999 for emergency

The time was around 7PM and I was in office just browsing the internet. It was Friday and still I didn't want to go home. I thought it would be a normal evening but I got the call that would make the day a different one.

Me: Hello! Jey here
Sq: It's me da.
(It's my roommate who left early by 6:30PM)
Me. Yes Boss! Whats up.
Sq: I am in Chobham road and some 12 guys are chasing me.
Me: (Doubtfully) What? Don't start a prank
(He is known to play prank at others)
Sq: Seriously da. I…walking on the road…. Many guys ran towards me…. One hit my neck…. I am in a shop… they are still out there….. I don't know…
Me: Dai… Slow down and tell clearly.
Sq: (Scared) They were trying to take my laptop… I somehow got into the nearby shop…. Should I call the police?
I became totally confused whether to believe him or not. But his tone told me that he is serious.
Me: Hey… are you sure? Who are they?
Sq: Don't know man. There were both white and black guys and from kids to big guys…. They….
Me: ….Just check if they are still out there. If you see them, call the police immediately. You know the number? Its 999
Sq: Wait. I am checking the outside. They were standing on the opposite side of th….AAAAAAAAH!!!!!
The line went dead. That's the end.

I couldn't believe the line went dead. I got tensed and started shouting "Hello" repeatedly at the dead line. Something has happened and I feared against the worst.
I tried dialling his number. It's dead. Again... It's dead.
I have to call the police now. Damn. My fist emergency call to Police.
I dialled 999 and waited for the police officer. I also became tensed and was trying to calm down myself.
A lady voice started speaking….

"All operators are currently busy. Please hold the line. An operator will speak to you as soon as possible."

WHAT?????????????????????? Not this automated message in Emergency calls please. There is a guy who is in grave danger and the emergency line asks me to hold. I was about to burst my anger to that automated message, when the phone was answered.
I started telling the incident directly just to be stopped in the middle, asking if it's a Police, Hospital or Fire emergency. With raising anger, I answered "Police please" and was wondering if the Police phone line would also make me wait. Luckily I got connected immediately.

I somehow got relaxed and explained the officer the incident clearly. He asked my name and details and my room mate's identification like height, weight and color. I had no idea on what to answer. He was bit concerned when I said we are from India. (There were some incidents reported on Asian people in UK recently) I somehow managed and the person was good enough to make me calm and told that he will send police units to that place and my roommate would be fine. I thanked and disconnected the line.

After sometime, one of my colleagues in office called my room mate's number and he got connected. My roommate was so tensed and said that he disconnected the line as he still saw those guys and was calling the police immediately. I felt shouting back at him rather than consoling him. Anyway I felt relaxed that he is still safe in the shop. The police came in 15 mins by which all guys have left the place. Anyway, we didn't plan to file any case and the police dropped him back in the train station as we planned to stay in a friend's house for that night.

Interesting points out of the incident:
Even "Emergency call" lines keeps you wait in the queue.
Does queue in "Emergency calls" mean there is deficiency in staff or increase in emergency cases?
I didn't know the height or weight of a guy who is staying with me for two months. (I don't know even my height)
We learnt that these kinds of crimes are very normal in our area.
It's unsafe to return late nights from office on Fridays and weekends.
I returned from office through the same route at 11PM and 3AM two days back and I thought its safe all the time.
Sq found the perfect reason to get excuse from writing the certification exam on Saturday.

It even rained

UNBELIEVABLE

!!!!!!!!But true!!!!!!!!!

 

I didnt party tonight..... but yeah!.... I danced!!!!

