Bench...

2 eventful years... starting with getting to know something new... for a person been in sales and travelling almost 20 days a month... the sudden stop at office was a big change in itself... but i enjoyed it... the culture at the place where i was working until recently was really good... it was a place to learn... it was almost a college... we had gone on a bike trip, we had a trekking expedition, and then my first project... and then some time in the bench... and again my first trip abroad and my first foreign project... ha... there were quite a few firsts... it was all fun... though with certain hiccups... well i was working... not studying ;)

and it all went so fast... so was the personal front... quite a lot happened... and if i look back at it all... life is really gr8... i am enjoying it my way... though certain compromises (or becoming more responsible would be apt) are being made now... its still gr8... i am loving it (sorry McDonalds... for using ur line) its been really gr8 all the while...

and now this is something different... new company, new place... (almost 30km from my place... and the traffic here... it takes 2hrs one way) this is making life more interesting...

and wat am i doing here? honing my skills... i have now become decently experienced carrom player, learnt something new - pool, and then there's the TV... Cricket (though India is playing it as if they saw the cricket bat for the first time and not knowing how to use it) still i am loving it ;) though not feeling as bad i used to feel earlier when they lost... 'cos i am always expecting it ;)... so wat am i doing here?

I am in BENCH... i pray god i get a project soon... else i mite just rot... i dont think carrom has big money in it... else could aim for becoming a professional... pool... good but not so good...

but this is just a phase in my life... the interesting part is new place and new friends/colleagues... and of course the inner ring road... when i get my bike to office ;) (it sometimes touches 100kph)

The title

i think i have forgotten blogging... i dint know how to enter a title for this initially... i dont know why... probably the page dint load properly...

but whatever... i am back... now for how long i dont know...

there has become a pattern now... whenever i have a break between projects... i blog...

and now wat am i doing? in support of a project i completed recently... not knowing wat to support ;)

insecurity that comes with any change is so big that the customer wants me to stay back for a month more... a month more? wat do i do so long with no work...

but since my last blog... i think it was in April... a lot of things have happened... and i shall not put them as good or bad... but a lot of learning... and my god... its just so wonderful knowing how much learning the human brain can take... and its still doing....

probably thats the reason why a computer can never match a human being... unless its programmed to learn from each and every scenario it comes across apart from wat it is currently programmed to do... now that system is worth developing... wont it be? and if we think of the evolution and the amount of changes thats happened with human beings....or for that matter any species... to bring all those into a computer (artificial intelligence) should be a lot of work... and no wonder human brain is still trying to create it... well now thats the greatness of this intelligence... to create an intelligent thing thats as intelligent as it...

oh... where am i caught now? intelligence creating intelligence....

started with something and wrote something else... again the brilliance of human brain to think of multiple thoughts and ideas ;)

where am i now...

some firangi duniya... in a very firangi climate ;) but luckily in a hotel thats pretty decent (with a temperature control thing... i hope its probably a basic necessity here, but just in case had it not been there... cant imagine how it wud have been)... i dont have to go arnd looking for food... i can make my own... and that is the best part...

also i do have a laptop and internet... the second best thing... without these two... it would have become highly impossible for me to stay over here ;) also the third one... without my earphones and mic... (else how cud u talk to home?)

but all is an experience nevertheless... so am enjoying in that sense... :)

change...

dint realise till now that how quick my interest changes...

had started on a blog about an event that was pretty much unsettled me... but suddenly it no longer seems to be of any importance...

and i just started writing this instead...

First blog in 2007

well...i am not able to title this properly... "a new blog in the new year"..."a new me"...

watever...its just a title ;)

but its been quite sometime since i blogged...and coming back...i see a lot of activity going on arnd...ppl who had stopped sometime back are active now...thats nice... it feels like coming back home :)

so wats been happening these days... some personal promotions...more responsibility... more maturity...(atleast i have to start acting so now)... my PJs, my flops, my thoughts, my mobility (going anywhere anytime) these all have come under some control now... well not that someone is doing this to me... but i have started feeling them myself... and controlled from doing it at any place i feel like...

but all these i am able to do it with someone now... be child-like...not childish ;)... get my PJs and flops in full force... express my thoughts anytime...

so wat happened to me...

i am MARRIED!!! and did i say i changed...

ask my wife....

did i say i became more mature...

ask my wife...

did i say i am more responsible...

ask my wife...

but i must say... life is lovely, just as it is...

