Cafe Madras

I went to Chennai for my B1 VISA application. I was there for the last couple of days. What an experience!

The news is that I will be in US at least for the next 90 days. Its a city called Monrovia, CA. Coming back to my Chennai experience, I should tell you that this place needs a makeover. I thought I was in Patna for a while. About the climate – You value Bangalore only when you are out of it. I missed every bit of it. I feel that this place has the best mix of climate and work opportunities even for nerds like me.

The US consulate in Chennai seems like a fortress. Multiple levels of checking and security. They have outsourced the baggage department to a local hand cart. That guy will take all security measures before accepting, and will keep your articles isolated from others. He wrapped my laptop bag in a rag, and before that ensured that I am not carrying any Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, I did see a “weapon of mass destruction” inside the consulate, and that was born and nurtured in the US ;)

I hoped that they grant business visa to all who apply. But, I soon realized waiting on that 3rd row seat, that they conveniently reject any application they could not figure out. It makes sense for them not to grant entry to their country anybody who is unable to explain his situation to him. So, 3 applications were rejected. 2 of the applicants were too vocal to make any sense, that’s why they got rejected in my opinion. I couldn’t figure out the 3rd one. I was tapping my heart and humming what Aamir Khan preached - “Aal izz well”. I have been delaying this but, now I want to set my foot in the US, and experience it.

My interview was over before I could understand what’s happening – all I could recall is that he said “your VISA is approved”. I am not sure, but a smile, a bit of courtesy, some short and crisp answers in a fake accent sometimes works. Different people however say different things. Never mind, but I am definitely landing in US shortly.

Before my journey began, I was worried about the return journey. They had booked my ticket in a “local” train called “Lalbagh Express”. This train, when rolling from Bangalore to Chennai is called “Bangalore Express” and upon return its called “Lalbagh Express”. I tried but could not find any other decent train or flight – so I had no other option but to experience this phenomenon.

After that tryst with destiny at the consulate, I returned to the hotel room cribbing about the heat and humidity. With AC blowing on my face in full glory, I realized that my cell phone is discharged. In fact it was out of battery when I stepped out of my home. No charger, no phone which meant no contact with the world. I do not remember any phone number, so I was doing “Memento”. Some numbers I do remember even now – simply because I called them so many times and heard disturbing and annoying songs – I hate that irritating Kunal Ganjawala song. Whatever. I was worried because I knew that my family must be worried.

I could not sleep the whole night prior to the interview, because I had no alarms to wake me up on time – I am very dependent on my phone, I agree. I asked the hotel reception to wake me up at about 8 o’clock so that I can be ready for my 9:15 appointment. I could not trust them – you know why? Because I saw old age bulbs instead of CFL in the room. I thought that if they can do this, they don’t care too much about their guests. They claimed that they are some 3 star hotel, but you know I just shared my doubts. So, I kept waking up every couple of hours, and switch on TV to verify time on various news channels – Memento again. I am weird.

Finally, I woke up on time, went outside to buy a sachet of shampoo. The bathroom looked decent, but the shower wasn’t. It could only pour hot water, so somehow I completed the formality. Now get ready for the best part. I came out of the shower, the first thing I normally do is comb my hair, I started looking for a comb. But it wasn’t there. You can imagine the state of my hair coming out of that hot water shower. My head was looking like a cotton ball – after a child has finished playing with it. I used a towel to somehow bring some order to the chaos. Managing things somehow, I was sure that once I get out and let my hair soak some wind, I will be fine. After all that mayhem, I finally reached the US consulate.

Now I am waiting for the train at that really weird Chennai railway station – I can’t explain how stupidly designed piece of dirt and trash it is. You need to be there to appreciate what I am talking about. Having said that, it gave me the real inspiration to write this piece. I am in the train now. This place is lit. Yes, really it is because there are a lot of people sitting, no one standing though, interacting with each other. The seating promotes interaction – unlike flights or the elite Shatabdi express – you will tend to talk. People were interacting and telling tales of their inspirational lifetimes to people not know to them. I could not make out a lot as most of them were talking in a local dialect of the regional language, but body language will tell you the context. I must tell you each context was relevant and interesting.

