Would you hire me?

Recently I attended a job interview.This is how it went....

Interviewer - Bla di bla di bla tra la la la la la oompa loompa doom-pa-dee doo

Cherrie - (thinks When will this company history get over)

Interviewer - So..run me through your career since you left education.

Cherrie - I started my career with company 1. I worked in the retail and hospitality domain for a US client. Was involved in web development and database development. Then I left company 1 to join company 2.

Interviewer - Why did you leave company 1?

Cherrie - The domain did not make much sense to me. I feel one needs to know the business to be able to code well. But I was lost with what is the difference between a condo and an apartment.

Interviewer - What is the difference between a condo and an apartment ?

Cherrie - I don't know and never understood .

Interviewer - Stupid Americans and their terms. Both are places to  live 

Cherrie - Exactly. So in company 2 I was in the financial services domain and worked on a voluntary rewards application for my client . Then I left it to join company 3 for personal reasons. Then in 2010 we moved to the UK and I joined company 4.

Interviewer -Why did you move to the UK?

Cherrie -My husband came here and I followed him (thinks tongue showing smiley :P)

Interviewer - So if I asked your current employer to describe you in 3 words what would he say?

Cherrie- Hmmmmmm (for 20 seconds) well...(for 10 seconds) I think he would call me a team player.

Interviewer - Thats 2 words

Cherrie - Hmm okay

Interviewer - Ok I give it to you, 2 more words.

Cherrie - Has good object oriented concepts and good business knowledge

Interviewer - (smiles) 

Cherrie - (smiles)

Interviewer - If I asked the same question to your husband what would he say?

Cherrie - Hmmm.. (60 seconds) (Thinks What the.... Starts day dreaming about K ;)  )

Interviewer - You have to be quick.

Cherrie -  Hmmm..he calls me assertive.(Pauses for close to a minute)

Interviewer -  You have to be quick you know.

Cherrie - He calls me a good cook and also a travel agent since I research holiday plans.

Interviewer - So he eats what he is given and goes where he is told.

Cherrie - He definitely does NOT eat what he is given and seldom goes where he is told. ( Where the hell did that come from? ) 

Interviewer - So define how your worst day would be? A day from hell.

Cherrie - Am I in office? 

Interviewer - Maybe.

Cherrie - First up I am late to work and my mild OCD kicks in and I start thinking how other things are going haywire because I am behind schedule as per my personal timescales. Then there is some network and firewall issues. I have no clue about them since I am a mere programmer but I have to coordinate with networking and security teams. I am answerable but situations are not under my control.That is the day from hell.

Interviewer - At the end of such a day how do you unwind?

Cherrie - I walk from work to home. I hear music at a volume which could turn me deaf. Thats my unwind mechanism. 

Interviewer - And if it the best day?

Cherrie - I am on time :) There is an appreciation email from someone. Something I have been researching or trying starts to work. And people don't  bother me.

Interviewer - (Emphatically writes down something and says 'don't bother' I think that is what he writes down)

Interviewer - Where do  you see yourself 5 years from now ?

Cherrie - There is the idealistic plan and the realistic plan. In an ideal world I would love to do an MBA. I know friends who have done it and they are changed individuals. 

Interviewer - The change is called confidence. 

Cherrie - Maybe. The realistic plan is I would still be coding and hopefully knowing much more than I currently do.

Interviewer - Hm.. so  do you have any questions for me? 

Cherrie - (Thinks no let me go my kid is waiting) None that I can think of now.

Some usual exchange of pleasantries and the interview ends.

So would you hire me?

Call me 'control freak'

Well I have an implementation over this weekend  - which means 0700-1700 @ work. Result --> A very nervous daddy who has to take care of the lil one.

At the cost of micro managing - here are my detail list of actions and recommendation out there on the wall :)

 

 

And  yea I know the spelling of 'chips' I just spelled it the way Kabuki pronounces it :)

Season of sickness

Its all haywire. The day just zips through and all I am left with is a sense of non-achievement. (Is that even a word? )

The little birdie has been unwell for like forever. Her body is ravaged by coughs. Last weekend she had a raging fever to top it and spent the whole night clinging to me and whining. It broke my heart to see her like this. Doctors advised us to let her immunity do the fighting, but then when things went from weeks to months, they put her on antibiotics. She is on a slow path to recovery. A very very slow path I should say.

To make matters worse, K too caught a flamboyant throat infection. He lost his voice. His coughs made him sick. And  when he needed it most, rest was ever elusive. Deadlines started baring their ugly fangs and he had to stretch at work.

