Name Calling

There I was at the Seattle Tacoma international airport waiting at the gate for my ride to come and take me home. I settled down in one of the comfy spots and started looking around me. Out of 7 rows of chairs filled with passengers, I spotted way too many Desis and probably 5 Firangs. Thinking about it, The Desis are the Firangs in this country(US) and the so-called Firangs are Desis here. Applying that logic, that place was actually filled with way too many Firangs ;) Never mind.

Ahem! Moving on with my story - I was sitting there making my last few 'Good bye' calls to my friends and suddenly the Emirates announcement starts which went (something like this) - "Hello Emirates blah blah paging Naraaayaanaa, Ramaaaswaaaram".. and a lot more other people. She just killed all the Indian names in the best way possible! I was on the phone with my jiju and both of us just couldn't stop laughing! What started next was a situation story which I had to tell and show off :P So here it goes...

This was my first time ever to the States. I was travelling to NJ via Air France. We were just landing at Paris and my connecting flight to NJ was an hour away. The air hostess on the flight started to announce all the names who had to take the next flight as they had a separate bus arranged to take us to the flight directly. If you don’t know, my full name is SAKINA KHUZEMA ADEEB. Though my first and last names are pretty straight forward, the middle name is complicated.

The air hostess announced a series of random names and amidst those I heard "Kujima Aaadib".  "Damn! it sounds so familiar" I thought. She probably repeated it 5 times before I realized it was me!!  I hastily walked towards her and said "I think that is Khuzema?".  Her face literally glowed in happiness. She smiled at me and said "Finally! Somebody came!". I thought, "Yeah right, if you screw up names nobody will show up". Actually, cant blame her. She was French and English was not even her second language. Her calling out a list of Indian names is like me riding a CBR! Not gonna happen without disastrous results.

I was standing next to her watching her break into a sweat and  read out names in a way I have never ever heard. I took the list from her hand and saw names like "Venkataraman", "Srinivasan", "Ananthamurthy".  I felt sorry for her and offered to help. Without any hesitation she handed over the Mic to me and there I was calling out names as if I knew these guys from childhood. All of them started coming in front and boarded the bus waiting for us. The air hostess was so relieved that she gave me a hug and said "Thank you!!!" (in her French accent of course).  Proud is what I felt!

Ok story vover - now get back to whatever you were doing :P

Flashback!

Merry Christmas peepals! 

6 more days for 2013 and I am still wondering what to do for the New year's. I guess I will eventually land up in some random place either dancing or eating or just wandering!  Right now, I sit here in front of the laptop (on a holiday), listening to a song which annoys my hubby the most, trying to write a plan for a project starting in 2013 and in the midst of all that, trying to write this ;)

BTW this is my 3rd attempt at a blog post this week. I don’t know why (may be I know why) I have just not been able to either turn my thoughts into words, or found time to write, or found the words and the time, but just didn't get enough "meat" to put into a post. Lets just hope I manage to finish this one successfully ;)

For all the "end-of-the-world" hype this year had, we seem to have passed by the "Doomsday" smoother than anticipated. Wonder if the whole 2012 prediction was just another way of getting a new topic to frighten people  or make money! Anyways, for me, I believe this year went really well! "How do you say that?" You may ask. Let me try to answer that as convincingly as I can :)

January - Started the year in a rather boring way (sitting at home). However, managed to reach my 100th blog post on the Newyears'. So proud of me on that one ;). Made my maiden visit to Kolkata and attended Amit n Ruchika's wedding. Enjoyed every moment of their hospitality and made some real witty friends :-))

February - Vishnu and I got famous on our 3rd anniversary :) Our story was featured in Femina February edition.  Haven't read it? See here. We celebrated the "D" day at Masinagudi along with love birds Hussain and Rash. We also signed papers for our new House which is currently under construction :)

March and April: Well, nothing much, first wedding in the team. Padma got into wedlock :) and I managed to save myself from getting fooled :P

May: By far the best-est month of the year :) My first trip to Seattle, loads of re-union, some major bonding with sister. Sky dived from 12,500 feet above sea level (I have a Certificate to prove that ;) ..)  Road trip to 3 states in 2 days - From LA to Grand Canyon to Vegas!  :) Also did a cycle gap visit to Dubai (you know why ;) )

June: Back home and continued normal life ;) Akka and kids visited us :) Urvi found a new baby sitter to cling and climb on :) and Rashi found a new partner in crime ;) In-laws started for their 2.5 months vacation to US.

