Celebrating a Birthday During the Lock Down

My seven-year-old was teary-eyed when she learned that she would be celebrating her birthday just with her maternal grandparents and sister this time – no friends, no parents, no going out to party – thanks to the lock down. She felt better when Mom assured her that after returning from her vacation, she would have a birthday bash the way she wanted.

Finally, the day arrived.

Mom and dad arranged for the party with all the energy they had. Sister and her hubby chimed in. My uncle, too, took out a few minutes from his busy schedule to show up at the right moment, like always. My husband and I, along with a few other close ones, joined via a video call to witness the hungama.

It was heartening to see how much time, effort, and creativity each of them put in to make the little one’s day special. Since there were no gift/cake shops open, everything had to be home-made – the cake, the pudding, the gifts (a greeting card and a bracelet done by my nine-year-old for her sister). 

All in all, it was quite an event, bigger than expected, proved by the broad smiles and excitement shown by the children. Blessed to be part of this family.

Why Farewells are Hard

There’s so much going on at the moment. I feel as if there’s a clock inside me constantly ticking ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ So, I have resorted to penning it down.

Almost everyone in the team knows about my relocation now. But, they have been behaving as if they don’t (because they have been asked to). In a way, this is good – I won’t feel as emotional and nostalgic if they don’t mention anything about the move.

Will I ever find a team as awesome as this one? I am fortunate to work with people who offer sincere advice like a sibling, go out of the way to drop me home on a rainy day, worry about me if I leave office mid-day, hold a door open for me when I sprain my hands, off load my work, and help me before I even realize that I need help. More than anything, these are people who respect me and love me for what I am (including my craziness).

To top it all, Natasha has become as protective as a mother sending her child to a boarding school. It makes me want to hug her.

Leaving this office will be as hard as leaving college. I still remember the day we ate our dinner in silence on the last day of our college. I hope I move on and get busy with my work to overcome this nostalgic feeling.

Memoirs of the STC Conference

The Journey: Uttering a hundred silent thanks to my manager for nominating me, I headed to the Bangalore airport to attend the much-awaited STC conference. It was relaxing to hang out with a colleague without having to worry about deadlines (both at office and home). As soon as we reached our rooms, we were welcomed by another colleague who had arrived from Hyderabad.

The Stay: So what if the rooms were smaller than expected? The cleanliness of the rooms, the friendliness of the staff, and the yummy, fresh, and healthy breakfast were enough to ensure we had a good stay. It also gave us a good platform to get to know one another and discuss about work too.

The Conference: There were more than 200 technical writers from various domains, experience levels, and ethnicity. Contrary to our belief that only highly experienced people would be presenting at the conference, there were people like us. It made us feel confident that next time we too could come up with an idea or a concept to present. One thing common among all of them was the ever-so-bright smile and warmth in greeting one another. During the two days of the conference, we attended sessions related to xml-based authoring, automation in writing, contextualized writing, and many others – even the sessions that we felt were not relevant to us had some take-aways for us. It was amazing to see the world of technical writing expanding; when I started my career, nobody even knew about our profession. And oh! The food was sumptuous.

The Re-Union: The moment I heard I was going to visit Mumbai, I devised a plan to meet one of my best friends, Mrunal. Being the early bird that I am, the day after conference, I woke up at 5.30, got ready, and saw myself in front of her house at 6.30. Poor thing had just woken up, but was super-thrilled to see me. Munching yummy poha, both of us chit-chatted excitedly, and woke up the rest of the household, who also joined us in our conversation. I told her family how important Mrunal’s role was early in my career.

The Sight-Seeing: The moment I stepped into the city, I fell in love with it. Be it the pollution-free air, the pace at which the city-dwellers moved, the willingness to help and adjust in an over-crowded train, the presence of people 24X7, or the flea markets with unbelievably low prices, the city impressed me. Therefore, it did not take me a lot of time and money for shopping. And oh! how could we return from Mumbai without visiting the Juhu beach? Thanks to the fast-paced world of Mumbai, we did everything that we wanted to do – shopping, sight-seeing, and visiting a friend.

