Simple pleasures

I have often mentioned that the thing I love about the UK is the fact that it is so green and it has facilities that allow us to walk as much we would like to. Since the weather has been amazing this past week its been really nice to go sit in the parks here.

One such park-cum-hill is this place called the Calton hill, this is a small hill right in central Edinburgh at the end of the main market street. It’s a short climb but an amazing panoramic view that the hill provides of the city.

The hill has historically been quite a prominent place, it has an amphitheatre which has housed many an open air theatre, a place for tournaments and tilts and strangely enough a place to behead criminals as well. Earlier the hill had the calton prison till the prison was moved to another place called Saughton. In present times the hill is used for multiple festivals and most famous among them for the Beltane Fire festival which is attended by 12000 odd people and also for the Dussehra festival of us Indians. :)

All this sounded really interesting to me, however, what made my high point of the day was the fact that the weather was good and I was able to lie down to my hearts content on the grass and just look at the sky above me. In India I rarely get to go the park and even when I do its mostly crowded, there is no place for me to lie down even if I wanted to. I perhaps wouldn’t want to either coz I wouldn’t be sure how clean the grass was in the first place and secondly I would just be subject to all sorts of stares and moral policing talks.

Such a simple pleasure and yet so precious. I wonder if the people here ever realise that such things which might be so usual to them are so precious to others.

Oh by the way on the way out, we saw Pankaj Kapoor and his present wife Supriya Pathak. They seemed to be accompanied by their crew and were simply standing looking about. Shahid was nowhere to be seen and the team soon left in their cars. I guess they must be scouting out for locations to shoot their latest movie which has Shahid in it.

North Berwick

The past week has been something of a surprise, we were told that the temperature never went above 15 degrees and yet last week it was always above 20 degrees. The first few days as was our practice we would don our jackets while going out only to find ourselves in sweat. Not that I am complaining especially when I know what temperatures are doing the rounds in my home country.

It’s been interesting though to see all the people here shedding their layers of clothing and the increasing number of tourists. So much so that the main market street is filled with colours and backpackers. Since the city was getting crowded with the streets having hardly enough space to walk on, we decided to head out of the city and towards the beach.

There is this place called North Berwick, a 35 minute rail ride from Edinburgh, with trains at hourly intervals to and fro. The best part the ticket costs only 5.70 return! We pushed off by morning 9 and initially loitered around. The first beach we made to seemed a disappointment for it didn’t have a huge beach expanse and the sand was dirty. It was also pretty much deserted. A little upset we made back to the main city and then headed towards the second beach there.

On the way we stopped at a small quaint café with authentic English atmosphere to have a cup of coffee. The average crowd there seemed to be 65+. All prim and proper they however were well mannered enough to not stare at the asian crowd we were. Speaking in moderated, cultured tones i wondered how their lives were, what made them tick.

Since it seemed a very traditional place I thought I would try something in their menu which I hadn’t tried so far in UK. So I ordered a cherry scone with a glass of milk. I always thought scones would be something of a cone shaped thing to eat. So when it arrived and I discovered that it was rather round in shape I got a bit fuddled. Scones are biscuit like cakes of Scottish origin, very famous and well liked out here; most commonly eaten during tea time. The scone was served with cream and strawberry jam and it tasted like little drops of heaven. Washed it down with milk and I was all set to see the second beach.

The second beach is where we hit jackpot. It was lovely, again the expanse of the beach itself was exasperatingly narrow but there were rocks into the sea water and since it was low tide, we could walk on the rocks and stand on them a few feet into the water. It was the closest which I could imagine to floating on the water on my feet. :)

There were sail boats on the water and they glided effortlessly by in front of us. Standing there out at the sea, it felt as if there was no one else around and the world far behind………as if I had the mental ability to conquer anything I set my mind to. The water was clear enough to see right to the bottom, the rocks there and even the algae on those rocks. One thing though, it was definitely a bright warm sunny day but the water my dears was cold, so cold that after standing in it for a minute or two to pose for a pic when i stepped out, i thought i had a frost bite, my toes refused to budge or make themselves feel.

We had our lunch there and made way to get back to the city. The incoming train was full. Our timing had been good, thankfully, we managed to enjoy the day and the beach at North Berwick, beating the crowds. All tanned and sweated out we trooped back to Edinburgh with a smile on our faces. It had been a good day.

Employment

Before I start let me first apologize to all my readers for the constant cribbing that I have subjected you to over the past few blog postings. I realise being unemployed is not the end of the world but in my defence I would like to say that it felt at times that I was waging a loosing battle, what with the economic conditions here.

On a very short notice I got to know that I have an interview arranged at RBS – Royal Bank of Scotland for the position of a Business Analyst. I was sent a preparatory pack on the kinds of questions I could expect and I was horrified to see questions like –

- Tell me about a time when someone misunderstood what you were trying to communicate

- Tell me about a time when you were successful in getting crucial information from another person

- Tell me about a significant crisis you have faced

The list was 5 pages worth and where previously I had put together documents on UML, RUP, Ms Visio, EMC Documentum as a sort of ready reckoner for interview preparation. I was now at loss as to how to answer these highly subjective questions. It took me a while to convince myself that this was not a gag but indeed the interview format. Anyways, after irritating the hell out of Shaiwal with these questions I sort of did prepare myself and set out for the interview the next day.

