Memories

When I was coming from India to the States with my then new husband, some of my friends from my workplace came to the airport to see me off. It was there that Aman gave me a CD of videos and pictures of my farewell from that job, which had happened a few weeks earlier.

That day, at the airport, they had a bunch of technical difficulties and their X-ray scanners were replaced by staff members manually checking every passenger's carry-on baggage. After I got home and unpacked over the course of the next few days while recovering from jet lag (Actually, I don't think I was ever really jet lagged. But I was kind of in a trance from weeks of sleep deprivation during the wedding planning, the actual wedding, and everything that needed to be done in the meagre, and now extremely blurry, ten days between the wedding and the flight to the States.) and adjusting to a whole new environment, I never saw that CD and thought I had lost it in all the commotion at the airport.

Then, a few days ago, I was cleaning out some stuff and I found it. I'm not sure where it was for the last fifteen months or so, but it was obviously somewhere in the house.

So, on Sunday, my husband and I watched the videos which showed me laughing and talking with my friends and then colleagues, accepting gifts from them, singing and laughing with them and threatening to beat them up at the slightest provocation.

My husband tells me that I was very lucky to find a group of friends like that in my workplace. The work culture here is drastically different, of course, but he never experienced that sort of thing in India either. It's a different industry, and perhaps that makes things different.

I had some really beautiful times at my old job. The team I worked with has since undergone a whole lot of changes, including reorganizations, new hires, and people leaving the company for bigger and better things. And, luckily for me, I left at a time when they were just reorganizing things in a big way. So I remember things for the way they always were - totally fabulous. I would never have wanted to work for a different boss or with a different set of coworkers after being in that setting. I would not trade the teammates who routinely made fun of me and passed all sorts of comments about me for anything else. Because they made the job worth doing.

Visting The Office... That Used To Be Mine

Why would people find it so difficult to believe that I would go to the office just to see my friends again? To make the most of my remaining days of independence? Like I said in my last post, leaving my office was at about the same level as leaving my home after getting married. And after you leave your home on your wedding day, you do go back just to see your family, don't you?

Memories

Now that I've had a little time to settle down emotionally, I'm back to feeling all happy and excited about my wedding, and I'm taking with me happy memories of my time with my friends in the office.

I must mention, I really loved the amount of thought that people put into the gifts that they gave me for my farewell. When I use to miss Sumit, I used to pet the kangaroo he got me, or listen to the last song he copied on to my computer for me to listen to (thankfully he did not sing it himself!), and feel better. Now I have ways of feeling better when I miss my friends from work. I have the long list of songs, and the gifts. Which reminds me, I have to come up with a name for the Grim Reaper (as my brother calls it) which does a funny dance. This was supposed to be a collective gift but I'm told it was selected by Ashish and Hemant. And, in keeping with the naming convention adopted earlier, it will be named after one of the people who gave it to me. I feel like calling it Ashu, after Ashish. Maybe he is going to want to punch me or scream at me when he reads this. But I find the idea pretty likeable.

Parting Words

Yesterday was the first of three big good byes that I have to say. It was my last day at work. I did not expect it to be this emotional. My school and College farewells were not even halfway there. And the transition from MCA to the job was so smooth, with the internship in the last semester and so many classmates around, that I didn't really notice the change too much. But this farewell was way too overwhelming. In the morning and afternoon, a number of my friends got a little too emotional and I was the one consoling them. I was all smiles and excitement. But after the formal team farewell, I don't really know what happened. I know when it happened, though. I was sitting in Ashish's cubicle, chatting with him, and he said something to the effect, "Kuch time tak to ajeeb lagega, but slowly we'll get used to it." It was then that I realised that it was the last time I was sitting in his cubicle, talking to him in such a leisurely way. I don't know why that realization was such a big thing. I don't know why that statement let loose a torrent of tears. I've gone over that one statement about a dozen times in my head since then and each time it's led to the same thing.

