2011 is almost over and as I am introspecting over the bygone year I have reached some conclusions. Before I put my another day another reason to ramble theory into action let me highlight the years high's and low's.
HIGH's
Finally decided to rebutt parental pressure and for once decide what I want to do in life.
An awesome birthday and a wedding of a dear friend.
Moving to a different role, and back to my home town after a 1 year stint in Bangalore.
Finally gathered some courage to come out of the shell and be more ME.
Got engaged to this awesome guy, who rock my world.
LOW's
Leaving my independent life back at Bangalore.
Hmmm, can't seem to think of anything right now.
This year turned out to be a hit!!!. Hope 2012 would be as good as 2011.
Wishing all my readers (If ANY!!!) a happy Xmas. Remember my wish list from here?Well, it's coming true and now I have to upgrade the list with a version 2. With xmas this month and my bday coming up next month I hope the list will be a pointer of sorts to people who plan to buy me gift*evil grin*. And please don't try to act all goody two shoes and start a speech on how materialistic I am, everyone is and may be the lights, carols, cake and wine is doing the trick. I am still sitting in the office, typing this last post for the weekend while watching my mates leave one by one with envy. I am waiting for my brother to give me a ride back home so that, I don't have to travel for another 1 hour in public transport to reach home.
On a side note, I feel lost for obvious reasons and obnoxious than before. I have to have to find a cure cause this is something I have to live with for the rest of my life. Did I tell you that I am engaged?No? Ok!!!so I got hitched last Sunday with this guy called kuttan who has been my invisible better half for the past 4 years. Things just got little more visible than before and now he is my declared-to-the-world-to-be-husband. Things have not changed, we still quarrel, we still make up at much faster pace, we still pull each others legs, we still have broken conversations.....the only difference is my frequent high decibel "CHETTA"(typical mallu way of addressing one's husband) calls. People around me are surprised and the first few days I couldn't force myself to utter the word. It was so not me!!! but, I love the way Kuttan smiles when he hears me call him Chetta also, it marks a higher respect for him in my heart. I have until now had atleast 5-10 people asking me to repeat the chetta call, I do and with the shy smile of a newly engaged girl. Okay enough for now, so all you people out there have a merry time with your family and friends and keep the spirit of xmas alive.
I am one of the people who loves shopping, I am infact like rest of the people . The only thin line that separates me from you is: I run berserk like a wild elephant when left alone in a shop. I buy anything and everything that I think will look good on me, will look good on me in my head, and will look good on others. I try to sleep and laze around at the end of month weekends and the reason for which is a no-brainer!!!!. I do have my partners in crime and we hit every other little shop in the alleys of Cochin. My partner, who is a wise shopper, has whole lot of self control than Moi. She holds my hand and pulls it back whenever I pounce excitedly on the stuff on the rack. Now this action, purely out of concern for my dwindling bank account is not a moral booster of sorts, makes me depressed. To touch and feel the fabric and not to own em is a pain of its on. While my partner inhales the smell of the fresh stock she is mentally high and satisfied and ready to hit the next store, aaahhh not me!!!. It happened quite a few times and every time we went shopping together for HER, I ended up buying more stuff than her. While she swing her hands in full might I struggle to balance all my shopping bags. Soon enough, I found a cheat code to my problem....days when I go shopping with her I would mark my victims with the precision of a sharp shooter and next week on similar expedition with my mom, I make em mine. No complains, no frustrating talks and it's a win-win situation for me and my buddy.
Back at Bangalore, me and my set of girls would go mall hopping every fortnight. While I broke my transfer news all the while expecting some thanks giving speech, it was met with cheer and loud applause by some of my friends. For them it was a reason to celebrate, starting mark of earning a respectable saving. They were of the opinion that they were never able to resist the temptation of buying things cause I always told them "THE THING" looked good and that nudged them to buy even if they had no intention of a shopping spree during that very trip. And if you think 8 months after, they have successfully managed to have a huge bank balance you are wrong : ONCE A SHOPAHOLIC ALWAYS A SHOPAHOLIC!!!
In Cochin, there is no brand culture and no one keeps a tab on latest in's and out's, but I still make my shopping expeditions. Last day one of my colleague's commented on how I have brought about a change in every one's bank balance. Sharing my knowledge about things I love cannot be branded as a crime. To choose or not is purely personal decision. The story spread and many female colleagues of mine are seen to spend quite considerable amount of their work time staring at their colorful computer screens. I am deeply wounded by frequent comments on how I have turned good girls into materialistic girls. No one was forcefully converted, no one was threatened to make a choice and people fail to understand.
