Eat, Drink, Digest, Repeat

Sunrise @ Carribean Sea

As I was waiting for my room, a Canadian caught me and started conversation. She was also alone over there, so we became friends soon. She insisted me to get ready and step in the pool. She told that I am looking as a tourist and should relax out. So I already had a good friend even before getting a room. I guess, it’s easy to make friends rather than a room. As soon as I got the room, I took shower and got refreshed to enter in the pool. Then I started the endless rounds of eating, drinking, digesting and repeating. As mentioned in the previous blog, it was an all-inclusive hotel which means you just keep on eating and drinking. When you feel that you are full, you swim, walk for some time to digest it and then start eating again. So I did the same, I ate some veggies, took some cool pictures with the help of Canadian friend. When I was full, I walked with her towards the end of beach and yeah took pictures again. Now I was ready to eat again. At sunset, I moved upstairs and took shower. There I saw bath robe which was the first time I saw it in reality, so got excited and took some pictures. After resting for a while, I came down for dinner and then took some pictures of hotel entrance hall. I also went for a small walk to digest and finally sleep.

2^nd day of my trip started early as I had to get ready by 5 AM. My ride was on time; it took people from different hotels and then finally dropped us at meeting point. Then we were divided into 2 groups. One went to Tulum and we went towards Chichen Itza. It is the world famous complex of Mayan ruins and also one of the new seven wonders of world. It took around 4 hours for us to reach there and then we were again divided into 2 smaller groups. Both had one guide which showed us the entire temple area in two hours. We reached there around 9 AM and were free by 11; they gave us 1 hour to take pictures and shopping. Beware: the vendors inside the temple will ask you dollar or Mexican dollars, always says Mexican and then you can bargain. They may reduce the price to 1/4^th of the actual price they say. For example, they were selling a piece in 80 and they may reduce it to 25, I guess they would have come down more. I completed shopping and came out on time by 12. It took around 3 hours for us to get back. Everyone was so tired that they just needed a bed to sleep. Obviously, I was sleeping on the way back to hotel. But when I reached there, got refreshed and then started eating rounds. As I felt that I was full, I walked towards another end of beach, not to the end as it was too far.

Sunset

Evening, I went upstairs to take shower and then tried Sushi. I have to say; I didn’t like it which is ok as I might not have taste of it. Then I walked on the street to explore nearby cool places. I found a picnic spot full of lively people kissing and having fun. There was a play area for kids and a Cancun sign board for cool pictures. It was so attractive that there was a line to take picture with that board. As the sun settled down, I came back and started shopping. There was a couple who helped me with shopping; they even got me some discount. Then I ended the evening with salad dinner and a new friend. As I was eating, I asked for help from a Columbian guy for taking pictures. Once pictures were done, I invited him to have dinner with me as he was alone. After dinner, we took some more pictures and then we walked on the cold sand, nice experience. It was a long and tiring day, but when it gets finished with little desert in the room, we feel special. Yes, Hotel staff kept nice sweet at night for me, hospitality at its best.

Random Pictures

Next day morning, I thought of waking up early and taking some sunrise shots. I tried, but sun rises fast at shores, I was late by 10 minutes and Sun was already up. Still I took some pictures and then slept again. I woke up finally around 8, spent some time on beach and got ready to go for lunch. I came out for my ride at 11. Super shuttle was already waiting for me in parking which helped me to be back on airport on time. Passed all the security checks and boarded flight to Atlanta, soon I was back in the States. 

Happy New Year

Dear Readers,

Happy New Year 2015.

Every year, we take a resolution. This resolution continues for days, months in exceptional cases even a year. I am here to talk about the difficulties that we face in order to complete the resolution. It requires a change in the way we think, in the way we work. It requires a change in mindset. Once you change your mindset, then everything will change, then New Year will be actually new for you. Otherwise it is gonna be the same old you and same Year  with a diff date and it’s also possible that nothing is happy in that.

Now the question is How to change the Mindset?

Let me take an easy example: Diet

Many people take New Year resolution of joining a gym, which they continue for a month or 2 and then again take U turn towards their old life. You have to remove this U turn from your life. Don’t set a very big goal that may become un-achieve-able and you have to turn back. 80% people goes to gym in order to lose weight and among them 70% returns by gaining weight. Since they stop going after some time. So set a goal that you can achieve.

Here are few simple resolutions that you might like to take.

