Friday, January 28, 2011

"If you don't understand my silence, you will never understand my words!"

... he was not in his usual mood anyway... the Gallup's result was out and the rumors were rife that a meeting for the results' review will be held anytime... there was an undercurrent of excitement with the poker face plastered over the subtle smile...

... and then the D-day came ... we were asked to gather in the conference room... and with the chuckles and suppressed laughter the mood was quite ... umm... upbeat? ... the thing is... almost awl our team members (rather group mates) gave the lowermost scores in the G12 survey ... and or HOD's Gallup score was @ rock bottom ...

... the meeting started with a simple objective to identify why our group scored low ... and after the 'warm-up' it was getting better and better with more and more people opening up and at least for the duration of the meeting He appeared to be on the back-foot ... defending and sometimes with childish energy countering all the 'attack' by the younger team members...

... the immediate fallout of the meeting was introduction of '3 shifts' ... A, B and G ... in rotation ... now shifts are pain in arse... specially when u r NOT working dedicatedly on CAD ... but then... shifts are good... for once u get to wake-up 5 in the morning and then drive awl the way to the office... and then when the entire company is lazying around after the lunch, your official day is already over ...

... also for once u get to wake-up at your convenience ... do awl the lazy stuff u always wanted to do in the day ... i mean the dishes the laundry the FB updates the emails the chat the phone calls and etc etc... and then u reach the office when everyone is in the pack-up mood... u get some time to catch-up with the rest of the colleagues and just when u r all geared-up for the 'day' the evening takes over the senses... and then... well... the 'day' starts ...

... productivity gayi tel lene! as long as u r coming in shifts u r 'working' ... now whoz going to argue with the balding heads with grey hair?? ... so 'we' decided to follow the shift schedule strictly and it's been fun! ...

... one interesting fall-out was i 'missed' the weekly project review meeting... however... the good thing is, some of those who attended the meeting were very excited about it ... the smile grin on their faces was so... ummm... sheepish? ... now... i am tempted to write in detail but then i will be compromising on the TCoC ... so keeping the excitement with me ... u enjoy some splice of the Imagineering 10-11


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

... "We are but older children, dear, Who fret to find our bedtime near"...

... it is getting drab ... and for some reasons the new editor i am using in this blog is NOT letting me keep the posts in the order i want them to be in!... sheh! ... this is going to add to the frustration ... and i am not in that magnanimous mood of mine to let it go just like that! ...

... anyway ... who can stop the post whose time has come! ;-) ... it is forty minutes past midnight and i returned from office about an hour ago... and just when i was about to park my vista i noticed a rangoli at the front gate ... and then another interesting figure on my ODO ... now since i still don't own a camera phone (yet!) ... so i have missed some earlier milestones ... but this one was easy to capture ... so all i had to do was click! :-)







Tuesday, January 25, 2011

..."If u wait for happy moments u will wait forever, but if u start believing that u r happy, u will be happy forever"...

... the excitement was palpable and the air was charged with anticipation... me and sharry decided to leave @ three from the office and decided to book the Candy White Skoda Fabia (Ambiente) with petrol engine...

... his parent were supposed to arrive from their native along with some monetary help... and they did arrive in the afternoon... so i went o this place... took  some tea and then we headed to the showroom... the whole process was more or less... ummm... quiet and .... ummm.... sober (?) :-p

... the money quickly changed hands and left Sharry one lac poorer! ... and then we lingered on in the showroom... going thru the accessories' list and el... and then decided to leave ... and wait for our expected delivery date of January 25 ...

Friday, January 21, 2011

..."... Baby You're A Firework..."...

... first things first ... birthday wishes to AC bhai!! ... never ever i thought u will land in Poona and we will meet and then to top it all i'll be meeting ur better half as well! ... so cheers to the surprises of life and this post dedicated to you and MG... may the Lord bless u both a happy healthy married life together! amen! :-)

... and here's Katy Perry Firework song ...

... and SRW bought an Acer Aspire laptop ...

... and i bought a 500 GB Seagate external HDD ...

Friday, January 14, 2011

... "... Invisible Mood, Network 18 and Chit-Chat..."...

... it is not everyday that u end up talking with good old friends... with the kind of lifestyle we have become habitual to... it is the technology that seems to be keeping us together... so it was no surprise that while i was taking my time to scan thru the photo album a friend shared with me... and while i was going thru this album i spotted this lean girl with colgate smile and my grey cells started turning and churning! ... i knew her and still was not sure where to place her in my long life... and so i asked this friend of mine and before this friend of mine cud respond this lean girl answered my question... and to top the failure of my 'human intelligence' she reminded me that we knew each other before we even started the formal schooling!!! ...