On being asked why the online site's names have been floated around one of my colleagues replied." I hate socio -economic imbalances. One female having a huge bank balance and the other broke. Now that the sites and online payments are being made at a rate which can put even rupee's value depreciation to shame everyone would eventually have same bank balance and the gap will be non -existent." Until next time, its the shopping sidekick bidding adieu.
Let's get the facts straight, I am not a morning temple person for that mater I am not even an evening temple person. I can't fathom the thought of waking up in wee hours on Saturdays and Sundays ( The weekends). Weekends for me is to wake up when the sun is over my head, laze around in my pyjamas, sipping hot cuppa of tea. For this reason, I usually don't encourage my parent's frequent nagging of visiting temples on Weekends. Yesterday when I was asked to wake up at 4am... I objected, shed my fake tears and threw my lame excuses but, all of it fell into deaf ears as my parents were quite determined to mould me into ideal daughter -in-law. At 4 Dad was heard shouting, and unwilling I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower and got ready. I usually love dressing up, but the morning chill was getting on to my nerves. I tossed my kajal on my bedspread, dressed up in a simple kurta, put on smallest of earrings and a small bindi. Done!!!I took my bike ride to Willingdon Island when I reached the place at 5, the gates to the temple was closed seems the priest overslept!!! see even the priest loves his weekends. Had to wait good 20 minutes before we could enter the temple and complete the rituals. When my dad suggested that we visit Ernakulam Siva temple I was fuming, I mean common I barely had my 4 hours sleep and dad was asking me to extend temple hoping. I reluctantly agreed after all the last thing on my mind is to displease GODS!!. I went to the Siva temple and then to the Hanuman Kovil.... the moment I stepped in I saw a familiar face, and as an automatic reaction smiled showing my pearl like Colgate teeth. The person right before me need an intro in this blog, it was Kuttan's Grandma( Let's call my fiance Kuttan from now on as 'G' seems to be a tad bit boring) this gorgeous 60 something lady is the head of the house and ruled kuttans heart before I made an entry. There is only one word to describe her: GORGEOUS. She is a big believer of everything divine, spends half of her day in and around temples, treats God's as part of her family and believes in divine interventions. She was surprised and shocked as hell (I could read that from her face) so was I. She never expected me to be there at that time. She took my hand and enquired whether I come there everyday. As much as I want to spit out the truth it's essential that I create a homely image in front of her and like a taught parrot I repeated: Frequently. She was smiling happily that her would be granddaughter in law was a religious little girl.... her smile spread like a infectious sunshine and at that very moment I was wondering how shattered she would be when she learns the absolute truth.What happened next was probably the highlight of the day"X, Y,Z,A,B......W , please come here... let me introduce you to my to be-granddaughter-in -law" Kuttan's ammuma spoke to the unknown!!!. WTH !!!okay okay!!!!Now I was panicking. Somewhere deep down, minutes before I was grinning devilishly to have striked gold by creating a good girl image in front of grandma but now here I was at my worst with not even a kajal trying to make an impression in front of a bunch of 60 something grandma's. Grandma visits temple with her usual entourage, gang of 60 something ladies who find happiness in divine salvation. Now I had a name to save ie, MY good repute.... there I was tired, boring , dressed to please no one. I knew that meeting me in my bare self would spark a gossip conversation and I would be the laughing stock at today's gossip session.... there I was in front of Kuttaan's gorgeous grandma and I felt like my whole world was coming apart. Quite obviously they would expect me too match the standards set by Kuttan's gorgeous ammuma and in front of her I looked drab and outshined.
Kuttan's Ammuma
Sob !!!Sob after all the intro me and dad decided to visit yet another temple this time Poornathreyesha temple...nothing out of the world happened and as I was making a quite exist I saw a familiar face, a face which stood out 8 years back but, now the beauty had diminished. She smiled as she recognised me and we chatted about the present. This girl, was an epitome of REAL beauty back at school and subject of secret affection of all my friends. We were good friends and even she shared few of her deepest secrets with me. Haven't had seen her for quite some time now and seeing her brought back some good memories.
