THOUGHTS ON A NEW LIFESTYLE

'There is a saying in my company that goes like "Work hard and play hard".' , said I.

"Play hard ... at work ... are you out of your mind?? Go to work at 8, slog through the day with a desk full of work, have a few coffees and leave office at 8 again; if you are lucky enough, grab some beers after that. Thats what you call work life, mon ami.", said the voice.

'Ah ha ... lets give you some proof then ... take a look at the picture above - thats on a working day for a birthday bash!! Not yet convinced otherwise. How about some more?'

'Now thats certainly in broad daylight and defintely not in office!! Can't show you the day but let me assure you that its not a sunday ... coz for us a sunday is as good as a weekday. Thats a day off!! A whole bunch of us at the Rockies (Banff, Lake Louis).'

'Now what on earth is this new thing called "days off"?? You just now described a Sunday as any other working day!! And anyway you keep saying that you work on a 24x7 culture', said the voice, now even more sarcastic!

'Oh true', said I, unable to hide the smile, 'but you missed the rest ... we work the culture for 2 weeks and then enjoy 24x7 for a week!!'

'So you want me to believe that you guys work 2 weeks and travel around for 1 week??'

'Ya sort of ... not necessarily travel though ... it depends actually ... people have better ways of spending time sometimes', said I with a wink. 'For me its travelling though!!'

'Hmmm ... so where else have you been?' ... did i hear a bit of interest now?

'Well, a place called Jasper, again in the Rockies. We drove on snow, went to Lake Maligne, Lac Beaufort and the Maligne Canyon. Stayed over for a night, went to a pub, got to know each other better, understand new cultures and of course, relaxed and had loads of fun'. Take a look.

'Well, thats not bad considering you've been here for just over a month ... but it really doesn't look you work, man!!' said the voice incredulous.

'Of course I do' , said I, 'its just the Slb lifestyle'.

Dunno why I suddenly decided to get hooked to the concept of blogging!! It seemed such a useless waste of time even a few months back. But 46 days of hiatus from all those who matter so much to you can change your outlook quite dramatically, so I conclude.

12th Sept - the day I set foot in a strange oasis of snow was kind of strange. Supposed to come alone in a 17 hour long flight, the Mumbai airport through up a pleasant surprise in the form of a colleague. A fabulous first two weeks just seemed to confuse me even more; here I was expecting to get back to a schedule, if not busier, at least as busy as my final year and there I was partying and chilling around in pubs ... boy, who would expect this!?!?

Drinking for the first time outside the circle of those wonderful guys in Kgp just seemed to remind me of the distance from home sweet home. And invariably after a bottle of beer/vodka, the discussion turned to life at the IIT-s (no prizes for guessing the background of the guys I was drinking with)!! SUCH IS THE POWER OF NOSTALGIA ...

A week into this "wonderful new culture, food and environment" ... hey, hold on ... wasn't everything too clean, too perfect, too free for my liking? The english language is amazing ... it has a term for every damn thing in this world ... so there comes the CULTURE SHOCK ...
How I longed to get stuck in a traffic jam, get to smell the diesel fumes, get to sweat in a white collarless cotton T-shirt and most importantly to speak in that strange pot-pourri of Hindi from Biharland interspersed with English and Kgp's very own lingo!! In came Orkut and Yahoo! Mail - the saviours, mails and scraps from every imaginable corner of India just seemed to spice up life just that little bit. But the icing still remained elusive.

Moments that are almost inexpressible in words were the best moments of life I ever lived ... re-living those countless days at the Garden Inn treats, the endless meetings in the Gymkhana, those never ending arguements with Kgp's best gift to me and so many other incidents that I may have never thought of in any other situation. Tears, glory, fun, smiling faces, disappointed faces all seemed to be there ... so near yet so far.

A trip to the Banffs - awesome ... nature at her best. The Rockies may be babies compared to the Himalayas but in terms of scenic beauty, they surpass the mightiest. But flip the coin - my thoughts strayed back to the trip to Darjeeling I missed with my wingies and to the last trip I had with my friends to Gangtok.

New friends, some great guys, they all were slowly starting to leave their footprints on a new path that I had chosen to tread. Only that now I had not an idea where the path leads to or beneath whose footsteps lay solid earth. Maybe it wasn't me alone ... but Nostalgia kept me going when the mind felt all alone, forsaken, when angels deserve to die.