn around and tell him he is physically and mentally unfit. There’s a certain way of going about such things.’’"

These few sentences tell it all. What exactly do you mean by "lack of taste"? And "there's a certain way of going about such things"? Well one thing is for sure, they way we go about them is a joke. Whether it's cricket or the corporate world. Because we never do anything in the first place and just sit and hope it will go away. Because when we decide to do something, we are going about it 'tastefully'. Which means, the people that need to be pulled up never are. And we just sit and grumble at the sad state of affairs.
In my not-so-humble opinion, if you're a consistent non-performer (I agree all should be given a chance to redeem themselves, but there's a limit), you should be told directly, and if you don't improve, you should be sacked. This is where the West scores over us. Accountability and responsibility. We don't have it in us.

Our molly-coddled players also complain that the fitness regime is "too strict". Even the girls team can do better than that. Poor, harrassed Harbhajan Singh is "yet to come out of his mental trauma" and alleges that Chappell is creating fear and insecurity among the players. High time, I say. You should be insecure if you're below par. You can't rest on your laurels for something you did in the past and expect that to carry you through!!!

It will be interesting to see how this develops. My guess would be the BCCI will fire over Chappells shoulder, clean up the cricket team (as best they can without our players sulking like children), and then appease the public and sack Chappell. Even if this happens, I would congratulate Chappell on a job well done.

It's been a while...

I'm back- after ages! Well, it's high time (at least according to those who read my blog). I'd like to say that it's writers block that's been preventing me from writing anything half-decent these days, but my friends call it laziness. And they have been continuously reminding me to write- so much so that while walking around the office I keep feeling they'll jump out from behind a pillar and say "you haven't written"!
I guess I'd better make an attempt to write so that I get back into that groove.

Well, the last month and a half haven't been particularly anything to write about ;-)
It's been pouring non-stop and it is most disgusting. Throw in a couple of crazy rickshaw drivers who nearly managed to kill us a couple of times, hectic times at work, and falling sick just as soon as I recover from a previous illness... you get the picture... and it hasn't been pretty.

It hasn't rained today, so I figure my luck is improving. Was too tired to do anything though- just been lying in bed. The only highlight of the day was that my brother brought me a chocolate tart- which was more than delicious. A nice shortcrust base topped with tons of gooey chocolate... heavenly. I'm still drooling just at the thought of it. I just can't resist chocolate. Especially dark chocolate. Sends me into raptures!!!

And now, it's early evening and I'm wondering how to spend the next six hours. I suppose I'll have to clean up the place a bit- that's the worst part about staying alone. You've got to clean, and clean and clean again. And talking of clean, I must get my leather handbag in shape again- I just have to hunt for that leather cream. I had to put my beloved soft leather bag away when these horrible rains started- and was forced to carry a tacky "leatherite" bag. Now that it's sunny once again, I can resume with my usual handbag. And perhaps buy a new one too :-)

I don't really feel like cooking, or going out either...
Will rent out a movie and order dinner and a slice of chocolate cake (I've had such a horrible time the last month, I deserve chocolate cake!!!)...perhaps sip on some Tia Maria if it's a nice romantic movie (I'm a sucker for romance :-D)

And then it will be Monday, and I shall be back at work...hopefully with something interesting to write about :-)