Wednesday, May 30, 2007

URK URK URK

Before any nincompoop asks, that's the sound of complete and utter frustration at how wrong things can go!!!

Tues Wed: Mr Mundra is supp to land up in Singapore to grant us a darshan of his pretty face, he loses his passport. And files an FIR to retrieve it. Oh and lets not forget, cancels his trip!

Thurs Fri: Ms Sharmili is supposed to join me and friends on the much awaited island getaway to Perhantian, Malaysia. 30 minutes before i board the bus to KL, we find out her ECNR isnt coming through and so NO visa happening at KL. She has to come straight to Singapore. ARRRGGHHH!! Yes yes, the point of the trip was meeting her and painting the town red. The point was being with each other after 4 months of a mere 6 hours spent together and before god knows how long considering she's about to start out on an MBA soon (oh and don't even get me started off on what the bloody degree does to perfectly normal people and their priorities) and yes i should be happy she's even landing.

But cmon! I deserve to be able to crib! Its been months since a vacation that i can indulge in the memories of (and happily so). The last was decent, Mumbai with family and friends, but u know how visiting home is never really a 'vacation'. The one before that .. and before that.. and before that ... oh im still trying to do an 'Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind' on those! And the one before was Unmaad 2006!! More than 14 months ago :( Im changing assignments soon, and this is the PERFECT time to take a break, when ive more or less wrapped up prior committments and am yet to take on new ones .. and a vacation wudve been SOOO perfect!!

Am heading out to a sinful dinner with BM to make up for the lousy lousy way things today, and this month and this year in general have turned out. Yes i have faith and all that jazz. Yes yes there's a silver lining somewhere, but right now the darkness of the clouds is just too much to let me see anything ok! So give the optimism a rest and let me crib. (where's kinks when i need a listener the most!, oh wait, he's in MALAYSIA on the same island we were supp to join him at!!!) URK URK URK URK URK and MORE URK!!!

Phew... ok to be perfectly honest, im totally kicked that she's even here tomorrow and im on leave another 5 days :DDDDD But let a woman indulge will ya? :-)

Monday, May 21, 2007

And of great cities ...

This is a post i promised a blogger friend I'd def post. She's a mother of 2 I completely adore and admire. Plug her blog to everyone who's willing to listen. I think most working mothers in P&G now avoid me coz they don't wanna hear anymore plugging of this blog! :P Kidding!! But its so funny that even in my singleton unmarried status at 25, i can so relate to the things she writes about. As i tell my friends when i plug her blog, she has the ability to take the most specific incidents of her life and turn them into incisive discussions that would interest even the non mother population of the world. I bumped into her through another friend (yeah talk about a SMALL world!) and while i spoke to her today also started plugging my other favorite thing - Singapore :) Unlike most others who dismiss me as a fool when i start waxing eloquent about this city, she simply asked me "why so?". I promised her this blog. And i'll deliver on that, regardless of how late it is :)

Why is this a really good city to live in:

Let me admit upfront, Singapore is no fancy city. Its not aspirational. I've heard a hajaar people tell me they'd like to live in NY or London atleast once in their lives. And what's that about anyway? The movies shot there? The books that center around them? Everyone tells me these cities have that 'certain something' about them that you can't possibly put into words. Fine, ill buy the whole, u can quantify everything argument. And ill admit upfront, Singapore has none of that 'undefinable' charm. So why would i go around recommending it so strongly to everyone i know? Lemme list as is tradition :)

1. Its an organized city. Yes, shun me for loving organized things and places. But im not bleddy asking honeymooning couples to come here. Im telling you, its a good city for people with families. Not for adventurers and people with the scuba diving spirit (you know what i mean). Come to SG if u want stability and order, discipline in your life. If you have 2 kids or plan to have them soon. Coz this city will give you the stability and support your life needs thereafter.

