Inconcurrence !

This one has to be a real quick one…one long week and an even longer day. But with all the effort and time invested, my work done went live with doses of appreciation.
But this trick aint going to work anymore… appreciations are enticing and rousing but not good enough. I have grown above that (sounds chaste huh).
Its time for something tangible and significant coz my competition is with mortals for every tiny bit of space(don’t take this literal). Awards are shelved and who looks at them, they are indiscernible in my resume…
Show me the money and show me the power…
Rupee rising, USD depreciating…but I still have only a pair of each of limbs, eyes et al and I am impaired from working 48 hours a day...all rise by my salary seems to never rise on the positive side of x-y axis.
Everything seems to be escalating, the NSE, the Sensex, the interest rates, my house rent, my bills figures and ask what not…but why poor me or rather the fraternity of me is stuck with a stagnant figure in our salary slips
Just induces vexation every month-end when I see that I get less than what I give !

Some mid way, some left away !

The list of things that I attempted to do is too wide and too long.
Start was good and I do appreciate myself for I did start or attempt. But don’t ask me what happened after that…
Am not particularly proud of myself for the reason that I haven’t carried over any or most of them to blooming stage.
Ventured into learning marshal arts but gave up midway…the longest I could have gone for any of the temptful attempts.
The puerile me went to learn how to play violin…I did take some initial lessons but then came the summer vacation and the vacation is still on…may be the longest vacation that anyone would have ever had.

Then were the tailoring lessons…I am proud to have stitched and sewn paraphernalia stuff( I completed my lessons but never practiced in the real world)…
My mom was particularly proud at that and she never fails to mention that when it comes to the topic of my marriage…” the girl knows to stitch”… huh, like it matters !

The only consolance that I have for having learnt to sew is…hopefully it will be useful some time somewhere in future (I don’t know whose!).
And with the tailoring lessons were the overlapping lessons to touch type …I regret not having completed that…I truly am in awe of those who can type lengths after lengths without even looking down at the dancing keys.
I hope one day I can do that…am close :)
I get a wrist ache trying to use mouse ! Better get better at the the key-B skills.
Ever wondered how easy it would be to just bypass the mouse usage ...clicking is going to be out of fashion soon…no click

Anywyas, there is something that I did finish…the craft work and all those tiny twinie art work at which I am supposed to be adroit. I took a few lessons to better the already inherent skills that I possessed…shhhh
And apparently I did some pretty good job at that…you got to take my word on that :) !

And the most recent attempt …well the most short-lived one was the SALSA classes… but I would not put into the category of the past…am going to get back to that soon…like…few days, months...
Euphemism for optimism…need some impetus, for like all others even me has only 24 hrs a day…
And am working on my renewed passion and want to keep up to it !

Desk Derivatives!

Wow..this is what comes out when you look straight down from my desk!

The view from my desk makes all around me feel jealous.

This is a strategically located position sitting where I can face the metropolitan world to my right from the 44th floor of Mori Tower on Roppongi hills or just confront my confined work world to my left. Preferred choice is obviously right but the perfunctory act is to deal with the left.

It’s the incentive to sit (and apparently work) here in the corner with my desk flanking the window and get a glimpse of Fuji San, that I get ready to get to office each day…well there are more reasons than just that but no harm if I reveal that I love my desk for the position is holds...but hush shush :)

Every time an announcement is made about relocation, I cling to my seat and pretend like the announcement was for all but me. I refuse to part from my seat.

May be professionally damaging but I am ready to compromise sitting away from the rest of my team as long as I get to sit in the most comfortable and private seat on the floor…umm not exactly private private but at least I don’t have people hovering on top of me and from all sides…unless they make arrangements for people to start working while afloat from the other side of the window.

The first time I saw snow fall was from this desk and what an irony, by the time I ran down to see and feel the snow, it was nothing but droplets of water…

I hear the gush and whoosh of wind that clatters against the multistoried buildings. The soundless noise is scary at times.

What with the men who clean the window sills in a way that was totally new to me …the open elevator that carries them up and down. What would happen if the wind blew at a pace beyond hold...don’t want to think about that!

Coming back the goodie part, its just awesome to see the fall colors from such a height and the beautifully lit skyline of the city. After the day’s work its comforting to see the Blues ride by, the Sun spread the red light and to hear the murmur across the Square the clink of the harness and bit, and yet away from the ooohs and aaahs of the crowd.
It lures me and wants me to hold on for longer than I wish. But …hurry Om, time to go home!

I miss them !

Why the good moments don’t last and before I realize they were ever a reality…they become memories!

Obscurity persists !

Stuck in the middle of LOC…lines of code!

Its a huge web and I get lost in the trail that leads from start to endless edge!

The end seems to be unattainable and the start is lost somewhere beyond reach.

