Thursday, April 16, 2009
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?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Musings For Today
I had almost forgotten what it's like to be able to relax. I had forgotten that one can take a nap in the afternoon. That one can sit down and chill in front of the TV in the evening. Call friends and catch up.
The last couple of months involved a lot of wedding stuff, plus the knowledge transfer and everything else at work. Even on my penultimate day at work, my boss insisted that I should submit my performance appraisal form.
Today's been a relatively slow day, but it takes just such a day to realize how sleep deprived I've been lately, and how much I was in need of such a day.
It's also been a day of getting calls and e-mails from people who cannot make it to the wedding. Slightly disappointing, but, hey, when you send out wedding cards, do you ever expect all you invitees to show up?
And then there is this childhood buddy of my brother's. He's been like another little brother to me. He's working in another city and was talking to his boss about taking time off from work. The boss was not too keen on giving him Monday off. He told his boss that he was going to attend his sister's wedding, which is on Sunday, so there is no way he could come back on Monday. Now rather than coming to Delhi and calling up the office on Monday morning to tell them that he wasn't coming, he'd obviously prefer that they grant him his day off peacefully. Poor boss had to give in.
There are some friends who mean just as much as your family means to you. In the last one week, I've re-realised that I have an amazing bunch of such friends. Which is why leaving my workplace was no less emotional a time than leaving my home on the wedding day will be.
The last couple of months involved a lot of wedding stuff, plus the knowledge transfer and everything else at work. Even on my penultimate day at work, my boss insisted that I should submit my performance appraisal form.
Today's been a relatively slow day, but it takes just such a day to realize how sleep deprived I've been lately, and how much I was in need of such a day.
It's also been a day of getting calls and e-mails from people who cannot make it to the wedding. Slightly disappointing, but, hey, when you send out wedding cards, do you ever expect all you invitees to show up?
And then there is this childhood buddy of my brother's. He's been like another little brother to me. He's working in another city and was talking to his boss about taking time off from work. The boss was not too keen on giving him Monday off. He told his boss that he was going to attend his sister's wedding, which is on Sunday, so there is no way he could come back on Monday. Now rather than coming to Delhi and calling up the office on Monday morning to tell them that he wasn't coming, he'd obviously prefer that they grant him his day off peacefully. Poor boss had to give in.
There are some friends who mean just as much as your family means to you. In the last one week, I've re-realised that I have an amazing bunch of such friends. Which is why leaving my workplace was no less emotional a time than leaving my home on the wedding day will be.
A Little Love And A Little Friendship
I had a good day on Sunday. Met up with a couple of friends in the middle of all the running around from one end of the city to another. Spent some leisurely time catching up with them. Came back home and had a nice, long conversation with my two best friends in Melbourne. It reminded me that geographical distances between friends are hardly consequential. When people know each other and understand each other well enough, it doesn't even matter if you are out of touch for a while and then get back in touch one day. It doesn't matter if you are so far away that when you are eating lunch, they are eating dinner and when you are putting up with scorching heat, their winter is on the way.
It feels a little strange sometimes, when you look back at how quickly time passes. When my buas and mamas refer to me by my childhood nicknames, I kind of feel like the chubby five year old who used to play with her bua before the bua got married and whom the bua used to call Bhabchu. I remember dancing at her wedding at that age. I remember, a cousin bua danced at that wedding, wearing my mom's wedding lehenga. I found that lehenga as I was sorting out some stuff today. I think mine is about seventeen times as heavy.
It was slightly weird, getting up in the morning and not needing to go anywhere. Since the 14th of February, I have been running around so much and getting up at seven or eight every morning, including weekends and other off days. Yesterday was the first time since then that I did not set an alarm. And today was probably the last time I got to sleep at leisure, until the time I land in Boston. Even so, these three and a half days have just whooshed past me in such a hurry, with so much to do, that I haven't really had much time to realize exactly what is going on. There were so many things to do at home, yesterday and today. I don't think I will have time for that in the next two weeks either. In between, I try to steal some time to check my mail and update my blog.
