Farewell

I am living in Australia from the last 18 months (6 months in Sydney and in Melbourne completed one year just yesterday). I worked at quite a few places from the last 3 years, but Melbourne is the best of all for so many reasons. Perfect work –life balance, excellent people, most happening place, always lively etc..……This is the place to be. Today is my last day in Melbourne, from the last three days attending farewell parties from colleagues, friends and from managers. Australia remains special place for me forever, spend my time with the friends I always wanted and I always feel proud about. They changed my life altogether and taught me so many new things in life. I miss them a lot, and I miss some of them forever but the days I spend with them remains in my heart forever.

One surprising exclusive farewell from my senior most manager, he is the perfectionist. He is living “tree change”, tree change is a popular life style in Australia who give up city life for trees. He and his wife living in a huge farm house far away from the city. He invited me to come over and spend a day in his farm house as a farewell remark. I was on ecstasy for this sudden surprise. Went to his place with my friend, he came to station and took us to his farm house. I was in assumption that his wife must be boring at home as house is very huge and she lives alone throughout the day but at the end of the day realized that she needs 48 hours a day. She breeds and sells Alpacas, as of now she is having 20 to 25 alpacas. Cost of one Alpaca can be up to tens of thousands of dollars. She gave introduction about Alpacas for few hours; another manager who is very close to me gave a surprise visit over there. Had an excellent lunch and then long walk with their dogs, introduction to their horses, tennis court visit, some time in their warehouse, walk around the farm house and then a good bye. Another memorable day of my life, no phones, no computers, no traffic, no sounds, just a peaceful and exciting day.

Leaving Australia with great farewell. May come back in future, at least a visit to this farm house with my wife and to meet these great people.

My Arranged Love story

Some where in May 2004, I was travelling in AP express train from Bhopal to Hyderabad. I was sitting in someone else seat as my reservation was not confirmed. A group of 5 to 6 girls were travelling next to me from bits pilani to Hyderabad. I saw one gorgeous girl in that group. Though I initiated discussion with those girls but unable to get attention of that beautiful girl, departed our ways as we reached destination soon. The girl was so beautiful that I remember her when ever I travel by train.

An year back i.e in 2008 I felt that I am confident enough to give a beautiful life to a girl. My parents send me many photos of the girls but unable to choose one as I always wanted to find my partner on my own if at all I marry.

For a girl born in Kadapa, her parents decided to find partner. The girl is beautiful and well educated, so lot of good alliances coming in her way from their near and dear. But she thought that matrimony sites is a good option in this busy life as she may have more time and freedom in knowing the person unlike arranged marriages. Though her parents are not very happy with her decision somehow she and her sister convinced and uploaded profile in internet. In a week time she got 100 replies from well qualified boys across the continent. Her sister was filtering all the profiles at first level.

When I saw this girl in net, I was surprised because with my vague memory I can correlate that she is the girl I saw 5 years back in the train. I mailed the train incident, the mail reached her sister. When her sister was filtering profiles thought that we both know each other as we travelled together and my profile was filtered and passed to her. My train incident helped to get attention now though I was unable to get attention when I saw her first time. She was impressed with my 5 years memory and replied to me.

I proposed her in my second day of interaction as I was in love with her in my first interaction itself. She didn’t have enough confidence on me with one or two interactions. I was running under very hectic work schedules at that time, used to work for 14 hours a day due to some critical issues in the project and after that long hours calls with her. For that one week I slept just 1 to 2 hours a day . In 10 days time she accepted me fully and started loving me more than I do.

Her parents forcing to see the boys photos which are coming in their way as they don’t know our love story. She struggled a lot to convince her parents to see me first. My manager kindly granted leave though project was under tight schedules, took my flight back to India immediately. Before I meet her, I was little bit apprehensive as she just saw me only in photos, I went to Bangalore with too much tiring journey, met her in a pizza hut, she accepted me even after seeing :-) . For me she was even more beautiful than my imagination. Still I was in tension as the last and important stage of getting acceptance from her parents and my parents is pending. With my parents I went to her house, her parents and relatives accepted me in no time after seeing and discussing with me. My parents too were proud of my selection.

Her name is Swapna Priya, the girl I loved and going to love her through out my life. In 20 days time every thing happened. Love, proposal, acceptance from her, travel to India, meeting her, acceptance from parents and engagement. Life was like a roller coaster in this one month, hardly slept. The life I lived in my 27 years is equal to the experience I gained in these few days.

In this one month decisive time lots of people supported and helped me. My roommate Pavan, my colleagues Sridhar , Surabhi , not to forget Swapna’s sister in selecting me out of all the profiles she received.


You never know why something happen in life and where that will impact.


Today friends with concern suggested me many things about married life and the challenges I am going to face in future. I think when there is true love and friendship ,wonderful and happy life follows.May be challenge lies in evloving that love and frienship , I am sure I will.



Relocating to India this weekend to settledown in Married life.

I AM BACK

After a short break, I am here again. I AM BACK .( Just recently I saw the movie TERMINATOR and my friend told me the popularity of the dialogue "I AM BACK").
So many wonderful changes in these few days, will be writing them from tomorrow onwards when ever time permits.
PS:By default blog photos is linked to picasa , to have more space in blogging delete some photos in picasa.,

Day34-FALSE PRESTIGE, FALSE CLOSENESS

RAN OUT OF BLOG SPACE, UNABLE TO POST.

Day33- DRIVING DAY

Today when I was learning driving, my tutor Emran took me to some place and he was teaching me reverse parking. We stopped car in a residential area, came out of the car and he was explaining me something. One person from the near by house came out and shouting on us. I think that’s the place where all the learners practice driving and everyone seems to be disturbing that fellow's Sunday morning. That person was fully drunk and abused us like anything for few minutes, Emran also reverted in his own style. Situation seems to be going out of hands and we went away from that place. After a long time I am seeing this kind of fight which I used to see frequently in my village, either that fellow should have been little polite with us or we should have apologized at the beginning itself. Emran point seems to be correct, we are learning on the road and this is the place where we are supposed to learn according to government rules, if some one have some problem either they have to complain to the council or they have to request people like us. That person also correct, how many requests he has to make everyday. Only problem there was DRINKS. If he was not drunk, he should not have been so harsh with us. Mr God, take away drinks from this world if you can which is of no use to any one :-).

That incident disturbed Emran mood. All the driving time we were discussing about that person, Emran was telling that "You can not expect everyone to be nice in this world", then I told him that " don't expect even a single person to be nice , thats why I my mood didn't get distrubed ".... problem here is with the expectations, should be ready for the face worse situations always life, single sorry could have resolved that issue, so many fights we can avoid with a single sorry. It doesn't mean that we have to tolerate everything, even a single word with drunker is of no use.

I woke up early morning at 4:00 AM as decided, exercise, music and study till 6.00 AM. Wasted time after that, have to plan everyday even more better. Evening jogging again, then most boring job- ironing. I have to find interest in this ironing, as there is no way to escape ironing as long as I live, so better to love it.

Watched some reality show in TV and then about to sleep.

Photo taken while I was jogging at riverside.

Good night.

Day32- FAILURE

Yesterday night I was having goal to wake up today early morning at 4.30 AM, but I didn't meet my goal. No excuses, accepted my failure with my roommate. My definition of failure is not having control on myself. General failures may not look like a failure for me, as long as I have control on myself I can lead failure to another success but no excuses for these kind of failures. I will try today again, will sleep today at 1.30 AM, and I am setting goal to wake up at 4.00 AM, if I don't wake up tomorrow morning, then I will stop dreaming about many things which I want to achieve, (I told to my roommate that if I don't wake up tomorrow I will hang myself, my roommate is going to arrange wire for hanging, he suggested me to hang far away from the room so that he will be safe :-), at least to live some more time I have to wakeup tomorrow...... I don't deserve to dream if I don't have determination. Generally I don't need alarm to wakeup early morning, even with alarm I failed yesterday, I don't know what happened alarm didn't ring.God is taking revenge on me by taking away my determination:-)......

