A gifted day!

Life is beautiful, and I am loving living it! What a wonderful God gifted day it was, otherwise can't have so many coincidences :)

I had set the alarm for 8.30 when I went to bed last night around 3 after watching few DID season 5 auditions, knowing I have a support window scheduled for morning. From last few weeks/months I was having crazy time at work! Missing the personal and family time too. Suddenly woke up to morning light and checked the time to note, I was ahead of my alarm. I was expecting the Moms call because I asked her to wake me up in morning :) but later in after long call she informed, she forgot and she did not call me to let me have good long sleep seeing my late night's whatsapp ping. Gathered all the strength to get away from bed and moved to start work from home. Realized that already everyone was into the call even though I was about 20 minutes ahead. Surprise!!

So joined the call to get going with work! The normal boring support job was very different this time. People were laughing, sharing things, having fun and that too during the critical migration in the call. So much of positive energy around. This is first of its kind in last 6 months. It was scheduled for 24 hours, but everyone was already on time or before time, and it was going smoothly. All wrapped up perfectly with onsite client managers staying up late all night, and couple of us supporting from offshore during the day. This was also something different, which usually used to be other way round. Exchanged thank you notes and I moved away from work.

It's already past 1 in afternoon and was feeling lazy to go out to take lunch. Then realized that I got the left over dinner packed from last night, so just had that. Not sure if it was really tasty or it just tasted good because I was happy. 

Lunch was followed by long call at home. I told them that now I will get some sleep, but ended up seeing DID episodes! Tab's battery ended with the afternoon, so moved out and got some snacks. On the way back home enjoyed the wonderful evening, and remembered sharing the wish with a friend that in such a wonderful evening I would like to sit in balcony and enjoy the music, the nature, the sounds of birds, kids screaming from downstairs and still the peace from the moment! Also collected hot jelebi! Finally I lived the moment and thoroughly enjoyed the evening in my favorite place at flat.

With the sunset I shifted inside, and thought I should catch up on my backlog at work. But fell asleep on laptop while working. In just few minutes got the call from friend and was an invite to go for my much awaited movie, which I did not plan for weekend due to scheduled support. We checked few places and everything was almost booked. Tickets at hometown were getting sold at the price of rupees 10K. So plan to go out was almost cancelled and I thought I will see the movie with parent on coming weekend. But then friend called again and said there is some thing available in the  outskirts  and we decide to move.

Evening turned happening with eating out something new, with one more new addition to group of friends and bike ride, cold coffee!!!

Then the ultimate experience of the day, Bahubali. Enjoyed the awesome movie. Then was the long drive.

Talking, sharing and listening to people, reminds me of how I changed over all these years! How we learn from past experiences and how the outlook changes!!

The amazing day should not go without it getting mentioned in the log! How can things that you wished and were highly impossible for today got just lined up for you.. Is the day gifted to me? Whatever it is.. Thank you for all who were part of my life today!

A daughter, Dad, and Ushamullapudi

A daughter in family is priceless! I am so glad my family has one such daughter. Be it a festival or celebration, it's incomplete with her. When she comes joy just gets doubled.

In mid January she wasn't well, and she decided to spend sometime with mom and dad at home. This home which she found after many months of research and tiring trips across the city, is now our sweet home. We will always be thankful to her. We always miss her at home. Dad is like an encyclopedia. He knows so much that I  can expect at least a brief answer on any subject. So he went out and bought homeo medicines for daughter and also for him. The very next morning on 21st Jan he got heart attack. He took the medicine but that did not give him relief.Quickly taking the stock of the situation, she called ambulance. After few calls she found one which was near home. It was still dark outside and she went out to check why it still did not arrive. When ambulance came, dad's friend who runs hotel at the corner of the street approached her and asked if she needs any help and also told Dad that he will be ok. They started and reached hospital which is about 15 kms away from our place. He was admitted in ICU, and brother in law also reached and they completed the formalities. I just cannot imagine that day without her at home. All happened between 6 and 9 in morning, and they told me miles away only after he was out of danger. I wish I could have been there for support, but she is a hero. She managed everything so well alone. I reached in the evening and met Dad in ICU. First thing he asked was who told me and why did I come. I asked him to take rest. I stayed all night near by hospital as they did not allow anyone to stay at hospital. Next 7 days it was same routine for us. Start in the morning and stay till late in evening, because it is far from our place and we were not in state to focus on anything. There were two time windows when we could meet him. He would not talk to us much, but with daughter he used to share that he is feeling like being in jail. He feels to go out for a smoke! Not sure what's the bond between a daughter and father, he shares freely with her. Relatives used to come for visiting him and supporting us. After successful surgery(angioplasty), he was discharged and was back home.