On a completely random note: I have successfully manage to ward of evils of consumerism this month. Had promised myself that I wouldn't shop this month and it's being going good not without some fast reining of heart. December, is a month when I can shop without guilt cause it's my engagement month but, am saving all the arms for the month of Jan: my birthday month+ sales month (:P). It's hard to resist the fruits of online shopping when all one does is sit in front of the computer surfing through the net. Well, guys see you around probably with a better post.
Time to change my profile picture, I rummage through my numerous folders to find that perfect picture. A perfect picture is one which is likely to fetch most comments and likes, one which people would rave about, one which would highlights my gorgeous hair, falling oh so perfectly, teeth white enough to give the Colgate add a run for it's money and face photoshoped beyond recognition. There were moments from my past, where me and my friends would go on a clicking spree, until the perfect pic was achieved. Folders named categorically with dates, frequent uploading on FB, waiting for strangers to shower their praises. Life for us was shallow and we were too naive to realize that true beauty doesn't have to be skin deep. I bet, random people on the web are likely to send you a friend request if your gorgeous and no one would even bother to visit your profile if you have stuck up image of Hannah Montana or a 'CUTE' little kid as your DP.
Within months I have grown wiser, for me pictures are scarp book, one which would take me through the memory lane, make my eyes moist, make me giggle and bring in 1000's of odd emotions. I remember the day when my 1st laptop crashed , all my college pics went into dumps with it and so did 4 years of memory. Back at Amrita when my classmate accidentally erased whole of my C drive I did a thandav, not because my tools were erased off and I would have to bug 100 people to get it re-installed but, I was more irked by the fact that my terabytes of photo memory was lost. Things have changed and I try to embed the photographic pose up in my brain, capturing the beauty of the image, all the while savouring the instance. I am no more panicky and never attempts to try to balance my camera with one hand while stuffing my mouth with my favorite dessert. These moments should not lay forgotten in one's folders instead should be framed into one's consciousness. I have locked out my profile picture folders nor do I update picture frequently like before.
It set me thinking why the hell are we so intrested in creating new pics folder every week?.
I just felt like pouring all my angst into this blog. This is my vain attempt to prove myself right, after failing to do so on a wider platform. As a customer, what do you expect from a service, a site, a shop?. You expect them to outperform your expectations, or being a realistic person you are, you would expect them to fulfill the clauses they have promised. Anything below or down par is not acceptable as there are millions of other options waiting for you out there and why should one stick to this brand/site alone?. My gain will in turn effect the brand's/site's loss and in this era of mass communication a little negative publicity can topple even the biggies.
I am no expert in customer relationship, but as an end user it hurts when my expectations are not met with for instance, last day I rang up Airtel customer care on the hope of finding a solution to the ever frequent call drop at specific time of 1:10 and 2:10. Every time I make an international call to my clients, the call gets dropped at specific time. Every time I have to pacify the clients by explaining that there is an issue with the connection. On those sudden calls to my dad where I have to tell him to pick me up from office, the call gets cut midway. I tried calling 121, 123 to speak to their customer care exec but, without any luck. Finally, my brother did manage to find a way to contact the customer care. First you will have to press 2 so that you can get more info about the GPRS offers. Hallo!! a normal customer would expect the customer care key to be present in the main menu. Why would anyone bother to press GPRS and then again 9 to talk to customer care executive?. My connection was getting dropped even before I could press the lucky number 9, after trying for 8 times I gave up. Dad who himself own a post paid connection with Airtel gave me his phone to dial the customer care. By the time the whole incident happened I was on fire, fuming and the moment the customer care rep(A lady) took the phone, I started spitting venom. She got angry at me and told me that as my connection is prepaid she will have to transfer to some other section. The call was transferred, and a guy took up. This time I explained patiently to the guy about the issue and how much problem it's causing me. He told me there is no issue with my sim and told he will transfer me to some other section. The bloody guy put me on hold for 15 minutes and then the call was cut. I mean WTH!!!, I am recharging every week religiously with my hard earned cash and I have every right to know why my calls are getting cut and that too at exact same intervals. Being Airtel or having a great add doesn't mean you are invincible and no one will raise a finger against your service.