Stone soup

To the highest level of surprise for me, Shariq said that we can make sandwich at home. Shariq is my new housemate in London. He is a guy from UP. To tell about him, he believes that he still lives in India. For him, food means spicy hot curry with lot of masala and pulses in it. Anything else like burger or bread is a side dish. And most importantly he thinks vegetarian food is a speciality that we can once in a while. He is always at such a high level of diversification from my views yet I like to make fun of him most of the time. Coming to the story, he always discourages at the idea of having sandwich for a complete meal. But that day, he himself suggested we can make sandwiches. So with much enthusiasm I entered the kitchen. Though I like cooking, I rarely try it. He asked me to cut vegetables first. We looked into the fridge to find what vegetables we have. There were few potatoes, onions and carrot. Now the biggest question is what we should use for the sandwich. While I was wondering what to make, Shariq suggested mixing some masala powders to the vegetable mix. Oops. Here we go again. "Shariq, sandwich is supposed to be plain vegetables. Not your curry masala in it". He came back with his usual reply, "It will be good and it's healthy. We can make aloo baaji too". I know where this is going. It will end up in some potato curry and we will have to eat the curry with bread. It will not be a sandwich. His name for this idea was "Indian Sandwich". I wonder if that's another name for "Shariq's masala baaji bread". My dreams of having a vegetable sandwich started evaporating. Determined not to leave my dream, we had an argument in which he said he will show me how to cook. Oh oh. I can just recall the old story "Stone Soup".

Somehow I managed to make his mind to work on cooking sandwich and not sabji. It took sometime for me to explain him that Sandwich is different from sabji. But still his recipe for the filling went on with masala powders and included chillies too. And to add more on that, we were frying the vegetables. I thought he is teaching me how to make stone soup. After an hour of cooking, we finally made the vegetable mix. It was neither a salad nor a curry. And we stuffed it inside bread along with ketchup. With triangular slices of sandwich stacked on the plate, we started the dinner watching the movie "The memento". I felt that I am having sandwich at last. Good day that it didn't turned to be chicken soup instead of stone soup

Still in office

Its 9.10PM now and I am stilll in office. Not feeling like going home. The day was tight as usual. Went for a training course for the whole day from 9 to 5. Then came to another office and was working for another hour. Talking with the PM. Nothing important. But the usual ones. some more tasks assigned for me. I am spending lot of time trying to find time to manage time. And now.... watching trailers in www.apple.com/trailers. Looks like lot of movies are on the way. And to my surprise, there is "TMNT" whats that??? Check out yourself if you dont know yet. And by the way, I have started downloading some movies too. Why am I saying these? Dont know. But I want to say something. Atleast to find a reason to stay in office. Why am I not going home? Dont know. But I have a valid reason. I am writing this blog.
One more news. I have started writing blog in our Company's Intranet too. Posted my first blog about the successful two revolutions around my career. I can see that I have learnt a lot. And still lot more to learn. The journey continues and life will be going through a lot of experiences as before. Expecting some, dreaming a lot, waiting to see what the future holds. Or should I say, how I will shape my future.

Worldcup fever

Can anyone tell me why would they show not one but four best movies when the whole world is watching FIFA worldcup finals. With the major persons watching TV in UK tuned to BBC glued to their sheets cheering Italy and France who were making their best moves to lift the cup, I was watching the best movies I always enjoy to watch. There was "Stuart Little", "You've got mail" and "Honey, I shrunk the kids". But anyway nothing interesting happened in the match while I was watching the movies. I saw the two goals shot by France and Italy in the early part of the game. When the movie "You've got mail" was over, the extra time of the match had just finished and the team were getting ready for the penalty shoot. It was a disappointing ending though, will France losing the match at 5-3. Another game ended with "Anything can happen" penalty shootout. The other game was "England vs Portugal". That was a disappointment to the whole of England. I was watching the game from the street seeing the England fans with the flag painted on their face, wearing the team T-shirts and shouting "Go England!" It was fun. But again, a disappointment at the end. I couldn't understand why Beckam didn't go for the penalty shoot. May be he was afraid that he might fail. Too bad of him. It just left a thought, "Could England have won, if he had played the shoot" On the whole, it was a good tournament and everyone enjoyed it till the end. Italy won the FIFA worldcup 2006.