2. Public transport rocks. Buses connect the farthest parts of the city. They're airconditioned and comfortable. So are trains. And cabs are cheap. Unlike in London, or any other European city where you'd hesitate to take a cab home, this is a city that makes cabs available even to procterites. And considering how much band 1 and 2 level procterites get paid, thats saying a lot! :)

3. You get domestic help. Ok you can beat me up all you like, but i love getting a warm cooked meal when i get home. I can cook, and not just to save my life. But cooking out of interest gets flushed down the drain when this becomes a daily obligation to yourself as an alternative to slaving in the kitchen, going hungry or eating out every single night. And so the maid steps in. I also like my house to be nice and clean as far as possible. I dig the whole weekly bathroom cleaning, and being able to invite people over without having to think twice about accumulated dishes or mess of any sort. I love getting my morning chai, and getting some breakfast instead of trugding wearily to work everyday. So curse me all you want, but a maid is a luxury i completely enjoy and utilize. I saw my own mother slog away her life between running to work and managing house, cooking 3 square meals a day and end up tired and weary, turning down promotions for our sakes and all that. Im sure she doesnt regret them, im sure it was out of love and didnt feel like 'sacrifice', but id like to believe that i studied like a maniac to ensure i had a comfortable life when i was in my 20s and 30s. And i like being able to get that here in this city.

Now on domestic help itself: For a nominal amount per month you can have a live in maid. (Don't oh please, don't get started on the whole, call them maids or call them co workers or call them queen Elizabeth - i give 2 hoots for nomenclature so dont u start on that!) They're professional, you don't have to feel guilty about treating them bad, coz there's clear rules on whats acceptable and what's not. You can teach them to cook your cuisine and manage the house the way you want. If your not satisfied, say it politely, show them how to do it and it'll likely get done exactly like that without any naatak. If you're a working mom, then you can go to work guilt free coz ur kids will get taken care of. If ur an SAHM (like my blogger friend is), then you get that extra little bit of help with keeping the place spic and span, and getting help with the kids when you need an extra hand. You can focus on the children, and don't have to worry about cleaning the bathrooms and keeping the kitchen roach free. You get what u asked for, a great experience watching your kids grow, vs having to grapple with tons of stuff that tires you out at the end of the day.

4. Its a safe city. I have experience of only 3 cities before this, Bombay, Madras and Bangalore. In all 3, I was advised to have male company when i ventured out late. Here, i take a cab alone at 2 am and i feel safe. U know what it feels like to FEEL safe right? Its not jus about being safe, its that mental state of calm, knowing that you can go and come as you please, you can wear what you want without getting deprived wolf like stares and getting visually undressed by undesirable elements. So yes, its a safe city for women. And for families in general. With very little history of mugging, theft and the like.

5. Its bloody convenient. Of course domestic help is one dimension of convenience, but shopping for groceries is not an ordeal. U can order them online. No - you dont have to do the weekly Mustafa thing. For friends who've lived here for years and still arent using Shivsagar online, please call me tomorrow and take the damn number will ya? Moving on, all bills get paid online. No long queues or month long wait for an electric connection or for fixing a broken pipe. Things move darned quick. And it makes your life simple, esp if u have 3 babies who need your time and attention more.

6. Its close to India. Time diff is 2.5 hrs so u can call ur folks without having to plan the call time a great deal. And they can do the same. Flying to India is quick and convenient. And for those who want their kids to grow up in their formative years around other indian kids, here's a city that gives you enough of that. Many many hubs where indians reside, send their kids to school and the like. You'll never feel away from home. Flying to India and back doesnt cost a bomb, so your family can visit often. And you can do the same.

7. The taxes are really low. Unlike in the UK or ANZ where you blow most of your income paying the government, you get to save a lot of your hard earned money here. The cost of living is usually pretty decent by most payscale standards and lets you save enough. With a currency much stronger than most others, this means you get to invest in properties and equities back home and make good use of your money.

