Today at EOD I am not exactly in the mood in which I started my day off. This post is going to explore two stark contrasting sides of mine.

On a pleasant note, I confess that I am a limited budget monthly shopper. SALE is one 4 letter word that brings out lot of happy emotions in me, times when one can afford high end brands without burning a hole in the pocket. The SALE season doesn't influence my shopping pattern though. SALE has not swept a sleepy city like mine in a big way and most of the regular retailers don’t even know what exactly SALES mean.

Most of the months I exceed my shopping limit and during the last few days of the month I struggle to balance my balance sheet. Now, most of you guys must have branded me a shopaholic or spendthrift. Well, NO!!!I am not a spendthrift as I save 3/4^th of my income. With Dad as treasurer nothing can break my confidence not even the swipe Gods!!!

I have come up with a proper shopping plan that would help me in bringing out little more order in my life and shopping endeavors.

Step 1. Budget

Always define a limit to your shopping buys. Based on income and spending capacity one can tailor make this plan .Always be careful of the limit. If you are defining the limit as 4000 then, separate it out as 3000+1000 .1000 extra for those last minute impulsive buys. If you are strong enough to restrict yourself in that 3000 range then, at the end of the month you are free to spend 1000 as you like.

Step 2. Prepare a list

Most of us end up spending more than what we ought to because we don't have a clue on what we actually need. Making plans is not enough, sticking to it also counts. So beginning of the month list out the items you want to buy.

Step 3. Frequency of shopping

Be aware of the frequency in which you shop. For a 9-6:30 working women like me, Saturdays and Sundays are my only outing options. Those days I end up spending. Buying all the things in your list in a day is not a good idea if you have a tendency to go out in all the four weeks. The problem with the above mentioned is that the next week when you go out and when you see something that you like, you tend to go over the budget.

If you are a 4*1 shopping person and if your budget is 3000, make sure you plan such that you spend only a part of your budget each week. It can be 500+500+1500+500 or 2000+250+500+250.Tailor make it based on your list.

Step 4. Prioritize

Even after step 3 most of us would find our self staring at a list impossible to obtain in the given budget. If that’s the case then make sure you prioritize. Something you have been eyeing for quite a long time can be placed 1st in the list. If something you want will be available in half the price on SALE which will be coming up shortly or if you can get away without having that 5th bag in your wardrobe then shift it to the next months list. Make sure your needs are relevant ones. Why bother buying a new bag of the color that you have presently? .Why bother repeating the pattern in your wardrobe?

Make sure you buy only those items that you want badly. Please understand that something for the future is for the future and if it’s not for the present, we can worry about it later.

Step 5. Find the right shop

This step is the most important one. One may buy stuff on first week only to end up seeing the same stuff at half the price somewhere less. Make sure you weigh your options before checking out things in your list. Surf through multiple stores before making a final decision.

Armed with all these Steps you are good to go. Have a happy shopping experience

Now let's see the primary goal with which I had written up these rules. For the post to serve its intended purpose I have to go through entire steps. So, presenting to you my shopping plan for the month of August.

My shopping plan

Step 1:

Budget for month of August: Rs .3000

Step 2:

List: Accessories

Bag

1 Kurtha+ 1 salwar

1 silk shawl

Step 3:

Frequency 3 weeks* 1day each

1500+500++1000-1500

Step 4:

Prioritize

I can give the bag a miss

Priority List

1. Silk shawl 1000-1500

2.Kurtha+salwar

3. Accessories. May be I can bring accessories allowance to 600-700.

Step 5:

1.Fabindia/Parthas

2.Rangoli

3.Small shop in convent Junction.

Let's see if all ma shopping gyaan works :P

We

Today's post is short and full of heavy burden thoughts.....

I don't know what to make of people, for a moment I think I have got it all figured out and I just expect that person to behave in the way he/she is supposed to ,at least to where the calculation leads.NO!!!! they behave completely random leaving no traces or patterns.I stand on the analysis baffled, scratching out whatever little hair I have" How the hell can ma analysis go wrong?" .

That may be the reason why humans are the most advanced species, we never commit the same mistake twice, we keep tab of all the good things and bad things, we are compassionate, we reason , we come into terms with our own bad side. Also we have the ability to take a U-turn whenever it like.

Its getting more and more difficult to complete the series, the ambiance, work and people are not helping me either. As it gets painful with each day, I better get done with this series and fast.

Simulator Wars

"Who is using 215?"Junkindhar's loud pitched voice is an alarm of sorts, one that resonates the feeling that something bad has happened and by default the feeling is true.