Moving on to another site Bestylish.com. Online shopping is slowly catching up in India and being one not to be left out I joined the bandwagon and ordered something from their site on Nov3rd. After my transaction was complete I expected them to send me a confirmation mail regarding receiving payment. Alas No!!I didn't receive any and the next day I send a mail asking them to confirm the same and that's when I received confirmation. Common, if the site doesn't let me know if they have received the cash how will I ever know?. What if they don't and my hard earned cash disappears into thin air with both agents refusing to accept it's their mistake?. Finally A week passed and I expected my courier to arrive any moment. Alas No!! I again had to ring them up and ask em if they had send me the courier... the guy tells me that my order is cancelled as the item didn't pass quality tests. If so, why bother fooling me and other lakhs of customers by putting up the pic of the good which is defective?. In that scenario, ideally I would have expected the company to replace my order( I would have happily obliged) and send me my good in 3 days may be then I would have been impressed or even it would have been okay if their refund process was completed in 2-3 days. Being the site they are and being taken for granted that they are I didn't expect both the ideal scenarios and Oh boy I was right. And what about my refund?. Weeks passed and I am yet to get one!!. I would never ever shop from their site no matter what lucrative offer they put in. I have reported it their agents and also posted a message on their FB wall. No action has been taken yet. Whenever people ask me about the site, I tell em without even blinking an eyelid NOT TO TRUST EM. I know me not trusting em won't do any damage but still, when it comes to mouth to mouth publicising and mass media publicising, I can cause a small damage and their possible buyers from my circle has eroded and none of my friends may never try this site.
I don't know but some of the best bloggers feel that mushrooming online portals may initially give you a good treatment and as they grow they tend to take their consumers for granted. Because they are a brand , they consider themselves to be above the consumers and this would eventually lead to their own downfall.
Am I being unreasonable here?. Spending big bucks, I expect quality, options and time from the brand I am loyal to. After all money doesn't grow on trees.
I have nothing worthwhile to write about, something that would inspire the person on the other side. Yesterday during one of our regular chatroom dramas, myself and Tbabu were talking about the inevitable :CHANGE. If I stand in front of the mirror and let Opal from the past have a conversation with this image, she would surely drub the ME as over girlish-self obsessed-diplomatic-aimless human being. I wouldn't be able to recognise ME, and I am everything I never wanted to be 4 years back. Time has this strange way of creating havoc in your life, it tosses you around and teaches you the truth the HARD way. I have changed and that's is something I have to own the responsibility for. I could have resisted the tides and stood up against TIME but, I didn't instead I just let it take me into the No entry zone. So, next time I tell myself "I AM NOT GONNA BE LIKE THAT", I will pause and think for a moment. What if few years down the lane, I become exactly that NOT GONNA BE types?. I am open to changes, I am ready to embrace them and make em a part of my life.
She felt weightless, as her eyes fixated from white dress
clad fairies to the blurred images of people she recognized back from her
memory. She was trying to remember her story. Loud weeps by her mother was not
at all helping, she found it annoying. She was losing blood and litres of it
and soon she would be joining her nagging grandparents in heaven. She wanted to
narrate her story before her name was permanently erased from this planet.
Born as the eldest daughter of an upper middle class family,
she had everything that an average girl could wish, a house, doting parents, a
brat brother, shelves filled with medals and trophies that her parents proudly
talked about to their colleagues, a handsome boyfriend whom her parents loved (they
even were making arrangements for their wedding). Then why did she take such an
extreme step? Love failure? NO! ghosts from her past? NO then what?. You may
find it hard to digest but, she was a victim of depression. She always felt
unloved, she always felt lonely, she always felt she was not good enough, she
never had REAL friends. She knew something was wrong with her, she tried to
talk with her parents and boyfriend but, both of them rubbished it of as her
changing mood due to fluctuating hormone levels. She fought with ‘him’ over
their dwindling conversations, he counter attacked saying he was too tired to
hear her ramblings. On another day, she complained how lonely she felt even
after being in a relationship and again he counter attacked her by telling that
he was not a mind reader. She closed her doors shut, wept with her head under
the pillow, smudged the kajal all over her face after all the only things she
wanted were: to be reminded everyday that she was loved, she wanted to be held
in his arms and be embraced, she wanted to be woken up by his dreams but, all
she had were nightmares. The more she tried to push away, the more steeper she
fell into a world she had not fathomed, she was eclipsed by dark clouds sucking
away her joy. All she wanted was someone, anyone to hear her heart breaking
tears, her sound echoed through vacuum and her own echo hit her ears hard. She
felt this heart piercing call, to hurt , to torture her soul, she could derive
happiness from proving her worthlessness. She tried to distract herself from
the repeated calls by indulging in shopping. She forgot that material things
could just provide momentary happiness, she would feel tinge of happiness when
she touched and felt new things but, soon they would pave way to more guilt and
turmoil. She filled in his absence with books and blogs, neither could either
do any justice in erasing her pain. Finally, it was time to take a decision...the
faces of all those she loved dearly appeared before her, it was as if watching
a movie, a small biopic played before her....her baby steps, her first day in school, college
everything was being played out in random order. As she held the blade closer
to her wrists she could imagine the pale faces of her parents, the pain it
would cause them but, she had to get away with the pain which was consuming her.....
