Corporate (Mis)Communication

Recently, I had to correspond with a couple of HR people about my doj of my project and to my HOD regarding my semester exam. Can u trace a pattern?
If u r one of those enlightened ones, take care in your future communications with these "big ppl" :)

Scene 1:

Me(in mail):

Sir,
I'll be ready to join ur esteemed org after 17th dec as my exams get over by then.
bla bla bla...

Reply:
You can join the team on 17th dec.

Me:
??!!??

*******
Scene 2:

 Me: Mam, as i've my professional exams from 10th dec, is it possible to schedule the semester exams before 10th decemeber so it doesn clash?
HOD: Sure. So you want the semester exams to get over before 10th is it?
Me:(sounding relieved that she caught on so easily): Yes mam. I cant afford to miss either of these exams.
HOD: sure. I'll look into it.
----------
After a week,

Time Table for End semester Examination: Starts from 2nd dec and the last exam is on....
10 dec - Economics

Damn..
Rushing to HOD
Me: Mam, You said it wouldnt clash. I just saw the time table and its getting over on 10th and the same day, my other exam starts. Same timing too.
HOD: What? you said 10th december. Its getting over on 10th right?
Me: Yes mam, but I said my exam starts on 10th dec. Now its clashing.
HOD: its ok. Write that exam alone as supplementary. Its not a big deal.
Me: ??!!??
*******


Well. Whats with these ppl and dates? Why is it that they simply look at the date and completely miss the preposition before it? Is this corporate communication?

My vacant brain is the genius behind this extraordinary post.

• I somehow don’t seem to like this moody weather though I pined for it once. Now I am dreaming of the hot bright sunny day when I can go out cursing the hot sun for making my skin burn.
• On an impulse, I googled my name and to my extreme surprise I actually found a link that is, in reality, associated with me!!!(You can try now :) )
• I found working in my desktop is more joyous than working in my laptop (god knows why!)
• I’ve decided not to have any purse (which I’m adept at losing). Don’t ask me how I will carry cash and other stuff that are spsd to be kept in a purse, I still haven’t figured it out.
• I hate Nora Roberts books because its making me wonder about Ireland all the time and I end up googling Ireland and waste my time.
• I found that changing the system date can cause google not to load gmail-chat(I know, I am an intelligent girl).
• I sat down and wrote all the things that I have lost in the last one month and decided never to take such inventory ever again in my life! (the total no. was a staggering 20! L )
• I’ve started to like chennai busses so much that even if I am late to an appointment, I wait and take the MTC buses to reach the destination :P
• "He laughed so quickly, so richly, that she blinked." Somehow found this line so funny. (he refers to the handsome hero and she refers to a beautiful heroine in a novel)
• SURPRISE- I am looking forward to the reopening of my college (no. now don’t think I am deranged. I’m not!)
•  All of a sudden, streets of Chromepet is looking all too dull and empty.
• During a very tough and a tiring exam, me and my friend giggled uncontrollably (trust me, we had not even covered 20pc of the syllabus) and earned the glare of other students doing serious prep. Well, not that we cared. We knew it was rude but we couldn’t control either.
• The other day, I surprised my friend by replying to her sms after 5 days. (She had forgotten what she had asked! Kudos to my memory power! No. I don’t drink horlicks if that’s what u r thinking. :D)
• I’ve started to like sun tv soaps!!!! (Now don’t murder me!)
• I’m writing this in the middle of my internship report- in the place where I’m spsd to write my internship goals. :D
• Realised to my joy that stock market can stimulate such thoughts in me. J

"Ordinary People"

This is not any spl post or uncommon post. This mail has been circulating for a long time now.
Today, unwanted thoughts cluttered my mind and god knows why, this was the first thing that came to my mind and so here I'm posting it.

"Ordinary People"
Walking on the road, you pass so many people.
Some look confident, purposeful, well-dressed, well-maintained.
But the majority appear so ordinary, wear ill-fitting clothes, unfashionable footwear,
have too much fat or too little, nothing remarkable about them, nothing attractive. 

