Thursday, March 27, 2014

The happiness lingers...

I was happy today, after a long long time, happy, after what seemed like eternity of a subdued, meaningless existence. I am really thankful to my university senior who gave me this job, a new lease of life has been given to me. And then I am really grateful about the socialization and adventure associated with the entrepreneurship course discussion that is held in the American Center every Wednesday. Believe me, achieving this much has been hard for me, almost next to impossible. For I am a really shy girl from within. I am a snail which won’t like to come out of its shell. So, each little thing that I have made possible makes me proud of myself. Right from making the first phone calls to people, asking to help me out in my job search. I am immensely reserved about asking favors, have a majorly big ego and over that, frankly, I don’t have good friends either. In fact somehow I turn up with extremely selfish people and call them friends, I don’t know why I am so stupid. Then, it is very difficult for me to ask for anything whatsoever. Like, first day in the new place, I just didn’t use the rest room – I didn’t want to ask about it (where is it located, can I use the same one that I used as a student, or are there separate ones for teachers and non teaching staff etc etc – on a lighter note, I am using a toilet marked with T (T2 to be precise), now I don’t know whether T stands for Toilet in general or Teacher in particular :D :D…Then there is the usual problem of asking a bus conductor to tell me when my stop comes – I find a lot of apprehension in that too – what will he think, will he think I am a baby or a newbie or a plain idiot? Being in so many different countries have added to the confusion. Am I supposed to eat in the bus, or they will throw me out? I wonder with my tiffin box in hand (ya, mom made me my first dabba today – and as to why I needed to eat in the bus, I wanted to utilize time – didn’t want to waste work time in the university, because I was leaving early for the course today). Can you believe, I was sitting with a dry throat all the time during the discussion, just because I did not want to ask directions to the water filter?? Moreover, neither did I want to go out and explore, because I had to ask the guy next to me to keep my precious seat (I had gotten one in the first row – but later they arranged chairs in two more rows in front of me, as more people turned up). Funny thing is, the guy himself asked me to keep his seat and smartly went out – and I was cursing myself. Thank God, at the end of the session, I was smart enough to locate the water filter myself, else I was already coaxing myself – let it be, we’d take the metro and reach home in a jiffy (it took around 1 hour anyways). Imagine what my condition would have been without water in this hot and humid climate. Yesterday however, it rained again – that too just when I had stepped out for lunch. It was a huge storm, with a power cut (that’s one thing that’s rare in the city – much unlike Bangalore).  But how I loved being part of it – that full throttle wind, that instant water logging, that anxious crowd that has been forced to come to a standstill amid a busy afternoon’s schedule. Frankly, I am loving my city more with every passing day. It is like being in mother’s lap as opposed to the over hyped step mom that Bangalore used to be. Yes, the money was good there, but then I got my PF claim processed – never saw a government job being done this fast, but then remember my paper work too was immaculate, why I even got some spare revenue stamps till now :D :D – lest I have to send the forms again. Well, I do earn a salary of an IT developer with around a year’s experience. But then I am not a selfish person. I was happy when I heard that the kid whom I had recruited as a fresher in my last organization has got 3 job offers, and has cleared the first round of interview for yet another company. I was not jealous, in fact I was grateful that he remembered me and informed me (he's a good kid, he had thanked me in the party he had given to celebrate his joining anniversary - both the kids I selected have been doing good work - I am happy and proud for them). Just that I need to continue the work, else I will die of boredom. Please God, the university environment seems friendly enough, let me get a somewhat permanent job there itself. Please, please God, after a long time, I am asking You for something…won’t You listen to me?
P.S. - Not that I am not scared about this happiness going away - but then I would be such a coward if out of that fear I hold myself back from describing this wonderful feeling.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

First day's work...end of devil's workshop?

So how was first day at work? There were usual apprehensions and skepticisms. As I might have mentioned here, this after all has been my first place of work – and at that time ambition ruled supreme. The restrictions imposed by an university environment was not for a so called “dynamic young lady” like me…(if I have already mentioned the story somewhere, let me take this opportunity to repeat – I was described in this way by a very senior HR manager during the final round of interview with the first MNC I worked for – the interviewer, incidentally hailed from this same university). In no time was I flying higher – as I always boast, I got 10 times my initial salary in the first six years of work. And then what? Back to square one? Dynamic is replaced by other D words like downtrodden, depressed and demotivated? What happened girl, you might jeer at me and ask…

