From Chandni Chowk to China

(Getting to post it a little late)

OK, I am not from Chandni Chowk exactly (but 200 kms from there), and not going to China to be precise (just a nearby SAR), but the title seemed interesting. I will be leaving India in another hour and 20 mins. And then, for whole 43 days, its gonna be a strange land, different people, and a different world.

I am in the midst of that strange, eerie feeling you get when undergoing any big change. Don't know whether everyone gets it, but for me it kinda gets uncomfortable, thinking about issues as trivial as 'Whether I would be able to figure out my way out of the airport' :P

I have been postponing this trip for long now, for reasons unknown to me. Somehow the prospect of my first overseas travel is not being able to excite me enough as well. I am clueless whether I should take this trip as a welcome honeymoon, a challenge, or just another assignment in a different location. My friends say my mind is a cobweb, or rather a multitasking processor where n number of things are going on in the background. So it is this time around, and there are several thoughts fighting with each other. You would think why I am making this such a big deal. Just go through the list and answer yourself whether I am overdoing it. Ha!

The predicaments:
1. Being in a foreign land, away from desh ki mitti (seriously, getting this feeling as well!)
2. I don't speak their language, don't eat their food, and at the expense of being called a racist, they don't have eyes!!
3. Can I count for company on the 4 Indian people I know there? Or in the absence of company I am going to rot in office or my hotel?
4. Will I be able to live up to the high expectations my dear friend Krina has loaded me with and fully leverage her excel sheet (she has provided me with a comprehensive 'places to visit' guide for HK - m telin u, its bloody brilliant- she is stuck in the wrong job), or would I be a subject of leg pulling for the rest of the year by my office gang (they take having fun in HK very seriously)?
5. Would I be able to pull off some crazy acts and be on level footing with my friend Mr. 'Stud' Bajpai? (What does he think of himself? #@!@@$)
6. Would I be able to cheer for India in the world cup? Seriously hoping they have some Indian addas there!
7. Would my office gang do a lot of parties here in India while I am away. Guys, if you are reading this, beware..don't go to a lot of happening places. 'Sabr ka fal meetha hota hai'

OK, coming to the more serious ones.

8. Is this trip really an opportunity in disguise? If yes, would I be able to make the most of it? Would it be a step forward towards my dream?
9. Would this trip be the change that I needed. Developments in the past few weeks haven't been really great- would I finally take my mind off things and come back ao be larger than life?
10. Would I be able to figure out what I want? And will I act to implement one of the answers?

And last but not the least, am I forgetting to carry something?

I guess no journey was successful with so much negativity to start with. So here is what I think I am going to do: Blank my mind, and take things as they come. Anyways, seeing the goras on the international airport is getting me lil excited :) And the best feeling was, to hold the US and HK dollar in my hand. So it must not be that bad I guess.
Ohh, the boarding announcement is here. Signing off, Adios!

Yeh saali zindagi...

Life’s a bitch. Nothing more, nothing less, simply a bitch. It is unruly, dogmatic, uncompromising, and unrelenting. And it is a bad enemy to have. Really bad! You can’t win over it, you just can’t.

I am not a person who gives up easily. I am an optimistic, energetic go-getter, and I believe in making things happen. And I am not a person who would sit, sulk, and procrastinate over why certain things did not go my way. That is the way life, that bitch, has taught me to be.

Why the swear words? Well, simply put, I like to be in control of my situations, which is precisely what I have failed at. Failed repeatedly and miserably. No matter what I plan, no matter what I do, things go according to a plan which definitely does not seem to be the one designed by me. As if there is no swimming against the tide. And I have only life to blame and plan my revenge against, coz being an atheist, it wouldn’t really suit me to go to a temple in Mr. Bachhan’s style and say, “Aaj khush to bahut honge tum, haiin?” It has been life, that has been giving me choices I didn’t need, de tours I didn’t plan, and potholes I didn’t expect (at least I think so). 

Life would ensure that you never get the thing you want, or at least the thing you think you want. It would put you in discomforting situations, and push you away from your desire. And it is not modest, it is not empathetic. It chooses to slap you in the face with harsh realities after a good bit of time has passed. Yes, I agree, that life’s plans for you eventually turn out to be better than your own plans for yourself, but there has to be a better way of doing this yaar! What’s with all the chaos? Can’t it be plain and frank and present choices which are the best suited and let me choose my way? No, because it enjoys watching me make all the moves in the wrong direction. It gives it some sort of sadistic pleasure. To top it all, the activity that it enjoys the most is unsettling comfortable, relaxed people. As soon as you try and accustom yourself to a certain state of things, it would try and tempt you, present you with newer, unexpected options…with the sole intent of unsettling you, and making you think again, and again, and AGAIN, about what is it you really want. It loves to have the last word, and so it always finds a way of showing you how YOU were going to make the wrong choice, and how, life has given you exactly what is best for you. And that is what I hate about it the most. The bitch is always right. Dead right everytime!