Power of Failure

Working in a firm like mine has quiet a few fringe benefits. One of the initiatives called Leadership Talk Series (LTS) is where successful people from different walks of life are invited to share their experience and help the employees get inspired. Today as a part of the series we had Anupam Kher (who needs no introduction) visiting our campus.

The moment I reached the venue of the talk I could see the enthusiasm of the colleagues as the hall was jam packed with hardly a place to stand. Apart from the awe of superstar/celebrity what surprised me was the humility which was evident as soon as Mr Kher started to interact. I had my doubts if would be able to stick with the agenda behind this series when the interaction began. But within moments all my skepticism disappeared in thin air and I regretted not having a pen and paper to scribble the wonderful lessons he shared from his personal experience.

There were numerous takeaways from the session and I would jot down the ones which I can recall. The human memory has a short attention span & we need to be reminded and that is what this session helped me. I am sure we would have had come across these learning at some point of time or other. But when you hear it along with an incident and that to from a person who has done it himself its much more impactful.

• Dreamer are achievers and things do not happen automatically, you need to work to achieve them.
• Happiness is state of mind and we decide if we want to be happy.
• Optimism is a trait we need to inculcate.
• You never lose till you stop trying. 
• Power of failure and you need to celebrate failure as well.

Well to say the entire session was laced with humor or rather filled with it would be an understatement. It was laugh riot to be precise and best part was that the essence of LTS was intact. Most of the anecdotes he shared came from staying with his parents/grand-parents. All I can say is Thank you Mr. Kher for sharing your experience and making our lives richer.

Another milestone

Well as I sit on the eve of another milestone of my journey of life I wonder. The questions which haunt me every year are still in front of me and I do not have answers for them. I am nearing the half way mark of the typical human life and am still looking for a purpose. Which makes me wonder if I haven't found a purpose till date when do I get time to start working on it.

There are things which am not happy about, but I guess it just like you do not want to fix things unless they are broken. Probably for the same reason I am not making enough efforts to mend/fix it up as well. One of my best pals yesterday made me realize the importance of dialogue. There are things which one can ponder over without reaching to any conclusions but if you open up you might get a perspective which you were totally missing.

Another interesting fact which I realized was things which are new to us make us feel uncomfortable. And even before any attempt to change or try out we have already developed a resistance against it. Unless we take the first step we will never be able evaluate whether it was good/bad for us. As I continue to march towards another year I look forward to new set of events, learning and hope that I might stumble across the answers which I have been looking for. Now as I look back I see that I haven't been exploring places which I consider essential element in learning. With a wish that I get to explore the world before the free spirit in me gets tied down with the usual responsibilities.

Customer Delight

Well the firm I work for constantly keeps on talking about customer satisfaction and since that's where the money comes from (to put it bluntly that how we are paid our salaries). I cannot authenticate the claim which the ads make like 60% of world business transactions run through our system, but I do tend to believe since we make a fairly large revenue and it wouldn't be possible if that was not the case.

BTW every B-school student goes through some course of other which talk about how important our customers are and what all should be done to retain them. Now Customer Satisfaction and Delight are 2 completely different topics. How many times we would have picked our phone to log a complain about a particular service not been provided or irregularity some where in the process. Most common examples would be for banking, mobile, electricity billing etc. where we are put through a mundane IVRS which asks us to punch all useless numbers to identify us and then proceed and finally to be directed to some customer care executive in some corner of the world who would again make us go through the same process again.

This post started because I underwent a paradigm shift during odd 20-30 mins for a service which I used as a part of my job and made me realize how fast can things be turned around. How fickle human emotions are and with just a slight effort it can set to normal. Ok now the real story or the experience. I dialled up international toll-free number to get my issue resolved and I was treated with IVRS system as usual. Had to do the necessary number punching to get myself through and it took ages before I could be transferred. I ended up loosing my cool and dropping off the call. Better sense prevailed and I retried and damn the phone networks I couldn't even get through for next 5-6 times. Now you can understand with no fault of the service provider I was cursing them though the issue was with telephone networks instead.

After repeated attempts I was able to make it through and had to go through the routine process. Finally I get to interact with customer care guy who had a strong British accent and listens to all my complain patiently and after the usual verification. He tells me that he isn't the right guy and would transfer me to the right department and I thought oh so here it goes again. Sounds just the regular stuff isn't it ? But I was in for a surprise. Less than 30 seconds I got transferred to right department and before I could reply to the hello from the lady(had Irish tone later confirmed from the ISD code of the call) the call got dropped off. I made last valiant effort but phone network gods were not on my side.

