Day 119 - Expectations

Last week was such a disappointing and depressing week.

The week began with THE event, which a lot of people in the organisation were looking forward to for a long time.  Monday was spent doing nothing but distributing envelopes and talking to people.  The one word which was heard time and again, was, 'Expectations'.  Interestingly, in different connotations too.  Someone said their expectations were met, some said their expectations were largely met, some said not really and some took the road of 'I have no expectations'!

'Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed'!

Is that really true?  Did all the colleagues who said that they had no expectations really mean it?  Is it possible to live in this material world and have no expectations?  By the looks of last week, yes it is.  Difficult maybe, but not impossible.

Expectations, I think, are manifestations of our perception of our own self and the environment around us.  Hence logically, if we are able control our thoughts and focus them on the present rather than extrapolating the past into the future, we might be able to get rid of undue expectations. 

On the other hand, we could argue that whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.  What is the point of living if you do not expect something from life and are keenly looking forward to it?  I know this is very abstract, but so is the eternal mystery of expectations.

The mystery of me being very disappointed and depressed might also just be a case of misplaced expectations.  Who knows...

The rest of the week was not very uplifting either.  The IPL cesspool continued to get dirtier by the day.  Look what two people with big egos can do.  And more importantly, look what a megalomaniac can do, if not governed adequately.  The good part though, was, my prediction (and wish) came true.  Mumbai Indians played Chennai Super Kings in the final and the Super Kings became the Kings of IPL!  My loyalties were divided, but I did realise that somewhere down there, I do have an extra special soft corner for Chennai!

I will be there at the end of this month.  Should remember to congratulate my friends in Chennai on the victory!

Appudi podu podu podu.....

Take care.

Day 110 - (Un)Common Sense

It has been an interesting week.  I did find a way out of the maze of priorities that I found myself at the turn of the last week.  Help came in the form of Sukumar Subramaniam! 

However, the more interesting happenings for me this week have been outside the ambit of my life.  The IPL and its workings are being unravelled as an outcome of the Tharoor - Modi war!  And what a cesspool it is!  The brand is taking a beating.  I am absolutely certain now that some of these matches (if not most) are actually staged and fixed.  Alas, cricket is no longer a gentleman's game.  The other interesting stand-off has been between two regulatory bodies in the country.  SEBI and IRDA are at loggerheads on who should be regulating the ULIPs.  Assume there is more to it than just jurisdictional insecurity.  Ego is at play; otherwise this one would not have been fought so publicly.  Poor Pranabda has a task at hand now.

We celebrated Priyanksh's birthday on Friday with friends and family.  After the cake cutting, along with the dinner, some very dangerous rides were on the menu at Hakone!  Some of our heads are still spinning.

Drove to Pune on Saturday, to meet the in-laws, and especially my father-in-law who is recovering from a cataract operation.  And it was while driving through the dark tunnels on the Mumbai - Pune Expressway that I decided I was going to write about traffic in Mumbai and the infrastructure thats supports it.

Traffic in Mumbai is insane.  I remember telling a few foreigners about the difference in traffic between Mumbai and Chennai.  Mumbai has more vehicles on the road but the flow of traffic is more organised than Chennai.  I would now like to retract that statement, which was based on my stay in Mumbai during the early few years of this decade.  Mumbai traffic is insane.

Everyone drives very aggressively; like there is no tomorrow.  Everyone wants to be ahead of the other vehicles.  There is no lane discipline, especially on the wider roads of the Eastern and the Western Expressways.  Sometimes, the distance between the vehicles while overtaking etc. actually scares me.  The margin for error is very less.  A millimetre here and there can cause an accident.

Add to this the infrastructure that supports road transport in the city.  There is no doubt that India as a country builds infrastructure on a lag basis, when there is a demand for it.  There is no proactive planning involved.  However, the issue that bugs me is the way the infrastructure is built.  There is no common sense used.  Everything is bare minimum.  There is no thought given to illumination levels, signages, reflectors, etc.  Suddenly, out of nowhere a divider comes into being; there is no reflective paint on it and hence so very difficult to recognise it at night.  Moreso because the illumination levels of our street lights are not only inadequate but pathetic.  Add to that the penchant for drivers to use the high beam (part of the reason to be using it is obviously the inadequacy of the street lights), with no element of common sense in it.  When driving at night in Mumbai, you are practically driving blind, atleast in most of the places.  Lack of adequate signages, and more importantly, inappropriate placement of signages can easily confuse a commuter into taking a wrong exit / missing an exit.  I definitely think people in Chennai who built these have a little more common sense.  It is definitely not due to their liking of the colour yellow that most dividers, reflectors, etc. are well painted in that colour!  :-))  Not sure what can be done to make the authorities smoothen these rough edges when they build roadways.  Hopefully common sense will dawn and prevail some day!

If you are driving in Mumbai, please take it easy.  Life is precious.  Drive safe.

Take care.

Day 103 - Here, There & Everywhere...

This last week has been really hectic.  At work and otherwise.  Even the weekend has been the same.  The reason:  Too many conflicting priorities and pulls.

1) Have to plan to be in Chennai as soon as possible to complete the formalities of the house sale.

2) However, the next week (and the one after that!) is very busy at work. Can't spare even a day except for this Friday.

3) However, Friday is Priyanksh's second birthday and I want to be at home with him.

4) Am looking to buy a house in Mumbai, however cannot move forward unless I complete the Chennai sale!

5) Amongst all of this, I have to be in Pune next weekend.

How do I go about resolving this maze of priorities?  Prioritize, some would say.  How to prioritize when all of the above are equally important, and more importantly, inter-linked?

While my small little brain struggled with matters of such great significance, I did visit the MCHI Property Exhibition at BKC on Saturday.  The real estate market sure has hit boom time by the looks of the crowd that was in attendance at the fair.  Bad news for me.  However, I think the trick here is to look for good value for money properties after cutting through the hype. 

Did the same on Sunday.  Took off to Girish's place to look at various properties in Thane.  Was dead tired by the end of the day; more so due to the blatant hard sell of the lady broker accompanying us rather than anything else.

I expect the next few weeks to be equally tiring and busy.

Take care.

Day 100 - Shubh Yatra

Keeping very much in line with my last post, I travelled to Ahmedabad with Priya and the kids.  By Indian Railways!  After a long time I decided to travel by train and there are multiple reasons for it.

It has been a while since I had travelled by train to anywhere. 

1) This was because I was based in Chennai for the last 6 years and travelling by train from Chennai to Ahmedabad (or anywhere up North / West) would have been too time consuming.  However, due to the fact that I spent a huge amount of my student life and early work life travelling by train and hence was longing to do a train journey again.

2) The kids were very small, hence long duration travel would have been a challenge.  Now that the kids are a little bigger, I wanted them to experience the joys of travelling by train, even if it was just a night journey!;-)

3) From Mumbai to Ahmedabad, it makes sense.  Saves time, saves money.

The journey itself was very uneventful.  This could be due to the fact that I played safe and travelled by First AC.  I do remember feeling a bit claustrophobic in the coupe initially. The kids did like it till they fell asleep!

Even after travelling by First AC, I do still think a lot can be done to improve the services and enhance the experience of travelling by Indian Railways.  The hygiene can be much better.  The ergonomics and the core service as well.

But then, I never ever gave all of these a second thought when I used to occupy 1/7th of the upper berth every morning to get to Nadiad from Ahmedabad, in my student days!

Take care!