The vendors selling different items in so many different shades of loud and cheer was something I missed for so long – yet never really thought about it. That train compartment reminded me of lot of things that I thought I forgot. It was like revisiting myself. I recommend this adventure.

I must mention about this old lady who came on board a little later, may be after a couple of stations. I couldn’t understand a word she spoke, but the way she said those words made me realize that this world survives because there is more good in it than worse. She had that twinkle in her eyes whenever she uttered. She reminded me of those good old days when I was pampered by my parents, when I was a kid and everybody used to like me. The days when my “badi bua” would come to me and run her fingers across my head with my head on her lap.

The days are gone, its not going to return but the memory and the feeling and the warmth stays. It always does. You always remember the good time that you spent, the warmth that you shared. Some things require a trigger, others don’t. This is life, and its best when its surprising.

The power of “NO”

There are a lot of people who can’t say NO; to just about anything. Even if it hurts them personally.

In one of my previous companies I attended a training on Personal Effectiveness. It covered different personality traits. They discussed about a concept called C.O.R.E. In an exercise they evaluated the attendees using a questionnaire. I was declared a person with a dominating “E” trait. Everyone has a dominating trait and certain other supporting traits. Later on they seated the attendees based on their dominating traits starting with C. Obviously I was in the last row. But, the most important point is that in a class of 20 there was only 1 guy who sat with me on that last row. I knew I am kind of insane but I didn’t know the extent. Before I started to feel lonely, the trainer started explaining things about the concept. Normally I remember all the humiliations and insults I go through but, this is kind of exceptional. I do not remember what the acronyms C, O, R and E stand for, but I remember what he said about E. Well, later on it turned out that E people are more humane than other people, so I was happy!

Lets time travel a few more years into the past. I landed into my first job in Gurgaon. It started with a 3 months training. The training was very good, and it taught me a lot about a lot of things in the world that matter. It laid a solid foundation. I was fresh, in love and in a hurry to achieve a lot of things in life. My trainers (mostly ladies) liked me for my innocent looks and straight forward answers to their (mostly) technical queries. There was this girl called Nidhi Sharma who I knew used to like me (a lot). She was not of that sheepish sorts so she used to express herself every now and then. Once in the middle of the training the trainer decided to play “Hot Seat”. That was some real hot stuff. She said that she already has a boyfriend and she is ready to leave her for me. I was blushing and I couldn’t look into her eyes anymore! She said a lot of other feel good things about me, and then we left for the day. I was wondering about it, and then I saw her boarding the same cab. She decided to sit next to me, and she started her small talks. She said that she does face reading and she told me every damn thing that the trainer told me about the E people. She kept on talking for about an hour, and when she left a lady in the cab told me that she’ll get you. Whatever that was, that was something amazing. I am not sure if she meant what she said, but the things that she told me about me as a person was largely true. I got a scientific explanation later on, after all!!

E people can’t say NO. They want everybody around them to be happy. So much so that they care about the opinions of a strangers too. They try to be modest and ensure that they always leave a good impression. They like to make friends in the group. They get disturbed if they said something bad (even if it was the need of the hour). They can’t do routine stuff. If traits like perfectionism is also present these people are a perfect fit. They ensure a good healthy environment and get things done efficiently too! But, the biggest worry is that the points that go in favor are points that go against them. The fact that they can’t say NO, from the organization point of view, these people are effective but they always are flooded with work. They like to please people that’s why they can’t take tough decisions – and that’s one of the reasons they like to work alone so that nobody interferes and nobody gets hurt!! Wonderful!

