Smile Please – It costs nothing

This one too is from my daily office bus journeys which made me realize that smile is the most beautiful thing.

I made friends with 2 of my bus colleagues who give a nice company and are seniors to me. One is 7 years & the other is 5 years experienced. As the saying goes “Boys will be boys”, we tend to just have a look at good looking girls –in bus, in food court, in bus stops.

One such girl boards our bus at himayath nagar; nice height (more than 5’7’’), good sense of dressing, good facial features, slim. The only problem is that she is damn too serious. I started taking the office bus since July 16^th; I’ve never seen her smiling atleast once since then. I do not expect her to smile at me but let her smile at her friends. I understand that she may not be having friends in the bus but in food court too she tends to have a straight face without the thought of smiling. Deep within my heart, I always wanted to ask her to smile  once to catch a glimpse of it.

GOD finally blessed me one day and showed her smiling face to my eyes..

I don’t exactly remember the topic but I felt that she overheard the conversation between us and smiled at me..!

Her face was pleasant, bent to left side, lip gloss on her lips which gleamed in the early morning sun shine. 

Her eyes smiled too..!

This made my day and smile appeared on my face whenever this small incident came to my mind. It made me realize that a small smile brings a lot of change in us. 

People, Please don’t be serious. Always try to have a small half smile in your face and see the difference. Smile brings a lot of charm, and peace to you. Even when you are alone, try to think of all good things done with your friends or family and try to smile.

Thanks Miss. Himayath nagar for smiling. Waiting for your next smile..!

P.S: The bitter truth for me is that I thought she smiled at me at our conversation but the fact is she smiled at her friend sitting beside me.

Ringtone Blues: Nirnayam

Ring tone makes or breaks a mood of person -- read on to believe it.

Date: 6th Nov 2012

Our route number is E2 - an RTC blue colored TATA metro express bus which starts at 0720 hrs from Shaikpet Dargah to carry us to our office 37 Kms away from this point with a travel time of 1 Hr 15 Mins given the condition of lesser early morning traffic.
People tend to make friends in this 'long journey' and I'm no exception for it. All kinds of topics starting from sports, politics, movies, love, affairs, infatuation, marriage.. blah blah blah.. will be part of our discussions. 

One of my bus mates has this ringtone extracted from Telugu movie 'Nirnayam'. It may be a nice love tune but when I heard it today, i felt so depressed that tears rolled out of my eyes..! I fought hard to push back my tears and was moderately successful in it. Same thing happened a couple of weeks back; I had a bad morning and heard this ring toneat my building entrance but could’nt spot the source. The whole day was gloomy and dull weather helped it more.

The reason is that the movie ‘Nirnayam’s’ climax is so touching. Like all the other Telugu movies, it has an happy ending but the sequence till their meeting is so engrossing & intense. This whole part plays in front of my eyes and results in depression.
I told my bus mate the same thing. Everyone laughed off but did not get my point.
Maybe I should stop myself from getting involved in movies & books.

P.S: 1. Took British Library membership for one year a couple of months back.
       2. Planning to read Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger which is much more  depressing..!!

This is the ring tone: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAXILHyH90I

1st Mistake by choice??

I am generally the kind of a person who takes whatever comes in his way rather than planning things or grabbing the chance with his both hands firmly.

I am trying out something new; To change my career line. Will I be successful in it? Will I find solitude in it? Or will it be my 1st mistake by choice of my life? 

Before that, let me jolt down the mistakes by chance of my life:

Mistake by chance# 1: Getting into job right after graduation
All my best buddies with whom I used to hangout whenever I was down went to pursue M.S in US. Probably I would have also followed the bee line given that I was not placed. I could have had my friends with me and could have avoided some things down here.

I don’t have big complaints or regrets for this because I have thoroughly enjoyed the training at Mysore, the 2 projects I was into, my stay at Mangalore and some lessons for life. I had my Kodak moments all through them..! I could not have missed them for sure. But still my inner voice says that I should have done what my friends did for a better life.