Where did that leave me? Tired, stressed and very worried. I was scuttling providing massages of menthol balms, hot drinks and all tender loving care I could to both of them. But the absolutely relentless viruses were winning hands down. I tried making this dish and that, but with all her sense of taste gone, Chiyaa would not have a morsel. The weakness was too blatant in her body. I wish this madness to be over soon.

Well the eternal optimist seems to have been demolished. Do I see a sliver of hope in all this? Chiyaa has been slowly but steadily getting acclimatized to day care. Touchwood. (I am literally having both my hands on the wooden table). We had a lot of trepidation regarding her going back to day care after the Christmas break. But there was no going back. We had no options. The only way was forward. This time, it was the master mind K who said the words that made mountains move. Quote ‘Sometimes the way to learn swimming is to jump in the deep end’.  *Applause* We had no other go, I had to keep working and she had to go to day care and get on with it. She cries when she leaves me, but then its little notes like these which bring a smile on my face. 

She may hate me when she grows up but sending her to day-care would not be the reasons.(I hope).

Ek good news hai:)

Now don’t think in the conventional way *wink wink*. Well my blog has been shortlisted for the blogadda blog awards.

I have already done the vote appeal on Facebook.(Boy was it embarrassing ) Now here very shyly I ask you amigos to click a like or a tweet at http://win.blogadda.com/view-blogs-voting/personal/Cherrie_s_Blogs/

Muchas gracias :)

The holiday season is over

But memories of the calories remain

Pehle aap pehle aap main gaadi na choot jaaye

Well I thought, someone would do it first. As in you know, start wishing happy new year, give a wrap up, etc etc. :( 

Hmm well maybe people are super duper busy, not on an extended holiday like me :( 

So let me take this opportunity to do the wind down.

January started with much trepidation, since February was just around the corner you see. And what happens in February? New mommy joins office.ARGH! Scary I know. In spite of mil being there, it was super duper scary. Not only for the sake of the kid, for me too...would I be able to survive pressing F9 and F5 again and again after a gap of a year? Survive we did, and survive we did just fine :) Now all this seems so far far away. February also had the little one turning one! Yayyy! What a milestone! First birthday ! Party!!!!

As spring brought out colors and the chirping of birds, it was time to venture out more with our little birdie. We fully utilised the relatively warmer days by making lots and lots of trips to the parks and play areas. Aise hi haste khelte days were passing when Amma's mid year return to India loomed close. There was a  professional glitch for K which was very perturbing. But then, we decided to look ahead. We also took the opportunity to step out of the island and visit Paris. It was exhilarating, exciting and a very exhausting trip. We certainly forgot the setbacks at work. 

Amma was back in town. Things were returning to status quo. But like all years,  matters get out of hand for us towards the year end. There was some news with my parents which was very distressing. The illness of a very close family member clouded everything. Things are still not under control, but then there is no escape from certain scenarios. As the weather turned colder and the trees shed their leaves and the days started getting shorter -  a sort of dullness entered our lives as well. Chiyaa did her test run at day care and her unhappiness unsettled everybody. K  tried his professional move the second time and failed again. Burning his fingers twice was not as bad as seeing his peers proceed effortlessly. Things worsened at my paternal home. 

Who does not deserve a little timeout. December we decided to visit our new found love Paris yet again.Vacation do do the needful - they numb out reality. 

Here I am on the penultimate day of the year fancying that all works out fine in real life. I sit wishing for K's success, Chiyaa's happiness, my little sister's progress and my relative's well being. I beseech God to grant to my family to take care of a very sick but young kin.I hope my friend who is expanding her family with her soul mate has the most joyous year ahead and others hopefully find their matches.

May our dreams soar high and take us all to our coveted destination. If not, may we have the strength to try again. May we all learn a lot, love a lot and live a lot in the coming year.

Wishing you all a very radiant, vibrant, gorgeous new year!  

Love locked and feet dead

I better get done with my Paris reverie else my mild OCD will not let me pick up anything till I am done :(

 

Day3 was slated for general roaming and loitering . Our top priority was food - yes not sight seeing. ;) As I might have mentioned umpteen times, K somehow always wants to have Indian food! We had decided on a place called coffee India, based on Tripadvisor recommendations and proximity to our hotel. The place was a little one and the fare was gourmet. The masala in the Masala Dosa had all sorts of vegetables (really healthy but then who wants to eat healthy in a hotel?!) . It was served with some really creamy chicken curry which was very tasty but my 'Indian' food sensibilities were crying at this outrage of authentic cuisine. K ordered a dish called Kothu which is some sort of scrambled dosa with some curry. The curries were again so rich and creamy and yes tasty but un-authentic. I hoped someone rescued French people from this travesty - but then sometimes lies sell :(