Meeting friends after long time

After being in UK for more than 7 months and even though some of the class mates are here, I didnt see them till yesterday. Rahini who came to Aberdeen last month is returning now and came to London for the return trip. Thats a good opportunity to have a nice time and we planned to meet along with Ranjith who is in leischer. Ranjith looked a bit more height. I have turned bit wider and Rahini has done both. There were lot of things to discuss and lot of news to know about. But as usual, we spent most of the time silent. Me and Ranjith were calm and let the teacher take over the day. Rahini remained the same and was hitting us like the good old college days. May be she became better. She tried to strangle Ranjith. Totally we all had an experience back to college time.
We had a good start for the day in Chennai Dosa restaurant, which gives the same environment as our local Saravana Bhavan. Same kind of chairs, tumblers and water mug, Similar menu card, Tamil speaking waiters and similar late services. Luckily today we took the Breakfast buffet and had unlimited idli, pongal, uppuma, dosa, vada with three chutneys and sambhar. That was wonderful. I think I had a stomach filling breakfast today after a long time. I was not much anxious about it as I had similar food in Swindon from our copsley group. But for Ranjith, he is having pure South Indian food after a very long time. He couldnt control himself and was enjoying to the most. After having a hefty breakfast, we started the tour with very little strength to walk.
The places we went includes London and Tower bridge, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and a local pub to have Pepsi(believe me).
One thing that never stopped in our tour was taking photos. We took lots and lots of photos experimenting Rahini's digital camera on the city of London. Though the climate was hot, it was a clear sky giving us a very good opportunity to try our photography skills. I think I took some cool snaps today. It came really well. I have to wait for Rahini to upload the photos I took in her camera to see them.
After a long walk around London city, and having a cool drink at the end, we departed our ways back to each other home. She would be starting to India on Monday 3rd and would be back in her own home. Wonder when I will be coming back. Just a thought.

Trailer of The beach

Coming soon

A journey to Paradise	Nature at its best
An experience to experience	Absolute fun on the wonderful beach

Hold your breath... for a splendid journey towards the sea shore is about to begin

Swing all the way

Golf, the fancy game for the old and the rich. A small ball being hit with an iron stick over a very large green lawn and trying to put the ball in a small hole. And there is atleast a dozen type of sticks used in the game. If you are rich enough, you need not walk. You can use a small vehicle to move across the lawn. This is what I used to think about this strange game.

I have played golf in video game consoles. The 2D game used to provide entertainment for hours. I had tried to play golf in my house too. Drill a hole in the garden and use the small elastic ball and a stick from the tree in the garden to play. It would always be fun. Though I don't know much rules, the movies and the sports channels relaying golf (which I rarely watch) helped me to remember a few terms used. Clubs for the iron sticks, 9 hole or 18 hole games and Par shots are few that I learnt in my school days. Golf always appeared to be a game of prestige and style. Most of the movies showing some rich villains or rich heroines would show atleast one scene playing golf. It always seemed funny that hitting a ball in the ground can become such a costly sport and to use 14 clubs to play the game was crazy to the maximum.

Coming to the news, I got a chance to play golf last weekend. Myself, Ganesan and Shanmugam decided to go out somewhere for the weekend. The only problem was with me as I am used to work in weekends. I somehow took the day off and we went to Coate water, a large park like Lalbagh garden in Bangalore. It was a nice scenic place with a small lake in the middle of the park. It was more like the Kodaikanal lake with cycling track covering all the sides. We wandered near the lake for a while and saw a golf course. There was a counter to get tickets to use the course. To the left of the counter was the mini golf course with 18 holes and to the right was the kids' version of golf, pitch & putt. After long thoughts and finding the difference of the cost between these two games was just a pound, we decided to take the mini golf course. ₤4.60 for the game ₤0.8 for the ball and ₤0.1 for the tee. We didn't even know what the clubs we need to play the game are. When the person at the counter asked whether we want 7, 8 or 9 numbered club, we were like "WHAT is that?" My experience in the video games somehow helped me to speak few words and the person gave us the 7 club saying that it will be good for beginners. When she gave us three balls, we even tried to return two of them. She laughed and said that each player should use separate ball. With little laugh we went to the golf course to start the game.

There started the big confusion. There was a small rough sheet on the lawn which we understood to be the place to start the game. But the "Tee" provided didn't go through the sheet. It was too hard. We were wondering what to do. Then we found a small hole in the sheet and used that to start our game. Later in the game, I didn't use the "Tee" at all. ;) With better knowledge about the game than the other two persons, I started the game. I positioned myself as shown in the video game and made a swing. It was a fast swing that I even heard the whooshing sound of the club. But the ball still remained in its original position. My very first golf play was a miss. I tried again with more concentration and it was a hit. The ball instead of flying high rolled over the ground and went to the bush some 50 metres away and the ball disappeared from sight. My very first shot was not only bad but I also lost the ball. After a long search, we found the ball and we resumed the play with a sigh of relief.

