I have a job finally!

During the first week of January, my employee insurance claim ran out. I was not prepared for it as I thought it would be there till the end of the month. Don’t take me wrong. I am very obliged to the government of Ontario for having paid me employee insurance (EI) for 45 weeks on a bimonthly basis. It is a great benefit from the government for laid off employees. Both N and me happily survived on it for most of 2008 too. However, our backup plan of leaving to India was supposed to happen in the end of February. Once EI would exhaust in Jan end, having already paid our last month’s rent in 2007, it seemed like the right plan. Towards the end of the first week I got another reject letter from a company I was really hopeful of getting into. So, I was getting nervous all of a sudden. After all I even did a presentation there as a final step. The reason elucidated was that I was over qualified.

Somehow, I wanted to believe that reason and called the interviewer (B) and spoke with her. I asked if there was any other opportunity in the company she could refer me to. It was worth trying. If it worked it did, nothing to lose anyway. She asked me to speak with the HR about that. I did speak with the HR and got to know they had two suitable opportunities and so I simply pursued them. Eventually, B put in a word for me to the hiring manager and I got an interview call in the 3^rd week of January. I just hoped for the best and did well. Another call and I was set for doing a second presentation, this time something more difficult on the consumer electronics retailing industry. The presentation went really well and I was beginning to be hopeful about it working out. N kept on telling me to start disposing our things so that we can leave sooner to India. It is not that I did not want to go to India, after all there were so many job opportunities there. I was just worried about N’s educational loans and thought the best way to finish it soon was to have a job here.

Fourth week of January came, and I received the good news from the HR that I finally have the offer. :) I was elated and could not believe it. Finally I got a job. After completing one year since I got laid off! The profile sounded great and my manager is the best. Market research and strategy support. I would work onsite for one of the biggest retailers ever. I could not have asked for anything better.

When everything was turning topsy turvy, I really believed that something would come up. After 12 companies interviewing me and going through endless job applications for one whole year, I got it finally! Entire credit for landing every single one of those interviews goes to N because he is the one who applied for me. As my expertise was confined to aerospace and defense research, my options were limited but nothing is impossible because at present, I analyze the fashion industry. That too, after not being a fashionable person at all. :)

I joined on feb 2 and it is going to be one month since I started now. What more can I say? I am loving every moment of it.

Thank you to all my readers for the kind support you offered me since I lost my job. All’s well that ends well. :)

Another birthday passes by

On August 14, I turned 27. I remember last year, I was feeling uncomfortable and jumpy about turning 26. However, this year I am very much enjoying the aging part. As long as I look and feel younger than my age, does anything else matter? :)

I did not have to go to work as I work only from Monday to Thursday. It was a nice day, well spent with family and I enjoyed every bit of it. For lunch we went to Moxie’s. If you ask me one restaurant where we have frequented the most, it would be Moxie’s. It is a nice fine dining place, where you get amazing steaks and service according to N. Whenever we are there, he orders the blackened New York steak and I order the chicken tenders tangi thai style. After I lost my job, we stopped going there. That itself is a big achievement staying away from the one restaurant we both love to go.

The server gave my favorite dessert ‘white chocolate brownie’ complimentary after knowing that it was my birthday. Check out the pictures.

In the evening we went to my dad’s place. He was having a barbecue to celebrate my birthday and that was really fun. Check out the picture.

Now coming to the most important part, which is the cake. I know this might sound a little odd but I baked my own birthday cake. It was a vanilla sponge cake with a butter cream frosting. Actually that cake was for my sister too since her birthday was on August 6. So there you see. :)

The cake came out well. Even the frosting part of it tuned out to be a success. I even decorated the cake. The credit for the sponge cake should actually go to Jenny field. Her emphasis on the creaming method really made a big difference, when it came to getting the moist and tender texture that melts in your mouth. A single slice was so light that I did not even feel conscious of having such a big piece. And the credit for the success of the frosting should go to Ashley. Her upside down frosting technique really made the cake look professional. However, I guess the cake shifted and lost a little bit of the decoration on transit from my place to my dad's. Check out the picture.

