A New Beginning

Hello? Helloo?? Helloooooooo????? Anyone there??? Anyone out there who is still reading this blog???

This is Reema, a widely read and very popular blogger [She only says so ] before she moved to Bangalore, became all lazy and uncreative,writing from her desk at her new workplace.

Heh heh..enough of third person. Hi to all the people still reading my blog irrespective of the fact I read their blogs or comment on their blogs or not. Thank you so much!!

# Joined new job on 1st August. Unfortunately, it is mandatory for female faculty members to wear saree [Apparently this is the Bangalore tradition ] So life is hectic and frustrating in morning. Saturdays are for casual wear. I just can’t understand this fixation Indians have on clothes, specifically sarees, and their equivalence to dignity and respect.

# The infrastructure is great. Got my own PC, stationery items and a large desk unlike at my previous job where only desk was given. Though social networking sites are blocked, WordPress works thankfully! Now I can catch up on my blogging and blog reading/ commenting during free time. Yayy!

# It’s strange how group dynamics come into play so quickly everywhere. 8 of female faculties joined on 1st August and by 4th we were already divided into two groups. Sigh! Though I have made 1 friends, 1 bus partner etc no one is of my wavelength.

# The favorite topic of the female faculties is …take a guess… Mother in Laws. And the other group just loves to sit around one table and chat and chat. No preparation of lectures, no studying, nothing which irritates me a lot. And sadly one of them belongs to my department.

# Facilities are great including the food court. Saved me from making and bringing lunch daily.

# As I travel by institute bus, D has to leave office on time to pick me up at bus stop. That means no more coming late from office. Yayy!

# Most South Indian colleagues are baffled by my “bhalo naam” i.e. my good and real name. It is a tongue twister for them. So I had to tell them my “daak naam” i.e. pet name – Reema and they were more than happy. And still Bengalis go on with the tradition of imposing their kids with the most indigenous, difficult, tongue – twisters for rest of India and World of a name in this modern age.

# Waiting for students to arrive and classes to start…you know…to get back into the groove after a year long break. And of course “insightful” posts on teaching experiences

So once again, for the nth time, I am BACK!

नौकरी की तलबगार भाग २

A sequel to this post

2012 began. I had been six months out of job. But those six months had been quite busy – visits from in-laws, parents, brother-in-law, sightseeing trips and then there was settling down in a new city.

As soon as March began, I got two calls for interview. One for a position in an Engineering college and another for a position in GATE Coaching Institute.

This and That

Hello People!

So I am back from my trip to Ahmedabad and Delhi. Well it has been one and half week but you know the law of inertia Of course, travel posts on my travel blog and reblogs here will be posted. Oh God I have so many pending posts to write – Mysore, Pondicherry, Mahabalipuram, Ahmedabad and New Delhi – that my laziness grows! Anyway so here are some updates.

All Firsts

Just a quick post!

D and I are going on a trip to visit relatives. Places on the itinerary – Ahmedabad and New Delhi.

Will be visiting both places for the first time.

Will be staying a long duration [one week] with SIL and her family in Ahmedabad for the first time.

Will be boarding an aeroplane for the first time. Shudder!!

नौकरी की तलबगार

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”~ Oscar Wilde

I had resigned from my job in July 2011 after working for 6.5 years and moved to Bangalore with D. After being in the teaching profession for so long and loving and enjoying it to the core, I couldn’t think of any other career. But I had no idea that the search for a new job in Bangalore would be hard even when there are so many engineering colleges here. For the same reason I had not searched for a job before resignation. Though I admit I was not that proactive in the beginning because I was kind of enjoying the break from work and was also busy setting up home and playing host & good DIL to in-laws. But soon enough I became proactive and here is my tale of job search in Bangalore.  Why a whole post on a topic like job search? Because it is my first experience of job hunting. My first job is the only job I have ever been in and I had got that quite easily. I stayed at same job and same place for 6.5 years.

