Expecting the Unexpected.....

Hey there folks....thanks for missing me....I know its been a while since i gave words to my random thoughts in my blog. Well...I've been busy.....coping with the unexpected and trying to make the most out of it has almost become the norm of life...One fine monday morning I get a call saying that my boss wants to meet me in Noida and I need to fly there for a day..the operative words being "a day". I get all excited about joining the jet set life style folks....soon to be having breakfast in Berlin, Lunch in London, Tea in Tokyo and dinner in Denver...Next day morning I catch my flight to Delhi where i get my first bombshell...taxi charge to Noida Rs. 2000. You are forgiven if you thought i mistakenly put an extra zero in there. It was really Rs. Two thousand. Well, as I didnt know about any other option, I had to shell it out in crisp 100 rupee notes. I reach Noida and wherever I look i see an HCL office. First went to sector 16. Then i came to know that i was meant to go to sector 60. Took a rickshaw there and there too HCL has two offices....Somehow or the other I find my boss's cabin and that afternoon the second bombshell drops...I will not be able to go back by evening flight and will have to stay for 2 more days...Ah what the hell..I think...the next day at lunch, this 2 days gets extended to 10 days...I end up buying a new wardrobe and mobile charger.....One good thing that came out of this unexpected stay in Noida was the side trip to Kanpur...Man...I had almost forgotten how fast DC++ was....Anyways..now I am back..in Chennai. My boss left me with a warning that such short notice long trips will be the norm of the future...So now i am preparing myself to expect the unexpected...Maybe this is how life works in the corporate world...I wouldn't know as I am still finding my feet in this new world.

Mi Amigo....My Friend...Mon Ami

Hello friends...its been some time since i wrote something here. It was a product of lack of good themes to write on and lack of time to write in. But when something interesting comes by, which catches ur attention, you tend to eke out time for its cause. Well same case here. You know how from the time we were little kids (well some of us still are...though we look older), we have been hearing that true friends are there with you in your troubled times.....and we heard about a fair weather friend who is there with us only during the good times...Well, I was reading Paulo Coelho's 'Zahir'....he has an interesting twist to the age old belief....he says and I quote "Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer for us and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives." This got me thinking....which is true...There are people who are with you in your happy times...when there are all smiles around....life is just fantastic...they laugh with us....joke with us...and everyone is happy....And there are people who come to us when we feel that the whole world is crumbling beneath our feet...some come with sympathy....some come with strength...some come with understanding....I feel that the kind Coelho mentions is the ones who come to us with sympathy....to show how much they care and how sorry they feel for you...I know those kinds...like hyenas....preying on a wounded soul....But don't ever do the mistake of mistaking someone's understanding of your situation as sympathy...doing that you might just lose a precious friend. When someone is ready to be silent with you when you are not in a mood to talk, hold on to them...they are your true friends....You might be thinking how i am going on blabbering on about friends and what authority do I have to talk on this topic? Well....I am an Aquarian....we have a habit of using the word friend quite frequently....Whoever i meet becomes my friend....theres no other way to describe them....I once had the misfortune to hear someone being described as " a profitable acquaintance". In my mind I still have the word in "What the hell does that mean" category. My friends are one thing that I treasure more than my life....so looking for profit or loss from person whom you are friends with, takes the friendship out of it and makes it mere business. So when you know that a person understands you more than yourself, is there with you in your happy and your sad times...treasure them...they are gods gift to you for being a friend.