... and i was feeling homesickingly-nostalgic!!! ... and then we chatted around and things went 'normal' ... and then it was sunday and i decided to call her... it was early by the Sunday morning standards and she answered in sleepish voice ... it was good chit-chat ....

... and then she pinged me today ... and we chatted away... and i summarized my past decade in less than about six lines! ... no wonder i always liked the 'saaransh likhiye' part of languages! ;-) ... anyways... while chatting around i realized that i am no longer the same me i used to be... i have changed alot... and that self-realization also highlighted the 'fact' that i may no longer view the world (people actually!) with the same viewpoint i used to seem them from in the past... and while this may appear to be shrouded in a notion of negativity i guess this is pretty much normal... we all experience something or the other and we all adapt in response to surprisingly large number of stimuli ...

... but then this is me! ...

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

..."To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."...

... so there she was... in the foyer... all red... 'flash red' actually... with dual tone dashboard... black and beige... and we couldn't keep ourselves from touching her! ... the all new skoda fabia is one fab car... (i STILL like the aggression of the Volkswagen Polo though!!)... Fabia is oh-so-coy looking... we wanted to know about the car... but the Fabia pamphlet was 'out-of-stock' ... really?? ... is it so much popular?? ... we realized that the two Fabias that were ogling at us were actually ready to be delivered to their patrons ... but we still managed to get the a test drive... and to be honest our enthusiasm was dampened! ... the ride was German ... in simple words hard... we were getting nervous ... with Polo already strike out of the shopping list option... we feared that we might end up with the cars of the lesser god...

... and then came the Knight with the shining armor... with his calm smile came seedhay saadhay Akshay ... we were pouring our heart out ... what unnerved him was our statement that Ritz is better when it comes to acceleration with its high revving engine... so he asked us to buckle-up and offered us a test ride ... yep! you heard it right it was a test ride and not a test drive... Akshay was in the driver's seat and Sharry in co-driver's ... i was trying to buckle in the rear but then the seat belt stalk was no where to be seen... i decided to hang-on to something...

... and then we were awestruck!! ... Skoda Fabia can pull three adults with AC on with such an ease that i felt slight disappointment on my Vista ... and i am comparing petrol versions of both the cars... and as if the ride and handling and NVH were not up-to-the-mark... we became involved in the live braking test... the Fabia was brought to a halt from decent high speed... and no squeaking no squealing no screeching and no skidding and that too in a straight line... alright this one had ABS but wat i am trying to say is that we were left super impressed with the Test-Ride ... and then more or less the winner was chosen ...

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

... "If the room is dark for 25 yrs, it does not take 25 yrs to light it up..."...

... i was excited, and even though it was a bit tiring january one twenty eleven... the fact that it was Sunday on second AND we were supposed to visit the Skoda for our next test drive made me wide-eyed ... and i was all ready to visit SPP's place by Nine... as agreed earlier ...

... and there we were... at the Skoda showroom... and guess what?... it was closed... and then we were informed that it will open at noon... still two and a half hours at our disposal... so we thought of visiting Maruti's showroom across the road... the only hitch? the next available U turn was 2.5 kms ahead... but then who was complaining?? :-p

... and there we decided to seriously evaluate the options from the Maruti's stable ... and zeroed on Ritz... we had the option to burn some gas in the test vehicle or simply say bye and head back to Skoda... we decided to burn some gas! ;-)

... now to be honest... Suzuki Ritz with the K series engine is a worthy competitor in the ever heating hatch segment... infact it far better value for money when compared with the firangi models... and maybe (just maybe!) better VFM than a Tata!...

... but as they say, there is no control over heart... we were getting more and more attracted towards the Skoda Fabia... and there she was...in the foyer... seductively looking at us... (to be continued...)


and for the inquisitive readers here is the original status message on a friends' FB profile::
"If the room is dark for 25 yrs it doesnot take 25 yrs to light it up, it all takes one connection, one switch on and the whole darkness goes away..."

Thursday, January 6, 2011

... "If you cannot see the bright side of the life, polish the dark side of it"...

... 00:40 ... read my car's digital clock... i had carried my full sleeve pullover... although i was not feeling to pull-it-over myself yet... as we drove out of One-Lounge, A-MG reiterated that i stay back... but then it was our 'working' day on One One Eleven although the production plant was closed... so i dropped them off and drove back ... i remember waking up quite fresh even though this was after (about) two hours of mindless shaking of entire body and five hours of sleep...


