Used to be good at this stuff. Now I find it hard to come up with those darn questions that otherwise pop up during an important meeting/work during the day. (Note to self: Stop believing Evernote will help).

• The question of God will one day tear my soul apart. A rational me says, nope, not possible. The irrational part of me bows my head in front of the endless photographs, statues of the Deities every day in the morning, or thanks them before closing my eyes for the day. Even sadder on my part is that the irrational side wins whenever there is a problem. Now that’s a real soul-searching moment. What is the reason of not following religious rituals, those defined processes that seemingly have a work-around for everything that’s not convenient? Is it just plain laziness? May be yearning to be free from those traditions? Or just plain lack of belief? Where do my reasons lie?
  

   

• Now, I know my soon-to-be spouse reads my blogs, diligently. Scary, right? Even more scary is that she doesn’t comment here, but she asks me about it on phone (for those who know about my long-distance situation). Or worse, in person. This is to her. And her like. Blogging sometimes, or most of the times, is an impulse do. When the blog is on the internet for everybody to see, the impulse may have already subsided. Few times, we don’t even remember why we wrote something. Asking us about it when that happens, only makes us make up things, which is bad. So next time, you hear me say.. ummm.. aaah… before I answer something, you probably are hearing made-up shit. Not always though. Does it mean she shouldn’t ask? Yes and no. If it were something that’s troubling me, I would probably be talking to her directly. Not through a blog. (Jon Stewart-esque hushed voice “Hopefully not”). But yeah, feel free to bring something up during our conversation, about abstract stuff. Do you face a similar situation? If yes, the following disclaimer should probably be on top of your site.
  

Disclaimer: Anything said or posted on the blog cannot and will not constitute a valid basis for an argument. This blog is off-limits in case of an emergency such as a fight or argument, both man-made or God-made. Any violation will be dealt with firm ignorance of the matter and in extreme cases, future access to blog may be severely restricted.

Also, using MS Word’s inbuilt blog post feature is a bad idea, especially when it says the information sent across internet can be viewed by others, including username and password. WHAT!!!

happy 2nd Anniversary!! Best wishes to my dearest W10KFS
may our journey last much longer..

Amid all the brilliant ideas, quips, observations and insights, it’s sad to see only the RANTs coming out here. But so be it.

Hurdles in life are acceptable. They serve a purpose. Some require adjustment of strategy, some mental toughness. But the worst ones are those that involve money. Let’s face it, the age-old saying of “money can’t buy everything” is no longer true. Well, except for a TRUE family, one can buy pretty much everything. Happiness included, if you know what happiness entails, that is.

It’s sad commentary on the materialistic world that does in fact run on money. Ok, wait, wasn’t this about tough times?

So, yes, tough times. I think some people are lucky. Some blessed. And some smart. And it walks exactly opposite into the other direction too. Some people are unlucky. Some just cursed. And some … just plain stupid. I do not know, nor do I want to categorize myself, but, from my experience what I can say is that we pass through all the phases, at some point in time. We travel through them all, and then one of them enchanting phases gets to us, and we stay put.

It doesn’t need just an “attitude” or “mental toughness” or “prayers” to get out of a troublesome period. It involves more than that. Timing, which in usual parlance is called “LUCK”, is quite critical too. The many ‘would’ve-been-millionairesbillionaires’ can attest to it.

So what’s the point of the post, you ask? Well, nothing actually. You probably have traveled through these times already and forgot about it, or you are yet to pass. And if it’s the latter, pray, Gandalf doesn’t guard the exit saying, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS“.

Image courtesy: Colourless World @ http://coloulessworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/anime-downloading-continues.html

		The Texas Roadtrip VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Fortunately, Ms.BonH had an interview scheduled on the next day, sparing us from the usual tension filled days we would have to otherwise endure if the said interview was scheduled for later. After dropping her off at the office, we three left for a drive to The Oasis on Lake Travis for lunch. Need I say anything after the photos from here?

This was followed by a quick visit to Mt.Bonnell, which has become a ritual of sort for our visits to Austin. This time of course, I was accompanying guests (FILs) so that went without any hiccups.

On the way out, we picked up Ms.BonH, and headed out to Houston, which we reached sometime late in the night (read 9.30pm) and checked into what would be one of the best places we checked in the whole trip, Courtyard by Marriott at the Medical Center Houston. Now, the whole reason am hyperlinking it here is to show my appreciation, partly to Priceline for giving us a mindboggling price of $40 for one night stay!! Disclaimer: I am not paid, neither is this post an advertisement for any of the places mentioned, I swear!! I wish it was but it’s not.

The big thing-to-do in Houston was the NASA Space Center, which was the 3rd in our list after the Water Wall and Galleria mall, followed by an unplanned stop at  Bombay Brasserie for some good Indian lunch buffer (point to note: first time ever sighting of INDIAN CHICKEN WINGS).

The post lunch session was spent at the space center, till evening when we started for Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah. It’s a bayside entertainment park with some costliest seafood restaurants I have seen in my life where I had chicken. Yes, you read it right. The cheapest menu item was in excess of $12, some reaching astronomical sums too. The fun part was the special carnival for Christmas by guess who? The Firefighters of Kemah!! And what a loud mess it was. People were horrified to find sirens heading to their location wondering which fire went unnoticed only to see waving firemen with their families and blazing sirens. Oh, did I mention a Santa Claus too??

