Nostalgic

On this Diwali November 11th 2015, what a surprise!! Never thought that I would again start writing my blogs! I found you on internet! After 7 years! Where were you all the time? Why did I miss you ? How did I miss you?

Love you blogspot!!

Can ONAM be as special as THIS??

ONAM is the festival of Kerala and celebrated in honor of LORD MAHABALI,an ancient king of Kerala.This year,we at cognizant, got an oppurtunity to learn more about this festival and Iam lucky enough to participate in the events that are held on the occassion of ONAM.'Traditonal day'..may be one of the best times that one can definitely enjoy at cognizant.Afterall who dont like being traditional??And our comapny believes in unity in diversity.Traditional days are held for almost all the occassions wherein all of us are encouraged to dress ourselves in Traditional attire that reflect the customs of the particular festival or state.Many activities that are promient for the festival are conducted everytime.,And this time it's ONAM..where POOKALAM, art of decorating the floral carpets is conducted.This is the first time I happened to celebrate a festival which is not familiar to me before and that made all the difference!!POOKALAM,arm wrestling,rope pulling are some of the games which Keralites organize among themselves on the eve of ONAM...our team participated in all the three events..and that made the day special.There was lot of fun and joyy..Everyone particpated with great enthusiasm and thats the time when all of us went back to school..!

Some of the pictures showing the POOKALAM contest

4 D 2 on FRDSHIP DAY!

And if you can crack the Title,you are half done!!

This year is the first year Iam staying close to myfriends away from home and Iam lucky I got the best company from them .I stay in a small room with two of my friends and I never believed that I would get lot of caring for myself in such a small room until I happened to stay with them for a few months.
And there is no special friendship day for me..Every day is a friendship day for us..three of us each having speciality in some or other thing and yet fight that the other one is the best of all .I never forget the days having long walks in the evenings,horror movies at night,dancing in the room,chatter all the while.And late night sleeps on rainy days when we could hear only the sound of rain droplets and see the cool moon coming back of the clouds.And on full moon days when we only feel the cool breeze touch us .

Yes,we all are alike.We never got all these in our engineering.And so by Gods grace we met at one place..all three of us minds alike..and you know what we sometimes compete with Chetan Bhagat..!!IN WHAT??writing a book which tells "life of 3 " :) If he can only write his life time experiences why can't we??is our valid (hmm..really??)question.
I never thought that my friendship with them would be as special as this and never thought that there should be any special occasion to enjoy with friends if you have them in your heart all the time.

And this post is FOR THE TWO(FRIENDS) ON FRIENDSHIP DAY, whom I never dare to miss!
Got the essence of the title?No more clues...

My birthday @ cognizant

Fun at cognizant..This is the term I used to here when the cognizant team came to my college. The josh they displayed and the enthusiasm they induced in us is still there ..(As far as I know) and what Iam experiencing. I never expected that any ones bday would be remembered as much as what it is in cognizant. Especially when you are out of college and... this year it was a gala day for me.. making my birthday memorable !I never had a minute idea of what is going to happen on my bday and of course I did not expect much from my office. As usual, I came at 9:30 am in the morning and the first scene that surprised me here is the decoration of my cubicle. The thing which I haven’t even thought of in my dream!!Then I got a bday mailer from my project manager which described everything what my friends around me in cognizant is thinking of me..GOD!!They studied me well :) That day was really special occasion for me, for it is my Project manager who came to me asked for a treat. "yes , sure" is my answer, for he is the one who gave us lot of treats when at times we stayed late nights in the office. The same day we were in an important meeting when my PM suddenly knocked the door and said, “Are you ready to give us the party now? My calendar is free for the next half an hour”. The whole team was surprised and we all went down to have a small treat at the Cafeteria in our office. To my surprise I could see a big cake on the table with all of my batch and members of other teams too..I could not speak anything and silently stood in front of the cake. Then My PM spoke to me slowly...”Come on lets have her cake cutting".For the first time, I cut cake in front of many friends .Later on, I invited my friends to the 'java green to keep my word and we had a nice evening there!

Santwanaa--caring for the uncared

Santwanaa..the meaning of which I have not known until I happend to visit it one fine day.The depth of its meaning has been known to me only when one of my collegues took me to an utsav(show),conducted on the eve of Republic Day.Santwana..which means consolation,is a organization which was started by students for the sake of the street children,orphanages and many uncared.Me and my collegue joined as volunteers in the utsav,which encouraged extra ciricullar activities among the children from various social service organizations.The only thing I knew before I actually went to the utsav was that I am going to volunteeer the show and help the people in conducing games and various events to the children who came from various organizations like Spoorthy,Balavikas..and some other social service organization for children under 10 years.

