Early Bird NEED NOT Always Catch the Prey

Happy New Year to begin with. Well this post has nothing to do with my resolutions, neither is it a checklist of events for figuring out how bad or good 2010 had actually been. 

This happens to be the narration of a joint blunder that apparently proves that there could be exceptions when it comes to tried and tested proverbs too. It was some time towards the end of the last year and everyone at home was really excited about coming to Lucknow in March for probably one of their and my proudest moments of my life or their life or our life. Simply putting it, they were planning in advance the travel schedules and modes of travel to use, to get to Lucknow in March for my convocation.

That was when suddenly the players in the air travel sector decided to play a game of gamble to see if the government might just fall for their new proposal or rather it was their new call for a new card game with the government. They wanted permission to raise prices, not by bits and pieces, but they wanted it very much in the airline sector style, by a humongous amount (It is a way of asking for more in this sector, whether it be the ways of the pilots or the airhosts or any other person related to the airline sector by even the most svelte cord that ever existed on the face of the earth). That sounded a bit intimidating considering the fact that they are very good with playing with the airline fares even without any permissions. 

Finally after weighing the pros and cons the family decided that we better book our tickets right away, three months well in advance. when the prices were at their lowest best. So there I went ahead, locating the site which gave the lowest prices. Yatra.com made it through and we booked our tickets.  Thanks to the government, the price rise never happened as the airliners had wanted it to.

Now comes the part disproving the proverb. A couple of days back, we got a mail saying that the convo dates have been shifted by two days. Now slowly rang the alert bell in my head, my tickets!!! I disprove the proverb with enough evidences to support the action taken. The early bird did not catch the prey. It would also be fair enough to say that the prey caught the early bird instead.

Now it was the bird's turn to face the consequences. Then rang the second bell in my head (Thanks to the bells for their apt timings). The chief guest for the convo would be our Honorable Minister Mr Kapil Sibal. My father is an advocate and he had at times mentioned how much he would have liked it if we had  Mr. Kapil Sibal as the chief guest for our convo, Mr Kapil Sibal being one of those lawyers in the country who also plays an eminent role in running the country. Now this was a coincidence for the case of a lawyer and so I decided how to handle the situation. Anyways the proverb had already been disproved. It was time for some pacifying work to be done, even before the storm or the fire or whatever. This time I was trying to avoid the consequences of the idiom "Storm before the calm" :P (Why do I always have to link every incident of my life to an idiom or proverb or poem or quote. Well we will take up that for a separate post content.)

Yeah, so I was saying, I rang up my Dad and told him, not with so much of excitement, "Acha (means father in Malayalam), this time we have Kapil Sibal as the chief guest for our convo", and he was happy. Though momentary, only I knew that it would be so. Meanwhile I was still weighing the odds in my mind, "Should I tell him right away or when I call him next time?" So I went on about how lucky we are to have the minister, asked Dad whether he was happy with the news and then I broke the suspense and Dad is like, "OKie, that sounds interesting. Anyways Kapil Sibal is coming. The joy outweighs everything else". Well ,that sure  was  highly comforting. Then I give him the still worse information, like the increased fares, the cancellation charges charged by the airlines, to add up to that, the amount charged by yatra.com. He still sounded cool. That is what I like the most about my father, he never looses his cool.  

Those tasks done now I am still waiting for yatra.com to activate my cancellation button so that I can cancel my booked tickets. And look at the sweethearts there, they take 24 hours to activate a single button??? Another 72 working hours to refund the ticket amount. High time they learned something from IRCTC on this front. Hence to wrap up, the proverb stands confuted and I did not have to face the consequences of the idiom either. :P   

Escapade

It was sometime in the evening. Mom sits near me to browse through my albums. She is adamant at seeing the whole lot of them right away. I have no choice but to agree. And there goes the shortlisting train. Only if she cared to understand that those were my friends. The next day I am in college and when I come across those shorlisted faces, I feel a bit awkward. The next moment I am running away from them all, scared and lo!, I trip and fall, the kick. That was exactly what I was looking for. A narrow escape out of one skunky dream. :P 

Words

Those words spoken, wish they were unspoken
Those deeds done, wish they could be undone,
One moment here, one moment there,
And the next moment is an estranged one.
The disgruntled onlooker was once a part,
and now apart, beyond reconciliation.

Another day, another place,another time,
The context is novel, the roles recast and -
Those words unspoken, wish they were spoken,
Those deeds undone, wish they were done,
Life perdures to pull the strings unwearied,
Revamp is only an instance, the show is on, full on.

A While Back

My last one was a rendering made in the mood of wrapping up the last term projects. One month has passed since and loads of things have happened. Somehow the last term made me feel desperate to get back home that I even forgot to inform my friends about my homecoming. The whole process felt as eventful as ever, but nothing will ever beat last winter break I bet. 

