Slumdog Millionaire - Thoughts And Lessons

I just saw this fantastic movie which has become a buzzword in coffee table conversations in India since the last two weeks. Leaving aside the hype (which in my opinion serves its own merit), I definitely felt that there is a lot of substance in the movie. The portrayal of how a slumdog answers questions in a quiz show to become a millionaire winner, which he has learnt the hard way in his tumultuous life, showcases the ironies of life. Life has its own way of surprising us - no one has a perfect life. People blessed with certain gifts lack others. Often they have no regard for what they have blessed with but remorse for what they lack. Until of course they either lose what they have or gain what they don't.
One of the main things I picked up from the movie is that - whatever life throws at you - never give up - the good times never last forever and neither do the bad ones. Take every moment at it comes up as a challenge to live through it and learn if it is bad or enjoy it to the fullest if it good... True there is something called destiny - but fortune nevertheless favours the brave and persistent and patient... Happiness is a relative term which depends on the way you treat what life gives you.
In short - Never give up!

Searching at 25

An interesting point in my life, this 3rd day of the 10th month of the year 2008. I have completed 25 years of my existence a few months ago. Today I ask myself the point and purpose of my life. Though I would definitely say that the last 12-13 years of my life were reasonably well spent (with a couple of exceptions), there are a few things that I think I may have missed out on. Some of these were a compromise over the things I chose to do, whereas some were just plain oversights. I don't really know whether I regret not having these things in my 'Been there, done that' list, which isn't very pleasant, since this knowledge is needed to plan the remaining years of my life.
Now the task lying before me is to decide my priorities and draft up a plan towards attaining my goals. This hopefully should be done in the next 48 hours since I am running out of time...

Random Musings Of A Sleepless Mind...

Writing after a break makes me feel a little rusty, but the title of this post gives me the necessary slack to write away without worrying about the result. I still have a log of my Ladakh trip pending, a trip which gave me much needed refreshment and which got my mind to a state of fresh enthusiasm and vigour. The sleeplessness to which the title alludes is not due to turbulence within the confines of my cranial cavity, but due to some crazy idiot outside my building screaming some nonsense on a loudspeaker. Supposedly somebody decided that staying on a cycle for 6 days is among the best things to do with one's time. The local corporator decided to second this decision, and the idle public living in the cow-sheds next to my house got another reason to bring out the loudspeakers. This time, they hired somebody to 'compere', and since the last 6 days, he has been screaming arbitrary nonsense on the loudspeaker preventing the hardworking public of my area from exercising their fundamental right to sleep.
So, what should I muse about? Should it be about India's first gold medal at the Olympic Games after 28 years? Congrats to Abhinav Bindra for that! Should it be about the way the civic administration has dug up the approach roads to my workplace, so that my travel time has doubled? Should it be about my experiences while learning to drive a car (Good for me, but not for the poor innocent vehicle) ? Should it be about plans for the long weekend coming up ahead? Should it be about the software engineer who committed suicide (incidentally the chap was my batchmate's brother - God bless his family!)? Should it be about India's victory at the AFC cup (Congrats to them too!)? Well, I'm so sleepy that I can't even think of what to write about!! Thankfully, I can abandon the search for a purposeful solution to my quandary since the loudspeakers have finally fallen silent, and I can retreat into a peaceful slumber...

I Don't Know!

I was never afraid to use this phrase when it came to questions about knowledge. If you don't know, it is a good idea to say so rather than dole out wrong information. However, in times of decision, especially those decisions that concerned me, I never used it - and never thought that I would need to. I was always in control of things, even if I knew I wouldn't be able to come out on top, I knew that I would be able to handle the situation and had a good idea about how to weigh the options and chose the best possible one.
The last one year has changed everything. The number of things not going my way, have now left me in doubt of my own abilities to 'find the way' in testing times. Many of these events and outcomes occurred for no fault of my own. As a matter of fact, they were just quirks of fate, which I could do nothing about.
Even now, fate is not off my back - it keeps putting a big red stop sign in front of all my fresh starts, keeps putting what I want right in front of me but just beyond my reach and cutting of all my means of attaining it. Now I really understand the meaning of the phrase 'So near yet so far'.
So what now? What next? Well, I don't know, I don't....
... but, there's no giving up on life - so I am raring to go and find out and do my best to come out on top!