I wish I had a better picture to post. After all that work on the cake, I was exhausted and forgot to take any pictures.

It took me long hours to have the cake ready but everyone loved the cake and I was showered with compliments. Well, who does not like compliments? :)

It is not really a game....

Recently I had a conversation with one of my MBA classmates. It’s been three years since we got in touch so initially I thought it was nice to catch him online. I am going to jot down the summary of the conversation.

He: Hey!!! wazzup?
Me: I thought for a moment. It clicked suddenly. Oh yes he does not just mean what is up. He wants to know how I have been, how is work, how is life going on and what’s the latest news! That is how he is. A person of few words. I have been good, pretty much enjoying. I guess that covered all his questions with few words again :). What about you?
H: I am cool, rocking here in Mumbai. Well, you know what I mean. :P
Me: No I don’t know what you mean, but I did not say that of course. That’s nice.
H: So, how much did you lose?
M: huh? What do you mean? This donkey, does he mean how much weight I lost?
H: Money due to the U.S recession?
M: Oh like that. Nothing atall because I did not invest.
H: What? You never invested?
M: Oh yeah I never invested in stocks. I never felt courageous enough to do so. Does he not have any other question to ask? Talking after three since completing MBA and all he can think of is STOCKS.
H: Why? Didn’t you manage stocks well at school? He is referring to the portfolio I managed gaining a return of 7 percent in three weeks as a part of my MBA program. That is nothing compared to using real money.
M: It was not involving actual cash. It was just an academic project which was stress free. Plus in real life you have to use your hard earned money.
H: Surprising! I thought you must be minting money with stocks.
M: Well, I still have the passion for stocks and…I also play fantasy stock exchange. Oops why did I give away that info?
H: What?? You play that game? That timepass game?
M: What’s wrong with that? It is a good way to play with stocks without actually investing real cash.
H: Ok, here’s hoping you will get the courage to actually invest in stocks someday. :P
M: Thanks and no kidding I will do that someday when I feel confident enough.

It really did make me wonder why I never took the initiative to invest in stocks. I know I did seriously consider investing all of the Rs 5000, which I received as salary for my summer internship job. However, I ended up giving the money to my dad. After I got my job which anyway paid more than Rs 5000, I still never got the guts to invest. Then I thought I will wait for my bonus. The bonus came and went but it did not happen. One fine day, I decided that I would ask for a really huge pay hike in my salary and if it works out then I will invest. It was an inner tactic of avoiding to do it, since I knew my company would not give me that much of a hike. Something like convincing myself on it. To my surprise, they did. They gave me exactly what I asked but as usual nothing happened on the stock front.

I used to give information on what stocks to buy and what to sell, to my friend who used to sit next to me. He appreciated the gesture and took all the risk and gained robust returns out of it. I wonder how he could rely on my advice and go for those stocks. What if those stocks crashed? For one sure thing, I know he would not have hated me but he still took the risk. It is like he believed in me and was sure that he would not lose money. Wonder how much time it would take me to believe in myself and take the plunge? Well, for the time being I know I AM JUST NOT READY. :) And for the record, I do enjoy playing the game, you know what I mean. :P

Happy Birthday!

Readers, this post is dated November 4th.

It is one year since I began my blog and this is my twenty first post. Even though I am happy that my creation completed one year, I feel slightly bad that the number of posts were very less. Even if I had written one post every month, I could have easily crossed 24. Well, you see my readers, at first my blog was left dormant since I was too much into the preparations for my wedding in June. :P Post the wedding, the blog was further inactive since I was on a long vacation travelling on my honeymoon. And then I relocated to Toronto, so you see, it took me a while to get back into the flow. :P

I guess my New Year resolution would be to post regularly without fail. Now, the first paragraph is just to console myself, not even to convince the readers. I have that odd habit of consoling myself once in a while. Well, the outcome is fruitful with me automatically feeling better. I remember when I used to buy groceries from the store, wait a minute, did I ever mention that buying groceries over here is an art? It is so costly that you need to know from where to get what. In addition, when to buy also turns out to be vital for sustainability, be it short term or long term. I ended up understanding the second part only after experiencing it; well err the ‘mistake’.

