And .. one more year passed away...

The year passed by… So it is only now that the one could think of the past and hope for the future. 

Looking back to 2008 well I can say that it is not very good and not bad either. The bad things I can recollect The Orissa massacre, The Mumbai Terrorism, The Serial blasts across many cities and not to miss the economic slow down which in some or other way affected the most of the people lives across the globe. And this is the World List :) 

And the achievements noting great noticeable other than ISRO launching 9 satellites in one launch.

Rock On!! Inspiring movie of the year. :)

And now coming to mine …  

Well let me think …..

It has not been a year of great achievements a very normal one neither bad nor good. Worked on few things I liked and did some useful work :) but it is almost at the same place where I was a year ago. Not much of a change. Few relations lost and few made. Noting much apart…

The New Year is here now, well have to take it if interested or not:). No major ambitions but have a wish list :). Hope to get few of them at least before the year ends. 

And New Year resolutions? Need one? Huh?

Be a better human :). This is being carried for the past few years and worth carrying it. And I am sure there is no end to this.

Years come and pass by, what matters is how you made use of them.

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Visit to BSNL....

Again need to visit the BSNL office, Koramangala as I didn’t get my bill as usual and hence have to take the duplicate to pay off. Went there around 9:15 but not even a single employee was present. And they counters started opening with an average delay of 15 minutes. So after a wait of 40 minutes the enquiry counter got opened and found out the process of activating STD and ISD. The woman in the counter was sooooooooooooo cooperative. I was just surprised about that kind of treatment in a government office and after that needed a photocopy of my id proof for the application, so a trip to the shop and after coming back .... Fill few more things and again need the photocopy of the completed one which I would have done earlier itself :( one more trip the shop again. Later I found out that she was giving me instructions one at a time; Not sure why she did it making me go round and round but at the end it was good and all the insturctions were pretty clear.

Also they initially entered my address wrong and I asked for updating the same. Again the one who is supposed to do didn’t turn up yet and so she copied all the address into a paper slip including my mobile number. Just wondered how that slip is going to help. I asked if an application is required for which she said no. Not knowing what to do and hoping that it would be done I decided to leave it there and pay the bill.

Now the counter where they accept the card is not at opened as the employee is not present there. By then the queue for the cash counter which was free when I came turned out into a long queue. Surprisingly noticed the amount to be paid is same before and after the due date too. So decided not to waste time and try to do it online as today is the last day for the payment:). Came out wondering and feeling good for the kind of response I got which I never ever experienced in a government office. 

Reached office late and paid the bill online. At the end transaction not logged. Now not at all sure what is going to happen:). The bank said success and the BSNL site said fail. Need to wait and see few days for the result. 

And I got a call again from the office on my mobile informing me that the address has been updated which I never ever expected to happen. That was when I decided to write this entry as a token of appreciation for the service they provided. Not sure if the address is changed yet but then they deserve it :)

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At last .. once again..

It was long since I posted a blog. Couldn't find time these days to write one and you will always have some useless work which requires attention and that too more than one at once :) so it happens like that. Quite busy these days and after that took a vacation and went home. Enjoyed for 5 days, went to beach and visited relatives and all in all it was quite relaxing. Today came back to Bangalore. As usual tired and a bit of work at office. Went home and came back now to office to do attend blah blah blah?.

The past few days were good. As the year ends shortly need to re-cap the past and see if it was fruitful. Of course many things happened and many things didn't happen too :P but at the end what is it. Planning to write a blog entry on few of these by year end. Hopefully may get some time to write. 

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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

I know many of you have read this poem many times. Time for me now to tell you something about this.

Well today we missed few roads even after following proper signs. That’s the irony of Indian Roads. Only after you reach the end you will know that it closed or a wrong way and you still have directions pointing it :) and you end up in a road that is never taken. Trust me this is what happens on Bangalore – Mysore (Kanakapura Road) highway if you follow proper directions that you will come across. Spoiled my evening :( which I was expecting to be one of the best. That is when I thought of writing some comments about this poem which was on my mind for quite some time. I remember this from the books I have read in my childhood. Of course I don’t read any now. The Road Never Taken made this all :)

This poem didn’t make any sense when I first read it, as a kid. In fact I felt the author might be mad to write such a poem and of course the publisher too to publish it. It was like, what his problem; he can take the 2 different roads on 2 different days and still try both of them. For this he has to write a poem and people read it. And that was the understanding when I was a kid. Don’t laugh; I am sure yours will also be the same.

Now after passing considerable time in my life, I know what it means. You can never take two ways. Always a choice when you have to decide having multiple options. And life has too many choices for everything. Once you chose something, there is no coming back. That’s what ruined my evening too a wrong choice of road. The end of 3rd stanza and the 4th stanza says it all.

What is that one is going to do when it is realized that the way taken was wrong. There is no going back. Stick with it for the life time? Feel bad for opting a wrong choice which took where you are now? Feel good for what you have now? Regret for doing that? Accept that a mistake that cannot be corrected is done? Justify your choice, expecting the other road might have been worse? Ignore the choice taken, the past and focus on the remaining part?

After all this now you have two roads again. Which one to take? :).

So you end up with more confusion considering the past choices and their effects and trying to decide now on what we think the learning from the personal experience.

Ok now can you be sure it is the right choice and “I doubted if I should ever come back”.

The more you live the more you get experience the choices get more and more complicated.

This is what Life is all about. Making your choices right where you don’t have a second chance.

The paths are totally different and so are the things that come along, the people, the places, the joys, the sorrows.

“I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Frost never expressed that the road he took is a better one or worse. All it says is a sigh :), which can be expressed both when one is happy and sad too and also he just says that it is a difference made not making it clear it is a positive or negative.

So there is something tricky about this poem which Frost left it for breaking your heads now :). Now find the sigh and the difference. I am still doing. Join me…? LOL

Need to catch up some sleep before I go to work tomorrow...

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A Designer at HIS Best

Last week on one of sleepless nights not knowing what to do stepped out into my balcony. It has been raining for the past 2 days and it rained that day evening too. I think it was quarter past two when I went out. I actually thought of seeing what the neighbourhood will be like during that time of the night. As I stepped out what I saw was a view that cannot be expressed in any way.  It is just the clouds passing by, not very big but they are travelling very fast. May be in a minute or two you can loose track if you follow them. Added to this the cold night with chilly wind in the light of the moon … well what else to explain..?  Just wondering about the beautiful sight that no painter on earth will ever be able to produce; what can one think of other than the one who made it possible?

The running clouds which carry the rain, why do their speeds vary? There are days where you can still see the same could for hours together and now they disappear in few seconds. Who directs them? And my thoughts went on to whole universe which have everything in place of which these clouds are a part. Everything in the solar system just goes on with ones own systems in place working perfectly each day even after these many thousands of years.

And now coming to the title: Ever wondered what it took to build a system like this which didn’t fail for these many years, is never going to fail and is still in control of the one who created it? We too humans build so many things every day, plan many things, take the small things into consideration, with all the knowledge we have and is in the scope of it, how many of them succeed? It is only Him who can design it so well, flaw less, considering every thing of it from beauty to the functional aspect.

Thinking of all this and comparing myself to this big unimaginable system of which I am part of, how small is me. My eyes are filled with tears as I remembered that He cares for me in all this and He thinks of me and remembers me too in this big whole world where some one close may not do. All I could do is just bow down to the PERFECTIONIST for what He had been, what He is and what he will be.

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