Passport

Yesterday I applied for my passport renewal. It would expire on the 7th of January, 2011...just a couple of weeks from now. It was issued to me exactly 10 years back. It was the year that I passed my engineering. It was as-if passport to a new life.
So, I thought of taking stock of how life (the new life post college life) has shaped and changed for us. "Us" meaning some of my friends, some whom I have contact with and some whose news keeps flowing into me through the friends I have contact with. Before I proceed furher, let me clarify some things. I will not take any names; if any friend gets hurt because he/she feels it is referring him/her and I shouldn't have written about him/her, my sincere apologies. Please mail me at amitava.b.chatterjee@gmail.com and I will remove that part immediately. The sole purpose of this blog is to have a look at how the lives and the world has changed for some of us.

When we were in college, my close friend, Sandipan and I used to often say, "We are waiting for the day when we can run out of the college and never return". We had reasons to say so. Precisely, we hated college and I have no qualms in thanking the "teachers" of my college for that.I dont understand what fun teachers get by giving less marks to students and thus find the cynical way to show their power and position. Finally, we did manage to come out of the college and the best part is, with the "Bachelor of Engineering" degree.

I called one friend the other day.
"Hey, what's up?"
"I'm attending the second marriages of friends now!"
"What???"
"Yes, You remember, XXX married in 2004?"
"Yes.."
"Well, he got divorced in 2006 and married again! Even YYY has remarried. And, Amitava, I must say second marriages are much more organised and grand than the first ones. Actually, they already have experience and have learnt from the mistakes of the first ones"
Marriage. Divorce. And marriage again.
For some it is marriage and a rocking married life.
For some it is marriage and a rocked married life.
For some it is marriage and divorce. No re-marriage, yet. Once bitten, twice shy.

For the married, some have kid or kids.
Some are yet to start the process - hesitant about starting it.
Some are in the process.
Some started the process and got rude shocks on the way - medical problem or the trauma of mis-carriage.

For one, it was marriage, kids and then death. A habitual drug-addict, he met a tragic end, leaving his family in shatters.

Some were outstanding in the academic life (unlike me). But then could not make it as they had thought they would. So now they are into hibernation. Several mails and phone calls failed to bring them back. They have chosen to live in isolation. I have stopped disturbing them.
Among the good students, some went ahead and continued studying for the love of it. On the way they picked us some good degrees and then got what they wanted in life.
Some went ahead to study because they did not know what else to do.
Some continued studying perhaps not just for the love of studying but because of somebody else or because they wanted to prove something to the world. Dont know whether they have enjoyed the process.
And some confused souls like me went to work from college, then back to college and back to work again!

We have lost contact with many. Orkut and facebook occasionally brings out some old vaguely-remembered faces. But not all believe in networking sites. For some, I do not like to contact even if they may be in the same city. And thats because we never got along nicely.

Some have decided not to leave their hometown, their comfort zone.
Some have decided to look out for better opportunities in some green pastures away from their hometown, but within the country.
Some have decided to leave the country and settle abroad.
For some friends working in the IT industry, it is all about taking "onsite" assignments and clicking photos with family with the statue of liberty or the Eiffel tower in the background.Then posting on the networking sites and getting "wow!" from friends.

Most of us have put on weights. Some a few pounds more, some a few pounds less.
Most of us are on diet with the occasional pizzas,Pepsis, and Mac-Ds and french fries.


There are once-not-so-close friends, with whom now I share warm relationships and who have become part of my close friend circle. And there are once-so-close friends with whom I have hardly shared a thought for the last few years.
In college we all seemed united. Now, each has a world of his/her own. Its a much lonely life now.
Within the boundaries of the college wall, there were few things we really needed to worry about. Mainly, academics and a job post academics. Now the list is almost endless.

Schools have uniforms. It signifies that all students, irrespective of their social background and economic condition are same in school. Colleges don't have uniform. But, the spirit of the uniformity remains. Ten years on, it is too much to ask for uniformity of any sort.

In 2001, my mind and the leaflets of the passport had one thing in common. Both had no stamps, no seals. Pretty-much blank and didnt know what to expect from future. Ten years on, 40% of my passport has been stamped with visas of different countries and sealed and signed here and there by the different emigration officers around the world. Records that cannot be deleted or wiped off. Even I had quite a few good, bad and ugly experiences in these last ten years of my life, never to be forgotten and cannot be erased.
The new passport I am applying for with 60 more blank pages is for another ten years. It is perhaps life's own way of telling me to take a fresh look at the next ten years of my life with the same zeal and enthusiasm that I had ten years ago, when I got my first passport.

Acknowledging the limits

When I was a small boy, my father used to bring wall papers, We pasted some of them on the walls of our room. One such wall paper had a beautiful picture of a boat sailing and the background was that of a setting sun on the distant horizon.The caption read "Lord! Your ocean is so vast and our boat is so small." Somehow I still remember that picture and those lines. And as days go by, I feel that perhaps there is no truth more universal than those lines.