Husbands vs Anniversaries

The most effective way to remember an anniversary is to forget it just once.

First Birthday

She was born exactly a year ago…a miracle in her parents’ lives and in all of our lives. And she has turned one today!! How time flies! Still haven’t been to hold and cuddle her as she lives so far away. Thanks to Skype, her grandparents and aunts are surviving counting the days to her arrival in India.She has got six teeth now, is able to stand up holding table etc and is so very cautious by nature!! She laughs a lot when I sing the nursery rhyme “Hickory Dickory Dock” to her and she likes eating bananas just like her Reema mashi!

Annual Report – 2011

Looking back on 2011

जनुअरी में हेरोयिन के साथ फोटो खिंचवाई,

फेब्रुअरी में शादी की पहली अन्नीवेरसारी मनाई,

मार्च में बनी नन्ही पारूल की मासी,

अप्रैल में पति बन गए पुणे से बंगलोर वासी,

मई में किया थीसिस गाइड को रज़ामंद,

जून में हो गई ग़लती से बाथरूम में बंद,

जुलाई में नौकरी से रिश्ता तोड़ा,

अगस्त में माँ-बाप का घर छोड़ा,

सितम्बर में एम. ई. की परीक्षा किया पास,

अक्टूबर में बंगलोर दर्शन किए ससुर-सास,

नवम्बर में फेमिना ने छापा मेरा नाम,

दिसम्बर में किया नॉवेल समालोचना का काम,

ये था हिसाब ऑफ़ मेरा बीता हुआ साल,

आप सब का २०१२ हो मस्त, स्वस्थ और खुशहाल

My Random Thoughts 2.0

As my readers may remember, I have moved to Bangalore or Bengaluru. It has been 3 months now. I haven’t started working yet and in-laws are here since two months…new place, new life, new routines were responsible for the blogging break. So, here are some random updates, thoughts and comments from the last three months of my blogging break. Hence the title… a new “My Random Thoughts” BREAK KE BAAD

# My M.E. results were declared at last…scored 73.5% aggregate. Yeyyyy!!!

It All Ends Here

No, not the Harry Potter series [which would make a very sad post if I start writing about my feelings when this phenomenon..this era..the magic is coming to an end ]

What is coming to an end, hopefully, is my tryst with studies. In spite of my insincerity and lack of concentration, I have managed to come a long way on this path (credit to my sister, my intelligence, memory and luck. Here are some memories from each step of the long ladder I have climbed till now :-

“Bullet”ined

This post was destined to be a movie review post but due to bad Internet connection, laziness, busy life and travel it got delayed and more delayed till it has now become a casual bulleted post giving my readers some random updates instead of a post having paragraphs. Sigh!! Such is the influence of Twitter. But then brevity is the soul of wit! But this is not a funny post either. Sigh!

A Night’s Tale

So it has been one week since I arrived in Bangalore. Been busy cleaning and setting up new home, buying furniture (which, by the way, is way costlier than that in Pune), buying drinkable water , fighting rust problem (which was not there in Pune), roaming around in wonderful weather (way too much traffic than that in Pune), watching movies, meeting relatives and trying to stay connected with world through TATA PHOTON whose signal is simply horrible at the area we live. I had thought I would clear all blogging backlog – reading, commenting, replying to comments – but this damn connection! D’s office is close from here so we chose this area to live. But who would have guessed such an incident will occur with me one night!!!

Trip to Digha Part 1

Continued from here

Just like a scene from a Bollywood film, the last bogie of the train chugged away just as we reached the correct platform.

DISASTER!!

The in-laws had never ever missed a train in all these years!! Even my parents had never missed one. In fact my father’s greatest fear and a recurring nightmare is that he is unable to catch a train! MIL was visibly upset. All the ticket money down the drain!!  Thankfully there was another train to Digha at 2 pm. (There are four trains to that place!! )