The layover at airports as part of the to and fro journey was more than unpalatable. Eight hours in the airport on my way home and a ten hours on my way back. Thanks to those two friends for company, and to the laptop which more than often had landed up for rescue, else I would have died of yucky yucky boredom. Now for some comparisons. One thing we noticed was that the Bangalore airport was visibly way more friendly than  the Delhi airport. We were allowed to enter the Departure terminal way before the hour and got to have something and stretch our legs. The case with Delhi airport was quite different. Since we would not have been allowed into the Departure terminal three hours before the flight, we had to sit at the Arrival itself. Thanks to the drinking water pipe which is designed to serve only tall people and to make things still effortless for a five feet being, there were no glasses available and no space for glasses either. For a while I tried hard to strangle my thirst, but there are limits to everything. Two more rounds of the hour needle and I felt totally helpless, so walked down to the pipe, managed to raise my mouth to it and then I could not stop myself from bursting into a laughter considering my present posture. So two drops of water to maintain my liquid levels and I was back to my luggage again. The eateries were all outside the terminal and we did not want to risk going out in the rain with all that luggage(stuff for the next 6 months :P).

Back to college the next morning, just in time for the first morning class, and I had never slept in a class like that ever before. I wanted to listen, tried hard to take some notes, but all efforts were spoiled hands-down. Then it was a marathon run which covered up areas of pending term five registration, mess bill, collection of books and a tiring walk back to the room. I was adamant not to drop any books on the road this time. So I concentrated hard and finally got to my room with all my books unscathed. Then through the unpacking, cleaning up and tidying of the room. It does not feel good to stay amongst clutter, that too of books and clothes.

Three hours down the line I was almost 'sleep-working'. I wished I could check my mails, but my head and mind seemed to be giving in to the seducer that sleep had disguised into. And when I was woken up for dinner by phone calls from home I realized that life was back and I was once again in helL. One week since all this and I am enjoying the unusual leisure hours that comes with the beginning of every term. Soon it will get fast and furious once again and this time I have no escape until I finish off with all my leftover duties at helL.

The Blondie Countdown says "Days left for PGP25s 183 days" and it touches a chord that arouses a cocktail of thoughts and feelings. Do not know yet what all would pass meanwhile. Hoping for the best as with the beginning of every new term and wishing the same for every fellow being too. :)

The Storm before the Fireworks :P

It is submission time, started a couple of days back actually, but it is still on and going strong. A  few of them have been wrapped up, but a whole long queue waits and the waiting time could range from anywhere between two to six days. After the sixth day, the fireworks take over the baton, sorry, I meant the end term exams. So the waiting time has a firm cap which cannot be fiddled with. Another good point to be noticed is that the queue length cannot increase any further since this is the last week of the term. The queue length would gradually decrease and then exactly zero. As for the utilization of resources, it depends, the classic MBA response. Actually a lot of the parameters could be brought under that head, i.e.,"It Depends". :P

Now if you are wondering why I am so busy speaking from an Operations perspective, let me make it clear to you. I was doing this Operations assignment and I wanted to take a short  break in between. What better choice for a break compared to eating poor readers' heads?? And now I am back to work... :)

First Interview at Sweet 48!!!!

This is about a friend, a middle aged one, but a real close one who despised the idea of taking up a job. Not exactly, she did plan to go for a couple of them at several points of her life, but always ended up deciding against it when the appointment letter clinked in the letter box. And so passed almost twenty precious years of her life caring only and only for her husband and kids. Now her kids were grown up and working and suddenly after seeing them off to enjoy their new found lives, she had this urge to look for a job. Again the mother in her chose to do what mother's do best, teaching little kids at a play school. Again she chose to go to one at a walking distance because that would let her stay nearer to home.


And so she set out for her first interview. She loved the atmosphere of the play school. The whole ambiance there reminded her of those days when she used to deck up her kids' rooms every day according to their changing fancies. And then straight to the Principal's room after inquiring at the reception. She was confident that she would make it. She could shape her kids to what they are today. If she could mold those two little devils into their present designations, what on earth could stop her from molding a couple more of them?

Well the interview began. She told him about her background, the traditional answer to the "tell me about yourself " question. Then details about the family and finally the million dollar question, "Do you have work experience in this field?" A trained interviewee would have been prompt to say that she had trained two devils all her life and ingrained every good she possibly could, in them. But the mother was too innocent and  quick  not to answer in the affirmative. And so came down the curtain on her first ever job interview. Not to forget that she is a well educated lady, if she had chosen to work at a younger age, she would have got the job she wanted to have.

This was something for those millions of mothers who smother their dreams for the sake of their families, whether those be dreams of a better job or luxuries; and also for those mothers who take up the daunting task and still never ever show even the least bit of penuriousness in showering a mother's unconditional love. This is not to tell them whether they were right or wrong. That was and always would be entirely their choice. But a thousand thanks to every mother who simply cannot stop being the caring and giving mother that she is. :)  Not to forget to mention the fathers who are equally special(just that the protagonist happened to be a mother). They have no choice, but to work, ;) but they never complain either. They are the strong Daddies, the superheroes who hold together their families so that not any strong wind on the face of the earth would ever  reach the insides of their little sweet home or touch their loved ones in there.

Back in hel'L' SWEET hel'L'

Was yearning to get back here while at summers and now its a gradual glide into the usual self. In a month, not really a month, in something less than that, I would be yearning to go home. That is how it usually works. This time around it feels really good to be back in college, maybe due to the realization that life in hel'L' is going to be only for a span of another nine months, and time flies away here, as if it is all in a hurry to catch its next connection flight. The estimations and expectations are high, as with every commencing term. The estimations were always ad hoc and proved to be wrong or deviated trajectory without fault, at some or the other point. But this time I am indubitably excited about the lectures that I would get to attend. Looking forward to this second round at hel'L' with a bevy of expectations and hoping to enjoy every moment here like never before. :)