So obviously I was not in the best possible spirit and thought lets handle it later. Now these guys did have all the info including the firm I work and probably access to corporate address book as well since they provide services to us. Another 10 mins I got a call from the same lady on my desk number(from Irish number) stating that she is looking into the issue and I need to be on hold. After some clarifications she told me they are working on the complaint and would get back to me by sending me necessary info through mails without being asked for.

Did I have a grouse against them ? Oh YAH :-) but after the effort(I don't know how little or extra) they made in less than 30 mins I was more than happy or have moved from one end of the spectrum to another. (the complaint is still not resolved).

Ubislate

Day couldn't have been better, got a chance to interact with Suneet Singh Tuli (Aakash Tablet fame) courtesy Tech Talk series which was started at SAP Labs Gurgaon. The best part of frank and affable personality of the CEO Datawind was to put things simply. Suneet had a flair for story telling and it was evident when he started the talk about his entrepreneurship attempts and leading upto to Aakash tablet.

If you guys really wish to know more about the tablet I guess wiki as usual has done a great job on the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_(tablet).

Well with regards to personal takeaways from the session I could say that business needs to be done from heart along with mind. In others words passion would be as important as intelligence in running a business since there would be times when things wouldn't go the way you want. Another important learning was the product or service you design for any particular customer might not always bring you revenues from the same sector/segment/people whom you had intended it for. Overall again experience of its kind.

Normalcy I Guess...

Life seems to be moving back on track. The empty brain has been put to work(office) and am struggling to find foothold. Life is suddenly back on usual track where you slog/work in office, come back and you hardly have time for brain cells to think over anything. 

Moreover rather next couple of months just look tied up on the calendar now courtesy ADHM (Airtel Delhi Half Marathon). I started running around 2 years back and Nov 2010 I ran first ever half marathon and pledged as long as I stay in Delhi I would run every year. Now in its 8th year ADHM has decided to move the race from the wonderful season of November (which happens to be just the right time to run) to a scorching and sultry September.

I know irrespective of how much I crib the sponsors aren't going to change the schedule. They wouldn't have even if I was their star runner which am not(barely manged to complete it in quarter past 2 hours last yr). The schedule is for 30th Sept which leaves me with approx 90 days of training. The worst part the training has to be in the current climatic conditions :-( . All I can pray for to Delhi Weather Gods is to have mercy on our poor souls both for the training as well as D day. Since I have completed half marathons last 2 yrs the incremental goal is to complete it under TWO hours {shouldn't personal goals be set higher every yr when professional goals bench marking is improved every yr ;-P }.

The registration starts from 5th of July and here the link to my buddies who intend to participate this year  Airtel Delhi Half Marathon

Hit - is this the Mid-life crisis ?

Well it is obvious that there is uneasy feeling which has been growing over last couple of months. What I am not sure is if this is what is referred as the so called Mid-life crisis or its just that I am too eager to conclude that. Life is not meant to be predictable and it never is, hence everyone is bound to go through feeling of uncertainty at times.

Professionally my life has been great so far, if not outstanding but I guess the period closed a month before the last financial year ended. There was a career path which I had in mind and things were going just as I wanted it. Then this uncertainty showed its early signs which I failed to read, wish I was the oracle who knew things before they could happen. Due to re-organisation in my firm I had to take up a role which was an offset rather more like U turn. The only way I can see forward now is by taking break and jumping on the B-school bandwagon to get things back on track or start on the new path which I had never planned. Though I know this is more tried and tested path and there are enough examples in my own circle. But probably the non-conformist in me averse to this tried and tested route. 

Now to add to all the anxiety I have been putting myself through everyday my parents unknowingly have started forcing me in the uncomfortable zone on the personal front. While I am struggling on whether to continue in the same job, jump to another firm or take a break and explore what could/should I be doing. They want me to get hitched, well when I am not sure about my own future how can I even think of taking additional responsibilities. Arranged marriage is certainly pushing me in the uncomfortable zone and I guess have written enough in the last post. There are times when I feel that there are lot of wonderful people whom I know and it is not that difficult to ask them out and you never know thing might just click/work out. BTW I did crazy enough things like asking random people out and no surprises their response was shock followed by subtle no because they weren't hit by the crazy mood/impulse like me and am sure I would have done the same had I been in their place.

There are times when I convince myself that whatever is happening is just the right thing, but the comfort just doesn't stay long enough and am back to the dilemma, if I doing the correct thing by letting events unfold instead of taking a stance and making things happen. When I am so obscure about things on my professional front how could I consider things on personal side whether arranged marriage or my effort it doesn't make a difference.