There is a super grocery store right next to my apartment. I was never inclined into buying stuff until I started seeing interesting fliers of the same store delivered into my mail box on Thursdays. On one such Thursday, when I took a closer look into the flier, I was surprised to see the discounts offered. The same day, I went into the store and purchased all the items I was sure were on discounts. When I checked out, the bill showed that the items were on the mark up price and not discounted. On reaching home, I checked the stupid flier once more carefully scanning each and every page to realize that in a small tiny corner was this written, *“Effective from this Friday to next Thursday”. I could have very well returned the stuff that day and purchased it the next day, returning stuff being the normal practice in North America. The only problem is that I feel very embarrassed when I return stuff. So, I had to bear the loss, but at the end of the whole incident the lesson was learnt. From then on, I have been very careful; so in essence sometimes mistakes are good. Perfection beholds from far from the next time. See, again I am consoling myself. :P


Time has flown by, things have changed but some habits never change!

I would like to wish all my readers a very prosperous Diwali. :)

Lets talk about R in ‘SYRALS’

Nearly one year ago, I inaugurated my blog talking about L and her baby. The subsequent post discussed S too, and R pointed out that I did not talk about her. All of them are very dear to me and are my friends for the past seventeen years. I have never preferred one over the other, so there is no scope for feeling left out. Recently, I rang up R and wished her on her birthday and that’s when I thought maybe a post dedicated to her is the best gift I can give her. Hmm R, I hope you are listening. So, now lets talk about R in ‘SYRALS’.

I think it was in the third grade when both of us met. That’s a long time ago, though I clearly remember that after our first meeting, we did not even want to be in the same class. The reason was a bad fall out over some Hindi textbook. Now, when I think of it, it does feel really silly. Nevertheless, I am glad that it happened because that’s what brought us to be the friends we are today. It took us a while to get over the quarrel and become friends, since both of us had our own set of friends. In fact, my other set of friends included S and L. One quality of hers which I always admired was her beautiful voice. She used to sing so well that our teachers and the other students would ask her to sing whenever there was a free period. Back then, most of the singing classes also included her songs. It was during the 7th grade, that we became quite close with the comfort level to actually confide in each other. Soon enough, something terrible happened which made me feel very sorry for her. Her father passed away on a stroke. Her family became two from three, with mother and daughter left all alone. It was not sympathy that I felt for her but more like emptiness and grief, wondering what I could do to make her feel better.

The entire manner in which she handled her composure, struck me. I was flabbergasted. I am not sure if it was her innocent age or her maturity level, but she did come out of that and continued excelling in her studies. It was never hard work, but sheer intelligence which helped her in academics. She has received merit certificates for science talent exams conducted on all India level. I have seen her growing into a mature lady with lot of poise. Maybe, it is this serene quality of hers that makes me approach her for advice even now, after so many years. Sometimes, it was hard to see her battling with problems in life, like for instance, when her mother fell ill and had to be operated. Imagine a naive fifteen year old managing everything from her mother’s operation, to taking care of her post the operation, how much can she do? R did that and much more than that while continuing to be one of the best students in our school. I don’t think she attended most of the classes towards the end of the Xth standard, but she still managed to pull off a distinction in the ICSE exams. Always facing life’s toughest challenges with a smile, that what I remember her in school as.

‘Monalisa’, that’s what we used to call her in school, though the name has stayed over the years. Even now after the book ‘The Davinci Code’ has come out, she is still proud of the nickname she got stuck with, in school. Another quality of her which amazes me is that she has this rare ability, to think of a particular problem/situation in a third person’s perspective. Her singing went into a backseat as she grew up, maybe due to the pressure of the tribulations in life. It never gave a chance to revive her passion for singing. I have always forced her to consider singing at least once in a while, though that never did work out. Her father’s government job was always an impending offer, which her relatives forced her to consider. Knowing very well that it was not what she wanted to do, she continued to be strong at her stance. Today, biting all odds she has managed to overcome all her obstacles and go for what she truly believed in. I know in few months, she will pass out of her MBA in flying colors, work in her dream company and excel in life in every way. I would not be surprised, if she decides to start singing again. After all, all’s well that ends well, don’t you think R?

