Monday, November 20, 2006

Dal rice and cabbage fry!

I was busy in testing the code... and suddenly I realized that there was no noise in my floor...!
Hmmm...It was lunch time.. and everyone from my team had gone down to the canteen for lunch... and they somehow forgot to call me today coz I sit a lil far from their cubicles...

I picked up my wallet and rushed down to the canteen.. But then everyone was done with lunch :(... So today I had to have lunch ALONE which I have never done before :( ...

Hmmm...in the lift, I was thinking "What would be on the menu in the canteen today" coz that had become very important now... the reason being... there's hardly anything served in vegetarian in the canteen...
The Omanis... who are the native people of the Sultanate of Oman, preferred non-veg more to the veg food, and non-vegetarian food is their staple food out here...

I am a non-vegetarian too... BUT... across the miles...my mom had put a BIG hurdle for me all these days...
November, being "Karthika Maasam", mom has ordered me not to eat Non-veg food and she's asked me to hold on till today, that's Nov 20th, probably the last Monday in Karthika Maasam!!!

So I have not had any non-veg food since the day I came here... :(
And the worst part of all this was to choose from burgers and sandwiches... and that too VEG :|...

But fortunately, there was dal and plain rice today... and the canteen guy also offered cabbage fry which was part of the veg menu :|...

Finally... I sat down to have my lunch... I had a problem... :|
I was finding it difficult to push the food down my throat...that's coz I have never had food alone anytime till now...

Back in Mumbai, if my friends were busy and couldn't catch up in lunch time... I used to catch hold of some one with even a lil acquaintance, have lunch and come back :)...
But things were surely different today...

And added to that the food on my plate...made me nostalgic....
In Mumbai...I used to stay with my friends in a flat...and all the 3 of us had the privilege of cooking everyday... a variety of South Indian dishes...
And one of my friends was a specialist in cooking dal... and her favorite was cabbage fry :) ....
When ever she cooked it, she used to beg me to have it... and ME... was always a NO for good vegetables... :| ... a typical eating problem :|...

Today, I was MISSING all that fun we had... I had finished having 3/4 th of the food on my plate...and one more min... I couldn't gulp down the remaining food... I got up from there...

And if my roomies ever read this blog sometime, they would really say "Aaah, this is typical of sway, she can never finish all the food on her plate " :)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Missing Mom-made food :(

Whenever you are planning to go to a new place... there's one thing you'll be worried about for sure........FOOD :)!!!

Before I flew to Muscat, food was one thing that mom, dad, my friends and just anyone who cared for me was worried about...

Bangalore... 8th Nov

I and my friend finished our work hurriedly at office, met at a mall... brainstormed on what things I’ll need to buy before I leave for Muscat...

We picked up all kinds of MTR stuff :)... Ready to eat Tomato rice, Tamarind rice and not to forget my Rasam rice too :D.... I had never tried these before...
I had only tried MTR puliogre mix... but you'll need to cook rice for the puliogre mix..!!!

So my buddy very well knew that I am one BIG lazy goose, He made things simpler for me :D...
He told me to simply buy the ready-to-eat stuff... so that I could just boil water and put these into it...and then my recipe would be ready :) !!!! I was just thinking... mmm....cooking all these is surely gonna be one major experiment in Muscat for me... :)

And added to these, mom also packed my favorite kajjaya and chakli :))... and gojju... for the rice...

Muscat... 16th Nov

Its 5 days in Muscat now... and I haven't unpacked my bags completely...I didn’t even get a chance to have a look at my ready-to-eat MTR rasam-tamarind-tomato rice :| :( ..... I have kept them for my weekend experiments :) !!!!

For now...I am thriving on burgers and sandwiches at the canteen in office....mostly for the breakfast and lunch everyday !!! :(

But I still feel relieved coz amazingly the location Ruwi, where I am put up... is the Indian part of Muscat !!!! :)...And I was shocked to know that there's...
- Kamat
- Saravana Bhavan
- Gujarati hotels
- Udupi Hotels
- Khana khazana....... and many more of these in Ruwi...which have come to my rescue now :)


I had a chance to go to a Gujju hotel and also Saravana Bhavan for dinner so far... tasted the yummy masala dosa there :))) ....
Sitting there in Saravana, along with my colleagues... I really can't tell you how nostalgic I was... whatever it is.....believe me...Nothing can ever beat Mom-made food !!!!!! :(((

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

A Journey to Muscat...

Like any other software engineer being sent on an onsite assignment... i too was picked up for one :|
But the major difference was with the Destination :)... Unlike the typical US/UK/Germany...This was destination MUSCAT :)...

I finally reached Muscat....!!!! :)...It was indeed a BIG mission accomplished :D

SATURDAY 11TH NOV


My flight from b'lore was at 6:15 PM on Saturday, but how can a flight not get delayed if am traveling in that... :||
It got delayed for about 1 1/2 hrs coz of a technical snag...this always happens with me... :|||...

On sat night, I reached the Seeb International Airport, Muscat!!! It was 10:15 PM Muscat time.. :((...
If the flight had come on time... I was supposed to reach at 8:15 PM Muscat time...!!!!

When I reached Muscat, the crew announced "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to seeb international airport, the weather outside is 28 C :||......"and I was like "what the hell".... :(

And then I got down from the flight, took the bus to reach the transit of airport... and there... was the actual process...which I needed to finish

- I'd to get my original Visa...
- I'd to exchange my USD with Omani riyals...
- Get the passport stamped...

