Meetings and meetings and more meetings;)

These days, especially the last week, I seem to spend most of my time in meetings. I guess it had to happen to me sooner or later, the more years you work, the more deeper you get into the job and the more meetings you have to attend!;)

What is interesting though, is what I do in these meetings. At least I am not that higher up in my org for me to be "conducting" meetings. So in all the meetings I attend, someone else is talking;) And there are some where I have to play a significant part by talking too, but then I am not the one conducting the meeting. So what do I do with my time?

I think this got stuck since JNTU or in some cases even Francis'. While the lecturer talks away, you simply do your own thing. I was a front-bench person most classes in Francis' but back-bencher for some, especially English;) The trick is to make the person who is speaking, feel that you are listening to him/her;) And I think I mastered this art in Francis'. When Sr Jane Mary (she used to teach English Grammar;) ) asked any simple questions, I would just raise my hand and answer. While no one else did. The key is partial listening. Devote complete attention to the speaker at least for a whole minute, you automatically know what the conversation is all about. Then go back to doing your own thing:P So I would answer and answer till she got tired and then she would say herself that anyone but Divya must answer;) And that translates to? You guessed right! No more need for even those 1 minutes;) you've done your thing for today you can enjoy the bliss for the rest of the class:D I took it with me to JNTU, and we even improvised on this. I always was a back-bench person here and I would sit in the back bench withmy buddies, and we would solve HINDU crosswords, play games, draw cartoons and even have a live Juke Box in the back bench! Boy those classes in ECE were THE days. The way we terrorized lecturers;) Too much fun, hazardous even:))

This is precisely what I am doing in my meetings, just getting my work done while I sit at the farthest possible end of the table with my laptop making-believe that I am listening;)

Contentment vs Ecstasy?

The reason I am writing this post 5 minutes away from yet another meeting at work, is that I have been putting it off for too long;)

This thought occurred to me when I was cooking (when else;) ) last week. If someone was to give me a choice between [everyday, a little happiness] and [dull dreary days at a stretch with ecstacy all at once to compensate for all those days], which one would I choose?:)

Strangely enough I found it difficult to answer this:) After loads of careful contemplating (ain't I such a contemplater:D) I decided that everyday little happiness would be it for me:) Even if I have to forego the experience of that feeling of ecstacy forever:D I have had quite a few of those past couple years:D:D

My audience is getting wider they seem to say:) But this one is a good thought, give it a try! Till the next post.

Swimming!!..for a cause

This past Saturday (Sept 9) I was swimming for the Cisco team in the C.A.R Aquathon. It was my first time doing anything for a cause so I was excited:) Also it was a team of my colleagues from work which was another exciting aspect, we rarely meet on a Saturday:D

The Aquathon was at the San Jose State University Aquatic Stadium. I was told that it was going to be a relay across the width of the pool. Immediately I drew a "thinker" around my head (yeah the one that looks like a cloud, can be seen in most TINKLE books) and imagined our apartment complex swimming pool and was like, ha! that is child's play.

Only when I went there did I realize that this width was 2.5 times the length of our swimming pool in the complex;) We got ready warmed up etc. One of my colleagues, Enrique (he is the kid of the team, gets his legs pulled regularly;) ) warmed up by incrementally putting 5 inches of his body into the water;) So much so, it took him a half an hour to get completely down:)) We started the relay and my first lap wasn't so bad. The second one wasn' t b a d either. T h e th i r d o n e almos t d r e w o u t the breath from my lungs;)

The next few ones I tried to alternate between back and front strokes:) But over all even if it was tiring we were getting gaps in between our laps as it was a relay so it was ok. And at the end of the day we had fun:) Here are some pictures:)