Valentines day, full hungama in this beautiful Melbourne city. I am the one among very few who is going alone on the streets. Went to Indian restaurant for lunch, my colleague was also there in the restaurant celebrating his wife's birthday. Great coincidence for him, every Valentines Day he is having two reasons to celebrate. Enjoyed buffet lunch with him and then headed to office. Finished some work and then came back to room.

Spoke to my mother for long hours, most of the times too friendly conversation with my mom. All poojas completed for the well being of my brother, when my farther tried to do same pooja's for me also, priest didn't agree as we don't know my time of birth. Pity Anil, god won't favor now :-)..One of my relative stopped going to college, his father also doing pooja's so that his son will start going to college again. Every pooja costs thousands of rupess, good business for the preists.

Prepared and had dinner at home. Through out the day my subconscious mind reminding my today's failure, only tomorrow I can take this guilty feeling away if I wake up. One more hour to sleep, will experiment with Microsoft excel for an hour.

Good night.

Day31-QURAN

Five of my batch mates are getting married in the next one week. Wished all of them , had long call with few of them, these people marriages reminding me to get married, but I am still young :-) , I may not be sweet sixteen, I am not even too old, just 27,told to myself, little bit happy now, have to force my mother to search a girl for me. ..No no nooo its even dangerous my mother will be ready in the next one hour if I say yes for marriage, better to wait till I find a girl ....

Friday joyful mood as usual in office. Went for a shopping at lunch time with my manager, he asked me to join for shopping as he wants to buy birthday gift for his son. Bought logitech computer speakers. After that went to chocolate shop, then salad lunch with him.

Another surprise today, one of my colleague Shaik became good friend in recent days. He is leaving to India today , he called me to his cabin and presented me a gift. Shaik is a true believer in god and I am an athiest, he gifted me something which he feels as his life "QURAN". A muslim gifted QURAN to hindu friend, wav what a great thought. This is the best gift I received so far in my life. He spend lot of money in buying this book. To my heart ,I never attributed any religion or cast ,neither I will do in future. The intention behind this gift is giving me something from which I can learn some more great things. I will read this QURAN till the end for sure. I read bible earlier, now bhagavadgita , next QURAN. When I told to my roommate about Shaik's gift, he also told that "that’s the best gift.."..yes this is truly best from a pure person like Shaik to a stupid like me. I am deeply moved by his idea and intention. Shaik helped me to share his accommodation when I don't have one for me in recent days , he saved few hundreds of dollars for me, when I offered him some gift as thanks giving he didn't accept. Hope I will get a chance again in life to payback his affection.

I was abusing one person in front of my roommate, my roommate told me that "I don't listen to your words Anil, you will change your words very soon, so I don't listen ".....good laugh for me...I am happy that he understood me to some extent. As part of my daily self analysis if I found something wrong with me then I will change myself, when I change myself then what ever I abused earlier may not be valid. I change myself so frequently for valid reasons. Any of the negative comments I pass valid just for 10 minutes, but any positive comments are valid for ever. If I have some positive impression on anyone that will be there forever, but bad impression may change very soon , that could be change in me or change in opposite person. After all "CHANGE" is the only constant thing in human life......So next time if I ever abuse anyone that is valid only for that moment.

I have one goal for tomorrow, now the time is 1.30AM, I want to get up at 4:30 AM and go for jogging. My roommate already told me not to make even a little noise if I wake up at 4.30 J... .. I have to achieve my goal tomorrow.

Good night.

Day30- Getting sleep

From the last 15 days no internet in my room, all these days everyday midnight I am writing my blog and next day early morning publishing. Today I got internet but most of today's night time used to setup internet connection, so no time left for my blogging.Its 1:00 AM now , getting sleep.

Good night.

Day29- SMART WORK

Today I heard many times the word smart work or may be this is what I am doing. Different people gave different generalized definitions for smart work. Few years back one of my colleague told that "Before you start working on anything, rise your hand and ask if any one has done that work, most of the things you are supposed to do may be already implemented by others, so don't waste your time and energy for something which is already implemented."...another friend told that "smart work is perfect planning, execution, smart work needs hard work as well ......" .In a telugu movie BOYS ,one beggar owns a full book of information of where about of free food and clothes for the full year. In my view that beggar is the best smart worker. One of my colleague recently told me that "Anil I heard that you are a smart worker", then immediately I asked her to define smart work, she replied that "Who complete his work with less supervision from others and less than expected time".....Me being a copy cat from all the places I don't deserve good comments. Everything I do taught by others or copied from internet or begged from colleagues or copied from documentation or copied by observing others etc.......everything is copy, I just copied and placed everything in my brain...may be any hard disk can store that much information........ when ever some challenge comes, I am retrieving the information I copied and executing successfully according to situation, this is not just related to work but dealing with people as well. If I am unable to execute successfully or unable to deal with people then its my failure because I failed to execute which I copied, if I do in a better way then its all because of the knowledge I copied from all different places.

I have several definitions for smart work, The best of my definitions is reading opposite person mind. Smart work is between you and the opposite person or set of people with whom you are dealing with. Every person is different in this world , so is smart work. Owning a barber shop next to lord venakteswara temple is meaningless, you have to read the set of people who visit tirupati. Each and every second in life needs smart work. Smart work is positive behaviour which help to excel in life.
Few smart works according to me are placing myself in most challenging environment so that I have to use my brain more frequently, keeping myself away from the people who pretend to be intelligent , never ever take credit for others work and never hesitate to praise good work even if it is done by your enemy, share everything I know so that I have to learn again to share next time, analysing myself so that my tomorrow will be better than today, lead simple life so that no recession will effect in any way, time and expectations management gives lot of flexibility in life, inspire and get inspiration from surrounding people,.......so on...

One of the smart work I feel like sharing now
I was attending my first campus interview, cleared written test and about to attend interview. Me and my classmate Deepthi Sharma from Delhi were the two out of my class who cleared written test, so we both were waiting for interview. She is beautiful, intelligent and having excellent communication skills. I was pretty sure that she will get job. I already challenged to my classmates longback that I will be the first person who will get the job. I told to the same to Deepthi also before the interview. In campus interviews most of the questions are related to attitude and aptitude. Two person were interviewing me, few strategies or smart works I followed are any of my answer should not lead to second question, I should observe the interviewer and answer according to their interests. Two persons came to the interview room, one person came and cleaned his chair,table etc.. another person carrying a C++ book in his hand. So I decided to answer such that cleaning and c++ should emphasize and I should not get caught in this process. When they ask me about my hobbies, I told them that keeping my house, class bench and surroundings clean and neat was one of my hobby , where ever I get chance I stressed my cleaning habits hobby.
During technical interview they gave me an option to choose my favourite technical subject, I told them that " I was very much interested in C++, though I don't have any C++ practicals I learned it on my own" I told this to keep less expectation.Its not syaing something, you have to guess and be ready the consequences also. My village back ground also helped me a lot. Countless smart works in that 2 hours interview . My interview was over, they gave me pencil to write some code while I was attending the interview, I came out without giving that pencil back. I thought that they won't excuse me as they may think that I don't know right attitude, so I ran back and returned the pencil, while returning pencil one among the two told me " this pencil won't stop in selecting you"…….....result of my 18 years struggle for good living .........The girl who was with me also got the job. Yesterday I received a mail from Mrs Sharma, revisited old memories.

