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The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Beyond Bedtime

A U.S. colleague fell asleep in his chair at the office this afternoon. I warned him it would hit him at some point; he arrived very early on Monday morning.

For me, it's now officially past my bedtime, but I was missing the blog and wanted to write a little something at least.

A an e-community of practice that I created for work just now was going to appear best in Firefox or IE7 and so I installed a new browser. While waiting for it to download and re-boot my computer, I started reading The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

It was the most luscious way I've ever spent time, waiting for my machine to re-boot. What gorgeous poetry!

This past weekend, Pat and I went to Landmark, a bookstore at the Forum Mall in Bangalore, and I bought two paperbacks, The Rubaiyat and Rudyard Kipling's Kim. I'm a fast writer, but a slow reader, and so I can't recall a book I've ever read twice, as it feels like there isn't time, but I think I'll make an exception for Kim.

I read it when I was a kid and I don't even know how I came across it -- probably, one of my older sisters bought it at a tag-sale and I found it on our bookshelves. Who knew I'd ever be in India myself when I read it as a child?

The future is wondrous.

Full Moon Over Bangalore

Tonight is a full moon and I always feel the presence of my father, may his memory be blessed, during full moons. His mother, sister/my grandmother and aunt, and he all died on full moons. I've written about this before, but not here. In college, I wrote a wishful/magical short story about his visiting me in Ann Arbor, "Full Moon at Noon;" he died of common bile duct cancer before I entered college, not long after I turned 17 and he turned 56.

I think he's with me in a way I hadn't previously recalled since our arrival.

From the Next World to This One to the Transcendent

Earlier, I was at the cell phone service provider office, again, and I was cranky. The rep who was helping me announced that he was leaving because his shift was done and I said, "That's not fair. You haven't completed helping me ensure my activation." He began talking about their regulations around his work schedule and I wasn't interested.

Then he said, "Miss Siegel, it's a holiday for me today."

"I thought Onam was yesterday," I answered a bit less coldly.

"Right. I'm Muslim and it's a different holiday today."

"Oh, well, that's completely different. How do you pronounce it?"

He gave me the pronunciation, which I'm sorry to have forgotten. I wished him a happy ___________ and that was that.

It calmed me to learn that someone had a spirtual reason for curtailing a decidedly a-spiritual transaction. It was an instant relief and I let go of the rancor I felt. It was a breeze of acceptance.

P.S. My cell phone was enabled 20 minutes after his departure and I can now call throughout India. If they come to do an address verification on Thursday night as promised, then I'll be able to call family, friends and colleagues beyond India from my cell; thank God for Skype meanwhile and in any case.

Now, it's really past time to sleep! Oh well. I'll sleep better for having posted here.