But yet someone somewhere eagerly waits for this unimpressive man to come home every evening.
Someone's entire world turns around the strength of this frail-looking woman.
Someone's very purpose in life hinges on this brash youngster cutting through traffic.
Someone knows only the shelter of these old arms each time their world begins to crumble.
Someone will count hours, minutes, and weep like a child when this pock-marked face alights from a long-distance train.

Someone will cave in, crack up, and never be the same again if this one person disappears from the face of the world.

"There are no ordinary people."

That 'elusive' Destination...

For the past two weeks, I have been on extreme mood swings.One min I'm feeling as though I've the best in my life that I can ever ask for and the next i feel frustrated and feel like a complete failure. This is getting on my nerves and well, on other ppl nerves too.
April- important month to so many students. Busy making career decisions. What to join after tenth. Which college, which course, job or higher studies and the endless confusions and frustrations that will drain the mind right away. Some people are successful in making the right choices(or compromises if necessary) but many are thrown off balance.
Failures- Nobody will ever get used to that term. That idea. I remember very cleary, a year ago, the same time, I would have probably been sitting with my heads on my hands looking miserable. I had messed up CAT and felt like a complete failure and having no other option at that time, it was like falling down an abyss.
Life has never been easy. If someone has a notion that life is easy, then they are plainly wrong. Its a rat race. Everybody keeps racing towards that one thing. You stop them and ask where they are heading- BANG! Nobody knows. They draw a blank. Food, living, success, achievement,Happiness- these are some of the terms that are thrown out as answer to the question. But when u ask them to define happiness- another blank. If we get a job, we want a house. If we get a house, we want a car and then are we happy? NO! We want something more. You see? We are chasing the elusive, not even knowing it.
Last year, I gave that fateful CAT a shot and needless to say, failed hopelessly. Then came the confusion. To work or opt for pg in a okish coll(my expectation was somewwhere along the top 10). No college seemed good enough. Then I had a choice to opt for professional courses (CWA/CS) but then I have to compromise on the college. Compromise! how I hate the word. Imagine having dreams about IIMs and suddenly pushed into a less than mediocre college cause life is slipping away and u dont have time to wait and give it another shot. Chasing the dream- many would call it. I thought, harsh reality. I compromised well yes, grudgingly. And I paid the price for compromising grudgingly. I hated every minute of the college.It is a decent college and I could have been happy there had I not expected more in the first place. but from IIMs to this coll- the fall was deeper than I had imagined. Once I hit the bottom, I started to look around. It was not bad after all. I just didnt know, there are people here who are content on this side of the sea. I had closed my eyes all along and was too short sighted to see what I could possibly do with what I have.
Now, though still groping, I have found my way. I know that I have made the right choice. I am happy. No. rather, I would call I'm wise. Not boasting but now I know that I might not have been happier if I had waited a year to chase my dream. Compromising is not bad after all if you know to accept it fully. I can recall the lyrics of an arr song. "Not every road you come across is one you have to take. No, sometimes standing still can be the best move you ever make." How true!

I like riding in my pep along the busy roads of chennai(I like sitting behind my friend and watching other vehicles even more) and life is just like that busy road. So many signals. In some, U will have to stop, in some its enough if u just slow while in others u can just speed by. So many people will try cutting ur way not cause they want u to fall down but cause they want to go ahead. when you r far behind, nobody will bother honking at u but when u are first in line, u have to bear with the honking. Even if u are first at a signal, there are always others who are far ahead of you. people who started earlier. In different times. People who have different goals. Few with whom u started the journey, will come with you till u reach your destination while a lot of people, take some turn and disappear. You cant keep chasing everyone or overtake everyone on the road but keep your mind on the destination and reach it. You can take a roller-coaster ride and reach it in 2 secs or u can take hours to reach but what finally matters is that u have to reach it. Once you reach where u want to go and u look back, u shouldnt wish u had taken the alternative route cause unlike the pep trip, life is just once.
We always search for that happiness but I tell u, its "ELUSIVE" . So dont look too far and forget where u are. Life is worth much more than the rat race it is!

