Week 6 - Getting there - Rocking week

Sixth week of my 8 week challenge to bring my professional, personal and fitness life back on track. Almost there, should clear the uncertainties this week.Experienced an earthquake this week on Tuesday in Melbourne. Not something to worry about but a 5.3 scale good enough to rock your world. 


Professionally, a good week nailed the current project and got a few appreciations. I also got my termination letter this week, it came in as a shock even though i was expecting it to come sometime next week. i also went to an interview and currently have a couple of offers and a couple in the pipeline. This gives me some room to negotiate, however things can get bad quite quickly so need to be a bit careful.


Personally had a hectic week but good thing is it will only get better from here. The house building activities are still making good progress.Feeling a bit low with my room mate off to get engaged, fighting my demons alone in the house. Financially, the sudden surge in the aussie dollar is making me feel good. 


On the fitness front, had a couple of swims and unable to go anywhere beyond that. Need to focus on this front in the coming weeks.


I cant believe two of the greatest indian tennis players are making a mockery of olympics and indian tennis. I was a big fan of Leander and Bhupathi when i was around 13 years when they won the doubles tournament in Chennai. My parents were fortunate to see them play and win the semi finals of Aus open last year. They also had an opportunity to get both their autographs in a single tennis ball. Not sure if that can ever happen again, end of the day it is a loose-loose situation for everyone in this mud slinging activity.

Leander's Autograph during Aus Open 2011

I am running behind on the reviews of satyameva jayate. Today's episode on pesticides in food was a nice topic and so was the people with special abilities. However, could not connect to the domestic violence episode. May be because i have not seen any such thing in my family and friends circle i am unable to digest the fact that such men really exist.


Another movie marathon this week, starting with "Snow white and the huntsman" this friday night, could not relate the twilight girl Kirsten Stewart to Snow white. On Saturday saw the tamil movie "valakku enn 18/9", an amazing master piece, absolutely loved it even though i dont like movies with sad endings this was a nice one and the finished my saturday with the hindi movie "Rock Star", i cant believe how i missed watching this movie till date, i now know what people mean when they tell you live life like a rock star. Ranbir you rock.

Week 5 - A nice short week

Fifth week of my 8 week challenge to bring my professional, personal and fitness life back on track. Could see the end but still a fair distance to cover.

The week started well with the Queen's Birthday holiday on Monday. In spite of the bacterial infection, could plan for a trip to Mornington. 

View from the one of the view points in Arthurs seat, Mornington

Arthur's seat Mornington has always been my favourite location and it continues to amaze me  every time i go there. Even though it was gloomy, witnessed an amazing sunset. With Nadal finishing up the honours quickly on Monday night, could not have asked for a better Monday.

The Sun disguised as the moon, taken @ 2 pm on a gloomy day in mornington 

Professional, last week was an awesome week. I am very close to finishing off my dream project which i  started a couple of years ago. Even though had to spend a few long hours, it was absolutely worth it. On my job hunt, had an interview and have a job in hand now, not the ideal one but will gladly accept it in the current market. Also, out of blue got an interesting offer, need to discuss that early next week to see if that eventuates. This is truly something that would make me jump out of a bed on a Monday morning.

Personally, things are going well too, the house had its pooja ceremonies last week and continue to make good progress. My friend who i have been helping in his house hunting finally nailed a nice house this week, very happy for him. The depression of me being alone is trying to creep back and i keep killing it. After a few hectic weekends, had a nice relaxing weekend and some time with my camera.

On the fitness front, just had a couple of swims but i am planning to kick off the marathon practice soon. I wanted to run another 10km this year but changed my mind after i read this fb update on my friends wall, so changed my mind to run the half marathon this year.

"If people are no laughing at your goals, your goals are too small"

Could next week be the week with the Golden lining, sunset at mornington

A lot to do this week, looking forward to another exciting week. 

Week 4 - A good week but miles to go before i sleep

Fourth week of my 8 week challenge to bring my professional, personal and fitness life back on track. Half way there yet still a long way to go.


Professionally, another hectic week but still managed to catch up with a few people and ended up with a couple of offers which should get finalized next week. One of the interesting discussions was with one of the HR's which a couple of years ago i would have taken the job without a second thought, now i quoted them that i was expecting a figure way way less than my current pay but still she told me it was way above the salary they had in mind for the role. The good thing is i was finally able to shape up my linkedin profile, next week is for seeking recommendations and closing off my current project. On one side i get a lot of advice about the global economic conditions and i should settle for whatever i get, while on the other hand my heart doesn't want to settle for anything less. The next two weeks should be interesting, i have decided to cut down my losses and finalized a role so that the worst case i will end up in a role with a lesser pay but this gives the platform for me to chase other higher roles in the next 3-4 weeks.