There is nothing great or fanciful about the work here. Yet there is a constant fight for the job.

I have this job and am plastic happy...but not happy happy. I shouldnt be saying that am not happy coz I chose or rather I had no choice but to take it…paupers cannot be choosers you see!

Fielding each day to gain more, learn more, I acknowledge how discontented me and many more around me are…doing the job that they took or got!

I don’t know whether am doing this for myself or for others or god knows for what reason!

I seem to have misplaced my skill set.

I get these chronic tickles in my stomach kindling me to change my course and move in a direction where I would be better suited…but now again the fundamental question is…what is it that am better suited at?

It’s this obscurity why am still around, doing something that I don’t find pleasure in or may be am trying to find some pleasure...its a vicious circle.

Another weekend filler…

But it was not a filler as it was thought it would be…

Jogeshima island… ocean with its bound less limits. I can gaze at the sky and the vast ocean for hours together and still not get bored. Ocean view and the cool breeze, observation towers of different models, the sea bastion, the green moss covered rocks, the passageways, tiny trenches, wind worn volcanic rocks…the shallow idyllic beach – it was like a trance to see so much serenity all in one place. I just loved this place not just coz of the surrounding of this place but for it is still unscathed by commercialization bug. No queues, no mob hurdles…all I could hear was the resonance of small waves that hit the rocky shores…
Those who think the most beautiful and exotic place is Switzerland or one of those contemporary commercial places, they just need to broaden their horizon and look around and round…Japan is one place that combines the beauty unbeatable !

Encounter with a stranger-Roppongi Hills!

Its funny … or I don’t know how to put it!
Traveled across India and half way across the world, one thing that seems to be common among men is the way they think …well at-least when it comes to making an advance towards a women. I have had the experience of puerile boys coming up to me trying to strike a conversation with the excuse of asking time or offering superfluous favor…huh.
That was back in some corner of some street of some state of India …but then it was common in every corner of every street of every street in India. But the funny thing is after many years I seem have similar experiences. Only difference being …it no more juvenile boys this time and above all its not India. A foreigner whose origin and existence is oblivious to me comes up to me and asks a similar questions …”excuse me , whats the time ?” quickly followed by a friendly remark and asking me where I belonged and et al.
I did not know what to reply at the spur and just showed the guy the bunch of friends I was with …and guess what the reply was…
”Ohh am sorry ma’am, I dint know that“…huh like I cared if he knew, but yes may be he would not have had the courage to come up to me if he knew! Such similarities amuse me :D
Was this some potion that was added when god created them?

Random bits!!!

All that satiates me now is just scrapping out the random bits of thoughts that emanate in my heart and mind. And what better way to rid them or may be archive them…put them aside and I don’t want to think about them…well not for some time at least!
It is an addiction more than the pleasure of writing that I don’t want to ever give up in life… considering the fact that am late by many years already!
Everything that surrounds me or around me ignites a desire!
A desire to know more, learn more , capture more …and arghhhh…why did I not begin earlier or do I still have time to catch up ?
Tick tick tick…more time lost.

Coy Expressions!

Contrary to what they might be popularly known, all these women clad in these opulent looking Kimonos are not Geishas(the Japanese prostitutes). The timid and amicable look on their face is what comes out in the course and end of their training and is deifinitely a result of high culture world that they are a part of. Geishas are entertainers, their purpose being to entertain their customer, be it by reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation.

Clients know that nothing more can be expected. In a social style that is uniquely Japanese, men are amused by the illusion of that which is never to be. Geisha do not engage in paid sex with clients as opposed to the popular belief.

The traditional thick white base (originally made with lead or rice powder) with red lipstick and red and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows which makes-up of the appearance of apprentice geisha(Maiko) is one of their most recognizable characteristics

Well that’s not all…I just happened to be lucky (and was excited)to see and meet few of them myself while on my trip to Kyoto (considered by many to be where the geisha tradition is the strongest today).

To get to 2 !

Professional life Progression ->Personal life regression
Social life sucks and the so called professional life just becomes a mandate to keep you away from thinking that you actually have a poignant personal life or rather no personal life at all!
The effort to become a family with someone now is the responsibility of few family members who eventually succumb owing to our own ignorance.
Its a raid. Totally uncertain of what I expect and if I know what I want, the fundamental question is how to find The One!
The war begins with the scrutiny of hundreds of profiles half heartedly.
Screening profiles of mortal who aint even aware of your existence and reverse is equally true, you are being dog watched by someone you don’t know.
How I wish the process of marriage was unpretentious. No self advertising or marketing.
Adam meets Eve and the story begins…not the end but the beginning of story which continues till date with millions of us here harassing ourselves each day.
Irony is, every guy I meet is looking for a girl and every girl I meet is looking for the right HE.
Then why the H.E.L.L is the search still on!!!