We were asked to assemble at 8:30 am in the morning since the actual program starts at sharp 10:00 am.We decorated the stage where the children are going to perform dances and skits.We blowed colourful balloons and it is a fun activity for all the volunteers who took part in that .The arrival of children from various organizations started by the scheduled time and we were desperately waiting for the actual shows to be begun.I was given a team of 40 children to look after.By the end of afternoon,I could see many children asking my name and calling me akka(sister)and I well tried to remember their names ..(though I couldnt)!!

The afternoon session was particularly intersting when the children were given a topic and asked to draw spontaneoulsy..and where much creativity unvieled..By the end of the evening we involved a lot in the show and my perosnal attachment grew towards the Spoorthy team.I could see the cherubic smiles on their faces and innocence from their words..

'Living in the favourable and unfavourable situations is Part of living..

And smiling in all those situations is Art of living'

The million dollar smiles on the faces of the children learnt us lot of things..smiling not when we have everything but smiling even when we have nothing..!

Turbulent day for vacation

I understood the importance of holidays for the first time when I was made to stay away from my parents leading a busy life at the office...This year sankranti is very particular for us..the only reason being me and my sister were away from the family and going to our home town to meet our parents and beloved ones..So the word pongal vacation this year is something to do with us..we planned as to how to spend our time this time when we are with our parents...,for we are not allowed to stay there for too many days..,the only constraint ----that we are now employees..and ofcourse not students to bunk classes and take as many leaves as we wish!!Now that we are permitted for a 1 1/2 day leave..,the half day ofcourse for catching the train on time,we decided that our trip to hometown this time should be memorable enough.

My trip was a five day one and we planned before hand as to what places to cover and what to do all the 5 days ..with a very tight schedule;

The first day of our stay went on with chating and playing cards and we were happy that somehow we fgot an oppurtuity to ralx ourselvers on the fierst day..but ofoucrse everyone is waiting for the seond day which I think is memrable part of our trip

We planned to go to Araku ,one of the most sight seeing spots near visakhapatnam.Though we happened to saty in visakahapatnam for many years ,we never got an oppurtunity to see the beautiful place.Called as Andhra Ooty,this place is famous for its scenic beauty,borra caves and the tunnels the train passes through,its gardens and waterfalls;going to Araku in train is one of the craziest things people never dare to miss.The train went through a total of 42 tunnels out of which some are too long to imagine.The darkness that prevails whn the train goes through these tunnels is awesome..After crossing two small stations , the train starts climbing up the hills through tunnels and bridges. Most of the time valley falls in right side of the train while going towards Araku from Vizag and waterfalls remain at left side. On the way small and big water falls are seen from the train. The green valley and river combination gives a spectacular view from the train.And the next most intersting thing is the borra caves,an impressive way to reach the cave is by train.The landscape around the cave is wild and mountaineous. The geology is complicated, and the limestone where the cave is located is surrounded by mica. Several mines in this mica are prospected for precious stones like rubies.by evening we reached our homw and spent rest of the evening playing cards and watching movies..

One common place which we never missed to visit throughout our stay in vizag..is the beach,the sea view which we get for a 1km walk;The spectacular view of the sea and the sand castles always left a memorable impression upon us..which thus made us feel VIZAG --the most beautiful places in the world!!

Celebrating 2008

A great Jan,a lovely Feb,peaceful March,no worries for April,fun for May,joy from June to Nov and happiness for December..HAVE A WONDERFUL AND ROCKING NEW YEAR!

Infact every new year ,I receive countless wishes of this sort from my parents,friends and teachers;even then I experience all kinds of feelings..worries,joy,sucess,happiness,sorrow every year...and that what makes my life a medley of moods!and that it how a New year should be...,for I believe that the importance of anything good is experienced only if I can taste the bad.
Well,new year resolution,that is what probably I have been listening from my childhood and this year too in particular..when my project manager put a question to our team in the evening of 31st jan

"resolutions are to be broken ...sir...ummm"was my fast reply

"so we never have any resolutions" was our team reply

I could see a sarcastic smile on his face.."GOD! there's lot to do with this team"would be the probable thought in his mind..but without turning his smile off on his face "well,never make the same mistake twice,there are so many new ones to make..try a different one each day..keep experimenting ..thats what a new year is for"was his witty reply for which we laughed.

31st night was a festival mood for me..we cut a cake..and more than cake cutting,it was very special because me and my friend shifted to a new place in hyderabad ..so there was lot of celebration..cutting the cake,enjoying the new location and more than anything chitchatting with my friend whose presence i lik d the most..that night we slept late.

The first of the new year this time is something different for me..,for I met some of my schoolmates whom I have last seen them on the farewell day of our school..We planned beforehand to meet on the newyear so that it remains special to all of us..we shared our sweet memories and our presence at our school,talked about our classmates..and how each one of us became after leaving the school..and laughed heartily by cracking jokes..and exchanged our numbers so that the gap between us should not remain so long as what it was till then.

It was a happy day and I thought my newyear celebrations this year was worth of writing it in my blog..