Interesting....

Our very own Antony's :
"T H E F I N A L E . Chennai vs Mumbai. Govinda Govindaaa for Hyderabad."
(Whats it with men & cricket)

My SIL's bro :
"Early Bday Gift - A Baby Girl"
(Congrats Bro! My Lil niece has a cute lil cousin to play with)

My BIL
"Awesome Team Chennai !! Glad you showed the exit to Team Deccan..... :)"
(Annanum thambiyum ...same kuttai-la oorina mattais :) )

A frnd from Infy :
"chennai ku whistle podu.. Dhoni ku whistle podu... Chennai Super Kings"
(oh God... Men, find something to do)

Antos frnd's wife:
"All I need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
(Hmm... hints to her hubby I believe)

A fellow relative:
"IS google run by the templars? or is microsoft, or intel? which company is similar to abstergo"
(This one definitely needs therapy)

A frnd from College :
"When we believe in the Lord Jesus, an exchange takes place. We give Christ our sins, and he gives us his righteousness and forgiveness. There is nothing we can do to earn this. Only through Christ can we receive God's righteousness. What an incredible bargain this is for us!!!!!"
(How true?)

From Someone whom Anto looks up to :
"Risk is the currency of life. Without risk, there is no life. We have to be willing to risk failure in return for a sense that we are living. And it's when we're really living that we really have a shot at changing the world!!"

Another frnd from college :
"No Thangamani ENSOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"
(Ha ha ha.... I wish my thangamai and my chinnamani would give me a night off too...)

A Coll frnd and a new mom :
"There are 3 dolls in a man's life... 1) his daughter, baby doll 2) his girlfriend, barbie doll and 3) his wife, Panadol!! ;-) hehe..."
(I like this one!!)

Another Coll frnd :
"STAY TRUE TO THE DREAMS OF THY YOUTH.... :)"
(Hmm... he is probably feeling old :))

Puri :
"U S of A,here i come"
(Bon Voyage.. Hey Puri, When Anto broke the news, he said 'Us family Utham poguthu'.. No, he wasn't drunk!)

A friend of a friend :
"Confused , doesn't sound like me :P"
(Yeah rite... Multiple Personality Disorder)

Anto's lil cousin :
 "சூரியனை பார்த்து மணி சொல்லுறது அந்த காலம், மின்சாரம் போறதை பார்த்து மணி சொல்லுறது இந்த காலம்!! Thanks to Government!!!"
(Funny!!)

A friend of a friend :
"Wat am i gonna engage in IPL is gonna be over Sooooooon "
(Men...)

A frnd from Infy :
"ஒரு வேல இப்படி இருக்குமோ! இல்லனா அப்படி இருக்குமோ....இல்ல இல்ல இப்படி அப்படி இருக்கும் "
(Ayyo pavam.... ennamo aayduchu)

A frnd from College :
 "Patience is the mother of all virtues!"
(Somebody must be testing hers...)

Fellow Mom :
 "To be a mother is to know true love, pure joy and sweet bliss ... AND change diapers, clean up vomit, and never sleep again !!"

A from from coll and then in Infy :
"…into her arms he poured his heart!!"
(fallen in love...must be...)

Antoher one from Infy :
"To live happily.. Stop expecting and stop giving expectations.."

A senior in college, and a relative (my mom's sister's husband's cousin's daughter... maybe)
"Clash of the Titans' average..no where close to Gladiator"
(I do find these quick reviews helpful)

My dear Arch :
"“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is - infinite”- William Blake"
(Philosophical...)

Another frnd from Infy :

 "Jcpenney makkals .. bringing Chakkara pongal for you.. don't miss it "

(:( left it all behind me long back..Given a chance, I wud definitely go back)

One from my bestest circle of frnds - Rats :
 "All izz well"
(Enna dee spelling marandhu pocha?)

Anto's lil cousin :
"Happy Birthday Chiyaan"
(Little fellows...)

Arch again :
"To bring out the kid in u , get a bicycle(Gift) !!!! Geeeee!!! I am so happppyy....    "
(She is excited abt something..... is it the person who gave her the gift or the gift)

Prabs says :
Yeah!CSK wins.But tough competition ahead.This kind of batting wont do against MI. Dhoni, Murali, Hayden(???????????????) or someone... pls bat well!!
(.......wo'MEN'.........too)


finally


Me:
Anyone of you wants to hire a home-based .net programmer... Please say yes ;)
(Wishful thinking... This whole week of 'work from home' is making me tipsy.. )

& 

Nephy 

"I love you Mommy and Daddy"

(If you haven't yet made out what these are...These are status messages....)

