A Grand plan.

I’m super excited. That’s probably an understatement to describe how I’m feeling.

It all started with a very vague idea. Back when I was in Delhi and planning to relocate to Hyderabad, a rather adventure freak of a person (referred to from now as Mr. X) suggested “Dude, let me drive your car over till Hyderabad, I’d love it”. I was at that point concerned with loads of other things, so I said “Yea sure”. I guess the inception of this particular idea happened at that very moment.

<Snip to present>

So I’ve been in Hyderabad for almost a month now, and continue to travel around like a tourist (although, I know my way around to a certain extent), and have no vehicle here on me.I like the roads here, nice slopes and great curves (pun to be excused). Traffic at times seems a little daunting (read : office rushes). I’ve seen worse though. Hey I’m from Gurgaon, what do you expect ?

<Snip to past>

There was this other person back in Delhi, (referred to from now on as Mr. T).

X, T and me knew each other from work. We all joined (my earlier company) at the same time, right at the beginning of 2009. Different backgrounds, but strung together by fate. X and I became friends instantly, we would often hang out after work. T had joined right from college, and he seemed smart (and charming). In fact, I did not get a chance to properly interact with T till early 2010. X had left by then, trying out hands at what he loved the most, “designing, conceptualizing, and trying”.  So I knew T, and I knew X, but T and X were unaware of each other’s existence.

So, as destiny had the grand plan, T and I got a chance to work in the same Project, from early on in 2010. He had been with the project ever since, and I was taken in as a mid way replacement for a resource who had decided to quit. T and me were naturally drawn to each other, as we had a few common interests. We loved eating, and had this zeal for technology. We also loved our music, but somehow the tastes in that context were mutually exclusive. Come to think of it, we also had a generation gap ;). Any how, we worked on this staggering project, with a client who was pretty demanding. Net result : we had to up our game, and work as a team. The project was fun, and we had our shares of highs and lows. As a result, I got to know T better. He’s a bright chap, who’s also a good-hearted person. At the time I left the company T and I had an awkward moment. We never said our goodbyes.

Towards the end of this particular project (I think, at the beginning of last quarter of 2010), X decided that he’d had enough of independent working, and once you get used to a steady income every month, the period of draughts seem worse as compared to withdrawal symptoms of cocaine addiction. He came back to the organisation he had left, albeit in a different role. He called up, and we met immediately. X and T got to meet each other and realise how different they are. There was a mutual feeling of “detest” (yeah that’s a very apt word). Circumstances ensued to tolerate each other a little more, and they did give each other a fair chance. Consequently, they got friends with each other.

<Snip to present>

So, I called T one fine day, and started to whine to him about missing my mobility, i.e my car back in Delhi. He understood my predicament, and said he’d be keen to drive my car on this road trip. He was a little apprehensive though. X was always interested. He’s done a few in the past, but this one would be his biggest one yet.

It’s going to be X, T, C on a road trip. A rather grand road trip, from Delhi to Hyderabad.

The webs we weave.

It’s one of those days. I find it extremely difficult to sleep. My mind’s distracted and confused. I think about the new year, and in the year gone by ….

 

I’m definitely not hungry, or too full.

I’m not sad, nor elated, neither angry, but amused

I do not have any idea, nor am I stuck.

The music plays in background, as rhymes get struck

 

Of things that I yearn of, I don’t have a track!

I feel that I have gone, or am I back?

If I had a wish, granted to come true

will I go back in time, or will I get a clue?

 

I’ve spoken my heart out, yet I have much more to say,

The child’s smile, and his naughty ways

His unfaltering focus, his wavering mind

gives me hope, makes the world seem kind.

 

I feel vulnerable, but pretend to be secure!

I laugh at myself, when I thought I was sure.

I’m a boy, I am a man

I think, therefore … I am.

 

Dedicated to all people, who have written in the past, and for some reason, now (work, mostly) are too busy to share the joy I (and I’m sure others) experience when I read their blogs. People, who haven’t blogged from over a month. Miss you.

Man Proposes …..

Sometimes, it seems that the ones who coined clichés must have had the foresight of a fiendishly clever being, yet in possession of angel like wisdom.

Often at the moment such pearls strike you in a way, that might leave you with a taste bittersweet,  and you wonder if it’s your conscience projected across time. Tonight, as I think about the year that has whizzed past me, I wonder as to what I am ? (Yea … I do hear the sound it makes akin to a rushing deadline)

I’m shrouded by so many questions, and uncertainties, yet I feel that I know myself better. It was just the same, the last year, and the year before that. Looking back, it never ceases to amaze me and somehow, every year out trumps the year before that.

We all make plans for our lives.

What do you decide ? and how it’ll happen? hah. All you can do is show intent. The outcome of anything you try to do depends on such a huge number of factors, that if I try to include everything in an equation and try to understand its probability of happening, I’m sure the thing blows out of the confines of mathematics, and pretty well enters the realm of some magic type subject.

I suppose you must have, at some point claimed … “Eureka. This his what I plan”, and “such and such are those steps which I must take to attain  that goal“.

Now if you zoom back up from the picture and re-consider what you consider as defining moments. How many, are results of your neat and well thought plan, followed by action sequences.

I’m not saying that life is totally random and out of control happenings. But it certainly is something that happens while we’re busy making plans.

Sure, same as always, this year I have:

• Met incredible people
• Worked on incredible projects.
• Realized something I am, and something I can never be.
• Have exclaimed “Well, now I’ve seen everything!“

Yet, when I try to see the larger picture, to say if things have gone according to the plan, this revelation dawns:

Man Proposes and God Disposes is incomplete. It is more like Man Proposes, God analyzes, raises one eyebrow, (do you smell, what the God is cooking) makes some random sequence and hands it off to you! You oblige with gratitude.

Really, if I were to look back, and see if things have gone according to plan, I can only wonder “How the hell did I manage to get here”.

It is surprisingly good. Like a breath of fresh air. I claim to have grown :). There are things I can do, and there are things I can’t.  All I can say is … Do make plans. Show Intent ! (It makes you animate), but also accept that it might not turn out exactly as you dream of it.

Wacky happenings (some to tune, some out of it) is what is called Life.