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!