It was absolute fun as we fought to become the first person to make the goal. (what do they call for putting the ball in the hole?). Ganesan was methodical, while Shanmugam and I were usually making random shots. After completing the first hole, a new confusion aroused. We found the starting point for the next hole. But there were many holes around it. Which once should we play? Do they choose holes at random or is there any proper order??? With no idea, we chose a random hole and I tried for a shot. This time, the shot was perfect as it travelled high in the air straight towards the hole. The shot was bit fast that it travelled over the hole and landed at the far side. Still happy with the shot, I ran towards the ball only to learn that we were aiming for the wrong hole. Another person who was playing in that course told us the order we have to play and I have to start the game again. After this, the game went on very much fine, with Ganesan always winning each hole with myself trying to finish second atleast. I do found out how to make good shots and my first shots usually went high in the air straight towards the hole. The funny part came when the ball landed in the bunker. Ganesan had to try for atleast 3 times to get the ball out of the sand. With little tricks on the sand like removing the dust at the side of the balls and raising the ball high on the sand, the game went on interesting all the time. We became like Pro after playing four to five holes and we completed each hole by 4 to 5 shots easily. Sometimes, I found the ball fighting against me by jumping over the hole (See the video). Ganesan even completed a hole in just 2 shots and myself and Shanmugam managed to finish off in 4 shots. After playing 18 holes that took about 5 to 6 hrs, we were exhausted and our legs were paining. After the game, we walked around the lake for a while before resting on the sides for a while and we returned home. A wonderful day spent in Swindon. A pleasant change from the daily normal routine.

You can see more photos at http://photos.yahoo.com/injey

You can also view the videos at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6536565913902341117

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3355036199451084778

Beware of?

Working on weekends have become usual to me. I have even raised the question, what else can I do other than work on weekends. Another unhealthy habit I have is staying late in office. And thats not only on week days but also in weekends. So, I am working almost all the time except a few hours I spend in home. With the summer in UK, the sun sets only after 9PM. So I cant even realise that I am staying late. This happened last week, when I came to office as usual on a saturday. The work was boring but there was still a lot of things to do. So I went on with the schedule of staying late. After all, the last bus is only at 10:40 and I can catch it. With the sun still shining at 9PM, I didnt notice the time till it became 10:30PM. The sky has become dark now and I decided to walk to the bus stop.

Our office campus is in a open scenic area with compound walls only on three sides. The area spreads to the hill side at the back. As it was a weekend, the guards have even switched off most of the lights outside the building and I was left to walk about 200 yards looking at very few lights at the other end. I was so relaxed that day, that I was walking slowly towards the gate. Suddenly there was the sound of dog. I stopped my movements and found a dog growling near the gate. There were no dogs kept by the company. I am sure of that. But the sudden appearance of a dog made me nervous. For a second, I thought that I should be brave and walked a step. And then I saw another dog lying near the first one. Oh oh! I wondered whether to return back or wait till they go away. I was too frightened for the dogs looked more like German sheperds. No way, I am going to let the dogs take my flesh even that means reducing my weight. I slowly walked back into the building and booked a taxi. I was amused that I am afraid of dogs anyway. Still i know its dangerous. Who knows what the dogs in UK think of humans at night. Will they just bark or bite. Better to be safe.

The taxi came in 10 minutes and I started to leave. I passed the security guard who smiled and said good night. I wished him Good bye and just asked him whether we have any dogs in the campus. He was also confused at first and said No. Then I told him about the two dogs near the gate and he said it might have jumped from the nearby houses. With little laugh, I said bye again. And he wished back and added a comment at the end. "It might be the foxes that stays at the hills at the back of our office. They roam near the gates at nights".

I NEVER WANT TO STAY LATE AGAIN IN OFFICE.

PS: I couldnt avoid staying late anyway. I just decided that I will take taxi if its gets late. Even foxes are not able to change my unhealthy work schedule.

Another day with bus

Today was another eventful day catching the bus. I was not late. And the bus was also right in time. But it was an eventful one.

