Sunday Lunch

I made Brinjal sabji and puri's for lunch today. It feels nice even if there a small change than the routine everyday dishes to pump you out from the boredom and make the weekend special in your own way!

Chinese Dragon

The decorations for the Chinese new year which is on the 8th Feb are being done in different parts of the city in full swing. We saw this huge dragon at the Box Hill suburb mall which seemed to be different than other festival decorations.

Till date I never knew what the dragon represents in Chinese culture and why it is a part of their celebration (especially the new year parade). When I read about it, I got to know that Chinese Dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and Chinese folklore.

Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it. With this, the Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength.

In Chinese daily language, excellent and outstanding people are compared to a dragon, while incapable people with no achievements are compared with other, disesteemed creatures, such as a worm. A number of Chinese proverbs and idioms feature references to a dragon, for example: "Hoping one's son will become a dragon"!

On our graduation day, there was a speech delivered by Xungai Wang (Director of Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University) who addressed the graduates on how their journey ahead should progress. He said that there is an alphabet in Chinese which looks like a person with his hands wide spread out. Explaining its meaning in English he rightly pointed that unless you take an effort to learn and gain knowledge as much as you can you will not be able to sustain in this competant world. You need to have the hunger to learn new stuff relating to your field of study which would help you climb up the success ladder.  

The wait is worth at the end!

Yesterday night Nikhil visited us for dinner  and we had an awesome time together talking on Praveen's new job role. We were discussing about how it all started and ended and how things move here with regards to the interview and selection process in Australia.

It was on 2nd Nov that Praveen received the first call from the HR of Reject Shop saying that there was an opening for a graduate position and she would be in touch with him soon regarding when the interview would be scheduled. We were on cloud nine and in full preparation and ready to sacrifice 100% for the interview as it was surely a golden chance not to be missed! After that there was absolutely no communication for next 10 days when Praveen called her back to ask the status of the application. She told him then, that the IT manager was on leave and she would fix an appointment with him when he is back. In just two days or so, the manager called Praveen and the date of his interview was decided. The interview was more of a generic discussion on the previous job role, his educational qualifications and career goals. It went smooth and gave a promising feel to us that he would be selected. The results were expected to be declared in a week but even this time nothing came back soon! This time Praveen called the manager to touch-base whether he had been successful or not. The manager told Praveen that there were some pending approvals from the higher management. Once they approve it he would get to know the outcome. This delay made us a bit anxious if this would work out or not!
A few days later, the IT manager called Praveen and told that they felt the need to have a second round of interview which would be more of a technical round. This round was extremely tough and they interviewed him for 1.5 hrs! Before the first answer was over the second question was already lined up and it was like running a marathon tirelessly. Praveen was stunned at the knowledge base of the interviewer, who was an integration specialist by profession and knew everything from Pascal to the recent technologies and the tools he had worked on in his entire lifetime!
Again we waited and waited to hear from them on the outcome but they dint communicate. On the next application status call, the IT manager said that they would have a telephonic discussion on the roles and responsibilities that this role demands. This discussion was purely intended to give a clarity on the job and what all platforms Praveen will have to work on being selected in this position. Praveen felt nice that he would be working on application development, testing, integration and going ahead on SAP and analytics as well. Nowdays, it rarely happens that you get a chance to learn and work on such a wide variety of platforms at a single workplace. This discussion was on the 24th Dec, after which we dint expect anyone to call us due to the holiday period!
On 15th Jan, Praveen called back to try his luck if anything had progressed and if he could get the slightest clue if  he was selected or not. But, this time too, it was all uncertain and in the stage of approvals pending. We left hope and started looking for more part time jobs as we were simultaneously applying for full time roles.
At 11am on 21st Jan, The HR called up and asked Praveen his visa status and degree completion letters and couple of other documents. This kind of stuff of exchanging documents and asking infinite questions was going on since long and was not new to us to be hopeful. Praveen sent her the required documents and at 3pm the same day she called him confirming his offer.
It was unbelievable to hear from her that he had been selected for the role and would be joining on 8th Feb at their IT office at Kenisgton. We truly felt that our patience and perseverance was rewarded and the wait was worth at the end!    

Fantabulous Match

Federer's and Djokovic's play tonight was mesmerizing! The swiftness in their moves, perfection of shots and importantly their hunger to win irrespective of giving a slight thought whether the opponent will be able hit back or not was something which kept me awestruck. There were multiple instances when the game point was played for about 15 mins or even more while the score kept juggling between deuce and advantage! That was the best part of the match today.