Day28-SELF ANALYSIS

After dinner with my friend, we were in some discussion about a common friend and self analysis, I requested him to put his thoughts in words , his short note on self analysis is as below.
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A nice evening.. a tasty dinner.. cool breeze.. a trustworty friend next to me.. it's like next to heaven.
A casual discussion turned into a thoughtful discussion about Self Analysis.
Why is it so important anybody? I guess not many realise this.
It's all about looking back and evaluating what you did today was right or wrong? Is there anything that you could have done better?
Nothing wrong if you find any mistakes.. you can still work on it, fix it and improvise on it next time.
I guess, it's a process that would evolve over time with practice. That's the way to climb up the stairs of life towards making a better person.
I have come across many people in life who are very self centred. They don't have any consideration or demonstrate any concern for people around them.
It could be at work place or at home. Unknowingly they carry and spread negative energy around them.
They just end up being unhappy and keeping other unhappy.
What causes such behaviour? It's hard to say.
Is it the immediate environment around us, or the insecure feeling in the job.. family.. or society.. or a very strong hunger for growth/achivement/success/money.. What causes this?
What ever it is.. I am sure it's very materielistic in nature and not worth.
How I wish one could take things little easy.. appreciate little things around.. appreciate the good work of a colleague.. recognise the unconditional support of the family.. and thank God for waking up healthy and alive next day. Peace and Love increases with sharing. Feeling of hatredness in the heart causes more harm to onself than anybody else.
It's so true that we have time for a coffee, for many TV shows, for lunch, for drinks, for a long sleep.. but not for a bit of self analysis which could turn our life.
I am sure we could make our life and our world more beautiful and comfortable place with a bit of self analysis everyday.
Think about it.. doesn't matter if you appreciate my thoughts or not.
I am sure you will get into a mode of self analysis soon after reading this.
Cheers,
Pavan

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Even today in offce lot of discussions about god, many people actively prticipated in discussion.The word GOD provided lot of entertainment in the last three days.
Shifted luggage again to another room. Changed four places in 10 days, new place to live, new environment, new people, new... new.... new ....etc........word new is good always. For most of the material things as they grow old we may loose interest so we would like to have new but only in relation we gain interest with time unknowingly....

Good night...

Day27-ATHEIST or AGNOSTIC?

Today evening I told to my roommate that, "I got stuck up at first page of BHAGAVADGITA , can you help me to proceed further". My roomate and me had lot of discussions about so many things in the last one month, he might be having some opinion about me. After listening to my question of "why Lord Krishna killed his own army indirectly", he replied that "Anil, I have answer to your question but I am a post graduate, my talks won't help to a 3rd class student"...I laughed like anything.......thanks, atleast he considered you as a third class student. He is true believer of god. I saw so many people who pray to god for their benefits or for their relatives benefits or for society benefits etc..... he believes in god to be honest by following god's sayings. He submitted himself to the god fully..... He asked me that " Anil ,do hard work and try to know the answer to yourself, I won't answer to your question".....I begged him many times, finally I told that "we seek lot of help from many people daily as part of our work, will you agreee if someone answer the same way you did?"...... then he accepted to discuss with me......He told that " Anil as far as I know, you seems to be an athiest, you don't agree existence of god, first believe the existence of god for that do your own hardwork, then yourself will know answer to all your questions, no need to know from me"............lots of unrelated discussions, as part of conversation he told that " the starting point of everyone's birth including yourself is the filthiest thing, everyone produces so much of dirty things only a minute part of that will give birth, rest everything goes to drainage, lots of people dying in the drainage even before birth"........ I was agitated.......what the hell he was telling....but its true...........at the end he told that god is reason for all these thing, which is hard to digest....

As far as I am concerened, I take my mother to temples always but I never pray to god, I attend funtions related to god but thats for enjoying the environment, I try for an answer to god's existence and his too much selfish acts, lot of time money and lives wasted in the virtual word god, I read bible bhagavadgita and khuran just for learning good out of it if anything is there, I have the courage to question god if I can see him, I throw few things on god to escape from situation, if all these are characterstics of atheist then I am an ATHEIST. Finally my roommate suggested me to read the life story of VIVEKANANDA .... I may read it........

Morning my manager mailed that bush fire effected his area , no power in his house from the last two days and he will be back to office only after everything becomes normal. I send a mail with concern.

Today is another purposeful day with lots of learning both professional and personal front. Work wise I learned few things today as I am some what free relatively. I had lunch with my colleague who is from Chennai, he is diehard fan of RAJANI, he was about to beat me for commenting his demi god. When I asked him ,what he will do when Rajani dies he told that " I will cry , will go the place where ever his body is there, pay homage to only superstar of the world and then our fance association will make sure that all the TV channels in tamilnadu broadcast only Rajani movies for next one month atleast"...... true DIEHARD fan...too much fun at lunch time.....Came to hotel after having long chat with another friend from 5PM to 7PM in a restaurant.... I was thinking that the friend I met doesn't have any problems in life which is other otherwise true.....came home, had dinner and a call to friend.....blogging ...some more study related to finace domain....and then a welll deserved sleep......

Photo of the day: Farewll to one colleague Bernie who is in the middle, rest of them in the photos are managers and testers. Second person from left is Sean Munley whose area effected bcoz of bush fire and he is the man who can create jobs for the people like me at any time.......

Day26-BHAGAVADGITA

Someone recently gave me BHAGAVAD-GITA, I started reading...in the first page itself lots of doubts.......Lord Krsihna claims himself as Supreme Personality of Godhead. When the war is about to start between PANDAVAS and KAURAVAS, Krishna is on PANDAVAS side and he gave all his army to KAURAVAS, he is indirectly killing his own army who served him for many years......what a cruel god.....Supreme god Krishnaaaaaaaa please comedown and explain me the moral values behind scarifying your army....at least explain in my dream Krishna ,I want to continue your Bhagavadgita.
Most of the first half of the day spend on driving.. made small mistakes while driving, have to practise more... one of my manager said he will teach me driving next week...thats really great help for me, for every driving class I am paying 90 dollars now... ......lunch, small sleep then clothes ironing-one of the most painful job..I will never become expert in ironing.. hope there will be a machine for ironing clothes as well just like washing and drying... or I dunno may be that machine already exist...
Bush fire in Australia, 76 dead so far.....immediate help from the government....Prime minister of Australia RUDD confirmed that all victims receive monetary help latest by tomorrow morning....media playing constructive role.....all the news is related to helping the victims and pushing government for help....didn't see even a single channel showing victims reactions... ..way to go Indian media..... me and my roommate discussed how Indian media will react to the same situation... my roommate explained some scenes from MUMBAI MERI JAAN about media role......
My younger brother studying very hard for his CA exams, one of the local preist suggested some YAGAM for my younger brother, My father and brother doing that yagam by spending thousands of rupees in a temple which is 10 kilometers away from my village,. sleeping in the temples, no food great sacrifice...........that priest told that after this YAGAM my brother will pass all his exams....I asked my father " will that priest return all the money if results are not in our favor"...then my dad questioned " shall we give more money if results are in favor?""".. I said yes.... may be my father will tell the same to priest tomorrow so that he will add some more force in YAGAM..........it was a funny conversation. me being sarcastic and my father sincere answers.....then long talks with my mother about my brother career, about relatives, about recessions, about my marriage dunno when I will find a girl ............

