3 legged dog!

"Hi I am Chetan and I am single" there should be a help group for all the single guys & girls out there, especially those whose friends are married.
Married (recently married) couple starts behaving like a 2 headed one single decission making organism (scary!) and thus making all the single people feel rejected and less worthy of any social or behavioural construct.
Recently I have stumbled upon few (many) married couple and I must say they all look the same to me, they all behave in the same way and they all have more or less exact same conversations, the favorite being "u still single" conversation.
I mean, I don't have any issues with the question but the question followed by a 30 deg head tilt and a sympathy look is something that have started to make me sick in my stomach, they (organism) give you the exact same look that one bestows upon a homeless/ugly looking underprivileged child or a three legged dog trying to climb a staircase.
These couples (organism) have a nack of turning any conversation/compliment into a relationship advisory session. I warm you of any of the following situations:
A public gathering
Your own birthday
Your friends birthday
Any major public holiday
Pubs/restaurant
Walking alone on a street
To sum it all up you cannot risk to meet or be seen in any public place or at any social/cultural gatherings unless u are prepared to bear the wroth of a syncronised 30 deg head angle and an "awwww."
Just the other day I was walking down the street (needless to say alone :p) and one of the couple friends ( if we are still calling them that) spotted me, I swear by god they gave me a syncronised 30 deg hand angle with a sympathy filled eyes. I almost thought they saw a 3 legged puppy but then realized I am the 3 legged puppy trying to walk by myself.
On any public holiday these organism makes plans to go out with you and then at the every last moment they come up with an excuse that no single person can argue or question the authenticity : "the mother-in-law excuse" I mean no single person knows what is it exactly to have a mother-in-law to start with and how does one respond to them (mother-in-law) is beyond the thinking ability of any single person. We generally have to keep a safe distance from asking the organism to make any rash decission thus going out and drinking our lever out is the only feasible option we have.
What is beyond me is the decission making process adapted by this organism. Their decission to any activity is subjected to a lot of parameters and even a slight change to any of the parameter might change the activity itself not only that there is a domino effect on all other plans as well. For example: you are have a perfectly normal evening doing nothing, discussing random stuff and doing absolutely nothing apart from talking and laughing. For some strange reason one head of the organism has a headache, that's it, there goes the entire evening, the conversation, the nothingness. Not only is the evening shattered but the other head of the organism makes sure the earlier head rests for the next few days and cancelling all the upcoming plans to meet until further notice. Forcing all the single people to hit the bar and drink our lever out.
If you are "still" single (30deg head tilt-pun intended) you know what I am talking about. If you are Married and are still reading this, you better behave when u next see a three legged dog walking down the street.

Over and out
Peace
CD

Architect or something like it....

"Well Architect huh!! that must be interesting" is the comment I have got used to when ever I tell some one my profession, but I have never quite understood why people think that ways.

I mean there is no reason to think we are anything different from any number crunching, file churning needlessly vulnerable to modern life style person.

But then I realized it today why they say that, what they actually mean is :

"Architect huh!! (You are poor) must be interesting (Poor bastard, may be homeless, malnourished, how does he lives with himself)"

So now I have stopped telling people what I do, If some one asks me my profession, I simply nod and say, I am in construction business :P, by doing that I have gained respect in my community not only am I respected also all the new people I meet actually calls me back for upcoming events in their lives .. ha  ha. I am not used to such kind of respect and kinda feel like I have power on them that would govern their lives and people feel if they are friends with me they can save a lot of money on their next home or help them invest the millions they already have.. ha ha .

If there was a pyramid like the food pyramid for construction activity, I am sure Architects would fall at the bottom of the pyramid, ya you read it right, just below the construction worker, way below the contractor, and miles below the land owner or builder.

Recently when few of my friends met, obviously all my friends are Architects. Now this is something that i don't get, all my friends are Architects, all of them, I mean I have studied Architecture for 7 years and lived for 27, I don't know what happened to all my other friends or magically when I joined Architecture they all decided to not talk to me (may be they already knew, I was gonna be poor or something :P) but any ways all my friends talked about volumes of money their clients made by selling the buildings they had designed. All had pride in their eyes as they had made some builder a rich man. Anyways I should get back to work, I am gifted with the power to make some Rich dude Richer and as you all know with great powers comes great responsibilities :D

Peace

Have a great year ahead!!!