The Old Spirit

Software professionals are really lucky, that over the course of their careers they get to work across a variety of cultures. There are home-made service based mammoths (Infy, Wipro et al), product based companies (like my current one Symantec) and the craziest of the lot - startups (my previous company AirTight Networks). Well, why lucky? Coz they get to experience variety and get to chose! Whether choice is always a good thing or not is a topic for another post, but here we shall assume that this choice is good.
Why I am enumerating this aspect of the software profession, one may wonder. That is because today I met with with my former teammates at AirTight. The same folks with whom I started my career and with whom I have spent an exciting and fun 18 months. And after this rendezvous, I realized this difference. I realized it because I had changed drastically since I joined Symantec last Feb. My attitude towards the professional aspects of life, the way I think about work, about technology have changed noticeably. I must say that all this change wasn't for the worse. Some of it can also be passed off as a sign of maturity. However, one of the major differences I saw was the ability to be free in thought and words, to be free in ideas, to be free in how you think technology should progress. In a big MNC, there are lots of processes to be followed, there are things you can't do and there are things you mustn't do, there are things which won't be well received until you are at a particular 'experience level'. While in a startup, well its a free world - you are not too young for anything. Ideas from you are heard irrespective of who you are. Your voice counts - it is at least heard! The main change in attitude that this difference causes is the ability to believe that your ideas can be brought to fruition. A startup mindset thinks that the implementation of an idea is always just a few steps away, whereas an MNC mindset thinks about 'whether' and 'if' and about all the various processes involved that make the implementation seem miles away.
I am not blaming the culture of my company, since I agree that the discipline ensured by processes and procedures is necessary to sustain a corporate giant. In a startup, it is easy to think and ponder over ideas from a few of the 100 employees while in a multinational, it is impossible to listen to even a fraction of the tens of thousands of employees! All I am saying is that, I had stopped thinking about big ideas, but when I met my old buddies, even the casual conversation resurrected the old free thinking spirit! And I am glad that happened - a refreshed outlook was badly needed by this battered soul!

P.S. No disrespect to any kind of company here - this post just discusses one (well known) advantage of a startup over an MNC. I have learnt through my varied experiences at each of these two types of companies and gained different things at each place.

Good Don't Go

The difference between right and wrong - isn't that what most people tried teaching us all throughout our childhood? Our parents, our teachers, elders all made it a point to convince us little impressionable beings to be 'good children', 'good people' and 'good humans'. Isn't it ironic though, that most adults actually believe that in order to survive or be successful, it is important that we forget or ignore this difference? That we chose the path which will get us to the goal, giving little importance to the ethical appropriateness of our means? And we give it a flashy term too - street smartness!
I wouldn't blame them totally. I know that expecting the world to be nice to you because you are nice is like expecting a tiger not to eat you because you are a vegetarian. Also, when things in life don't end up going your way or when you are stung by the so-called street smart, it is very easy and tempting too to go all sour and bitter against the world and enroll in the 'no use being nice' school of thought. I have been pretty close (and still am) to crossing over on the other side. Luckily, stubbornness and great friends have helped me stay rooted on this side of the line.
So I wonder, given that I am in the adult minority, am I being foolhardy in believing that good will take me where I want to go? That it will take me much further than bad? Lets see - In a way the immediate benefits of changing my beliefs are many. Firstly, I can blame all that's happening in life to my 'trying to be good'. Bad can make me a winner much faster in all that I have failed to conquer. But my question is - will it keep me there? Will it make me one of those cynics who treat the whole world as 'guilty until proven innocent'? Thats like being wary of others like yourself! Will I start looking at life like a battle to be fought rather than a journey to be enjoyed? Most importantly, will that fetch me sustainable happiness? Well, I don't think so!
So it pains me every time someone from my team decides to change sides. I don't know what to promise to them if they stay on, since I haven't seen too many benefits myself. As of now its only the fact that you will be at peace with yourself. But like all good things, I guess most realize that the value of it only when its gone and its too late for anything to be done about it. Don't make that mistake! Keep the faith!

Learn To Gauge?

At the receiving end of some advice earlier today (which is not surprising given the bumpy road on which my life is traveling), I was told that I should "learn to gauge". Some background for the clueless reader - the talk was about people. Interesting thing this, I thought. How should I learn to gauge things about people? Well maybe, by generalizing - if I can figure out what people do or how they think in certain situations then maybe I can gauge whatever it is that I am supposed to gauge. But then this same kind hearted soul pointed out a major flaw in the above hypothesis - "people are different and they may not always think and react in the same way".
Well, this got me confused... Isn't there something known as rationality and logical thinking? Yet there are people who don't think and act in the same way (as I was told) and hence concluded that they don't necessarily act and react logically. I know that all humans aren't machines (heck even machines don't always act in the same logical way), so I would think it safe to accept a small margin of variance in terms of logical behavior but not enough to proclaim that no rule can be made of it (calling the variances - exceptions). Another useless hint for the still clueless reader - A 'specific subset' of all people was the target group being spoken about.
So, here I am, still left with the fundamental question of "How to gauge"? Well, people of the world (or the subset under consideration here), hear, think and understand:

"Life will be made much easier if what you want the other person to know is communicated explicitly. Speech, written words, instant messengers, SMSes, emails etc are the various means at your disposal to achieve this objective. Use them. Telepathy is NOT a reliable medium yet. Please do not expect others 'to gauge' or worse still, to 'somehow know' what you want them to.
For those of you don't agree, since I still have to share this planet with you, I am trying to learn 'to gauge'... Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated!"

