You know those days, when you step out of the house thinking this would be one good day, but it turns out to be entirely otherwise?
You have to go through almost every atrocious and ridiculous situation that your crooked mind can conjure up in it's wildest of day dreams, all your worst fears come to life and taunt you with that question, what if all of it descended on you, once and for all, what could you possibly do.
It could start with picking out the starched white kurta and churidhar, freshly ironed (after return trips to the dhobhi for the crease marks that were still visible under a lab microscope) and feeling undeniably crisp in it's sun dried freshness, paired with the perfect sandals only to step out into a rain that was ready to pour when you were five minutes from your office.
But you brave it with the thought that it's going to be a short dash before you reach the safe confines of your air conditioned office, but you are about to step onto that concrete after having jumped over and meticulously avoided the slush ponds between the unnecessary barricades on the road, and here comes superman on his bike, to save the day, but not your kurta and dips his bikes front wheel slowly into the little puddle beside the office gate just when you are close enough to get the slush splattered on your bright white churidhar and your sandals. He rolls off with an apology and you think what else could he have done, ridden on piles of gravel? He had nowhere to go but for that puddle. My bad luck really!
And then you rush to the office loo hopes of washing and drying your legs off with that dryer that is actually meant for your hand.
But you brave being stared at and after wiping off the dirt with a little water and tissue, lift your leg to the dryer and strike the awkward Ballerina pose, just to have the door of a cubicle open and reveal a startled, confused and amused, all at once, girl exiting, suppressing a giggle over what she just saw. And sigh helplessly, the leg still held up to the not-hot enough rush of air from the drier, while the girl rushes hastily to brag to her colleagues about it, or worse blog it!
You clean up and return to your seat wishing never to see that girl again for as long as you live and find that she sits, horror of horror 2 rows behind your seat.
You say, and all I wanted was a decent day! After much whiling away, scrolling documents you know nothing about up and down, it's lunch time. You grab your lunch and walk to the cafeteria, wave out to your gang of girls, they smile warmly back but the holmes in you just can't stop telling you 'May be they know of the dancing queen debacle?' You brush it aside and mumble a hello before settling down to eat. And one of them promptly points out, Wrong season for a white eh?
Yeah, the word has spread! And the other one whines continuously about the state of her visa application, to which you just have to be comforting. Another calls your most revered films 'dud', 'boring'...but it infuriates you more when they call it slow and worse confusing. And now you can't keep your mouth shut and say hey, that's a cult classic and is actually a most appreciated work. They stare. Oh Dear! And then impassively ask; 'Where?'. You say 'Here and there and around' (hoping they realise that you are quoting one such film), how were you supposed to be prepared to answer that?? 'Yeah right!' They drawl. Oh God! here it comes....'You know I can never get why she likes some movies that she likes'. You force yourself to shut up time and again, but then it does explode on their faces, 'Hey, it's a free country people!'. They laugh. 'hehehahahhohoho'. Ok, you've done enough damage to yourself, now just join in and laugh at yourself, we all know you are the one who runs the entire imdb, but just laugh now , please...will you? 'hehehahahhohoho'. Attagirl!
Then you get back to stalking wikipedias, music stations and again scrolling of documents. Finally, it's 5 and you start getting ready to leave, start saying your ta-ta bye-byes over the im, When your boss whom you wanted to put on the ignore list pings you and informs you that you have a call with some xyz at 6, 'can you take it today?'. You know she knows how jobless you are ad you can't possibly turn down the only little bit that is vaguely related to work, even if it is to arrive the moment you are about to step into the elevator. So you say, of course I would, as if you were born to do this. And stay back, putting your status as invisible on the im, just in case the coterie that you just bade ta tas found out. And finally when everything's done and dusted, it' 7, the house keeping folks want you to leave your cubicle, they want your dustbin that you have inverted and been abusing as a footrest. You see, they change the cover everyday, just in case you decided to miraculously drop some garbage in it. Of course they didn't know enough to collect the garbage from your drawer instead.
And when you finally when you are in the elevator, the workaholic, bespectacled guy enters (yeah one of those whom you said ta ta to over the im about 2 hours back) and smiles you a 'Isn;t that too late for someone as jobless as you? Why don't you get a broadband connection at home instead?'
uggghhh!
Okay, you take a deep breath, tell yourself, 'there's a whole 5 more hours of the day left. No worries!'
Your husband is there to pick you up. Sweet! You gladly sit at the backseat, and speed off, no puddles this time, the sun has been out all day long! You near home, and then there are these few heavy droplets on your hand. Oh Dear! It soon turns into a downpour. Oh God! 'You had to get the bloody bike. Whatever happened to that bloody car??' 'Stop swearing, we're almost there'. Shut up shut up....5 hours, just 5 more hours!
You are at the gate, you dog gleefully puts a paw on your dress, leaving a nice brown print, you scream at him. Hubby is in tow, says 'Open the door, I got him.'
You are finally in the safety of your house. Read the fridge for what could be the quickest dinner that can be made in...let's say 10 minutes?
he he, You ask hubby dear; 'Upma and sugar' 'Will do' God I love this man!
You chop up onions a la greased lightning, light the stove, put the wok and start frying the onions. You have the rava out into the container (it was a bit wet right, what the heck, we'll stir it in minutes anyway, no worries' And just when you thought everything was fine, the last remaining cylinder in the house runs out of gas. Damn!

