Working from home during lockdown

Whenever I heard a friend or a colleague telling me that some firm was allowing them to work from home, I was envious of them. 

I had tried doing it once or twice in the past, but stopped it since I felt that I was either working more than usual or was doing less work. That is when I decided that I would apply for leave and then work from home if necessary. That way, I would never have to worry about doing less work.

The last four days have been strenuous. Have been working from home due to the lock down and I feel as if I have been working more hours than when I was in office. I felt so tired on the 4th day, that I had to log off and take a break after every three to four hours. I felt so drained and my energy level was low.

I then realized that I missed being in office - walking around and meeting colleagues in person, going for lunch, riding to the office. At home, I have the whole of our first floor to myself and then it is just me, my laptop and phones. Although it feels good to stay at home and have lunch with my parents, the rest of the time, Iam all alone. 

I just don't know how people work from home everyday. It is quite boring. I just don't know how Iam going to continue doing this for the next few weeks 😔😑

Well, let us just say this has been a different experience for me.

Just another normal day and people's attitude

I had to go to office yesterday to work on the BCP plan and make sure that my team have everything they need to work from home. I was sure that the roads would be empty and other than essential business, everyone would be at home. But the scene was completely different -

I wanted to fill petrol for my bike and thought the petrol stations would be empty. I was wrong - the petrol pump stations were crowded as usual. People stood in lines, not bothering to keep a distance between each other.

Traffic was a little less, that is all. People went on to do their work as usual.

The only difference was the parking lot at the office. Not many vehicles, I got a space in the first row at the usual parking space.

Not much people in our ODC. A very handful of them had come in. There was additional security right before we entered the ODC and the cafeteria. They checked the temperature and then let people in. Only packed lunch boxes at the cafeteria and people were not allowed to have lunch at the cafeteria.

Still, I guess the security personnel got tired and lazy towards evening. They stopped checking people for temperature. They were just sitting in the chairs and chatting with their colleagues.

The cafeteria was crowded post lunch with associates trying to collect their desktops and going through the verification. They were all standing in queues near to each other.

While driving back, I noticed that the stores were all crowded. People were buying loads of stuff and stood next to each other in queues to get them. No one was worried about the virus spread.

It was as if everyone was taking a long holiday. They never understood the seriousness of the situation.

My neighbors and their attitude

Last Friday, my parents and all the neighbors in our apartment were anxious and worried. They did not know what to do. Reason - the couple living in apartment 1 where returning back from US and everyone was worried that they might have the virus and would pass it on to them. They were trying to come up with a way to deal with them knowing well how the couple (S and K) would behave.

The couple finally arrived. They knew that there would be a long queue at the Chennai airport. In order to not waste time waiting in a long queue, they both asked for wheel chair assistance. They showed the medical certification from some local doctor in the US and then got out of the airport very fast after going through the basic screening.

Seriously, if this is how the government works, then no one can save this country. How did they allow two individuals who are physically fit, to get a wheel chair assistance. And what good is the self assessment that they don't have fever. As if they are going to confirm that they have infection.

As soon as the couple arrived home, the fun started - they immediately started visiting other neighbors to tell about their story. If they had common sense, they would have stayed at home for the next 10 days, not visiting anyone, asking people not to come home until they were sure they were not infected. But no, not them. They were just super excited as if they had won the Olympic gold medal.

The other neighbors have been trying to put some some distance between them as a precaution and were too polite to not tell them to back off.

And then just as we had predicted, uncle S walks in to our house this morning not even caring whether we liked it or not. He said he wanted to meet me and then handed over the chocolates saying it was for me. As if Iam going to believe it. Letz see - this is the second trip they are making. In the last few years, their sons had made several trips between US and India. Never did they buy something for us in all these years. All of a sudden, they grew fond of us and wanted to give us chocolates.

He goes on to joke that he didn't get many since they are not as good as Indian chocolates. Oh, come on, you must be kidding. All you got us was three packets of mini M&M chocolate candies. 😈😡. 

How a nice message made me smile

It surprises me on how things change so fast in your life. You never know what would happen in the next minute.

Only a few hours back, I was feeling emotional about something. I was so angry, hurt and was on the verge of tears. 

