Bye Bye Persistent...

Today as I prepare myself for beginning a new life, there are so many things that I need to leave behind: my family, my friends and my home sweet home. But one thing that I'm gonna miss the most is Persistent!

I can still remember the day I went for my first campus interview. I was very excited that day to know that even Nagpur has a reputed company called Persistent, who recruited mostly from IIT's earlier. I didn't want to leave Nagpur, and if I could manage to get a job in Nagpur itself, it would be my biggest dream come true! I really wanted to get this job.

I still remember how much I had prayed that day before appearing for the written test and how thankful I was when I cleared it. I remember how impressed I was on seeing Persistent's beautiful office the next day, when we went for our interview. I remember how I felt like dancing when I was told that I was selected. I remember the excitement amongst my friends to get the news,I remember the smile on my parent's face when I gave them the news. I remember how proud I was that day to become the first one to get a job in my class. It all felt so great. That was one of the best moments in my life!

The first day at Persistent was wonderful. We got a very warm welcome. I met so many new people, all coming from different cities like Indore and Bhopal. I was the only person from my college to join Persistent. Moreover, I was the only one amongst the girls who was from Nagpur itself. So everyone was new. I didn't know anyone at all, and so it was like a fresh start for me.

We had a month long training during which we learnt a lot of new things like Linux, Oracle, Perl, Java, QTP etc. I made a lot of new friends that time, some of whom I'm sure will remain friends for life.

The work atmosphere in Persistent was absolutely wonderful. It was more like having fun at work. The facilities provided were great. No dress codes, no timing restriction, first name culture, and free lunch and snacks, unlimited internet(though a few restrictions were there!). And the best part, we could listen to music with our headphones even during the office hours! And as you know I'm a music manic! So, what more could I want?

Even when I had loads of work,I never felt over burdened. I could always find time for my friends and family. I was hardly ever required to work over time except for may be a couple of times.

The most memorable period was during the Second Anniversary celebrations last November. I had a great time then, participating in all the events including cubicle decoration, treasure hunt, antakshari, talent display and so many other events which I can't even recollect now. I must say, I had my best time during that one week!

Even during the Gudi Padwa celebrations we had a rocking time. I knew this was my last event in Persistent and tried to make the most of it.

Eversince I joined Persistent, my outlook towards life changed completely. I find myself a completely new human being today, and I think most of it is for the better. The days I spent at Persistent will remain memorable all my life. I really thank God that something as good as Persistent happened to me!

Thank you to all the people at Persistent for making it such a wonderful experience for me. And yes, most importantly, I want to thank my parents for educating me so that I could get selected in Persistent, and also for letting me join Persistent. 'Cause without their support I would never have been able to make it where I am today!

And this is for all my friends at Persistent:
You were one of the best things that has ever happened to me in my life. I'll always miss all the good times we had together. I'll miss going to the vending m/c everyday, just to give you company. I'll miss seeing you at lunch time. I'll miss calling you up for snacks. I'll miss all the gossip that we shared and the jokes you cracked. I'll miss your commenting on seeing a chat or orkut window on my screen.

I'm gonna miss you all each and everyday of my life 'cause you were forever so nice to me. I wish you all, the best of luck for your future and just hope that someday, somewhere, somehow, when we happen to bump into each other, we'll be able to smile at each other and just say Hi! That will be the best day of my life!

Finding that Perfect Someone....

All Indian girls have just one cherished dream right from childhood and that is, finding that perfect someone. As a kid, I also dreamed about that perfect someone for me.

But one day I read in some numerological horoscope that my life partner would not be up to my expectations! I got very disappointed after reading this. But I didn't want to let anyone disappoint me. So I thought that if I don't expect anything, how will anyone be able to not meet my expectations!

I always thought I'll be able to keep up with this ideology. But as the days passed by, and I gained more experience in relationships, unconsciously I started picturing my sweet heart. Even though I kept reminding myself not to expect too much, somehow I just couldn't help it! After all, how can you not have any expectations about someone you are going to spend your entire life with?

Only thing I could do was to not expect anything out of the blue from him! But at least I could expect him to be well educated, have a good job, love his family, be honest, sensitive and romantic, love music and dance, and most of all, be my best friend, with whom I can share everything!

This was about all I expected from my Perfect Someone. Looks wasn't an important criterion for me, 'cause after all I'm not the most beautiful girl in this world, and I couldn't expect someone who's so perfect to fall for me.

I've met a lot of guys in my life time. But somehow, I never found someone as perfect! There was something or the other missing all the time. And if there's something missing, how can it be perfect? Eventually I started thinking that my horoscope was indeed right, I'll never find my Perfect Someone.

But when I met Sandeep, everything changed! There was something really attractive about him. I found myself being drawn towards him. When we started talking, we just went on and on, with not wanting to stop at all. Anyone who saw us talking that day wouldn't have believed that we were meeting for the first time. We were complete strangers, but I could still feel some sort of a bond being formed already!

