When Marriage is the Motivation

I am still 'stuck' in this job that my family does not like because I haven't yet completed a crucial project here. My junior, D, recently gave her resignation and went back to her home town after completing her project. Now all that's left is her final dissertation. The last 3 months, she worked like she was trying to save the planet, running around, ignoring everyone and everything that was not related to her project. We later found out that her marriage is almost fixed.

When I spoke to a friend about it, she told me that it was natural on D's part to hurry with her PG completion instead of merrily enjoying the job. She had a motivation. Friend said that if it were me who's wedding was fixed, even I'd know how to manage my time and get finished with my work.

Gosh! How is marriage for a motivating factor? I am person who is basically terrified of the idea of marriage. If such a situation were to occur, I'd be so numbed that my project would come to a permanent stand still. Not like its any different now! What I need now is some motivation... but nothing like what D had!

Q & A tag

Brocasarea tagged me with this Question and answer tag with a twist.
Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real, nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question. Then you need to tag 4 people..

1.What is your name: Shruti
2. A four Letter Word: Sing
3. A boy's Name: Shreyas
4. A girl's Name: Shriya
5. An occupation: Sailor
6. A colour: Silver
7. Something you wear: Shoes
8. A food: Strawberry
9. Something found in the bathroom: Soap
10. A place: Santacruz
11. A reason for being late: Slipped
12. Something you shout: Sha!
13. A movie title: Saathiya
14. Something you drink: Sprite
15. A musical group: Silk Route
16. An animal: Swine
17. A street name: S.V. Road
18. A type of car: Swift
19. Something scary: Spirits

And I tag: Harini. Yeah only one person. Anyone else who'd like to do it can do it too. I'm going to be very surprised if someone is going to pick it. Do tell me when you are done :)

Bloganniversary, Karan-o-mania

My blog turns 2 today.

When I started chatting online many years ago, I used to be very frank, not bothered to hide my identity. I guess that's the reason I made some really good friends (who no longer are virtual for me). But as time passed, I became wary and stopped giving out information about me to strangers. I did that because I was not interested in 'making' friends. No taking efforts to make friends. I succeeded.

2 years ago when I started my blog, it was not difficult for me to post regularly. The reason is that I was not scared to speak out my mind. I was a stranger anyway. I'd write about anything that made me pause and think. But after a year, I began to get wary again. I now had an identity, I was not a nobody in bloggerland. I didn't know whether unwelcome people came to spy. So, I controlled, supressed... till I supressed so much that I ended up writing as less as I could. It was like shooing away my blog's soul.

I want to call back the soul today, on its second birthday. Let me see what I can do for it. I think I just have to stop taking efforts to hide. As much as I can.

:) Good enough.

Aah.. it was my birthday some time ago. Technically speaking, a birthday is just another day. But people like me have emotions attached to this day. 5th Nov was mine. Mom suggested that I bunk college and stay at home but I knew that nothing would keep me happier than work. So I went to college and had a very funny and fun filled day. My students are a blessing I tell u! And I had a great time telling people what happened the previous night :)

:O What happened the previous night?!

Karan Singh mailed me a sweet birthday wish. Personalised, okay? :D

And then, at night, he generously dedicated a good amount of airtime to me. He wished me happiness, joy, wish fulfillment and a lot of things (that take over a minute to speak out) for the coming year. Then he said that Pri, Rups, Naaz and Swa (my college group) had asked him to wish me on air and that Hershey asked him to read out his panktiyaan because I really love them. See everyone away from me turned to Karan to make my day. And the amazing fellow obliged. (Who wouldn't with so much attention ;) ?)

Prats and I have given him a nickname - nasha man! :P

A birthday wish for a good friend and the best ever person I have ever known...

Wish u a very happy birthday, Suman. I know u had a wonderful day :) May this year be full of joy and fulfilment for you :) Be my tech support always ;)

Platform violence!

"I need to urgently learn some yoga, mom," I said with teary eyes.

"Short term?" mom asked me.