However, the other extreme is also present and its abundant. The people who say NO to everything. The first word they utter after a discussion is over and if you asked him – they will say NO. These people are “C” people. They like to do routine stuff. They never take chances. They are conservative and resist change. Unlike E guys who like to try and work out new things, they will act a laggard and stay away from new things and try only when they are asked for or mandated to do so. You can easily figure them out in a conversation, and judge how they will react to a situation. In any conversation or discussion they are mostly on the opposing side. Its often said that its easy to criticize than to support – its because of these people. The pointers that go against them are the same ones that work in their favor. The fact that they resist change is the fact they bring stability to the organization. They bring the other aspect of the conversation strongly, and most importantly they never lose money in recession – because they invest in Fixed deposits and debt instruments than equity based instruments :) These are the people who survive bad times because of the power of NO.

There is nothing like right or wrong or good traits or bad traits. Everything in this world is relative. The people who let the correct trait dominate according to the given circumstance are winners eventually.

Work, Ceremony and Me

I have been keeping really busy for the last couple of weeks. Mostly, office kept me busy apart from a major family ceremony – Sonit’s mundan. The guy with long curly locks is now reduced to shiny heads. I was expecting him to cry and create a lot of noise over it, but he remained calm and composed. I was more nervous than he was.

Last week my family came from my hometown, and all of sudden my house is full. We are a strong 15 people noisy neighborhood now. Movies, popcorn, Pepsi, laughter and lots of fun kept us busy.

Sonit likes the idea of jumping around. He carries a lot of surprise for the people around him. So when he jumped from my bed it surprised a few but when he jumped from the arm rest of my sofa (which is about 2.5 feet from floor) he surprised all. The venture that surprised me was when he was about to jump from the back of my nephew who was doing a horse act for him on bed. Altitude from the floor was about 4.5 feet; we somehow managed to keep him from doing that!

Work kept me on my toes for the last couple of weeks. Do you remember you once said that I can’t work in a team? As always you were correct. I have been working as a lone contributor for quite some time now. I don’t trust people for the skills that they have. I have found very few people whom I can trust as far as work is concerned. I have noticed that people who work with me invariably go through a large amount of change by the end of a project. I think I influence the way they think, and sometime I feel that I have an intimidating presence. But, whatever it is, I deliver – exactly what the business want with quality. My boss, who is the chief architect of the organization, was in town. He relocated to the US a few months ago – and he wanted to get things done on time. As I am acting as an individual contributor on this project, I pumped myself in and got it what he wanted – so he was very pleased with the progress. It made me feel good too! In my last organization, I was part of a big team where people wanted to discuss everything – you can imagine what could have been the scene of one of those meetings. I sincerely feel that you can choose any color you want as long as it is black.

I am not autocratic, I am a thorough democrat, but I am also aware of the fact that you can’t have inputs and work on it from each member of your team. You need to be able to take decisions on your own. I can’t say that all of my decisions are great and that they offer the best solution, but most people feel that it’s good in the given set of variables. Sometimes, I have deliberately offered my self to be driven by others, but after a while I insisted on back seat driving.

I have also realized that managing people is not my strength. Although I can be very diplomatic at times and carry a lot of convincing abilities, but I love technology. I want to be in the middle of the game as long as my game lasts.

The Lovely Bones

I have been watching movies like crazy these days. Almost every other day I watch one. Most of them are mediocre, and made without a sense of belonging, but some of them are outstanding, and then a few of them are exceptional.

Cinema is a form of art. Unfortunately there are only a few gifted people who understand this. Peter Jackson is one of them. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was a class act. Even an old classic like King Kong was recreated by him in a very sensible manner. In my opinion this movie called The Lovely Bones stands apart. It’s a different genre for him, but he proved that challenges are opportunities for excellence.

Everything is so subtle, so suave yet so abstract in his renderings. It’s like watching wallpaper on celluloid. In this age of technology it’s pertinent that something like wallpaper represents art. Art is a relative thing, but it needs an eye of the beholder. The eye that can capture not only what’s displayed but can also fathom the feelings that went into creating it.