Team outings, dinners, lunches, treats at its best :) Stephen's first visit to Chennai.

July:  Met Rosy and Mallika after ages! Super surprise planned by both of them :) Spent some very "embracing" moments with Kishen, Ambika and Mariya ;)

August: Best friend Suni got married to her forever friend Kiruba :) Back at work, launched India Kindle Store on Amazon.com

September: Trip to Bangalore, met Phaphda. Took complete pleasure of bugging Prathi :) Streaked my hair Red :) and and and ….Celebrated my Birthday with awesome surprises, loving wishes and cake cutting! Completed 4 years at Amazon :D

October: One day trek to Tada, fun time with team and hubby. Mr. Awesome moved to Bangalore (sad and happy for him). Gangnam style outing at Raddison Blu (Mahabs). Found new girls gumbal at work to jabber with :) We also bid farewell to Zenab, she left Chennai to pursue her PhD, may God bless you and the phD ;)

November: First road trip as a couple from Chennai to Kodai. Adventure time at Elephant Valley on the Tree house ;) A good eco-friendly birthday for hubby;)

December: Numerous project launches at work (team is super proud of their work). In the midst of all that attended half a dozen weddings, practically every close friend of mine got married this month. Laughter filled trip to Dharmapuri and Hoganakkel.

So, "Bhaisaab aap convince ho gaye ya mein aur bolu??" - Hope you had an awesome 2012 too. Looking forward to New year party (wherever that is) and 2013 :)

Why I like to be in Chennai

Recently lots of my colleagues crib about how much they hate/dislike Chennai. Thanks to my non-Tamilian look, people often assume that I would second their feelings and have a similar story of how this place ruined my social life or rather LIFE! Nothing personal against the people who don’t like this city, everybody has their right to liking or disliking something, however, this outburst from my colleagues really got me thinking, is this place that bad? Well my immediate answer was - No! "Why do you like this place Sakina?" you may ask. My answer - this blog post :)
- Chennai is what I call "home". I have had the most memorable memories, the best school life, the most fun filled college life, an interesting career and a very filmy love life. I have lived most of my life here, and do not mind living the rest here. In simple words, I am born and brought up here.
- I believe that this city is one of the safest places in India, especially for the girls. Try going on your scooty at 1 am in the night all alone in some other city and be sure to reach home safely. I have done this many times right here with no fear!
- The weather - yes! I mean it! The weather! (I can totally imagine your eyes pop out reading this). They say Chennai has 3 seasons Hot, Hotter, Hottest - Agreed. I rather enjoy being under the hot sun getting a tan, than wrapping myself in half a dozen layers of clothes. I rather have bath with normal tap water than from a boiling geyser. I rather sweat it out and get my body to cool down than freeze to death in snow. I rather enjoy those few rainy days with joy, than to carry an umbrella/rain coat daily and suck at it! I rather fall sick just once a year during change of weather than be sick all through the year due to erratic change of weather daily!
- The beaches - the world's second longest beach is in Chennai :) - well keeping that fact aside, having a beach at a driving distance is luxury. Beaches are a good way for me to unwind and a good adda to catch up with my friends. I don’t need a food court at the mall to meet someone; I would rather go to the beach with them and eat roasted peanuts instead :)
- The simplicity - the people here are simple and grounded. No show off, no bull shit. People here don't expect too much out of themselves or each other and are happy with what they have. None of us ever missed KFC, or a McD, or EA mall 10 years back.

