All about life

So, what would I do...in two extra hours

This is my first book review on this blog, though I have been wanting to do this for some time.

Fate, Fraud and a Friday Wedding written by Bhavna Rai (who is an ex-Adobean) was a book which captured my undivided attention after a long time.
I love reading books and have been reading fiction since fourth standard. I started with Enid Blytons and reached Sidney Sheldons and Jeffery Archers. Since ever, I have followed the rule to not put down an unfinished book. However bore it may be I always make it a point to complete it if I have started it. So, the very first criterion, which I use to rate a book is did I have to finish the book because of my rule or was the book interesting enough to keep me glued to it. Fate, Fraud and a Friday Wedding faired excellently well on this judgement criterion. I had to make no effort to complete the book.

Kudos to Bhavna Rai (author) for breaking the trend and not being another Chetan Bhagat inspired author. I seriously feel that almost everybody is fed up of reading college life descriptor, grammar less novels by newbie authors trying their hand at writing just because Chetan Bhagat struck gold.

The novel starts off with multiple stories mushrooming in different parts of the world in varied scenarios and settings. As we move on in the novel, these stories subtly start crossing paths with each other and in the end unravel into a single story. It is indeed commendable the way this novel has been able to maintain the flow of each of these individual stories and then seamlessly transition them into each other.

The storyline has a backdrop of the Indian IT & ITes industry and gives some great insights into its working. Every IT professional would surely find instances in the novel to which he may relate to easily. Much of the story takes place in Delhi and the easy dropping of names of Delhi joints (which only a true Delhihite would be aware of) makes the novel more realistic. It is interesting the way the novel's characters have been handpicked to depict real people and not just the type of people you would read about in books. The novel very beautifully gives you a view into the thought processes, states of mind of people trying to solve the unending tangle of career, passions, love and life changing events.

My 2 cents

 I would rate the book as an excellent and a refreshing read. The only slight issue about this book which caught my eye was the book's lack of visibility in the market. There needs to be a stronger marketing and promotion campaign for such a great product. :)

Well after an hour long drive throughout which my mind was just filled with nostalgic thoughts, I reached college. Yes, there it was. The building stood tall and strong with open doors and a long pathway which led to the main building. Everything was same and I could almost feel each and every atom of that place shouting out to me and saying that it recognize me the same way I recognize them. I walked down the same path which I had walked down infinite times before, avoiding the big tree in the middle of the path which was still there, stealing a glance towards the student's store to see if any friends were standing there, walking further ahead I came in view of the most cherished and also the most visited place during the college days - Coffee Corner. This was the place, I believe, I had never missed even on a single day during college, irrespective of the fact that I attended classes or not. I came to the turn which led to the Coffee Corner and the same dilemma crossed my mind, which had zipped through my mind about a zillion times before - To take the turn towards the Coffee Corner or not and continue ahead towards the classes. My heart took the same decision which it had taken a zillion times before - A quick coffee is only gonna give me better concentration in the classes (my mind reasoned) ;) .
As I now walked towards the Coffee Corner, my mind actually conjured up the faces of all my friends right there. Oh yes, I could now clearly see all of them. Some of them were sitting on those black plastic chairs and red tables, bags hanging by the side, a cup of coffee in one hand and frenziedly copying away lab notebooks at the last minute with not even a remote idea of what was written. I could hear the plans of a movie going on in between the bites of paneer patties and knew that my plans to attend the day's classes were now over. Oh, did I just hear the sound of an Activa stopping right outside the Coffee Corner. I looked out and yes rest of my gang was there.
Before I could wave to them, I heard a very familiar voice and somehow I felt that though close this was coming from a distant time altogether. I shook myself back from my fantasy land and came back to the present life. The voice belonged to none other than, but Raju Bhaiya of Coffee Corner. Yes he had too recognized me and I soon realized that he was not a face conjured up by my mind but he was there for real. He was quick to update me on the latest news he had about my batchmates. I treated my cousins (who had accompanied me on this enchanting trip) with the same cold coffee and patties which had been life saviours from the horrible hostel food. I took my coffee and went and stood at my favorite place on the steps of Coffee Corner from where one could see the entire college (well at least the entire boys hostel :) ) and stealingly wiped out the single tear which had found a way to escape my otherwise tightly shut eyes and had trickled down my face.

Though only for a few moments I had relived my cherished memories.

This post was triggered off by an interesting conversation started by Chetan Bhagat on twitter (Yes I am on twitter @Pooja_Gupta). He asked all his followers to tweet about their first crush. No doubt, an interesting parady of tweets followed this.