... first i got a call from my car service centre... my Vista was due for the service and i told the that they can pick-up the car from the company... and then nothing extraordinary in the office... but as the day was turning into evening i received an offer... nope! not the job offer... nor to 'attend' any party... the offer was simply to visit the car dealers to finalize on one hot hatchback... and i happily obliged! :-)

... after few calls we decided to visit the Volkswagen dealer in Poona... apparently there is only ONE in poona!!! ... we decided to visit first the Skoda dealer... but then i got a call from the Service Station... the Vista was ready for delivery after six... i looked at my watch... it was five... no time to waste we decided to go ahead to visit the dealers... first stop to my service station, asked the engineer to keep the car with the security ... next stop Skoda showroom... and we found it closed... and then we rushed to the VW ...

... thanks to the accuracy of the Google Maps and collective effort of my grey cells... we reached the dealer with fairly no wrong turns... good thing about the location of the dealer is that it is in the middle of the city... the bad thing about the location of the dealer is that it is in the middle of the city!! ...


... we decided to get the look and feel of the Volkswagen Polo without any delay... and boy-oh-boy! these Germans know how to build an automobile!! ... the thuddish clunk sound of the door is oh-so-impressive!! the steering wheel is so grippingly rich in feel... i was already feeling comfy in the driver's seat... and the seat! yep! they 'hold' u in right places ... and with the proper adjustment for height (only in the top end variant!) u can have a reasonably good 'view' ahead ...

... the switch gear feels premium and the dashboard is driver oriented... some clever, or i should say very cleaver, design cues... like the parcel tray parking slot!... i loved every part of the car... except for the fact that the base version is NOT suitable for the (somewhat) vertically challenged people ... and then comes the worse part... even if i pay 50K i still don't get that height adjustment!!! WTeF!! ...

....now... we were already feeling not-so-good about the car but decided to go for that test drive anyway... and now the interesting part... to engage the car in reverse gear u have to push the gear lever down and then put it in the 'traditional' first gear position... yep! i know that sounds weird... but it was very very interesting... given the 'push' feel of the lever was... ummm... exquisite!! :-) ... and then the next surprise... VW Polo has the switch gear straight from the LHD type cars... which means the stalk for the turn indicators is on the left and if u want to use the wipers use the stalk on the right... so on my first test drive of the Polo ... i switched on the wipers when i actually wanted to turn on the left indicator!!

... we winded up the trip with goody goody feeling about the car but with a heavy sigh that it will cost us a bomb if we were to actually enjoy the features! ... so now the hopes were hinging on the Skoda Fabia... that was to be tested on January 02... and that ride was Fab! ... keep reading ... keep motivating... and keep commenting! :-D

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

..."Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose"...

... the end of year twenty ten and beginning of year twenty eleven was marked with several activities that were never thought of... at-least not by me! ... while i am tempted to do a write-up on the twenty ten... i am not going to do that; not now...

... my visit to A-MG was pending from some time... so i sms'd if they were in town and AG called back... they were. so i decided to join 'em for this exhibition of consumer goods in the City... somewhat in-line with the trade fairs that have become another face of Dilli... and i realized that it was SRW Jr's birthday as well... so i decided to buy some gifts from there ... while we returned back to A-MG's place, they opened a White Wine bottle (i am pretty sure it was already 'opened'!) ... and poured in two glasses... for themselves... and then started the mischief ... i was asked to join them... and i 'reminded' 'em that i don't drink... AG insisted and i relented though asking him to pour enough to 'taste' it... i recalled my earlier dinner out with some colleagues and i 'smelled' the wine... horrible! eew! :-p ... ne-ways... i was given a spoonful to taste and somehow i finished it! ... and then rushed to SRW's place to wish the birthday boy... and while driving back i got a call from AKA... but then this will veer off to some other topic...

... and this was one day after Santa left my sock wet!! damn!... meanwhile i was daydreaming about my New Year Trip ... it was still on very stages of preparation (and by this time it was only mental preparation!) ... and then AMG asked if i can join for the New Year bash... i said yes AND for some reason (better known to Lord!) i asked them to hold on for that 'stag' pass... there was palpable anxious excitement ... and then i asked her if she wud like to come along for the new year party... she said she will let me know... i said tell me by evening so that i can arrange for the passes and then she said she will go with her college friends and i can go ahead by myself... so... ummm... u get the picture...

... and there i was, with AMG in One Lounge and then came the big surprise... No! she was not there... the big surprise was that i decided to take Red wine... for the first time in my life i wanted to order 'alcohol' ... No! i was not feel sad or bad... i just wanted to taste it! for the heck of it! for once... that's it! ... i was awl in my senses and i decided to be served with one glass of Red wine...

... and then we danced for the rest of the year!... and of course came the next set of events ... another surprise... and i was still awl in my senses... keep visiting this space...



(the title is courtesy of RocKvaRuN from his latest and another powerful inspiring post)