Mistake by chance# 2: Getting trained in Open Systems
Gosh..!! I get goose bumps and nightmares when ever I think of my stream training, especially the final practical exam and the day after it..!! My training friend Ravi inspired me with a timely quote. I told him ‘I am expecting a tsunami in tomorrow’s objective paper because there is dead calmness inside me.. not sure that I will survive the flood’. He replied ‘Tsunami is yesterday’s practical exam.. whatever calmness you are having is the peace after the tsunami’.

I understand that we don’t have choice of training but I regret the fact that I was trained in Open System which has very less exposure to tools or enterprise editions.  Everything we did was to save in notepad with relevant extensions and run them on server depriving me off any hands on experience with tools.

Mistake by chance# 3: Settling to be in testing but not shifting to Development side
The day we got our posting locations and the production units, I saw that I was into testing. I should have right away asked for a unit shift and should have got into Development side instead of wasting my 2 years of work in testing. The fact is I came to know that testing is monotonous after being in there for 2 years. I do regret this so much every day 

Mistake by chance# 4: Accepting a transfer from Gachibowli campus to Uppal Campus
What can I say about this..??  Nothing can be done now but a simple lie could have made my life different there at Gachibowli campus. Now I am travelling 80 Kms daily to my office and spending 3 hours only for travel.  

There is a quote ‘Everything happens for a reason’. Can't really think what would have happened had I stayed back at Gachibowli campus.

Mistake by choice# 1: Platform shift

Coming soon...!!!?????

The Extra Finger

My Dear God has blessed me with an extra finger for the left hand thumb.. yaaa just like Hrithik Roshan’s right hand..!! (see the pic on the left keenly).

When I was a child, my friends or teachers were so amazed and surprised to discover that I have an extra finger. It used to be kind of show off for me to flaunt my left thumb and allow them to touch it once..! They fired me with all kind of weird questions that one could think of like ‘can you move it?’, ‘is there is any sensation on it if I touch it?’, ‘Does it pain when a wound is inflicted on it?’, ‘Does blood oozes out of it?’ etc etc. I used to laugh at them and answer all of them patiently. On some occations, I used to wait for people to discover that I have an extra finger and feel that I am special..!

People say that I am blessed and so lucky. They say I will be so happy and prosperous and I will get whatever I wish for (?!!). Is that so? Am I happy? I must say I am doing good.. Got placed and have a decent job, though I crib so much now; I am getting salary and its better than not to have a job. I am staying with my family in Hyd. So I should say I am lucky to be like this.

Coming to my extra finger again, these days if someone notices that I have it I don’t see much reaction from them like I used to get before. They say ‘Hey you have an extra finger’ and smile. That’s it. They don’t pose any questions or don’t even touch it.. :( This disappoints me a lot because some where down inside, I feel that it should get more attention and make me special for atleast some seconds. However I don’t get that kind of show stopper attention now a days. I wish I can get into a time machine and go back to those good old days..!

Corporate Ethics

Okay... So today I got a taste of what actually is corporate world. In order to survive and to get on to the top of the ladder, the following instructions must be taken up seriously:

Rule 1: Pretend that you are really working hard and getting along really nice with your team mates in order to give the expected work. No matter how much you code/how much you test, it is not going to make a hero out of you. The only thing is that you need to show case as really doing work without actually doing it. I always believed that your work should speak for your self. But here you should speak without working.

Rule 2: Know how to communicate with your superiors/subordinates through emails. I swear. If you learn how to reply to an email in a diplomatic way without saying say yes/no then your job is almost done. You can literally make people dance to your tunes using these email communications. Always see that all the important things related to you are well recorded in email communications. Never take things which are done through mouth piece for granted. People here always believe in seeing with eyes rather than listening with ears.

Rule 3: (the most important one) Never ever loose talk with superiors. They may crack jokes and be jovial with you but each and every word escaping from your mouth is being recorded in their clever brains. Even the statements given by you in lighter vein will be noticed by them. They will use it for their advantage at any given time.