Almost all my friends sang for me that evening. I will cherish the memory of Hemant singing Ab Na Jaa, Ashish's Amber and Chalte Chalte, the Tujhe Dekha To duet with Anuranjan, Neha's Jab Koi Baat, Abhinav's Chaand Taare, Bhatti's Puraani Jeans, Balab's Zehreeley (totally awesome!), Namrata's Kabhi Alvida... I hope I didn't miss anybody out. It was great knowing that people like me and care for me so much and are going to miss me so much. It was pretty apparent from the thoughtful farewell gifts and the way everybody was talking about me leaving the company. Bhavna, Abhinav, Bhatti, Alok, Aman, Anuranjan, Neha, Chaya, Namrata, Sandy, Ashish, Hemant, Gauri, and of course Mohit: I'm going to miss all you people so much. Love you people. You were great folks to work with and be with. Keep in touch, people, and be there at my wedding!

Penultimate Day At Work

A rather emotional day for me. Abhinav wanted to take some time in the morning and say stuff that would get me all sentimental and make me cry. Because apparently, he's a little too busy to do that tomorrow. Alok took me out for lunch and we had the loveliest time. Bhavna and Abhinav took me shopping for a little while and we had our share of laughs and making fun of each other.

Small digression. One thing I wanted to mention in this post that I forgot. Ruchi said that she could write a book about the nine years that she and I have been through together. One of the guys was rather curious on whether anybody would read it. Ruchi said that if a book was ever written about Bhavya, it would certainly find a lot of readers.

The coming ten days are going to go past me in a bit of a rush. And when I come home at the end of a full day, I just feel like plopping down on my bed. I don't generally have enough energy to sit up in front of a desktop computer. Which is why I believe that this blog will be on a bit of a break after I return this laptop tomorrow. But I will definitely resume blogging in full swing once I have had a couple of days to settle down in the US.

The People I Will Miss - Chapter Four

I did not write about two of the guys at work in the third chapter of this series. Never mind about the reasons. But somehow, it is more difficult to articulate my thoughts for these two guys than for the others. It is virtually impossible for me to say anything serious to either of them because neither of them can go for more than five seconds in conversation with me without pulling my leg really hard. Hence I chose not to even try doing that at lunch.

It's actually a very good thing when the somebody keeps the atmosphere light, keeps you and their own self laughing, even if it is at your expense, and keeps you from getting too serious. Especially so for people like me who tend to be overly serious and sentimental at times.

In Ashish's case, since I've had opportunities to discuss serious stuff with him, I also know that he is capable of conducting a serious conversation when the situation demands it. That he is capable of telling me that I am taking things too seriously, even without laughing things off. I haven't had that sort of opportunity with Hemant, though.

It's sometimes quite endearing, the way Ashish will first find a way to irritate me on purpose and then be seen scampering around for cover. The way he sometimes still teases me about the time I told him that Hemant is the better singer of the two. The way both of them make fun of songs I like. Of everything that is remotely connected to me.

It's beautiful, the way these two guys sing. The way they always make it a point to say 'Hi' or 'Good Morning' every day. In Hemant's case, he'll always deliver the greeting with a bright smile. I'm going to miss all of that.

Farewell: Chapter Two

The second farewell was at lunch today and was hosted by my immediate team. I'm really glad that it was just my immediate team. That made things all the more personal and memorable.

People asked me to make a farewell speech and enumerate the things I would remember and miss about the people in the team. And they were asked to do the same for me. The good thing about it was that each time I was on the verge of getting a little too sentimental, someone or the other would poke fun at me or somebody else and get everybody laughing.

Mohit, my boss, said that my leaving the team would leave a big hole. Gauri said that Jatin would always be very happy with me and would never get a chance to complain, and even if he did, he wouldn't have the courage! Almost everybody said really sweet things about how I always take their comments sportingly and don't have airs.

I've been lucky in this regard. I've had a great boss to work under. A terrific set of colleagues. I've found some really good friends here at this office, many of which I would like to keep in touch with for the rest of my life.

Farewell: Chapter One

So the first in a series of farewell parties from my friends at the office happened last night at dinner with my regular lunch group friends. I went to this place called crazy noodles for the first time and saw just how crazy it was. I think everybody had a little too much to eat there. Chaya and I found it slightly difficult to walk after that.

People wanted me to sing my favourite bhajan for them. Bhatti later suggested that I should sing a non-bhajanable number so that it would be a challenge for the guys to clap to the tune and make it sound like a bhajan. Somehow the mood of the restaurant didn't feel quite right for me to sing.