8. Its a small city. I used to think twice before i stepped out in Bombay. Coz my parents could only afford an apartment in the northern suburbs, and every place of academic activity or entertainment was atleast 1.5 hrs and a painful train ride away. Here i dont hesitate to step out and visit friends over the weekend, office is 10 mins walking distance from home. Even in worst case scenarios, people take max 30 mins to commute - makes life much much simpler!

I know people think the city doesn't offer much to do in terms of activity. But for those who look hard enough, there's always something. Mail me seperately with your interests and i can send you links that will keep you occupied even in this 'boring' city. To be succint, there's everything from trekking to hiking, water sports to beach activities, movies and a happening clubbing scene, libraries and cultural centres for the arty types, quiet places and noisy places, drinking spots, temples and churches, and a ton of lovely countries to visit nearby.

Which other city offers all this eh? I'm admittedly a big big fan of Singapore. :-) Shoot me if you like. Or mail me seperately if u wanna know anything else, and ill be happy to help more of my friends move here! :)

So much to write, where do i even begin?

There are times i dont write for long spans of time. Trust me, my default state is one of being swarmed with thoughts. Not silent or melancholy. I ALWAYS have something to say, much to some people's irritation. But i do. So when i dont write, although i call it writers block, its not so much coz i can't think of anything decent to write, or a decent way to write it. Its just that im so overwhelmed with the volume of thoughts flooding through my little mind, that i dont know where to begin. And so begin I don't!

Anyway, a multitude of things i wanted to write about. Most unrelated to the others, so don't go looking for linkages esp. if ur from P&G. Bleddy what a disease procterism sometimes becomes! :P Ill put them in seperate blogs to make life simpler for everyone. Esp the hapless reader :)

Of great bosses ...
2 Examples from my short career in P&G, my 1st ever job. I don't count my experience in Citibank as a job no matter what one says.
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My boss Anand pings me on Sametime this morning regarding something id promised him i'd send him before he reached the Philippines on his biz trip today. I completely forgot in the midst of my multiple deliverables last week. (For those with the patience to read a long story - I did send out the request to the people who even needed the help in the first place, they didnt reply, and my miss was i completely slipped on following up.)

To cut a long story short, when he asked me if we had an answer, i cud only hang my head in shame and say Nope! Slipped! As sweetly as ever, he asked if i cud pull it together by this evening, and i jumped to redeem some of that lost dignity and said can!!

So i spend a good 2 hours this afternoon looking through the data we need, pull together watever the conclusion was and mail it all across very eagerly to Anand. We spoke on the phone after that, probably coz my mail was so full of info that he cudnt really find what he needed and decided to jus call me. This happened twice. I had WAY too much on my mind to be worrying about whether id come across as an inept fool. So i didnt give it another thought. Im normally a sensitive person and all, but after hanging around for 2 yrs, i know better than to beat myself up over small things anymore. So i dont give myself too much grief. But here's what makes the difference between a good boss and a great boss.

After our multiple phone discussions where we basically discuss exactly what id mailed out to him, but had to clarify over the phone (now imagine how badly i mustve written those mails), Anand calls me once more. I pick up the phone thinking, erm, now what! And he goes "Sudha, I know you put a lot of effort into pulling the data together and writing those mails. Its just easier to talk on the phone. Didnt mean to negate or belittle your effort, i hope u understand that. Don't feel bad about it."

My first reaction was :O !!!! I laughed it off on the phone with him, said of course i didn't mind and all. But the gesture seriously touched my heart. I mean, for a boss with hajaar things on his mind to have THAT kind of consideration for just one of his many direct reports (a soon leaving report at that!) is just plain incredible. And Anand is just one of the many wonderful people ive met here at P&G.

