Lifting Shadows Off a Day

I have been longing to write a post about some small and interesting things I have been coming across ever since I started my Internship. But Unfortunately I don’t even get time to login to ORKUT!! Yes I am busy.:P
Warning: Please don’t read this post unless you are absolutely jobless. Its a mixture of all tenses. Please don’t sue me for not using the right tenses nor for the lack of structure and Grammar.I am writing this for my own record ..:P
The following is my typical schedule ever since 12 May 2008
# 5:26 am : Wake Up Alarm ,Oh no.. Please let me sleep for 2 more minutes, Reminds of me of school days when my Mom used to wake me up at 7:30 and I used to plead her to let me sleep for 2 more minutes hiding inside the blanket. Nobody to listen to your excuses and complaints, Just a thought ’Damn I hate waking up early’
# 5:55 am : Microwave beeps, Gulping the cup of milk grabs the jacket and Backpack and runs out of a silent house
# 6:05 am : Meets Ms ‘skirt lady’ who greets me everyday ‘Hello Hovayu’.I still have not asked her for name  .We talk about the weather and why it is still freaking cold even though they call it summer here. She is very excited about the long weekend and her plans to meet her grand daughter who is going to be home
#6:10 am : Boards 214 AC Transit. Driver greets.’Goood Morning’.I am busy looking for quarters to put in the coin machine. I see a middle-aged woman sitting in a wheel chair who greets everybody with a smile. She is mentally challenged. I wonder where she is heading to early morning ,except for her everybody busy taking a small nap.
#6:26 am :BART train: Everybody rushing to get the first train, I cant even find a single person who is not running, except for me who is dazed!!
I get inside, pulls out my IPod trying to listen to some random song, so that I wont fall asleep and miss my station and get the next train.I see a girl waiting for someone right next to the door screaming in her phone' come fast…'I assumed it must be her boyfriend. But I was surprised I see a lady in her late forties running inside. Both of them sat inside,she plugs on her IPod and the lady kept looking at her as if she is seeing her after a long time.She touches the girl’s hair, her handbag and the girl started explaining to her about her shopping experience last week. She took out her sunglasses and showed it her. The lady smiled and said she looks good in that attire. It was a mom and a daughter meeting in the train may be after week.
#6:50 am :Lady gets off at a station hugging and kissing her daughter, A guy sitting next to me switched on his Radio and started rapping. Indians in the train busy making calls home and wishing their dear ones Goodnight.
# 7:05 am :Boards the 77 Eastridge Bus: Not many commuters, just a few Mexican laborers and I look outside and see big rush of people waiting for their buses
# 7:20 am :Gets off at Alum Rock which is a major Mexican Heritage area.Everything is written in Spanish. I walk almost a mile to my office watching a lot of small scale shops that reminds me the workshops and some stores in India.Mexicans and Indians are similar in lot of ways.
# 7:35am : I enter my office(Which is satellite office) and Jamie greets me with a big Good orning.She is my friend in office, somebody who helps me with everything right from Day 1.We talk about everything when we get time. about family,culture,career and what not!!.I read how much she worries about her teenage daughter and a desire in her to see her daughter get a good education. From her I learnt a lot about the American community and how difficult is bringing up kids in this part of the world.
# 7: 45 am. Greets my boss Jason and stand there smiling at him waiting for him to give me some work.Hurray!!I am working at Hitachi today. Hitachi is one of the major projects of the company and I go there once in a while to help the project managers there.
Quickly checks my mail and wore my boots and took out my field hat and vest.

