Getting Older!!!

I remember, I was wondering why my Dad did not had summer holidays, Winter holidays or Christmas week Off. I was 10 then. Never asked my dad, but I could not imagine myself in that state. I loved my schooling and had no idea of what was waiting for me later.

I was 13, when I started wondering about college life. Uniforms and drills were not so interesting, PT master was over smart, Head Mistress was sturdy, weekly cleaning was hectic, girls were to schoolish.

Then came to college, too much crowd, first crush, second crush... too many to propose, confusion fenced, missing old friends, future is at the edge. No time to mess around, 24/7 focus on finding a place in R.V.C.E to know about computers. Mind was set, heart was following and the rhythm was in sync. I din know... I was 18. 4 years of mastering computers, change had begun. Where are my summer holidays, what did I do in winter, don't even remember celebrating Christmas...

And there comes the inevitable, JOB. Too ROSY to start with, while the thorns hide out to show up later...

All these while I was getting older and what happened to my DREAMS. Did I had any or was I too busy holding on to reality... I was lost in the hurricane called 'Rat-Race'. Thankfully I woke up and now digging back my dreams. And I have no choice, but to make them my reality...

What is your DREAM? A very controversial word, which can be discussed for life-time. I don't want to speak about it here, right now. But I want to share this small, but a wonderful article I came across recently. It did add fuel to my burning desire... I hope it will fuel you too...

From (Unknown Source)

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The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?"

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave me a giant squeeze.

"Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" I asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids..."

"No seriously," I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop I was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and expe rience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went.

She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet.

I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, "I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began,

"We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do any thing I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose."

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. LIVE YOUR DREAMS!!!

Last Friday...

I knew her for just over 5 months. We did our training together in Bangalore before we started our JOB career in different companies. She was a very good friend of mine. Bunch of us in the training room were awesome together. Those were some of the best days of my life. After training, we were in touch, but could not meet often due to JOB commitments and other usual unplanned weekend activities. However, we were catching up now and then on chat and very few times on phone as well. After couple of years, she moved to chennai and we lost touch. Days passed, months passed and so many years passed. One fine day we got a chance to connect online and she says "Marriage is fixed. Its gonna be next month end, you need to be there BOSS!!! No excuses, I have said well in advance and I shall be happy to see you at the marriage." WOW!!! I congratulated her and was excited to attend the marriage reception. It was time to catch up with some old friends as well. I asked if she is going to invite the whole training room. Unfortunately she had lost touch with many and was not sure to invite many. Anyway, among the invitees was one of my best College buddy. I was so happy to hear that. Immediately ringed my friend and planned for reception trip to chennai. Booked the train tickets immediately and got the confirmation as well.

So, the journey started on Friday morning from Bangalore to Chennai. It was a train to Patna. Our compartment was full of Bihari's. Hmmm... believe me... they seem to have a family setup in the train :). Bunch of elders with half a dozen kids and a bunch of ladies. Almost a complete family out there in the train on a "rail-picnic" I guess :). They were fully loaded with all the more-than-necessary stuff... "You ask... You get" :). I could not wait to see my friend to get in at next station. There he comes, after such long time it was amazing to see an old friend. Sat in our seats and his brain was just thinking on my lines about the "complete family" out there :). We could not stop to grin at what our minds were thinking. It was fun to laugh at something common on minds without speaking... hope you understood :) ; frequency match.

There started our conversation to unleash our flashback so far. It was extremely good to update on lot of stuffs that happened since we met last time. Came to know that his marriage was also fixed. YIPPY!!! One more good news to celebrate. I was so happy for him. And he was so lucky to marry the girl he liked and he deserved it. God bless the couple. Then we discussed about our good old college days, previous and current jobs and future plans and so on. In between we were commenting on the "complete family" activities on the train, in Kannada :). Mind you, no gossips , just living in that moment and enjoying with what was happening around. Thanks to my buddy, he had 2 lunch boxes, else I would have to trouble my stomach with train food. Usually, when the train is moving, you feel like you are travelling to heaven with the cool breeze blowing in and the sceneries around covered like clouds in the sky. First time ever I had a different experience. When ever the train stopped, I felt I was on earth, if not in heaven. Because, when it was moving, it was Hell. Warm air gushing in and the sight outside was like a desert with dry plants. The weather outside was damn HOT. We were hoping it will be evening by the time we reach Chennai and thankfully our hopes were alive as it was almost in the evening, 4 pm, when we got out of the train, and also the weather seemed to be a bit better than what we expected. Fun part was, we were shocked to see the "complete family" also getting down at Chennai... we thought they were on 2 day trip to Patna. Oh My God!!! we could not stop laughing again thinking..."Just for a 5 hour journey, they had almost a house set up in the train :)"

