Shining stars...

Stars, they say, shine... Stars, i say, make us shine too... rubbish? really???!!! boss its Astrology!!! still no taker still?... believe it or not, astrology is one of the most interesting things... atleast is for me!!!

I come from a conventional Hindu family - GOD fearing and GOD respecting - going by the books. Astrology for us is the future other people show us - what the person is... his strengths, weaknesses, health, future and even married life with kids... and everything about them. before i go any further let me confess that i'm a great believer in astrology and i've always taken care whenever there would be 'not-so-encouraging' things written for me. Someone is born and his future is known and people tend to make judgements and decisions on the same. As per the science - well, it is!!! Its a science of knowing and understanding, noting and calculating, defined rules and formula - such that with the same input the output is the same - and is true only with the standard astrology, as i know it, and not with any road-side 'jyotish'!!! anyways, as per the science, i know what i'm, i know what i'm going to be, i know how my married life is going to be and i know what my 'future' is going to be... so, i just sit back and let life take its chosen path! eh? can i do that? well, i should try it once! :) (and if i do so, i give another reason to my wife to call me lazy!!!) point is, can we resist the temptation of knowing our future if we believe astrology as science and have faith in it? won't the essence and excitement of living vanish away? ask my wife and she says - "its pure timepass". well, it is pure timepass - but surprise surprise - things happen, and they happen exactly as someone must have told me. so, should i believe it? or do i ignore or just keep observing for sometime and then discount any possibility of it being true or untrue?

Take a newspaper and check for yourself. you will read the prediction and often wonder - how true!!! bottomline is if there are 10 things written and atleast a couple are bound to happen - for those are generic statements. and/or thinking otherwise, 10 things keep happening to us, atleast one of those would be written against ur sign... am i contradicting my statement of believing it? i don't think so!!! the reason is quite simple - there is a difference between whats written against ur sun/moon sign and what the astrologer writes for you - as an individual after calculating and getting ur details...

but there are exceptions - i've seen men who have done exactly what they were supposed to do for some time- and then breaking free - which took a lot of hardwork, planning and knowing themselves! anyways, the point i want to make is - astrology is more like a guideline helping you to know not whats going to happen, but attempt to tell you what might happen if you do everything 'by default'!!! how it works, how the forces converge, how the formula were derived, how the calculation work, .... i really don't understand... all i know is that it works... and works fine - but only when the input details are accurate.

for the past two weeks, the astrology prediction in one of India's leading newspaper has been exact for me... and that makes me wonder even more. how would he and anybody know whats going on with me and going to happen... pure amazing or luck, call whatever! however, i enjoy reading my predictions and thats what matters! :)

for some, its pure hardwork, planning and self-belief that makes them know their future, for some - like me - such predictions coupled with palmistry and other exciting techniques work fine, and for the rest - well, they remain confused! ;)

believe it or not, there are many things that would surprise us all and beat sciences' - 'it cannot happen' principle! and one of them is Astrology - pure science for me!!!

however, THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE TO HARDWORK. so, lets get back to work! :)

relax!
-VK

gyan...

being in IT industry, i realize that thinking power of individuals has increased a lot... ofcourse, i don't know how it works in other industry - meaning i might be totally wrong about IT professionals and their power to think more... however, with emails and the dynamism of the industry i tend to think - and i've all rights to do so - that an IT professional does more thinking than his counterparts of other industry - including medicine.

With so many mails on how to relax+how to enjoy+what are friends+what is family, i still think that IT job is more demanding that other - medicine, probably is an exception!!! I've always been getting numerous mails on 'how to..', 'what are..' philosophy but one that i always will remember is the bucket philosophy. blame my weak memory that i don't remember from where i got the bucket funda - nevertheless i credit the inventor for such an easy-to-remember point...

today, again, i did remember the funda, however, this time i 'enlightened' someone else (rather, the closest person to me!!!) with the insights... nowadays, she is going through a demanding time... times when she has to balance her life - professionally and personally. personally - sasar and maher. sasar - husband and in-laws... (well, some other time what a newly wedded wife - arranged married to another IT professional goes through in a joint family!!!). At times a sincere person would get confused on whats right and whats not! whats priority and whats not... whats to be heeded to and whats shouldn't be! whom to take on face value and whom not to... and the world just acts a confused mess... and that is the time when some philosophy like this helps!!! here is the funda of buckets...