The intent of the blog is not to demean any human being or his achievement; it is to highlight the fact that our achievement is almost insignificant to that of the Almighty. We scaled the sky-kissing mountain peaks, we went to the Moon, people swam across oceans , travelers walked across continents and went to the poles. We hail all these achievements as outstanding. No doubt they are commendable.But they are commendable within the boundaries and limitations of the capabilities of human beings.
In the first place, the achievements that need to be hailed are the creation of those mountain peaks, the Moon, the oceans and the continents. We hardly acknowledge the fact that most of our outstanding achievements are those where we came face-to-face with Nature and were able to leave a very small mark over it, where we added a drop of water to the ocean. Our problem lies in the fact of taking the ocean for granted and adding all the significance to that tiny drop.

We have created robots, computers and super-computers and think that they are highly
sophisticated gadgets. We hail them as proof of the fact that we are almost there when it comes to creating something close to the human being. Firstly, the fact that we acknowledge that we intend to create something close to human beings is testimony to the fact that we think creation of human beings is the be-all and end-all creation in this field. Secondly, the truth is, we are nowhere near to creating something as complex and as compact as human beings. The simple fact that to decode the human body functions there are millions of doctors and lacs of super-speciality hospitals is a testimony to the fact. And yet there are many mysteries in the body of the human beings that doctors and scientists are yet to crack. If any body parts goes wrong and stops functioning then we get to realise more how limited our knowledge is. Each part of the body is created with surgical precision.

Even if we take other animals in the animal kingdom, we are inferior to many in many aspects. We dont have the smelling power as strong as dogs; we cant fly or track our distance and direction like the migratory birds and other animals, we cant see in the dark like cats, we cant leap and jump like monkeys, we cant swim like fish, we cant sense infra-red rays like the bats do in the dark...the list is endless. Overall, we are a better package than these animals, but not in each and every aspect. When we went out to invent airplanes, we designed it like birds; when we went to create something that can swim in water, we created submarines that are designed like fishes. Aren't we actually imitating the Ultimate Creator - the Almighty? And yet, both airplanes and submarines need so many radars and satellites to guide and control them, unlike the migratory birds and fishes. This proves, our inventions, however sophisticated we think they are, fall way sort of those created by the Almighty.

Let me take another example. The fastest man in the world runs 100m in a shade below 10 seconds. It is a great achievement. But, a great achievement within the limitation of human muscles and speed.If we take the figure to a leopard, then its way below norm in the leopard kingdom. Their average speed is something like 75kmph. Doing a bit a maths, it comes out that they run 100m in approx 5 seconds! So, in their kingdom perhaps only a very old leopard will take the time that the fastest man in the world takes!
So, what I am trying to say is, we are achieving and striving to achieve the best within our limits and capabilities. In some cases, we are trying to duplicate some things. While these may be a huge commendable thing in itself, we should not lose sight of the bigger picture. We should not confuse the drop of water with the ocean.And this should make us humble for all the achievements that we think we have done in our life or as a human being.

The duplicate of Monalisa is,at the end of the day, the duplicate of Monalisa. The painter might have given his best and feel content with his achievement; his friends might applaud him for the same, but that does not make him Leonardo Da Vinci and he must never think him so. There is,but only one Leonardo da Vinci.

Life is about solving those maths problems

In fact, my vacation did not end in my home town. I decided to visit the holy city of Puri just before coming back to Bangalore. It was here that I came before I went on to do my MBA in 2007. I have come back here after 3 years to thank the God and Goddess for all that has happened in my life since then. On my one-night train journey from Calcutta to Puri, I was trying to recollect all the good and not-so-good things that took place in my life particularly in the last 3 years. The good ones that surfaced first – my days in Cranfield, our visit to Benaras, my job in Oracle, the birth of our little angel, the satisfaction of owning a house and a car, the trip to Melbourne and many others scattered here and there. Then I thought of the bad and evil days, when things did not go the way I wanted it to be – the last days of Cranfield when I had to struggle to find a job, the days in Calcutta and the sacrifice my wife made to quit her stable job in Hyderabad to join me in Calcutta, some relationships going bitter and the bitterness lingering...