I wrapped up my work and then started reading a romantic novel to just get away from all the emotions that were going on inside me.

And then suddenly a colleague who is also one of the few best friends I happened to have in my life, messaged me about how he presented his idea to the executive leadership last week. 

Just like that, all those emotions just faded away. His enthusiasm was contagious and in a few minutes I was smiling.

I read the congratulatory mail that he forwarded and wished him success.

Quite surprising on what life throws at you every minute. Just one message from someone and you go from feeling hurt to feeling joy.

Memories of going to the IIT entrance coaching classes in high school

When we had the reunion last weekend, they were talking about how a few guyz in our batch had landed in IIT. That was news to me and I was surprised. I really didn't know that 3 people had landed up in IIT. They even told me about someone who had got into BITS, Pilani. That was also news to me.

I didn't think much about it at that time. Today, when I messaged a friend from those coaching classes, I remembered how desperate I was to land in one of the top engineering colleges when I was in 12th grade. I was always the studious type, who concentrated more on studies than any other extra curricular activities. One of the other reason being, I was shy and studies was the only thing I figured I could just be myself.

When I reached 11th grade, my parents put me into the IIT entrance coaching classes. The coaching classes I went to, was famous because of the physics professor. He was fondly called Balu sir. Getting an admission to their classes was very difficult and they only hand picked the top students who scored well in the 10th grade. You had to enroll or apply many months prior and then go to meet him with your 10th mark sheet. And then go separately to the other two professors who taught Maths and Chemistry and get their approval as well.

The classes were held on weekends in a school that they had rented out for this reason. On the weekends, that school compound would look like there was a festival happening in there. Parents used to come to drop their kids or pick them up. There were many batches and kids used to finish one subject and move on to the other one, while the next batch came in. The watchman of the school was the most important person during the weekends.

The classes started in the early mornings and went up to late nights. Some parents used to wait near the trees holding food and other stuff for their kids.

I felt so lonely since the day I started going to these classes. There were some students who had come in groups from other schools. I was the only one who had enrolled that year from our school. They were all bright students who were very intelligent. They only talked about the maths or physics problems, solutions and all that. I never made any friends there.

I remember there was just one girl who was like me the only one from her school. We were together for a few classes and tried to make small talk. Aside from her, I did not talk to anyone else.

The professors used to conduct tests regularly. Balu sir's tests were supposed to be very tough. If you scored more than 10%, then you were considered brilliant. I hardly got 2 or 3 out of 50 or 100. The first few weekends were very hard for me. I had school work on the week days. And then early morning to late night classes on weekends. I did not get time to do anything else. The best part of it was it helped me to score high marks in my school exams since they would cover all those in the coaching classes many months in advance.

The worst nightmare was trying to score high marks in their tests in the first year. Only if we got good marks, we would be given a seat to join the coaching classes for the second year. I was not able to get the seat for Balu sir's classes in 12th. But got seat in the Maths and Chemistry classes.

Although I did not make any friends with the other kids, my parents became fast friends with the other parents. They formed a group and my dad had other parents to give him company while he waited for me to finish my classes. In fact, they stayed in touch for a few years, discussing about the various education options for their kids and the progress they made.

I just remember one senior in my school who I met during one of those classes. We just talked for a few minutes and he advised me to study hard.

Days went by very quickly. I finally did not end up getting through the IIT entrance exams. I did not even get a seat in BITS. In fact, I did not do engineering at all.

I was disappointed that year. When I look back now, Iam glad I did not get through these colleges/universities. I don't think I would have survived my engineering years in these places. In fact, am not sure I would have liked engineering to begin with.

If I had known all this at that time, I wouldn't have even enrolled in those coaching classes. In fact, I would have probably taken commerce or literature or history. I would have loved reading stories of countries, civilizations, or probably done some bachelor course and then taken up MBA in HR.
Unfortunately, at that time, decisions were not made based on personal interests.

Still, they were good memories - memories of hard work, the sacrifices the whole family had to make, the anticipation of what the future would hold, the hope.

Cost cutting in the company

Our company decided that they should do some cost cutting to get a high profit margin. After spending a lot of money to do a research on how this can be done, they started asking a lot of people at the top level to leave.

