Sans Title

Monotonousness seems beautiful.

Randomness is beautiful.

I am in very monotonous state of life now. And this appears nice and feels comfortable – for now. And when things start changing I will start cursing ‘change’. Most times, change is the best thing that can ever happen to a person and I am afraid when it knocks my door, I would be so obsessed with monotonousness that I would fear to even look through the peephole. And, that is when I start becoming extinct.

I want a change – NOW. Period.

The story so far…

She was the first girl I noticed on my first day in my Bangalore office and she was is pretty very pretty ‘oh my God’ pretty! Sigh!

And by pure coincidence, she seems to have breakfast at the same time me and my friend have breakfast. Sadly this coincidence lasted only for a few weeks and then the author was kicked out to attend to his first onsite assignment. Yipee and Sigh, together!

And once back, my head was rolling around in all directions looking for her. Sigh again!

I was talking to mom over tea, and telling her all the fun we have at office. Our imaginary scenarios and our reactions to them and so many what ifs et al. And I suddenly found myself telling her about this girl.

Me: Ma, I saw this girl in our canteen, anyayathuku azaga iruka ma… (she’s unlawfully beautiful )

Mom: Apdiya, ava paer enna? (Is it? What’s her name?)

Me: Yaaruku theriyum (Who knows)

Mom: Entha ooru da? (From which place?)

Me: Yaaruku theriyum (Who knows)

Mom: <Gives one look at me and takes another sip from the tea cup – Now what does that mean???>

And yes, I often do keep seeing her around with still no clue on who she is. Sigh!

Now, why am I writing about her?

Introducing ‘Studio Lights’

My dad was an ardent photographer in his younger years. He spent a good amount of his pocket money on photography and we still have those age old albums at home mainly featuring me in different moods – from the first day in school to the cry baby.

And as it runs in my genes I was instantly attracted to it. We did have a camera –  a film one. Film photography being expensive, I wanted a good digital camera to start with. After reading http://digital-photography-school.com regularly for months and allowing my self to be impressed by images and techniques and the beauty involved in playing with light, I decided I was going to buy a DSLR, which I presume is too much for a first camera. Being the adamant me, I bought it on my first trip to US of A. Nikon D3000 – a beautiful piece of work that captures the beauty of light.

And now that I have a camera and a few good pics, I have started a photo blog – http://studiolights.wordpress.com. Please drop by and let do let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Pittsburgh Diaries: The diary ends

Finally after little more than month of being away from home. I am going back – back home.

After seeing NYC, I have only fallen more in love with Pittsburgh. It is a wonderful, calm little place, ideal for living in peace – as far as what I have seen in the one month I have been here. New people, new city, new country, new traffic rules (even on the corridor ) has been wonderful.

And last new year, I remember writing that I felt that 2009 has many new things in store and sure it did. And this new year I was crossing the Atlantic Ocean. I never new when the new year was born. Let’s hope this year is fun too!!

Happy New Year!

P.S: And with this post, Pittsburgh Diaries comes to an end. (Yup, I know the title says the same too )

Pittsburgh Diaries: An evening in New York City

Pittsburgh and New York are in two different states of America. America has 50 states and people in all these states speak English, which is so unlike us. Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania and New York City in the state of New York. Both these cities are very important and famous, but interestingly they are not the state capitals. Instead lesser known cities in these states are the state capitals. Must be an old way of diversifying importance to lesser known cities.

Few things that I learnt during this trip are: drivers in New York are so different than those in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is ‘The State of Independence’, New York is  ’The Empire State’, New Jersey is ‘The Garden State’, Massachussetts is ‘The Spirit of America’, Florida is ‘The Sunshine State’, North Carolina is ‘First in Flight’, Fries in Burger King are much better than those in McD – however, McD’s milkshake is awesome!

Thanks to Nath, I could visit NYC – all the way from Pittsburgh to New Jersey and then to New York City which was almost a eight hour drive one way.

The first place in NYC was the WTC, or rather the place where WTC was. They are now building a memorial in that very place.

Next came Trinity Church. This church is of historic importance – in the Amercian History of course. Old and tired but still standing tall, this is church is beautiful both from the inside and outside. This church is located in the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway.

Inside Trinity Church

The crib inside Trinity Church

That leads us to the next stop – Wall Street. The very street which almost controls the state of world markets. 11 Wall Street houses the New York Stock Exchange which comes right after the BNY Mellon headquarters.

