It was 15 mins past twelve in the night…and standing on the Qantab beach...I was waiting for the waves to splash my feet… All I could hear was… the noise of the waves hitting the beach...
Well it was a farewell dinner party which started at 9 PM and finally got extended to an ice-cream party on the Qantab beach…!! which is a rough 10-15 min drive from Ruwi...
For one of my colleagues in the team, It was time to pack the bags to get back home... It was time for a farewell party!!
And after a not so hectic day at office… I went back to my flat, caught up with few of my friends on the net and the phone calls…
When I was almost done, one of my colleagues just reminded that it was time we went to the restaurant to join the whole team!
So all set, we reached the venue 'Hotel Woodlands' in few mins…and the party took off!
Everyone was busy settling down…and the first round of ordering the menu for the dinner started…
The guys were busy ordering drinks for themselves :) and for the first time… I had seen two menus!!!
One for the usual dinner [veg/non-veg] and later on... my eyes caught the second one and that was for the DRINKS!!
So I realized that the waiter had given all the guys both of these menus… and only the usual dinner menu for me! :)
I slowly picked the drinks menu coz I was curious to know what are the varieties and what was everyone's pick from the menu … ;)
And I was all stars… coz I didn't know what the categories were…and had never heard of those names too !!
There was white vine/ whisky/ a whole range of beers…and there were few fruit juices as well… may be these are usually used to mix with the drinks !!
In no time, the drinks were served to everyone…and then started a round of various discussions… :D
I would say, the discussion was more like a very open PRD!!, that’s a Peer Review Discussion :D ….
We all gave and took the feed back from my colleague in the Hot Seat, who was leaving the project…
11 35 PM, we were through with the dinner… and I was just preparing myself to get back to my flat…
Then suddenly my PM gave us a surprise…!! Or rather for me it was a not- so- exciting surprise….!!
He said that we would now drive towards Qantab beach for an ice-cream party …!!!! And I was like… "This guy's calling us for an ice-cream party at Qantab beach and that too at 11 30 PM!!!!"
I turned around to see how everyone felt about this idea…
To my surprise…everyone around was damn too excited and was gearing up for that!!
With half of them around me drunk, I was a little hesitant to take this call…
And I told my colleagues that I would drop out of this, and asked them to drop me at my flat...
But I agreed to join them after they insisted that the place would be safe…and promised me that we would come back in 30 mins!
All the way in the car I was just thinking… about the kind of adventures I was having in Muscat :)… And in no time...there we were!! At the calm and breezy Qantab beach…
We all quickly sat down on the sand and started having the ice cream…the breeze was cool…and the waves were slowly hitting the beach…
And right after that was the photo session :) ….each one of them just too excited for a team snap…few of them tried to strike all kinds of poses :D…
A few mins later, I moved to the beach… to enjoy the pleasure of listening to the waves...coz I had never dreamt of going to a beach in midnight… :)
I started playing with the waves… waiting for them to touch my feet…and moving back when they came close to me.. :)
Very soon, one of them screamed out… "Swetha, it's time... let's get back"… it was 15 mins past twelve :) ….
The day had indeed come to an end now…All of us got back into the 2 cars we came in…and headed back to our flats…
Being the ONLY girl there... I must say it wasn’t a bad idea to go to the beach at midnight…with my colleagues… :)
It was a different and a memorable experience indeed!!
Monday, December 18, 2006
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
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
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
And added to these, mom also packed my favorite kajjaya and chakli :))... and gojju... for the rice...
Its 5 days in
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
- 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
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
If the flight had come on time... I was supposed to reach at 8:15 PM
When I reached
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
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:”
receptionist:” so how's
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
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
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 ...
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