Personally, work at the dream home has started. The bore well was dug out last week and next are the plans to be finalized, approved and then kick off the building activities. Finances are in order for the next couple of months,  but i think i can still manage my finances well enough to finish off the house. My mom is still believing in an astrologer who thinks i will find my dream girl if my mom visits the temple every week for the next 8 weeks. Anyways, it helps my cause, i feel much relieved i don't have to complicate my life any further at this stage. Spent the Sunday browsing through a lot of top blogs from Indiblogs read a few nice blogs and added them to my reading list. Also, did a lot of shopping this week, why does it feel good when you shop and much better when it is on sale. Also started my snow gear shopping for the Mt Buller trip which i am very eagerly looking forward to.

Taken during my 3rd trip to Mt Buller, looking forward to the 5th trip in a few weeks

Fitness side was another total blank this week, thanks to the hectic work and the bacteria which is killing me and which i am killing using penicillin. I have lot a couple of kilos due to this bacteria, not the ideal way to loose weight. However, i think i have just the inspiration to sort this out in the next few weeks. I have bought an amazing fcuk jacket and intentionally bought it a size smaller so that i can get the motivation to get myself fit. Let us see how long this trick works. 

Queen's Birthday Long weekend - Rainy, gloomy and sick

After a few weeks of hectic work, i was looking forward to the Queen Birthday long weekend, the only long weekend for the next 5 months. It didn't start pretty well when the forecast was out with all three days being rainy and gloomy. Friday i was down with severe throat pain, booked an appointment with doc to find out i got a bacterial infection and he has prescribed 50 tables of penicillin and 3 days of rest. The first thing i googled was to find if there is any possibility of an penicillin overdose.The answers i found were No, anyways i will stop it once i feel better. Felt much better today, so drove my friend around for his Saturday house hunting.Finally had a chance to take out my camera after nearly 2 months to capture the gloomy, rainy South Melbourne from my apartment.

Gloomy and rainy long weekend

The only good thing about this weekend is the French Open Finals. Even though i expected it to be Federer vs Nadal affair it ended up being a Novak vs Nadal match. It really hurts when Fedex goes down in straight sets. Would be interesting to see which of the two legends Federer or Sachin retire first?

Fedex and Nadal on the same side of the court enjoying
 a lighter moment  during Pre- Aus Open exhibition match

Hope it is as good as the Aus Open final this year but the only change being Nadal wins in the end. My mom is a big fan of Novak after she saw him in Aus open because she thinks he is funny and down to earth.This truly is the Golden Era of Men's Tennis with the domination of these three men. Can only pity on Andy Murray but he has a good future ahead, novak was in his shoes a few years ago.

Novak trying his hand with photography

Satyameva Jayate episode 4 was good around the unethical doctors in the noble profession. This reminded me of one of my childhood memories. I was around 10 years old when a huge hospital was inaugurated just outside our house. A politician came there to inaugurate it and address the gathering. He started with saying, "Do you know the difference between Yamaraj (God of death) and Doctors? Yamaraj only takes your life, doctors not only take your life but also get paid well for it". Should see the face of the doctor, he then pulled back saying our doctor is not like that. From my perspective, what aamir did was correct and he should not apologise to anyone. His objective was to showcase the unethical side of doctors and he did it correctly. He also showed a few examples of how noble medical professional continue to succeed without having to kill their conscience for money.

Satyameva Jayate epsiode 5 was around honour killings. While i totally agree with his view on honour killings and it is not acceptable at any cost, i thought he has sent the wrong message to the people.He has sent a strong message that honour killings is a crime but he has also made all parents who oppose the love of their children look like villains. I don't agree with that perspective. In today's world, people fall in love every second week and there has been several case of infatuations, time pass love or merely scams. Parents who oppose love because they are more experienced and they know what is good for you. Even from their perspective they would be more than happy to look like villains, if they are successful in preventing you from falling in love traps. I have seen people who wait for years to get their parents approval to get married and people who forget their love and get married to someone else and live happily. Just my views on this.

I hope to get better soon and enjoy the rest of the long weekend.

Fifty First Dates & Politics

If you were thinking this post is something related to love/romance then you are wrong. The movie "Fifty first dates" has played a key role every time i am down and i need to get back with my life.Watched this movie last week in one of the movie channels.