Chaya needed to visit the Staples outlet at the Great India Place. I accompanied her there and hence visited the only Staples outlet I have actually seen in India for the first time. (For the uninitiated, my soon to be husband works with Staples. And no, I am not authorized to get Chaya or anybody else a discount on their merchandise.)

Oh, and yes, Bhavna and Neha took me shopping for a wedding gift. It was a nice experience, which washed away some of the sour aftertaste of a recent unpleasant jewellery shopping trip I made with my mom. We bought a lovely pendant, which apparently has a J and a B embedded into its design. Namrata was the first one to be able to see them. Certain people insisted on pointing out a Z (or N, depending on which way you look at it).

We wound up the evening with Bhavna's birthday cake. Her birthday is actually today, but last night was a good opportunity for all of us to celebrate together. We were all so full that we could barely look at the cake. Apparently there was something wrong with the cake, although Sandy maintained that it was perfectly fine, but it just had a little liquor in it.

Liquor or no liquor, no cake can match the sweetness of the bond we share with our friends, now, can it?

Last Week At Work

This morning, as I was dusting my room, I was brushing the dust off my laptop and it struck me that I'm cleaning this laptop for the last time. The computer I used for writing all but two of the posts on this blog. The computer which I used to watch any number of movies and TV shows. After I return it next week, this blog will probably take a long break.

And then there are the bigger things. This is the last time I'm going to bed on Sunday night, knowing that I have to get up and go to work for another five days. The last five days of driving all the way to Noida. Of talking heart to heart with my friends during that forty kilometre drive. Of entering that familiar workplace and seeing those familiar faces around. Of reporting to that familiar boss. Debugging that familiar (almost familiar!) code. Swiping the same access card every morning. Having lunch in that same cafeteria every afternoon. Taking a walk around the same campus.

It's not just the people at the office I'm going to miss. I'm going to miss this office.

Changes

I've got just under two weeks at my workplace. Change, as they say, is the only constant in life and one phase of life must end for a fresh new phase to begin. I’m moving on towards a new beginning in my life, leaving behind three beautiful years at this company. These three years have been as much fun and as memorable as my three years of undergraduate college, or the three years of post graduation. This was my first, and so far only, job and hence this place, this company, the people I met here will always be very special to me. Life has been good to me in these years. I had the most wonderful boss I could have hoped for, some terrific colleagues, and some really great friends. These are some memories I’ll cherish forever.

The day I announced my plans to my friends and colleagues, I felt rather emotional and sentimental at the very thought of leaving this place. Almost every day in the next two weeks or so, somebody or the other would say something to me to set off a stream of tears.

But now that things have had some time to settle in, I've realized a few things. One, you cannot stay in one city or one job for your entire life. Twenty years ago, that was the way to go, but not in this day and age. There's a certain amount of learning that you can gather at a particular job, but soon enough, you have to move on, or your mind stagnates.

More importantly for me, there are some things that are a lot more important than a job or a geographical location. I know that a beautiful life awaits me where I am going. I know that I have lots of new things to look forward to. I know that this change is for the better.

The People I Will Miss - Chapter Three

This has actually been pending for quite some time now. I do have a bit of time on my hands today, so I thought I'd do this today. Although there are two people I will refrain from writing about right now, because I try not to say anything about someone I am annoyed with.

Mohit: My dear boss. He's been a great boss, a mentor, a father figure. He's the kind of person who'll always make sure that his subordinates are happy with the kind of work they are getting, with him, and also with each other. He'll do his best to help you out with with any issues you may be facing, on a technical or personal front. He has this protective, fatherly attitude towards us. He'll always call and make sure that we girls reach home safely if we have to work late or after a team outing.

Aman: He's been like my elder brother. (Yes, we actually did the Rakshabandhan and Bhai Dooj rituals.) I'll always have a special corner for him.

Alok: The only person in the office with whom I always felt comfortable enough to share all my worries, anxieties and frustration. And the only person who always, at the very least, listened patiently.

Anuranjan: I have seen his funny side, his bhangi side, I've seen his incredible ability to entertain people, more so when he is drunk. Very recently, I also got to see his sweet and sensitive side. There's one thing I really like about this guy. He'll make any number of remarks and comments and have any amount of fun at my expense. But he always knows his limits and always apologises when he thinks he has gone a little too far.