Did you mean it?

I was talking to a friend of mine. She said "Sorry I couldnt get back to you earlier. I was having my exams." I had asked her a favour some 2 months back. Actually I had forgotten all about it. You think she really meant that "sorry" she said? I doubt. Even if it had been me, I wouldnt have meant it cause if I had felt so sorry for not getting back to my friend, I wouldnt have let that come to this stage in the first place.I mean I would have responded immediately.Another example.I was walking with a friend of mine in the colorful Pondy bazaar lane and we were talking about one new shop and that we have to visit once. She immediately told that she had already been there and she stopped, realisation hitting her ( She had not planned on telling me that she had visited this shop for she had come with her bf). I realised what was going through her mind and started talking about dumb stuff so that there is no embarrassing pause and she suddenly stopped me and said " I'm really sorry, I should have told you. But he didnt want me to tell." I vigorously nodded and assured her that if thats what he wanted then thats what she ought to do and we walked on. My point here is, what is the point of sorry here? I mean she perfectly knew that she is not spsd to tell me then why sorry?Sorry that she told now? or sorry that she followed his words(I'm sure its not the case) or what? I totally dont get it.
Sorry is a very powerful word. But nowadays, its used too commonly that it has lost its significance.Even when you really mean it,it just does not bring in that effect anymore. Ppl have modified it and now say "I'm REALLY sorry"(Otherwise what- are you not REALLY sorry?) or " I apologise"(A substitute which is not as much damaged as sorry?).

Another ill-treated word is "Thank You".
When somebody says Thank you, it should give you a feeling that what you have done to earn this thank you is something that means a lot to the person saying thank you. Only then does thank you have a meaning. But we use it too carelessly. I do and I hate every time I have to use thank you that way. It has become a courtesy act which has become a symbol of politeness(If u say thank you, then you are polite!!!!). Nobody seems to understand that it has to come from the heart.

The most insulted words in my opinion "I love you"
Thanks to movies, the words "I love you" has totally lost its meaning. It has become this fancy phrase that if you tell it to someone(especially to opposite sex), it makes you cool! You see someone and you immediately fall for that person and the first thing that you want to tell her/him is "I Love You". I honestly dont know what the person means by that at that time. Love is a very complete, complex, pure and well, sacred word.
I found this in wikipedia -
"Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states."

When it is so difficult for so many people to even understand what Love really means, I am at a loss to understand how people use it so casually. And telling it too often also loses its impact.Many seem to use this phrase to reiterate the feeling of "love" which they might forget if not told 10 times in a span of one minute. Many people prefer the subtle Ron-hermione track in Harry Potter than the obvious Harry-Cho romance. I do. Never once in the book, would Ron or Hermione say that fatal "I love you" Phrase. It has a beautiful touch to it. Subtlety always scores over the obvious(atleast in my opinion).

Well, I'm no exception to this. I have murdered these words a lot of times too. But I am learning.

The arena of Dreamers

The Dream....
always begins in the blink of an eye. Imagine you are a 10yr old standing by d side of an athletic track, holding ur father’s hand. Then you watch this magnificent athlete, striding down the runway, the pole gripped in her hand, her teeth clenched, her eyes focused, her muscles trembling wid the effort of the run, her hair flying, and suddenly she soars. You crane ur neck and it seems she is going up, up, up…… forever, towards the skies, towards eternity. Suddenly, there is a break, it seems she is snapped bak to mother earth as she turns her body and comes down and falls, on her back, spread-eagled on to the foam. You quickly look up. The bar remains where it is, even though its trembling. You look at her and she is standing, hands raised, face glowing in a crowd; the sounds roll down like waves on a sea shore, one after another. You ask ur dad why ppl r clapping and he says, “She has broken a record”. Without your realizing it, the hair on ur arms and legs stand up, like a porcupine, and then and there u decide that u want to be like her, this beautiful women, who is grace in motion, the cynosure of all eyes….
And it is from this small opening that the dream unfolds. With proper support and luck u, cud make it in life like this unknown athlete u have seen. B it any field, any thing, gripped by passion and the desire to succeed u can make it BIG in life…

