In retrospect

Stirred into motion
I wipe the mist off my porthole
The air is heavy with cob webs
A ray of sunlight still cuts through
I have had too many yesterdays
I reach out for some tomorrows

How's work?

Of late I have run across a lot of people at various states of disenchantment and disgruntlement with their jobs. The reasons have been many right from never wanting to do what they find themselves doing, to not feeling challenged enough, to being unhappy with the respect they are getting, to simply wishing they would be doing something more instrumental to the end product their job is producing. When we are growing up most of us run through different phases when depending of who we might have met recently or what our impressionable minds tend to absorb from the different media sources feed us about what exactly we want to do when we grow up. Pilots and joining the army seem like popular options for guys while girls more often than not swear by doctors, nurses and movie stars. As we grow up things however fall into perspective and we don't see India clamoring up with a billion pilots or movie stars. Our career paths are charted as we go through school and we get into our jobs with a certain set of expectations, slightly hesitant knowing that this might very well be what we will be doing for the rest of our lives. We wish to be instrumental tools doing something significant at work and bringing about significant changes. I think that's when most of us hit a real roadblock when we find out that initially we are just a small fish in a big ocean where most big decisions are already made for us. Some of us struggle for respect stemming from our lack of experience while other get disenchanted finding out that what they are meant to be doing is quite different from what they had envisioned they would be doing. This post is exactly about all those people who are at these stages in their nascent career. The problem is not with asking the world of their jobs but the problem lies with expecting everything. We need to realize that not all of us work dream jobs or not at dream salaries or not at dream work hours anyways. We have to realistically lower our expectations slightly of course never to an extent where it starts interfering with your ambitions. All I am saying is that not all of us wake up everyday wanting to go to our jobs, all of us have moments when in the middle of a board room discussion or conference call we just think that what the hell are we doing at this time and place, all of us have times when we get frustrated with trying to meet crazy deadlines built of unreasonable expectations. But the key is to see if there are any moments of magic when you realize how much more fortunate to doing something you have studied to be doing, or moments when you feel a rush hearing a new idea or at a new brain wave at something you want to do based on your own acquired skills, or any other moments of magic when you think to yourself that Wow do I love my job because it is moments like these which will make you realize whether your job is really worth it. If not wait till pay day to see if it is ;)

I love you Antigua

This was meant to be be another blog originally about another thought that I had pondered over last night quite excited by it, but for some reason I have absolutely no recollection of what it was right now. So on this beautiful day (blame it on the Friday partially) I thought I would just pen down my experiences about my recent week long trip to Antigua. A trip that had begun absolutely drenched in pain after India's shock exit in the World Cup actually leaving many of us thinking whether we should actually go in the first place at all any more (bless you overpriced non-refundable Continental tickets). But the mere thought of not having gone seems criminal right now as I sit back recollecting what has been probably the best vacation of my life. The choice of Antigua was based on the fact that the men in blue would supposedly play in 2 high voltage clashes in the Super Eight and if not for them I probably would have never gone to Antigua. Antigua is a small country about 45 miles on the perimeter and at times its hard to realize that you are travelling across a country and not a city. But what it lacks in size it makes up in the pristine beauty of the place, the white sand beaches (365 of them too believe it or not) and the very very warm and friendly people. I never for a moment felt unsafe over there or felt that i was getting ripped because I was a tourist. The people were always friendly always more than willing to help and always COOL with their Caribbean accent. Spending time in the country makes you realise that you don't really need to be rich to live life as you see the whole country in a state of constant party (and trust me its not all to do with the greener grass over there). The whole setting of the place reminded me of Goa with the same roads, houses and laid back carnival atmosphere and to top it all there was cricket because all of you who know me know by now that I don't like cricket I love it :). The highlights of this trip will be the first sight of the white sand beach after struggling to locate it for a good 2 hours, sipping on some really fine Antiguan rum on ..... pretty much all the days of the trip, the awesome goat curry which I tore into with great fervor, meeting people from all over the world and the locals who seemed just as disappointed as me about India's shock exit, hooting a very mystified Ponting at the boundary rope with chants of 'Sachiiiiin Sachinnnn', shaking hands with the great Sir Vivian Richards, almost dropping my drink as I noticed Gilchrist standing right next to me at the bar and everything I did for the period of 6 days under the sun and over the sand. I love you Antigua, missing you already.


P.S. Pictures from the trip to follow soon