Wht am I upto?

From spoken Hindi classes to trying to get the best "AADI" deals for various items - Am having lots of fun.

Did try to meet up with many old township friends/familes- for a wedding for which we got 3 invitations -We knew both the bride and groom's family very well and to prove again that world is small, the groom works in SG's office!!

Spoken hindi classes - Am taught by a physically challenged, retired hindi teacher. In a spacious hall, there are many school kids stuyding on different topics separately - each having a doubt or query to the teacher at any point in time. I am the only adult middle of these kids , learning to speak "SHUDH HINDI" :). If I religiously practise what am taught with my family, teacher says that can complete the course in 36 classes of 1 hr each.

Able to catch up with 2 close office colleague and family. Somehow, felt a little different - We were surrounded by our better-halfs. So, didnt feel that closeness in our talks .

Managed to get my Visiting cards on time , was useful to carry it around for the "Chennai Jelly" event.

It was an informal work event organized by "THE STARTUP CENTER" in Chennai. When I entered the place first with my laptop and things to work with, I had few apprehensions. What is a HR consultant going to do, among lot of startups / Techie ppl!!! I was the only girl in the entire place for almost 2+ hours!! I chose a corner work place , connnected my laptop and started working or pretended to work . I did a cleanup of my data in the laptop /mail box(a long pending item). Then, slowly people walked-in and started sitting in groups and introducing themselves. I was a little hesistant to join them from my corner workspot. Resisted my inhibition, joined a small group of 4 . I could gel pretty soon and then we did work in our own things for more than a hour and a half with good aircon and mild music on the floor!! Then, felt a need for a refreshement break. Two guys gladly accepted to join me for the same and we bonded pretty well. There were not only start-up guys , but also people working full-time with companies abroad and currently located in India. So, they dont have any colleagues in their own nation. So,only work from home and hence miss being in an office setup!!! Then, met up with a young looking girls group. Thought, all were still in college. But, found out that they have their own social media marketing company!! It was quite different to know their courses in college and their current work nature .. Out and out- I definitely felt nice to meet up with new group, energetic mind-set people and felt great to work there for a few hours! Given a chance, will definitely want to work more often like this :)

Official Updates..

1) Got our long pending (our own newly designed) MQM brochure sent to a prospective client!

2) Have given my first MQM visiting cards for printing!

Am all excited about this new assignment. But at the same time - also worried that I don't have the formal exposure of working in a consultancy setup before! I would definitely want to work for at least 6 months as an employee in an another consultancy firm to understand the intricacies of this business!!

While working from home, has got its own charm of giving you flexibility of working in your night gown, less or no travelling, no worries about traffic, juggling between cooking and mail answering, entertaining guests /shopping and still responding to queries, travelling without worries of deadlines/queries and still able to step-in if need arises!

It does have its own disadvantages too!

For a person like me – people are everything. I constantly need company or be in a group. It keeps me in good mood! I tend to share a lot of things with my friend(s) while am around with them. But, that depends on how frequent I meet the person. If am meeting a friend after a long time, it will mostly be generic things and don’t get to share small small sweet/bitter nothings! I guess you need to have someone to talk to like that on a daily basis! Does it not make you feel better!?

Why am I writing this post- It was one of the days, while I really longed if I could have someone to talk to heart-to- heart ! Am all by myself in a MASSIVE 3BHK house with nobody else around for most part of the weekday(S)!!

I happen to chat with a long lost colleague (Singapore) of mine. I started to feel nice chatting with him and made me get into this mode!

AppaKarai..

I made potato bonda (South indian name) in an "Appakarai" instead of deep frying. It tasted good and still we felt its healthier than the original version!!! I actually was trying to make that for an evening snack for a weekend.

Suddently, it struck my FIL that we could have them as "Vada Pav" for dinner.We rushed to our nearby baker. As we couldn't get Salt Pav from our bakery in such short notice , we got hold of soft salt bread packet and enjoyed them as "Vada Bread". ;)

Similarly, I also tried making koftas(Dhoodi /Potato) for Kofta based gravies using AppaKarai. It also turned out to be good..

"AppaKarai" - is defintiely a healthy alternative to deep frying :)

Spending time...

During my recent Bangalore trip, we made sure we spent good time with both mine and S close friend's house.

We stayed at L(my close flat friend) along with her parents , hubby and cutie kid for a day. It was nice to talk for long just like old college days :)

I was happy that S was also very much comfortable at their place and enjoyed very much playing with L's 2 year old girl :)

Shaam E Ghazal...

When popped up with the question if I would be interested to attend a live concert of the famous Ghazal Singer -Jagjit Singh- I was frankly skeptical! I knew S likes Jagjit Singh music very much - both for the meaning and the tunes! As I am not very good at Hindi - I was not sure if I would really relish the same!

But, I accepted to try the new experience of listening a live concert in Bangalore during our short trip there..

We drove along with S friend's family from one end of the city to the other end for the concert. It was truly nice to listen the ghazals -though I could not appreciate the wordings as much as the other's did . Though S was kind of - to translate a few of the most fond songs of his -during the concert!

S did I tell you - It was romantic - to walk hand-in-hand till the car- on a chilly mid-night , after listening to the melodious music concert :)