SamTrans & Friends

After Long , I am getting to Update my Blog. Though i've been thinking of it for quite some time , I think like everyone does i have not been doing it lately.

Commute to office everyday is approximately takes anywhere between an hour and 10 minutes to an hour and a half. That seems like a journey , but not as bad as the travel in India, There are no changes. I travel in one bus. SamTrans is good that way. I get on at a stop very close to home and get down straight in front of the office. The freeway travel is very less, but the problem is inside the city and inside Foster City, I blame the drivers sometimes for their speed, though they can't do anything about it.

I take the 8.20 bus , that's the last bus. I found new friends. I thought I can never make new friends again, may be because wavelengths might not match and all that, But I found new friends :).. I'm happy about it. We speak a lot in the Bus, generally about husbands, our lives in India, Parents, Jobs, old friends.


SamTrans is a good way of commute, A lot of people sleep, read, talk over phone or just listen to IPod, but how much can u listen to music ? when you have people to talk , you prefer talking. It's fun these days, though i regret the travel sometimes and wish the office was somewhere close to home, I got used to it.

There's another person, whom i'm not very friendly with , because he takes too much of liberty :). I try to avoid him, but you just can't be too cold sometimes. I wish he gets the hint ;)

Misunderstanding

Sometimes I wonder why people misunderstand each other, Is it because one failed to talk to the other , or is it because one did not express what was expected.

Perceptions vary, people think a lot different, Probably i begin to realize that you hurt from the way you talk. You cannot take for granted that people will understand situations or talks the way you understand them. This is added to the lessons learnt.

Though you do not intend to hurt, or misbehave, what might look absolutely normal to you, may be someone else is being hurt and they think you are misbehaving. Surprising.

Why is there a hypocrisy? I was quoted as being "double standards",There are certain things that you might want to handle in certain ways, or choose to ignore, or choose not to ponder over it for long, why should you be told how to react to relationship problems? Any relationship is ruined if there is a third person involved. As long as two of you maintain it and come to common grounds they seem to be good, the moment someone else gets invloved it's messed up.

It's pretty delicate to deal with people. I wish priya was around to share this, may be she could have judged if what i thought was correct.

Adjusting is easier than arguing. Ignorance is Bliss. I personally feel when you have a problem it's better to resolve immediately, (Only if u think it's a problem).Little problems tend to turn into big problems, facts become confused, resentment and anger builds up. Who gains?

I'm surprised in my relationship of 10 years with Adarsh friends, misunderstanding never cropped up among us, is it because we never got that close that we fought, Or we left people to get back at their convenience, Things moved on. No one complained that I did not mail, Neither did I expect someone to ask me,



Life just goes off in a snap, What is more priority? A misunderstanding or the life itself?

Will I go back to my roots..

Last evening, When we were dropping prasad tattayya and shanti amumma back to their hotel, We crossed the SFO Airport, For reasons unknown i felt like taking a flight and going to Madras. I had that strong urge to go back and relive the time spent at Madras.

After some thought , I realised that I had been thinking of the days I spent with Adarsh gang, The movies, the beach, the long conversations, Anna Adarsh College, Aptech , The time spent in Adayar and i became pretty nostalgic. The thought that I might not return to Madras , and stay there for few days also made me feel pretty disappointed. Most of my memories were built in Madras. Be it School, or Anna Adarsh, or Aptech, or Covansys or Accenture.

Sometimes I think what am I doing here. It's difficult to reestablish yourself, But I had not acheived too much to miss everything. It's a different kind of world and experience here.

Being in US , has been a roller coaster ride, with it's ups and downs, It's now after an year that i have reached the plateau. I hope it continues this way for long.

I'm sure I'd build good memories here too and long for these days after few years :), You always find your past more interesting than the present , Strangely.

Manabadi

Society influences the language one speaks, It is natural that kids pick up common languages spoken in the society quicker. Telugu and it's literature is so beautiful, that it always keeps you wanting for more. You have various dialects across the state, but the beauty of it is all the dialects are musical to the ear. In an effort to impart Andhra cultural values, Silicon Andhra's step towards mana badi - teaching telugu to kids born and brought up in the US was enchanting.The first thing Kashyap thought was to start a school in foster city as it has vast population of telugu families. He thought we could teach too, after all both of us inherit the art of teaching from our moms :-)

We started the school on Sunday, April 1st. Kashyap was skeptical about the response, In a way he felt strange too that he had to convince people to teach telugu to their kids, but to our disbelief we had 10 students to start with. The first class was an experience of it's own. It was fun to be with kids, A terrific experience when kids repeat what u teach them in chorus. As a parent rightly said it was like a telugu medium school :-), and we were the telugu teachers. My pedananna will laugh at me if i tell him that i of all persons am teaching telugu.I enjoyed the experience

The first time i learnt to read and write telugu was from my third language mam Snehalatha Miss at Devi Academy. Mind you, My third language was telugu , and I learnt "Iddenalu Oddinchu", "Peddala maata chaddi moota", never tried to understand what it meant. I took it up because i had no other choice. I studied for three years, and then back to a safer domain Hindi.

It was much later that i realised the beauty of the language, By then it was too late to start from basics. I miss reading the telugu literature. Now , I don't know much of it.

I recollect my telugu learning days , my regret about not having read telugu literature, and now i feel pretty excited about "Manabadi". I wish both kids and parents take it up seriously and relish the beauty of telugu.

I wait for the class, because I get to learn new poems. I keep thinking of ways to keep the kids excited about learning. It's fun.

First Job in the USA

You might have to start as early as Tuesday the 20th, Ashok from teamsofttech had called to inform me that i got selected in the interview.

I didn't jump with joy as i thought I'd be when i'd get a job here, may be i knew, what i had in store, I somehow felt prepared, even if i did not get through i'll try for another :-).

I felt relieved for the break, A year at home was fine, But i did not have the confidence that i had when I worked. That left me desiring for a job even more.

It's been a very unpleasant and not very desired experience in terms of career from the time i came to the US. The fact that i took a step without thinking twice was haunting me, & the fact that the world of consulting is not everyone's cup of tea was worrying me.

My Employer Wisdom Infotech had asked me to find projects by myself, The initial interview with them went bad, so they labeled me a junior developer. Who are they to evaluate me ? Well, enough to add to losing confidence.

It matters a lot when you can prove what you are. I have a long way to go, but I no longer dream as I used to earlier.

The job is good, I get to meet people and be along with them. I found some friends too. Probably I'll get the covansys charm.

The work is ok. Job satisfaction is my next goal :-).. , will take it step by step.

The commute to work is gr8, a caltrain ride.. a 20 minute walk with a lot of busy crowd. Missed it all these days.

Bottom line , I'm peaceful.