London..

Had been to London over the weekend. Was a long
planned vacation which due to the usual chaos in the
software industry was almost canceled. But thanks to
a simple soul who prayed harder every passing day,
I finally made it :)

London is like Mumbai.. at first sight you would not like
it too much... but it grows on you. London is similar to
Mumbai in more ways than one. Since Mumbai was also
colonised by the British you will find a lot of resemblance
between the two cities - almost similar buildings, same red
buses, same crowd (yea almost every 3rd or 4th person you
see will be from the sub-continent), same traffic.. well the list
goes on.

What I liked most about London is that it being a cosmo city
you have amazing range of finding anything and everything.
From food to clothes to accomodation - you will find all sorts.
Yea a non-foodie mentioning food first is surprising but anybody
living in Germany will understand what the variety in food means!!
:) But yea like I mentioned I did not like London because
of the crowd and traffic .. and I like Munich for the exact opposite
reason - its so quiet, calm, sparsely populated and peaceful!
Its gonna be tough moving out of Munich to any other place -
but that we shall see.

Sight-seeing in London was the usual touristy thing I did. I enjoyed
my trip to Greenwich. Going through the history of why we needed
the concept of longitude and how it actually evolved was fascinating.
The other outing I enjoyed (more cos I went around on my own) was
to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Luckily I could catch a
glimpse of the tower bridge making way for a medium sized ship. Wish
I could catch this from the river bank, would have had some lovely pics.
Anyway, next time.

So overall was a short and sweet trip. Will upload some pics later.
Ciao till then..

I hope you feel the song..

But I hope that you feel the song. So now, sometimes, I pray.
I love you more than I can say. Love you more than yesterday.
But I wanna tell you baby. This time I am gonna be sure.
I am coming back for more. I think I love you anyway.

Status message on my friend's chat client. Lovely lines aren't they?

Oktoberfest

Yippie!! Finally visited the famous Oktoberfest. Don ask me the
no-brainer "Did you have Beer?".. Cos I did not .. well technically
I sipped on the famous German Bier.. but as usual couldn't develop
the taste for it inspite of the 'beery' atmosphere. Yeah... think I will
never be able to enjoy a cool bottle on a hot day.

Anyhow.. it was good being at the Oktoberfest. Never saw SO MANY
Germans together and that too in their traditional attire and such
a lovely mood :-P No offense, but I think Germans are tight lipped
until they sip on a few bier's!

Back to the fest... The tents were literally huge... seating more than
2000 or so people. There was music and though they played songs
from different cultures/countries it was never boring.. they kept the
crowd rocking and asking for more. I especially loved the "Ein Prosit"
that they kept playing after almost every song. The songs were good
and peppy and the band and some of their ways to play (with a whip)
music were interesting to watch. I think the band has a double agenda...
to keep the crowd entertained and interested in them as well cos service
is not usually that quick when you have to serve like 2000+ people. :)

Oh I forgot to mention sturdy and strong German women! Believe me you,
its not easy to hold 6 huge krugs with 2 hands!!

Food.... well, it all looked very nicely decorated and tempting - but sadly
too bland to the palate of an Indian! I think I should be a little more adventurous.

Well thats the story inside the tents... outside is a little different.
Same people, same bier and same gaiety... but with roller coasters and
rides and horses and what not.

The weather was good and it felt really good to be outside.. ofcourse I
wish I didnt have to carry my drunk friend home.. else I could have
enjoyed a little more. But there's always a second time ;)

So am hoping I can make it to the fest sometime this week again. Lets see.

Breathless

जैसे कोई हौले से पास बुलाये..........
कैसी मीठी बातें थी वो कैसी मुलाकातें थी वो
जब मैंने जाना था नज़रों से कैसे पिघलते है दिल
और आरजू पाती हैं कैसे मंजिल और ....
कैसे उतरता हैं चाँद है ज़मीन पर
कैसे कभी लगता हैं स्वर्ग अगर हैं तो बस हैं यहीं पर
उसने बताया मुझे और समझाया मुझे
हम जो मिले हैं हमे ऐसे ही मिलना था
गुल जो खिले हैं उन्हें ऐसे ही खिलना था
जनमों के बंधन जनमों के रिश्ते हैं
जब भी हम जन्मे तो हम यूँही मिलते हैं ....

