Happy Monday (a fairytale?)

NDCS, the National Deaf Children's Society, has declared Monday 10 September to be 'Happy Monday' and is encouraging people to hold Happy Monday parties in their office to raise funds for the charity.

Happy Monday party organisers are encouraged to collect at least £3 per head from colleagues that they invite to the party.

The charity is offering a party pack to help organisers plan their event, together with downloadable posters, jokes, and smilies, the logo of the campaign. You can also create your own smiley and download it to post on your website or blog to "be part of the UK's biggest smile".

More: www.happymonday.org.uk

Thought for the Week

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

World Down Syndrome Day

March 21 is World Down Syndrome Day.The date was chosen to signify the uniqueness of Down syndrome in the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome and is used synonymously with Down syndrome.

In June, it'll be two years since I've begun work with a small national DS charity. In these months, I have developed new skills, stepped into the cut-throat world of charity fundraising, attended meetings in Parliament and interacted with some amazing children and parents in the UK and internationally, including India.

Working for the charity has given me a greater understanding into the lives of people with disabilities. The work being done in the UK is nothing short of amazing. I want to see that same kind of attention in India. Fingers crossed - someday it will happen.

On some days...

Calling all Workoholics

If you've been working overtime for no extra pay, today's your day.

It's 'Work Your Proper Hours Day' today. For all those of you who stay at work 'just a little longer' to catch up with pending work, take stock. The WorkSmart site gives you tips on, among other things, how to break the news to your boss, that you're, well, going to work proper hours.

But if you've been slacking off work, no sympathies for you there!

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We've been besieged by snow showers over the past few days. I've been feeling as if I am inside one of those snow globes, looking out at the tiny bits of white coming down relentlessly, covering everything with a layer of fine white powder.

An email from JC

A new mail landed in my inbox a moment ago. The sender name was, ahem, 'Jesus Christ' and the subject was 'Hidden Rewards'. I didn't dare open the email. The thought of a virus scares me more than the possibility of God trying to get my attention.

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I started work yesterday with a charity that promotes and funds research for Down's Syndrome. After a decade of working with a mammoth organisaton, it's a relief to be with just a few people. The couple who started the charity are moving back to the US in August, so they've hired me and one other lady to run the charity here in the UK, under the watchful eye of the trustees, ofcourse!! We're looking for office space right now, and hopefully will find something reasonable soon. It seems to be a challenging assignment and I'm rather looking forward to making the most of it. It's interesting to see how charities function here. After being with the Samaritans in India, this is a chance to see how the West functions. Very differently, I think!

Yesterday ended last night

It's scary how the minutes, hours and days are going by...Just one more working day and I'm out of here - and there's still a gadzillion things to do. Forms have finally been submitted yesterday, but the sense of finality somehow still hasn't set in yet. Today and Monday will be devoted to clearing up papers to take home, deleting/copying PC files, farewell lunches with friends and a flurry of goodbye's.

Just one more day and I'll be gone. Ten years have gone by.....
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Just finished reading 'Today Matters' by John Maxwell - a book about how to make your today a masterpiece. The book tells us nothing new, yet the format, the quotes, the stories make for interesting/inspirational one-time reading. Here are some :

• One today is worth two tomorrows; What I am to be, I am now becoming. - Benjamin Franklin
• Yesterday ended last night.
• The 57 Rules of success : #1 Deliver the goods. #2 The other 56 don't matter.
• The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James
• The thoughts in your mind will always be more important than the things in your life.
• All things being equal, attitude wins. All things not being equal, attitude sometimes still wins.

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1

Seven

And then there were 7.....

It's funny how much work gets done on a deadline :)

A panic attack!

With just 8 days left at work, I'm starting to get palpitations. There's so much to be done, I'm starting to panic. There are papers to sort, personal files to take home, a HOTO report to be done (Handing over, Taking over), instructions to be given, forms to be filled, keys to be handed over, PC files to be copied/deleted, change of address to be informed, emails to be sent, thank-you and goodbye letters/notes to be sent....I can feel the stress building up already, and it's not even 9.30!!

It's funny how even after a decade at this place, I have no emotions except happy ones about leaving. There is no sadness, no sense of loss and there will be no tears. I am not emotionally attached to this place, even though I have spent so many years here. It'll be good to leave, finally, after all these years of threatening to! And I'm sure, that even if Mr.R were not on the scene, I would have still opted to take the VRS and quit. As simple as that. Mr.R just happened to bring me this good luck, so I firmly believe. Things have just fallen into place for me ever since he's come into my life. Only good things have happened this year, proving my great mother wrong that Leap Years are unlucky : I'm getting offers to write professionally, I can leave work and as a bonus, Mr.R is willing to take the risk of marrying me! :)

A phase of my life is over. It's yet to sink in. I've had eight months to think about it, but it's still not hit me. Leaving home is going to be tough and I know I'm going to have many sleepless nights worrying about my mother's health and wellbeing. Leaving parents behind is very tough, especially when they are alone.