Since an individual has many things to deal with - many people to interact with - many relationships to take care of - many incidents to remember - many occassions to cherish and many of such many things... the whole point is to compartmentalize EVERYTHING. like office and home, there should be something like a switch - switch off office and switch on home and vice-versa... not possible though! so, what we tend to do it carry the heavy luggage of expectations and frustration of either places with us everywhere and everytime... can't we just say - forget it, i'm going to relax and not think a bit about 'this thing' or 'that thing'... difficult, ain't it? actually not!!! u just need to define buckets for everything. say, office is a bucket. when i come home, i just close the office bucket... meaning i tell myself not to think about it esp when it doesn't make sense to. If i keep thinking about office when i'm talking to wifo or family - do u think i would have the same emotions that they are expecting? no!!! so, i say goodbye office and home sweet home... relax and enjoy! and i'm better prepared to take on activities of home with full zeal... where it helps to have buckets for places, it helps more to have buckets for past unfortunate incidents and people... everyone goes through a rough patch in life - relatively speaking. everyone comes across 'repulsive' people which they would never ever talk to or interact with, given a choice. what we tend to do is have such incidents and people at the back of our mind... we don't realize that they are there - permanent residents in our mind and brain. and many of our actions and behavior is influenced by them... and we absolutely don't realize that!!! and if we are doing such things we are doing injustice to our present... i know, it sounds a littel absurd, but its true!!! it would be very easy for me to say that keep such events and people in their respective buckets and close them... and you would say 'boss, thats impossible'... but it really really helps... its all about making your mind and brain realize not to think about them anymore - unless i open the bucket!!! i'm not a psychology student or any maha-pundit, however, if you say one thing 10 times, u start to believe in it... having buckets is just another way to tell ourselves that - i do know but i do not require it - maybe now, maybe ever!!!

phew! its been a lil boring this time - cause i decided to write on buckets... most probably i would change the language later when the time is right!!!!

ask me more on buckets and i may not be able to help... as u urself need to understand what works best for you!!! :)

enjoy and take care!
-VK

Matheran - or - Monkey--RUN

Matheran - 7th April 2006 till 10th April 2006 as written to my elder brother in response to 'How was matheran' mail... FYI, he was/is in US at that time...

------------------
hmmm....
Matheran was fun and relaxing... monkey everywhere - its been sometime that i'd been to matheran. we stayed in Riviera, but i know Richie Rich would have been better. but at the end of it, we enjoyed!!

well, we left from office on friday evening. from seepz to Kanjur and then to thane and from thane we caught the karjat train (thinking not to miss any fast locals) fortunately, we got to sit early - ofcourse, different compartments. reached Neral around 9:30 and from there caught taxi till 'Dasturi point' - point beyond which vehicles are not allowed. it was pretty late and dark and had no means to go ahead with - there were people offering horses... initially i said 'no' but then someone booked all the horses and we were left with no choice... then it was walking alll the way till market/hotel. then someone started offering his service to carry luggage and take us to hotel... again a 'no' from me... so, we started walking and walking - thinking that its just around the corner - 15 mins walk or so. it was already too dark - around 10pm and we are all alone - except for another couple which was in taxi with us... wow!!! it was scary for sure. we - both couples - were initially waling separately. they were a little elderly - in their 40s and kerala south indians but based in bombay! so, after a total dark patch we intiated and asked them - lets travel together. they were surprised initially that we were walking separately and were happy to get along.... and then a nice round of talk followed and all of us enjoyed the walk till market after which they went to their hotel and we to ours... it was around 10:30 when we reached and the dinner time was already over. after my persuasion and they messing giving the right room - they obliged and offered us dinner. it was too spicy and we had to have supplements - sugar for Rohini and milk for me! - to cool off - ofcourse, with lotsa water... :) and we slept off like log...