R, I truly cherish your friendship in every way and would like to say that you are one of the most wonderful friends; I have ever come across in my life. Keep going pal, there is so much more for you to achieve in life.

Readers, the link below has a song that was not playing earlier, due to some error in the code. I have fixed that now. Happy listening!

http://syrals.blogspot.com/2007/03/music-that-is-soul-stirring.html

New place and new adventures…

I landed with my husband in Toronto on August 3. The flight journey was not tiring and I did not really have any jet lag in the days that followed the journey too. When I realized that every single thing comes with a cost here, I nearly shrieked. For instance take the case of the airport luggage trolley. You have to shell out $2 for using a trolley, watching my expression my husband remarked, “Welcome to Canada”. I did feel welcome because I ended up finding an abandoned trolley while he had gone to collect the bags. :P. So, in essence the forthcoming posts will deal with the adventures I had from Aug 3 to the present day. I know, I should have related all that much earlier, but then I needed to get settled before I start pouring down my thoughts. :P

Toronto, the place where I stay, is a beautiful city with tall buildings and sky scraping structures, the noted ones being, the CN tower, the Toronto-Dominion Centre among the others.

Toronto-Dominion Centre

The CN tower-Courtesy kovyrin

Being very passionate about finance, I was thrilled to see the Bay Street which is the financial hub of Canada. The houses here in the sub urban and urban areas look almost the same, which is one of the first things which struck me. Some of them were row houses, and I wondered if people got lost finding their way back home.

Row houses during Fall

Now, that made me decide on an apartment rather than a house. Smart right? :P Nah, not really since even a small house would cost you anywhere from $150,000. Though our initial plan was to stay in downtown which is thought to be the most happening place, we ended up taking an apartment in the outer suburb, North York, due to unavailability and the huge waiting list in downtown. Changing the apartment to ‘home sweet home’ looked very thrilling and challenging to me. Of course, I was thrilled because of obvious reasons. Why did it pose as a challenge back then? The apartment was in the 16th floor and I was acrophobic. : ) Despite the view from the 16th floor, the whole idea of getting over the fear of heights drove me nuts initially.

Now that's the view from our living room. Now, why not a picture standing on the balcony? No way!

Those days, I never really walked into the balcony. It was like an abandoned area, left to be kept empty. I still remember asking the building staff, if there was any other floor available to which the answer was the 6th floor. I asked my husband whether we could check that out and he said what difference that would make to my fear. I know it was stupid but I still confidently argued that I may have better peace of mind on the fear aspect. You see, my argument was loosely based which ended up being weak in contrast to his, which raved about the view from the 16th floor. So, the rest is history.

On the first few visits to buy furniture for the apartment, I used to convert the cost into rupees and then get shocked. Like the couches we finally got, which costed us $1000 (Rs 40,000), but that was the last time I did any kind of conversion. Its like you got to realize that the day you stop converting, you automatically start enjoying Toronto. You start loving the place and the stuff you get out here purely on face value, but I guess some habits never die. Like the time when I asked for further discounts on the TV we wanted to purchase from Future Shop. :P

To be continued.

Three months and no way!!

Dear Readers,
I just cannot believe that its been three months since I updated my blog. So unlikely of me, never knew time could pass just like that. And so much has happened too, which is yet to sink in….


I got married!
I got married to the love of my life.
Finally, I left the metro I stayed for the past two years
I left the metro, the place I never really liked.
I got promoted.
I am in based in Toronto now.
But of course, home sweet home will always be Kerala. :p

I got married on June 24. It is definitely going to be 2 months since that day, but I still can’t believe it.

