My (Our) Symantec Moment

A little late for the contest, but not late enough for sharing…

When the contest came out some months back and closed last month I really had no special Symantec moment to share. But today morning I along with four others (Alpa was one of the four) had our Symantec moment.

I call it “The 45 minute ordeal”.

Me and Alpa had gone for our daily breakfast (now, if I start describing that, it would be pages and pages of dull, boring yuck food). On our way back just when we were entering the new building or to be more precise I was opening the glass door with the “Please Use this door” label, I saw the second lift opening and a office boy entering. I ran for the lift. (The reputation of lifts in the new building is already not a rosy picture – they just don’t come) As we entered I saw that the lift was going to the first level basement.

I told Alpa, “Arrey!! let’s get out this is going down”. She said “no, no it’s ok. It’s better than waiting…” (sigh!!!, that was our last chance) Three more people joined us from the lower basement. (They never got a last chance)

All were talking in tandem with each other, when suddenly there was a jerk and the lift stopped.
We thought may be some problem the lift will start soon. 2 minutes and then the panic started sinking in. The lift wasn’t responding to any of our requests, wasn’t going down, wasn’t going up and the display as it is doesn’t work so we didn’t know where we were.
Hmm… there is some problem.

Here I would like to introduce you to my fellow ordeal-mates, Alpa, A guy in red tee, a guy in pink shirt and a tall slim girl. The guy in red reacted instantly started pressing the alarm. The pink shirt also started pressing the alarm from the other side. 5 minutes more and still no response. We started checking our signals – this is when the difference sets in .. Idea ho ya Airtel no one works at the time of crisis.

I had to put in my views in action now, so I told the guy in pink that we should bang the door. We both started banging the door, nothing happened again!! 5 mins of more banging and alarms… Almost 15 mins gone by now (don’t add up the minutes this is rough estimate, you don’t know the time when you are hanging :D ). It was too much no response, what the …!! Okay so now again I got an action plan, lets open the doors… the two guys open the door and then me and pink shirt started shouting…“Koi hai, koi hai..helllooooo hellooooo !!” Somebody responded after some time, we asked him to call someone and also asked, hehehehe this was the first time we knew where we were, “where are we?” Got the answer, you are hanging between the 1st and the 2nd floor. Ooops!! Took a step back and saw it now!!

But thank god, somebody is listening to us. The feeling that at least some one knows that we are stuck was a heavenly one. Then the jokes cracking started. I would have never ever gone and asked who they were and which team do they work on etc etc.
See, the positive thing about being stuck in the lift you get to expand your network… (and people say, you can’t be positive in a crisis) The red tee guy was Avik Shau, pink shirt  Chaitanya and the tall slim girl  Prachi. All the three from CDPR –NBU group. So after the small introduction it was time to get back to work. What?? Work?? Yes fellas, current work assignment was contact people. Due to the opening of the door, some Idea signal peeped in. The problem with airtel is, it is everywhere. Sab jagah jaoge to work kaise karoge. So people with idea started calling up whoever can help.

By that time people had gathered outside the lift. Every time we opened the door we had smiling faces looking at us giving us hidden reassurance that we would be out soon. I feel that was hidden coz for some time I felt they were having the funny moment with us jokers inside the lift. Had a round of snap taking, videos and joke cracking sessions.

I forgot to mention how helpful the music of soldier was, it just pepped up our moods for a moment. Before “soldier soldier” started playing there was the usual music playing, the music from down south. No bias against it but when you are stuck the least you want to hear is someone playing slow karnatic music. A small reminder over here we were not in there for meditation.

Ok, ok so now people started working on getting it started. The facilties team was here. We knew there was some work going on coz the fans started, the lights went on and off for some time.
I had to request the facility team to stop the fan. It was either we’ll be stuck all day or get ill with pneumonia. After this the moment of Symantec had gone and all 5 of us were concentrating on checking out whether the lift is moving. Oh, that reminds me. One of Avik’s colleague was giving us second to second update on the lift fixing activity. The best was, for 5 mins he kept on saying “Arrey, kuch hua!! Kuch to ho raha hai!” Well, none of us felt anything happening.

After around 10 mins the lift seemed to be moving down, then up and then down.. finally up. And and it opened… hallelujah hallelujah!! We were on the 4th floor now. Nobody gets out of the lift as fast as the five of us did. There were different activities that happened after that, finding the stairs, then going down to the basement and then the bravery of coming to the 2nd floor by the same lift. Phoooooo!!! Over is the ordeal.

