My neighbor is getting ready to vacate. As part of bidding farewell, today we went out for dinner. We went to Pastas & Noodles along the Besant Nagar beach road. Surprisingly, the food was damn good. I enjoyed it. For deserts, we went to near-by ‘Cool Cats’. It is a mixed feeling – enjoying their company but also knowing that in few days, they will be gone.
It is almost an year back, I went to this neighborhood. Real life changes drastically than fiction.
Approximately two weeks back, my sister moved to a new team. This team does lots of implementation projects and hence the consultants are required to travel often. So tonight she is leaving to Singapore. She might stay for maximum of three weeks. Bon Voyage sister.
Until recently, all I knew about finances were credit and debit. Even that I use to confuse way too often. Yet, as a measure of re-inventing myself and being part of growing up in the corporate ladder, I decided to dig deep into the world of finances. So far, I am content with the progress that I’ve made.
In the recent budget, a new tax was introduced – Fringe benefit tax. Most of the firms went ahead to change the pay structure to incorporate this tax. Earlier, I use to ignore such changes and would take it as, ‘be content with whatever pay you get’. It wasn’t so this time. I took it upon myself to study about it, discuss with colleagues & my auditor and devised my pay structure accordingly. I along with another colleague, became a point of reference.
Such events may not be ‘big’ thing for business savvy or functional folks. But for me, a tech guy, it is.
Since two weeks, every day has been hectic and hence I thought of relaxing during the gone by weekend. However, both days turned into busy days. On Saturday, I drove with neighbors to their farmland near Sriperumbudur. We were supposed to start before noon, but then their daughter slept, slept and slept. With much cajoling, she was finally ready. We got out of the house, only to notice that folks from electricity board came along and cut the road to lay underground electric cable, thereby successfully insulating us from reaching any road. After little bit of argument by neighbor with those contractors, we were able to start around 13h00. To my pleasant surprise, much of the distance had very well laid road and the ride was smooth, except for the last stretch which was full of bumps that really tested my driving skills. With mango trees everywhere the farm looked green. The kids played around while we talked everything about nothing – nothing different from our other day’s conversations.
In the evening, I went to the wedding reception of an ex-colleague. It was fun to see all the ‘old’ folks and catch up with ongoing events in our lives.
Life is strange. I wanted to meet Dr. Rao, a close friend of mine, for sometime now. Every time, I visited Bangalore, he was out on some trip and we never met. However, he was in Chennai this weekend and I got to go to his house on Sunday. (Earlier once, we accidentally met in Spencer Plaza). There was also another reason for the meet. A friend of my sister, Buva, who was in Minneapolis, returned since his father had a mild heart attack and a blackout. He has sub-mitral aneurysm and I offered to get Dr. Rao’s opinion before proceeding further. Dr. Rao took time to explain about the state and further steps. So nice of him!
For lunch, Buva came home. On our way back, we bought Godrej real-good-chicken (packaged chicken). He proved his skills. We had a spicy lunch. In the evening, we went house hunting for him. After the long day, we went to beach and relaxed before bidding farewell.
Today is my sister’s birthday. Last year she was here in Chennai and we did such a lot of shopping & had such a lot of fun. This year, I wanted to go to Bangalore but then I had to attend the wedding reception of an ex-colleague. (The weekend has been hectic). I already presented her a birthday gift – an ultra-thin Titan watch.
Yesterday night while I was driving back home, both FM stations – Suryan & Mirchi – played melodies from Chandrababu & Sivaji days. I was enjoying the drive, as it was pretty late and there was no traffic. One of the songs was, ‘Antha naal Nyabagam’. The lyric goes to say, the present days are unlike the good old days. That got me thinking. It is true that I had very pleasant days in the yesteryears. Childhood was without any responsibility, college was enjoyable, career until now is filled with satisfaction and dream-come-true trips. However, they were also filled with sorrow, pain, and a longing for a better future. I was always longing for what I didn’t have.
