Temperature is falling day by day here in Delhi. It was 3 yesterday and its going to fall still further. Family has never experienced winter so she is wearing 4 layers of clothing at home. But she is adjusting well. Today she went to a nearby electrical shop and bought us oil filled radiator. So its little better.

The flight arrived early today for a change.

We came home without any trouble. But it is so cold. We are wearing two sweaters and still feeling cold.

I believe Piyo is missing his grand parents & aunt & uncle. He is pointing finger outside and wants to go outside. But its so cold I can’t take him outside.

Even I feel what am doing here so far away from home. Once before, I think it was 2003 when I was in Belgium immediately after our His trip, I felt home sick. Piyo can’t express it, but is having his first home sickness.

There is also water problem.

It’s not a pleasant beginning.

Even after two years of stay I don’t feel excited to go to Delhi. That was not the case about Belgium. It may be because of my work with govt or uncomfortable envirenvironment of Delhi or my comfort in Bangalore or my condition of not much friend in Delhi. Whatever be it I am not happy going back. But I do know, that’s where my future is. So far I have relied just in single client. This year I am planning to diversify. Also I am planning to get few articles published in print media to establish myself as consultant. Since the house owner has asked me to vacate first quarter is going to be a busy one. May be my feeling has to do with too much unpredictable work too.

Ever since I came to Bangalore, I ha e been suffering from wheezing. Also infected with cold. Cold aggravated wheezing. Today I couldn’t bear it and visited the hospital for medication.

Even after taking all of those medicines, I am still suffering from wheezing as I type this. Only in these incidence, I understand the truth in the saying – health is wealth.

Hope I am able to sleep well and wake up well for the new year.

There isn’t any big achievement this year. But I learnt quite a bit. Learnt to seal tough with the client when they cornered me.

Spent good time with family. We visited Bangalore, Coimbatore and of course India Gate. We also went out almost every week and ate out at least once a week.

Hopefully next year I will get something done.

We started at 5.45 in my BIL’s spacious new car. Though I offered to drive he drove the whole way – up & down. Driving itself was for about 10 hrs and he did it with ease.

We stopped for breakfast at Anand Bawan, a road side restaurant. The food was good and we started within 20 min. Within few min of driving, Piyo started vomiting and that was a matter of concern. We stopped briefly, cleaned him, and started again. He was dull until we reached the mount.

I light up two candles – one for our family & another for Joy’s. Piyo behaved well in the church. Then we left to BIL’s house. His mom took care of me well when I stayed in their house for more than 3 months. So I make it a practice to visit her whenever I’m in town. This time I had a doubt if Piyo would be comfortable there. He was. Much more. He played; he laughed; he was not a crying baby. I felt happy and blessed.

Then we drove back. Full packed day and a satisfying day.

One of the primary objective of our trip this time was the trip to St Thomas Mount. Over the years I have grown fond of this place.

Flash back : My life was in shambles in 2003. I had just returned from Belgium and I couldn’t digest that it happened so unexpected; then had other personal issues. I started to visit the mount almost on a daily basis; most of the time just sitting there and weeping. The rational side of my brain questioned (sometime ridiculed) all of these efforts; but sitting there gave me peace & strength to continue.

Slowly situation started to improve. I got a car; switched job. I continued to visit the mount without much requests. Even when I shifted to Bangalore I visited few times. Then when I left to Delhi, we visited as a family. I had a stable consultancy engagement. Importantly had a son. If anyone would have told any of these in 2003, I wouldn’t have believed. Now I’m visiting after 2 years to say thanks. I also paid a visit in April this year with a specific request after a family mishap. That also successfuly resolved in this year itself. So there is a lot to be thankful of.

(BIL is driving so that’s another thing to be thankful about)

So far it has been ‘un-experienced so far’ holidays.

The confusion started on 23rd, the day we had to start for Bangalore on Christmas holidays. It started with shift in metro stops, which led to some confusion but I igored or rather it didn’t even register since I was too excited about the travel.

Then when I booked cab for pickup there was a confusion as well. I use Meru Cabs, which has been giving an excellent service. Previously when I used their service, I had to book only about 5 hours early. They won’t book prior. But now when I called at 3 pm for a 5.30 pm pickup they said there is a convienience charges since it is less than 24 hrs. They had changed their business model to lynching customers. Btw, they said, there is an increase in the per km charges too. Again I ignored it.

Then I got the message that our flight is delayed by half hour. That has happened before and expected in India.

I left office at 3 and didn’t expect much crowd in metro. But there was huge crowd owing to the shifts in stops. It was madness. I treated it as another irritant.

Another round of confusion ensued at home. Rani had assumed we will be leaving late since the flight was postponed (I had it is better to spend hours in airport than stuck in traffic which happened last time). So we had to rush.

As we rushed to the airport we were informed that our flight is delayed by an hour!

None of the above events disturbed me. Having done my share of travel, I knew these were common, though doesn’t happen all at once.

Then came the call which I didn’t anticipate. The flat owner called and said I have to vacate the house by mid Jan. Even after two days I’m still not able to digest that. Why that and why on that day? So I have my hands full when I go back.

Here in Bangore, I got wheezing so I couldn’t do as many things that I liked to do – especially photography.

But in all of these the good thing is that Piyo adapted well this time in Joy’s house unlike last time.

Oh I got to drink a fine 5 year old German wine which Joy brought few years back.

Recently I did an interview of Stever Robbins who wrote a Get It Done guy book. They launched their Marketing Video today. My blog appears in that video for a second. You can see it in this link at 1.33 min:

http://www.steverrobbins.com/blog/2010/12/book-launch-social-media-video/