Case of the missing diamond

I believe i have already painted a crystal clear picture of how much i love my wedding ring and how ardently i worked to make it my wedding ring. With that context, i'll proceed to describe the case of the missing diamond (i'm crazy about the BBC Sherlock Holmes adaptation these days).
 Just like any other day, after dinner and my fill of enriching TV show Wipeout, i was stretching in bed, making myself cosy. As i settled in the most comfortable sleeping posture, i raised my left hand to place it comfortably on the pillow. M had been trying to unsettle me for a while now, though unsuccessfully. And then he said, "A diamond's missing".

My reaction - "phhh, yeah rite ! sure a diamond's missing.". It's only been 2 months and he says a diamond's missing. But then it was too big a bluff to not check. AND THERE IT WAS ! My beautiful beautiful wedding ring looking at me like a child smiling broadly - only missing the front tooth. My heart sank to the depths of the Pacific and i popped out of bed, started looking frantically for the missing although little diamond.

M had given up hope and was only trying to calm me down. But how could i not look !! I checked on the mat and the pillow and the table. It couldn't have gone missing very long back (considering how many times i look at it, i would've noticed it). And then - there it was - a tinsy winsy glitter on my bedsheet - but enough to bring back the smile to my face. I collected the missing tooth and carefully wrapped it in a soft tissue along with the denture and packed it in a small ring box.

A day later i was at the jewellery store - all guns blazing. I was prepared to go on n on about their making charges, the quality, and what good is the reputation of the store if this was the kind of stuff they sold and how the diamond went missing publicly and caused me so much humiliation. But as i reached the store, i dint think it was necessary - i showed them the ring - they apologized - promised to get it fixed ASAP.

I just received a call from the store - "Ma'am you can come and collect your ring"

So we are back to - Ring Ring ringaaa ring ring ringaaa :)

Ring Ring Ringa

So yes - I got married.
After all those posts about my adventures with arranged marriage - at least i dint have to go through one. Maybe many years from now i would someday write about our strange loave story. It wasn't so strange in terms of the guy not being "ready" to marry until he was 32. But it was strange that he gave his best shot into convincing me into :
 - considering another guy
 - considering moving out of the country
 - believing that he was not in the least interested

But like i said - that's for later.

So we had about 2 months to prepare for the wedding. Thankfully, the venues got booked very smoothly.
The two things which took the maximum amount of my time were the wedding dress and the wedding ring - Time well spent.

As we started looking for the wedding rings, my dear fiance declared how he would not prefer to spend too much on the rings. This was obviously supported with various logical/ethical arguments , as is his style. Me being me and more so me being me in love managed to get swayed and in a fit of stupidity went onto to agree with him. Not only did i agree with him, i also followed it up with a speech as to how if he doesn't spend on it, how could he expect me to do that. And then i started looking for a ring.... the task complicated by my idiotic declaration.

I looked and i looked all over Noida, lajpat, south ex - but with no success. Finally i decided to take a trip to the Gold mall. And THERE IT WAS - the most beautiful ring in the world (to my eyes).But it was obviously 1.5 times the amount i had agreed to stick to. I found myself falling irrevocably in love with this ring with the weight of my "declaration of stupidity" as i later called it, weighing on me. In my heart i had decided the second i saw it that it was to be my wedding ring. I wasn't being entirely unreasonable, it wasn't ridiculously expensive, it was just 1.5 times. THAT's when i started to rationalize it in my head - until i believe in it, how would i convince M to pay for it :D

Though generally a reasonable ring - there was no real argument to buying it other than me being in love with it. But then, i'll have to look at it everyday for the next few year atleast ( until he buys me new one), so i better be in love with it. So much in love with it that it makes me think fondly of him even after a marital discord. THAT it was :D Thankfully, it dint take much to convince him. I guess he just saw it on my face when my eyes screamed puppy love as i talked about the ring.

I hope he thinks its money well spent as he often catches me looking at the ring still and smiling in appreciation. *GRIN*

Sacked or Sold

I write this sitting at my desk in a Global Investment Bank Equities IT floor waiting for a conf call in an hour where the Global business head is to address the employees about their fate in the organization.Sacked or Sold is the question. In my 3 plus years with the organization, never has a meeting/conference call been so impatiently awaited.

Yet all people can do at the minute is crack jokes about alternative career plans. It makes me wonder - is it a typically software engineer trait? Are we so accustomed to losing a job? Or are we so confident of finding a new one?

The bank has been in trouble for a while now, but this year specifically did not go very well for my business unit. And UK government (our savior) is now calling the shots coming as fatal blows to the employees. The newspapers have been abuzz with news of lay-offs, shut downs from "insiders" for the past one month. The announcement initially scheduled for feb had to be preponed considering the drop in productivity due to the uncertainty among the people.

I for one have already started thinking of alternative career options - as a travel show host, travel club employee, blogger, globe trotter, yoga instructor (i know nothing of it other than self studied blogs). While i'm day dreaming about all these things, there are two things that struck me :

One - im not even considering IT
Two - everything i'm considering has to allow me to travel

 Travel and meeting/working with people across the globe seems to be my only favorite thing about  IT. About time i think about this seriously.