Gauri: This guy probably has the most interesting sense of humor I've ever come across. It takes a while to catch on - it took me some time to be able to tell when he was joking and when he was serious. But his jokes are always amusing, always entertaining, and he can tell just about anyone in a very forthright manner exactly what he thinks of them. And he can make the funnies of remarks with a perfectly straight face.

The People I Will Miss - Chapter Two

I said I would write separately about my past and present colleagues and what I will miss about each of them, because the first post was rather long as it stands. But I think that if I try to fit all these people into this one post, it will be a little too long. So I'll break it up. I'll put down my musings about the friends I normally have lunch with. I'll save the others for another post.

I know I'll break down into tears if I start talking about Bhavna and how much I am going to miss her, but she's the one I have to talk about in order to begin this article. She became part of the company and the team just a little over a month after I did. She was the second person in the team, after Rachita, with whom I became friends. She's one of the sweetest, most clear hearted people on the planet. She has her weird sense of humour and her signature style of PJs which is simply amusing at times, and rather endearing at others.

Then there's Chaya. The most practical and sensible girl I've ever come across. Whenever I've felt low, I've often found solace in her cubicle. Either I'd go and listen to her jokes or her anecdotes, or if she wasn't around, I'd just go sit there and hug one of her soft toys for a while. She has quite a collection of those. No penguins sitting around in her cubicle, though, in spite of her legendary love for them. She keeps them safe from the likes of Akash and Bhatti, who are often on the lookout for soft toys they can torture.

Which brings me to Akash. He used to be on the lookout for opportunities to irritate me and would jump at the slightest hint of such an opportunity. But he was also the peacemaker of the group. He'd calm me down every time I was agitated with someone (or something). We'd randomly go to Spice Mall for hot chocolate fudge. Those few outings were very special to me.

And as for Bhatti, he is one of the few people who were part of my immediate team and whom I never really got to work with. But, being immediate cubicle neighbours, I got to know him pretty well. I got to hear his random drumming on the desk at various points of time during the day. I got to see him clutter his cubicle with all kinds of VxWorks boards and hand over random components to me to hit Akash or Abhinav with. I got to see his priceless facial expressions at just about everything under the sun. Once I also had the privilege of hearing such an expression. I am sure that neither Akash nor I will ever forget that. I am also forever indebted to him for encouraging me to start a blog. The extent of the consequences of this event are way more significant than what I have ever shared with any of my friends, and there are reasons for that which I have kept mostly to myself. I will certainly share those thoughts with some close friends before I leave the company.

This brings me to Abhinav. He was the first guy in the team with whom I felt comfortable enough to discuss just about anything. He's one moody guy, but mostly he's been a very good friend to me.

Then there's Sandy. We always enjoy pulling his leg at the lunch table, what with him being the most excruciatingly slow eater on the planet, and also, being the only married member of the group. I'll certainly miss that. I'll also miss Sumit's brilliant jokes at the lunch table.

I don't think I'll find another girl like Neha, who fasts at the slightest provocation. Who is this really adorable, innocent girl who still looks like a school girl. Oh, and did I mention how polite she is? It's rather hard to imagine how someone can be like that in this day and age, and in this city. But it's true. I've never seen anyone quite like her. And of course, she's one person who's almost always smiling (unless Abhinav and/or Alok are doing something to irritate her) and who laughs at the smallest trigger, and laughs uncontrollably at regular triggers which cause normal people to laugh as well.

I guess that leaves only Namrata. A woman of few words, but it's always interesting to listen to her talking. She's known as the logic woman at our lunch table. She'll always come up with an interesting logical explanation for the weirdest of things.

I hope I didn't miss out anybody here. Up next: a post on the people outside of the lunch group.

Afterthoughts

Moving Day: I remember the time, two years and nine months back, when I took up work at my current office. At that time, there were plenty of vacant cubicles and unused cabins on our floor. If you needed a room for a small meeting, you didn't need to book a conference room. You could just use one of those cabins. Some of the most senior people in my team had just been promoted and were moved to cabins around that time. Today it feels rather odd to recollect that there was a time when these people used to sit in cubicles, just like the rest of us. It also feels odd to think that there was a time when there was plenty of empty seating space for any new people joining the team, given the current space crunch which has forced the management to make our cubicles smaller.