I was reluctant about this movie initially. People really didn’t think highly of this. Later on I read that it’s about some nasty killer, and a girl who was murdered in her teens. It seemed to me as a plot of some routine, ordinary movie – and it is a very routine, ordinary plot. But, I am not dancing about the plot anyways. What’s overwhelming is the fact that it’s been portrayed in way that it transforms into a piece of art. Any lesser director could have killed the movie and it would have been like a disposed off low grade offering. But, I was in for a surprise.

The narrative is by a girl who has been murdered by her neighbor. It starts with the girl recalling her childhood when she pondered about a lonesome penguin in a snow-globe. Her father used to tell her that it has a good life, and he shook the globe to scatter the snow all around the penguin. The fact that her father and her entire family loved her so much is also a pivotal part of the storytelling.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the movie. You will be amazed to see the story unfold, and you will be blown away by the sheer brilliance of director’s imagination. Before I forget, I must mention that this movie was based on a novel by the same name. I can imagine that most of the sequences would have been hand crafted by the writer, but it takes sheer brilliance to portray it on screen with the same amount of imagination and craftsmanship.

What’s in the name?

A lot of people asked me what the meaning of my name is. It started when I was in 6th standard, and my moral science teacher asked me this question, and believe me it was a part of the oral examination (this is the term used for an examination where you aren’t supposed to write anything but speak, like an interview – don’t think of anything else you filthy mind!) so marks were at stake. No points for guessing but I didn’t know the answer, and there was no Google at that time - I am prehistoric, ain’t I?

Finally, I know that meaning of my name now. You can just Google it to find for yourself.

Now, the point is why did I name my son Sonit? Well, there are many theories doing the rounds, but the one that it rhymed well with my name was the deciding factor. To add to the rhyme was the fact that my pet name Sonu, my wife’s pet name Soni, and my son’s name Sonit gel extremely well together. Last but not the least is the fact that I couldn’t think of any better names.

As you know some history is mandatory in all my texts, so here you go. Ever since I thought of having a family of my own, I had decided to name my kids Aayush and Ananaya. Good names aren’t they? Yes, they are, and I almost certainly decided on this name. But, I had to change my mind at the last moment because I heard about Shekhar Suman’s son who had the same name.

Actually, people tend to get superstitious when they have something in mind for someone they love. It taught me a lot of things about life. Although I had understood it before but then I began to respect and honor decisions taken by people in and around me.

That’s a sweet little note on how Aayush became Sonit, but what's in the name afterall?

The first day in school

Like all young guns I also had my first day in school. Nothing amusing about it but its something that’s very special to me.

I remember the day when my parents arranged a small get together inviting only close relatives for my “khalli” (please suggest an English equivalent for this ceremony) ceremony. I was about 4 years old naughty, inquisitive, curious, and twinkle in the eyes sort of kid. I could easily feel the warmth and affection almost everybody used to give me, irrespective of the proximity of the relationship.

The ceremony was scheduled to start at about 8 am, but it started at 8 am IST, i.e. at 10 am. We had to wait for everybody who was invited to be present for the occasion. For me, it was a brand new day for mischief. I can still see myself dressed in that white “kurta – dhoti” outfit. My mother, however, kept on warning me not to go anywhere near the place where the family priest was about to setup things for the ceremony. But, my curiousness knew no bounds. I started playing with the fruits, and sweets, and other stuff lying there. I had to be transported to a safer far-off place, it was difficult but the task was assigned to my elder brother so he did it with perfection.

When it all started, my father placed me on his lap and performed the rituals. I was then asked to write something on a slate. I enjoyed making the map of the world, and all the groovy mid 70’s design comprising of circles and dots and curves. My father had to intervene and then he brought some order to chaos on the slate. The ceremony was complete.

