Though it's a Friday, it's been one hell of a day so far. To begin with I lost my Car's RC documents. It meant that I have to lodge an FIR with the police, get an NOC from my Bank and the approach the RTA for a duplicate RC. I have to shell an amount of INR 2000.

Gosh!!! life can sometimes be so cruel. The only good thing that happened @ the end of the day was the farewell card I received. I have initiated the exit formalities and it will mostly likely be completed by the EOD (End of Day) on Monday.

I am not much excited about the weekend as there are lot of unfinished tasks. I hope I sail through this :)

Filmstars have wives who are actresses themselves or someone outside the film industry and most of them look gorgeous. But how many people associate good looking women as the better halves as far as politicians are concerned.

The counter-question to this would be...how can you even think of asking such a question? Take a look @ Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's wife and you know exactly what I am taking about.

However when I was going through Times of India newspaper I came across the picture of Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who was attending a rally along with his wife Reena. Looking @ Reena she looked every bit the glamorous woman. She was fair, good looking, had a nice personality with her jet black hair (possibly dyed :)) untied. Now that was a surprise for me and I do realize that there can be exceptions :)

I managed to get an NOC from the ICICI bank regarding my car loan and the final step now is to get an NOC from the RTO. I cleaned most of my files from the PC. The important files I zipped them and sent it to my personal id. The sad part is they haven't reached the inbox of my personal mail id. It probably is due to the firewall of my company mail server...booo hoo.

The countdown says 3 more working days to go :) Today afternoon I finally managed to visit the Provident Fund Office. It was not a pleasant experience once I reached there.

I stood in a queue for a long time and then was asked to go to another counter. The person manning the desk redirected me to the earlier counter. The man @ the previous counter again redirected me to the next counter. I felt like a ping-pong ball being tossed around.

There was an old PC, no helpdesk to assist people regarding the information they were seeking, rooms filled with heaps of paper files. In other words it looked like a typical government department. For a person who is used to working in cushy airconditioned private office with all the amenities a visit to a government office is an eye-opener. It literally brings them straight down to earth...:)

The only silver lining was that 2 individuals were prompt enough to help me regarding my query. In the end, though I couln't get the balance and transfer details I was a bit satisfied that I now know where I stand.

It begs the question as to how motivated people feel to work in government office(s) in such an environment. Our nationalized banks were once a typical example of a government office however the tough competition given by private banks have forced them to change.

In other words nationalized banks had to change if they had to withstand the competition and be in business.

The rest of my day @ work just flew. So here I am waiting for a new day to begin :)

It's back to a working Monday. After having a blissful sleep yesterday night I woke up @ 7.am which is quite early by my standards :)

Sunday was nothing great except that I watched movies on DVD. Today @ office I let my replacement work on the PC for most of the time. When I went to have my dinner, the building adjacent to our office premises was lit up with christmas lights on the occassion of Karnataka Rajyotsava. It was a bit baffling for me coz that day was already celebrated on November 1st. Anyway it doesn't matter when someone is still in a festive mood and besides it's a delight for the eyes to look at :)

Friday was good not only from a personal point of view but also for my household chores. I managed to finish off the house cleaning by Friday morning.

So Saturday morning when I opened my eyes I felt so much relaxed. Well there was some more tasks to be finished. The first one was the usual car wash. The next task on my radar was going to the Provident Fund (PF) office which unfortunately didn't happen. The last task was to get my stereo from the showroom. There was a problem with the Blaupunkt stereo panel as the display wasn't lighting up. Thankfully it has been rectified now :)

Evening it was shopping time where I shopped for floor cleaning liquid and brown bread. As I am typing this stuff I still can't believe that my younger brother did indeed get a visa :) I distributed sweetmeats to my office colleagues and also to the security staff @ my office premises. Happiness gets doubled when you share it with someone :)

BTW as I wrote in my earlier about my intention to purchase the DVD version of "The pursuit of happyness". I finally got my copy though that did burn a hole in my pocket :)

It's been a rocking day for me today. The first thing in the morning I get the good news that my kid brother has got his U.S student visa after being rejected twice.

It took sometime for the good news to sink in. It's been one long road of struggle, hardships and pain. Finally as the saying goes there is always light @ the end of the tunnel. I can't express my happiness in words :)

It was a hectic day for me as my replacement has come back and I started imparting the Knowledge Transfer sessions to him.

To my surprise I could cover most of the session within 2 hours. So now there's a comfortable buffer zone for him and me incase we hit a roadblock. After a long time it felt good teaching someone. Mine was the only voice echoing in the office cubicle and everyone had a puzzled expression on their office when they looked @ me :)

So tomorrow is a Friday and end of the working week. I am looking forward to it :)

12 more days to go and counting. Well yes that's the countdown for my stay in Bangalore and the present organization where I am working.

The good news is that the candidate who will be replacing me has cleared the final hurdle. I am just waiting for him to return after his vacation so that I can impart the knowledge transfer (KT) sessions to him.

There are a lot of things to done, the only fear in my mind as it always happens I don't want to leave things till the last moment and then start ruing the lack of planning.