she was left with no choice. She let the sharp edges of the blade kiss her
flesh, she gasped for fresh air ....she saw blood all around.... She was losing
blood and litres of it and soon she would be joining her nagging grandparents
in heaven. She wanted to narrate her story before her name is permanently
erased from this planet.
Biting into my veg burger, my thought process was interrupted
by my mom. Sitting opposite to me, munching her fries, she started the
conversation
"You should write the blooper your dad did today in the
blog (More on that later). People who know my dad from here and here needs no
introduction to the GUY no:1 of my life. But, there is more to this man than
what meets the eye.
He may give you that rough and tough attitude....even brush
you in the wrong way, but behind all that ruggedness is a man who knows only to
love unconditionally. As a little girl, like all the girls of my age my dad was
the first super hero I admired and looked upto. No superman or spiderman could match
the super powers my dad possessed. He had answers to all my silly questions, he
had the magic wand to make all my problems disappear and more importantly he
was one person with whom I could ramble endlessly.
As years passed, during the growing up stages I got quite attached
to my mom. Though we never get along she could read my mind. I had to share all
my secrets, had to have her with me during my bad days and I couldn't sleep
without fighting with her. Somewhere along the road, dad was sidelined. For me
he was more of a father figure, unapproachable and I was sure: A GUY CAN'T
UNDERSTAND ME!!
Sometimes dad did let me know about his feelings and the
pain of missing out on my life was evident from his eyes as he watched me and
my mom talking ear to ear.
Dad's road to success was not smooth. As the 3rd
child (eldest son) of a war veteran and housewife he didn't get his way around
like we did. Having to travel 10 kms per day to reach the school or not being
able to afford new school uniform each academic year, he had seen the worst .But,
what separated him was his tryst to learn, to grow . I have heard his sister
say that he was extremely talented in languages. After his 10th, when his
father told him to quit school and join him in farming, my dad was aghast. He
wanted to continue his studies but didn’t have the resources to follow his
heart nor did his father’s small income allow him to dream big. That’s where my
dad's sister came into picture, married to an army guy she took him under her
wings. A change in scenery ensued from lush green Kerala to land of desserts:
Rajasthan, it was a drastic change for this young man.
He made it into Narcotics department all the while
continuing his education. After 10 years he moved back to Kerala and to
Customs. He married his superior’s daughter (Mom) and happily lived ever after.
Ok!I could go on and on like this about the virtues my dad
possesses. Enough of praising my dad, what comes to mind is this dialogue by Suriya
from the film Varanam Ayirram" NEE THAAN ENUUDE HERO DADDY" (YOU ARE
MY HERO DADDY)
There is not even a single soul out there who doesn't love AIRTEL's latest ad campaign "HAAR EK FRIEND ZAROORI HOTHA HAI", which translates to each one of the friends are important . Airtel make it a point to call everyone around you "A" friend, how nice it would be to live in an imaginary world where there are no enemies right?.
So, here is my list of Zaroori friends
Hang-around friends : The kind of friend you have fun with, the kind of friend that you mall hop with, the kind of friend who understands your shopping sensibilities, the kind of friend who insists on paying the bill.
Back up Best friend : While in school I had this friend, who was pretty close to me, he knew everything about me INSIDE-OUT still, I wouldn't call him my best friend. Why you may wonder...Cause I already had one. So, this friend was always the back up best friend someone who would console you, stand by you, fight for you, tease you and love you unconditionally even though you are never ready to hand him/her the crown of best friend.
Black Box friend : The thing about black box?. The box takes everything in without letting even a beam of light escape. Black box friends are the best secret keepers, one who safe guards you deepest-darkest-meanest secrets.