The decision was almost unanimous to port me to the same school where my elder siblings were ported. I was always told that they were simply outstanding as far as studies went, and that they always stood first in their class. That was to motivate me to do better. I used to think the same until I reached 7th or 8th standard that they were like me! At that point in time it was the biggest revelation of all times for me.

I first went on to the school Principal’s office along with my parents for admission and some kind of parent teacher meeting. The Principal was actually the director of the school, and after being a mute witness of my activities in his office he declared that I am “abnormal”. All I did was that I touched some shield kind of a thing in his office and it fell down along with some other things. But I didn’t break anything! After returning from school my parents declared the principal “abnormal” after some mutual discussion.

The day has finally arrived, I don’t remember the date but it was the year 1985, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi – I remember this because I saw people going crazy and ransacking some shops owned by Sikhs in my locality. Not a very good thing to remember, but that’s how the brain works. My elder brother and my mother went to school with me and gave me a lot of biscuits and precious advice that went over my ears and whatever oozed in went over my head.

I was good as long as they were present, but as soon as they started to leave I went crazy. I was crying as if it was the end of the world for me. I remember that moment and I can tell you that I can still feel it, it was not good, and I felt very bad. I don’t like people leaving me, I go mad, and I feel devastated. My classroom was at the first floor, and after crying my heart out I just ran out of the class. I was just a kid then, a small kid wearing half sleeves and half pant, and I ran, I toppled a few times but I didn’t care, I went down the stairs and then ran towards the main gate – which was quite far because the school had a large playing area. I finally stopped at the closed gate, and I couldn’t do anything after that, that was the end of my struggle - and that marked a new phase in my life.

It’s been destined that I find it very difficult to transition from one phase of my life to another. I don’t know if it’s with me or with everybody. You might think why do I remember all of this all of a sudden? Actually, my son is about to go to playgroup starting this June. I will try my best to ensure that his transitions are smooth. But, then my parents also tried the same. There are some things that an individual must go through and that are how he learns the intricacies of life. I guess its Sonit’s turn to take on the world. I wish him all the best. I love him more than anything else in this world, he is the center of my universe, and he is making a transition now.

Sonit can be reached at Sonit.Sahay@gmail.com

Is Google going the Microsoft way?

Not everything that Google does is successful. Although it’s the undisputed king of the web, it has started seeing its failures too. Microsoft ruled the roost for a couple of decades and its the leader in Desktop and corporate computing. I don’t see it facing any hurdles anytime soon. Not from Google at least.

When Microsoft seemed to lose the web war, people started speculating another Netscape – IE battle. They sniffed the same fate of Microsoft at the hands of Google what Microsoft did to Real Player and Netscape. Microsoft tried a lot of things to stay alive in the Internet search and advertising market – the latest being renaming Live to Bing – trying to be catchy. It has about 3.1% market share.

The list of failures for Google is not a very long one, but it’s on the rise.

Google Chrome OS launched in July 2009, is begging for some attention. It’s called the browser OS where hardware is no requirement. I will give it 5 years to see what it does. I wish it all the best.

Orkut seems huge in India and Brazil. The rest of the world does Facebook. It’s invading India and Brazil big time now. Google seems to be playing catch-up here. They are copying Facebook’s wall and trying to look different at the same time. They introduced Buzz to see through Twitter, but again they are just catching-up. By the time they reach where their competitors are they will surge ahead. Never play catch-up in a race, be innovative.

Lively – remember I fondly introduced Lively earlier? You can see that they are saying it was just an experiment. Do you ever do Google Checkout? The list is growing and if you “Google” it you see the list.

There is a huge difference in the business model of these two hugely popular and hugely successful companies. They are not going anywhere they will stay as long as we wish to see them. But, the point is that the monopoly that Microsoft enjoyed for a long time and nobody questioned but enjoyed its supremacy can’t be shown by Google. Lets see.