"What? Whatever! Short or long- but its for short temper for sure!"

When I told her how I had been getting irritated, losing my temper and arguing unnecessarily a lot lately, she said I need to be cool headed and that she'd look for someone to train me.

That was last week. Now I have changed my mind. This is Kalyug, dearies. And in Kalyug, a cool headed person who never gets angry is the one at the receiving end of all things bad.

Okay enough of blah blah-ing. Getting to what happened.

I was on my way home on Friday. Had a 1.5hrs joyride by train, keeping the noise of the chitter chatter of women away with my ear plugs. My station arrived (last stop for that train) and I hopped off it gleefully, humming to the tunes playing in my head. The platform was crowded and I walked quickly along the vacant edge till... till a man brushed past my side and walked away quickly. I saw that there was place for him to walk without bumping into me like that.

I was flaring up the next moment, biting my teeth hard. Like I always do with these bas****s, I hurried up to him and kicked him very hard on his ankle.

You tell me what an innocent man who got kicked on the ankle would do. Turn behind and.. react. Right? Well, this man, on being kicked, started walking faster. He did not even turn behind to look. With this, I was sure that his brushing was done on purpose. I decided to follow him for a few meters. I walked fast, never taking my eyes off him. Guess what I saw. He brushed his hand against a female's back and walked away like nothing happened while the young lady stood dumbstruck.

An already angry me was now in Kali mata avatar. I raced up to him, used all my strength and hit him HARD on his shoulder with a loud "AYYE!!!!" because if I kept quiet, the $@*&*# would run away for sure. He turned around. I started yelling at the cross-eyed pest loudly and a few (only a few... people are busy!) stopped to see god-knows-what. No one spoke. The jerk began to yell back at me, as if I was accusing him for something he had not done; but I knew I did not have to listen to him and I kept releasing my energy with my yelling. Soon, a few college going boys appeared and started shouting at the man aloud. That is when the man became silent and began to backtrack. The boys managed to shoo him away without creating too much of a scene.

"What happened, ma'am?" one of them asked me.

Aah! That is when I actually saw who the boys were. My lovely students. The boys were my students and their friends :) On that crowded platform, the only ones who came to help me fight a jerk were my dear students, even when they did not know what exactly had happened.

If I were a cool headed, calm person who tolerated crap happening in front of my eyes, that jerk would've unhesitatingly touched and felt up a few more unsuspecting young women that day.

"Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them." Such truth, I tell you!
If yoga is going to help me keep calm in tense situations, I rather not practise it. I should use my time to learn kick boxing instead.

Apun bhailog!

We have been having water problems in our hostel (ground + 5 floors) for a couple of weeks now. By 9:30 am water supply is cut and only the ground floor has supply. With 42 girls staying on each floor, you can imagine how bad the situation gets.

But humans are adjusting people. Tolerance is a virtue, no? We tolerate till we suddenly realize that we're going to be someone's dinner. So we tolerated reluctantly, complained only amongst ourselves and to the security guard who sits on the ground floor and sees water all day through, hoping that things would be better soon. We adjusted like cowards and managed with the water supply we were getting - 2 hrs in the morning and 2 in the evening. Last week, when we came to know that there was a man (one of the workers here) going to the terrace and shutting out the supply, girls started planning that something has to be done about it. But guess what! When they came to know that the man was only following instructions from higher authorities, everyone calmed down again.

An excess amount of holidays had taken away all my chances of expelling my ever building up energy. So it was my chance to play bhai of the hostel.

Shrutibhai in action:

Soon after breakfast, I took a spare lock that I had and went to the terrace with my roommate so that I could put it along with the already existing one. This would stop the man from entering the terrace to reach the supply tap and close it. But as I reached there, I saw that the terrace was already open. The man had reached there before us. I took the lock and key that were hanging onto the latch and stepped onto the terrace with my roomie, access to which was taken away after last year's suicide. The man was nowhere to be seen. I proceeded to climb up the overhead tank... and there he was beginning to climb down. The old man looked very nervous when he saw us on the entry forbidden terrace.

