just another day in my mindset at the office

Its becoming harder to come up with topics to write about these days, and i blame that on my work place for making my life routine. Today was even more boring than the other work days for quiete a few reasons 

1) We had no meetings at all, so that meant spending 8 hours staring at the computer screen 

2) I usually equip myself with a well thought playlist for such occasions, but thanks to a cheap memory card, all my songs were wiped off and i had no music.

3) Being diwali, half of the people were on leave and there are not many people left to talk to.

But then i resorted to plan B to make the day a little more interesting. Plan B meant chatting with people over the office messenger. In the midst of all this, out of nowhere i remembered my school days where we had one very effective way of tackling situations like these. It used to start off with just a few guys, then spread accross the entire class room, and pretty soon the entire building would be doing it. It was so effective that the principal had no option but to give in to our demands. By now you must be curious as to what i am talking about. What we used to do was , Start hitting the benches and yell "HALF DAY!". It spread like an infection and every student used to start hitting the benches in unison and yell at the top of their lungs. More often than not, we got that announcement over the intercom where the principal uttered the words we were waiting to hear, we got our half day. I wondered if these tactics would work in the office. Just the thought of all of us banging the desks yelling "half day" is funny enough to put a smile on your face during the otherwise dull day. Maybe the seniors would start acting like our teachers used to, and retort by writing down our employee id's on the board? What if they made us kneel down outside the cubicle as a punishment for making a noise in the office? I was so bored that i had these thoughts running through my mind. But if theres one thing that the work place can borrow from schools and colleges, it would be "the bell". It would be nice if there was a bell that rung at 5pm where everyone would have to get off their seats and take a break for snacks and tea, and then one at 11pm forcing everyone to leave at the dot of 11 ensuring that we work only 8 hours a day. But then again, wouldn't this make the day more routine than it already is?

When i grow up?

Theres this new song they keep playing on VH1. I hate it, I have to switch channels everytime it plays. It ruins my daily morning doze of VH1. The song sucks, I would rather listen to himesh than this crappy song. Its a song called "when i grow up" by the pussy cat dolls. How did they manage to get songs like this on TV? Even the nursery rhymes we learnt as kids make more sense than its lyrics. Theres one annoying line they keep repeating, It goes "ha ha ha ha". Here are the lyrics, meaningless, absurd, utter crap! If anyone of you happened to like this song, you need to see a shrink now!

Boys call you sexy (What's up, sexy)
And you don’t care what they say
See, every time you turn around
They screamin' your name

[Verse 1]
Now I've got a confession
When I was young I wanted attention
And I promised myself that I’d do anything
Anything at all for the boys to notice me

[Bridge]
But I ain't complaining
We all wanna be famous
So go ahead and say what you wanna say
You know what it's like to be nameless
Want them to know what your name is
'Cause see when I was younger I would say

[Chorus]
When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star
I wanna be in movies

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have Groupies

When I grow up
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines

When I grow up
Fresh and clean
Number one chick when I step out on the scene

[Hook x2]
But be careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get it
But you just might get it
But You just might get it

[Verse 2]
They used to tell me I was silly
Until I popped up on the TV
I always wanted to be a superstar
And knew that singing songs would get me this far

[Bridge]
But I ain't complaining
We all wanna be famous
So go ahead and say what you wanna say
You know what it's like to be nameless
Want them to know what your name is
'Cause see, when I was younger I would say



[Hook x2]
Be careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get it
You just might get it
You just might get it

[Verse]
I see them staring at me
Oh I'm a trendsetter
Yes this is true 'cause what I do, no one can do it better
You can talk about me
'Cause I'm a hot topic
I see you watching me, watching me, and I know you want it

[Chorus]
When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star
I wanna be in movies

[Chorus]
When I grow up
I wanna be famous
I wanna be a star
I wanna be in movies

When I grow up
I wanna see the world
Drive nice cars
I wanna have Groupies

When I grow up
Be on TV
People know me
Be on magazines

When I grow up
Fresh and clean
Number one chick when I step out on the scene

[Hook x2]
Be careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get it
You just might get it
You just might get it

[Hook x2]
Be careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get it
You just might get it
You just might get it

When will they grow up???

The different views on photography

As i was walking out side my office, i looked up to the sky and noticed a clear blue sky, a streak of clouds, and with the sun below the horizon, the clouds lit up with a bright orange colour. It was a beautiful sight. I stopped to take a picture while the others walked ahead. When i showed them the picture, they asked "What can you do with this picture? How many times will you look at it?"

Its a pity that some people dont have an eye for photography. I like to think i do. This is not the first time i got comments like these. It's happened many times before whenever i send pictures to friends. The first question they ask is "where are the people?"

Some people may ask others to come closer together so that they fit in the picture, but i ask others to move out of the frame if i like the scenary better. Some people ask me "why do you take picture of trees and other objects?" while some others ask me "what camera did you use to take this picture?". Its the latter kind whose opinion matters. I feel proud when i tell them that i used my ordinary 2mp sony ericsson phone camera.

Landscape/Nature photohrapy is one of my favourite hobbies, along with biking and listening to music. The only time when i can do all of it at the same time is when i am on a bike trip to some place away from the city life, while i listenin to music and cruise the highways with stops for photograpy wherever the scenary makes me stop. It leaves you with a fresh feeling for the entire month and an eagerness to go on another such trip again. 

I am still stuck on a hangover of sorts from the previous 5 day ride. When i am at home, everything is a routine. wake up at the same time, go to office, sit at the same desk, next to the same people, take some cafeteria breaks with the same people, go home, sleep , repeat. It gets really boring. When you are on a bike ride, everything is different. You sleep at different hotels every night, wake up early, hit the highway, stop at a new place for breakfast, a new highway dhaba for lunch/dinner and visit places you haent been to before. Thats the good life, a good break from the daily routine, everyone must try it atleast once. If you do, you will thank me later

More on telemarketers

The following is an exceprt from a real conversation which happens atleast once every week.

It is translated to english so that others can understand and to hide the fact that my hindi sucks and my hindi spellings suck even more.

Telemarketer: Hello sir,  Can i speak to angelo?

Me: yes, speaking.

Telemarketer: Sir you have been making your bike payments on time and you are a very loyal customer, So we are willing to offer you a personal loan of Rs 50,000.

Me: Not interested.

Telemarketer: But sir, you are a loyal customer and the intrest rate is also low sir. Why aren't you interested

Me: May be because.... I am not in need of a loan??

Telemarketer: Ok (Hungup)

I don't get these telemarketers. They need to change their stratergy. Perhaps  if they call someone who is having difficulty in paying their existing loans, their offer would be more appreciated. But if they still insist that i am as loyal a customer as they perceive and wish to reward me for that, I'd be glat to accept the Rs 50,000 for free. Are you reading this Mr Telemarketer?

An update on the post The goverment totally sucks

I got the extra 650 that was deducted from my account.

The bank had a bunch of  printed forms which state that "my account was debited twice".

I guess the problem is not that uncommon to them after all. It really makes you confident the next time you wanna pay by your SBI card, dosen't it?