The week that was...

The week, which started on Monday 18^th December, 2006 and continued till Sunday 24^thDecember, 2006 was full of pressure, deadlines, anxiety & excitement. I think all these emotions weren’t only for me but for some of my friends too.

That week had two special days or occasions; to which almost everyone, who were associated to it was looking forward too. The first one was Thursday 21^st December, 2006: the day for Annual Christmas Party, this year, we named it as iCE Carnival ’06. The other was our (i-leap batch) trip to Alibaug, which was scheduled on Saturday 23^rd December, 2006 & Sunday 24^th December, 2006.

Party:
As usual that week too began on Monday morning, with lot of last minute activities to be completed for making the party a huge success. A usual checklist mail from Santanu was there in my mailbox and I began my day with completing those items present in the list. It almost became a routine to remind each other about the tasks which needs to be completed by the other one.

After rounds of checklists, approvals, meetings and reviews, arrived the final day. It was a day, for which our team had been working atleast from past one month. I don’t know about others but that day there were butterflies inside my stomach.

The excitement for the party started building up quite a few days back with posters put across the office and the mails sent from time to time kept the momentum going and set the grapevine buzzing about the most happening party of the year.

And a rocking party it was… with a packed house with people turning up in full strength accompanied by Family and Friends. The party began with full of enthusiasm and energy, where people also played games. Later they all set the dance floor on fire.

Kids section was another place which was really rocking; people playing with their kids, kids jumping & dancing all over the place. The party gave equal amount of space to all the parents & their kids, dance lovers and also to the people who just wanted to chill out with friends and colleagues.

The party came to an end around 2 a.m. And by God’s grace none of our efforts were wasted, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the party.

Alibaug Trip:
Eleven of us finally agreed to go to Alibaug on Saturday. Each of us was equally excited to enjoy this trip.

We nominated Rohit as our Event Manager for the trip. He planned all the necessary requirements and even made the proper arrangements for them. He tried to cover the minutest details and even planned our scheduled; frankly speaking he proved that he deserves to be an event manager. A Tempo Traveler was booked to carry all us, to our destination.

In the morning, travel agent ditched us. After trying hard for hours, for hiring another car, we somehow managed to get a Scorpio and an Indica for us. We were late by more than 5 hours as per our schedule inspite of the delay; it didn’t affected much since everyone was very keen to go there. We started our journey from J.B. Nagar around 12 noon instead of 6o’clock in the morning.

After hours of traveling, the first beautiful sight which we came across was the Sunset: the most admirable one which I’ve ever seen in my life. Next was the Kashid Beach, a white sand beach. This was our first stop; we spent more than an hour there.

Around 8 in the night, we reached our destination – Nandgaon, a village forty kilometers ahead of Alibaug. The cottage which we had booked was awesome. After having dinner, we had camp fire. You guys won’t believe that for putting the fire, we used Blender’s Pride Whisky instead of kerosene oil, ask Nishant and he’ll tell you how bad he felt at that moment. Our discussions, jokes & singing continued till 3 in the morning.

Next morning, most of us were ready by 7:30, for going to the nearby beach. Meanwhile others got ready, we all warmed-up by playing football, cricket and flying disc. Now came the beach time, most magnificent beach I’ve ever seen, greenish-blue water, white sand and mountains at the sides. What an amazing view, it was? Initially we played at the beach but once we entered into the sea, we had the real fun…

Afternoon was the time to visit Murud Zanzira Fort, located at an island. We reached fort by a boat and hired a guide too, who told various stories, which weren’t sounding true to us. Even though the view was good from there but it was a tiring too. On our journey back to Nandgaon, we had supper in a beachside restaurant, Anand Vatika.

Finally we left, Nandgaon at 8 o’clock in the night for coming back to Mumbai with only one slogan on everyone’s mouth, “Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle baras tu GOA le jaa…”

Although the whole week was very hectic and tiring but it was one of the best weeks of this year.

Fresher Dulhan

From a long time, I’ve been thinking on this analogy which according to me, exists between a newly married bride and a fresher engineer joining an IT company.