We had some changes in a few of our accounts. Here is the story -

Day 1 - Associate A (a senior person from onsite) is asked to leave. He managed two to three accounts - X, Y, Z.
After one to two months - Associate B is hired from the market at a higher level than A. Am sure B's salary package is more than A.

After a couple of days - B understands that there is lot more work to do and she cannot handle everything by herself. So she gets C (who is almost at the same level as her) and then hires D from the market and sends out a note saying - C will manage account X and D will manage account Y.

After a few months - B hires E again from the market to manage a few small accounts including Z.

So now, instead of one person A managing three accounts, we have 4 people to manage these 3 accounts.

Then they finally realize that they are incurring a lot of costs and there is no improvement in account X. So they ask C to leave the company and keep the other three.

I was really good at mathematics in school. But it is so hard for me to understand how we had managed to cut the costs.

Cost of having A is less than cost of having B, C and D, isn't it?

Have people really lost their mind in this company?

My MV: R, shut your mouth. No one asked for your opinion. And will you stop writing all this in your blog. You are definitely going to be kicked out.

The School reunion - part two

Continued from part one

I reached home and realized that I was feeling so hungry. Damned guyz. It was supposed to be a reunion dinner and I just had two to three pieces from the veg and non veg platters. Won't these guyz have dinner at all. How will drinking all those alcoholic drinks fix one's hunger. I can never understand why people drink - is it for the taste, for companionship, to show off or a habit. No drink can compare to that chocolate milkshake with ice cream as topping, right. These guyz just don't understand food.

On reaching home,
My dad: So, did you have good food?
Me: yeah
My MV: no R, not tonight. you can tell them tomorrow. if you tell them you did not have food, they will ask then what did you go for.

Me (looking at my parents): am going to bed now
My MV: innaiki pasi oda thoonga vendiyathu thaan.

😆😂😄

Reunions always bring back fond memories of your childhood and make you feel good at the end of it. The memories keep you going for the next few days.

Oh, wait, am not done with this yet. The problem with me is that it is hard to lie to people especially my parents.

The next day morning,
Me (to my mom): Amma, can you pls get me breakfast a little early today. Iam feeling so hungry. Did not eat much last night.
My mom: What did you mean, you did not eat? Did you not go for dinner. You went so early and came in late.
Me: Err, amma, it was actually not a restaurant. It was some kind of a pub or retro bar (i tried to explain this to her).
My mom: so, don't they sell food.
Me: Actually, i think they do. But no one ordered and then we had to leave.
My mom: so, what did the others eat?
Me: err, i don't know.
My mom: what stopped you from making yourself dosa last night at home. You could have had it with the podi right. You want me to do everything for you. You are so lazy. Arive ille.

My MV: You deserve this, R.

My mom: so was it just you or did any other girl come in?
My MV: I knew this question would come in
Me: No, H was there, S was there. You remember S right and then Sg got his wife. And I guess Rp came in as well after I came home. She couldn't make it earlier. Got a little busy at home.
My mom: why would a girl go so late to meet people? She could have skipped the get together right.

My MV: R, unakku arive ille. Now, how are you going to explain this to amma. Did anyone ask you about Rp. You could have stopped with Sg getting his wife right?

Me: I don't know ma. Now, can you get me the breakfast pls.

and that is how I finally dodged her question and left quickly to office.

Phew, that was a narrow miss!!! 

The School reunion - part one

School reunions are always exciting. It is the time for everyone to meet and catch up with old friends. A month back, me and my friend were talking about how it was time for the next reunion and wondered why no one had initiated it. It was almost a year since we met the others.

Personally, I loved to go to these reunions and get together. There are so many people around you and you have a sense of belonging. You can just listen to their conversations and life experiences. They are so interesting.

For someone like me, who feels happy to take the back seat, not indulge in any conversation and observe people, these get together's are exciting. I remember how Rj used to try very hard in convincing me to go with her to these high school get together's after we had passed out of school. Even back then, I would love to go and meet everyone, but I was sure I would never fit in the group. I always felt completely out of place.

The good thing about growing old is that you reach a stage where you just don't care about what others feel. If they like you, they will stay in touch; if they don't, then they will not.

