Chalk & Cheese

She is chalk. He is cheese.  Or may be the other way around. But yeah you got the idea. Both of them are different.

She was the intelligent , fundoo types. He was the creative( so called) arty farty kinds. 

She worked on important modules and coded programs in her first 1st year of the IT job . He wondered if he really belonged to the IT industry in the first one year and coded his first program ( end to end) after nearly 2 years. 

She won awards for the superb work that she put in. He created awards like Mr Raymond and Miss Bibo to lure employees to parties and outings.

Both of them loved extra curriculars. 

She was the one who would always finish tasks in a jiffy and ask for more. He would examine things in detail and would even take hours to send out  a mail. 

She was a smart ass . Common sense was  so uncommon to him. 

She thought it was hard to put up with all different kinds of idiots in the world. He thought idiots were a different species and possessed some special skills which other didn't have.

She was in the midst of a grueling MBA programme last week. He had  quit a job and was at his bored 'vela' best in the same week. 

 And so the differences became  even more stark!

She was very busy. He was damn bored. 

Now then that was a given. 

She was totally screwed with piles of assignments heaped on her and major quizzes hitting her one after another.  He was as clueless as he could ever get buzzing all his friends online and messaging his local friends if they had the time to meet him. 

She was Red on Gtalk and explicitly  put a 'Do not Disturb' status message. He was in the brightest of greens on Gtalk,changing status messages every hour and showing off his gyan on Cricket.  

She was finding it hard to find time to fill her water bottle and hardly drank any water in the last 3 days.  He was not only bored of drinking  the same water but also eating the same food and was always critiquing the food made by his mom. 

She was worried that there were so many of her batch mates who worked harder than her. He wondered why his ex-boss worked so hard ruining his weekends and the peace of mind of his team members. 

She was worried about her grades. He was worried about his ever expanding paunch. 

She didn't have the time to worry about the cast on her hand. as she was afraid she would be left behind in her acads. He knew this was time for him to consult his endocrinologist, eye specialist and  skin specialist to get rid of the dandruff in his hair.

He has all the time in the world to think of such an idea on these differences and then put the effort to post it in his blog. She is so busy that she might not even read the blog even if he sends her the link!

The Omelet and Me

I come from a strict vegetarian family where we do not even eat egg at home.  So when my friends in school used to tell me that Egg is ok even for a veggie, I only used to shake my head in dispproval.

The  4 years in a hostel during engineering are perhaps the time when guys pick up a lot of things and this includes even those who have been mama's boys till then. Hostel life gives you the courage to try everything in life. 

So then coming to Veggie- Eggie thing, I never tried an egg even during those 4 years. I somehow managed having all the junk in the world in those 4 years but still ensured that it was all vegetarian.

If there was a competition where you could sell all the food ( especially junk stuff) that guys of my batch managed to eat in those 4 years, I am sure I would win hands down. Cold Drinks would be a separate  ( highest revenue) category by itself. 

However there was one non-veg dish that always fascinated me- Omelet. When someone else ordered bread omelet in the canteen at midnight, I would have the feeling that I should try it sometime. In fact it was not the feeling of 'should have' ... it was a feeling of 'I will have it' someday. 

You know it was as if Omelet was this enchanting seductress who would flash a naughty smile. I would always resist  but I was sure that one day or the other I would give in to the charms of the Omelet.

So then it was one rainy night in Melbourne, my friend Sumant was getting ready to prepare an Omlette for himself. Starved of home food for almost 1  month and with the never ending desire for the  Omelet I said 'Sumant, please make one for me'.

I tasted it and it was awesome.  Omelet and I lived happily ever after.  Haa.. this is the effect of watching too many Bollywood and regional movies . 

Anyway.. the story is not yet done considering that sequels are the in thing these days. ( Remember Don-2, Krish-2, Dhoom-3 etc).  So then I had Omelet probably 2-3 times after that while I was working. 

One and a half year later MBA happened.. and then things changed. I was introduced to the entire Egg family...Scrambled egg, Half Fry, Double Fry etc.  And it was a part of my breakfast menu.

