To all my female colleagues - past and present.
We work/have worked with a company that values women as equal to men.
Still, those occasional weird things happen and some rotten idiots ruin our happiness at work.
A few words from me to each of you beautiful women..
------------------------------------------------
Remember sister..
If a colleague stares at you all day,
Or if he cannot look at your face when he talks to you,
if he thinks your chest is your face,
Remember sister, it is not normal, and you did not invite it.
If he pings you on chat for no reason,
and if he refuses to speak to you in person,
and always insists on talking on the sly,
Remember sister, it is not normal, and you did not invite it.
if he insists that he just wants to be your friend,
or if he cannot take your rejection gracefully,
If he demands you like him back,
Remember sister, it is not normal, and you did not invite it.
Or if your boss criticizes your work for no reason,
If he gives you the work that everyone rejects,
if he claims girls are good only at documenting,
Remember sister, it is not normal, and you did not invite it.
If you are smart, be openly so,
You don’t have to be nice to jerks, just to be accepted,
Hold your head high and be yourself
because sister, those who expect otherwise are not worth your time.
It is not because you very outgoing, warm and smiley,
it is not because of your fashionable clothes,
that those jerks think you are 'loose',
It is not your fault sister, it is his perverted mind.
Don't feel bad, don’t feel sad,
Don't think you could have dressed or spoken differently,
Don't think you were too nice or not nice enough,
It wasn't you sister, you did not ask for it.
Don’t bend sister, and don’t ever break,
Don’t run away, don’t just ignore it,
Stand up and say your NO out loud,
For your silence only empowers him.
Remember sister, it is NOT NORMAL, and you did not invite it.
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(Its not meant to be a poem exactly.. just my angry ramblings.. written spontaneously.)
And to my friends and cousins, who panic with each post of mine and call me to check if I am ok: relax. None of this happened to me! Guess i don't seem so vulnerable or because Gopi and I have always worked in the same company :-D
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Weighty Issues!
Always a chubby little kid, I ended up getting cheek-pinched a lot by well meaning aunts and uncles. But that also meant not-well-meaning uncles on the bus wanted to pinch me too and not on my cheek. Yet, these incidents were only of nuisance value and I was always a happy kid with great self image. You see, being the adamantly positive idiot that I was, too busy dreaming of winning Oscars, Nobels and even marrying British Princes, besides becoming Prime Minister etc.
I was mostly aloof to all the teasing and when I heard those cat calling songs in pre-teen/teen years, I actually giggled and embarrassed the offender (guess they expected a blush not full blown laughter). My favorite instance was when I was walking to school with a friend and someone cooed "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." and I started giggling and the guy just ran away! :-D.
(For the uninitiated, the line is from the song "Kathirikka, gundu kathirikka", translated as "Brinjal, plump brinjal". You see, in Tamil, we get pet-named after veggies(Poosinikka, pumpkin, is my fav!) ;-) And the particular line from the song: "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." is effectively translated as "where do you shop for such fattening rice"!)
So until I hit late teens, I was blissfully plump. Later while in college I still wasnt depressed (I was too busy dreaming up a grand future and I went to a girls college so got a good chance to develop a lot of individuality) yeah but did miss wearing those bootcut jeans with fitted shirts (My first jean, since I was 15, came way too late at 24!).
So what made me loose weight finally? To answer that question, another one stared in front of me. Why was I fat in the first place? I wasn't exactly a couch potato and had a very healthy diet at home. One thing led to another and it was soon discovered that I had an hormonal imbalance that was causing an insulin resistance in my body. I was told it was a vicious circle because the hormone imbalance was causing insulin resistance and that in turn was worsening the imbalance besides continously reducing my metabolic rate. And I was told its very difficult for me to loose weight because of this, but, not loosing weight wasnt an option anymore. Insulin resistance is a good indicator of middle age diabetes. So I set out to loose weight. This was in May/June 2006. And I weighed a startling 81 Kgs!
1 years and 2 months later, I had shed 24 Kgs! How? I did a lot of things right, some knowingly, some inadvertantly. I exercised vigorously (walked along Marina for 1 hour every morn - 7 Kms), adjusted diet (all home food allowed, no outside food) and sustained my weight by a super healthy diet while in Europe on a business trip.
Thinking back I am pretty sure that this is one of my biggest achievements and the very first one that I set out doing with so much drive. And I succeeded.
Along the way I also shed my spectacles, opting for contacts and it startled me to know that I had admirers! It wasnt easy! It shocked me, because you see I had grown up being the happy ugly duckling! People cannot believe the "happy and fat" part, but what better proof than the fact that Gopi and I got together just as I hit the roof at 81 Kg? The weight loss came more than 3 years later. I still am fat in my head and still shocks me when I catch people staring (different from fat days stare) and I even more shocked when someone tells me I am not fat anymore - In my head I always react with 'really?'
Years later, my weight does fluctuate often along with the hormone fluctuations, but I have managed to retain an average BMI. I still always plan to loose weight, and one might think that its so much easier since I have done it once.. But no.. the scale seems frozen in time, because the last 5 years taught me something beautiful. To love myself, unapologetically.
