100 Days and counting

Today going through my calendar in the office I just realized that just 100 days are to my marriage, 100 more days of bachelorhood and freedom :). But to think of I still don’t know who is the most excited about my marriage me my fiancée or our families. But I can say for sure I am looking forward to it.

Enjoying my brother success thousands of miles away

I have talked about many articles/posts I have come across on the net time and again this time I write about a post by my brother on his blog "First ever Business Magazine from any of the IIMs ". I really enjoyed reading it. The passion and the jubilation that he has for it really comes through from the post.

As a Virgo I may take a critical approach and find a few mistakes but then I am too moved to find mistakes in it. I think the passion for the work he had done has left me in a very sober and reflective mood. Just wanting to actually live through the same high he is at now.

I had followed his dream to publish the magazine and tried to understand what was the driving force. Here he mentions it in the best possible way "to achieve what others think is impossible."

Now he has another dream "Book on Reliance Business Strategy" to it I can say as I had said for his earlier dream "Give it your best shot, you don't have anything to loose". When I had said this to him earlier I believed that it was possible but too difficult a task to be undertaken by him. And I still believe the same for his next big dream but this time its just "difficult" not "too difficult" and never impossible for Neeraj has proved again and again there is no dream that's impossible for him.

All the best for ur next dream. I know u will make it happen. I am really happy for u and proud of u.

Quote of the Day

"He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."

-Bacon, Francis ; 1561-1626, British Philosopher, Essayist, Statesman

Not a very inspiring quote for the one who is betrothed.

Indian pros acquire global loose morals - Is it so?

The article titled Indian pros acquire global loose morals by Lopamudra Ghatak in the economic times sent me googling for the definition of morals and what is meant by loose morals. He seems to imply that drinking or smoking constitutes haivng loose morals. I think Mr Ghatak needs to look back in the dictionary and see meaning of morals. And for him here are a few meanings of morals
"motivation based on ideas of right and wrong "
"the values held by an individual and maintained by the individual's moral community. Morals define what constitutes a good life"
Though the above definition of morals give Mr Ghatak the right to have his own set of morals but it dosent not give him the right to say that others have loose morals. Its a very individual thing. What a person think is a good life and by what he lives is a very personal choice as long as he ensures that he not doing any harm to someone else and he is not practicing double standards.
In this article Mr. Ghatak has very well presented the change in attitude and belief of Indian professionals as the are exposed to the world. I can easily identify with the individuals in the article when I look back at my journey from a small town in India to the US. The joureny has changed my definiton of right and wrong. It has given me a broader prespective to things and liberal apprach to life. But does this make me a person of loose morals? I dont think so. I think while trying to depict the changing mindset of the Indian pros Mr. Ghatak went a bit too far in saying that "Indian pros acquire global loose morals" so far as one can say it stinks of yellow journalism

Guess with who else I share my Birthday ?

Apart from my good old friend Sonal with whom I even share the year of birth, I found some really interesting entities with whom I share my birthday. Google was born on the same date as me but is 21 years younger and Queen Elizabeth I elder to me by a few centuries. Two really interesting entities one ancient and the other modern. Both pioneers and successful hmmm.......

Was I Rude?

I will like to share with my readers an interesting conversation and a very important question.
Today morning a lady friend of mine calls to wish me birthday. After she wished me and I thanked her she asked me very warmly "What's up? What are u doing?" I replied "Getting ready for office." Suddenly it seems she was apologizing and in a hurry to end the conversation. I felt that I may have said something wrong at the wrong time. But anyways the conversation ended after an exchange of one or two lines and I tried to be as nice as I can in the rest of the conversation.
I later tried to replay back the whole conversation in my mind again and again trying to figure out what caused the conversation to end so suddenly. The only thing that could have sent the wrong message were the lines I quoted above. But what should have been my reply to the question asked? I had just finished shaving and was in the midst of getting ready for office after the long weekend when she called. Was stating the obvious misinterpreted? Was I rude? I am really confused.
All I can say to the lady that it was really nice to hear from her and I really appreciate the fact that she remembered my birthday and called me up to wish me and none of what I said should be interpreted in any other way.

How is it being in the US? Have I settled down? Am I enjoying myself?

Time and again people have asked me the above questions. And everytimeI gave a different answer. For I never gave much thought to these questions. But I think its time to awnser them. I will try to be as brief as possible (I dont think I acutally have much to say about it but lets give it a shot.)
The answer:
" I think the best answer to describe my situation here is its different here. Its a learning experience and I am trying to learn as much as I can. Being in the US has convinced me of the fact that one should travel the world if he has to broaden his views. Traveling and seeing new countries is a truly enlightening and an exciting experience. So I can say I am enjoying the new learning and settling down to a different and an interesting way of life."

How US is different?

As mentioned in my earlier post I learned something new about how birthdays are celebrated in the US. Actually that started me to think what is different in the US. There are many things that come to mind. From the way they live, to dining out, the day to day vocabulary, shopping .... its a different way of life.
As I spend more and more time in this country I find that I learn new things about it and its way of life. I now have decided to document and share as much as I can from my experience here. So soon you may find a series of posts about what I find different in this country. For one post is not sufficient to document all the different things here.
Till then ciao.......

Happy Birthday to me!!!

It’s my birthday today and thanks to everyone for their best wishes. Waking up and finding tons of voice messages were good (Sorry to all those who wished to speak to me and had to speak to a machine I really was sleepy last night.) and so were all the calls and the mails that followed. It was surprising so many remembered...... I doubt I even know that many people's birthday that have wished me today. I need to get my birthday diary in place (One more thing on the to-do list)

And a loads of thanks to my colleagues here at office who took me out for a wonderful lunch to an Indian restaurant . I didn’t know that on a birthday it’s a custom here that the birthday boy gets treated by their friends. Man I love America.

Anyways this post should have been on the blog at the end of the day but I am putting it up so that my blog readers who have forgotten to wish me can do so before the end of the day. And for those who have wished me a day before as per the Indian Time Zone. It doesn’t count. If you are to wish me on my birthday then it has to be on my birthday as per the Time Zone I am in. Otherwise it’s too late or too early.

Blogs in Indian languages

Going through Debashish’s profile I came to know something about blogging which I didnt have any clue about. People are blogging in Hindi and Bangla too. Debashih’s blog "Nuktachini" is impressive. I impressed by the quality of the hindi language used. His bangla blogs directory and Bangla blog resource center also cool and really commendable efforts. It seems you really picked up a lot of things at webdunia about using Indian languages on the web. Keep up the good work.