During this time at the hospital we met a doctor. He was the chairman of the hospital and has performed more than 10k surgeries. He graduated somewhere around 1964, and went aboard and was staying there. In 90's he also started something of his own in US. It was then when he lost his daughter Usha in an accident. During that time someone asked that country needs doctor like him back at home country because not everybody can afford treatment abroad. He came back to Hyderabad and started a non profit organization on the name of her daughter, Usha Mullapudi Cardiac Center. Being the chairman of such a big hospital he was still very much approachable. He would meet relatives of patients at canteen where doctors, staff, he himself and relatives take food. He would listen to their queries patiently and answer them humbly. There's a big picture of his daughter at the entrance of hospital. She looks like him. How great is his love for the daughter!

Daughters are always special!

 

Yaar ki shaadi

Good morning Friends!

Wish you all a cheerful Sunday..

My morning started very early today at 4, with full of excitement :) It's best buddy's wedding. I should have been there early but was not well!

 

It's decade long friendship! One of the best friendships that has happened at Raisoni. I exactly do not remember the moment when it started but can trace it back to Khorambhi trip in first year of college. Then started the combined studies, stay at his place and Aunty making wonderful breakfast, lunch and dinner, taking care of my migraine with handmade medicine on forehead. Piyush was always the favourite student of maths teachers. The journey of four years at college made the friendship go through ups and downs. At one point when I thought that it's gone, it was Chaitanya who brought him back. Over issue at college, we stopped talking. I tried but it seemed that as an end to friendship. Hahaha this happens even outside girl circles ;) I will never forget that evening when Chaitanya and Piyush came to my place, after many weeks since we stopped talking. I do not know till date what Chaitanya told him(I will always be thankful for your gesture that day), but everything became normal after that. I now know whom to bring in when we will have fight next time! We did not find a chance though in last so many years. ;) One of the happiest moments was when Piyush got placed in Essar. I got the news, and was waiting for him to return back home. I was in tears (I am very sensitive and tears will start rolling every now & then ;) ) when I started on bike to his place to celebrate that night. I was so happy that day.

 

College was over and I was out for enjoying holidays in AP. Then date came and Piyush and UTK left in June for Gujrat. Then started the phone calls and I started missing the partner for late night movies, Chicken dinners as at both of our places Nonveg is not allowed at home, bike rides in Dharampeth, long chats outside home. Nagpur was boring as all the buddies left the place to chase their dreams at distant places. I used to wait for festivals because that's the only time when all friends will come back to Nagpur and we used to meet. Then we used to meet at Mumbai airport. Once we had chat for whole night. Hmm so many beautiful memories!

 

And today going to add one more! The Big day of his life, the Wedding!

Can't wait to post a selfie with Piyush and Tejeshree. :)

 

 

Life.. What exactly it is! What's the purpose of it!

Life.. What exactly it is! What's the purpose of it!!

 

Morning was not usual when I did not get wake up call from Mom. I thought she might be busy with her prayers so I continued on my routine. Then whole plan changed when sister called and asked to come home at the earliest. She informed Dad was not well so hospitalised. Hence mind occupied by so many thoughts. Struggled on mobile net to find that I can reach only by 6 in the evening. Booked the ticket and called on mobiles but no response, to realise they might be busy with some hospital formalities. Then cousin told that he is fine, and to come down. For next few hours I can't do anything but to wait! I cancelled my appointments in the early morning with property agents and thought probably now I may have to continue another month at Guest house. Started to office with heavy heart! I today could not give smile to Irshad at breakfast nor thanked office boy for the coffee he offered. Then made some peace at mind with parking the questions 'what is life?' 'Do we  always have solutions to problems that come our way?' 'How difficult it is to stay happy and face problems with calmness?' 'Are we responsible ourselves to the problems that come our way?'

 

Left office and started for the airport. Back to thinking mode. We get busy with our lives, neglecting the important aspects like Health and Family time. I know that one has to follow schedule, take breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner at appropriate time; take time to exercise and meet friends and family quite often. I am not good at these but certainly have to improve at those items. If we are not happy and healthy, it's the people around us who has to suffer a lot.

 

Life is a chance given to us to make people happy, to love people around you,  think less and enjoy what u have, , spend time with family, eat healthy and stay fit! It's only then Life will be beautiful for people around you and loved loves!

How can I now tell my Dad that his smoking is reason today he is in Hospital, and life now is no longer beautiful for me and I am not loving living it!

 

Feeling helpless!