It was in the last week of my stay in UK, when the MBA course was almost over, saving a couple of submissions. By that time, I had already made up my mind to return to India for good. I was not able to find good job in UK and was already in talks with some companies in India. Suddenly by turn of some events in a short span of time, I found that I “almost” landed myself in a job in Arcelor Mittal in Luxembourgh. Arcellor Mittal – the largest steel manufacturer in the world and whose CEO, Mr. LN Mittal is one of my heroes. I got an email confirmation from them about the job. I was very excited. But, then due to the global meltdown during that time, they decided to freeze the position and my offer went “on hold”.. My heart sank. No doubt, had I made it then, my life would have been totally different. I can’t say whether it would have been any better. All I can say is, today I don’t repent it at all.
It was the 7th Semester in my Engineering college days. Things were at an all-time low for me. This particular semester was notorious for the toughness of the subjects. One, I was not a good student in the engineering days. Two, to top it I had been preparing for different MBA entrance exams. I always thought I was living on the edge. My dear friend, Sandipan, now Dr. Sandipan Pramanik, a professor in the University of Alberta, Canada, a brilliant student in his own right, was beside me, providing me the required support and guidance. Sandipan was a good performer in the class, but not an outstanding one, which he should have been, if any justice had to be done to his academic credentials and past records. We both toiled a lot, especially in the 7th Semester, but was hardly rewarded (with marks). Things just didn’t seem to go right our way. We agreed that it was by far the toughest time we faced till then. We used to say “the darkest hour is just before the dawn” to boost our morale.

Its almost 10 years ago that we had this infamous 7th Semester. I forgot all that was taught then. (Well, I forgot everything that was taught in engineering). But what I learned during those apparently bad days is the never-say-die attitude. A lesson that good days never taught me. Even today when I go through some lean patch, I remind myself of the 7th Semester and how I successfully came out of it.
And this brings me to my thought that perhaps every evil day, every not-so-sunny day has some good effects in future. When things are going hunky dory, we don’t tend to go to any sort of self-analysis mode. Only during evil days we may find it necessary to analyse the situation and deep-dive into oneself, into one’s inner self to improve. It also matures a person. Evil days are not as evil as they seem apparently. Perhaps they are not evil at all. Perhaps they are the like “difficult problems” in the Mathematics books of our school days. They are tough, but they are better for the brains. They stain the good ones from the rest of the crowd. A difficult problem does not necessarily bring a pleasant smile. But once it is solved, it makes the student a shade better in that field. Life is all about solving those maths problems – arithmatics, algebra, calculus, trigonometry…
As a student we don’t initially understand and appreciate the reason for the presence of such “difficult problems”. The author knows, the parents know, the teachers know the reason for their existence. Likewise, as a student in the curriculum known as “life” the author, the Almighty, knows the reason for the “difficult problems” albeit difficult or bad days. So, the best way is to, just like we did in our school days, concentrate on solving them, rather than question and crib their presence. One day we will get the reward and be a better student in life.

My prayer to the Almighty was all about thanking HIM for the easier and difficult problems and giving me the power to tackle such problems in future with the right mix of values and virtues.

End of my vacation

I am now sitting by the window of the train which is running through the lush-green paddy fields as it races towards its destination, Bangalore. My vacation in my home town has come to an end. It was short and sweet. Vacations should be like this. In fact, everything in life should be like this -- precise. It should be like the delicacies which fills the stomach, doesn’t over-stuff it and at the same time the tongue longs for some more of it. So, you don’t get to eat more, but you always feel if only you could have more – you crave for it! The taste-buds enjoy it, the mind enjoys it, the stomach enjoys it and its healthy – the health enjoys it.
Had my vacation been a month-long program, then surely I would have been so bored that I would not look forward to any other vacation. In life those who live life till their eighties and nineties, often crippled and bed-ridden at the end of their life, perhaps lose the sweetness of their life. They forget their interesting part of their life when they had fun and frolic. They only look up to the Almighty to call it a day for them Dragging is never interesting, stretching anything unnecessarily beyond a certain point becomes more of a liability Be it stretching a vacation, stretching a relationship, stretching life, stretching a movie or stretching a journey.
So, when I planned my vacation, I made sure that I don’t stretch it so long that it becomes a bore and at the same time it is not so short that it will fly in a jiffy. My vacation should be optimum.
My stay in my home town went on pretty well. There was fun and enjoyment. The first birthday celebration of my daughter was a memorable day. It reminded me again how fast time flies and how each and every moment of our life is precious and hence should be enjoyed to the fullest. It was also an occasion to meet quite a few relatives, whom I had not met for years due to my stay in bangalore and hence the inability to attend other social gatherings. The thing I realized during my stay in Chandannagore is my five senses, and also perhaps my sixth sense, do not have to be as alert as they are when in Bangalore. The calm and serene surroundings and the pace of the life there, which may be like the slow motion of the life in Bangalore, provided a much-needed soothing effect on me.
It’s a small town with warm people having small dreams. They take life as it comes. They are content with the small things in life. All may not know the huge world outside. To many over there, Bangalore is a far-off place, Durga Puja (the main festival of the Bengalis, the residents of that place) is celebrated in most parts of India, earning a square meal a day and saving something for the future are all that they look forward to.
The sun is setting in the western horizon. It has drenched the sky and the floating clouds in crimson orange. Tomorrow I will wake up and find the sun rise in Bangalore as the train will enter the station at around 6 in the morning. It seems that the setting sun has taken with it a handful of memories – memories of fun, enjoyment, merry-making, laughter...all with a tinge of sadness.

