The Good, the Bad and Ugly of 2008

As the year comes to an end, I have decided to look back at the year 2008 and see how good, bad and ugly it was :)

When the year started, I thought this was a year that would change my life (I read too much of horoscopes to think about that). It sure changed my life. In the first month itself I was getting a lot of flak when I was not at fault. It was a sign of what was coming on my way.

The first few months had been hell. I did everything that would ensure my survival. I sure did survive. The one thing that I am still yearning for is appreciation. I don't know what it will take for others to appreciate. I don't know when that will happen. When it does, it would have surely lost its importance in my life or may be I will cherish it a lot.

Then the day came, when I realized it's not worth it. Day when I thought, I had enough and its time that I should do what was on my mind all the time. I should have done this earlier. The signs were there for me to see, it was just that I was still clinging on the small ray of light at the end of the tunnel.

I moved on. This year also made me realize how good I am. I always underestimated myself, but not any more. I got to see things, that I did not see before me, but were in front of me all the time. It was like living life all again. I enjoyed that period. Also came to know of ways how I can resurrect my life for the better.

Change is one thing that I am not good at dealing with. Something that is good to talk about, but hard to follow. Still I knew that its better to face it than run away from it. That is what I am doing now.

My flair for writing is the one thing that came out this year. You might have noticed it in the blog. I also tried my hand at poems, thought only people who are sensitive could do that. Guess what, I am sensitive too.

I also made amends with GOD. I had stopped praying because I was angry at him. Over the years it seemed that I started believing in him again especially Sai Baba which restored my faith in him Still I did not visited temples unless my family drags me to one. Then there were times when I would make plans to travel temples outside the city. I realized that I was no longer angry and that I should stop fooling myself. That's what I did. When I was small, I told GOD something which I believe he turned into a reality. I don't know of all the other prayers I said to him, why he choose that. He surely reminds me of that day everyday.

I have my fair share of happiness, sadness, despair and other emotions. I also realized that when you look at the bad phases of your life, don't forget to look at the good phases too, it evens out. Life is not that bad at all. Life is not standing in your way, you are. Like they say,

BE THE CHANGE

Hope the year 2009 turns out better. I have a feeling it would (had peeked into 2009 horoscopes).

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR

AND

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

My Christmas Memories

"Christmas is not a time or season, but a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy,
is to have the real spirit of Christmas"

The festive season is around, and if you are working in one of those outsourcing companies, you are sure to find the christmas spirit around you :) I sure did. Christmas has always been an occasion which brought joy to me, especially when it meant less work during this part of the year.

Over the years, there have been many christmas celebrations, but the one that I cherish was of which I was a part of. This was back in the year 2005, when I had just completed a year in the company. As a new recruit, I was full with energy and enthusiasm always coming up with ideas, be it work or having fun (That has not changed a bit, but yes cutting down on the work though). We had this fellow in our team, who loved to be in the limelight and wont be shy of his comments on anything. One day I just thought how wonderful it would be to make him a Santa Claus and bring gifts for the team in his gunny bag. I shared this idea with my Team Leader who was very happy and jumping with joy. Before we could carry it out, we had to take permission from our Manager. I emailed her about our plans and seeking her approval of the same.

She got the better of me. Instead of making him Santa Claus for just our process, she decided to do it with the whole dept. She was right in doing that. Our Santa Claus in the making was beaming with smile when the news was broken to him. What a day that was, people were getting crazy when he started throwing gifts around. On one point, I acted like a bouncer trying to protect him when people were all over him (Actually, I was worried about the clothes which I had brought on hire). What fun we had that day. He was there for all the shifts to distribute the gifts.

A funny thing had happen when my friend decided to get into the Santa Claus dress in the Men's loo. He was changing out in the open where people were coming and going. He told me that he would get into one of the toilet's to change. What followed next was simply hilarious. As he unlocked one of the doors, he blurted "Abe Akash tu kya kar raha hai:" Then the next voice came "Bandh kar saale". Akash forgot to lock the door while going in. Our Santa Claus commented loudly "Kya abe Western Commode main Indian Style behta hai, yeh pe bahtke mujhe use karna ageya hai". Even today when I think of this, I find myself laughing.

Another thing that made this Christmas memorable for me was doing something that I have never done before an audience. Yes, the first and the only time when I did a mimicry in front of others ( I prefer to do it in front of my family most of the times). It was part of the activities carried out for Christmas. It was the evening shift, when the shift lead decided to have a bit of fun around. It started with Antakashari, shayari and few mimicked each other and others guessed. I thought even I could it, but did not had the guts to move forward. I just told myself, let's just do it. and went ahead. I mimicked some of senior colleagues and managers. I was surprised to find a manager being a witness to my act. It was fun.

