Guru Purnima 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

It was September of 2008 in Dallas. I stepped into the banquet hall of Holiday Inn for my very first Art of Living Part 1 course. It was a very strange feeling. Sitting there waiting for the course to start, I suddenly remembered the crystal merchant in The Alchemist. The crystal merchant had a dream of going to a pilgrimage. But he never sets off because he feels that having the dream is more important than fulfilling it.

And slowly I thought about those last 6 years when I had thought of doing this course. In a certain way, I was doing what the crystal merchant did. I kept on postponing registering for the course. Over these years I had transformed from a happy go lucky, totally carefree (sometimes even careless) engineering student to a very hard(ly) working, utterly frustrated, disillusioned software engineer. The transformation was not sudden but very rapid. And I had no reason to be unhappy. There was no event which was causing me this unhappiness. But everything seemed stressed and the mostly smiling and joking around Anusha had given way to smiling wryly and joking sarcastically Anusha. Anusha was not happy about it at all.

Life after college usually makes you alone, specially if you are at work. You do not have friends with you to joke with. You have to be careful about what you say in office. Your personal life involves going to malls and multiplexes every weekend and cursing inflation and Bollywood, eating out at every opportunity and realizing how much you miss a decent meal, networking a lot in office to climb the corporate ladder and missing those cool college friends. All this was making me wonder, what makes us happy? I was happier with a lot less money and more physically challenged life in college. Trust me people, the result of all this thinking was some strain in every relationship I had. Not that this was the only thing happening to me. Luckily, I had Varsha with me and a few good friends still in touch. And that made every stress worth it. I could just live through. And I can never thank those precious few enough. They were the reason for some of the very good times I had in Pune. Now, I had heard about the AOL course in college. I wanted to do it for I had a curiosity to see what was in it. But for some reason (excuses really) or the other I was not able to. Sometimes I did not have a ride, sometimes I did not have time. By the time I was in Pune, I felt it had become a need for me to do it. And not doing it was causing even more frustration.

But strange are the ways of life. I could finally register for it here in USA when I had just left the thing to fate. Sitting in the banquet hall, I was looking back at those 6 years and wondering if I am dreaming. When Ram officially started the course, I remember saying it to myself. "So Anusha, finally!". And the rest, as they say in AOL, is all mystery.

It has not been a very long time. I am still taking small baby steps in this great path. But I know how much my life has changed. Trust me, I am more alone than I ever was. But I don't feel lonely. I have more work than ever, but I don't feel stressed as I used to, and every week I have a way to revive myself. I sleep less than I used to back in Pune, but my energy levels are much higher. I don't meet as many people as I used to, but I look forward to every human interaction and I smile like I used to as a teenager. And then those small things which just start happening. Miracles, magics, coincidences - call them whatever you want, but they start happening more frequently. Things are just taken care of.

I was bearing life (on second thoughts, it was not that bad) I was going through the motions of life, I am living it now. And you really need to experience that to know what I am saying. Really!

All this because of the grace of Guru. And all I want to do is thank the source and cause of all these changes. Fortunately for me, I can do it on this Guru Purnima. (Thanks RR for helping me overcome my small mind gymnastics). If you can make it to Chicago, please come. If you cannot, wherever you are, thank your Guru. They are just too good. If you think you are yet to find your Guru, keep praying and keep looking. It is just a matter of time.


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Trends!

Friday, June 19, 2009

All right. So the voting is on, though the turnout is something like we had in the general elections earlier this year. Or are there only 13 readers of this blog? 13, wow, nice. Though, I came to know about some miscreants who tried to booth capture and have multiple votes. And were brave enough to tell me that! :D

You had such wonderful options for answering why you read this blog. The voting trend so far has been nothing what I thought it would be. The option “Others” got the maximum votes. Except Megha, no one specified what their other reasons are, which makes me wonder even more. If you think by not giving the reason you have given me sleepless nights, then I would say my dear, you are absolutely right! Why not when you have the option? :-O

One might think, based on these votes, that the majority has some other reason to read this blog. But I don’t think majority thinks that. If you group in a slightly different way, you would see that the majority has one of the known reasons to come here. 8 Votes have been for one of the reasons I gave. But the interesting factor comes now. I am seeing that blogger poll gives the vote percentages as well (so kind of them considering my Mathematics abilities) and I will use those. 41% think they have a better reason to come to the blog. 16% think that they visit this blog because they have a bad habit of reading it, 16% think were bribed, 16% think that they were blackmailed and another 16% swear they do not visit at all. Now if we have “Others” in one group (41%) and the “remaining others” (16 + 16 + 16 + 16 = 64%) in another, then, wait, lo and behold, I have had a voter turnout of 64 + 41 = 105%!! :D

Did I complain of a low turnout?? :P

Bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hota rehta hain, Senorita! :-)

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Poll

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Salaam Namaste!