Bound together by love!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

But I guess my freedom is slightly limited now. :p

Sometimes too much is just not enough…

It’s been a while since I took off sometime from office, not to go home or to meet my sis but just to give time for myself. Hmm, I know it might sound a little weird as most people would not find it difficult to take out time for themselves. For me, life has become too mechanical. Wake up in the morning, go to office, come back home in the night and sleep. The same routine has been continuing for the past few weeks. It is not that I have started disliking my job. I still love and enjoy doing it but sometimes when it becomes too hectic and totally stressful, of course anybody would need a change. So what did I do yesterday to change it? I woke up late. Mmm, that long sleep and the dream felt so good. I took my bath very leisurely as against the normal half an hour bath. Since summer had arrived here early this time, it was quite rejuvenating standing under the shower like that. While getting ready for office, I listened to my favorite songs humming along with it. All of the above easily resulted in me being late for office. :)

I walked in the office slowly without any hurry, a smile on my face, as against the normal urgency with which I rush to check office emails. I never knew how the day was going to be like, but I still had that smile while signing the late register too. I felt so relaxed and eased out that I finished quite a bit of work. Getting relieved of stress really gives way to a wonderful feeling! I wanted more of that feeling. So, on the way back home, I went and shopped. :) Some way of making use of the bit of the performance bonus I received last month end. Talking about the bonus, I suddenly remembered. I need to get back to work now, lest my next quarter bonus will get affected. Back to work, work and work!

P.S. To all my readers, I have a request. Please take sometime off just for yourself. Do the things you love most, be it listening to music or writing out your mind, just do it and feel the difference it can make in you.

Is anyone wondering what the title has got to do with the post? Don’t worry, even I am doing the same; I really have no idea why I chose that title. :D

Dreams Unlimited…

Alpine Path had tagged me so, here's the post about my bizarre dream.

I love dreaming, be it in the daytime or night time. Sometimes it can be beautiful ones, and otherwise also, I never bother since they can still be altered to seem beautiful. :) After a long time, I had a bizarre dream last night. So much in detail I could recall that I thought of writing it down before it vanishes into thin light. Yes, in my case most of the dreams I have, be it good or bad stays in my memory only the next day morning after which it totally gets erased for whatever unknown reasons. When I tried to remember the earlier bizarre dreams I have had, I was at a loss. I still went on thinking and thinking and maybe that was the reason for the last night’s bizarre dream. Well, sometimes you need to think of good stuff to dream about the same. The mind is very powerful that it can make you do what it actually wants. Wow I liked that line, isn’t it true? It is not my sudden discovery since S had just given me that along with a good piece of advice on something related to the above line today. She’s very good at that, wonder where she gets all that wisdom from.

Anyway, it goes like this. I was this entrepreneur traveling in my own helicopter (wow wow :D) to make it for some important meeting in another state. There was a tall dark handsome guy (Tdh) sitting next to me apart from the pilot in the copter. (I liked this part :) .) All of a sudden, the pilot looks at me with fear and tells me that there is a fuel problem and he needs to do emergency landing. I began to panic, thinking that I would be late for the meeting (when I should have thought that my life is in danger). Soon enough he asked us to wear the safety gear and tried to make an emergency landing. Half way through, he opened the door and asked both Tdh and me to jump. Without even looking down, I yelled at him for not landing. Tdh pushed me out, and with fear I opened my parachute only to realize that the ground was so near that I fell on the rough surface before my parachute could even open. (I actually felt the thud while I was sleeping.) I rose on my feet, and see a huge truck coming towards me in full speed. In a second, I pull tdh and we start running to the other end of the road. We reach the edge of the bridge and see the sea below. (Where did the sea suddenly come from? This is bizarre.)

