Life is full circle!!!

It has been good days for me at office over the past few months. I decided to move to planning team after having served the operations team for about 2 years... Two years!!! i wonder how quickly time passes. Looking back, i always felt that those where golden days, the memories i will always cherish. I still remember the confusion i had in deciding to join NSN or HCL, still don't know whether i have taken the right decision or not. Almost every person had asked why i didn't join HCL, at that time i probably didn't had any answer. And the same people tell me now that i have taken a right decision!! Strange but true, sometimes few decisions click and had i failed then God knows what would have been situation!!! I always had the burden of people's expectations and to some extent i have lived up to their expectations.Thanks to Allah i have been able to cope with additional pressure of expectation and came out triumphed..

A lot has been happening at office, especially lot in terms of man movement. The attrition rate has been very high at NSN thanks to Huawei..Every other day i would find a person going out . And i have seen most of my seniors and colleague's leaving NSN, 17 to be precise over the past 18 months. Telecom has been a volatile field over the past three years, and will continue to be in the near future. Sometimes i think of changing the company, but every time new challenge comes up, which holds me from leaving. I am happy as of now, but as always the human tendency of asking a "little more" will come at some time!!

I have been travelling a lot over the past one month, the same continued. I was told to travel to Delhi ( Gurgaon to be precise) for a training, and i got my air ticket and hotel accommodation booked by the travel desk. I had instructed them to book the flight late in the evening so that i can finish my office work and leave to Delhi in the night. I took a print out of my tickets and left for the airport. I reached to airport well in advance thanks to the airport service, but i was in for a shock. I had asked for flight at 7pm and the travel desk had booked the flight at 7am. I was so embarrassed to have found this so late. I somehow managed to book new flight at the same time and boarded the plane..

This was second time i was travelling in the night. The weather was just about perfect with clear sky. It is hard to find clear sky in Bangalore this time of the year. The flight took off smoothly and soon we were in the company of so many stars. I remember the poem "Twinkle twinkle little star" in the nursery days. The stars reminded of the pure and innocent nursery days, when everything was just so simple and so natural!! The sky above seems like an ocean of pearls and the earths below looked as if somebody had lit it with millions of candle. The sky was just so beautiful, with millions and millions of natural twinkling stars. And when u look down there were millions and millions and man made street lights. It was just amazing site which can be experience over and over again..After a long day at work, it was just ideal time to sleep. I had a short nap and woke up when we were about to reach Delhi... The airport is so busy this time, so we had to circle an circle over the airport for about half an hour.Finally we got the clearance and we landed at the brand new Indira Gandhi International Airport.It took me half an hour to get my luggage and get into the taxi and another half to reach the hotel. I quickly checked in and went straight to sleep..

Next day, the training started around 10 a.m when it was supposed to 9 am. It set the tone for rest of days to come. After really long time i was attending a training so obviously was bit sleepy. It is so hard to concentrate on some new topic and also the fact that i haven't attended any class for nearly 2 years!! The situation became hopeless post lunch, when every body were just looking so dull. I think books and sleep have some kind of relationship, when u don't get the second, try reading the first one, and i bet you will get it. We somehow manage to complete the day 1 of the training and left to hotel.. In these days of recession, the company's try to squeeze as much as they can. Our training was also held on Saturday, but thanks to the trainer we finished the training pretty early.

We reached the heart of Gurgaon, which was bustling with people having fun on their weekends. I was roaming on the same road, in the same malls some two years back when i had come here for my initial induction training. Things have changed a lot over these two years.. Swanky new malls, brand new metro, more sky rise buildings, the place had totally changed. Those days i had enjoyed a lot roaming on the roads, having tea at the dhaba late in the nights with friends. This time people around i was with new people, each from different part of the country. But we jelled in pretty well, in fact very well. We watched a newly released movie, the tickets which we had incidentally got as somebody had cancelled at the last moment. It was fun watching the movie from the front row of the theater as everything looked so big!! And the movie was also a laughter ride.

The next day we decided to visit Delhi, so we hired a cab and ventured out in streets of old Delhi. One of our colleagues was a Sikh, so we went to a gurudwara first. After having the blessing of the lord, we went to explore the old Delhi streets. The streets were full of people, trying to sell all kinds of things.. We had our lunch and then took metro from the famous chandni chowk to rajeev chowk. Delhi is just the ideal place for shopping, only thing u need to know is "bargaining". We spent some good time, shopping something for our families, as a token of remembrance of the visit. Having travelled the whole day we all were tired and decided to head straight back to the hotel.

Days passed ( 9 days to be precise) and it was the time to depart. I and one of my colleague left little early as we were to catch the flight at 6. The flight was on time, and i enjoyed one more memorable trip in the flight. I reached Bangalore around 8.30 pm, hired a cab and reache home around 10.Finally i was back to my sweet home.. The carefree days were gone, it's time to get back to work!!! Hope i will get some more memorable visits in near future!!

Journey continues....

I arrived from Hyderabad in the evening, almost tired. But i remember there was another journey to be made. Since i was in Hyderabad for the entire week, i had not planned for attending one of my friends marriage, I was sure that there will be no more stamina left in me to travel again. But one of my friends insisted on going, so we decided to attend the marriage. Since we had no plans, we had to book a private bus service to reach the place called Udupi, where the marriage was supposed to be held.I reached home around 7'O clock in the evening, packed a pair of clothes and set out again for another journey...

I don't prefer to travel by bus, because i have been travelling in trains since my childhood.But there was no option left so i had to take it. And since i don't often travel in bus, i always find it difficult to sleep, and it was the same this time as well. Even though my eyes where closed i was struggling to sleep.I some how got sleep late in the night.I woke up to the fresh breeze of air, which was as pure as a newly born baby!! . We travelled though the ghat section, followed by lush green fields and through many bridges which were bustling with water. The weather outside was beautiful and serene, as if it was untouched by anyone. Thank god we still have places like these which are not affected by industrialisation . The fresh air had soothing effect on us, and even though our blood pressure was rising because of the delay, we still managed to keep it cool, thanks to the weather. We were to reach udupi by 7, but thanks to the bus we reached two and half hours late.We quickly got ourselves ready and headed to the mantapa ( Hall) . By the time we reached there, the rituals had already started. This was the second time i was attending a Hindu marriage, and i was still not able to come to terms with the style of the marriage. I always feel marriage style in Islam is simple, but every tradition has its own style.. After long time and many rituals the marriage finally got completed, poor couple had to go through this and more was to come since they had to greet each and every one.

My friend was surprised to see us, as we had told her that we will not turn up for the marriage. It was kind of a pleasant surprise to meet few of old college mates who had also come to attend the marriage. Having met the newly wed couple, we had our lunch and we headed to our hotel. We had nothing much to do in the evening, so we decided to go to manipal, a small town around 5km from udupi. Somebody had told us about a place called " End Point" in manipal, so we headed there in hope of beach, wrong guess!! It was a park with the name end point!! We spent couple of hours there and came back to udupi. Having had a traditional vegetarian lunch, we decided to give our taste buds a good time. We had typical coastal food with fish, good one at reasonable price..

Incidentally i had booked the same bus, which we had travelled in the night so i was expecting the same delay in reaching Bangalore.. We had tough time this time around since we had got last seats in the bus, we had our stomach filled to the brim and bus would jump violently every other minute. We some how reached Bangalore the next day. I was very tired and decided to skip office for a day, also i had plenty of clothes to wash!! So i and my friend spent some good time chatting at home. His train was in the afternoon and so he left after we had break fast and i went to wash my clothes!!!!