The year gone by..

I know the year still isn't over, but I doubt anything significant will happen in the next 2 days and since I have woken up at the ass crack of dawn I may as well post a summary of my year. You will now understand why I don't believe anything significant happen in the next 2 days..

February this year was when I came back from Noida. The hell-hole! India's own Gotham City, where McDonalds refuses to deliver after 8:00pm "for security reasons". You never know which hungry murderer maybe lurking in the dark looking for french fries, large coke and a McChicken! I was glad to be back home to Pune, but my work for the first time in my career has been affected majorly by this move. Not something you've not already read about previously...

March was when I got a promotion or at least the excuse for a promotion. I'm still getting paid peanuts! Recession was the most abused excuse in the year 2009. Most of you will agree. People decided not to have babies because of recession! I'm sure the amount they spent on contraceptives would've been more than the cost of having a baby (with all the insurance, you know).

This was also the year of marriages. Three of my cousins got married (Delhi, Simla and Rajasthan), one got engaged and two other friends took the plunge as well. Brave fuckers ("fuckers" being ironically situated in the sentence).

How could I forgot this - I started writing my blog in March and have successfully managed to stay away from social networking. The pressure to join facebook though was like being 1000 meters below sea level (the analogy "sucks", I know!). Somewhere in between I also decided not to have an opinion and since that decision, I think I've done well. But I realise how boring it's getting to write. So, I'm back.

Gona got engaged and Vikram is going to end the year single (unless you can come up with a freakin' miracle dude). Lynell is still the way he is and Tarun has remained married for a year (way to go man!). Rashmi continues to be the female Jim Corbett (only the smart will understand) and Shweta, well, for the sake of my life I will not comment!

Herbert has worked twice this year and Richard worked once too much (I hope this is taken in good humor as it was intended)! I did not meet my goal of finding another job by the end of the year but that's alright 'cause there's always first quarter of 2010 (and then second quarter and so on..)

On the whole, the year has been okay. The past will stay in the past and future will be worked upon in the present.

That's all folks! Happy new year!

P.S. The internet remained to stay working for more than a week! Major bloody achievement of 2009. Long live BSNL!

Still in the game!

I was driving to work today when I stopped at a crossing to let a car pass by. I could see there were two very cute girls sitting in that car, but didn't think of it too much. Suddenly as they crossed me the driver stuck her head out and whistled at me and to top it off it was really loud.

So... I don't know what the right reaction to something like this is. All I could do was smile from ear to ear and carry on with my life.

It wasn't to end there. Apparently the old couple on a scooter behind me saw this and when the old man finally had his chance at over-taking me, he and his wife smiled at me and he called out "aarey hero"!!

Twice in one day, I sat in my car with a feeling I cannot describe. Except that I just could not stop smiling both times. I must look like an idiot to other people.

Looks like I've still got the moves baby! HE HE HE HE..

It's the most wonderful time.

Richard's back from the hospital today.

My appraisal discussion went very well (atleast a lot better than I expected).

No work for the next three days.

It has to be the most wonderful time of the year!! Merry Christmas!

Our fragile lives...

Last night when I got back home from work, my mum told me that my elder brother was admitted in the hospital. He had to be taken there while he was at work. He had high blood pressure and the doctors even suspect he may have had a mild heart attack!

Richard, my elder brother, will not come across as someone who could suffer from this. He stands over 6'2" and is close to 85 kilos and is healthy as a bull (from where I see it). He's normally calm as a cucumber and doesn't really take too much load in life.

I saw him at the hospital (at about 1:30am) and he still had a normal looking smile and looked pretty "pink of health" to me. He asked for a book to read - which tells me he feels absolutely normal.

I don't know what to make of all this. What I do know is that his work stresses him out. Which makes me look back and I remember saying that it's just not worth it.

Our lives are way too fragile. I don't want to spend mine thinking about all the things that went wrong. I don't have the energy anyway. A very good friend of mine had to actually call me up (from very far) and tell me that I have become very wierd. That is just me - recuperating. It's me pulling all that I have together again. My instincts in the past have led me to be like this before knowing I'm going to need it. I know why.

Get well soon Richard!

And all of you out there - no matter how important something you do is to someone else, make sure it's important to you. Keep well.

Hopeless

I've woken up from my sleep from this crazy dream about work.

Now I'm all awake with these thoughts rushing through my head, wondering what the fuck am I supposed to do tomorrow!

I should not have to punish myself for the short-comings of others. But such is my life. Looking back, I realised I have very often been the victim of someone else's inabilities. I've become a lot more patient and a lot less confident now. This is absolutely unlike me. I can't even say I'm going to fight back. This time I'm out numbered and out (not so) smarted! There are just too many issues to deal with and it's just not worth it.

Maybe these are signs. I don't know. What I do know is that it's making me stronger each day. I'm getting more and more immune to being pushed around.

What they don't understand is that it's not a problem when something goes wrong and I react. It's a problem when something goes wrong and I don't react. I've lost faith in a lot of people. It's good. It's all good!!

P.S. The details are not necessary. Everyone sucks!

The idle mind

These days I hardly have any work in office. I just sit around and do almost nothing and I must be damn darned brave or stupid to write this just before my appraisal. (Yes, where I work appraisals period is Jan to Dec not Apr to Mar like most other places - It's our attempt at being different. Oh, but the salary hike takes effect only in April).

I also have this crazy knack of getting bored too easily. I'm bored most of the time. I get bored of people, places, work and even if something fun is happening for too long, I'd be bored! So you see this talent of mine coupled with no work makes me a very dangerous entity. I sit all day and think about how I can get rid of my job or how I can do something fun (which will eventually turn out boring).

Then there is Ninja! My absolute favourite game in the world right now. Simple as ABC but exciting as... well, Ninja. I would go into describing the game right now but I know how interested everybody is about reading that. I sometimes spend almost 6 or 7 hours at playing it (and looking back at my post, yes, I must be very stupid to say all this before the appraisal). Okay, now I'm bored of writing this post.

The appraisal discussion is on Thursday. My boss is a nice man so I shall not pour my heart out. In any case it's only a 30 minute discussion. So there goes.. All the best Martin!

It's Alive!!

The internet is finally working at home! So what if that took 2 months? So what if it meant several trips to the office of the ISP? So what if we've reached a stage where we can be happy it works rather than pissed it took so long!

Expect more action on the blog!