Guess, me and IT do not go well at all. If i see this in retrospective this statement seems to hold good. For, i have been cheated by these IT companies in my life twice  who did not pay my salaries. The first one did not pay me salaries right from day 1 and the second one was a classic case. One should learn how to be a cheap trickster in getting people to work for you and eat away their monies that’s rightfully theirs.

Well, i think i should  blame myself for this fiasco rather than someone else. It was my stupid decision to leave behind my job that was paying me decently and i was doing fairly well and join the trickster which was uncalled for. This seems to be a biggest mistake that i have done in my life. Since, i have always remained an optimist, i tend to be one this time as well and hence would like to believe that whatever happens, happens for good. Maybe, there is something bigger and better waiting for me and my family.

It was a good  experience to have worked in my previous organisation, for i got to work with a wonderful person to whom i was reporting to. Once should be lucky to have a boss like him (while there will be many who may not want to agree with me; these are my opinion and i would stand by it ).

While my job hunt continues, i have decided to move in and keep myself occupied about which i would write in detail in a few days from now.

One decision of mine (right or wrong i wouldn’t know) had completely changed the course of my life and had altered all my calculations. In one sense am relieved it happened now. If it had happened a little later probably the consequences would have been much more disastrous. This only reinforces my faith in the philosophy ” whatever happens; happens for good ” and am sure god will open the other door before it becomes too dark.

Hoping to see better times come in again in my life…

Come to think of it, @ every stage in life if there has been something constant that has come along with you it’s THE CHANGE.

While growing up from a toddler to a child to an adolescent kid and stepping into adult hood, what has been that one thing that has remained constant with you or in you. Nothing but Change. In that sense is change different from adaptation or is it the same as that of change? Too many questions??? Do we have an answer to this? Maybe yes, maybe no.

The immediate question that follows this stream of thought is “ is change good or bad”? Isnt good and bad subjective terms. What is good for you may not be so for others…

One thing that i have noticed in this journey of 40 years of my life is the constant called change. What you see today is not what i was 40 years back. And here goes another question, has it been good or bad. I can answer this only if i know what is good and what is bad. In trying to answer this question am again getting into the loop of subjectivity.

Probably the way to look at it is if change brings in good for people around you it is good. If change brings goodness only to you and nobody else then that change is not good.

Many a people whom i meet after a long gap tell me i have changed a lot. But i dont know what has changed and what has not in me. I think over a period, one tends to view things in a much more balanced way, which is what is the change that people keep talking about so often.

My industry peers tell me to change, my wife tells me to change the way iam, my kids tell me to change myself. Somewhere, deep rooted in my mind i have this question of “will i not loose identity of self if i change”? Here is another question to go with this…  “What’s your identity?, who are you?” Do we have an answer to this. I dont have for sure, i do not know about the rest of the world.

I guess life is all about having lot many questions and not being ale to find answers for all of them. If we had answers for every question then i guess we would not be meagre mortals. After all what / who are we? We are just puppets dancing to the tunes of the invincible force.

As a footnote, let me also say this, i dont know where this is all leading to but it is leading the readers somewhere. You the readers have to find the path and make sense of what has been posted. What i wanted to say is not what i have said here.

The confusion on the holiday was the culprit and i would like to believe that this change in route is good because you get to see a different set of faces. While, Chennai was celebrating Eid today and many an offices were closed we were working. This was a working day (compensatory work day)  for us as we had swapped holidays for Onam.

As usual i reach the station a little in advance and get my dinner packed and reach my coach and settle down. The train leaves the station @ 5 pm and starts chugging towards DESTINATION HYDERABAD. The route that am traveling today (Friday) is much more greener than the usual route and is a treat to watch. This train that goes to Kacheguda from Egmore travels through Puttur, Renigunta, cuddapah, etc. It goes through Rayalseema before entering Telengana i guess.

As the train leaves Tamilnadu and is fast approaching the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, chill wind starts blowing bringing in its wake a whiff of fresh air. As we enter AP and move in a couple of kms, it starts raining and continues to pour till we are closer to Renigunta. Seeing the change i heave a sigh of relief for this is a welcome change from the sweltering heat and the stickiness of Chennai.

While on one hand it was nice to see the thrashing rains, i also had to live with the dirtiness in the compartment that this rain had brought along with it. The whole compartment turns messy with water all over. The movement of the vendors who just do not care about the pool of water that had formed in the compartment keep spreading it and ultimately the whole place becomes very dirty and messy.