But something dawned as I struggled through life. I realized, longing – otherwise stated, troubles/losses/heart-aches – is part of life and I got to make the best of the situation. Then life seemed to have gotten a different meaning. Life remains the same, but I, rather my perspective of life, changed. Now, I don’t groan that life is bitter or wish yesteryears never changed or fantasize future would be better. I’ve come to realize that good-old-days is a myth and a better future would remain a fantasy, unless I enjoy life to the fullest with what has been given to me. With few adjustments in life, my motto is, ‘Nevertheless enjoy’.
Someone quipped, “Life has to be understood backwards; but lived forwards”. But seriously speaking, at any given situation, how do we decide one way or the other? There are times at which, life just takes you on a roller coaster and the choices given to you are either, yes/yes or no/no. If so, you just make up your mind to make the best of the outcomes. On the contrary, if there is an option of making a choice, how to go about? Especially if the matter at discussion is important to you and family and others are involved?
Two years back, when I returned back from Belgium I had to choose either to stay in Chennai or move to Bangalore. I chose to stay with my sister and in an ironic twist she left to Bangalore. I’ve not regretted the decision, though. This year, with its goodness, puts me in crossroads often. Last time, I gave such serious thought was to quit the firm I’ve been with for seven long years. It was difficult emotionally, yet there were lots of positive factors that constituted the decision that I made. I am into a crossroad again. Lots of discussion is going on between sister, parents and me. The trouble this time is both options seem equally good and equally bad. None of us could make our mind into either way. Hopefully soon, we will arrive at a conclusive decision.
It is hard to believe for my sister, few friends and me. Yet it is true. I’ve traveled 4000 kms in 3 months. Just unbelievable! My sister’s friend says that I could’ve done it only if I’ve a girl friend, which is definitely is not the case. For an Indian, it is too much a distance to cover. I haven’t yet started to travel to near-by cities as I’ve planned. With the soaring oil prices, I need to keep an eye on the odometer.
On the other hand, it might be a sign of, me living life to the maximum. I enjoy driving (even through awful Chennai traffic). Though I’ve not gone out of Chennai (except once to Pondy), I’ve driven to places in every direction of the city. After little planning, I should be going out of Chennai for weekends.
On Thursday, after training, I went to my BIL’s house and picked up sister and BIL. We had a dilemma about the gift for the bride and groom. Our choices came down to either a gold coin from Khazana or a lady & a gentleman watch. Eventually, my fondness with watches prevailed. We dropped by a near-by Titan showroom and bought the same. In addition, we got two more watches – my gift to sister for her upcoming birthday and another gift for neighbor’s daughter whose birthday is on Friday.
After shopping, we left to ‘Hotel Park View’, where groom’s family was staying. After the usual ‘making fun of groom’ (it is a love marriage), we left for engagement. It was a simple function. Then I left to office and quickly finished up whatever needed to be finished. I came back to the hotel and picked the gang and came back home.
Friday was the big day. The wedding was at the Church of Christ the king, Loyola College. It is a pretty old church, built on 1930. For the riches bestowed on the groom (his dad is a retired captain and he is a first officer in a Hong Kong based shipping agency), the wedding & reception was a simple one.
Only when there are loved ones at home, there is life there. It is always a fun to have my sister around (with BIL, it only doubles). One greatest advantage for me is that she cleans the whole house. They all left on Saturday.
Even today, I’ve been busy until noon. I’ve been helping a friend of my sister with house searching and so on. Hope in the evening, I get some rest and ready for the week ahead.
I’ve a training between 9h30 and 13h30 about Metrics management system, a home-grown system for tracking project metrics. Then, I got to go for engagement of a close relative, for which Mom, Sister and Brother-in-law are here. Of all our relatives, we are close with two families and one of them is theirs. So all of us are expected. Dad couldn’t make it due to shortage of leave but he will attend the reception in Tuticorin.
After engagement, I got to go to office to clear up the day’s work. In my estimation, it is going to last until midnight. I’ll be glad, if it is over by then.