Life’s turned a full circle in kanakapura Sangama!!!

Some 4 years ago, had been to Sangama in kanakapura, Chunchi falls with a party of SBM employees and their families.

I wonder if life has completed a full circle since then. There I was thinking what I’d do after my final year of graduation and now I am thinking of what to do, to break the mundane routine that I am in.

Anyways, on the occasion of ‘Gandhi Jayanthi’ or probably just an other occasion when we wanted to hit out of Bangalore, around 10 guys in 2 cars decided to head towards Sangama which basically is a confluence of two rivers – Arkavathi and Kaveri(Cauvery) and further to Mekedaatu(5 kms from Sangama).

This place has always given me memories of losses. Be it personal or materialistic…

If at all, he had not ventured into the water, if at all he wasn’t so adventurous. But I know … ifs and buts’ do not count in real life. It can happen only in flashback. A lively fun-loving guy is what I vividly remember Vinay Sreedhar as. He was my PU classmate and a good volleyball player. But now when I think about him, and the place which took him away from us, I can only say… “Who is bigger than nature”? Alas, if he’d only understood this!!!

Materialistic loss, well it’s nothing comparable to this grave loss of life. But since I am talking about losses here I rather include this one too. I lost a wallet here, right in front of my eyes, when my over enthusiasm got better of my senses that made me think my cousin was a good catcher. Don’t know if my throw was bad or it was she who dropped the wallet into the flowing water. Like a fish that doesn’t leave a trail, there was not a clue left behind. I could only stare at the gushing water helplessly.

This was all last time. This time around I started the trip thinking, four years would have brought in lots of changes in me regarding my outlook towards life. I had sort of forgotten the sense of loss of this place had given me. We embarked on our journey with gaiety and excitement reached the place and had fun. We went to mekedaatu after going around Sangama. Everything completed and we started to leave, when I realized the loss syndrome that had hit me again. I found my favorite sunglasses missing, as usual the sense of dejavu haunting me now. Anyways, like some people have happy hunting grounds I have some sad losing grounds of which this is one.

Signin off by dedicating this passage to my deceased friends Vinay Sreedhar(in the pic) and Arvind. Hope their souls rest in peace.

~Sanj

Life's Caricature !!!

Recently I was faced with a situation that many if you might have come across. Yea... the usual childhood crushes and romances... thing.

We have all had infatuations, crushes some which get turned into full blooded romances and some that don't. I passed this phase too, with my attempts largely falling under the later part.

I am a great believer that everything happens for a cause, was evident when i found the caricature artist convey this message to me with my caricature.

And the next day I hear one after the other, that all of them thus involved in my life, have got or are getting married. Thinking about it now, when i have remained away from the crush syndrome for a while now, I can only laugh heartily and wish them all the luck for their big step. As for me I think on.... "for sure this ain't happenin for me"!!!

~Sanju

Life's such a master!!!

What can be more heartbreaking then to find all your well laid(made) plans destroyed by new unwelcome developments.

Today i am realizing the true meaning of "Man proposes God disposes". No! I haven't lost anything nor have i failed in something. These are repurcussions that I am seeing out of the situation i am in. Am i thinking too much ahead??? Am i reading too much into the script???

I am starting to realize that doing this will only lead to unwanted tensions and unknown pressures. Here's what i plan to do. Leave the situation as it is and wait for the right time to understand more.

Live for the day... think tomorrow.
How I hope that this philosophy is correct.....

"Grenoble to Bangalore - April 10, 2006"

What a day it was!!! A day that put me in the reckoning is what I can write in the hindsight. It does not happen every day that you wake up knowing what’s in store for you and still have a tinge of anxiety, excitement as you wait for it to happen.

It was on last Thursday that I had absolutely no mood to work nor could I gather enough concentration to finish off the work at hand. My situation was so comparable to the typical Bangalore weather that it suddenly rains when the mercury crosses a threshold temperature limit. So much work in the past month or so that my saturation levels had gotten down to its all time low.

My Thursday blues being answered suddenly, when I got a mail from Anne-Caroline, program manager from EMEA, mentioning about the present that she wished to ship to me celebrating the completion of the phase2 of Electronic communication infrastructure setup in SUM (eCISS). Was really grateful for her mail and I thanked her. Also we communicated on Friday as to how she would send it to me from Grenoble, France. Thanks to Soumya, who was fortunately traveling back to Bangalore from Grenoble after her month long onsite stint and readily agreed to bring along the parcel that Anne would give her.

Come weekend, forgot about this and played leather ball cricket after almost 5yrs. Good old memories of hitting helmets with red cherry coming back to me. Of course, altogether different question that I had become a Prasad now from a Srinath, bowling just line and length rather than make the batsmen smell cherry. Feel just great to play good old cricket again rather than just being glued to watching cricket on TV. A good long evening spent with old classmates with a bottle of port wine that I got from Goa on the same day made my saturday complete.

Sunday, yea you guessed it rite!!! My limbs had started creaking up and making noises as if every bone were to break with every step of mine, giving me the memories of those gym days. But pain is enjoyable and especially when it is out of sports after a long time. I hope it doesn’t remain for too long though.

Back to Monday, April the 10th. I eagerly wait for my mailbox to open up and I see nothing special again, but I remind myself of that special parcel from France. I speak to Soumya and fix up 5PM as the time that I would visit her in her office and would pick up the parcel.

Come 4.45 we finished celebrating Vaibhav’s birthday celebration and then I made my headway towards Al-Kareem, Sowmya’s office with Vinay, my partner in crime. Soumya came down from the stairs holding the parcel which looked pretty long.

Took it to my hand, thanked her and took her leave. Feels the world is such a small place, Grenoble and Bangalore. Rather I guess it’s the people in the world who make it small and livable.

Oops sorry, moving away from the topic.

My parcel, it’s a 1982 Chateau Pomone, one of the great French red wines. Almost 25 yrs old, quite an irony that the wine is elder than me. Vinay already making plans of when the bottle is to be opened. Anyways Vinay and his dumb plans… Never mind.

Here’s the masterpiece.The photo of the bottle , not the one with it's owner. Thanks Anne.

Rode back to office and showed it to my teammates with the note that thanked me for my contribution in the project. Hesitantly show it to my manager, who at first thought, that it was something that I was giving him.

Anyways, on seeing the note, he immediately took me to a conference room called his colleagues and highlighted my achievement. It feels just great to see your work being recognized and your colleagues applaud you for the same.

Phew!!! What a day! Friends, never avoid feeling blue, if you are. Never know luck might just be waiting to smile upon.