Tough Times never last, tough people do!

Khudi ko kar buland itna, ki har tabeer se pehle,
khuda khud tujhse poochche, bata bande teri raja kya hai.
(Strengthen yourself so much that whenever God writes your future (fate), he asks you for your desires)

Year 2001, I was posted in Chennai, working as Manager with an IT company. I was looking after the financial matters of the company's Asia-pac business. We were just blessed with a baby boy and celebrating the arriaval of the new born. Everything seemed to be fine, rather great and we were sort of living the great Indian dream. Had a nice paying, 9-6 job. Used to generally reach home by 6.30 and have evening tea with my wife. And lots of time to spend with my 1 month old son.

One day, after returning from work, I was having my evening tea as usual. And the door bell rang. My neighbours son was in panic and asked me if I had watched 'the' news on TV. I had no idea what he was talking about. He rushed downstairs (as we were on first floor) to inform other neighbours in the building/street to switch on their TVs. Seemed as if he was entrusted with a very important job. God knows, whether by his father or by the almighty.

I hurried to switch on the TV and damn! The cable was not working. I called up my cable guy and he fixed the problem, remotely, though don't know how. I had always paid my cable bill on time !!

Once I switched to the news channel, we notice smoke, panic, people running around, US police. Yes, you guessed it right. It was 9/11. And it changed everything. At least for me and my family, temporarily.

We lost much of our business in the Asia-pac region, trying hard to retain customers and business. Hence, there was not much work for me to do. And after 2 months, the inevitable happened. I was called in by my boss and given 2 choices, either move to USA or part ways. Given that I would have to stay for about 6 months alone before my family could join in, it was a tough decision. Having only 3 months old baby, I could not leave my family dependent on my relatives. Hence, I made the choice, part ways. For about a month, I kept looking for jobs, business options, part time, full time, and what not. Being low on cash, I decided to return to Delhi in Dec 2001.

After coming back to Delhi, I started initially to look for a job and learnt that not only asking a higher salary, but even demanding a lower salary is a problem. I then landed with a job at about half the salary with a small company in tourism industry. Everything seemed bad or rather worst. Things were not going my way. And I sometimes, would regret my choice.

BUT, thank god, I was strong mentally and emotionally. I don't know who gave or where I got this book "Tough Times Never Last, Tough People do" around the same time. God may not give you what you want, but he gives you what you need. MUST READ.

Today, when I see in retrospect, I believe I made the right choice. In fact, eventually, no matter how many adversities you see, in future you only smile at your past!!

Deciding.. finally

I was pondering over my post before this one and went 2 years down the memory lane. Day Tuesday, March 13, 2007. This was second day of the 2 days I had taken off from office due to low back pain and was at home. I am fond of reading and had just finished reading Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, one of my favourites. Being put to bed rest, nothing to do, recovering from back pain, I had very similar thoughts going on, how the life changed......

I had almost everything that one could desire for. Couple of good flats, a nice house in a posh locality with all facilities to live in, a very supportive and understanding wife, 2 lovely kids, a good job at senior level with good paycheck, a nice car and many other good things in life. But..., I didn't have the most important thing, TIME. Time for self, time for family, time for wife, time for kids and time for friends. I just lacked it. I found myself in the rat race, going in circles and reaching no where. Daily routine, get up around 8.00 am, kids are already off to school, get to office by 10 am, meetings after meetings, discussions after discussions, work, work and more work. By the time, I came back home, it would be past 9 pm everyday and sometimes past 11 pm. Kids would have gone to sleep, wife waiting at the dining table, to cook food for me as I can't eat chapatis that are in the casserole.

Where was I heading? What is that I wanted? Money, fame, name, position? Were these more important than my family and kids? could I see an end to all this?

And a decision was made. Money was important, job was important, but not at the cost of family. I could take that tough/difficult decision to quit the nice, cushy job and take a break for 4-5 months. I am happy that I took that decision. I spent next 4 months (April-August) with family, living and enjoying each moment and feeling rejuvenated. Looking for a job that would give me work-life balance.

Thank god, he gave me courage to take that decision.

sitting in my office @ night.....

Here I am sitting in my office @ night...
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick collage life to strict professional life......

How tiny pocket money changed to huge monthly paychecks
but then why it gives lesss happiness....

How a few local denim jeans changed to new branded wardrobe
but then why there are less people to use them

How a single plate of samosa changed to a full Pizza or burger
But then why there is less hunger.....

Here i am sitting in my office @ night...
Thinking hard about life
How it changed.....

How a bike always in reserve changed to bike always on
but then why there are less places to go on......

How a small coffee shop changed to cafe coffee day
but then why its feels like shop is far away.....

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package
but then why there are less calls & more messages......

Here i am sitting in my office @ night...
Thinking hard about life
How it changed.....

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey
But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment....

How a old assembled desktop changed to new branded laptop
but then why there is less time to put it on..........

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mate
but then why after 8'o Clock it always feel like getting late....

Here i am sitting in my office @ night...
Thinking hard about life
How it changed..... how it changed.......

Zindagi (Life)

Zindagi tujhe itne kareeb se dekha hamne, ke tujh se muhabbat kar baithe,
Thoda aur jo kareeb gaye, tujh se nafrat kar baithe,
Kehte hai shayar log, zindagi char din ki hai,
Nadaan hai jo tujhse rooth kar baithe.

Just Enjoy

There is a scene in the movie Bluffmaster which perfectly reflects on life.

Roy (Abhishek Bachchan) has just been told by the doc (Bomman Irani) that he has 90 days to live. He walks out of the clinic and the doc follows him. Doc narrates to Roy that he felt very happy when his daughter was born, he held her in his arms, when she learnt to ride a bicycle and few other happiest days of his life. Roy just shrugs it off as an irritant. Then the doc asks "Roy, how many such days do you remember in your life. 5, 10, 20, 30 days. How old are you? 30 years?" And then comes the message, "you remember only 30 days in 30 years of your life. And you still have 90 days to live, means 3 more lives of 30 years!!!"

Yeh naa soch zindagi mein kitne pal hai, yeh dekh ek pal mein kitni zindagi hai!

Life!!

Life is not an ipod on which you select and listen only to your favorites, but like a radio on which you have to take all, whether you like the song or not and wait for your favorite one.