Work Home - Home Work

As some of you at work might have noticed, I am not seen in office, occasionally offline on communicator, sending emails from my phone, online at ungodly hours and continuously setting up conference calls to catch up. In short - I am Working from home :)

Many of us have the privilege  to keep an office laptop providing the so called flexibility to work-when-you-like at any convenient place. The added benefit to this is the option to Work from Home (WFH). Even though hubby and I are in the same field (IT), employed with quiet good companies (let's just assume this for now) and have similar privileges,  our typical day is vastly different -

My day - Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, drive (traffic  these days is more stressful than watching a soap on TV) and then get started with work! Numerous breaks (don’t judge me!), drive back, cook, eat and continue with more work until midnight!

His day - Wake up, eat breakfast(not forgetting the gazing at the newspaper), get back to his room and get started with his work! A lunch  and a dinner break and he is back to his spot until I signal my end of day!

Personally, I have never understood how anyone could be productive working from home.  One reason could be that when I am at home, I forget about work from home and instead indulge into working at home.  In addition, my nature of job is to collaborate with people; working from home is simply counterproductive.

Well, that’s just me! The better half however, is the complete opposite. He has utilized the option to WFH to the fullest. Sometimes days, weeks and even months pass by and he would happily sit at home and go click clacking on the laptop!  At one point, I started to doubt if he was still employed ;). Of course the paycheck at the end of the month was very re-assuring :).

No matter what I think about WFH, this option now has come handy when I absolutely need it and whether I enjoy it or not, I do appreciate the importance of this benefit :)

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 :)

You and me!

I was bored, so was he. I wanted to chill out, so did he. I made the plan, he happily accompanied. This is a norm between me and Vishnu. It was quiet long since we went for a night show movie together and I started to think if we were really growing old (besides the age) to get thrilled about a movie plan! To get rid of that thought, I decided to just go ahead and make a movie plan and when i got on to my favorite theatre website I found the perfect movie! (I will educate you on why i call it perfect little later on this post)

Ek main aur Ekk tu - released just in time for valentine's day! From the trailers of the movie, it looked like a rip off of the English Rom-Com "What happens in Vegas". Ashton Kutcher did a real good job troubling the so-called wife and i was hoping Imran will have a similar role as well. But, I was wrong, the only part which is copied from the movie is the part where the 2 of them get drunk in Vegas and get married by mistake! The movie turned out to be more mushy than expected and Imran was the girl with a broken heart :P. Kareena on the other hand had a role which she is completely comfortable with - the bold, the beautiful and the bubbly. I am not yet sure whether I liked the movie completely but overall I guess it was a nice light hearted, no nonsense movie. I was just glad that the director and story writer did not add any unnecessary masala to it :) I specifically appreciated the ending :). One movie which begun with "The End" and ended with "The Beginning".
So, as far as the movie goes, I think its a decent flick to spend a few hours on and enjoy the songs for few days :) Now finally getting to the point: Why I thought I chose the perfect movie! Vishnu started watching Hindi movies in theatres only after i entered his life. Since then, I take the sadistic pleasure of torturing him with the bollywood dramas on a large screen for 3 to 4 hours :) Most of the times, I am successful with the torture and sometimes I fail (that is when there is a good movie like 3 idiots or ZNMD or something like that). So when I picked this movie, i knew that it will have a bollywood twist to the English movie and assumed that it will be a good plot to bug him. When the movie got over, I immediately turned to him and asked "Waste of time?" and he replied "Not really" - I disappointed :-| ..lol :P

Nevertheless, I re-discovered that we are still thrilled at a movie plan and can go for a night show anytime :)

The 1

Now this one is the most hyped blog post of the year. I finally got myself to complete the 6 day marathon of blogging ...Excited, thrilled and what not. Now this elated feeling doesn’t seem to be helping me at all. I have no idea what to write, how to write and how much to write! :(

So today there is no list. Obvious, 1 item on a list is actually not a list, or may be it is? But what the hell, the point is I am not really planning to write a list at all. But I would complete this countdown with the most craziest thing I have ever done in my life.

The craziest thing I did is probably not new to many of you. But I take a lot of pride in it because I managed to pull this off and show the world that sometimes just following your heart and doing something crazy is all you need to do! This crazy thing took me 5 long years of consistent persuasion and commitment. This crazy thing helped me become stronger and bolder. This crazy thing made me half mad and completely insane ;) This crazy thing is not really a thing :)

The craziest and the best thing I ever did in my life is marry Vishnu :-) hehehe.

Happy New year Guys :) Have a great 2012. And its not the end of the world yet :)