Arranged Marriages

Well let me start the post by a disclaimer since it’s a sensitive topic and I don’t not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments. The observations/comments/feelings are my purely from my personal view which could be skewed  :-) . Love marriages can’t be left out of the discussion since it’s more like other side of coin. And both sides have enough of pros and cons associated with to have an endless debate which is better. Let me put it straight I am definitely not against the whole system of matrimony, rather I have a great respect for it.
Let’s start with a brief background, I just returned back from a road trip across the entire U.P. on way to my native place. The trip is more of annual event now (last3 yrs) where we would stop over and visit all are relatives (huge in number) irrespective of where they stay. Back to the topic so everywhere I went this time the first question was when am I getting married. Btw towards the end of the trip if this question did not come as first question at the place I visited, it made me wonder if everything was fine and normal there :-). But things were just like normal, I don’t remember even single exception in the entire trip. If not the first question maybe it came a little later (just like how you doing or how are things on your side and then...).

Just like the TV serials of childhood where there used to be story of some kings who would send folks to make announcements with drums and whistles, my mom announced that she is looking for a bride with all her criterion at every place we went and she won’t be listening to my excuses of not getting married anymore. The way things have now started turning around is like everyone is making efforts to get me hitched as if it doesn’t happen now, it won’t happen ever or more like am about to miss a flight or train. I understand am nearing the thirties now but is there such an emergency :-) , god knows.

And no brownies for guessing everyone knows someone who is looking for out grooms as well. Well I am pretty naïve to entire process and there is always a first of time. What is the oddest part or the process which leaves me flummoxed is how could you meet/see someone and reject him/her. Is it like going to shopping store for picking up clothes? More over when I am not perfect myself how/why should I be looking for a person who is perfect. What scares me the most is how could someone say “No”  and the amount of damage that does to the ego of receiving person. Maybe I will become a pro after recieving couple of blows :-) but I sincerely pray that I dont get a chance to be at the giving end. Well since the process is about to start in my life as well, am thinking hard to devise a strategy to handle the scenario. But the entire blame comes back to me for being in such a situation, if I would have found the so called Miss right for me by now this would have never happened since I had all the liberty in doing so till date. A relationship is about compromises but meeting someone knowing the purpose of meeting is awkward. It just makes more sense to me -if you stumble across someone, strike the right chord of friendship and then you realise that you can get hitched (typical love marriage scenario).

I do understand and know there are disadvantages as well in that process but there is the old saying known Devil better than unknown Angel. I guess I would leave things for my parents to sort out since I do not have any other options. Referring to one or my previous post I guess I am letting off control and that too deliberately but it’s just that I don’t see a better way out. Sigh…

A Different Take

Well I expect most of the people around me to be of a similar general knowledge/awareness level. Aamir Khan Productions started a new show called "Satyamev Jayate" which was aired yesterday. It is but obvious that I enjoyed the show and somehow felt connected. But I am not here to defend what others are doing or what's their motive.

Since I really liked the theme and powerful first episode I ended up reading blogs/post/articles as well about it. I stumbled across an observation which many people won’t agree, they can be classified as

1.      Most of them have positive opinions about the show but are skeptical (probably I fall in this category as well).

2.      Couple of them really neutral (just like the show) stating the facts.

3.  Then this category who are just too pessimist/negative.

Interestingly the last category (3) has a fair share in the number game as well. What brought me to the blog today was the third category of people/individuals. I started analyzing the reason for such a reaction and figured out there are many categories of people.

A.    People who are in the media industry and it’s their job (get paid for) to write about things.

B.     Then there are random individual like me who blog at their own will.

C.      And there is this special category/breed which wants to prove they are different in everything they do.

Well, all I can say is sorry for the people in C group, maybe I am overtly critical but I couldn’t come up with a better way of classifying them. And if you dig more info about the authors of the posts/articles (negative reviews) you will get to know they are a combo of category A and C. In other words they are people who get paid to write stuff which is not conventional. I do not mind such stuff as long as it’s not on a personal level, my ire here is against the people who have gone at length to portray the entire initiative just for making money.  

There is another old cliché which says “Every small step counts”. I know it’s too early to pass a judgment (just like victory of Jan-Lokpal bill right after the Anna’s fast got over) but I am highly optimist and expect things to turn better.

I would end the post with a quote from Aamir’s movies where the character he portrayed said - "There are 3 types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened.”