Years Later....

I have moved to India and love my job, life and overall experience here.

When I moved I had my doubts about moving back, even I had doubts about me holding my self back here, but I am very happy to say that I love coming back and looking back in retrospective, it was one of the best decision of my life.

I work the entire week (including Sundays) but for some strange reason never get tired or bored of the job. Almost all the days I get up with a list of things to do on my mind and fight with time through out the day to check mark things on the list. I love being busy. I love being out there doing stuff I really enjoy doing.

I have moved back and now there is a vague recollection of USA in my mind, sometimes I have a felling that I have never been there.

The transition was good and I love being here.

All that said and done I am amazed how priorities change in ones life. Not a very long time ago, my priorities were to find a job, get an apartment and settle down. Now my priorities are to hire more people build an apartment building and settle down. Now it might look like few words altered to all of you but trust me there is a huge difference between them.

Looking back and reminiscing all the time I had and spent in the USA, studying, worrying and fooling around and worrying more about the future has all gone by so fast and with such an ease.

They say "Life happens to you when you are busy making other plans" and I cant agree more.

I have learned not to worry about the future not to reminiscence the past. I have learnt not to love with a closed heart nor to hate with an open one. I have learned not to treat things as permanent nor to change them often. I have learned not to let go nor to hold on.

I guess this is how it is to grow up, I am sure there are challenges to face and moments to cherish and I wish there is time in between all this to sip a coffee, write a blog and read a book.

Peace

1st day on MY side of the world

I am back in India.

earlier i mentioned that i would write about the transition when i go through it, well here i am on the other side of the world, actually MY side of the world.

The transition as expected was not smooth, but i was prepared for i.. The most wierd part was when i reached I had planned to surprise my parents, so I told them i would be landing few days after my actual landing date. So when i landed on the mumbai airport, I was there alone in the crowd, I was looking around at people meeting each other after years and i could feel the happiness around me. I then started off for my ride home in my cab. The ride was tough, the roads were messy and the smell was horrible (when u land here you get a foul smell that will stick with you for some time) anyways, the journey took longer than expected but i finally reached Nasik. I had asked a fried of mine to pick me up, he did come to pick me up. we met in the same lane we used to while we were in college. Though there was familiarity of place there was a warmth and newness of coming back.

That night when i slept, I had a dreamless sleep, I slept like a baby with nothing to worry, nothing to get up to , nothing to fear, nothing to accomplish. I was so relaxed. The next day when i got up, this is when it struck me that i am in INDIA. I got up thinking its Chicago and it took me almost 10 mins to come to my senses. I was in INDIA, I tried recollecting the last few days, but I could not place myself in INDIA. I was lost, I thought I made a mistake by coming back.

I was silent the entire morning, I kept having this thought about chicago, I use to think if i look outside i shall see the lane where i was staying in chicago, I was happy and sad at the same time.

I am amazed that how a city makes you feel at home, even though you have stayed there for less than a year.

I was in love with Chicago, and as a classic break up, I went though all the stages of it: reaction, ingonarance, denial , outcry, remembrance and finally after a year acceptance.

upgrade

I am moving back to India.

Now ever since I had imagined to move out of India, I always thought that I am upgrading to something. Something that is good in all aspect of an urban life, needless to say I was right (Though I have just spent 2 years and some months in USA). Lets not be over patriotic and call king of spade a king of heart.

I am moving back and yet it feels like an UPGRADE. I am pleasantly surprised with the feeling that I am having. I am sure going back would be great. Apart from the economic boost and market growth which reincarnates our faith that sun is definitely rising in the east and I want to be there to pay my homage to the rising sun.

I am moving back taking with me nothing but experiences, be that in terms of weird jobs that I did to sustain myself as a student, or my travel across the continent, adjusting my watch to three different timezones or for the matter of fact learning a totally new sport and loving it (foot ball).

I am hoping the transition would be smooth. Though I claim that I am not a slave to the american way of living, I am sure leaving this lifestyle where I take my decisions and face the consequences would be a drastic contrast to the Indian way of living, where there would be a lot of decision to make but the parameters involved in making those decisions would be numerous so the consequences would be divided (though m not sure how to deal with it).