But still it is work – precious work which I did not have in the last 6 months. Albeit it is a never seen before kind of dusty, untidy lab where housekeeping comprises a bai lady cleaning the floor with a bucket of water and a piece of cloth. But then it is comfortable otherwise sans my familiar problem of the AC being too cold. Albeit it had prehistoric CRT monitors at most of the desks, but they were branded IBM machines (who cares if the OS they are using is Windows 2000 – it is just a step back from XP, and… well Windows 7 and 8 are but old wine in a new bottle). I got a permission to bring my laptop from tomorrow, so ideally this should not be a big issue. If I can connect through WiFi with their LAN and access the shared folders, my work is done. What if in the entire day all you get to see is 5-10 faces (some of them known from beforehand, and it was a big relief to find them still friendly) – it is being more social than staying holed up inside your room with your dad, mom and grandma as the only company. You get to board a bus or auto rickshaw every day – you get to meet people…and ya, you get to battle natural calamities, like today we had the first nor'wester of the season, just moments after I boarded the bus. As soon as I got down, the wind pounced on me and drenched me as if it were Holi and some naughty guy was after me to drown me in colors. Ah, rain, perhaps my most favorite thing on earth. How I have learnt over the years to do without almost everything that is dear to me. I still remember my sheer ecstasy as the bus would speed through down pouring rain over the newly built Electronic City Flyover in Bangalore. I remember the whimsical raining when I was in Singapore – how it used to instantly bring down the heat – and I’d watch it intently from my window. 

Work is not much – how much work can migration of a website involve? I got a fair hang of it in the first day itself. It is gonna be routine work – and I really didn’t have any mind to discuss the money. All I was happy about was that my best friends’ forecast was not entirely false. But as much as he said,  চাকরি তো তোকে করতেই হবে...he also did say, তুই চাকরি ধরবি আর ছাড়বি - so you see, I really can't trust the longevity of this job. Though they did say, this might go on till the next two months, well, I have stopped being hopeful these days. 

One more thing I was wondering is - I am back here  after a decade - if this is a cycle repeating, will any other cycle repeat as well? Which ones? The good ones or the bad ones?

Discipline and whim goes side by side in me. First I wouldn't sleep because I haven't brushed my teeth and cleansed my face. And once these were done much lethargically,  I wanted to write about my first day's experience. Now I am almost dropping dead from sleep over my laptop, so good night :)

PS - Extremely sad that Candy Crush reset to level 1 - I had reached level 57 if I remember correctly. But anyways, I am back at 26 or 27 once again - what if my eyes are aching and watering all the time. Last time I checked, I was still having 6/6 vision, so not to worry :)

