In a dream

All the while I was running behind her - It didnot happen ... All the while I was thinking about her - It didnot happen ... And suddenly today in the pre-dawn hours it happened - All so sudden and all so vivid! I met a girl (whom I have never met and never knew) enroute to the railway station and she happened to be Xena's friendand there she was (Xena) standing before me giving me the glare that would wither anyone away with shame. That was it - I was dumbfounded! I started sweating and then I had to summon all my courage to stand up and say "Hey I am sorry - Didn't know it would turn this way - It seems everyone is calling you Xena and I donot know If you like it or not - Iam terribly sorry" Then she said "Thats OK - Good that you are not fooling around with me anymore - Hey but I have never seen "Xena" to know what it means" to my utter relief! She smiled - I smiled and said "Iam downloading a whole season of the TV series - Will give you the share access once the download is complete" I wanted to jump with joy having seen that my apology was accepted - Woke up with a start to see the alarm from my friend's alarm ringing loudly in the darkness ... Alas it was a dream! I have no clue as to why I dreamt of her and as to why I wanted to apologise because I already did and it was quite along time ago ...

That morning I unlocked my computer only to find that the season 2 of the TV series Xena was indeed complete!!

On the rocks

I have never been to a pub. On tuesday night one of my friends who was leaving for the US gave us a party and he took us to YatriNiwas at Begumpet. This hotel had a nice little pub called "On the Rocks". Once we made ourselves comfortable on the cosy sofas we had one helluva time partying. The food was terrific - The chicken drumsticks, the green peace masala, the egg burji everything was just right and I downed a couple of pegs of vodka followed by a couple of mugs of beer! The experience was terrific. There was this huge TV and they were playing all the video songs and our crowd got absolutely mad - Dancing, shouting and laughing like hell! They told me that the DJ was absent that day and it would have been even more fun if he was present. Felt bad to have missed on that. Well, I'll probably enjoy that someother day ...

Why Sallu cant keep his shirt on ...

Have you ever wondered why Salman cant keep his shirt on like everyone else and throws it off on the first chance he gets? Probably I found the answer for that these days ... I used to change into a T-shirt at the gym and do my workout. Now-a-days I am tempted to remove my shirt and do the workout in a vest. Part of the answer as to why I do that lies in the fact that I started looking great with all the shoulders, chest and biceps pumped up! Mirrors are all around me and I cant stop looking at myself and feel good about it. No wonder Sallu takes it off at the drop of a hat - His torso is even better!

Job 'Fair' - My experience

The newspapers called it the opportunity of a life time for freshers! The media dubbed it as the biggest event in Hyderabad in recent times! The unprecedented numbers that queued up before the entrance were fronpage news in many a daily. Even I registered myself online a full 12 days before the actual date of the fair ... I kept on pruning my resume since the last 2 weeks - took suggestions from my softskills trainers and mentors - I wanted to reach a point where I was satisfied with the way I presented myself in the resume. Now coming to the jobfair - I scheduled the visit on sunday. Friends detracted me saying that my resume would end-up in the dustbin, worse still, some said my pocket could be picked! Firm as I was in my decision to visit the fair, I paid a deaf ear to all that, dressed up in a navy blue trousers and a light-colored formal shirt just like my softskills trainer advised me to and arrived at the venue by 8.30 AM.

There was a long line of freshers stretching to about half a kilometer and I walked patiently seeking the end of the queue where I could join. Surprisingly none of the people coming in wanted to fight their way into the middle - Every one of them patiently walked to end and took their position - a rarity indeed! People - I observed were coming in from places as far off as Machilipatnam! When the queue stopped moving we all used to sit on the footpath waiting for it to move. During one of those squats I noticed that people were turning up in jeans and t-shirts and even worse - party wear - contrary to the advice of writers like Mrs. Padma Ramesh and Mr. Abhimanyu Acharya in the Hindu opportunities column since the last few weeks.

Finally I got into this big hall and the sheer size of the crowd left me dumbfounded! I was at a loss of what to do when I saw the Patni stall collecting resumes from freshers - I joined the queue an submitted mine. I dont want to name the firm but he was literally pulling resumes off the hands of freshers and throwing them into what I thought was a dustbin covered in gift wrapper! That made me wonder If I did do a mistake in going to the fair ... But logic prevailed - As I have already gone there I submitted my resume to all the companies I was interested in! By then It was time for the seminar on pruning the CV.

I entered the seminar hall and after about 30 minutes into the seminar I had a feeling of deja-vu' - Why you may ask? We were shown the same presentation "That killer resume" which was presented to us about a week ago during our softskills training sessions which incidentally is conducted by the CnK! When some of the freshers asked the presenter whether their resumes are likely to end up in the dustbin (Even Mr. Acharya hinted at the same possibility in one of his articles) - The presenter asked us to imagine ourselves in a situation - A big cricket match going on in some stadium and huge crowds turned up because Sachin was playing - Imagine the wild crowd and the roar - Similar situation prevailed on saturday when 60000 people turned up! He went on to say that all those who have registered online - their resumes will be sent to all the companies participating in the fair basing on their requirements and there is no reason to worry. Fair enough. Point taken Sir. I really felt that the arrangements done were above average taking into consideration the huge crowd - anything could go wrong! At the end of it I could see the competition for jobs first-hand and I could prune my resume to my satisfaction because of this job fair. The only thing I felt could have been corrected was holding the seminar in an air conditioned room or atleast a room that had fans because it was neither comfortable to the audience nor the speaker - both perspiring as though they were working out in a gymnasium!