I would really like thanking people who got the facilities into action. At least I know of Tejas doing that. Thanks Tejas. Oh yes few more!! Thanks to all those people who were out there when we called out and for kept our morale up. Also thanks to all the people with me Alpa, Avik, Prachi and Chaitanya. Thank you guys for making it fun! :) Hush hush!! there’s a secret to share over here (except for the initial moments, it was a fun experience) ;)

I love the old lifts with those grill doors more now and using the stairs seems to be a more healthier than ever. :-) Well, that’s it for my Symantec moment. THE 45 minute ORDEAL…

Cheers,

Friendship - Love, Warm, Care, Sharing, Expectations???

After the long vacation, my brain was almost out of variety of thoughts. All it had was general family concerns. When I woke up today all I had in mind was what to do today, its been ages since I worked on anything. Today is also going to be same routine. Go to office, sleep, play, chat and come back home - cook and go to sleep. But finally, a friend (is she is a probable close one?) got upset over her friends and gave my hungry brain some food.

What does friendship mean to you? Difficult question to answer truly and frankly. What does it mean to me? Obviously apart from the cliche stuff like, love, warm, sharing and caring. do you actually start being friends? There is no demarcating line where you can know that yes we are friends from this moment onwards. No you cannot know how and when and the most important WHY. Why you choose to be friends with some and stay away from others is a little difficult to answer. The actual truth is hidden behind the very existence of human life.

Expectations - a dreaded term by all. I have heard people saying and have been inadvertently been saying the same stuff to others that expectations is the mother of all fights. Expectations along with Need is a deadly combo. Oh well, I have some different thoughts about it now. Its expectations + need + completeness which brings people closer or even throws them apart. When all this meet you are bound to be close for the life time. We always tend to find people who have something which we would wish to have and are lacking. Its generally said that like minded people become friends easily but thats because like minded people always feel that the other person has more knowledge on the similar stuff and you are excited about knowing it.

You expect the person to share her knowledge/feeling. You need her to be supporting you. And you together indicate completeness in terms of skill/feeling. I know its difficult.....


There, I had ended to write on this blog almost a year back. I dont have the same enthusiasm right now to continue on this topic so thought even if its incomplete I'll publish it. Maybe some day it might trigger some of my nerve cells.

Trip to Ahmedpur-Mandvi

I had spent almost 15 days planning for a trip to konkan. My parents and sister were to come to Pune and then we were planning to leave from Pune for Srivardhan-Harihareshwar. But somehow dad's health made me rethink over it. If we were to go to a place with beautiful beaches, why not somewhere in Gujarat. After all Gujarat does boasts of having the longest coastline. Somewhere there should be a beach resort which is beautiful. A quick Google search reminded me of Ahmedpur-Mandvi. I had heard of it while exploring Diu long back.

Ahmedpur-Mandvi is more of a resort than any place name. Situated on the outskirts of Diu, it marks the boundary between Gujarat and Diu. In case you are not aware Diu is a Union Teritory. One of the last places which was handed back to the Indian Government by the Portuguese rulers. It also is a heaven for hard drinkers who hail from Gujarat. Gujarat is a Dry state while Diu enjoys the freedom. Large numbers of people come over to Diu from Gujarat on New Year's Eve just for drinking purpose. Anyways coming back to the trip. I planned to stay at the only resort in Ahmedpur-Mandvi --> "Magico Do Mar" meaning "Magical Sea" in Portuguese. There is an interesting thing about the resort we stayed in or the beach that lay outside our cottage. Part of it is in Gujarat and part of it in Diu. Few steps away from our cottage and we are in Diu, out of gujarat. :-)

I started from Pune on 14th March, 2008 by Ajmer-Bangalore Express. The train was already late by half an hour. It maintained the time lapse till I reached Ahmedabad in the morning. Dad came to pick me up at the station. We reached home, I unpacked my Pune bags and packed up for Mandvi. We started from Ahmedabad in our Alto at around 9:30. I had decided on the route Ahmedabad - Amreli - Gir (Stay overnight at Gir Resort) - Una - Ahm. Mandvi, but Dad was unfamiliar with the entire route so he decided to take another one. Ahmedabad - Bhavnagar - Una - Ahm. Mandvi. On the way we had lots of knowledge sharing. Dad was so keen to show me the bridge (he always points it out) that broke the night I was born and he reached hospital after a round trip of Bhavnagar. Mom told us various stories and facts about different places. Her favourite this time was "Kodinar". It’s famous for its Jaggery (known as 'gud' in Hindi and 'gol' in Gujarati). Dad showed us the school in "Bhadrod" where my grandfather taught and the place where he stayed with him for quite some time. He showed us a well where my aunt had fallen and someone from the village had saved her. We crossed "Mahuva", my mom's birth place. She is very fond of the place and excitedly always tells us that the yester years actress 'Asha Parekh' was also born in the same town.

