Days of my life!!

Something new happened yesterday, something not very common in the history of my company. All the engineers working on a specific project were called into a room and given a program level update. It was basically a follow-up on a 3 day customer visit, termed as 'De-briefing', where the acting Program Manager, SK, spoke about the good and the bad points that came out of the visit. It was good in lot of ways, but there were a few specific sentence that caught my attention and this blog is all about that. The current project that I am working on, offers a 'first time' on lot of avenues and two of them being: - It's the first time that we are working with a company, from a Far Eastern country. - It's the first time that they are working with an Indian company, or any outsider for that matter. Hence, in such cases, correct communication takes top priority. To stress the point, SK talked about an important aspect of Human behaviour. Whenever two people, especially str...

It was yet another final with our arch enemy - DELL. After winning the toss and electing to bat, our spirits were up. The plan was to post a big score (200+) in the allotted 20 overs and then put pressure on their famous batting attack. But not all went according to plan. 2 wickets in 2 balls in the very first over - both opening batsmen back in the hut! .....Soon the score read, 17/3 and a few minutes later - 25/4.....we were in trouble. Puneet and Ajay B tried to steady the score, but the wickets kept falling. By the 18th over, we were reeling at 87/8!! Rahul and Sujit were at the crease. I, the last batsman, was padded up and keenly awaiting my turn. A left arm spinner was bowling to Sujit. The first few balls were quiet. The third ball was pitched up. Sujit put his foot out and drove the ball down the ground. Mid On was standing inside the circle and the ball raced past him to the boundary. 4 runs!! Claps all around. Then Sujit played a rash shot to the next ball and held out to...

Kids, when it comes to celebrating the spirit of our Independence, Open-Silicon is never too far to be left behind and hence, like always, our devout S.W.A.T (Stop Working All the Time) team, came up with this brilliant plan to host a 'Ethnic Day' on Friday, the 13th of August. Emails were sent out, well in advance, and the SWAT members did a good job in literally brain-washing and torturing the employees in adorning some form of traditional dress on the appointed day. Few did not oblige, but what was heartening to see was that a vast majority fell prey to the tactics that the SWAT team adopted. The ladies were all draped in colourful sarees, while the gentlemen simply strode into office wearing kurtas and jeans. Half a dozen guys, who had conveniently forgotten about the day, showed some amazing sporting spirit and simply crossed the street into the ' Mother Earth ' store and purchased some of the kurtas on sale. By lunch time, almost 85% of the office was looking at i...

Just wanted to announce to the world, the good news that I have been recently blessed with a house-maid, or whom we commonly refer to here as 'bai'. The moment occurred at 9:10am on Sunday morning, when my land lady knocked on my door and introduced me to Padma bai . As expected, she started to murmur something in a language, which atleast I couldn't understand, but the movements of her hand and some translation by my land lady helped me decipher what her demands were. Now, with a new bai around the home, come new demands - new washing soap, new cleaning cloth....and like a good home owner I had to nod my head in approval, and swallow this extra expense. This morning, she woke me up at 6:02am and by 6:24am, my home was spic and span, which is quite an unprecedented event to occur in this household since the past 2 years. When she left, the air had a slight mist of Dettol disinfectant in it, which has basically ensured that the germs, who share my room with me, without pay...

Here is a story that my mom recently told me, about her colleague from bank. I do not have the name of this lady or her son, who is apparently the hero of this story. Infact, I don't even feel it is necessary, so here goes. So, one of my mom's friend has a son who is like 4 -5 years old now. He is the only son and like many others, a very very naughty one. He hardly listens to his parents and has made their life miserable. One other thing that he absolutely hates is 'injections' and she was telling my mom that the last time he took an injection he cried, screamed, screeched and created a horrific scene at the nursing home. Recently this kid was playing in the compound of their building and fell down. He had bruised his left knee and was in some pain. So, she took him to the nursing home again. The doctor cleaned his wounds and he just cried a little bit, which was understandable. But the doctor told her that it was better that they administer him a dose of ' tetanus...

I wanted to write a blog about my Engagement Day, but happened to stumble onto this and posted it instead.......Enjoy maadi. DAIRY OF Ms. ANONYMOUS : Date: 6th March, 2010 . 8 am - Ohh my God, Ohh my God, Ohh my God.......Prachi is getting engaged today. Ohh wow....I am so excited, I am going to shout. Nahh....mom will think I have gone crazy. You know what, I have actually gone crazy. Prachi is getting engaged today!!........aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2 pm - Shit, I am so excited, I couldn't even eat my lunch properly. I might put on. I have to look good today. Ohh my God, Ohh my God.......Prachi is getting engaged. What should I wear today...let's see....a nice salwar kameez. Yes, will look good, but what colour? Blue will look good, but so will this Brown one. How about this Red? No....Red is more like a marriage colour. I think I will go for this Yellow one or maybe Cyan, even this Purple is good. Shit, my bed is in a mess now. I think I will go for the Blue one only. 5 pm ...

THUD THUD....someone banging on my door. I checked the time - 8am. I picked myself up and lazily walked to the door. It was my bai. She did all the chores and left in 15 minutes. I just sat there thinking about why all the bai 's in the world, always come this early in the morning, even on Sundays. After she was gone, I ambled my way back to bed and dozed off. The next sound that woke me up was someone shouting on the first floor. It was probably my landlord's grand daughter. I extended my right hand out. Somewhere on the floor, was my mobile. I switched it ON. It was 10am. I wanted to sleep on. My morning was yet to begin. Still in bed, I did a little more searching with my right hand. I found what I was looking for - the TV remote, half embedded under my bed. CLICK - the best click I hear throughout the day, everyday. I was surfing through some channels when the electricity was cut off. Shit...what to do now. So I slept again. " zzzzzzzz.... " Some two hours later,...