BRB

Taking a break from this for sometime...

Automagic!

Inspirations can come from all corners - so be at your absorbent best.

No one said the line above. I realised over a period of time that you can be inspired from the obvious highest peaks of success and the unsuspected lowest strata of struggle. I take an auto to office daily, and have been often amazed with the occasional conversations. I was going to office yesterday when a brand new Nissan Teana (see a review here) passed by. The young man in front was spellbound to see the car, and tried his best to keep speed with it till he could. He asked me what car it was and then said - "Where do people get so much money?" Very difficult question to answer - so I kept quiet and smiled at his reflection in the mirror.

"How much does it cost?" - he asked. I said I was not aware but it looked about 15-20 lakhs to me (it is indeed 20, I checked later). His smile became broader as he said - "If I had 1 lakh, I could have changed my life. I know I will save and I will change my life." I smiled again as he manoeuvured through the traffic in one of the whackiest signals in Hyderabad.

Nineteen Seven

Two years ago, someone told me - "Mate, I tell you - you are 25 today, and life from now is all downhill." (25 seemed too less for such a statement to me, but he got the concession since he was an American, and did not have a cocooned upbringing like us.) And like all descents down the hill, I am indeed coming down faster than the trudge upwards - the last 2 years, indeed, went quicker than any other. And with at least one tangle in every possible corner in life, these words kept coming back with each stroke of the knife through the second cake I cut at the stroke of midnight. I was back after a foot-deep dinner with my friends, to be treated to this visual delight at home. (See picture below) The yummy chocolate cake against the backdrop of the candles was too good to resist.



Even 1 year back, the cake would have surely been over in minutes. But this year, it is lying almost unaltered in the fridge. Sure sign of age. And even when the snaps were taken, half of the mind was busy coordinating the alternate actions of breathing and holding the tummy inside lest the bulge showed up in the snaps. These two indications, surely justify the two steps downhill I have taken since that holy man decided to share his realisation and discoveries in life with me on a day he should have cheered me up. Whatever happened to people wishing 'Tu jeeye hazaron saal...'

Here's wishing for all the good things that I have been wishing for since so long! May today's feeling of senility and the words of Mr. Jim be buried under the bundles of joy and the brightness of smiles all through the year.

When Bad is Good...

Scene 1 - Normal Shift (2 - 11 pm):

• Meals: Lunch, snacks, dinner.


• Reach office at 3 pm, reach home between 10-11:30 pm


• Desk hunt - meaning go from one desk to another in sequence and chat/irritate your heart out until none is left. Then start all over again.


• Gym? - Yes.

Scene 2 - Night Shift (6 pm - 4 am):

• Meals: Snacks, dinner. (Very rarely a don't-know-the-name-of-the-meal at 2:30 am)
  
• Reach office at 3 pm, reach home between 4-6 am
  
• Desk hunt - ever seen a roaring, hungry lion in the Sahara. Actually, there is a chance you see at least a mirage in Sahara :D
  
• Gym? - NO!

I am playing my part in Scene 2 for quite sometime now. Made the above list just to give an idea of the state of mind I was in all this while. It's a weird feeling - staying up alone in the floor till the wee hours of the morning. In such a setting, the general mood is one dotted with anger, frustration, restlessness and irritation. So much so, that even the best selection from my music collection - maybe for the first time - was failing to lift my mood. And all of a sudden I had an idea - when your top order fails, push someone up to slog. And moving aside my usual trusted team, I called on the top performers of the 80's and 90's musical scene. Songs like 'Mai se meena se na saaqi se', 'First time dekha tujhe dil kho gaya', 'Aashiqui mein har aashiq, ho jaata hai majboor', 'Tujhe na dekhun to chain mujhe aata nahi hai', 'Dil mera churaya kyun jab ye dil todna hi tha' (can anyone beat this one - Sanu and Anu together, a deadly nasal and banal combo!) and so on...

In a matter of minutes, I was smiling.

When in Rome, be a Roman
And when in Hell, dance with the Devil.