Onsite b'day log

From: Tina
Date: Aug 12, 2006 1:57 PM
Subject: Onsite b'day log

(
this is a teriibly long puran jaisa mail....did not mean that it wud get so looong but chalega
no offense agar padd nahi paayein toh ...shift del ka option hai ;)
)

It was my b'day last week and have been meaning to write this mail since that time....
for a change this was the 'longest' b'day.... longest in more ways than one.
Longest in terms of hours( i guess 36 hrs india +us timing ) and in terms of feel :)
This was my first b'day onsite and second away from home...

(All my b'days till now have been home.. with traditional going to church even if it is raining cats and dogs.....And haan Mum making the fav payasam(kheer) ...and dinners with a difference....
early morning brushing of teeth , cake cutting .....before my dad goes to wrk and my sis pretending to forget to get a gift for me)

Though the treat of the b'day with friends would be anything from 2 weeks later to 3 months later.... depending on when all the friends are together..... i guess this time treat to all my friends back home might break that record.... :)

The last b'day i had was different ...it was the first one away from home and it was the one having 12 o'clk wishing from friends though i was at office ( though my mother has not yet understood the funda as she says you were born in afternoon so why do they wish you a day earlier... :) ) but i kinda njoii that too.......

Till two days prior to my last b'day i was marooing chakkar of secunderabad station trying to get an alternate ticket to go home as most of the trains and especially for the ones i booked were cancelled due to incessent rains....3 days and i took 3 different sets of tickets with each day hoping that i cud just hop unto the train to go home...

With all roomies telling that maybe it is God's way of showing you to hav a b'day with friends....so u shud be here....
Neways that prevailed and i cancelled all the 6 tkts i had as the trains were cancelled till next 10 days....

And what a b'day it was....Since Production release was done and we were attending a call stretching to later than 12.00 at our golden office STC my roomies could not think of giving me a traditional cake cutting at 12.00 in the night.
...While I was attending the call on mute so as to attend the b'day wishes calls coming on my cell phone.

It was as though a burst of calls on the cell..
My friend who was handling her own escalation call totally forgot .....though she was the one who reminded me an hr back that it will be my b'day at midnight....

As I walked down to her cube...after my call was done ...she was gesturing with the phone on one hand (as her phone was not on mute) that pata nahi kab tak call chalega...

I kinda smiled and said softly 'Pata hai aaj kya dinn hai ? ' ....she was like 'kya look' on her face and then it struck her and she put that phone aside and wished me ...saying 'yaar till 15 mins back i remembered ...yeh client call ke wajah se it slipped of my head....

After her call finished we had a jolly laugh over it :) (she is also there in the mail thread )

I should giv her the credit along with other roomies and friends who were out late wrking in office (and basically who were available next day afternoon) to give me a wonderful b'day cake cutting surprise with a difference ..it was the one in the afternoon.. with my roomie managing to get me dressed in my sunday best by saying that she had to go out shopping so please accompany me ( though i was wondering kii why was she going shopping in hot afternoon before going to office when we could do it over the weekend) .....

So in a sense that was a diff b'day altogether.....Diff as it was the first one totally with friends.....Of course all other room mates who were in general shift that day really did curse on missing the cake cutting......

This b'day at onsite was weird as apart from a set of my friends back home and my old friends scattered across US and maybe on orkut profile...nobody knew...
I did not feel as though it was my b'day which was coming up or which has passed by .....
I did not wish to advertise it coz yaar uska feel hii nahi tha....
Even my roomies knew it was this month but not sure when....(partly or rather wholly my fault)

The wishes started first by my parents. and sis . who reminded me a week earlier of my malayalam calender b'day :)
Thats the day i trudged up to the church near my house here ...just to get a feel of how i used to celebrate back home. Of course it is different matter that the church was more than 2 miles afar and by the time i came back home ....sure was feeling a lot lighter....(guess i shud do that more often)

Then my old team juniors from offshore called me up a day prior at midnight to wish me ....
It was such a sweet gesture that I had to fight back the urge of not telling them that my b'day was the next day...(they wud hav anyways known abt it from the office portal)
When said they were like no probs Tina....yehan orkut ka proxy badal gaya...so no contact on orkut as client env audit chal raha hai ......so no ips to access those sites...
so we just remembered that ur b'day was cuming but not sure when ....
But it was so sweet a gesture that very soon I was floating in the 7th heaven....( i generally do that)

Then at 12 o 'clk mid night my sis ( who generally fast asleep dunno how she struggled to be awake ) called up wishing me that since i was born in india i am wishing you as per indian 12 o'clk.

Got quite a few smses on cell ( though yehan incoming ko bhi charge padhta hai :( )
then a friend onsite called up that evening to wish... I was like onsite mein toh b'day next dinn hai...
He was also of the same funda... ' u were born in US kya ...then i am wishing u as per indian timing' ...
Another friend called up 12 indian time night ....'hey tina happy b'day am busy on call.. will wish you on US midnight ' ....