I found lot of similarities in the course of the events which happen to a newly married bride, when she reaches her in-laws’ house and in a fresher engineer who joins an IT company. Let me put these similarities as stages of their lives:

Stage 1: Newly married bride comes to her in-laws’ house; first she is introduced to the senior members of the family and everyone give their blessings to her. Later she is taught all the traditions and customs followed by their family, since ages.

In the same manner, when a fresher joins an IT company; the first few days are kept for Induction. In this phase, all the seniors of the organization come and have an interaction with the new employees, joining the organization and also give them presentations about the organization and its processes. Like in the case of bride, she was made accustomed to the traditions of the family; here the freshers are made aware of PPP (principles, processes & policies) of the organization.

Stage 2: Once all the necessary customs are over or when the induction phase ends; the newly married couple is sent for a honeymoon trip. Similarly, freshers also start with their technical training, once their induction finishes off. Generally this training continues for more than a month. In this period, freshers make friends with other people (mostly freshers), who have joined the organization with them and also explore different places in that city like theatres, restaurants, tourist places, etc. Even some people call this training period as a Honeymoon period for freshers joining any company.

Stage 3: The Honeymoon period ends and now it’s time to work. Everyone whether a bride or a fresher looks forward to work sincerely and get recognition in her in-laws’ family or the organization respectively. A great man had said that getting work is also not easy in this world, same thing happens here too. Freshers come out of training with an urge to work hard and to prove their mettle but then in most of the cases they are not allotted on any project immediately, meaning that they are on bench. Similarly, whenever a new bride enters the kitchen to do something, the family members say that you don’t need to work right now. They even say that till now the color of Mehndi (Henna) also haven’t faded from your palms, so how can we ask you to work. So finally both of them don’t have any work for few days, weeks or may be months.

Stage 4: Finally after some time, everyone gets work; bride gets involved in her daily work at home and fresher in the project to which he or she is assigned to. But please don’t think that is the end of the story, infact this is the beginning of the real story. Till now everything was moving smoothly & happily but now comes the twist in the tale. Now the elders or the supervisors forget that these people are new and may make mistakes. They start assuming that both the bride and the fresher will be perfect in all the work they do. Even sometimes they start blaming them for the smallest of the mistakes these people commit. They even ask them that what you guys have learnt so far, most general question to the bride: What have your parents taught you? And to the fresher: What have you learnt at the engineering college and in the technical training?

In this manner, the story continues further but this post ends here…

Let's talk Pink

In the fashion world today, they say Pink is the new Black. The color pink has acquired a lot of popularity and acceptance in the recent past, surprisingly even among men too. "Men in Pink" is the happening thing these days.

Sometime back, I decided to find more about this color and what it portrays. Here are some interesting facts about the color pink, which I picked up from Wikipedia:

• "Pink" was not a color word known to Shakespeare. He used words like "light red" to describe pink.

• Pink, though popular is a vile color that should be avoided at all times.

• The color pink is now associated with womanhood, just like blue is associated with boys and manhood.

• In Catholicism, pink symbolizes joy and happiness.

• Pink, along with red, is traditionally used on maps for territory ruled by the British Empire or for members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

• "Paint the Town Pink" a phrase that arose in the 1950s reflecting its influence on fashion and design and the popularity of pastel colors.

• Pink is the color of the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon. Breast cancer is a leading killer of women, and pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.

• Pink, being a 'watered-down' red, is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe a watered-down socialist ('Pinko').

• Similar to white collar, there is a term Pink collar, which refers to female office worker (sometimes used in a derogatory manner).

• While the west typically refers to adult films as "blue movies", in Japan these films are often called "pink movies".

• Pink, is also associated with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, often in the form of a pink triangle. In Britain, Pink News is a leading gay newspaper and online news service. In business, 'the pink pound' or 'pink dollar' refers to the spending power of the GLBT community.

Quite interesting, isn't it? I too never knew these shades of pink before…