For all those who haven't been fortunate enough to go to the fair you can apply online at:

www.tmifirst.com

www.jobstreet.com

patni - www.patni.com - talent@patni.com

igate - jobs@igate.com

leadingc - india_info@leadingc.com

xinthe technologies - working@xinthe.com

ADP - www.adp.com - hrindia@adpindia.com

Fishing for old clothes in the closet

Last week I went home for the weekend and like I stated in one of my previous posts I was able to shave off about 2 inches from my waist. So what did I do upon going home? I searched through my old clothes in the bottom rack of my clothes which thanks to my mom are neatly pressed and kept in good condition. So I started sorting all the trousers and jeans ... At the end of an hour I found about 8 pairs of trousers of the size 34 out of which about 4 were jeans. After shortlisting them I started trying them on. Magically all of them appeared to fit me well but the only problem with the jeans was that they were out of trend. I wore one of them the very next day I landed up in Hyderabad and one of my friend said - "People don't make those anymore - It is the time of the tight fits!" But still I went ahead wearing the old ones - I have a philospohy about fashion: The fashion trends of the future always take their cues from the trends of the past. Amidst all this I discovered something more - the joy of searching for fits among those old clothes and trying them gave me more pleasure than probably shopping for new ones !

The Street Lawyer

The Street Lawyer -The book that took me a very long time to complete....I started it december last year when i went to visit Skandu at hisNallakunta residence. I started reading the book at his house. I reada few chapters while I was there. After Skandu left for the US, I hadto wait for almost one full year until I could lay my hands on a copyof the book this october. So it was the book that took me a long timeto complete. (dec-25th, 2003 to 2004). I remembered about it in the morning while I was brusing my teeth and thought it would make a good blog ...

I have never read John Grisham before. But I was pleasantly surprisedto find the same attention holding style of writing with this writertoo. I recommend that you find some time to read the book.The story goes thus:A middle aged lawyer, Michael Brock is on a fast track to become apartner in a big lawfirm. Then he is taken hostage by a guy who losthis home as a consequence of some actions made by this law firm. Inthe hostage drama that ensues, the hostage taker is shot by the policeand his brains are splattered all over the face of our hero...He is shattered. He goes on a journey to find the origins of thehostage taker. He finds out who he is and what made him do the thing.He finds that alot of people in the city are homeless and that thehomeless also need lawyers to fight for their rights. He meets a guycalled Mordecai Greene who is a street lawyer. Michael walks away from the millions and joins Greene in saving the homeless. He pitches in a case against his old employer, the big lawfirm.

The tale is told in a gripping fashion and it is told so well that you don't realise that it is just a story of 32 days in the hero's life!!! He gets taken as a hostage, quits his job, gets a divorce from hiswife, slaps a case against a big law firm, helps 39 homeless peopleand finally finds a new girl friend - all in just 32 days. Read it to believe it. It tells a compelling story. Some of us mightthink that the hero is nuts because he walks away from millions of dollars... but hey, materialism is not the be all and end all of life. Makes a Good reading.

Sandbag construction

Yesterday was the day the roof came crashing down. So yesterday evening I bought a couple of new chains and a pair of hooks. Previously I uhung up the sand bag withonly two chains. Now I did it with 4. I constructed the sand bag the Ross-Enamait way. I emptied tha sand from the bag in smaller polythene bags filling them up to 3/4ths their size and then sealed them off. Then I hung up the bag and started dropping the sand bags inside. What an easy way to get the bag ready! It didnot even take me half the effort it took me the first time around. But I didnot yet punch the bag. Will have to wait until Sunday to see if it is giving the same effort as it was giving previously ...

Crashed ...

Today - asusual I was punching the bag in the morning and I was about to conclude my workout when all of a sudden the bag came crashing down. In any other circumstances I would be thinking in the lines of "Oh God! what am I going to do now? It was back breaking to hang it up there the first time around! " But not this time - Because I learnt 'How not to hang a sand bag'. There is this wonderful guy called Ross Enamait (www.rossboxing.com) who wrote some really wonderful articles about boxing. I have read them and was toying with the idea of doing the same with my sand bag. Since it crashed I would do it the right way now. For the benifit all the newbies who want to take up boxing here is how to construct a sand bag: http://www.warriorforce.com/sandbagconstructionkit.pdf

Size 34

I have been off the blogging circuit for the last 3 weeks out of which 2 weeks I was on vacation at home and the next week I came back and plunged myself head-first into work. So blogging took a back seat.

I felt like blogging today because I felt relly great first thing in the morning. Why you may ask - The why has something to do with the efforts I have been putting into getting myself back into shape since the last 4 months. When I started off I was 38 at the waist and weighed over 88 kilos. As the time went by I kept getting better and better at it. A couple of months ago I had to discard all the size 38 trousers in my wardrobe as looked shabby one me. Now the 36s in my wardrobe are looking a bit over size too ... Then suddenly last week I was cleaning up my room and found a couple of size 34s that date from my engineering days. I thought I should wear them and so I washed them got them pressed and they looked relly good for a 3-year old pair of trousers! But somewhere at the back of my mind I had a lingering doubt. Will they or wont they? A couple of days passed ... Finally I could not resist trying them on today morning - Voila! They fit me! Iam so excited that I made it. For the first time in weeks I had this great sense of achievement.