It becomes difficult to develop a page without using simulator.As much as I hate using it I had no other option to get the required dynamic data from back end. My initial tryst with the simulators didn't go well as I found them painfully slow. For me, the large time taken for making a small change was the luxury I couldn't afford. Slowly as the pages moved from static to dynamic I shifted my whole focus to simulators. As much as its painful to see your changes reflected its much more painful to convince Laxmindhar to part with his precious simulators.I have always had this devilish thought of messing up with his code to avenge all his serious no-sense talk like" WHAT YOU DOING?JUNK WORK!!!". Every time when an important change was to be made I found the simulator locked by an alpine or some other junk random word. Laxmindhar in later months had literally turned into a simulator protecting monster.

The one person who had to face the monster's wrath was Tinu.I still remember the vigor with which Tinu was left with playing with the simulator or rather you can call it as an curiosity gone wrong.She replaced the entire folder and Junkies changes were gone ,literally vaporised.....I still have Junkies face expression etched into ma memory and let me tell you it was hilarious :P...Well, I miss working on simulators and more importantly I miss the guy called "LAXMINDHAR" who had the weirdest theorems when it came to girls.The guy was one with the same wavelength as mine, one whose desk I managed to cause damage to thanks to ma frequent visits to his place, occasional irritating talks.Dude where ever you are after 10 years please please do give me 14% hike for ma appraisal(Managerial material).

Miss ya!!

Had this material ready last Friday but, had to put the status to pending owing to piled up last moment work.

4. Funday Friday
Playing music @ ma desk with all those memories rushing by. Today's post is not just about things I miss about AIRBUS, it’s also about things I miss about WALMART.WALMART ODC, behind the sealed glass doors was always the Hip ODC for us...the ideologies of WALMART founder,...reflected their fun @ work attitude. Some gorgeous looking Green tags (managers with 10+ exp) was also the source of this interest. The one thing that tops the list of envious memories is : MUSIC....Friday's are such a source of inspiration to complete all those pending work so that one can beat the Bangalore traffic and reach home early to savor the two week offs. We get so engraved in our works that someone has to remind us of the weekdate and WALMART does that sane perfection. Each one of us waits eagerly for the clock to strike 4 so as MUSIC from the neighboring ODC can soothe our senses and provide us with much needed relief. Placed comfortably near the cabin that separates AIRBUS ODC from WALMART ODC I was the first one to alert the rest of the gang of the 2 hour music EXTRAVAGANZA.MUSIC transits across all boundaries and languages. No matter from where you are they, have the playlist ready with at least a few of your favorite songs .They are also the source of constant update for us about the latest tracks in town .Fridays each one of us would be just wishing that they play our favorite tracks.
Have heard some managers from Our ODC complaining about the intensity of loudness with which they play the tracks but, have I have never felt the melody as hindrance....there was a change in attitude over the months with Rahul n Sujay playing music when managers were not around :P....Well, I still listen to music every Friday’s but, it’s nothing compared to the feeling of stealing the vibrations from across the ODC....

5. Chaired matters...

10 things that I missed about airbus ODC, series was something that I had to force down the throats of ma colleagues and died premature death before its completion. An out of moment ping that forced me to think back and make ma self believe that I am not short of audiences .The series is back in track-alive and kicking.

5. Chaired matters...

Of many life saving skills that I attained from AIRBUS, finding the right chair and whisking it away would have to be tagged the most innovative one. Stealing is not a virtue you would wanna flaunt but, AIRBUS did teach me that no virtue is not worth mentioning in your appraisal form.

Chair is an important part of a software engineer’s life considering the fact that we do spend more than 7hours (Not in ma case :P) on them. Lazy posture, concentration posture, frustrated posture, dedicated posture, Friday joyous posture...one look at the posture of the person and you can get to know the situation of the code.

Being an early bird has its own advantage, I take a stroll through all the cabin searching for that right chair the one with proper backrest, right angle slouch ,proper height and so on...I whisk away the nearly perfect one rolling it down to ma cabin .The rolling is certainly not a happy affair...hitting and completely wayward chair manages to make enough screeching/hitting on cabin sounds alerting few other early birds. As I manage to keep my chair ,slowly the ODC fills up by around 11.The few unlucky ones (afternoon birds) have tough time finding a chair let alone the right one. It’s always EMPLOYEES vs CHAIRS and the later always manages to win. Unscathed by the supply shortage the afternoon birds waits until some poor tea deprived soul to step out and with their eagle like precision manages to get a hold on to the chair the former have been sitting declaring the chairs as their own .As the cup yielding soul returns back only to find his chair missing .The person who did whisk the chair sits there with utter concentration ,his eyes fixed on to the screen acting unaware of what’s happened minutes ago.

