Anjani raahon mein...

A couple of days ago, Vikram invited some of us classmates from school to his place, for daaru and gupshup. There were 7 of us there and most of us got there by 8 or so. We finally left at around 4 am, and there was never a dull moment in those 8 hours! It was amazing how 7 long years after leaving school we still connect in the same way, untouched by any personal agenda / motives when we speak, pretty much like we were still school kids. TB and PN were still the butt of most of our jokes, and they seemed to be just as happy as us with this arrangement ;) We were still talking about the same incidents from school that we've discussed innumerable times, and laughing just at heartily at them. And though all of us (ok, most of us now ;) ) are earning decent amounts of money, the 4 am dinner was not at the 24 hr coffee shop of some 5 star hotel, but at a roadside stall, with us seated on plastic chairs, with our food served in plastic plates on plastic tables. There was no "What are you ordering?", not only because there wasn't much of a choice, but also because all the food that came was shared by everyone. And it all made me wonder how simple and inexpensive the real pleasures of life were!

That night reminded me of something I had written on a lonely night in Spain...

So one night, you stand in the dark, and you feel really lonely. And then, standing in the balcony of that sophisticated multi-storied building in the centre of one of the most sought after destinations in the world, you realize the value of friends and family, true friends, true family. And you ask yourself, what cost you’re there at. Forget the dollars and the euros. When you find no one near you that you can call your own, no one that truly cares for you, no one that you really care to be with, you start to wonder if those hot sultry nights back home are not infinitely better than the cool comfortable clean breeze where you stand. Whether going to the very same places that you feign to be bored with over and over again is not infinitely better than exploring new places. Whether talking about the very same things and laughing on the very same jokes once more is not infinitely better than meeting new people. You wonder whether there is even an iota of doubt.

“Anjani raahon mein fir kya dhoondta fire/ Door jisko samjha woh to paas hai tere”

What's the point?

So I was in Kolkata recently for a cousin's wedding, the day after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I hate going to such events now, because the focus inevitably shifts from the marriage which we've there for to my wedding plans, which are non-existent as of now. Anyway, lets not diverge from the intent of this post.

So, I was in Kolkata and everyone around was telling me that Mumbai had become a very dangerous place to live in, given all the attacks that have happened here over the last couple of years. Well, I asked them which place was safe! Not like other cities / towns in India had not been attacked, in fact even smaller cities were not being spared. Pat came the reply, "Kolkata is safe, this place has not been attacked!" (and this was not from one person in one discussion but several different people with whom I was having this conversation at different times).

True, so a city like Kolkata has not been attacked, which begs the question, why? Well, to me the answer is simple: planning and executing a terrorist attack would require months of work and lots of money and thus an attack would be most desirable where it causes some disruption in people's daily activities, even better if it affects the economy of the city / region. So then why would someone attack a sleepy place like Kolkata, where economic activity is negligible (except for people having tea and jhal-moori at roadside stalls) and enough disruptions are created by the local leadership (read: 'Didi') themselves? What's the point?!

I think this fact is understood by the local authorities, which is why I saw no real increase in security at the Kolkata airport when I was coming back a few days later.

Don't Get Into Stuff You Don't Understand

I thankfully got this lesson for very cheap.

So, the other day - it was a weekend - this guy comes up to my house. He's from Vodafone and he has this 'offer' for me to reduce my mobile bill. This is at a time when an India-Australia match was on, but that's irrelevant here. So, he explains to me with proper numbers how I can save money on my existing plan by converting it to some other plan and paying a small upfront fee of Rs. 300/-. So, since it was numbers, I understood it quite well, and thought it made sense. Everything was fine till then. Then it started to get vague. First, there came some talk about me giving him a non-Vodafone user's number so he could contact him as a potential convert. Then, there was some talk about another sim card (a new number, in addition to my existing number) that was to be issued, and so on and so forth. But anyway, since I had understood the numbers so well, I thought it was still a good plan and promptly paid him the 300 bucks.

Anyway, so I get a call from Vodafone a few days later, to confirm if I had gone for this plan, and then the real plan starts to show up. So it seems I would have to keep the new sim active for atleast 6 months or else my plan would be deactivated and the Rs. 300 forfeited. This meant an additional outlay of Rs. 480 (Rs. 80 / month) or a willing taker of that sim card. Also, I was supposed to get a call from this guy for confirmation of the conversion of my existing plan into the new plan, which never came. I decided not to call him back and save myself additional hassle.

Net net, I'm down Rs. 300 and up a few lessons:

1. If you understand PART of the picture, it doesn't mean you understand the WHOLE picture.
2. It's ok to wait and think and then do. Don't rush.
3. Understand what's in it for the other person - I totally ignored the fact that he was actually selling me nothing but an additional Vodafone connection, which I didn't need!

Hello from my world!

So, my status is unemployed, as of Friday, 14th November, 2008. Well, not exactly, but lets leave the complications out. Anyway, so I decided to spend:
- part of my time searching for a job (read: sprucing up my resume and speaking to HR consultants, no sucking up to people, not yet at least ;) )
- part doing stuff I've "always wanted to do but never had the time to" (read: spanish, music, work out and lose the tyre)
- part thinking about what I really want to do (huh?)
- and part of my time blogging (too bad for you all!)

So with that introduction, we're ready to go!