I am home thanks to fever and under the pretence of working from home, i have been keeping myself busy with work of course, what else. But i decided to give the creative end of my brain some work and so go on here. I thought for a long time and finally decided to dedicate this piece to my little lovely chocolate box that is still making a journey and you know what, I think even it has miles to go before it finds its destiny :-)

Its a 6X5X1 cubic inches box. Dark brown in color, and its gift wrapped with a red satin ribbon. Contains about 8 big pieces of selected whole and halves chocolate covered macadamia nuts. Net wt 4 oz. (113grams for all thos who still dont follow the american metric system). What matters however is the journey that this chocolate box has not yet completed. This chocolate box has travelled a host of places since the manufacturing. I took a look at the manufacturing insginia in the back. Apparently it was made in singapore. I had purchased this box after spending like 45 minutes in a chocolate shop wondering which one would taste good.. you see me not a chocolate eater. yeah..so all those who want to safegaurd chocolates can store them with me safely. Anyways, i finally decided to buy this box and it moved from the nice location on the wall to my rucksack on the 29th of December 2003 in Kuala Lampur.

The box made the journey back to singapore on a malaysian railways withstood the cries of the babies who might have smelt the chocolate but werent vocal enough to demand it. Then it reached my old house and went into the third rack from top wrapped in a green polythene cover to keep them from the prying eyes of my house mates. It was supposed to have been taken out on the 4th of January and changed hands but you know , the chocolate box loved my fridge and me so much that it decided to stay with me for longer. I wasnt in a state of mind to throw away the box , positive frame of mind my friends does play a role!! But it stayed there in the refrigirator for the next 20 days while i tried to figure which road to take and where would the journey end for the chocolate box. Every time i open the fridge, it would ask for my attention and i kinda moved it to the back of the rack. escapism.. you might call it but come on, i was confused as to the next step in the journey for this box. As for now, the journey had come to a halt and there was darkness everywhere with no road leading anywhere. Looked like the chocolate box entered a tunnel with no end in sight.

On the 19th of January 2004, there was a small light at the end of the tunnel. There was a breakthrough. The journey was back on track. The chocolate box must have been quite happy i guess. Atleast, the road was clear and so was the destination but the distance and time factor was not. On the 21rst of January 2004, the chocolate box had to move to a new home and to a new rack in the new fridge. I was kinda worried if the box would cope up with so much changes, but it did. The journey was getting to be interesting. Another milestone achieved but no end in sight.

The chocolate box was very close to the end of the journey on the 29th of January 2004, exactly one month after it reached my hands. But it was not meant to be. The rain god decided to play spoil sport and put a road block on the journey of the chocolate box. The chocolate box is still in my fridge and is still gift wrapped but its safe from me and hopefully from my other house mates. Its awaiting its destiny and I believe is looking forward to the next mile and the next step whatever it be. I have decided to let time take its course and see where the journey takes the chocolate box. There is a high possibility of the journey being completed in the next few days, before February the 6th of 2004. As of now,. its resting in the green polythene bag on the 3rd rack of my fridge in my new house in singapore.

I will keep the journal posted as to the outcome. Its been a great journey so far.

Its been raining for almost a week now in singapore. I have no idea why the heavens have opened up but its kinda adding to the gloom here. I prefer sunny days, waking up to the sunlight streaming through the window, going out on the balcony to take a look at the gals swimming in the pool below :D sip the cup of coffee while baking in the early mornings sun and pondering over the essence of life.. Alrite alrite, these things are not all true, I dont ponder over the essence of life, you need brains for that and early in the morning it hardly works. In any case, I miss the sun!!! and top it all off, the rain plays spoil sport.. It really spoils a lot of things, which includes golf driving practices, tennis, lunch dates. grrr..and not to mention giving me the temperature again..this means, another friday night sitting at home and recovering while my friends party downtown.. I had to leave office early today cos of the temperature and there is so much to do.

Hopefully, I should be in a good shape and the rain god must have made up his mind to stop pouring by saturday evening. We have planned a bbq at a friends house and i hope to have a good time. I havent yet finished Anne Frank's diary. Its an amazing book and i just cant believe a 13 yr old could think in such a mature manner. hopefully i will finish it over this weekend.


On the job search scene, no improvement so far. I have sent my resumes to all kinds of places and companies in the world. The interview with the investment bank went quite well. Lets see if they give me a call for a second interview. I might have to fly to new york for that.. a 22 hours flight.. atleast, i will add some miles in my frequent flyer account :) Thats it from me for this week!! Lets see whats in store the coming days. Its 12:30 am and i am feeling sleepy finally.. The two paracetamols i took are finally beginning to take action i guess.. so off i go..

After I finished posting the previous blog, I realized am running a temperature. Thanks to the shower that i had in cold water to get over the hangover. Guess the 4 cups of hot bitter black cofee didnt do the job that it should to keep me warm. It gave me a scare cos, not the time of the year i want to fall sick. A couple of aspirins and an inspirational phone call were all that took for my antibodies to gain enough strength to fight the virus. hahaha!!!