Coming back to the reunion, the dates and the venue details was shared to all of us a few days back. The name of the venue was a place I did not recognize. A quick search on the google showed it as a resto/lounge bar. I just kept staring at my laptop screen, trying to make sure if I got the place right.

My Mind Voice (MV): I knew it, the guyz want a place to catch up and drink until late night. And here I was expecting a lunch at a good restaurant.

Almost a year since we had our last reunion and now, this!! I wanted to scream and yell (well, just being a little melodramatic here!!).

Finally, I couldn't help asking this good friend of mine on who chose this place. So I messaged him in the group and got back the best response I could get - silence 😀😃

My MV: Arive ille R, you never learn from your mistakes. Why the hell did you ask him that question. Why?? Stupid girl

Well, after a call and a few messages, I was sure they were not going to change the venue. Eventually, me and my friend decided to drop in and meet the others for some time and then leave as early as possible.

Before leaving home,
My dad: R, why are you taking the bike? I can drop you in the car. Been almost a week since we drove it
My MV: Sutham. I had told appa that Iam going to a restaurant for dinner. How will I tell him the name and the place. He will then ask for details. Eventually, he will find out when he drops me. Iam never going to forgive these guyz.
Me: No pa. That is ok. It is in G N Chetty Road. I can take the bike.

Deciding to catch up before the actual D time, me and H met at the Coffee Day a few hours in advance. We chatted and kept looking up the time, wondering when the place would open, what do we do if we go in early and no one shows up.

I took H to a store to do some shopping to kill time. And then when it was almost time, we started to the get together venue.

While driving,

Me: See, there is Accord, there is Absolute Barbecue, there is that restaurant XX, YY, ...(loudly reading out the names). Why can't they choose these places.
H: yeah, I know

Me: ok, so how far should I go
H: the map says you need to take this road to the left.
Me: but this is too small a road to take. Call him and check na

H (calls PK): hey, where is this place??.... oh , ok. ... fine. thanks
H to me: he does not know. asks us to follow the map
Me: map aah. Sutham... call N na, he is the organizer

H (calls N): hey, we are at this xxx place. Where is this place. How do we come in there?

After ending the call,
H (to me): he is saying, look at the map. He does not know.
Me: hullo, does he think we don't have sense. Of course, we have the map he shared. If the map showed directions correctly, why would we call him. And he is the organizer, how does he not know the directions..Call him na, let me talk to him.

Finally, after driving in circles, making a few phone calls to ask for the directions, we did reach the venue.

I just took one look at the place and told H that Iam not going in. Poor H, she was trying so hard to convince me to go in. Giving in to her, I parked my bike. That is when we heard the music blaring outside.

H: that is music coming in from the top floor, da. I think that is the dance floor.
Me: what?? no da, i think it is from the next building

H: No da, it is from this place only. Must be from the retro bar.
Me: ok, then call N and tell him to come down. we will say hi and then leave. If you want to stay, you stay. Am going to go to Sangeetha, have one rava dosa and leave.

H: Come on da, we will just drop in, say hi and leave

I finally gave in to her reasoning. We figured it was in the 3rd floor. We took the stairs, with me grumbling that atleast this will do some good to our health.

Let us just say, I have never been to a pub or a retro bar before. I have an idea of how one looks and know of all the details, thanks to all the novels I read. But reality is different from the fictitious world.

We found N in there and quickly sat down after a round of introductions. I looked around and really liked the place. It was done very well, was cozy and a band was playing in a corner. Since I am never into Western music, they did not make sense to me at all. But I could just imagine, sitting in a quiet corner, with a book in hand and good food.

My MV: Why couldn't this be a coffee shop instead of a pub. I would have stopped by whenever I had time, if it was just a cafe.😈

As we settled in, people started dropping by and the conversations started flowing. I have always been surprised by how men bond with each other and how women bond. With men, they all seem to know each other quite well even if they had never been connected for years. They bond very fast, joke, pull each other legs - they are all part of this big gang.

Women are a little more different - there will always be smaller groups within the big group. We will chat and talk with everyone, but will still look out for that close friend. This is in our DNA. That is how we are at every place - family, friends, office. Just go to any function or get together, the women will always be in smaller groups.

