Surfing it All

In my school days I used to be an ardent follower of Cricket, even when we didn’t have a television at our home. On a Saturday, our Mathematics Teacher asked my friend and me to get some stencils for the school stationery, and we being the Cricket buffs that we are, sneaked for an hour to watch a match at a hotel. When we came back, our teacher asked us what the score was, and I blurted out it was 96 for 2, with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, assuming that he was actually interested in knowing the score. His expression turned serious and he gave us a solid thrashing after that incident, for absconding the school on a working day. 

With no mobiles, laptops or internet, the portable televisions mounted on 10 Ft. high tables in tiffin hotels were our only source of keeping track of Cricket matches, but the efforts never deterred us. As we grew up, life was easier at college where we faced no such problems knowing the score, heck we bunked even classes to watch Cricket. One particular incident I clearly recall was the Sydney Test of 2003, where I woke up early in the morning at 4 AM to catch Sachin scoring his century after a poor series he had thus far. I was never an early riser, but I surprised myself when I got up and promptly saw him scoring the hundred at a tea center near my room. He went on to score 241 that match, and needless to say that I bunked the college that day.

Graduating from college to corporate environment brought its own problems. We now had no scarcity of resources to track the score, but they had to be done in a discreet way, so as not to be found out by the superiors. So, it was mostly ESPNCricInfo that we kept open on another tab in our browser forever, so that whenever someone is approaching us, we used to Alt+Tab back to the application. Not that they didn’t know, but it was an unwritten code not to get caught watching cricket scores in office. 

However, during the 2011 World Cup, every such unwritten rule was broken when the entire nation was bathed in euphoria with every victory. The Quarter final between India and Australia was a ripper, and I was at the client location in New York at that time. Many of us asked for permission for that day off and were not given. When 5 wickets fell in our chase, people started having doubts. Some of us assembled near a desk far away from our managers, and started following the score on desktops and phones. With each run and boundary scored, some of us could not control ourselves and started screams of ecstasy. The word got out and soon everyone knew we wouldn’t be much productive that day anymore. 

On the big day of India vs Pakistan, our manager got a clue and talked to the client rep and got us all an off, to watch the matches at our home. We didn’t mind that he asked us to work on Saturday, and are only glad to nod our heads and yell our yays for the decision. With the advent of superior browsers on tablets, and smartphones the going is getting a bit easier these days, and thanks to the number of apps, whatsapp groups of Cricket Enthusiasts I joined, along with Facebook and Twitter timelines I’m aware of almost every single match being played around the world be it a County game between Essex and Warwickshire or a T20 game in Caribbean Premiere League played in the between T&T and Barbados Tridents.

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This post is written for UC Browser http://www.ucweb.com/ which establishes a connection to UC Cricket.

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Helping Myself to Kellogg's Wale Guptaji ka Nashta

I’m not really a morning person, having had to work mostly in U.S and U.K clients in their day times. So, it is usually past the breakfast time when I wake up every day, so the thought of breakfast doesn’t really occur to me on most days. Even on weekends, I choose two more hours of sleep over breakfast, so that I wake up with all the sleep I wanted to enjoy the two days of the weekend. All this changed when the Guptas bought the flat next to mine.

On the first day of their arrival, they invited me over for breakfast, but somehow I skipped it and slept through the morning. As the summer started to show its fury all over Hyderabad, I started to open my windows at night while sleeping. One morning as I was blissfully dreaming about something insignificant, the smell of the corn flakes flew sweetly over my nose. It brought me the memories of my childhood when I first ate Kellogg’s Corn Flakes for breakfast. It was a welcome change at that time from the Idlis and we used to have daily at home. I thought it was all a part of the dream, but when the delicious aroma persisted for more than a while, I woke up to find that it was real and coming from the Guptaji’s house. 

I shook myself off the stupor and walked towards their home, whiffing the delightful taste of walnuts. I thought for a while before knocking the door, wondering how they would feel, or worse still consider me an intruder, but one look at Guptaji’s face as he opened the door alleviated all such fears. He was welcoming and quite hospitable and put me at ease instantly. He admonished me mockingly for not coming over for breakfast, as I sat comfortably in their hall. 

As we were going on with the small talk, a pristine porcelain bowl was put in front of me, which had corn flakes, custard apple and walnuts served with generous amount of milk. I licked my lips involuntarily, in anticipation, my hunger pangs coming alive, and Guptaji took the clue immediately and motioned me to help myself. He could have been even screaming “Attack” in his mind, for that was what his gesture felt to me, and I wasted no time.

