So Long Seattle

As the days turn into hours i'm starting to get a mixed emotion about the trip. Met some old buddies and couldn't see some. Such is life. Even though I would have loved to see warrior princess, Simon and a NBA game i'm happy that its getting over cuz ends generally mean fresh beginnings plus i think i will be back this year and will accomplish these things when i get back 


Highlights of the trip would be :

• Coke studio: Proves my point that music has no language, no boundary and in this case quite literally too
• Having a roomie or should i say being a roomie: After a decade I was a roomie to someone other than my wife. Thanks for putting up with my shit guys.  Being here and not driving: Didn't drive since I didn't had my license which sometimes was frustrating too as I had to depend on people.
• Getting my identity: From next time onwards I won't have to carry my PP everywhere.

This trip has been good in terms of learning too. Not sure about the professional learnings but on personal front it was good to meet people with different personalities. 

PP: Ever focused guy. Envy your focus and determination dude. Its not easy to distance yourself from worldly pleasure but the way you do it is remarkably exceptional. Thanks for making me your roomie and for all those awesome dishes. 

AD: The consultant :). Never saying No to nobody. Always in ALL the plans but does what he wants. Thanks for introducing coke studio

KD: The jolly good guy. Hope all those last bites of food would get you what WE wanted :) 

Sriku: The bassist. Thanks for letting me stay in your apartment. I hope I wasn't a pain. Just do what YOU want to do. Recipe of disaster is when you to try to please everyone.

IBM: It was fun having you around. If you don't laugh at yourself world suddenly seems to be a hard place to live in.

For others who aren't seeing their names in this list; all of you weren't significant enough to feature here

Creeps

I detest people who would do anything to save a $. Even if that means staying away from their children for years in a row. Get a life people...there are important things in life that money...


Be a billionaire and lose all your loved ones!!! Evidently your choice is clear.

Looking for my Charger!

Damn this image of the Big guy!!! More often than not you are judged on your demeanor and having a cold soul demeanor makes people forget about the fact that Giants too have a gentle side to them. It's not acceptable to look out of sorts when you have people looking upto you for strength, courage, support.


Searched my phone directory for 40 minutes and couldn't find a single name who'd slap me out of this situation...not even my wife, my friends, my brother...none..0..ZERO!

Time dont heal nothing

I don't know why people say time is a great healer. Time does nothing. Its been a year since my granny passed away and it still pains that much..i cried my eyes out that day and have been crying since morning... 


Sitting here miles away from home, I want to call but I don't think i should cuz 1) Everybody will be in the same mood like me and i dont want them to worry about me 2) This is one of the dis-advantage of being a BIG Guy...you cant show ur emotions...so ill just write a note, put it in a bottle and throw it in the ocean of web.


Miss you granny..just keep looking over me like you always had..


R.I.P

Count your blessings!

"Thank you Didi" said the little kids while they queued up and collected their sweets. And that was all I could take. An overwhelming feeling took over me and I had to come out of the orphanage. I actually liked the thought of going to an orphanage and helping the needy but I never imagined that it could end up like this. That I would end up like this.


I had gone inside with boxes full of sweets, candies and a camera thinking that whenever we would be done, ill click a picture..a group photo. And maybe post it on FB to help encourage my friends do some charity or post in LENZ-@-work but looking at those kids I was sure that they didn't wanted to be a subject(of sympathy or pity). Cuz that’s all they get from us..that is our initial natural reaction. And I didn’t want any of it for them.


From the way they organized themselves to the way they behaved, it was all very moving. They all wanted the stuff we had brought for them but no one was in a hurry, no one wanted to step on others toes to get it first. There was a sense of 'togetherness' amongst them. A real sense of "WE". Living without the support of a real family, they surely valued things more than us. They understood the real the meaning of a friend more than us. And they all grabbed it with both hands.


I would have crossed their home at least a million times till now but never did I realized that there was an orphanage in there. The place was something else, haunting for some, quiet for others. Life changing for me.

Dream Sequence

Wow...Day 1 and I already have a weird dream... Don't know what it symbolizes but it sure wasn't pretty ..so here goes my dream!!!

