From a Confessed Nokia Loyalist

Back in 2008, this phone had just released in the market. Prone that I was in those days to constantly change my phones, almost every so many months, I had my sights on it too. But on that long ago trip to Chicago, the first choice was an iPhone, which did not come unlocked. (The fascination with it is long gone). On the very smart Michigan Avenue, partly to escape the bitter cold, I walked into a Nokia store and finally picked this sleek E71. It was the very fast-talking, cheery Dannielle who sold me the phone.

Here she is...

I continue to use the same phone, two years on. That is a very long time, by my standards, to stick to the same instrument. But then, it has everything I don't need and I could no longer be bothered to see what's new in the market. Needless to say, I love this almost extension of my hand. I have abused it, thrown it to the floor and stuffed it with the rest of paraphernalia in my huge bags. The back panel is a little loose, there are a million scratches, but everything else works. Plus I am a little senti about it. So why bother changing?

For the record, the screen is most definitely not pink. For some reason, that is the colour that came out in my camera. I have a pleasant red under a sepia tone picture of 'Minuguthare', which, by the way, I am dreadfully missing.

Joie de vivre!

On my birthday last Sunday, my parents, uncle and I went to Elagiri Hills in Tamil Nadu, an extension of the Cardamom Hills. There isn't much to see or do, except a huge artificial lake and a park. I am told there is a short trek to a small peak there, though no one was willing to walk with me, and neither were they ready to let me go. A nice place, the hills, none of the IT-weekend crowd there, thankfully.

We were walking by a park when at a distance, we saw this old woman on the swing. I have rarely seen such pure joy as the kind I saw on her face as she went higher and higher on the swing. Age is surely just a number.

From www.postsecret.com

Could not ring truer this minute. I am exhausted. And exasperated. And all the other synonyms.

When a Camera Sees Time and Then Meets Me!

When I get a great camera and some time in hand, this is what happens. I treated myself to a nice little Canon digital camera recently because my old one was coughing to its death slowly. This new one has a great many functions that I don't even know how to use, like in an SLR. But the results are fantastic, so well....

The pink something that JN gave....

I absolutely love this picture of a picture from Costa Coffee...

The many dangling things brought and given as souvenirs and gifts that hangs from a mirror in my room.

Another from Costa.

One for the Road

The picture of the road pretty much sums up the last few months of my life. There has been constant travel and new people and new experiences. Not all have been good. Not every day does the sun shine. But in some of the travels that I have made, the journeys have made me, or unmade me.

But...there will always be those dots that need to be connected. It's ok. Life is ok and so am I.

The Santa is Gone

Ok, bad bad picture.

Sometime in December 2008, in one of those plum cakes that we in office get every Christmas, I found this cute little plastic Santa that I began to keep below my computer in office. The only intention was to see how long it would be left there. We in office have this joke about how if you sit in your place for long enough, even you will get stolen! That is the level of theft, nothing, not even a broken pencil is left. I have lost pictures, books, papers, countless pens, even a cute little pink lamp (also in the picture), a clock, plastic knick-knacks, its a long list. Somehow, the Santa remained, sometimes thrown around, but always there. There were even days when I thought I had lost it, when it would resurface after a bit.

And now, after over a year when I assumed that no one would steal it, I lost that little Santa. I cannot find it anywhere now. I am irritated. Plain irritated at why the cleaning staff cannot let even a plastic toy remain in its place. Just irritated.

The Other Living Space

Haven't been posting here for long...
Now this mug that I picked up in some mall has become a favourite in office. It is a bad pic, the mug has three goofy pictures of a dog with the words Dog Dog Dog all around. Thats my green tea mug, for all the times that I am feeling bored/blotted/stressed/whatever. Green tea is the new poison.

And this is the work station where I probably spend more time than I do awake at home. I love the place, I love my little place. On the soft wall are various things that I clip on, some half greeting cards, a few pictures, a page with numbers of my colleagues, then a little cute page with a drawing that Rishi sir's little daughter had made for me a long time ago. There is also a little sheet with the lyrics of my favourite Kannada song printed on it and some quotes. Many sheets of paper, half of them useless, three drawers full of more notes and more paper and visiting cards and pens with no ink and paper clips and greeting cards and notes and files and more paper and tea bags. A water bottle that everyone fights over, given that all the bottles we keep take on legs and disappear every few days. Calendars and friends around and many jokes and over the cubicle conversations and boredom and work and the drone of the TV from behind. Yes, sometimes, where I sit, it does feel a bit like home.