saturday morning we woke up a lil late - now, there were rules we had to follow - one, hot water would be till ONLY (thats a STRICTLY ONLY) 10am and breakfast too... we lazy people cursed them for having a limit to necessities (outside food was not allowed too!) and woke up just in time to get a hot water (how i wish to write a hot shower - but the shower was not working and the cold tap wouldn't budge!!!) thankfully, they breakfast came to our room - against the rules of us going to the dinning hall - to get it - some parathas and something like appam. tea was good too!!! i don't remember doing anything on saturday - simply because we didn't do any!!! :) we just lazed around watching TV (something we did big time there was watching TV) and sleeping as the current was playing hide-n-seek! anyways, atlast we decided to get out of our comfort and venture out!!! we had horse-cabbies (what should we call those 'ghode waalas' in english) approaching us - the most non-responsive couple!!! anyways, had a good look at different kinda sandals - ladies ofcourse - before we actually went to the market. but before that - we had our favorite food - sweet corn!!! well, while Rohini started eating and teasing me how she won't give me - eventually she couldn't - as we had to succumb to the pressure of nature - in this case, the wild looks of monkeys around us - with a dog. well, we surrendered to the hungry eyes and stomachs of the monkey and gave-up the corn. Rohini felt really bad for the taste was really good... then some snacks at a hotel and visit to the garden... Nauroji garden. we expected the giant wheel to give us some scare - and it disappointed a lot... though we - ok, ok, I - started shouting 'boss, take care' to the guys who were spinning the wheel as ours was lighter one (ofcourse!!! and even though they had a couple of cement sack to balance and increase the load!!!). anyways, it was fun... then we had the 'goLa' (ice-ball??? again, what should we call it??) and back to hotel - dinner and sleep time. while Rohini slept, i watched 'Maine Gandhi ko nahi maara'... intense movie...

sunday morning - the same thing with bathing and breakfast - just that this time we were ready for it... and then we went out to see matheran. Rohini had missed her horse ride in Kerala so it was a make-up-for-the-lost-times for her... and she had so much that end of the day we were like 'no more horses please!!!'... anyways, we went point-watching on horse backs and a little of riding really helped... i was riding 'tendulkar' and she was riding 'baburao'.... for a change - tendulkar was the performing one!!! :) how i wish i could ride a ganguly - as i could get a chance to hit him!!! 'bad man'!!! anyways, i never hit tendulkar - he was good!!! after point-seeing (well, one basic question - whats so great in those points - normal creek/mountain/echo points - thats it?) anyways, what we enjoyed was the nature and the ride in the nature... it was worth it!!! and thankfully, we could visit a temple after missing saturday routine pooja - so we were good in that!!! (ain't it, GOD?) just in time back to hotel for lunch... a nice buffet followed and then some much needed afternoon-nap!!! evening time check-out time and there they were - the horse-cabbies whom i'd promised that we would take a ride back to Dasturi point. well, not caring that our backside was a lil soar with all the noon riding, we gave them a chance to serve us one more time - this time Rohini rode tendulkar (and he was more performing with less 'load'... and me baburao - i still hate to say i was riding baburao!!! :) ) at the end of the ride both - we and they - were thankful that the ride ended... and that was it... we had left matheran... only to see the railways and city crowd and vehicles and pollution till the next time we surrender ourselves to nature... :)
with a break in Dadar, we reached home just in time to receive ur call - infact i stepped down from auto and the phone was ringing - ofcourse, Aai and Baba were waiting for us outside house... and after a good chat with them we got ready to face the everyday routine music - the same good old office...

wake up vinu - its time for another meeting!!! :)

(and while i was writing the last line, my firang manager comes and comments - 'thats a big mail'... and i start telling him about matheran and he is thinking 'lonavala'... what the heck!)

- FYI, i've countered all fears of you both considering us a LAZY couple...

So why do we...

So, why do we not set expectations... this is the very basic thing that we should be doing before we commit... we commit to people and then commit to others - overlapping the same time. well, i get so very upset when someone is not able to set expectations - with peers, bosses, customers and husbands! :) 'upset' may not be a right word if i put 'husbands' to the list! :) 'surprised' it is!!! "surprised" is the word...
the success to professionalism is the ability to set expectations... and then deliver more than u set - meaning you give more than 100% - wow!!! some real secret that i've given away today... "funda" as per my wifo!!! and she hates fundas - esp when it comes to management and/or finance... the very position i was a few years back! :)
- baapre - my wifes calling - gotto go - can't miss that bus! :)
u guys take care and enjoy the weekend!
-VK

Wow!!! my first

Well, before u start misunderstanding, let me clear the doubt - its just my first blog on my blogsite... I had no choice but to start the blog when one of my friends - very very good friend - got upset for us not responding to blogs!!! well, starting a new blog as response doesn't make sense - right? however, i'm here to start my own... actually, going through his i've found that this is the best way of getting out what we feel and communicate to the world while nobody is listening - and everybody is - what we feel about anything and everything... cause there are things that are important to you and not so to the world!!!
so, here i'm promising that i'll pen down something worthwhile while i've time! :)
btw, i'm going to matheran today! more on that later!
enjoy and all the best - to you for reading my directionless words!
VK