Saturday, March 22, 2014

5 days of changing colors



Ok, so have been deferring this entry for the past 2-3 days on the context of being tired/exhausted/sleepy etc. etc. But not anymore. Not that I am not yawning today as well, going out in the Kolkata summer gets my head aching every time, nevertheless I am gradually adapting to it. Surprisingly, there’s hardly much heat, it is around 30 degree C in the evening. What matters is the humidity, so much like that Vidya lady of Kahaani, I travel around with a bottle of water (the magenta one I got from Mysore when I was taking the training there). Firstly it is colourful, it kinda brightens up my environment, and secondly, it gives me this distinct “confused foreigner” touch – as I am not yet fully prepared to become one with the city, I quite like that…
Well, where do I begin? Monday night perhaps? When I received this inconsequential and unsolicited sms from my ex college crush. Gentleman writes a funny line “My wife has given birth to a baby girl”. See, in a general situation this wouldn’t have mattered to me. But I am going through a hurtful time right now. I just remembered how this guy had played around with me and was always shy of commitment citing 1000+1 reasons like I don’t belong to his community to he is not yet established. But he never let go of me. I stopped talking to him after college, he sought me and came to meet up with me in the university, was in touch all the while in between (we even met once in SG airport), till he marries this pretty girl from his so called community. Well, that time I was not exactly lonely, I didn’t mind that much. Some years down the line, I got to know one day, as I wished him on his birthday (this I always maintained – I even wished him last month – but ya, I will discontinue that henceforth – why? I just don’t feel like keeping friends anymore) – that he’s not having good terms with his wife. She is greedy about a good lifestyle, and doesn’t want to stay with his parents, wants abroad trips and all every year, etc. And then, I don’t know from where, came the obvious comparison. You would have been happy with only a few story books, you are so different from her. Men, I tell you. And so typical of me, I counseled him about how to win her back. And here they are, supposedly having made a baby. Ha ha, though his sms gave all the credit to the wife, so much so that I dreamt that night of his wife having a test tube baby and all (you know the usual IVF funda). Whatever, I was not happy – repeating my typicality, I would have sent a congratulatory message immediately, but I stopped myself. Ever watched মেঘ কালো? I remembered the movie. Here I am, no job, no marriage, no remote possibility of a baby, a dead Rupai haunting me all the while. What’s there to be happy about your own once upon a time boyfriend’s baby. It could have been my baby, could have added some meaning and some value to my otherwise worthless existence. But no, men can only flirt with me.
With all that IVF dream, I woke up late on Tuesday morning, came downstairs, and mom informed me about some free course on entrepreneurship, to be conducted in the American Center the day after. I was reluctant to sign up for it. The previous day, I had spoken to a senior guy from my last place of work, about joining back. I wanted to wait for that, and join back with whatever condition they impose on me. Frankly, the prospect of an embracing Kolkata was drying up for me. Bangalore would be equally unwelcoming, but I’d have some occupation, you know, which would translate to some self esteem. But then all day passed, with me lazing about, and no information from the other end. Then, just out of sheer boredom, I logged in to edx.org and signed up for the course. I had no idea about the time when the discussion would start, I just checked the net and found that the American Center is open from 10 am to 6 pm. I decided to turn up at 10 itself. There was one more news about the hangouts server hanging from time to time, don’t know if it was a result of that, but at around 7 pm I got a message from office about the preliminary discussions. As expected, constraints were there, as of now, on the domain of work, but I knew it’d later get on to the offered salary and another 100 odd things. But such was my desperation at that time that nothing mattered. I sms-ed saying I am ok with any domain of work – there is no preference on banking.
Well, the next morning, with a lot of loathing in my mind, I got up early (it was as usual me coaxing myself – get up baby, we have to at least try to live – all that usual bull shit). The excitement was in taking the metro ride to Maidan. I was taking the metro after a long time, and then for the first time during the office hour rush. Well, I hardly knew the adventure that’d follow. My phone rang when I was busy observing the metro crowd. It was my colleague. Frankly, I couldn’t hear half the things he was saying, and as we went down underground, the signal snapped. Soon I reached the American Center, and found they have strange security rules – like they won’t allow the back pack in. So with my diary, wallet, water bottle, pen, mobile and keys I had to get inside – precariously balancing everything, I moved a bit here and there, only to know that the discussion is scheduled at 3:30 pm.  I gave a return call to the person, and what I could gather this time around is, he is trying elsewhere, so that I can stay in Kolkata itself. He advised me to hold on a bit, and if nothing else works out, he’d resume the discussions with my previous organization. Well, what could I say? For a while I felt like this child from whom everyone is busy hiding the candy. Then I snapped out of it. There were more pressing things. Like what to do for the next 5 and ½ hours? If I go back home there was no coming back, no sir, I didn’t have that much enthusiasm. And I had no idea how else to spend time in that alien area. I asked one indifferent lady, if she would mind if I sit down in the reception area, and she exclaimed, “why should I mind?” (me and my politeness can get on anybody’s nerve including mine). Well, then I gave a call to dad – and he just advised me to visit the museum. Frankly speaking, I had no idea then that it’d turn out to be such a good suggestion. Now that I come to think of it, probably it was the only place you could explore alone – and so I did. Each small coin, each broken statue (I saw this statue of Karthikeya - the God with his peacock, and I was like Boo Boo :-( :-( :-( ), each handicraft, and each specimen of evolution. And then there was the Egypt room, and the 4500 year old mummy. You visit such a place, you get a welcome respite from you day to day monotony. Your troubles seem insignificant for a while. They are however not erased, mind you. For as I was having my lunch in Dominos afterwards, I was so jittered that I didn’t even see the men sign on the toilet. One guy warned me and then only I apologized and moved to the ladies’ room. May be one more example of how things stay in your head. If I remember correctly, in the Dominos near our office, there was only one common toilet, and that memory stayed on, replacing my common sense. So, as I was walking about aimlessly, an old friend and colleague called. She was in Kolkata, wanted to meet up – could I come over the next day? Wow, for a person who had zero activity for the last few months, it was two consecutive days of outing. I gladly agreed and said I’d go in the morning itself. Finally, I did attend the discussion as well, heard this speech from someone who has founded “Calcutta Walks” – where he walks around with people and explores Calcutta (much like the walking tours in Prague, but I’d have never believed that people would be willing to walk in this heat). Also I got a free membership to the library there. While I was attending the discussion, the next call came. It was from my university senior – and I said I’d call back later. Came back home and my head was literally splitting. Somehow managed to call him before I’d retire, and there he was, asking me to meet him regarding some work, which was temporary, and money he couldn’t promise. Could I meet him at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon? Now, all this was turning out to be too much for me. My friend’s home was a 2hrs one way journey, I couldn’t probably go there, visit her, come back, and visit him all in a day’s time. And this looked important. However insignificant, this looked like work. So I cancelled the previous plan, rather rescheduled it to Friday.