The Return: If at least one thing does not go wrong in a trip, then what’s the thrill? So, we ended up in terminal 1 instead of terminal 2 to board the flight. Luckily, we had enough time to catch a taxi, and reach terminal 2 on time. Oh wait! Is this an airport or the palace of God Indra? It was so picture-perfect that we forgot how much work awaited us back in Bangalore. We just enjoyed the moment sipping kokam sharbat.  

The After-Effect: For the next two days, I was happy, excited, and smiling all the time. I had to tell myself to come out of the ecstasy, and focus on my job. 

'Xtreme' Happiness

Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by every moment that takes your breath away! I am happy that my dream of rocking at Xtremezone has finally come true. I am confused where to start from. Should I boast about being the first one in the group to try adventurous sports at the camp or should I talk about the thrill of rappelling? Should I drift away with the memories of camaraderie and bonding with my friends or should I look at the photos for the tenth time? Anyways, the memories are going to stay for a life time without the need for these pictures. Should I complain about the body pains that I had for the next couple of days or should I thank my body for co-operating with me and recovering pretty quick. The hilly breeze, the chilly water, the stony path, the funny group of people, the thrilling adventure are all that make the trip a lifelong memory. The smile on my wouldn't fade away even while writing about the wonderful experience although it’s been a week already.

In Love With Coorg

Yet another experience to reinforce my belief that exciting things happen to me when I least expect them. A sudden churn of events left me to spend the weekend with hubby, Sweety, Mom, and Dad. While I was wondering how to spend my most valuable free time, hubby suggested that we make a trip to Coorg. I was excited, but the inner voice calmed down my enthu, claiming that I might end up feeling disappointed.

Afterall, how could we plan for such a long drive in just a day’s notice – that too while travelling with an infant?

What happened in the next couple of days took me by awe and thrill. Yes, we finally made it to this beautiful place on Friday.  We spent two days in a home stay, thus ensuring only home-made food for us and for the baby. She too was excited to have come out of the cocoon.

The serenity, the hilly terrain, the sounds of the waterfall, the greenery – these are the things that a camera can never capture. The comfort in being with your loved ones, being cared for, the memories that we created have a permanent place in our minds. I find myself drifting with the hill breeze while typing this. So engrossed were we with the beauty that before we realized it, we were heading back home.

Dedicating this article to my beloved hubby, Mom, and Dad for making this happen. You know how much it means to me to take a break from my routine, and step out of the house for a while.

A few pics from the trip:

Words That Influenced Me

Friends, today is the last day of the blogathon. I am excited that I have finally made it. Your appreciation and encouragement plays a major role. Since this post marks an achievement, I am going to write about the most remarkable woman I have met: my Mom.

Out of all the experiences I have had with Mom, there’s one that still rings in my ears.

I was in my 7^th grade. I came back home after finishing an exam. I told Mom that one of my classmates helped me with the answer to a question. That was the first time I sought that kind of “help”.

I could see that Mom was not pleased. She thought for a second, and said, “I would accept even if you score zero, but I wouldn’t appreciate if you cheat.” That was the last time I cheated in an exam.

The beauty of my Mom’s speech is that she always keeps it short. Her message is always crisp and clear. That’s why her words are so powerful. She gives me and my sisters all the freedom that a Mom can give. Love you, Mom.

A Funny Incident

Writing Prompt: "A funny thing happened on my way to..."

A funny thing happened on my way home while returning from office. I was riding my bike when I noticed a guy on another bike honking at me. I ignored him, but then he overtook me, and honked at me again. I wondered what could have gone wrong with him. Was it eve- teasing? Or was he just trying to compete with me? I happened to overtake him the next time, and then I noticed that he was waving his hand towards me. He later overtook me, and that was when I was really annoyed. 

