Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Reminiscence

आज मी आख्खी दुपार पक्ष्यांची चित्रे बघण्यात घालवली. मला आत्ता उठुन बर्ड वॉचिंगला जावस वाटतय. ऑफिस मधे काम करत असताना अनेकदा माझ्या मनात विचार येतात की मी कितीतरी गोष्टी अनेक दिवसात केल्या नाहियेत. मला माझ्या मैत्रिणींबरोबर मनसोक्त भटकायच आहे. अचानक मैत्रिणीचा फोन यावा आणि गाडी काढून निघाव अशी एक ट्रिप करायची आहे. ट्रेकिंग करायच आहे. माझ्या कायनेटिक वरुन लांबच लांब चक्कर मारताना गार वारा श्वासात भरुन घ्यायचा आहे. आईबरोबर बाल गंधर्व च्या कट्ट्यावर बसून गप्पा मारायच्या आहेत. नाटक बघायच आहे. पावसाळ्यात सह्याद्रिच्या रांगामधून फिरायच आहे. लहान लहान ओहोळात पाय बुडवून चालण्याच सुख परत एकदा अनुभवायच आहे. एकाच गाडीत कोंबून माझ्या बहिण-भावांबरोबर प्रवास करायचा आहे. मनाचा वेग चकित करणारा आहे. मी गेल्या ५ मिनिटांत US to India back and forth असंख्य ट्रिप्स मारुन आलेय.

Friday, November 03, 2006

A Beautiful Day

I like to write when I have an exceptional day. Yesterday was one of those eventful days. I got up in the morning. Pankaj was ready to leave for office. I started with my daily errands. At around 8:30 am, I was all set to step out of the house when I realized that I do not have the keys. I started looking at every possible place in my house but no luck. Did I throw the whole bunch of keys in the trashcan? I started imagining myself searching for the keys in that Waste Management box down in the parking lot. Yuuk!
When did I use it the last time? I was trying to trace back but as usual my memory dumped me at the time of crisis. I gave up and called Pankaj. I was damn right. He went to the office with both the set of keys. That includes my home key, car key, office key and other, not so frequently needed, keys. Thank god. At least the keys were not in the trash. Pankaj was too busy to come home at that time. I decided to call up my boss. Waw! What a reason to take leave. "Boss, I cannot lock my house so I cannot come to the office today" :) But my schedule at the office was pretty much packed. I realized that I could not afford to take even a half day off. Pankaj and I decided that we will leave the home unlocked and I will use the duplicate car key. He will come and lock the home in his lunch break. I left for the office. I was late at work and there were a lots of emails and calls waiting for my attention. At around 11:30am Pankaj called me. He had gone home and had locked the door and everything was fine. Hushh…I was relieved. I replaced the receiver on the phone and saw my boss walking towards my desk. He had a document in his hand. Great! I was expecting a very important document from him.I am going to India in December. Being an alien in USA I have to go through the ordeal of the visa processing in my home country. I need an original copy of my visa document (I-797) from my employer for the visa interview. And there he was..with the document..no..wait a minute..with the ‘colored’ Xerox copy of the document? Shoot…He very sweetly explained that this is what he can give me. His attorney has advised him to keep the upper portion of original copy with himself. He can give me the bottom portion and a color copy of the whole. I tried to explain him that it will not work. The visa officers in my country have their own rules and moods. But my boss had nothing to do with them. He was happy going by his attorney’s advice, the same attorney who once had given me a green-card application form instead of H1-B visa application form. I was patiently explaining him that he does NOT need the original copy but I do. The document I-797 clearly says that the upper portion has to be kept with the employer. And my boss was doing right. At the same time most of the people from their own experience say that the visa officer needs to see the whole document. My task was to make my boss believe on something that is not written anywhere on any official document. Moreover I myself was convinced that what he is saying is right. I decided to send an email to the US Consulate at Mumbai to confirm the requirements of the document. As per my thoughts (this is very important because Pankaj’s thoughts on the same matter can differ by 180 degrees) I found a pretty good way to handle the tricky problem. I badly needed a break and it was already past noon so I left for the lunch. The immigration matter always makes me feel edgy and that day was no exception. I was driving away my negative thoughts while driving to the lunch place and BANG! A big, white Ford Ranger encroached my lane and hit me from left. I reduced my speed honking furiously knowing I could not go any more right since I was in the right most lane and there was a wall next to me. My front tire rim had hit the curb hard. When I regained my balance I realized that the truck did not even slow down after that reckless bang. I also realized that my car could still run. So I decided to go behind that moron. I caught him at the next light and shouted at him, asking him to pull his car in a nearby parking lot. I was down there in my civic and he was way up in his big truck. He conveniently ignored me and ran away as soon as the light went green. I was left with his license plate number and the description of his car. I stopped in a parking lot and checked my car. Thankfully there was not much damage. I called 911 and filed a case of ‘Hit and run’ giving them all the possible details. The police officer on the other end did not sound hopeful.
It was more than an hour since I had left office. I hurriedly packed some veggi-puffs from a nearby bakery and went back to the office. The afternoon was relatively uneventful. I decided to leave for home at 5. But it was not my day. The phone rang. It was Suzanna, one of our clients. She had some problems in the production process. I pushed my purse in the drawer again took a deep breath and started working on that issue. At 6:30 I disconnected the phone with a happy ‘Thank you’ note from Suzanna.
When I reached home I discovered that Pankaj was not at home and I did not have the keys. I called him and discovered that he is playing racquet ball with Sumeet and the game was at such a point that he could not leave it. I went to the court and got the keys from him. Finally I entered my house. I felt better when I realized that Pankaj had promised me to cook the dinner that day. I relaxed on the couch watching ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’. Pankaj came home. He was talking to me normally. But I could sense that something was wrong with him. I asked him a couple of times and he started off. He was very angry on my boss for not giving me the document. He was also angry on me for not pushing my boss enough for getting that document. At that point I lost my patience. And then whatever happened was the worst part of that day. We fought like cats and dogs. It went on for almost 3 hours. I slept tired of crying somewhere around midnight. The long day was finally over. When I woke up in the cold winter morning I had forgotten about our fight. I cuddled up in Pankaj’s arms for the warmth. The problems were still unresolved, the tasks were still incomplete but should that stop you from being happy? The sunshine got a brand new day with new hopes in our life. We decided to make it a beautiful day.

