BEET ROOT RED

Today something happened that has prompted me to write this post.
But before I write what happened today maybe I should write what happened on Monday.

Well, Monday I had a training at a pretty grand hotel. I have this weird habit of getting all captivated by architecture and decors in new places. More so when I have only my eyes to register the things around and commit them to memory. From the time I got into the hotel, I was all eyes for the design of the gate, the exotic plants, the decor of the reception area, the chandeliers, for nearly everything. As I was moving towards the basement which was the venue for the training, I was a bit surprised to read a board which said "Please watch your step" After reading that I got extra cautious and stepped with increasing wariness. But then I think the very next Milli second, I fell down. On the steps. Wham! Twisted my ankle, broke the slipper I was wearing, hit my back against the step and on the whole felt Terribly Miserably EMBARRASSED with half of the hotel staff rushing in to rescue me. DAMN! would they give me just enough privacy to pick the crumbles of my pride??? Hmpf! I walked stoically like a classic Sagi towards the end of the staircase. There a couple of genuinely concerned hotel staff asked me if I was fine. I said ya with a smile :) and then asked the way to the ladies room. In the ladies room was sent another hotel employee - a lady to be precise- to ensure my well being. Now that slipper looked somewhat like this. And I was nearly in love with it :(



The part where the straps meet had kind of come off. So I asked her for a safety pin with which I could just be mobile for the day. She got it in sometime and I hoped that none of my office employees were witness to the earth shattering event of a hippo rolling on the stairway. I walked off to the training room with a stiff upper lip a raised chin and all other signs of pride I could think of. But boy! wasnt I embarrassed.

And todayyyyyyyyyyyyy........ today of alllllll days...... today being a FRIDAY!! Today being my last day at office before I go for a vacationnnnnnnnnnn!!!
My supervisor picked up today to ask me to do some real lousyyyyy work. And I gave my logically tested and proven arguments against the extra effort. But no! The boss is always right, so I was like what the heck, I might as well go ahead and finish it off.

But I am a person who does nt take a illogical defeat lightly - I mean - if I had the logic, the arguments were in place and what I was saying what was technically correct and with the best knowledge under the given circumstances - I just don t understand why people wont accept it!! So during lunch I went on and on and on about the illogicality, the lack of understanding, the utter studpidity and the utter wastage of effort that was being demanded by my manager. All the while I was talking in hushed tones but after my diatribe I looked sideways. ON THE VERY SAME TABLE, OPPOSITE TO ME, BUT 2 CHAIRS AWAY WAS SEATED NONE OTHER BUT - BUT - THE one.

Boyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!! I wished I could hide under the table. Go somewhere. Go any where. And I gulped the rest of the lunch somehow :( And made it to the exit.
The lady I go for lunch with said - hey dont worry, I dont think he would have heard us. I was like thanks for the encouragement buddy, but even I am gonna pray that he has real bad sense of hearing :S :(

So I completed the tedious task he had given me with all the more alacrity lest he find faults :S I hope its all green after today :S

Coffee Faux Pas

I go by the comments on my past blogs to write on the future ones. A friend of mine told that my blogs were a bit too long, so this is going to be a short one :).

Well this blog pertains to an incident which happened when I was at Karthik‘s place one evening. Some guests came over to visit them. So his mom asked me to prepare coffee for them. As I went to make coffee into the kitchen, Karthik came to help me. I was instructed not to add the sugar into the milk but add it later. And the coffee decoction was already prepared. So I religiously boiled the milk. Then I put the sugar into the glasses in which the coffee was to be served. Then I added adequate amounts of decoction and milk into the glasses. I was about to mix the sugar in the glasses that Mr. Know All Karthik stepped in and said, “No, No we don’t mix the sugar in the coffee. Its Tamil style, you are not supposed to mix it. You put a small container under the glass and they will mix it themselves by pouring the coffee back and forth from the glass into the container.” I felt ok it was his home turf after all. So I put the glasses in a tray and went ahead to serve the same.

The guests were all pretty pleased with my sweet “homely” girl role playing. I served coffee to all of them. And waited for them to mix the coffee and savour it. But to my utter horror they started sipping the coffee straight from the glasses. It must have tasted awful as I could clearly read from their faces :(. I could not stand onlooker to the scene, and I said,”Uncle, Aunty, I have not mixed the sugar. So could you please mix it?”

At that point Karthik’s mother and the guests burst out laughing. Then I told that Karthik had told me to uphold Tamil tradition and not mix the sugar in the coffee. Then they mixed the sugar and had it, and I think perfunctorily said that the coffee was good :(.

But I was not able to recover from the public disgrace for a long time.

I don’t know whether the ruffian Karthik did this on purpose or it was unintentional (as he claims it to be). But I hope he gets his just deserts some day when he pays a visit to Orissa.