That day evening i stopped at Pathmark to get a cake ...so as to cut it sumtime tomorrow...(US day time)
Called up my roomies to ask which flavor wud they like as better to get a flavor of general consesus...
and my roomie went ballistic.....
No ways ur going to get the cake.... We are getting it for u .....

Theek hai....Normally like an owl I am awake at night when sumtimes we all friends here conf and chat ...
But on the eve of my b'day i dozed of before 12 o'clk and i was woken up by a call where they were calling 5 mins before the 12 o 'clk so as to not allow neone to call at the 12 o'clk and keep the phone busy....and cud wish at stroke of mid night.....( a trick we all used to do back home )

My roomies got the cake (Mocha Flavor cream cake ..i.e Cofee flavoured ) Have attached the pic for all of u

We had a cake cutting ....Amaaaaaaaaaazzing cake and don't worry one of my roomies did what u all wanted to do for a looong time....but cud not :) she did mash sum cake on my face ....gud yaar now i understand texture itna sahii kaise hota tha chehere ka.... cake daalne ke baad....but the cake was gud....usse hii couple of pounds badd gayein :))

The next day morning at 5.30 US timing one of my friends from india rang up to wish me :)
First half of the conversation mein toh half sleep mein hii thee ...(sorry yaar ur are also there in mailing list )
Par bahut aacha laga as tab tak mere neend udd gayee thee and then we had a conversation for next 15 mins I was wide awake and my roomies were surprised kii how come I got up early as generally I am the last to get up... I go or rather run last out of the house to catch the train.....

My roomie was like aaj ke special day mein salwar kurte pehen rahein ho kya (they can wear indian formals also at their office)...... I was like no way...will look out of place and i do not want to be the center of attention for all the wrong reasons today atleast....Since ours is a corporate Head office ....all days including Friday are formals....As Office mein toh only propah english formals are allowed ...

Went to a church near office ..but i guess AC nahi chal raha tha as kuuch restoration chal raha tha
And that was the time of heat wave in NJ where temp were more than 100 F ...
By the time i came out of the church I was sweating like as though I got wet in rain....
This was i guess my first b'day where the sun was shining ...and it was not raining cats and dogs....

Reached office where the AC was on full blast though nad as usual had forgotten the jacket for protection against the cold climate inside office env....

Took cake for my collegues.....The only thing noticeable was kiii
apna desi collegues were the only ppl who asked kii aaj kuuch special hai kya and wished me for the same.....
Non desis thought i had baked a cake at home first time toh got it to share in office :) ( me and bake a cake...bechara cake :)) )

Lots of wishes on friends mail threads and orkut .....
Especially one of my friends announcing in the group mail thread reply to all...
Wish tina on her __th birthday.....
After that very innocently kuuch prob hai kya agar meine tumhara age bola toh....
I was like it is not exactly in Miss Manner's ka rule book and Etiquette demands that you should not announce a lady's age...
Toh very innocently pooch raha tha.. " Tum kab se Lady ban gayee " I was like Hey bhagwan....


The office portal also had lots of wishes though i came to knw abt it two days later... that email notification part was wrking late ...... i guess

For all those who sent me wishes on my office Id ...thanks for the same...par pictures or fwds nahi dekh payee ..owa does not wrk very well here in office :(

Lunch ke liye went with a few of my collegues to a desi chinese restaurant... Cafeteria ka khana woh bhi aaj ke dinnn no way....

A couple of phone calls more and it was evening soon......

Dinner ke liye we ordered pizza as we were not able to decide kiii kab aur kaha jaaye treat ke liye...
People who are thinking it was because i was deciding ur wrong this time... my roomies were deciding and were not able to come on a consensus......
next day we decided to go for dinner treat to a place near our house from where we cud walk back home.

Next day dinner ke liye me and roomies went to a desi indian place ...which was gud ....only not like the apna hyd restaurant though.... First half of the time we were there we were waiting for one of my roomie to come as she was stuck at office so were ordering starters at regular intervals.... by the time she came we were almost fulll.......

In her excitement she used to loudly laugh and all of us were like 'Shhhhhhh itne jorr se nahi haastein ...side ke table kee bachiii darr jayegee '
(woh baachee actually shayad darr gayee.....)

to my friends in hyd .....shayad vinu-vinay ke party ka record meine idhar todd diya woh bhi only veg treat ke liye:)

one eye brow did go up when the bill arrived though.....:) (aacha hai card payment kar saktein theey)

(and the key incident happened just before we went for dinner ) ...
all in all a very happening day ..

This way mera b'day successfully paaar padd gaya :)
Really missed all our public and esp the cake cutting which were done in our hyd place.....

For those who reached till the end ..phew .....this is what happens when u ask me to describe my onsite b'day....

Small small gestures do make a difference......And this b'day was memorable.....
This looooooooooooooooooooooong mail is my way of saying thanks for the lovely wishes each of you had for me for my b'day .....For those who remembered that it was by b'day some days back by reading this mail...dekh loonge sab ko ;)

Warm Regards,
Tina.....

P.S :: for those of you who got it twice.. sorry for that attached the link of the b'day cake in this as it was bouncing back otherwise.