Rule 4: See that you will be noticed by most number of people in your unit/out of your unit by participating in extra curricular activities. I know this sounds really dumb and uninteresting to me but you know what? It helps you to get connected with other higher ups in the unit and this would certainly help you at times.

Rule 5: (My favorite one!) Treat the resources under you literally like dogs. By hook or crook/by threatening get the work completed by them. Don’t grant any leaves even when they really need them. Try to catapult them to any location across India where the requirement is there without listening to their concerns/genuine problems. If they do not agree for your plan then escalate the issue and see that it will be a black mark in career progression. You should know how to manipulate people.

Appraisals, salary hikes, corporate culture/ethics/values my foot.. Everything is bull s#It. When they need something, all approvals, policies would vanish in thin air and can be bent as per their needs. When you need something then company rules, policies, etiquettes come into picture. F*** You..

I am not writing all these things out of frustration. This is what is going on inside practically. I feel pity for these kinds of mentalities. GET WELL SOON

“If the looser keeps his smile, then the winner will lose the thrill of victory”

Hopeful/less New Year.. 2012

So finally we are now into 2012.. People say that this year would mark the end of the world by December.. Hope it really does.. Want to see how people react and what they do when they know that its going to end forever..

So how was my 2011??

- Started off very well with January being the best part; filled with fun & friends. Time flew by but the memories would remain with me forever. A new year party with Chetan & Mahendra (thanks man.. I miss the batch so much); accompanying a trip down the memory lane to banglore & Chennai with Praneeth, meeting my school friend Sudha; spending time with Praneeth’s friends; catching up my Mysore training friends at Chennai campus.. and etc etc..!! I can never ever forget those memories guys… I know that thank you is a very small word but my English vocabulary is not that good that I can find a suitable replacement for my feelings. Thanks to each and every one of you in person for giving me such memorable moments at the start of year.

- This should have been the first point for me in 2011 but was shadowed by the above one. Got a transfer from Gachibowli campus to Uppal Campus (the biggest & blind blunder committed by me which I always regret)

- People say ‘Everything happens for a reason’. I got a new bike because of the transfer, started driving my car and many more changes in me..!!.. [well you need to take out positives out of everything without which life becomes miserable].

- Got the definitions of many terms.. got rid of many false notions & ideas… learnt lessons for life. Thanks to my close friend(s) & team mate(s) for bringing some sort of brightness & hope in me. I have noted every word from the lesson I learnt from you. I may not reform myself all of a sudden but can assure that I am not the same soul which you people have seen a year ago. I am grateful for all the gyan. Heart filled best wishes for you. I can’t give you anything in return except for praying GOD to give you a happy & prosperous life ahead.. I would surely miss this part very much..

- A confession to make: I know I have bluntly ignored and hurt my close ones.. but that is me.. I may hurt or may not going forward. Extreme apologies for all my senseless deeds but I am happy being like this. This is me.. Love me or hate me

- Acted foolishly, meaningless, senseless, pointless, argued without a reason. I sincerely wish that this is not repeated.

Points to be noted:

- Time & patience are key points to maintain a smooth relation.. Let it be with friends or family. Relation nurtures only when you invest time on it. Otherwise it leads to misunderstandings, gaps, and vacuum.

- Try to become smart & wise at work or at personal front. Be cool & decide your priorities. Don’t take anyone or anything for granted. Sometimes you need to face the truth boldly and be practical

- Some things happen to you which you couldn’t even dream of happening to you ever. Trust me.. this is really true.. not a lie.!

- Heart craves for somethings which you are missing badly but you know that they never come back to you. What ever you do, they are not going to coming back to you again. Instead of getting depressed, smile whenever they flash in your heart & look ahead.

Now let me conclude this: This post from me came after a really long time because of being lazy/disinterested. I still feel like writing many thoughts of me here but don’t remember them or even if I get them can’t really put it in words.

So cheers to myself.. I wish myself a Happy New Year.. I am now ready to face one more year of my life boldly.

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick.. Don’t lose faith – Steve Jobs.

Hope is the essence of LIFE.. !! CHEERS…!!!