God is great

I was quite lost in my own thoughts, and when I got a chance to think what I am up to, I got to know that its already more than 1 month since I wrote my last blog. Today someone (reader of my blog) asked me where my new blog is, or the passion inside me is gone, then only I decided to post it today. By the way this 1 month about which I am talking has brought good and bad news for me. I have got my appraisal, which was as expected, but I am happy as I got at least some in this market situation as well. I have completed 1 year in my company, and this is an achievement for me. And I guess I got reward for this in terms of appraisal only. My friend Ananda met with an accident, and got a fractured hand, for which she is now taking treatment. My friend Saurabh and Lokesh have got their better halves. Holi also passed in the mean time, and I got some quality time to spare with my families. In this duration I got a chance to watch Gulal, and I quite liked that movie. Ground reality.

A coincidence also happened in this duration. I am mentioning this incident without even taking consent from the concerned party, but I am pretty confident that concerned person will not have any objection with this. One of my friend(a) asked me if I knew someone in company(b). I told her that one of my colleague(c) worked in that company for 4 years so she can help. It was regarding a person(d) whom a's parents were considering for a's sister. Although it is like picking a needle from hay for anyone to tell about any individual, and that too when there are almost 5000 employees. So I asked my colleague c to let me know whatever information she can get from her friends. She told me that she(c) has one friend(e) in company b which will pass whatever information she will get.

Later on I went to my house on Holi vacations, there I got a message from c that she has got the information about that guy d, and there was nothing exciting in the information. When I came back, she asked me whether that guy has done his graduation from Lucknow, and whether his parent's are doctors. After conforming from my friend I replied to my colleague. She had got a vital link to that person. Her friend e and that guy d were class fellow in Lucknow. And the information which I got was quite shocking. I passed on that information to the concerned party. I told her what I got to know from my friend, as that person eloped with someone few months back, and after getting married they returned, but their marriage was not approved by there parents. And as if this alone was not enough that person was dropped from his project because of his performance which was not up to the mark, and to make the matter worse that person used to stare at gals. My friend a later told me that they did not find any negative point in that guy and they could have finalized that guy. But thanks to the God that they were saved. Later on while I was thinking about this incident I found out that one can be in such a big mess in case of arrange marriage. It all is up to the God what kind of partner he has selected for you. So we will have to cross our fingers and hope that we will get a perfect partner.

bad luck

One of my dear friends, who is getting married on 27th February, just finished 1 year in his current company on 11th Feb. I was asking for a party from him on this occasion. Somehow he denied for party. At this time we were not aware what destiny had for him tomorrow. A day after this, I was in office and I got a call from one of my college friend who told me that Sapient has just laid off several employees. My friend was also in this company, so to worry about him was my natural response. I was not aware about the fact that my friend was also on bench from last 5 days.
I called him to know about him, but his phone was going busy. I tried for around 1 hour, just to get same response. Later on I got a call from him, and the thing which should not happened, had happened. Sapient had taken a step of retrenchment, and axe had fallen on around 600 employees, and of those unlucky employees 3 were my friend. My friend about whom I am writing was consistently in project for last 360 days. But unfortunately when Sapient had taken this step he was on bench. Neither their past performance nor their bench duration was taken into consideration.
Luck has its own share for this friend of mine, who is with me since 2001(starting of 1st year in college). Very talented and sharp guy, who finished his engineering with more then 70% marks, struggled with me after college to get a decent job. My struggle was finished in January 2006 but his struggle prolonged for few more days. We appeared together in MBT's interview in Noida, while I was asked some normal questions from engineering, he was grilled in concept of physics from school level. Later on he completed his PG diploma in embedded from C-DAC Mohali, but unfortunately he did not get a job from there as well. In one company when he was short listed, the company did not get project for which they were recruiting these people. Later on he get through ABB, and selection in ABB itself tells his level of knowledge. After hopping from Mumbai to Bangalore he came to Gurgaon for Sapient, to receive this award for his hard work. Average of 10-12 hours per day was his routine in this company, which gave him this reward. He will definitely get a better job from this and I am sure for this, but his faith has been shattered by this incident. And to make the matter worse this incident took place when it was least expected, just a fortnight before his marriage.
He has got an offer from his past employer by the time I am writing this blog, which might turn into blessing in disguise. Hope for the best for him.

