A week with work-woes and a movie

Have you ever felt the need to get away from work? That you’ve had enough of it and cannot take the same old boring work-routine for even one more day or hour?! I guess, many of us would’ve been parley to such thoughts several times – especially considering the typically stressful work-styles we follow. Last week was one such for me. The work-days-juggernaut was rolling along nicely and I was working on the usual tasks and going about the boring daily work-routine. There was a planned project change implemented on a Thursday and everything looked fine. That night at 2.35 AM I got a call on the mobile from the night-support team. There seemed to be some issue with the implemented code, due to which some files which had to be generated and sent to the downstream partner systems was empty. Within five minutes I was awake and logged in – trying to decipher what could’ve gone wrong. I figured it out soon enough – I had overlooked some accompanying changes which had to be done and the empty file was a result of this miss. 😦 Amidst the thoughts of all the music I had to face  on the morrow in office, I was trying to check if there was a quick fix solution to generate that night’s file. I did some fix on the QA environment and drew up plans with the support-team-lead that this problem would require an emergency fix to be implemented on the very next day, before the next day’s file would get generated. I promised them that I would get into office early and work on it as priority.

Daylight was already breaking over the horizon and I thought that it was futile to go back to bed then; I might as well get the cooking etc. done and get ready for work. Accordingly I went about the morning chores and was ready for work at 6 AM, an hour before my regular morning start-time. I coordinated with the early shift cab driver and was in office by 7 AM, before most of the other folks started coming in. The rest of the day went by in a blur – the fix wasn’t as easy as it had initially looked, I had totally missed analysing the code earlier and had to figure out the logic, carry out tests and ensure that it would work seamlessly with the other changes. Added to this was the time constraint – everything had to be done within a couple of hours, the change orders raised and all necessary approvals sought to put it out-of-cycle as an emergency fix.

Phew! Luckily everything worked out well and by the end of the day the changes were in, after taking some help from colleagues. I was pretty jittery that night as well and had couple of calls at around midnight with the support team to ensure that the fix indeed worked and the issue was resolved. As they say, all’s well that ends well! But this episode left me drained – mentally and physically. Probably this too was routine a couple of years back, working late hours on deliveries and overseeing last minute fixes by my team were part and parcel of what I did regularly. In fact I remember doing such releases even when I was pregnant! But now, somehow, I found it very very tiring and stressful; I took almost a week to get over the dreadful feeling and get back to my normal working style. For a couple of days after that, I really did not feel like working at all!

What followed was something rather atypical for me – I decided to take off on a work-day, mid-week and for no reason! I just didn’t feel like going into work and facing another routine work-day 😦 I called the hubby and asked told him that he needs to take leave the following day and we would go out – probably catch a movie or just chill doing something else. Poor guy, reacted like a cat caught in the headlights! 😀 But he did some juggling around with his meetings and work-stuff and obliged like a dutiful husband 😛 The next day I was up and about at the usual time – the plan was, we would finish all chores like everyday, drop off our son at school and go catch a movie at the matinee show. The little fella, clever that he is, was surprised to see me at home – normally I am off to work by the time he wakes up in the morning. He seemed confused – what day is it?, he asked. Is it Saturday? Why aren’t you at work? I won’t go to school! 😮 He was even more suspicious when he saw his dad in non-formal clothes! 😀 After side-stepping his tricky questions, we managed to drop him to school and went on our way to watch the movie Neerja.

Neerja is a biographical thriller about Neerja Bhanot, the brave air-hostess who laid down her life in her call of duty. Her efforts thwarted the hijacking attempt of the Pan AM flight in Karachi on 5th Sept 1986 – she prevented the flight from taking off by having the presence of mind to inform the pilots in time for them to flee the plane. Her heroism and calm, cool-headed handling of the dire situation resulted in 360 hostages being saved from the hijackers’ hold. Instead of trying to save herself, she chose to save the lives of hundreds of passengers, showing immense courage and strength of character. The film was motivational and an example of how ‘work is worship‘ for several people – like our brethren from the armed forces and others like Neerja.

I wasn’t too impressed by Sonam’s portrayal as Neerja – she seems more suited and at ease with roles like the one in Khoobsoorat; but the scene-stealer was definitely Shabana Azmi. The feelings of what a child’s loss means for a mother, couldn’t have been brought to life more poignantly by anyone else. She is outstanding, especially in the last scene and one cannot but leave the theatre with misty eyes and a lump in the throat!