Let me tell the story from 8:40 AM, 15 mins before I reached the bus stop. Just like everyday, I got ready for the office. I looked at the large mirror that shows from my head to the feet. I know I didnt look good. I just scolded myself. "You should do something for THIS". Again, I blamed the mirror for that and left for the bus stop. As there was still 10 mins for the bus, I decided to walk. That will help in solving THIS. So I was walking all the way and reached the bus stop at exactly 8:57. Three minutes for the bus to come, I just stood with the rest. Sharply at 9:00, the bus came and I stood in the queue. It was good. If it was not the queue, I would have missed the bus many times before. I had the habit of coming to the bus stop at the last minute and joining the queue at the last. Thanks to the queue and the driver who gives the ticket for everyone before starting the bus. As I was nearing the front of the queue, I took my wallet to get the bus pass. Oh! oh! The bus pass was not there. I started checking all the pockets in shirt and pants though I can remember where it would be. I left in the pocket of the shirt I was wearing yesterday. With no time to go back to room, I checked the wallet for change. Damn it. No change. I could count max of 12 pences. The ticket costs 1.5 pounds. And I cant give a five pound note. The bus drivers cant give change. The system is different here that no change will be provided in the bus. You have to provide the exact bus fare. They say this system helps to reduce the time taken to serve each passenger. I felt that as a much necessary system as I know it already takes a lot of time to issue tickets to a few passengers. But today the view was different. What will I do without change. I cant give him a 5 pound note for sure. With no other option, I had to miss the bus again. Saying good bye to the bus, I walked back to my room, took the bus pass, and was running back to the bus stop in a total of 19 mins to catch the next bus. And I reached the bus stop a minute before the bus came. I saw the rear view mirror on the side of the bus and thought it has helped THIS.

Everything in a second

It is friday. Hoping it will become saturday soon, I got ready to office and ran to the bus stop at 8:50AM. I have two options to get the 11A bus to office. One is to walk 10 mins to get to the bus station or get a 17 bus from a stop closer to my room and reach the bus station in 5 mins. But the 17 bus from the nearby stop comes only at 8:55AM and my 11A bus to office is at 9AM. So its tight schedule. I usually get 2 mins advantage in reaching the bus station. Sometimes I had even seen the 11A bus reaching at the exact time this 17 bus reaches the bus station.

But today, the 17 bus was late. So I took the 7 bus which stops one stop before the bus station. But its hardly 50m from the station.I was looking for the 11A bus all the way just to find it infront of the 7 bus. I was just hoping that I would catch the bus in time. Suddenly the traffic signal went red and like a movie, the 11A bus went away while my bus was still behind the signal. Damn. in 30 seconds, the bus again started and we were on track. I can see the 11A after few cars infront. My mind just said that I could catch the bus anyway. If it was India, I would have jumped out and ran to the bus infront. No one would worry about that. But in UK, things are different. The doors of the bus are closed and you cant even stand near the door. When we were almost near the next stop, there was the traffic signal again. As before, the 11A bus just passed the signal and the signal turned red. Oh! no. I had to wait for another 15 secs and the signal went green.

The bus was moving slowly and I wished that I could push the bus from the back. Why should I push the bus. I could even run to the station if I can get down. With these stupid thoughts in mind, my bus came to the final stop. With little doubt, I starting walking fast to the bus station. With the doubt increasing more, I started running to the bus station. I could see the 11A bus and the passengers getting inside the bus in queue. I would have no chance of getting the bus if its India. All passengers would have got in in 5 seconds and the driver will take off even before the last passenger is inside the bus. But here, each passenger would get in, get the ticket even if it means searching the purse for the coins and it may take few minutes. After every passenger has gone in, the driver would close the doors and then start the bus. I can see the last passenger getting in. I was running fast and the door was closing slowly. The whole world went to slow motion with me waving my hands running behind the bus. And I was reaching the door side, when the driver started the engine and drove off. No use of running behind the bus with closed doors. The driver wont care even if I am running with the speed of the bus. I thought he even knew that I am running towards the bus, but he didnt care. Its time for the bus to leave and he left. I was standing in the bus stop and saw the time 9:01. The bus was late today and still I missed the bus in a second.