Manali Memoirs: When we started back from Manali, after a couple of kilometres or so, Neha realised that she'd forgotten her phone in the resort. We called the resort. They looked for the phone in our room, and found it easily enough. Ashish and Aman went back for it. They came back with the phone wrapped in a pair of socks, which had supposedly been retrieved from the same room, and was assumed to be Neha's as well. As soon as they got on to the bus, Bhatti announced that the socks were his. What Bhatti's socks were doing in our room is still an unsolved mystery.

Moving Day

Where I did my internship, my desk was moved four times in four months. After I took up this job, I had the same cubicle for exactly two years and nine months. So it was a pleasant change for me to have my desk moved today.

The team needed to be moved in order for the floor to be renovated. It's brought about a lot of rearrangement. Bhatti had to move away from my immediately neighbouring cubicle anyway, because he is joining a different team now. But he's still on the same floor, although located at approximately the opposite corner from my desk. My immediate team is now completely in the immediate vicinity. I used to say that I remember the extension numbers of all the people in the team who are not within shouting distance. Now everybody is within shouting distance. There are also a whole bunch of relatively unfamiliar people in the close neighbourhood. Oh, and, of course, the cubicles are a lot smaller. And more brightly coloured. I like the orange coloured insides.

I like this kind of change. It helps break the drab monotony a little.

Of Bhatti And His Welfare

I'm not sure exactly when the words farewell and welfare came to be used interchangeably, but somehow they did.

There's not much I have to write about Bhatti today, because I already covered most of it in the birthday post I wrote for him. Just a few little things I want to add on this occasion, when he's left the team and has ceased to be my cubicle neighbour.

Bhatti claims that he does not like kadhi chawal at all, but always eats a lot of it when they make it in the cafeteria. Now we actually wanted to organize his farewell lunch in the cafeteria and put in a special request for his favourite dish. But somehow the chef at the restaurant where we eventually went sensed everything, and added kadhi to the buffet.

I think all of us who went to Manali will always remember his rendition of Zehreeley Zehreeley for the rest of our lives. It was just too hilarious for him to even get to the words Zehreeley Zehreeley.

When I was in my first year of post graduation, I was asked to co-host the farewell for the outgoing batch. I was at a loss on how I should start off the show. A senior of mine told me that, being the kind of person I was, it would be well suited if I started off with a few lines of poetry. Now I somehow cannot think of a better way to wind up this post. Here are the lines I wrote (yes, I wrote these myself) for that occasion.

Jo manzilein tumhaari hain
Wo manzilein meri nahin
Hain raahein kahin tumhaari
Meri kahin
Jo lamhe saath guzaare unki khushi hai
Aaj mujhe judaai ka gham nahin

All the best, Bhatti, for whatever you choose to do, wherever you choose to go.

Happy Birthday, Bhatti!

Would I miss out writing a birthday post for the guy who pushed me to start blogging my ideas? Would the guy who has instigated me to present here a pink-tinted view (this phrase comes from here) of many a subject and many a guy, be spared? Surely not! (If I was writing this my own way, this would have read "Certainly not," but this is one of Bhatti's favourite words, in speech and in writing.) Also, certain people are supposedly more regular on Random Musings than on orkut, and those people have a tendency to forget things, so this should remind them.

Not so very long ago, I was blissfully unaware of Bhatti's talents. At poking fun at me and amusing himself and everyone around him at my expense. At exhibiting fine examples of the strangest kind of humor that exists on the face of this Earth. At procuring nondescript objects from the junk in his cubicle to hand over to me to throw at the likes of Akash or Abhinav.

And then there are the talents that I've been fortunate enough to see from Day One. The talent at expressing every emotion known to mankind with a facial expression that no other living being can replicate. At making all kinds of sounds, all day long, in his cubicle, that no musical instrument or living being can replicate. And when you get a combination of a vocal and a facial expression, it is interesting enough to make you curse yourself for not making a video.

In spite of being part of the same team, I haven't had a chance to really work with Bhatti. I'm not sure if that is fortunate or unfortunate for me. Maybe some people who read this would like to comment upon that. But, being immediate cubicle neighbours, I've had the chance to know him pretty well. He makes seventeen (that's his favourite number) attempts a day to do something unspeakably bad to my kangaroo. Another seventeen to instigate me into beating up somebody in the team. And another seventeen times, he will deal out a comment that will make me want to beat him up. But in spite of all that, I wouldn't want to trade him in for any other neighbour.

