The Red Carpet

I was recently traveling by air to home for Diwali.. It was a lovely evening with some clouds on the sky.. But i never imagined this lovely evening was going to get transformed into a breathtakingly beautiful evening..
I got a window seat from where i could directly watch the sun. I was glad for the clouds which stood as guards against the glaring sun-shine and providing excellent view at the same time.. I could not click a snap, but the adjacent photo is pretty much similar to what i saw that day..
Our plane went over the smaller cloud and gave us a spectacular view of changing colors on the bigger cloud.. Watching the sun's play on this cloud was just spell-bounding.. from grey to illuminated borders to sizzling golden to absolute white..
I was about to close my windshield since the sun was directly shining on my eyes.. But i guess it was a lucky day.. I noticed a red Carpet below the plane. A soft furry red carpet. At first i din realized what is it. The plane's wing tilted a bit & i saw the sun, just about to set, at extreme corner of the earth. Dimmed by clouds surrounding it, emanating a dull yellow sparkle .. The color slowly turned into Red as it moved away from the golden ball hung at the horizon.. The clouds directly below us were reflecting the afterglow and were giving the illusion of velvety soft red carpet..
The pic i have shown here is a bit different. What i witnessed was a little more yellow near the sun, a little smoother cloud-surface and a brighter shade of red on the clouds.. but this was the only pic i found on google which had sunset above clouds :D (I wish clicking snaps was allowed while flight takes off, It would have been soooo gud)

Ring ceremony

My goodness!! Ring ceremony is such a hotch potch affair.. cartoon se tayyar ho jao, khoob saara makeup laga ke.. then walk dead slow from gate to the altar.. walk FAST and people around pull u back.. If u still dont walk slow, there's the damn photographer.. He'll keep on muttering, "Walk slow", "Look to the right", "look a little down".. eeewks!! And not to mention everyone looking at you.. Even the known ones look at me like they are seeing me for the first time in their life..
And when i reached the altar, I thought all i'll have to do is sit comfortably and smile.. But people were so eager to come on stage give their blessings and leave jaldi se.. total dum ghontu experience..
Dance was good.. We did salsa together :) I enjoyed a lot while dancing, which i always do, but that photographer was pissed off cos my make-up would get spoiled. But anyways he couldnt stop me :) Best part was the number of compliments we got later for pretty good dancing..
Then there was photosession.. We posed in all those poses, our parents stood in their wedding.. I laughed so much.. generally photographer has to say that please smile a little, our photographer said please laugh a little less.. :)
Then we had dinner and the eve got over.. I pretty much liked it :)

"SOME" men are such A**holes

I can not really tell you how dissapointed i am in some men i came across at my workplace..
One person, very experienced, a project manager, cannot take it that a woman is working under him and is one of the best.. Her appraisals are going to be bad and she says, appraisals with him are confidence breaking sessions, not at all what they should be.. Another one favours women and no lady's appraisal is ever bad.. I dont know why this gender difference should come in the way of work.. And worse happens when no one sees it as it could be changed.. People agree it is a problem but nothing can be done against those who wish to differentiate their workforce, based upon gender..
Another man, married and a post graduate i.e. highly educated, sees her wife to be inferior to him. He doesnot wanto allow her to do a job.. He doesnot even consider she might have a wish.. Though it is between him and his wife and i hve no right to say against their mutual understanding, i could help but notice the way with which he speaks as if he owns her life and she should do as he says.. He proudly claims that he doesnot let her watch her TV after 10 even when she wants to watch some saas-bahu serial.. He has the supreme power in his household and this is infact a great achievement for him.. Disgusting beyond words..
And one more person i am pissed off with is someone i commute daily with. He apparantly loves to tease people and belittle them.. And thinks he is the apple of eyes in every one's eyes because of his humorous ways.. sigh..
Lastly, i met a guy some time back for matrimonial purposes.. He was the real a**hole.. He wants wife, someone who cooks for him throughout his life, who should be ready to leave her job when he thinks he is earning enough. When i obviously didnt meet his "requirements", He said NO (( thankfully )) along with a whole lot of derogatory words for me.. He projected me as a loose character in front of my parents.. It was a BOMB which rocked my home for a long while and still does in some way or the other..

But for good, i know many wonderful men in my life.. and am glad for having them :)

Wonderful Women

I recently had a trip home, and coincidently during whole of journey a woman sat beside me.. I met some wonderful women along the way. Let me tell you, why each one of them was special..

1. A very young girl, still studying in school started the journey with me. She wanted to build a career of her own and asked me a lot of question about getting admission and kind of preparations to do. I was very impressed by her ambitions. At her age, I wasn't even sure what I wanted to do in my life!! Forget about a college, I hadn't even decided on the stream I would follow..
She left after about half an hour.
2. Then a village women sat beside me. She was illiterate, had her face covered with dupatta and was the shy-est person I've ever met. Her voice was so low, I had to constrain my ears to know she was asking about time.. But, when the bus-conductor tried to charge her more for smaller route, she was very adamant on NOT giving a rupee extra.. I thought she will let it go after a few words, but she did not.. She argued with the conductor and let him return the balance..
3. After her a very very aged lady sat beside me.. She was so amazed at knowing that I am traveling alone, without a male escort :) She thought it was wonderful and acknowledged it is all because of studies.. :) She later commented if she was educated, she also might have needed only shoes and some money to travel all on her own and then she smiled so much, as if pleased in thinking of herself as an independent soul.. I felt nice after meeting her.. :)
4. After her another aged lady sat beside me.. Now she was traveling alone and I was worried will she be able to make it to her destination.. She was so old that her hands trembled all the time.. She told me she was visiting her sister and frequently made such trips :) I hope I too have such vigor left in me when I reach her age..
5. In the last part of my journey, a mother with her one-and-a-half yr old daughter was with me.. She absolutely doted on her daughter and her daughter was the naughtiest child.. Stood on her lap, danced, jumped and was hyper active.. Not once that woman lost her calm.. She patiently asked her to sit, whenever she did something outrageous.. I have seen mothers slapping and scolding their children at such times, but her patience amazed me.. :)

And so my journey ended and I reached my home sound and safe.. And apparently this was my last bus journey.. My sem will soon end, my parents will come to pick me and then I'll live in Delhi for another 6 months before joining Symantec in pune :)