I looked at him with an angry face, and said “what?” in a loud voice. That was when I noticed that he was a friend and colleague. So, all the time he had been trying to greet me. Poor thing! How stupid was I that I did not even get a hint. With the helmet and the goggles covering the majority of his face, I couldn't recognize him from a distance.

Both of us stopped and we had a hearty laugh. He said, “Oh my God! When you said “what”, I froze. I thought I had mistaken your identity. Everybody here had been noticing the way I was trying to reach you. I wondered if all of them would hit me now. Phew!”

And we laughed some more.

The Innocence of a Kid

I know I have been very cruel while writing about my kids – how they pester me, irritate me, deprive me of a sound sleep, and so on. If I am scaring you away from kids, then this one is for you.

Although tiresome and demanding, kids are also very refreshing and rewarding. Yes, there are times when you are stressed, and something that they do makes you fall into a fit of laughter. For instance, today I have been feeding Sweety milk. It’s a long process – she doesn’t drink from a bottle, so I have to use a spoon-like thing. Janu jumps in to help me manage better. So she offers the little one a bangle to play with. You know what Sweety says after she receives the bangle? “Thaa Dhoooo”, which means “Thank you”. I guess that’s the first word she’s ever spoken.  

When my hubby asks Janu to join her hands and pose for a photo, you know what she does? She joins her hands and says, “Namaskaram, ETV News ki swagatam” (Namaskar, Welcome to ETV News). That’s hilarious. We encounter such events at least once a day.

The innocence of a child makes you smile even in the most critical moments. Parents are always their super heroes. Kids believe in whatever we say or do. If I say that a magic spell can heal the bruise on her knee, she believes it. She even comes to me asking me to cast a spell when she hurts her knee. 

My day ends with a few minutes of playing hide and seek (or whatever they fancy) with my two little angels, and nothing ever gives me more joy.

What are your experiences with kids?

The Easiest Decision I Have Taken In My Life

I am going to write about two easiest decisions that I have taken in my life:

1. To join BITS - Pilani. I was on cloud 9 when I grabbed a seat in the reputed institute. I couldn't wait till the actual day came, where I headed to the good old campus. The four years I spent in BITS are the best years of my life so far.
   
2. One day, a small chick breaks out of her egg shell, and comes out into this beautiful world. She looks around to find her Mom, but is not sure how her Mom looks like. So, she goes about asking each and every living and non-living thing that she encounters whether any of them is her Mom. She asks the cow, the car, the tree, the sun, the dog.... Finally, her Mom happens to come back home, and sees her little one asking around. The chic now sees the Hen, comes to her, and says, "You are my Mom." So, the moral of the story goes this way: When it comes to choosing the best suited person, it becomes so obvious. That's how obvious it was for me to choose my life partner. The moment I interacted with him, I knew I got hold of the correct guy. In case you are wondering, it was definitely not love at first sight.

Picture Prompt

Friends,

Today I have got a picture prompt. It asks me to pick up the 14th photo from an album and what I get surprises me.

The pic was taken by Pradeep in May 2010, when my Mom and my sis, Sowmya, visited our home in Bangalore. We were at the Visweswarayya museum.

I am left with tons of nostalgia after seeing this pic. How I wish I get the golden days back! Those were the days when there was only Pradeep and I in our sweet home... wow! And when Mom and Sowmya visited us, we roamed around the city as if we had wheels tied to our feet. Visweswarayya museum is a delight to all the engineers. We were so curious to learn about everything. I also miss my dear sister and Mom very badly.

Anyways, all this writing makes me give you an advice, dear friends, when there are no kids or elders at home, live and cherish every moment with your beloved. You never know how badly you would want those days back. 

An Eventful Day

M soooo excited!!!! M gonna write about three people who made my day yesterday.

When I had informed my colleague, Ravi, that I wanted to visit the ATM branch that was about a 15min walk from office, he offered to drop me on his bike. How sweet! I felt good for the offer, but I do not seek anybody’s help unless I need it. So, I postponed my visit to another day. I wondered that had our roles been reversed, would I offer the same help to a colleague or a friend?