After the movie, we grabbed some lunch and walked the shopping streets leisurely – doing more looking-into-windows than actual shopping; but happy to have the road to ourselves sans the crowds, thanks to it being a weekday. And just like that, the little get-away was over! 😦 Soon, it was time to go back – to be faithful to our line of duty, on the home-front and to get ready for the challenges of the work-day on the morrow. I felt much better the next day at office and am now back peering into the laptop screen and trying to tame/ slay the usual work-demons! These little, especially mid-week jaunts, do a world of good, I tell ya! 😀

Talk of the Frangipani and the lure of firang-lands

Hellooo, I say ** and wait for the echoes to come back to me** ‘coz obviously there aren’t any readers here any more! 😀
Before I change my mind and think that it’s too much effort to type out a post, let me get on with what I have to say.

Firstly, I am thrilled that the very first flowers on my ‘Frangipani‘ plant have bloomed and there are many more buds ready to burst-forth! 😀 I’ve always wanted to have this plant (also called the “temple tree” as someone mentioned) in my home, mainly for it’s heavenly fragrance and the flowers themselves, which are so beautiful with their velvety shaded petals. And I was particular that I wanted this variety which had the smaller yellow flowers – not the pink ones or the long-petal-ed white ones! The gardener who got the plant for us must’ve prayed, and prayed hard – I’d threatened him of dire consequences if it turned out to be of any other variety! Did I already mention that I am thrilled?!! 😀

Sometimes I go back to my old blog posts and read what I’d written. Sometimes I flinch, but those occasions aren’t many – mostly I am left wondering if I indeed wrote all that at some point in time. I seemed to have so much to say! An opinion on everything, I’d find topics to write about so easily. Books that I read, movies I watched, trips that I went on, the everyday happenings, the events unfolding around the world – sporting and otherwise; I seemed to be so “tuned in”. These days if I think of writing something, I feel “zoned out”; like it is so much of an effort. It’s like I have this a sudden urge to write – something, anything! But most often I’m unable to type out a post at a stretch and later in the day I am back in the seemingly thought-less void!

Nevertheless to get on with the post, amongst other everyday happenings we managed to catch a night show of the movie “Airlift” recently. We liked the movie – although it is not an exact representation, it is a take of the events that unfolded in Kuwait in the early 90s and how a couple of individuals and the Indian government came to the rescue of the 1.7 lakh Indian refugees who were holed up at Kuwait after the Iraqi attack. Akshay Kumar‘s character is based on the lives of two businessmen whose almost heroic efforts were instrumental in getting these people back home during the crisis situation. I especially loved the role played by the seemingly inconsequential Joint Secretary in the External Affairs ministry; all said and done he had a major role to play in getting the Indian govt. to act! At the end of the movie as they flashed the statistics of it being the single biggest airlift operation in the world – with Indian Airlines flying in nearly 490 flights over 50 days to evacuate all those people, I had goosebumps and my heart swelled with pride! The movie brought a lump to my throat, a similar memory I have is from my school days when we’d watched Border – the story of how a few dozen men fought the fierce battle at the border to wrench control from enemies, for the country’s sake; not caring for their lives or their families.

When I look at friends and aquaintances and hear of them flying away to far-off lands in search of better opportunities and a better lifestyle, I wonder. As it happens, most often, once you go and start living elsewhere, especially when it offers a more conducive atmosphere for your work and life, doesn’t it become more and more difficult to get back to the homeland knowing the harsh realities that await you here? When we as adults find it so difficult to adjust, just spare a thought for the young kids who’re bundled off, who’ve never seen anything of the kind to be even prepared for! No doubt the foreign shores have much to offer but does it outweigh the feeling of being at one’s home, amongst family and friends? And what about these external factors on which one doesn’t have control – like the harsh weather extremities or the insurgent revolts or the terrible terror attacks? One has to be ready to sign up for all these too, along with all the niceties, isn’t it? Of course, there’s no guarantee that one’s own country is free from all these – but doesn’t it make sense to have one’s family, friends and support systems firmly around, to face such difficulties?

January also saw me making a quick trip to Kerala to attend a friend and ex-colleague’s wedding, with family and another colleague’s family in tow. The wedding itself held at the famous temple premises in the town of Guruvayur was a quickie and we spent some time exploring the surrounding attractions. The said collegue has already flown away from her nest, to settle in the hinterlands of Amreeka. Sigh! One can’t help but feel for her aging parents – who of course were thrilled to see her getting married! But how about being around when they need you the most in their sunset years?

Guess, it’s a very debatable topic. I, for one, have always believed and will continue to believe that with all it’s flaws and fantasies, India is the place to be, for me. There’s nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that is really worthwhile enough, to leave and head away from here! India – with her myriad extremes is truly incredible – while there is beauties galore, there are several beasts one has to battle with too. But as I mentioned, at the end of the day, it’s home! 🙂

Of home and hearth…

Hiya, I’m back on one of my quarterly visits to the blog! 😀 I know, I’m not even going to pretend otherwise!
What prompted me to write here today? – it was when I saw the link to my blog under favourites on Smitha’s space! Wow, I didn’t think anybody still followed my irregular random posts, which seem to revolve only around my son and his yearly birthdays!!