The whole thing tasted so yummy, that had it been my home I would have licked the bowl clean. As if she was sensing my immense delight in devouring the breakfast, Mrs. Gupta brought me another bowl full of the same, but added some more walnuts in it. I looked at her, through full mouth, letting out a sheepish grin and gestured to her that I’m full. She told me that I can take it to my home and eat it after a while, but reminded me to return the bowl. 

The next day, I woke up early, so that I can return the bowl to her, and joined Guptaji in his morning jog, and in between words I slipped in somehow that I’m going to the hotel at the end of the road for breakfast. As expected, he invited me over and I lost in thoughts of the dark chocolate and vanilla essence that I smelt from their kitchen earlier in the morning. 

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Lookup Stories: Start A New Life

It was in 2005 that I took my first ever decision about how I should go about my life. Till then I was passing on, uncaring about the ignominy, too docile in my conformation, comfortably naïve about my prospects. I followed the path, already set for my by my brother and people all around me, scraping through classes 1-10 barely getting my neck up the academic excellence to get any special notice – never been a teacher’s pet -, slogging my backsides off at the Intermediate to get into a different beast called engineering. Once in engineering, I lost all the focus and zeal for any activity except watching movies and sleeping. So, when I came out 4 years later in April 2005, I had a degree to show for it, but nothing much or else.

The only thing I got from my 4 years, of considerable value that is, was the qualification score that I got in the GATE exam, but I felt it was an embarrassing score at that time. I got a job at a construction company in Hyderabad immediately after I left the college and I thought that it was a miracle, but soon the nature of the job, the physical activities involved, friends’ descriptions of the lack of basic facilities in their visits to the construction site, and the sad fact that the only day off was Sunday Afternoon, made me frustrated and sad. That was not how I wanted to be. I felt exhausted everyday and nothing to look forward to.

It was on one of those excruciatingly dull days that I got an invitation for counseling from MNNIT Allahabad. I almost forgot applying for that one, and it happened to be the only one I applied to. I mistook the letter to mean that I was given a seat in the college for PG, and went to my manager with my resignation letter. He told me that doing a Masters would be a waste of time and energy and said that it will never help me. I told I thought it will and gave him the letter. Only when I got onto my bike that evening, I realized the impact of my decision. Thankfully, I got paid for working over for a month and had no trouble in booking tickets with the money I earned, though I couldn’t find a reservation immediately.

I travelled in general compartment for close to 36 hours to reach Allahabad from Hyderabad. The journey was painful on my knees, and when I got down at Allahabad Station I was literally clueless as to how to find my way in the city. I didn’t know the language well enough, the counseling was scheduled two days later and I have to find a way to spend the next day. It was around 2 AM when I got a room to sleep at the station itself, when a kindhearted stationmaster spotted me and offered it.

I spent the next day in the same room, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I didn’t have any friends and I don’t know anyone there. I was like a rabbit under the headlights looking for anything to hold on to. The day passed excruciatingly slow as I ate, slept, read and slept again into the night.

I attended the counseling next day, got a seat in Geotechnical Engineering, and interacted with a few guys there who promised to be in touch. I got back to Hyderabad the same day, and proceeded to my native place, spending 20 more days at home, before I boarded the train again to Allahabad.

Looking back after all these days, I think the day I took the decision to resign and study further changed my life forever, for good. Not that I learnt much academically, my mind was never in it, I used it just as an escape from the job. I made friends for life, learnt a lot about myself. It was like an entirely new life for me, and the start was almost could never have happened if not for the bold decision I took, which I’m thankful for.

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This post is written as part of Start a New Life Campaign by Housing.com

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Look Up Stories: My Home

I’m a skeptic when it comes to buying anything with loans, as I’m constantly afraid of being a defaulter should any unforeseen circumstances arise. I thought that the burden of paying back something that I didn’t have in the first place weighs me down and may mess up with my peace of mind. These were some of the reasons why I never listened to any logic, or encouraged any discussions about buying a house. 

Whenever people spoke about owning a house, I told them that I would buy when I have enough money and I would never take up a loan whatsoever. As a person who worked in the IT industry during the economic recession in 2009, I know a lot of stories that support my ideology, hence whenever I argued, I brought one of them up invariably, probably in an attempt to coax myself that I was doing the right thing all along. 