Me @ Wall Street

Speaking of Wall Street, the bull should be there – shouldn’t it. Here it is.

Me with ‘The Bull’

Say America and the first thing that comes to your mind would be the Statue of Liberty. Now, in December, its all cold and snowy in most places and all the day I went around, it was raining and misty. Oh yes, I did see the Statue of Liberty, not upfront and clear (bad weather) , but from the shore and amidst the mist.

Nope, I do not have a very good picture to put up here. Cha!

After the Statue of Liberty, we headed towards Madame Tussauds. On the way we stumbled across yet another set of landmarks: BMW – meaning the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Washington Bridges. These bridges are constructed across the Hudson river.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Now comes Madame Tussauds – phew! man, whatte piece of work! At one point we could not differentiate between the statues and the people standing there.

I do not have any particular interest in George Clooney, however, the moment I saw his statue, Revs came to mind and my finger went click on the shutter release button of the camera.

The Beatles

After Madame Tussauds, we walked down the 42nd Street while getting drenched in rain. This street houses the Times Square. Sometimes, you just cannot describe certain places – count Times Square in that list. And yes, NASDAQ is located right here.

In front of NASDAQ

Rockfeller Center is one of the most sought after places during Christmas. A glimpse:

Phew – that was all I saw. And all that I saw was just – wow!

Thank you, Nath and Vijay for the wonderful trip and the pics!

Pittsburgh Diaries: Phew!

Finally after much run around my dates for departure have been decided. It will be next week. That would complete one week and one month in US of A. So what’s doing to happen in the remaining days – the wait is on…

Btw caught a couple of snaps with my new camera but very few of them are legible. The learning begins.

Pittsburgh Diaries: Ready!

By 12 tonight I would be completing one full month in Pittsburgh, one full month in US of A and one full month outside India for the first time in my life.

And after this one month of work, american accent, trying to convince clients and impeccably white snow, I have to get ready to leave and head back to India. Now, the thing is I did not get my tickets as yet but do expect to leave sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday.

This apart did some shopping today and bought my first ever camera today and a iPod too! That means soon there might be a few pictures on this very blog. Let’s see!

Adios!

Pittsburgh Diaries: Differences

Back home, I would have been sitting on the cot, wearing as light clothes as possible drinking water or if lucky drinking from 500 ml bottle of coke while browsing the internet idly.

Here,I am sitting on a couch, wearing a sweater and sipping from a can of pepsi, while browsing for best deals on DSLRs.

Back home, I would get up at 6.30, get ready and run to catch my bus and finally after 40 mins of travel would have idly/vada soaked in sambhar for breakfast.

Here, I get up at the 6.30, get ready and leave by 7.30 to have raisin bran, toast, croissant, muffins, orange juice for breakfast to be finished with 250 ml of coffee – black and then reach office by a 30 minute shuttle ride.

Back home, if it rains, I sense the rain by the smell of th earth and the steady breeze.

Here, someone tweeted that it is snowing and I peeped outside to see snow and then get back to my laptop.

Back home, I would reach office by 9 in the morning and leave by 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or sometimes post mid night too.

Here, I normally reach office by 8.30 and normally leave office by 5.

Back home, washing meant, drying the clothes in the sun after getting them washed.

Here, the machine does it all – from washing and drying clothes to washing the utensils.

Back home, I get paid in INR.

Here, I got my first USD paycheck today.

Back home, I used to stick to the left side of the corridor.

Here, I make a conscious effort to stick to the right side of the corridor.

All said, isn’t home better?

Pittsburgh Diaries: The Journey to Pittsburgh

As most good things, the news of this assignment came through a week before I had to depart. And depart means B’Lore where I am currently placed to Chennai for a week and then to Pittsburgh (via Frankfurt and Washington DC). Chennai, after a month, was cool, liked every minute I spent there which included running across offices and buildings for various formalities before travelling. The day I left was most hectic I must say – since I got the Forex, my tickets and immigration papers only at 4 given my flight was at 1 that night. And i somehow have grown to like the last minute rushes given that they are part of the so called corporate life.

All done I was heading back home and the cab driver on the way home asked me: “What exactly you guys do?” and I explained it all to him using a simple bank as an example and his reply was: “You get paid to do this?” with a reaction that would be evoked when an old man from India in his hundreds hears that he has to pay $2 (=100 INR) for 300ml of ‘purified imported water’.