Last nite, i saw star wars Attack of the clones. Being a star wars fan, I should have seen this movie when it was released, but somehow i waited this long. Well the reason was i didnt want to see Natalie portman cry :) She is one of my fav actress. Julia roberts is my most favourite and Natalie portman comes in second. One smile from Natalie portman on the screen and i would be drooling in my seat. :D. Anyways, the movie was not so good as i expected it to be. I guess it just set the scene for the finale Star wars Episode III. Hope that one is worth the wait.

I couldnt resist post this here.. As a part of a personal research work that I have undertaken to be competitive in the singles market, I went looking for this websites that have cool cheesy flattery lines over the past few days.. Man!!! I did have a good laugh and also did pick up a few hints. As for the hit rate, well, lets see where this takes me.. http://linesthataregood.com/flattery.html is the website.. Let me know if any of these worked anywhere, that way i can increase the odds in my favour. :)

Hmm, 4 days off this week here.. Cos of the chinese new year. This is supposed to be the year of the monkey and honestly looks like, i am going to have no time for any monkey busines :D hehe, sorry,, couldnt help write this one liner i thot of somewhere in here.
One of my close friends had invited me to her house for the chinese new year dinner. It was a nice evening well spent eating steam boat. Basically, its like a stove in the table with hot soup boiling in a pot. You have all kids of fish and vegetables that you can cook yourself in this. Its like a french fondue. dinner was awesome. Me was too tired after that much food that didnt go out to see the fireworks.


Life in the new house is good, have a great set of housemates and its quite lively unlike the old house. Last night we got drunk together. After i had spent the last two days preparing for my interview reading all kinds of stuff, this was a break i needed.

Today, I tried my hand at cooking after quite some time. Made Sambar and rice and they turned out quite edible i should say. Its been like more than 8 months since i cooked sambar so was a little afraid, but ame out okay. you know, I love to cook and so far havent been sued by anyone who has eaten what i cooked. the reasons might be anything from, feeling sorry for me to being okay with the food, but I continue to cook :D.

You know, cooking really helps me learn to be patient. Patience was something I fought hard to acquire and towards the aim of being patient, i took up photography and cooking. Today i got an sms from a friend of mine and one of the lines was "patience is the most flattering art". I was quite impacted by this line. Isnt it so true? The only people whom I have been patient with are my parents and sister. And there are a few very close friends with whom I am always patient. In fact i have never lost my cool with my parents and sister except for one instance. But there are instances when i have lost so much from being impatient. I am not going to let in another failiure in my life by being impatient.

I have neglected this space for almost a week now and thats cos the week has been too hectic. Believe me, on most days i have gone to bed at around 1:00 AM and back to work at 9:30 the next day. And please dont read anything into the late nighters. I am still the nerd that I am :) So this late night can definitely be mostly attributable to work.

Well for one, I started taking Golf lessons. So the last week I have been in the driving range almost every other day trying my hand at the art of swinging the golf club. Man, it so tough, one has to keep so many things in mind, the position of the hands, the grip, the stance, the slight bend a the knee, the spinal angle, maintain the angle wile swinging, not bending the arms, keeping the eyes on the ball, crossing the arms when the ball is being hit. And invariably you goof up atleast one of the above and the result is a ball rolling on the fairway in front of you like 10 meters away instead of the 100 mts its supposed to. However, every once in a while, one does go the 100 mts and then you feel like you are the next Tiger woods, but the next shot brings you right down back to reality...I have a feeling they are tampering with my golf balls..:-)

I decided its time to do something about my oratory skills and so joined the Toastmasters club. the last time i used to speak in front of a crowd was way back when i was in my school. After I joined BITS, i somehow felt overwhelmed when i saw the talent around me and so i refused to fight againts it and just let it go. I did make a mark while i was at infosys. At INSEAD too, i was initially overwhelmed, but then made a fight to speak up in class. Its not easy when you haev some 60 odd great guys waiting to pounce on you when u talk in class. but anyways, i decided its time to hone my public speaking ability and gain some more confidence and hence joined this Toastmasters club here. Lets see how it helps me.

Apart from that, my work life has been totally draining me. Too many things to do. My Job search is not going many places, although I got an interview call from an investment bank in NYC.Since i know nothing of finance, i have like 4 days more to master all thats in it and so there goes my coming weekend.

Also, I have to apply to those n number of jobs i have made a note of. I have to get in touch with all those I should as per the list i have made over the past 2 weeks. I should cotnact the persons in another list for the event my school is planning in India. And i need to go to mumbai again on some official visit and have to make up another list of persons i should meet there. there, that should sum up the list of things I must do.. Now i am beginning to hate lists!!!