As we cross TN border and move into AP, i decide to have my dinner and be done with it. After dinner, i do not know what to do and in order  to kill time i decide to start writing another piece.

A thought that i have @ this point in time is that, while this is the first part of my travel into Hyderabad am not going to stop here and post this on my blog. Instead, i would prefer to capture some portions of my return travel and put them in my blog on my return to Chennai.

It was the usual journey back to Chennai. Nothing exciting, nothing new. It was the usual routine of reaching the station 25 minutes before the departure of the train and connecting with wife and kids and giving them last minute pep-talk.

This time around since i had an upper berth, i scrambled up soon after the train left Secunderabad and lied down reading a book that i had picked up in Nampally station. Had an early dinner and continued with my reading and had to sleep early as the co-passengers decided to shut off the light. Had a peaceful sleep and reached Chennai early morning around 5:30 and had to wait for a long time (Chennai central outer) before entering Chennai central.

Soaking in the light rain took a rick to reach home and managed to get ready and reach office on time. Post the completion of first-hour instructions and other related work thought of completing this piece and be done with it.

See you all next week same time, same place with more stuff. Until then, take good care of yourself and others around you and may peace prevail…

Have you ever been through a situation when you are unable  to give a farewell gift to your colleague. Have you ever been in a situation when you buy vegetables in lesser quantities because you need to provide for tomorrow. Have you been in a situation when you dont have lunch because you need that money to see you through rest of the week. Have you ever avoided meetings with your clients because of the travel expenses (local conveyance) involved. Well, that’s precisely what we are going through.

While, i may turnaround and say well these kinda tough situations teaches us many a valuable lessons, the ground reality is that it is pinching us all hard at the right places for we dont have the money to support our needs. Is there a way out of this situation? Am sure there is. Then comes the bigger question of WHEN? We dont have an answer for the same. Neither are the people giving an answer to the same.

The BIGGEST QUESTION for me is: HOW DO I MAINTAIN THE MORALE OF THE TEAM AND ENSURE THE PRODUCTIVITY LEVELS DO NOT DROP? Do i have an answer to this, i dont think so. With a press conference of one of the big conglomerate happening here tomorrow, i can see a dip in the morale of the team because of the current issue and am helpless. Am not even in a position to go and talk to them as all of their instalment cheques have started bouncing and i dont have a clue as to when this would get over.

While, the team fully understands the situation and although they dont hound me down, being the team lead am @ a state where i can just be a bystander and not able to do anything to alleviate their suffering. Seeing people’s problem and not being able to help is all the more tough.

Worst of all not knowing when the misery would end and to compound the situation nobody is willing to provide clarity on when could we even hope for this impasse to end. While the stalemate is still continues we all are now hoping atleast the coming week will bring in some cheer.

Folks back home had arranged for a bhajan session in Chennai and i had to lend a helping hand in running around and getting things for the session and reorganizing things at home, making way for people to move and also sit on the floor without much of an issue.

Being a Sunday and not having much to do i decided to ransack the kitchen, in the garb of helping mom to cook. Made some onion & tomotoe sabzi which was the accompaniment to every south indian’s favourite evening tiffin item Idly. Made the guests who had come home for the evening session to suffer with that (but i was told everubody who had eaten it had liked it).

Once, everything was in place i along with my cousin and nephew decided to escape from this spiritual session and went up to watch a movie. 10 minutes from the time we switched on the DVD and the television the bhajana goshti had arrived and the session got off to a musical start.

The troupe had come with harmonium, dholak  and all other paraphernalias and off they went with their high octave singing. The pack consisted not just of the oldies but also the young ones and children.

For the singers, we had some warm milk and the prasaad was rava kesari. The moment arti was done i had to fill in milk and the bhog for immediate distribution. In all the whole session lasted for exactly an hour.

Post the pooja paat everyone had dinner and then started the rains. In between one of my aunt suddenly fell ill and started shivering and so i had to nurse her and bring her back to normalcy and there she was fit as a fiddle after a half-hour suffering. After all this i had to drive around to drop my cousin and her parents back home and by the time i returned it was around 10:30 pm, post which i had my dinner and dosed off after a tiring day.

In all the day turned out to be memorable!!!!