Books

The reason for back to back posts is - I had train of thoughts which made me visit the blogger and when I published my last post I figured out that I forgot to include it. Then I went to edit mode but just couldn't fit the stuff there so I thought I would start a new post. What better way to improve on the number count as well :-).

There are instances in life when one is not in the right spirits(bored/lacking purpose/disappointed etc.) And what has worked for me is Books. Though I picked up the habit pretty late (College first yr)I have been avid reader and read any/everything (except the course books :-P). As I said most times in my life so far, whenever I have come across a situation as such, the prime reason has been me being away from books. The moment I get back to my habit things start turning around and the problems start disappearing too. I have a small collections of books some of them personally signed by their respective Authors. Others mostly bought from LandMark store or others.

I would end the post with a number one(1999-UK) single from the album "Something for Everybody" which I heard for the first time last year, through a very good friend/office colleague of mine whom I don't see often since both of us work with different teams now. It sure lifts your mood

Reflections

This is what happens to a post in draft if not published on time. What I meant was the contents has to be modified and as they loose their relevance.As the title of post suggests it was drafted around the new year with just a couple of paragraphs. Well at the start of a New Year one generally tends to make resolutions. I am no different and hence I sat down to figure out what do I need to achieve/do. When I started the exercise little did I realize that it would start from looking back at the years gone by.

Let me be frank, its a difficult exercise unless you have a diary/notebook where you keep a note of events. You always tend to remember the big decisions which you made or major events which happened across the year. The smaller and yet significant events just get lost and its really difficult to trace. When there is train of thoughts running backward that when I connect the dot and see how things shaped up the way they are today.

Life always has plans and as they say it -The only constant is CHANGE. At the start of year I had plans both on the professional front as well the the personal side. Things on the professional side had been really topsy-turvy ride so far. The team I worked in my firm went lean, closed it operations from Gurgaon location and shifted to Bangalore and hence had to make unplanned changes (move in to a completely new team and shift technology back to where I had started 5 yrs back). There are pros and cons of every thing, if I would have been with a smaller firm I might have been thanked for my services or forced to move to new location. But since it a large firm I had option to shift to other team. Its not that I am techno-geek who loves a particular technology but I am still re-working on mid/long term plans based on the current scenario. I have been with the same firm more than 5 yrs now and since I shifted to new technology, I have been put in a month long training. Now to add to all this I met a cousin of mine and we are of the same age-group and by most of the standards she has an illustrious background so far (IIT->ISB). Which forces me to rethink the strategy I have been working on for a while and take the break move to B-school and try to run faster in the rat-race which seems to be trapping me :-).

Though I took time to realize that either I can plan for life, work on it and handle the challenges it throws at me or either sit back give the control to life and see whatever happens. No doubt everyone (including me) wants to take charge and lead it but there are times when you realize that you let off that reins at some instance and hence the things shaped up this way. Enough ramblings for the day :-).

Blackmail

Well I can see a pattern now, I come back to post something only when I am happy or disappointed by events going in my life. No brownies for guessing that today it’s the second part which brings me here.
To cut a long story short, there is sect famous as Nadi Astrologers which some members of my family(sister and brother-in-law) have faith in, since they have already used their services. The method they employ is pretty unconventional as well. All they take is your thumb print and they don’t charge you, now they match the thumbprint in their physical database(set of leaves/papers written thousands of yrs ago by a saint). Once they have found a match they call you back for reading your past/present/future with usual fees. There is no guarantee that they would have a match but if they have they get in touch with you.

I have been a science student and belong to the so called gen-X and hence rational as well and I do not approve of astrology. It’s not that I am expert or something neither does my approval has to do anything with what the world/my family feels on this topic J. Obliviously my Jiju(bro-in-law who is more of a friend) had used the Nadi Centre  some 8-10 years and his life pattern has followed the predicted trajectory. Now my mom and dad want me to visit the center and they want to know how my future looks like. Obliviously they feel that I am good for nothing as I haven’t found a girl to marry yet and am already in late twenties and would tip over the scale and won’t find a good girl once I step in 30’s in another yr or so J.

It’s not that I am against the system(matrimony) or am a rebel/maverick but it’s just that I don’t feel it’s the right time for me as I need to do lot more things before I can start a family. Maybe there is another reason I am still looking for the miss right who will automatically appear out of blue moon :-P. Since I wasn’t ready to visit the center my sis jumps into the picture and starts convincing me that why I should visit this place. This entire conversation is over gtalk since they stay in Fiji. For every logic/argument which I had in mind for not going was silenced by one statement “what do you lose out of this, if it makes mom and dad happy?” Now how can anyone defend something like this? And I guess this is just the start of things to come in future where these arguments would be repeated over again. Hence the title of the post.  I know am a strong headed individual (my family calls me stubborn) who has strong opinions for and against issues and generally prefer doing things my way.

