Vision in White....

It was almost a year ago when I first picked "Vision in White" by Nora Roberts. Although I'm an ardent Nora Roberts fan, I'll admit I picked it because the cover looked absolutely beautiful. It was the first book of the Bride Quartet series and boy, Nora rarely fails to please you.

The Bride Quartet is a story for four friends Mac, Emma, Laurel and Parker who are into a wedding business. Each one them has a special talent. Mac is great photographer, Emma's the beautiful Florist, Laurel creates magic with the wedding cakes and Parker has nice talent for organising. "Vision in White" is Mac's story. When Mac, the wedding photographer at Vows meets the cute, geeky Carter her focus is shattered. Carter McGuire is a English professor who is definitely not mac's type. I'll guarantee the whirlwind romance makes you catch your breath.
Nora has a nice little talent of weaving beautiful stories. You'll go all gooey when Mac tumbles into love and will ache for her when she's having a difficult time with her mother. Her friends always stick with her and it definitely makes you yearn for a few of your own.
It is a great read, not the one to miss. Makes you look forward for the rest in the series. Well, I have already finished the next two from the series 'Bed of Roses' and 'Savor the Moment' and waiting for "Happy Ever After" to release. I'll write about them in my next blog, till then happy reading!!!

Tale of Testophobia...

It was one of those tensed moments that I have to endure at least twice every year. The dreaded Certifications!!! Every year it is the same routine. I try to postpone the exams till the last day. Since throughout my life I haven't flunked in anything but Certifications, I can really never concentrate while studying. The sense of failure keeps coming back to me. Either it is the same Investment Banking domain questions or the stupid Mainframes exam. For God's sake, I don't even work in Mainframes. Thus most of the times I avoid studying, thinking that I'll quit the company this year and then it won't be mandatory to clear them. And when I'll join the new company, I'll make sure it does not have such silly policies.


Quit I did but the story of the certifications doesn't end there. The new company I joined also has some mandatory certi. This is one of the most important reasons I hate working for an IT company. They love playing with your brain until you're convinced that you are good for nothing. I strongly believe that all the policy makers in IT companies are sadists. I still don't understand what a person is going to gain out of clearing certifications. If I am good at my job, I don't need to prove myself by clearing Certifications. And if I am unable to clear the certifications, it is obviously not a relevant one.


Anyways since I was running out of the excuses, I had to take a date for Certification ( Let me tell you I have been taking the dates since last 2 months and everytime I manage to postpone it). So finally I had booked a slot for Friday 3 pm. I usually try hard atleast on the exam day. Wherever I go you'll find me with a book, But this time I had no hopes at all. By 2 pm I had already decided that I wont be attempting it. It was my first certi in the new company and I did not want to flunk on the very first. The only problem was, I was having a very difficult time convincing the same to Ravi. He kept insisting that I I should try and I was like "Why waste 2 hours to know that I flunked when I already know that?". But he's very good at convincing me and so it was decided that I'm simply just supposed to attempt it and come back in half an hour.


So I entered this examination hall and I felt funny for a moment. I thought suddenly all the walls in the room were nearing me. Oh God, I was having a new kind of examination claustrophobia!!! I seriously started wishing that this torture ends soon. So I attacked the exam and started marking the answers (I'll be honest that I could recognise most of the jargon's and was silently waiting for a miracle). In 30 minutes flat, I was done (Can u believe without rechecking anything? This seriously isn't me) and I hit on SUBMIT. I closed my eyes, my fingers were crossed, I was chanting the Mantra and slowly opened an eye and there it was " YOU HAVE PASSED, you scored 60%" (which by the way is the passing percentage). Ohh...it was like a dream come true!!!! I had passed it and I wanted to boogie-woogie rite there. Now I have a perfect excuse for not studying atleast for 2 weeks :)

A 10 days long weekend!!!

Last 10 days has been total bliss. It started with my mom visiting me. We had planned a visit to Mysore to checkout the latest entry to the family, my cousins baby!!! Though he doesn't say much, he's absolutely gorgeous!! And the weather in Mysore was heavenly. It drizzled everyday and was a great relief from Pune's  heat. The bus journey gave me a great view of the lush green paddy fields. Sometimes you don't realize that you miss something until you go back. The baby, weather and the family was the perfect relaxing combination. The only bad part of the family trips is the departure. However old I may become, I don't see the end of 'sobbing-at-the-station' tradition. Anyways, so finally I'm back and my li'l trip seems like years ago. 

But I'm back and since my mom's staying for a few days, life is good. The main reason is home cooked food or rather mom-cooked food and a cleaner household.  Mom's have this innate skill of making the place cleaner and brighter. By the way, my gardening attempt is finally fruitful or rather flower-ful. After watering the lily plant for almost a year, I had lost all the hopes of seeing a flower atleast in this decade. But God has finally answered my prayer's and here's my first 'Silly Lilly'. Whoopie!!!

Since my life is not as rocking as I try to show-off, apart from the silly mobile photo shoot with my roomies there are no other updates. Though the pics are not as great as we'd like to think but the whole process was damn funny!!! 

PS: Though I try to pretend that I'm reading the certification material, I'm secretly fantasizing @ reading a new novel that I bought this weekend. Tis called 'A place called here', I'm hoping it's good!!!