Reason? Season? Occasion? Or...

You would be introduced to a person, share a joke, help each other and bid your goodbyes when it’s time to leave. When you meet subsequently, this person conveniently ignores you, you find it funny and rude, but care a damn! For instance, there was this one girl I met at a face painting competition, I helped her when she had her face painted, we joked on how she looked, we were sweet to each other and also said our goodbyes with a note of meeting again. Then, couple of days later, I meet her at the next event and she just walks past me...for sure she didn't manage to upset my emotions of anger or disappointment by doing that! People like these; they are there for an occasion, not a thing more or less – just that – an occasion!!

Some, you meet during a phase in your life, they help you get through it or get over it and then they vanish. Like, last year when I was preparing for my certification, I knew these people, a guy who was giving the exam with me and another, a faculty who taught us – who were very helpful and supportive all through my study. I thanked them after I cleared my exam; spoke to them relatively little after, exchange an occasional hello-hi e-mails and haven't met them again till date. At the cost of sounding self centred opportunist, I would say, we meet such kinds for a reason!!

There are others, whom you would strike a conversation with in a jiffy, continue keeping in touch after you part your ways, you share moments of laughter, which would nurture from acquaintance into an interesting friendship. Sometimes they are there forever and at times they just are not there. In cases of absence, your questions of ‘where were you?’ would be delicately put not to give away the concern and the demanding tone!! For all you know, these are friends for a season – not the fair weather, just a random season!!

Then there are people whom you meet pretty often, but neither would acknowledge the presence of the other. The kind whose very aura puts you off, to whom you would not mind being rude for no reason and you do not, at any point in time, intend or make an attempt to know them. (I have toooo many of them – so chose not to quote either here). People like these are just there – no reason, season or occasion – just there!

Again, there are friends, you hardly remember how you met them, the first introductions, how your friendship grew stronger by the day. It just feels these strong bonds have been there since the day one!! Over a period, you may not meet them day after day but moments spent with them are memories – memories of the crazy, silly, fun, low moments spent together which you reminisce every time you get together. You would know these are people not for a reason, season or an occasion, they are for a lifetime!

P.S: No reference to any instance in the season or the lifetime is a deliberate attempt, in a hope that the crazy people I met through the ‘season’ would be there through the lifetime and for the ones already victimized for the lifetime just don’t need a reference!

Path of Joy!

Pic Courtesy - Ashish!

I am on a week's leave, (NOT a vacation) in a struggle to start working towards a committed "project"!! So, after spending the day trying to get my concentration on a book (academic of course) and considering that the letters in there were dancing in front of my eyes the whole day, I was left with 6 hours of study ending up in "effective" completion of 5 full pages!!

Ashish comes home and I look doomed! We decided to go for a walk!! This walk - as Ashish puts it, was the one I "earned" after a day's solitary confinement - EHAHAHA!

So, while we were walking, I discovered the most simplest, serene and joyful moment!!!

All you have to do to self-discover this is - after a full day's attempt at studies, go for a walk through a drizzling evening....gentle breeze just to refresh your thoughts....a path surrounded by beautiful trees, with beautiful flowers - half of them strewn all over, making the path more picturesque than ever......seeing the rain drops gleam in the light from the lamp post....enjoying the silence, the unspoken words...in the company of a "special someone".....

The pleasure, the delight of walking this path of joy cannot be shattered by anything, BUT the brutal truth of next day's study plan!!!!!!!!

Training In and Out!

In yet another city for yet another training!!

My roomie this time was a very young sweet girl from Delhi. She is a fresher and a new joinee, which explains her high expectations from the accommodation! I mentioned to her I was bored and she suggested some cartoons and dumps of shows she had, I had no clue of. I realized I was in a danger of being outdated and archaic!!!

So, after analyzing the potential of the danger, I had a peaceful night’s sleep and get up to see a lovely, absolutely chilly morning! Fighting the Monday blues, I get out of the bed in anticipation of a hot water bath and switch on the geyser. After a while I realize there is no power and I go to the caretaker to ask for a candle, in response to which he says “Madam geyser bandh kar dijiye meter trip ho raha hai aur isiliye power nahi hai”. So, that marked the start of the long day ahead - early morning bath with ice cold water in a chilly weather!

The training starts off with a bang and on time (the corporate populace would concur, it’s a rare sight)!! The trainer shows the PPT slide which describes the ‘goals’ of the training, which reads – not in exact words - 1) “learn ABC concepts”, 2) “to also have FUN” (??????) and he read this with just a smalllll hint of a smirk…..Fun when on a PPT in words, becomes just another item on the agenda! So proved the training!!

The one thing, which our table group was collectively working on, was the bowl of candies!!! We had a decent lunch, except that amount of effort it took to tear (yes TEAR) apart the roti drained us off all energy, so the lunch ultimately had a knock-off effect!!

The subject which we were being trained in is almost Greek and Arabic to me and every now and then the instructor asks “Is it clear?” I had an urge to wave to him and say “Oh yeah ofcourse, in fact, there is soooooo much clarity that I can't take anymore of it!!”

Most of the training team went out for dinner one night….standing and walking in the most happening of locations in the city which had at the least four restaurants in every lane and two in every by-lane, it took us one hour and a half to decide on a place to eat…it was sheer insult to the city!!