I don’t think I can point out to that exact moment or the day that brought a change into my thought process. . Ideally, I’d like to believe that I got confident enough to pay the loan back even if I lose my job, but I can’t delude myself and have to admit that a glimmer of concern still exists about it, but sometime in the last year I took the leap of faith and plunged into the curious world of home loans, and bought ourselves an apartment. Probably, it is how the industry has bounced back, emerging stronger and more successful than when it entered the recessopm phase, and taking me along with it in the journey, that made me feel confident and quite optimistic about the future.

I didn’t have any special feelings or emotions when I paid up the advance for the home. It was more of a relief from exhaustion after the 12 KM journey on my Honda Activa, and I’m too tired to mark the occasion with anything memorable. The long journey back also sapped some of my enthusiasm, and any way I didn’t physically have anything to show up for all the money I had shelled. It was a good two weeks later that I put my first step into the apartment. It was a huge one and for a while I can’t believe I bought it. Soon all my earlier skepticism returned, and I made a lot of mental calculations, multiplications and divisions, became all too hazy and I was confused and tired after the whole exercise. 

The apartment itself was relatively unfurnished, the tiles were just put on and everything else was left to my imagination, which I’m afraid was not too vibrant at that time. With a bit of help from google, and a lot more of it from my wife, we started putting in piece by piece into it. I don’t know how my mother felt like when we first had our own home, built absolutely from scratch under her supervision, but I felt no less, sitting in my bedroom and searching and short listing designs for false ceiling, interiors, and kitchen tiles, nursing headaches. 

These activities, at times, can be futile, frustrating and can eat up into your days and peace, but the pleasure when we zeroed in on something can only be felt. We are about a month away from moving in, and every time we go in now, I can’t stop smiling at myself and can’t wait to move in. I’m about as restless about moving in as I was when I waited for the joining date for my first job. 

Sometimes, it all seems like a dream, and I wish I could go back to be the skeptic that I was, but one look at my new home with people working on it, the smell of Fevicol and sawdust, the plywood, tiles and other paraphernalia makes me forget all about it. I feel really pleasant looking at it, and can’t help congratulating myself on a sensible decision in all probability. It fills me with a sense of calm and a lot of expectations, hope and excitement about my lifestyle in my new abode.

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This post is written for Lookup Stories (do check the website, their landing page is probably the most awesome design I saw) activity by Housing.com hosted by IndiBlogger Happy Hours Campaign 

Better Car With Quikr

Choosing is a peculiar thing, in that it eats into your time without you being aware of it.  When you are spoilt for choice, it becomes even more difficult and if you are not too certain about what you want, it can be frustrating at times. When I first wanted to buy a car, two years ago, the biggest issue that I faced was the choice between different vehicles, their comparisons, concern about the availability of spare parts, servicing regularly and many other trivialities. They started bothering me and messed up my peace of mind, so much that I dropped the idea of buying the car itself.

A couple of months ago, I have discovered Quikr through one of the many social networks that I use, and the first thing I searched after logging into it was about second hand cars. I wanted to buy a second hand one this time since I have just started learning how to drive and I would hate it if my brand new car hits or gets hit by anyone else’s. So, second hand one seemed to be a prudent one, but I’m not the kind who goes around the town visiting garages looking for vehicles. I’m too lazy for that, and that’s even further reason of the extended time periods I spent on the website.

I was always awkward with conversations, whether they are on call or direct. My job also required me to interact with a lot of people, both in India and Overseas, which also included deciphering different accents in which people talk, and the surest aid I had those days were the messengers that we had at our workplaces. With chatting, I didn’t have to face any of the above issues, and could communicate candidly, to get the work done in a timely and efficient manner. So, you could imagine my surprise and joy when I saw Quikr NXT, which allowed me to write to the seller and ask for the specifications and his experiences with the vehicle.

I zeroed in on about 4 cars till date and wrote to different sellers, each of them have been totally forthcoming and elaborate in their responses. They were also willing and happy enough to share the pictures of the car through the app, even as I was chatting with them.  As I read through what they have written about their vehicles, I felt that we could say a lot about people by the way they talk about their vehicles and the things they love to do. I appreciated the value they attached to their car, and also wanted to apply some of the best practices they were kind enough to suggest.

I hope I can win the battle of the spoilt choices as soon as I can, and with a lot of excitement I look forward to driving my first car.

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Get a better Car with Quikr NXT! Campaign hosted by Indiblogger