Friday, September 08, 2006

भय इथले संपत नाही

काही गाणी मनाला खोलवर स्पर्श करतात. त्यातल हे एक गाण.
अचानक जुन्या आठवणीमधे ओढून नेणार.
कवी ग्रेस चे शब्द, हृदयनाथाच सन्गीत आणि लताचा आवाज ह्या तीन गोष्टीनी कुणी मन्त्रमुग्ध नाही झाल तरच नवल!
त्यात ऐश्वर्या नारकर ने साकारलेली महाश्वेता डोळ्यासमोर उभी राहते. बर अल्फा टी व्ही च्या सिरीयल्स आणि घर हे एक पक्क समीकरण असल्यामुळे हे गाण मला नकळत घरी कधी घेऊन जात हेच कळत नाही. आत्ता आई जवळ असती तर दोघीनी हे गाण किती एन्जॉय केल असत! असो.
मला वाढदिवसाची भेट म्हणून हे गाण दिल्याबद्दल थॅन्क्स टू सिद्धार्थ!
आणि मला हे गाण ऐकायला एक छानसा आयपॉड दिल्याबद्दल थॅन्क्स टू प.

भय इथले सम्पत नाही
मज तुझी आठवण येते
मी सन्ध्याकाळी गातो
तू मला शिकविली गीते

ते झरे चन्द्र सजणाचे
ती वरती भगवी माया
झाडाशी निजलो आपण
झाडात पुन्हा उगवाया

तो बोल मन्द हळवासा
आयुष्य स्पर्शुनी गेला
सीतेच्या वनवासातील
जणू अन्गी राघव शेला

स्तोत्रात इन्द्रिये अवघी
गुणगुणती दु:ख कुणाचे
हे सरता सम्पत नाही
चान्दणे तुझ्या स्मरणाचे