Now let’s get back to the point, why I don’t want to visit this Nadi center. I guess it takes courage to admit that I am hypocrite but maybe I am (at-least on this topic). The entire incident made me re-evaluate self and I figured out that though I do not believe in astrology (horoscopes/numerology/Nadi etc.) I do not mind reading weekly horoscopes which the newspaper print in the Sunday edition and laugh about it. When they print something nice be happy if it’s not nice just forget about it. Being the rational self I am, I can endlessly argue as how could the entire world (8 billion) be divided in 12 zodiac signs and something for them can be predicted for all of them together. If something fits one person it’s a probability and if it doesn’t I come back to where I stated “I told you so”.

Now let me defend myself J irrespective of how logical/rational one can be, if your life starts following the patterns predicted by someone you might end up believing him, even though there is no proof of such scientific system in these studies. I guess this would be right reason why am averse to visiting such a place. And probably I am person who puts in effort because I don’t know the end result, so if you tell me how things are going to be maybe the effort would go for toss. I prefer taking life as it comes and dreaming on how I would want it to be rather than getting just the perfect excuse someone on the earth could ever invent(why put an effort when I know things are not going to change since someone had written it that way for me).

Though I did enough research on Nadi now I can definitely write couple of pages only on them but let it be for some other day. Enough for today I guess I do need time for myself more frequently (“Main aur Meri Tanhayee”) types which make me feel calmer and penning my rants sounds like a good idea J. 

The Noble Cause

You might not be blessed to help people out of their misery/pain/troubles always but you can always do your bit. First time in life I made an attempt to help someone whom I have never known before and that too in most unusual way. This is going to be looooonnnng post.

One fine evening while returning from office I received a call where someone asked me if I had a particular blood group. Since I was driving I asked the person to call me back after sometime. When I got the call second time I realized it was attempt by an uncle to save his new born nephew. I decided without a moment I would help him out in whatever way I could. The kid was in a hospital in Gwalior and was born premature, 7 months and have been hospitalized for the last one month and needed blood(a component and not whole blood) which is kind of rare and I have the same blood group. Hence I packed and left home right in the night so that I could be there next morning, though my parents were apprehensive but they couldn’t say anything as the cause was noble.

Let me give you a brief I am regular blood donor and one of my ex teammates Jaydeep Gupta had introduced me to www.friends2support.org approx 1.5 yrs back. Ever since I have joined the corporate world(close to 6yrs back) I knew my blood group to be A2+ as it was reported in pre-joining medical tests which major MNCs do for all their employees. For most of the world life is simpler with A,B, AB and O blood groups and RH factors as + or -. Now some of might be wondering what is A2+, but don’t be surprised if I tell you more than half the docs I have met don’t even know much about it and 90% of the clinics and institutes I have visited don’t even have facility to test it. It might sound even funnier with most lab technicians I met told me there is nothing as such and someone is trying to mislead me :-). Let me kill technical details and get to the story.

I start of for Gwalior which is about an overnight journey without a reserved ticket, but happened to get one just time at the station on current booking window(last ticket on 2^nd AC) which was closing. Hence the journey starts on happy note and I reach without any problems. I was picked up the station by the anxious father at 5 o’clock morning. We reach the hospital and wait for doctors to arrive. Blood banks are completely different entity and hospitals have tie ups with them. And finally we reach the blood bank and usual testing starts. And I am in for a biggest surprise of my life, the blood group is A1+ and not A2+. I just couldn’t digest it all and ask the guy to test it again and he confirms again that its A1 and not A2. It would be understatement to say I was embarrassed, disappointed and what not. I talked with the father and we decide we will get it second opinion. And the hunt starts to find a second lab which could cross verify the result. I just couldn’t imagine how would the parents be feeling as all hopes they had for last 3 days was that their kid would finally get 30ml of component today.

We went to every lab in city and figured out none of them had the tests to verify and most of them stated that there is no such group. By late afternoon we were able to find the second place which could verify it. The tests came negative again but the good news was we figured out that the tests for A1 and A2 is never done till asked and hence there is no donor list with such classification. So we started getting the everyone who had A+ to be tested for A1 and A2. To cut story short it was tested for about 100+ people till now and none of them had A2. Since I could not do anything more, I visited the hosts place had lunch and left back for Gurgaon. I had made up my mind soon after that I will put a post so that people get to know how a small effort from them can help save somebody’s precious life. I returned last night but was so disappointed I didn’t feel like doing anything. I just got a call from kid’s father and got to know that by using synthetic method the kid was given the components from another blood and has reacted positively to the treatment, which lifted my mood. All the kid need was 30ml and generally we donated one unit(350-450ml). You never know when you small effort could help save someone life.