My interview was at 10 am and I reached at 9:15. Eager am I not? :) Well luckily I had a notepad and pen with me so I sat down and spent my time by writing down my projects, issues faced, steps taken and results achieved. I even wrote down the umpteen times coached answer to the question “Tell me something about you.”

Before I started my writing, I called up the one person to whom every individual reaches out in important times, to my MOTHER. I spoke to her for a couple of minutes, felt all the more calmer for it and blessed. At such times your parent’s voice revitalises you. Now if I had an issue and I had to find a solution, I would have run to my dad. This was different I just needed a reassurance that things were all going to be alright.

My interviewer was a lady. I assumed that since it was to be a lady I was going to have a session which would cut me down a few sizes. There is something to be said about lady bosses but I hope that if ever I do get to any such position I would not be regarded so. However, when I saw her I knew she was a kindred soul and with no intention to knock me down. Something about her face and smile just put me to rest. I remember the interview as a haze, it was all very pleasant and a few questions on continuous improvement, team management, lean, requirements gathering, etc.

In my school days after an exam I usually would come home and go off to sleep to clear my head of the subject and get refreshed for the exam the next day. So i went back to my routine, when I got back from the interview I saw a movie online and then hit the sack. Somewhere around 5 a call comes from the recruitment agency while I am still sleeping. Amidst sleep clouding my senses she informed me that I bagged an offer!

After all that cribbing I should have been overjoyed, ecstatic at the very least. Somehow I was calm. I knew in my mind that RBS had sacked over 6000 employees and I was replacing one of those permanent positions as a contract employee. Although I did not feel guilty over it, I did not feel overjoyed either. I remember what my Satyam friends went through when the company went into dire straits last years.

I thank you god for giving me a job yes but I also pray to you to support and help those 6000 affected families.

A different day

Today was a different day from all the days I have been in Edinburgh so far, today when I woke up I didn’t rush to make breakfast or pack lunch for Shaiwal, instead today I had tea, got ready myself in formals, caught a quick bite and made haste.

I haven’t got a job yet but a recruitment agency wanted to meet me and they set the meeting time at 9 am so it almost felt like I had a job and then I realised oh what a wonderfully lazy life I have right now :)

I mean it felt really nice to get ready and more than nice I felt important to be going about at office hour as if I was to go for a hard day’s work. However I could also feel the grunge of working. All the people in the bus, in suits and work clothes and what not, were all wearing the same frustrated boring expressions. It definitely hasn’t been so long since I stopped working myself for me to not identify with that expression; it’s the very same one I used to wear to work. Oh the things we do for money in the bank :)

Anyways I trotted over to the recruitment agency office which is in a posh area of Edinburgh and was a posh office in itself. I met with this lady who had invited me over and I had a tough time. Not in explaining out my profile but in meeting her eyes. She had grey piercing eyes lined up with false eyelashes. It was hard to be looking at her eyes while talking and as a rule I look directly at people’s eyes while conversing. God she grilled me for an hour on my background, my education, my career and my unemployed days, so much so that I actually felt as if I had been through an interview. THEN she made me go through a role play where she was the interviewer and I the victim and she asked me the oh so dreaded awful question – “Tell me something about yourself.” It took me three takes to get that one right as to her satisfaction. The role playing continued for another hour.

At the end of this exhausting exercise she cheerfully conveyed that I am now an interview ready person, now we just need to get one lined up for you. Duh huh!!!

Well I came back home with my feet dragging behind me, just two hours of conversation made me so exhausted, I wonder now if I would have the stamina to put in an honest day’s work in an office. Perhaps not. :(

Well, as I said today was different and it felt like I was a girl back in my childhood and I was playing at being a grown woman out to job. :)

Beauty, tourism and a new friend

Summer has begun, clouds are no longer what the sky is filled with, the sun finally seems to be making not a guest appearance but a full time appearance and even at 9:30 in the night it feels as if its only 6:30 because of the day light. More importantly the trees are blooming, colors other than white or brown are now visible.

This weekend, we got up early and went for a walk at the stadium nearby. I could have sat there for hours happily not because the weather was good, not because the stadium was lined up with trees that had bright pink and baby pink flowers in them and certainly not because as you walked through the path on the outer perimeter of the stadium the flowers from the tree were falling and there was a carpet of flowers to walk on.

The reason was that right in the midst of the stadium expanse of green there were a group of dog owners standing and chatting. The loyal dogs were running from that small group as fast as possible to wherever the ball was being thrown to, catching them, returning to the owner and then repeating the exercise. All the dogs were furry creatures and as they ran you could see the fur falling up and down, the sheer beauty of their legs stomping through the lawn at such speed was awesome to watch.