The much awaited before and after pics:
Sometime in 2005
And in 2010
I was mostly aloof to all the teasing and when I heard those cat calling songs in pre-teen/teen years, I actually giggled and embarrassed the offender (guess they expected a blush not full blown laughter). My favorite instance was when I was walking to school with a friend and someone cooed "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." and I started giggling and the guy just ran away! :-D.
(For the uninitiated, the line is from the song "Kathirikka, gundu kathirikka", translated as "Brinjal, plump brinjal". You see, in Tamil, we get pet-named after veggies(Poosinikka, pumpkin, is my fav!) ;-) And the particular line from the song: "Yendha Kadai-la nee arisi vangare.." is effectively translated as "where do you shop for such fattening rice"!)
So until I hit late teens, I was blissfully plump. Later while in college I still wasnt depressed (I was too busy dreaming up a grand future and I went to a girls college so got a good chance to develop a lot of individuality) yeah but did miss wearing those bootcut jeans with fitted shirts (My first jean, since I was 15, came way too late at 24!).
So what made me loose weight finally? To answer that question, another one stared in front of me. Why was I fat in the first place? I wasn't exactly a couch potato and had a very healthy diet at home. One thing led to another and it was soon discovered that I had an hormonal imbalance that was causing an insulin resistance in my body. I was told it was a vicious circle because the hormone imbalance was causing insulin resistance and that in turn was worsening the imbalance besides continously reducing my metabolic rate. And I was told its very difficult for me to loose weight because of this, but, not loosing weight wasnt an option anymore. Insulin resistance is a good indicator of middle age diabetes. So I set out to loose weight. This was in May/June 2006. And I weighed a startling 81 Kgs!
1 years and 2 months later, I had shed 24 Kgs! How? I did a lot of things right, some knowingly, some inadvertantly. I exercised vigorously (walked along Marina for 1 hour every morn - 7 Kms), adjusted diet (all home food allowed, no outside food) and sustained my weight by a super healthy diet while in Europe on a business trip.
Thinking back I am pretty sure that this is one of my biggest achievements and the very first one that I set out doing with so much drive. And I succeeded.
Along the way I also shed my spectacles, opting for contacts and it startled me to know that I had admirers! It wasnt easy! It shocked me, because you see I had grown up being the happy ugly duckling! People cannot believe the "happy and fat" part, but what better proof than the fact that Gopi and I got together just as I hit the roof at 81 Kg? The weight loss came more than 3 years later. I still am fat in my head and still shocks me when I catch people staring (different from fat days stare) and I even more shocked when someone tells me I am not fat anymore - In my head I always react with 'really?'
Years later, my weight does fluctuate often along with the hormone fluctuations, but I have managed to retain an average BMI. I still always plan to loose weight, and one might think that its so much easier since I have done it once.. But no.. the scale seems frozen in time, because the last 5 years taught me something beautiful. To love myself, unapologetically.
The much awaited before and after pics:
Friday, February 10, 2012
Mystery of the Peeping Toms and other idiots
My next post was going to be about my 5 years in Ericsson. But seems like that has to wait. I just cannot help but write about all those Facebook pests putting up idiotic posts(yeah yeah, I block them, so if you authored one of those posts, please don’t argue with “if you don’t wanna see it, ignore it”.).
Nehru-Gandhi Bashing: Just as I log in, on my wall are 3 posts about the Nehru-Gandhi family. I sure am no supporter of dynasty rules, but why is everyone so f**king bothered about Sonia's heels, Priyanka's clothes, Rahul's girlfriend/lack of it, Nehru's affairs.. what the hell!!!
It is one thing to be a socially and politically aware responsible citizen. It is nothing short of 'peeping tom' behavior to be so bothered by such personal things. If you are so socially conscious, why pay that bribe to register your new house? Why does Tamil Nadu alternate between just 2 chief ministers? Why did Lok Paritran not win?
Religious posts: Do I want to see your pictures of Navarathri. Yes. Pictures of your family in Tirupathi. Yeah why not. Wedding pics. Oh yeah. You want to write about your Amarnath Yatra adventures. Heck yeah, bring it on!
But shout out to the world about your religious affiliations, beliefs, prayers, preaching. That, no thanks! Bashing another religion (claiming Taj Mahal was a temple), no way, not on my wall – get lost!
Click to win posts: This one goes like this: If you click on this link, you win 1 million $. Seriously, then why isn’t even of one of you in my friends list a multi-millionaire?
Graphic descriptions of terrifying non-existent/imagined .diseases: Is that for dhrishti pariharam on fb? ;-)
Spreading false rumors: A woman gives birth to 20 babies? Reese Witherspoon passes off as young Sonia? Seriously? Since you can read English: there is a search Engine called Google. You can establish whether the post, that you so feel like posting, is really truth or simple myth/hoax. Well I don’t have a big problem with this. It is you who comes out looking like a fool.