We passed the village 'Talaja'. My mom and dad both have stayed there during their teen years. Mom showed us the river bank where she used to go for a swim. That time the river was full with water. They used to take empty plastic tins with them during the swim to save them from drowning. By this time we were too hungry. I was starving from the long journey already. We decided to find some shade and have lunch. Mom had already bought roti-sabji from home. Dad stopped the car near a shady tree just outside a cotton field. It was soo cool, we all thought of catching a small nap under the cool shade. Had our lunch, roti-sabji and sukhdi (Its a sweet made out of Wheat flour and Jaggery). With little help from the local people, we reached Ahm-Mandvi at 4:00.

No trip is complete without some trouble shooting up from here and there. On reaching the resort we came to know that there was a group booking done for the other day and no cottages would be available on Sunday. But the Non-AC rooms were available for the other day. After some roaming around here and there we decided we would adjust. The resorts prime location attracted us so much that we were ready to adjust. We got the cottage for Saturday. I and Preeti couldn’t stop ourselves from getting into our bathing gears and just running down to the beach. The cottage was just too awesome. We already felt at home the moment we put our bags in the cottage. We ran down to the beach while mom and dad had their tea and dad relaxed after a looong drive. The beach was soo beautiful. Calm, peaceful, and crystal clear water. Wow!!! The waves were not so big but the sound of the waves was thunderous. We played in the water and made sand castles till late. Mom and Preeti had a small tortoise making competition. Although it was decided beforehand that Preeti will win, but in the end it seemed she deserved it, mom's tortoise didn’t look like it was one.

Once back to cottage we dressed up well, decided on the menu and placed the dinner order. We all chit-chated on the cottage porch. The sound of waves in the background and the calmness of the resort was soul-soothing. Once dinner was served we went to the dining area. It was beautifully lit with colorful lights, paper lanterns and paper stars. It seemed as if it was a Christmas celebration. I didn’t expect much out of the dinner, but it crossed my expectations like a zooming 400cc bike. Awesome, finger licking food. All 4 of us were so hungry and nothing better than great food. We didn’t talk for the first 15 minutes. All were busy licking fingers. Once back to the cottage we were dead tired. We decided that I and Preeti would sleep at the lower level, while mom-dad would take the upper level beds. Hey I missed telling you, it was a two storey cottage.

There was something sitting on the window besides my bed and it kept on making squeaking noises like a rat. It was later on that we came to know that it was a local bird. I was unable to take its picture as it was lost amongst the coconut leaves. As night fell, the thunderous roar of the sea waves grew louder and louder. At night all we could hear was waves, just a few meters away from our cottage. Amazing feeling!!! At around 3:00 early morning the power supply went off. With all the windows closed, it was pitch dark. Initially I was confused as to whether my eyes were open or close. With no light to peep into the cottage (we had kept all the windows closed to avoid mosquitoes coming in) our eyes didn’t get adjusted even after a while and it remained pitch dark. It was funny but I remembered the last thriller movie I saw “Vacancy”. I am sure those who have watched it with me know well, how scary that feeling is. Luckily the power supply came back in about 45 minutes.

Sunday – 15^th March, 2008 – I woke up at 6:00, eager to see the sunrise from the sea. Although I got a bit disappointed as the sunrise didn’t happen from the sea, it did introduce nature’s spectacular color palette. The early morning coolness, the sea waves making there drums beat harder, it was a morning I’ll never forget. Me and Dad sat on the parapet of the cottage garden and just looked beyond the twilight zone. Life was passing by with no sound and yet making us feel happy to be together. Preeti got up a little while later and then as mom-dad went back to the cottage to get ready, we both went for a stroll on the beach. After so many years, did we get this chance to spend time with one another. Talking about marriage, career and several other things, we walked in water. We didn’t know exactly when we started collecting shells. One minute my sister was the big mature, soon to be doctor talking about general life and the other moment she was jumping with joy on finding perfect and beautiful shells shouting “jeevan safal ho gaya”. We walked for more than an hour and then went back to the cottage to get ready for another bumpy ride to Somnath. The breakfast at the resort was as expected – delicious and finger licking. Puri-Bhaji, Aloo Paratha and Butter Toast were simply out of the world.