Country roads take me home …

I was born in a small town near Calcutta, called Chandannagore and spent the first twenty or so odd years there. Thereafter due to professional requirements I moved to Bangalore. That was way back in 2001.

Today after a gap of 1.5 years I am going back to Chandannagore for a vacation. I have got this excitement of visiting my home town. Due to whatever reasons, I decided to go by train, which takes an average 36 hours to reach Chandannagore from Bangalore, unlike the flight, which takes only 3 hours. The journey by train has increased my excitement. It has sort-of prolonged it.The joy in me today is the joy to revisit and cherish some old memories and the thought of the calm and serene lazy life in Chandannagore, the taste of the Bengali sweets and “rasogollas”, the sight of ponds, the sound of the Ganges flowing through the small town, the smell of the fresh oxygen.

As my idle mind in the almost endless train journey wandered in the distant green fields that kiss the horizon, I realized that it has a lot to do with my roots. The roots, which we all have, but take for granted. And those who don’t have repent for it. The roots -- a place where we were born or may-be spent most of the childhood days, a place where in the initial days of our life we got nutrition and water in the form of the rich virtues and values from these roots. A place for which we all have a soft corner. However much we ignore or try to look the other way, this root will never leave us.

Obviously, we all move on in life in search of a better life. The herd of buffalos in the Serengeti forest does, the migratory birds do, the nomads of early days did. Streams flow into rivers and rivers surrender themselves onto the seas and oceans. Its just a part of life. We all move. And for that we may have to leave the place where we used to once upon a time be a part of. But, we can’t leave the roots. We can’t ignore them, however much we try. Roots are the sources of our identity in this vast world. It is an identity that we all inherit during birth. And every type of roots has its own merits and demerits.

My roots is in the small sleepy town is very much in contrast to the always-active Bangalore. In my town, the streets are mostly illuminated by 100W bulbs, the shops shut down by 10 and the town falls asleep by 10:30, only to be woken up the next day morning at 6 am by the mild sunrays and twittering of the birds. After a long time I hope to enjoy the setting sun and spend days without having to worry about the project deliverables or check emails. Its like being in this world, without staying connected to it, which is not bad at times. These are the times when you discover more about yourselves, more about the human values - the relationships, the bondings, the world beyond the material world.

Truly, the greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home...

Why do I write blogs?

This is a question that I have been trying to answer for the last couple of weeks -"Why do I write blogs?" I think there are some who read my blogs. Some may like them; some may feel they are some mindless articles. I am writing something "hoping" someone reads them. And the question remains "Why do I write blogs?". I am not a film star or a celebrity that people will like to hear every word I speak or write. In fact, I am thankful to all my readers who take time out of their busy schedule and read my blogs.

The answer to my own question in one sentence is, perhaps, I enjoy doing it -- just like I enjoy cooking. In our life we do most things that we may not enjoy 100%. Yet, we spend most of the time doing such things. Some of us spend the whole life trying to find out what we enjoy doing most in our life. For example, we may not like our office job 100% - some may like 70%, some 20%. Nonetheless, every day in the morning we get ready for office and spend most of the time of the day in the office to ensure constant flow of the fuel for our life. And then some may be so lazy that they hate doing any household work, but they do so nonetheless, as otherwise the family will not run. Some may be pursuing higher education, but not willingly. The list is endless. Given a choice, all these people would rather do other things that they enjoy more.

For me, writing blogs is not a compulsion. Its a thing that I enjoy doing. So, even if it just before the exams during my MBA days, or when I was down and out in Calcutta or staying up late night after office hours, I don't fret about it. After writing a good blog, I feel a sense of satisfaction and joy.

It is not about fame or trying to show-off something. Before blogs, I used to write diaries. In blogs I share my emotions and experience with so many; in diaries I knew that those feelings would be confined within the pages of the diaries. So, surely it is not for any sort of acknowledgement that I write blogs.

I have been writing poetries since the age of five. And since then, needless to say, many things have changed. But my inclination towards writing has not.

Through my blogs I express myself. I vent out my emotions and feelings. I share my experiences through my blogs. In our life we spend time for others -children, spouse, parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, colleagues and so many. So, why not some time on ourselves, as well? Through my blogs, I start interacting more with myself. In the course of writing blogs, I spend time with myself. Through my blogs I explore myself and get to know myself and my world a little more each and every time.

My blogs are the windows to my world – not only for the readers, but also for me.

The name...

Before I write any blog, I think over the topic for some days or weeks...even months. There are topics which I thought for weeks and then discarded as I did not find enough substance in it. There are topics, which I started writing and then didn't publish as the end result was not what I had expected.