Sulking - Q & A

Question: Well, why do people sulk?
Answer: Because they have the time. If you have a lot of work and responsibilities and are left with little time at the end of the day, enough only to talk to friends and family about happy things and to sleep, you will never sulk.

Question: What kind of people sulk?
Answer: Those think that life sucks and that's how it is and those who think that life should not suck.

Question: Well then who's left? Rather what kind of people don't sulk?
Answer: Those who do not have expectations from life or have rather few of them which are met easily. And those who are really really really lucky to have all their desires fulfilled.

Question: So, is sulking good or bad?
Answer: Both. A little is necessary, but as all things in life - "Too much is too bad".

Question: If I have decided that I will not sulk and even then on a one off occasion, I am still whining to myself about "Why me?" or "Why not me?", is that a bad thing?
Answer: Nope, its human - At that point looking at others less fortunate than you and asking the same questions helps... Also looking at the good in your life and asking the same questions again helps even more.

Question: What is the ideal conclusion to a sulking session?
Answer: A bottle of Old Monk rum which concludes in a sound sleep with the cause of the sulking temporarily deported to a far off galaxy!
Answer (For the poor teetotalers like me) : Well, if the cause of sulking can be remedied then try your best to rectify it. If it can't, then no point crying - there is nothing you can do anyway!

Question: What if .... Hey, stop it - enough for the night! No further questions!

Just FYI, the above monologue is not the result of a bottle of Old Monk rum or any other intoxicating spirit for that matter :)

Vegetable Buying - Redefined!

Another weekend ends. This weekend had all the essentials of a good weekend - an evening out with friends, a good amount of personal and household work accomplished, a nice trek to Sinhagad on a cloudy summer day and an evening full of rest. I had planned on writing a little more on the topic of blogging, but now another interesting experience needs telling.

This experience of which I talk about, which was a rather interesting part of the weekend was buying vegetables for the house. Well no, I am not saying this was interesting because this was the first time I have bought any (I am not that hopeless you see). It was interesting for me because it was the first time that I bought them at a supermarket.

Until now all my vegetables buying experiences were at the local markets - either Shivaji market or Pulgate market. Buying vegetables at such places was nothing short of a mission. I had to go mentally prepared to survive in a noisy, crowded marketplace, with the end goal being procuring self-picked vegetables at not the most expensive price available and in the shortest time possible. The brain needed to tune itself to enter a filthy narrow corridor of a public market between hordes of fruits and vegetable sellers screaming out the prices of their wares to the whole world. The intention behind their screaming seemed more to outdo their peers in the exercise rather than attract customers. The 15 minutes spent there bargaining, selecting, ensuring the correct weighing and eventually buying the vegetables would end up being the most arduous part of the day.

This time I bought vegetables at a quiet spacious air-conditioned store (named 'more' or something like that) with polite staff ready to help you with every task with gleaming smiles. There was no need to haggle, no need to try and select the good vegetables from the bad (all the vegetables appeared to be of a reasonable quality) and no need to lend a hawk's eye to inspect the process of weighing and packaging. This was smooth sailing all the way from the entrance to the shopping and back to the exit... Well, almost smooth - being a little rusty in the vegetable nomenclature, I did confuse a couple of vegetable names, but I am sure that would not take anything from the feat achieved by buying a scooter-load of vegetables effortlessly without going through the motions of a battlefield-like marketplace.

The 'Why" On Blogs - Part 1

Lately I've been surfing around the blogosphere. That got me back to some 'why' questions about blogs. These, I had asked myself the very first time I made an acquaintance with the concept of blogging. I was told 'A blog is like a personal diary on the Internet'. I wondered why the heck would someone want to put up their personal diary on the Internet? I had an electronic personal diary at the time, but I could not imagine putting that up in the open for all to read, analyze and judge. Why? Because they were thoughts which needed to be expressed somewhere but were not suitable for public consumption. Mind you, some of the entries would definitely have ruffled many a feather! Isn't that why people write personal diaries in the first place - to let out your thoughts which you think you can't even share with your friends? And for all the other thoughts one wants to share, you always have friends and family. With this simple chain of thought, I happily concluded that blogging was only for some lonely souls who had no one to lend a ear to their thoughts and were trying to seek solace in the hope that their transmission in cyberspace would increase the chances of them being heard. I did create a blog to see what it was all about and blogged anonymously for a short while but I soon lost interest. Thus, after corroborating my theoretical conclusion with practical experience, I dismissed blogs from my online itinerary.
The time at which the above research was conducted was while I was in college, i.e. when I lived the majority of my life in the real world. Since I graduated and joined the software industry, I see many things (blogging included) in a different light. So if you were wondering, why the heck has this guy spent his time to write a blog post if he doesn't believe in the concept in the first place, I must tell you that the new light to which I was referring to earlier has led to newer thought chains and newer conclusions, which I shall elaborate on, in a subsequent post.

