Weekend Round-up

Friday night:

• Black Dahlia : A dark movie. . and gruesome. Not so nice for a Friday night.

Saturday:

• Regents Park: Beautiful on a Saturday morning. Bee played tennis and I took loads of pictures - of the place not the tennis. Followed by coffee. Great start to the day.
• Hampstead Heath: Went with some friends after lunch. Lovely. I loved the unkempt look, quite a contrast to the landscaped Regents Park.
• Richmond: On an impulse. As we marvelled at Hampstead Heath, these friends wanted to take us to Richmond Park which is supposed to be even more beautiful. Well we didn't go to the park, but did go to a pub by the river. It was high tide, the water came in - picturesque!
  
• Walking: With all these park trips we walked and walked and walked
• Dancing: There was a party at a friends place in the evening, so lots of dancing till wee hours of the morning
• Shock: Heard the Scissor Sisters version of 'Comfortably Numb'. How can they be allowed to do that to the song..it does not qualify as a song as far as I'm concerned. Its shrill, has techno beats and is anything but comfortably numb. Horrible, horrible. This is Comfotably Numb, this is not !
  

Sunday

• Study, study, study: Finally, after 'faffing' all weekend
  
• Break: Coffee in the garden. Can't afford to waste more time

That's it. Weekend over and will be back in 5 days and this time there'll be college friends, aunt, cousins . . everyone visiting London the exact same weekend, talk of timing! Here are some of the weekend pictures on Flickr


Have a good week !!

Cheap thrills

Saw a group of people gathered near the tube station and went towards them thinking there was some problem and wanted to find out if I could help. But I discover that our house is on one of the routes of London Walks. Cheap thrills because I thought we lived in quite an obscure place (our tube station draws a blank with most people I meet). . oh well .. obscure it might be ..but atleast once a week a guide points towards our row of houses and says something about them. Must go on that tour sometime :)

From sometime ago

Today I was reading about the Gujarat anti-conversion act and all the protests around it. Am not sure what people are more upset about - having to take 'permission' before changing religion or that Buddhism has been clubbed with Hinduism! I find all this strange and disturbing. Religion, God, these are so personal, yet world over people fight in the name of it.

I was working in Gujarat during the violence in 2002. Overnight curfew was imposed and suddenly I was home bound. For me, to start with, it was a logistical challenge, since I lived alone and didn't have a fridge and therefore was without any food. My landlady and some neighbours were really nice at that time and called me over for meals, which was a really good thing since the curfew was for over seven days. Meal time was also when I would catch the news on TV (since I didn't have one) and the horrors around the city and the state. Incidents like Best Bakery, Naroda Patia and Bilkis Bano were just inhuman and chilling. I still can't believe how people behave in a mob and even now when I see any big group and a hint of violence, it scares me.

I lived in the 'new' part of the city and with an exception of one night was never scared of being a victim (most of the violence was in the old part of the city). The exception was on one of the days when the shops on the main road near my house were broken and looted. There was a rumor of a 'Muslim back-lash' (most colonies I think were fairly homogeneous in terms of religion, not sure for a fact though). Everyone got together and decided that the men would be on guard all through the night and if there was any sign of trouble then they'd raise alarm so people could escape. The 'ammunition' they had was iron rods from a nearby construction site which didn't really count for much. I sat in my room, awake half the night with my handbag ready with money and passport (not that I was planning to go abroad, but its such a hassle getting a passport!) making my mental plan of how fast I would pick that and run. Thankfully, I never had to use any part of my plan and in a week things had calmed down.

A couple of weeks later I visited Ahmedabad to stay with an aunt for a weekend. There were so many signs from the riots - burnt shops, broken glass all over, burnt movie halls, the cloth market totally destroyed. It reminded me of when of 1984 in Delhi when we lived there. I still vividly remember standing on the terrace of our house and seeing smoke rising in the distance from the close by market being burnt down. And when I later went there .. it was much the same sight .. burnt walls and destruction.

During the time of the curfew when I could only interact with my neighbours, I was surprised at the level of emotion and hatred they had in the name of religion. Maybe I don't understand because *touch wood* I have never faced a tragedy or loss to it. Long back I had met a girl from Kashmir whose brother was taken away by the security forces and never came back, the intensity of her hatred towards them (the security forces and 'India') was scary, and we were only 14 then. Hatred leads to a vicious cycle I suppose, wish there was a magical solution to wipe it all away .. and get 'world peace'.