Happy birthday, Bhatti. May you get everything you ever wanted in the year to come, and in the years to come after that.

The Vacation Begins

My boss told his entire team three days ago that we were supposed to finish off all pending tasks by the 23rd of December, and schedule a day of fun for the 24th. So basically our vacation began a day earlier than was originally intended.

We went out for lunch and a movie today, and I'll write about the movie separately, but there are a couple of anecdotes from lunchtime worth mentioning here.

We were supposed to go to The Great India Place for the whole thing. Bhatti, Abhinav, Bhavna, Aman and I arrived a little later than the rest of the party, and Aman went off to get himself a pair of sunglasses. The other four were supposed to find the rest of the party and decide on the lunch venue. At this point, Alok called me to find out where we were. I told him that we were going upstairs from the parking lot, and I asked him where they were. He told me that everyone was in the food court. Now I absolutely do not like the food court out there. I told Alok that I was not coming to the food court. He told Mohit, our boss, that I had told him that I was not coming to the food court.

Eventually I did go there, because I thought that, since everyone else was there, it would be a reasonable place for all of us to gather, talk, and arrive at a consensus on the lunch venue. Now at this time, these teammates of mine, together with Mohit, were plotting to pull my leg a bit. They decided to veto whatever alternatives I suggested to the food court and make me believe that, since I was the only one who did not want to eat there, my opinion did not matter too much.

So there we were, gathering an opinion poll on the lunch venue, and the only ones who voted against the food court were the four of us who had shown up late. Obviously, if Bhatti and Abhinav had been aware of the plan, they would certainly have joined the rest of the party. Quite likely taken the lead.

Eventually, Anuranjan told me the plan that they had all planned, and we went to a decent restaurant to eat. Gauri was actually taken in by the whole thing for a while, in spite of being a party to the mischievous plan. For a moment he actually thought that we were going to eat at the food court.

I have this habit of picking my favourite dish from all the ones that are left over at the end of the meal, and forgetting for a few minutes that I am not at home. I like to pick up the serving bowl and finish off whatever is left, directly from that bowl, using the serving spoon. I think my friends from school and college are quite familiar with this. Apparently my teammates were not. Bhatti was giving me one of his priceless expressions and found the whole thing interesting enough to capture on camera. He was a little reluctant to show me the picture, for fear that I may delete it. Hey, I am at least that sporting, people. I would not delete such a picture. I've asked him to mail it to me when he transfers it on to his laptop.

For the next eleven days, I am going to forget all about my work, my diet, the gym, setting alarms to wake me up... I am just going to unwind and do the things that I normally either don't find time for or don't allow myself to do. Just a little while back, I had some of my mom's freshly cooked, piping hot gajar ka halwa. There's nothing quite like it. Nothing quite like sleeping to your heart's content. Or staying up as late as you like.

I'm going to start checking off items from my to do list tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted on those. And there is a movie review pending from today's outing, which I will write tomorrow as well.

Enjoy the holiday season, folks.

Mixed Bag

Today I feel like writing a little bit about a number of things, but there's no one single thing I can write an entire post about. So this one is going to be a mixed bag of thoughts, or a cornucopia of gobbledygook, if I may use the phrase. I hope Chaya doesn't mind.

This was our first day at work without Akash. Bhatti is apparently well-prepared to keep his promise to irritate me in order to make up for Akash's absence. But maybe he needs to be reminded that he needs to be prepared to face my counter attacks as well. And hey, what's going to happen when Bhatti moves to another team? He'll have to hand over the responsibility of handling Akash's share as well as his own share of things to somebody else. I don't really think that there is a pair of shoulders strong enough to carry that responsibility! What do you say, Bhatti? Are you training anybody to do that?