Even though it was pretty much a straight win by Novak, every point of the game was a challenge for both the players and their hardwork and commitment for preparing for the first grand slam was clearly evident in their game. Till now, I was somehow under the impression that Federer had the potential to win but after yesterday's excellent play by the world no.1, I was completely left spellbound!

Fresh juice

I squeezed some fresh oranges and they made for a big glass of fresh home-made orange juice with the perfect shop like color and flavour. Generally I prefer having fruits over fruit juices but this time the oranges were more sour to be consumed directly, which forced me to make orange juice. Both of us enjoyed the breakfast drink more than ever and thought it tastes the best when made by us. Our next bag of oranges already purchased and is all set to be juiced!

The Date

It had been a long since we both wanted to use the movie card that we were gifted at our internship. It was either that we were occupied with something or there wasnt a show worth watching on the 70mm screen. After hearing some great reviews of the movie Airlift, we decided to watch it today at the Hoyts cinema.

The movie was nice with good direction and cast. Post the show we ate our favourite Nando's periperi chips and marked the end of a perfect date night!

Learning of the day

I read a note today which explained how the saying 'I love you to the moon and back' actually derived. The following was its explanation:

Our heart pumps blood which is equivalent to generating energy to drive a truck for 20 miles everyday. In the entire year it pumps enough energy which could take us to the moon and back. If science justifies that a human has the energy to go to the moon and come back surely the feeling of love can!

Food Cravings

Sometimes the craving for indian snacks is soo irresitable that you end up buying too many items which you actually dont want to!

We faced this longing last week and decided to pacify the hunger within us by buying these haldiram's snacks. Their sight in the cupboard fills my psychological tummy more than munching them in reality (thats being too much greedy, but this grave feeling truly gripped me this time!). 

Does happen sometimes, and its best to follow these "all in your head" food cravings than your physiological ones!

Celebrations

With friends and family queued up to be called and notified on Praveen's new appointment, we missed celebrating it within ourselves on Thursday evening. Having no interest to delay it further, we decided to have some mouth-watering punjabi food for dinner. 

Anshuman Da Dhaba is a perfect restaurant which serves varieties of punjabi dishes with smoky charcoal aroma lingering on its curries. We both are crazy for it and really enjoy having them with some hot breads! We ordered for veg platter, paneer makhanwala, veg dhaba kadai, naan and mango lassi. 

It was a feast to have all the varieties for just one meal as against the usual one dish meal dinner!

Words of Wisdom

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled and asked.

'Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?'

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout.' 

'But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.' asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples. Finally the saint explained,

'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance. 

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small...'

The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

He looked at his disciples and said.

'So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.'

On cloud nine!

"I have had a meeting with the CIO and he has approved the job role. Are you ready to accept the offer or you need sometime to think over?" 

This was the sentence hearing which Praveen's heart missed a beat! I should say that today was an extra special day for Praveen! The clock struck 2.30 and he received this call from the HR of The Reject Shop saying his offer as a fulltime IT Developer had been confirmed! As soon as she had said 'offer released' Praveen showed me a thumbs up while he was still on the call and I was overjoyed at his achievement. I couldnt really beleive that it was happening and the wait was worth it! 

In the same levels of excitment we called our parents and they were extremely happy for us. As every single minute went by, we felt did we really get it or are we imagining! We are feeling on top of the world and soo very relieved from an abstract stress!

Tennis Fever

We feel really bad residing in Melbourne but not attending the Aussie Open at the Rod Laver Arena which is soo close to our house. Nevertheless, we are participating in the virtual arena and are being enthusiatic spectators of our favourite players. Yesterday we watched 3 matches at a stretch of the world seed players and they all were fabulous!

The first one was between Serena and Sui-Wei and it was a superb win by Serena as expected. Following it was the match between Federer and Dolgopolov where we saw both the players playing it tough but I could feel the perfection in Federer's game which opened doors for him in the round three.

We had been observing during the breaks, that the entire aussie young generation was crazy behind the 20yr old Nick Kyrgios which doubled my anxiety to watch him play! And yes, it was evident in his monstrous services and aces, which were never less than 200km/hr why people were his die hard fans! He was like a powerhouse and dint get tired anytime during his play. 

