SabseBolo

Thank You Sabheer Bhatia! ... Why Sabheer Bhatia of all the people you may ask...Read on

Well, he has introduced the new concept of dialling into a conference- sabsebolo (For me its new, so pls dont tell me its been there for donkeys years n I know only now!) . The facility basically allowes upto 10 people from any part of this planet to get into a conference call by dialling a single number.

All you have to do is Register and get a personal Conference ID & pin #... @ no cost and give them to the people who you want to get into a conference with. For more details check http://sabsebolo.com/ConferenceIndex.jsp .

This Saturday morning I woke up early..8:30 am , coz Vinod had set up one such conference for me. My mausa-maasi & thier 2 boys , my mama-mami & thier 2 kids, nanaji-naniji , Sums-Jeej-Rishab, Mom-Dad and Vinod & me... all logged into the call and it felt like one big party! Almost like we had gathered together for a function!Spent quite a few hours on the call...We even had Rishab ( he just turned 2!) say rhymes for us...

Now, if thats not a well spent Republic Day , I wonder wat else is! Tht was a happy morning for me!:-)

20Q

I make a wish...abracadabra (swish goes the magic wand) n this is wat I got..food enuf for my brain to feel over-stuffed ;-)

There's a new game making the rounds "Tagged"

Instructions:Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

Thanks Sneha (my tagger!) :-)

People I have tagged : Plumpy, Mush, Bindu, Shihab
Will be asking Div, Stuti & Vinod these Qs verbally coz they don blog!

Any1 else who is interested in answering the Qs , can feel free to tag themselves!


1. Name Three Most Valuable Assets?
Family n Friends, Faith & Trust, Values (In that order)

2. If you have the chance, what would you probably say to your beloved one?
You mean the world to me n these words ain't sufficent to express this.

3. If you were to be stranded on a desert island, who are the 3 blog buddies you would take with you?
Frankly, I have very few blog buddies, coz all my friends are lazzzzy n this response would have been different if the Q is just buddies!
1.Plumpy alias Harish (He is the perfect comby of goofiness n seriousness.He will sit thru' my tears n make me smile!)
2.Sneha (She makes me very curious rgdg wat kind of a person she is and I feel we'll have some nice conversations!)
3.Champu alias Shihab ('coz i miss seein him everyday n he's excellent timepass!)

4.Where is the place that you want to go the most?
To the moon.... Jus Vinod(Hubby dear of crse) n me !

5.If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
To be a Counsellor or sumthing on those lines.

6.What are you afraid to lose the most?
People who mean the word to me ( For the last few mths..my nanaji is who I've been praying for, hes in an xtremely fragile condition)

7.What would you do if you found a briefcase full of money?
Assuming the amount is huge....I'll give some amount to a charity in India. (My way of letting God know i'm thankful) n invest the rest in some savings ..so both Vinod n I can take a break n study (wat we have realllly..been wanting to do!)

8.If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
Oh well... I think I am with the person I love and have told him about it :-)
But no, I don't have the guts to make the first move!

9.List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you...
1) Very Interesting personality
2) Friendly
3) Writes really well

10. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Accepting & liking me for who I am, Understanding, faithful , caring

11.Which type of person do you hate the most?
Patronizing people really get to me...thats one annoying trait!

12.What is your ambition?
To be an all-rounder ie manage my home, be successful as a career-woman, be the best wife and the best mother( when i get to that phase!!)

13.What is the thing that will make you think someone is a bad person?
Nothing. Good and Bad are relative terms and it is situations that make us behave the way we do. No human can be completely good or completely bad.

14.Christmas is coming, who do you like to celebrate with?
I would like to spend Christmas time with Friends, I think.

15.If you could do one thing different in life, what would it be?
Nothing. I would live life exactly the way that I have.I don't belive in regretting!

16.Are you a shopaholic or no?
No.

17.What is your stress buster?
It used to be Dancing , n then it became Crying n now...I don't know wat it is :-(

18. Do all of us like what are we doing here ?
I believe so.

19. Name one favorite song of yours.
Only One song, is reaaaaaaaaaal hard to choose...all day today I have been humming "Heal The World", MJ.

