Road Rage

I went for this event today- the Toastmasters Humorous Speeches or something to that effect. So it wasn't a roll uncontrollably on the floor laughing type speech but some had their moments definitely. There was this one guy who talked about traffic in Hyderabad which I totally identified with. Seriously, for all those who think Bangalore is bad , you should come to Hyderabad. So he says, in Hyderabad you need to live on assumptions for your wife to let you out of the house every morning..Mostly importantly, the assumption that you are immortal, since that is the only way you can survive here...so a few more funny rules etc.Oh one about traffic on the left lane has to turn right, traffic in the centre has to go straight and traffic on the right lane has a mix of both right and straight.
Then he also talked about the traffic lights. So green indicates- Go, Orange- Go Faster, and Red- Check and see if there are any cops around, traffic from the other side and then go and this last bit is so true. In bangalore, only in the early mornings and in the night do people not pay heed to traffic signals at all. Here it can be any time of the day and the guy actually has the audacity to tell me- "Go, cant you see?" What the hell am I supposed to be seeing? The red signal light in front of me?

The grass is always greener on the other side

I've been working from the Bangalore office for the past two days since I wanted to be at home for this week and the concept of taking leave seems to be unusual..Anyway the first day was ok, but today I went in to the office where I used to work earlier and I really cant believe I'm saying this but I actually felt like coming back for a second. I met alot of people I had interacted with earlier and it was nice catching up. Someone remarked " This is the first time we've missed a HR person" and it made me feel really good! There's some kind of familiarity and comfort that you build by interacting with the same people, they want to talk to you about their problems and things and I really miss that. Connecting with people on the floor is such a different feeling from being constantly on the alert for Presidents/CXO level though I still cant figure out which one I prefer.

So the things I miss about working in Bangalore
1. People who send you an email and then come to your place before you even have a chance to read the mail
2. Stupid jokes..
3. Being forced to be a part of Founders Day celebrations(no I am not going to attend it)
4. Having colleagues so engrossed(not sure if that is the right word)with their work, they dont have that much time to just catch up with you
5. having a mentor, a phone call away
6. Lunch at the cafeteria
7. FMG folks
8. Looking for files(its really a wonder how one's job can revolve around a file sometimeS)
9. Thinking about employee engagement & birthdays...
10. Entering your laptop no & emp ID in a register in every single building, every floor you go to(I'm kidding, I'm so glad i dont have to do this on a daily basis)

3000Rs is all they toook

So in current shocking news, burglars broke into my house in Bangalore on Sunday, for the second time! scary isnt it? My parents had gone out for dinner and when they got back, they found the house locked from the inside. So they called the police etc etc... Like the first time, all the clothes n stuff from the cupboards lay strewn on the floor and they had gone through everything. Luckily, the only thing they took was Rs 3000... Its funny(good nonetheless) that money(whatever little bit) was the only valuable thing in my house. The first time we got robbed, they took stuff like my school blazer and my dads suits!

My parents seem more preoccupied about my cousins engagement at the moment and have kinda brushed it off already. My dad did mention getting a permanent watchman and things but nothing has materialised as yet. Hopefully something does happen though or well Hannah & I will make a big enough scene about it and things will happen:)

I also had the harrowing experience of registering my car over here(ok i'm being over dramatic I'm sure but it was bad). First of all, the Maruti dealer told me it would take me 5 minutes, IT DIDNT! I was there at 10:00am and left at 12:30pm. There was alot of waiting in between with some random token numbers being called out at intervals..All of that as fine till I got inside. We had formed a semblance of a line and this annoying lady decides to cut the queue. So the RTO guy told her to move behind. She plonks herself behind me & I know these type so I firmly told her to go to the back of the line. She tells me, yes I'm just standing here.
Me: Ok, fine, but I'm going next, after this guy(point at the guy in front of me)
Annoying lady: Ok, ok
Keeps pushing behind me & then once the guy in front of me finishes, she drops her papers on the table.
Me: (In Hindi)- What the hell are you doing? I specifically told you I was after this guy
Annoying lady: Its ok..
Me: No, its not ok.. Excuse me(to the RTO guy), you saw me here before this lady.
RTO guy: We'll do yours as soon as we finish hers
Me: I was here before her!!
RTO guy: It'll be done quickly
Me(to annoying lady): How could you do this when I told you I was after him
Annoying lady : Its only one, whats the big deal
Me: What do you think, i'm getting it done for a 100 people?
Anyway I shant continue the dialogue bit but it took a whole lot of self control for me not to hit her..She finishes, I finish, I see her outside...I point to her & actually call her a b***h, she pretends she cant hear me talking...What is the point, seriously!!