Given the “little” time we took to single out the eat out join, it turned out to be a tacky place. We see funny notices, posters and quotes all over – examples:

• “Fighting In Prohibited” (right outside the restaurant kitchen!)
• “Khali baithna mana hai”
• “First time in India, Daler Mehendi in Amritsar”

Any outstation training trip cannot end without a crazy adventure....We all at times have unreasonable craving to eat something yummy....some of them reading this now would agree, there are few species who have such cravings more often than others ;-) So, my roomie had a killing urge for an ice cream...now talking about the unreasonableness - it was at 12:30 midnight!!!!

So, four of us set out by walk to search for an outlet which served icecream - at that hour!!! Far ahead we saw some ray of hope, which turned out to be Barista!! It was obviously closed! The only mistake that guy committed yesterday was, to keep the lights on while he cleaned the place. We barged in and literally pleaded him to give us two scoops of icecream each (now that it was icecream, urge for that had already spread from one to atleast two of us!) We had solutions for any number of reasons he stated for not being able to "entertain" our requests...so...he finally gave up and we bought two scoops of icecream with chocolate sauce!!!

It was am amazing experience to have a mix og vanilla and chocolate icecream with chocolate sauce and walking down the empty road on a chilly night!! AMAZING!!!!

So, that’s a "quick" review of an interesting time had at this training!!!

P.S: Btw, did I mention there were more pillars in the training room, than the tables and each of the pillars had MIRRORS on either side!!!

Hard Pressed For Time!

I was trying to kill time waiting for someone and was browsing through the message "templates" in my Nokia phone.

They were a host of messages like "I am busy in a meeting...", "I will be late by....", "I will call you in...." which one assumes are sent over and over again to same person or group of persons. I thought so too, until....

I saw this one mind boggling message in the "templates" and that was.... "I love you too!"

Truly, people do seem to be hard pressed for time and living life in the fastest of lanes!!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S!

After a very long time, I could catch up with some of my friends from college and some cousins. Its funny how with time things change drastically and yet some things stay just the way they have always been!!

So, this friend of mine, who was perceived to be the most bindaas of us all in college, we weren’t even sure he’ll manage to stick to one thing ever in life, is now doing very well (touch wood) in a field he wasn’t even technically trained for (he operates squint and other eye dysfunctions in infants). He has proved to be the most stable and most responsible of us all.

An other friend of mine, who we were sure is a very sorted out person, has still not managed to sort things out for herself.

Yet another friend/cousin of mine, who has an amazing passion for her line of profession, who we thought would always be in the corporate world, climbing up the sought after ladder, is now taking care of an entire household (which is an overtime job) and has a very cute sweet lovely amazing little baby girl (which is wayyy difficult than working anywhere and any number of hours).

I, who always wanted a laid back life, never wanting to do a full time job and was never serious about building a career in the corporates, now find myself in the bestest of them and feel extremely restless when I don’t go out a day and see the busy-crazy human rush!

Today, each one of us is busy in our own ways, yet we find some time to catch up with the other. These are the people who I know will be there for me when I need them, with no relevance to the number of days that have passed without a call!!

Its funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back everything is different!!!!

Silent Moments!

Pic Courtesy - Ashish!

I need a vacation!!!

Last couple of months have been very busy, stressful and tiring. Travelled a bit for training, gearing up for more!! I always assumed, I like all ways of travelling, now I am not sure anymore! I still like travel, but now I know which part of it and whats it that I like about them!!!

I need a vacation!!! A silent, unwinding, relaxing and a lazy one!

By the sea shore, on a full moon night, soft breeze, sitting by the rock, waves splashing (the gushing sound of that is amazing) and when only the fondest of memories are reminisced. Its one of those rarest of rare moments when we realise what really matters!

No phones, no traffic, no mails, no laptops, no meetings, no clients, no rush hours!!!!!

In anticipation of living these fantasies....

I will spoil this post if I write further, so END!

In Case of Emergency!

I was travelling last week for yet another training in Kolkatta….(this time around it was a heavy dose technical training, so nothing exciting enough to write about)…coming back to Kolkatta….I had this tired, hectic day and so decided will hit the bed early…..finished my dinner early, vouched not to logon to internet and said my goodnights…..I finally land in the bed and realize, the mind and body alike refuse to fall asleep that early, as early as 9:30PM!!!!

So, I laze around letting my mind wander hither-wither….out of the random thoughts, I had a weird thought – what if there is an emergency at that very moment and the building (guest house) had to evacuated? Something like a fire, an earth quake? Given the fact that all thoughts have to be deliberated (irrespective of how radical or weird) – I did so!

The first thing I could think of to take along if I had to run, was my mobile (I think most of us would) but the next thought that struck me, was what appalled me – I ACTUALLY thought of my work, if I had replicated my work and would there be a copy if my laptop was left behind!!!! Can you beat that??

I know few of my very good friends may see the ditcher in me, those friends to whom I have been a reliable companion when it comes to planning different ways of staying away from work, various ideas which would pop out to replace the tedious work schedule with exciting outings etc., [mention about "plan" was intentional, since sadly, no attempt was ever made to execute them :-( ] Trust me guys, this was not a deliberate attempt of betrayal, my mind seems to be corrupted by some life threatening virus!!

Why I thought about this is still a puzzle – maybe I am too loyal to my work [;-)] OR maybe my reflexes are set to a default rework denial!!

You all know answer to this one!! [:D]