At work...

Things are quite different at work here than in my first work place.
There... Lunch was a colourful affair. A guaranteed minimum of four. The usuals being Arch,Preeths,Div & Abi and sometimes J and soemtimes the two gundans. No topic was left untouched. No lunch ever ended without a friendly banter.
Here.. most of the days I go to lunch alone, somehow I am very much comfortable being alone, left alone to my thoughts and my own world. I call Nephy who would refuse to talk to me on most days and my mom who never refuses, always welcome. Live live moms!!

There.. I don't smile at people I don't know...
Here, I do.

There... before I reach my desk, I would have said Hi to atleast a minimum of 5 or more friends(not just colleagues)
Here... I go to my desk quietly , an occasional nod here and there.

There.. 'How are you? ' is the start of a friendly chat
Here... 'How are you?' and there is this fellow who always answers it with 'Very Busy'. Tell me, you are fine, just great, bad, pretty bad, sad or anything. Why 'very busy'... I've made a note to myself not to ask that fellow, how he is. But nonetheless, he keeps asking me how am I and I end up asking how he is and yeah... I hear the 'very busy'. People!! (Put your hands in the air.. roll your eyes a little and give that 'Whatever' look, for my benefit)

There.. My team size was from one to about 10 and my manager was most of the times sitting on top of our heads. It wasn't just the manager, even the onsite fellows took the liberty of using our heads for desks.
Here... My team size is a modest 3 and the manager lives in London. Nope, no sitting on my head at all.
(I definitely have to mutter counter-jinxes here for all those of you with the kolli-kannu)

There.. team mates were friends.
Here... thankfully, my teammates are very nice chaps. Kinda helpful and quite the techies that they are, but without the attitude. Makes my workplace a lot better.
(Again... am muttering counter-jinxes. No worries, no one knows of my blog's existence, so am allowed to say all that I want to)

Fine... gotta catch up with work.
There... They spell out deadlines and what a race it used to be to the line..
Here.. I spell my deadlines...

Nephy's 2nd birthday

My baby's 2nd birthday on a lovely sunny day(considering we live in Sunny Singapore, thats not special, yet who would want to have a special day with a heavy downpour, like poor Mommy's wedding, when it rained cats and dogs and then elephants and dinosaurs).  I was of course, the first one to wish with her, a kiss and a wish and a silent prayer.

Followed a church visit with grandpa & grandma & Dad. Traditions.
Bought So-so(Chocolates)
Posed for a good number of pictures
Did I mention the Payasam that grandma made... yummy!
Followed lunch and nap-time. Don't we stick to routines even on birthdays!

At last it was Evening, I was quite nervous if she would agree to dress up. Believe me, it wasn't fun to trick her into her new dress. The little party was to be at this lovely little Indian restaurant. A few of our friends had already arrived. Nephy had fun with her exploits until the others arrived. Finally, the cake was brought out. A beautiful prayer was said asking God's blessings for my baby. The Happy Birthday to you song was sung. I hissed, blow your candles baby. And She bent down and did a foo and blew out her candles.... and cut her cake and offered a bit to mommy , some to daddy and then on to everyone else.

Ha ha... who am I kidding? In reality, she was happy with the birthday song and clapped with us. Then it was time to blow out the candles. But, she refused to go anywhere near the cake,much less the candle. Finally ,I had to do the honors of blowing the candles and Anto, cutting the cake.  You should have heard her screaming 'No-No-No' when asked to blow her candles. Well, its gonna look really silly when we do our rehearsal's for her next birthday with a cake & a lit candle, but SHE asked for it. ;). The whole thing was quite funny and in a sort of a way, cute to watch.

Altogether, it was a lovely evening with friends & family.  Thanks all for the lovely gifts. Nephy had a great time with all the gifts. A special thanks to the one who bought the baby doll. It worked Nephy out of  her tantrums like a magic, when said 'Amma is gonna play with the baby doll, and not with the bad girl Nephy'.
Sadly, she gave it a good number of (well deserved)whacks, and now the baby doll is nurturing a broken leg. No other casualities though.

Finally, she is 2....and not a baby anymore!! When did she grow up so fast.....Wasn't she that little reddish thing, that I was holding on the 1st of April 2008, unable to even open her eyes and look at mommy ?