Enough now. See what you made me do (talking to myself here). Now, I'm going to get all emotional. Better distract myself with tackling some of the things on the long list above!

8 days left. Eeeks!

The Final Countdown begins...

10

My release papers at work have come. Just 10 working days to go now!

A Litany of Days

I love Wednesdays. It's a day I look forward to; the worst is over by then and the best is yet to come. Monday and Tuesday are faint memories by Wednesday morning, the stress and fatigue of starting a new work week have already faded away into the anticipation of the fast approaching Friday. And before you know it, the weekend is here! Yay!

I don't like Thursdays. It's more stressed than Mondays. With Monday morning, you know you still have five days to get your act together (I have a very forgiving workplace!). The stress is there, especially when you can't remember what you ended with on Friday evening! With Thursdays, you are fast running out of time, the pressure builds as the clock ticks ominously. Papers seem to pile faster than usual threatening to give you claustrophobia and drown you in reams, thus preventing you from enjoying the weekend. Thursdays are sadists.

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This morning, the 6 am alarm let me down (Ok, to be honest, I hit the snooze button when it went off and then awoke at 6.45; but the alarm should have gone off again, so I'm not completely to blame!) Of course, the reason I overslept was probably because I read way past my bedtime, while contemplating the future at the same time, till I toppled over with sleep. Serves me right.

Anyway, dashed around then like a crazy chicken , trying to get dressed, eat my cereal, drink my coffee without spilling any.. Managed to burn my lovely dupatta while ironing in that frenzy too. I'm much too serene to let this upset me, so calmly dumped the now-useless-for-the-moment-outfit and wore something else, which is what I should have done in the first place. Left home at the usual time instead of the 30 mins earlier as scheduled which meant that I had to skip the morning gym session. Sigh. It's a good thing Big Bee is not in office these days so I can breathe a little easier and get my life back on track.

Thursdays, bah!

:(

I hate Mondays.

Against the tide

It's a lovely October morning. Cloudy, warm, just a hint of a rain laden breeze to waken the spirits. It'll get hotter later, but at nine, one couldn't ask for better weather.

I walk on, focusing on the feeling of breathing. It's a good day to be alive. I look around hoping to see smiles, hear a laugh or voices enjoying the calmness that pervades. But everybody looks so tired. Just like me on most mornings. The tiredness doesn't come from staying awake all night, clearing the house of the children's toys and homework or from lying awake thinking of the bills to be paid this week. The fatigue comes from waking each morning and not looking forward to 'work'. Because one would rather be elsewhere, given a chance. Because 'work' is merely an office, a place to shuffle paper while Life goes on elsewhere.. It is this realization somewhere at the back of one's mind that causes the exhaustion, the look in one's eye that doesn't register a feeling when one sees a deformed child asking for a coin. It is what causes young shoulders to stoop, weighed down by much more than the weight of a handbag, a briefcase, a rexine bag that contains objects not required for daily life, but without which one would not be able to make it through the day confidently. I suddenly think : I wish I could work against the tide. Travel in the "opposite" direction, away from the crowds going toward Churchgate/VT in the morning and back in the evening. It's like cattle being transported to the slaughterhouse - a weary resignation dwells in faces that have decided to accept life as it is now as life as it will/should be. There are no choices.

I am tired of being weary.

The only people I see this morning with some enthusiasm and cheer are the hawkers near Astoria Hotel as they go about unpacking their wares. They seem unconcerned, almost happy. Light banter alternates with their task of setting up for the day's business - lack of sales isn't a matter of life, death or a pink slip for them. There's always tomorrow. I wonder if their lightheartedness comes from knowing that they don't have to face the mediocrity of the office, the predictability of paper; and that each morning brings something new - new customers, better luck than yesterday, no policemen asking for bribes. Wish we, the educated, the privileged, the middle-class had the luxury of that self assuredness, that confidence of being one's own master.

Wish I could work against the tide.

Of Silver Lions and Deviant Employees

Saw an episode of 'Storyboard' on CNBC the other day, showcasing the ad's that won at Cannes recently. The ingenuity, imagination and creativity just left me spellbound. What minds people have! Amazing! One ad particularly stayed with me long after I left the telly alone. This was an ad about AIDS, and it won a Silver Lion. The ad was in black and white and showed a village in Africa - people sitting around, women cooking on open fires, children running around... (it could be easily be a village in India). Suddenly, a hush falls over everybody. Then one by one, people start panicking. Mothers pick up children and run into the house, everybody rushes indoors to safety. In a second all you can see is visuals of frightened eyes looking through little gaps in thatched doors. A silhouette of a slightly bent man is shown somewhere in the distance and the viewer is left believing for a second, that someone with AIDS has come into the village and therefore the villagers were scared (my assumption, since I already knew that it was an ad for AIDS ).

Then the screen slowly fades into a shot of an old man - white beard, hollow cheeks and all. And then the punchline on the screen ticks by : The average life expectancy in Africa is 47 years. (which means that most people in Africa will not see an old person in their lifetime). It's a scary thought, because a situation like this is going to be inevitable in India too (with over 5 million people with HIV) and it's an AHA moment when you 'get it'. Very nicely done. Stark, simple and very effective.