Another colleague, Kishore, dropped me home while returning from office yesterday. I had a meeting in 30min, and this guy was concerned whether I would be able to make it. So, instead of just leaving me on the main road, he came out of his way to drop me at my doorstep. Wow!

I was already feeling very good about having found such kind friends in a short period of time, and, to add to my joys, I got a bumper offer. Guess what? Dad visited me!!!! A surprise visit! I could not speak anything for a few minutes, imagine! He said, “I visited Chennai at a quick notice. I wanted to see you, and so, instead of taking the train back to Vizag, I got into the Bangalore train, just to see you, dear.” After hearing this, I had to fight back my tears of joy to look normal. But the smile on my face wouldn’t go away.

Last night I was tossing in bed for a long time, still grinning. Out of excitement, I just could not sleep! Wowwwwwww!!

The Good Samaritan

Today I am gonna write about a nice thing that happened to me yesterday.

I was riding at almost 50 kmph on the ITPL road amidst heavy, yet fast-moving, traffic, when the bike racing a few feet away from me came to sudden halt. I applied a sudden brake, but it was already out of my control. Thud! I hit the bike. I then wondered what had made the biker stop so suddenly, and to my surprise, there were two more bikes in front of this one. That means, this biker stopped for the same reason that I did... there were two more "thuds" before mine!! We almost made a chain of bikes.

I apologized to the biker who was immediately in front of me. He understood how I felt because he too had done the same mistake. I enquired that his name was Arun. When both of us were about to leave, I realized that my bike was not moving! OMG! What would have happened?

I checked, and found out that the wheel was misaligned slightly, and the metal dome above the wheel (donno what it is called) touched the wheel. I made an attempt to align them properly, but it was too hard for me. Seeing my efforts, Arun helped me. He had to apply a great amount of energy to bring things back into shape. I thanked him cordially, and we parted.

At that moment itself I felt that I should share my gratitude towards him with all of you, because, you would rarely expect the guy, whose bike you had hit, to help you.

I wish I had one more chance to...

I wish I had one more chance to go back to my college days.

Yes, those were the days when I cared for nothing or nobody. Those were the days when I could do whatever I wanted to do - wake up late, watch a movie leisurely, go out cycling, chit-chat with friends, do creative stuff like painting, put on the music at full volume and dance.

I did not have to worry about my household chores. There was nobody to shout at me for petty things. There was no woman Hitler rolling over me. There was no need to put up with a toddler’s tantrums.

Alas! How I wish to turn back ten years and just relax in the warmth of my parents’ affection, refresh myself with the company of my beloved sisters, and enjoy myself (doing nothing useful, of course) with my friends.

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Friends, this post was written as part of Preeti Shenoy's prompt for Wishlist Wednesday number 5.

Waiting to read her next book - The Secret Wish  List.

 

Jaanu Starts to Learn Numbers!!!

The only number that my daughter knows is thoo (two). And, recently she has started counting! Show her your fist, and she starts unfolding each finger, and counts aloud, ‘Thoo, thoo, thoo, thoo, thoo’. She concludes that you have only two fingers.

Her Dad, who always wanted her to win, asks her these questions:

‘What is one plus one?’

 ‘Thoo’, comes the answer.

‘Good. What is five minus three?’

‘Thoo.’

‘Great! What is the square root of four?’

‘Thoo.’

‘Wow! You are a child prodigy’, he exclaims dramatically. Lol!

It reminded me of a story that my Mom told me long back. A man claims that his goat can speak. Surprised to hear that, his friends gather in his house to check if that’s true.

The man gets his goat, and asks her, ‘Which is the fifth month in a year?’

‘Maeyyy’

‘Which is the month after April?’

‘Maeyyy’

‘Which is the month before June?’

‘Maeyyy’

The man turns to his friends, and says, ‘See, didn’t I tell you that she can speak?’