Experienced a eat-drink-breathe tennis day!

The Century!!

I am feeling soo very glad that I have completed writing 100 posts today! It was in my mind since a long time that I should start blogging to pen down the small everyday incidences which would create a nice memory book for me. Moreover its exicting to have memories noted with date and pictures and which take you down the memory lane each time you go through them! 

It feels superb today and gives me more determination than before to continue writing. 

Albert Park Lake

Albert Park Lake made for a perfect evening walk today. This lake has been formed from the wetlands and lagoons of the Yarra River Delta.

It was a 4km circumference around the lake. There were many joggers, pedestrians and cyclists on the main route that circled the lake. There were also rowing and sporting clubs at the either sides of the lake. A number of ducks and black swans were swimming in the lake and it felt close to nature to see them and the beauty around.

A worth visiting park with lot of calmness around though located very close to the CBD.

Doodling

Soniya did this art which is called 'Doodling'. Doodle is a drawing which may have a concrete representation or could be abstract. I feel its more of drawing spontaneous designs as they come to your mind!

I liked her idea of choosing a gown for this design as it has lots of space to fill up giving it altogether a grand look.

I am going to try some design soon!

Reference Letters

We received our reference letters yesterday for the internship that we finished last October. Our manager, Katiana sent us both, soft and hard copy of the letters addressing our contribution to the centre. To me, its a certificate of our effort as well as our abilities that we could showcase to our future employers. We are extremely glad that we got to work with a focused and friendly manager who is ready to be our reference for our prospective employers!

Happy Makar Sankranti

Wishing everyone Happy Makar Sankranti! May the coming year bring bountiful joy, clarity of vision, good health and loads of memories to cherish forever!

Catch-22

Our car's battery got completely discharged as we were on our way to Wantrina today afternoon. Luckily we were off-road and it dint cause any disturbance for the other vehicles on road. To restart the car engine and get moving, we had no other option than to ring a friend with jumper cables. Our university friend Abdul, immediately came to the location and helped us sort out the issue.

Both the cars facing each other looked as if they met with a head-on collision! 

The car dint give us any trouble thereafter eventhough we had our fingers crossed and were in no mood to encounter any further misadventure!

Sweltering Day

Its been unbearably hot today and our house feels nothing different than roasting ourselves in a furnace! Just hoping that it rains tonight to cool down the weather.

Visa Medicals

The last move for submitting our visa file to the case officer was done today. We had appointments booked for both of our medical assessments at the Bupa visa medical centre at 11am. Everything went smooth and the examination was just a basic check of all the health parameters. Doctors were super friendly and briefed us about what they would be doing before every check.

We were done at lunch time and had decided to try the Lord of Fries Burgers (a complete veggi burger shop with lots of varieties in the patty) in the morning as we walked towards the Bupa centre. We ordered for Chicago and Spicy burger and chips with chickpeas sauce. They were really tasty and made for a perfect lunch meal for the two vegans!

The Arabian Nights

A glass of Royal Arabian Night drink (crushed dry fruit milkshake) to end the day!

Royal Botanic Garden

On our evening drive, we explored one part of the Royal Botanic Gardens today. It was an unplanned visit but turned out wonderful. We were planning to go there in the coming week, but after seeing the extensive lawns around the road we decided to take a stroll.

There was lush green lawn and native species of pine trees planted on the garden where we entered. As soon as we started walking, we felt the coolness in the air and the velvet-textured grass gave a soothing touch to our bare feet.

As we went further, we saw a number of pathways leading to different sections of the garden. We knew we had little time in hand for exploring and so we chose to see the flower garden and forest walk. 

The flower garden was draped in all possible colors of flowers and varieties that could exist and we could wish to see! 

In every single step of ours we saw something new and beautiful and were in a dilema of how many pictures we should keep clicking! The forest walk was exactly like walking in deep dark jungle without wildlife! We could feel the same excitment while walking through the path surrounded by ferns and bamboo trees.

Me and Praveen loved the natural beauty of the gardens soo much that we have decided to completely explore it this Tuesday!

Cool car - Toyota Camry

Praveen's friend Nikhil purchased his dream car Toyota Camry last week and drove to our place yesterday to show it to us and treat us on its arrival! We both were equally thrilled to go for a ride in the new car.

