Smooth Transitions

For some reasons, transitions have been super smooth for me. Be it from School to Junior College, College to Engineering, Engineering to MS.

Somehow, the 'firsts' of everything have been near perfect. The start of something new. The time when people around you run with all the 'Goody-Goody' projection of themselves. In a couple of months, the make-up fades and you see the real faces.

The last hop of the transition till now has been 'The most interesting one'. Coming to US, everything is new. You are away from everything, the perfect set of friends you had back at home in India, your parents, your family everyone. In the first month of landing in US, you have a hundred different stories happening around you. The job search stories, house hunt stories, roommate trouble stories, rumors et al.

Basically you are loaded with too much stuff to keep it to yourself. You are on the lookout for new avenues to vent out these stories. Damn!!!You run into the wrong person and your story is a broadcast in the entire batch. Trust, who, what, when???

The 'Trust Building' period is amazing. Here, you are not too sure about the people who you can trust. At the same time, you are projecting yourself as a trustworthy person. It's tricky. If you reveal too much about yourself, you are more likely to land in trouble than adding a new friend to circle of trust. On the other hand, if you remain that person who holds on to their cards for long, you might remain holding on to them forever and watch other people play.

I use some really stupid but effective tricks for navigating around this maze. I use some really 'trivial information (hyped up, of course) which I absolutely do not care about' and tell the 'Target' person about it and ask him or her to not reveal it to anyone.If I come to know about it from someone else within a week, i know what to do!

The beginning is always interesting, you remember it at all the twists and turns. Now, when I am right there knocking at the exit door of MS, everything has pretty much stabilized. The glass is clear. I miss those times. I see the juniors revisiting these times and I really want to be one of them right. Or wait a second, do I?? When I get a job, it will be another set of beginnings that I'll look forward to.

Looking for yet another smooth transition.

Motorcyle diary

It was late at night and I was driving back home on my bike on the S.V. Road. The road was largely empty with cool breeze blowing. I love riding the bike at night, no signals, no traffic, good weather et al.

A guy was riding a Bajaj Discover alongside my bike and an empty truck with speed of around 60 kmph was behind us. I usually give way when high speed vehicles are behind, but at that time, I was in no mood to let someone overtake. Neither was the guy on the Discover.

I remember exactly what happened next. This guy looked into the mirror to see how fast the truck was approaching. While doing this, the front wheel of his bike got stuck in a pothole, he applied brakes; the back tyre did a little wheelie, while the truck was still approaching with fairly the same speed. I took my bike to the side of the road, turned to the mirror praying for the biker. He pulled his leg out from under the bike and took an incredible 5 feet long jump. Next moment, the bike was thrashed by the truck.

In 3 years of my driving, I’ve seen people die in accidents, people severely injured, badly crashed cars, lots of bikes skidding in the first rain, but I have never seen such a miraculous escape. This was the best real life stunt that I’ve ever come across. The description seems like one of Akshay Kumar’s movie scenes, except that it is highly predictable with Akshay in it. Our life is no movie. Trust me; you would never want to see such a thing in real life.

I stopped my bike; the truck driver had driven away without stopping, nobody was around. The biker lay on the footpath, absolutely numb, cold as a rock, not knowing how to react, wondering how he came out of all this. His body was shaking and couldn’t speak for couple of minutes, eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t believe that instead of being in a pool of blood, he was in a pool of petrol which came out of the broken tank of the bike.

2 very different types of people live in this world. One who cannot bear the troubles in their lives, succumb to them and commit suicide and the other kind, who are ready to put themselves through all kinds of trouble just to be alive.

Moments like these make you realize how precious life is.

Problems

Problems, everyone has them, but the way we approach them makes us different. It is good to be a spectator sometimes, listening to the problems of people around you and how they tackle them.

At times you are hearing about people who feel the pressure in handling the smallest of the problems. On the other hand, there are some who will never let the gravest of the problem tear them apart. You learn from both the type of people. One teaches you what not to do while handling a crisis, other one tells you how to face the crisis.

But, it’s not so easy always. Sometimes you see people stuck with a problem not handling it the right way. You feel had you been there yourself in that situation, you would have done things differently. But, one fine day, the same problem strikes you. You fare no better in handling it. Weird, but true!

