A New Career

It’s been a year since Ajith retired from his full-time job and since then, I have been a bit more relaxed at home - A major share of my workload has now been taken over by him and that resulted in some free time. I didn't want to waste my precious time watching TV or doing nothing in particular. So, I decided to learn something new or take up a part time job. The latter would mean doing simple, boring jobs which may not excite me. I began to ponder over a skill that I would love to excel. That is when writing struck me.

Since I have been blogging for a while – to be precise 8 years – and technology has always been my passion, hubby suggested technical writing as an ideal niche for me. On hearing this, the first positive thought that came to my mind was that my educational background would definitely add some advantage here if I chose this profession.

All excited, I wasted no time and started researching on institutes in Bangalore that offered a certification course in Technical writing and finalized one pretty quickly. I got enrolled in early January and started my course in the middle of the same month. Now, two and half months on, I have not only completed the course but also managed to land up in a job! Yes, it was like a dream come true after a long gap since my last job; that too in a totally different industry and job profile. I joined my employer on 2nd April having got the offer the previous day. I shall provide the details pretty soon.

Well! I am excited but nervous. It’s been long since I worked in a corporate environment and I have to start fresh! I have had over three years’ of work experience in my own domain (Instrumentation) but that doesn't count for my new job. Work experience in the Aerospace industry also doesn't give me an edge. So here I am, feeling like a 22 year old fresher, going through an induction process at the moment while getting familiarized with new tools, technologies and application functionalities. Will provide you more updates soon.

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Hello!

Is anyone still following my blog? If so I am blessed. It’s been two years since I last updated. Life has been treating me well. Thank God for that! Adi will be a 7th grader soon and Atul a 7 year old special baby :).
Time flies!  Atul's smiles and coos keep me going. Atul's hands and legs are still soft and baby like and I will never miss having a baby for life. Our very own eternal one!

Update on Atul’s health
He still seizes around 30 times a day. Our tough little fighter! Seizes and smiles like nothing occurred. The only time he shows disappointment and howls is when his milk or food is delayed. He is feather light and can be carried around, gurgles like a 6 month old baby and this trait makes me feel like a mother to a new born. I  can't stop referring to him as baby when friends enquire and I wonder how they feel about it.  His schedule has kept me busy till today and I have not outgrown the fresh mother on the block mode.

There is a significant update that I would like to share. Husband has retired from his full time job and is now flexible to help me around even more. Yay! This doesn't mean that I can take advantage of his flexibility. He still needs to concentrate on his independent venture which will demand a subsequent amount of time. But the worthy point is that he can now enjoy oodles of family time while  earning from home.

Adi is in his own world where school and friends have taken precedence.  He manages to do well academically, although a big chunk of his time is spent in extracurricular activities.

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Harmony Finally!

At the moment ,  I feel a sense of tranquillity. There were plenty tasks pending over a past few months and they have all been sorted out successively.

Primarily, I bid farewell to our old home on Saturday. It’s been quiet a journey from preparing it for sale,  to customers visiting every weekend to have a peek at it.  The sentiment was similar to marrying off your daughter and the related anxiety.In our case we were already quiet apprehensive after the last incident where the party backed out after the initial agreement. Read here to know more about that incident. Thank God! Things were smooth this time. Also I would like to pat our own back for having managed to sell it at the price we estimated.

Next was a kitty party which I kept putting off on an excuse that I would like to host it in my new home. It’s been an year since few  ladies from our apartment socialized by organizing kitty parties. Each one of us were supposed to take turns in hosting it . Initially we decided to treat everyone with a snack and drink but as the kitties progressed, the  food spread kept getting elaborate. It reached a phase where full fledged lunch consisting of the host’s regional speciality was being offered. As months passed by, pressure kept building. Realisation dawned late that I shouldn't have put it off this long and finally I had no place to hide. After having shamelessly enjoyed all the parties it was time for my show and I dialled the hot line. MY MOM came to my rescue and she wove her magic to save my face. Together we blanched,  boiled,  grounded,  fried, stewed, simmered and  pressure cooked with the steam coming off the cooker and my head only to lay a very fine Kerala meal with the goodness of coconut oil and grated coconut!!!!! The guests licked their fingers off and today I am a content Lady with my kitty amount safely hidden in a place where hubby can’t reach, else he may flick that to pay his car cleaner!!!