So many changes, so much going on, so much excitement. And so much exhaustion. But so much to look forward to. Life is good.
Four days to go.
It feels a little strange sometimes, when you look back at how quickly time passes. When my buas and mamas refer to me by my childhood nicknames, I kind of feel like the chubby five year old who used to play with her bua before the bua got married and whom the bua used to call Bhabchu. I remember dancing at her wedding at that age. I remember, a cousin bua danced at that wedding, wearing my mom's wedding lehenga. I found that lehenga as I was sorting out some stuff today. I think mine is about seventeen times as heavy.
It was slightly weird, getting up in the morning and not needing to go anywhere. Since the 14th of February, I have been running around so much and getting up at seven or eight every morning, including weekends and other off days. Yesterday was the first time since then that I did not set an alarm. And today was probably the last time I got to sleep at leisure, until the time I land in Boston. Even so, these three and a half days have just whooshed past me in such a hurry, with so much to do, that I haven't really had much time to realize exactly what is going on. There were so many things to do at home, yesterday and today. I don't think I will have time for that in the next two weeks either. In between, I try to steal some time to check my mail and update my blog.
So many changes, so much going on, so much excitement. And so much exhaustion. But so much to look forward to. Life is good.
Four days to go.
Monday, April 13, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
For Varun
I don't generally write dedicated posts for people who don't actually read my blog, but some people are just that special. I actually intended to write this on his birthday, which was on the 14th of February, but, that being the day I first met Jatin, with my roka ceremony being the next day, the day was a little too hectic for me.
Some of this is lifted from the testimonial I wrote for him on orkut, but I have made my modifications.
It's been seven months that he took up work at the same office as me. We've actually known each other for about five years now, and we were always friendly with each other. But when we started carpooling, I started sharing almost everything with him, because for about four months, it was just the two of us in the car. I've discovered that he's a guy who can give even a girl like me (who tends to be rather unstable emotionally) a very objective and reasonable perspective on a lot of things. He's a guy who can cheer me up on the worst of days with his jokes that a lot of people classify as PJs but I tend to like. He's a guy who can actually figure out just when I need cheering up, based on the speed at which I drive.
In the days when I was carpooling with just Varun, on days when I was really exhausted or frustrated with someone or something at the office, I would look forward to getting out of the office, not because it would mean that I would get to go home, but because of the drive. Before that, driving all the way to and from work was quite a pain.
He's the kind of guy who won't let you stay too serious for too long. He just cannot formulate two complete sentences in succession without dealing a completely senseless joke, which is sometimes exactly what one needs to lighten the mood. Or to keep up the good cheer, if the mood is already light.
Keep the PJs going, dude. Will miss you lots.
Some of this is lifted from the testimonial I wrote for him on orkut, but I have made my modifications.
It's been seven months that he took up work at the same office as me. We've actually known each other for about five years now, and we were always friendly with each other. But when we started carpooling, I started sharing almost everything with him, because for about four months, it was just the two of us in the car. I've discovered that he's a guy who can give even a girl like me (who tends to be rather unstable emotionally) a very objective and reasonable perspective on a lot of things. He's a guy who can cheer me up on the worst of days with his jokes that a lot of people classify as PJs but I tend to like. He's a guy who can actually figure out just when I need cheering up, based on the speed at which I drive.
In the days when I was carpooling with just Varun, on days when I was really exhausted or frustrated with someone or something at the office, I would look forward to getting out of the office, not because it would mean that I would get to go home, but because of the drive. Before that, driving all the way to and from work was quite a pain.
He's the kind of guy who won't let you stay too serious for too long. He just cannot formulate two complete sentences in succession without dealing a completely senseless joke, which is sometimes exactly what one needs to lighten the mood. Or to keep up the good cheer, if the mood is already light.
Keep the PJs going, dude. Will miss you lots.
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