No need to take a resolution on yearly basis, set small goals. Say, take one of the below resolution for just a month and then continue if you can.

1.     Get Physical

Physical exercises doesn’t mean only going gym. Include some physical exercise in day to day life. Use stairs, clean your house, etc.

2.     Eat smarter and Simpler

If you are a bachelor and cooking yourself, eat healthy foods like capsicum, leafy vegetables, and turmeric. If you are married, go with whatever your partner prepares, try to have less selective. In case you belong to a foody city like me, it’s difficult but necessary.

3.     Connect with People

Throw off your digital screens in one corner, go out, mingle with your neighbors. Be a social animal, not a screen maniac. I tried to put this one into practice today, it was a failed experiment, but considering my location constraints it’s understandable. I live in US, here people don’t even know who their neighbor is. Strange but true fact. We should talk to stranger and make a new friend at least weekly or monthly. Sometimes, it can turn out funny.

I think with this very important note, we should take leave for the day and make a new friend today. Post below if you really find one.

Can you meet me in 5

Let's take a little trip down memory lane and visit ILVA.

When I go home on vacations,sometimes I call my friends out of the blue moon. I don’t care where they will be, what they will be doing, in what situation they will be. If I want to meet them, I just call them and ask them to show up in next 5 mins, if they like, obviously few people are able to drop by while others not. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, at least I call them and due to that some people are able to meet.

Now-a-days everyone is busy, actually no one is. They won’t contact because they will think that he is busy and vice versa, hence both will not contact each other. Sometimes ego comes into play, one will think that Y, I should call and again vice versa. In short people have false excuses for not contacting each other.

I think everyone should try “Can you meet me in 5 min” Game once. Besides a small get to gather, it also helps us in identifying our true friends; it will show that they are also willing to/not willing to meet as you are. When I visited my hometown last time, I tried the same game with many of my friends and fortunately at least 10 were able to join me at our school-ILVA. I understand that others had their reasons for not showing up. They can try next time and thanks to people who dropped by.

We witnessed lot of changes when we entered school but still there is a connection which cannot change. There are memories of childhood, of fun, of fear of teachers, of yearning for marks, practicals, you can never forget those. You can never forget your first crush from school, first medal, first recognition or the first play. When take a little trip down memory lane, we start getting pictures, clear pictures of all the fun we had.

In the last, I would just like to thank all the friends who find out time to meet me at the school. Keep remembering and be in touch.

Thanks.

Happy Friendship Day

School Time

On this auspicious occasion of Friendship day, I am writing a note to remember all the friends that have made my life serendipitous. We can quote more than a dozen messages today, but I would like to quote incidents that I remember, incidents that have left a footprint on our lives. I am writing about every friend that has touched me somewhere in my life, you may find yourself, just try to look yourself with my eyes.

School Friends Party

I remember days from school time, when we used to have fun with our neighbors, silly fights over cricket boll. When we used to wait for the bus to ILVA school and whenever we got ready on time, bus was late and if we are late in waking up, sleeping for those 5 more minutes, bus usually came in time. Then in school, counting no. of wickets that used to fall in 30 minutes prayer in Sunlight. It was fun even in standing in the school lobby for every short break, playing football with bottle in the ground. Playing cricket and pen fight in classes, eating lunch before recess. Leg fight below benches. I still remember teachers scolding us all the time, getting promoted with us, salute to all those teachers. 

Dear Friend

There were all sorts of friends, there were some who were well verse in English and some who were after girls, there were some who were always in sports, there were some who experimented on themselves, others experimented with Zinc, pen and HCL in chemistry labs. Since childhood we have a group of 3 Musketeers. School time was a real thing especially on first days of July.

Workshop

With Gods grace, I had friends in every locality I have gone, some are still in touch, some are still in heart. There were friends from my street, from malwa apartment, from coaching s/tut ions, school, college, company, random strangers becoming friends and more.

BME Lab (College)

Remembering about dozens of coaching s I have been to. I remember the friends that I made there, right from Mona mam, Simran classes, ASAP, Leicesters Lizzy, Blue Chip, Chaitanya to summer classes. There are hell lot of circles of friends and each one has their inputs in shaping me who I am. I can start writing their names, but then it would be a very big list.

Stranger Friends @ Mussorie

Then I moved to a different street, different institute, different locality. I thought I was grownup by then. I had new friends, new circles, new activities. At this time, I used to play footboll on streets, I became self confident, whole world was changing from streets to computers, from wires to internet, from phone cables to wifi, from friends to crush, from school to college.

