Had a fruitful day

Life is like that, Nothing official about it

We had a hitch in the morning: our flight was delayed in Bangalore because of traffic (yes, believe me) and then when we flew in here, again we were delayed because there was no parking space (again, please believe me).

We were supposed to reach office by 10 but we reached only by 11.25. And in another 5 min we started the meeting.

We had two sessions and they were fantastic. We (my chief & I) are very much satisfied.

He left and I am staying back for one more day.

With all that is going on, I, honestly don’t want to come back!

On to HYD

Life is like that, Nothing official about it

I’m on my first corporate visit in this firm. I kind of avoided it so far, as the facilities on employee travel are not so great here. But the new chief expects me to play a greater role and hence he wants me to accompany him on corporate visits to other centers. So here is the first one. We are just initiating such visits so that we get feedback from users about the applications that we have rolled out.

It is a bittersweet irony that on one side life seems to be very disturbing and on the other it just rocks.

Its a spin

Life is like that

I am struggling to come to terms with the ‘brutal-facts-of-reality’. I know unless I face them and deal with them, I am going to have such occurrences time and again. Facing them is not pleasant; but I got to. I hope to discipline myself to face them.

Coming weeks are going to be tough.

I feel very alive

Life is like that, Travel

I don’t know if it has to do with ‘Bittersweet’, but today has been fantastic as well.

I told you already that I drove for about 6 hours. When I reached home, I was bit tired and took rest for an hour. Then enjoyed reading and finishing the book. With so much of enthu, I cleaned the car. I was tired by then, but some more energy was still left. I swept and moped the house. In the mean time, I washed clothes as well. By then it was already 7 and I realized there is no food left at home. So I went grocery shopping. Even I am surprised at all the work that I did. This is the closest that I felt being in Belgium; I used to do all of this when I was there, but somehow I didn’t do it here.

I also posted the photos in flickr. You can see the photos here.

Back from magical weekend

Life is like that, Travel

Yes, it was a fantastic weekend that I had. I drove to Chennai on Saturday morning. It was a pleasant drive. I arrived at the resort at about 11.

Since the check-in is only at 13h00, I had lunch and then went to the beach. It was a relaxing time, as always, just listening to the waves and feeling the beach sand.

Initially I had planned to go to the wedding, which was at 8.30 Sunday morning. But then I decided to take the whole day of Sunday, so I went to the reception on Saturday night. I had thought it would be difficult to drive after 6 hours of drive in the morning. But it wasn’t. Probably because it was for AKA or I was looking forward for Sunday. Anyway, it wasn’t an eventful evening. I expected to see couple of old folks from my earlier firm, but only 3 turned up and I know only one. But then I went right on the start and stayed there about 30 min, so it is a possibility that I missed most of the folks.

This is probably the 4-5th wedding that I attend of my colleagues. I wouldn’t have driven this far if for anyone else. AKA was a great team mate and was a great support when I was going through a terrible time. I would be a thankless asshole, if I didn’t go to her wedding, being in India.

Then came Sunday. I wanted to watch the sunrise and freeze on my camera. But for one, it was cloudy and another I slept through ( 😉 ). I woke up at around 7.30 and went to have breakfast. Time and again, I am amazed by the quality of food at this resort. It is just fantastic.

After breakfast, I went to the beach. There was a decent amount of crowd this time and an active crowd as well. Some were doing horse-riding and there was one another French guy doing fishing (yes, with the fishing rod, it is really hard to see that here) and then another German guy was with a huge kite. It was a pleasant feeling; for a moment I felt I was not in India.

Another factor added to this feeling – I was reading an excellent book by Danielle Steel named ‘Bittersweet’. If you get a chance to read it, don’t miss. I could relate to each of the character in someway and it was a mesmerizing to read page by page. I haven’t yet finished, so don’t how it all ends.

Then in the evening, I took a drive to Mahabs. Nothing particular, but just a drive and few clicks here and there.

After another good dinner, I went to bed very satisfied. May be a little romance could’ve been better. But unlike the resort, life is not ideal!

Today morning, I was on the car by 5.15 and drove back home. I lost an hour in the first 70 kms, but then I kept about 120 kmh speed until Krishnagiri. Near Krishnagiri, I witnessed an accident – the car in front of me hit a young fellow on the cycle. It was a hit-and-run. I stopped the car; I couldn’t just drive. Fortunately, nothing worse happened to the kid.