I will continue the blog and write about the transition once I go through it.

Places we go

ok...

i am blogging after ages. Y i dint for so many days?... I dont know, may be i was just busy/ lazy...

well today i had a great time chatting with old buddies and there was a sudden realization.

Through this years, since i have left b lore, i have not invented a single joke, i have not even made a annoying jingle to tease people, i have not made a funny noise with some one elses name.

astonishingly these old pals remembered me for that (though they acted as if it was annoying) but i know they really liked that thing, whether good or bad, sad or clever... they enjoyed listing to it as much as i have enjoyed cracking them. I would like to make a promise to myself to crack these jokes everday atleast once a day.

This was for the old times, now let us look at the future, i would soon start working, soon all the college life would be over, all the frnds would be located in different cities. Usual reaction to this should be sad and one should be missing old friends, but i am not sad or unhappy about leaving them, as a matter of fact i am very much excited about moving to a new place, meeting new people, exploring new things in the new city and making friends there who will miss me when i move from that place to some other city.

people might think it is absurd, why would anyone like to leave everything behind and move on every couple of years. well my answer is simple, I am in love with cities across the world, its my dream to stay in as many cities i can. Well there are few stages that one go through while living in a city and this process is what makes the city a memorable. You think of any place you have visited you wud realise that you definetly recollect somethings about it, wheether good or bad, one or many evenings, the light penetrating though your window panes and the shaow tht it casts.

Well these visual qualities makes a place/city unique in many ways. Again these qualities are goverened by location of the city, culture and your outlook towards the place. Whe you first go in a city you tend to dislike it, i am sure most you have gone through this. It is something that we dont like about that place, let that be sunlight, social connections, cultural differences, food or traditions. we dont like it a bit.

The next stage is when you find a place to stay and the most important part that you look for the place is that it should relate/resemble to the place you used to live is last. Once u have ur place and and routine in place it is then that you get used to the overall routine about travel, bus, car shopping, and many other things you do on a daily basis. These still does not mean you like living in the city.

The third stage comes when you actually have a group of friends and you establish your own tradition in the city. Let that be a small get together every saturday or yearly celebration of diwali/thanksgiving. These are the things that would be unique to every city and trust me these small/trival tradiotions are what u will miss.

The same thing happened to me when I was in bangalore, nasik, mumbai or any other place i have stayed in. I am now kinda use to all this and love doing it at regular intervals. Now i will be moving to chicago. A city so perfect in its architecture, planning and location that i have a feeling that i wanna stay there for ever.

I stayed there just for a 3 weeks last year and was in love with the city from the moment i landed there. It has every thing you want from a city. from traditions to history. From a river walk to lake shore. high rise downtown to private cubism stly bunglows.

Man i cant express how happpy i am to go to chicago. The place makes you think, ponder, wonder and catch your breath with a gasp in whatever you see, experience or do.

My favourite place is the south michegan av in downtown chicago, it is one of the most beautiful street in the world. It has structures from frank o ghery to louis sullivan, standing in the millinium park on that street and just looking around is like reading a book explaning history of architecture, from art of neo classic architecture to simplicity of post modernism you will see it all. Its this feeling that is forcing me to find a job in Chicago.

rule no.1

Hi...
These days i have been watching a lot of TV serials... LOST, HEROES, FRINGE, GOSSIP GIRLS, FRIENDS, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, HELLS KITCHEN, RODIES 6.0, GARY UNMARRIED, are the few that i can think of the top of my head.
Well.... there is something that i really like and i am so lucky to witness this transition in the Television industry that i am literally thrilled and gasped looking at the transition.
I started watching TV serials which were more family oriented in early 90's where the budget was not great, the story line would basically revolve around few characters and there were limited changes in the sets and costume....
Now if we look at it, the topics are vast and diverse and has a lot of editing, visual effects, transition effects, history- present connection with social and global happening. That it is sometimes difficult to tell that whether we are watching a serial or sharing a view point with some of our friend.
Now i feel this is both good and bad at the same time. Good because i can witness the pause in history where the pages in history books are turned and Bad because i am afraid these change will make human more dumber and manipulative. I am afraid about the day when people would decide their views about a person, profession, event or social happening based on the beliefs and thoughts of these TV serial writers.

Anyways.....who cares...