A humble request please register on www.friends2support.org
and here is link which might provide the purpose to do your bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viO9IAqHeIY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhoPEUXFcT4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPHRvbEQuiE&feature=relmfu

The Connect

Woohoo I just managed to make my post count to 5 after 5 yrs not bad, I am improving :-). Well I will start this post by wonderful status update I read on social networking site:

25-26 is not a nice age for a man....your ex-gfs are getting married, Your career has just started, Elders treat you as unproven theorems, College guys feel that you are too old to have in their group... You seem to enjoy both cartoon and news. You can no longer eat whatever you wish without putting on weight. You look like an ape if you don’t shave daily. You are not invited for weekend cricket matches. Every Aunt you meet asks “Shaadi kab kar rahe ho beta!!” while uncles-> “Career ka kya socha hai beta…”.. When the reality is that you are just riding the wave and going with the flow… You have all the confidence in the world but little achievements to show, You already have the first hand experience of the life , You know that whatever you have been taught about the world in schools has been sheer waste of time. You can be denied a job even after passing the test and you could be given a job if you know someone placed high enough… Politics till now was a dirty word but now you feel it everywhere. You know now love is not that blind and that friendship has its terms and conditions. .You know there is nothing for granted and free lunches are not free… Your overconfidence is now making way for a humble conscience...You now know it is not exactly what you thought it would be… :)

Though I seem to have topped the age-group by additional couple of years, I can eat whatever I wish without putting any additional ounce and I still do get invited to weekend cricket matches :-) but all others statements connect straightaway.

Courtesy the additional years the pressure is exponentially more on getting hitched and I still feel it isn’t the right time. Moreover you need to have a girl as well to get hitched as well and I seem to be doing pretty bad in that department too. My latest crush announced she got engazed even before I could ask her out or think something. But that’s the way life is :-).

Just happened to return from whirlwind trip of beautiful city Bangalore but it felt completely different from how I had seen it 2 years back. The time I had moved out, it was just a temporary stint and I was bound to back, but things do change and they change fast when you don’t want it and when you really want it change somehow the time just stops(theory of relativity ;-)). It was memorable trip as I ended up winning 2 IPods and getting to know some more cool people. Maybe it was just too short a trip but I never felt at home the way I used to before.

Time to closeup and head to bed, since I am supposed to get up early and resume my half marathon practice which I have been missing for 2 weeks now. I hardly have time, about 25 days before my second half marathon where the aim this year is to improve my time and without any cramps or sprain and not to forget the noble cause I am running(more in next update).

Cheers

Updates

As I promised here is the next post. Well first of all let me clarify the title of last post. I am guy who loves automobiles and member of forum called Team-Bhp and love to drive as well. What happens when a car doesn’t self-start because of battery, you need to find a jumper and connect it to fully charged battery and Jump Start your car. This is exactly what happened with me and the post came after I came out of long slumber hence the last post title.

I have seen people around me using blog for lots of reason, and here is how I group it
1)Passing on technical know how on topic (Techie’s Blog)-honestly complete bouncers for me unless I am working on code and get stuck with errors and that's when I start praying someone should have encountered it before and documented on how to solve it :-P
2) People with a cause (socialist/environmentalist etc.) - I admire & support quite a few
3) Artists (poets, painters, photographers etc.) for display of their skill- they teach me that I have a wonderful world around me
4) Random people who just want share what’s on their mind
I consider myself on the last category and I am sure they aren’t a rare species by any stretch of imagination :-P. Well all my life I have been claiming my life as an open book and just happen to realise that I haven’t been sharing things which have been on my mind for sometime now.
Well the updates first, I moved out of Bangalore around an year plus couple of months back to a completely new city Gurgaon but with same firm. And believe me it hell of a change which took a good amount of time to get used to. For someone who had been used to the pleasant weather throughout the year, the winters were a welcome change but then the summer made me realise it would have been better if I would have stayed back down there instead of coming here.

There is old proverb in Hindi “Vinashkale vipreet bhudhi”(means when the time is bad your thought process gets screwed as well) and therefore I started digging the grave of my bachelorhood :-). On a lighter note things just dint work out and I read a beautiful quote somewhere which would sum the experience- “I may never know your reasons why, but someday I'm gonna see the good in your goodbye.”