In November, 2009, I wrote a blog "For GOD's sake, we all are different". I have been thinking on this topic for quite some weeks. It was also during this time - October/November - that we had to choose a name for our lovely daughter, who was born weeks before on 19th September. Indian names generally are Sanskrit words and they have meaning behind them. For example, the meaning of my name is "rays of the sun". Amit means Sun and ava means rays. So, Amitava means "Rays of the Sun")

Call it coincidence or call it the work of sub-conscious mind, the name that I suggested (which was finally accepted and remains my daughter's name) is Adwitiya, which means "no comparison", which sort of sums my thoughts on how I feel everyone is different and hence comparisons are unwanted and uncalled for.

Let us all live the way we want to live and be happy with how we live.

Melbourne Memoirs

I went to Melbourne for 2 weeks in June, 2010. The following blog is about my experience of the entire journey.

14th June (Monday) early morning (4:15 am to be precise)

I had to catch a flight from Bangalore to Melbourne, Australia. I got in the cab and it was a 40 km drive from my home to the Bangalore Airport, which I have serious doubt

in calling "bangalore airport", since it is far far away from the city. Or shall we say just an airport, which the people of Bangalore use to catch flights. There is this NH7 highway that the cab drive zoomed through, having total disregard for any traffic signal at 2:30 am in the morning. when I said to him to obey the signals he said, obeying may cause more problem...In fact he gave me an example of how a car stopped in the signal the other night and the bus behind it did not. The result: the bus rammed into the car. Both the driver and the passenger dies on the spot. When I asked him whether such type of accidents is common in this route, he assured me 110% that there is at least 1 accident every 24 hours and its most frequent in the late night - early morning...around three -

four-ish in the morning. Now you don't want to hear those stories when your car in running at 100 kmph on the same highway in the accident-prone zone at around the accident-prone hour. Its like showing a house to a potential owner and saying how haunted the house has been! But that's how my journey was destined to begin!

GOD took the sweet revenge!
My wife hates many things about me, like all wives do about their husbands! So its not anything new. And like many I know what is the thing that she hates the most. Its my sense of direction when I am driving. When I drive, all roads seem the same to me and I completely rely on her for the direction. I know I have been on that road a dozen times before, but that does not mean I will not confuse it. As a student I read some chapter a hundred times before the exam and yet failed to

answer the question or had the wrong answer ticked that came from it. Like many inexplicable things in the universe, I don't know why that happened. Same thing when I drive. I would like to believe that while I am driving one side of the brain is so focused on the traffic and the signals and all, that the other side of the brain, which is supposed to guide me the directions is suppressed. I don't know whether its scientifically correct, but that's what I tell my wife. I cant tell , however, whether she is convinced by my logic. And because of my sense of direction every weekend when we go for a drive we end up driving some extra "free miles".

Just the other day we went to a friend's house. While returning I decided to try out a new route on our way back. And guess what? After a few turns here and there we realised that we are heading back to my friend's house at 9 pm, thanks to my experiment with new routes! I tried to squarely put the blame on the song that was being played in the music system of the car, by saying that the song actually distracted my attention and even turned it off. Needless to say, that didn't stop the few extra sound bites that came from my better half. Some things never change!

And for all these GOD took a sweet revenge on me while I was coming from Bangalore to Melbourne. For all those extra free miles that I have been gifting my wife in the weekends, HE decided to reward me with some free miles , albeit free air miles! For all you know, its no one but the Almighty! So, whatever HE does, HE does it in a mighty way. So, my flight to Melbourne was something like this: Bangalore to Dubai , Dubai to Singapore and then Singapore to Melbourne. What it means is, I had to fly around 4.5 hours west to Dubai. Then the flight from Dubai to Singapore is another 9 hours. Now, the catch is, I actually flew over Bangalore when I flew from

Dubai to Singapore (Bangalore is half-way between Dubai and Singapore) . And then the normal Singapore-Melbourne route. Precisely. I flew some extra around 9000 kilometres (Bangalore-Dubai-Bangalore)...total about 10 hours. What was actually some 14 hours journey, took 24 hours for me. I don't think I deserved such a harsh revenge!

The Darjeeling Tea

Darjeeling is very near to my home town, about 600 to 700 kilometers. It is a place I went when I was small.The small and beautiful hill town is situated in the lap of the Himalayas. When I was small and heard about the Darjeeling tea I knew it was famous. But then I went to many places abroad and found Tea labelled as "Darjeeling Tea" then I realised that all it not lost. I saw the labels in Walmart, Tesco and more recently in Australia. The flavour of the tea had something which reminded me of my roots. It is the aroma of the tea that took me to a different world momentarily.