The best part is that he's modernism and traditionalism combined! I mean, when I did the Art of Living course, I just wished to find a hubby who'd be interested in spirituality and meditation. And when Sandeep said that he was a part of AOL, I felt as if all my dreams had come true in just one instance. It was really too good to be true! I just couldn't believe it!

He possesses all the qualities I wanted in my hubby. He's very friendly and is a heart winner for sure. He loves his family a lot, is very romantic and expressive. I love his honesty and modesty. I love to hear his voice and long to see that cute smile which can make you forget your worries and sorrows completely. He has this extraordinary way of making you feel really special!! You want to believe everything he says, even if he might just try to flatter you!

I never believed so much in arrange marriages earlier! I always thought that arrange marriages are full of compromises on all walks of life. How can you marry someone you hardly know! What if you turn out to be complete opposites? It always looked like a risky proposition to me.

But Thank God! I've been really lucky! I managed to find someone who's more like me than anyone else I've ever known before! And that's what I wanted my Special someone to be like....a reflection of my ownself, someone I can relate to, someone I can trust!

With the passage of each new day, I start liking him even more. Each day I discover something new about him, and then I realize that this is indeed something I wanted in my sweet heart, but didn't expect it to be fulfilled. All I hope is that our love keeps growing like this forever!

No matter how much ever he may try, he'll never be able to convince me that he's luckier than me!! It's true, falling in love makes you a better human being. The whole world seems to be a better place and life itself becomes more meaningful.

After meeting Sandeep I'm convinced that "Someone somewhere is really made for you and one day you'll surely find him!!!"

What is so special about HumTum!!

These days, I've become an Orkut addict! All my colleagues are fed up of seeing it on my screen all the time. They keep askin' me the same question time and again ....
"Aakhir isme aisa hai kya?!!"
So I'm dedicating this blog especially to all those friends of mine.

First of all, Orkut was the place I found all my old friends. You know, I really loved my school a lot. But somehow I managed to lose touch with most of my friends after leaving school. Although I did still recall most of them, but didn't have the slightest idea what they were doing now.

On the first day of joining orkut, it felt completely new. It was quite confusing too, with no help available as such. But then, I found the community of my school in my friend's list and joined it instantly. I found soooo many old friends there, that I hadn't even imagined I ever would.

The initial few months on Orkut was just checking scraps every day, finding old friends and all that. I had just four communities on my list... my school, junior college, college and office. But one day, while surfing on orkut, I found a few interesting communities like Taurus, Friends, Remix on star one, A R Rehman fan club etc. I joined them and started looking for more.

I also created a few communities like "I Love Nature" and "Crazy about blogging". Although these groups haven't been able to create a huge fan following yet, they still helped me find more communities and people having similar interests. I also started participating actively in the forums of these communities.

Then I came across this community called HumTum. I joined it thinking it was a fan club of the movie Hum Tum. But I was wrong. This is how the community is described

The Battle of the Sexes is nothing new.When you get to know someone so different from you, its always a challenge to keep your own identity.Come, join and watch the two opposites react to each other. Its an experience worth fighting for.So come join.. all you boys and girls.

The forums were mostly games like "Guess, who is next", "select a nickname for da gul or guy above u","Last one to Post Wins", "Sing a song for the person above u" and "Antakshari". So I started posting here as well. Interestingly, this community turned out to be more active as compared to the others. I started getting responses immediately, and started enjoying it.

On the first day itself I made a lot many friends on HumTum. Most of them were from the IIT's and were as "fittehaal" as me. I'd like to especially mention Anmol, Akki, Shalini, Bhawna, Rachna, Vikrant, Rahul, Himanshu and Aditya here. They even read my blogs. Not only this, they also tried to popularize it. Isn't that really sweet and amazing!

Moreover, my real life friends never bothered to write any testimonials for me, but friends like Anmol, who hardly even knew me were very keen on doing that. See that's why these people are so very special for me.

I can spend hours together on this community. We play all sorts of silly games like guys+2 gals -2, chain game, last one to post wins etc. Then there are those games which try to introduce you to the person above you, like nicknaming the other person, dedicating a song for him, rating as bro/sis, frnd or bf/gf, rating the display pic etc. My favourite are the music related threads like Antakshari, Gaane ke badle gaana, rapid fire etc. We also have a Competition thread, where we just chat casually in an attempt to create the longest ever thread! All in all, we have a great time out there!

This was just an introduction of this wonderful community called HumTum. To experience the real excitement, you will have to come and be a part of it.

http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=88122

I really thank god for the day I joined this community. Even though there may have been a few fights on the community, but those are not enough to keep you away from your friends!! You do keep coming back to it.

HumTum is now a part of my life, and hopefully it will always remain that way!