You can make movies with love stories in different ways or stick to the same boy-meets-girl routine. To come with up an innovative story is a challenging task. You need to break out of the rut. JAB WE MET is one such movie.

It comes across as refreshing mainly due to its strong script and the acting skills of its protagonists Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) and Geet (Kareena Kapoor). Their earlier movies might have been duds and their off screen romance didn't exactly ignite the romance on-screen. However this time around they do manage to scorch the screen with their intense chemistry. It's just a coincidence that they have delivered a hit just when they split up :)

The movie is well sustained by the songs and Pritam's melodious music. My favourites "Hum jo chalne lage", "Na Khona bhi hain" (slow one) and the foot tapping "Mauja".

My day started on a good note today. I finished cleaning my house which I normally reserve for Saturday's and that gave me immense satisfaction. It's like a major job during the weekend is over.

At work, I wasn't feeling that great due to some personal problems. I am just hoping and praying that everything goes well. One silver lining was I got the delivery of my car today though it took a bit longer than expected.

I have no tentative plans for the weekend as such except for watching the movie "JAB WE MET"

I haven't yet got the feedback for the candidate who was interviewed yesterday by the client. Looks like it's the onset of winter. I had this sore throat and then I felt a bit of feverishness.

Luckily I had some pills with me (Sinarest & Nimuselide) which was quite effective but then it also made me feel drowsy. I'll be taking delivery of my car tomorrow as there was a delay in transferring it from the body workshop to the showroom.

Yesterday and today the moon was looking spectacular in it's crescent shape. Truly it's a pleasure to watch it against the backdrop of a star lit sky :)

Nothing much happening @ work for the past few days. There was one silver lining though. One of the candidates whom we had shortlisted for interview has done better than the previous candidates in his final round. We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping that he gets selected.

The other good news is that the work on the damaged bumper of my car and other body parts is now complete. I can expect to take delivery of my car tomorrow. Good thing is that the bill isn't on the higher side and thankfully Insurance has got it covered :) I need to shell just 500 bucks from my pocket.

What is happiness? Is it a state of mind? Is it achieving material
benefits or doing well in one's career? Is it being with your near and dear
ones or friends? Well there are no easy answers. This is a dilemma
lots of people face around the world.

However when you watch a movie titled "the PURSUIT of HAPPYNESS", it takes you through a roller coaster ride of one person's trials and tribulations to succeed in his career and be a good papa to his son. You identify yourself with the character in the movie by putting yourself in his shoes.

Will Smith stars in this moving tale inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner, a San Francisco salesman struggling to build a future for himself and his 5 year old son Christopher (Jaden Smith). When his girlfriend Linda (Thandie Newton) walks out, Chris is left to raise Christopher (Jaden Smith) on his own.

Chris determination finally pays off when he lands an unpaid internship in a brutally competitive stockbroker-training program, where only one in twenty interns will make the cut. But without a salary, Chris and his son are evicted from their apartment and are forced to sleep on the streets, in homeless shelters and even behind locked doors of a metro station bathroom.

With self-confidence and the love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner rises above his obstacles to become a Wall street Legend. This film may not have glamorous heroines, slap stick comedy or slam bang stuff but it really inspires you.

Compelling performances by Will Smith and Jaden Smith make this movie a must watch for audiences across all ages.

I am so impressed with the movie that I plan to purchase the DVD. Of all the movies I have seen so far, I would rank it high above everything else.

I had a nice festival weekend except for a small accident that my car had suffered. This Diwali after a long time, I bought some fireworks.

I hate noisy fireworks and that's the reason I bought only flower pots and sparklers. It was nice watching the bright colors emanating from the flower pots once it was lit :)

It's exactly 1 year back on this date i.e 8th November 2006 that I started my blog. What an exhilarating ride it has been so far. It's a sheer coincidence that today also happens to be the day of my favorite festival Deepavali.

At office today, it was more fun than play :) We had dumb charades, skits, Mad Ads, Mr & Miss JBK (our client name) competition, songs and sweetmeats. I had a role as the person capturing the events on camera. There was prizes distributed by the top brass to the winners and the runners up.

It's going to be a long weekend as we aren't working tomorrow. I have scheduled some tasks for tomorrow. The primary one is taking my car to the workshop for inspection and new seat covers for the front and back seats as the existing one has got soiled after the long journey.

Our office wore a festive look today with cubicles decorated with marigold flowers and lights. You feel as if you're in a garden with the aroma of the flowers wafting across the cubicles.

Tomorrow we are working and everyone are supposed to be dressed in ethnic wear to usher in the festive spirit of Deepavali :)

Getting back to work after a week's vacation isn't easy. The good thing about the vacation is that I have finally found my partner. It's been a long wait but it's been worthwhile :)

Her name is Preethi and she makes my heart skip a beat whenever I gaze into her eyes :) Love is something which does strange things to people. It took a while for me to get convinced that yes for the first time I liked someone.

The journey to my hometown was very pleasant and enjoyable however I would like to forget the horrendous road that I took. It was a nightmare to drive my 4 wheeler and my car suffered some dents and scratches on the body. It's a lesson I will never forget and not try my luck driving on bad stretches like the one I experienced.

It's good to be back after a long break :)