Day25- DRINKS CAUSED RECESSION :-)

As a hardcore villager I know many people who fight for drinks(beer , wine, vodka, naatu saarayi, kallu etc....), over drinks and after drinks. In villages, for men drinks are for ecstasy and for women drinks are some thing untouchable, always conflicts between men and women for drinks. Most of the people in my village used to drink cheap liquor which is dangerous for individual health and family relations. Elections are the right time for these drinkers; they get free drinks from politicians over that election period, rest of the time people used to find different ways for drinks. Preparing alcohol according to individual's interest was crime, my village is far away from any of the police station, no police even dare to come to my village bcoz of the worse path ways, my village was safe place for all illegal things like playing cards, alcohol preparation etc....one of my villager started preparing alcohol from natural resources in some deep bushes and he serves alcohol to surrounding village people, it was his passion, one night police came to my village to arrest that person, I was 11 years old that was the first time I saw police , in villages if police comes to anyone house then thats end of their reputation. Police caught him and that person escaped in few minutes, my village is surrounded by full of bushes and only few can go from one place to another in those days. I met him in my recent trip to India, I told him that "if you were born in Australia, you should have become the richest person for your innovative ideas in alcohol preparation"....he just smiled thinking that I was joking....

My villagers drink like anything, loose their senses and speak all nonsense stuff, beat their wives , mothers and kids for no reason. It was big drama, all the people in the village gathers at that quarrel, few who are very close to that drunker try to stop but its very difficult, Next day early morning he behaves as if nothing was happened, he assures that he won't drink again but that never happens. People sell their properties and ornaments of their wives, go to town and drink, comeback and create nonsense. I have seen hundreds of such dramas in my childhood life. I observed so many people closely who lost everything in their life bcoz of drinking.

Who ever drink even a little in my village belongs to worse group and they don't get much respect from rest of the people, they were the bad boys and men of the village. Still my villagers have same opinion.

Now my surroundings changed a lot. I placed myself in a situation where nondrinker is bad boy of the society :-)...You go to drinks party and if you just drink orange juice then you are the odd man out, lots of volunteered speech from rest of the drinkers. After all drink is a drink, how does it matter whether it is a orange juice or vodka or chivas regal. No you have to drink and fall like others then only you are part of the group. Even in this educated surrounding I have seen many individuals who drink beyond their limit and create too much inconvenience for others in many ways. Not much difference to my village days. When I was in Singapore one of my guest house mate Shajesh told that "Anil, I stopped drinking, if I drink and go to home my wife and kids feel lot of insecurity in my presence, thats the worse I can give to them as a responsible husband and father",very very impressive. I doubt any Indian parents or wife likes to see their son or husband to drink even a peg.

Drinkers give very funny reasons, someone say very good for heart, someone say its kind of over joy feeling, someone say drinks brings out the true character of others ……so on..........suppose if you are going on a road and othrs know that you are drunk then people avoid you with fear, parents don't like drinking, your kids won't like, your dependants never like ...even yourself won't like if you know how you are when over drunk.who else likes drinks?????????? how much security we are providing to our surroundings and dependants by over drinking……..

My friends asked me many times reason for my non drinking habit. Here it is...I want every second of my life to be in my consciousness, I don’t want to fall down when I don’t know how to rise, I don't want to talk nonsense unknowingly, I will be happy to face the consequences of any worse decisions that I have taken with my senses, I don't want to create any convenience to others by vomiting even once... I don't want to create any insecurity feeling for others.... I never drink alcohol irrespective of the society I live.

Then and now people behaves in the same way, at that time in my village people lost all their money for drinks, now also people spend lot of money on drinks which otherwise could have helped in this recession time.

DRINKS CAUSED RECESSION :-)

Today I went to office for some pending work , Today temperature in Melbourne is 47 degrees... highest temperature in the last 102 years. Happy to experience something which is very rare. Went out 4 times today and experience 47 degrees....... its really toooooooooo hot............feel like eating only fruits for tonight and tomorrow...bought different varieties of fruits from coles , have to enjoy them for my dinner.

Good night.

Photo was taken at a client party in PARIS.

PS: I LIKE TO SERVE DRINKS TO MY FRIENDS AND I ENJOY DRINKING ENVIRONEMNT A LOT.

Day24-Waitangi Day

Lunch with colleague ,celebrations in office for "Waitangi Day".Its New Zealand Day, but celebration in Australian bank...... great unity. Beer, wine flowing in the canteen , cool drinks are not there.....adjusted with lemon water........stayed in office till 7 PM bcoz of some production work. Buffet dinner at an Indian restaurant, 10 dishes for 13 dollars ......every penny worth .... then Telugu movie.........
Two more farewell's to whom I worked very closely.......recession ....its hitting some and helping some ...... colleagues in recent days leaving for better and even more safer opportunities......not for decrements......too good for them.........

Its too late and tired ,have to sleep...

Blurred photo taken in office canteen

Day23-Birthday Realization

Today when I was trying to change postal address for my credit card through internet, observed that some unknown person deposited 1000 dollars to my credit card, called bank for clarification, as part of authentication they asked my credit cad number and date of birth. I was telling DOB as 05 02 ..." then opposite person immediately said HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Good surprise for me bcoz myself doesn't know my exact birth date. I requested bank to take back 1000 dollars as it doesn't belong to me. My parents not aware of the fact to note down my date and time of birth, so I am not sure of my exact date of birth, it could be 5th of October 1981. When I was trying to apply for 5th standard government exams I was supposed to fill date of birth, my teacher who was with me at that time filled some date which is my date of birth now. I don't want any reason to celebrate a day as I feel everyday is a celebration and struggle for betterment, may be some 5 or 6 times I might have celebrated on October 5th due to unavoidable reasons in my 27 years.
My manager send happy birthday email to me , copying all my practice members, lots of well wishers wished me, so many mails in my mail box, all old friends who are geographically separated came close to me today through mails, I didn't stop anyone without wishing me , genuine unexpected wishes why should I stop??, One of my colleague who is not in good terms with me came and wished happy birthday, I didn’t wish him for some of his happy occasions still he came to me today, I felt ashamed of myself, today he is looking superior to me he is definitely not as bad as me , we both were not talking to each other from few months , I was missing him a lot in good discussions, told the same and thanked him for breaking the ice , he gave me lot of realization today in so many ways, I am committed to his friendship now, he will be my friend no matter what and will never loose him again, I requested him to have a lunch with me tomorrow he immediately accepted, will clear off everything and begin a new friendly relation. The realization I had today never come by suggestion or teachings but by experience only. I thanked to myself. I want to improve myself everyday, so is today.
Tomorrow I have one project production move, as long as I am project leader, I am responsible for any failure but success goes to entire team.
Came out of office, lite dinner in subway and some discussion in hotel room. Ohhh today early morning one good incident, I was changing from one hotel to another hotel, in front of hotel one taxi was waiting, taxi driver horned us and offered taxi, he helped to move all our luggage to taxi, I think he was waiting for a long distance customer, when we told our destination he was disappointed as the place we have to move was just a kilometer away. When we reached the destination his behavior was so rude, he scolded us like " take the luggage and go away ..fast.....what the fu...... just for 7 dollars lots of dramas......lab bla bla lab bla.........", I listened all his abuses with patience and finally said "SORRY"...... I think he realized his mistake, then he apologized us. Pat on your back ANIL :-)….
Ok have to go out to bring curds/curd/yogurt(don't know the difference)to have late night curd rice .....
PS:Attached photo is one of the October 5th at EIFFEL tower with 3 other colleagues.

