Examine what is said, not her who speaks

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn't always fair;
and Maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6 -year- old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Tylenol, sun lotion or a band-aid to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 3 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

Here I am again back. Its been a hell of a week what with something or the other.
I am finally back in Ahmadabad. I sat in the train from Bangalore on last Sunday at 13:30 and reached my city on Tuesday morning at 0400 hours. 40 hours of journey in the train can kill you I tell you! Thank God, I had Priyanka, my housemate with me.

She also came back after her one month tour in the South. She is working with Nehru Foundation, an NGO. These days, she is working on the project which does the Tsunami analysis. I'm quite relieved that she came back with me. She looked half dead with exhaustion after one month. At least now that she is back here, she can relax for sometime before going off again.

When in the train, we wondered how far apart our seats would be. But what a treat! Our seats were in the same compartment, opposite to each other and this, despite the fact that she had booked her tickets a month earlier and me at the last minute! Her own colleague had been unable to get a seat together with her and was sitting in another compartment ( though we changed that as one of the seats in our compartment was empty, we got her shifted.) Her name is Karen and I found her to be a sensible and sweet person.

The stretch of luck went further. Normally, you have to be wary of people sitting around you- you never know what kind of people are going to be your companions. A normal compartment would have 8 sleeper seats. One of them was filled with a businessman from UP (Uttar Pradesh is called UP. It is one of the bigger states of India) who was going to visit his daughter and the other two with two south Indians who slept through the whole journey. The businessman from UP was a hell of a creative mind. HE gave Priyanka and Karen loads of puzzles to solve and all of them brilliant ones too!

On the other seat was a guy from Ivory Coast who was delighted that he had found us. He is one of the AIESEC trainees and was very happy when he found out that we were from AIESEC too and knew most the trainees in Ahmadabad where he is going to stay for the next 10 months. Nervous too he was, for it was a long journey by train and he is not used to it.

So our train journey turned out to be quite pleasant despite being a long one. After we came back, Priyanka had a day off and I slept the whole day to make myself cabapable enough to work in the night.
And so the days have gone by in a rush with work and meeting with the lawyer(casual meeting) and a couple of other consultants. Today is Friday and thank God for it. My work will be over soon. After this, we plan to push off to watch the new Bond movie-Casino Royale. I hear, Daniel Craig looks smashing but too human as Bond. I'd rather make my own opinion though by watching it. Shall let u guys know how I found it after I've seen it.

Time to go and read what my blogger friends have been upto!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Cheers!

hey guys!
I am drunk on a bottle of white wine(seems I've gone off the limits with Indian wines) and pleasantly high with wine and cigg and company. Hope this friday turns out to be better than mine was. It was a dissappointing day for me with nothing going the way I planned. I lost a centre..a good one too due to financial constraints but hope your day went better.

Here's wishing you a good evening. Talk to you tomorrow!

Cheers!

After concluding a 38 hour train journey from Ahmedabad to Bangalore (which is around 1686kms), I am sitting at a friend's place, reading blogs. I havent been able to sleep as train motions dont let me sleep. Plus I am unable to sleep when accompanied by the noises of a couple whispering, babies crying as if hell had broken over and youngsters boasting about how many girlfriends they've had. As you might realise, in all this chaos around me, I found it difficult to sleep.

I arrived at Bangalore Station at the unearthly hour of 4 in the morning where my friend, Ishat was waiting for me patiently. We met each other after around 1.5 years. He used to be my colleague at the call centre I used to work in. He was the tech guy I used to shout at when the system got slow. As you see, a very good basis for friendship to last long.
Today, we're very good friends even though he lives in Bangalore since the last 2.5 years and we write to each other maybe once in a couple of months.

After I arrived here, we made some tea and informed each other about the happenings in each others'lives. And since I was still in no mood to sleep (eventhough I realise, I might have to work the whole night), we decided to go out.

The weather here is fantastic as compared to what I left behind in Ahmedabad! They've predicted 24 degrees as the maximum temperature in the daytime and 19 in the night time for Bangalore. (OOphs..maybe I should say BANGALOORU. They just changed this city's name a week back. ) A bit of drizzling is also welcome as it only makes the air around pleasant. Bangalore is considered to be one of the greener cities of India. Located in the south of India, in a state called Karnataka, Bangalore is the IT capital of India. I have come here for work as well as relaxation. Today is half work, half relaxation day.
We went to "Planet M" which is a big music store. I bought some Carnatic music CDs for which Karnataka is famous. Ishat got himself some Salsa CD as he tells me he's learning Salsa these days and need to practise. Good luck to him!

Now, I think I shall rest a while and get up in a few hours to head towards the call centre that I've come here to observe. See you later!

Cheers!

Its six in the evening here in India and I just woke up. Not a restful sleep cos woke up twice to open the door for my brother. My head's buzzing like its filled with bees ready to go on attack.
Slept at about 11 am today after I finished my work. And now I have ahead of me,another busy day(night) at work. I wonder at times about the continent I live in. I'm in India but I'm with the US time zone. I had better synchronisation when I was in Germany. Otherwise, its been like this for a long time now. Wonder how long can I go on like this?

Time to prepare the first cup of coffee for the day. Enjoy the evening guys or the day, depending on your time zones.

Technically, I should be sleeping at this point of time. I finished finalising and sending the final weekly reports to the clients in the night. I should have been asleep since 04:00 am but sleep eludes me entirely!!
Dont know what to do! I studied for about 4 hours now but nada..no sleep. I'm going to go and do some washing- maybe that would tire me out and put me off to sleep. What is it with holidays and sleep?? Whenever I have days off, I cant seem to be able to sleep. I am restless, feel like I could do loads more but dont know what to do anymore.

Wonder if anyone can offer a cure for this?

Hope you've had a better time than I. I've been bogged down by work with barely any time to come up for air. As if that hasnt been enough, today my ex boyfriend comes up and tries to provoke me into an explosive conversation. When I refuse, he tells me about my sins and calls me a liar and yet wants to be friends with me. Pffff..I am through with all this. Men need to be given a wide berth at this point of my life, I think. And then, there is my ex- husband who's trying his level best to rip me off whatever money I make via banks. I must have been crazy to ever have associated with any of these guys!! Only hope in future, I do better!

Need to get back to a conference. Hope all you guys are having a less stressing time. For me, I hope this weekend is relaxing. Read you all soon.