When there were too many people on the campus, Omelet wasn't a great option because there would be already some many of them prepared and ready to be eaten. So the 'garam-garam' straight from the pan feeling would be lost. 

Double fry was the option to go to because it would be hot and straight from the pan. Simply superb  :) Scrambled egg was best suited to be eaten with rotis late in the night with a thumbs up going along with it at Chota :) ( the name of that awesome canteen at MICA).

Thanks to MICA culture of naming dishes after the students who came up with the recipe , I also got to taste stuff like Dewich ( wrong spelling ya...it is a proper noun and I couldn't find this person on facebook)  sandwich which was essentially an egg sandwich.

After MBA, I came back home and then forgot  all about Omelet and her family.  There were not too many meetings over food with friends and so I was really missing the Egg family. I got a job but for the first month I used to religiously eat in the office canteen which would serve only vegetarian. ( no ..not even egg).  

Pic taken from the net and used for illustration

As I got used to the work place,  I started getting bored of the canteen. I also made friends there who were like me - bored of the canteen food. And so... we started going out for lunch.

We started by eating out 1-2 times a week. After 3 months, we were only eating out. And yeah.. happy endings..( till now)  Omelet was again a part of my life :)

I have also realized that the bigger the restaurant the farther I need to stay from the Omelet. That is because these places usually make bland Omelets  which I don't really enjoy.

Omelet tastes best along with rice ( for my kind of taste buds) in an Andhra Mess or at a Telugu friend's place.  Any Telugu friends reading this?

Grow up? But why?

I feel good today. It is so nice when you  get to talk to a good old friend especially someone who is always ready to listen to your endless rant. So then N called me up after almost 2-3 months and then I  went on and on. After 45 minutes and 44 seconds, N realized that quite a few of her friends were buzzing her on gmail and finally put the phone down!

Phew! I told her lots of things , mostly about my job and  my career . And believe me ! What I told her was in fact a compressed version what I told AJ and other unfortunate friends who get to listen to me on a daily/weekly basis :)

After all the talk.. I felt like writing! As I am writing, I am so convinced of that fact I am an experiential writer. I need new experiences to write something .  Well nothing new in the talk that we had today but at least I felt I had a life. I tried 2-3 times in the last week to write something. But when you go to work.. do the same thing that you have been doing for the past 8 months.. there is nothing that inspires you to write about. So then, I should go about searching for a job that gives me varied experiences and the 'josh' to write!

Today my Mom was annoyed that  I was chatting on the phone endlessly. 

She was like ' He doesn't have any work and spends so much time talking on the phone. Wonder if he will ever grow up?'

Grow up? That word seriously scares me now. I mean if 'growing up' means doing some work or the other, then I don't want to grow up.  Talking to someone who understands you and listens to you is so much fun. I wouldn't ever want to give that up. No! Not even for the sweetest one.

'Sweetest one' now  reminds me of that conversation I had with my sister C  just when I got a job.

Sis: Now that you have got a job,  we will find a girl for you.

Me: Oh.. yeah!  I want a girl who will listen to me. You know someone with whom I can share all the exciting/frustrating moments I have at my work place.

Sis: Oh..come on! Forget it! You will never have any time to do all that once you are married.  My husband have never discussed work at home in the last 2 years.

Me: Hmmmm.. ok!

I wasn't convinced at all. I mean I don't think I can ever do that. This again seems to one of the  effects of 'Growing up' . You get busy ! You work more and you don' t talk!  Ah! So boring ! No thanks! I don't want to !

I have just realized that I have equated 'not talking about work' to 'not talking'.  I mean it works for me that way. Work is an important part of my life and I don't think I can stay without talking about it especially now that I am no longer a software professional.

 It is quite a coincidence that I found something similar on the net today called SPAM. Not it is not the regular computer SPAM but this one is called the Society for the Preservation of Absurdity and Madness!

I haven't read it yet but I am pretty sure that it will be kick ass stuff as I  have read some of the blogs of those who write there.

Feels good to find people who want to believe in absurdity and madness and are as fed up of the 'grow up' thing as I am.