-100

The after-lunch walk on that day was very humorous with the folks from my previous team, after a long time. As always, PP remained the ‘scapegoat’ that day too. If at all these is any consolation for PP, it must be that A and J were added to the list for the day. The thing that’s common between PP, A and J is that they are the most eligible bachelors, atleast that’s how they call themselves, right now. The topic of the day was the “Most beautiful woman” they have met so far. PPs list was a public list, more so bcos of his grand b’day celebration just the day before. All eyes (men’s eyes) on him .. jealousy .. who else other than PP can have a b’day celebrated by all girls from the group .. Im sure the other bachelor boys are envious of him. After targeting PP for a while, all eyes shifted to A. A was too shy to name his list. He tried to pass the ball to J. J was acting clever in telling that he doesn’t know the name, he has only seen them, and that he considers the lady with a beautiful smile, the woman with the long hair as the toppers in the ‘Most beautiful woman’ (women) he has met. When asked to explain more on where those ladies sit, he said he doesn’t know where they sit, but has only seen her (them ??) passing by his cube !! (Gone with the wind ??) The team was very enthusiastic to know the ‘Passer by girl’ and so gave an AR to J. The next time the girl walks past aisle, he is supposed to get up and shout the position the girl holds in his ranking so that everyone can immediately stop their work and get up to see who the ‘beautiful’ girl is. Someone in the group suddenly turned to me and said, “Please make sure u don’t walk by his aisle ok. He might shout -100 when u pass by”. I had a hearty laugh at this comment .. as if I don’t know that Im not a drop dead gorgeous kind of a girl

Call center experience ...

Every page that u open on the net will have something in common that appears on the top right corner of the page. “CONTACT US”. Contact for what ? Hear to unrelated stupid talking ? I cant think of any customer care having a knowledgeable smart person who understands what u ask and gives u a right solution, leave alone the solution, if they can talk something related to what u ask, then u r really lucky.
I once had to call one of my wireless card customer care to check on whats happening with my bill for the month infact whats happening with all my bills . I hadn’t received a single bill in the past 2 yrs since I took the connection, but I kept getting reminders every month that I need to pay in order to avoid disconnection. So this time I thought I ll call the customer care and find out whats happening with my bills.
Dial 1111 1111
Voice : If u want to continue in English, please press 1
Me : Press 1
Voice : For new connection, please press 1. For account balance, please press 2. For billing related queries, please press 3
Me : Press 3
Voice : Please wait while we transfer ur call to our customer care executive (??).
……
Voice : All our executives are currently busy ( busy talking crap ?? ). Kindly hold the line … Finally there is someone at the other end,
Good evening, this is Suresh Kutty, how may I helb you ..
It took me few mins to explain to him (dint know if he understood what I told!) that I never received my bill for the month and so I wanted a duplicate bill to be sent again to me. And that I have never been receiving my monthly bills and need to check if my billing address is correct. And Mr.Suresh Kutty says, We are zory for the ingonvenience gaused madam. I ll gonnect u to our billing zection who can helb answer ur question.
I did press 3 for billing related queries and why in the world was I connected to Mr. Kutty from some other dept... After a few mins of hold, echoing a very sad music (why the hell is the sad music played for hold !!), I hear a voice
Good evening, this is Rohit, how may I help you ..
Omg, I had to narrate the entire story to him. Gathering lot of patience (im generally very famous for my impatience), I did narrate the entire story to him. Mr. Rohit cudnt wait for more than a second once I finished talking, he was very spontaneous in telling. Kindly hold on madam, I ll transfer u to our technical support department. Before even I cud ask him why the hell is he connecting me to the technical department for my ‘billing’ related query, he had already put me on hold.
After few mins, Good evening, this is Anudeep, how may I help you.
Alrite, now I need to repeat the story. I knew its of no use telling this Anudeep, but thought I ll give it a try. And I did. Anudeep patiently heard to what I said, then asked me,
Madam, is the card inserted in ur laptop rite now ..
What the hell kind of question is this ? B******t ! How does it matter if the card is inserted or on ? Will the bill get generated only if the card is inserted in the laptop ?
I told him “YES”. I dint want to tell a NO and hear his answer “Sorry madam, u dint insert ur card and that’s y the bill wasn’t generated.
Madam, can u please chk if the antenna is lifted up and is in the standing position
I would have screamed, Stop it right there man, I don’t care if the antenna is standing or sleeping or flirting. Will I get my bill?
But I said, Mr.Anudeep, how long have u been with this customer call center.
And he said, 5 yrs madam ..
Not able to control my laughter, I put the phone down .. … *smile .. smile *
From where do these call centers recruit such ppl ?