I was skeptical to say the least – I had no idea whether this was any credible job at all. So much so that at 1:30 I decided to take a small nap and put the alarm at 3. However I woke up 10 minutes before the alarm went off, hurriedly took a bath, got ready and set off for the University. Our family account is on the adjacent bank, which closes sharply at 4. I had to update a passbook to check if the e banking transfer is working properly from granny’s pension account to her savings account (this and all I have been doing regularly – trying to automate as much as possible – so that they don’t need to go out for every single thing). So, I entered the bank at 3:59 and was just in time to get my work done. Yes the transfer reached the intended account. Happy, I called my senior, and he asked me to call back in 10 minutes. I took a small walk around the university and entered it through the next gate (it has, I guess some 4 odd gates). The holi celebrations were still on, some students still looked colorful. Girls were visibly thinner than the usual dimensions you see with working ladies (I remember being that thin 10 years ago). They were visibly the studious type, discussing about question papers and Xerox and lectures missed. But then there was this distinct flavor of politics which was never so conspicuous when I studied there. Of course I was a PG student and typically UG students indulge more in politics. I called once again and the call went unanswered. I decided to play Candy Crush, and after a while finally got hold of the guy. Yes, there is a job, the university website is being redesigned, and I need to be the information manager. The project gets over on 15th April. Temporary job and no discussion on the compensation part. I need to go there from Monday, 24th March, but I need to get a final confirmation on Sunday night.
Frankly speaking, I was neither delighted, nor stirred by the opportunity. I was kinda happy, happy in a neutral sort of way, way life has become these days. I came back home and went for the usual grocery shopping with dad, but ya, the one noticeable difference was, once again I had a good night’s sleep. The next day, I got up and got ready to visit my friends’ house. Once you travel by metro, you would hardly opt for any other mode of transport. Albeit a little expensive, the comfort you get is even more than cabs. So I took the bus to the nearest metro station. Asking at the ticket counter for a ticket to Shyambazar itself gave me goosebumps. Me, the incorrigibly romantic me. I don’t need an iPod on journeys these days. I get so little scope of socializing that observing the various people in public transport takes all my time. Reached the station and crossed the road to catch another bus (my friend stays in the far north of the city, and I in the far south). It was in front of some Srish Chandra college – various people were unnecessarily making noise around a small Maruti car, and so many white uniformed traffic policemen stood on watching and doing nothing. Then my bus came, some bus of route number 3. I got down at the designated stop and followed her directions to her house. Much the same way I had visited my old school friend’s house in Golpark, but distance wise this was like 10 times. It was fun playing with my friend’s kiddo, whom I had seen as this new born baby. Such a lovely boy of 4 years he is now. Kids usually get fond of me without me trying too hard, probably because I being equally childish in many ways, treat them as an adult. So we had this instant camaraderie and had a good afternoon together. With each relative stepping into her house and she introducing me as “my friend, not exactly friend, she was my junior in office” – once in a while I felt, can’t she do away with that bit? Is it so difficult to call someone just friend, without any qualifier? One more thing that particularly struck me during our tete-a-tete  was when she said, there are positive people on earth, who exude so much of good energy that they keep making new friends, whereas their old friends are also retained. Is it? Then what am I? A negative person, because I keep losing my friends? No matter how genuinely I feel about them? Then, evening and it was time to go. This time, I took the bus, because, given the current security condition of the city, who would want to do a 3 stop break journey? It was the first time I had to remove my gold chain as well, on advice from her family members.  Is north Calcutta even more unsafe than the south, I wondered. But then came Shyambazar again, north Calcutta in its typical evening beauty – and I was lost in my reveries again. Why do I love him so much? It has been 12 years I guess, since we last met. But he still remains my most favourite person on earth. Each tiny word he spoke to me, I still cling on to. His lives here somewhere, a house I visited with him. Not sure if he has returned home yet. He has no idea I am back in the city, I long for the way he used to comfort me with his mere presence. He doesn’t care, he has a wife and a daughter. But I know in the innermost core of my heart, that hundreds of crushes later, if I have realized that I really loved someone, it is him. I took in the smell of his locality as the bus sped past. It was then that the first call came. My Driving License is ready. Wow, I said in my mind. The next call came in sometime later, as I was observing the tiny lamps that lit up the roadside vegetable vendors’ humble stalls overlooking the EM bypass. From my ex PM who wanted to sit with his project after a gap of more than a week. I came home and was tired. Didn’t feel like getting online. I was wondering, do I have the luxury of ignoring work related discussion like this? But then, it is my life and my hard earned freedom. My primary condition was, I won’t have anybody else bossing over me. So I haven’t contacted him till now, and it is almost 4 pm now.
Morning – and three more good news. A friend has finally recommended me in her company after much coaxing and that my PF claim has been processed, money will soon be credited. More money means more interest. Also my Demat Account has been closed, it was non functional ever since it was opened, it at least saves me the annual rent. Afternoon, I got hold of my DL – dad fetched it on his way back from Karvy. So, no doubt I have entered a phase of good luck that was long awaited. Now what remains to be seen is how long it stays.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Beyond utopia...

