And the days go by..

.. 'whiz past' might be a better phrase at this point of time.

Yup. The wedding is approaching, and everyday there seem to be several new additions to my to-do list. As if that were insufficient, I have several types of to-do lists now. We (For the record - I am not being pompous and referring to myself in the third person) are graduating from 'to-do lists' to 'to-do books' at quite an alarming rate.

In the midst of all this madness, there is the usual desire to go back to being a kid. What is it about responsibility and charge that makes you want it; and then makes you want to give it up the minute you are handed some?

I want to go back to being 5. I miss the days when I could do what I wanted to (not counting homework, that is); the days when I was so pampered and did not have a care in the world. The bliss of amma supplying everything without me having to move a muscle. The choice of napping in the noon - if my older self had seen my younger self throw tantrums and refuse to nap in the noons, the OS would have kicked the YS fairly hard, I think. It's a good thing we don't have the option of time travel - yet.

Well, I guess childhood is something most of us want to go back to, but it is on the eve of a wedding that full meaning of responsibility hits you. To be responsible for a household, a family, passing on values, traditions, ethics is quite intimidating.

Anyway, I guess there's nothing to do but wait and watch. And needless to say, deal with the to-do lists. :)

PS: If any of the aforementioned sentences sound garbled, it is because I'm typing this out after a long, hard and super-taxing day at work.

PPS: My passport application was verified on Sunday. There is a God.

Gah!

Whoever said that weddings are the time that one gets to be the center of attention and that it's the best time to relax and things in a similar vein, needs to get his/her head examined. I suspect the head will turn out to be worth preserving and displaying in a museum under the title: The-brain-that-generated-the-most-preposterous-idea-in-existence.

Things to do (condensed - since the entire list is beyond the scope of this blog and that of my patience):

- Shop for clothes
- Shop for furniture
- Shop for things to gift one's relatives
- Shop for vessels/household things
- Shop for jewels
- Shop for... no.. Decide on caterer + decorator + photographer + Invitee list + Design of invitation cards

Phew..

Words of wisdom

Time, tide and food on my plate, don't wait for anyone.
~Abhimanyu Sarvagyam

Beauty lies..

.. in make-up skills, for the most part.

I'm one of those few girls who don't really understand make-up. And how can one look attractive if they can't tell the difference between eye-liner and mascara?

The only time I endeavored to delve into the complicated world of lipsticks (simple), foundations (troubles begin) and eye-liners (complicated); was when I was in class eight. After having successfully poked myself in the eye several times and having applied eye shadow instead of blush (or is it rouge?), I appeared looking like something straight out of a kindergarten colouring class. After that I haven't really gathered the courage to experiment.

Another very interesting encounter with the vanity case was in class ten, when I had to deck up for a play. I think it was then I fully appreciated the phrase donning the greasepaint. Wonderful people, stage artists. Just imagine the patience needed to sit still when the make-up man is slapping all sorts of itchy creams across the map. And the courage required to suppress the urge to run screaming from the chair when that lethal thing (eye-liner or mascara - I still can't decide) is brought closer and closer and closer. Gak!

Make-up remains the only area where the sister earns my admiration. Ah, the swiftness of the hands when the eyes are made up with kohl and the deep rationalizing that goes into choosing a lip-balm. Impressive.

I'm wondering what I'm going to do for the wedding. Sigh!

"There's a time for everyone if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn.."

Indeed.

Curtains down..

What does one say when something comes to an end after over 3 years of extreme involvement; immense passion and endless learning?

I'm referring to my team which more or less wrapped-up recently. Once you're out of denial, I think the only thing that comes to mind is that it was awesome while it lasted. To have been a part of the team from the early stages, to have seen it merge, grow, and then finally wrap-up. To have given the work involved your heart and soul and all that you had. The sense of loss is so intense, it's almost painful.

And then there is the personal side of it all. The people one works with, the rapport that is created, nurtured into friendship and finally it grows into some kind of a family that starts paralleling the family that you have at home.

Finally, there's change. Exciting, scary, interesting and uncertain. I only hope I can live up to whatever it brings along.

It's time to take the last bow. It's time to pull the curtains down... :)

I know this is pretty delayed

"...If You Want To Know Why
There's A Love That
Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For
Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss
We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And
Start Living.."

Rest in peace, Mr. Jackson.

Tooth and wail..

... the price of the wisdom tooth. Headache and ear-ache included in the package.

I'd rather stay unwise.

Whither passport?

I've been resisting typing this post out for some time now. In the light of certain recent events, though, I thought I should not deprive others of a splendid laugh.

It all began when I applied for a passport, and gave the application in that black hole of a building called a Regional Passport Office (we're going to shorten that to RPO). The procedure (in theory) is pretty simple, really. It goes thus:

Fill in form --> Hand it over to agent --> Agent submits form and brings receipt --> Note reference number on receipt --> Policeman is supposed to verify existence within 2 weeks --> Policeman sends verification report to RPO --> RPO sends passport.

Phew! That's simple enough. But given that this is my passport we're talking about, I'd have been shocked if it had followed this course.

Everything went according to plan till step 4 of the process-chart. After that, the sequence of events has left me pretty confused. I'll list them out here for clearer understanding:

Event 1 - To the best of my knowledge, no policeman ever came to verify my existence till date (unless they did it like some undercover operation).

Event 2 - I check the website of the RPO to look at my status and it displays 'Police verification report not received'. Fair enough, since the verification was never done.

Event 3 - I wait. That's not really an event, since I've been waiting for quite sometime now. Let's call it a phase. Phase 1.

Event 4 - After having waited for nearly 4 months, I go to the local police station and the policeman says he has not recieved my file from the RPO.