The lighter side

I have been super tense since yesterday's interview, analyzing it over and over again .. living every moment in slow motion. I've totally lost my sleep the last two weeks and am prone to nightmares (about interviews and rejections) or waking up suddenly at 4am and not being able to go back to sleep. (I have now taken to playing solitaire on the phone to manage the boredom at that crazy hour.) This morning I was hysterical for an hour believing that my world will end and I shall be doomed if I don't get the job - I very badly want it to work out.

Some context to this whole job craze I keep going on about. A couple of years back when I decided to study further, it was a big decision. I was doing very well at work, there were some interesting offers I could consider, but I wanted more. Studying meant, I would be giving up my job. There was also the high cost of education as well as the opportunity cost of one year's salary to consider. Everything taken, I chose to quit and go to study. Everyone was very positive since I was going to a well-known place, it worked out perfectly in terms of timeline and I believed the world was mine to conquer after I graduated. I don't regret the studying part because I really did learn a lot and had a fantastic time at school. But now I wonder if it all made sense .. the hardest part is living up to everyone's expectations. There's also the HUGE amount of money I spent, not to mention the time and effort, and all eyes are on me to get that magical job which would justify all of this. Yesterday's job could be just that, so it makes it difficult for me to even breathe till I hear from them. There are few things I have wanted so badly - and the tension is killing.

I started out meaning to write about some funny experiences at job search and interviews.. but it became all soppy again. So back to the original plan . .

• At video conference interviews I (and other classmates) sometimes wore a suit-jacket and all (for the benefit of the interviewer). . along with track-pants/shorts and chappals since the camera was on the table and they could see only half of me. Everyone passing by would ofcourse crack-up.
• The above got me into trouble once when after my interview there was someone else and the interviewer asked me to call in the next candidate without disconnecting. I had a really tough time getting out, hoping he would not see my mis-matched clothes.
• A great plan which we never put into action was to freeze during a video-con interview if it was turning uncomfortable and later tell the interviewer that the screen had frozen. We'd even enact how we'd freeze our hand mid-air in the middle of a sentence.
• I know someone who spilt water on table and his interviewer, in what was the second interview of the day - poor interviewer sat like that till evening.
  
• A dear friend was frantically applying for jobs at one point and sent a cover letter to a company without being careful about making appropriate changes in a copy-paste letter. She later realized that the one she sent had glowing lines about why she wanted to join the competition, a company she had applied to the previous day. (This is surprisingly fairly common).
• A friend once asked an interviewer about the work and whether he enjoyed his work. The reply, "I do enjoy it on some days, but not everyday, there's a reason why its called 'work'".
• I once got two rejection letters for the same job, that really hurt!
• Worse, A friend once got a reject from a job he hadn't even applied for!
  
• During the downturn (in 2001) everyone was getting a lot of 'dings' (rejection letters). So the class put up a bell in the cafeteria which people would ring to get out their frustration when they received yet another letter. It wouldn't stop ringing! (I've only heard this, not sure if its true).
• And finally.... I heard of someone who was ten minutes in an interview before she realized it was the wrong one and her actual interview was in the next room.

That's for today. . this didn’t even come out funny and am now sadder. Shall now release some of the hyper energy in the gym! Good night and Good luck.

Its show time folks

Nice comfortable clothes traded in for the costume.
The make up put on .. not too little .. not too much (hopefully).
The lines being rehearsed last minute.
Butterflies in the tummy, wondering how the audience will react.
Will I convincing enough in the role?
Will they like the performance? Maybe even recommend it to others?
Fingers crossed.

Fifteen minutes to leave for the interview. . and instead of biting my nails off (half are already gone) thought I'd turn to my blog for comfort. Suit donned, shirt ironed, hair neatly tied, uncomfortable high-heels worn (to-look-taller-and- get-confidence), cell phone on silent, directions and details taken - check! Have an interview this afternoon and another one on Monday. Am really counting on the Monday one. .Its a good company, good role and a lot of future potential ... am praying hard. Please say a little prayer for me. I need all the luck in the world.