The next day, I had one of the managers (the count of managers in the dept. was endless) talk something about the act. I did not get what she said, but wondered how she came to know of that. The funny thing happened when I arrived at my office with Santa Claus in the making with his clothes, when one of the manager got caught hold of me in the reception area. He came to know that I mimicked him and wanted me to do it again. I was taken aback from a moment. I told him I cannot do it here right now, so he took me to the interview room nearby with another manager. There was no escape for me here, so I did it. not knowing what would followed next (He was not known for being friendly with others). Luckily, nothing happened. Before the manager got hold of me, he was busy taking interview of candidates. As I got in my dept. and settled in, there were more murmurs behind me, soon enough the other set of managers, shift lead also wanted to see the act again. Never before I have seen myself in so much demand. I was hesitant a bit, as I am not known for performing, but then there were other people who joined in, you can say the dept. I did it again not sure how well it came off. At the end of the act, it felt like a huge burden coming off. Later I came to know that the shift lead who had organized the activity had sent out a mail to every managers and leads about who did what. Had I any clue of that, I don't think I would have done the act.

I really enjoyed those days a lot. Though the christmas celebrations after that day has never been the same, but it does reminds me of the wonderful time that I had back then.

WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

KEEP SPREADING THE JOY AROUND :))

What a Weekend!!

What a weekend this had turned out to be. Read on to know further.

On Friday evening, I had a wedding of my brother-in-law's brother to attend. My family was already out there, as I had been out for work, I decided to join them at the reception. I had no clue on what was coming my way.

I had two choices to reach the place either take an auto or travel by train. I thought of travelling by auto as I did not wanted to take the risk of getting my clothes rubbed against fellow passengers while riding in a train. As I was already running late, I had not made up mind till the last moment.

It was the call from my sister who asked me where I was and told me to reach the place before everything gets wrapped up. I then decided to take the train route as it was much quicker than the road transportation. As some says if its ain't your day, you can do nothing about it.

I stood outside my building to catch an auto to reach the railway station, which is like a 10 min.walk from my place. As luck would have it, there was no single vacant auto moving and soon enough there was a traffic jam, thanks to the flyover build nearby. I decided to take a walk and finally managed to board a train. This did not end here. The train that I boarded was running late too, twice it stopped in between. It was then it sink in that I may not be able to make it on time. Later, I came to know a person at one of the stations came in between the train and the tracks while trying to reach the other side of the platform. I landed at the nearest station to the venue and thought my ordeal was finally over. I was wrong. I faced the same situation as I stood outside my building. sometime back. Only this time, the auto drivers were being choosy on where they wanted to go. There was long wait of commuters like me who were out on the road to catch an auto. I even went to the end of the road to catch an empty auto before someone else does. Even that did not work. Others also did the same. My patience was running out, so I called my sister to know how far was the place from the station, it turned out to be a 10-15 min distance. I decided to take my chances and walk all the way to the venue. As I made up my mind, and started walking, I found an auto camouflaged by the parking vehicles around which just dropped a passenger. I quickly made my move and asked him to take me to the venue.

There was another twist in the tale here. The driver told that he would take me if I knew the place as he was not from here. I told him, even I did not knew the place and that we can ask people to reach the destination. Soon he started his auto's engine and we were off. After asking a few people, I finally reached the wedding venue. I thanked the driver without whom my journey would have been incomplete.

The chairs were already half-empty when I reached there. I thought I am in for a lot of sound bytes. Thankfully, none of that happen. After that everything went smooth. There was more trouble coming for me which I had no idea of.

That night, I was constantly changing my positions and was unable to sleep. I did not know what was happening. It was only when I woke up on a Saturday morning with a cold, headache and fever that I realized what happened. The next two days, I slept and was on the couch wrapped with sheets watching TV and doing nothing. For now, I am avoiding cold water, though the fever and cold has gone, I am stuck with the headache and dry cough. Guess this is winter's way of telling its here and making its presence felt.

Lucky to Be Alive!!!

I thought this would be my last trip. If you have traveled in one of those "Super Express" buses plying in the state of Karnataka/Kerala, you would know what I am talking about.

This is not the first time that I was riding on these buses. The experience this time was definetly terrifying though. It looked as if the driver had made his mind up to live up to the name of "Super Express". For once I felt that the BEST buses in Mumbai was a smaller evil in front of this monster, but then you don't have so many open roads in Mumbai where you can really make your vehicles go faster.

Down here in Kerala, private buses form the crux of the road transportation. As there are many players involved, competition is tough. A case of who gets the passengers first at each stop and they would do anything to out do each other even if it means speeding, making dangerous manevours and overtakes.

The bus in which I was traveling had almost knock down a biker who made a wrong pass. The bus driver even went ahead and tried to make a U-turn without slowing down so as to reach the bus stop in the first position. His efforts did not pay off, but he did made me realize how one would feel if the bus is on a two set of tyres. There was a moment when I started chanting GOD's name when standing in a position made it possible for me to look outside the same glass the driver was looking through. The way he was driving, you too would have started praying. I am pretty sure that some of these 'maverick' drivers might have ended up in accidents. I wished not to be a part of it.

I am not sure if the people of Kerala find this amusing, but something should be done about this. For me, the bus ride was one hell of a journey and I feel Lucky to Be Alive!!