I'm touched beyond belief and respect the man more than ever before. :-)

---------------------------------------------------------------
Story 2:
A little background: My 1st week in P&G. Im this shuddering new hire who's completely terrified of her boss, a certain TA. Now with a name like that, i expected a gladiator like person to appear in front of me. Instead got someone who looked pretty normal, yet acted rather scary. It's T's style haan, dont be fooled by it. He bullies you and scares the crap out of you so you do the very best you can and exceed your own expectations. Equips you to make yourself proud even as you make him proud. More details some other time. (and so much for a LITTLE background!)

Some more background on what makes me quiver thus at the sight or mention of the word boss: An oft repeated story even on my blog, this. But citibank gave me this lovely lady who screamed at the drop of a hat, lost her temper with everything i said and did and felt like a constant fire breathing dragon in my vicinity. I've never been yelled at all my bloody life, not even by my birth parents, and she changed all that. So i came into P&G thinking its normal for bosses to yell at their reports and publicly insult them.

Cut to me sitting at central desk in the P&G office, Olay area, week 1: Te walks up to me. Asks me, tumko standard deviation ka funda pata hai na. As always i bulb a little, (bulbing was standard reaction to whatever Mr Tyrone asked back then, don't ask why!) stammer and say, of course i do. And we get into a discussion on what used to be one of my best subjects in b school. Its a very generic theoretical discussion that T in his classic style is trying to get me to apply to something practical. I jus sat and gaped as he sent fundae my way. Was impressed to say the least. And definetely not scared or insulted at being openly confronted in front of a bunch of people. Coz he never made it feel like interrogation or a question on my ability. His demeanor was so chillax that even the usually sensitive me couldn't fathom being insulted or feeling cornered.

And yet he suddenly stops, looks around, asks me to walk into a huddle room with him (for non P&Gers - a huddle room is a meeting room types, with glass doors so people can see you and know the room is occupied but can't hear you from outside) and i meekly follow him thinking ab kya hua? :S

And T sits me down and goes, "yaar i hope u didnt feel bad that i caught u like that in front of some 10 ppl, intent was not to put u down or anything, i just got so caught up in our discussion i forgot so many ppl were listening. I hope you're not feeling bad or anything."

Now you can imagine what kinda jolt that was to my system, coming from the screaming boss background that i did. I guess, its when i looked up to the sky and thanked God that after all the years of slogging through all that education, i was finally in a place filled with GOOD people.

I was touched beyond belief even back then. It was the start of what you might call hero worship. But when people are so wonderful, they leave you with little option. :)

Test post, test post

Its painful to sit at the table connected to a LAN cord, so am experimenting with the less reliable wireless network, lets see if this post appears. (what keedas i do!)

Friday, May 18, 2007

To my friends,

Esp the ones who expressed worry over the recent posts ive been writing. Just to assure u, im not going insane, not depressed or dying. Here's whats responsible.

1. Been down with a bad cough and the medicines are making my mind and body lethargic. Thinking, talking and even walking is a huge effort. Ive stopped the medicines over the week and will continue over weekend coz i cannot stand to be a superlative bore at work/ with frnds.

2. Ive been in my job for 2 yrs now, and as is typical, am going thru the 2 yr itch. No i dont intend leaving, or even feel like it remotely. I jus miss my frnds in India badddlllyyy and wud love a few days off to catch up with everyone. A few hugs, some rounds of brilliant nostalgic conversation and a cpl of drinks (hic!) would really help right now :) Ill be better soon, as soon as the magical Shamu lands here in 2 weeks and takes my mind out for a spin :) Until then am enduring work and pulling through daily committments as best as i can.

So ill be back to normal, very very soon. Until then be a good friend and put up with the darkness will ya?

P.s: For any Olay person reading this, Thailand shares are rocking right? So dont complain !!! :D

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

It'll pass ...

My antisocial phase, where there's zero intention to meet people. All id like to do is stay home in bed, read about serial killers indulging in cannibalistic rites (no less) and vacationing psychologists trying to find them amidst mutated spiders and snakes (I know!!! What is with me!) and then drift off to sleep under the influence of cough syrup, and possibly not have to wake up to an alarm.. or not wake up at all for some time.