But now the story doesn’t end there since my dad retired from his govt. job in August 2010 and hence mom and dad moved in with me. And I just loved the transformation to a family guy now who doesn’t need to worry about food anymore :-). As I have already stated that my parents are more of my buddies so they knew everything about whatever was happening in my life.

Now when I just need sometime for myself but they feel that my life (is just like some outstanding payment or bank liability which) should settled or taken care of. To add more salt and pepper to the wound all my chaddi-buddies (“childhood friend”-term coined by pal of mine who had a wedding last night) are falling left right and centre and since I happen to be in North I am attending all weddings. The only question anyone who meets there is so when is your number (remember the Pepsi commercial), and you just smile and don’t reply back. The only silver lining in cloud is that my sis is abroad for another year atleast and hence I could be safe (remember another commercial for Bisleri “Play Safe”) for that period.
Let me end it now more in the coming posts.

Jump Start

I will start exactly like my last post by the credit, this time it goes to 2 events first- old pen pal of mine who got in touch with me as she was got an interview call from the same firm I work with and
second- the movie “Dhobi Ghat” (Note: If you haven’t watched the movie yet please don’t go ahead with this post of mine as I might end up spoiling your movie experience)

Let me try to give a brief first about my blogging habits, oh that’s a wrong term I used here(2 blogs in 5 yrs :-Q) and I call it habit? Since the last post let me try and recall, hmmm so the count is three or four times I have tried putting few sentences and sometimes even a couple of paragraphs together and come up with a post but have ended up closing the word doc without saving it.
So it is not that I wasn’t trying but just couldn’t find enough words/ just ran out of ideas/sometime lost the steam before I could complete a piece. Enough of clarifications for being incompetent or lazy bum :-). There are so many things on my mind right now that I am literally struggling to pick one thread and give some shape. Every time I have gone in chronological order to describe events let me go reverse now.
Just back after watching the movie which I went with couple of colleagues of mine and both of them ended up not enjoying it at all. I won’t try to defend the movie since I am not paid for it :-P. But here is what I think about it, the audience at the end are left with lots of things unanswered and for them to complete on their own. Can somebody suggest alternate ending? Usual happy ending would have been
1) Shai ends up being with Arun
2) Arun being reunited with his kid/wife back in Australia
3) Arun finding Yasmin who didn’t die and is a loner now like him.
I am sure there could be lot of possible options but what I liked the most was unconventional end of the movie and some really cool shots of human emotions like Yasmin first talk on the tape or Munna posing in front of mirror thinking about his portfolio or the guilt Shai felt being caught at Arun’s place when Munna is delivering clothes etc.
I won’t try to hurt anyone feeling by saying that you need to understand to like a movie( have already done it once) but I applaud the filmmaker on trying to make something different and can assure I wasn’t the only one who came out of theatre enjoying the movie. There is not much story but loads of emotions in the movie and pretty well captured.

Well let me end this post by just being a review and defending the movie which I said I wont :-P. I would continue with reverse order of events in the coming post and for now let me think of title before I can post it up.

Freedom :-)

First things first. Well let me start this post by giving due credit to someone who deserves it, the credit goes to office shuttle pal of mine who pens downs regularly. I stumbled upon her blog and she seems to have nice flair in putting down everyday stuff. I read quiet a few posts and believe me they were interesting.

I have been a lazy bum and have been planning to update blog for long time but there is no bigger reason than excusitis(refer-The Magic of thinking BIG). It’s all together a different story that I do keep myself busy with lot of other things but it wouldn’t be true if I say I wasn’t able to find time for it. Things have been really going on fast track for me on every front of life. Be it the professional or personal, I have moved back to a team where I started my career with the ERP giant and personally I got to learn lot about handling relationships and letting them go.

Since my parents visited me last months for the first time ever in the last 8 yrs since I moved out of the cushions of home sweet home to face this wonderful world on my own, it was probably one of the best times I got to spend with them. It’s different again when you visit your parents one/twice every yr and when they pay you a visit. I took long vacation from my office and ended up visiting lot of holy cities across south India.

Since I have done my grad even in south I was making the trip to most of the cities for the second time. But it was so different though it’s been hardly a couple of yrs, last time I visited it was with college buddies and friends. In that situation you hardly give a damn to world and you want to enjoy the most. While this time it was responsible and mature me who wanted every small thing to be taken care of since I wanted my parents to have the best experience.