Though I kept a decent speed after that, I was not able to digest the fact some bloody idiot would do that. I didn’t even have breakfast (normally I have in Krishnagiri, but that shop was dismantled).

Except that incident, the weekend was just magical. I loved it; enjoyed it; and planning to go back again sometime.

I have shot few photos and would post them once all of them are transferred.

Another travel and the same memory

Life is like that, Travel

Tomorrow morning I am planning to travel to Chennai to attend one of my ex-colleague’s marriage. She used to work in my earlier firm and she is a wonderful person herself and a fantastic team mate. Now she is working in e-Bay. I’m thrilled to see her get married and also, if possible, to see some of my ex-colleagues.

Including this trip, I’ve driven to Chennai thrice in the past 6 months. Though I am looking forward to the trip, I am little concerned about the weather – it is heavy rains both here and in chennai; plus there has been earthquake in Indonesia recently. Not that I am keen on living; but I am not keen on dying as well.

Every time I have to take a trip, one of the old memories flash through. I miss the company I had in each of the trips. As I cruise along, my mind will ponder those memories.

I know I need to live in the present. But I cant but help thinking of those times.

and the day goes bad

Nothing official about it

Today has been pulling me down.

I told you I took over a project recently. With all due respect for the earlier project manager (I do admire his social skills and his enthusiasm), he was slack in deadlines, client commitments and so on. I came into the project and created a disturbance in the team with all the aggressiveness of meeting deadlines and staying with the commitments. This has caused a great stir within the team.

Yesterday my boss had a skip level meeting (where my boss meets my team without me) and they were all complaining about me. My boss informed to me in a very diplomatic way. Unlike my earlier two bosses in this department, the new boss is not very supportive rather he is a neutral guy.

So now I have managed to have the team, the boss and even the functional coordinators up against me.

When there is no one to share my feelings, it takes a lot of mental fortitude to keep the faith that I will come through this phase; that I will make the difference in the delivery of the team.

I feel down for the moment. 🙁

Good weekend

Life is like that

Anita (http://anitabora.com/blog/) mentioned in her blog that there will be a photo exhibition this weekend. I’ve been following her blog and she is simply a superb photographer. It would also be an opportunity to see her in person.

I made plans to go to the exhibition. Initial plan was … well, I don’t want to talk about it.

Anyway, we went to the exhibition. BIL was kind enough to drive us there. I am glad we went there. It was an awesome exhibition of photos of four folks. I even bought a photo (http://flickr.com/photos/350d/172520360/) for my sister as a gift.

P.S: I am not linking to her blog as this is a private one and I don’t want any back link. But visit her blog, she writes well as much as captures well.

I don’t need this now

Life is like that, Nothing official about it

I’ve said many times here that I’m going through a tough time, personally. One after another has been draining the mental fortitude. I also said about the electrical shock that I escaped.

I’m not sure if I mentioned in this blog; but about a year and half back, I had to fire an (lady) employee. As a matter of fact, I was the first one to fire someone in this department. I’m not particularly proud of it (in fact I went through couple of sleepless nights on that), but that was a professional decision. I discussed that with HR, the head of the department; we provided two chances for improvement; only then we decided to carry out the decision.

Year and a half is a long time. But two days back, I got an SMS from this gal, in which she said, she was going through a trouble and she was not able to concentrate and I found it easy to fire her!

I didn’t know how to react. Firing someone is in itself a tough call; and having to read this after so many months is another disturbing one. On one side I felt pity and another angry. I didn’t respond immediately, but next day I brought it to the notice of the head of the department and the head of HR. Though they were completely supportive of me, I didn’t have a pleasant feeling sitting through these discussions and meetings.

It is much more a disturbance as I go through troubled times.

As the things go from bad to bitter to worse, I feel like crying aloud. I wish I had someone on whom I can lay my heads and felt comforted. But I have none!

Hope I pass through these days keeping my sanity.

P.S.: I know I’ve been only lamenting on this space. This is the only place where I vent out my feelings. If you find it tiresome, please come back after few months.

Still shocked

Life is like that

Some days end better than the morning; and some worse. Today falls into the second category.

I’ve been emotionally drained since Friday. I tried to have a better weekend but things didn’t go well as well.

Today it seemed to be a better day; only it didn’t end well.

See there is an electrical post near the garage at my house. One of the support rods for the pole crosses the garage. I’ve been parking for about a year and half and it posed no trouble. Today I was parking as usual and there were electric sparks. Luckily nothing else happened, other than the fact that the power went off. I was shocked. I am just writing this to cool off.