One Tequile, Two Tequila...

For most people, this has been a 4 day weekend whereas for me the weekend is just beginning...We had the board meeting yesterday so Thursday was spent preparing for it and yesterday was spent hanging around since people would give you random work to do. My Corporate Affairs President, needed me around to transfer 40MB of data to his laptop...don't ask, seriously!!and then once that was done, he decided to give me loads of work to do for the weekend even though he knew we had a review today...Kind, indeed!

Today's review however went off surprisingly ok. There is not a single person I know who feels completely confident in front of this man but today was different since he seemed relatively happy with everyone almost.. Post review, a few of us decided to go to TGIF to get lunch & maybe a movie. At TGIF, we talked & we bitched about everyone & everything..Yet we didn't really go into the specifics of our reviews out of politeness more than anything else I guess. After we finished the second tequila shot(Happy Hours woo hoo!!), I realised that people wouldn't be out drinking if things went down bad.I guess just one person being in a good mood, made all the difference.

I still have parking issues..Im wondering whether that is a good enough reason to move..Its such a stressful exercise to have to find parking outside your house on a daily basis. This is going to be a constant complaint so for those who it bothers(namely Priya), stop reading my blog for awhile :)

Ambitions

Today a very sweet 8 year old interviewed me. She had listed her ambition as becoming a CEO of the company so one of her assignments was to meet a CEO and get him to answer a couple of her questions. Now im far away from being the CEO or even thinking like a CEO but her father got her to interview me as well to humour me I guess, still not sure what purpose it served. So here I am thinking, this is going to be cute right?
Nope...Her first question:
1. How do you get so many employees to work towards the same goal?
That one stumped me for a bit,hmm what is the same goal first of all??
2. What are the tools you use to run your organisation?
I have absolutely no clue what exactly she even means by tools
3. What happens when you fall ill, how do you manage to get your work done?
4. Is it difficult to manage people?
Where would I start and how would I put it politely?
5. Do you like your work?
Its difficult to answer that from a CEO's perspective I think. Does he like the fact that he probably would be traveling for 25 out of 30days in a month which means that much less time with family or does he like the amount of money he can earn being a CEO?How does one answer these questions??
There were a couple more but I think she was so dissatisfied with my answers, she stopped writing them down halfway. Even an 8 year could see I had a long way to go! Luckily, she had actually interviewed a CEO before me so all was not lost..Maybe I should ask her to send me the answers when she's done with her assignment...

I know you want me....

My new favourite meaningless song , you know the kinds you can dance to but when you listen to the lyrics, you wonder what is happening to the music of "this" generation?

Hyderabadi Style...

My weekend would've really sucked if I didnt end up going to my aunts place this evening. I've told alot of people about how angry I was coz of a stupid gas leak so I shant really get into that. What annoyed the crap outta me was that this seems to be a regular feature here. People say they'll come at a particular time but end up coming whenever they feel like & are not even apologetic about it!!I'm not the most punctual person but atleast I have the decency to feel bad about being late!
Anyway, I went to my aunts place and ended up having really good haleem & red wine. Odd combination I know but just made up for the crappy weekend. I've never seen this much advertising for haleem in my life. I love how people in different states have different things they get immersed in..a different cultural experience for sure.

I've realised that Im getting a little spoilt at the MS office. First of all the work station I sit at is waaaaay nicer than the one I had earlier & secondly there is an office boy who has come to know that I fancy a cup of tea in the morning & coffee in the afternoon to keep me awake and he actually remembers it & does the needful on a daily basis. How awesome is that??In my earlier office, we couldnt have liquids anywhere other than the canteen.

I've realised there are huge plus points to being in a relationship. I was telling an extremely unsympathetic friend about this new route I had discovered to m home from office & he proceeded to tell me how "interested" he was in the conversation. Now if you have a significant other, he always wants to/ is forced to listen to these stories & either make the right comments or ask the right questions.. how do single people manage to keep all the seemingly boring details about their lives to themselves???