Strange friend : One day this person comes and talks to you, the next day as you wave your hands up in the air, smiling wide they walk past you as you don't exist. This is exactly the type of friend you can never understand. The type that confuses you if there exists a friendship if any.
Silly friends : The jokers of the gang. They make you laugh and you are your brightest best around them. They say the silliest of things at the wrongest of times and you are left with no option other than to give a heartiest laugh.
We- don't -get along friends : I have a problem with this category. They are the one who finds fault with everything you do. I don't want to equalise this category with "Not a friend" cause everyone is a friend in this imaginary world so, this category likes nothing about you and the feeling is mutual. I had come across this category quite a few number of time.
Dramabaaz friend : The animated expressions, the extremity of emotions, one laugh and thud a fight and we are back together declaration, nothing can describe this volatile relationship better.
The emotionless friend : Hey that was a joke, pale expression. Hey that's so sad, pale expression. The expression seems straight out from the 70's zombies show. Sun or rain they have their trademark expression pasted over every season of the year. Whatever, the shortcoming he/she still is your friend right? :P
So, which category do you fall into?. Or do you have a definition of your own?
"Di it is so last season" B had a quick glance at my evening dress, she swiftly turned her focus to her fb page. Last season? I murmured to myself, 2 months before as I walked out of the trial room wearing the same dress, I couldn't help but pat on my back for my fashion sense and today a girl 7 years younger was telling me that I looked like an old women?.
On my recent trip to Delhi, me and my family stayed over at my uncles place. The week long tour was a peek into the life of a 16 year old teenage girl, with whom I shared the room .The week long tour brought back some memories and I couldn't resist the temptation of comparing her present life with my good old days. Every where I turned to, I saw young girls dressed way over their age. Most of them looked like a mirror image of each other, same loud music, dressing sense and even the same hair style. For, someone who had quite an uneventful teenage days I was baffled.During the mall days back at Cochin, me and my brother used to sit in one corner people watching, we would calculate the average age of mall throbbing youngsters and it would be around 16-17 year max. Most of them stylishly dressed, holding arms with a stud/drop dead gorgeous girl by their side and that lets me wonder " How much on an average does these kids spend?". When I was in 11th, I would have to beg a hundred million times in front of my dad so that he would give into my loud soabs and hand an extra 30 rupees as pocket money so that I could have my favorite shake that day. Things were different back then, there were no malls, having boyfriends were still a taboo in our society and most importantly consumerism wasn't a term heard quite much even in a communist state like ours. Things have changed! malls have sprouted up in every nook and corner of the city, kids actually love spending time bowling or playing video games in malls , and people prefer KFC and McD over real food.
And all these happened right in front of my eyes and I never knew!!!. I have a brother, 4 years younger but, he still has to beg like I used to , to get extra 10 bucks as pocket money. Okie, comming back to the point I try to melt in , fake in as the sheep, wear a sheep's coat and look cheap in it. Acting my age comes natural to me but, not faking the part of a 16 year old teenage girl. I have reasons to believe I live in an illusioned world cause at 23, I still can't wear my make up or still can't get the names of any boy bands right. I must have lived in some prehistoric times.
Does that mean I am completely against the teenage fun?NO!!! I mean, I don't have anything to look back to and gush, I don't have trazillion pics to choose from for my FB DP, I don't have heart breaks to boast off, I clearly didn't have fun. Times are chnaging and so should you and me. There are moments when I absolutely wish I were a teengae girl, reliving the teenage drama phase and then there are moments where I am thankful to my parents for keeping me grounded to the reality.
The trip did teach me few essential tips to tackle my own future generations:
listen to a teenager: They may have a valid point, you can have your way around after you are done with the hearing part
Understand: The times that we grew in is entirely different from the present scenarios. Don't judge.
Watch: Always be careful, adrenaline high teenager may not be the right judge of a situation but, as a grown up you can and should.
Look up: Never treat them like kids, they are individuals wanting to be heard so always give and take respect.
So many unfinished, not worthy to be published post lying in my drafts. And here goes my latest attempt to write. When I joined my company nearly 1 and a half years back, there were no specific policy on work wear. As a matter of fact, we did have a 4 page pdf on what to and what not to wear to work place, HELL!!! no one bothered.On a regular working day, one could see strip/acid washed jeans, funky tees and all those not to be worn attires making rounds through the campus. I do know guys who have survived through meetings and deadlines in just 'A' jeans and their ever trust worthy black Rock-N-Roll tees. After I shifted my base to Cochin, things took an U-turn for good, people here dress to work in simple, understated work wears. I ditched my old ways and settled in for more work friendly attires. After numerous mixing , matching, filtering, deciding what to wear I absorbed in the idea of "wearing" your work.