#8:45 am : Jamie drives me to Hiatchi site giving me a wonderful trip in her car.I still have no idea how we made it up there without any tickets. She thought me’ What not to do in roads’
# 9:00 am. Meets Mike who is a project Engineer @Hitachi and took me inside a conference room. Yes it was the first official meeting of my life.This was a meeting with the General Contractor. I see all familiar faces in my company side and new Faces with other side.An Indian Boy!!!Wow.Thats a big surprise.The meeting started with my introduction as I was the new one to everyone. Mike said ‘This is Baaadra Naeir’ who is a new intern and she is from TexasA&M..Blah Blah’..The head of the table said..Oh No. another tough name.!!He asked me ‘Could you please go write your name on board’
I walked to the board and saw in bold letters ‘Karthik Jayachandran’ under that and came back and sat there.hen they started talking about the ‘Nair’ hair removing cream. It was so embarrassing. Luckily the meeting started and No more ‘Nair’ talks.
After the meeting one guy came and asked me are u also from India like Karthik?I said yes and then he showed me a map with lots of pins on it and asked me ,where u from.I pointed out Calicut and also noticed a pin in Madras. e gave me a pin and I pinned it on Calicut. Supposedly all those who work on the project from every company, government or the owner side has to put a pin on the map.I felt so Good. kudos to Calicut.I felt as if I won a Gold medal in olympics and I was standing on the podium listening to National Anthemn.:P
#1:00 pm : working on scheduling, was careful not to make any mistakes and not to ask any idiotic questions.
#2:00 pm :Took out my lunch box and had the three chapattis I made the day before
# 4:45 pm:Mike said he will drop me off at SanJose where I take my Bus back home.
Got into his truck.Had a talk about how he started his career and about his experiences in Construction Industry
#5:00-Waiting for the bus with a bunch of school Children,too tired to observe to write what is going around.Boards another two three buses.Many IT people on bus,tired faces
# 7:30:Phew Finally home:My nieces busy watching their favourite program,the house unlike I left is lively,I ask Nitu about her School,But no reply.Little one looks at me,I asked her about her day,she had so much to tell me.Helps Chechi with Dinner Preparation
#8:30 :Dinner Time.I talk about my day and my office,I am happy to see some Good Food on table 
#9:00 :Checks mails, Just going trough the different mails and different events happening in other parts of world.’Lifting Shadows off a Dream’ is idle..My phone rings.I smile and repeat the wholeday to a poor soul who made a IST call.Waited for some more calls..No 
#10:00 Trying to sleep:Feels like I am in the bus.I hear TV downstairs,I so very wish go watch it
#10:30 Dreams  Lifting shadows off a day

Made in China

A few minutes back my 6 year old niece asked her parents a smart question."why is that all my toys are 'Made in China',Doesn't India make anything??.Well her IT parents replied by shooting another question to her "Molu,who works in Yahoo and Google??As her Father works with Yahoo,she was convinced India does make something!!

Well personally I used to feel that label just indicates cheap quality.All those China shops which used to pop in small towns, Rs 15 cute bunny shaped alarm clocks with the 'made in china' sticker.The fake ipods,mp3,watches.I can think a lot of China now :) Even in the suburbs of India or may be in almost every country,all the restaurants,the Menu would have Chinese!!They have a signature everywhere and on everything!!!
Largest population,one of the largest economies,culture,what not!Still they are also second class citizens like we Indians in the so called 'One World Concept'.
Even when the Olympic torch going as high as Mount Everest,the country's effort of popularizing the event was plummeting, the US and UK Newspapers are talking about Human rights issues and portraying the whole campaign as a show off!!Ironic!
I am not a China supporter, a promoter of Confucianism or an economist!!But all I know is I hate Chinese cuisine lately :P

Fear of the Dark

There are moments or rather instances which puts you in a mood to look within!!I was trying to figure out what is 'ME'.This might sound a little stupid,but then like somebody asked me 'What is the purpose of Blogging' the answer is just again a thought!!
The insecure feeling in me comes out as over posessiveness or rather a very quick decison of 'keeping a distance'.Its difficult to keep up to the expectations of everyone and swinging between the two extreme thoughts is the worst torture.At a point you feel that you donthave anybody to count on and the very next moment you realise the strangling love and care that would make you feel guilty!Am I worth all this?Can I keep up all their hopes and expectations?I really dont know!!But why is that when i just turn back I dont see anybody.Why is that inspite of all assurances I feel that I am standing alone.Am I scared to hold the hands for the fear of losing it on my way!!All I know is I dont want to lose anything more!!I fear to posess anything!
Like a small child hiding her barbie doll under the bed before she sleeps,I wish I could hide all the care and love others give me!!