Day22-DEVIATIONS

Few months ago in Bangalore, my friend was driving bike and I was sitting backside, we were going through old airport road to a restaurant for dinner. With curiosity to know the restaurant name I asked for my friend
"where we are going now??", he replied that " we are going towards DEVIATION", I thought DEVIATION was a restaurant name, but actually my friend meaning was "going towards a road DEVIATION at the nearest corner for a short cut to restaurant",
At that time I thought that DEVIATIONS is a superb name for any business specifically for restaurants because DEVIATIONS defines that you are not one among many of the existing but something different from the standard. Now today evening we three friends were having heavy dinner at an Indian restaurant, my friends were asking me "Anil ,what’s your blog topic today?? …we are in a restaurant now ,write about hotel business", also they were giving lot of suggestions on how to have the best hotel business. Just for fun they gave 2 minutes non-stop suggestions, I was turning my head left and right to maintain eye contact with both of them, laughing and listening to their suggestions. Most of the times a thin thread of thinking and observation continuously running in my mind, they gave excellent free inputs which can be adapted to any business.
We came to hotel room and the discussion was still continuing. After bath I told the name DEVIATIONS to my friends and asked for caption. With in no time my friend gave me two interesting captions "Insanity Redefined" for any general business, "Dine Like Insane" for restaurant business. Anyone can use this names if found interesting including me....
"Focus on service and on and on.....", this is one thing I copied from my manager when I was working in Sydney. Clear focus on what we do in life will always give superb results, even for beginners. Focus leads to new inventions also.
Today morning, I feel like having bread as breakfast so went to a cafe alone, there I saw my colleague who left us for a better job. When she saw me I said hi ,she came nearer to me and gave a peck, this is the second time I felt too much embarrassment with peck, dunno when I will learn this culture or is there any need to learn .....??. ...My manager mailed me to call him, when I called he gave me some good suggestions which are very much required at this stage.
Regarding my blog writing, my friend Pavan told that "Anil, anything you do for 28 days continuously will become habit ".............
When I give appraisal to myself about exchange of LAUGH, my rating is significantly better achievement.....
That’s all for now. I have few more hours for sleep, a call to my mother, after that if I have time then some study.....

Day21-Why Blogging?

My colleague asked me the reason behind this blog. Several reasons ...

First reason is INTROSPECTION:-. I have the habit of looking into myself everyday before sleep, good-bad and ugly of myself. What went well, what went wrong and where I could have been better…. Though I will be discussing with myself before I sleep, but I forget most of the things very soon. Also my school teacher many times told that "writing once is equal to reading 20 times", so writing will help me to change myself faster than reading to myself. I do lot of insane things everyday, trying different options at work rather than following existing processes, getting friends in this process even enemies too, going through lots of experiences everyday, I want me to be the first critic to myself, apologize next day if I owe one, evolve as the time progress.... this can be achieved by putting down everything into words with honesty, rarely diplomatic.

More time to myself: One of my manager told that "Anil, I want to retire at the age of 48" , when I asked the reason he said "My time is not mine now, always have to report to someone and act according to manager's wishes, so I want to retire early", another manager mailed me that "Anil, life seems to be story of work only". By writing blog, I am reporting to myself at the end of the day and changing the story of work to story of myself. My second better half of the day starting after work now a days....

Be different: I cannot write the same bored stuff again and again everyday, what ever I write should look different to me atleast, for that I have to improve myself everyday to be better.

Thankful to others: Lot of people knowingly or unknowingly helping to improve myself in many ways. This is the place for me to thank before I forget.
Stretching myself: I am not using any of the office time to write blog, I start blog everyday after 10 PM.I used to sleep at 10PM for 6 to 7 hours, now I will be sleeping for 5 - 6 hours or even lesser bcoz of this blog...I may live for another 30 years, I decided to reduce my sleep with proper care so that I can live and enjoy more time. Sleeping is definitely not living...

Update to known people: All my friends, colleagues and well wishers are living across different geographies, rather then sending mails once in quarter its an opportunity for me to give daily update about myself who is escaping from my torture. And its an opportunity for me to take constant feedback and slaps.
Autobiography: It might be easy for me to collate information if I want to write auto biography. Looking over confident, its only confidence.
Many more selfish reasons...............
Coming to today, my teammate who is reporting to me told that "Anil, you improved a lot today"....means I might have tortured him till yesterday :-),I am happy he is having freedom to talk anything with me.... evening was too fun, one of my friend who is married now explaining his love story today evening, when he inform to his parents about his love they told that "Ok, we will give you house keys and go away, you and that girl stay in this house"......, evening time spent with my stupid questions and his funny answers. Parents become villains if lovers don't know how to handle parents. May be saying is easy..........,it was evening with lot of glory, Thanked my friend who gave me company. My BTech classmate Chakri mailed to my batch yahoo group about his marriage, I send reply from my iphone to Chakri only but unfortunately mail reached everyone in the group with signature as "Sent from iphone", others may misinterpret that I am doing showoff, send an apology note immediately to all, removed signature from phone.

Have to read some project related stuff before I sleep.

Day20-Good notes

My mentor, colleague, hotel mate in Paris and now the owner of a software company mailed me secret of his success when I requested him. I learned so many things from so many people, each and everyone I met so far helping me to improve myself everyday. From some one I learned how to live and from some others how not to live. Recently when I offered lead role for three projects, I read his mail again and adopted few things to me. May worth having a look.
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I am a simple man don’t like boasting too much about it.
Since you have asked…just some things that I do as my habit.

I try to be myself and not enact any role (like PM/TL or whatever). Should not be shy of doing any stuff. Even if you are PM/BA or whatever play developer’s role when need be (not to overdo it as well)

Always look at anything from being in other’s shoes also. If I had been in other’s position what would be my thoughts and expectations. Thinking that way helps to know what others need and expect out of you. Also lend your ears and consciously listen to people, its like giving importance by listening them out.

Try not to panic and create havoc over any issue/problem to worry others as well. Better spend that effort to find ways to solve and get out of the problem.

Accept your mistakes and never repeat it.

Being in this industry it’s not just important for you to be good and just learn and do things yourself. It is also important to take others, who falter or are slow, along with you as you are running ahead.

Respect everybody no matter how brilliant or how dumb he is. Definitely everyone has something good which should be tapped, understood and capitalized. You can learn lot of things from the dumbest of persons also sometimes, like you would have learnt some things from me ;)

That’s too much philosophy or "ideal" or "should have" kind of things. But these are not extracts from some leadership or relationship book, just some of my thoughts.

I am also evolving everyday working with different people.

Just be conscious and keep reviewing what you do, you will automatically keep getting better which you are already doing.

On top of all …just have fun and Enjoyyyyyyyy J
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I am staying in hotel as I don't have any accommodation now, will continue to stay in hotel for one more week. Its too hot in Melbourne now, so is hotel room. Even though AC is there, still its hot inside room. Eyes are closing down due to lack of sleep yesterday night.

Usual busy work and meetings through out the day. Got a call from my previous house owner, he said that he will return total house deposit as he was unable to find any damages in the house.7 months stay ,not even single damage in the house, marvelous, being bachelors we still maintained to keep the house neat and clean. Kudos to all roommates. After lunch when I was coming in the lift met one of my Chinese colleague, she liked DEVDAS movie a lot and loves to watch that movie again. Came out of office by 6PM , met Indian girl and colleague Aarti on my way back to home, hi and bye with her, reached room, found new place for my jog, jogging for an hour, when I was jogging lots lovers enjoying their evening time, showing off their private life in parks- cultural behavior :-), though I don't want to see unknowingly my eyes observed something which I am not supposed to see, sat down on bench and enjoyed DELHI6 music for half an hour, had dosa for dinner at Indian restaurant. My roommate and colleague reached home, discussed about food and eating habits for some time, settled down to write blog while my roommate watching a movie on TV. Arnold movie is going on , when I asked for the movie name my roommate gave a surprise look and told that itsssssssssss TERMINATOR 3, he described the story for some time and suggested me to watch first two parts also.