My no work phase .. where i want to do nothing but stare out the window and think of NOTHING. No growing business (God- pls dont let any of my teammates/ bosses read this!), no solving problems, no analysis, no nothing. Meanwhile the world can pass me by, deadlines should jus finish themselves, people at Olay should assume ive left for Ariel and people on Ariel should assume im still on Olay (:DD - ill be darned if i ever find pull that off!).

My 'im a complete and ridiculous bore' phase: Where ive lost the spark of scintillating conversation, and im resorting to old stories to feel like an interesting person with an interesting life. Normally talking comes so easily, why the sudden block then? Normally i dont have to struggle to find amusing things to say, then why now the sudden temptation to be quiet? Maybe the pointed accusations of speaking too much in the recent and not so recent past are subliminally taking their toll. Or maybe, its that thing amma calls the evil eye (Evil grin :D) Damn damn the quiet people of the world who wish to drag me down with them!

So how? I'll wait for it to pass, like everything else does. Has.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

When i was 17 ..

Was a HUGE movie buff. Watched atleast 2 movies each week on Star Movies or HBO, which back then would air some gems amidst the usual trash. But I had the enthu to watch, even if not always the time. Friends and family assumed i was the avid muggoo sitting at home and studying relentlessly, when in fact i devoured movie after movie in breaks that were planned to be 30 mins long and extended as long as it took for the movie to be over!

Still rbbr tht the 1st thing i checked every morning in the Bombay times was the movie sked for the day. Would mentally mark off movies as must see, and plan my study sked accordingly, with enuff buffer to acco the movie :-) Yes im the planned devil incarnate, but i loved movies more than i loved anything else back then, even books!

And the interest kept my mind alive with remembering names, of movies, people who acted in them, famous lines, songs, even the crew! Had names of most actors and actresses on the tip of my tongue, and even after moving to IIMB, the incredible campus LAN gave access to an assorted collection of movies. As friends danced the night away downstairs every fortnight at the infamous L Squares, i sat in my room and devoured more movies! It was a herculean effort what with all the noise, having to shut windows and doors just to be able to hear the damn movie! But i did it anyway, even back then, names and stories were my forte... and sadly 2 yrs of working not only made me lose touch with TV and movie channels, but also numbed my memory for names and events.

Note to self: This is the time and the place to get back to the movie buff u once were! Go on, use that DVD rental facility well! :D

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Of plans gone wrong, the 24 loop and sundry others

Yeah, another fancy title for a post that'll be about nothing in particular ...

Plans gone wrong: Just found out that my flatmate would like to live on her own after we move out of this house. Not like its shocking news, it had come up earlier and i did kinda see it coming the last few weeks. Now last yr, about october, i thought i had life figured out, all moves, all directions, and most goals. So house moving was last on my list of priorities. I had that infamous thing they call plans!!! Then i found that infamous thing they call "the best laid plans go terribly wrong sometimes"! :-) And im back to square one .. in so many many ways!!! So net, if u know any young women looking for a clean, tidy, responsible flatmate, you know who to call!

The 24 loop: We all have these songs, we hear them the 1st time and we hear them over and over again. The soft hearted ones have more such songs, the stronger ones have fewer, but we all do. After o saathi re, its been a while since a song really caught my fancy, until yesterday that is! Laaree Chooti is a song from this movie called Ek Chalees ki Local, a song about bombay (argh, none except those born here would understand the anguish and the joy that is bombay!) has been playing on my ipod, and on the comp when the ipod is switched off. Lovvvve the song!! Im trying not to sing along coz the voice is a busted and Saturday has to see me reading to kids at the lib and then impressing my very suspicious singing teacher with my stronghold over sa re ga ma .. (yeah im still there! havent moved in 2 weeks!) so i might as well take super good care of the voice! Until then, u cud sing along ...