I was wondering what to write. I thought I would write about the San Antonio trip. But there was nothing funny to write about that trip. Except the fact that we spent a lot of time on road waiting for the traffic to clear (it was a long weekend). Also the fact that I saw Nature in action at the Natural Bridge Caverns. Or even the fact that I sat on the Great White ride at Sea World for like infinite times. Jisha (my school friend) was sure that I was doing that deliberately to insult the authorities there. It was supposed to be their most awesome ride..

I also thought I could ride something about the most tiring experience I had in USA. I moved. Moved as in, shifted my apartment. I wish there was a Ctrl + X and Ctrl + V in life! Shifting would have been so easy. But there was nothing really to it. I just made infinite rounds from one apt to another and dumped stuff in my new apt. I was missing Shalabh and Nitin so much for reasons described here. 

So I thought I will start a poll. I have been doing some thinking about the existance of this blog. I want to see why people come here (if at all they do). So people, here is your chance to speak against the tortures in life. You should see a teeny-weeny poll on the left side of your screen. If your reason is not listed, please select other and you can give your reason as a comment!

We may consider changes here. This is your chance of saving yourselves. Voting is your fundamental right!!  :-)

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Korbo Lorbo Harbo Re!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Ui Ma! What a terrible time KKR had this IPL. I am not a big Dild.. err SRK fan. Nor were my loyalties ever with Lordie err you-know-who. But I am almost sympathizing with them, much more than what I did for Deewar and Bevadaas last year. KKR, after all, are the biggest entertainers (mostly because of this dude..).

Marked by controversies throughout, this last over in today's match vs Deccan Chargers kind of says it all. 

21 needed off the last over. Kolkata have the clear advantage here. Mashrafe to bowl 

19.1

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, (no ball) FOUR, Rohit's taken four of those, 

full toss on middle, pulled away to the deep square-leg boundary, called a no-ball by the leg umpire as there are only three fielders in the ring, what a slip up, drama right at the death. McCullum isn't happy, but if there were just three inside the circle, the call is a right one. The Kolkata captain is disputing the decision, and continues arguing with the umpire, but the decision's been made. It's a no-ball, that's final. An extra ball conceded. How costly will it prove? 

19.1

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 1 leg bye, misses out, full just a fraction outside off, moves across to paddle it fine, is it on the pads, just a run

19.2

Mashrafe Mortaza to Venugopal Rao, 1 run, a scare there, full and wide, made room to cream that through the covers, got a thick outside edge that landed on the bounce to third man, just a single

14 off 4

19.3

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, SIX, meaty, juicy full toss on middle, the worst ball you can bowl under the circumstances, heaved away over midwicket for a massive six, what a timely blow, 8 off 3 now, 115 metres that, one of the biggest of the tournament

8 needed off 3. Doable, what a slip-up. The ball's lost, and they're getting a replacement. Nice, hard thump that. All's sorted. Here it comes. Rohit's ready to face.

19.4

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 1 wide, wide, Mashrafe, what the hell are you doing? Hurls it well wide of the offstump, Rohit lets it go wisely and the umpire frees his arms

7 off 3

19.4

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, 2 runs, full and wide, swatted down to long-on, scampers back for the second, Rao runs well to finish the run

5 off 2

19.5

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, FOUR, four, four, four, Mashrafe has spoilt it for Kolkata, full and wide, makes room and carts it wide of a diving cover to beat long-off to the boundary

1 needed off the last ball. Scores level. Can Kolkata salvage a super over here? Here it comes. Hold your seats. A short cover, a short fine

19.6

Mashrafe Mortaza to Sharma, SIX, it's all over, short on middle, pulls it away well over the fine-leg boundary to seal a thrilling victory, can Kolkata ever win?


Next year KKR, thoda extra Korbo, bilkul nahi Lorbo aapas mein and thoda to jeetbo re!! 


P.S : Last over commentry courtesy Cricinfo.com

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Get Inspired!

Monday, May 11, 2009

What is the best way to spend a weekend? For me, it is having your greatest friend at your place, eating as if we are from Somalia, sleeping as if we are small babies and smiling as if we shared some of our biggest secrets without much talking! Yeah I just had a wonderful weekend. :-)

There is another way to spend a nice Saturday evening if you are in Bangalore on 30th May. There is this new thing in town called “Talk Instead” where there are going to be some real life people from our own community who have made it big for themselves and the world around them. They are no stars but they are achievers. The kind of people you look up to when you are really down specially if you have just been disappointed by your manager and you wonder what the heck you are doing in your office! Just see if you can make it to this event. There is lot of inspiration waiting for you. :-)

Get inspired, talk instead! :-)

Register yourselves at www.talkinstead.com

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Kuch Khas Nahi..