It all started during my college days, before we finished our third year we decided to contest for the college elections in the final year. I had already got placed in a I.T. company, was looking forward to have a fun filled final year. I was nominated for the post of vice president and we did all our calculations, we had the numbers to win hands down. The way it worked was every class had to elect their representative who would in turn vote for the Student's Union members. The elections in my class was very tough and finally it was a tie between me and the other guy which meant we both got 0.5 votes. So around 4pm all the elected representatives had gathered to vote for the student's union. Our numbers were still pretty good, until the results came out, we lost by 1.5 votes, some of the people who had promised to support us had changed their minds at the last minute for reasons unknown. Never felt so betrayed in my life ever before, one of the biggest failures and i could not imagine picking myself up and continuing with my life.

The majestic CEG

We were devastated and didn't come out of our room for 3-4 hours, then took our bikes and went for a movie, the only movie available at that time was "Fifty First Dates". We didn't go there to watch the movie but to clear our head. One key lessons i had learnt from this experience was that you may be pretty good but don't expect everyone else will see you that way, unless you market yourselves equally good you wont get noticed. Well the good thing about this is that we had more time during my final year and equally more desire to prove to the college that they had taken a wrong decision. First, we organised an event where we mobilised funds, sponsors to provide specially designed vehicles for the differently abled students. We planned for a couple of vehicles but ended up getting three customised scotty's. I had also proposed and obtained the approval to have our department's own society and own annual functional. Also, actively became a member of the placement cell to ensure most of my class mates got placed before they stepped out of college.

Our election group is still very close and enjoy a nice laugh over how things went by. Even though we always wish we had another chance to get things straight in our college. A few years ago we had a different opportunity, this time it was at the highest level, "Lok Sabha elections, 2009". We were supporting a youth icon who was contesting from South Chennai. A couple of my friends were part of his core team and i had gone to meet them during my vacations. So i ended up spending a couple of days campaigning for the youth icon, went house by house in Mylapore and Saidapet. It was a great experience to see people treating us with respect and encouraging the involvement of educated youth in politics. In the evening we even went to parks and distributed pamphlets only to be confronted by a few security guards. He didn't win but ended up getting 15k votes. This number is a very high number for a independent candidate, the next closest independent candidate was around 250 votes. However, it was not anywhere near the winning number of 300k votes. The challenges faced by these independent people are enormous and I think the educated youth can enter politics and win elections only in movies, in real life it is next to impossible. Having said that, i am a big fan of the youth icon, he then unsuccessfully contested for State assembly , Chennai mayor elections but he has still not given up on the people. Hats off to his persistence, hope he wins an election pretty soon.

Week 3 - Not a week to remember

Third week of my 8 week challenge to bring my professional, personal and fitness life back on track.


Professionally, a very hectic week didnt get much of a chance to catch up with people and no promising offers. Well good thing is finally i have a weekend after slogging 12 days. After working till 8 pm on Sunday and happily watching Chennai score 190 slept off at 2 am only to wake up at 7 am to see chennai lost the IPL finals. Not a good start to the week, which only got worse as it progressed. Wednesday got the rejection from my first job offer because they found someone with 20 yrs of experience who also quoted a less daily rate.Friday was the worst day, started with getting stuck in the lift for 25 mins. Even though there were a couple of good looking girls there were also 10 other people breathing on each other's face. It only got worse as the day progressed. The only silver lining this week was the townhall where i was called up on to the stage for the Q3 individual performance awards. Felt really proud to be one among 4 people, picked up from a program of 1500 people. I have to update my linked in profile this weekend at any cost to get noticed in the next few weeks.


Personally, the dream home is shaping up well. My parents are excited and at the same time worried how i would manage my finances.Little they know the sorting out the finances is the last thing i am worried about now, will have to do something next week to make them feel comfortable.I have always been the person with whom my family, extended family, my school friends, my college friends, work colleagues open up to share their problems as they think my life is perfect. I have never been able to open up to anyone because i fear they would not have anyone else to open up to. This is hurting me now and i guess i will have to settle now with the next best thing to open up, this blog.


Fitness side was a total blank this week, at this rate i might end up giving up soon on this. Every time i start on this i have a good start but lack the motivation to get through to the end.

Badly need a break, my favourite getaway location, Squeaky beach, Wilson Prom

From where i stand, my life could quickly in either direction pretty quick. Well it would have been a totally different situation if my parents were not looking out for a bride for me. I would have taken a nice break after a couple of hectic years then started fresh to think about the next assignments. I still hope i get an assignment with a few weeks break so that i can plan something. At this stage just looking forward to the long weekend next week thanks to Queen and the Australian govt celebrating her birthday and the Mt buller trip in 4-5 weeks.