Rambles

Quite a few things have changed since I last wrote. It’s been a while. Actually quite some time. It’s not that I’ve not been visiting this space, just that a few other things took unprecedented limelight. As I sit here on the NJ transit commuting back from work a class, I finally decided to get back to recording those shifts in my life over the past two years. To start with I’m now married for about a year now to a then colleague of mine at TeachforIndia. It started with that defining moment when I heard her shout across the hallway to another colleague about a bike ride. At the end of two years, she not only convinced me to tie the knot right after the fellowship but also join her dad’s freshly relaunched company. A wonderful wedding led us down south to Chennai. Right after the wedding, Meena[Me] had plans to head to UCAL, Berkeley for her masters. She’d petitioned for my visa to the US and then I had absolutely no idea what I’d be doing here besides running a few marathons. Just a couple of days before she flew out, the university got back to her stating she couldn’t join that term as she didn’t have the mandatory 16 years of education. Me joined me in helping her dad at the SOHO where we tutored and counselled students for GRE and GMAT. This was besides elaborate meetings with several people and universities on niche courses we could bring to the table. In hindsight - The tremendous learning curve, opportunity to meet some really brilliant people, staying with the Bhaskars and besides working day in and out with one of the smartest people I’ve met so far; negated all the qualms I ever had over moving to Chennai. ...

Yesterday I felt miserably lost and figured I wasn’t doing anything worthwhile staring at the screen. I took a quick shower and decided to take a stroll. Left at about 1749 and decided to walk down to the Shangumugam beach about 6kms from my house. In a sturdy pace I hit the beach and returned back on a different route. Thought process all through the walk was nothing intellectual. Just random strings buzzing in and out. Got back home and hit the bed pretty early. ...

Yesterday was one of those real interesting days. Couple of friends and I had been to the Korlai fort and were heading back from Alibag late in the evening. Seated in the rear of the bus, I’m not really sure how this conversation/debate ensued. For about an hour or so the six of us had a heated conversation on various policies, practices, ideologies and biases. Probably one of the best ever deliberations since my Infy days. In introspection, it kind of gave me some food for thought on how I’d like to proceed with the rest of my fellowship or for the next two years. Since I last wrote, things have quite changed in my classroom and otherwise. TFI has this concept of having two teachers in one class room if the number of students is more than 30. Kavitha, My co-teacher formally chipped in in July. With this things slowly seem to come under control. The kids receive more personal attention and we’re able to address issues in a much better fashion. Couple of kids who never even open their mouths are slowly opening up and and are showing interest in the classroom. The class dynamics has changed and kids are slowly learning to appreciate English. Community visits seem to make an impact. ...

Two more days and my vacation comes to an end. A lot was planned for but not everything worked the way I wanted it to. The North/NE trip didn’t materialize, the bamboo shelter remains an open chapter and the Kanyakumari-Delhi ride somehow just cascaded into oblivion. But a lot DID work out of the blue - I had an amazing trip down south, got a hang of living on a restricted budget, walked a couple of nice business deals to closure with a decent profit and also earned a couple of bucks by just reviewing stuff. I now have the confidence of eking out a living by doing meaningful things than just doing some mundane job! And an icing on the cake - The research proposal clicked. I just couldn’t have asked for a better vacation! ...

Well, today is the ninth day as an ‘Outfoscion’ and despite the initial hiccups the transition has been real smooth. It took me a couple of days to let the feeling really sink in and to get adjusted to the relaxed carefree schedule of my self imposed ‘break’ before I join TFI. The first two days were probably the most demanding in terms of getting ‘acclimatised’. I wake up at seven in the morning and I already have a feeling of not having done anything. Preparing a relaxed breakfast [ as much as I was looking forward to] for some weird reason looked quite boring.12:00 at noon, I realise there’s no company for lunch. And at about six as I sit before the lappy after a long siesta, the peace seemed to be even more troubling than the incessant honks from the traffic that my ear has got accustomed to from the past three years. But after a couple of days it was as if the sea had calmed down altogether. I could swiftly alter my body cycle to adjust to this ’new phase’ of my life and the days are no more ‘boring’. Every other day I’m reminded of some job that I’d long left unattended and to see them being closed out one by one by itself gives me some kind of an achievement…Well, Now is when I guess I best appreciate when people say It’s kinda nice to slow done every once in a while… ...

Reached home quite late after an active day at work. Scrapped the ‘New year party’ plan and decided to crash after a quick dinner. A perfunctory check of my e-mail throws about twenty ‘greeting’ mails. I invariably tend to shift+delete such e-mails as I prefer talking over the phone to e-mails/SMS/IM. But one particular mail from my sister just swept me off my feet..- ‘may this new year bring you closer and closer to everything you want to do…’ These simple words are something that have stood by me all through. Miles away, she’s someone who’s been such a wonderful source of motivation for each and everything I do - day in and day out and I couldn’t see any better way of thanking her than warding off my sleep to take snapshot of the amazing year 0f 2009! ...

December 13th: I can barely keep my head upright. The moment the rick. reaches home, I jump out and deliriously unlock the door, run straight and crash on the bed. The brain defies to accept any more impulses and I sink into oblivion. It’s the first time in twenty four years that I’ve managed to stay awake all through the night! All through these years sleep was never something that I sacrificed for anything whatsoever. But there was something quite electric in the ambience yesterday that just didn’t seem to get the grey cells to seek rest. Right from 23:00hrs yesterday to 11:00hrs today, people have been on a mega frenzy here. After all two and a half months of planning and co-ordination was to be put to test today! Hyderabad was to have it’s first ever social event aimed at raising funds for the underprivileged kids. ...

Couple of weeks back when I received an e-mail from Vibha from the GHAC group regarding a basic first aid certification course, I immediately RSVP’d as YES. This was not something I would miss at any cost. Having miraculously walked out unscathed through two major accidents, it was a lesson learnt the hard way to be equipped with at least minimal knowledge of first-aid. My futile attempts to try out CPR on a badly injured neighbour whom I was pillion riding with 9 years back and the Oil tanker incident four years back where I was equally helpless flashed out of memory as the detailed practical session commenced.Though I could not attend the whole two day program due to personal commitments, it was indeed one of the most fruitful programs / meets I’ve attended of late. ...

I’m out here seated in the balcony of my house with the lappy streaming out Yanni’s ‘Keys to imagination’. It’s not yet December, yet the chill is in the air already. Been a while that I visited my own blog so decided to keep things at bay and record things happening in my life. Work’s been a bit demanding of late. Not really hectic but these late night client calls with atypical and unrelenting requests all in a short time span is sort of draining. I’m just hoping against hope that the next three days slice through comfortably. ...

The last one month has been real crazy with a sudden upsurge in activity. Every other day a fresh thought pops up to do things in a different manner. The list of To-Do just gets bigger and bigger. Just thought I’d document them on a regular basis to keep the pulse on. The Book - Been working on compiling a book of my treks/travels. This is turning out to be one mega affair. Quite complicated and time consuming. Seriously getting a book out is NO joke! ...