Huh...you dint expect these coming out of a Funny Coin !

Angola
Hey, call me when your life expectancy catches up with your inflation rate.
Belgium
The only European country to never successfully invade Belgium.
Burundi
All that coffee in a country with no reason to wake up.
Canada
With massive overpopulation threatening the globe, Canadians maintain a population of less than 35 million. How do they do it? Zero sex appeal!
China
If you're gonna be in prison, it might as well be for no reason.
Dominica
Where the national catchphrase is "I'm sorry, officer, I didn't mean to interrupt your armed robbery."
Eritrea
You only have one TV station, but cheer up - it's got locust reports on the eights!
Finland
We're so dumb, we can't wait to be insulted to send a meaningless postcard with a tire on the front. You've had over 5,000 years of culture, and the world's most famous Finn is still Huckleberry
Germany
The great 20th-century power that said, "Ditch Einstein, get Hasselhoff."
Greece
Big news: Historians now think the first marathon took place in August 490 BC, not September. That means nothing good has come out of Greece for a month longer than previously believed.
India
A nation so richly diverse, you can walk into a single neighborhood and find cholera, dengue fever, malaria, typhoid, and plague.
Japan
Last century, you brutally defeated China and Russia. This century, you make Hello Kitty toasters.
Kuwait
We saved your ass from Saddam. Now make with the oil, bitch.
Nepal
Home to eight of the world's highest peaks; nine if you count your unemployment rate.
Oman
As in "Oh man, I can't believe you cut my hand off for stealing an orange!"
Pakistan
Guess what? You're not worth jack-istan!
Saudi Arabia
You'll come for the history, you'll stay because they arrested your wife for accidentally showing her ankles.

Dig here to know how Conan O'Brien came up with these !

Yens back in my pocket !

I barely have enough words to express the manners of Orientals. Charming with their ways of doing things and doing them well. Their inherent honesty just leaves me dismayed every time. Every bit of my experience entrust a hope that this world aint so corrupt as it is believed to be. But it certainly is only Japan where you can experience the finest nuances of human subtlety. Where else in the world will you find a messenger delivering a pack holding a meager amount of 30 JPY ( approx Rs10.00) that you had forgotten to collect as return change from the shop keeper and that to at your doorstep. You ask for directions and the sole will not be satiated till he/she drops/takes you to place you need to be !
And how would one score this?
Stay reminded of the most basic drawback or what ever you call..the lack of common communication medium and still these are the people, maestros at subjects untouched by the rest of the world!

Nihhon ishtyle

Traveling through the complicated rail network in Tokyo is truly an experience. Mastering the art of traveling through these lines that spreads in and out across like a colossal web is no child’s play. It’s intimidating to see millions of people pass by or cross a station that has 150 exits. And this is happens every day in the life of Tokyo.
This comprehensive web surpasses any other rail network in the world.
Every time I set my foot out to visit a place, am not left less amused. I just marvel at the ultra-modern appearance of much of the network. The spread is as much under the ground as it is over it.
And yes, these trains are as much packed as you could expect a Mumbai local train during peak hours but I bet, if you find even a single soul screaming or even raising his/her voice or pushing any other soul for that extra inch of space.
All I hear is the intermittent and standard set of announcements. People busy with there own lives and appears to me as though these metros are the only places where people find respite and time to sleep. Women busy checking their make up, men busy playing video games, or reading comics and sundry other things that people sitting (that is if you ever find a seat ) or standing do. I proudly proclaim that I am now dexterous enough to sleep standing in the train and without holding the handrail. Your body just adjusts itself to inertia and the sudden stops and starts are just common phenomenon that you experience each day.
It’s just amazing to see how the entire fraternity of railways here cooperates with passengers that are less privileged or who need a that bit of extra care.
My first day in Tokyo metro and I saw how the escalators were blocked to aid a person on wheelchair and how a message was communicated to the destination station with assistance available at every point and it was ensured that arrangements were made for easy movement and exit of that single person in a mob of a million.

My experience with traveling in Tokyo has been the one I would remember all my life.
It just enhances one’s sense of direction and not to forget the optimum path selection. It’s not just the train travel experience that leaves you agape, it’s the whole community here.

Conservative Orientals have come a long way from those timid and relenting types. There is discipline in the tiniest bit of their lives. I have never seen a Japanese child make fuss about anything and every time I turn at the noise of a child screaming or crying, its our very own desi kid ;o).
Well like anything and anyone else, even small children have imbibed way too much of discipline in their lives.
And the daily motto is perfection in everything done. But hey don’t mistake them to be geeks or nerds. I haven’t seen people who would party harder than them. They reach higher levels of ecstasy with each drink imbibed.
Ahh now coming to think of it, I can just go on and keep writing reams about people and Japan itself...but... I rest until later.