Today was a good day..

Did not have the time to look up from my busy schedule..
The first break I took was at 4pm after starting work at 8am..
and here i am back home at 12 in the night and looking fwd (??)
to getting screwed (pardon my French!) again tomorrow morning
starting 6-7am!?

I am sure the physical deliveries are much less demanding and painful.
God!

But yea it was a good day cos it felt good to go back to doing some
unix shell scripting and stuff. Was less maddening that fighting idiots
or answering stupid questions or convincing a stubborn client.
Every job has its pressures, no doubt. I think it always feels good to
live "a day in the life of xxx" for 1 day ONLY! :)

Nighty night for now.. got a long day tomorrow.

Flattering..

Its been a strange week .. but very entertaining.
Got 2 poems as response to 2 of my posts.
FINALLY was able to spend my Friday evening at a
disc and shake a leg!! Felt like ages since I did that, sigh!

Got hit upon by quite a handful men and though I felt
flattered about it (wow!), the last one of them kinda creeped me out.
If only guys knew to be subtle :-P

So, yeah.... interesting week.. not at work though.
Work is as usual frustrating, though this week should see
almost the last of this phase. Have a big delivery coming up
next Friday, but boy, the labor pain I went through in the
past 3 months does not match even 2 deliveries! Gosh!
Anyhow...

Tomorrow is the start of another gruelling week and I hope
to keep myself sane! :)

Chaotic life

Hi... I know I haven't been regular here for
some time now. Didn't even get the time to
talk about my Paris trip. Soon... hopefully.

Life is very chaotic right now... rather work
is very chaotic, other aspect of life just not
found. Need to do something about it.

Method in the madness??

Ah, what a month it has been.
Tumultous, chaotic, frustrating, overworked!

Like Murphy's law - everything that can wrong, did! :-)
Well, it is chaotic (and dynamic, do they always go together?)
at work. From the threat of being ousted out to seeing a ray of hope
(to look around Europe ;) ) - this month has shown me more than the scenes
I wanted to see. Anyhow. August is going to be much better I am hoping.
Work should settle down now and I hope to achieve the allusive work-life
balance in this new organisation.

जब भी मिलती हैं मुझे....

अजनबी लगती क्यों हैं..
जिंदगी रोज नए रंग बदलती क्यो हैं ...

तुमसे बिछडे है तो अब किससे मिलाती है हमें....
ज़िंदगी देखिये क्या रंग दिखाती है हमें.....

Musing

दूरियाँ हैं दर्मियाँ मगर
दिल नहीं हैं जूदा
जब ख्वाहिशें हो हमराज़
मान जाता हैं खूदा

मिट जायेंगे फ़ासले
मुख्तसर हैं दायरें
चल पड़े हैं हम वहा
जहा तेरी परछाई ही मिले

Replacement...

Today was a good day.. cos I found a drink similar
to the bacardi breezer I used to have back in India.
Tried the Smirnoff light alcoholic drink (3% alcohol)
which tastes almost like the breezer.
So.. I have my poison available to me now.. Cheers.

Will post about my trip to the amusement later...
too tired right now from all the fun I had :-)

Interefering or Responsible?

Does your job end if you have raised an issue and passed
it on to higher management to resolve it?

Personally I don't think so. I believe you should do all in
your capacity to find a solution to the problem or to atleast
mitigate the risk. You don't get paid just to do your job - you
are also expected to raise the flag when you think the project
is going off-track. I expect my team members to do that and
m sure it is expected of me as well. That is the value add you
do - not just to the company but to your job as well. If you do
not leverage your experience and your expertise - what purpose
does it serve? Well, I have nothing to counter the argument of
"I am not getting paid enough to do value add" :-)

Professionally I am being pushed to do it though. The reasoning
given to me is that you cannot do push beyond a limit when you
are not in charge of something. It is true to a great extent and I
am already feeling the heat of it - since I have raised a few flags
I might be on the way to being labelled a trouble-ticket. :-)
That apart, the fact remains that every person has a different
style of working and as long as everything gets done in time
and with quality - it should be OK. But that is the question -
do we wait till the end to see if that style is good or not?
Should you not correct course - yours or someone else's -
to save time, money and efforts - or should you just have
some fun at someone else's expense?