Photos were clicked and the guyz ordered their drinks.
When one of the friend asked me about what my husband was doing, I was a little taken back. Been a long time since someone asked me that question. I had to tell him that I was single and he quickly apologized. After all these years, I should have been used to these questions. Still, it hurts every time someone asks them.

And when they talked about the next year reunion, I didn't have any words to respond.
P: Next year, we should ask everyone to get in their families - spouses and children. We should do a big get together
Me: (smiling) hmmm.. nice..
My MV: Wow, good plan. Will get a chance to meet everyone's family. On the other hand, how will I survive that one -everyone coming in with their family. Who will I bring in. R, this is your last reunion😆😄

There was something else I didn't understand - why is it easy to chat with someone on the phone than talking to them in person? Is it just me or is it that way with everyone else? I feel more comfortable writing to someone - sending an email or messaging. But when I meet them in person, I just don't know what to say to them. All that I had wanted to talk or say to them, goes right out the window. Weird but true. There is a reason to this but that is a thought for another day and another post.

It was getting late and me and H had to leave. We finally bid good byes to the whole bunch. I was sure that they would stay up until late in the night, savoring their drinks and the conversations.

It was nice of two of our friends to come down outside with us and make sure that H got her cab and had no problems. I still haven't figured out if they took this chance to come out or just cared for her. Still, it just felt nice.

Continued - part two

You've Got Mail - watching the movie again in 2020

Last weekend, while randomly switching channels on the television, I happened to see the movie - You've Got Mail being played on. No matter how many times you watch this movie, the romance gets to you.

I am not here to write a review about the movie. It is just about what I feel while watching it.

The movie makes you believe in love and leaves you lighthearted at the end of it. Don't know about men, but am sure every woman out there wants to meet a guy like Joe Fox. Someone who never lets you down, someone who understands you and yeah, tries hard to win you over.

Being an avid reader, I loved the small cozy book store that Kathleen runs and I feel sorry that she had to close her book store. I just don't like it when old small stores or shops have to close business due to competition from famous chain stores. The film makers did a good job in showing that cozy children's corner in the new Fox Books store. It always reminds me of Landmark book store in Chennai.

I liked the way they show how both of them try to find words to express their thoughts and feelings in their mail. The scenes where Joe first tries to come up with some random excuse for standing her up and then starts writing to her or the scene where Kathleen tries to tell him about how she felt bad in shouting at her enemy in the cafe, gets to me.

I was able to relate how difficult it is to get the right words when sending a message or an email to another friend. Right now, we have all moved to whatsapp messengers to send a quick message to friends. But just imagine if we did not have one. Then we would all be writing long emails sharing experiences, thoughts in detail.

All in all, watching this movie again last sunday, lifted my spirits and made me feel so good again. Not to forget, waiting and hoping to meet someone like Joe Fox :)

The squirrel and the cat

I had just stepped out of our door at home, when I heard a noise. There was a squirrel right mid way through to the top of a coconut tree and there was a cat ready to jump on the coconut tree to catch that little one.

I was so scared for the little squirrel. After shouting and running after the cat, I was finally able to drive it away from the tree.The squirrel went up the tree still making that noise.

My mom asked me what the noise was all about.

Me: The cat was trying to catch the squirrel. Luckily, I was able to get it off.
My mom: That squirrel has no brains. Every time it comes down, the cat is trying to pounce on it. Still, it keeps coming down.
Me: But amma, it has to, right. What will it do for food when it is up in the tree.
My mom: I have tried to put nuts and other food that squirrels usually eat on the wall many times. But they never take what I put on the wall. Instead, the rat eats it in the night.
Me: Poor thing. I hate these cats
My mom:  Ippadi satham pottitu vantha, poona athe pudikaama, yenna seiyum? Muthama kudupaanga. Arive ille. (Translation - if it makes noise like this and comes down, what will the cat do other than pounce on it. Will it kiss it. It has got no brains)
My mom: Do you know how many times I have tried to shoo away the squirrels when the cat or crow is around.

My mom (coming out of the house): has it finally gone up?? Thank god!!

Just another random day on weekend.