My obsession with new food

Fish, chicken, lamb, pork, ham, beef, duck. I don't think I missed any. This was the list of non-veg things that I ate before my trip to Seoul in 2005. While in Seoul, I added two more, Sushi and raw fish. Raw fish is pretty tasteless, at least the one that I had. Its cold, and not cooked, not fried, not boiled, just plain raw. Well, doesn't the name also suggest so? Anyway, I was proud to quote that in my list of non-vegetarian items.

Today, the 15th of June, I tried another animal - a dish on the kangaroo saddle. You know, its Australia..and you have kangaroos. I was damn hungry and decided to try the new dish. Like my experiment with roads, my experiment with dish has been 50-50 in terms of hits and misses (though my wife claims its more misses than hits). To cut the long story short, the kangaroo must be really small -- something like a teenager in the kangaroo world. Because, its saddle was so small (may be just a shade bigger than that of rabbit). And what that means is, I had this big plate with some tiny meat in the middle, which they called kangaroo saddle. Even it was not among the most delicious dishes I have ever had in my life. I sometimes say, if chickens and hens knew how delicious they are and how amazingly they can be cooked, then perhaps they might have tried out themselves! Anyway, as for the kangaroo that sat in front of me, I finished the entire stuff in no time . By the time I reached home, I grew hungry again. I ate some biscuits that I had bought yesterday.

Its 2 o'clock in the morning now. I need to catch some hours of sleep now. I am sure that kangaroo saddle has long been taken care of by my efficient digestive system and the digestive juice.Otherwise, why on earth I am feeling hungry again?

18th June, Friday

On Friday evening I went to see a ballad in the State Theatre over here. It is not that I am a particular big fan of ballads, but its just that I wanted to have this experience. It was a nice and memorable experience.

19th June, Saturday

The next day I went on a day tour to the Great Ocean Road - the 12 Apostles being the last destination. It is a journey worth taking. On the way I saw Kangaroos in the distant green valleys, fed some parrots , saw a Kuala. There were also some spectacular beaches like the Bells Beach. Bluish green and greenish blue water and the mountain chains losing themselves into that clear water. We had lunch on a park - sandwich.
The Great Ocean Road, in particular, was marked by green mountains on one side and steep cliff plunging into the turbulent ocean on the other - the clear azure above. Every moment is different from the other and each moment I feel capturing the moment in my camera. And then during sunset I reached the 12 Apostles.
There is something with Nature that it pulls off some stunning features every now and then. It is a rock formation on the seashore, amidst turbulent and violent ocean and sea waves. It has a name "12 Apostles". But words cannot describe what it actually is, just like a passport does not give any identity of a person - good, bad, evil.
I have put some pictures of the 12 Apostles..that's all I can do. It was again another moment in my life that I felt we are all so insignificant and inconsequential when it comes to mother Nature. And also, we are so much into our own world that we don't know much about the huge world outside ours.
In short, the 12 Apostles is a piece of work that only Nature can do, both in the sheer size and splendour.

The journey continues...

The following week was not that eventful. It was office and hotel. In one of the days, I got a chance to see the Melbourne downtown. I thought of clicking pictures of the city, but then felt that it would be the same type of pictures with sky scrappers and roads. So, I tried to experiment a bit. I also clicked pictures of the local people - different people in different moods. Its one thing to pose for a camera and have that typical smile on your face. And another to catch people in their natural self. In the ones I clicked, the "photographeds"were unaware of the fact that I was actually capturing moments of their life. hence the photographs come out very natural. To this day, those photo collections of mine remain one of the best I have clicked.
I have attached the link of that below:

A day in Melbourne

Some Conversations:

Initially Nature used to awe me. The ocean and seas, hills and mountains, waterfall, sea waves, sky...gradually I realised that humans can be equally interesting to watch and interact with, especially the strangers whom you meet once and then perhaps will never meet again. You get a slice of their life and peep into their world, which may be so different from yours.

Karen: I don't know much details of the lady other than her first name and that she lives in New Jersey. Aged around 35. I did not want to, either and wanted to leave the identity to that level. When I was going on the tour to the Great Ocean Road, I met her. I had a tough time clicking my own photos with the picturesque background and so requested her to do the favour for me. She was also travelling alone and I reciprocated her favour soon after. What was interesting in our subsequent conversations is that she also had two small kids, the younger one being around 2 years. And her child also loved playing with her iPhone and her laptop, very similar to what my daughter does. And when I heard her speak of her kids, I realised how all parents think and speak the same way and how all babies more or less do the same things...and how we all are so similar fundamentally.

