Rediscovering the joy of reading

The 2.5 hours that I spend commuting to and from work each weekday, give me lotsa time to read...
Manged to finish 3 books (Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh, The fist of God by Fredrick Forsyth and Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer) in 3 weeks...
a contented feeling....:)

There are few things more irritating than people(vehicles) slowing/stopping in the middle of the road, because they are passing a temple and feel it is mandatory to pray to the gods, even at the expense of being run over or cursed by a thousand others...

Adios ITS/Caritor/Keane

After 5 years and 8 months at Keane, being a part of its journey from IT Solutions to Caritor to Keane, from 1000 people to 14000 strong....I called it a day today....

Having worked with some of the best people I have known...I will miss them all :(

The farewell dinner at Barons was amazing. The cards (loved both of them...the one from the KIDS and the Good luck one :) and the clock....:)

Will miss my team :(

Howth...

After all the drama, here are some amateurish photos of the beautiful seaside town of Howth

"Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti-sama-prabha
Nirvighnam kuru me deva Sarva-karyeshu sarvada"

The weekend was planned 10 days in advance....the shopping for the non-perishables (condensed milk, cardamom, dessicated coconut, raisins) was done a week in advance...

Saturday was Ganesh Chaturthi...and the quartet had decided on the menu for Ganesha...well the fact that we did not have a Ganesha idol did not dampen our spirits...after all God is everywhere...:)
The menu was final...gajar ka halwa with icecream, black chana, veg pulao, maybe chapatis...(well…in the land of bread n fruits, its a feast!!!)
The carrots were bought on Friday...the shopping expedition carried out by all the four devout gluttons!
The discussion did not divert...the gajar ka halwa was on everyones mind as we went to sleep at 12...

Come Sunday and a shout...the infamous Irish weather was going to strike again...this time with a days notice (Lord Ganeshas blessings for all our noble thoughts, we claimed)...Sunday was to be a total washout...incessant rains and cold waves had been predicted...
Well, we had a choice to make...can we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi on Sunday?
After a lot of inspired moral debates, we decided that Lord Ganesha would most definitely understand. We are after all humans...

As a compensation, lest he unleash his wrath on us...we made the chana and had it as prasad before leaving...

The plans were ambitious...I was leaving next weekend and in the 4 weeks that I had spent here I had not taken the LUAS (the trams here)...what a disgrace...so we would take a taxi from the apartment to Tallaght...the LUAS from there to the City Centre...and then the DART from there to Greystone...a long trip, but well worth it.
Note: Greystones was decided as a destination without much debate...as taking the LUAS and DART was a must!

The over enthusiastic quartet that we were, we decided to find out about how to buy the LUAS ticket from the taxi driver. When we explained our plans to him, he told us that Greystones was a very nice place (though 3 days later, while driving us home, he does mention that Greystones is not very clean, but is being developed and would be a great place in about 5 years!!!!). He also suggested that we should go to Howth if we find time. It is a beautiful village with a beach, harbour and cliffs...

At Tallaght, we took the LUAS and were on our way to the City Centre. The ride was uneventful...the LUAS was quite crowded...far removed from the glamorous trains with beautiful women that we see in movies.

As we were getting down at the City Centre...a comical bulb of enlightenment lit in the minds eye and thus was born the idea..."Destination Howth"...
So there we were, at the crowded DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) station, looking for directions (we once even looked upto the heavens!!!)...and more importantly gathering information about the places to visit...got a BIG map and 4 tickets...and set off to Platform 7...where a DART waited patiently to take us to HOWTH!!!!

"We all get heavier as we get older because there's a lot more information in our heads. So I'm not fat, I'm just really intelligent and my head couldn't hold any more so it started filling up the rest of me !"

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

And this one to my team of Angels n Demons...the Portfolio Tracker team....
Mamatha aka Ma
Janitha aka Janu (shes the ex...)
Lizanne aka Liz
Jasmeet aka Jassi/Jazz
Deepa
Soumya
(We don't have fun names for the last 2 yet!)

For all the fun times....the lunches...the movies (mass bunk in office..wow!!!)...Bandipur...the gifts...the cards...:)

PS: Late entry...Deepa aka Zombie!