Morning alarm

Today was another day woken by the fire alarm. Thankfully, it went off at 7 AM only. With my mobile alarm set to 7:30 AM I wanted a long sleep before getting ready to the office. Once again, the fire alarm went off waking me up from the dream. I was frustrated rather than worried about the alarm. I stood up, stretched my hands, put on a t shirt, took the room keys and the mobile before walking towards the door. I even combed my hair looking at the mirror as I know most of my house mates would have fresh by 7AM and I dont want to show a sleepy face infront of them. With everything clear, I went downstairs to see that they were disabling the alarm as before. What a day. With the alarm disabled, I went back to the room as if the milkman has been answered.
I sincerely hope that the story of Fox and the shepherd wont come in this case.

Snooze the fire alarm

After playing computer games till midnight, i slept on fantastic friday with the only thought that I should wake up only after 10 AM. But fate always fights with the thoughts we have and makes the reality unexpected to us. So in my sound sleep, I suddenly started hearing the alarm. I was so sleepy but I could think of my daily mobile alarm that goes off at 7:30 AM. With little strength, i woke up with half open eyes and decided to switch off the mobile alarm. But the mobile was not there on the table. I must have kept it in the winter jacket. I stood up slowly and tried to find the mobile in the dark. My brain noticed that it sounded differently than my mobile. But still my mind wanted to stop the mobile alarm and get back to sleep. With half consciousness that it might not be my mobile, my brain was again telling me that its dark and it couldnt have dawned.

My brain knocked my head again when I found the time to be 4:30 AM. The sound was too loud now and I found the mobile. But the mobile alarm had not gone off. Not able to understand the reason for that sound, my sleepy mind pushed me to check whether the mobile is making these noises. My brain again knocked me to realise the situation and pulled me to look up. Then I found the grave situation. It was the fire alarm. All my senses came back to full alertness and I was wondering what to do. Too many stories and thoughts rushed at the same time and my brain was like 'whooa! cool down man'. I recounted the story in which an Infoscian got trapped in fire when he tried to get his passport before getting to safety. There was the talk that we should run out of the house immediately if the fire alarm goes off. And there was the thought, that it could just be a fire drill. What an idiot i would be to think that someone conducts a fire drill at 4:30 AM in the morning and that in a house. All these thoughts came in just few seconds and I was still standing in my room trying to figure out what to do.

I immediately went outside my room, half of my mind trying to pitcurise fire all over the house and the other half still sleepy and telling it is a fire drill. When I came out of my room, there was no sign of fire and the person staying opposite to my room, came out with the same tiredness and walked downstairs slowly. I really wondered whether I would do the same, in case of real fire. Still I am not sure whether there is real fire downstairs. So I too walked downstairs slowly trying to notice any sign of fire. All other house mates have already gathered and were looking at the fire alarm indicator. Phew! It obviously means its not fire. Must be some fault in the alarm system. We took the alarm manual and read the instructions to reset the alarm. With few codes pressed, the alarm stopped immediately. Thats great.

With the alarm resetted, with no clue to notice if the fire breaks for real, we all went to our room to sleep. I had just reached my room, the alarm went off again. I got frustrated and placed the ear phones into my ears and played songs with high volume. The alarm sound was more louder than that and I got bit worried or rather bit frightened about this. There indeed seems to be fire in the house. Off I went back downstairs and we all had the same expression in our face. "Why cant we just switch off the alarm?" There shouldnt be fire. Everyone needed a sleep I became bold and checked the kitchen for any gas leakage. Everything looked fine. It must be some fault after all. One of the house mate decided to cut the power to the alarm itself. Everyone were ready to face the real fire than to be woken up by the false alarm. We tried entering the codes again, just to find the alarm sounding again and again after 2 minutes. We almost lost the sleep when we decided to disable the alarm instead of resetting it. We noticed that the fault indicator was on in the system.

The house owner had alreay got his signal at this home. I dont know how. May be there is some electonic system that sends some signal to the house owner's home or may be someone just called him and he was on the way. We werent ready to wait for the house owner and we disabled the alarm ourself and went back to get some sleep. I was unsure if the alarm would go off again and I waited for some half an hour till I found no sign of the alarm going off. Atlast, i switched off the music and went for a sound sleep and I woke up only at 11:30 that day.