So got all this done....uffff... it was 10:45 PM...

Asked ppl in airport for a phone booth... and picked up my baggage and went there...guess what???
Its not a typical STD booth where you'll talk as much as u want, come out and pay a guy....You got to buy a smart card/calling card...

So... went back again... bought a 2 OR calling card...
Called my acct manager... the line was busy!!
Called my PM...The line was busy again!!!!!!!!!! I got TENSED!!!....


Now I used my LIL but SMART brains :)... called up the hotel guy.. AL WAFA hotel... where my flat was booked...
Asked him if it’s safe to take an airport taxi and come there... he said it’s not a prob... :)

So then...I called my dad. Who was sleeping after an exhaustive day...told him things in brief...and left for Ruwi which is 30 Kms from the airport...


My flat/apartment was booked in Ruwi... that’s where everyone from the project stays...

I took an airport taxi...and old man was the driver of the cab... the cabs here were all fundu cars...it looked like u've have ONLY fundu cars here...
It was only a 15 min journey.. Coz he was driving at 110/120... !!!!!
And that was very NORMAL....coz all cars were being driven at that speed.. :)
And the ROADS here are too good.... no wonder he drove so fast...
And the cabs are all corollas...or much better cars....

I asked the driver..."how far is the place from airport"...coz I didn’t know it earlier...he said "very far"...
And I asked him another quest....there came no reply from him... aaaah i was already tensed that it was late...
and then this :| !!!! May be he wanted me to just quietly SIT :I

Hmmm...ok now for the drive...name a brand of car...and you could see a BIG showroom....a real BIG showroom...all thru the way.....There’s jaguar/peugot/mitsubishi/porsche/honda/hyundai/mercedes/.... and just every name...

And well... sitting in the backseat...i was engrossed in seeing the roads and cars...
And there's steering wheel on left side ..Here...US style haan... and FINALLY.... i reached the Al-wafa hotel...paid the driver 8 OR!!!! That’s expensive... but it was SAFE :)

The receptionist was a nice guy...
Receptionist : "so madam[actually he said madaaam:)].. You are Swetha..."
Me: "yeah..."
Receptionist:"where are u coming from"
Me:” India"
receptionist:” so how's India,how's it doing" and he gave a big pleasant smile...
Me:” good.." and i smiled back...

The hotel boy took my entire luggage and guided me to room... telling me how many ppl are now there in these flats from my organisation...


And he's a guy from Andhra... he was happy to know that i knew Telugu..
Then i asked him to get water... and closed my flat's door... and was inspecting it...

Ok then a few mins later...
My acct manager came to room to check if am ok, spoke for 5 mins and then i slept at 11:30....
When i got down at airport it was 28 C, so i thought its really hot temp here..
So turned on AC in room and also the fan :)

but by 1 AM, it was dead damn chilling.. Got up and turned off AC...:|


SUNDAY 12TH NOV


I was told by receptionist that he'll wake me up if i want him to every morn...
so I’d asked hotel ppl to wake me up at 6:30 next day morn...the hotel boy who works in night shift...promptly woke me up at 6:30 AM..
But i got up only at 7 :D

Got ready by 8:15... And PM picked me and 3 others from the apartments...

So on Sunday morn...we reached my client's office... which is a 15 min drive on the way to airport
had a burger in off canteen... don’t know if it was veg or non-veg... :| who cares :), didn’t bother to ask them at all :D

and i met an old friend of mine who was in Mumbai office along with me... he had helped me in Annual Bash activities last year...they all stay in near by flats...


hmmm... i now have loads of docs to read.. I might be given a laptop.. coz client is very strict on us getting laptops from India... coz there isn’t much place for them to accommodate us with desktops...every IT company's prob :)
so PM has asked me to get my laptop to off from Monday :||
he said he'll be arranging one for me soon :| ...but am sure that i'll be using mine :) all thru my stay...

hmm lunch time..had Rajma chawal in noon...may be that was mixed with meat... don’t know what meat means in Oman... mutton or BEEF !!!!
i didn’t know that until a colleague told me late in eve...
now i can’t do anything abt it... can i????

at 6:30 PM.. we left for home...me and other 4 colleagues took the taxi service... its 200-300 baisa per person....


i reached flat... freshened up...switched on TV!!!
guess what... there were only Tamil/Malayalam channels coming on TV!!!
i turned it off...may be I’ll need to tune it :|

and at 9:00 PM we went out to a Pakistani restaurant close to hotel for dinner...

came back... had a chat for a while in the reception with my colleagues ...went off to sleep at 10:15!!!


MONDAY 13TH NOV

today...I got my wake up call again at 6:30...but am one lazy goose :)... one thing i'll never want to sacrifice is my early morning sleep :)
i got up only at 7:30...got ready...took my laptop.... man it’s so heavy... couldn’t carry it from hotel till taxi stand...

We reached office...I am now going thru the docs :| related to the module i'll need to work on. There are around 20 ppl from my organization working on 2 diff projects... most of them have been staying here for 10 months now ...

alright will update this blog... with more of my experiences at Muscat.. we are planning for some trip this weekend.. let’s see...may be a camel ride in the desert :) or a visit to the sultan's palace :)

and if you didn’t know...abt weekend system in Oman and if you wondered why i was working on a Sunday...the weekend here is Thurs/Friday !!!!! :)