भय इथले सम्पत नाही

Friday, September 01, 2006

वळण

आम्ही लॉन्ग वीकएन्ड साठी बॉस्टन ला जाणार आहोत. प बरोबर फ्लाईट मधे मस्त गप्पा मारता येतील ह्या विचाराने मला छान वाटतंय. त्याच्याबरोबर वेळ घालवायला मला नेहमीच आवडतं.
आपली आवडती माणसं बरोबर असली की वेळ कसा पटकन जातो नाही!
शाळेत असताना आम्ही मैत्रिणिंनी EsselWorld ला जाण्याचा plan बनवला होता. आमची अट एकच होती आम्ही ६ जणी कुठल्याही मोठ्या व्यक्तीला बरोबर न घेता जाणार.
तो plan कधीच successfull झाला नाही. पण आम्ही मैत्रिणी कुठेही भेटलो तरी तेवढीच धमाल करायचो. त्या काळात 'ठिकाण' महत्वाचं नसायचं.
शाळेच्या trips तर अगदीच फालतू असत. एका वर्षी आमची trip जव्हार आणि डहाणूला गेली होती. तिथला काळा समुद्र आणि दमट हवा कुणालाच आवडली नव्हती. पण ह्या गोष्टींचा विचार करायला तेव्हा वेळ कुठे होता! आम्ही सगळ्याजणी गप्पा, गाणी, खिदळणे आणि खाणे ह्यातच दंग असायचो.
भूगोलाच्या पुस्तकात कॅलिफोर्नियाच्या फळबागांची वर्णनं वाचून मात्र असं वाटायचं की एकदा तरी कॅलिफोर्नियाला जावं. दहावीत असताना शाळेने South India ट्रिप काढली. किती तरी सुंदर आठवणी बरोबर घेऊन आम्ही शाळेतून बाहेर पडलो. कॉलेजमधे गेल्यावर वाटायला लागलं की जगभर फिरावं. तेव्हाच्या ट्रिप्स वेग़ळ्या कारणांसाठी special आहेत आणि आता प बरोबरच्या ट्रिप्स् अजूनच वेगळ्या, सुंदर आणि exciting! आयुष्याच्या प्रत्येक वळणावर आपल्याला वेगळ्या गोष्टी हव्या असतात. ते वळण संपायच्या आत त्या त्या गोष्टींचा आस्वाद घ्यावा. पुढच्या वळणावर तुम्हाला काय आवडेल काही सांगता येत नाही.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

My little finger

I just realized that I use the keyboard with only 4 fingers of each hand. I do not use the little finger at all. Arghh..wait a minute. I use the little finger for the ‘Control’ key. I asked my coworker. He does not use much of the little finger either. We use the index finger and middle finger the most on the keyboard. Also after every word I am hitting the space bar with my thumb. If not on a keyboard where do we use our little finger? I am trying to remember all the tasks I do with my little finger. I can’t remember any that is primarily dependent on the little finger. Thumb or the index finger are the leaders. They are the most strong and the able. The ring finger has its own charm. It gets a chance to be in the limelight at least once in a lifetime. The cute little finger seems really neglected. It is there just for the support.
When I was a kid I had this fear all the time. If I do NOT use my finger it may fall down one day. “We need to use each and every part of our body or else God might take it away thinking we don’t need it”. The thought must be implanted in my mind by one of those cocky cousins. But the effect was quite serious. My mother used to spank me for spilling the things down but I would still not stop lifting the glass with my little finger. The people we come across in life are so much similar to these fingers! Some of them always lead the task from the front. Some of them share all the limelight without doing any substantial task and some of them just provide the support without getting any attention.
Whatever it is. I love all the five fingers and if someone offers me an extra thumb at the place of the little finger I will politely decline the offer :)

Monday, August 28, 2006

गणपती


हा weekend अगदी छान गेला. शनिवारी गणपतीची तयारी केली. मोदक केले.
रात्री एका मित्राकडे जेवायला गेलो.
रविवारी सकाळी गणपती बसवला. आता घर कसं भरल्यासारखं वाटतंय.
गणपती बसवायचं हे आमचं पहिलंच वर्ष. अस म्हणूया की स्वत्:च्या जबाबदारीवर गणपती बसवायचं हे पहिलंच वर्ष.
त्यामुळे सगळं काही मनात होतं तसं साग्रसंगित झालं नाही. पण एका चांगल्या गोष्टीची सुरुवात तर झाली.
हेही नसे थोडके.


Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Today again I am spending hours reading the blogs.
It has become an addiction.
There were days when I never used to open the browser unless needed.
Now a day if I am off my desk even for an hour I feel uncomfortable.
There are some people who really write well. Or I can say I can correlate to their writings. I religiously visit their blog page everyday and if there is a new blog I feel like my prayer has been answered.
Reading a blog is not a one step process. It involves Reading, Thinking and sometimes Writing blogs of your own just like I am doing it now.
These days everyone is writing blogs.
There are kinds who just want to write but never want to reveal their identity.
There are kinds who want to write but dont want to do publicity.
Then there are kinds who want to write and want to let the whole world know about it.
Whatever kind of writer you are someone is there to read your blogs. Sometimes the reader is known sometimes totally unknown. But that does not really matter. What matters is somebody likes to read what you write. Somebody can connect to what you write. This is a pretty good feeling, especially if one is an amateur writer.
I have seen so many of my friends started writing only after they discovered the blogger sites.
Blog is an expression of an individual and hence not written under the influence of any political or social pressures. That gives a blog a tremendous power. I heard Govt of India had blocked the blogger sites as an aftereffect of the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai last month.
Anyway, I am happy that the sites are unblocked now and I will not miss any blogs written by my Indian friends.
Thats it for the blog about blog.
Happy blogging :)
October 28, 2005
today i dont have much work to do.hurricane wilma has disrrupted many operations at our client's office.i clutched this opportunity to put my thoughts together..though discreet..wanted them to get out of my mind.these feelings are subtle..they are there just for sometime..they do not create/destroy anything in this world..they are not important for any other person..but they need some outlet..or else i behave weirdly..these days it happens a lot!i suddenly start hating every single thing in this world. by 'world' i mean 'america'.the so called heaven on the earth.it becomes difficult to control my feelings of hatred. frankly speaking i am a happily married girl living in one of the biggest cities of america with a caring and loving husband with a good job in hand and with a couple of family friends around.wht more can I ask for? but..my mind goes back to the memory lanes so frequently as though I have come to a hell from a heaven.is it normal? i ask myself.i am a very practical person. my brain rules over my heart..atleast it used to. but i did not know that leaving my country can make such a big change in my mind.my body got adjusted within a week..but my mind is still struggling..it always says i dont belong to this place..i m a stranger here.and when ppl make u realise that, it becomes all the more unbearable.one of those newly arrived days, i was riding a cab.while giving the directions, i made a mistake at one point and the cab driver literally yelled at me "u fXXXing indians think urself too smart..". i was numb for a second. then i reacted 'practically', ignored the comment and got out of the cab. the only way I protested against him was that I did not give him any tip.
it makes me think why so many people leave our country? why do they not return to their homes? how can we make our country more livable? i think our generation cannot expect too many changes. but for the next generations, what efforts are we taking? Our previous generations provided us with the secure, loving and cultural environment; can we provide that to the next generations? Instead we chose to abandon that place. Someone would say its necessary for one’s own progress. Then why do we keep thinking about that comfort zone?
i am sure there are many such souls like me who want to go back to their home country. There are people who want to see better infrastructure, disciplined traffic, smooth and wide streets, 24/7 supply of water and electricity in their own country. There are people who want to eradicate the corruption and the poverty. There are people who want to put a smile on the face of every child of the next generation. I wish myself (and all those who think alike) the courage and the initiative to act!! Because if we just think and do not act we are no different than those who do not think.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Today was an ordinary day.
I got up at 7:40 which is pretty late if you have to reach office at 8:30.
Every night I say 'if you want to have breakfast you have to get up at 7:15'.
But just like every other day I ignored myself and woke up at 7:40.
I admire my husband for this one reason. He never does any cribbing while getting up.
I went to the office without having breakfast. It reminded me of those days in Patni when we used to go to the cafeteria every morning in the flock of at least 10 people. That was the only good thing about Patni. I was surrounded by lots of friends and ready to eat food.
Today morning was allotted for knowledge transfer from my co-worker. I realized that my list of pending tasks will not get updated today. But I was happy with the KT session also. It gave us a chance to do some TP and we utilized the most of it.
At 12 we departed for lunch. I went to a south indian restaurant and had a crispy, tasty Masala Dosa. Devouring on to the Dosa while talking to my best friend who is in India was really a treat.
I could spend some time in the lunch break on reading a very interesting book that I recently borrowed from my friend, 'Maximum City - Bombay Lost and Found' by Suketu Mehta. I will write more about this book after I finish reading it.
The afternoon was little lazy as I was not doing any 'real' work.
I came home at around 6:30. By then hubby was ready to go for his Tennis game.
We talked for sometime and then he left.
I prepared a nice coffee and switched on the TV. Waw! There was Salil, my favourite VJ on B4U Music. I like him so much that whenever he is on the screen my face starts glowing and hubby starts getting J.
Jokes apart I definitely love music but one more reason I like watching B4U is that it reminds me of desh. I used to watch B4U Music whenever I used to go home for holidays.
Anyway, then I went out to the balcony to water my plants. At that time I missed my mom such a lot. She likes spending time with her plants. She waters them and she talks with them. They are as important to her as me and my brother. I envy those plants with whome she still spends an hour, everyday.
I went to play Tennis. Recently I have got a Tennis buddy. We both are equally bad at it so we both enjoy playing with each other.
Hubby and I came home, cooked food, had our dinner and then spent some peaceful time together.
All in all it was a nice day.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