I officially reached my day’s end. For the new semester starting tomorrow, I need to sign off. Hopefully, if you’re unlucky, I will be back to finish this.

Dedicated to my LOYAL followers: PV and others who accidentally read this place.

My marketing professor, in his first class, told us to do what is called as a “Five-year-audit”. Every five years, sit and write down on a piece of paper (or notepad.exe and make sure you do a backup of your hard disk, those damn things don’t last 5 years!) about where you are, what you’re doing, and how you’re feeling about it. Then, write down where you wanted to be, what you want to do and how you actually want to feel (divorce wife, leave kids at grampas, kill mom-in-law, etc., are not valid “feels”). And then, compare notes 5 years later to see where you fell behind, what you lacked, basically, audit your life of the past 5 years.

Sounds… do-able right? NO. These things work for a year, or 5. I doubt how many could really follow it up.. well, if you could, you would be my marketing prof too, but you aren’t, so there… NOT MANY PEOPLE CAN DO IT!

I try to do an inverse every year. Find stuff to complain, and then complain about how I find stuff to complain, and then complain about complaining how I find stuff to complain. OK. I’ll stop.

For the first time in many years, (read 5), I can say I am happy. YES, you read it right.

Plenty of reasons to be happy about. I can’t really put them in an order but the biggest bhoj (read weight) off my heart has been my status, as in the “status” you fill in when facebook or orkut asks you for it. Yes, I am now, NOT single. Wooohooo, yipppeeee, claps, taliyaaa, before I come across as a despo, let me tell you something. After a almost 5-yr (what’s the eff with 5 in my life!!), on-off-on-on-off-off relationship, I finally managed to move on. Not that I never thought I couldn’t move on, but I DID move on. See the difference??? Between thinking you can do something and doing something?

Gave up all romantic notions of finding the perfect girl (yes count me in you cynics of “dreamgirl” concept), settled down more on the compatibility factor and whether I can live/share/like/“love” somebody who might be as flawed and as perfect as me. Simply put, a human rather than an abstract thought.

Things calmed down. Took turn for the better. Landed an admit (I had to give up a job though) in an up-and-coming university (depends on whom you ask) for an MBA degree (yes an MS wasn’t enough for me), with a scholarship, assistantship in a place where I always wanted to work (again, always wanted) with a fee waiver that saved almost 2/3rd of my fees.

Things are good at home. Happy to be uncle to my adorable niece and nephew (warning: Niece can get on your nerves, but then, which kid doesn’t?). Studying better and harder (lol) than the last time, actually listening to classes and following them. Getting good grades. Great friends!

Things could definitely be better, like I could use some patience and more humbleness in my relationship, be a better person with friends, call people more often and maintain relationships, have the guts to actually put my birthday up on the socio-networks and not to disable my wall for the period of 12-14th November (yes I know, WEIRD).

Things can always be better.

Things can be better.

Things are better.

So, with enough cheesiness to make a C-Bomb that could blow up half of the world, Ladies & Gentlemen (if there are any here) let me conclude my 27th annual birthday speech.

Ugh! Annual = birthday = once a year, you dumbass!!!

This week looks boring… have to

• complete researching two topics related to cancer… BORING
• write a stats report for extra 20 pts which I need the most now… not so bad
• check with BLAW professor on why I wasn’t lucky this time around in the exam
• have to start up on the reading for the impending doom that is November 22-23 during which I have to face 3 exams

Perks of being a student:

• H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.S – aplenty of them
• Learn?

(That’s it???)

I miss:

• coming home to relax, and RELAX
• not having to study or prepare for the next day
• no E.X.A.Ms!!!!!
• no need to worry about grades
• and most importantly, EARNING more than I do now.. sigh

Can’t help fearing the 27!

Reason one: I got busy. This doesn’t stand well up to my own conscience. Since January 2009, when all I did after coming back from work was …. watch movies, spend time with friends (real ones), and laze around, having to say “no time to blog” sounds fake.

Reason two: The last-but-one of the blogging progress, the gratification was supplied in abundance by Facebook and Twitter. Twitter more so, since all it needed was just 140 characters. And I being one who never complained for lack of extra sheets during the faltu B.Tech exams, found 140 just about enough.

Reason three: The Audience. Alright, I agree. Audience does matter. Especially, when I try to get a conversation going on, and not just type shit up for myself alone. When the audience died and moved to heaven (read Twitter and Facebook again), I probably got up and left too.

So why this reincarnation again, you may ask. This might be umpteenth post on why I want to blog and why I have stuck to it, more than the promises I make to myself!!

<Insert Sups cliché> Blogging is therapeutic!

My own selfish reasons include trying to stick to a schedule, trying to do things I enjoy doing (other than lazing around) and most importantly, organize the vast amounts of opinionated shit lying wastefully in my brain, so that the freed space can then be used to accommodate something useful from those management classes, especially, yes, you MARKETING!!

Media is the invisible government, the invisible hand in our lives now…

I don’t want to be pessimistic… but looks like I can’t help it..

Ya right, now I can go without blogging for few more days.. thanks WordPress for making my life easier….