My friend's friend was waiting for us in the railway station. He was my friends future cousin :). The plan was to go to his hostel, fresh-up and then attend the reception. I was excited to hear that he was from IIT madras and we were going to his hostel in the IIT campus. WOW!!! I never thought I would ever go to IIT madras after I had finished my student career. Caught the local metro and in next 30 mins, we entered the campus. Out of curiosity, I just asked about the campus size. "740 acres.. i.e 4.5 sq.KMs" replied my new friend. DAMN!!! That's double the size of our Lal-bhag in Bangalore. I was wondering if it was just a college or future real-estate investment layout :). We got into a bus to reach his hostel within that campus. YES, you read it correct, we need to take the bus inside campus to reach from one place to other. What better can you get, a campus tour with a guide :). It was like a jungle out there... more trees and forest area than you can imagine in a college campus, and being within a metropolitan city. Buildings were hidden within this vast forest. Guess what, Deers were roaming out freely on the road side, with more guts than we witness when we see them in the actual jungle. Looks like they got a green card in this migrated tech-forest :). They were super cool :). It took 20 mins to reach the hostel stop. I was completely lost and was wondering how people commute form dept. to dept. or to and fro hostel in this Tech-forest. But it was one of the best place to be in. I remembered my good old college days. Looking at students hanging out, some playing, some discussing, some cycling, some jogging, some reading, and most of them Flirting :)... Damn!!! what a life we all pass through without knowing that it is only for just a few years of our entire life. Reached the hostel room. After the days travel and bearing the Chennai heat, I could not wait to take a shower. It was rejuvenating. Spent some time over there and left to buy a gift within the campus. Surprisingly, we could find an awesome painting and got it packed. Sometimes things work out so well when you go without a plan.

But the time was running at its own pace and we had lost track of it. It was almost 8PM, when we had to catch the campus bus to reach the campus entrance. By the time we got into an auto at the entrance, it was 8:30PM. I am a big time Formula-1 follower. One of my dreams is to drive a Formula-1 car, preferably the latest Ferrari F10. However, I was feeling as if my dreams were half achieved sitting in that Auto, just that the F10 was driven by someone else :). Auto- I name it as a "Roller Coaster on the Road". In way it helped us to reach the venue before the photographers went for the dinner :). There you go, Beautiful couple on the stage, smiling continuously and posing for the cameras, with the focus lights on them, they were shining angels. She saw us and the glow form her smile brightened the hall like a thunder flash. If not for traditional formality, I am sure she would have jumped out of the stage and received us :). Congratulated the wonderful couple, spoke a little, shared a lot of happiness and were ready to enjoy the dinner.

It was time to leave and catch our return train the same night. Came out of the hotel and searched for the F10. We could not find the same F10, but this time it was Force India- VJM03. It started raining and the VJM03 was superior to F10, with greater G-force, superb grips in wet conditions and unbelievable straight line speed. Reached the station within 20 minutes covering a distance of 15-16 Kms. That's VJM03 for you. Got into train and back to heaven, Bangalore, by early morning.

What a complete and wonderful day...!!! Hope to see more such 24-hour intervals...

10 seconds

It was almost midnight, when I was about to close my eyes and rest in peace. Mind was, as usual, pondering on the events that happened during the day. Nothing significant though, except those "10 seconds" in the evening that caught the attention back.

I left office at 5:30 to catch my cab back to home. Was sitting there in the TT without a thought in my mind, absolutely blank. Suddenly, I was wondering how did I happen to create my gmail account. I do not know why this thought came to my mind at that time. But when I thought about it, it was a very useful info. And the next moment, cab started and so the fun. We were into deep discussions and a bit of cribbing on the usual stuff. Soon realising that time will run-away with just cribbing and complaining, we were back on fun track. Played some games and then cracked few jokes, including some major PJs. It takes more than an hour and half to reach home. So anything entertaining is accepted and appreciated in our cab :).

Now, back to the midnight hour, I wanted to do something about those "10 seconds" instead of forgetting like many such 10 seconds. That is when I decided to start blogging. Again, why blogging???, I was not sure, I am still not sure. But that was one way, I thought, I can share my workshop inside my mind, my thoughts. No procrastination, why not create one and start NOW!!!. That's it... got up, put my glasses on, re-opened my laptop, googled for the text "I want to start blogging", thanks for the useful tips, created the id and scribbled this little "blog". I must be crazy...

And about those "10 seconds", I want to post in future for sure...

This is just the beginning...