Will watch rest of the movie T3 now.

Day18&19-ICE CREAM ,LUCK BY CHANCE !!!!!?

Early morning had a long breakfast with bread & egg scramble, fruit salad. After that I felt like having ice cream ,so I went and ordered ice cream, waitress asked me again "ICE CREAM for breakfast ,are you sure", I said yes and yes again, she smiled and said "NOT A BAD TASTE"....I had wonderful memory with first ICE CREAM. May 1998 that was the first time I had ice cream in my life, I went to ice cream shop and sat down on the table, waiter gave me glass of water and menu. I ordered cup ice cream, he gave me cup of ice cream and flat wooden spoon, ice cream was very hard, I tried to pierce the spoon but no luck, waited for few seconds still its hard, scanned surroundings , no one was having cup ice cream, one person was observing me, I looked at my table, I thought that waiter gave me water to dilute ice cream, so poured water in the cup, now cup is full of liquid, unable to take anything out of the cup with flat spoon, drank cup of ice cream water and ran away from that shop. I still remember face feeling of the person who was sitting next time to me, I am sure that person will never forget such worse moments of his life. After that I had so many ice creams at the best possible places but still my first ice cream is the best and it will remain so forever. If possible, please try ice cream water in a restaurant , it will give great memory not only to you but also who ever observe you:-). I smile first when ever I see ice cream.
My friend was still on fire till today morning, single phone call made my friendship more stronger. We are group of 10 friends, rest of the friends acted as catalyst between me and my friend. When ever some thing goes wrong among any of us, rest of them takes lead role in pacifying the situation keeping their busy life aside. Our friendship is 10 years old, most of the times I am the one who cause problems with my head strong attitude. We all don't even have a thought to be separated, the more we fight the more close we are. I am sure my friends will read this blog, guys I want to fight always and make our friendship even stronger, no regrets, its all part of our fun life. I cannot go and fight with my colleague or with my delivery manager, I can fight with who mean to meatier that we all discussed future plans, pros and cons of business and so on over a conference call.....

Movie of the week is "Luck By chance". I have never seen how and when luck comes , so I don't even think of some thing which I can’t reach. I think people use luck, grace, salvation, fate, etc.....to escape from their responsibilities and from their honesty.
All the crucial assignments which gave me everything in life were rejected others before they came to me.
(1)Japan:One of the senior didn't like to goto Japan so that opportunity fall on my lap, though my practice head was uncertain about me , he send me there as no one was available, Japan is the first break through in my life, excelled at work, received my first award in the company, cleared all the financial burdens and most importantly learned true value of life. Japanese start their second life at 60's and they are true meaning of helpfulness. I always look up to them in terms of helping nature and gratitude. Japanese have lot of respect towards any outsider, they like Indians a lot. Of all the places I have seen so far Japan is the best. Their products are always in quality and they don't know cheating, I always buy any Japanese product without even looking at price and gaurantee.One of year of my life in Japan changed me completely.
(2)Paris and Singapore: This was also rejected by one senior for various reasons. This is the project where project sponsors are in London, end users in Paris, systems team in Hong Kong and development out of Singapore. I used to Interact with all these people daily and traveling between Paris and Singapore. This was the first fixed bid project in the history of that client which completed on time and budget. This project shoots up my confidence level exponentially. Second consecutive award in the company and lot of recognition.
(3)Australia: This opportunity also follows the same path as above two.After working for few months, client gave feed back about me to my company, after that company CEO Ashok Soota directly appreciated me which I cherish forever, this is even bigger award for me than the above two. Frankly I worked hard for the first two projects only, this appreciation is bonus for the knowledge I gained in the above two. Mr. Soota gave me confidence to achieve anything in life.
If the above projects are not there in my life, I would have been on roads for so many reasons. Just before I go to Japan, my family ship was about to sink, my uncle came to my house and warned that he will kill my family. Today same uncle is waiting for my appointment. Time is so fast, my family position has been transformed from poor to rich now and so many changes , when I look into myself today no change in me or my behavior, I was simple and want to be same forever.....................

I don’t know what to call those opportunities, they happened because of luck or destiny or god showed me grace because I never pray to him or should I thankful to the person who rejected those projects or to my company or to myself?? Above three projects were rejected by same person..... .May be he is the angel of my life:-).

May not sleep tonight, will spend most of the time by memorizing these formative years of my life............

Day17-Misunderstanding

My roommate who is leaving to India for good wrote a blog for me in my laptop at the airport just before he leaves.
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So, we are always apprehensive about the unknown be it a new place, new country, new people, new gadgets or anything new.
For new gadgets or a new place or country we have to adopt to them.But when it comes to new people it is a very different experience.
It often starts with a lot of guessing about each other.
I had no idea about my new colleague whom I met only once when I was in singapore. But that was a very short meeting where we hardly interacted.
In melbourne the same person has been my flatmate for 7 months.
I can say I had one of the best times I had in melbourne be it in office or at home.
Anil and I used to have very lively discussions almost about anything. While gradually interacting with him I found him to be a very very helpful person who is always ready to help with a bundle of energy even at the most odd hours of day and night.
Through our discussions he revealed himself as a very thoughtful and matured person. He was very honest enough to open himself up and we shared lot of interesting aspects of our lives.
He has been always encouraging and transparent in his dealings. Though he looks hefty but still he is a very simple and sweet person at heart.
He is a very positive minded fellow both in terms of professional as well as personal life.
Smart as he is in his professional work as well as otherwise, he gives other people lot of food for thought about the right and the wrong.
He is a person who has already excelled to a quite an extent and will surely bring lot more glory to himself and his associates.
It was a pleasure to be with him and know a person who has triggerred me to learn quite a few things which I have silently learnt from him.
Hope to see u soon agai buddy.
Keep up the good work and we will cherish these melbourne times in years to come.
It was a pleasure writing this blog for you san!!! ----INDRAJITH
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Yesterday internet was not working in my room, life seems to be difficult witout internet. Work,friends, movies,music ,bank balances, trading, renting a house, telephone calls, learning, even blogging etc..... everything is happening through internet .Internet is not virtual world,its real where most of the so called software engineers like me speding mazor part of daily life.
Yesterday was tiring day ,my close friend got angry on me for no reason.Misunderstanding happens many times in life,most of the times opposite person who stand at questioning side has to think before coming to a conclusion. I decided not to give any explanation for anyone, "those who understand you never ask for an explanation , those who ask for explanation never understand you at all".All problems -only solution -remove expectation even a little from others.
Because internet was not working,I tought of writing blog from my mobile,but my mobile didn't allow me to type anything in the blog body.Lots of things happened yesterday,lunch with my collagues Felicity ,Deb & Luke ,evening drinks farewell to my good friends Sidharth Sinha and Inrajith as they are leaving to India tomorrow, shifted my luggage to hotel. Indrajith Ghosh MBA from IIT,the person who tolerated me from the last 7 months, who is down to earth , very intelligent , intuitive, caring, adopt himself to any situation, .........I respect him a lot and will do forever, I am sure anyone will like this guy.Sidharth Sinha is also MBA from IIT, he was my roommate in Sydney for 6 months ,very cool and passionate guy, these people gave me lots of innovative ideas which I may put into action in future. Few months back me and Sidharth Sinha sat together almost one full night and articulated vision and mission for the product I am working on. We shared the same vision with my company management ,that document gave lots of accolades from compnay management.
Today morning ,had idly and vada as breakfast with Indrajith and some rest then to ariport to give sendoff to Indrajith.While coming to aiport good discussions with taxi driver, check in and then some shopping.While I am shopping, my friend wrote a blog for me, then we had lunch and sendoff.

