It was the last day of internship. Oh, those good old last days of internship in June.
I'm delighted, everything looks rosy, I'm grinning from ear to ear. I walk to the bus stop at 7 40 am, for the last time in months to come, to be an organization's employee.
An Indian guy comes to the bus stop, someone I don't know. Postgrad student, I tell myself.
I'm smiling away to glory anyway. I sit in the bus stop, waiting for my friend to join me, munching on my toast.
Some minutes later, the guy looks at me, and asks,
'So how long have you been here?'
I stare at him, totally puzzled. What a weird thing to ask when you're speaking to someone for the first time in your life? Nevertheless, I decide to answer.
'3 years?' I say, throwing him a quizzical look, wondering why on earth he wants to know.
'What?!' He looks damn surprised.
'Oh, oh,' he says, after a moment's understanding. 'I meant in the bus stop?'
I burst out laughing, but I want to bash him hard for his amazing question at the same time.
'3 minutes,' I say, and both of us aren't embarrassed, as we are convinced the other is dumb :)

P.S.: It's study time again! I'm sitting in the library and blogging instead of studying :) Feels great!

At a time when I’m already swamped with work, a colleague comes and says, ‘Can I ask you a favour?’

Not another of these, I groan. Within, of course.

I pull my earphones off my ears and smile. ‘Sure, what can I do?’

I periodically nod, and diligently take notes to make sure I don’t forget anything.

Why me, and why today, I wonder. I had been quite jobless the last 3 days at work. Today, I had planned to work on my university research project. And I’m piled with work.

Why not the new intern, I wonder. I had started doing all this work within days of starting the internship, and she’s already been here quite a while. And poor thing, is quite jobless as well. Why not her?

And I put my earphones back on, and ‘Alaipayuthey kanna’ plays.

‘Idhu thagumo, idhu muraiyo, idhu dharmam thaano,’ the song goes.

I burst out laughing, much to the surprise of the others in my cubicle.

As I started out on the new work, juggling it with the old, I know, I’ll survive as long as I manage to laugh for the silliest things on planet earth.

11 more working days.

words and music still keep you together!
In a whirlwind of a month, which saw happy, delightful, depressing, painful times, some things - very few things - didn't change!
An amazing trip to an island beach in Malaysia, the beach, the swing (oh, how much I miss the damn thing!!) hard and lovely moments at work, books, my dormant novel slowly coming to life in bits and pieces, surprises - great and nasty ones, bursts of enthusiasm, rage, brooding, angry resolutions, excessive need to be by myself, not to forget the 3 days of limping after the snorkeling (mis)adventure in Malaysia when I stubbornly refused to allow my weakness to overpower me - whoa, was all April was about.
I'm delighted to announce that in another month and 2 days, yours truly will leave this freakin' place to come to India for a good month and a half - and will land in Chennai! However short the stay in Chennai might be, I can't wait to go, soak in the warmth of the city, its people, its crowd, its dirty streets, and most importantly, the life, the life's spice. 25 more working days, they'll pass. They'll pass. It's time for me to meet sane people and get sane again! Counting the days, counting 'em...

... here I am, with a post.
Warning: Moaning, bitching and possible worse stuff ahead. Really need to chill off!

