The Paradox of Choices

Our needs and the understanding of our needs tends to be poles apart when it comes to choices. We get to choose from tens of flavours for a face wash (Does it really matter whether it was a peach flavoured one or an apricot) and keep changing them but when the big important things come, we hardly have much chance to change the choice (which city to settle, who to marry, which house to buy, which career line to choose). Not impossible but very difficult. Such are the forces the humankind is forced to.

Necessity to Change

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ~W. Edwards Deming

Real time communication

Life = change

"Life is change and change is life"

Embarking on another nomadic life

Its yet again time to keep moving. From all the way to Philippines to Mumbai to Indore and now back to Mumbai for 5 or 6 days and then to Bangalore for another 5 days and then finally to home after 6 nearly months(out of which more than 3 have been in India itself and still not able to visit home even when my mom was bedridden for a couple of months). The last time I stayed at home was for 72 long hrs. Home time for me cant be counted in weeks but in days and nights only. Don't know how long this time its going to be... Don't want to be too short or too long.
Have two exams the day after, the night marriage of one of my dear roomies to attend, some sleep if I can get some and then an early morning flight to Mumbai.

As always is my case, my regular life is usually the leisurely break before the hectic packing, travelling and staying in new places, synchronising the many events dependent on so many people and events. And today I heard a person in front of me sighing and saying "I went home only in October and it has been so long". Three things happened immediately: my blood boiled, I felt sad and also pitied the person's ignorance.

Imagine them considering themselves as unlucky. Sigh...I think I know how lucky the person really is.

Travel record

A personal travel record.

(29th april) Manila -> Singapore -> Bangalore -> Mumbai -> Trivandrum -> Colombo -> Male -> London -> Male -> Colombo -> Delhi -> Baghdogra -> Kolkatta -> Chennai -> Bangalore -> Singapore -> Manila (29th June).

The last ten airports in 6 different countries were travelled in 10 days flat.

A total of 17 airports, 6 countries, 5 different time zones in 2 months.

Unless I get into marketing or on a world tour, this record of mine is going to be hard to break in the coming years.

Divergent lives

Considering our group of 7 college friends (or slightly more). 3 of them are girls. As of today, this is where we stand after college. One girl got a land, another girl got a husband and third got a beautiful car, while all the other 4 of us guys are still struggling to get our MBA degree.

The mail/call/message that never came

As this day comes to an end in another half hour, I am partly happy and also sad about the way things have turned out. :( This is a very very odd year when two of my best friends have not wished me on my birthday. Coming to think of it, almost all of my very good friends haven't wished me this year. The people who I grew up with for the last decade have somehow forgotten me conveniently this year despite the week long reminders from orkut. Even my cousin who sends me a birthday card every year from as long as I can remember did not even ping me. I really did at least expect a call or a mail or a chat message if I was offline from the people I love and care so much about.... But alas, never did that happen. :( Well, this is just a rude reminder that times have changed!!!

My nomadic life

During the last few days, I have started feeling a strong nomadic feeling attached to myself. This feeling has been there on and off in a mild way after I had quit my job by may end. I have been travelling quite a lot since then. Bangalore ->Madurai ->Bangalore ->Ahmedabad ->Bhavnagar ->Ahmedabad ->Bhavnagar ->Ahmedabad ->Bhavnagar ->Ahmedabad ->Chennai. And I am still on the run to get the plethora of tasks to get over before I fly to Philippines. I counted and found out that during the last 5 weeks, I have had 14 transitions of places where I have slept, and a new environment to get used to each time when I get up. All this has made me go into a kind of time warp, where I seem to have lost the sense of time. I dont remember when a certain thing happened in the past. U can relate to any change only if there is a base to start off. In my case, I have no base to compare anything and my brain is unable to process change in date or day or week or month. When one of my aunt's asked me a simple question on the phone as to when I arrived in Chennai, my mind went blank. I knew it was sometime last week, but could not recollect what day. I thought for a couple of seconds as to how to derive to the day when I reached and that involved calculating backwards where I was and what I did each day. I did not want to seem to think so much and gave her a vague reply "last week". Today when one of my aunt's asked me what I had eaten at the other aunt's place, I just remembered the colour and some ingredients of one of the sidedish I ate and could not remember what was the main vegetable in that sidedish. But, I managed to remember the other sidedish and foodstuffs. My mind has been drifting along various thoughts, tensions, emotions and such innumerable changes for quite a long time now and has kind of shut itself to such irrelevant facts and (some relevant facts) of the past. Good or bad, I am not sure. There seems to be more transitions in the places I sleep and the toll of transitions is going to rise to 20 by the time I am going to reach Manila. In one way, I am looking forward to reach Manila so that I can start to lead a stable life. Long term continous change has started to take its toll on my brain. I hope it is just temporary.

End of days

There are only a few more days for me to stay in Banglore. The three things I am going to miss the most are 1. My friends and former colleagues, 2. FM Radio, 3. My bike. Alas, just when I had a steady life going out there with a steady job and same house with no shifting, here comes the biggest change in my life so far.