"kismat ka khel hai saara
phirta tha main aawaara
yeh kya se kya ho gaya
chaar din ki zindagaani
har pal ek nayi kahaani
kya tha, main kya bana gaya
kya huva jo laaree chhooti
jivan ki gaadi looti
khwaab hai toh mujhko na jaga
zindagi ek pal mein saali
yuun palat gayi hamaari
jhoot hai toh mujhko na bata..."


Looouuing it !!!


And finally,
New places to go, new things to see and explore...

Celebrated 2 years at P&G on the 2nd of May with some awesome news, finally i take on a band 2 role (yes its a subtle way of saying i got promoted!) and with it move to a business very different from my first love, Olay.

Ariel will pose new challenges, a new team to get to know, a new boss, and category dynamics that are radically unlike those on Olay! I'm so looking forward to the experience and thanking my stars now, that i had the bosses i did, the team i did, and that everyone was wonderful and supportive and that the job posed the complexities that it did. Im learning to appreciate stretching the mind beyond its limits and this is the ideal experience to stretch it even further ! :D India ... look out! Here i come!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Naive, am I?

Someone recently told me im terribly naive. And it set me thinking, ME? The one who plans for worst case scenarios, is always prepared as far as possible, unless the plan is to be spontaneous and anticipates responses and situations before hand .. ME? Naive!??!

Now one could argue that it boils down to perspective whether one is naive or not. Cause end of the day, being naive is about knowing or feeling the presence of less negatives/ potential disasters in this world vs another person. And that makes it a relative notion. Still, that dialogue simply set me thinking on why someone would ever qualify me as naive. And here's wat i discovered ..

1. I've come across lesser evil in my tiny sheltered existence. More exposure to experiences increases net exposure to evil as well, and since my experiences were few my exposure to evil was equally rare.

2. I've always had more reason to trust people vs to doubt them. This is cause the people i picked to walk with me through life as friends or more were always good people. In retrospect i can attribute it either to having a good radar on people .. touchwood! or to just being plain blessed. But of course this is limited to when i could make those choices on picking people.

3. In cases where i couldnt really pick people (project mates in high school or b school, colleagues at work, close and extended family), its rare tht ive ever come away with my faith in the goodness of people completely shattered. And that can only be attributed to being blessed/ lucky.

4. I dont know what the future holds for me. I can safely assume my radar on people will continue to function just fine. Admittedly, I dont know if "choiceless" situations will still turn out fine, all i know is this little something that the Bible talks about ... "If God notices, values, and cares about a tiny sparrow, then how much more must God notice, value, and care about us!"

So with that optimistic thought, ill resign to being labelled naive, as the same someone told me, its not necessarily a bad thing!!! :-)

Naivette anyone?

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The Walrus, an august duo and yellow lights ...

Well actually the post is simply put, is the meaning of music - 2, just that naming it as i did above makes it sound all cool no?? :)

Anyway .. .moving on with the songs ...

I am the Walrus: Rajeev aka Kinky

Mash's (Marketing club) 1st online game went live during Vista 04, we had a new bunch of Mashians, one of whom was this lanky kid they fondly called Kinky. As is expected with most online events, this one had way too many glitches way too close to the exact time it was supp to go live. And since i was the senior team member in charge, there i was, hanging around the IT experts' room trying to get the damn thing online as close to 9 pm as possible.

No one else from the Junior team was around, although they were all technically on the game team - no one but this chap Kinky. I kept telling him its cool, u can go back, none of ur batchmates r here anyway, ill manage. And he wouldn't budge at all! I kinda felt sorryish for him having to hang around like that with not much to do but wait for the IT chaps to decode some bugs, not that i was doing anything hugely constructive, but still! I took one last shot, said "hey kinky, why dont u go ahd, there's not much either of us can do anyway, im sure u have other places u wanna be at". The kid turns around and looks me in the eye, and with just a mild shrug of impatience says "But its my game too! I want to be around when it goes online .. and i want it to happen well!"

