Its not blocked anymore!

For a few years now, blogs have been blocked at my office. And a casual try today revealed that it no longer is.

And so my first entry after quite sometime.

There has been so much happening in the past 2 years, I cant stop to even recollect. Its been a whirlwind time.

So slowly when the context is set, I shall post whats been happening. Right now, I am in the transition phase of a project we delivered for International Sourcing (TESCO), and I have been asked to take up the Tesco Bank project from where it was left (the lead just left the organization).

Between this, the demands of personal life have increased as well. More news along the way.

Got my hands and feet full at the moment.

PS: Twitter is still blocked. And typing on a touch phone is not my cup of tea I figured. I need a new phone, but pretty sure that isnt allowed for a while now. Too many unused electronics at home.

"Watch" Out!

I think I am beginning to have a humble watch collection.

I've had several watches, all of which are very precious to me. My wife added a fantastic watch to that collection, this morning. Thats the one in the pic.

My first ever watch was a black TIMEX that I got in Sapna Plaza, Infantry Road, Bangalore. The watch cost my dad Rs 499 after a discount from 540.

The next one was a watch that I got when I exchanged one of my dad's watches with his brother. I got a HMT digital watch with a lot of features.

Then the one I flicked from my dad, a classic HMT, one in which you'll have to wind the spring up for it to work.

Then I got the best of them all so far, Casio dual dial (analog and digital), square golden dial. I had it for 9 years till I broke it when I banged my hand against a table after losing a point in table tennis. I didnt wear a watch for a year, as my punishment. I still have the dial (the link cog broke, rendering it unwearable again)

I replaced that with a Casio MDV 300 with a white dial. The heaviest watch I've got so far. I still wear that. I consider it my best buy, the king of my collection.

The next one is a Mexx. This I bought as a present from dad-in-law. Its the second square dial watch I've got. Leather strap, all black.

And then comes the prince of the collection. The Fossil Blue BQ9335. Its a wonderful piece, suits me to the T. I was a bit surprised with the perfection of my wife's selection, because I had a notion she wouldnt know.

Without intentionally doing so, I've developed a small collection for myself. Nice.

Now this has got to be spooky!

I've been cleaning out my Gmail Chat contacts...

And been removing from the list, all the people whom I have either lost contact with or just that I havent really chatted with them...

I just hid a person from that list, with whom I havent chatted even a single time in the entire existence of my gmail ID...

And the very next day, that person comes online and says "Hi there anand, you remember me?"!!!! And as I type this post, I am answering that very person...

If that isnt spooky, then very few are!

Build a house and see...

Make a marriage and see!

Thats the verbatim translation of a tamil proverb, which aims at telling you how difficult it is in India to construct a house or arrange a marriage.

I had my marriage arranged quite well, and having arranged for the bride myself, my parents had little to do.

But now that we have started construction, rather renovation, of my dad's house in my quasi-native Hosur, I am being sucked into a whirlwind of activities and phone calls.

On other news, my project at office is reaching taller heights of confusion...So life being a tad busy there also.

And wife is now at Korea, which leaves me alone at home. Keeping myself immersed in books and TV.

Btw, I've just spent around Rs 3000 on books (novels/short stories/biographies) last week. By far, the largest book buying spree undertaken by me.

So thats how I live these days!

Marriage, Malaysia, Singapore & UK

It has been almost 4 months since my last post and it really has been quite impossible given my penchant for laziness, to be up and about in my blog.

I've lived a short lifetime, in these months.I've done most of what I have wanted to do for a long time.

1. I've ofcourse, gotten married, to Aarthi
2. We honeymooned in Malaysia and Singapore. So that started my long-awaited travelling outside India.
3. Wife moved in with me into the newly rented house in Bangalore. I'm a complete family man now.
4. In March, my company, wanted me to be in the UK for sometime, and lo, here I am blogging from the UK, in the last few weeks of my stay during the first trip. Yes, I am coming back here for a second trip, in July. So this initiates my long-awaited onsite-travel.

So I've succeeded in doing the few main things a man of my age would normally want to do. I have special things in my to-do list which I should be doing in times to come.

I've had a wonderful stay at the UK. I've been lucky in having a large number of close friends, darlings they are. And I am not going to miss known people, wherever I go around the world. UK, unsurprisingly, has so many of my friends with whom I could recall those wonderful days, and because of whom my present stay in UK wasnt so much of a pain, considering I've left my wife behind in India.

My life in these few months since the start of the year, are a treasure of resource to be blogging about, but unfortunately, the lazy bum that I am, I havent been able to.

I've met Anila & Vineesh in the UK, and spent wonderful days in their company. I've met Harsha and Vaibhav, whom I know through my wife. I've spoken to quite a few other friends whom I wasnt able to meet personally, atleast in this trip, including my ex-manager from my previous company, who is english.

Sometimes you sit back and wonder how lucky you've been to know such wonderful people.

I've been around most of London, and places around it. I work at Cheshunt, and stay at Hertford, both North of London. Visit google maps for details.

I've done a lot of trips and tours and interesting stuff here, which I will blog about pretty soon.

All said and done, I cant wait to get on the plane to India. 16 more days to go!