funny, isn't it

It took almost a month for me to decide what I should write. Still at the time of writing as well I am not pretty clear about whom or on which topic I should write. The reason for being idle for this duration was my daily struggle. The area in which I am currently living has severe water problem, area is known as DLF phase -3, where water comes only for 30 mins in morning and 30 mins in evening. We have a water tank on the ground floor which fills from the supply water, and once the supply water is off, we route water from this tank to the tank on the roof, as per our need. The mechanism written here must be looking very simple to you all, but it is as complex as it can be. Let me take a scenario, Supply water timing is 7.00 AM to 7.30 AM, and during this duration we are also getting light supply, then to route this water from tank at ground floor to tank at roof, after 7.30 Am as well light should be there. And further in the winter season I need some more time to heat the water to be used for bathing purpose. So It would need at least 75 minutes of continuous light supply.
Now to make the matter worse imagine a situation when light goes at 7.30 AM and comes at 9 AM, or light goes at 7.00 AM or goes at 7.45 Am. So it becomes very tough for me and my flat mates to take bath daily :) . So not to find myself in midst of such scenario, I used to get up at 6 Am in the morning, to make the proceedings easier. one or two times my friend went to his office without taking bath, so remaining two of my friends thought that they will wake up at 05.30 Am in the morning. And will start their daily rituals. The day they decided to wake up at 5.30 Am in the morning I applied a alarm of 5.25 Am, and thus finish my bath first. Now again the load shedding schedule has been changed and light goes at 5.30 Am. So now Our wake up time has again been shifted.
Every time I wake up at or before 6, I starts thinking is it really necessary to wake up so early. That's why I used to go to bed early in the night, and was not able to write blogs. This complete struggle changed me in such a way that now I started planning in advance, as now in the evening only I fill a bucket, dip the immersion road in the bucket, and plug in the switch. So the only task remained for morning is to switch on the plug. How many times did I not ask my flat mates to change the flat, but as this is near to their office so they are not comfortable in moving from this place, and thus all my hues and cry about changing the place goes in vain. And on Friday evening when I have got some time, when I am not in a situation when I need to wake up early on Saturday morning, I am burning midnight oil to write this blog. This is the place which we call as Gurgaon.

resolution for 2008

The day on which I took the resolution, I was in Pune and it was 31st December 2007, and I was having a good time with friends (Lokesh and Anuj) in the on 31st evening. Although all three of have joined gym which was in our society's vicinity by that time, but no significant improvement was there by that time. In the beginning I shall write that I and Lokesh have joined gym in order to loose some extra pounds that we have earned till 24 years of our life, and on the contrary Anuj joined that gym to increase his waistline.
On that day I along with Lokesh took a New Year resolution that we shall go to all the lengths to reduce the potbelly. While exploring all the options to achieve this target we also had to consider the fact that we can not spend much effort in this complete exercise. Right from the days when we joined above-mentioned-local-gym, we had started taken all precautions for not to take more calories in complete day. Day started with 1.30 hour exercise in the gym, in which emphasis was on cardio section, after coming back, lime water with honey, and fresh fruits/tea and upma was our schedule for breakfast. But in spite taking all the precautions and regulatory measures differences were not clearly visible. So we looked out for another option and that was in terms of better facilities in Gym and this search ended at Endurance Gym, where we both opted for a quarterly membership. By this time Anuj left us and he remained busy in his office work.
I spent almost 2.5-3 hours per day, and all courtesy to Capgemini Company in which I did not get a project, and was on bench for 3 and half month. Lokesh was not able to continue that gym after I guess approximately 1 month of joining, as he got a lot of work pressure from his organization, and to complete that he had to go to office on weekends as well. So I was left alone to go to the gym (after Anuj and Lokesh withdraw from this). From that time my endless journey continues till time. After certain duration of approx. 20-25 days, running on treadmill turned into a pastime for me, this earlier was a nightmare for me. I started getting compliments from my friends that I am looking slimmer, which motivated me a lot, and I changed my allotted schedule which was designed by the instructor, as per my mind. I started doing cardio a lot. And a lot means a lot, as to 2 sets of 20 minutes running on treadmill, 2 sets of 20 minutes on elliptical and 2 sets of 15 minutes on cycle. And the best part in this complete stay in gym was that we could have listen to good music as per our choice as we can plug our headphones onto the treadmill and listen to whatever we wanted to. My daily schedule of gym became mechanical, as I used to read my weight twice once before and once after exercise, and then to write down this on a notebook to compare my efforts of any particular day. Once someone was wearing a tee-shirt with tag line as "Play hard or go home" which I liked a lot in that duration, as that line motivated me a lot during my exercise duration.
When I came to Mathura(my native place), it was a shocker to my parents as they too had never seen me so lean. They told me this as I was appearing weak to them. I have changed my place from Pune to Gurgaon, I have changed 2 gyms but one thing that remains constant was regular running. I still run for almost 3.5 KM per day. Once my manager asked me what positives you have seen in this organization, I told him that I am able to spend time for gym in almost 95% of the cases which is a biggest positive that I have seen in this organization.
Once I was calculating and I came to know that I have run for almost 750 KM during this complete duration, and this much distance is as good as going to Mathura 5 times from Delhi. The compliments and the confidence which I got from this weight lose were worth spending so much efforts and sweat. Year 2008 is now finished but my resolution passed on to the subsequent year as well, as now I want to keep my body fit.

