More on Blogging...

Fridays is Volleyball day for me... and for some of my other colleagues. People who are very busy, very much in demand stop working at 4.55 p.m. on Friday, put aside their critical business demands, high priority meetings, escalated projects and head towards the sports centre (Also called The --- Club). There they blend into a common pool of people where there are no differences. Nobody cares who is the manager and who is the subordinate. For those 3-4 hours they are just two teams pushing the ball at each other, and nothing except placing the ball at the right place really matters. I love my Fridays and my volleyball.

It has been a hectic week. The past 2 days I have woken up at 7.30ish and started working, and have not gone to bed till 1 am. I have the bad habit of waking up in the morning, and while half asleep dragging my laptop towards me and logging on. I check to see if there are any escalations or any "red" mails. If there are I am usually glued to the computer for another half an hour before I can drag myself to brush, freshen up and have my morning tea. And that’s how my day starts. Well, not really the best way to start my day. But I believe in the "work-hard, play-hard" philosophy. When I work, I really immerse myself in it, and when I play.. people get fed up of my 'fun' moods..

Someday I know that things will even out and I will lead a more relaxed life. But right now I feel the strong need to work hard and persevere in all the things that I have aimed for. In my profession there is limited scope of ‘impressing’ the boss with anything other than actual results. And those can be achieved only with hard work and an eye on the target..

To digress a little bit.. I want to go away from the work part of my life. And towards the other things in my life that excite me. The real turn on in my life has always been conversation. I always cherish a good thought provoking conversation which leaves me with a warm feeling. And all my friendships are formed around the kind of conversations I have with them. Some of my closest friends are those whom I can call at any point of time, have a meaningful conversation, and end with a nice euphoria. The conversations can vary, from the intellectual to the absolutely silly and meaningless. From the controversial to the extreme conservative. And I wonder if things will change as we get older. I see a lot of my friends getting married. I always wonder.. will they change? I see them, like me, grow older, and in a few cases, wiser. I wonder will that make our conversations different. Thankfully till now nothing has changed for most of my closest friends, but my apprehension still persists. I do not want to have boring elderly conversations 30 years down the line about the grades of my grandchild. Or will those kind of conversations bring as much thrill into my life as the conversations I have right now about the economy, the cultural difference, about ambitions and emotional upheavals? Maybe I will leave that to my 900th blog post :).

Todays conversation with my best friend was about blogging. It is interesting how she has the patience to go through innumerable blogs. I do not have the patience. I follow very few blogs (3 actually) and do not have the patience to discover more. I need a blog to be very stimulating and honest to be able to keep my attention. I cannot tolerate fake blogs. Or crude blogs. Or wannabe blogs. Or blogs with incorrect grammar and bad English. I have read a few celebrity blogs, but the day I was told that Amitabh and Obama don’t really have the time to blog, and it is actually a professional who notes down the thoughts of such celebrities in shorthand and then converts these thoughts to priceless pieces of literature, it kinda spoilt it for me. Maybe it was a false speculation, but one will never know. And so I do not read celebrity blogs as well. I ask this question to myself often, would I read my own blog if I was someone else. The answer is usually a no.

There is no pattern or common trend among the blogs I do read and follow. They are as different from each other as could possibly be. One is that of my best friend. One is that of a lady from Delhi (whom I met at a University Debate competition and befriended) who is working as a consultant in the US, a typical NRI (pardon me Iya for categorizing you thus). And the third of another lady who is a brutally honest and straight forward person in the FMCG industry in India. All three of these ladies (yes, the charm of male penmanship has still eluded me) have distinctly different styles of writing. One is the most down-to-earth, no frills and simple blog I have ever come across. The simplicity of the blog, the purity of the thoughts are something that keep me hooked to the blog. And this one is perhaps the favorite. It is not without a reason that she is my best friend, amongst other things. The second is one of the most complex and yet honest blogs I have read. It does not show off (like my blog) but in a very subtle way reaches out to the reader with the strong personality of the blogger. The lady who is as complex and as much of a cancerian as me, and yet is so down to earth. Someone who is so identical to me that it is eerie. A certain person I know off would perhaps shrug it off as a play of the stars, we were born with the same sun sign. But I have still not stopped being surprised at how similar we are and so its good to read the thoughts of a clone in a different world. And the third has a style so brutally honest that it shocks me. And it is a good feeling to be brought down to earth, even if its with a thud. It has its dreamy side, but you have to read between the lines for that. I admire the fact that the thoughts of the person can come across so clearly, and even if sometimes I cannot identify with the thoughts I can feel them. And that is the beauty of the blog.

My writing style has changes over the years. I cannot tolerate what I have written even 5 years back. Is everyone like this? Have I become worse, or better, or has nothing changed, its just in my head? I feel I am much more positive towards life than I was before. I am much less self centered and much more aware of things around me. Of people around me. Of the life around me. I leave it to you. Here is a something I wrote 5 years back, I do not know if it is different from what I am today. I hate reading this kinda stuff, but I want to believe that I shall never be embarrassed of the person I have been..... so here it is.

“If I have sinned, I have suffered a long and gruesome penance, and with the hope that I have now atoned for all the wrongs that I may have done, I am back in the battlefield. Back to where I belong, albeit with a few changes and a few wounds. This for all purposes is ACT III Scene I and it is as interesting as it gets.
"All the worlds a stage and all the men and women mere players, they have their exits and entrances and every man in his time plays many parts"
The parts have been numerous, and the journey has been long...from "Dumb guy" to "Casanova", and from "Romeo" to "Merlin"... and now a whole new story, and a new part to play... but then before I move on and move up, there are some things which need to be cleaned up... and amongst them is the Jeanie.
Merlin needs no sympathies, Merlin needs no empathies, Merlin needs no handkerchiefs for the tears that may come, but Merlin has been wronged, and Merlin will fight back no matter what, for he is the magician and he is the fighter, and the fighter always wins”

Interesting, I have not stopped calling myself Merlin. Some things never change I guess. I still believe I am not a muggle. :)

Notable Achievement: Today I complete a week of daily blogging without missing a single day. I promised myself that in spite of the busiest schedule I can still do this. Now I know I can. :)

Quote of the Day:
King Uther Pendragon: You've tricked me, Merlin.
Merlin: Come, come Uther. I am a wizard, that's my business.

Quoted from the movie Merlin (1998/II) (TV) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130414/quotes)