"Get down, go back. Why do you have the lock with you? Give it to me."

"Why did you come here? To close the tap? Come on. You go back up and open the tap or I'll do it myself", I warned him aloud.

"Nooo noo no no I can't do that. Sahib has instructed me to close it," he managed to nervously mutter.

"Go tell your Sahib that the girls are not allowing you to do that."

I asked my roomie to hold the lock and not give it to him, while I bring up some more girls for support. By the time a crowd was on its way up to the terrace, the man was scurrying downstairs. I thought it was best to let him go and then do whatever I wanted to.

So, while the rest of the bevy took a stroll in the forbidden area, my roomie and I climbed up the overhead tank. I checked the water level and found that it was indeed low. But it wasn't empty. So, the main tap had to be opened.

No sign of any tap anywhere. I had to hurry up because the man would tell the matter to the security guard and she would come and make more noise. We climbed down and searched everywhere while the cool breeze managed to calm me down a little.

There it was! A huge tap amidst a set of smaller ones. I tried turning the smaller ones but they were too tight. I tried the big one and... splurt rrpppssss... The tap turned and I could hear the water beginning to flow again in the pipe attached. The girls were overjoyed. But the damned security guard reached the terrace just in time.

"What's going on here?"

"We need water throughout the day. Not just for 2 or 4 hrs," I told her.

"But there is no water coming from CIDCO only."

"Oh yeah? Great! Then why close the tap? There is no water anyway!" I reasoned.

"No, no! There will be a leakage! The tap has to be closed."

"What crap is going to leak when there is no water in the first place? Stop your nonsense. I am not closing the tap. You understand?"

She muttered something to herself and asked the rest of the girls to go down. When everyone went, I locked the terrace with the original lock AND my own lock. So, no one could come back to close the tap.

I went to my room knowing very well that the security guard would come back with 'scary' news. She came in 5 minutes with an announcement.

"Warden ma'am has asked you to go and meet the Dean. Also, you have to meet Mr. C'kant at the site office. Give me the key."

I pointed to the key lying on my bed and said enthusiastically, "Alright I'll do that right now! I have been wanting to do that for some time now. You have the numbers of these people?" I asked her in a tone that changed her expression drastically.

Smiling slightly, she said, "Today is Sunday, ma'am, no one will be there. And even if they come, they'll come after noon."

"Then you let me know when they come. In fact... why should I go and meet him? When Mr. C'kant comes, ask him to meet me if he wants permission to shut the tap!"

After some questioning and cross questioning in the presence of the sweeper, I managed to find out the truth that water supply was cut only in the girls' hostel. Staff quarters had a 24 hour supply. WTBH!!

I did take my lock back from the terrace door in the evening, but ever since that day, we've been getting water for a considerably longer duration of time. And the best thing- we have a new tap which is connected to the pipe that supplies water to the ground floor 24x7. So, no visits to the ground floor every time someone wants to wash her face! All this without me having to go and meet anyone!

The scene we created did manage to make a difference after all! :)

P.S. Tys On Ice, my favourite blogger, is back and is writing again in full swing. YAY!! He had almost left. Long story. But, he's back now. And I'm very very happy. For those who haven't read Tys On Ice, you are missing truckloads of everything nice!!

Tubes!

Ash (hostel mate) walks into my room with a sulky face, sits on a chair with her legs stetched out and fixes her gaze on her wounded foot.

Ash: Anyone's got Soframycin?
Sur: (shaking her head) Na. I only have Volini. You want?
Me: Eh? Volini? Isn't that for back aches?
Sur: (nodding) I was just saying that's the only thing I have in a tube.
Me: Oh well, Ash, I have Colgate. You want?

Ash gets up, smacks my poor head and walks away. So cruel of... everyone :P But then we didn't have what she wanted, so I guess its ok :P

They like me :)

They like me :) My students like me. And for a teacher, that is a biiiig thing. Especially when your students are BIG and critical.

