Zephyr

As one of my friend just mentioned, I have been bitten by the "blog bug" Guess she is not completely wrong.... but i am kinda happy after the big bite!!! So here comes another one from the Bloggerville resident.... this one's called Zephyr.... the dictionary meaning of this word being a breeze from the west.... remember mugging this word while preparing for GRE.... never had imagined that I would use it in some situation like this.....here it goes
Its been about a year in the US now.... precisely 11 months as on 1st July'08.... have had a few good and bad experiences in this whole time frame here....while in India I used to ponder how would I fit in this westernized world? Would it be a lot different than the then state in India? or would it be a difference of heaven and earth.... that time the only thing I was banking on was the Indian friends and acquaintances here....I was very warmly welcomed by some good friends.... made a whole lot of new friends as well....the other day when I was talking to a friend of mine who just got his VISA done and he asked me if I could meet him when he comes to the US. Knowingly or unknowingly my answer to the question was I will have to check my "Schedule" .for the last few months I had started to loathe this damn word... yes everyone here has a calender tied to his destiny.... not sure how many of 'em actually have it but am pretty sure some of them just pretend to have it......for some it could be just show off but to me it would be being preposterous.... I just cant understand people of my age being so tied up that they need to check their schedules to meet their friends.... and the best thing being shrugging the whole arrogance off by hiding it behind the word "convenience"... here comes one more... convenience....yes thats the most convenient word we use to avoid people and the pain which might come with them....the best example being scheduling an outing or a visit with single or multiple people.... with this scheduling come a few more schedules and a few more conveniences....this is when I really miss being in India ....I am sure that everyone there have things on their minds but then those are never put forth in the form of schedules and conveniences.... I sat back and started discussing with one of my very good friends about this... guess what the conclusion which we reached was "Convenience"....Suddenly the wind blowing past me started feeling chilly... and there I was standing amidst a Zephyr.... within fraction of a second I realized what went behind that statement... so now I am gonna call my friend and tell him that I would try and go to receive him at the airport.... at least I have made a note of it in my "Schedule"

The Big Deal!!!

Time - Monday Evening 6:30 PM

Situation - I return the enterprise rental car, miss my car pool and take a bus back home. Logging in to gmail gtalk and orkut has become a daily duty kind of thingy.... its probably become a part of my subconscious mind.... without even realizing I logon to these dumb things.... actually they are not dumb but somehow calling them dumb here sounds cool.... neways I logon to my gtalk and see that one of my friend has her tag as her blogspot ID... this reminds me of another friend of mine back in Purdue who is a voracious blogger.... and even goes to a stage where she asks us to read the blogs which she has in there.... everytime i face updates and self proposed updates I feel "What's the big deal!!!" what a constructive waste of time?? But on second thoughts it makes me feel there is atleast some deal to it.....big or small whatever it is.... its atleast a good way to note some special happenings in your life and share it with your friends before you let them into oblivion....

Time - 7 PM

Situation - I have read almost all the posts in my friend's account....donno why i read them again coz i had read them once already........and now I am completely possessed by this whole blogging stuff.... i have already browsed a lot of websites to search a cool name for my blog.... but am unable to find a "hatke" name for it.... so I decide to go with a simple name.....Me, Myself and only Myself.... i have this habit of depending on others at times and listening to their whims and fancies even when I dont need to listen to them and have the full rights to zap at them..... bad habits die hard.... but trying to change with every passing second......so here I come with a world which is completely mine.... the best part about it being that I am not answerable to neone.....All Rights Reserved and No Tresspassing allowed.....

Challenge Flashback!!!

Once a man dreamt that he was walking along a sea beach with God & scenes from his life flashed across the sky. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. Suddenly he looked back and found that during some challenging & lowest incidents of his life there was only one set of footprints. When asked about this God replied that those were the trial times when God carried him along. Now when I look back and ponder about things that happened to me during last few years, I believe that God has carried me along many times. When challenge as a term comes to me the first incident that comes to mind is the one I describe in the next few lines. Since childhood I had always lived in a very protective atmosphere. The first time I came out of this cocoon was when I secured admission for engineering at Pune. After many search operations I was able to find a paying guest accommodation for myself at Prabhat road. I still vividly remember my first visit to Neurgaokar Aaji’s(grandmother in marathi) place. Her daughter was looking for "well behaved" boys who would live with her mother like her own grandchildren and study simultaneously. We (me & my childhood friend)moved in the house on 19th Feb 2002. As days passed by, problems started creeping in. We had to clean not only our room but the full house as the maid servants had not done their work properly and poor 90 year old aaji was helpless. There were times when there used to be stench of spoilt food in the kitchen with cockroaches floating around everywhere. We were told about aaji’s forgetfulness but gradually we realized that she was bad case of Alzheimer’s. We realized this when we were not told about phonecalls from our families. At times aaji used to yearn for her daughters based in UK to call her, even when she had talked to them few moments back. Many a times we were not let in the house just because she had forgot that somebody was staying with her. But irony is that the same woman would cry when we came home during our mid sem holidays. There were times when maid servants were served tea coffee on regular basis by her and we were suspected of pilfering these things, times when her realtives made phone calls from her place & we were grilled for hefty phone bills. Aaji used to knock at our door at midnight even during our exams & ask about people who she thought were there when she slept but it was only an illusion. One night the knocking dint stop at all. Finally we opened the door only to notice that her forehead and clothes were blood stained. Apparently she felt from her bed & suffered a head injury. Once she was robbed of her jewelry when she was in the porch and we were out. During my final year of Engineering aaji fell from her bed again. This time she had to undergo a hip replacement operation. Luckily her elder daughter had come to stay with us during that period. Her age was against her, the high risk operation was a success but aaji became bed ridden after that. After interviewing few ungainly ladies her daughter’s appointed two very good honest nurses to be with her 24X7. They took our duties & we were given a new duty of keeping a watch on them. As days passed aaji’s health started deteriorating. For an outsider this may seem a cakewalk but only the person who has gone through all this can feel how grim the situation used to be at times. Finally after having lived a bed ridden life for almost three years and struggling with life she finally gave up on the tenacious hold of life and got what all of us think she deserved the most – freedom from life. Living in such a precarious situation has certainly been the most challenging period of my life. But honestly speaking I never regret even a single moment of it. Success for me has always been the journey and not the destination. During this challenging journey I earned many things viz. home away from home, an exceptional academic record, people who respect us the most(her daughter’s) and a new meaning to life.