Photographic Professionalism

I had been looking forward to this day since last week when i  first saw the notice for group photographs. I have always liked these formal photo sessions and  still have all the class photographs nicely filed starting from Nursery. Such pics remind you  of your  innocence and playfulness. I still remember the day when my class teacher sent  a  note asking for my notebook and i was perhaps the happiest student in class the  next day.
Today was another of those 'photographic' days for me. Thankfully just before starting for the college,i remembered to take my cam along. ( So glad that i actually took it)

I could see my classmates from a distance.Some of them were combing while others were giving those last minute touches for a perfect photogenic click. The fun is certainly round the corner with my classmates around.The smartness and professionalism was so clearly visible in each one of us.....yet again.
It wasn't seconds before i took out  the cam and almost the entire class was there to give those 'Random Poses'.Its always a pleasure to click such pics coz as i always say'These are moments that will never come back'. We screamed, we hooted( a lil though) but at the end ,it really doesn't matter.
So....Presenting the Future HR Managers.....

Friendly by nature
Empathetic by heart
Joyful in their pranks
Cheerful in the class
Ready for a presentation
Enthusiastic if its a dance.
Thats my class....a very proud and special one indeed.


A special thanks to 'Ashish'.....for capturing each moment,every emotion so well.

Thats how it started.............

 Need some help in Posing???......ask us

My Karmic friend

Rare yet privileged......

Our Doc...rapt with attention

Thats Prakhar in the centre...getting all the attention

Absolute Bliss

Smile Please

Still wondering what they were wondering about

Kodak Moment

One of my fav pics of the day

Lucky Guy........:)

                  

This is how we ended......:-)

TWO BIRTHDAY'S...... THRICE THE ENJOYMENT

Time : 11.30 P.M
Venue : Silver twin Decks
Occasion : Blastful B'day of Nikhil & Ashish

Retro is back again and today's  B'day theme tried to capture that. After 2 months a B'day was being celebrated by my class. The e-invitation from both the host of the parties was very nice. We were indeed excited to grace the occasion. For a change we were ready (The 70's style) by 11.00 P.M itself. It was a little odd to walk so much dressed at that time but i guess none of us (read 3 of my friends) didn't mind that at all.
The first stop was at Block A. The drawing room was already decorated by the time we entered .It looked cutely colorful. Thanks to classes once a week or sometimes not even that , it was nice to meet some friends after a gap of 5 days. This party had a surprise. 'Agatha or Agz' as we fondly call her had her B'day last month but we decided to celebrate it again......THE HR STYLE. Finally the clock stuck 12.00 and the singing and wishing started. 'Sagar mein ek lehar uthi' was in full volume and each one of us enjoyed doing the 'uu''uu'.
Most of us had dressed according to the theme but the show stopper was our lover boy ' Sumit Premi '.Any director would have cast him in a retro types film right away and he would have surely given 'Dev Anand' a run for his money.

OUR  DEV ANAND!!!

We quickly rushed to another celebration in the next block.(Ashish's B'day) The place was already blaring with loud music but the foot tapping numbers gave real space for  some  whistling  and hooting. Indeed the Exe's proved that 'Excellence comes with Experience'.  We stayed there for sometime and came back to Nikhil and Agz  themed celebration.
It was now time for some real dhamaal. Ankita Gupta, our cute DJ decided to take the lead and played some peppy 70's type songs. There was little sophistication intially but as time rolled , everyone got completely into the retro mood. From Jhatkas to Matkas to a lot more wierd steps......it was all there. My vote went to Neha Narula who danced her way into 'Kilimanjaro'.Neha.....loved your steps and your expressions.

Any party is incomplete without the clicks .It was time for some posing and smiling.The dancing finally ended at around 2.00 A.M after having tried all kinds of songs.(read some weired,funny and silly ones included).
I enjoyed every moment spent in both the celebrations , the memories of which i would cherish for a very long time.

Happy B'day.......Nikhil
                           Ashish
and   our dearest  Chacha Nehru.....    

ASHISH 'N' NIKHIL

             

SEA TO SKYSCRAPERS

Image courtesy Bins Corner

Amit belonged to a very poor family. His father used to work at a scrap yard and mother at a vegetable shop. Both of them somehow managed to earn money just enough for a simple meal 2 times a day .Amit was their only son and they loved him a lot. They wanted him to study well and become a doctor. But their poverty forced them to make their son work in a small tea shop. He used to work during the day and study at night from the retired headmaster who used to teach all the poor children free of cost.

‘Amit, you have written a very good essay. I am very proud of you’ said the headmaster one day. Though only 12 years old, Amit had a deep concern for the environment. He liked spending all his free time near the sea and stare at the waves endlessly .He was happy with the way his life was shaping up.His only secret wish was to go to  a school and study like the other children of the village.