Off to Hyderabad, but not sure if I can reach within visiting hours.

A Consultancy, and their Client in a Country

A popular Consultancy name in country, and specifically in Dubai. They are into the business of staffing (supply staff to different clients) for more than 75 years, and to my surprise they own the title of best place to work for last 3 years. But I actually went to their office only after resigning. Staff has to work on client side. When enquired about the offer, friends suggested that it is good to start. As the person from the consultancy who was constantly in touch belongs from my home town, I believed him. I was given no time to think and flight tickets were booked by them the very day when they received the visa. I started the next day.

After landing here, I came to know that I trusted wrong person. They did not give me initial accommodation, and was left on my own. They brought me here on clerk visa and assured me that once I provide them my attested degree certificate, they will change the visa, which was never done. Even the medical insurance was not what they informed me over the call. No medical card. The medical insurance was treatment at their clinic located far from where I lived, next to their accommodation facility (which was again for non IT staff). Apart from all this, they also took my passport (which is usual with many companies here), and did not process the payroll when I went for approved vacation. They also deducted half of the flight ticket price which was huge, as they booked it on very short notice. All this I experienced in first few weeks. After first three months when I asked to change the client, they kept it pushing till I submitted the resignation last month. After my last working day, I had to wait for more than 20+ days without any allowance to get the final settlement and get my visa cancelled.

Only good point with consultancy was they paid me salary on time, which is again not usual with many consultancies here.

 

Now Client was again very popular in the country. They are known across the globe for building the tallest tower, because of which I did not think much for accepting the offer. After joining, I was excited for my project work as the team was very cooperative. All my excitement turned into pain in few days. Manager threatened to terminate the contract if the pace of delivery remain unchanged. I was shocked. I never heard anything like that before. It was not even few weeks (within a month) so that I could digest something like that. One has to understand the business, existing setup, their processes, tools and technologies are similar not the same, so it takes some time for one to get accustomed. After knowing that manager is not happy with the work, I stretched till late in evenings and worked on weekend to complete first assignment. And after that few more unrealistic deadlines, without any word of encouragement/ motivation. I noticed that managers threaten in public to contractors about their termination if they don't perform. This atmosphere was completely disgusting and I informed my consultancy that I would not like to work here. I was informed that no projects were available with other clients at that moment (they never found any other opportunity). They kept rotating the contracts of consultants by every 3 months, and usually the consultant would not know till the last moment whether the contract would be extended. Consultants who worked even for more than 2 years were kept on 3 or 6 months rolling contracts. They thought this is the way they could get the work done, by threatening and humiliating. I don't know to which management schools these guys went. There will be no planning. All the projects will be running parallel and eventually they end up with never ending scope and new deadlines every now and then. Ultimately no project is complete and successful in the defined timeframe.

I decided that it is not the place for me, and I can't waste my time here. When I was looking for the opportunity, I got the invitation to join one of the old mentor/ manager with whom I worked in my previous organization. That's time to call it an end!

 

In last few months, I got opportunity to work on mobile and back end ETL. Also developed applications integrating BI with Microsoft office. That's a learning and I take it back with me.

 

That's unfortunate for me to have such an experience, but I did not find the rules in the country very friendly for employee. Stuff such as holding the passports of employees so that one cannot escape from company or country, submitting the passport to employer for visa cancellation, etc. I find against ones freedom and liberty being from a democratic country. Thought we save decent margin of money by working here, but at the cost of ones freedom and liberty, I think I am better back home.

 

Good bye, dear consultancy, company and country. Thanks for this experience that made me know the value of freedom and liberty in my very democratic country.

In search of happiness

I was searching for happiness. Then I realized, it's in front of me. To catch that I have to move ahead, and to move ahead I have to leave from where I was standing.

What was that which was not letting me move ahead. Was it emotions, attachment, guilt, impressions, what was that? I have to find that out, because unless I find an answer to it, I will not be moving ahead. You know which is the biggest fight? It's the fight within.

I read once, unless we make the peace with our past, the future won't be peaceful, and I want to see a beautiful life ahead.

Change is law of nature. I always wanted to stand strong against the every storm on my way. But every HUDHUD will leave you destroyed. But you have to stand again, build yourself and move ahead. This journey from here to move ahead will be tough. The devastation around you will be highly demotivating.

In such tough time, listen to you. The you, which is unique, by the values or principles which guides your actions. It defines your personality. It is you who can allow any changes, additions, or deletions to your defined values or principles.

I always want to stand for what is right, irrespective of how strong the opponent is. But mostly one would be defeated by the strong opponent. Does this mean one who takes the stand for right against a strong opponent should always have defeat in his hand?