After posting this blog, I will go to home from airport and will revisit his association with me while travelling.

Day16-No internet in the room ,unable to type message with phone

Day15-FAREWELL

Today time sheets day,day before every month end , all managers focus is on time sheets,I have been getting these alerts from my managers since the beginning of the my career.All managers have to submit the GMA(Gross Margin Actuals) by last working day of every month, so they push their teammates.From the last few months,I submit my time sheets to me and I approve them for myself, according to my company system I am the manager to myself(I am not joking).When I told the same to my colleagues ,they were laughing like anything ,most of them listening this first time,my time sheet system response is so fast today.When it was slow I didn't do any mistake,today I screwd up my time sheets,I applied working days as leaves and leaves as wroking days ,the worse thing I approved them.Tomorrow I have to sort this out,otherwise it will effect this year appraisal process :-)

I know one Indian-Pakistani-Australian by name Shamim.I am working closely with Shamim for some production implementation activity in these days,today he came to me for some clarification that I requested him to implement,some how I initiated discussion about his childhood ,the discussion went on for 90 mintes.He explained all his life time learnings.He moved to Pakistan from Surat-India when he was 9 years old in 1960's.He was explaning those olden days life style and the stuggles he went through to lead a good life at his early age.He started his life in a packaging company,then as a teacher so on..... now he is the man wo handles bank's production system very efficiently and he treats his team mates on par with his kids.Worth spending time with him,he also told that "Anil, success is not speaking something, but listening to others", I may need some more experience to undersatnd his nice quote.In those olden days he married to a girl of his choice by convincing parents in the best possible way.

Tomorrow is last day in present office for one of my teammate and friend Scott , she and her friend became my friends , they even park their car in my room and when ever time permits I used to go with them for evening walk . These girls are very soft spoken and friendly in nature..Today we all walked from office to home,memorising all these days that we worked together and discussed about their future plans , took farewell snaps and assured that all of us will meet again in future.Tomorrow I might be going for lunch with them if time permits.

Had dinner at Indian restaurant ,showed farewell snaps to my roommates .One of friend is devotee or one of the girl in the photo, he is going to miss them badly:-).I told them same to that girl while walking , she was happy to know about her fan club.

As expected got a warning kind of mail from timemsheet management people that "Anil,More care needs to be exercsied while submitting time sheets such errors are not acceptable".Thanks to the mistake I did, I got to know one senior person becasue of my mistake, now its my turn how I am going to deal ,with this person, I am confident that I will impress him very well.Mistakes are nothing but opprtunties to learn and grow in life.

Some of my Indian colleagues got awards for their excellant work ,send heartful appreciation mails to them before going to bed.

Day14-Dress Rehearsal

Who ever worked at client places or implemented projects in production must be aware of this dress rehearsal ,this is nothing but implementing the total project in a test environment similar to production implementation procedure. One of my project mate asked me few months back , what is dress rehearsal, I just joked to him that bring in new dress to office and change the dress when ever you feel like on that particular day, if you don't change your team leader will change it for you. Today is dress rehearsal for one of the project I am working on, which will go live in a week time. This dress rehearsal really stripped of my clothes. Started at around 10 AM in the morning and completed by 7.30 PM with lot of stress...Something went wrong in between, lot of tension and successfully completed at the end. I didn’t have free time today to laugh even once in the office. By the time I reach home I am lost completely.

Had dinner and practiced laughing therapy at home with roommates. I learned laughing therapy as part of YOGA. When I was doing my college project ,there is a gentleman Abhay Jain,he used to teach yoga in the office, I was the regular student of his class and practiced yoga for 6 months. Everyday yoga class used to end with laughing therapy ,as of now I can laugh for at least 15 minutes continuously for no reason. When I was listening to music my friend whom I feel as god in my life called me from India, we fight for no reason, fighting is fun for us, he was scolding me for something and I was just enjoying, he kept the phone with lot of anger, I will call him on the weekend to have more fun. Already informed to rest of the friends about this incident through mails, fun begins soon...

My roommates are busy in watching the movie APOCALYPTO,its movie about cannibals, I will watch movie after this blog.

We had heated discussion about cool behavior versus tensed under stress. History and psychologists says that best of a person comes out when the person is in controlled pressure and tension. I personally experienced many times ,recently for my IELTS exam.

My blog readers are increasing, so is responsibility on me .I received one good comment for my blog and few more friend’s appreciations over chat.

Keep it up Anil :-)

Its full busy day today , me doing strip dance in the office :-)......

Pic:That was the picture taken in Disney Land.

Day13-AUSTRALIAN DINNER

Woke up, brush up, dress up ,bag pack up....landed in office. While I was having breakfast at my desk I got a mail saying that "Anil,I was wondering if you had plans for this evening? Would you like to come over to my house for dinner and a cool down in our pool?". First I thought it’s a spam then I thought he was joking, no not at all. He was asking me about what kind of food I eat etc.. etc...He is non other than my Australian test manager Paul Gilders ,like a tiger to payments developers:-).I don't know why he invited me, I cannot even think of swim and have dinner with him. Most of the times he was furious in the office, very strict and I have to give so many valid explanations in a day. First he invited me alone, later he told me to invite my roommates also. After I confirm him, he called his partner and informed about my arrival.

At lunch time I went home and brought my swimming dress, I am eager to see how Paul behaves at home.Finshed my work by 5.30 PM and went to his home along with my roommate Shaik.Received a warmth welcome from his family members. With in 5 minutes we became comfortable at his house. Had some juice and jumped into the pool. Me ,Paul and his son enjoyed swimming for an hour. Discussed lots of things while swimming about his athletic activities. He is a TRIATHLON Australia winner in 2007.TRIATHLON is a sports event consisting of swimming, cycling and running over long distances. These events are placed back-to-back in immediate sequence. Paul is a true sports man. I had bath and ready for the dinner.

His partner Ali ,his Daughter Sametha prepared delicious dinner.Pasta,Garlic bread and salad was the dinner.Had lots of fun while having dinner.Ali teaches Professional ,personal ethics & Research methods for doctors and philosophy at Melbourne university.Asked few questions about philosophy ,she gave impressive answers. I hope some day I will do apprentice with her in philosophy. She also asked about me and my living etc.Discussions went on till late night.
Paul's house is very huge, its a 7 bed room individual house,2 office rooms ,very big hall and kitchen,2 big dining tables, swimming pool,gym,cars ......all luxuries are there in the house. His son was telling about 10 dollars he earned today by working some where, Paul was very happy and proud, he discussed and gave some suggestions to his son.That was very thought provoking discussion for me.Paul being very rich,earning thousands of dollars everyday allowed his young son to earn some money which is nothing before his status.It may be part of their culture,but for me its totally new and a good learning. After we had dinner one of his son cleaning all the plates, I asked him if I would be of any help, Paul told that “ don’t worry Anil everyone’s responsibilities are clearly defined for the next one month”. I learned about true son- father relationship and family values today.Paul is completely a family man, one of the few I met who lives second by second.
Thanked everyone for their hospitality before I leave , Ali genuinely asked to come again when ever possible .Its a memorable and thought provoking evening which I can cherish forever .Time to sleep to see Paul again tomorrow.

