ELIXIR OF MY LIFE

I can breathe now.

It's me alone who knows the trauma that I had to endure for the past 10 months.The very fact that I was financially dependent on my dad and my boyfriend made me feel like a cripple.

I just enjoy that fact that I am working. At times I don't enjoy the work I have been assigned to.But the fact that I am working is like a driving force - my 2nd oxygen one can say.  And finally , now I know what makes me the happiest - it's work and independence.

I like this corporate culture. I like this coming to office regularly,logging into a machine, waiting for the lunch hour, meeting up with friends, discussing work with seniors and then at the end of the day, going back home.This probably will never ever become monotonous for me , because I have understood the worth of it's absence in my life. I used to meet people , hardly eligible for any service, but they were there making money. And somewhere down, in some dark, secluded corner of my heart and mind , I used to suffer from this excruciating pain.Whenever I used to spot them, i used to avoid then intentionally . I used to avoid facing their innumerable questions, used to shun their pitiful eyes.

Though, it was no fault of mine , I couldn't stop blaming myself for having lost my previous job. Today, after getting my hands on the system, dealing with the official documents, accessing the official mails - I simple felt alive once more.

In this course of 10 months, different people suggested me different things. Few people suggested me to take tuition , which I did and that was a saviour. It helped me take care of my credit card bills.Thanks to them . Few people advised me to get married, as they considered me unfit for work. I hope they must have got their answer by now. Few warned me of the global economic condition, and that it was quite unlikely for me to bag a job in this market with just an experience of 2 years. But, I knew that I had to be patient. All my learning, my degree, my education just couldn't go wasted. And here I am , enjoying the fruits of my patience.

Earlier I used to feel suffocated , but now I can breathe freely. I can smell the air fresheners which almost chokes me in the enclosed office.I can hear the coffee vending machine beeping at a distant corner, as someone fills a cuppa. I can hear people typing on their key-boards, and trust me it's music to me now.

WOW ! this feeling is simply awesome. It's inexpressible.

Everyday, I reach home , dog tired. But, earlier I used to stay back home all day, but at the end of the day would be a vegetable, devoid of any will and energy to carry on. But now, in spite of all the tiredness, I feel full of energy as I am mentally contented and happy.

I have realized one thing - WORK IS THE ELIXIR OF MY LIFE. IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT WILL KEEP ME GOING.

MY FIRST DAY AT OFFICE

I joined on the 23rd of Nov.It's strange that I came back to the same place, in the same building-  just a different organization.

The first two days were spent in induction .We had to give introductions to 100 odd people.And then on the third day, I was allotted to my project - British Telecom. I have to work on Datawarehousing , the technology I was so longing to learn. And luckily I got the opportunity.

I am completely new here and feeling somewhat out of place. Met this girl who has joined as a psychologist. She's good , in fact great company. She looks good too.(Attention :- My male friends, she's married).

Presently I have no work . I have been given my system . And thankfully a mail id . I am at present mailing all my friends my new id . Internet is a taboo here it seems. Only Google is allowed and that too on special request. The seniors have given me few EXCEL sheets which I am not being able to make any sense of.

So, basically , right now I'm getting a bit bored.

Well, that's all from my first day's experience.

WISH ME LUCK !

Kolkata Winters

Winter is here in Kolkata - FINALLY ! Although it still  hasn't come with its usual sting ,but welcome anyway.

Winter in Kolkata has a definite definition , I feel. It is synonymous to innumerable things that make winter so special for Kolkata. 'Kolkata Winters' - this word draws an image in my mind , a very colourful one,  and here I shall try to pick out those colours and give each one a life of its own.

As soon as the Diwali( Kali Puja to the Calcuttans ) and Bhai Phota's over, people of Kolkata wait for their favourite season. It comes tenderly by the end of November and brings along with it happiness and a chilling warmth. Days become shorter and nights become so long.