Anyway, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote here. We moved into our new home, a couple of months ago. Technically speaking it has been a good 2+ months but like I tell anybody who cares to ask – we’re still “settling in“! I don’t know… I suppose it’s rather difficult to capture the “when” that a house transforms into a home or the “how” either… when I look at our house today I see a lot of small niggly things that stare at me right back in the face – it’s just got to do with me I know, but I feel these small probably-insignificant-in-the-bigger-scheme-of-things are essential to make it into a home. And that process I know will take many more months.We are getting a lot of stuff still done – there’s probably not a single weekend that we’ve been free; small not-very-evident but nevertheless important stuff, which involves time and effort and money… so I suppose we just have to go with the flow and take it slowly. But the nagging thought that rears its head from time to time is – “but what if it takes so long that the house no longer seems new?!” Well, it really shouldn’t matter to anybody but us, isn’t it? It will be our “home” then! I guess, I sound as clear as mud – that’s the state of thoughts in my head too! 😀
Continuing with our efforts of turning it into a homely place, we got in touch with a gardener and got several plants planted around the house. Though we don’t have a huge garden space to boast of, we had left few patches of land at the front and by the walk-way, hoping to have some greenery. I’ve selected a bunch of different saplings – flowering ones mainly and I’m crossing my fingers that they will all get successfully adjusted to the environs and grow into our healthy green-companions!

In other news, the little one is growing up fast as usual and is already starting cursive writing and dictation at school! 😮 There’s not a day without homework and just the thought of his next years with multiple books of homework in different languages and math is giving me the jitters right-away 😦 He is in his ‘taane‘ phase right now, where every sentence or question of his is suffixed with a ‘taane‘ which I guess in English would translate into tagging-on a ‘isn’t it?‘ to every line that comes out of his mouth! He is doing pretty well at school – the first PTA happened and his teacher said that he is a shy but intelligent, smart child – basically well behaved. His love for drawing and colouring continues and here are some peeks into the latest flights of his imagination.

A very like-to-like representation of the Channapatna Giraffe we have at home

That’s Chota Bheem turned into a girl, watching the aeroplane fly!

Drawn looking at a Dora pic in his book – he improvised with a hat as her hair wasn’t easy to draw! 😀

Drawn by looking at his double-decker red toy-bus

The Chota Bheem characters – Dholu, Bholu, Raju and Indumati standing at a traffic light

We took him to watch the Jurassic World movie in 3D recently, which was his only second movie outing after Big Hero-6 and he spoke non-stop at the theatre too! During the first half it was all about – “when do we get the popcorn?” and in the second half the drone was – “when will the movie end?!!” And all the time he was meddling with the 3D glasses or kicking the front seats or popping up and down in his seat, with the constant chattering as background score. And then, when the movie got really interesting towards the end (the first-half was pretty boring with hardly any action, if you ask me!) he started crying, getting scared with all the giant T-Rex fights!! Phew! I had to cover his eyes with my hands while shush-ing his cries and soothing his nerves; all the while trying to balance my own over-sized glasses and trying not to miss the action myself! It sure must’ve been a hilarious sight if anyone was looking! And he wouldn’t stop talking between sobs either – he was like, ‘from next time onwards don’t take me to monster movies, let’s go to some nice movies like the Baymax ones!!’ LOL! 😀 So much for carefully planning and taking him to a movie which we thought he’ll enjoy! **eye-roll**

I’m trying to teach him a song for the singing competition they have in school this month-end and it isn’t progressing too well – albeit it really is kinda cute to hear him try to say those difficult Kannada words and get it all wrong! 😛 The theme is Kannada Folk songs and I’ve chosen a poem which I remember from my school days… let’s see how it goes! I’ll try to record and upload a clipping here if he does manage to learn the lines and recite! 🙂

In other news, all my craft-work and reading has taken a back-seat which really makes me sad – especially since I now have a space of my own in the new house, a small little library with a custom book shelf and a craft/work-table. But the problem is with it being located on the uppermost floor space of the house – by the time I finish all my daily chores and climb upstairs it’s typically time to go to bed, with the thoughts of having to rise early the next morning 😦 And weekends too are spent dusting/ cleaning/ tidying-up/ cooking or going out on errands. These are merely excuses and everybody only has 24 hours and it’s upto us to “make time” for things we want to do… I know all this too well, but haven’t really been able to find a balance. I hope to get there one day and hopefully revive my knitting and reading habits! On that hopeful thought, I will end this post…