The Pizzazzy

Now that we know how Nano looks, everyone is waiting for the later part of the year when Tata Nano will hit the Indian roads. Infact people are so impressed by the pricing that they even took the booking cheques to the Car Expo earlier this month. And when the veil was lifted off the revolution brought in by Tata, everyone was further taken in by the stylish looks.

Much has been written to criticise the car and a lot more about what a change it will bring in. As a target consumer, afterall it has been claimed by many that it will be more of a ladies car used mainly for dropping the kids to school or going to the corner supermarket, I am worried. Worried because right now I am finding it really difficult to drive on the roads with all potholes, the indiscipline and the bottlenecks due to bad infra-structure. And imagine when you would see nanos everywhere on the road trying to overtake the bigger cars and cutting lanes. I would any day prefer a better organised and maintained public transport like Singapore rather than driving myself.

I further hear that the rickshaw-walas are also planning to upgrade to Nanos. Are we all ready for this revolution and the concept of every home owning a second car. Many of my friends are planning to keep their bigger cars for weekend and buy a nano for weekdays. I am not against change, but before all this we need to pay attention to the infrastructure. I honestly liked the looks and the price.

The Indian infrastructure is not as bad as has been lately portrayed in all the international newspapers - brickbats and applause is coming in the same breath directly targetting the poor infrastructure. Nations who are also amazed at the world’s cheapest car and that India is the country and Tata is the company to be able to achieve this. The country of so called snake charmers where the car drivers share the roads with elephants and other animals has taken such big leaps. I never really liked that my country was referred in such a way but I am liking the context in which it is used, definitely a giant leap. Snake Charmers driving Nanos.. chuckle

Although I am one of the target customers but I am not waiting for nano. No sir, being in software there is one golden rule or you can call it fact that the first versions always has scope for improvement. Meanwhile I will keep happy with my Silky Silver Alto LXi which will be delivered in a few days. I’ll be happy getting some road sense and traffic discipline into me. And also wishing that some day in a few years India is actually in the league of developed countries with best of roads, traffic discipline and good public transport system. With this wish list let’s wait and watch for the Nanos of the future.

It couldn’t have been more eventful than it got yesterday. What began as a typical Saturday ended up being quite adventorous to the extent of being risky.

After a lazy morning and a leisurely lunch I left the house to meet my friends Smitha and Vaishali. Smitha I was meeting after 3 years, we were working together before we both got married around the same time and she left for UK. After that we were in touch through mails and I was pretty excited about meeting her.

The other friend Vaishali happened to join us, she is from the translation department of my previous company. A fun person to be with. Well, the original plan was to go for the Kerala Massage Therapy at DP Road. But fortunately it was closed and it gave us some time to catch up on old times.

Me and Smitha have so many things in common, we both met our respective husbands during college, they were our best friends before we got married, they are maharastrians and we are not. Well even before we had all these things in common we connected and have become good friends.

After some three four hours of non stop chatter and continous bursts of laughter and giggles over a few cups of cappucinos, garlic breads and ceaser salads we felt rejuvenated, so much that it was better than any massage therapy.

During all these good hours I was actually getting late to reach Di’s place. She had invited me and Anand for a barbecue party. Yes, it’s barbecue parties everywhere and I am not at all sorry to mention it every now and then in my posts. Okie, so the boneless chicken was perched up in the corner waiting for me to turn them into delicious kebabs. I decided not to follow any recipe and simply marinated them with the green marinade that we use for preparing fish curry.

The guys were busy at getting the fire started in the barbecue and since the coal was taking some time to burn and heat up the barbecue, the guys got hold of some spirit. So, here’s the beginning of the adventure. As soon as the spirit was put into the pit, the flames caught fire and shoot up. The reaction was so fast that the flames caught the spirit within the bottle, the next moment was crazy, the bottle was thrown and the spirit caught more fire and it started spreading in the gallery. The ladies were looking for water, the guys were into fire fighting.

We managed to find water cans and buckets and managed somehow to extinguish the fire. The flames in the pit extinguished after one final wild uproar. Finally we caught our breath and were totally shocked and the next 15-20 minutes went into cleaning up the coal marks and everything in the gallery. Thankfully no one was hurt and nothing was lost, and most importantly during all this chaos Urjit was busy in the bedroom with his Cartoon network and was saved from witnessing the accident.

Another half an hour went into post mortem of the horror while we switched to the electric grill. The drinks resumed with the great tasting grilled chickens, kebabs and some rice. Although we ladies had lost our appetite we managed to stuff our stomach with some of the food.

The guys kept repeating the morale of the story “Never to use spirit or rock oil to start fire” but in retrospect what I see is a family having good time together and fighting danger together with a perfect co-ordination and co-operation. You see those 2-3 minutes were really horrific and we acted really fast. Although I am scared to even think about the scene but after the storm I felt we emerged as a family more closer and more bonded.

Things have been quite out of control for some time now. After coming back from Singapore, I was settling down into my new routine. At work I would see all new faces around me. But it wasn’t so bad finally when I met many people whom I knew. I feel settled now and the work hours aren’t crazy yet.

Meanwhile the New Year came and we celebrated that with a great barbecue party. I made many resolutions even before the New Year began. But before I get into sticking by my resolutions, I have this very important thing to do.

I have been complaining to people around me that the year 2007 went by unnoticed I didn’t even realize and it was already 2008. Today when I sit back to reminisce I wonder how wrong I am.

So, friends.. Year 2007 happened and put lots of great moments into my life.

To begin with I changed my job, which I had been planning to do for a long time. After all how many people do you see around you who stick with the same old company for 6 years. I did though. And finally it was the onset of 2007 which gave me the courage to leave my comfort zone and move on in my career.

Then I got this opportunity to go onsite for long term. Again this had been on my mind for quite some years but due to some constraints I couldn’t plan a long onsite term. Some thing or the other kept popping up in my life. Finally it was in the year 2007 that I left my cozy environment called home and my beloved city Pune behind and landed in a new country.

After a few months one of the biggest and most fulfilling things that happened was the birth of thePizzazzy. Although the domain name had been registered and bought about a year back I couldn’t manage to get myself around to blog. First the plan was to start a forum but then my dear sister gave me the idea of blogging and believe me this new hobby of mine has brought out the latent writer in me. I have been quite appreciated by family, friends, their friends and others. This has taken a setback for the past few months with my shifting back to India etc. But thanks to Di, jiju and Anand I have been jolted back into the rhythm of regular blogging. I promise to do it more often if not daily like before.

The last thing that happened gradually in the year 2007 was the realization of how we felt about our parents and how lost we felt without them. And the final decision of moving back to India. Now, we are planning to continue in India and I will accept only short onsite visits. Atleast for a few years. Now for all those well wishers who are speculating that we might be thinking of extending our family, that is not the reason for moving back home. Although the idea is being considered seriously by both the parties involved

So, it has been a great year and we came full circle from India to Singapore and back. In the year 2007 I made many friends of different origins and another inherent quality of mine was put to full use. Yes, of making friends and connecting with people around me at work and in social domain.

So, I am a better and mature person in 2008 who plans to be more organized, more focused and more honest to herself. Infact all of you here will see a more soulful and thought provoking person who might indulge into some self dwelling from time to time.

PS: I feel so offloaded now and can start afresh with my blogging ideas.