Well, I had to finish off the earlier entry abruptly, because mom was calling for lunch. But then, much like inception, the idea was already planted. I need a job at any cost. See, I can beg, no issues. I will beg with my head hung low, and ask my previous organization to take me back. What after that? Here are the probabilities:

1. They set impossible conditions - too low salary, a lower designation, a manager I don't want to work with
2. Even if everything goes right, it breaks my heart to imagine myself heading to the airport, leaving my dad outside. I just don't wanna leave them and go.

I feel waves lashing out at me, as if I am at the very edge of a turbulent sea. I feel myself getting soaked in torrential rain. I perceive the true impact of loneliness as I had never done before. I wrote even a day or two ago, about being this girl safe in her bubble, all detached from reality. It seems as if the bubble has suddenly burst open and I have been kicked out.

I guess I need to see one of those people whom you call shrinks. I really feel I am going mad. Why is it so difficult to make ends meet even when you have given up most of your demands, in fact, almost all of your demands sans this - let me stay with my family. Let me not be uprooted now and again. Yet, let me have some work to do, let me not feel useless and hopeless, all my professional training going for a toss.

Do you think this is too much of a demand? Can anybody answer me?

And I cry along with my favorite song. Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. I have been trying in vain all this while to convince myself that I am apparently dead. No, I am not. In fact I am far from it. I feel terribly alive, and this unquenchable thirst for life won't let me kill myself. And I have this never give up attitude that frankly speaking, surprises me. See, had I been a third person and you'd give me this link and tell me to predict the character of the girl who writes here - I would be like - oh she's a zombie kinda stuff - she can't do anything good. And then I am baffled to find myself always reading, learning new things, trying to improvise, trying to find an alternative. I set up this wireless hotspot from my mobile to tackle the internet speed issue. To think I was never interested in smartphones, and now in barely couple of weeks, I have explored it and know all about it as much as seasoned smart phone users do. This so called "courage to know" (that's my school's motto by the way) is what had convinced me in the first place that I can adapt, I can take up a different career stream if required, let me move to Kolkata. But then, what I realized is, albeit the city has life, the city's residents don't. They are a dead lot. They are that kind of a dead lot, who won't let themselves be cremated or buried, they will just stay on, all rotting, rooted to their own worthlessness. Yes, I am that bitter with the people in this city.

Call me a person without guts, but then, I really cannot risk my savings in a start up. I want to do, at least for a while more, what I do best. IT work and management. This much I have decided.

And oh God, today morning I got another heart attack. Just how much dumb can a particular person be? That too, just when I had started to soften my attitude towards the much obvious dumbness - noticing the obvious care underneath it. I think it is only fair to say, once a dumb person, always a dumb person. How dumb would it be to ask a person suffering from jaundice to dream about the latest biriyani recipe in town? Let alone dreaming, if you literally ask the person to cook it (cook it, but mind you, you can never eat it) - well, do I need to tell more?

Ah, so what's next? I thought the entire day today. I need work, and meaningful work that too. For that I am ready to beg, borrow, steal or kill. At such times I always remember Vipul. I do wonder if he really had that much trust in me, or it was simple managerial technique, but then, as I wrote once in my diary, Vipul used to be like ice on a fevered forehead. And whenever I think of those days, the deadlines, the pressure cooker situation, the meetings, the speculations and apprehensions before going live, I just want to run back to work. That is my world, give or take my parents. Ya, there goes the harsh truth. And I learnt it the hard way. I needed this break to know clearly what I want most. If a married life is what I wanted more than anything else, I could have sold my ego to get that as well. No, if I stoop low somewhat, I do that only for work. If I'd worshiped my parents more than my work, I'd have happily sacrificed my career for them, never long for it the way I do now. It is silly, it is childish, what good is achieved in executing a software project - which in due course is bound to be replaced with yet another technology, you may say. But then, whenever I do that work, I feel good about myself. That is quite enough of an answer for me.

Last night was one hell of a night. I kept crying in bouts of depression, it was as bad as the nights I spent pacing the floor, during October 2012. But then, this gentleman who, as my dad says, never did service for a single day in his life - had written, দু বেলা মরার আগে মরব না ভাই মরব না  - আমি ভয় করব না। So, let's just keep trying. About the little bit of compromise that is required in asking for any favor, well, I have long since fought and won over that ego. I can only ask, I won't beg. If things don't work out, fine, we'll accept failure and work out something else. At least, if I am to practice what I preach, I shouldn't be irreparably stubborn.

Ha ha ha, talking about that particular show down. Actually it has made me all the more courageous. I was avoiding the place for decaying relationships. Non existent ones don't bother me right? And why, pray tell me, are girls like this? They will never open up, never mention the things that are going on inside their head? This reminds me, yesterday, I was walking back with dad after doing some grocery shopping. A police van was in back gear, I was skeptical about whether to cross the road, when the person at the driver's seat signaled me to move on. And trust me, I have never seen a more handsome policeman. I was tempted to tell dad - "dad, did you notice just how handsome he is? In fact I almost felt like asking him, are you married already?" At which point dad sighed loudly and remarked, "any  other girl would have said, I was almost wondering, if he'd ask me if I am married already..." :( :( So, you see, it all lies in the attitude. But no, even if you have conjectured it, let me assert, it is absolutely junk. A result of reading too much সুচিত্রা ভট্টাচার্য...trust me I am a grown up girl now. I do not live in utopia anymore. period.