Little drops of happiness

What makes a person happy?
It can be anything. A small smile from a stranger, a song, a passing comment, an appreciation, a surprise meeting of someone when u least expect it, high marks, bunking of classes and getting away with it, escaping a surprise test AND......... reading a comment for ur post in ur blog!!
When we actually take time and look at these things, its all small things that make our lives.Now the reason for this post is abt the last point I mentioned above - posting a comment for a post you read. Who wont love an appreciation. Well. ok. it need not be appreciation but the sheer happiness that there are actually some ppl who take time to read ur post can make the blogger really happy.

So kindly do share ur thoughts by way of comments when you read any blog. You never know what might inspire a person and put a neat smile on their face!

Wish List..!

This Wish list has been in my dairy for more than a year. Actually I dont remember since when I had started penning this down . But I'm now posting some random ones here.

To walk in the beach at 1 'o clock in the morning.
To watch a night-show movie in a theater.
To stand on top of the Eiffel tower and shout my throat out. :D
To ride to a far off place in my wonder pep on a cloudy day.
To buy a BMW(or a Ford or a Honda city-ivtech) and write "The Happy me:)" in the back pane.
To start a bookshop(You've got mail style)
To be a news report reader in cnn or bbc.
To surprise someone outta their life.
To Attend a midnight Bday party.
To read someone's diary without them knowing it ( I am keeping mine in the safest place possible!!)
To be hugged so very unexpectedly.
I wish someone would read my mind and say it perfectly and then look at me and say "I know u".
I wish someone would read my above list and fullfill it :D:D

And the list goes on..

I dont envy anyone!!

I have heard a lot of people say that they ENVY something or someone.(mostly someone!)
Even I used to feel envious of many people but suddenly when I read this at my friend's page something made me uneasy.
She has a great family and she had written a caption under a pic which shows a happy family together as "I envy them".
And it hit me, why should she ENVY those ppl? its after all an artificial ad while she has a real solid and a better family for herself. Maybe she didnt get the meaning of the word envy but I learnt a lesson that moment.
I have everything in my life that I can possibly wish for(almost everything) and I absolutely have no reason to envy anyone. If I dont have something that someone else has, well then its what differentiates me and that person. Its me and entirely me and there is no point envying about anything or anyone. What we have might be hundred times better than that "envied something".

ps: one of my friends had wirtten in her blog, "Just like my name belongs to me, my stupidity, kiddishness and insanity belongs to me" and yes all of us have our fair share of ownership. Its what defines us. Lets be proud of what we are!

My W.O.R.L.D

Now that I'm into my course completely, getting lil time to do other things but today I made time to write this post because I wanted to boast to the entire world that I've got one person in my life who is simply E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G to me.

Wondering who that is? well.. Its my mom. My mom. THE best mom in the entire universe.!
Daily I pack my breakfast and lunch to college as I usually have a long day in college. Mostly I eat whatever my mom prepares and give but sometimes I'll miss taking my lunch cause of various reasons ranging from being busy or no hunger to a crave for eating hot food(this reason is of course very rare for the sheer reason that if i have to go to canteen, I'll have to climb down three floors and again back and in that hunger that will look like climbing Himalayas.)
Usually this crave for hot canteen food will corrupt my mind when my lunch box has these greeny goody vegetables like brinjal or beetroot. Yesterday was one such day when my lunch was some rice with brinjal and I had this crave for the hot hot sambar rice of my coll canteen(it will be yummy!). I went to canteen and had a superb lunch and as a result took back my tifin box unopened back home(trust me I had plans to eat it sometime later but somehow it dint happen :( ).

