headache

I have a splitting headache, and I've had it for over 24 hours now.
When a headache lasts that long...it can't be just the after effects of a meeting. Or Gas for that matter ,
It can be both though.
Nevertheless, a mammoth of a headache like this once needs a tribute of sorts,
deserves to be etched in the memory lane...
It started during one Requirements Analysis meeting yesterday afternoon, in which I was explaining to the client, her requirements, helping her realise what did she want from the application she was asking for, wondering if I would've made a better shrink, than a software professional.

Having done that with reasonable success, since I did not have this head ache then, I waited patiently for
the cab that was supposed to pick me up from my client's office and bring me home, ahem my own office,
(that's what a 9-9 schedule does to you). that additional 30 mintues of waiting made me realise, how
having-no-other-option can manifold your patience levels.

Reaching my office I realised all my patience has pretty much snapped, and I went home, where I slept like a log for over 4 hours. My roommate finally had to roll me off the bed, well nearly, to wake me up.
I woke up to a throbbing head, apparently the "nap" had done more harm than good, as I had very conveniently forgotten to take a pill before crashing. Not that I had any patience to look for one anyway.

Thanks to my roommate, who coaxed, nagged, did everything it took to force something down my throat hoping food would help. IT didn't though, nor did the massage she gave me lasting over an hour, I must've done some great deed to get that...anyways, I fell asleep at 3:00 in the morning,when fatigue finally took over. I got up at 10:00 this morning, my office begins at 9:30, I was better, if only slightly.
My companion seemed to have settled itself quite nicely in the only head that I have, with no immediate vacating plans. I dragged myself to work,you can't take a sick leave everytime you have a headache, well I can't, and collapsed, literally, on my seat with the firm decision of not getting up till it was time to go home, not even for lunch. I didn't trust myself to see straight and was kind'a worried people would ask questions. Or talk. To me.

Around half an hour later, I got up for breakfast, hunger can be a pretty ruthless master.
After another hour or so, my friends, dragged me to lunch, "skipping meals is not going to make you
feel any better", I wasn't hungry but then, they weren't listening. On my way back at around 2:00, I got a call, I had another meeting at 3:00, at the client's office. I had forgotten, this was weekly meeting.
I couldn't miss it. Why would I even want to, my manager wondered aloud, specially since she couldn't make it.
Well why would I....

So there I was, back to my client's office, a different office and a different set of clients this time,
and my dear old companion, no I don't mean my colleagues, exactly 24 hours old,happy and thriving,waiting for me to give in and pass out. And there I was, explaining to the clients, their requirements, helping them realise what they wanted from the application they were asking for, wondering if I would've made a better shrink, than a software professional....

The BRS would come in by tomorrow, but I'm sure I still did a pretty decent job, this time with my headache

I'm back, at my seat, waiting for this article to finish itself,hoping my dear companion would tire itself out
and leave me in solace...
I have to go for a movie ,you can't spoil everyone's plans everytime you have a headache, well I can't.
I am hoping though, that all three of us would have fun, me, my roommate and the HeadAche....

A visit to a tea-factory

Yes, it does remind me of school time essays too, and that is exactly how I felt on visiting this factory,
a school girl marvelling at the animals "behind the bars",;P... only now the school girl was inside a
near-sterilized(we had to take off our shoes, wash ourselves before entering :P) environment, concentrating hard on the highly technical words our barely educated escort was using to describe the tea-manufacturing process.

Frankly, it was quite a blow to my post graduate, glib s/w professional ego, when I could not even recognize, let alone understand, half the words he used, :P and no he was pronouncing and using them correctly, as I later confirmed from the tea estate manager (I wasn't going to give up that easily ;) ) ....

Back to my field trip, we were first shown the tea garden itself, where people were collecting tea leaves,
with the "movie style" baskets hanging over their heads. Deftly sorting out only the healthy, fully grown
leaves and dropping them in the baskets, these workers collect as much as 2000 Kg of tea per season (2-3 months) from a single garden. Ofcourse, the weight would depend on the number of workers and the size of the garden,but we would leave so many dynamic variables for my article on theory-of-relativity...I will write it someday :P




The gardens were not guarded by people, but highly trained dogs, who were so good at their job, that sitting atleast 20 feet away, he started growling the moment we bent down on the plant( picking leaves, quite obvioudly,was not allowed), and sat back the moment we stood up...






These leaves are then taken to the factory, and so were we, where they go through the process of becoming what we drink...

The moment we entered the factory premises, a very distinct smell engulfed us, of fresh tea leaves, mixed with wet soil...sort of the leaves had been spread out on open sheets to dry up, shaded very carefully to avoid direct heat from the sun.
This is called weathering.

They're then spread out on a big roller belt sort of a machine which performs a sort of seiving of the leaves from accidental twigs etc.

They're then segregated into various varieties depending on the size, color of the leave, since these
two are the most important indicators of the ripeness & taste of the would-be-tea. this step is called
grading and is done majorly manually with very little help from machines. And yes this is done in a restricted area,a truly sterilized environment, where we could only peek into through the glass erected specially for such tours as ours, I presume.



Beyond the above three steps, having long been stripped of my camera and cellphone, and not provided with a notebook & a pen in return, my memory refused to remember anymore of the complicated machinery, names and mechanisms. :P

After the grading part, all machines only grew in size, and each turned the fresh, damp, green leaves to a smaller, drier, powdered form, and it became more recognisable and less beautiful...

In the end, the escort showed us various varieties, ranging from Rs.250/Kg to Rs.2550/Kg ...!!!

Frankly I never knew making tea was so technical, and drinking it could be so expensive....

But then, I also never knew, that my word power was so restricted to s/w ...:P

All in all, it was fun....just like schooltime, and I am hoping I can do this again some time soon,

my next target,ummmm...I dont know, may be paper-manufacturing ... ;)