Travelling Times

"A milestone is not the important thing. What happens afterwards, matters." - Skv     Sachin Tendulkar's quest for 100 tons might end over the next couple of weeks. It is a serious achievement, but where does he go from there? 50,000 international runs? 500 tests? or does he decide to call it a day? This isn't another post about cricketing records. Cricinfo has enough of them.      This is about an amateur's attempt at shouting out aloud. I had termed the blog "Travelling Times" to write about the places I had visited. But soon enough, it turned to the way our lives changed over the years. For the record, this isn't my 51st blog post. I did have a previous blog with a few posts in them. But let's wipe the slate clean and assume that this is my only, official blog. Over the last couple of years, I've hit half-a-century of posts. No mean achievement. It means a lot to me though :). Blogging has been a major stress-reliever and an ave...

"The great mystery is not that we should have been thrown down here at random between the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that from our very prison we should draw, from our own selves, images powerful enough to deny our own nothingness."      The first time I stayed away from home for longer than a month was in 2006. I had moved to Bangalore and my company had provided me with a guest house for 2 weeks. I wasn't sure about further plans, when I ran into a friend from college. A few of them had rented out a place for 4k. Over the last 5 years, I've switched 3 more houses and lost count of my fellow inhabitants. There were 10 people initially, dwindled to six within 3 months. Our second home was an abode for all fellow job-seekers.      In between my third and fourth homes, I managed a stint in Delhi and the US over a year and a half. That period allowed me a phase of introspection, a chance to spend time with myself whil...

"In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives."  ~Anatole Brjoyard      A week back I visited the post-office to collect my renewed passport. It's been at least 5 years since my last visit to the tiny, dark office atop a grocery store. Nothing much has changed over these years. My trip involved sending out a few wedding invitations as well. I had no freaking idea about the stamp value and checked with the postmaster (quite embarrassingly, of course).      The last time I sent out a book post was about 10 years back. Friendship day and Christmas would cost me a lot for the cards and postage. In an era devoid of electronic mail, the postman was my gatekeeper to the outside world. Weekly deposits of "The Week" and "Competition Success" ensured that the tiny village in Kerala was updated. We would wait expectantly for the postman to trudge along, his old bag hang...

"There are people who don't like capitalism, and there are people who don't like PCs, but there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft."      And then Windows appeared. It was colourful, had a file manager and minesweeper. There on Windows became the holy grail. Each release was eagerly anticipated and more often than not, our expectations were met. The Office suite followed suit and Microsoft became an integral part of our lives.      Over the last 5 years, the company has been a major player in my career. First Aditi (I worked there for close to 3 years) and then Artech worked with Microsoft, Redmond for their recruitments. Aditi is also a gold partner with Microsoft and does a lot of software service projects for Microsoft. Over the 4 year tenure, 2 facts captivated me. Microsoft interviewed and hired people who had an aptitude for technology, creativity and challenges. Unlike Apple or Google, they didn't care about the can...

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."      I remember reading this one book in my childhood. It included stories about famous inventions and discoveries. Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison, Madam Curie & Alexander Bell - a few anecdotes that flashed through my head every time I saw a bulb switch "ON" or witnessed a thunder storm. These men had achieved unquestionable greatness, no doubting that. Over time, I cou...

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." ~Samuel Ullman      I'm 27, Period. A couple of years ago, I was worried about the quarter-life crisis. Now someone tells me that over time, the average lifespan might reduce to the mid-fifties (Alexander died at the age of 32, that leaves me 4 years to beat the current world record for conquering the world). When I was younger, I wanted to be old. Now that I'm older, I wish I could go back to my younger days. Is this what they acknowledge as the mid-life crisis?       I can't help but admitting it - I feel old, rather grown-up. I still play soccer for a couple of hours every day and my hair is still intact (and black!). But, the spring in my step seems to have disappeared. My prized possessions of a good memory and creativity seem to have taken a bad seat in ...

   "I sit, this evening, far away, From all I used to know, And nought reminds my soul to-day Of happy long ago."