Trust me?.. I am sure that there are better things to do in this world than working your ass off to earn salaries that seem so good at the beginning of the month and have a habit of disappearing somewhere in the middle of the month without trace? almost like those annually manufactured boybands of the 90s? two peppy songs and then a greatest hits compilations before you knew it.

Both me and Radhika came back early from office yesterday night? so we had an early dinner and on an impulse? went out in the never stopping rains of Pune to catch the late night show of Iqbal?

A nice movie? the kind of nice that you know will probably be real but you wish it was?

Sort of made me look at things again in a new perspective?. Two years back? in December 2003? when I was selected for my current job during my campus placements? everything seemed so possible. The clarity of my future in my mind then had been amazing.. even for me. It had seemed like from the time I stepped out of bschool it would all be a sort of a dreamlike existence concluded by the epilogue ?And he happily lived ever after?

Hmmm?..

Things have changed and evidently for the better? yet I find myself lying awake at nights wondering about what am I going to do with life?

The typical B school grad situation? a year and a half old in the job and wondering about where my life is leading me?

I do not like techy stuff? yet am a part of an IT company. And trust me ? sometimes.. this in itself is enough a reason for you to refuse to return the ball that lands up in your balcony when the kids downstairs smash it like Sachin (when did he last do that by the way?)

See.. here I go again? complaining, bitching and being a general pain. Shucks?

Anyway, the movie yesterday made me look back at what had been my dreams when I had been in college, when I was ready to face any test/interview/GD for that elusive thrill of victory?

Surprisingly?.. my current job gives me all that I had thought I wanted in my first job and a little bit more on the side as well.

Yet , I want more. Am I greedy, or impatient, or is this what they call ambition. Or am I simply the guy who has too much time to think while he types away at a company sponsored key board?.

As Ghalib Said: Hazaron Khwahishe Aisi, Ki Har Khwahish pe Dum Nikale

Whatever??

Comments from the past:

san
30 Sep 2005, 10:29am

such is life…
am visiting pune soon, house hunting…

Ashish
30 Sep 2005, 11:36am

Guess it is…
where are you looking for a house at pune? Maybe I could help you out?

san
30 Sep 2005, 5:04pm

that would be nice, i do need some help with location

🙂

Ashish
1 Oct 2005, 10:43am

Mail me on ashishkec@yahoo.com

Lets get in touch then

Is not so appropriate that I land up in the city that reveres my favorite deity, Ganesha? I have that special thing for Ganapati? something that is less to do with religion and more to do with faith.

Anyway, we are in the middle of celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi here at Pune? the annual rite when the city bedecks itself for the annual Pune festival. 10 Auditoriums, 10 days and more than a 100 performances and all free for the general public? guess there are reasons why they call Pune the cultural capital of Maharashtra?.

So last Saturday, me and her chucked away all worries of pending emails, unplanned finances and our in general cluttered life and escaped to Panchatatva?

The show had the great great Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia?. Do I need to say anything here ?

U ?Mandolin? Srinivas? heard him the first time at the Good Old Public Gardens at Hyd? blew me away then.. and did so again this Saturday

Selva Ganesha, was good to hear him again, last time he played with Zakir hussain on the Tabla, On Saturday, he was accompanied with a guy called Vijay Ghate? a talen from Pune?

And then there was Taufiq Querieshi on the drums and Ustad Rashid Khan for Hindustani vocals?.

For three hours, I forgot about the potholed roads or lousy jobs, or that I do not talk to her as much as I want to, or that I spend more time staring at my computer console than sitting across the table with her?.. almost

Well things could not have been better, till Pt Jasaraj took to stage for the conclusion? unfortunately he did not sing.. but I was happy to have just seen him on stage?.

Before I am through with this world, I have to hear Pt Ravi Shankar play the Sitar, and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan strum his Sarod? and maybe then I will die a satisfied man

I met all the folks in my society when we installed a Ganesha in our compound? and I suddenly found friends in a city which till now had me and her wallowing in our splendid isolation?

I have the Ganesha Idol at my home? wrapped in Pink and swathed in incense smoke? gaze benign and the hands gesturing an all forgiving benediction. The thought of taking him to the river for immersion is not a pleasant one at all.

But I guess this is what festivals are for? to pause and take stock of what has gone by? Ganesha will leave my home on Saturday, only to return again once a year is through.

It?s a funny feeling and I will not attempt to describe it?. Though I must say, the corner of the house which he occupied for the last 10 days, will seem terribly empty without him?..

“Ganapati Bappa Moriya”, Pudhachya varshi lavkar ya” (Return early next year, oh Victorious Lord Ganesh).

Cooking is an Art, Goa is heaven and there isn?t anything better that a chilled bottle of beer on a summer afternoon right after you have spent three hours in the blazing sun?

And how do you manage to do something that magically combines all these three and still remains real, affordable and lasts for more than a mere moment??… well go to Goa in off season of course !!

I admit that these memoirs are a bit stale now? I having visited Goa in late June. We had gone there for our ?Honeymoon?..( this is somehow one of the corniest words invented)?

The cost cutting had started fairly early? with us having booked tickets on the day Spice Jet debuted on the Indian skies. Everything was planned for, the hotel, the travel arrangements, the finances? but even then we barely made it from Lucknow to Goa?

One cancelled connecting flight-detour on an international liner from Jeddah-7 hour wait at Indira Gandhi International- stale sandwitches for breakfast-lunch-tea & dinner later? we finally found ourselves circling above the clouds at Goa?

And trust me, it was all so worth it?

The weather was moist, and the ground smelt of fresh rains when we landed. It was not our first trip to Goa.. but definitely the first one during the monsoons

An hour long ride in the hotel cab brought us to our hotel on Cangute Beach. The rooms were fine, but a bit further away from the sea than we would have liked. The next day? we moved to a Cottage, right at the beach, next to the lagoon created by the Baga creek

We could here the waves as they crashed on the shores a stones throw away from our doorstep? spraying salt into the air?.

There were hardly any other tourists at Baga? the only joint open was the trust Britto?s? serving us with steaming platters of seafood and thick bottomed glasses of whiskey? well a correction here? I ate the seafood? she is a vegetarian? Gastronomically, Goa means endless plates of Daal and Rice to her. As Obelix would have so aptly said? ?These Vegetarians are Crazy!!?

So we had our rented Activa, and 8 days of doing nothing ahead of us. I do not know what made me happier then? the thought of being in Goa again? or having made it through a two day ordeal called a Tamil wedding in one piece !

So we went to all those places where no one goes in June?empty beaches, an empty Inox at Panjim where we watched Parineeta ( loved the songs), bookstalls where we were the only buyers, roads so shaded with palm fronds that you could not see the sun even if you craned your neck.

We got drenched in the rains? on a regular basis, and promised ourselves that before we are through with this world? we will build a house in Goa?. Retire early and teach at some college in Goa

Maybe we will not? and just maybe? we will?.