I swipe out from work and to get to my car I goto our 10 story mlpl (multi level parking lot) in office. 4 guys step into the elevator and since my car is parked on 5th floor, I press 5 and wait. Next thing I knw is that a guy is literally stepping on my shoes. He was facing the doors of the lift but kept coming back  .. So as soon as he enters my private space I try to push him away, I hold his arms from his elbow and tell him "there is enough space for 4 of us buddy". I lift and place him ahead ( like someone would move a chess piece) but he keep coming back and with a petrified look says "Can't u see there is blood all over the place ahead". That freaked me out and all I was thinking was 'this doesn't seem right, let's get out of here and go home' ..so to see which floor I'm at and how long it was gonna take (remember I was just going to 5th floor) I look at the screen and realized I've gone to the 9th floor ... "Aaaaarrrggg.. Now I have to get down at 10th and walk all the way down".. All 4 of us were hating the fact that we would have to walk cuz obviously there was some problem in the lift .


So the lift stops at 10th floor but the gates won't open. It stayed on 10th floor for like 20 seconds before going into a free fall. As soon as I realized it was going in a free fall, I sat down and squeezed myself, like in one of those emergency landing positions, and started waiting for the impact. To my surprise nothing happened for over a minute and I started wondering what was going on cuz 10 floor on a freefall would have gone in less than 10 seconds. So I press one of the buttons and the roof goes flying off . It was broad day light and we were on a rail track. Among all the other things that had left me baffled, this was the strangest one. 


The strangers in the lift has turned into my childhood friend Munish and college mate Vishal Tanwar while the lift shrinked into size and all 3 of us were in a cart now, one of those which are used by miners(like they show in the movies). So we were on a rail track, in broad day light and all this had moved from my office to delhi .. The speed of the cart we were in was around 60mph and it tilted every time a curve came, like would literally go on 2 wheels. We were preparing ourselves for the impact but when it happened it was like getting up from a dream.. Like cut to reality. No sound, no injuries, no crash landing. Everything was weird. 


So cut to ground 0 and three of us were wondering how we got together and how we have things to do and places to be .. I suddenly realized that it was my nephews b'day and I had to be home for his party. I had a train at 4:30pm and it was 4:20 already . So I asked a cab driver about the route and he told me its gonna take him 20 min to get me there. I almost gt into an argument with someone, pulled myself outta it since I didn't had time for all that, got into cab and luckily woke up in my bed

Did I made it in time? Guess we will never find out

So I don't knw wat are the signs and what they symbolize ... Blood, free fall in a lift, flipping of cart, rushing to catch a train ...doesn't sound pretty but i'm glad it was a dream..

2010- A look back

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning
- T. S. Eliot

With less than 12 hours left in 2010 to end, I think it's a perfect time to look back at the year that it was in terms of the promises I made to myself. Lets see how i faired


• Weight a minute - Ive accepted the fact that I will never get to double digits J . I’m trying to stay healthy as of now. You will read below as to what all steps have been taken on that front

• Baller - Been playing pretty well off late, Defended the Intra-Co title, learnt some new things, got some new shoes, some new jerseys J . Following NBA pretty closely, recently started writing about it too. So been a pretty gr8 year of Basketball for me.

• No more a spirited fellow – By the the time I finish this write up, I would have completed 50 days. 50 days without alcohol is a gr8 achievement. Atleast to me it is. I am just worried about the raising the BAR. I know im gonna go home and drink so im not sure if I would get back to this streak and beat my own record. 2011 looks like a dry year to me.

• Travelers’ Guide - Explored new places locally and Internationally. Have great experiences from both the place. Have some unfinished site seeing to do so might go back to Malaysia again. Leh/Ladakh is still pending on the list.

• $ - Need to pay off some mortgages, so I guess I will have to plan a long time work trip abroad. *Note to self*

• No Double doubles – Got into the MBA mode and wanted to get myself a double masters but then kinda fell off the track. I guess someone or something has to stoke the fire.

• Lighter Me – Paid some of the money for mortgage and feel good about it. Hope to get close in coming year.

• Shifting Circles – Life has been pretty good on social front. While I did made some new friends, I also moved myself away from the ‘Inner Circle’ for some. I guess that’s life.