This place is not perfect and has its flaws. But the point is, which place doesn't? I guess every city, every town, every village has its own good/bad and people who live there (or decide to live there) just see the brighter side of things. This city is special to me and will always be no matter what other people may think about it :)

Mom's 60th Birthday

It was last week sometime when my sister pinged me and said "Machi what are you planning for Mom's 60th Birthday?" Honestly, I had no clue it was her 60th birthday, but now that i knew, I could not stay away from planning something special.
So Maryam and I went on a research mode trying to search gifting options, what to buy her, how to make her day special (especially when her birthday was falling on a week day - Jan 13th). Putting up a surprise? Well I had already done: Calling at 12 in the midnight, Making all my friends sms her the entire day, Arranging a surprise dinner; so what else??? While we were thinking of how to surprise her, we were lost in what gift to buy her. Dresses? - Naah Boring. Spectacles? - She has too many. Jewelry? - Expensive :(. Mobile Phone - she has one! (That was her last birthday gift). So here we were, lost and deprived of ideas :| and that's when thunder struck (ok, filmy!). Mom had recently broken her Motor Sewing Machine and we thought a replacement will be the perfect gift! Bingo!
Now that the gift part was sorted out, we were still thinking on the surprise. My sister was very confident on me that I will put up a good show and I had to keep up to her expectations :) (lol). So on Jan 12th I called up my dad and instructed him not to lock the main gate and leave the house keys in a secret place (known to me and secret to mom!). I wanted to make sure I don’t jump walls and get bit by the very alert street dogs! Vishnu and I got off early from work, bought a basket of flowers from our all-time favorite "Royal florist" (in Adyar) and picked up cake from Hot Breads. By now you must have figured out that we were planning to surprise her by just showing up! :)
My mom is an extremely inquisitive and alert person, one hint and she will figure out everything! So, I made sure not to call up at midnight and wake her up, that way she will lose sleep and hear us get inside the house. My sister luckily spoke to her earlier in the night and my mom didn’t bother to stay awake until midnight either. This means, the surprise will actually be fun! hehe
Vishnu and I landed up at her house by around 1 in the night, opened the main gate. The creaking sound of the gate was so loud that I thought mom woke up! We managed to open the house door and got inside. We got the cake out, lit the candles, arranged the flowers and then headed to mom's room. I quietly opened her door, patted her on her cheeks and said "Happy Birthday Mommy". She opened her eyes in Shock! the first thing she uttered was "How did you get inside? Did I sleep with the house open?". "Wow so many questions", I thought. I asked her to calm down and come outside to the dining area, she was pleasantly surprised! We did the cake cutting ceremony and got to the eating part as soon as we could ;) She kept repeating the same questions again and again until we told her that dad helped us get in! She finally showed signs of relief and started enjoying the surprise :) We handed over the cash needed for the sewing machine and promised to take her shopping soon! We took some zombie looking photos and was strictly instructed not to post them ;) hehehe. Finally, Mom's birthday surprise did turn out to be fun.

Happy 60th Birthday Mommy! :) Mwaaaah :*

Hair cut - Again!?!

It was back in November when suddenly I got my almost-waist-long hair cut into a "Bob". To me, this drastic change is not new and this is surely not the first time I got my hair chopped. My first big hair cut was back in school when I had very long hair (little below my waist) and the next day I walked into the class room with a boy-cut! The hair dresser was in tears when she cut them. Well, I had to do that cos of the never ending "lice" in my hair. I am sure all of us in school have had those dreadful black color creatures running on the scalp (yuck!! :-(..) Since then, I completely lost patience of growing and maintaining long hair and cultivated a liking of chopping my hair when it is least expected :)

The longest I have resisted and kept my hair growing was from Sept 2008 to Nov 2009. My hair grew pretty long and I kept longing for a haircut. Every time I stood before the mirror, I would ask myself - "Should I get a haircut?" and my mind would say, "Do whatever your heart says" and my heart would reply, "Do whatever your mind says". I ditched both of them and asked hubby, he simbly said "Cut it if you want, I wouldn’t mind either ways" - hmph! “Neutral answer” I thought. Then went to the Mom-in-law and hinted that I badly wanted to cut my hair. She said "Your wish dear, I like it both ways"; again the same kind of answer. One fine day, I finally made up my mind and got over my long hair avatar!!! Yippeee :).. and this is how I looked ;)