Now begins the confusion - we'll call this phase 2, since it doesn't really qualify as a one-time event where RPOs are concerned. If the website of the RPO claims that the policeman has not sent the verification report, they should have sent the file to the police station.

'Yes, yes. That is correct.' thinks the mind.

But then, that is being contradicted by the policeman, who says he has not recieved the report.

'Also true..', thinks the mind.

Event 5 - I discover the website of the AP Police Department (which, by the way, is a very neat site) and check the status of my passport there. The site proudly mentions that the verification report has been sent to the RPO as of 16th Feb.

'Gah!'. Mind gives up on thinking.

So, the police now claims that they've verified my existance and sent the report to the RPO. The RPO denies having recieved any such report. My agent is stumped.

Phase 2 continues...

Appraisals, appraisals and some more appraisals.

If there is anything I really dislike, it is coming to work on a Saturday. If there is something I dislike even more, it is filling out appraisal forms.

For the uninitiated, appraisal forms are meant for one to appraise oneself.

Well, since that much was pretty evident from the name, let me shed some more light. It mostly contains a series of attributes that one is to rate oneself on and add additional comments, further explaining those ratings. In addition, there are also some questions that do not require a rating and are more qualitative in nature.

"What's wrong with that?", one might ask and proceed to open the appraisal form all set to fill in the rankings and comments and voila! Easy enough, right?

Nope. Wrong. Also, erroneous, faulty, untrue and incorrect.

Since my inarticulate attempts at explaining these wonderful forms are pretty ineffective, let me present a sample.

Form: What were your job responsibilities in the past review period?

Me: Erm.. erm.. [scratches head, tugs at hair, blinks a couple of times]... That's a superb question! How do you manage to come up with questions that are so challenging?

Form: [Gloats and waits expectantly]

Me: Next question, please.

Form: What are your goals for the next six months?

Me: A ha! Nice. To keep my job intact..

But then, such things may not be mentioned in appraisal forms unless you're sure nobody is going to read it. So I make use of the Backspace key and get back to scratching my head.

And so it goes on, till one simply gives up and takes to blogging about appraisal forms instead of trying to fill them in. But since the deadline is on the morrow, I'd better get back to it. The form is still gloating at me.

What were your job responsibilities...

Sigh!

Dumb and dumber...

... describes the state of my brains perfectly.

All abilities listed below have become approximately 1/15th of their original value (which itself was pretty sad to begin with):

- Concentration span
- Logical thinking
- Presence of mind
- Eyesight (not related to brains in the way I mean, but listing anyway)
- Clarity of speech (ditto)

Pretty scary, actually.

Ho Hmmm..

It has been beautiful weather for quite some time now. Friday morning's walk from the bus stop to the office was very very peaceful. Grey sky, a pleasant breeze; monstrous buildings on one side of the road and a strip of green on the other (including a couple of adorable labs... Sigh!).. I did not even mind work so much.

I'm trying to irritate Red Dog and trying to figure out the exact point when it starts to bark at people. Tried doing it on Friday, but I guess the weather had enticed animals as well. The thing looked at me with as much interest as it would look at last week's leftovers..

Work again tomorrow. Sigh! But then, it's the last week of the month and.. it is a 4-day week! There is a God, after all.. :D

By Golly - again..

Krithika: Gauri, when were you born?
Gauri: When I was thissss small no? (gestures 'small' with her hands). Then only, I was born.

:D

Happyness

Happiness personified:
The housekeeping lady who was cleaning the mirror in the restroom with a song on her lips and a skip in her step. She gave me a sheepish grin when I went in, and started from where she had left off, the minute I set foot outside.. :)

Happy 2009!

Avada Kedavra

For some time now, Mumbai has been looking like something straight out of Harry Potter. Someone seems to have unleashed a Voldemort and the worst part is, we don't seem to have a Dumbledore anywhere.

Honestly, at this point I'd even settle for a Neville...

Spotted..

.. on my way to work this morning

- A golden retriever being taken someplace in a car. It looked the very picture of enjoyment.
- A stray dog drinking water from a most filthy looking puddle.
- A lady (very brave) walking diagonally across the Panjagutta crossroads (which, by way of introduction, is the worst junction I've ever seen).
- Clouds of black smoke rising into the sky.
- Red flames giving rise to the aforementioned smoke.

Engagement pictures..

I was so irritated in the morning, I could have hit someone. Had to watch this to calm down.. Amazing video.

तुम आ गए हो, नूर आ गया है;
नही तो चरागों से लौ जा रही थी...
:)

Red Dog

If a brown dog is called 'brownie' and a black dog is called 'blackie', will a red dog be called 'reddie'?

Erm.. I am still sane. That question popped into mind when I saw a red dog near office. The situation is this:

In a house next to office, there live a couple of dogs (along with their human friends, obviously!). One of these has reddish fur and hence the nomenclature query. We tried figuring why it was so unusually red.

Maybe it was forever blushing to the roots.
Or perhaps the owner was fashion-mad and wanted to keep his pets stylish as well.
It had a hair-raising temper.

We figured that the last one is true. This was proven when Abhimanyu walked a bit close to the gate next to which red-dog was resting, and it barked and yelled as if Abhimanyu had sinister plans of robbing the house or something. This obviously resulted in an Abhimanyu whose soul had jumped out of him for a bit. Since then, that house has been given quite a wide berth by us.

Brown-dog seems alright. It knows that we can't walk through the gate, try as we might. So it keeps shut if we are simply walking past, giving us no more than a disinterested glance.

So, if you are ever near my office and on innocently walking past a gate you sense a red furball barking at you ready (red-dy!) to rip you limb from limb.. you can be sure you are in the Red Zone!