Snow is beautiful ...

Hmmm ...
I have been cursing snow for ever now - right from the time i slipped and fell down a snow cliff in manali, (almost) breaking my nose; to being stuck inside my hotel room for 2 consecutive weeks like a rat in a cage.

But today i finally braved the 15F (-10C) temperature and marched out to explore the town on foot. It had snowed all night yesterday and today morning, but the sun had been up for a couple of hours, giving me hope enough to go and "chill out".

So at 2pm on a freezy winter day i leave house for my first visit around Overland Park. I had decided to go to this lake near my place, which from a distance kind of looked like this perfect spot - the old country side, a large lake, with snow all around, and a frosted bridge across it. The scene was breath-taking. Dry leaves, green winter grass, ice cold water, and snow all around.



No point capturing those moments on a camera. Its only something that you can see yourself and appreciate. Probably try and capture them on paper - but i am not too great at doing that either.

Well, feeling hungry, i moved on to a random route just walking where the road led me - kind of realized that i had taked the path to the town plaza - the surroundings were just so pure - snow all around, cars skidding down the highway, ice on the sidewalk, huge countryside manors with kids sleighing down the snow slopes, standing so far apart you could fit 10 elephants sidelong, the sub zero wind blasting me in the face, ears and fingertips numb, no other pedestrian dumb enough to be out but me, and small lakes every 5 streets frozen with sleet.

Aah, the beauty of it all ...

My glasses had frozen so hard up that i had to look at the menu without them. No wonder to my embarrasment, i ended up giving a 20$ note instead of a 50$, and then asking for 30$ more on the change. A hot cappuccino on the way back alongwith my lunch was just the perfect way to beat the cold. Though it was a different matter that my fingers were now really about to breakoff in this chill carrying the lunch packet in one hand and the cofee in the other. My watch stopped at 3:05pm. It just couldnt take the chill i guess. It however returned to normal functionality when i came back to my warm abode after 1.5 hours of a gruelling hike. But the most amazing part was the fact that my tears froze. They literaly froze to ice and stuck on my face. It was a wow moment.

To round off the perfect day, even though i skid a couple of times, i did not fall. Apprehensive of the new roads, i never lost my way. And most importantly, though i hated the "icky-yellow-brown" snow before, i believe i will look upon in it in a different light from now on. Wish i could have stayed longer till christmas and enjoyed it in the snow ...

Koffee with Rohit (who??)

They talk about monday morning blues.
I was in a total mood to avoid that today.

Infact, i was in such a mood to avoid that and something else associated with it, that i decided to reach the office not before noon. It didnt work out the way it was supposed to - and so i got to (was made to?) have coffee with Rohit. Rohit Kapoor, President/COO, EXL Services.

The invitation for cofee had been extended to a select few, by advertising out the same in a very ludicrous manner over e-mail by our dear fwd-FYI-without-topi-ka-HR. The appointment had been set for an hour at 12 noon on a monday. Some mystic ninjas were enthusiastic about it and reached the office sooner than they usually do for work, while other laggards like me tried coming in as late to avoid making an entry into the conference room.

Unfortunately, the meeting got postponed an hour out, thus making it impossible to make an excuse. At about 1pm the few of us (not more than 12-15) got together in the bored room (no its not a spelling mistake), and "signed" the attendance sheet like little school kids. Masterji was very angry when told that some children will not be able to come to the class because they were ill/watching cricket/bunking etc etc etc ....

In anticipation of the coffee (that is what after all we had come for !!), we were deliberating as to would we get to choose between a mocha and a cappucino or a latte, or would a single brew be served throughout the board. All hopes of a good coffee were shattered when we saw the standard cups, and tea bags, entering the room. It was a disaster. Cold tea, without sugar !!!

Well in the midst of all the tea/coffee drama, we had an hour of discussion (about i am not even sure what??) with Mr. Kapoor. His conversation was somehow reminiscent of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities -

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.

Well, though, it did seem more like it was the best of times for him and the worse of time for me, but none-the-less ...

It was a discussion on a personal front, to know the man who built the company, better. He talked about his education, his work experience (inlcuding the part about managing a trainee for 2 months, who later on ended up being his wife), the way he setup the company, the acheivements and the slides etc. There were some questions from the not-so-enthusiastic audience in terms of a few queries/concerns, a couple of which were pretty emabarassing beamers for the boss and his team, but they ducked well.

Ultimately, the moot point of the coffee charade all came down to what one expected it to be all along - STAY and WAIT and BELIEVE.

The hour long session ended with Rohit giving out 2 autographed coffee mugs, the way KJ does on his show, to the two most enthusiastic members of the group (in short people who asked the most questions and bugged the others). The others received mugs as well, without the signature of-course. With Rohit finally leaving for his flight to Pune, probably for another coffee tete-a-tete there, the group embarked upon their second mission - 'samosas' and 'dhoklas'.

/* Transgressing away */
For the uninitiated, samosas, are snacks to be had piping/steaming hot, made of mashed potatoes, peas and lots of different spices, wrapped in a cone shaped coating of gram/corn flour (not sure which - my culinery skills are restricted).
Dhoklas are dhoklas - dont ask me how and what they are made from.
/* Regressing back */

Back to our original discussion, the samosas were effectively colder than the tea. You couldn't expect them to be less so, given they had been put out there in the open right under the AC vents. I could barely manage finishing one, while ninjas with occult powers helped themselves to probably half a dozen.

Finally, returning to our cubicles, we posed with our priced possesions and heres what it looks like. It was, truly, an "interesting" Coffee with Rohit ...