Game Over! A New One To Begin Soon!

This weekend marked a tribute to a journey, which though unsuccessful, was quite an eye-opening one. I primarily reflected over the roads traveled, the turns taken, the turns mistaken and the eventual result. Dwelling on all these, I drew up a road-map for the road ahead - not a very long one - just for the next few months. Seems like a weekend well spent.

Here's me looking forward to a brand new start tomorrow!

Testing Times

There are times, some things don't work out. Every man and woman lives through them. That was something I knew. One thing I didn't know however, was that there are times when all things don't work out and nothing happens as planned. The last few months have elaborately rid me of my ignorance in this regard. So much so, that now I am highly tempted be a devout believer in Murphy's Laws. It is a unique feeling when you question whether the entire universe has conspired against you to create turbulence in almost each and every aspect of your life.

The good thing about such times is that they truly test your strength. The bad thing is that they run the risk of making you cynical. They make you lose enthusiasm in life. One may then begin to live life accepting that reality is always dark. That thought occurred to me too. In the fight of hope versus reality, reality always wins - so why does everyone say "Keep Hope"? Some say that hope and reality don't fight - they simply move on their own paths which meet on and off. Some say that hope has various sisters - one should side with the sister called "Realistic Hope". The only difficulty lies in identifying "Realistic". Well, the truth as I see it is that hope keeps you prepared for the impending reality but does not allow you to give up.

An adage goes - "The good thing about bad things is that they come to an end." I hope that that end is near! As of now, I hope that my stubbornness helps me continue to keep faith in the fact that life is beautiful in spite of all its ups and downs, and help me through the current 'down' that I am going through. Yes, I trust hope again...

The Week That Was...

Here am I, writing for the second time in a week. The week which just went by was a rather interesting and eventful one and hence deserves a dedicated post. The events which made it such are enumerated below in chronological order:
It started on Monday (as most weeks do), which involved me spending the day in my office in a sleep deprived state. However, Monday was special because among other things, it was involved me being appraised of the fact that I was given an award at work. This news couldn't have come at a better time. Maybe that last statement needs further explanation, but I can't reveal more at this moment...
Tuesday was nice because we had a lovely team lunch at 'All Stir Fry' in E-Square. The good thing about this was not only the scrumptious meal but also the fact that our entire team interacted with each other in a totally informal atmosphere and had fun together, something which is not usual in the 'multinational corporate culture' normally seen in my company.
Wednesday was different too, again detailed reasons as to why, mustn't be made public.
Thursday was definitely among the better days I have had in the whole year, and apart from the excellent Dandiya event in my office (to which the previous post is dedicated), it was also the day of the week in which I managed to get the maximum work done.
Friday and Saturday were different, since we had a training session in my company. The topic of the training session was 'Ethical Hacking', which is an interesting topic. One thing about this activity deserving mention is that the trainer himself was quite 'entertaining', to say the least!
Sunday morning was spent in a boring but necessary exercise, the afternoon was spent getting some well deserved rest, while the evening was spent meeting up with various sets of friends, some of them after a long time!
Here is me finishing the wonderful week off with a post summarizing its various events. Hope, the weeks that follow continue to be this exciting :)

Dandiya Again!

