Rewind!!

[ This is another one of those office cubicle inspired rhymes. The only difference is that it was inspired by someone else's office cubicle rhymes. Thanks for the inspiration biks, but I am sure you'd agree that there are better things that inspire creativity!]

Seriously...why don't we have the "rewind" button
There was so much to be said, so much to be done
The laughing moments that swept us away
The paranoia of the submissions the next day
The cacophony over steaming hot cups of tea
Looking for the time when we'd finally break free

We're free now, all the money we'd ever need
But the joy of spending the 5 doesn't equal the spending 50
Our melting plastic coffee cups, half wet in the pouring rain
Never matches up to the coffee, our pet machine makes
What it was, when it was, was great while it was
But ever so often, I wish God's "replay" button was ours!

Reliving the First Job feeling

One year.

It's that familiar chill in the air. The beginning of winter and the festive backlog. The last flicker of the diwali lights , remnants of the sweets and dry fruits; and the fervent wait for Christmas and New Year's eve. It was at exactly this time last year that I got into my first job.

eClerx Services ltd. Catering to so many of the Fortune 500. Listed in the BSE. blah blah....

I had just given GRE knowing full well that I would not go to the US( thanks to the recession). One phone call, a few rounds of interview and before I knew it, I had landed my first job - I was employed.

I had no idea what the company did or what it would eventually give me. Just that I had got in.

The weather somehow just takes me back to that time. To the world of opportunity that I saw then, the apprehension and yet the excitement. That first job feeling.

It'll be a year tomorrow i.e. October 27th. I am no longer with eClerx( I left about a month back). Learnt so much. Met so many people. So many amazing, inspiring experiences both in my personal and professional life. Made so many friends. The process of rediscovering Me.

I don't suppose I could summarize my experiences in an 11 chapter book ( for each of the 11 months). So I won't try. :)

I miss those old times, the familiar faces, the warmth.I miss all that.

But life has to move on. Greener pastures, opportunities et al.

Yet, today, sitting here in my clinical cubicle I go back to those days, the smiles, the fears; and hope to raise a toast to all the amazing people I met at eClerx.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S: An essentially insane coincidence - The new Cafeteria vendor is the same vendor who served food in eClerx when I left. Just when I have been thinking of the place so much! Celestine prophecy, Secret anyone? :)

On Diwali...

Diwali! The festival of lights!

Thanks to the Chinese invasion of the Indian markets there are gorgeous lights being sold at every street corner and the city lights up after like a fairytale after dark. Pretty. So are the varied fireworks( true I don't completely advocate them, given the sound and air pollution; but then you can't agree with everything in the world).

So overall a pretty picture.

Time for some good old fashioned nostalgia.

Let me go back in time to 1991 and Calcutta( It became Kolkata way after that). Kaali Pujo 1991. One hell of a

vacation.

47 Ballygunge Gardens. What a palace it was in it's hey day. Always abuzz with activity, full of life. Elders, a

tad younger than most, the young lads and ladies, a tad older than most, and us kids. Where normal days were far from quiet, festivals of course brought in a lot more fun and frolic. Diwali was no exception.

It was my first Diwali/Kaali Pujo in Calcutta( I've only seen one other) and when it comes to festivities,

Calcuttans can simply awe you out of your senses. I remember marveling the light work and the atmosphere.

Way before the Laser era, the Pujo Pandals were spinning stories in light in the Calcutta Pujos. I don't quite remember each tiny detail, but I find the crowd and the lights still emerge clearly when I close my eyes and go back there.

And then diwali at home-The mishti, the people, the fireworks et all. What fun. People from 2 to 70, under

the dark, moonless sky, laughing, trading fireworks and sharing love.

I remember there were a lot of patake, phuljharis in every hand and rockets all over the sky; teasing and

shouting on the terrace next to my grandmom's puja ghar.

Then bhai phota the next day. Bhai phota(Bhai dooj/Bhau beej, in other parts of the country) is the celebration of the brother-sister relationship and what a celebration it was; truly sentimental and truly fun. Loads of fish and even more mithais( Maach and Mishti- the bong staple)

I tried to relive the same feeling in 1997 again. Oh, how excited I was, all of 13; and I was terribly disappointed. What I had not considered was and understand now, is that it was not the occassion, the vacation, the house or the city that made Diwali so special in '91. It was my family- all under the same roof.

Time steals. It stole life out of that house- literally and figuratively. The not so young youth grew older and got pulled into the web of family life. Some moved away physically, the rest mentally. The not so old elders, watched time scatter the younger ones; some of them withdrew into their impressions of the past, some into their failing bodies and some, like my darling grandmother decided to leave the world behind for good.

Us kids? Well we no longer are kids. I guess we lost our childhood way earlier than our previous generation.

This diwali I think of that old house and what it has seen. Maybe those lifeless bricks go back in time every now and then, maybe they hear the laugh and feel the warmth. Maybe the sky above is lit up with a thousand pretty fireworks and yet 47 Ballygunge gardens dreams of another day...

And I go back in time with it, to hear that familiar cackle and feel the love....