PS - After everything else, with every passing day, I grow a little more wary of the term friendship. The whole world seems so so selfish. Well, go ahead and say, the world is always a reflection of what you are. When did I deny my selfishness. If only  I could gain anything from my selfishness...remember, that's precisely the point...selfish people do not do anything without a motive, and there is absolutely nothing I gain by being selfish. So...doesn't the problem lie with the outside world?

Saturday, March 15, 2014

What to do???

Yesterday I watched Inception once again. With dad this time. Dad, as is usual with him, gets overwhelmed on watching any good movie. And since this is a particularly tricky one, over that pretty fast paced with intermingled tracks, he got a bit confused. Given his age, his comprehensibility is decreasing somewhat. Still, it is fun watching a movie with dad.

This was followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Ha ha, this turned out to be even more fun. As I was trying to irritate my parents talking about "they are going for the quidditch world cup", "he's not actually Mad Eye Moody, he's Barty Crouch junior, so he's drinking a lot of polyjuice potion", "Ya Neville Longbottom will be scared, his parents were tortured with the cruciatus curse", "Harry's asking for the firebolt, Sirius gave it to him" - my parents usually ignore me when I talk nonsense, but this seemed really hilarious. They had absolutely no idea what I am blabbering on.

So, coming to the reason why I sat down to write this entry. It is going to be 6 months end of this month, a long enough break - if I want it to be just a break and not a retirement. For one thing I have understood. I am not going to get a job like this. It is not that my CV doesn't carry a value, it is that employers are blind to it. There is too much of skilled labor in India, more so in Kolkata (you see, Bengali parents take so much pride in educating their kids - that's their only competition and satisfaction in life - how well their kids are doing). And the employers are not looking for honed skill - raw skill at a lesser price tag will do well for them. A girl who passed out last June and might have been sitting idle since then has more chance of getting a job than me, with my 10 years of experience. The only way out is to join my last company, which I call hell hole. I have contacts there, albeit a MNC, it doesn't show the practiced snobbery that the big MNCs do - they will at least consider my candidature and from what work I have done with them, they will not turn me down. See, may be I left it for reasons of non recognition of my potential, and perhaps due to the memories of a broken relationship and crisis of a dying friendship. But then what did the outside world do? They trashed me in an even worse way. Ya, compromise is what I didn't want to do - I didn't want to compromise with my standard of living (hated that house where I stayed with my brother - but then if I am brave enough to stay alone - can I not get a fresh new house?), didn't want to compromise in my work place (then again - compromise is better than no work, right?), didn't want to live alone (I can do absolutely nothing on that - in these 6 months of stay with my parents all I have realized is they are just not cut out for parenting as per societal norms - they are too naive to find a groom for me, and I am too proud to ask, then again, they will not uproot themselves and come and stay with me - if I need to stay with them, I have to wash my hands off my career). See, I am just trying to live. As I can see, a life of 70 or 90 odd years means 35 to 55 odd years more to go. I better die today than staying idle for all this while. And then I try to imagine what impact it'd have on me. I have been a free bird these six months. Thrusting myself back to that cage...I just shudder to think about that.

Ya, I have grown to recognize the world in a much better way than the gullible me used to see it a couple of years back. No body cares. Even those who care have too little time to keep bothering. Everyone is busy. I am a stupid misfit in this world of busybodies - who has absolutely nothing to do. I told you the other day that I got some work. Well, fighting the internet speed (it is TERRIBLY SLOW), I did manage to complete the 1st version of the data dictionary that night itself. Worked till 2 o' clock, and sent off the mail. I was so happy to have a good night's sleep after a hard day's work. But then? I am only calling up the person, I am only pinging him on Skype, with no result. Man, here I am doing free work, and I only need to insist on more work or review? Isn't that hilarious? If I'd follow up with friends who promised to help, they'd be irritated. They haven't been stupid like me, they didn't want to find out if the position that they have earned is on the basis of their merit or is it purely luck factor? Frankly, I was lucky to have a seven figure salary - if that was my talent that was earning it, then hello, I still have the talent intact. Where is my job?

I am disappointed, I am angry. And my friends want me to start writing. I have plenty of free time, and they feel I write well. But hell, I don't want to write about this hopeless world. If I could, I'd have written another Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged. But then I can never be an Ayn Rand. Or, if I had imagination like J K Rowling, I'd have written another Harry Potter series. There is no merit in writing stories of day to day life - it is just telling aloud - I know the system is rotten, still I am being a part of it (this I write with my due respects to Jhumpa Lahiri - yes there's poignancy in painting this picture, but then - I don't need more dark shades in my life). What to write on, I don't know. I don't want to write for money - I don't want to get into the usual routines and publicity and bindings that a modern day author's life involves.

To end with - নই জুতো নই ছাতা আমি তবে কেউ নই  :( :( :(

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Hope...and then some music...and reflections...

Well this is not about the usual cribbing, bewildered girl. This is the girl she is...or for that matter the girl I am. For after all we two are but the same girl. Romantic, musical, happy in our own sweet bubble...whatever the reality might be. 