To top it all off, I had to move. I have moved into a new house which is quite cool and nice with a big living room and a balcony overlooking the pool. I would be having a house warming party soon. Maybe the week after next it shall be. and that reminds me, I need to make of list of invitees. There is someone i must invite for this housewarming for sure. That person would be the first in the list. :-)

You know, I have heard people complain, why sometimes even I say life sucks, but i have noticed that there are subtle things that happen that makes life interesting and fun. I strongly believe everything happens for a reason. I have gone through some real nice times in my life and there have been moments when I have had the, you know the "why me syndrome" but in the end, I always feel positive because as i said everything happens for a reason and so far, I have managed to get the best out of everything and I am sure i will in the future as well. I am passing through a phase wherein too many things seem to be happening in life and as usual i get confused :D. I need a drink and some time to ponder about a few things. But believe me, whatever i say at other times, in the end, life does turn out to be beautiful and interesting. For all those who have doubts, read Paulo Coelho's Alchemist, undoubtedly, one of the greatest books ever.

Its been a week since i got on here. No its not that i was hung over the entire week. Although that possibility cannot be ruled out, I have so far managed to get over my worst hangover's in a matter of 24 hours. The first week of the new year was quite busy. I had to get my job search back in order, while at the same time get some movement on the work that had stagnated due to the break. Getting the job search back in gear was something that really took a lot of effort and time. First, I had to sift through the countless number of things i am doing (note: in my vocabulary anything more than 2 is countless). Once i identified the tasks that looked like they had some potential to be worth mentioned in the CV, i had to make an effort in wording it the write way. I had to ensure that i used appropriate words like strategic, leverage, team work, etc etc.. the management bingo buzzwords and twist the simple work of writing a report of 10 pages into a task that looked like it took 4 members of a team fighting against all odds to define a strategy that would ensure the survival of the company.. When i come to think of it, this entire job search excercise is a huge marketing gimmick and i really have to get some movement on this and that explains the time i spent on it. So i like spent the 3rd and 4th of january doing my CV , and the entire week posting it in the websites of all head hunters i managed to find, and the evenings of 5th and 6th doing my cover letter.

All this work not enough, my friend convinced me that we had to spend about 500 bucks of our meager salaries to learn golf and so we joined golf lessons. Finally i seem to have discovered a sport that i kinda like.. It doesnt require you to run all over the place and sweat too much. In fact you can get a vehicle to drive through the golf course so that you dont need to waste energy walking and there could be someone waiting on you with towels and water when u need and also to handle your golf club. Well since we are nt rich enough, we are doing the walking and handling towels and clubs ourselves, but very soon i can imagine me with my big belly and a berret cap taking a ride in those buggies down a golf course.. Once i had this scary thought, i decided that i needed some excercise and lo, have started playing squash once again. All those seeing me so active this first week started thinking its one of those new years resolutions and i made a sincere effort to convince them otherwise, but they just done believe me.. Well what can i say but "The truth is out there but no one believes it"!!!

Thursday evening, i went down to this real cool hang out place in singapore called emerald hill to meet up with another of my friends who had come down from london. was nite meeting someone after a long time. Saturday nite was spent at my fav spot called Bar None. If any of you reading this comes to singapore, you should visit this club, great band and cool music and of course cool..no..hot chicks. I think now is a good time to explain about how one could get to attract girls in singapore.. you need what they call the 5Cs.. Credit Card, Cash, Condominium, Car and Club membership.. Since i have only 2 of the 5 which ic Credit card and Condo, its a little tough to be in the market.. but i am working on the other three .. :)

Another new years eve party and another hangover. Me, hangover and new years party have become one in the past years. Ever since i started drinking, I cant remember a new years eve in the past 6 years when i have not had a hangover. This year was no different. Around 35 of us got together at a friends place downtown singapore and we had a good time. I was tripping on Chivas regal and was going smooth till about 2:00 AM, when this girl, i dont remember who passed me a glass of vodka to check out. I like a fool that i am, took it, primarily cos i cant just say no to a cute gal i guess, and after 15 minutes, i was quite a goner. Luckily, i made no scenes and my 2 friends got me on a taxi. The next thing i remember is waking up with a huge hangover and sms-ing thanks to the guys who got me on the cab. Well lesson learnt-- Never drink Vodka that is offerred by a girl. :))

Every journey has its bad parts and my trip to Penang had its share. The decision we made to "enjoy" the trip to Penang,Malaysia from singapore by train was one of the worst ones. But we didnt have much choices, all the buses were booked out. The train from singapore to Kuala lampur was 3 hours delayed and there went our plans of spending 4 hours in KL before catching the connecting train to Butterworth. The train from KL to Butterworth was also delayed by 1 hour and we spent a sleepless nights thanks to the wailing babies in the coach.

However, Penang was an amazing island. You could see a beautiful mxiture of Indian, Chinese and Malay cultures in the town, in the architecture and of course the history. The food was awesome and so inexpensive. And in the course of the trip, i learnt to be all open ears when the french man bargains with the cab guy. At one time, the taxi guy quoted 15, but this friend of mine assuming he meant 50, raised the price to 25.. oops.. i had to barge in and reduce it back to 15.. :) Luckily, this wasnt repeated.

When we returned to the station to get our train back to KL, we were lucky to upgrade our seats to berths and we got a real cool cabin. However, the journey from KL to singapore was not deemed so lucky and we had to spend in the seats with wailing babies. The trains must have a families with babies only coach, that would make our lives so easier.