Even in your hardest moments

Sometimes, I feel so bad that I dont want to know anything at all. A blank mind with no thoughts, no feelings or no dreams. But that would mean I am nothing. But I am not nothing. There are lot around me and lot within me. I cant live without these. But I am not able to take these in my head too. The toughest times are here. And I regret every day that these are here because of only me. I am not able to face them too. Today, I was in such a state that I am just staring at the computer screen without thinking anything. My hands goes on doing something and it looks like a blog. With these hard moments, there was something that made me laugh. It was not a great joke or a interesting event. Its just the team meeting in our project. As usual, everyone from client side were there. Its the final team meeting as the project is nearing its end. So everyone went on to share their views in the two years they spent in this project. And there were only a few persons who went on with the business talks. The rest were the usual entertaining jesters trying to bring out the fun they had all this time. People went to comment on their abroad trips that ranged from Vietnam(someone lost their luggage and had to wear the company tshirt for work) to Sydney(good club dances). And the Manager had a twist in his speech with talking about the happenings in his personal life in the time he was in the project. He talked about his 30th anniversary, his daughter finishing her PHd and his son getting job in Accenture, the company he had hated for a long time. We learnt nothing from the meeting but it was all laughs and moving away from the hard thoughts in the mind. It was a ice breaker. The meeting ended with a champagne and cake. I took both and had the last.

Even in your hardest moments, the world has something to cheer you up. Just look for it and you can win the world.

Best recipe

After my first lesson in cooking "How to make potato masala", I tried the next lesson. "How to cook rice". I know this might seem funny and simple, but I never thought it would be so simple. Seeing my daily lunch that had only chapathi and potato masala, one of my colleague gave me a good idea and thats the second lesson. To put the title precisely, it is "How to cook rice in microwave oven".

One cup rice + 2 cups water ---boiled at 650W for 12 mins-----> boiled rice

Thats the simple equation that covers the whole lesson. Wow! Thats easy.

But what about curry masala? I dont even know how to make sambhar.

Another simple idea.

Boiled rice + curd + pickle -> best food to have anytime.

Coooooooool. And it will always taste good as its only the rice you have cooked in it. So I tried it last weekend and it was great. Made rice in 12 mins and added with curd and pickle to get the best taste that my taste buds were longing for a long time. Now waiting for more recipes to master the art of cooking soon.

My cooking in UK

I tried cooking in UK for the first time. After having the breakfast prepared by the house mates, I wanted to cook on my own. But what shall I make. I started with the best thing I know to make. French Toast. So I Started my purchase for cooking from Tesco. Tesco is like our Big bazzar. Its so huge that it covers the space occupied by 33 to 38 buildings in Infosys. 8) Running around the shop for more than an hour, I found where milk is displayed. But the only problem is there were Milk from different brands each ranging from 33pence to 1pound. And there is differentiation in the fat content of the milk too. I took the cheapest one which is 33 pence. Then searching for eggs, I saw similar range of products from 6p to 12p per egg. With all the eggs looking alike, I was wondering if its the 12p eggs are from celebrity hen farms. So I went home after buying bread where I had to choose from 35p to 2 pounds. Atlast, I understood why Tesco is so big. It was like a outing in a huge musuem. Only thing is you can buy the products on display. With the plan to cook for evening snacks, I actually made French Toast for dinner. With all the housemates frightened to take my first ever cooking in UK, I had the toast myself while the rest enjoyed with their rice and aloo gobi.

Guess which tasted best. Thats mine!

New world

After staying in BnB hotel for 2 months here and paying twice as much the normal rent for a room, I got accomodation in another place for 420 pounds per month. Though its still costly, its much cheaper than before. Also there is a micorwave oven and a small fridge in my room itself. And of course, we have a neat kitchen, washing machime and dryer. Only problem is that there is no TV.

So there is no way to watch Friends and Just Shoot Me in the mornings and CSI, Deal or No Deal in the evenings. Things are going to be boring more. But anyway, I think I can cook my own food. Which again means, I am going to do some serious experiments on my own. I better start with some bread toasts which I am good at. This is going to be fun too.

And another big difference is now the office is 2 miles away and I cannot walk all the way everyday. Have to get a bus daily. My calculations for Bus fare is getting to 35 pounds per month. I am spending more on bus by saving money on rent. Also, I will miss the daily walk which was the only exercise for me here. So I have to do something to compensate that. Lets see how this new world goes.