Motivational quotes: Grow up! Get a life!
Posting pictures of unknown pretty women: Single largest reason why girls remove people from our friends list. Like that guy I know who posted a picture of a girl he dint know – a normal girl – simply because she was too pretty and held a beer can: He was out of my friends list in a split second. To explain more on thed this topic itself is in an insult to womanhood. If you really think this isn’t all that bad – well, poor you, even the psychiatrist cannot help you.
Well so this is my list of post categories that I deeply hate and I notice people around me: colleagues, friends, family all share my view. Maybe I am just surrounded by smart people! ;-)
These are my kind of posts: People, what goes on in their life, pictures, arts, history, science, technology, quirky facts, original writing..etc. ? I know a lot of you out there reading this, hate posts of my kind. But who cares? This is my blog. :-D
Monday, July 18, 2011
Mylapore Misadventures
Mylapore has been my 'enga area' for close to 15 years now. I always took pride in the fact that I could walk alone at even 10.30, 11.00 PM and not feel even remotely uncomfortable about my safety. Little did I know that times have changed and that there is grave danger posed by anti social elements lurking in those calm tree lined streets.
With my hubby travelling for business, I moved into my parents for a month. I signed up for swimming. It all started fine, I was walking back home at 9PM, dressed in exercise clothes and walking in a mild drizzle. Everything looked fine, the neon lights that have replaced the dark bungalows of RK Salai, swanky cars and beach goers returning home. I felt so good about Chennai. Here I was, wearing fitted clothes and walking alone and still feeling safe and secure. It felt so great that I caught myself humming tunes and looking up at the sky and smiling.
About the time I was starting to feel weary I reached the end of my street and smiled at those some beautiful and some quirky houses. What all people can do in the name of Vastu! As I was approaching my apartment, I noticed the hot engineering college kid from next block standing around with his equally hot friends and the cool bikes. Nice. I walked past them and smiled about their Bessie plans in the making.
And then, out of nowhere came the two monsters. In an instant, they started circling me viciously, as if zeroing in on their prey. The constant smile that I had simply froze and I could feel the panic flush through me. I tried a meek 'Shoo shoo po po' as they came too close for my comfort. My menacing tormentors refused to give up. And then started the fierce 'ggrrrrring'. I shrieked, screamed, yelled and worst of all just froze there! And the engineering kids, watched totally amused, surely having the time of their lives! And to add to my ignominy the devils refused to budge and started 'ggrrrring' even more! And I started screaming in a even more high pitched voice. I am sure it probably matched high pitched laughter of those kids. Then came my saviour, the lazy fat watchman from next door, my knight in the shining armour for that split second. He deftly shooed away the menacing tormentors, a couple of street dogs, with his stick and saved my life. But not my pride.
So while the roads of Chennai and all other dark streets remain safe for me till date, walking the last segment of my street requires an escort with a weapon (my near blind watchman with his stick waits for me at the end of the street).
Note: Apologies to the animal lovers. I do hate these 2 dogs. They have a new litter with super cute pups which is the reason for their aggression. We do not want to call blue cross until the pups are a little bigger.
With my hubby travelling for business, I moved into my parents for a month. I signed up for swimming. It all started fine, I was walking back home at 9PM, dressed in exercise clothes and walking in a mild drizzle. Everything looked fine, the neon lights that have replaced the dark bungalows of RK Salai, swanky cars and beach goers returning home. I felt so good about Chennai. Here I was, wearing fitted clothes and walking alone and still feeling safe and secure. It felt so great that I caught myself humming tunes and looking up at the sky and smiling.
About the time I was starting to feel weary I reached the end of my street and smiled at those some beautiful and some quirky houses. What all people can do in the name of Vastu! As I was approaching my apartment, I noticed the hot engineering college kid from next block standing around with his equally hot friends and the cool bikes. Nice. I walked past them and smiled about their Bessie plans in the making.
And then, out of nowhere came the two monsters. In an instant, they started circling me viciously, as if zeroing in on their prey. The constant smile that I had simply froze and I could feel the panic flush through me. I tried a meek 'Shoo shoo po po' as they came too close for my comfort. My menacing tormentors refused to give up. And then started the fierce 'ggrrrrring'. I shrieked, screamed, yelled and worst of all just froze there! And the engineering kids, watched totally amused, surely having the time of their lives! And to add to my ignominy the devils refused to budge and started 'ggrrrring' even more! And I started screaming in a even more high pitched voice. I am sure it probably matched high pitched laughter of those kids. Then came my saviour, the lazy fat watchman from next door, my knight in the shining armour for that split second. He deftly shooed away the menacing tormentors, a couple of street dogs, with his stick and saved my life. But not my pride.
So while the roads of Chennai and all other dark streets remain safe for me till date, walking the last segment of my street requires an escort with a weapon (my near blind watchman with his stick waits for me at the end of the street).
Note: Apologies to the animal lovers. I do hate these 2 dogs. They have a new litter with super cute pups which is the reason for their aggression. We do not want to call blue cross until the pups are a little bigger.
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