Abhiyum Naanum ...

Amidst the illogical mindless love stories of these days portrayed in movies, ‘Abhiyum Naanum’ is indeed a different one close to lives of all fathers and daughters. This movie starring Prakashraj as father, Aishwarya as the mother and Trisha as their daughter is surely worth watching , what when a director, who knows the art of narrating human emotions in an exemplary manner, a skilled actor, who can do any role with ease and a talented actress, who combines performance and great looks, come together? A quality entertainer. The movie is all about the journey of a father , who showers boundless love on his daughter finds it tough to accept the realities of life initially, but then comes to term with it and accepts it. The message “Children grow up .. Sometimes parents must too..” is the key to the movie. I couldn’t agree more with the message.
The reason why I thought I ll write about the movie is because it is close to my life as well. I see my dad in Prakashraj(The coincidence here is that Prakashraj is Raghu in the movie, and my dad is also Raghu ). I have heard that my dad had taken off from his work for 3 days when he first admitted me in a school for my kindergarten. He was waiting at the entrance of my school for the entire 3 days. He anticipated I might cry missing my parents and he wanted to be readily available to console me. While I tease my dad now and then on this, I do realize his emotions and his love for his little girl. Emotions are a part of every relationship that gets deeper and stronger by each passing day. So true with the father-daughter relationship. Like Prakashraj, every father is protective and possessive about their daughters. The daughters always remain a child to the dad. Its very hard for them to see their daughter grow, move away from them and choose her own life. Most often the fathers are forced to acknowledge that the daughter, far from being a defenseless child, is an adult capable of making her own decisions when she grows up.
And now talking about the movie, right from the day the girl is born, his life is filled with fresh joy; his day starts and ends with his young daughter. He takes care of everything and ensures his daughter leads a happy life devoid of any worries. The life of the father revolves around his daughter. As she grows up, the father dotes all his love on his daughter, gives her all she asks and more. For all his life, the little girl remains a little girl. But as the daughter grows up, she finds her dad being very impractical. She tries explaining to her dad, but then it shows up as if she doesn’t understand her father’s love and is being very selfish. The fact that she is trying to make her father realize the practicalities of life goes behind the scenes. When the daughter finds a life partner for herself, the love for his daughter makes him appear as a villain in his daughters’ life. He just cannot accept that his daughter will leave his home some day. The daughter truly understands him and says to him that she is ready to leave her lover if her father does not approve of him to which the father disagrees. Its probably not the feeling that she chose someone on her own worries him, but just that he can not withstand his daughter’s absence in his life after her marriage is more in him that he shows his unwillingness towards the marriage intitially. But yes, he doesn’t stay with this feeling for long. He does come to terms with it, accepting the reality of life.
All said and done, one has to agree that woman are the most sensitive ones. When the daughter leaves her parents after marriage, the mother and the daughter cry while the father understands that’s the part of life and accepts it. When he sends off his priced possession, he tells his son-in-law “Take care of my little girl”. His girl always remains his ‘little’ girl. His emotions completely expressed in just one line. Every daughter would want to express this message to her father that “Some day I ll meet my Prince Charming, but daddy, u ll always remain my King”.

Im lucky !!