Then again, it depends on the situation. Not all techniques work
in all situations and that is the wisdom that comes with age...
and since I am too young (;-)) to be aged - I think I will learn
the tricks - some the hard way, some at somebody else's expense.

Wait ...

मी वाट पाहते तुझी असं तुला कधी वाटलच नाही ...
आसवांनी भिजलेला रुमाल तुला कधी दिसलाच नाही ...

Perceptions

मैं छुपाना जानता तो जग मुझे साधू समझता
शत्रु बन गया है छल-रहित व्यवहार मेरा

lovely 2 lines from Harivansh Rai Bachchan
Seen on BigB's blog.

Eine sehr schöne Frau..

... was what a total stranger said to me today on a regular road in
Munich and then checked if I was married and since I am
"noch nicht" - asked me out on a date. Lol!!!

It was one of the funniest conversations I have had with a stranger.

Just

ajnabi chehre
gumnaam raahein
kadam pehchaane
nayi chahein

Satisfying days..

I am sure you have had days/months/years where you
would be so overworked that you would just crash into
bed once you reach home from work - if you reach that is!
Well, I am currently in that phase and believe you me...
it is satisfying.. to have made the best possible use of your
day. Its a feeling the lazy amongst us won't understand.

Before I joined this project, I thought I was good at time
management. But there's always room for improvement.
And here I am... a new, improved and better utilised me!
Ofcourse I do miss my wild party days.. been ages since I
went to a party.. but I am liking this as well. I think I will
enjoy a party more when I go to one now. ;-)

Some time management tips I re-learnt in the past 2 weeks :
1. When dealing with a chatty person - announce the time you
want to spend with them as soon as the talk begins.
2. KISS - ;-) Keep it short silly! Write crisp mails and follow
up with a phone call if required. This saves time required to
reply to elaborate mails.
3. Prioritise and Categorise
4. ALWAYS do the four quadrant check on a task.
5. Delegate with authority. (I learnt this from one of my previous managers).

I think this is enough gyan for now.. Have a good time ;)

Tschuss!

Sleepless in some place - An ode.

"*****
hume sunaakar daastan pariyon ki
gaye khud sapno ke jahaan mein,
wo neendein chura gaye hamari
saza unhe hum de na paaye

nazaarein dikha gaye hamari nazaron se unhe wo,
unki shaame kati unhi yaadon ke saaye mein
ye bhi kya saza kam hogi..
ke yaad aaenge hum unhe har shaam har seher mein
*****"

Well... I penned it down cos I couldn't do anything more
constructive at 2 in the morning after being woken up
by a phone call. I ain't complaining about the phone
call.. infact, it was a bolt from the past. Yea, wouldn't
even call it a flash cos it was more than that. I am sure you
must have felt what I am feeling right now... when you don't
expect something to go from the 'past tense' to 'present tense'..
that something you had will never come back again or things
will be as they were earlier or the way you left them.
So it definitely feels nice to talk to a long lost friend :-)

My poem above is an ode to the one below:

Without you nearby
I am lost
Yet I am home
Life is a paradox.

Hectic days ahead.

Its fun.. my current schedule.
I am so extremely tied up at work that its almost
impossible to think of any time for myself. I think
all my days can only be 'hectic' for the next few
months... only the degree will vary. I might even
introduce another degree right next to superlative :-P
No.. I am not running a country.. but well,
mis-management creates jobs for itself, right? Anyway.
I also have the Herculean task of finding an apartment
and soon. Alongside,I also might be visiting this famous castle
close to the city as part of my time-killing exercise on the
weekend. I rather dont have that much time to kill cos
I have to read up a lot about my new job..but you remember your
college days, don't you?! :-) But.... I'm loving it!

Footsteps

she looked behind
a tear slid down
a step forward
a foot turned around

a snow-capped mountain
beckoned ahead
a warm sea shore
pulled her inside

'Hi' is easy
'Bye' is tough
Beginning of an end
the other, the end.

Life is such
it gives you both
You live, you choose
your life 'n' your small deaths