This year, due to certain circumstances brought about by my own doing, I missed out on the Dandiya programme organized in my society on both days. However, I was given another chance to club sticks when my company decided to organize a Dandiya evening on the 25th of October. Initially, I was quite skeptical about how the event would turn out, especially with regard to participation, since the environment in my organization is reasonably formal.
However, when I saw the way some people had come dressed in the morning, I realized that - well there is a fun side to all those grim intellectuals too and in the afternoon when I saw the way the preparations for the event were underway, I was certain that the evening had a lot in store.
The 'ethnic' attire worn by me included a kurta (which I changed into earlier in the evening) worn over my jeans and a set of mojari's bought from Udaipur. After completing my work for the day I headed off toward the cafeteria. I reached there just as the music was starting. I was astonished to see such a lot of beautiful people there since I didn't know so much beauty existed within my workplace :)
Well, here I was playing Dandiya again this year, initially with my colleague friend Ritesh, then joined by a couple of other colleagues, then joined by some more till we had a nice big group of around 8-10 people. Then on it was one and a half hour of continuous and fast dance and sheer enjoyment arising from dancing to the beats of the excellent music being played by the live band! The good thing about Dandiya is that its reasonably simple and even people who aren't accomplished dancers (like me) can appear to do a decent job of ... well 'dancing'. The last half an hour saw the band playing disco hits like Bhool Bhulaiya which had us abandoning our sticks and dancing 'freestyle' for a while.
Not normally a party type guy, I really enjoyed this one, mainly because of the fact that this was one party without the stench of alcohol, unsocial behavior of some intoxicated by it or any unpleasant cigarette smoke. Also, I find a good refreshment in expressive art forms like dancing and singing. (I must add, that I am an amateur at both.)
All in all, I had a wonderful time at this event thanks to the excellent work done by the organizers, great music played by the band and the splendid company of fellow colleagues in my group!

An Hour At The Railway Station

I had started writing this post almost a year back - the draft says 30/09/06, but that was under a different context, and in different times.
To give justice to the time spent then, I quote whatever little I had written:
"This was among the common easy topics in school. However, the actual experience is a lot of fun. Especially when you aren't there to catch a train or receive someone, but to simply spend an hour there, observing and experiencing the activities at a railway station.
Rail travel always entails more confusion and tension than any other form of travel..."
However, last evening the mood was on another plane. Having had an interesting day, I spent an hour at the railway station. The time was approximately between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. This time, there were no long distance trains that came and went. The platforms were either empty or had empty trains berthed after their journey from Bombay. The normally buzzing and chaotic station was quite calm and peaceful today, it felt almost as if I was walking in a frame frozen in time. That was good for me, since I was able to sit down and think over my life and over my current and future state. My friend was with me too, but I still did get time to reflect while both of us were taking in the serene atmosphere.
So I got thinking- I thought about trains - how at times there are two places you want to go, two trains you want to catch, but its almost impossible to decide. Its even worse when you don't have a reservation in either train and don't even know how far the will trains take you toward your destination. So the chance of either decision not working out and of you getting back to where you started from after a lot of effort and sacrifice is significant. Then I tried to explore the cause of this confusion and I realized that its main cause is the fact that you want to get somewhere. In my case, I want to go someplace else even though I am not particularly unhappy with my current state of affairs. I have more than enough of what I need, and at the rate I am going I am sure that situation will at least persist, if not improve. However, I want to change the status quo, go elsewhere, someplace better. Knowing that I have brought this confusion upon me out of choice, I feel a little better, I don't feel sorry for myself for being unlucky.
Now a little effort towards its resolution, there is no point in trying to get reservations in two trains which I can't board simultaneously, I know I have to make a choice. Also, I know that I might get at a place similar to the one I forfeit now, sometime in the future (irrespective of whether the journey I chose now is successful or not), the alternate place may not be all that good, but then it would be my choice. As they say 'you win some, you lose some', I just hope I am not unlucky to lose all. Also, from my current position, I don't have enough information on which choice will be better or in which one I will be more successful, both are risks.
One may feel that I am trying to palm off responsibility on luck by calling my choices risks, however, I know that my choices will only affect me and I learn from mistakes if any. Another short one on luck - at times isn't on your side at all. Just a few hours back I had an accident. I skidded on a turning because there was a trail of some viscous liquid (probably a lubricant of some sort) spilt on the road, at a turning. The trail was quite thin, a tyre width at max, but my back wheel had to go on it at the exact same time I turned. So I skidded and fell and injured myself when there was absolutely no fault of mine, and the chances of me turning while on the thin trail of liquid weren't very high. That's luck and it does have its effects on ... well, life!
One positive conclusion was that I have to make a choice and that this is a good thing. So I thought of what I have to do next. For either of my choices, I must act fast, time is running out quickly. Try my best in it, and if it doesn't work out, learn from my mistakes, and move on. Worrying about it now will not help, it will only consume my time and waste it!
I have made my choice, I feel a little sad for the other choice but I hope the future will hold something better. (Hope is really powerful you know!).
Here's me signing out promising myself on working toward my goals to the best of my ability without worrying about things that are beyond my control and don't warrant the attention.
The hour at the railway station also deserves my gratitude for helping me make this resolve!

Random!!!!!