After a long time I shared someone's grief. Someone who's equally confused...who's being equally tossed around by life...for hardly any fault of his. I talked about my frustrations and listened to his rantings. God knows why, to my not so experienced ears he sounded a bit drunk. Not sure. Even as I kept worrying about my phone bill because I was calling STD from my Bangalore SIM that's on roaming (ya I do need to worry about these things nowadays)...I always felt that the call is my moral duty. When, just before ending the call, he asked to keep in touch, my heart almost melted...oh how much in despair someone might be...to seek support from a good for nothing soul like me.
One more good thing that happened today was that I was finally given some work. Just to do some research and prepare a data dictionary for a software. And it is free work anyways, I am not going to be paid for it. But still after all the ignorance, lecturing and kicking about that my so called friends have been doing (height was from this friend whom I had mentioned in the post Abhimaan... and whom I don't know why, I called to wish on her birthday - and she is this honey toned lady who's like begging me to share my CV and let her help, and once I send her a mail, she simply escapes from the scene, all she wanted is probably some first hand proof of me being jobless - knowing her type, I simply don't know why I trusted her), this is finally some real work that has been assigned to me. I am indeed grateful for that. And while I was having my discussion on skype, I suddenly saw the photo of this ex colleague couple's newly born baby boy...and my face softened in a smile - finally this guy stops boasting and comes to reality (earlier he had his photo with this Indian MNC head).
Can't explain why music follows whenever I am happy. I just had to reach out for my iPod. Ever heard Ahista ahista from Swadesh? Or Chalo...tumko lekaar chalein from Jism? Lovely songs na? I could have sung along till I'd sink into a peaceful slumber, had the mobile app version of blogger not given up on my lengthy post. Then again I realized, I must download Firefox - the speed issue of Chrome will never let me finish my research. Every time my Norton AV will come up complaining about high CPU usage of Chrome, then first thing would be Flash player crashing on the browser, and I will curse my Tata Photon+ dongle and turn off the laptop. I can't do that now. If I have to stay in Kolkata, to survive I need this work...and I need to deliver the first installment successfully and on time for more work to come up.
Well, a queer thing happened last night. I was in that strange state between sleep and wakefulness, when all tearful, I just talked aloud to God. "You mustn't scare her saying that she could have got an even worse life, and should be satisfied with whatever she has now. No, that's no reason to snatch away all the good she deserved in life". Well, is there really a past life where I have been a real sinner? Then why all this? What rule does God's world follow? Why do good people suffer here so much? I don't know...may be even God doesn't know. But then, isn't it such a relief that we somehow find some other equally good person amid all the evil on earth?
There was this guy, dad's friend, who turned up today, just to convince dad that he should send me back to Bangalore. We convinced him back that I am just fine here, and all the time I couldn't help wondering how much similarity he has with the Bong :D. Jokes apart, he's a really nice person, and he gave dad this Sarod CD as a gift. Who will go back to Bangalore, to stinking people who cause misery? To torturous memories that'd crush me down once again? No man, I want to stay here...that's all I want.
এই শহর জানে আমার প্রথম সবকিছু, পালাতে চাই যত সে আসে আমার পিছু পিছু। ...did I ever write here about the Sarod player who I was in love with? Who was also a gold medalist in academics? Ha ha...that was one hell of a funny story. Me and my crushes. I had one huge crush in school, recently the guy's sister died of cancer - she was what, hardly 40. I felt so bad, as if I have lost someone close to me. I sure know how to keep loving people - even long after they are gone from my life. That is why this city is just the appropriate shelter for me. It still has some life left in it, it can house stupid, crazy people (like the roadside mad man I saw yesterday - summer is here, still he proudly sports his torn sweater and leather jacket and is dozing off under the scorching afternoon sun). Like one of my numerous মামা who visited us this Sunday - who I found out is just the perfect child in a grown up man's get up. I want to stay in touch with them, people whom I can remotely call my own - not mechanical, hurting non acquaintances that other cities are so full of.
PS - All thanks to my newly acquired smart phone, and some problem in sync up with the mobile apps version - this post got deleted after I published it last night. It was one of those horrible nights when the research bug gets the better of you - I kept looking for ways to retrieve the lost post till 3:55 in the morning - groggy with sleep, I could hardly read through the instructions. However, I got acquainted with post IDs and cached version. This morning I am finally successful in recovering the entire post through cache - and I am elated. I even had this passing thought that may be there's something in this post that God doesn't want me to publish. But then every bit I write is so precious and dear to me...I am happy to put it back on the web :) Had to change the name slightly, as it wouldn't publish under the previous name. But alas, I haven't yet started on my assigned work and a review is due in the afternoon :O

Friday, March 7, 2014

Two failures and a success...

I was wondering, when is it better to write, while you are waiting for the results, or when the results are out? I was in huge mental agony on the night of 5-6 March. There were lots of things going on.