It depends what is defeat. Again, the You, tells me if I have to leave a war which I am sure that I cannot win, I win the war by leaving it. That's my perspective of seeing it. If I have declared a war, then any action towards making me feel better in the war is justified by myself. Everything in war is after me. I should not care what the enemy says about my retract or what the partners suggest about the move. Everyone has their own opinions.

I am right, I don't want to mess with strong opponent and destroy myself, and in the process if I have to leave the battle field mid-way without causing any harm to myself, the You, tells me I made a right move irrespective of consequences. I won the war.

I shall wake up to a new beautiful morning, full of hope, become more strong from where I left, and stay positive. From here it is the way to happiness.

Last few days in Dubai, The City of Gold

Moving to Dubai was a difficult decision which I took sometime early this year (in April). It was difficult, because I had to leave the newly wedded sister and brother in law, with whom I hardly spent any time. Still I did.

 

I was always lucky enough to go to school, junior college, my first job right from home. My parents always wanted to settle down in Hyderabad, which was difficult for me, but eventually I also moved. I was at home with parents, my sister was just few minutes from my house, I had job with India's number 1 company, developed great friends circle in very small time, everything was perfect. I thought this is it, now I am just going to live in the city of Nawabs forever.

Then an opportunity from City of Gold invited me. Because I will never compromise with my comfort or what I am entitled to, I decided to switch. The saving that I would be able to make by going to middle east also pushed me to take the hard decision. I thought I would live there for at least 2 years.

Plans always look good, because first they are plans and second we make them. With heavy heart, packed the stuff and started for the new journey. I have a rule for myself, which is, whatever the place, situation, people I would have, I will not judge them at least for 3 months. That's the minimum time I have always set for myself before arriving at a decision. 3 months passed, and I could not convince myself that it’s the place for me for next few months or years. It was then, every month was last month for me in this gold city.

 

Memories from the day when I started are still crystal clear. Even the day before I was not aware that I would be flying, such was the planning and management. I should have guessed from the situation, but we are not perfect, and I failed to  notice. I started and landed in a completely unknown place. I was having severe migraine when I landed, and wanted to just go to room and take a nap. But I waited for about 1 hour for roommate to come down. That was horrible start.

We went out in the evening, and he was so kind to make me aware of things around. The very next day I had to report at work, that too at 8. I started at 7.15 and took the cab as I was not having the NOL card (this is the card that is required for travelling in bus/ metro/ tram). I reached office at 7.30. That was the first and last time when I took coffee and cookies from the Starbucks downstairs. First day at work. I noticed mostly Indians around in office, and my team completely was from India, and 2 of them from my own place. Tammudu's. I told myself, it cannot be any better than this.

Work started, expectations kept rising. I used to start my day at 5.30 in morning, and would end with checking the facebook feed at 11 in night. It was more than a month, and I was feeling exhausted. Sometimes during weekend when I wanted to come to office I would not get public transport. So I decided I would move near to office, to save travel time and make some personal space for myself. It was then I met wonderful roommate with common interests. Now with the travel time I saved, I was making frequent phone calls back to home and sometime to friends. I started going to movies, and weekends were fun. This made me feel better and I was settling down. I would go to office after dinner sometimes to make my next day better. Things were moving with few untoward incidents. I was confused, whether I should let this continue. It was wonderful company of team mates, and many consultants in office who would just say hello, exchange smiles, share talks and make you feel like a small beautiful family; that kept me moving. One more friendship happened to me, and we started going for evening walks, movies, chats, breakfasts, and dinners in the lawns. Everything looked perfect and still everything was uncertain. Personally I hate uncertainty. I wasn't seeing it getting changed. One evening I got a call, it was another opportunity, back in my home country. It looked better in one aspect, it was certain/long term. For me that’s the only thing what mattered. I was confused between everything here which was uncertain versus promising new opportunity. Followed were few more disturbing stuff, and then I said I deserve better. This called an end to this journey.

 

We miss only good things, and there's a nice list, that I will be missing.

Ordering the breakfast early morning, and enjoying it with colleagues (the whatsapp group and Jumeriah view)

The morning and afternoon coffee breaks and chats around pantry

Vasant bhavan lunch, and walk followed under the shades of those trees and cool breeze

Dinners in the lawns under open sky, evening and morning walks in Greens

The Paragon dinner, and weekend movies/ chats with roommates

And all the wonderful friends..

 

Life has to move on. And these wonderful memories give you strength to face the next unknown!!!

Om Namah Shivay!!! Hum chale Swadesh…