With Microsoft staying strong and growing incrementally, I do not see Google toppling its throne. As the technology market is huge, the surface area has increased substantially, and you will see that they will soon share it cleanly and their will be less confrontation. The boundaries are drawn already. Apple has become an elite hardware manufacturer, Microsoft rules desktop and office computing and Google reaps the web.

These three are now trying to annihilate the competition in mobile computing and hardware. Nokia, Motorola, Sony and Blackberry could be at the receiving end. Apple has been somewhat successful, Android is catching up, and Microsoft is busy with its Mobile OS upgrades, but there is a lot to be done.

There are overlaps here and there, but the intensity of the overlap will subside over time. When that happens, things will stabilize and then we will notice the emergence of another Microsoft-Google like success story.

Dog-matic

I am not sure if I love dogs, but I can’t stop noticing them. I live in a city that is full of dogs. My locality has a plenty of them. Each one of them carries its unique identity. As a kid I always used to wonder why all dogs look the same. But as I started to “mature” I could easily differentiate them. If you perform a DNA analysis on them you will solicit my views – just kidding, it’s not that difficult. Having said that, this one is not about how to identify or distinguish dogs, but it’s about my brushes with them. To make things more interesting I will break this one into episodes – however, unlike Love, Sex aur Dhoka, the stories do not intersect each other. The inspiration of breaking it into chapters didn’t come from Inglorious Bastards, and definitely not from Radio.

Chapter 1 – The dog bite
Imagine a 3 years young kid, playing in the verandah with the main gate open, and a local friendly dog called Sheru coming straight towards him. Sheru just wanted to be friends with that kid because the kid used to offer him leftovers. No prizes for guessing that kid was me. I was terrified, and started screaming. Khurshid bhaiya came to my “rescue”. Given my reputation I later realized that he came to rescue Sheru.

Chapter 2 – Smiles all around
Next time you see a dog, notice him (it) closely. You will always find it smiling. It will keep its mouth open, tongue out and will welcome you with a huge 18 inches smile. I always do. Whenever I am down, and nobody’s around me, and if I get chance to witness this phenomena I feel relaxed. Try that, it’s not so bad, you feel good anyways. I have had the opportunity to visit European countries a couple of times. What a place to be, full of natural beauty. You’ll notice that everybody smiles at you, and they will keep saying sorry without rhyme or reason. Strangely enough, it reminds me of dogs. I am bad I know.

Chapter 3 – This one needs pampering
Munirka, New Delhi
December 2004
It’s the very well known Dilli ki sardi afternoon, and I am enjoying carom with Pankaj, my landlady’s scheming son, and his nephew. The landlady’s dog is circling around trying to bite his tail. The scheming son often comes to me with new and amazing ideas to make money – he was once just short of suggesting to kidnap somebody – never mind, I gel around well with all types. Pankaj as usual, is fiddling around with the dog, trying to talk to him. Yes, he said bow-wow a couple of times too. The nephew hasn’t shown me enough traits to find a mention here, but the dog was a very curious one. It came to me, pretty close, and was about to lay his jaw on my lap. As usual I screamed, not as much as in the first chapter, but I did.

Pankaj then made me realize that the dog liked me, and that it “loved” me too. I was listening; he said you should have pampered him. I said wow-bow.

Chapter 4 – The superhero of DDA flats
I love Delhi, that’s why I keep going back there. The last time, when I was there I decided to stay in DDA flats, Dwarka. It was a nice little gated community where kids used to play freely in the parks, and sometimes in my flat too. I love kids, so I was pleased. My neighbor had a dog, a rare breed I would say because I never saw such a dog. It looked like as if it drunk Complan a little bit too much when it was a kid. The reason is that its face was like the famous “Hutch” dog, but his height was like of German shepherd. Quite weird, yes it is. Either it didn’t like me, or it smiled that way! This guy used to run within the campus all the time- just like that. He used to sit as if it was not only guarding the community but the planet Earth too. It was like a superhero with a cape at the back. Just imagine – two front legs upright on ground and sitting on back legs, head held high and moving on all directions. I once went behind it to check if it wore a cape too!