It really feels great to have influenced someone’s life in a positive way. And its even more greater to know that the ‘someone’ realizes the same. And that realization makes each of us feel special about ourselves. Especially when someone passes such a remark right on ur face. How would u feel when someone says “Your presence made a difference”, “It was my pleasure to have u here”, “U have been a very nice companion”, “If not for u, no one else would have been the way u r”, “U r awesome”, “You will always remain close to my heart. You are one of the very few that I value so much in life”, “i'm very happy to have u as one my best friend”, “u are the only person who guides me when i do wrong.. ur words mean a lot to me”, "Im always there for u, although miles apart, just a phone call away..", "U are one of the best friends anyone can ever have and I am proud to be ur friend..","U r de best that happened to me in this world and am grateful fr it..", "Hey buddy...u made my day! "
The fact that needs to be appreciated here is the nature of the people who openly come out to express their genuine feelings for you. Its not always intended to flatter u, but ultimately it makes u feel special. It makes u feel that u have had a life that was really worth it. One of my friends’ friend rightly commented ‘'When I turn 40, if there is 1 person who can talk well about me, I consider myself a success, and to have so many talk about you, shows how well you are doing in life'. There is so much truth in this statement that I just cant deny the fact. The kind of impact that u create in people is the best achievement u can count on than the ones like attaining good position at ur work or being a good son/daughter to ur parents or being financially sound or living a luxurious life. What more can u ask for when u have people around you who have great respect and regard for u and eagerly express their love for u in every possible way.
How lucky I must be to have been surrounded with nice people. Is there something more that I can ask for ?
For every soul which cared for me, there is nothing much I have to say, just this ,
“No words to say, no song to sing, to say how much you mean to me. Silence is the language of love. ”

Colors of life

It was festival season and I was enthusiastic about designing a rangoli in front of my house. Im very bad at any kind of art – drawing, painting, crafting, actually anything that requires innovative thinking. I have always had my friends complaining that I have a very bad color sense. One of my friend Sriram was so much flattered at my choice of my dresses and it colors that he once asked if I leave it to the shopkeepers’ choice to choose a color for me, or if close my eyes and pick one among the lot. It was funny to hear it in tamil ‘ ‘அதெப்படி பத்மா, கண்ணை மூடிட்டு மேலிருந்து மூனாவது டிரஸ் எடுங்க பார்க்கலாம்னு சொல்லுவியா ‘
What ever it may be, I had decided to make my house look colorful on the day of Pongal. My mom got me the rangoli powder and I started hunting the internet to search for some good designs, the ones I can manage to do, the not-so-complex ones (Thanks to Original author) . As I told u earlier im not a great artist, I had to take the printout of design first and then decide on the colors with the ones that I have. Ok, finally all set. I don’t know why, I somehow thought I can get it done in abt an hr or so (as if im an expert in these stuff ). I started with the basic design at abt 8pm and by the time I completed it was 10.15pm (Of course, with my mom helping me with the coloring) I cant believe !!
A final look at the rangoli really made me feel so good. I couldn’t believe it was me. I was proud.
In addition to the compliments from my friends and my neighbours, there was something else that was a result out of this effort. Every part of my body was paining for the next two days, as if it was my first day at gym. A rangoli costed me a half a day leave from work. This is what is called heights of craziness

Light at the end of the tunnel

I don’t know why I was relieved to this extent. Is that the moment that brought such a sense of relief ? Or is it that I waited for such a moment knowing that it has to come someday and I was prepared to feel relieved. Or is it that I lost my identity before and that I regained it now? That irrestible feeling .. I ll have to invent new words in English to describe the feeling, the overwhelming feeling, the moment of delight, the long awaited moment, …
I have been boasting about myself to be woman with composed emotions who doesn’t get emotional about anything. Not the usual sensitive kind of woman. But this moment brought out the original ‘ME’. Only now I realized that I have been putting a different ‘ME’ in front of people. But then I learnt a lot out of not being my original self. It helped me in numerous different ways. I was told not everybody can do it. Well, nothing to be proud of.
Every moment I think about it, my eyes shine little more, I smile with trepidation, I feel like jumping in joy. And I remind myself telling, it isn’t something to celebrate or feel happy about. But my conscience says it surely is something to feel relieved about. At the first moment of realization I thought I was little strange cos it must be only me who feels this way. Very soon I met with people who had similar thoughts and feelings as mine. I was happy to conclude that im not extraordinary or strange or anything of that sort. It was destiny which had me here and I deem it a pleasure to have been here. The painkiller got me rid of so many things. Who knows, may be something worthwhile as well. Well, I don’t care. The respite is so much in me that I really can’t think of anything else, atleast at this point in time. Way to go ..
No matter what situations life throws at you..!
No matter how long and treacherous your journey may seem..!Remember, there is a light at the end of the tunnel..!

Memories...

In the journey of life, there were many people, places, events that touched my hearts in many different ways. I don’t think I have ever had a chance to show them the gratitude. I have collected pictures of such people, place, events as much as I could. Although I couldn’t get all of what I wanted, I managed to collect most of them. Every picture out here is in someway close to my heart. Some of them exhibit my photographic skill as well