Movies

i just love watching movies....and probably watch too many (last wknd when mom called i was in the theatre...and the week b4 last...again i was there...) and this month is at its best...3 movies...1 Hindi (DON), 1 Tamil (Vallavan) and 1 English (The Departed)...

i just feel like saying some movies to be crap...but when i think of the work put in by the ppl in the production and that some person is trying out something, makes me not criticize...and again not everything we do become hits and not everything we do become flops...but probably it is human nature that we end up criticizing...probably thats the work of "ego"...now lets not get into that...

but as a general feeling...i want movies to give "hope" than just being plainly realistic...now wen u want something realistic then its there in ur life...why would want to go and see that again in a movie?

i feel movies must either be one which makes you laugh (comedy) or atleast feel very confident while coming out of the hall (for me most of Jackie Chan movies do the trick) or make a person think something constructive (the sci-fi movies) or atleast one where the good overcomes the bad...

and now when you see all the "Superstars" in Indian cinemas you can find out why they are superstars...firstly they dont die (some movies got their climax changed because of the fan following for the heroes)...and secondly he will be an underdog who gets to win when it really matters and these superstars attract crowd from all classes no matter where they stand in the economic ratings...and their popularities tend to be big infecting everyone...and again you have to be at the theatre on the first day of release...and must see all the festivities happening arnd...must say thats a very different experience...and you wonder why is this happening?

dont you think they entertain the masses while they give "hope" too which they dont get too often in the realistic life? probably i tend to be inclined to the mass mentality when it comes to movies...

mind you there are some big cry-baby movies too that have become big hits :(

Anger...

i saw that movie "Anger Management" some days back...though i cudnt sit through it...i liked the concept though...when Buddy says...there are 2 kinds of anger - explosion and implosion...that was really good...i think i am to an extent the second kind...but sometimes do explode ;)

and i had attended a Transactional Analysis class when i was in 10 std...pretty young to attend it then...but there they had told that u have to express your anger and shud never keep it suppressed...and even told me to have some swear words ready ;) and thats when i started using some ;)

but there was also a saying by Buddy in the movie that..."anger is the only thing that u gain a lot by not losing it" (not the exact words)...and i have experienced this...getting angry and then expressing it makes u more angry...only way that works for me is to move away from the place...some mite think this is submission...i myself think so sometimes...but after sometime if i look back i wud feel that was not really worth spending my energy for...

but there are situations that must make u angry and u shud be then...and in those situations i make it a point that the person irritating me knows...

and there was this movie again abt Tiger Woods...in which there would be a scene where someone wud have stuck a rascist note on his hostel door and he would become very angry but then wud take it and put it on the wall of his room at a place where he would be able to see it and when asked by his roommate as to why he is doing it, he says that anger gives u a lot of force to perform better and that he would need this...

and in my view there must be some anger in a person else he would not be able to get to "excellence" in watever he is doing...only that it mustn't get destructive...like if my landlord pisses me off in some small issue...it can be used as a driving force to make me purchase a house and in the process get my confidence building as i get to own more...or if the passenger in the nxt seat on a bus ride is irritating then it can be used to plan for getting a car for yourself...and many more situations in which anger can be made to work for u positively...

and one of them has started on me...and good that i am getting to do something positive abt it.... :)

Insurance...

having written "Blogging dead or not"...i am finding it tough myself to keep mine alive...

there was a time when i was blogging thrice a day and now once a month seems to be a big task...or am i making it one?

generally the topics to blog abt seemed to have dried on me...

one thing that i rmbrd was...today morning...i had gone to an insurance company with one of my friends to get his bike's insurance done (it was expired for almost 7 months now...and mine too was the same sometime back)...it was the same place where i had done mine...and the funny thing for me was...my first insurance company told that i have to transfer my bike's registration and the address in the RC book...and hence they wudnt do it until this was completed (i thot he actually expected some bribing)...and like me going to change the world...i mailed to the id for customer grievance...and typical govt office...no reply...

and my bike was not insured for sometime after that and one day was talking to one of my colleagues who informed that he had a contact person at the second insurance company and he called him up...and my insurance was done in 2 days...

but i was just wondering...in this age of all the customer service (though i dont like that term as a consultant) and with many businesses trying lotsa things to reach the customers...i am wondering wats happening with these insurance companies...generally the vehicle insurance...it makes me think that since the government has a rule that all vehicles must possess insurance are these ppl taking it for granted that insurance business will always thrive...it makes me sometime wonder wat that rule is for...is it for protecting the person driving the vehicle from unforeseen circumstances and also to the other ppl (third party) involved in the incident...or is it for feeding the employees of the insurance company...and the third party involved...the people supposed to maintain traffic law and order...

wat is the purpose of insurance? to make good the loss...wats the insurance to the loss because of insurance or the non-insurance?

after having worked in this industry...life insurance to be more precise, i always felt it was a must for everyone...but with vehicle insurance...i am not able to think so...

luckily my friend's insurance renewal or re-application i must say...went on smooth without any hassles...