The Taxi Driver (from Melbourne Hotel to Airport): I have this uncanny habit of sitting on the front seat of a taxi. My flight from Melbourne was on Friday late night - Saturday early morning. The hotel promised to book a taxi for me, but ditched in the last moment. It was drizzling outside and I went out on the road to help myself. I got a taxi.
"Airport?"
" Yes!"
I jumped into it with the luggage.
The driver, as it turned out, like many others in Melbourne, was an Indian. And we immediately struck into a good 30 - 40 minutes conversation. I love these conversations, where I get to know the other persons world. He was in Melbourne for the last 6 years and went home only once since then and that too for 3 months, returning in last month. He told me how home sick he was and how he misses India, his parents, his brother, his friends and relatives. But he still prefers Melbourne as he can still save some and send money back to his family. In him, I found someone who seems to juggle between two contrast lives, one that is of the soul (that deals with love, relation) and the other that is so materialistic and real (money, poverty).And then I popped up a question for him
" When did you first decide that you will come to Australia and drive a taxi. And more importantly, WHY did you decide so?"
"Since childhood, I have seen my neighbours living in Canada, UK, USA and then coming home and flashing money. They had huge parties, grand get-togethers. Then I decided that I will go and earn money from abroad - whatever I have to do for that, I am fine - cooking, driving, cleaning toilets, anything! Its a childhood dream. And today that I have achieved it, there was no scope of regret."






The Bad luck and the Good luck:

My return flight was equally horrible, in fact more. My route was Melbourne - Kuala Lampur (KL) - Dubai - Bangalore. The flight that I took from Melbourne dropped me to KL, where I was struck for 10 hours, even though the flight went to Dubai after a mere 2 hour halt. The reason? It was full and there was no way I can reschedule my flight. The good thing was, apart from visiting KL on that day, I was upgraded to business class from Melbourne to KL. Nice luxury experience. Perhaps the ones who have got used to Business and higher classes of travel, this is the norm. But to me, it was luxury for 8-9 hours.




All's well that ends well!

How I fell in love with my second girlfriend

My first girlfriend is now my wife. This blog is not about her. It is about my second girlfriend. At the onset I wish to clarify that I do not want to draw any comparison between my first and second girlfriend. Comparisons are unwanted and uncalled for.

It might be a bit silly blog, narrating my second girldfriend. But when you are in love, you sometimes feel like telling the whole world that you are in love.

I have known my second girlfriend for a shade over seven months. And it would be an under-statement to say that I have cherished each and every moment with her. I first met her last year on the 19th of September.6:10 pm. I still remember that, that night it rained very heavily, as if to make the day even more memorable. I dont know whether it is love at first sight, but definitely by her first look I realised that our chemistry is going to work! And indeed it has.
It took time for her to acknowledge me as her first boyfriend. But now I am sure, she has accepted it. She is much younger to me. So, when we meet her I shred away my world of a thirty-year-old-man and step in her world that is so refreshing and fun. She is very sweet, jovial and always smiles when we meet. She does not demand anything from me. Neither do I. Its just the sheer company of each other that we long for and enjoy. She doesn't want me to take her out to a resturant or buy her an expensive gift. If she wants anything then perhaps its a ride in my car on every weekend, which I am more than happy to do for her.
It is a nice bonding that I have started sharing with my new girlfriend, something I wish to write about in-between my serious blogs, in future.

The best part is, my wife knows everything. She knows about my girlfriend and my relationship with her. And she doesn't mind. In fact, she shares a very good relationship with her, too. After all, its our sweet little daughter! :)

And all thats gone with time...gone with the wind

I have lost the innocence that I see in the eyes of my six month old daughter. The effortless smile when you see someone - acquaintance or stranger. Now when I meet a person there are some mental calculations that take place automatically between my two ears, which tells me how I should react.

I do not have to sit for periodic examinations, which brought butterflies in my stomach. The thing that gets closest to this is the yearly and half-yearly appraisals with your manager. But everybody knows what you are going to hear from him and what you have to say.

These days I do not get the luxury of two months of summer holiday or a month of Christmas and New Year holidays anymore. Weekend is what I look forward to. If there is a long weekend, what more do I want?

I used to look forward to the summer afternoons during the holidays to play chess with my brother. These days I am too tired and exhausted after office hours to play a decent game of chess with anyone. The idiot box is what I switch on once I return home from office; sometimes I watch "Discovery", "National Geographic Channel" or "Fox History Channel" if I want my grey and white matter to do a bit of activities.

I do not get the excitement of having a pair of new shoes or a new t-shirt. I can walk into any shop or mall and purchase one for myself. If I have money in my bank account,its good. If I don't, I swipe my credit card.

I do not have to look forward to the examination results date.

I no longer look forward to the smell of new books and new uniform at the beginning of each academic year. Honestly, I stay away from books these days. You Tube, TED Talks, Discovery and National Geographic Channels are where I gain knowledge from.

I no longer look forward to spend time with my grandparents. They are no more.

I do not look forward to the evening when my friends from the locality used to gather and we used to play badminton or cricket. These days, evenings are spent to earn money, more money and even more money...in offices, like couched potatoes. From air-conditioned (read: closed) offices, I could not even to catch a glimpse of the setting orange sun or get the fresh natural air.