One evening during the classes, the headmaster told him about an essay competition being conducted only  for the school children. The winner was to represent India in a climate summit to be held in Japan the following month. Amit’s happiness knew no bounds. He wanted to participate and make full use of this opportunity. Alas! He did not have the initial registration fee of Rs 100 and knew that his parents would never give him this money. The headmaster sensed his hesitation and decided to pay the fee for him. He did not want a bright student like to miss an opportunity only for lack of money.

Amit had collected a lot of material on the subject of environment from the magazines and newspapapers that his father got home from the scrapyard. After dinner he took out all his material and sat outside to write down. Over the last few days, he’d seen a lot of animals dying due to chewing of polythene along with the grass. This was a cause of concern for the whole village and he wanted to do something about it. He was awake the whole night and completed his essay by morning. During the day he took  some time off from his work and rushed to his guru’s house. The headmaster read the entire essay and corrected the small spelling mistakes . ‘The content is very strong’, he thought. Amit then  rushed to the post office and gave the envelope to his postmaster uncle.

A few days later Amit received a letter from the organizer of the essay competition. Although  his essay had not won the first prize but the judges were very impressed with the thoughts of a young writer and decided to send him also for the summit at Japan. Amit screamed very loudly as soon as he read this and immediately rushed to the  headmaster's house to thank him. After all, this would not have been possible without his guru’s encouragement and constant support.

Today Amit is in Tokyo. The delegates at the summit had been very impressed with this boy’s clarity of thoughts. At a very young age his awareness and concern for the environment was commendable. One amongst them, on knowing about his poverty, decided to provide scholarship for all his studies till college. Amit’s eyes are filled with tears. His parent’s dream of seeing him as a doctor was coming true. But right now all he wanted to do was to stand with his new friends and feel the beauty of the city.

TRANSFORMATION

The little boy was excited,
He’d found an earthworm lookalike,                                    
He got it home and hid it in a jar,
‘Glopey’ he thought was a nice name.
                                                                                                         Glopey did not like it here,
It was missing the beautiful green park,
Alas! It could not do anything now.

It soon started liking the little boy,
Both of them would play together,
The boy’s friends envied him,
Glopey was indeed a different pet.

One evening the boy started crying ,
The jar was empty,                                                                           
Glopey was missing,
In its place was a beautiful butterfly,
trying hard to come out.
Just then his mother came,
And removed the lid
Out came the butterfly ,
And flew away into the open.

The boy got angry ,
He wanted his Glopey back,
His mother calmed him down,
And explained all
‘What you got home was a caterpillar,
Its now emerged into a beautiful butterfly,
We must not keep it closed anymore,
Freedom is what it desires.

The boy listened carefully,
He  was very  happy ,
His green Glopey,
Had  turned so 
colorful now.
He turned and wave to the butterfly,
which was sitting on the boy’s favourite flowers.

OPTIMISM

                   

Image courtesy Link

                        

                  Adversities and obstacles now

                  Confidence and courage strong

              Optimism- A new high again.

Saturday 9: I'm so proud of....

  
1.What are you proud of?
 My ability to get self motivated.


2. What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize? How did you win it?
My friends ridiculed at me when i participated in a flower arrangement competition  about 15 years back. I was the youngest among the participants but my arrangement was adjudged the best.  The prize that i won then was a water bottle but my confidence   got boosted up.

3. Tell us about something you've done that in retrospect was a waste of time.
 Missing classes during  Graduation to prepare for a paper presentation and ending up not participating at all.

4. How old were you when life changed the most for you? How did it change?
 Life changed the most for me when i was in class 4th.  Moving into a big city like Delhi for the first time was very challenging. New friends,new school and neck throat competition. The stay of 4 years taught me some very valuable lessons and also made me independent.


5. Tell us about a place you that you've been that you considered to be very tranquil.
Ladakh, one of the most beautiful places in India. You are bound to fall l in love with the nature here. The simplicity and innocence of the locals is what you'll remember the most for years to come.

6. Who is your favorite news anchor/reporter? Why?
Barkha Dutt  for her strong and candid views. Her courage and strength are truly inspiring.

7. If you were to have the opportunity to name a new town or city, what would you call it? Why?
I'd like to rename the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad to P.V.Narasimha Rao airport as every state has some people whom they are very proud of and this late prime minister of India, being one of them to the people of Andhra Pradesh.

8. What is something about which you've always wondered but have not yet found a good answer?

Why am i not able to sustain my interest for a long period of time?
9. When you can't go to sleep, what is your personal remedy to help yourself drift into Lullabyland?

Listen to my fav hindi numbers on my i-shuffle or read twitter updates on my mobile.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. One of my strongest beliefs is that nothing is impossible.

2.  A huge flower blossomed in my garden today !

3. The sky is cloudy with a threat of rain and wind and cold, and  i want to enjoy it with a hot cuppa tea.

4.  Talking to my mother  is comforting to me.

5. I always thought I'd be a journalist when i was in school .

6. There was shiny white light on the road today  and then I went outside to look at the full moon.


The last blank is not of much use since i am posting this on sunday night when the weekend is almost over.

CAN I ???

Problems creep

Failure comes

                      Opportunity prevails                      

Look within

Thy Confidence

Thy courage

Biggest strength

Now and forever.

