returing to my roots

After nearly an year and half wait my longing is going to come true. I am returning to my country, my parents and everything I can call mine. It feels so good to be going back home. Flashes of things I did back in India, the roads I passed by, the buildings I watched everyday as I went to college and innumerable memories I have of my home, mom and dad ... pass by my eyes constantly. I am going to have a truly great time being just me...me 2 years back

ನಾನು ಇತೀಚೆಗೆ ಸಿಯಾಟಲ್ಲಿನ ಮಳೆತರ ....ಒಮ್ಮೆಲೇ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಬಾರ್ಸಿದ್ರೆ ಮುಂದಿನ ಕ್ಷಣ ಒಂದು ಹನಿ ನು ಇಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನೋ ಹಾಗೆ. ನಾನು ನನ್ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಬಾಗೆ ಹೇಳ್ತಿದ್ದೀನಿ ...ಮೊದಲನೆ ದಿನ ತುಂಬ ಉತ್ಸಾಹ ಆದ್ರೆ ಬರಿಯೋಕ್ಕೆ ಏನು ಇಲ್ಲ. ಏನಾದ್ರು ಅದ್ಬುತ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಆದ್ದರೆ ಅದನ್ನು ಎಲ್ಲೂ ಬರೀದೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಮರತ್ರೆ ಏನಪ್ಪಾ ಅಂಥ ಆತಂಕ ಆಗಿ ೪ ವರುಷ ದಿಂದ ಮುಂದೆ ಹಾಕ್ತಾ ಬಂದ ಕೆಲಸ ಈಗ ಮಾಡಿದೆ ಅಂತ ತೃಪ್ತಿ ಮಾಡ್ಕೊಂಡು ಎರಡು ಲೈನ್ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ ಬರ್ದೇ. ಆದಾದ್ ಕೂಡ್ಲೇ ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿ ಜೋಶ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪುಟಗಟ್ಲೆ ಬರ್ದಿದ್ದೋ ಬರ್ದ್ದಿದ್ದು. ಯಾರೋ ಓದ್ತಾರೆ ಅಂತ ಅಲ್ಲ ನಂಗೆ ಹೇಳ್ಬೇಕನಿಸ್ತು ಅದಕ್ಕೆ. ಇದನ್ನೇ ಬ್ಲಾಗಿಂಗ್ ಅಂತಾರೆ ಅನ್ಸುತೆ!!!

constructed a house today...how cool is that \:D/

I started blogging just yesterday expecting to journal special events in my life...guess what?? I just constructed a house today. My team at Microsoft SQL Server decided that we should do something for a cause, we should return service to the community. So today we planned a team day of service at Habitat for Humanity, a non profit organization which builds homes for the low income families. I took the initiative to organize this event for our team. So when I called HH they were more than willing to have us at their volunteer construction site to build...yes build the homes with our hands!

The day started out good, we all met at our office at 8:30 am , but yeah I was late. Reached there running just in time...reason? could not find the car keys!!! My manager was kind enough to say that it happens...Murphy's law. I am glad there is a law so that people like me can get away with excuses like that :D.

All of us car pooled to this HH construction site by 9 in the morning, signed up for the day..of course still wondering what we are going to do there...we hardly know anything about construction. But the Site Supervisor Mike gave us a very nice introduction telling about the vision of the organization and the other site leads briefed us about how the day ahead is going to be.

There were various job depending on the level of risk taken maybe. One of my colleagues signed up for doing the roof top work. I guess that was the most demanding of all, he had to work at the top storey with a harness from the roof top as the building had three floors. Three of us signed up for various wood activities which involved using all the power tools like very powerful electric saws for wood cutting etc. The others signed up for laying the exterior wall of the houses.

To our luck, the weather that is generally gloomy turned out totally bright and cheerful as we started getting the gear on to jump into action!

I spent the morning session with the team taking measurements on a piece of wood with a typical worker style pencil (carpenter pencils are flat in shape to suit their purpose so that they do not roll away and also you can draw thick n thin lines with the same pencil just by rotating it) and then cutting wood for the right measurements. Learnt to use all the heavy equipment which was the best part of the day. I was impressed by how mechanized things were here in the US and how easy it was to use them. Just sighed at our Indian carpenters who use so much muscle power to do the smallest of things.

By noon the food that I ordered came well on time to the pleasure of my hungry and worked team members. We had a nice lunch by the wooden table outside the site and talked about all that we did!

Rest of the day continued with various works. And the time to clear up came soon. We were all quite tired by then. Returned all our gear, thanked HH and site supervisors for giving us an opportunity to do this.

Everybody was still filled with all the excitement about the different things they did thru out the day...some of them just waiting to go home to their children and tell them everything about what they did. So all of us...hesitating to step into our team members car as we were so dirty...just settled down and left for the day with a heart's content of serving the community and above all having so much fun!

finally my blog!

...it has been a real long time since I wanted to give a vent to my Limbic System. Just to let go my thoughts in this yet another gazillionth blog. With not much to rant about I am starting my first blog hoping that LIFE will encounter a lot of worthwhile events, journeys and experiences that I would want to write about...