Happy Weekend!!!

After a long time I had a nice weekend

Half Man! Half Tree!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/12/wtree112.xml

Sometimes I feel lucky to have been blessed with a normal life!

Does switching job mean switching life?

I quit my previous job to take a break from work and get some perspective as to what I want to do in my life and career. Did lot of research and reading on different lines of work I can get into. Started taking calls from various organizations, it was quite an experience to attend interviews.

Sometime in the month of august I came across an interesting profile. I knew I did not have close to 50% of domain expertise, but still wanted to give it a shot. Had to undergo various levels of interviews and work on case studies, and then I was called to Mumbai for the final round of interview. I had never been to Mumbai so it was exciting and I was also getting the opportunity to meet the team. Everything went well and they made the offer.

I was happy, sad and confused at the same time. Happy that I got a profile that was challenging and there was lot of scope for learning. Sad because if I take up this job then it means I have to leave my city and move to Mumbai. And confused not knowing what to do… This was a big decision for me to make.

I finally decided to leave Chennai and move to Mumbai. It was such a difficult decision; I had to leave the comfort of my home, my room, my dogs, my car, especially my friends. All in all I had to leave my whole life behind. And move to a city where I din’t know a single soul, din’t know the language, no friends, no family and had to find a place to live, which is like the most difficult thing in Mumbai.

I was lucky enough to find a flat close to office, unlike few of my colleagues who travel more than 2 hrs to get to office. I don’t know how I would have survived something like that… I was slowly getting used to my office environment, work, my colleagues and the city. It’s a world of difference to live in Chennai and Mumbai. All this was a different experience for me and I was trying to cope up with the whole new world where everyone was new to me. But life always has its way of showing its true colors.

Its been close to 3 months since I moved to Mumbai and not a day has gone by without me missing my life in Chennai. Back in Chennai I always had my friends around for anything and everything; we used to have loads of fun, outing, dinner, movies. Yeah movies my favorite thing to do… I love to go to the theatre to watch movies sometimes just to eat popcorn I miss all that. I miss being with my friends and just the feeling of being in Chennai.

Sometimes it feels like I no longer have a life. Days go by because of work, then comes the evening its frustrating to go back “home” to an empty house. Weeks are fine I totally dread the weekends where I have absolutely nothing to do. I spend most of the time sleeping zzzz… damn sometimes its feels like I should leave everything behind and take a flight back home.

I know that’s not a solution, I will have to stay back and face it. There is no point looking at the world with anger and miss out on the good things. I like my work, my office is an interesting place to work and my colleagues are nice to me. But the thing is more than 90% of my colleagues are from Mumbai so they have their set of close knit friends and they are not gonna accept anyone over a night. Yeah I know its gonna take time to make friends and get a life. I will just have to accept it and live with it for as long as it takes to get a sense of belonging.

I know I will definitely get over this phase. One year down the line I might not even remember this but for now I feel lost and lonely and it seems like a big thing… I know this might have sounded like a depressing article but this is how life is. It has its own ups and downs and I know it will have more challenging things to offer and make me strong enough to face it…

You always have to give up some to get some…

My first concert in mumbai

50 cents was in mumbai for a concert. My flatmate wanted to go so she took me along with her. We both were not big fans of 50 cents but still went just for fun and since it was her first trip to India she was very excited to attend the concert. IT was on sunday at 8:30 pm and held at MMMRDA grounds, bandra kurla complex. we took a rick to reach the place, Since we were both new to bombay we din’t know there are two mmmrda grounds so we went to the wrong place and walked up and down the road and no one knew where the 50 cents concert was held. Finally we found a guy who helped us find the other stadium.

We reached there on time for the concert. The place was packed, no place to even stand. Initially we tried to get into the crowd so we could get a place somewhere in the middle. But we were kinda sandwiched between people only then we realized how short we were and also had people falling all over us. So we decided we move to the corner and finally found a decent spot where we could watch them sing and not have people brushing against us.

Even though I din’t know most of the songs it was good fun to listen. Everyone was shaking their hands and jumping to the beat and there were so many of them who came dressed like curtis jackson. The concert went on for one and a half hr. Totally enjoyed it… we both almost lost our voices. Apart from singing well Curtis jackson has good sense of humor and he almost stripped to his pants and threw the rest of this clothing to the crowd All the cameras went click, click, click when he took off his last t shirt.

We finally stepped out at 10:30 and slowly walked towards the main road to take a rick. Only then i realized I was completely smelling of weed. It was weird that the security at the entrance checked for smokes because no one was allowed to carry cigarettes inside the stadium but everyone was smoking grass.

It took us close to half an hr to get a rick back home. By the time we got back home I was very tired so went straight to bed. Overall had a nice time. What a way to end the weekend…

A step closer to heaven

The story continues…

The flight took off at 5am. I was feeling dead tired from lack of sleep so I fell asleep the min i boarded the flight. Someone woke me up after a while; I slowly opened my eyes to see who was disturbing my peaceful sleep. It was the air hostess trying to serve me breakfast. Only when i smelled food I realized how hungry i was… Started having a hearty breakfast at 6 in the morning and then slowly looked out through the window, felt my whole world come to a stand still.

The site was breathtaking and so amazing, I was spellbound. We were flying on a bed of clouds, the sun was slowly rising but all I could see was rays of bright light. The sky was filled with such beautiful colors, some i have never seen before… suddenly felt like I was floating in the air amidst a rainbow. It was nature at its best and felt like I was in heaven, because nothing could be more beautiful.

Wish I had a camera with me to capture the beauty, but now it will remain in my mind forever… A beautiful experience; my best and close encounter with nature. This will remain as my best flight journey ever.

A night at mumbai airport!

I was going home for diwali so i booked my flight tickets for a wednesday evening, but only when i saw the itinerary i realized instead of booking an evening flight had booked a 4:55 am flight. I was new to mumbai so i was wondering how i was gonna get to airport at some wee hour in the morning. Luck me, my dad came to my rescue, he had come to mumbai for a conference and i convinced him to take the same flight as me. I was glad that my dad will be accompanying me to the airport. little did i know that my dad wanted to go to the airport 3 hours in advance. He thought it was not safe to take a cab at 3:30 in the morning. so we reached the airport at 1:30 am.I was wondering how i was gonna spend the next 3 hours at the airport thought it was gonna be really boring… but it turned out to be very interesting…

Initially i tried reading a book, then i stopped to look around and see what everyone is doing. Some were bored and bugged to be at the airport at this hour, some were on the laptop, some talking to their dear ones; for people in love time really does not matter some having coffee to stay awake, bunch of youngsters going home having fun chit chatting, some listening to music, flight crew walking up and down. This was not some exciting experience but its nice sit and observe people specially strangers. Then it stuck me that I should write about this so i took my laptop and started writing… good I carried my data card the airport wifi was very slow.

I have to go for my security check now… I can’t believe its already 4, I really enjoyed my 3 hrs at the airport and equally thrilled to upload my first blog.

happy flying!!!