माझी ऑफिसमधली सगळ्यात आवडती जागा म्हणजे माझ्या उजव्या हाताची काचेची भलीमोठी खिडकी.
आजूबाजूच्या यन्त्रिक जीवनातून बाहेर पडावस वाटल की मी त्या खिडकीत जाऊन उभी राहते.
ह्या सहाव्या मजल्यावरुन मला लाम्बच लाम्ब पसरलेली हिरवळ दिसते. एका छोट्याश्या रस्त्याच्या कडेला दुतर्फा लावलेली उन्चच उन्च झाड दिसतात.
एक लहानसा कारँजा दिसतो.
हे सगळ बघून मन प्रसन्न होत. आणि मग परत कामाचा उत्साह येतो.
ह्याच खिडकीने मला श्रावण आल्याची जाणिव करुन दिली. गेले काही दिवस रोज ऊन पावसाचा खेळ मी ह्या खिडकीतून बघतेय.
आज मात्र विजान्चा कडकडाट करत पावसाने जोरात आपली हजेरी लावली. असा जोरात पाऊस झाला की खालच्या रस्त्यावर पाणी साचायला लागत आणि त्या पाण्यामुळे रहदारीचा वेग मन्दावतो. मग एका बाजूला लाल आणि दुसरया बाजूला पिवळ्या दिव्यान्ची माळ फार सुन्दर दिसते.
चला साडेपाच वाजले. मी ही त्या माळेतला एक मणि होऊन घराकडे कूच करते.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

बुधवार दुपार..आज मी घरी आहे. बाहेर चाललेला ऊन पावसाचा खेळ ह्युस्टन मधेही मला श्रावण महिन्याची आठवण करुन देतोय.
श्रावण महिना लहानपणा पासुन मला फ़ार आवडायचा. माझा वाढदिवस श्रावणातला. आमच्या घरात वाढदिवस तिथीने साजरा करायचे. त्यामुळे एकदा घरी तिथीने आणि एकदा मैत्रिणींबरोबर तारखेने असे दोन वाढदिवस साजरे होत.
शिवाय कितीतरी सणांनी हा महिना गजबजलेला असे. दर सोमवारी उपवासाचे पदार्थ खायला मिळत. मंगळवारी कुठे ना कुठे मंगळागौर असे आणि शुक्रवारी पुरणपोळी.
शाळेतही श्रावणी शुक्रवारच हळदी कुंकु असे. मग वर्ग सजवणे, रांगोळ्या काढणे, साडी नेसुन शाळेत जाणे ह्या सगळ्यात एक वेगळीच मजा असायची.
श्रावणातला माझा अजून एक आवडता कार्यक्रम म्हणजे ब्रह्मगिरीची प्रदक्षिणा. हिरव्यागार झाडांमधून दिसणारय़ा सह्याद्रिच्या रांगा, खळखळणारे ओढे, भाताची शेती आणि त्यातून जाणारा चिखलाचा मऊ मऊ रस्ता! हे सगळ अनुभवायला आमच्या घरातले सगळेच उत्सुक असायचे. ही २० मैलाची प्रदक्षिणा पूर्ण झाल्यानंतर मात्र पायांची चांगलीच वाट लागत असे. आई पाय शेकण्यासाठी एका बादलीमधे गरम पाणी देत असे. मी सहा-सात वर्षांची असताना मला चालणं झेपणार नाही असा विचार करून घरातले सगळे मला चुकवून प्रदक्षिणेला गेले तेव्हा मात्र मला राग आवरेनासा झाला होता. निसर्गाला एवढ्या जवळून भेटण्याची माझ्या आयुष्यातली ती पहिली संधी होती. त्यामुळेच मला अजूनही तो निसर्ग खूप जवळचा वाटतो.