20. If it was your last few hours on this planet and you had a chance to talk to only one person,who would it be?
Mommmy...Have assumed Vinod is rite beside me ;-) I actually want a chance to talk to sis, Rishab,dad etc etc etc..but trust mom will convey my message to all (as always) !

An Email to a Friend

I was clearing up my inbox and I found this mail that I wrote to a hi-bye (not v.close) friend on the 6th of Apr 2007. There is really nothing special about it. It just captures how I felt at a point of time..

n when I read it I was glad to realize...things haven't changed much -

- Life is as unsettling and a puzzle as it was ( I have changed 4 projects & 3 states since last April)
- My aspirations n dreams are the same, (i yet think S/w engineers are boring)
- I miss home a loooot n cry at times, but am yet managing fine
- Bangalore is dearer than ever
- I'm yet desperatley in search of food for my brain (in the process reaching out to ppl who are only accquaintances)

Some of you maybe thinking I should have made some progress..but well, a year is a short time.... Here is the mail

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A pleasure to mail U..

Well...I've been good n Life's been fun. Work is pretty hectic.My client is at NJ.So on monday mornings i fly here and Thurs evening i flyback home which is Montpelier,Vermont.Friday is wrk frm home. n Mon-Wednes I end up working frm 8:30 am to 8:30 pm!Of course its tiring, specially with my Thurs evening flites getting cancelled and me having to run from one airport to another in this cold weather..But I'm pretty much gettin to have the cake n eat it too..i.e. I get to keep my career goin n at the same time be with my hubby in the US of A..so no complaints.Would be unfair if i ask God for more u see!

Works a new profile..so thers plenty of the learning xcercise happenin..but ya i do miss wat i was doing earlier in terms of work as a profile.I loving talking..abt whatever it maybe...n wit my current profile..I'm not reqd to talk much..its pretty much "sit at ur desk n break urhead over it " kinda job!Lets see wat the future holds.So oracle since July..Thats cool.What's ur work profile ther?R u a Boring Software Engineer too?oh ya..i think S/w engineers have a borin job...I'd rather do sumthin like be a journalist..mabbe on Discovery/CNN or be a RJ on a radio show or teach li'l kids rhymes or teach the wrld abt keeping the environment clean.Actually i'd like to do all of this for a short while and then get into whats been till date my dream profession-a pshyciarist,counsellor..well sumthin on those lines!But theres the evil called Money!

Other than work howz life coming along?Hows gautam(hope i got the name rite) doing?U can do a lot of fun stuff in Blr.Actually one can have fun in any place..its all abt the company!n Chennai is soooo close.u can pretty much trvl every alternate wknd.

U sayin Blr mite get hotter than Hyd.phewwwww..that would indeed be a disaster!wats happng to my DEAR DEAR Blr :-(((

Honestly I've been handling the homesick bit pretty well..At the risk of blowin my own trumpet..for sum1 whos been at home,eatin mom's food,same surroundings,neignbours n friends n stores for 24.7 long long years..I would say i got adjusted to the life style here pretty fast.I've cried missin mom n sis abt 3 times..when n after i talk to 'em.Touchwood!i hope i continue to be strong. I guess the more challenges we face in Life, the stronger we b'come.

oh Boy! Thats one long mail...probably the 1st time i'm writing such a long mail to sum1 I know just as much as we know each other. well..as i said its a pleasure writing to u.Bring on an intresting topic to discuss/argue about when u find the time..I need Food for my Brain u see:-)Have fun until the nxt time

Smiles
Pavi

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Orkut Vs FaceBook !!

I’m sure most people reading this are a member on both these sites….n probably many more like MySpace, Hi Fi, Gazzag ( or sumthing like that!) etc etc etc……

Personally for me….Orkut was the 1st of its kind..I know MySpace existed years before Google created Orkut….but for me…the 1st group I was a member of was Orkut. And initially Orkut had me addicted to it!...Probably even now I am addicted to it…But no more do I go about into unknown / distantly known people’s profiles..read their scraps/ see their photos, keep searching for communities etc…

Coz I got a zillion FaceBook requests, I succumbed to the pressure and became a member. Frankly..I struggle to keep my account alive! I donno how to use that site…and I feel it has a zillion good-for-nothing applications.. poke, n hug n gift n who are u like n this n that n there n here n….well u get the drift! N everytime I choose to use my free time to understand that site and how to use it…I get more confused! I know its just me…not the site’s fault!