I forgot to add, I share my apartment with a buddy of mine who is CA by profession and great pal of mine. Now the catch here is, he got engazed recently and would be marrying by the end of the yr. Since he already knows he is gonna drown, so he doesn’t want to go down all alone and made his best efforts to pull me down too. He did all he could to convince my parents they should find a match for me as well. But who can tie a free spirit and since I share a great rapport with my parents (they are more of buddies than parents), I was one who ended up triumphant and buying more time. This is atleast what I thought but I dint know the damage was already done. Maybe they always had plans for me but never shared, but now after this trip of theirs this topic is definitely there on agenda list for their weekly phone calls.

Well I have a freedom to choose my life-partner just like all the post independence modern nuclear families, but I guess they (parents) don’t understand and might be they over estimate, with relationship comes lot of other things as well and the biggest of all is the responsibility. Life would be so wonderful if it was just like most of the hindi movies where THE END had a blissful marriage and happy ever after life. But in real life the story starts after you have exchanged the vows.

Life as bachelors is cool, you do what you wish and not what you should and can still escape. I am sure there would lot of people out there who would agree with me. I still haven’t thought of title for the post but I guess Freedom sounds apt enough to describe the state of bachelorhood which I am enjoying at the moment and living life at my own terms. I don’t know why some said “Grass on the other side is always greener” but somehow that doesn’t hold true in this case. I don’t deny that the grass is green on the other side but it’s not greener than on this side. I absolutely don’t have anything against the wonderful concept of wedlock but well let me dedicate this post to all the bachelors out there who are still holding their forte and having great time.

PS: I attended wedding reception for a friend of mine today, so you can understand where it all came from :-P.

Hello World!!!

That’s the first program we write when ever we start learning a computer language. Being a software engineer I couldn’t come up with anything better to name my first post.

After close to 3 yrs of being lazy enough and finding excuses for not putting any posts, I finally decided to change things for better. The “about me” section of the page describes me well enough, but it’s old (about 3 yrs) and there a lot of things which have changed.

Well let me summarize things out here, from a would be Software Engg. to one now, has been a journey marked with all ups and downs both on personal as well as professional front. Wanted to change the world and had big dreams but then realized that where I want to be in life wouldn’t be possible if I stick to what I was doing. Want to be an entrepreneur and achieve all the good things which I have dreamt off.
I started my career with one of the largest IT corps (not my fault [:(]) in India as it was one of first few companies which visited the campus during placements in our University, little did I realize that the CTC offered in letter (looked decent enough) is lot different to take home you get and being in city like Bangalore it was just enough for subsistence.
As soon as the realization sank in and it stuck that I have bank who is waiting to milk the goat/cow (in this case poor me[:(] for the education loan I took) which it feed for 4 yrs, I decided to do something. BTW I forget to add, in the mean while I made couple of great friends (very successful- professionally n financially) who could suggest/advise me the right things at right moments. So I switched jobs maybe a bit too early in once career (but that’s ok), right now I work for an ERP giant whose name I cant say but it’s a three letter word, which starts with “S” ends with “P” and has an “A” in between [:)].They pay me well enough to maintain a decent lifestyle but doesn’t come close to what I would love to have.

Well personally I feel you can find the shades of all three characters from the movie DCH. I could be really crazy and do things on impulse like “Akash”-Aamir, could even act dumb like “Sameer”-Saif and could be very serious and introvert like “Sid”-Akshaye. Empirically I can associate myself with Sid (maybe coz of same name) more as my interest to elder ladies has been evident in few relationships I have had (something which I guess I shouldn’t be proud of) , but they don last long like the way it was with Akash (hope I find my Shalini soon [:)]).

But now I have taken the onus to change things bit by bit. Because of which you are able to see the first ever post[:)]. I have picked up book reading again, joined a gym which I have been planning for yrs now, have started nurturing my dream and putting action behind all my plans. This was a short update (doesn’t look very short though) about changes, I will try to come up with some more generic rantings[:)] in the next post.

About Me

Well hmmm.....Good question....About ME...A would be software engg. in few months from now... whose DNA shows he belongs to Kalhansa Rajputs... though I very much doubt myself as I dont have the characterstic traits of warriors(noble blood) potrayed in movies...used to wet pants in childhood when dad raised his voice in house on others ...Born Inteliigent Gone Confused ....so beware....You would find loads of contradictions all over the blog. Wanted to be Fighter Pilot like most of us in childhood....see where I am today...taking life as it comes...having loads of ambitions and dreams but dont want to put in efforts. Plans a lot everytime but after that everything stops.