Anyway, I realize that I am falling into the sea along with Tdh. (Here I felt the splash of the water and the sudden rush of chillness). Knowing swimming, I try my best to swim. However, I fail to even move a bit and I start panicking. (This is even more bizarre!!). No longer able to hold my breadth, I open my mouth and all the water rushes into my mouth and my nostrils get heavier. Frantically I start getting the pang of pain which electrified my body from head to toe. It lasted for a few seconds after which I started liking the feeling. I felt good and was drawn towards it (wonder what was it) more and more till I sensed some force pulling me from behind. I fight to go forward, till I give in to the force that was pulling me. The next moment, I open my eyes and realize that I am lying on the sand. I look up and see Tdh staring into my face with fear. (Dirty minds, well it is not what you all think. I just had a near-to-death experience in my dream.)

That’s when I woke up from my dream too. Maybe that opening eyes part in the dream made me do it in reality too. Anyway I was too tired to react to the tiring dream (come on, wasn’t the swimming incident in the dream tiring?). So I went back to sleep thinking who that Tdh was, trying hard to remember his face. :)

Here’s the tagging part. Please note, only bizzare dreams allowed. I am definitely going to enjoy reading the same. :)

Abhi
Meera
Cuckoo

A feeling like never before!

I am back to what I love doing after a ‘small’ gap. Writing, or rather expressing myself. I have been getting calls from few friends asking the reason for not posting regularly. They seem to imply that I am turning out to be very lazy. Now why did it take me so long to update my blog? For one week I pondered on that question, seriously. I admit I would not totally blame my hectic work schedule but definitely it was not laziness. There were tensions outside work. Like, I was expecting my new year to start off with something really special. Did it really start with a bang?

Oh no it didn't, in fact all my hopes went down in the drain. I am at the moment, totally distraught and sad. Sometimes, expectations can really reduce joy. It was not like I actually believed in the teachings of “Art of Living” (AOL). I mean no one would ardently believe on something and do the exact opposite, right? At least I would definitely not do that. The only sad part is that after seeing all my hopes crash, I could very well relate to the first teaching of the Art of Living Ashram.

‘Expectation reduces joy’.

Art of Living Ashram, beautiful isn't it?

Back in college, neither did I like the teachings of the Ashram nor the attractiveness of the place. When I was there, I totally was out of place and never felt attached to the Ashram though many of my classmates did. Compulsion from the college authorities to attend the three day seminar (basic course) as part of the orientation program witnessed me joining the others in the 1.5 km march towards the ashram. I remember the dean promising that he would definitely not award MBA certificates to all those who would escape from the basic course of the AOL, even if they end up being toppers. Hmmm, but later the attendance of the AOL course was never really an important criteria when the convocation actually happened. The course was tiring, that was what I felt during the first day. I mean waking up early in the morning at 4.45 and assembling in the terrace of the ashram to do the Surya Namskar and then on till 11 pm in the night, attending lectures, yoga, meditation, pranayamas and Sudarshan Kriyas made me feel like I was in a totally different world. Of course, the gates of the ashram campus were bolted in order to shut the desires of outside world. Everything was a big NO in the ashram. No tea, coffee, chocolates, ice cream, eatables, cigarettes, drinks were served in the ashram shops. The food served was really bland. The reason elucidated was that all of the restricted food and spices increased the level of toxins in the body.

The person who took the lectures surprised us when he revealed that he was earlier a successful entrepreneur, IIM A pass out who left his business in order to serve the ashram and to propagate its teachings. He mentioned his profit he used to earn during his entrepreneur days roughly in one of the lectures, an amount close to 40 lakhs per month. Both he and his wife had donated their savings to the ashram and now stay there happily. The three days food itself was a torture for me and I really used to wonder how anybody could stay there for more than that. The only part I liked in the whole of the course was the ending of the Sudarshan Kriya session, wherein you end up lying on the bed in a resting position, eyes closed for a few minutes. I used to just sleep off till somebody actually woke me up, since it was considered a relaxing position. :)

The Satsung was another fun moment, wherein all the people danced to the ragas and bhajans sung by ardent devotees of the ashram. My batch danced like as if it was a dance party and not like devotees in any way. Then there was another hilarious moment, which everybody enjoyed equally. At the end of one of the lectures, the full batch was asked to hug and say to each and every other person the following line, “I belong to you and you belong to me”. This exercise was thoroughly enjoyed by the boys since they could loaf around saying it to each and ever girl around, without getting bashed up. :) The girls too enjoyed it since it brought in a comfort feeling and helped them to come out of their coyness.