Okay - here's a warning to anyone who has started reading this post - DON'T! Scroll up or down and read other ones which make at least little sense. This one is just as the title says - Random!!!
To start - I hope I finish this post, but then again - I shouldn't really care whether its ends logically.
So what is it that I want to write? Do I want to make statements or ask questions? Well, lets see.... why the hell am I wondering? This is random, hence no rules! I am already beginning to love random!!! (To those who are still reading, get off NOW while you still have some sanity left!!!)
In a random world one would easily be able to walk up to the girl one liked and asked her out! Not go crazy wanting to but never really going ahead and doing it. In a random world, one would just go ahead and follow his dream and not suppress it in the name of practicality. In a random world, one wouldn't have to worry about being careful of people trying to stab one in the back or mischief-mongers who twist your words to use them against you! Now wait a sec, is this a random world I am talking about or a perfect world? Doesn't matter really. One person's randomness is another's perfection. How? Well, simple - a perfect sentence written in Chinese looks random and therefore senseless to me. Hence how the world seems depends on who is looking at it. Also, this proves that ignorance transforms perfection into randomness!
I talk about a random world, then say randomness is at times a view of perfection distorted by ignorance. Ignorance some say is bliss! Maybe that is because there is no perfection in the world, hence people like to feel that the reason for them not seeing perfection is not because the world is a place devoid of perfection, but because they are ignorant and what is around them is in fact perfect, its just that they can't see it and are happy thinking it is there!!
Hence, I too can attain bliss by saying that my life is perfect, its only my ignorance because of which I can't see it. Unfortunately, I am among those unlucky beings who don't like ignorance. It is imperative for them to know or at least try to know the hows and whys of life. However, the more they know, the more they realize how far perfection is... the harder they try to attain that perfection. This goes on till they run out of their greatest strength..... hope!

The Bombay Sojourn...

Day Zero
Having a quick dinner consisting of Maggi Noodles, I left for Pune Railway Station at 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, 19th April, 2007 , a good 15 minutes later than I had planned to reach there. Having reached there at 10:50 and quickly purchasing a normal ticket to Mumbai CST, I moved toward the platform where the Mumbai Passenger was waiting. The train was packed. Worse still, I couldn't locate the T.C. from whom I wanted a reservation. At last, when I found him, we had a slight altercation when I insisted that I wanted a receipt for the reservation and he responded by telling me that there was no reservation available, even though a minute ago, he had quoted to me a price for the same. We ended with a mutual consent that each of us should get lost. That in a way was a blessing in disguise for me and also a proof that honesty pays, for the Chennai-Mumbai Express which pulled into another platform was almost empty.
Getting my favourite aisle lower berth, I opened both the windows and looked forward to among my favourite activity as the train started its four and a half hour long journey at approximately 11:50 p.m. I managed to stay awake till Lonavla enjoying the night landscape zoom past supplemented with nice cool breeze, the music from my excellent SE earphones further enhancing the experience. I love traveling by trains as it is - and this, was very close to the perfect setting!
I was woken up by a gun-holstering cop at around 2 a.m. who asked me who I was, where I was coming from and where I was headed, and being satisfied that I wasn't one of the terrorist types - proceeded towards the rest of the compartment. On his way, he was checking the empty berths for any suspicious items. I was a little amazed at first, since this is the first time, I have observed such a thing, but at the same time, I was happy that now, I would feel a little safer with such guys doing their duty well.
I overslept at Dadar, waking up just as the train was leaving the station.This would make me loose an hour, but going by the fact that I love trains, I didn't mind it much. Even an 4:15 a.m in the morning, V.T. (CST) station was crowded with lots of people waiting to catch trains. The main terminus' compound too was full of people sleeping on the ground. At a rough estimate there were at least 1000 people asleep there when I walked by. What surprises and amazes me the most about Bombay is that there is a flurry of activity at all times at the railway stations. The local trains I caught to get to Malad, weren't totally empty as I thought they would be and at Dadar Station's over-bridge, there was a guy selling shirts for Rs 10/- at 4:30 a.m in the morning
!! Finally reaching my destination at 6 in the morning, I fell off to a much need sleep...

Day 1
After a few hours of sleep, my dad, my brother Rohan and I set off at around 11 a.m. to Essel World - among Bombay's best amusement parks. Getting there was fun too since it involved a ferry ride across the Gorai Creek. We had a great day there, getting drenched in the Splash roller coaster several times, and getting our systems flushed with adrenalin in the Zyclone, Thunder and the other scary rides. It was Friday, so we were lucky that there wasn't too much rush and we didn't have to wait in big lines for the rides. Getting back at around 6:30 p.m. after having a wonderful time at Esselworld, and after failing to convince my friends to come to a point midway between Malad and Fort, I relented and left for Churchgate at 7:30. Traveling was relatively expensive since the BEST buses were on strike, but fortunately, Malad Station was only 25 bucks away from where I had put up.
I reached Churchgate at around 9 p.m. and after a little confusion which involved me going to Marine drive while my friend was waiting at Churchgate itself, I finally met my friend there. That was followed by a little path-finding since our cab driver didn't know where Cafe Churchill was and our other friends who were waiting there hadn't given us crisp directions. The food at the small restaurant was quite great. I had a 'Prawns Nirvana', a continental dish, which though expensive was extremely gratifying! Thereafter we walked to Gateway of India, spent some time there and then parted ways. I was lucky to enjoy another night train journey, before reaching home at 1 a.m. and dropping off to sleep after a hectic but enjoyable day.