We drove to the Middle Brighton Beach, took a nice walk on the golden sand and enjoyed each others company. It was like a sweet little outing at the beachside. On our way back we picked pizzas for dinner and enjoyed the treat watching a nice light movie in our house. A perfect start for the weekend!

Panorama

Panoramic views of the places that we have visited so far and all of them look soo very picturesque. These wide-angeled views have the strenght to take you back to the same location when you see them each time.

                 Point Nepean

              Mornington Penninsula 

                 Federation Square

A quick visit

Aniket visited us today evening casually. He called in the noon to ask if we were free for the evening and dropped in a few hours later. We had a nice time together discussing on various job prospects for graduates like us, sharing which of our seniors have got full-time jobs and exchanging information on our visa applications. Feels good to share as well as to know thoughts and experiences of friends sailing in the same boat of ours!

Thought Calender

My thought calender says this for today:

Its a composition of beautifully written thoughts for each day which we like to flip every morning. Every message conveys a lot of positivity of looking towards life and this variety makes us feel that it should be there rolling everyday and forever!

Yarra Scenic Drive (Route 2)

The second route that we took, was mainly through the Melbourne city. This part of the drive had more of a planned look than the hilly natural landscape of its other half. Beautiful though!

Yarra Scenic Drive (Route 1)

It has been several times that we have drove on the Yarra Scenic Drive in bits and parts, but never covered the route entirely. When we started driving, we realised that we had missed this beautiful drive for two years! 

Its a large winding road which takes you alongside the Yarra river thats all what we had heard of and knew about! Knowing that it was a long distance to be covered, we decided to complete the drive in two parts the first being towards the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne and then towards the city. We started the ride at the Yarra Blvd in Kew and then snaked through different suburbs and residential areas. It turned out more scenic and enjoyable as we passed by serene parks on our way. We also came across old churches and few other old architectural buildings. It was definitely the best bit of the inner city road and a paradise for cyclists, bikers and racers!

Kangaroos

I think we are on a spree of meeting and experiencing a close look at the wildlife in Melbourne since few days! We saw a troop of kangaroos at the Longridge park the other evening.

I recorded a video as it captures the vastness of the land, the surrounding peacefulness, the evening bird calls and a mob of the kangaroos. I observed one peculiar behavorial characteristic of kangoroos that as soon as they see you come in the area nearby, they all just stand still unless you really go close to them. They appear soo sweet with their pointy little ears and their body posture. The feeling is as if you are a star whose is in the limelight amidst them! It was wonderful as always to keep looking at them. 

In the Rainforest!

The Dandenong Ranges is a lush haven of hidden natural beauty with towering forests and misty mountains. As we made our way through the ranges, we were Lilliputians in front of the gigantic 100 meter trees which gave us a feel of sitting in a simulator ride inside some studio!

We entered the Grants Picnic Ground  which is famous for the Cockatoo birds and suplhur crested parrots. These birds come in big numbers on this ground and love to be fed from their visitors. 

We all felt close to nature to see the parrots and the birds left open and everyone was keenly and closely observing their beauty. Praveen and Vishwesh were our 'Bird Men' yesterday!

After spending the afternoon at the park we went to a ganesh temple which was close by. This was the first temple that I saw, that had "the temple look" in Melbourne! Stunning architecture and beautifully decorated idols inside, left us in a thought how they would have planned for it!

The next stop was at the Lilydale lake. We had been there before but visiting a lake in the hot summer has its own beauty! We took a walk alongside the lake and every spot offered a scenic view of the surrounding. 

A trip planned at noon and successfully completed at night same day!

Welcoming 2016!

The night of 31st turned out to be much more exciting than what we thought. We had planned for get-together and invited friends for dinner at our place. Each of them got different variety of snacks and it was fun to catch-up munching the titbits!

Post dinner we all headed off to the city for the new years fireworks. The metros were running packed with commuters travelling from far distances to be a part of the new year celebration amidst the city. It felt vibrant to be there and have a look around before the show began.

Everyone started the final countdown as the clock struck 11.59.50pm! Exactly at the end of it, firecrackers from 7 different locations shooted up in the sky and all were overjoyed to see them. Everyone shouted, jumped, hugged, wished and welcomed each other to 2016! 

It was simply beautiful to see the flashlight firecrackers pop one after the other and we felt we should have had a 360 degree vision to see all at the same time!