Smile and Wave !!

On my visit to Singapore in September 2008, I came to realize what lousy junk we are served in our country in the name of Chinese food, right from the dhabas by the road side and the highways and gali - nukkads to many of the hi-fi, snazzy, snooty and 'posh' restaurants claiming to serve so called authentic Chinese Cuisine. What I tasted in Singapore was a far cry from the garlic rich, spicy and deep fried stuff we get here. I wont go into details, but it was the best noodles I had ever had (and I aint talking about maggi). Since then, my brother and me have labelled the Chinese food that we get in India (mostly prepared by Nepalis) as Chiness; pronounced chai-ness . I aso remember seeing a board in Goa which advertised 'Authentic Goan Chinese Food'. Now, at least that guy was honest :). Today, on  trip to Bilaspur, after having foregone breakfast and lunch in the name of the environment and my employer ( paapi pet ke liye kya kya karna padta hai ), we finally could...

Ah! Finally! After a long and dry spell, we have rain again in Shimla. And what a sight! The temperature dropped instantly! and the clouds started decided that it was time to descend into the valley and obscure everything in their whiteness. I love this place! Unlike my home in Goa, The soil in Shimla does not give off the heady musky odour when wet. Well, I miss that! Maybe if I could introduce some actinomycetes in these soils :P

Now that I have a rhyming, stupid title to my blog, which may seem to some as a vain effort to write something cool, lets move on to the real purpose of this post. It has been a thoroughly busy week, no make it fortnight. I have been downright busy since the 19th of nov. and look at the date today, its 29th. ten days have gone by in a whiff. Lets go chronologically here, timeline is very important 19th to the 20th of november 2009 - The H.O. had planned a special training workshop for its team in shimla, that would be my colleagues and me. this workshop was supposedly to train us in some documentation system designed to keep tabs on the project progress, its activities, the actvities and progress / performance of the people working on the project, the sub-agencies ad infinitum. Altho the manual said it was to be used for betterment of the program and those working for it and not as a policing tool, I fail to see how a system basically designed to keep tabs and checks on all te st...

I cant think of a title for this post as yet. Maybe as I proceed further something may crop up to my mind. A week gone by very rapidly. A lot of stuff happening. An equally lot of stuff has happened and predictably a lot of stuff to happen and do in the coming months. Our project launch event which was also supposed to be an interaction meet amongst the various stakeholders of the program ran quite successfully, with the exception of the accounts settling affair. I am sure most persons who have had to deal with the accounts departments in the corporate sector will agree with me when I say, accounts departments are more headache than maintaining the accounts themselves. Whatever, after slogging for 20 days, the last three being slogging without sleep, and moving endlessly on the actual event day trying to keep things streamlined, I finally heaved a sigh of relief as the program finally got over... But why during the program was anybody who had any complaints, coming to me and giving m...

After what seemed like ages, I have finally secured a rented accomodation in Shimla. It is surprising how difficult it is to find a decent place on rent in shimla. First of all the crazy gradient and hilly terrain makes it virtually impossible to have a house with access to the road. Road acess, which is called 'drive in' around here is a premium luxury item. Add to that the odd terminology of one room set or two room set, which canbe translated as 1BHK and 2BHK. Another thing i noticed here, which would surprise any maharashtrian, is that having just one bathroom in the house is almost sacrilegious. there have to be as many bathrooms as there are bedrooms, so a house with 2 bedrooms and one bathroom is a big no-no... the guy must be really poor. :) But after much huffing and puffing and calling friends at all hours, I finaly found a place to stay. A nice 1BHK, with a decent kitchen, a good bathroom , good fittings, although on the highway (noisy) and on the second floo...

Here we go, a few more of shimla pics, may be I ought to start a new blog for this very purpose.....:) Now this is what i call dangerous living. the houses are simply too much, more on this tomorrow:P Now thats the view from my office, cool na?notice how the houses are all built on the slopes, these are all connected by zig-zag, steep roads, barely enough for a 800! need to put that here too! :) another cool view!

For the past few weeks, I have been feeling so elated and fantastic like I have never felt before. Good things have been happening to me and how! And to think it all started with me coming to Delhi in September with the Ganesh Idol I had forgotten back home. In one weks time, I had a new job, a good one, add to that a posting in Shimla and the final cherry on the cake. She said yes! Thank you god! I never thought I would say this again after 2007, but Life is good to Me.... yet again!