Orkut got me back in touch with many many old time friends who I had lost touch with….and it feels good to wish old friends on New Years, Diwali or their Happy B’days ! Its good Orkut has brought about these new privacy settings. People can no more pry into your conversations…But its sad that orkut had to give in and copy FaceBook on giving updates on what all my Friends are doing! Orkut is a medium of keeping in touch for me…and yes playing word games that interest me…. Its not for making new friends or keeping myself updated about every1’s lives or adding weirdo applications!!

I plan to slowly but definitely stop using FaceBook completely!

PS : No offences given or taken!

For You a Thousand Times Over…

These are li’l anecdotes/ thoughts from my childhood that will remain with me forever and can never be erased from my mind. Li’l facts that have helped build the person I am today….

->As students, I or Sums (my sister) have NEVER got reprimanded by my parents for our grades/scores. I really mean NEVER. N we were only average students though extremely hardworking, burning the midnight oil etc etc types. My Dad’s theories were
a) As long as we were putting in our best and were dedicated towards our efforts, it was not fair to complain about the grades.
b) Children would be only as intelligent as their parents. He believed it was a gene-thing. So it would be unfair if they expected miracles from us.
‘ Coz of these theories, we both were very highly motivated to study real hard n score the best n make him proud of us.

->My Dad comes from an extremely poor background. 3 meals a day was a luxury. He started working at the age of 17 to support his family of 3 sisters and 1 brother. N so he was willing to do whatever, spend how-much ever for his daughters to be educated, which at that point he could not afford. When he went to get my sister admitted into LKG, the principal told him “With your kind of salary, you won’t be able to afford my school”. He told my principal to give him a fair chance n send the kids out of the school the instant he missed paying a fee.
· My sister studied in that school for 12 years and had to leave after class X coz they din’t have the course she wanted.
· I studied in that school for 14 years. That was all they had!

->Mom had a very modest background and completed her B’com in Chennai. She got married at the age of 19 and had her 1st kid when she was 20 years old. She started working for financial reasons and is today the Media Manager of an Advertising Company. Today, she gets restless if she has a break for a little over 3-4 days and says she can’t dream of quitting work. She is our biggest inspiration…as a Home-maker, a Career Woman, a Mother, a Human Being!

->There were several instances where we received scoldings from our parents. My Dad ALWAYS said Sorry, when it was an undeserved scolding. I remember, he would walk into our bedroom at night before going to sleep, kiss our foreheads n say Sorry. He believed that sorry had to be said when it has to be said. There was no age barrier for using the word and that there are times when even a one-year old has to be asked for apology!

->Sums n I were extremely close to each other as children. Even now we are. But now I’m as close to mom much as I am to sums. As a child I would say “I love sums more” so easily. Now I know how much that must have hurt mom, though she never showed how she felt!
Mom was the tough one in the family. She was never expressive .She wasn’t the hug n kiss kind. Before each of our weddings my dad would have sleepless nights of how life would be without Sums/me at home. Mom dint say a word. Now I know, that was only to make us stronger. She cried more than anyone n she feels more than anyone, but she never shows! She is really the pillar of strength for the family.

->well I’ve been in the US for a year now…My 1st year out of home and I know mom ,dad n Sums are missing me real badly. I am getting very homesick myself. In November My manager at work had told me my leave in April was approved and there was so much excitement in the air. The 1st week of 2008, she comes back n tells me, my leave is not approved. I have been so upset about it and I know I crushed a whole bunch of dreams my parents had. All that mom had to say was “Don’t worry Sweetheart, God willing we’ll see you soon. Just be brave”. She dint show any disappointment. ….Just for me!

->Sums ..well to talk about our relationship would take a lifetime…There would be no childhood or for that matter no Pavi, if not for her…. Touchwood, I think we are simply the best n the perfect sisters in this whole wide galaxy!

These are a fraction of the reasons why I’m proud of you 3..

Well for u Ma n Pa and for u Sums… I want to relive those childhood years…
FOR YOU A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!

Ps: This line is used in the movie/book “The Kite Runner”. I just can’t get over the book….I can’t say enough how much I loved it….and I thought it was a beautiful line and am glad I found an appropriate usage for it in my life!!!