U wake up in the morning, step on the grass of your lawn,  and you know that it's winter when the silent dews kiss your feet. Early in the morning , u can smell the heavy fog almost blinding your vision. Old and young morning walkers who otherwise throng the parks sleep peacefully, ignoring their health walk for once.

Our woolens and quilts which had been kept imprisoned for the last 12 months, in the dark depths of our cupboards  and bed-boxes are given their share of annual freedom. They feel the warmth of the sun and are made ready for service. All the shorts are discarded and the pajamas are pulled out and we start looking bloated due to the woolens. Small children don their colourful woolen garments and make their way school-wards in a sluggish gait. The cart of the vegetable vendors during the winter looks simply picturesque. They are decorated with yellow, orange , green , violet and so many other colours.

Morning is greeted with a cup of steaming tea and the famous 'Kochuri & Alur Dum' from the nearby sweet shop. 'Joynagorer Moya' is another thing to die for. People wait for the winter primarily for this, I guess. Every house build up their own stock of the same and every time you visit someone, there's always one in your platter. In the villages, the smell of jagerry (Gur) fills up the air. Women in almost every house start boiling the date- juice (it's sinful i tell you), and start making the gur. They come to the city in earthen pots, their mouths sealed with flour dough and dry shaal leaves. The Bengali Babus bargain on their high price and complain about the purity of the gur. Winter brings with it, mouth watering dishes in each and every Bong house. 'Koraishutir Kochuri', 'Muli ki paratha', 'Notun Alur Dum' are few of them.

And soon the time comes for 'Pithe' - another sweet-meat of the bongs . I want to be born as a bong ever and ever again only for the 'Pithe' , if for nothing else. In every house , the Mas ,Kakimas and the Didimas make different kind of  'pithe s'  - Patishapta, Sheddho Pithe, Gokul Pithe to name a few.

Short trips and long drives become common at this time of the year and the traffic increases manifolds. Our famous 'Maidan' gets busy greeting everyone irrespective of their social profile. The 'ghora walas' also have a nice time, with small kids having rounds and rounds of horse rides.

Picnics - how can I miss that ?  The outskirts of Kolkata also get busy at this time as huge 'Bagan Baris' get booked for picnics- Office picnics, school and college picnincs, local club picnincs , re-union picnincs - the list is endless. The hired buses smell of oranges, boiled egg, cakes and bananas- a common breakfast for the picnic. Children, and sometimes adults bring out their rusted badminton rackets, which otherwise lay abandoned at one corner of the house attic.

And then comes Christmas. 'Park Street ' - the very first name that comes to my mind while speaking of Christmas of Kolkata. Adorned with lights , Park Street looks stunning as ever . The decoration has not changed its pattern for the last god knows how many years, but there's still some newness about it every year. 'New Market'  starts looking like a Christmas Tree in itself.The christians of Kolkata throng the market buying Christmas tress, bells and Santa Clause models. It's all Red and Green, whichever direction you look at. New Market smells of vanilla . Christmas cakes beautify the old wooden shelves of 'Nahoum' - the oldest cake shop of the city.

And gradually , everything comes to a standstill on the eve of the next year. Before one can think of and jot down what one did on this present year, the latter bids us goodbye forever .And with a Bang steps in, the very fresh ,the very joyful , the very promising  and above all the very mysterious "NEW YEAR".

Winter passes on like a flash of lightning . So many events, so much fun , so many colours, all pass almost in the blink of an eye. And before we even know it, its gone and we again wait for the next winter to come and paint us all.

A LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY

I am very happy and relieved and this blog is nothing more than that ..

After waiting for almost 10 months , I got a job at a reputed MNC - level 5 company ...

Well for people who have no idea about what has been happening in my life for the last 10 months , let me brief you guys on it .

After my B-tech , I got a decent job.. I worked there for 2 years but then became a victim of the recession where thousands and thousands lost their jobs and I was one of them .
I was devastated. My credit card bills were almost a threat to my life. And then I had a loan to take care of ...But in those 2 years I made a huge mistake. I splurged my own hard earned money on every silly thing I laid my eyes upon . I threw party for friends , spent on costly dresses ,shoes, bags and god knows what not.