Obviously You will never be able to apply your monopoly to any of the chairs (thanks to night owls) as one is forced to repeat the same routine over and out the next day.

In Cochin every time I walk towards the cabin after my short break I have this delusion up in ma head that ma chair would be missing and the inert virtue of stealing awaitens its renewal .No, I find ma chair there safe and here EMPLOYEES always win considering the number of empty cubicles. How I so miss the screeching sound the chair makes while being rolled down from one destination to other and I so miss ma hunt for MR.RIGHT CHAIR....

How much do we get influenced by people and places ?a lot? or is it rarely or even a not at all? Well, in ma case the phrase " most of the times" would be apt. One has to just audit through ma bookmarks to get state of ma mind at that instant. Yesterday was one of those jobless days. Usually I have ma set of friends to ping and disturb on such days but, not yesterday .All communicators bulbs were gleaming RED and a "DO NOT DISTURB" warning that kept me off from ma usual dose of Hais and hellos. I have some interesting blogs bookmarked to keep maself occupied on such days. Ma neighbors would have had a panic attack seeing ma screen full of fab decors. I can get pretty annoyed if am working like a donkey trying to work through the 5 doc at a time where as ma neighbor is sitting there sipping his/her coffee slightly hunched on the chair listening to ma favorite song on his/her Ipod instead of taking a good look at the docs .So, I do know how much pair of eaglish eyes I had to evade yesterday. Home/Decor/design is ma area of interest along with just to see fashion/gossip/masala domain .Its remarkable how people can come up with such creative ideas ,turn junk into a masterpiece in short turn walls to homes. It amazes me cause no matter what I do, ma brother ,mom or dad end up messing up and I end up thinking that "THE IDEA" is not worth implementing in a home like mine where movement happen in every second. No matter how many ever times I warn ma brother not to have his junk food dosage on sofa he still does, no matter how many times I warn ma mom not to remove the candles from its designated place she still does it, no matter how many ever times I ask ma dad not to crumble the carpet he still does. In midst of all these chaos I end up losing the war against the unwanted forces .For them it’s just a home, not something to be feel good about...its just a place where you spent some hours of a day. The visual aspect of interior design is neglected an even ma mom discourages me on ma endeavors due to the large amount of effort she has to put in to keep things in place when am not around .Of 20 months that I stayed away from ma home and ma room, the worst neglected part of the house was ma room. For someone who keeps her room picture perfect it was heartbreaking to see things strewn around or the being misplaced. The long separation spelled doom for ma room, and it slowly turned to a cowed den ,somewhere you just don't wANNa spent more than the regular 7 hours of sleeping time .Another problem that I faced was dust, it had engulfed my pet soft toys all browned beyond recognition .The window grills covered in piles of dust or the curtains singing a sad tale....so much for the sad state... The whole day I ended up reading interior design blogs ,DIY ideas and by 6:45 when I left ma PC I was inspired to do something, to change the perspective of how things are done at ma home. By 8 I reached my humble adobe and first things I did was to throw out ma brothers computer and after 3 hours of hard toiling ma room was ready though not remotely close to what I had seen in blogs but at par with ma expectations. People say that your home is where the heart is but, I beg to differ In ma case, its “heart is where ma home is” .Each one of us would like to stay in a picture perfect home, one that invites you in, one that makes you wanna extend your stay a little longer ,one that makes you smile at its sight ,one that calms your senses .Even , I dream of "MY PERFECT HOME" and someday ma dreams will take its shape .Every home oozes its residents sensibilities ,tastes and you can judge a person with the way in which he keeps his/her home. I have always turned to good books when I am short of literary inspiration, style blogs when my wardrobe looks "MEH" now its interior solutions...Im never short of inspiration thanks to the world wide web that keeps my dull life going.
Image courtesy:of peacocks and paisleys

Im not an AND person when it comes to tackling problems ,that means I cannot handle more than one problem at a time .I am not a saint either, like any other I do cry and crib over the problems....

I cannot tackle problem A,B,C and D at the same time cause all the problems added would give me a splitting headache, and when I find the problems out of my normal solving capacity I get panicky.

I take time, shed some tears , blame all the people around me and then start putting some good thought into solving the problem at hand and surprisingly I do well in finding out solutions.

It irritates me when people tell me "I am angry due to so and so....AND problem B is also creating such an issue along with problem C". How the hell am I supposed to infer, what is hurting you more…. problem A,B or C. Which one should be solved at this instant? which one can ease your pain?.Take your time, decide and let me know.

I am a person who can deal with just one thing at a time and the process of coming out of multiple problems is quite time consuming process for me .I expect people not to load me with their issues just cut into smaller portions that I can deal with the blow one at a time.