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Juggling too many balls at a time

New Year is round the corner and people are in a mood to party .So are we! Organising parties have always been a challenge for me and couple of other enthusiasts. It’s a great feeling when everything turns out as expected but equally lousy when things go wrong.

Scheduling it a month ahead gives us ample time to put things in order. It all began with a, “Hey! What plans for new year?” and we work our ass off to respond to that query. It’s not that we are compelled to organize but people know where to nudge when it comes to arranging events. This time I had intended to turn a deaf ear to that alluring question, considering the number of activities going on in my life but the fanatic me consented. This puts me in a spot where handling the pressure of moving to my new home and organizing an event will get challenging. Constantly I crib over the fact of never being able to say No to people especially friends even if that means sacrificing my personal commitments. I am talking about an enthusiast who has dug a grave for herself and expects me to join her soon with regards to planning the festivity.

It’s been four months since our interior work began and the task has been moving at a snail’s pace. Thanks to a bunch of lazy carpenters and to my dear architect friend who has no control over them owing to her soft nature. I really cannot blame her as it’s a tough job in view of the fact that her field is male dominated and it really takes a man to control these arrogant masons and carpenters. What had to be completed in 2 months got hauled indefinitely. Nevertheless I am completely gratified with the outcome. Hopefully we should be able to move by the coming weekend provided, the theme walls are done and additional furniture delivered on time. So far the wood work, light fittings and plumbing are done .Couple more furniture were added which included Adi’s bed, study table, chair, bar unit , crockery unit and few other ornamental objects to our existing bloated list. I must be fancying to have bought a mansion as opposed to a three bedroom flat. Hope God can help us draw a line as we could not stop ourselves from buying a few more appliances which includes all that you can think off. “Guilt has seized me completely” would be an understatement.

Getting back to the event organizing part, Co-ordinating is the key to getting it done. This means gluing our ears to the phone. Background work is always dirty especially fixing the caterer, arranging lights and sound, not to mention digging out games for kids, collecting resources for it, assigning people to do it and finally annoying them by constantly reminding them to do it

 Forgot to mention about getting the brat to do homework and study for tests amongst all the other issues. But I love being busy and that’s what keeps me going.

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Singapore Thailand vacation

I have been feeling guilty of neglecting my blog for quite a while now. For the oblivious, we were on a vacation to Singapore and Thailand last month. After a brief stay in US exactly 9 years back, this was my first visit abroad after returning to India for good. It’s been on our cards for a while now, but our plans got adjourned due to various reasons which in itself deserves another post.

Let me begin with Singapore. It was 3 pm on 4th Oct when we landed in Singapore.As we got off the plane , it was drizzling outside and it felt like I landed in Kerala as the weather was warm and humid with a refreshing shower.A promising weather for a lovely vacation. There was a man in his early forties waiting to receive us at the airport . He was part of the plan arranged by our travels. He chauffeured us to our hotel located in Little India street. True to its name, that was the only place in Singapore which was a step behind the other areas in terms of cleanliness :p. You get a feel of being in Chennai as the area is populated with Tamil immigrants. If you don’t want to explore on other cuisines and stick to Indian especially Tamil cuisine, you are in the right place. Incidentally the streets were decorated with Diwali lighting and colors. I din’t miss the festivity of Diwali in India as Little India was even more pepped up with young people preparing for some cultural show in an empty ground.The streets were decorated with garlands, lights, colorful arches and lamps. After a brief refreshment at the hotel, we took a walk along the streets of Little India just to soak in the festive feel.
That night we were taken to the Night safari which is supposed to be the world’s first night time zoo. This zoo can be explored via tram and you get to see 8 geographical zones without much of a huff and puff. The open air zoo is dimly lit and it simulates the animals natural habitat. The visitors need not worry about being attacked by these animals as they are separated by natural barriers. There are cultural shows of which Creatures of the night show is an amazing spectacle being performed by the animals of the zoo. Hats off to the trainers who took years to train these creatures. Well! That was our first shot at Singapore and we were extremely tired and dozing on our way back to the hotel.
The next day after a sumptuous breakfast buffet, a van with 10 other tourists most of ‘em from mumbai were waiting for us to join ‘em. That meant interesting company for a city tour. It din’t take much time to get comfort able in each other’s company and soon we were enjoying places with ‘em. There was this couple in their early fifties who boasted about this being their 16th place abroad and how they loved travelling. The enthusiastic lady’s brag was a sure-fire entertainer. I guess with their kind of profile, I would do the same thing too.Instead of getting into details,I will leave you with some pics of the city.