It was also Sumit's birthday today. Spoke to him for a brief period of time when it was midnight in Melbourne, and called him again in the evening to talk to both him and Aditi at leisure. There was a time, a few years ago, when calling long distance within India seemed to be a great big deal to me. When these very friends of mine moved to various cities, I gradually got used to the idea and stopped bothering about how much it was going to cost me. It didn't really cost all that much, now that I come to think of it. But this was at a time when I was still doing my post graduation and not making any money, whereas my friends had all earned professional undergraduate degrees and started working. Now that I make a decent amount of money for myself and call rates have dropped, I never have a reason to think about that kind of thing. But international calls still seemed to be an expensive proposition. But today, it just felt so great, just to hear my friends' voices after such a long while, that I forgot all about it. I forgot that I was at work, and I did need to go back to my beloved keyboard and monitor and do something to justify the money I make. Aditi had to remind me that I was on an international call, and then Sumit had to remind me that I should probably go back to work, before I actually went back to work.

By the way, I dressed in all-black attire to commemorate the occasion.

Oh, and we had a little team party this evening. We celebrate all the birthdays that occur in a certain month together at the end of the month. Today was that, and the Christmas party. I totally forgot about my diet and had two and a half doughnuts and a significant amount of Christmas cake. But hey, the rules of the diet always clearly stated that I always allow myself to eat whatever I want on weekends and special occasions. And Sumit's birthday is a pretty special occasion to me.

This day just did not feel like Monday at work. You see, I have to work (okay, go to work) for another two days before the eleven-day shutdown. Go to work, because my boss has already made plans for everybody in the team to enjoy a day of no work and all play on Wednesday. So basically, I have to work only tomorrow. Hence there is no reason for this Monday to feel like a Monday. It actually felt like a Friday. Add to that the team birthday bash and Christmas party, the prolonged discussion on how to enjoy ourselves on the last day before the shutdown, and the phone conversation with my friends which made me forget about everything around me for a while, and what do you get? That's not the kind of atmosphere in which one can fix bugs, you know!

And now I want to sleep. I won't necessarily be able to fall asleep just because I want to, but I guess I need to shut the laptop's lid and then shut my eyelids and put out the lights. Had a good day. Nothing to write home about, but something to blog about, so I'm not complaining.

For Akash

I didn't want to put words like "goodbye" or "farewell" in the subject of this post. Because I strongly believe that friends move away from you only geographically. And geographical distances are immaterial when you have a heart-to-heart connection.

One of my dearest friends at work, Akash, left today. I cannot actually come up with a better post on this subject than this one, but here are some random thoughts, incidents, and memories.

I will definitely miss Akash saying "Good Morning" in his typical style every morning. I will also miss having someone around who calls me over to his cubicle to show me a random video exactly when it is time for me to go home. If not that, he'll ask me to take him out to eat momos or hot chocolate fudge or something of the sort at precisely that time.

Akash was one colleague I have bothered any number of times when I've been feeling low, confused, sad, ill, or simply feeling like taking a little break from work. It was during those moments that I actually watched the random videos he liked showing me.

And yes, I will also miss the cribbing and the whining. I can almost hear him say, "hadh badtameezi hai yaar!" or complain about Abhinav going to the market and not getting momos for him.

Oh, and we made a collage of our pictures for Akash's farewell gift. It turned out to be quite lovely. We had a lot of fun putting it all together. We went through hundreds of pictures from various trips, football matches, birthday treats... After shortlisting about fifty pictures, which was already a pretty large number, I was about to start putting them together, when I suddenly remembered that Akash also went to Dalhousie with us and there were about five hundred pictures from that trip too. After doing it all up, Bhatti suddenly chipped in with a fresh batch of amazing pictures. And after I managed to add those, Namrata suddenly chipped in with a fresh batch of amazing pictures.

Then there was a particular picture that Sandy wanted us to include. We asked him to mail it to "all of us." He mailed it to all of us. Including Akash. With "Candidate For Collage" in the subject line. I will never forget Namrata's reaction to that. She was the last person who was expected to say, "Sandy gadha hai!"

There was also something completely idiotic that I did last weekend. I thought it would be a good idea to include snapshots from Akash's post on friends in the collage. I looked around a little on my laptop's keyboard, and then called Abhinav and told him that I wanted snapshots of that blog post and couldn't get them because there was no Print Screen key on our laptops. He told me he wasn't home, and would call me back when he got there. In the half hour that it took Abhinav took to call me back, I did see that the Print Screen key was right there, in plain sight, next to the power button. Eventually I did not use those snapshots.