IBM Friends

Now I had college friends, Samanvaya, I.B.M.. Friends who used to bunk classes with me, who used to have lunch with me in college breaks, who used to break their heads in mechanical labs, who used to copy assignments, files. Then came a different type of group in my life, they were arty, educated types people, they had different thinking and made me a different man. Respect for them. There had been times, when I had to become neta of the group whether it was Leicesters lizzy way back in school or in IBM college times, thanks for my friends who gave me that confidence. 

Office CT Friends

Things have been rocky also, but I have learnt a lot and still learning. There was a time, when I had to teach, it was home tut-ions or Green Fields. I must say, I have learnt even from my students cum friends from that time period.

College Bus Friends

When I joined TCS, it was another time when my world was turned upside down, leadership call was again made in Techno-turf. 3 months in Coimbatore was a scene changing time, now I was nowhere near home. I was getting paid, I had to take all my decisions myself, I had to manage my accounts, but with friends you can do anything in life. We were a group of 60 friends. There were divisions in this group, some were in CIP04 batch while others in CIP05, some stayed in Sabri while others in Geetha, some were in the same flat, others in different, some were in same room, others in other. I remember all 60 besides the divisions. I remember all the weekends that we used to go to Kerala and had fun like anything on the way.

When I was a teacher (Teachers Day celebration)

Today I am in a PG, with a whole new set of friends, new roommates, pg mates etc. I have learned whats sharing, looking after each other. Then there are office friends, the confusing ones, unpredictable ones. They help me to understand how to survive, how to lead, how to keep movin no matter what happens. Addition to them, I have online friends with whom I keep in regular touch via whatsapp, FB, I learn diff. languages from them, I make fun of them, but whatever happens, I am in contact with them.

Cousin Friends

Last but not the least, actually the first friends also known as cousins. I would wrap it in few setences, as cousins are one complete story to write. Cousins are the first friends with whom we can share all our secrets, because anyways they will know. I remember cousin cum friends with whom I used to go Phulwari, and throwing stones on roof by singing song “mere yar ki shadi hai phodo bam phatake”, with whom I have faught, played cards at Agar, with whom I have done the craziest things such as jumping naked in river (I was very young), with whom I have played cards all night in summer, with whom I have been on Chilly terrace all night, with whom I have shared ghost stories, my blogs etc.

Samanvaya Friends

Salute to all of u, thank you for being a friend.

In Indore

Vuowww, this time Indore’s trip was surprising. I was planning to visit Indore at the end of March, but my TL didn’t agree on that, so I thought it’s better to go in Feb itself. I was not sure that I will be able to get tickets or not in Tatkaal. I sat in office on Thursday and tried for it, but got error because of irctc policies, that from an IP only two tickets are allowed in those two hours and our whole office had a single IP. Then I tried from my mobile and got success, but I thought let’s give a surprise this time. I didn’t tell anyone about my plan of coming Indore. I and my cousin share same irctc account, so he got an email about my tickets and he verified that I was coming Indore, so he and cousin sis knew about the plan and they also informed this to ma sis in Pune.

When I boarded train on Friday, I called my both houses in Indore, just to make sure that they will not call me when train is running or else they will ask me and I have to tell the truth. I reached Bhopal at 8 30 and boarded a private bus to Indore. NOTE: these private buses are very bad from Bpl to Indb and vice versa. The last govt bus to Indb starts at 8 30 from Bpl, there was no way I can catch the bus. That’s the reason I took private bus and reached Indb after 5hr 30mins. It was 3 am, my bro was already there to receive me at the station. Finally I reached his home and had dinner. They were clever, as they knew that I won’t eat anything in train, so they kept dinner and juice for me…sweet.

Morning I woke up early and touched feet of my Badepapa and he was shocked plus happy as much as he can be. After breakfast, my cousin dropped me home; my mom dad had the same look, surprised and happy. Both of them said, it’s good that I came, they were all missing me.

Generally, I was avoiding calls, because I wanted to give surprise to all the relatives and friends by directly visiting them, but I had to take one call as dad was having lunch, so I picked up and my fopag knew that I was In indore. I told him not to tell Bhuag about this. He just told her that a surprise is coming and next she said “Kuntal aa gaya kyaa?”. How did she know that I was coming? God Knows. I think this is what we call as connections.