'If anything can go wrong, it will'. Yeah, but sometimes everything seems to go awry, to an extent that you think the whole world is conspiring against you, wanting to bring you down, having that cruel last laugh. Everything, everyone, the weatherman, the biker, the blower, the girl from the cubicle, your 'friends', your boss, the nerd, your pooch and now good old LPG. It looks like it has been carefully plotted. But you tell yourself, don't be stupid. ha!

Labels: Why so serious?

Posted by Sat at 1:12 PM
91 comments

This phrase is the most abused in bollywood, mostly an excuse to show the hero and heroine getting all kinky…hehehe But this is no such post. So if you thought that this post is going to be like those B grade movies, shady TV channels play after the normal world goes to sleep, you can put those notions to rest!
Having said that…this is all about Chennai’s most welcome showers. Think the months of March, April, May; it means endless roasting in the searing heat of Chennai’s merciless ‘Agninakshatram’. (The nerves of mister Mani to name a cool movie after this..!). You have to find umpteen number of ways to save your skin, well literally. At first when I saw a ponytailed girl vrooming away in her scooty wearing a white version of those long gloves that Audery Hepburn last wore with her Givenchy gown in Breakfast at Tiffany, I couldn’t help wondering at the girl’s audacity to pair it with a kurti and chudithar. But my husband quickly clarified that it was to protection from the almighty sun! Cool! In fact I carry a long blue umbrella with me be it any day, rain or shine. And the only good thin about Chennai’s summer is mangoes and they bring in more heat anyway. Such is the cursed life of Chennai-ites and then….’Ghanan Ghanan, Ghan Ghanan Ghanan’; in true Lagan fashion there’s a whole colony of clouds in the sky; and the shower with so much glee…Oh is there anything else we can ask for. And then, like I said, in true Lagaan style, all that disappears after a brief drizzle, long enough to wet all the clothes our maid had meticulously hung for drying in our backyard! Uggghhhh! God sure’s a trickster; at least his weather man is. And they both chose this oven of a city to play their tricks on. I shall write again about the true blue sawan ka mahina, complete with pakodas and boats; you ask me what that is. You’ll have to wait my dears J

Music On: Superfreak
Mood: Lazy
P.S: I know I have been absent for an unreasonably long time. Too much Aani :’(
P.P.S: By the way it’s my 100th post ;)

Labels: Chennai, Why so serious?

Posted by Sat at 8:09 PM
254 comments

I think I am writing this post at the right time with the US elections going on and Hilary Clinton tries to net the ultimate goal. But is the world ready yet to take on a woman as their leader?
And is it really true, that for all the equality and freedom that corporates promise, women still have to battle it to their way to the top and struggle more to stay there?
Do women really make awful managers or are the men plain prejudiced?
If you are a woman reading this…have you ever felt that a certain man has a problem reporting to you but wont mind doing the same to your male peer?
Yes and no…it depends. But the truth is that women would still have to fight off people who think that they are not fit for their job and that they took a position which otherwise could have gone to a more capable man. And the more they answer back to disprove this myth; the more they are labeled to be ruthless or end up becoming targets
Partly because some men are biased in their attitudes towards the gender.
Partly because, of some women getting it all wrong in the family vs career juggle.
The first one is obvious. But how about the second one?...well the fact that most men are prejudiced that women may not carry a task forward with the same efficiency as a man might be a result of the fact that most women lose focus after their personal life becomes more engaging (kids,marriage etc) or they were plain indifferent to start with!

Let me talk within the realms that I am familiar with; which I suppose would be applicable to any office. When I started out as a fresher we were a team of 15…5 of which being women
Now of these 5, 1 was a married woman who was more bothered about the curry she had to cook back at home than completing her task at work. The other, was not interested in impressing anyone, did her job at her own pace, completed it nevertheless, but was not bothered about taking up an initiative or putting something extra into her work; reason being; “I’ll get married one day and coolly fly off with my Husband to US. This job is only to keep me occupied until then!”.

Now the rest of us put in as much efforts as we possibly could, which were in no way less than what the rest of the team (read men) did. But the manager had become biased enough and took it for granted that the rest of the women were also okay…but not brilliant. Yep, how many of you know of a brilliant lady in your office…I am not talking smart but brilliant; the one with the brains, not just the smooth talker. Take your time to think, but I am sure there are; just not acknowledged!

So the half that is not really concerned about their career and opt to work only to supplement the family’s income; please; you are ruining it for a lot others who have greater plans.
And to men who might stop generalizing and actually start seeing that women can also run their own show!

Which brings me to the next question ….can women really run a show?
Do they really make good managers or do they end up shooting themselves on their foot?
Again; yes and no. A woman is organized no doubt, but too by-the-book a boss and is a bit stifling at times. And not to mention they tend to be biased; needless to say they ironically favour someone from the opposite sex. The ones at the top are so bothered of being targets of a system that might want to get them down one way or the other; they tend to be over cautious not to let others have a chance to do so; and this caution kills speed and they end up becoming poor decision makers. But on the contrary if the woman puts her foot down to what she needs done, braving all odds….chances are she might end up being called brash or foolish or even a tyrant! Beats me….what is it that the world wants huh?

P.S: This post is definitely not because of what happened in my office....frankly, i among those who don't give a damn about it;at least for now :)
P.P.S: Okay...I confess; one of the lable is The Dark Knight's tagline :)


Mood: Okay
Song On: Kids

Labels: Office, Why so serious?

Posted by Sat at 8:50 AM
8 comments