And my mom saw the box and she happens to notice it everytime I take back my lunch(Hark my luck!). Yesterday she saw it and she got so angry.My mom has this ability where in she can be very cool about what happened and completely make me feel like I've committed a murder and squirm with guilt. Yest this was the cause for the dishoom dishoom between us. She declared that she will not pack me any lunch from now on and that I can eat daily in canteen.It ended up with my marching into my room and burying into my laptop as though I've a never ending college work. She didnt kandufy me at all which irked me even more. Well, I was actually hungry but I was so angry with my mom that I just drank the milk which she gave(I mean she kept in the table- I assumed that it was for me!! :P) and slept hungrily.

Today morning, I woke up late(She didnt wake me up!!) and hurried to get ready to college and I saw ONE neatly packed tiffinbox in the table instead of two. It completely put me off. I didnt think my mom would really do what she said yesterday. I got so upset and angry that I left to college without even telling anyone at home that I'm leaving. I dont like such kinda mornings when I dont get to talk properly to my family. I scowled all the way to my college( I guess I scared a couple of ppl. I reached college and put my mobile inside the bag in a huff and didnt bother with it.

After a break around 10.15.AM(My coll starts at 8 AM), I checked my mobile and found 1 missed call and 3 msgs. I couldnt believe my eyes. THREE MSGS from my MOM! My mom never msgs for the simple reason that she doesn know how to. She would rather call and even if I send a msg to her, it would be ME who reads that msg of mine after she returns back home in the night. She had sent three msgs to me.
1. "Did you eat breakfast?"
2. "Call me during your break"
3. "Dont miss your lunch" followed by a missed call.

HUH.. Well. I choked. Thats my mom. I'm fairly sure that her morning would have been even worser than mine and nothing, I repeat, NOTHING would have made my mom send msgs to my mobile. Its just the love she has for me. I called her during my break and she broke down when I said that I had my breakfast. Silly her!!

I've realised umpteen times that my mom does everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, just for me. Only me. She made sure that I had a life that any girl would envy to have. She cared without being suffocating(I know people who complain that there is no INDEPENDENCE for them in their house and that their parents are over protective). She gave me all the freedom I wanted and has drawn no line that I've to stay within.
She has her own way of making me feel guilty. If I dont score marks, she will be the first person who cheers me up saying that there is always the "next time" which will make me feel guilty that I've let her down.
YET, she has brought me up with fine qualities. I cant remember her raising her hands on me. Actually she never has. Not even a light pinch.
Moms are very sharp and living proof is mine. If I make a mistake, she would act as though she didnt notice it until I realise it myself that I was wrong.After the enlightenment that what I did was wrong, I would go tell her that this happened and I'm sorry and she will wave her hand with that easy smile, perfectly knowing what happened. It would amaze me to realise that she had known it all long and yet she had kept quiet giving time for me to learn never once telling "told you so". Honestly she rocks.

But inspite of these realisations, I've raged at her for the smallest of things, let her do all the work when I could have done(well its not exactly my fault- whenever I get up to do any work, she says its over and then what am I spsd to do?!!). I've pulled long faces when she had scolded me and a lot of other things which will make me look like a heartless daughter!

It would be an understatement if I say that I adore her. Its like her that I want to be, some ten years down the lane of my life. Someone who my daughter(or son) could be proud of.

The 'other' side

HEAD of a coin:
Scene: Marina Beach 4th january, 5.P.M

April was sitting quietly in the beach looking at the people around her. She was down.Her blue dhuppata blew on her face and she let it. there was no reason for her feeling blue.She watched the waves and tried to cheer up.


There were a lot of romantic couples holding hands and enjoying the waves.

April noticed a tall girl in pink top, walking along with her guy, his arms around her shoulders.The girl looked happy and the guy looked like he was in deep thought. Probably wondering how best to propose her, April thought and sighed. She had always wanted to be tall but she just wouldnt grow an inch taller than 5feet and thats it. Now a days all the guys are over 6 feet and she looked really small near them. she had wished n number of times that she would be taller than what she is now.