I would still wear my Jeans and tees on those lazy mornings when wearing a traditional wear was unfathomable. On some week days I stretched my jeans ability to survive any more dust and dirt. Last day we received a company mailer asking all employees to dress professionally to work. Jokes flew, and everyone was analyzing everyone else from head to toe. Some of my colleagues came running to me and pointed the mailer and asked " How will you survive from the week on?. No hanging earring, no crazy color combination, no that in your face shoes" and I had to reason with literally everyone , I mean what does work wear mean? Black and white devoid of any color? devoid of pretty prints?.
On Monday I came to work wearing a brown kurta, white leggings , white golden border shawl and nude heels. The security was staring on my legs, may be they expected me to wear something as I wore the last Friday, my yellow sunny peeptoe. I smiled and went in wearing my confidence on my collar or rather my shawl. Hours later, a girl wearing an above knee length kurtha and black leggings from the same ODC came up to me and asked me if the security had warned me of wearing inappropriate dress. She narrated her conversation with the gaurds and it seems, leggings are inappropriate to be worn to work. HMMM!!!! even one of my team mate was complaining on how the security felt about her tight churi being work inappropriate. I pinged some of my Bangalore friends and asked if the same condition prevailed there and they gave me a super confused expression cause no one bothered to tell them that leggings were banned. That made me super red, I mean how can a tight churi, a below knee kurta, or a bright yellow dress be termed as work inappropriate?. The company policy does not site any of the above mentioned into banned lot. Banning something or asking us not to wear something just cause we are in south is bloody BULLSHIT. A sleeveless or a shorts being inappropriate in general public's eyes is no excuse to behave in a way they did. I was left off cause I had worn a shawl with my dress as my whole ensemble was passed off as a churidhar where as, the girl behind me with her leggings and short kurta caught the gaurd's eye. Asking us not to wear a sleeveless cause this is Kerala is bullshit. This is corporate Mr. security, and even if I turn up at work wearing just knee length pencil skirt and a tucked in shirt u will have to let me in cause that my friend is a WORK WEAR.
I have multimillion things to share, starting
with the reason for absence from blogger for over a month. I was bamboozled at
work, working late nights, weekend panic attacks, rushing through deadlines all
for a greater good: A WEEK LONG VACATION!!!!. I
am a planner, I plan everything in life starting from my goals to mundane
things like what to wear to work the NEXT week. On one of those relatively easy
on the schedule days when I could stretch and take my eyes off my computer I
drew up a plan on what I would wear for the entire vacation week. The plan
consisted of a detailed approach and included lists of items I should carry. By
Friday evening I was pretty much sure I wouldn't be able to reach home earlier
than 11pm... I couldn't care much for, I had a task at hand and responsibility
to finish before I could sip my Marguerite and enjoy the colors of fall. I
reached back home tired and wanting to rest my back on my comfy bed, in midst
of extreme tiredness I FORGOT to pack my bags.
The next day morning when the cuckoo flew over my next, dad was heard straining
his vocal chords, it was more of a war cry I believe. He threatened to abandon
me if I didn't bring my suitcase down in 10 minutes. I opened my wardrobe,
pulled out whatever I could lay my hands on and was present downstairs in a
matter of 5 minutes. At that point missing my flight was far more important
than looking chic and stylish during the vacations. The point I want to
highlight is No matter how much we plan and plot, life decides it's own.
Life has given me many U-turns. Many times, I
have stood at the cross roads and wondered "WHAT
NEXT". We humans have a special trait : Ability to learn from
our mistakes and bounce back stronger. I did just that, found that
perfect door every time which was kept open for me though what I hoped
and wished was completely different. People around me feel that there is no
point in living a well scripted play. Even OSWALD says so (Octopuses are never
this cute). I like it this way, the script is definitely Indian with full of
rainbow colors :). It gives me a sense of satisfaction that I have not wasted
yet another day on Earth. Planning helps me to utilize my energy in the right
direction. I do agree that, living life by the rule books can suck out the fun element.
How do you like your life? Planned or Random?
P.S: I spent my entire vacation on a single
pair of jeans and borrowed clothes.