I will miss having a friend who always finds a way to irritate me when I am feeling good, and a way to make me smile when I am feeling low. Bhatti has actually promised Akash that he will now make it a point to cause me all the irritation, agitation, and frustration that he used to cause, along with all the irritation, agitation, and frustration that Bhatti himself causes. Which means that, instead of just trying to scare my kangaroo, Bhatti will also come up with new, weird names for him. Bhatti will also try his toes on my laptop's fingerprint reader and make snide remarks about everything I wear to work. But who is going to take me out for hot chocolate fudge? And I hope Akash is still going to keep our commitment towards commenting on each other's blogs...

I'm really going to miss seeing you every day dear. Wish you all the very best, whatever you do, wherever you go. Love you.

Birthdays

In my team, we used to celebrate birthdays by asking the birthday girl/boy's friends to write down their thoughts about the person whose birthday we were celebrating, and then that person would be asked to guess who wrote what. That used to be a lot of fun. Too bad we discontinued it.

I was just sorting through some old sent items in my mailbox, and I came across some of those comments that I wrote for my friends. Now I've reproduced them exactly as they were, without correcting spelling, grammar or punctuation, or highlighting the errors in pink. I just reformatted it a little to make it look a little neater.

December 18, 2007. This was written for Chaya. Her birthday falls on the 20th of December.

• What makes him/ her different from others: her cheerful, bubbly nature, her giggling, her PJs, and her adoration for penguins!
• Well, if you become him/her manager what would u like to change in him/her: nothing that I can think of right now…
• What irritates him/her the most: Akash!! Especially when he does things like stealing her stuffed toys!
• "BINDAAS BOL" write what you want to say about him/her in this section: Chaya is very much like herself ;-)

I distinctly remember not being alone in answering the third question above this way. The team unanimously declared Akash to be extremely talented at irritating Chaya.

January 10, 2008. This was for Akash. His birthday falls on the 10th of January.

• What makes him/ her different from others: the way he keeps track of every penny in his wallet and constantly cribs about the shortage of the same!!
• Well, if you become him/ her manager what would u like to change in him/ her: nothing
• What irritates him/ her the most: it has already been established that Akash is very good at irritating others… so there’s not much opportunity for others to irritate him
• "BINDAAS BOL" write what you want to say about him/ her in this section: apne type ka ek hi piece hai. I will always remember the way he tried to unlock my laptop using his toe prints on my fingerprint reader! :D

November 14, 2007. This was for Ashish. His birthday falls on the 15th of November.

• What makes him different from others: the way he refuses to grow up!!
• Well, if you become his manager what would u like to change in him: nothing much… but I would give him a little less work to do
• What irritates him the most: I don’t know what irritates him but the way he screams “Mummy!” when he gets irritated is absolutely adorable ;-)
• "BINDAAS BOL" write what you want to say about him in this section: he looks like such a cute [sorry Ashish, I know you don’t like this word but I couldn't help using it ;-) ] little pixie when he runs about all over the place looking for Abhijeet or Bhatti or Aman

What I distinctly remember about this day is that, when all this stuff was read out, everyone, Bhatti, Abhinav, and some other people, could distinctly identify that I wrote it, just from the writing style. And this came at a time when I hadn't even started blogging. But the birthday boy could not identify who these words came from. I don't remember who he thought wrote these, but I do remember that he thought I wrote the comments that Abhinav actually wrote.

September 27, 2007. This was written for my boss, Mohit. His birthday is on the 29th of September.

• What defines him: His impatience to get things done. And they way he constantly keeps asking us “Chal gaya sab kuch?” :D
• Something which you would like to be different in him: I guess I would like him a lot better if he was not my manager :-P
• What he can’t stand: Things not being done systematically
• Hobbies & Interest: Sports, big cars, spending time with and talking about his daughters
• What his friends have to say about him: he’s basically a nice a guy, and a good manager too, in spite of everything I said :-P
• His most embarrassing moment if know to you: don’t know. If I knew and I told everyone, then I’d probably be risking my job ;-)

I was looking for the comments I wrote for Abhinav on his birthday. I wonder where those went. Maybe I deleted them for fear of the "Neat Rat" snooping around in my mailbox. I do distinctly remember that the first time I wrote birthday comments for someone, they were for Abhinav.

We actually had this little tradition going for a really short span of time. Too bad I never had a birthday in that duration!