Scotland was previously beautiful to my eyes but now with the sun out and the flowers blooming it is overwhelmingly beautiful. :)

I am these days in the role of not a tourist anymore but have been promoted to that of a tourist guide. Shaiwal’s colleague’s sister has come down from USA, where she is a student. So while his colleague has to go to office and can’t keep company her sister, I, the jobless volunteered to do so. I now revisit all those places that I have already been to and show her around with a little bit of history on the place being injected into our conversations. I wonder if I should apply for some tourist guide permit and start charging, perhaps that could be my source of income.

This may seem a bit weird but I seem to have made a friend from another species……well I can sincerely confess here that the hand for friendship was not put forward by me, I did not however refuse either. Everyday as I sit by the sitting room window on my PC, this friend normally comes by the windows stares a bit rudely and then leaves. I didn’t pay much attention till today when my friend decided enough of being ignored and rudely made noises at the window to get my attention.

It’s a squirrel, I am not sure whether it’s a he or a she, I would like to think though it’s a she coz its got very kind eyes. Until today I was mostly ignoring her but as I said earlier today she demanded me to pay attention and then I realised that this one seems to be spending quite a lot of time running around in the garden out front, when she gets tired though she likes to come sit in front of my window and check what I am doing. I guess for her it must be like having her own zoo facility. :)

I am not sure, but when we had initially come to this house, there was a squirrel out back and it was winter and snowing so I had fed it a few biscuit pieces. I wonder if this is the same squirrel. She is a bit camera shy so the two times I tried to click her she hasn’t yielded. She does come and peer at me while I do my dishes too in the kitchen. Guess it must be a lonely life for a squirrel in the city. :)

Lifestyle to beautiful skin

Its official I am now an editor of a published book – Lifestyle to beautiful skin. It is selling on Amazon.com for $3.51

Lifestyle to beautiful skin - Amazon link

I was taken aback when my friend Hetal who had previously shown no inclination towards the literary word said she wanted to write a book. She said she wanted me to be her editor and that gave me a smile because she trusted me with her words. A huge compliment for me; always tends to put me in a good mood.

When the first draft of the book came for editing, my first reactions was to rewrite content put in more flowery content and basically take over. Sorry about that Hetal but when I took a step back I realised that this was her book, the way she wanted to say stuff and I was just helping her present it. I am glad I didn’t listen to my initial instincts I would have botched everything up. Instead now the book has shaped up well and with the true intent and soul of the writer herself in the presentation.

However, what I liked about the entire exercise is the entrepreneurial spirit I saw in my friend. She had put in efforts to research on skin care from various different sources for her own skin problems. She had the knowledge at hand and she decided to put it to use.

How many of us do that? Even before I start a thought on possibilities, my mind fills up with the constraints attached rather than the opportunities. I am typically a person who sees the glass as half full and half empty with more analysis to why it’s half empty. :) (Couldn’t go about calling myself a pessimist directly!)

Well Hetal hats off to you and your entrepreneurial spirit, I have no clue whether this book will sell or not but I have absolute faith that in years to come I shall hear of more ventures you undertake. May success be your companion.

Meanwhile let me explore the possibilities of showing off as a budding editor. ;)

Housefull

During the week I had been to a home beauty parlour run by an Indian woman whose husband works in Infosys in a project with Royal Bank of Scotland. I sincerely think though that she earns as much or better than her husband. She was professional, clean and had an impressive array of services to offer. Better yet she was punctual and expected you to be too.

Anyways to my joy she mentioned that yes Indian cinema did get released in the theatres here in fact she had been to one only the last weekend. So then during the weekend, we set out for the Indian cinema ourselves at the nearby Cineworld. The movie was Housefull, had Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Hritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta and Arjun Rampal. So even though the movie was directed by Sajid Khan who has a pathetic movie direction taste and manner, we decided to over look it for the awesome star cast. Hell, who am I kidding? I would have gone even if the movie had pathetic actors since its been a long time since I had seen a hindi movie.

To say the movie was pathetically bad would be an understatement, some of the times, the movie was so desperately bad that you ended up laughing by the sheer level of idiocy!! The title song seemed a poor imitation of the one in DevD and while it worked well for the latter it wasn’t doing anything for this one.

Akshay Kumar always so good at action and being the brute with a bit of sensitivity totally blew it by being the whining crying loser through the movie. I thought at sometime the meek shall inherit the world but then Akshay defied all odds and chose to remain a loser of the first order till the end. Why in the world did both Malika Arora and Deepika Padukone fall for this guy despite his loser abilities is beyond me.

Hrithesh Deshmukh is enjoyable and Arjun Rampal amazingly good eye candy. Lara Dutta manages to hold her own despite Deepika’s washboard waist. Boman Irani with his Rani Bhen is classic. I wish though that the movie hadn’t had the black baby which so reeked of racial discrimination and that below the belt hit on people who stammer.