Day12-EXPECTATION

Expectation-the most dangerous word in my view. Most of the problems in any relation can be attributed to expectation. My first experience with expectation was when I am child. It was diwali time, my friend's parents gave money to their kids,I was expecting that my parents too will give me at least 10 rupees to buy crackers. Evening time reached, I was waiting, no one in the home turned up with money, totally disappointed, I went to my mother and asked to give me 10 rupees for buying crackers. My mother was helpless, I told that I won't eat food with out money. All the communication with my father has to go through my mother. My mother told the situation to my father, my father clearly said that "some how if I give money now, this will become your starting point for all your future demands, I won't give money, now its' your wish to eat food or not”. I was very angry, unable to understand my father situation and his vision. Didn’t eat food for two days, after so many requests from my grandfather and mother I started eating food. All that happened because of my expectation. I don't know it was a conscious decision or just happened, from that time onwards I stopped expecting. Used to ask only what ever was mandatory.

Above incident helped me to live happy life even in struggles. My expectation from anyone is almost nothing now. Expectations leads to disappointment, if you stop expecting anything from anyone then most of the problems in life are solved. Count all problems at anytime, remove expectation from those problems then see the difference. Be it from a friend, from a colleague ,from manager, from a company , from government etc....try not to expect anything. Most of the times if you deserve something you will get it, if you deserve but still you are not getting then problem is with you only, you have to find a way to get what you deserve. Rather than expecting its better to find a way to get what you want. From the same above diwali situation instead of expecting money, I would have impressed my dad to give me that money or I would have worked hard and earned that money or I would have taken loan from someone etc....Another example that I can imagine is if a friend is coming from foreign and if expectations are to bring something worth of 100 dollars, even if he brings 99.9 dollars worth then there is a disappointment, if there is no expectation even a single chocolate will do wonders. So many examples in daily life.....

But expectation is mandatory in few things, my family should expect from me to take care of them always, my friends can expect to help them in needs. These are order and course of life, being a human have to fulfill atleast these expectations .

Today its Australian day and Chinese new year ,celebrations are in full swing in the city. I am listening crackers sound while writing this blog :-).I met one Chinese person when I was jogging , discussed with him for some time about Chinese new year. Bought ray ban glasses with the money I won in the casino yesterday. If my glasses happen to break in one year time then I will get new one for half the price as part of gaurnatee,I can break intentionally :-).

Arun Shenoy pinged me in gtalk.Arun lives in Singapore, he is a multi talented person, he maintain perfect balance between personal and professional life.When I traveled to Singapore first time, Arun taught me many things both at work and off the work.I was new to foreign country at that time,Arun told me that "Anil,first learn the project ,money will follow you later".Its true ,I am enjoying the fruits of Arun's words and those days hard work now. Few things I know about Arun are, he is very health concious,musician,muscle builder, do stunts on bike apart from great knowledge in Murex. Today he read my blog and appreciated my effort. I was happy for his gesture, though I am nothing before him he spend time to read my blog.Arun if you happen to read my blog again, I just wanted to say you that you are inspiration to me in striking balance between professional and personal life. Received few more appreciations for my blogging hobby.Another friend Srikanth from Singapore send his marriage photos. Happy to see friends getting married.

Going to have dinner with mango pickle... wav....

Good night.

Day11-CROWN and SANIA

Woke up at 7:00 AM ,checked personal mails.Lots of mails floating among my friends related to Raman and his achievements,shared my views also .We are a group of 10 friends, 8 of them are very close friends from their school and intermediate days onwards, me and one more joined them in engineering days,from then till now our friendship is growing day by day.Everyone is well settled and spread across the world.Fun is unlimited if we all come together.In 2007 December we all met together in Bangalore ,went for a trip to OOTY, it was one of the memorable trips of my life.

I had 2 hours driving lesson today.My confidence level growing up day by day in driving. Instructor assured me that I will become one of the best driver soon, I have an alternative career in hand now :-).Driving is not as easy as I was thinking, lots of concentration required ,have to observe everything in surroundings. Instructor told that being a good driver is not just enough to drive safely, others in the road also have to be safe drivers,so observe and keep away from bad drivers,hmmm!!!. Getting driving license is a difficult task in Australia, first I wrote one theory exam with a preparation of 15 days. After passing that exam I got learner's license, then second exam to identify the hazard’s. Passed that one too. Third one is actual driving test which is due on March 6th ,fingers crossed. Worth going through these many tests as all these are for my safety only.

After driving ,had nice lunch and then a small sleep. Called friend if he is interested for evening walk, he said ok.Went out for walk till CROWN. Crown is one of the biggest casino, the place where dollars flow like a water but always the flow is out of the pocket. I used to go there every weekend with my dearest friend and spend evenings there for entertainment , my friendship has been broken recently so no more crown from the last three months. Today I played with 50 dollars, I bought to the coins to play, my friend just played for me. Got 280 dollars profit. I shared half the profit with my friend in turn he gave me half of the investment, he was not at all interested to take profit as he didn't invest anything. I forced him to take, finally he accepted. After sometime we played again, this time both of us invested. we won 275 dollars profit again. Third time we lost 50 dollars. So together we had a profit of around 500 Dollars. He told that he might be buying a gold ring with that money. I will buy a ray ban glasses tomorrow and some charity. After that we both had pizza in some restaurant,SANIA MIRZA the gorgeous tennis girl was there in front of us having dinner with her father, she was looking amazing and she is enjoying her privacy as no one disturbing her. Stared at her for few seconds and left the place. Watched a movie VALKYRIE in theatre, revisited my book memories of Hitler while watching the movie.

On the whole today its profitable and joyful day.

Day10-House cleaning

Early morning got an SMS from my test manager that testing activities for today going to start soon. I am not supposed to be in office today, replied to SMS ,slept again ,woke up again at 10.30.This is the last weekend that I am going to stay in my present apartment. I am staying at this place from the last 7 months. All my roommates are leaving to India so have to vacate this house in a weektime.This house is situated in the heart of the city,I can see total beauty of the Melbourne from my house.Yarra River and Crown are the most happening places of the Melbourne ,these are very next to my house.Lots of live performances are happening around Yarra river in this summer time.

Cleaned all the garbage in the house, gave a new look to the house with cleaning activities. My place is so beautiful than ever before. Packed up all my stuff in 15 minutes time. I like to keep as much less luggage as possible. From the last three years I have moved to 15 to 20 different places across different countries. Packing of my stuff never took more than an hour. Few clothes and books in a suite case, all electronics and accessories in another bag. I love to keep my luggage less than 25 kgs always, so far it never crossed that limit, hope I will stick to this forever.

Went out to Indian groceries shop, bought rice ,readymade curries etc.On my way back to room from Indian shop went to APPLE showroom. APPLE ,these people never cease to amaze with their innovative products and quality. Bought a laptop bag .My roommate prepared lunch, mean while I slept again, had lunch at 4PM.Opened internet to check mails. My engineering classmate and close friend Kiran was online. Chatted with him for sometime and Kiran gave me mail id of another close fiend Venky , I am not in touch with Venky from many months. Venky is master in English vocabulary ,ask him any word through out the English news paper he answers in less than 5 seconds. I can look upto Venky in vocabulary at any time.Venky got married and was very happy for that news. Shared lots of things. Got another call ,friend asked me to join him for a hind movie at his home. Went to his home ,watched the movie "BUSH COMING TO INDIA", total movie is about shaking hand with BUSH. Enjoyed the movie and snacks. Back to room, prepared dinner ,enjoying NIRAVANA LOUNGE music while writing bog.

That’s all for today.