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Howdy people! 

I have nothing much to post about, really..

Except the fact that I am smiling a little more than usual for the last few days. Life looks good and I see a lot of hope around. One of that time when everything seems so crystal clear. You just know that the world out there is looking at you and smiling, the sky's laughing out loud with you and you just know that you belong. 



Yeah its spring. Aur main khush hun khamakha yaaron!! 

Cheers!!

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Raat Baaki...

Sunday, April 05, 2009

What is worse than getting up at 5:00 AM on a Sunday morning? Well getting up and get to work. And this work does not involve any heavy coding for an unachievable deadline. Nor is it working on a real nasty support issue which needs the mind of Mr. Byomkesh Bakshi to figure out the microscopic bug hidden beneath several layers of complex code. This work at this unearthly hour is waiting on call for 2 hours just to begin testing which would actually take only 10 minutes to complete but which cannot be started unless those people on call tell you to start. Sleepless nights, test of patience and a nasty sense of humor is all IT is about and I am li(o)ving IT!

Kaahe ka loving ji. You know during these moments, I feel the need to go back to my school days. It was the time when sleepless nights meant drinking tea at midnight and going to sleep right after that, with a sense of accomplishment. My tea making skills were developed in those days and at the risk of sounding arrogant I can say that a cup of tea made by yours truly today can keep you tarotaaza for very long hours. During this time I also learned how to overcome every obstacle that would come between me and my sleep. A kilometer long syllabus, an exam deadline and even a strong caffeine shot would not come between me and the love of my life. My mom would be very upset with me. These kitchen sojourns at night were disturbing her annual budget for tea leaves, milk and sugar and were doing no good to my grades which never were of any good anyway, not to mention the disturbances to her sleep and those of our neighbors who would be rudely awakened because of some tea making tools slipping out of my hands and creating havoc!

2 hours 20 minutes and 33 seconds: Still no sign of the green signal to start testing. Which means I am going to continue writing some more.

Hmm. So after some sleepless nights which my folks had to endure because of my preparation for engineering entrance exams, they were very happy to see me off to Indore, supposedly for engineering. Now, the sleepless nights I had during this phase of my life and in this city are the kind of stuff dreams are made of. You know how life in hostel is, right? You might have lived one yourself and felt that you have become a much better person after all those years or you must have seen some of your friends getting brain-damaged irreversibly living one. Essentially depends on the perspective. Now I do not ever remember my hostel sleeping ever. An early sleeper would go to sleep at 1:00 AM. The late sleeper would crash at 3:00-4:00 AM. And if you think that these late nights had anything to do with engineering, then you are mistaken my friend. These nights were filled with loads of cooking on an electric coil heater, reading novels, watching movies, playing computer games on PCs borrowed from friends and seniors, having late night talks with people who used to matter the most, climbing on top of the water tank to feel on top of the world and etc etc. I was charmed by the charm of night.

2 hours 50 minutes and 57 seconds: No testing yet. And yes it took me 30 minutes and 24 seconds to finish the last paragraph.

Those great and awesome nights finally got over. We all, including and specially my parents, were more surprised than happy when I finally got a job. And once at work, I realized the value of a good night’s sleep. Maan! These companies make you sweat! Ok, I did not sweat because my office was air conditioned (which by the way was a great change in the status of my life after bearing scorching Indore heat). I drank coffee like the talli of your mohalla drinks desi tharra. A coffee vending machine right behind my desk did not help much and I had so much coffee in the last few years that my circulatory system was pumping coffee to every nook and corner of my body, my blood tests were tested for the presence of chicory which came negative because I was having pure coffee. There was no sugar present in the system because I like my coffee bitter and strong. And I guess that was what I was turning into as well – bitter and strong, strong yet bitter, better but bitter. (Something like Betty bought some butter…LOL)

A few good things happened which you all are aware of if you read the last few posts. My bitterness has definitely reduced, my coffee intake is miniscule (I am an occasional drinker now :P ) but work still keeps me up. The Saturday night sleep is one of the most crucial elements for having a reasonable working week. This Saturday night has been fried to this long awaiting call. So beware my colleagues, clients, customers and managers! We are going to have a hell of a time together. :-)

3 hours 0 minutes 10 seconds: I just dialed in again and there is no sight of testing starting anytime soon. Life, I tell you!! 

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