This way many relatives knew that I was In Indore. But my Masi didn’t, I gave her surprise too. I visited her house and she was also surprised to see me. After a day or two, I called one of my friend, when she picked call, she just said “tu indore kab aaya”. No hi, hello, just “nalayak tu indore kab aaya”. I was rolling on floor laughing. After few minutes, I gained my breath and told her whole situation. She was yelling at me “I was asking from last 1 week, when are you coming? Even on Thursday, when your tickets were booked? You didn’t tell me.” This is what I call as friendship, she was happy that I was in Indore, but she was scolding at me like anything. Then she told me that her mom had an accident just a day before, so I told her, that there’s no need to come, will meet some other time. But to my surprise, she said, “I just came home after visiting my mom, shes fine now; I am coming but only for 5mins, so that at least we can meet.” I said Ok, she came and told me whole story, I also told her mine. We departed in half hour, although our talks were not complete and they will never be.

Next two days I spent with one more friend, whenever I visit Indore it’s fixed that, at least one day, we spend together and both of us enjoys each other’s company. One day we watched a movie and other day we visited Khajrana and a cousin’s home. Next day was a big day in her life because she got her pg degree. Actually it may be because, we just came from Khajrana and God is always taking our care from background.

I had already made a call to one of my cousin in Ujjain; he also came to meet me and stayed with me for rest of the day. That’s what I call as relationship. Whenever I visit Indore, he just drops all of his work, even his exams and come to see me.

I gave a visit to one of my mentor; she was also happy and surprised to see me. She told me that “Its good to see you and this surprise is really awesome”. We had a chat for some time and discussed about my life in Chennai and upcoming conference in Nepal. After some time, we visited a cultural show in auditorium.

How can I forget my friend cum sis, I visited her after re planning many times. I was checking FB and read her status "In Indore" and in next second, called her to decide date/time to meet. But we had to re schedule many times before we finally met...hi hi hi both busy personalities. When we met, our chat was going on and on ...and on. But I had to rush for dinner and she was tired, so we stopped in some time.

I visited one of my college mates also, he was also surprised to receive me, he is amongst few who knows my actual situation in Chennai, “How I feel here, How I am treated”. He know nearly everything about me. That’s the reason, he always suggests me new opportunities, I can try. He only helped me to realize that I am a very good leader and has capability to manage people.

There is one more friend, with whom I go for lunch/dinner, because her life is just like that, she has time only for dinner or lunch. So this time, we had lunch but as my stomach was bad, I just had a pie.

This was all about my surprising trip to Indore. I was happy, my parents, relatives, friends all happy. That is what we call as All well, that ends well.

Saturday, I boarded train from indb, reached Chennai in Monday morning and working from the same time like anything. Again back to Corporate Life, The IT culture.  

I must say, I miss Indore...

    

Xploring Alcohol in Pondicherry

This journey started from my office. My TL asked me, would I will join them in Pondicherry party. I said yes anddd this became the first colleague party.. Next day, our journey started from our office in a bolero. We were 9, so it was slightly congested, but ok. After some 6-7 kms, a question popped up-“weather we would like to start drinking right now or after reaching Pondi”. I said, “I will not have”, he asked “why”, I said “I don’t drink”, he said “too bad”. I thought “is it too bad”.  Then we stopped at a wine shop and took some beer for a good start. After that we stopped at one more place to smoke. NOTE: I didn’t smoke nor I drink, still I was enjoying. We reached Pondy and on priority basis-booked cottage for stay. Then we visited Beach side and got some booze on the way. Actually Pondy is famous for 2 Bs- Beach and Booze. Beach side was cooool, it had many couples, foreigners, employees like us roaming here and there. We covered whole beach side and then moved to our cottages buying cold drinks en route. As soon as we reached there, we ordered dinner and started drinking session, since I don’t drink hard, I just had Cold drinks.

After some time, I got a call; I went out for some time. And when I came back, I had a sip of coke; suddenly I found out that, its taste was bad. I got the idea, it was mixed. Since I had little, nothing happened. The session continued for some time with dinner. We were very late, due to which, hotel guyz were able to arrange only my order (veg) and chicken biryani, but chicken was not available. Due to this, one guy was not able to satisfy his hunger. I am sure; he was saying bad words in his mind. One more colleague was doing the same, because one of the cottage guy was standing beside him and talking to out TL, for a very long time. My colleague got irritated. Our TL was getting friendly with them so that, they don’t cause any problem to us after getting drunk. They were also high. One more group was there in neighboring cottage; they were not only having hard drinks but other drugs too. They were real high. After finishing all the drinks, our TL started playing songs and dancing, we all joined him. After all this fun, we went in for sleep. I was not able to sleep for 1 hour, donno why, and then I too slept.