Day 2
I got up lazily at around 9:30 a.m. and had a good breakfast of scrambled eggs. Our family, including our grandad whom I was staying with, then left for Churchgate. There after my dad and got ourselves a couple of electronic items at Lamington Road, we had an awesome lunch at Delhi Durbar in the same area. The original plan was to explore South Bombay for the rest of the day, however, calls from insistent relatives to come and meet them, prompted my parents to decide that they would spend their time there. I had a friend of mine visiting Bombay, so I decided that I would spend the rest of my day on that front.
I met my friend Radhika and her other friends Zaher and Rajiv at Barista at Phoenix Mills at Lower Parel. We then went to CO - a bowling place where I played the game for the first time. I didn't do too badly for a beginner since I came in a close third among us four. We then decided to go to Worli sea face at around 6 p.m. There we were joined by another couple of Radhika's friends. In gaps while they were busy reminiscing of their college days and catching up on old times, I had the opportunity to take in the beautiful sunset-time sea views. Having spent a
wonderful 2 hours at the sea face, we started heading back. Rajiv was kind enough to drop Radhika and me to Dadar Station, from where we caught our respective trains back home. I reached home at 10, by when, even my family was back. The remainder of the evening was spent chatting with my grandad.

Day 3 - Today
Well not much happened today. We got up early, got packed and left for Pune via the Expressway. The journey was comfortable and good, but nothing compared to the night journey I had in a train 3 days ago.
This was my second trip to Bombay this year and though the earlier one was good, this was much better. All in all, it was a great trip, I had a wonderful time and a nice break from my regular routine. As always, I look forward to many such trips in the future!

Do I Care?

The title sounds a lot like a rhetorical question from some popular rock song, but in my case, it is a genuine question I am asking myself. As to why, is not totally clear to me too, but hopefully as the article progresses, we can get some sort of a rough idea at least.
First, let me complete the question - this is not a 'do I care about the world' kind of question. The question in its totality is 'Do I care what others think or feel about me?'
Had I been confronted with this question a few years ago, my answer would have been an outright no. However, as of late, I am unsure of what the answer should be. The thing is, people are always making opinions about you. Most of these opinions are based on how they observe you at a point in time. Sadly, therefore, these opinions are based on assumptions and incomplete information. Moreover, these opinions affect how those people interact with you and value you. Now the answer may seem that - well those who matter - will end up making an opinion about you over a period of time which will be a fair one, while the others don't matter anyway, so why bother? However, this solution weakens, when potentially significant people have to chose whether to interact with you or not. Often, to make this choice people don't have too much time to expend, all they have is their opinion of you in a short period of interaction. Also, in the beginning, people are more averse to accepting your idiosyncrasies than when they know you well. So the question now boils down to whether it is worth living your life trying to make an extra effort in portraying yourself to be something you are not, in an effort to capture potential opportunities or living freely, as you are, perhaps letting go of potentially enriching opportunities at the cost of personal freedom?
I find this a tough choice to make, because I value both equally highly... this is where my quandary lies... I hope to find the answer... but don't really know whether one is possible without making a sacrifice..., which sacrifice to make is a tough choice too...

The First Week...

My first week at my new job was quite an experience. If I were to highlight the main difference between my previous company 'AirTight Networks' which was a start-up and the current one 'Symantec', professionalism would be it. Everything was totally organized and processes were in place to streamline everything conceivable. This is not to say anything bad about my previous company which was a great place to work at in its own right, but I was amazed at the way people worked here and at the facilities offered here.
The facilities at my new company are great - my PC seems to have the best configuration in the market, my workspace (cubicle) here has privacy and at least 3 times more room than my earlier one, and facilities like transport, food, recreation and in-house gymnasium make this a great place to work at! The work environment however, is not as open as it was at AirTight, neither is the pace as fast, but this corporate experience is exactly what I came here for. Another good thing is that the work here seems quite promising and interesting!
I hope my remaining experience here is as good as it was in the first week and I have a mutually beneficial association with the company, just like I had with the previous one.

The 10 Day Vacation of 2007!