My dad  and many of my friends kept reminding me of my loan , but i turned a deaf ear to all that thinking that i can take care of that later . I thought that , this is my first job and my only responsibility was to enjoy myself completely. And in the course i saved nothing in those 2 years ... I had  squandered away almost 5.5 lacs in two years on party,food and other intangible nonsense.

But then 1 fine morning I realized that I no longer had my job which meant no more money. The banks started calling me up every other day for the payments and I was almost at the verge of losing my sanity ....
I started taking up tuition which hardly met my bare minimum...

My dad supported me to some extent as he wanted me to learn a lesson the hard way. But my boyfriend was an angel . He helped me a lot during that time . He took care of a huge portion of my expense and I shall never be able to repay him for what he has done for a bankrupt girl. But more than anything, he taught me how to use money wisely.

I spent days of humiliation and self pity .,.. It was a long wait .. I went through mental trauma , in habituating myself to the life which I had no idea of .. A life without shopping and luxury... But , then in the long run I understood the worth of money and what went into earning it.

Yesterday , after 10 months of long wait , I got a great job ... I was interviewed on the 14th ... It was a tough one and I had least expected to bag the job ..

But , I got it and now I have promised myself to use money wisely and set my priorities.

I dont know if my readers will like this blog as it is devoid of any spice. But this is a real piece from the toughest phase of my life and about a lesson learned the hard way .......

AM BORED :(

For the last couple of days I am getting bored to death ... My life has seemed to boil down to a whole lot of nothing . My TV at home is out of order for quite some days now , and my dad seems least interested in getting it fixed. Not that I'm a TV buff , but when u have absolutely nothing to do and have no reasons for being unhappy, the TV is a great sink for venting out your stress.

You can increase the volume to the maximum,till you hear strange wheezing noises inside your head even when you are in some sound proof room. U can keep on surfing the channels - News,sports,cartoons, music channels(playing the chartbusters till you have learned them by heart), the boring Ekta Kapoor 'saans-bahu' soaps,the even boring reality shows which shouts out their fakery,but people still find them real(god knows why and how?),the CNBC share bazaar, the national geographic channels and then again back to News and the cycle continues till your fingers hurt from the constant pressing on the remote control buttons - small dents of your fingers on them. 

I can't even do that at home . I am so bored of leisure now. I like being on my feet all day long nowadays.

Whenever (which is rarely) I have some work outside, I leave as early as possible and take the longest routes to reach places and come back home as late as possible.

I know that I am not making much sense, but i cant help it right now.I am BORED.

Now here is the list of things I have been engaging myself into for the last few boring days :-

1. Reading "The fountainhead by Ayn Rand"
2. Orkut - check out the recent updates.No one scraps me and I dont find it necessary to scrap anybody back. Log out in less than 5 mints.
3. Facebook- Ignoring stupid invitaions for raising cattle in some virtual farm. Find out my Date of the day ... Last time I got Paresh Rawal ...Logged out.
4. Blogspot -  Check out for any latest comment on my blog. Get really pissed to find none.Log out.
5. Play Gold Miner.... for like 10 mints max.Lose concentration and lose the game. Exit
6. Try to write something for my blog. Lose interest .Quit without saving.
7. Make myself a cup of tea,drink it up in 5 mints. 
8. Search through my storage devices for some movies. Watch 1 if I find any... That helps me spend some 3 hours ,provided I don't get bored in between and stop it.
9. Feed my ever hungry cat. Now that takes me ages ... Have to coax her to finish her food. 
10. It's night already ... and with the book I dump myself into my bed and next day wake up to yet another boring beginning.

I really have nothing more to pen down . I am really bored and tired with my routine life and I want a change. I hope my readers have already understood by now , the frame of mind I am in .So bear with me please... Hope to come up with some nice blogs soon...

Till then - C ya !