In morning, our TL woke all of us and then we headed towards beach. The Sun was rising and we were going down. High waves were hitting our body as if they were massaging our body. Environment was filled with morning sunshine, cool breeze, on one side sand and on the other never ending water. Bay of Bengal was welcoming us. We played in water for some time and then came out. After enjoying there we moved towards another beautiful beach Paradise Beach. This beach has another instance; we had to wait for long time in a queue to get a ticket for boat. This boat took us to Paradise Beach. There I had Breezer, which has very little amount of alcohol, I felt as if I was having cold drink, it’s the only reason, I took it in. We stayed on that beach for some time and then moved back to our car.

When we were coming back, a girl sat beside me, she was from east side. She was smart good looking and had a life jacket in her hand. She was staring at that for few minutes, I felt it odd, I mean, why she was staring at that, it is meant to wear and if you don’t want, just put it down. After watching her for a while, I told her, “Wear it”. Then she wear it, I helped her in that, as she was not able. Then we were sitting silently for some time, I was feeling bore, then I talked to my colleagues for some time. They were sitting quite far from me, so I was not able to hear their voice; therefore, we stopped talking.  We still had some time to our destination. SO I started talking to that girl. We also talked for a while and then stopped. HI HI HI.

Return Journey

Had another twist, my friends had their consignments of booze, we took them and now Bolero was full of drinks. As you know, “shit happens” and it always happens with, so it happened this time too. En the route to Chennai, police stopped us and searched our car, and took nearly half the bottles we had.  Since Legally, It’s not allowed to carry drinks across city. But he left us and didn’t charge us anything. We were saved. God helped us. He is always there to help me, as he knows that I will go into a new trouble daily. This was my 3rd encounter in last 6 months. 

Well, this trip helped me to xplore many types of drugs…

Breezer, Bear, Whisky, Shampane, Vodka, Grass, Fireshot, Weed, Ganjaa, Marijuana and many more are there. At least you should have the knowledge of all these, weather u take these or not.

Long Journey

The journey towards base location, towards my actual work place started late night @ 12. It was as usual, totally surprising, amazing. I understand Shit happens; just what I don’t understand is why it happens always with me. All sort of crazy things started right from the beginning of my journey.

I started my journey from home, picked a friend from janki nagar mandir, and confirmed another friend that we are coming to his location. When we were about to reach his house, we called him, his phone was unreachable. All (me, my friend, Dad, Driver) called him, but he was unreachable, and problem was that we had only single no. We reached his location (actually we didn’t know his house address, so we planned to meet at some point) and waited for half hour or more, trying again and again. After Long time I was able to call him; he came to specified location and told us that he has lot of luggage, so we moved to his place. He had so many luggages, that we had to sit in a very congested manner. Now we reached Bhopal at 4:30 am and got to know that our train is just 4 hours late. It was scheduled to reach Bpl at 5:30 am, but it again got late by 2 hours and reached at 12pm. It was a really a long journey from indore to Chennai. As per our schedule, we had to reach Chennai at 6:30 am and report office at 11pm. But we reach office at 4pm.

At that time, we had no idea whats going on, what we were doing, what will be the reaction of office people. We were late right on the first day of our job and that too not by 10-15 mins but by 5 hours. But we thought lets ready to face whatever happens there. We entered into office and greeted all the friends over there; they started congratulating us, saying that we have already got projects. I didn’t understand a thing whats going on, how can we get projects right on the first day and that after being 5 hours late. Soon we faced RMG (a group who allocates projects) who told us, that we had to meet some person on 1^{st floor} in Target. We reached there and knew it’s actually a project and soon after few minutes we faced an interview. Vow Vow Vow…. Everything was so fast, I didn’t understand a thing that was going on, I was just going with the flow. Sometimes it’s better not to think anything, but just go with the flow. After interview, interviewer relieved us and asked to report next day, 1^st Jan 2013. We hoped that maybe we can get holiday next day, so that we can settle down with new location, new room, new environment, but no. We started working right from the next day. It was all hectic, tensioning, but all was for our benefit only and quite enjoyable day. The Whole trip ended on a good note with project in my hand. That is what we call as ‘All well that ends well’.