All done, thanks to Mom, Dad, Uncle and Aunt, all was set to go to the airport. The best thing about last minute rushes is that you do not have time to worry or get emotional or more importantly ‘cry’. Ok – boys do cry. And luckily the driver this time did not have any questions for me.

The Chennai airport was good, no much questions asked, a form to fill, and I am sitting waiting at the gate. In the hurry I missed carrying a book - a very good companion. There was a bookstore around and I thought ll buy one at the store in the airport. Went in and had a look at ‘2 States’ and turned to the back cover to see that it costed 295INR, 200 more than the price I would have got it for outside. Sigh – no buying books.

First flight – Chennai to Frankfurt:

First things first – the air hostess incharge of my side of the plane was very pretty! She had this matured calm prettyness which is quite rare. My flight was scheduled to depart at 1.50 a.m. and so it did. I grabbed a Times of India and Financial Times at the gate only to leave it untouched under my seat. Dinner was served and I chose Asian Veg – customary I think. Then all I remember was staring out at the darkness outside my window and then waking up after sometime to find my seat reclined and a pillow supporting my neck. Sweet!

Breakfast time – Asian Veg again. Was edible but not delicious.

Landed in Frankfurt at 7 a.m. local time.

Frankfurt Airport:

Very huge! I got down and a staff from the gate gave me the gate no. for my next airline to Washington DC. Walked – Took a train (a small one) - Walked again to finally reach my gate at around 8. No one there except for an old couple playing cards. Frankfurt airport could be better renamed Lufthansa airport as that is the only name you find there everywhere from the displays showing flight statuses to the check in counters.

How long can a person be seated. Given that I had 2 hours for my flight to depart. I walked around peered into the duty free shops where everything was priced in Euros and all i had was Dollars and Rupees. Not that I would have bought something.

Then being the impatient me, I walked to a helpdesk to enquire about my flight, if I was at the right gate and all, only to hear the lady there tell me that my flight which was scheduled to depart at 10.30 am local time would be departing at 1.40 pm local time. Bad.

Slowly, the crowd at the gate started growing and a man who spoke a language I did not understand came over and asked me something showing his boarding pass. I just told him in gestures that this was the gate. Later learnt he was from Turkey – stole a glance at his passport cover.

Finally my flight arrived – United Airlines to Washington DC.

Second Flight – Frankfurt to Washington DC:

My first taste of America. The flight was full of Americans. I got a middle seat and luckily my neighbour did not want to travel leaving the aisle seat for me. The person sitting next to me started telling me couple of things to which I replied in monosyllables and gestures mainly to which he asked me if I spoke English.

Food time – my choices were Pasta or Chicken and I chose chicken not because I wanted it but because I did not want pasta but wanted to eat something. It was plain rice, a piece of chicken grilled, carrots and beans in a translucent liquid. All sweet, I just could not consume it completely. The only good part of the meal was the orange juice.

A nap later – reached Washington DC.

Washington – Dulles Airport:

Thanks to God, they did not push my connecting flight to Pittsburgh the next day. It was scheduled two hours later at 10. All I could see was people walking around in suits and ties. Hungry – had a cookie and water.

The airport looked old but was nicely maintained. Walked around a bit and finally my flight arrived.

Third Flight – Washington to Pittsburgh:

The aircraft was a small one and my seat was the last one in the last row. All tired I wanted a nap but before I could close my eyes we reached Pittsburgh. It was the quickest flight of the three.

Pittsburgh:

Finally. The airport was the most deserted given that it was close to 11 pm local time. Thanks to colleague I was put up at one of his friend’s apartment for the night.

P.S: Ok the 2$ thing – my first transaction in USD, I did it at the Washington airport more out of a need for change for a 20$ bill than thirst.

P.S: I just realised, the best part of writing a post is you are writing something and the bad part is typing your thoughts take a lot of time.

P.S: And in all this one of my old friends got married and I didn’t even give her a call.

Sometimes

Sometimes I feel all excited about the work I do,

and sometimes I sulk.

 

Sometimes I feel all this is a passe,

and sometimes feel doomed for life.

 

Sometimes I feel I have got it all wrong,

and sometimes feel I am all set to rise.

 

Sometimes I feel stupid,

and sometimes unimaginably intelligent.

 

Sometimes I feel all this is unreal,

and sometimes I feel the pain.

 

Sometimes I realise,

and sometimes I refuse to.

 

Sometimes I wonder – why?

And sometimes I think – so what?