The Day I Shop-lifted

That was the first time, and probably, it would be the last time too.

Okay, before you turn against me, let me tell you, there’s a reason why I did that. I recently bought a sipper for my baby. Turned out that it was not the exact one that she fancied. It costed me 325 bucks, so I couldn’t scrap it either. So, I had to exchange it. But, to my grief, I lost the bill. Earlier, when I tried to exchange a dress in another shop, without the bill, the shop keeper issued a duplicate bill to me. Using the duplicate bill, I exchanged the dress. I hoped that the same thing would happen in this case, too.

So, I went to the Customer Service Desk and told them the problem. They flatly said that nothing would be exchanged without a bill. Their argument was: how would they know that it was bought from the same shop? They had a point. But, hey, given the date and time of purchase, couldn’t they track it back? I felt they were just being lazy to go back and do the research. The easiest thing for them to do was to simply deny the exchange.

I turned to leave when an idea struck me. I went to the place where the baby stuff was arranged. I placed the one I had to exchange, and picked another one of my choice (or, rather, my baby’s choice). It was priced a lot less than what I bought earlier. So I picked a packet of cashew to sum up to the price of the original sipper that I wanted to return. Thankfully, I have a huge bag that can accommodate a medium-sized water melon. J

I slowly passed the bill counter as if I had bought nothing. Kudos to my acting skills! I was happy that, finally, I got the ones that I needed, without being caught. God knows what would have happened if I were caught. But, hey, I made sure that it was almost the same price as the sipper. So, this doesn’t actually come under stealing. What do you think?

The Day I Laughed Like Crazy

This incident brings me a smile even today. It happened when I stepped into the corporate world soon after my graduation.

I returned from office with my friend and colleague, Krishna, and both of us were in his room waiting for another colleague, Naveen. Naveen and Krishna had rented the flat recently and I was happy to help them find that flat in the first place.

So, that evening, the three of us planned to have a cup of coffee. Naveen had said that he would join us later. I sent Krishna to fetch a packet of milk and coffee powder. He returned after some time with the ingredients, and the next five minutes were spent in making the wonder drink.

Just when we sat down to sip coffee, my mobile rang. It was Pinky.

‘Hi, Swathi, where are you?’

‘Hii!! I am in Krishna’s room’

‘Oh!..’ there was a pause, and then she said, ‘So, whatsup? What are you guys doing?’ she asked in a casual tone. But, I felt something was wrong. Something was fishy.

‘Oh..! We are having coffee. It would have been nice if you too were here’

‘Thanks, Swathi, you guys carry on. I will talk to you later.’

‘Hey! Don’t you want to talk to Krishna?’

Beep Beep Beep.

She had already cut the call.

‘Who was it? Naveen? Where is he now?’ enquired Krishna.

‘No, it was Pinky.’

Krishna choked, and screamed, ‘WHATTTTTTT???’

I was surprised at his expression. Why did he react so much? Pinky was Krishna’s psenti, and I knew her through Krishna. Though I never saw her, I had talked to her on the phone a couple of times before.

‘What happened?’ I asked Krishna. He had been trying to make desperate calls to Pinky, but she wouldn’t pick the call. He looked at me, and threw his hands in helplessness.

‘Arey yaar! You know what happened when I went to get milk? Pinky called me, and asked me what I was doing. I said I was busy, and cut the call. Now when she called you, you said both of us were having coffee. God knows how she found out!’ he exclaimed.

That was when I burst out laughing. Oh my God! How such a simple thing brought a big misunderstanding between the lovers!

Krishna looked furious. I controlled my laughter, finished my coffee, and made my way out, while Krishna was still busy trying to contact Pinky.

I always saw such things only in movies. I was so amazed to have experienced it myself. But, deep down inside me, I was worried if the pair would break up. You know, there are instances where people break up for such silly things, you can never predict. I shared this with my roomie, and she too rolled on the bed laughing. She said, ‘don’t worry, dear, psentis have their own way of solving such things’.

