Again change! This weekend, I moved to a new house. On Friday, I went to order electronic appliances (TV, Audio system, Microwave oven …). Then I had to come back to office. I worked until 1 in the midnight and went to bed in the dorm. On Saturday morning, my parents arrived from Tuticorin. I went to pick them up and left them at the new home. Then I had to come to office for an hour. Thank god! The migration of a patch went well.
My sister had come from Bangalore as well. She helped in packing from old house. Man, it is awful, how much you pile up in six months! It took some time in sorting things out. Otherwise whole packing took less than an hour. I transported all the stuff in a mini-van. Earlier, all the electronic items were delivered at home. Then started the whole fixing up operation. I was able to fix only TV, audio system and DVD/VCD/mp3 players. Anyway that is all what I was interested in.

Getting a gas connection for the stove turned difficult. I need an address proof. How the hell would I have a proof that I am living there, for a house that I am moving in? Won’t people think? Well, we couldn’t make the guy understand. Finally I had to borrow a cylinder from a neighbor to go ahead with dinner preparation.

Today, most of the items got fixed – washing machine, fridge, and fans. Still, I need to test microwave oven. That is for later. My dad left back and my sister will be leaving in an hour or so. My mom will stay with me for a week. After around a decade, I will enjoy her food every day.

I am sure every one has moments of puzzle in their life. I have quite a bunch of them. Of late so much seems to puzzle me. When I returned from Belgium, after being away from home for so long, my brother-in-law suggested, I stay closer to home – meant in Madras and if possible near their house – so as to build good relation. That sounded good for me. So I stayed in Madras and in fact stayed in their guest house. It was indeed a good time – I enjoyed staying closer to relations; we went out couple of times together; and they showed me parts of city that I didn’t know before.

But here comes the irony. In the middle of February, I got a call from a head-hunter asking if I am looking for a job. I said, I am not and introduced my sister. Boom! She got offers from Accenture, IBM and couple of others as well. Now she is in IBM, Bangalore. Today I got a call from my brother-in-law saying he has got into Accenture, Bangalore. I am glad for the progress in their career. But I am left in awe, how times changes and here I am in Madras because I wanted to stay closer home but those whom I wanted to be with are not here.

Baffled, I feel the pain of loneliness – again.

I am not much into sun signs, astrology or similar things. But you know, how and what emails get forwarded! I got one with subject – ‘pick your sign’. Man! it describes me.
For a long time, I wanted to write ‘About me!’. Now I don’t have to. You can just read through this.

Yes, I choose rather to fight than to switch. How else, I would be with this firm? And it is true that I can eat anything, well almost. Otherwise, could have I taken so many trips? And am I romantic? I will leave the answer to the gal(s) who get a crush on me!

I love the month of March. Not without a reason. After struggling to get a decent job, in March ’96, I got into a consulting job for a well-known cardiac surgeon. My prime responsibility was to computerize his department and to develop a patient management software. I was there for two years, and these days laid a strong foundation for functional analysis and user interaction.

Two years later, in March, I joined a software consulting firm. Initial days were pretty vexing and I was plotting, so often, to leave the firm. But a year later, again in March, I left to Belgium, where I had such a good time of my life.

Now tell me, wouldn’t I be attached to March?

At office I am known as a picture man. Because I prefer to draw pictures to explain/understand concepts. Seeing its effectiveness, one another member also picked up the ‘picture drawing’ habit. Instead of writing pages of explanations, I find it effective to convey the meaning via pictures. Of course, I do have text, but then a picture speaks better. Isn’t it? It comes handy as well, because time and again we have to communicate with people sitting thousands of miles away (to those Americans).

I got into this habit with courtesy of a Flemish colleague I had. That picture girl induced me to be a picture man!

This weekend I had a severe wheezing problem. Wheezing came back on me after returning to Chennai due to its heavy dust and smoke pollution. When I went to a doctor to check, he advised that I stay out of smoke and dust! Funny it sounds, but that is what he said. If one have to stay out of smoke and dust in Chennai, either he has to stay home or get under the grave.

Usually whenever wheezing comes, I would take a theophyline tablet and it would reduce. But not so on Sunday. It went on and on and not just in duration but it got intense as well. There was a point when I was thinking probably it would turn out to be a permanent stop!

When it turned worse, I went to a doctor. Seeing the intensity he injected a mixture of three medication. Even then it stopped only after 20 minutes. He has given few heavy dose tablets which make me feel like a zombie. I have to continue the medication for couple of more days.

We (my sister, brother-in-law and I) came to my parent’s house for Christmas. My BIL is crazy about fireworks. He bought all sorts of fireworks – single crackers, multiple crackers, saucer kinds and so on. I have not cracked a firecracker since I was 15. So it was partly fun and partly surprising, how someone of my age enjoy crackers so much. Even I cracked few.

I also met one of my college-mate. He is married to a girl from my town and he was here for Christmas. He came to my house for few hours and we were chatting about how our lives changed and also gossiped about few fellow mates. It was a ‘walking down’ of memory lane.

Otherwise it was all reading, eating, watching TV and chitchatting.

In the past two years, I have grown horizontally in body size. And I keep growing day by day. I am not able to get into pants I bought 6 months back. I decided to keep a check on my growth. Our firm has a gym right here in the office building. For long I was shy in using it, but now time has come to take action.

This weekend, I bought whatever is needed. Yesterday I went to the gym. There is a trainer as well. He guided me through warm-ups and other exercises. I worked-out for little more than an hour burning around 150 calories (Are readings on those machines true?). I felt good after the exercise – physically and mentally.

The goal is to get into my old pants for my birthday (good self-gift?) which is coming in another 6 months. Wish me good luck.