Trust me, I was so glad and excited about the new look! Almost everybody at home liked it (May be they were just nice to me). But when I returned to work, I got surprised looks and funny comments. People saw me in shock and moaned for my loss of hair. In a few days I felt bad that I actually cut so much of my hair and all my excitement of the new fringe and bob had drained down :(
It is 6 months since that happened and guess what - my mind is already thinking about a hair cut! (I told ya!!)....so I went to my favorite parlor, sat before the mirror and ordered - "Cut it!" - She asked me a zillion questions on what cut do I want?? How short? How small? How straight? How "U"? How "V"??...phew! After 15 mins - I came out with a new hair ishtyle...Tadaaaaaa! :)

This is so called "Layer cut" - Not so long, not so short. Takes advantage of my wavy hair and makes it look like a step cut :)..Now waiting for the world to react ;)

Pleasant Surprise

My day has not been one of the best ones today. I have been a little low on mood and gloomy as the outside weather for almost 24 hours now and don't know what else to do to cheer up. Loud music, browsing old photos, Facebook-ing, playing TT or having numerous teas - none of them have helped. And suddenly, I get a pleasant surprise from Mr.Krishnan :)
Krishnan and I know each other for more than 6 yrs and have had a similar career so far. We joined iNautix together and never looked back. I am not really close to him and we have treated each other as acquaintances and the only time i would see his emails in my inbox is either when there is a Sev-1 ticket on me or it's my birthday :)
But today, for a change, he sent me this email which brought a big smile on my face (imagine my grin from left to right ear). It was the least expected email but the timing was just so good. I am telling you, this guy is gonna be a big blogger someday ;) (I have been paid for advertising about him, don’t get carried away ;)..) Jokes apart, I really loved this email and with his permission I take the pleasure of pasting it below:

Subject: Revelations from a gtalk status bar msg..
Message:
A hectic day at work... thanks to the benevolent folks at the Electricity Board, for switching off power in the middle of the night and giving the mosquitoes an opportunity to sing me a lullaby... dozed off at around close to 3 AM in the morning, after battling with the test environments and doing deployments and configurations and even designing a pet rocket to be launched into space on the day of 2012 (lol.. just kidding...), woke up to the distant voices of mum.. who yelled.. "Kannaaaaaa time's 8... get up.."... dad timidly walked into my room just to re-iterate the fact that i was running late... finally after playing the waiting game for the Rain Goddess to be kind enough to cease "fire" (if you can call it that way, that is...) walked into work at 11 in the morning... then the work starts.. you bother developers.. developers bug you... help people with scripting.. clear doubts.. take unofficial project requests from people and get their work done as well... decided to take a break... (nope the smoke breaks werent helping either)...
logged into gmail, to check out what the spammers had to say to me today.. (they are the only ones who very caringly mail me everyday....) saw a link in your status message.. which said... "http://sak365.tumblr.com/" decided to check it out...
I must admit.. am impressed.. from an ordinary spilled over tea cup, to a fruit being voraciously gobbled up by a friend.. to a match box (yup the dil matchbox).. to the sign boards on your apartment entrance. .which said... "Stop complaining, someone stole the complaint register..".. lol (I found that really amusing).. you seem to have captured it all.. almost all of the funny moments of life.. which go so unnoticed thanks to the so called busy hectic work schedule... you seem to be getting better at it by the day sakina !!
Now that's made to start thinking as well.. have you just now switched on the "Eureka Eureka" bulbs and showed me a new hobby... lol.. will ponder over that for a couple of days, before i eventually bore myself out of the contemplation and decide to either take it or ditch it... hehehe..

Kudos !! That was a nice relaxing 30 mins of album walk.. if I could say so, that is...

Thanks & Regards
Krishnan Mahadevan

Thanks Krishnan, am flattered and honored and what not...You made my gloomy day bright! :-)