Big Bang

It was time for my Quarterly performance evaluation and yesterday I had been to the other office, where my PM sits. The whole thing took about an hour, and in the end the remarks were - I must say - very satisfactory!

I was back home a bit early and was already as hungry as a starving lion. I haven't eaten in the morning, and the two Naans and Paneer Manchurian that I gobbled up for lunch didn't last enough. Being my turn to make food for the night, I thought I would very well cook something and eat, instead of going out for snacks. Magesh asked me to make Tomato rice. So I set up the pressure cooker and let it on the stove for three whistles. I was deep engrossed with the work on the comp until suddenly I smelt something burning. Something wrong? The cooker ? And it was well over 20 mins and I must have had the first whistle at least!

SHIT! I had done it (or haven't done?) it again - put the cooker on the stove without water! Horrified, I ran to the kitchen. I could feel the heat of the cooker even at a distance of couple of feet! Cautiously, like a sneaking cat, I went near and turned off the gas stove knob. I had pulled out the wick of the dynamite just seconds before it was to blast off! Phew!

Wasn't sure if everything was safe, so went to the farthest room and sat in the corner with my ears and eyes closed for the next fifteen minutes. (That was exaggeration, stupid!)

At last when things remained calm, I came out of my hiding hole. When to the kitchen, opened the cooker after cooling it with water (Just in case, you see!) and then filled it up and mounted it on the stove again. From then on, everything was fine. Still, that was a bit short of a disaster, isn't it? Musta been a sort of Big Bang, if my realization was late! Hmmm.

Well, now to the other stories - I had started reading The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. I had issued it a week before, but my work (believe me!) kept me away from it since then. I've started liking the novel.

Today morning I got up with the thought of leaving early to office. Bad luck, the first words I heard from Sai was that there would be no water fro today. Cursed that 'someone' and thought I'd recourse to deos. Sai added that we may have water by 10:00. So I chose to wait and roamed around till then. Came to office at 10:30.

And a pleasant surprise it was, from Padma. We had had coffee together and when I came back I saw a card lying in my cabin with my name on it. I opened it in suspense. Well, it was a Friendship day card from Padma. I loved the card - with a solitary yellow tulip on its face. Thanks you so much!