What to wish for

I always used to believe in silly things. I feel it some how still keep me in touch with my childhood. I dont want to loose my innocence. Most of the people who know me for a while know that there is an excitement when i see a mail van. 1. it is rare 2. they are going to be extinct soon.3. it is sorta of a modern tradition, and not exactly perfectly superstitious.

The Mail van thing goes like this - when you see a mail van, wish for something and cross your fingers. Wait for a black car, repeat the wish and unlock your fingers.

So today when i was on bus to airport and near the airport authority office premises i could see a mail van from far away. More by instinct I wished and I crossed my finger.

The trouble started when airport arrived. I realized that I need to get down and with fingers crossed. Both hands :P I needed to cross fingers that I don fall with all the luggage. But no more crossable fingers left. No more hands. All i could imagine Kaali maata - now i understood why gods needed more hands.

I am anxiously trying to look out for a black car. Bangalore is not that Hot that people would avoid black cars and still no black car. Huge parking like that in Airport and No black car. White everywhere. Few grey, few red. But no Black. The vajra bus came to an end. It was then I started to panic. For the first time i allowed people to go past me and get down the bus. I did get down with my luggage and my fingers crossed. Bad move to wait for the whole crowd to get down. Lo, there was incoming traffic of people. Stupid!!!

I was working my way through to reach. I can stay with crossed finger for the next 2 hours till i get out of CST, Mumbai. Else i can just forget abt it. For once, exception thought - i would have preferred to fly out to Chennai or Mysore to reduce the flight time. Ab aisa ho gaya ki - I was wishing for a black car more than what i actually wanted to wish. Lol. With no more fingers to cross nor a mail van, just ditch it - Be Practical.

Hazards of taking Conference Calls from Home

It is always considered as a boon to have flexibility in terms of "Work from Home". Working in a Global project, I have various stakeholders who set up meetings at very odd hours. Only respite for not spending 24 hours in office is that I can take few of the late hours or early hour calls from home.

It generally works fine. Most of the time we have connection issues and Murphy's Law always wins !!! Weird issues like interference, sometimes my US counterpart wanna know if I stay in some sorta slum. Lol. I still remember he put all things on hold to check out my house's satellite view on google maps.

I generally try to avoid abusing the facilities given to us. This particular day was an exception as this close friend from office and my project was leaving the company and the whole gang planned to go out for dinner. And I had been skipping many get togthers and didnt want to miss this one. We had enough time to have dinner, loaf around and still reach home before the time stipulated for the call. If everything happened as planned I wont be writing about it.

The superb service the restaurant prides about, didnt fit into my time frame. We were famished and I had a time crunch. It was 12 15 when we finished with main course and there was cake cutting. Me and roomie reached home at 12 35 and logged into the call 7 - 8 minutes late, which was tolerable. Anyways Sym was leading the call and my turn had sometime to kick in.

Some 15 minutes into the call, there was a shriek from the next room. With all the suddenness, I couldnt find the mute button and I rushed to the Kitchen from where the noise came. Roomie stood froze. It reminded me of scene from crime or horror movie/shows. Well it was close.. well pretty close..

It was this horrible looking vampirish ( bcoz it was pale ) and Huge ( compared to a expected size. Courtesy for expectation: My Life Wikipedia ) ... BIG WAT? PALE WAT? HUGE WAT? Well it was on the wall. So it has to be a Lizard. I still go yewww after imagining that. Roomie always thought i was super adventurous and a symbol of courage, ( even i got to know about this that day :P ) looking at my plight it dawned upon her that it was upto her to shoo the lizard out of the house.. We are not letting the Lizard move around the house but just out of the kitchen. I also got some sympathy factor because my call was on.

God knows what folks on the call were discussing. There was such a grave danger lurking around in my house. I am sure if i unmuted all they could hear was Yeww.. aahhh.. help.!!!. god please take this thing out of my house. and God's reply - please i have better standards of prayer. Come back with better request.

I was of the idea if we switch off the lights, it would lose interest in our kitchen ( i wish i was such a bad cook. I dont want to invite lizard into the house :P ) We were actually trying to understand the Lizard pychology. Roomie says "No we should not switch off lights but also keep coming to kitchen in turn so that it doesnt start thinking this place is deserted. Lizard stay in a place because they think it is not being used" Wow we were applying logic. I am proud of us.

It was my turn to talk and handling the call, I did keep a watch on the Lizard and its route. After the call, I was just standing there trying to make noise with the vessels to ensure it hears that we are in the house. To emphasize we owned the place, atleast for the time being. It went near the door's frame and I guess it got confused which way out. I really wished it was educated ( not that we dont get confused between Push and Pull etc.. ) After many go's and Shoo's ... I couldnt see it anymore. I just closed the door. Just praying it doesnt fall on me due to the impact ( 1. God still was ignoring, bcoz even this was below his standard to intervene. "I could hear - Hello Dudette, I am supreme Power...get it?" 2. As per laws of physics the liz cant fly or do some matrix stunt to come and fall on you. )

Bottom line, we keep the doors closed and I stay back in office to finish up my work. Never take work home. ( never say never ;) )