Well, this lead me to think of mine. Though, it might sound crazy, but I had my first crush (and yes it still exists) in III standard. My father brought him home one fine evening and introduced him to all of us. I stood behind my mother gazing at him dreamily, completely awestruck by his simple looks yet immense power. Then I heard the magical words from my father's mouth that he was here to stay with us forever. Yes! he was our new family member. He spoke english, but not our kind. My father said that he had a different set of rules for english. My father told us that he will teach us how to talk to our new family member and that I can spend 15 minutes every evening after school with him under my father's supervision.

I welcomed our new family member with an open heart. He was none other than our FIRST COMPUTER.

Every evening, I would rush to meet my computer. I loved to watch him startup (or as I later learned 'bootup'). The sequence followed during booting became a permanent imprint in my mind. I knew the exact statements which flashed on the screen (though I had no idea of their actual meaning), the sequence of lights ON and OFF on each of its parts - CPU, monitor and keyboard (I later learned that this is known as POST : Power On Self Test). My father taught me how to play Pacman and my fingers started moving deftly on the keyboard.

Few months later, I joined standard IV and guess what, a new subject was added to our curriculum - Computers. I guess I was the only student happy with the addition of a new subject and also a member of the handful of students wo had met Mr.Computer before. Computer course at school started off with an introduction to computer, its evolution, its different parts and finally moved onto the simplest of computer languages - LOGO. I was fascinated by the small turtle moving steadily on the screen and that too on my instructions! Even the simplest task of drawing a square on the computer screen,now seemed the most important and meaningful task to me. I would go back home and replicate all the tasks on my home computer too. Writing FD, BK commands of LOGO became the top highlights of my day. Needless to say, I scored highest in my computer exams at school. My favourite question would be the booting procedure and I would happily describe it the way it was imprinted in my mind.

Today, as I sit in front of yet another computer and write this blog post, I thank ny first crush for all the decisions which it had made simpler for me: Be it selecting my subjects in XI standard, engineering branch, industry in which I want to work and many more.

Wow! That's an amazing question.A question which probably instead of asking others, we should ask ourselves. So, let's rephrase the question - "Do I love my job?"

Well, I can proudly and confidently say Yes. But maybe for me this question does not count as I have entered my job only 3 months back. Anyways, let's come back to our original theme - do we love our jobs and how important is this question for us.

Whoops!! That's a huge amount of time. So can we or should we really be in a job which we don't love. I am sure that all of us agree that we cannot spend 50% or more time of our life doing something which we don't like.

Now, this discussion gives us a nice foundation to start off a new related topic - Selection criterion for a job. This si highly relevant for all students sitting for campus placements.

Everyone have different selection criteria while selecting a job. I had a simple selection criterion which helped me get a job I love. This was a simple question, which I asked myself when the placement season started. This was - What is the work which I would enjoy the most, I am ready to do continously at stretch and would still not get tired, I am well equipped to do and most importantly I would be proud to tell about it to everyone I meet. I would ask this question to myself everytime a company came to campus for placement and base my decision to apply for it or not based on my answer.

No doubt, being this selective for a job (that too in this bad time of recession) was a huge risk. I had to face some sarcasm too. But, I was ready to wait for my dream job.

First and foremost, you lead a happy life. You are content and happy the time you spend at your workplace and you surely parcel this happiness to your personal life too. Secondly and most importantly you perform your work in a much better manner.

So, though pay packages may seem very attractive, you may find everyone getting beautiful jobs, but it always pays the best to wait for your dream job!!!!

I have this funny habit of thinking about the most abstract things in the midst of my daily routine. Now these thoughts are not limited to my idle time, but enter my mind (and that too at dashing speed) just about anytime and anywhere. And the reason they are problematic is that they refuse to leave me until and unless I have given them justified time and thought.

I was comfortably sitting in my cubicle at office answering a new mail which had just popped up in my inbox. When, suddenly this strange thought came to my mind and I was doing a critical analysis of goals and their importance. People often talk about the goals of their lives. Everyone has goals - both short term and long term. Now, the dilemma is that is it good to have goals or not. Goals give our actions a direction which is highly important, but at the same time limit our actions only in that direction.

Well, its finally a personal choice for everyone. Let me tell you all, how is it for me? I always have goals in my mind - but they are neither short term nor long term. They are just plain simple goals. Now, a question that comes to my mind is that why are these goals so important for me. Well, the only reason existent for me is that goals give me a sense of accomplishment when I achieve them and I am able to happily bask in the achievement's glory for some time. I love those sweet moments - the feeling of accomplishment is the greatest HIGH for me. :)

But just like any other high, even this is a temporary one. The hangover quickly dies. This is the time, when I feel the urge of a new accomplishment and thus the birth of another goal in my mind. So, its a vicious cycle. Goal leads to accomplishment and accomlishment leads to newer goals.