I no longer look forward to visit the yummy Chinese Restaurants. There are around 50 Chinese restaurants in 5 km radius from my house...but do not recollect the last time I had lunch or dinner there.

Before joining Cranfield, I was looking forward to attending it...live a dream. Now that I have lived it, I can only look back and re-live it.

When I was small I used to wonder, when I will grow up, start earning and not have to ask my parents for everything I need. Today, I earn, but not sure whether I buy all the things that I want to.

In the loving memory of...

There was this thought of fine doing rounds in my head for quite some time. This thought about networking sites. After 30-40 years when this generation of orkut and facebook users will be either be dead or in the twilight zone of their life, what happens to these networking sites?
Lets say, if I am alive at 80, I will have 400 "friends" in my friend list and among them 380 are dead. I open my Facebook account...there will be pictures previously uploaded, there will be scraps that we shared for the past few years or decades. There will be every proof about the person in flesh and blood. What the networking sites will not tell is that the person is no more. I shudder to think that day.

Networking sites for this generation will then become more of an obituary site rather than a networking site...it will become the "soft-copy of the grave-yard".

One of my dear cousins died yesterday...she is there in my orkut friend list...she is no more in this world. She exists in the virtual world, but ceases to exist in the physical one.

1 down from my friend list.

May her soul rest in peace. GOD bless her!

The city of Benaras

It has been exactly a year since I had visited the amazing city of Benaras or Varanasi, depends on the way you call it. And still the memories of it seems as fresh as if it were yesterday. Today I feel the urge to write about my trip to Benaras and my thoughts about the city.

The city is among the oldest in the world. While walking down some of the really narrow lanes of the city, I felt the inexplicable excitement of the very thought that people have used the lanes for thousands of years! The crowd that came was as diverse as it can get - from the VIPs to the poorest of the poor. People queued up to worship the GOD, took bath in the river Ganges that flows through it, flocked the already busy streets bordered by road-side fast food vendors...its something that you have to live to believe in. Its one place where so many different types of people and culture meet! The mornings were foggy - visibility was hardly 50 metres or so. The temperature was low. And yet people thronged in thousands to take a holy dip.

Benaras is one place where religion and faith have left little space for science and reason. And, though it that may sound controversial, I'm ,at least,not complaining. Living in a world so full of reasons and rationalities, it does make sense to sometimes break the shackles and live in a world that defies all these. It feels good to break the law and let the mind and soul ward as they wish, without causing any civic nuisance. In the olden days when the industry and sewage water did not flow into the Ganges, the river was famous for its medicinal values brought due to the presence of minerals from the Himalayas. Hence people took bath and drank the water to keep them hale and hearty. Today, scientifically speaking, the water of the Ganges is too polluted to even take a sip. And so many are up in arms to show people the rationality of not drinking the water or taking bath. But in the world of analysis and judgement, what we often miss out is the soul. There are at least two components to our existence - the physical body and the soul within. Just like with any other physical objects, we are so much heads and ears over the existence of the physical body, that we almost seem to forget the soul that exists within us. And yet, surprisingly, we all more-or-less tend to believe that the physical body in mortal and the soul is immortal!
So, while the polluted water can be injurious to health, it might be good for the soul. It is the faith and devotion with which the dip is taken that brings the inner bliss to the pilgrims. I am not saying that we all should start believing in superstitions and blind-faiths. What I am saying is, if something makes a man or woman feel closer to GOD, make the person realise the inner self, then whats wrong with it? If some faith has brought people from different parts of India (at least), where the rich and the poor take the dip together side-by-side, where the concept of untouchables has been put to shame, where people realise that we all are one under one sun, then I am for that faith. Because this faith causes the unity and the bonding us. If people come to Benaras to acknowledge and repent for the sin and mistakes they have committed and promise not to repeat them, and for that they take the holy dip, then so be it. Even if causes skin infection, it will make the world, at large, a purer and cleaner place.
It is the way you look at it. Every morning in Benaras to me was a special morning. It was refreshing. It was connecting and communicating with the old Indian civilisation. The narrow lanes, the deserted huge palacial houses on the river bank, the line of beggars along the streets, burning of dead bodies in the many burial ghats along the bank and the smoke from them that swirled up in the air, the aarti or worship of the river during the evening -- all seem to have a deeper meaning than their mere physical appearance and presence. Quite like the statue of a GOD, which has very little to do with its physical existence and much more with what we attach its significance to.

In our day-to-day life we trust our sense organs - our windows to the outside world - eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin to connect with the outside world. In Benaras these physical sense organs are not enough...you need to have a third eye to get a deeper feeling and understanding of the city and the life in the city! The more you start getting deeper into it, the more you fall in love with it and the more you fall for it. After all, its not for nothing that the popularly-believed-world's-oldest-city has stood the test of time and successfully survived for thousands of years when almost all of the contemporary cities built during that time have disappeared into oblivion.