Today is the last day of my 10 day vacation. What made this vacation different was that in the course of these 10 days I was unemployed ... peacefully. It was a break I took between my job change. It was quite relaxing because there were no pending responsibilities to get back to at the end of it all. It was a break between a good and memorable tenure well ended with my last company and the start of a fresh stint with my new company.
This break started off with my favourite trek - Torna-Rajgad making it my 3rd trek in as many months. We started on Friday at 10 in the morning and spent the first night at Torna. The sunset on the top of the fort was awesome with a tricky stunt at Budhla Machi, a well cooked dinner and a camp-fire at wind-point being the highlights of the day.
The second day was as usual the most interesting one because it included not only a trip to Jhunjar Machi along a treacherous path, the main trek along the ridge from Torna to Rajgad with awesome scenery along the way and a night climb to the Bali-Killa at Rajgad, but also saw me reunite with a couple of my seniors with whom I had last trekked with more than 5 years ago at Bali-Killa. The food at both times consisted of Maggi which was reasonably well cooked. My day ended late at 3 in the morning with a late night rendezvous with my seniors on an edge of Bali-Killa overlooking Torna.
The final day of the trek was rather lazy as usual, with people being quite tired and subsequently relaxed. In the morning, tea and biscuits constituted our breakfast. However, a sudden flash in some of our minds caused us to go diving in the icy cold water of Bali-Killa's pools. The moment I hit the water, I felt my entire body scream for a moment and then felt pangs of chill streak all over my body. With this dive, I can imagine what the passengers of the Titanic must have felt on hitting the icy water of the North Atlantic Ocean. The trek ended with a good rustic lunch at the base of Rajgad, thus ending the first phase of my vacation.
Pictures of the trek can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/varun.menghani/TornaRajgadJan2007
The next two days, I spent recuperating from the exhaustion of the trek and also completing some work at home which I always wanted to do, but never had the time to end up doing it.
On Wednesday, at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, I left for Shirdi. I was lucky enough to catch the luxurious Goa Volvo. The journey to Shirdi was extremely comfortable owing to the Volvo's excellent shock absorbers, AC and reclining seats. However, I was unable to get the 'feel' of a journey. Thereafter, I visited lord Sai Baba's Temple and prayed and payed homage to Him. After that, I decided to travel back by S.T. to Pune. Getting a window seat, this was a journey I really enjoyed with the wind blowing in my face and by being able to see the scenery along the way not through tinted glasses but in all its natural colours. Thus ended my second trip and also the 6th day of my vacation.
I spent Thursday getting some more work accomplished and also got a little rest on that day. My day ended with a lovely dinner at Coffee House.
Friday morning I was off again at 6:30, this time headed to the city of Bombay. I was lucky enough to catch the Deccan Queen. Since I didn't have a reservation, I had to make do with a spot near the compartment's door. I enjoyed the view and the cold wind for quite a while before some people wished the door closed as they were feeling cold. I had no option but to oblige, since they were many in number. Thereafter, I spent the remainder of my journey in seats temporarily vacated. Surprisingly, I got to sit for a majority of the time. On reaching Bombay, I disembarked at Dadar and caught a local for Malad. While in Malad, I met with my cousin, my aunt and uncle and also with my grandfather. The main purpose of my visit to Bombay was to spend some time with my grandfather, something which I had neglected to do all these years. The evening was spent with my grandfather and cousin at the Inorbit Mall there, which included amazing demos of Bose music systems and Apple products. The day concluded with a nice dinner at the Mall's Food-Court.
On day nine, my grandfather and I headed for town (V.T.) where we went to Marine Drive and Nariman point and he showed me some important landmarks of the area. The pleasant weather and the view of the sea ensured that our time spent there was quite enjoyable. Our lunch was at the famous Status Restaurant at Nariman Point. Thereafter, my grandfather and I parted company at V.T. station where he caught a local back to Malad and I caught the Mumbai-Kanyakumari Express back to Pune. I specifically chose that train because I love traveling in sleeper coaches. This time I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat all to myself, so I could lie down as well as see the beautiful scenery along the way fly past. The wonderful return journey brought to an end the penultimate day of my vacation.
The last day - Sunday was spent preparing for the new phase in my career and also in personal housekeeping like clipping of nails and cutting of hair. In addition to that, I spent the afternoon in school playing a wonderful game of cricket and enjoying a thought provoking discussion on leadership with the Scouts. The evening was spent enjoying a sumptuous dinner of Pav-Bhaji. The last part of the day was spent writing this log of the events of the last 10 days.
This vacation saw me visiting 2 forts, one town and one city for a total duration of 6 days and all this with an extremely peaceful and relaxed frame of mind.
I am thankful for this well needed (and well deserved I think) break before the start of my new job and hope that I get several such vacations in the future.