So in that one month, so much has happened! I've been evaluated by my supervisor at work, been evaluated to pitching stories to media and asking them to cover something, with 2 more people not in the working team anymore, more work on my plate, and FINALLY, a new phone!!! Say hi to my brand new flashy Nokia 6233 Music Edition!! It's white.. that's the only colour they have :(
Anyway, after I-don't-know-how-many months of planning and even deciding who gets which song for their ringtone, the phone is here! And guess what, it's been a week and I haven't got the bloody time to upload songs or ringtones to the phone! Ugh, I totally hate this! Not only does working suck, it sucks even more to come back and do a research project or start researching for your stupid Final Year Project. And to top it all, imagine having a Prof for your supervisor who is as unsteady as a cat on the wall - totally! I have no friggin' clue which side he'll jump and what he'll ask me to do next! Ever since I was given the opportunity to do the project and I chose to do his, I've been in trouble. Trust me, in a span on 6 months, a research project changing over 6 times isn't too nice.
While it's fun to get the measly pay check every last day of the month, it's seriously surprising how it vanishes before you realise you can spend it, and viola! your bank account has the same amount of money it had before you submitted the check. Don't even talk about 'spending my hard-earned money', and saving for the next sem, forget it. Working is expensive, man. As much as I hate it, I have to take care of what clothes I wear, which pair of shoes to go with which bag and all this shit. It especially sucks when you have older ladies among you who you think dress much better while you struggle to sit gracefully in a knee-length stupid black skirt, and of course, not to mention the shoes.
I've been watching a hell lot of movies, though, and that's extremely enjoyable. Watched 'The Namesake' yesterday. Brilliant adaptation from the book, I'd say. And amazing performances by all in the movie! I'm seriously beginning to like Kal Penn (Ok, the only other movie I've seen him in is 'Harold and Kumar..' ) Yeah, so judging by these two movies and the amazing change in the roles he's played in both, he seems to be a good actor! :D Wondering when I'll get to watch Provoked and of course, Sivaji. Can't wait for Sivaji. I seriously want to go watch a Rajni movie in the cinema and whistle and loudly clap and cheer.
On those auspicious days when I get to log on to Orkut and I see what a number of you guys have been up to, I feel totally sad. I have no idea what most of you are doing, and this is just so bad! Of course, I wasn't around that much to say even last sem, but at least that was better! Anyways, I'm coming HOME... SOON! Will most probably leave the night my internship ends.. and I will land in India in Chennai.. Woohooooo!!! Chennai, look out for me.. Gosh, will be there after a year ... so many things would've changed? I can't wait!!!

For someone who hates talking over the phone, I'm blessed enough to do a lot of it at work. Calling up people and inviting them for our events, updating the company's list of media contacts (and getting yelled at by people who hate being asked their contact details), and doing audits of media's impressions of our client, and blah, is a stated work scope for me.

What at first seemed extremely irritating and mundane has now only become extremely irritating but slightly interesting. Calling up different people, listening to different accents, trying hard to figure out what they're saying, and worst of it all, being so nice to them over the phone ("Oh, hi, Andrew [yup, we get on first name terms very quickly], how're you, how was your vacation [we know they went on vacation].. [blah].. thanks so much, Andrew, you have a good day, ok?) and smiling so much your cheeks hurt is the exciting part of it. Your acting skills (or rather, voice modulation skills) totally come in handy and you improve them like crazy. Your voice becomes good enough to express a myriad of emotions - "Oh, I see, that's your company policy, no problem, Rose!", while you mutter curses under your breath.

Two incidents got me really doubling up laughing while on the phone. One was when I called up, asking if Mr Kim would be available to attend an event on Friday, only to be told she was on maternity leave. Gosh, unisex names! But there have been other times when I've mailed an invite to a "Ms" only to later call and find out it's a he.

Another was when I called to speak to a Mr Homiki (uhh, some Japanese name, I can't remember):
Me: Hi, this is Vani [blah].. can I speak to Mr Homiki?
Receptionist: Hi Vani, I'm sorry to inform you Mr Homiki has passed away!
Me (chokes): Oh my God, I'm so sorry.. (thinks for a few seconds as to what to say) errr.. when and how did this happen?
Receptionist: (I'm sure she was bugged to take condolence calls over an office phone for some random guy!) Anyone else you would like to talk to?

Oh, God only knows what more I have to endure. Maybe sometime soon they'll let me do media pitching, which is basically pestering media to come down and interview someone or cover some event, convincing them how it is useful for their publication/channel. Who knows, there are 16 weeks left!!