We arrived the first evening, all fresh and excited only to find that the first day was devoted to lazing around and getting to know our colleagues. The second day dawned bright and we were taken through seemingly boring, yet well-thought-out activities that helped us gain insights into values like team-building, leadership, integrity, communication, etc.

The one thing that I loved that day was how everyone got over their initial feelings of awkwardness. Everyone soon knew each other. Moreover, I was happy being with four or five of my friends during our long walks and playing dumb charades. We were actually good enough to start guessing the name of the movie from just the number of words and a little telepathy!!!

The evening was spent lazing around and it was on one of these walks that we met Edward The Long-Nosed. He was a stone sculpture who was intended to interest us near the reception. And my friend and I adoringly named him Edward. The adjective was obvious since the nose really was around four feet tall!

We were fortunate enough to have a couple of good singers in our group and the evening was spent listening to great songs and some awful ones too!

The next day would bring me one of the more memorable experiences. We were divided into three groups with a team leader for each and a project manager to take care of a basic, seemingly-too-easy task. The different kinds of stress and pressure that each member at different levels of the organization has to undergo could not have been demonstrated more clearly. Though at the end, the task was not a complete success, it taught us more than we can forget in a hurry.

The afternoon was left for us to get to know the place and to use the resort’s wonderful (read over-priced) offerings. Suffice to say, we spent it loitering about.

‘Til humans find more ways to be lazy.

Isn’t it time for voice responsive technology to take over the world by storm?
Shouldn’t we be talking to our computer by now to tell it what to do?

Thinking something. Typing it out.
The incessant drum of keys. The constant rumble of thoughts being pounded in by the necessarily debilitating slowness of my fingers.
Are forty words per minute sufficient to curb the inflow of thoughts? Definitely not. What about fifty? What about a hundred?

Are they enough to filter out the rubbish? Probably so.
But are they enough to seriously hinder the thoughts? Arguably so.
What is the way out to this seemingly impossible problem?

Put all my effort into being good at typing just so that I can put all my thoughts into words? Absolutely not.
Pause thinking occasionally so that I can type all my thoughts? Definitely not, as stemming the tide is just a hindrance to the flow.
Somewhere in between? That is, think slow enough and type fast enough?

Is that what I am doing right now? 😉

ATMs seem to have an innate hatred towards this poor soul whenever I try to cross the path of an otherwise harmless square box in a hole. Whenever I come near them though, they tend to have a life of their own.

Every time I go to the one near where I live, it starts not recognizing the standard touch commands. I would stand in line watching person after person taking out money until finally, it’s my turn too(yippee!). And then, after an entire hour, the ATM simply stops working. Or accepting the fact that touching it is supposed to make it do stuff. Or it runs out of money(so MANY times!).

And then there was this time in college when there was a power outage right when I pressed “withdraw”. It ended up gobbling up my money and not even giving me a receipt for it. And the manager at the bank told me that there was nothing he could do to help me, other than wait until the money comes back on its own(!). Thankfully though, I got my money back after a day or so(phew!).

But the real reason I am writing this right now is because one of the funniest things happened to me in an ATM today. The one thing I have noticed about people everywhere is their lack of knowledge about how queues work. They seem to think that the real reason queues are kept is for the person in a passing aeroplane to be happy seeing all of them standing in one neat line(!).

I went to this ATM where I see people spilling in and out of the ATM cubicle. The door was kept open and people were just milling around. There was this lady with a kid around three years old in front of me. The kid had some chocolate in hand and was making the noises that only kids can make, apparently. After a while though, it seemed like he was struggling with something.

And then, right in front of everyone, in the overflowing queue, right in the ATM cubicle, he takes a liking to pee(sorry, no other word!). He looks around walks a few steps, does a bit more of the same, and then walks off like nothing has happened. By this time though, his mom has seen this, and she scolds him off and stands in queue as if nothing has happened(!).

The ones behind me in the queue start looking at each other and we are at a loss on what to do. Never did anyone teach us etiquette for this kind of a situation and we all agree silently to avoid awkwardness by ignoring the situation. And now, it is the turn of the lady. She spends around five minutes trying to figure out which way the card goes in, while gallant on-lookers help her and I stand nonchalantly.

She then proceeds to take five minutes figuring out how the touch screen works (more gallant on-lookers inside the cubicle). More time is spent in withdrawing money and making sure that the transactions are processed without any of the helpful on-lookers stealing any money(!). Then, a brisk walk with the kid following her, and she leaves me wondering when my turn would come to do more on-looker-provoking activity.

Imagine my surprise when I found a full bar of CRUNCH in my jacket pocket on my way to class! I tell you, it’s the most wonderful feeling on a cold, dry winter evening.

Tra-la-la-la la-la-la la!

I love chocolate!
I love the snow that’s coming down on me later tonight. I love life!