Manali Trip

This topic came to my mind as and when I reach Manali, and saw the natural beauty of that place. If one really wants to see nature at its best, go to Manali and have a look. You will not regret your decision if you will go with complete preparation.
After a lot of discussion and dwelling around Shimla or Manali, We finalized for Shimla, as Manali was too far from Delhi. We here means me, Saurabh and Dheeraj. 1st January was a holiday for all of us and 3rd and 4th being weekend, we all had applied for leave for 2nd Jan 2009. We were planning to leave from Delhi on 31st evening, so we were looking for a train on 31st itself. But as per the foggy weather in Delhi, the train which was scheduled to arrive to Delhi at around 9 in evening, that was expected to be around 12 hours late, which was enough to spoil our plan. We had foreseen this situation and to make the matter worse there was no snow in Shimla, as per the feedback which we got from our friends. So as the things were shaping in front of us we decided to go to Manali which was going to 15 Hours journey of Bus. Luckily I got 2 more friends of mine who were also ready to go to Manali.
So finally we took a bus to Manali from Delhi at 6 in evening, and after a hectic 15 hour journey in bus, after spending our New Year night in bus we reached Manali in the morning of 1st Jan. We had booked a guest house from Delhi itself; otherwise things might turn up a little more complex. The road which was leading to guest house, starting from club house alone was enough to shake our confidence to stay in that guest house. As that was a narrow road, there was no barricading to prevent any casualty. Had we taken a step there, we would have fallen from height of 30 feet. But finally we checked in there only because that guest house had got a decent look. After routine task we were ready to start our sight seeing plan. We enquired about all the possible options from guest house owner and we planned our itinerary as per his suggestions. We visited 2 temples, and saw a waterfall by the evening time. The amazing part in all these visits was a hot water spring, where hot water flows out continuously, and this spring is famous for its heeling properties.
By the time we were done with these places it was already 6 PM. At the same time we had to book our tickets for return journey so we spent approx 30 mins in that as well. We saw a monastery as well during this. We were new to that place and so were not aware of the weather condition in the evening time. It was bleak cold in the evening time and it was getting tougher to stand or roam there, so we finally decided to walk back towards the guest house. In the mean time we took our dinner. And again after a lot of efforts on that tough road we reached the guest house. This day was long enough for us to learn the lessons. And we did it. After reaching the guest house we booked a cab for next day’s plan.
In Manali temperature was very low, but snow or snowfall was nowhere in sight. Our day 2 was allotted to see the snow only, so we reached Gulaba for this by Cab. After spending almost 4 hours there, we were done with skiing and we started to move for Solang Valley. A shivling was there almost 3 KM from Solang. And the complete path was of irregular stairs so we opted for horse ride for this part of the journey. It took almost 2 hours for this journey. After almost 2 days of our experience we were like once bitten, twice shy. So we started negotiating a lot on every deal. On this part of our journey, we came to know that how intelligent a horse can be. Suppose 5 horses were moving in a queue, once they will reach the destination 1st horse in the queue neighs to pass a signal to all other horses that this is the end point. Horse finds his own way to move on the road, whatever is the situation of the road. After coming back to Manali from Sholang, on the Mall road we went to a shop named Gulati. That fellow started to deliver his dialogues to impress us. I am into this business for last 48 years, I am designing all these dresses, I can design whatever you want and can deliver that to you within 4 hours, my clothes have my contact number imprinted on the logo, which no one have done till now, I can design for 1 day old child to any size were some of his dialogues. Anyhow we managed to escape from there and as we were moving out, another customer came in, and that shopkeeper started his tape again. This day passed on smoothly without bothering us much in the evening time, as we were prepared for the cold weather. Finally after reaching guest house on day 2 evening, we planned for day 3.
Finally to conclude this I shall say Manali is worth going there in any season, If you want to enjoy snow fall, go in late January or February. Make arrangements to cover yourself completely. Try to reach back to place where you are staying by 7.30 in the evening. Negotiate as much as you can (start from 50%). Book a place before reaching there to avoid last moment hassle, and do not carry your worries to Manali, and believe me there is lot to enjoy.