 

 We caught a tube to the Cité which was an island in river Seine. First on our itinerary was the Notre dame.  The church was a very majestic and magnificent. From there it was a long walk to Pont de Arts. This bridge has an urban legend regarding putting a lock on the bridge and throw the key in the river which in essence locks your love forever. We too followed tradition and bought a lock. It had 3 keys , I took one gave to K and the third to Chiyaa. As per tradition K and I dropped our keys into the waters of Seine. When asked to put her key, Chiyaa merely threw it till the edge of the bridge. Little kid, we let her try again. Same result. Huh. Ok third time lucky maybe? But same result. Hmm.. was she wishing for her parents to have their options open and not be another ever after ;) so we grabbed the key and threw it :P Of course we did not want any options :)

 

Since it was a foot bridge we allowed her to go crazy. She was running, crawling, jumping and squealing all over the place. We grabbed some coffee in a local café. We had read that the quaint restaurants and cafes in Paris were not to be missed. But we somehow found that facet a bit over romanticised and over rated. We did not get a decent brew in many places. I feel the vending machine at my work place serves better coffee. There was absolutely no variety in menu. French bakery which is supposed to be very renowned did not wow us at all just like the famed Mysore Masala Dosa did not cause a stir in our tongues. Some things are just over rated that’s why I never judge a movie or a book by what critics say :) As a side I just watched The secret life of Walter Mitty and simply lovedddddddddd itttt!!!!! Do do do watch it for some escapism, some too good to be true drama, some surrealism. Ok enough of this digression.

 

As it  was getting close to dusk, as per ritual we sighted our light house - the Eiffel and started our long walk to the coveted land  :D I know this portion is getting too monotonous and routine. But there is some pleasure in sticking to tradition. As usual we saw the lights at Eiffel, started the walk to the hotel and made the Little Birdie walk the final stretch.

 

The next day was our very last in Paris. We had to dedicate it to the famed Louvre which housed many artistic jewels of the world. I was most interested in the entrance which had been made oh so famous by the movie The Da Vinci code. Once I saw it and got a few clicks with it - I had had enough of Louvre. But the museum enthusiast K was not even warmed up. He got the audio guides and got started. Handling a pram, a bored toddler in it and the Nintendo DS which was being used as the guide and was very unintuitive - I was getting more irked by the moment. I gave up and allowed K to have a good wander. But as time passed, it was getting a bit out of hand with Chiyaa. She wanted to be let out of the pram. And if I let her out she went about touching the artefacts! The security at the famed museum was not too happy about it and I was getting 'the looks'. We viewed Venus de milo after which I started nagging K that the kitten was getting bored. K was enraged and we were in a deadlock situation. K wanted to continue his study in ancient arts, the kid and I were bored to our bones. Technically we should have won 2 against 1. To make matters worse, since we both were bored, we were getting hungry too :P I recommended we grab some grub after which K could return to the largest museum in the world, while I would take Chiyaa back to the hotel and somehow make do. K did not agree with it since he wanted us to be with him. Even I wanted to be with him, but then we can't have everything right? Anyhoo first things first, we had to get some food and zero in on a place for it. K with his utter fondness for his native delicacies recommended a place called Krishna Bhawan. (He was still peeved at Coffee India for having sold him some hocus pocus in the name of Indian food). The place was a bit far off but the 'Bhawan' in its name screamed authentic to K.

 

Authentic it was. Not only the place but the locale too. It was an south Asian dominated region. There were places marked with the south Indian languages, stores selling sarees and bangles! Wow ! Again a veritable Ranganathan street :) We got crazy with the ordering, it was Masala Vada, Idli, Spinach Vada, Thali and customary K dish of Kothu. Seriously mazaa aa gaya!!! Food made us think more clearly. We went to the museum where we decided on seeing stuff together come rain or storm. We had only managed Venus de Milo in the morning and there were so many pieces clamouring for our attention. Coming all the way to the Louvre and not seeing the Monalisa was something I did not agree with. I decided to have a dekko at that fabled portrait and then get on with taking care of the kiddo. I do not know whether something was amiss but I was not awed at all! I have no idea why the picture is so famous. Another over rated Parisian feature? :) Well maybe :)

 

Surprisingly the kid cooperated and fell asleep! We walked about, K diligently on his audio guide and dropping information to me. It was good fun in fact. Though our legs were dead with the hours of incessant walking, we kept going. We also remained true to tradition - in spite of the legs that were going numb, we saw Eiffel one last time and made the kid walk the last stretch one last time!

 

Aah Paris, je t'aime!