And that's how Kinky officially floored me with his passion for the club, and his utter perseverance with doing a good job of anything he took on. I still rbbr the nites he stayed up devising Brand wars - the official marketing strategy simulation game. He'd ping me through his frustrating nite outs on bracket, citing how pained he was and all tht ... id say well, if ur so pained, just go to sleep!!! Why u killin urself over this game??? And he'd go, hey im just cribbing, be a good listener and let me vent! Dont discourage me from working hard!! And i'd just be like :O and listen! Gradually Kinks and i came to this incredible understanding of each others minds where he knew exactly when i needed just his ear and when i needed his wisdom, and vice versa.

Kinks always thot of the beatles as the "music tht defined the decade" ..one of his all time fav songs was " I am the walrus" ... a song i never quite got! Or even tried! Kinks is like tht i figured, sometimes u have to stop trying to understand coz he jus gets a kick out of being weird and goofy :) Everything about kinks is linked up to the walrus, even now his status msg on his blog and on orkut read something about a walrus. Man i never understood the whole funda, but u say walrus and i think Kinksssss !!! :DDD


O saathi re: Aarthi Sivaraman aka the much mostest godstep level louuuuable gal i 1st met last August!!!

Aarthi Sivaraman, not even someone i know directly and today someone i talk to on an almost daily basis. A friend of a friend of a friends, she stayed over at my place on her way from the US back to Madras last August. We hit it off, partly coz she's just a super fun talkative person with unbelievable amounts of energy and enthu for all things alive and inanimate :), and partly because of some common situations in both our lives at that point. Of the 20 odd hours she stayed home, i think 18 were spent listening to O Saathi re from the recently released Omkaara and sighing about how much it touched the innermost depths of our heart and soul. :) Oh i loved that time Aarthi!!! Ive always wanted to tell you, you know how sometimes we wonder why we met some people, became friends et al? Its coz they bring some other wonderful people along, and leave them behind even if they themselves walk away. And those wonderful people are really who we were supposed to meet and keep for life!!! :D And ur one of those wonderful people who walked in by sheer chance because of tht thing called six degrees of seperation and has stayed in .. u cannot even imagine how excited i was to hear about the whole Yale thing :D wanted to call up everyone connected to u both and tell them how u wr going to be just 2 hours away fm each other ... good luck with everything ma! We'll meet soooon!!! :D

Aahista Aahista: Sainag C aka FPG amidst the yellow lamps in A 315

The story of Sai will be told some other day. Lets just say if i had an inner circle of 10 people, he'd be one of them. Among the few people id trust my life with. Among the few who can read my silence even over a achy breaky ISD call and say "u sound different, something's up na?" and only one apart fm my mom who has the uncanny knack of smsing me with msgs like "Sudha, is everything ok?" at the most accurate times when something is indeed not ok! :) Ah the cosmic connection with him is like few others :)

Anyway, Aug 04, Swades had just released and Sai would often walk up to my room in the evening and ask me if id heard the music ... id usually respond with a bored no ... hadnt hrd .. didnt have enthu to download etc ... and he was like "but there's this song u HAVE to hear baba!!!" .. after 7 attempts or so, one fine day he walked into my room armed with a full bag, plonked himself on the floor, and opened the bag to reveal a Cd player. I gaped at him, "why do we need this when i have a PC!" i asked ... and he just shut me up and made me listen to Aahista Aahista ... hrd once, then hrd again .. then again n again ... then downloaded from the LAN to pc .. and played in loop while we talked about everything under the sun as we always did :) And then on, that was our song ... whenever he was with me, we'd play the same song, over and over again.

And so this mighty peace inducing song with minimal music and soulful lyrics is the song tht reminds me of Sai ... friend philosopher and guide .. through the best and not so best times of my life :)

And more shall follow ...