Looking back, I guess AOL was a good learning experience for the batch in a whole. It made all of us familiar enough to start slogging together in a very comfortable manner, devoid of stress and sadness till our Dean acted. I mean he totally believed in preparing the batch for facing the worst in life and constantly strived at increasing the amount of stress in all the students. Of course, the later part of the MBA even saw romances getting rekindled in the ashram. It was a place where the batch had free entry since my college was closely associated with the AOL ashram. The only reason my friends and me visited the ashram later after the AOL course was to enjoy the cool breeze and also to play hide & seek in the terrace of the ashram. If the devotees would have seen us like that, definitely they would have thrown us out. It’s interesting to even remember that we have had several sessions with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (founder of Art of Living), who actually knows some of my batch mates very closely. Later when there was some talk about AOL after I joined my work, I simply mentioned that I have seen him and used to visit his ashram in Bangalore, all of the listeners actually looked at me as if I have earned my salvation. It was very funny for me though. :D


Coming back to what I started off with, I am done with simply going on expecting and expecting and seeing all of them crash. It is sometimes hard to take the sadness frivolously when you know that inside you are heart broken. Nevertheless, I guess I am happy since I try to find happiness in small things especially my loved ones’ happiness.

Moral of my current state,’ Expectation reduces joy’. It really does!

Life is beautiful!

I really think life is beautiful. It has got nothing to do with proclaiming something out of the blue. I am saying it because it is a feeling that I have always had....hmmm not from childhood but since the time the whole searching process began. Frankly the search still goes on, the search for the real purpose of my life. Though I feel I was close on arriving at the profound answer. Back to what I started, the beauty of life. Recently I came across one more instance when I just had to shout aloud, “Life is beautiful”.

Few days back, I got a call from my friend R who rang up to talk about another friend L. Now to describe L in few words is a little hard for me. Still, I would say that simple, beautiful and happily married would suit her along with the tag of my best friend. The last part is something that I will cherish forever.....I know that because we are friends for the past sixteen years and am quite sure it will continue for life. S and R also forms a part of this forever friendship group, though I will talk about them later. (Just a mention for safety sake, otherwise I might get murdered by them, if they come across this blog.)

On 21st of October, R calls and tells me that I am an aunt now. So engrossed I was with my job and tensions, that I actually asked her how. Neither did it occur to me that L was nine months pregnant nor the fact that her delivery date was due. Her next few words were these. “Edi patti, thendi, L prasavichu”, literally means “You dog, beggar, L gave birth”. “It’s a girl!” she said. My joy knew no bounds. I started screaming in the office like this. “yehiyaeeeeeee, yahooooooo…wowieeeeeeeeee….then what followed was “oops. I am sorry, sorry, really sorry, sorry. Sorry friends!! Actually my friend just delivered a baby girl”.

I rushed inside the conference room and dialed L’s mobile number (for some privacy, since I had decided no more hue and cry). When L picked up, I was literally not able to speak anything. Here is the conversation that followed.

Me: hey dear I just came to know. Congratulations! I don’t know what more to say.
L: Oh thanks!

Me: I can’t believe that finally its done. You are a mother now. And, I am an aunt now.

L: Isn’t it so beautiful? Everybody over here is saying that she looks like me. My eyes, my nose, my ears. She is so small!

Me: Oh really? I am so happy for you. I can’t wait to see her. Is she sleeping? Wake her up! Hold the phone near her mouth. I want to hear her sound. (She was laughing at that moment…must have thought that I am crazy.)

The baby: miaaahhhh…mmmm….hiummmmm…mihimihimhi…..muuuuu(the baby actually made sounds like that….Can you believe it?).

How does it feel like to be an aunt? I can’t really tell. Maybe I will when I will soon be visiting L. The much awaited moment, when I will hold her baby in my arms. Life is beautiful! Isnt it?