Somnath, one of the twelve jyotirlings in India, is around 80 kms from Ahm Mandvi. The ride was half smooth and half bumpy like a camel ride. We went for the darshan. Mom was in tears when she was praying. She was so overwhelmed by the sight of the shiv-linga, she didn’t notice that she was chanting all the shlokas loudly. Good darshan and a panch-sankalp pooja made our day. Mom and Dad were filled with memories on how terrifying the sea is at Somnath. They still remember the day, as freshly as if it was yesterday, when they were near the temple wall and the sea suddenly pulled them in. Mom had held me tight while my dad and his other friends frantically tried to stop themselves from drowning. Its an entirely open sea, open as in there is no land between the Somnath temple and the South Pole (not making things up, check that up in the atlas). The sea is so unpredictable over here that it’s strictly advised not to go on the beach. We had lunch at a Gujarat Tourism restaurant and then started back towards Diu.

Diu has many places worth a visit, but we had decided on two things. Go to Diu Fort and from there if time permits go to the famous Sunset point. Surprisingly this time, I was the one sharing out memories of the Fort. I had been to Diu for a one day trip from school when I was in 11^th Standard. It was a fun trip with school friends. All the spots in the Diu Fort reminded me of that day. We had lots of time on hand before sunset so we took our own sweet time in reaching sunset point from the Fort. Roaming around Diu societies we reached the point. On the way we came across the huge Diu Church. It seemed magnificent on the outside. We were too involved in reaching Sunset point so the church interiors got ignored. Preeti saw a perfect yellow house in one of the societies and immediately captured it on camera. It was Sunday, so the Christian people living in the society were performing a strange custom (strange to me as I was unaware of it) they were washing the roads outside their homes and then covering the road with leaves and flowers. Mom’s interpretation – they are preparing the road for Jesus to visit their homes. We reached Sunset point way before the sun even reached near the horizon. Perched on the topmost bench the four of us did some masti and were shivering from the strong cold winds blowing over the ocean and coming upon us.

Some good snaps and shouts from mom marked the end of our tour to the point. We started back towards the resort. The best part of that evening was sitting on the moon-lit beach and just hearing the waves coming upon us. Later we sat on the hammocks for some time to decide our next days plan. We decided to check out from the resort the other day and make a night halt at Bhavnagar, my native place. The next day morning I and Preeti went for a last stroll along the beach. Today too like the day before we came across village women carrying wood to their homes. They were singing one of my favourite gujarati songs – “Pani gya ta re beni mari talavda re, pale thi lapsyo pag beda mara nandvana re”. This time I tried taking there snaps but they refused telling us that their husbands will beat them if they came to know about someone taking their snaps. I still took one from behind ;-). By the time we left the resort most of the resort staff was familiar with us and gave us a warm goodbye. That was the end of our small trip. Although we didn’t stay long there, whatever time it was, I’ll cherish them all my life. There are so many unwritten moments that I had which I would rather cherish in memory than jot them down. We changed our plans the other day (as usual) and stayed back at Bhavnagar for one more day.

Finally I end with a quote I read somewhere - "How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you - you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your very life." I left some of mine there on the beach of ahmedpur-mandvi.

Music and me... hmm... Guitar and Me!!!

Its been a long time (as usual), since I threw out my thoughts on this blog. I always have an excuse for not writing, this time am out of ideas for that. Well, again this series of thoughts poured into my mind with super speed when a friend after seeing my orkut profile asked - "From when did you start playing Guitar?" I had the same answer I have when this question is popped out at me, used to play long back.

Music and me have been inseparable since childhood. But for me music is more of songs ... singing, even if its bathroom singing, thats built in. I love to hear songs, hindi, english and the most gujarati. Playing Guitar was never thought of. It was only when my sister joined her medical and couldnt play it, did I get this thought of playing it. Also having crushes in life inspire you to do such crazy things. ;-)

I started going to a professional class thinking it would be a great stress buster. We software programmers are so used to getting into a rut that now and then we do go hunting for escape routes and playing music is the proven path.

I was quite passionate about it initially but then the work load at office started taking a toll. I missed one class a week, then two and gradually it was totally gone.. pooofff!!! Later I left that job and came to pune. I had decided that I would not admit defeat, Guitar will be learnt and for that if I have to take out time from office, I will. Sighhh!! That was like those "To be broken" new year resolutions. I was so passionate about it that I used to talk about Guitar now and then with a new found friend. He thought I was into playing it like crazy. Poor fellow got me bronze strings as a gift. I am still sad about the fact that I would never be able to give it its right place.

Guitar and me are like pals who are not able to talk to each other but still consider each other to be close. For whatever time I played it, I got a sense of peace, happiness. But then like all good things in life, the fun part is over. My guitar has got a non-working position in my room, besides my bed. Everytime I see it I think that I'll play it this weekend, but somehow that weekend never turns in. Well, lets see what happens this weekend!! :D