Chapter 5 – Humans are crazy
This morning when I was driving to office, I was disturbed to see a huge road rolling and pasting machine blocking my way. I was about to get frustrated when I saw this dog, it was gazing in amaze, with those big and beautiful eyes at the man made beast from top to bottom. I am sure, he must have thought, these humans are crazy!

Chapter 6 – I don’t want a ride
This lot is special, they will lie on the street and they don’t care a damn. You can’t just honk them out; you will have to take a diversion. It happens a lot of times when you are driving and particularly in narrow lanes. They are representatives of the driving license department. They speak out loud with their silence that if you think you deserve the license that you carry just play this curve ball. I used to wonder why my driving has improved!

The Butterfly Effect

I am a movie buff, well, not as much as my dear friend Pankaj, but pretty close. I have fond memories of him dragging me to movie halls every alternate Friday. Sometimes the movies were good, sometimes they were not so good. Those days I was kind of short tempered, and I was fortunate to have him with me to carry me through that insane phase of my life. He lives in Dubai these days, we don't get to communicate too often, but we are connected. I miss him, and whenever I fondly remember those days, it leaves a smile on my face.

The title of this post is borrowed from a movie by the same name. A lot of you must have seen this movie, but as usual I have got a different story to tell out of this known story. The plot is rather complicated and I had to see this movie with subtitles twice to fully understand it. I am not a very good listener – just an excuse, I couldn’t understand what they said in intense scenes. Whatever.

This guy goes through some “blackouts” in his life. Those are important events in his life where his mind went blank. Well, happens to me all the time. My mind goes blank just like that and little too often. My father used to say about me – this guy is good but sometimes he goes off – off the hook he meant. Nevertheless, those blackouts in the movie provided him traversal points to his life. He didn’t realize it until he was in his college. Unlike me, he used to write his experiences, and this diary provided him with the tool to communicate to his traversal points – you there?

By time traveling this guy tried to figure out what happened when he went blank. He did, and he was rather shocked. He then realized that he could change certain things. He did. When he came back to the present time everything around him changed. His life changed. People around him changed, some were disfigured, and once he found himself without limbs. In short, he was never able to get the perfect combination for an ideal life. Whatever he did resulted in a surprise in a bad way.

Did I mention about his best friend? She was his childhood friend – part and witness of his blackouts. She was involved in some of the major events. In order to live his life with his best friend, he was trying to get the combination right by altering his past. He never succeeded. Only once he did, but then they met as strangers, and passed through – that was best for both of them, and that eventually was the end of the movie.

People sometimes try to fix things and then they try to figure out the best way forward. They however don’t realize that there is a separate program that is doing all this for them – the Architect of this Matrix. Whatever he does, might not be the best for you in your opinion, but because he has to take care of everything around you, he figures out the most optimal solution that works for everybody. You might want to traverse through those blackouts but I am sure that’s not going to help. Well, that guy tried at least five combinations and they all backfired. One of them I thought was pretty good, but it wasn’t.

All I want to say is that you don’t have the privilege of doing what this guy had, and don’t even try- I am sure it will not work. Make the most of what you have got today, and be very prudent of each decision that you take from now on. That’s because each one of your decisions potentially is a traversal point in your life.

I wish I had changed a certain 6th June in my life, when I was very rude to one of my best friends ever. I wish I could change the way I talked to Pankaj when he insisted for a movie – he was just trying to be nice to me. I wish I could be very nice to all of them who were or who are a part of my life. But, that’s all gone, that time is not going to return. There is no redemption, but there is and there will be opportunities. Go ahead, grab your chances, and make somebody happy. You will realize eventually that true happiness is making people around you happy. They needn’t be physically present but they must be connected.

Just a food for thought!