The next day when I met Krishna, I asked him if he could talk to Pinky. He nodded, and smiled. The smile told me that everything was alright.

The incident might have made the pair to fight, but that was the day I laughed like crazy.

Do you also have such an incident to share with? Do post ur comments.

Being a Technical Writer

Before I became a technical writer, I always underestimated the work. ‘Huh! Big deal… writing about how to use a product, or why to use a product must be just click this – do that…’ that was my opinion, like all the Developers and Testers. Little did I know that writing is very different from technical writing.

On my very first day as a technical writer, my Manager asked me to pick up any 5 items in my vicinity and define them. When I looked around, I found these – a table, chair, telephone, a book, and a pen. I found it silly to write about such things that we knew right when we were all toddlers. I sat down at my table with a pen and a paper. And, dear me, it was very difficult to articulate!!! I had too many words to fit in a definition. I wrote, then cut it off… then wrote again, and cut it off… For the first 5-10 minutes I would have written 5 versions of definitions just for a table and a chair… Just try it yourself. Before you read further, can somebody define a telephone for me?  These are all my versions of definitions of a telephone:

A telephone is a machine used to talk.

 Poorly written!

A telephone is a device that is used to talk.

 Can be better!

A telephone is a device that is used to communicate.

 Something is missing.

A telephone is an electronic device that is used to communicate.

 Incomplete definition!  I wrote many more versions of this definition and finally wrote this:

A telephone is an electronic device that is used to communicate between two or more people who are distributed geographically.

Phew! Finally, I arrived at the correct definition. Can you now imagine how technical writing is different from writing? I then realized why my Manager had asked me to do this exercise. It was her way of teaching me that technical writing is not as easy as we assume it to be. Or, perhaps, it was her way of testing my writing skills. That’s why whenever I find somebody talking low about technical writing, I have an urge to make them undergo this test.

The Festival of Colors

It was Holi – the festival of colors. Me and my gang of girls ensured that we had an early breakfast that day so as to escape from those spraying colors on us. After we returned, we entered the battlefield. Laughing, chatting, chasing, running, skidding continued for two hours. And then we ran out of colors. My roomie and I had a brilliant idea – that we would cycle to C’not and get some more colors. Ha! As if the tons of colors that we were soaked in were not enough!

We took out our bicycles from the shed, mounted on them, and headed towards the gate. As soon as we came out of the gate, skreacchhhh! Sudden brake… Both of us were taken aback at the sight in front of us. There were nearly fifty boys waiting outside the girls’ hostel, to catch the girls coming out. They were dressed in torn clothes soaked in mud, broken eggs, tomatoes, and of course, colors. For the first time that morning we felt that there were people who looked worse than us (pun intended).

 

A few guys saw us stopping dead near the gate, and headed towards us. But the watchman prevented them. I should really appreciate the watchman for being able to control such a large mass.

My roomie and I exchanged a look. We knew what to do. The guys were about 50m away from the gate, thanks to the watchman. We accelerated our bicycles so fast that before the guys knew it, we took a left turn and zoomed into the professors’ quarters. We giggled for such a nice escape. Little did we know that there was yet another group of guys in front of us. Oh my God! What to do now? One group behind us, and another in front of us…. We were trapped. And then, the professors’ quarters came to our rescue once again. We took a right turn and ran into the first house.

We reached the courtyard and noticed a middle-aged lady, clad in a cotton saree and colors sprinkled here and there, coming out to wish us. We wished her a happy Holi, and took her blessings. The professor came out, too, and wished us a happy Holi. Even though we had a nice time playing with colors, it felt good to receive their blessings. Then the lady went in and brought sweets. That felt like a complete Holi – fun with friends, blessings from elders, and sweets! What more do you need for a celebration?

We thanked the couple, bought colors in C’not, and after a few more escapes reached MB. Can you imagine that the 1km ride took us 1hour on bicycles? But that was the most memorable Holi in my life.