By noon we headed off to Sentosa Island and guess who kept us company, none other than the boasting couple themselves. However Adi was a saviour as he kept them busy by asking about the places they visited and they were happy to have their fan ‘s undivided attention.
It was only an hour drive to sentosa island from our hotel .There were a series of attractions in this island which included Imbiah lookout, Fort Siloso ,Surrender Chamber wax museum, the Underwater World and Dolphin Show. The most mesmerising of all was the songs of the sea with a live cast, dramatic effects and pyrotechnics. Water jets, flame bursts, lasers and captivating music make this a one-of-a-kind entertainment spectacle that's fun for everyone .This is one performance that you won't want to miss.




An amazing day passed by and it was 9 P.M by the time we reached our hotel. Exhausted, we dived into our freshly made bed .We slept like babies only to find that we were too late for breakfast the next morning. Moreover the car that was supposed to drop us to Jurong bird park was waiting with our most privileged boasting company and hell we could not keep them waiting. Also we were supposed to get back by 12 P.M to catch the flight to Bangkok which was our next destination. However we reached the park on time and it was all worth the rush. It had an amazing collection of birds and I was surprised to watch their shows - Birds n Buddies and Kings of the Skies. Adi had a blast watching these shows.


Birds n Buddies Show

Its amazing to watch the parrot sing in 3 language and watch the macaws fly through hoops.

Kings of the Skies
Volunteers were all afire to participate in the show. The kids couldn't wait to get involved.The falcons fly so close that their wings sometimes brush against you!

Two hours wasn't enough to cover the 2.5 hectare park. But we managed to cover most of it and hoping that we din't miss out on something important. Reluctantly we left the park to catch our flight on time. In short Singapore was a fun treat for Adi and us.

Adventures in Pattaya and Bangkok will be my next post. Until then!

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Bunch of Morons

Rant Alert!

A string of untoward events have been taking place for a while now and I blame it on fate. The foremost was just after Ganesh celebration. A prospective client who had signed an agreement to buy our two bedroom flat unexpectedly decided not to and broke the news exactly a month after signing the paper. We were shocked at his abrupt change in mind as he was still looking for better options after getting into an agreement with us. Hats off to his guts to do so, especially after cautioning us against marketing our home for a better price. I get a feeling that he must have looked for other options even after getting engaged to a girl! I am worried about the one he is married to. Hopefully he isn’t reading my blog.

 Jokes apart, the bit that irked me most was the process that led to signing the agreement which in itself was an elongated and laborious one. He claimed that, it was the first time that he has been investing in a property and so the apprehension, which was at least tolerable. To my surprise, he walked in with a measuring tape the day he came to check out our home, to measure the dimensions of the house as he said he doesn’t trust the document. When that was sorted, he bargained over the price and the upright hubby budged to his terms. Hubby isn’t the negotiating type and wanted to avoid many rounds of conversation. He then wanted to check the authenticity of the documents. That took a couple of days and he returned satisfied. Finally he is ready for the sale agreement during which we clearly mention that the sale deed would be done only after 2 months during which time our new one would be ready. He agrees willingly and fixes the date for the agreement. This was followed by the process of fixing an advance amount to be paid for reserving the flat. That was only a meagre 2% of the entire amount. I was stupefied when he said that he could only disburse 0.1%. For a moment I wondered if he was picturing buying a couch. However hubby sensed trouble and preferred calling it off. We decide to step out of the deal while this man pursues further and manages to negotiate at 0.25%.” Dumb us “We agreed just to get him off our back. 

The rest of the story is predictable. He kept looking for better options within our own complex and unearthed one. He got back to us saying that he came across another one, which has 20 sq. ft. of extra balcony are and demanded his advance back. Ahem! He thinks we are clowns.  

The next incident doesn’t affect us much as this did. We had procured 15 bags of sand for civil work in our new flat. It arrived on a holiday and our labourers weren’t available on that day to store the bags in our working site. It was placed on the side of the approach road without much hindrance to the movement of vehicles. The plan was to move it as soon as the labourers return the subsequent day. By then, an overly vigilant member in charge of cleanliness of our apartment who is known for breaking rules himself walks up to the security and orders them to dump all the sand in the play area without verifying with us. When questioned about the hasty act, he declared that personal belongings should not be placed in the common area even if it is for a day. The funny part being that this man resides in the ground floor and for years his potted plants are lying in the common area. The irony!

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