There was this interview opportunity with an MNC which had suddenly come up, and which was a role perfectly pertaining to my choice. Anytime, they’d be confirming the interview date, at least that is what the HR told to the people who had referred me, and I was expecting that at last I’d be getting an interview call. At the same time, I had just decided to drop this mail to the CEO of a Kolkata based company whom I had gotten to know from my days of managing business alliance at my previous organization. I had just dropped in a line saying I am looking for a job here, and he had replied encouragingly. This pushed me to write this long mail to him where I candidly discussed the situation, my skill set and my job preference. I was expecting that any time I might receive a reply to that and something concrete might come up. I was telling myself, see all doesn’t depend on luck, you can get through a bad situation purely based on effort too.

Meanwhile there was my driving license test scheduled on 6th afternoon, for which I was dead scared. I am not a very good driver, I have my apprehensions, but ya, I am strong on the techniques. Such is the extent of bad patch going on in my life, that even after completing my driving classes on 21st December last year, the test couldn’t be scheduled till now. There was one date on 8 Jan, on which date I had that flop show with the first interview I attended here. At that time I gave priority to the interview and cancelled the driving test. If I remember correctly, that was because of a twisted logic like – if that day is lucky for me (8 Jan) then I’d get through the interview as well, and I’d rather use my luck to get through the interview. At the same time, if the day were unlucky (as it turned out to be), I should be happy that I saved myself from failing in the driving test. My idle mind… it is always inventing such crude, impossibly illogical stuff. Anyways what followed next was absolute silence from the driving school – and on inquiring what I discovered is – the erstwhile only one motor vehicle office of the city has been split up into two, and unfortunately my house address comes under the new one in Kasba. That one again, is not yet functional, but the original motor vehicle office won’t conduct my test all the same. Finally after a wait of 2.5 months, the test could be scheduled. And I haven’t practised in between (I don’t have my own car, you see, I couldn’t buy it because I couldn’t get a job – what with fuel prices soaring, who will risk buying a vehicle without a steady source of income?). So amid general sleeplessness and checking mails, and the occasional sobbing, I was getting up and studying traffic signals too.

Why sobbing? Because my former colleague lady (I just can’t bring up myself to say we were ever best of friends) – called up to say, her husband has finally decided to go ahead with a divorce. I kept thinking about the kid, about my friend, I didn’t want them to have the kind of lonely life I am having. I cried because I couldn’t make a difference – all I wanted was to reconcile them before I’d leave the office. I even thought of messaging her in the middle of the night to tell her I know how she is feeling, and I am sure she will pull through, but then somehow managed to discourage myself – because you know, somewhere in my mind I knew our friendship is over – she just uses me as a pillow to cry on once in a while.

Aftermath:
1.       No reply from either the MNC or the CEO.
2.       Passed my driving test
3.       My erstwhile friend blasted me today because during that evening’s call I had mentioned that I can’t say her husband is a bad guy. I really can’t – I have developed a friendship with her husband, I know he is a kind person, he’s just given up on her, way I did once. But then, to hell with everything, I finally blurted out, “you are stubborn beyond repair”. Even this morning I tried to counsel her husband against her knowledge – so that they can get back to each other. And after all these, she just ends up hurting me more. Why do some people think they own the world and the world will dance at their bidding? At least I have no reason to compromise and not be myself. By giving up my job, if I have earned something, that is my freedom. Not that I didn’t get morose at the bitter exchange of words. I ate lunch broodingly. It always hurts when people misunderstand. But then, isn’t that the reason I have chosen loneliness?

I have this friend, who urges me to get married, and when I ask why? He’d say – oh all human beings get married. He urges me to go back to Bangalore – when I say, and what would I gain being back to that same monotonous life of home and office – he says, oh but that’s a software engineer’s life… hilarious, no?  I have seen many well known faces changing themselves in the past few months. Those who were all in praises of me, being this independent girl travelling countries, have now defined me as this whining female always insisting for a job opportunity. There were never too many friends, and I do not maintain friendship myself, but people who once described me as their mentor in life had totally gotten out of touch. People would seek my CV with the promise to help, will not even have so much courtesy to acknowledge the mail once I send it. It is a busy life for everyone.

So, to get back to the original question. Would it have been better if I had written this entry in the midnight of 6th March? I am sure I’d have made this sound more pathetic. Now at least amid other bad things, there Is one good thing, I will be getting a driving license. Many, including my dad, think that I am not trying too hard. No, I am not going to beg, if that is what trying too hard means. I am not going to nag and insist and travel over to individual offices seeking job. It is ok – this world doesn’t deserve so much effort from my end. And then I am not a robot like most human beings are. I can analyse and get the real picture. Why do I need money? I am just one single person with a house to live in and some savings in the bank. I don’t expect to have my own family in the near future, if ever. If I need a job, that is for self actualization. And tell me, wouldn’t Mr. Maslow be dead shocked if he hears that these days people get down to begging to self acutalize? :D :D