"No Complaints"...

The Monday gone by was the Labor Day here in the US. That meant that it was a long 3-day weekend. One of my room-mates' sister was here for the same. And on Sunday night, we all went out to Santa Monica to have ice-cream at a very famous place. There was a huge line - ten times the length of the shop - outside the place :D But the ice-cream was totally worth the wait :) Thereafter, we drove up to within a mile of the Hollywood Sign, at about midnight.. The iconic letters looked beautiful in the night light..

On my first shift at my part-time job thereafter, my co-worker asked what I did at the weekend and I told him  After that I asked him how he spent the weekend - and he said he worked on two of the three days. But he finished it by saying that he had "No complaints".. The reply certainly set me thinking.. I had been told a couple of days ago that I manage to find depressing stuff in all things. But, I am very adept at making myself feel happy whenever I can.. I can control my mind.. Yet, and I guess that's the big point, never have I ever said "No complaints"..  Two simple words with very deep connotations..

A couple of other interesting things have also happened over the last couple of weeks..  I found someone rather similar to Aamir Khan's Rancho in 3 Idiots :P .... There is this Chinese girl who lives near my house, so we run into each other in the university bus a fair bit.. Now, what she does is that she comes to attend the class on Operating Systems - she isnt registered for it but just likes the subject so is there without fail.. Apart from that, she told me, she has also attended a class on Screenplay in the Cinematic School!! She said she liked that class too but it was too long - 4 hrs - due to an included movie screening.. (Me thinks it would be a fun class :) )

And I guess one last thing I should note is the "Please and Thank You " culture, here in LA, or at least in USC. Everyone is really polite and helpful here, and almost seem sorry if you are made to wait before your work is done. That is really good to see..

PS> I also had an Amreeki Paratha with choori and kaanta, or Pancake with a fork and knife : D Its good but not even a patch on our dear desi home-cooked Parantha :D 

Of Resigning

The last two days have been particularly emotional - they have contained both unparalleled elation and a weird sad feeling as well. I received my first admit on Tuesday night, it was from McGill University, Canada. How did it feel? Suffice to say I simply to leapt from my chair on reading the email :D :D It took me two minutes to figure out where my chappal had fallen :P

The admit was particularly sweet as it had come on a day that epitomised the bad parts of my office life - lack of job satisfaction and my anger at some people. The day had made me contemplate resigning and the admit seemed to be sign from God that This is it. So, despite parental advise to the contrary I went ahead and resigned yesterday - suiting up for the process :)

My admit and consequential resignation made it quite a joyful day in the morning - I received bear hugs (PS, RN, AM & HS), delighted side-hugs (AK & GO), the broadest smiles ever (AK & PS), the happy grins (GO, NB & SR) and a pair of thumping High Tens (NB) :D (Missed AS though, who was on leave :( ) But what gave it a weird feeling was the tears my exit brought to SG. It felt great that I had touched someone´s life so deeply that they were sad to see me go but I was really sad that she was crying :(

The weird feeling was accentuated in the afternoon when NB came to talk after she had received her last date. She seemed to be overcome by the emotion of leaving and gazed longingly at the office. It set me thinking too and made me realise what I would be missing in a little while. It made me do something I have wanted to do for seemingly ages - I hope it happens. AM saw the sadness mid-day and wondered what was wrong. I couldnt tell him. I have been waiting for an admit and my resignation for nearly 8 months and now it was here and I was struggling to be happy. By the end of the day, the happiness was still not back and the weirdness had set in.

I was speaking to DJ in the cab and the discussion steered towards superpowers at her attempts to blow up the traffic in front of us with her non-existent laser eyesight :P I said I would like the superpower to be happy all the time - that was only the second time I gave a thoughtful  answer to any such thing - something is seriously wrong with me :P (My two answers have been inspired by AK & GO)

As I write this it is early morning on Thursday, beginning of four days off from work, the weirdness is still there and it is expected to give way to sadness in the coming days and anxiety thereafter... Let´s see how it goes :)