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Happened to lay my hands on a magazine called "The Focus" - a German publication, I think. Good articles in this issue - with a focus on the theme of 'Innovation'. One article however felt like I was reading about myself. The title was "Learning from the Mavericks" and it was about "deviant" employees and what to do with them :). I quote from the section called "Building a deviant mousetrap"

Quote
"...... It is generally accepted that deviant employees are attracted to challenges and repelled by repetitive assignments.Deviants love work and hate jobs. They are perfect for skunk-works projects precisely because such activities exist outside what they see as the suffocating confines of traditional employment. Moreover, here the deviants in your company can work at their own often accelerated pace.

Deviant employees don't respect chains of command or people who hide behind them. Authority isn't an entitlement. It has to be earned or it doesn't exist..........."
Unquote

Sounds familiar? Now I have a name to give to this restlessness, this resentment, this wanting-to-do-more-but-you're-pulling-me-down feeling that a lot of people around here live with. I'm deviant. And I'm feeling better about my work already!

Temporary Insanity..

Ta Di Dum Dah... I'm in such a pleasant frame of mind these days..Must be temporary insanity. Such good spirits are not conducive for a favorable work environment. Must get back to being my usual grouchy, fire-spewing dragon, short-tempered, irritable, unfriendly self. Such pleasant, good humour is bad for my reputation.

I shall think of a quote from Dilbert instead and go back to being grumpy : When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Now that's cause for worry!

It's a miracle!

The English language has so many words for what I've been feeling since yesterday evening : Happy is the mildest. The others that come to mind are Elated, Joyous, Joyful, Delighted, Ecstatic, Pleased, Light-hearted, Lucky,Cheerful, Overjoyed, Exhilarated, buoyed, Glad, Fortunate, Euphoric, animated, and most of all Blessed.

I feel Blessed today. Life, this year, has been one series of miracles after another. Yesterday, another very very (under-statement there!) unexpected miracle happened...

My Co.has come out (finally) with a VRS package that has been in the pipeline for the past three years atleast. There has been much debate, discussion, postponement and arguments with Unions on the issue.Most employees who thought they'd be eligible had all but given up. The rumor was that the proposal for VRS was languishing with the Ministry. So when the circular DID show up suddenly on the Intranet, that was a surprise in itself. The second one, and the one I'm so thrilled about is that I AM ELIGIBLE!!! (I'm sure that you, dear reader, has no clue about why I'm so happy - but my life story is a long one and I have no patience to type it out today!)

The scheme is valid for Aug-Sep only. Which is another wonderful coincidence! I'm completing the requisite number of years of service to qualify on Sep 7 this year! If the proposal had come even a month earlier, I would not have been eligible.

I've been planning to quit for a long time now. This is the impetus to leave gracefully. I feel that all ropes have now been cut and I am FREE. It's an incredible feeling. I feel a hundred years younger and about 200 kgs lighter :D .....There is no emotional baggage attached to my leaving and all my dues (literally and figuratively) have been paid. It's a new chance at Life. Someone up there loves me. And all these years of unhappiness, wondering what-if, finally makes sense.

Mr.R called me after he got my email - the excitement was palpable I guess! And he had a point when he said that it was a good thing we didn't get married on Jan 10 (we met for the first time on Jan 9!!) or I'd have quit by now, and then have had regrets later. My to-be MIL then called - my jumping-with-joy news sure spread quickly. Ah! it's good to have people to share in your excitement!!

Now I just look forward to Sep 8,when I can submit my application. As long as they don't withdraw the scheme before that!!

Say a little prayer for me, you guys!

Of Nariman Pt, Marine Drive and calories.

Walking through Nariman Point on a balmy, windy day is a pleasant way to walk into noon. The roads are not very crowded and lunch time mania is still far away. It's very tempting to drop everything and go sit at Marine Drive, throwing all your worries to the wind. The sea beckons with its tempestuous waves, a cool breeze predicts another shower soon, cloudy skies promise some shade from the sun. Sense prevails unfortunately, and I go about my work. Marine Drive will have to wait. I shall be content with the little view of the sea that I get from my office(a patch of water in between two buildings, but I'm not complaining).

There's something utterly bewitching about the sea during the monsoons. For once, I can give up my fascination with clouds and look instead, at the sea - sometimes angry, sometimes rowdy, mostly furious. Huge waves lash at the promenade, splashing rock and humans alike. What fun!

What a day this has been. Just running around. No lunch either. Don't know how many calories I've lost, but I'm hungry now. French Fries beckon. And there's Gym this evening. Can't skip that... Might as well as eat the fries and work it out. Eat and burn, as Chewing Gum the instructor says (so called because she's incredibly flexible!). Sounds like a good idea to me, only I know I'll regret it later. To burn 10 calories one has to struggle for eons, but it's so easy to consume 1000 calories in a few minutes. Sigh. Life is unfair.