Lovely lillies

Neha was sitting near to the balcony of her home, looking at the long deserted street, resting her head in the nearby pillar and taking small sips from her coffee mug, but deep inside she has fallen somewhere in her thoughts. She felt so lonely today and her mind is travelling through her pasts each one by other. Now her thoughts are concentrated to that day she still feels to be as the best of ones in her life.

I am getting dressed up in my lucky dress for the day which I think is the "D day" in my life. I am so excited thinking about the vast opportunities I am going to experience in my life forward. I am giggling in between, singing like crazy and squeezes my roomie's cheeks and started up to my new office.

So the first day is here, and today I am going to face that big day of my life. My hands and legs trembling thinking about the giant I am going to work with. In other way this is my dream come true, but I don't know why I am so tensed when I am nearing to my dream. This is the destiny which was for me and finally I am going to savor it.

The big gate is wide open to welcome the new joinees, the cars, the trucks. Stepping into the compound has given me goosebumps, a lump in my throat because of the happiness of achievement and each step I felt like very heavy and hard to move forward. I realized, my heart is getting heavy because of multiple feelings crossing over the mind. I took a long sight of the only one building there, the famous ship building. I could see another ship is going to be erected soon, as that fast the construction was going on. I was confused on terminologies and direction boards, on the front and back doors. One security staff has led me to the front door and helped me find the lobby where I waited for the HR to come and receive me. One thing caught up my eyes on my way are, the lillies all around the buildings, it is done so neatly and the lovely lillies swaying around in the wind. It was just a breath taking site. It has caught up my eyes and heart at same time, really don't know the reason why I felt a closeness to the lillies. In future I came to know why, as they were my ever time companions...

I waited very impatiently not knowing the procedures and slipping into my usual day dreaming; and then the lady came calling out my name breaking my reverie. She had a file full of sheets of paper with her, which I guessed would be my details. The HR lady walked me through the work area, where I could see cubicles, some named, some without, and very different type of meeting rooms, with names of different seas, coasts and sea explorers. Then I said in my mind, "Yeah I am in a ship now!"

After the joining formalities, I got the first asset from new company the tag with a temporary ID card, in which its engraved 'Infosys', I felt it a proud moment in my life, when I wore it first. 

First day I had nothing to do and I wandered alone the whole campus as there was not even a system or desk allocated. I could visualize different modes of this giant infrastructure, starting from concrete buildings to bird’s nests, to the big trees which made path for people to walk and giving a wholesome pleasure. There were small trysts, and I smiled inside and thinking whether I would also go through these things, the peoples laughter, their friendship and all.

Then started with projects, started the days of struggle and pain, late nights stays, the cabs and food less days. Slowly got along with everything new. Then I found myself cherishing even these struggles, when it paid back in sweet way, to see my projects going live and the thought, Oh oh my hard work is now getting experienced by the whole world.  

I had gained a lot of new friendships which has shown me different ways to perceive this world, who helped me laugh till my belly ached.  New paths, new companions, everything new and each moment enjoying to fullest, even its happiness or pain each one was an experience. Laughter and tears were equal, some surprises, very deep down hurts , some because of farewells...

Now being here for a long time now, I see this giant is like a family to me. I don't feel anything odd about it and its being part of my life. It is my identity now. This has witnessed my failures, my progressions, supported me, made me grow to the person I am now. The moments which took my breath away, the moments which made me feel I should prove myself, the first appreciation, which I hugged close to my heart. The first travel, for which my managers selected me, for the confidence they have in me. The first client visit where I have been asked to travel, my confidence was growing inside, my b’day celebrations, ages passed here. Today I am very happy to see the person I am now and thankful to my dream which carved me to the best of all I can have.

All these times there is one thing which never changed, my lovely lillies are as such, always smiling to me, and always giving company to my brooding, my crazy thoughts, my loneliness, my silent cries, my prayers, my anxieties...

Neha is back from her thoughts to her balcony taking the next sip from her coffee mug, staring to the lonely street.

Shopaholic!

Its been very long, I have been in this place, was having crazy weeks just before the so called "Peak". And just now relaxing keeping all those crazy stuffs behind and watching to see the Peak getting ready. Sorry guys, this "Peak" is an IT terminology, which means the company will get it highest sales in this period. So today I thought to take a peek ;) out of my normal schedule and put up something here, which would make my readers think a bit or give them some good laugh. 

Just that I am talking about sales and profits, one thing came to my mind is about my spending trends in shopping. I don't have much to advice or anything, but just to share my thoughts. Everyone calls me shopaholic, am I really? No I don't think so, coz I spend only if its worth :D

My shopping trend has evolved into different forms over years, over ages I would say..from mere clothing to home designs, to kitchen stuffs now. Now I am balancing between all these which is rather different than my college days. So whatever I buy I treasure it like a diamond. I am under opinion that where ever you invest money, you should make it completely useful, and worthy. My interests has also undergone a great deal of evolution from the time I was in college. Why I am taking college as starting point is because, since then it is our parents choice, rather than ours. So college is when we started buying things our own, not sure about others, but that was my experience ;)

There was a funny thing happened related to my shopping freakishness. One day I was filing for Income tax returns and it had a secret question, my favorite pass time, and I was unable to recollect the answer I gave before. I was just reading it out loud, out of my disappointment, and from a distance my friend Sandeep called out "shopping" and said what else would it be :D You don't believe, it was the right answer and I got my ITR account unlocked ;) Thanks a lot Sandeep, even if you were trying to pull my legs.

So going back to the trends in shopping, old times shopping was like getting ready and sparing an entire day out wandering through different shops to find out our favorite things. Its usually thought about as a one day event and we plan for it a month ago. Now its been very much different by having online shopping available anytime. So shopping happens through normal browsing and would help us save lot of time. But I do love the old traditional way of shopping still and for most of my clothes shopping I prefer that. For something, we really don't want to waste time on, and we get in good deals, I opt online. Mostly with kitchen accessories, the things we don't even see in shops here. So we should sensibly choose online and traditional shopping to see which suits what. I usually do a trade off between these two before planning to buy something. The key points being quality and price. As I said, I would buy things only if its worth for the price.

There was another funny talk about me spending time on retail sites. I was put in a research project for ecom sites where our primary responsibility was to find out new shopping features from sites. I was coming up with lot of new ideas and features everyday, but something was happening behind the scenes. My team has come to know, I was getting called for couriers almost twice in a week then. When they asked, I told , what can I do, I am asked to do research and it was so tempting that I couldn't stop myself from ordering. Also we need to see how the post order process would be ;) Then they were saying, Swathy is so generous doing all these for the sake of her work ;) and  if her husband comes to know about the this, he will sue the managers who has put her in this project.

Now its your turn to decide, I am shopaholic or a smart buyer? ;)