ENERGISED

Image Courtesy Link

Sreeram was a 2nd year student of MBA studying at Delhi. Recently he came home to Hyderabad during the Dusshera Vacation. Life had always been a smooth ride for him. He had never stayed away from his parents but for higher education he had to do this. There were times when he repented this decision of his. During his stay at home this time, he got a lot of time to introspect his goals and objectives in life. Having done this, he suddenly found energy within him to work harder to realize his dreams. He wanted to make his parents feel very  proud of him.

Serenity

  

Image Courtesy Link

   Vented anger
   Softness of the waves
   Serenity prevail

Meeting friends equals 3 hours of Masti

Yamini and Manmohan.....My city mates in Pune, college mates and classmates too. More importantly, they are the friends who are just a call away and are always there for you. 

On Wednesday....13th Oct 2010...we all decided to meet. We were meeting after 2 months( almost). I took half day from the office and so did Yamini. Luckily,Manmohan had a holiday. The venue and time were decided and this time there was to be no cancellation or postponement.

From 4.00pm to 7.00 pm we freaked out completely.

 From pizza in Domino's to Mirchi Bajji in the crafts mela , we relished them all.  

 From Magazines to Bangles of various types, we girls bought them all.

 From leg pulling to troubling the only guy, we enjoyed it all.

Some of the treasured moments..............

A full stomach means a full smile.

Mannu. aka Manmohan

Yamini....

The Hyderabadi....'Mirchi'

Mirchi....Mirchi. :)

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING CLAW

 This incident happened in Nov last year but is certainly worth mentioning for the smile it brings every time i think of  it.

I was in my 1st year of MBA and a part of the National HRD seminar team formed in the college for some days.I hardly attended any classes for almost a month. Instead, around 20 of us who were selected from the whole college for the seminar co-ordination used to sit in cubicles assigned to us in the faculty room and make calls inviting the Head HR's of various companies for the seminar.

     During one such day ,my friend Yamini and i came early to our temporary office and decided to stand out and talk for sometime before starting our work. Suddenly our eyes fell on a huge owl perched happily on a window on the floor below ours. Frankly , i had never seen an owl from such a close distance  and decided to take some pictures.Just then our other friends also came there and got excited seeing the owl.Since it was daytime we knew it was asleep and would not fly away and clicked pics from various angles.

      Suddenly my eyes fell on its claw and i observed something. I told Yamini too and even she was surprised. Yes.... in an excitement of ours , we  had not seen the bird carefully. It just had one claw. 'Was it injured '? ' Did it have only one claw', we kept asking each other and the others around us. Alas, none of us could figure out the reason. We decided to go inside for sometime.I just wasn't able to concentrate on my work and decided to check again. I could still see only one claw. Disappointed i came inside and told Yamini. We decided to take up the matter seriously and called up the Blue cross society. After talking to about 10 people ,we finally got to explain the situation to the right person. He listened very patiently  but started laughing afterwards. For a moment i was surprised and also angry on the man. This is what he said after sometime:

 ' Madam ,you don't need to worry at all. The owl while sleeping sits only on one claw.  This is its posture. Just like we have ours, it has its own. Don't bother, it will fly away in the evening.'

  

The Mysterious Owl

Saying this he hung up.I immediately told my friend about this. She  had been anxiously waiting for the conversation to end. We both looked at each other and started laughing loudly. Our other friends joined in too and the office now looked nothing less than a  laughing club.

Even when i am blogging about this incident now,i can't stop myself from laughing.

I have always believed that 'Experiential learning ' is the best learning .We had  indeed learnt a unique feature about  the owl from this  incident.
So...always remember......'An Owl rests only on one claw while sleeping'.

The One claw finders

'COOL'..............WAY OF LIFE !!!

Nothing gives one person so much advantage 
Over another as to remain always
cool & unruffled under all circumstances
                                                            THOMAS JEFFERSON

'Thats a cool phone' ,' You look really cool today", 'This dress looks really cool on you'. How many times have you used the word 'Cool' ? What is 'Cool' according to you then ?

Different people have different answers to the word 'COOL'. For some it is a concept while for some others it is a state of mind. Outward appearances may present the impression of cool but being cool means completely comfortable in your skin, with your attitudes & beliefs; but most of it in a way that will enrich not only your  life but that of the others around you.

So lets trace the history of this word.  During the 1950's cool was a movement , a revolution ,an evolution of sorts. Cool was part poignant, part optimistic ,part fatalistic , part groundbreaking ,part old world. Cool in its infancy was about redefining boundaries or ignoring the fact that any limits might have existed in the first place.
Cool was rebellion and cool was a form of self acceptance. Cool was trying to redefine the societal roles of past ground.

The generation next superlikes this word. Its short and happening .To me Cool is a 4 letter word which saves you the trouble of writing big compliments. Just say 'cool' and you're done.

 So what are you waiting for...leave back your cool comments on this cool article.

Cool


Too Cool


Super Cool