I admire one of my friends when it comes to facing problems. He tells me, ‘Most of the things that we consider to be problems aren’t problems in the first place’. I feel he’s right. Problems are there for a reason. They make us who we are, how our lives shape up depends on how we handle them. If it is something that will shape our lives, then how is it a problem?

I’ve never seen this friend of mine succumb to any pressure from problems around, not cribbing about any of them. Not running away from them either, sometimes going from one defeat to another with no loss of enthusiasm. He was once consolidating someone who has just dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent saying things would be fine, whereas he himself had 60 percent marks in the exams. He was a person who would give in his best and then accept what the scoreboard says. This guy didn’t even get pissed off when his girlfriend of long time dumped him. He instead gave us a break-up party!

A week before the 12^th board exams, he fell of the staircase, fractured almost half his body, the left side, was bedridden and still appeared for the boards without a writer. His scores were affected badly, but he never cried about it. Maybe someday his scores will ruin his chances of getting admitted into a premier educational institute, agreed, still how is crying about the situation going to help? Making the most of what he could achieve was the thing he should’ve done and he did exactly the same.

Life is not a disaster when you are plagued with problems. Life is a disaster when you stop fighting the problems around you. Nobody could’ve known a certain Lance Armstrong if he didn’t have the fighting spirit.

These and a few other examples make me want to reflect on my own life. I’ve sometimes let problems dominate me, acted weirdly in situations, freaked out. But that won’t be a problem anymore. The world is full of people fighting millions of problems. I’ll face my share of problems, that too in a sporting way!

I owe a lot to you…..

This analysis has been going in mind for quite a long time, but today got the time to write it down. An analysis of what we give to the world versus what we get.

What the world has given me?

Frankly speaking, this list is vast beyond imagination. If we just take a look at daily life, we can count so many examples. This pc that I am using comes with a chip that contains a million little transistors on a square inch size chip. So many people have worked to make it possible. Understanding working of single transistor amplifier as been a big deal for me, so the amount of effort somebody has done to build the thing that I am working on seems tremendous.
The cellphone which I use, which transports voice and data, even when you are moving in a 100 kmph train. People who build network towers for this to be possible. The clothes that I wear. The farmer who cultivates vegetables for me. My mom who cooks food for me. The numerous eateries I have been to.

The building that I live in, so many have worked to build it. The little hands that made firecrackers so that you and me could enjoy them during festival time. Recently we went to the railway control room. It was incredible. We can travel safely on trains because these people are working for us day and night. The public transport that we use, has a system. All working for us.
The movies that we see, so many people have worked behind the scenes to entertain us. The good music that we listen is an outcome of effort of so many great musicians. The dramas and plays we see, people working so hard to deliver it to us.

The software that I used, some freak individuals have had sleepless night to develop them. The games that I play. The great institute that I go to study. The number of people teaching me in life.The list goes on. So much can be written here.
Let me see the other part.

What I have given to the world?

You may say most of the above things were services, and we pay for them. So we should not consider them as people who work for us. But my point is let us keep money point only as a thing for exchange which you get by the services you provide.

So back to the point. What have I given the world? Until now nothing. Maybe after some years, I’ll be a coder somewhere developing some software in an air-conditioned cabin at 18 degree centigrade. Helping my company. Or at the most an communication engineer who works for some mobile firm building communication circuits again benefiting a small amount of people.

The conclusion is that lot many people are working for me than I can ever in my life work for. This world gives you a lot more than you can ever pay back.This analysis has left me doing some thinking. When so much is offered to you by the people around you, its your duty to do something good for them too. So I have thought of the following things

1. Never complain that you have busy scheduling, difficult deadlines, strenuous targets to meet. No matter how hard you work, there’s someone working harder than you.
2. Help those children who have no-one to look after, who don’t get proper food, sufficient education and other basic amenities. Help people in the old age homes who have no one to care for them.
3. Not consider any job as small or big, coz every task is equally important. Be it that of a sweeper or software techie.
4. Help people wherever it is possible in whatever small way you can. Try to bring a smile on their face. Listen to their problems. People want someone who they can share sorrow with.
5. Make small compromises on personal gain so that it proves beneficiary to a lot more number of people.