Then there went a pretty girl with short hair which she had colored a dark brown and it looked wonderful with the light blue sky and water and the breeze.April turned her gaze to the guy walking next to the pretty girl.He was looking at that girl sideways admiring her and April sighed once again.
April had long hair which is mostly a mess when exposed to wind. She had wanted to cut her hair short but her mom wouldnt hear of it. "I cant even let it floating and it takes time to plait" she had complained to deaf ears.

A couple passed in front of her and April heard the heated voice of the girl "So you want me to be like her is it?" And she saw the guy look towards April and give an embarrassed smile and put his hands around his girl to comfort her and spoke something. She seemed to calm down a little and even gave a lil giggle. She was wearing a threefourths cowboy pants and a short top and looked pretty. April could bet that the guy was very lucky and he wouldnt even glance at other girls. she had never been able to wear three fourths and she had always wanted to. When she could have worn, she was not allowed, and now it wont fit her figure. She resented it.

A couple came and sat down few yards from her. They seemed perfect. The guy was handsome and the girl was fair, tall and had the right structure.She wore a red shall around her neck. They sat looking out at the sea. They were eating a bhelpuri and kept talking and laughing.

April turned to look at the setting sun which has almost disappeared into the sea. And it hit her. She was dark and she hated the most about herself. She would not talk to people immediately and not go to any parties because she had this complex that she was dark. She had tried a lot of creams without any effects.
She had had enough dosage of the "blue" feeling and she wanted to go home. She got up and slowly made her way through the sand aware of her sloppy steps. She had never learnt to walk in a straight line. She zigzagged her way and finally jumped down from the wall and walked back briskly.

TAIL of the same coin:
Scene: Marina Beach 4th january, 5.P.M

She was wearing a new pink top which fit her perfectly. She was going to the beach with her guy and she was thrilled about it. It was their first romantic outing. He put his hands around her shoulders and she felt so happy and started talking to him.
He was not listening though. He was trying to work out how to remove his hands from her shoulder. She was tall and it was not easy to remove his hands without much efforts and grabbing her attention. He had always wanted a girl a bit shorter than him who would fit in his shoulders perfectly. Like the girl who was sitting in the sand looking at them.
****************
They had argued on phone and to make it all up he had agreed to take her to beach. She had cut her hair short and dyed it brown two days back and he had hated it.She previously had a wavy black hair which he admired and now he was unhappy about it.She had insisted that this would give her a "cool" look but he thought it gave her a cheap look. He missed that long black hair and he looked at her sideways and seeing past her, he saw a girl in blue dhupatta with a long black hair flowing till her hips.He wished she hadnt cut her hair.
*****************
"whats wrong with this dress? Everybody envies it and it fits me perfectly." She sounded exasperated. Her guy replied "It looks too fit on you that it shows off your every curve only too well honey. Girls can look beautiful wearing salwar or saree too. Look at the girl with blue dhupatta. She has got all the essentials and she looks beautiful in that traditional dress." "So you want me to be like her is it?" she stormed with rage without glancing at the girl he was pointing. He was emabarrassed for the girl in blue dhupatta was watching and she was stunnigly beautiful with that quiet look. He then took his arms around his girl's waist and murmered "If she can look that good wearing that, I am sure you can look ten times better in it sweetheart." she giggled and they walked away.
****************
She pulled her brother to come to beach for she was feeling bored. He finally consented and they got a bhel puri and settled in the sand looking at the waves. There was a beautiful girl sitting and he had fought with his sister to sit a few yards near that girl and her sister had teased him."Come on beauty has to be appreciated." he chided. She gave this pouty look and said "She is not even fair."
"Fair? Thank you, I wouldnt look at a girl who looks like a Pomeranian dog." he shot back at her. "You say I look like a dog?" she fumed. "Nah, not a dog, but a Pomeranian dog." he pulled her legs and she pinched him and they both laughed.
***************
Two guys were playing cricket in the beach sand and they stopped to let the girl in blue dhupatta pass. She was walking dreamlike in a strange zigzag way which kinda gave her a "cool" and "carefree" look. They watched her for five mins and returned back to the game with difficulty as she jumped off the wall and disappeared.
***************