There she is! Standing across the street in her red over-alls, she looks beautiful. She has travelled several miles but looks unfluttered whereas I'm panting heavily. I had run. I didn't want to be late for our meeting.

We meet daily yet every day I run towards her impatiently. I run like every second counts. With her, I think it does. Every day she opens her arms and embraces me. Then I heave a sigh of relief and smile jubiliantly.

Today, I can see her standing across the street. I had been unfaithful the last couple of days. I had skipped the meetings. I can see that she's looking away. I stand here hoping that she'll turn, look at me and run towards me. A fool's hope. I pray, "Oh God, please, if you can do miracles, let this be one of them." Will she cross the street and come towards me?

Oh dear Vajra¹, take the U-turn and let's head the other way. I'm already late for office.

¹ For those of you who don't know, Vajra is the Volvo bus service by BMTC.

A visit to a hypermarket with Varkey to check the price of an electric razor ended up with two guys & a bean bag riding back home on a Dio.

We celebrated the occasion by raising a toast. Two tetrapaks of soymilk. Cheers!

Pretty girls and hip-hop parties had nothing to do with this weekend. (Not that they had anything to do with any week I've had before. Just saying so because I wanted to start the post with an catchy phrase).

This week was about work and my life revolving around work and friends.

The highlight was a fight I had with a friend. I had misunderstood him and his behaviour. I kept it to myself and the frustration just built up within me. One day, it exploded and I burst out at him in a fit of rage. I spent the next few days repenting and apologizing for what I did. Hmm... This isn't the first time I've done something like this. Gotta learn to stay cool.

In other news, we have Internet and a telly at our new apartment. Internet through an Airtel line with 90% BitTorrent usage and 10% web browsing. So we have in-house entertainment now. :)

After having moved in to a new flat with my friends Rajesh & Sreenadh the previous week, I threw a party last weekend for some of my other friends. There were 9 of us at the party. I didn't even have to count now 'coz I still remember walking home more than 1km with food for 9. ;)

The party was great but I won't post the snaps here 'coz of privacy reasons... No, no... Don't worry. There is nothing indecent in it. :)

My friend Krish is going to Singapore. He had been working here in Bangalore in a major IT firm for 1.5 years and has bagged a job offer from the client whom he was working for. Lucky chap! The thought of the hefty salary he'll be paid and the chance to work in Singapore makes me jealous!

Congrats, buddy!

Oh, by the way, Krish took Rajesh and me out for dinner on Monday. :)

The rest of the week was all about work. There was hardly much work at office but I'd always wake up late, reach office late, stay late and reach back home late. Many of you office-goers are familiar with this cascading effect that pulls you in and drains your time, right?

My colleagues are a great bunch of people to work with. No tension, no pressure (till now). I've had a great time at work so far.

Wednesday was unexpectedly one of the best days at office. Network issues cropped up and everyone was happily roaming around chatting. It was the first time I saw so many happy faces around. (I don't mean to say everyone is unhappy. Just that I won't see so many faces since everyone 'll be glued to their PC monitors).

Friday was the day I stayed at office the longest. Ironic, isn't it? The weekly average of time I spent at office was too low this time. So I reached office at 7:30am (There was not a soul around from my team) and left for home at 8pm. Phew!

Returning to office at 1.30PM, I saw a couple of guys running around telling everyone that two bombs had gone off in the city. My initials reaction was to dismiss it as a rumour. Bombs? In Bangalore? No way! Bomb attacks happened only in big cities!…

Wait… Bangalore is a BIG city…

Next step was to take NDTV.com and sure enough there was News Flash reporting 2 blasts. Hitting the Refresh button increased the count to 5! That’s when I felt a li’l cold… Then, guys from all corners shouting 6 and 7! Some crowded in a cubicle to watch a webcast. One guy called up his wife who put the phone near the TV. This guy switched on the speakerphone for the rest of us to get informed (and worried).

Soon enough, our manager Tulsi called out everyone to one central location on the floor. When the crowd gathered around him, he made a brave attempt at climbing on top of a shelf so as to address everyone. He slipped at the first attempt but managed to defy the age in his second attempt. His words were:

“There have been reports of several mild explosions in Bangalore. In times like this, there will always be several rumours and exaggerated numbers floating around. Our initial reaction is to rush to our homes but it is advisable to stay at the office itself. Security has contacted Karnataka government and we’ll be getting a confirmed report of the situation at 5.30PM. Till then, go to your desks, continue your normal work and don’t panic.”

And then it was business as usual.

At the end of the day, there were 8 blasts that occurred in the city. Some weren’t far from our office.

FIRST SALARY… Nobody forgets their first salary. The moment you can hold your heads high and tell the world that you ain’t a spoilt brat anymore… “Dad, mom… I was a worthwhile investment!”… The look of pride in your parents’ eyes. Yep, nobody can forget their first salary and the accompanying euphoria.

1. Buy gifts for your parents, siblings and other people you care about. Nothing is enough.
2. Throw a party for your cousins, friends. It’ll never feel like a party you had thrown before.
3. Buy something for yourself. Be careful, it’s your hard-earned money.
4. Donate a share to charity. C’mon, you gotta do this!

But somewhere deep down in the mind, there is this lingering thought that you ain’t a kid anymore. “Start being responsible, ass!” Just can’t ignore that nagging voice in the head. Are you ready to be responsible? Are you ready to manage your own money? Can you fly and not fall down flat on your face? Doubts linger forever…

Excited, a little nervous and a tad shy (just a little), I arrived in Bangalore on 27th May morning. My cousin’s cousin helped me out by picking me up from the bus stand and dropping me at Le Meridien. We were told to report at this 5-star luxury hotel and I half-expected them to allot us rooms there for the first few days of our stay in Bangalore. But, alas, that wasn’t to be! Too much to ask, eh?

Signed a pile of papers; agreeing to this and that and god-knows-what! Finally, along with 220 others, I “on-boarded” the Big Blue ship called IBM.

I stayed for a couple of days at a lodge in a place known as Majestic. Later on, shifted to a PG accomodation with Sreerag, Rakesh, Renjith & Vivek - all of whom joined IBM along with me. The stay is decent. Close to the office and easy on the pockets.

Anyway, the second and third day at IBM was the YI or Your IBM session where we were given an elaborate, eloquent and beautiful account of the giant’s life, successes and its numerous tentacles. There were more than enough group activities thrown in. I had a blast!

“Campus To Corporate” followed where fun activities galored! I actively participated in the activities. It was a blast again! On the last day of C2C, I had to take a small presentation and I surprised myself with the way I did it. I’m pleased to say that I’m not afraid of the stage anymore! Hurray!

All good things must come to an end. And it did. The fun activities disappeared and were replaced by boring technical training sessions. Software Development Lifecycle, Configuration Management, Unix, Perl Scripting, C++, Java, arrgh… It went on & on & on…

To make matters worse, some of us were inducted into the AT&T account at IBM. We had to undergo a parallel training wherein we were assigned “technology mentors” who would give us regular assignments. Assignment evaluations & mentor feedback were important, they said. Hell! Our mentor was one tough cookie. He also wanted us to take seminars on C++ topics during which he would grill us left, right, center with his questions. The seminars were taken after our classroom training sessions (which ended at 6PM). So our stay at office stretched to 9PM, 9.30, 10 and sometimes 10.30PM!

We are working our asses off out here! This better be rewarding!