When a child is in pre-primary, the teacher is their second mother. I remember crying for my class teacher when we had a proxy teacher because mine had gone to take interviews for new admissions.

In primary school there was one teacher for all subjects, almost always. My class teacher would be my favourite every year and I used to think she is the best I could have. I didn't have many options now, did I?

Through middle school, high school, junior college.. the attachment and closeness towards teachers reduces exponentially. I think it is mostly because most teachers expect students to expect a lot less from them. In degree college, there are students for whom the teacher who teaches Maths is only known as Maths ma'am. No name. Not because they don't want to say it, but because they don't know it... because they think they don't need to. She comes, teaches, marks attendance, goes. That (the term in bold) is all that matters.

Anyway, during the mid term tests in our department, we distributed faculty evaluation forms to the second year students (the ones I teach). Such a faculty evaluation procedure is happening for the second time in the past 3 years. The file containing the first set of forms mysteriously disappeared from the department before anyone could see the analysis. I could smell a stinky wolf there for the next few days.

This was second time. The file did not vanish this time because we still haven't filed the forms that we gave to each student. They were asked to rate all their subject teachers on a scale of 0 to 5 for various relevant categories.

Now, with my collar upright and my head held high for a couple of seconds, let me announce the results of the analysis. I got the best ratings in the department :) I got a 5/5 almost everywhere :) Everywhere except punctuality :P One student gave me a rating of 6 and wrote some sweet words as remarks. It was fun to read the remarks that students had written for their teachers. They wrote about how certain teachers must stop being rude unnecessarily, should slow down their pace of teaching, should pay attention to students who are not toppers also. There was one form where the student wrote, "Lab assistant knows more than him"
That's how mercilessly they gave out their opinions.

:) It feels so good to know that they like me :) not just for the interaction and the patient ear, but also for the way I teach :)

Around me

Once in a while, mostly after a holiday, I have dad for company when I travel to college from home. Then we have conversations, mostly nearly one-sided, because he is the one educating me. Conversations begin with anything that we see in our way. It could start with a question or a very exclamatory reaction about something from me, or a question, which is mostly the case, from him. Last Friday was one such day. and I did not get the chance to write this post since then.

We were discussing about YSR Reddy's death in the chopper crash. Btw, I only came to know after he died that this man was a doctor- an MBBS doctor!! Dad says that officials should look into the qualifying papers of the pilot and co-pilot and also talk to people who have trained them. People who deserve to be pilots are not ones who can just fly and do somersaults but those who are able to take decisions - quick ones. I think that comes naturally to people. Working under stressful conditions is not something everyone can do. When you hear about stormy weather or reduced visibility, you should have the nerve to tell the CM or the PM that the path cannot be tread. Turn or return. Don't try to... Maybe I should not say too much against the dead pilot.

I saw a 64 wheeler. Yea I counted. 16 rows of 4 tyres each. I was then told that it was an Abnormal Load Carrier. The carrier would be custom made depending on what the amount of load required to be carried is. After it is used once, it is dismantled and the parts are put away till the next order is received. The parts are then assembled into another carrier depending upon the type of load to be lifted.

Understood? Any doubts? ;) Phew!! I thnk I just made up for not taking a lecture today.

Rest in Next.

Auto trouble

I should've been in the police force. At least I'd have the license to bash some people up. Auto rickshaw drivers are currently at the top of my list.
Now, since I'm not a policewoman, the best I think I can do is to complain against them. I have a long list of auto numbers that refused to take me where I wanted to go. They just shake their heads with an expression that says that they only drive to palaces. They are NOT ALLOWED to refuse to take a passenger to the place they say. I have heard a policeman yelling at one of them for doing that.

Want to know how I finally came home? I stopped an auto, sat in it first while the driver kept asking aloud where I want to go, then told him the place. And when, as expected, he asked me to get down and that he wouldn't go there, I rolled my eyes and said in the scariest tone- u better take me there, or else I'm going to take you to the police.

For now, I have to find out whom I should complain to.