Having satiated our hunger, we fall of to a slumber and then wake up fresh on time to get on with our journey back to Chennai, my karma bhoomi. On our way to the railway station, we pick up some food and a can of beer to satiate our thirst and off we go to the station.

As we are seated, and the train leaves the station, a baby along with her mother gets in as our travel mate. An adorable kid that she is, i had complete fun playing with her till they get down in Kazipet. Such a bundle of joy, she was all through sticking to me and i was carrying her and moving up and down the coach. After this encore, she decides to play more and keeps pushing me to the hilt and i thorughly enjoyed the whole moment. In between, i fed her a couple of bites roti and she was gobbling it happily. After that, i bought her some tomato soup and she was slurping that as well.

After they got down in Kazipet, i then decided to hit the sack and off i went to sleep and i fell into a deep slumber.Having reached Chennai, this morning went home freshened up and then reached office around 10:45 and got caught up with work. As the day draws to a close, am off again to Hyderabad and am writing this piece sitting in the train (Charminar Express).

In Hyderabad yesterday, in Chennai today and would be back in Hyderabad tomorrow. Should i call this crazy or something else, i don’t know….Whether this is crazy or whatever else, am enjoying this at least as of now. May be the travel fatigue can catch up with me sooner or later and i may start feeling tired about these journeys. Probably, that would be the indicator for me to stop being a nomad and get rooted to one place.

In all my eight months of travel, this is the first time that am travelling with a younger crowd (atleast 90%). It has always been a mixed bag of a crowd so far, but this time around probably god has decided to be a bit more benevolent with me and so it looks….

With just 3 minutes for the train to start, the excitement of being with the family has already started rising. Not just that, the hunger pangs are also on the rise and i hope i would get something to eat / drink soon to put an end to the rumblings inside the stomach.

I took a sleeper coach on my return journey from Hyderabad and what a journey it was. It was a nerve wracking 16 hour journey back to Chennai and i reached the city around 12 noon, by which time i had busted my back completely. Thanks to the busted back i couldn’t go to office yesterday and am still suffering with it.

One thing that i have noticed all through the journey is that majority of the weekend travellers from Chennai to Hyderabad is the IT crowd and the conversations also predominantly revolve around their work and related issues and this trip was no exception.

With this as the back ground i thought of writing and started off with it but without a definitive direction of what to write. Am continuing to do so in the hope that i might find a cohesive thread to write about and that’s still eluding me. Being, what i am, am also equally adamant to keep blabbering till the time i find that one thread which could probably help me in putting together something that people may want to read.

It was one of those days, when an invitation landed up to dine at a newly opened coffee shop and share our comments to make it better. The invite was for the team and it came from the father (who is the executive chef at that new property) of one of those guys who had interned with us.

We land up on time at that swanky coffee shop, absorbing the way the lobby has been done and the fabulous interiors and so on and so forth. Finally, we move into the coffee shop and are seated comfortably and then goes the usual banter with the team.

During the conversation, one of my colleague says, Karthik why do u always invite trouble and here goes my reply in my true inimitable style saying, “i don’t invite trouble, it just comes to me”. The moment i stop uttering these golden words, the trouble comes in the shape of the waiter and the color of water melon juice that gets spilled all over my back. Immediately after this the waiter starts profusely apologizing and the team joins me in saying that’s OK, it was not something that was done intentionally and so on and so forth.

The team did not realise that the juice was spilled on me but behind my back and so they go repeating the word, it’s OK, that’s absolutely fine, etc…The moment i get up from the chair and turn around to go to the wash room to clean myself the team goes hysteric laughing, seeing the diagonally spread red color resultant of the spilled juice on my back. In the meanwhile, the waiter arranges for the shirt to be cleaned and comes in with a brand new shirt for me to change and go ahead with the lunch.

After, i change and return to the table, we went ahead to complete the task on hand, which was to hog away to glory and yes, we did in true style by starting with a soup and a couple of round of starters, followed by malabari paratha and stew and then stuffed ourselves with Aapam and then some rice and curry and finally completing with 3 different desserts. It was such a fantabulous spread of South Indian food, we went overboard in stuffing ourselves.

The coffee shop in question is named Madras and is within the new property of Raintree that has come up on Anna Salai near Nandanam in Chennai. A wonderful place and an equally impressive spread of food. Not just the spread but the taste was far too good. In all its a nice place to dine on someone else’s expense.

via Letter from the President?.

via Rajnath for T before report | Deccan Chronicle | 2010-08-05.