Loan in 30 seconds...

One of my weakness is that though I have limited desires, but when I want something, I just want it, as fast as possible. I happened to set my eyes on my present bike in Bangalore just 45 days after joining job there. We had deposited 10 months rent as advance for renting a house (Bangalore is like that), and my share in it was already more than my first month's salary, and though I brought some money from parents, I barely had 15K remaining. I hate taking loan from banks, especially when it can be repaid in months, as the overall paperwork to take the loan, and afterwards, when u have repaid the loan is too much for me to handle. So I deliberated for 2-3 days, and then approached a close friend (who was working for a year there) on a Saturday morning. The conversation below is almost exactly as it took place:

Me: I need a favour....
Him: Yup...
Me: I need to borrow money... from you...
Him: How much?
Me: About 35K
Him: Are you joking?
Me: Nope
Him: Ok, chal bank tak.

And that was it... We went to his bank's branch on M G Road, and I got the money. I went to get bike from there, and paid in full for the bike. Next day, I was the proud owner of my bike, and that evening:

Me: Thanks yaar...
Him: Abe gaali mat diya kar... acchi baat nahi hoti...
Me: Thanks really yaar, I hate to go into troubles of taking loan from bank... EMI ka jhanjhat... Isiliye tumse borrow kiya.
Him: No issues... Wapas karne waala hai na?
Me: Hmm... karna hai kya?
Him: Some unprintable words......
Me: Abe gaali mat diya kar... acchi baat nahi hoti...

It's friendships like these which make me realize that I've achieved something in life.

How to use earned leaves?

A colleague (let's say A) joined back after taking 2 week long leave. On his first day, at lunch table, we shared general updates, and after making sure that everything was fine, the conversation drifted to movies. There were 4 of us, A, B, Me and our Manager.

It turned out that he had seen 3-4 movies during those 2 weeks on his laptop. We software engineers always have few movies on our laptops, and having seen 4 movies in 2 weeks cannot be taken as a negative thing against any software engineer :).

B : "Okay... So that's why you really took those leaves. To watch movies..."
A (bewildered): "Why would I waste my earned leaves to watch movies?"
Me: "Especially when he can see them more comfortably at office, in comfort of AC environment, without wasting a leave"
Manager: "???"
A: "We can watch movies in evenings and nights even on workdays... Why would we waste earned leaves just to watch movies?"
Me: "And if we want not to cash our earned leaves, then they would be used on much better things... like... hmm... travel... and..."
A: "Persuing girls..."
Manager: "I'm not listening..."

Just a thought...

People sometimes talk about leaving themselves to God, and accept whatever the God has planned for them. I believe that God does have a plan for everybody, but it is up to every person to realize God's wish, and make that plan successful. This reminds me of an old story:

A person (say 'X') had absolute faith in God. One day, the town he lived in was threatened by flood. As his neighbors were leaving for safe places, some came to him and asked him to join them, but he refused saying that God would take care of him. Later that day, as flood water was rising, a stranger in a boat passed by, and offered to take him away to safety. Again, 'X' refused saying that God would take care of him. Finally, as 'X' was drowning in flood waters, an army rescue in a helicopter tried to rescue him, but again he refused to be rescued saying: 'God would save me'. Predictably, 'X' drowned, went to heaven, and happened to meet God. 'X' complained to God about not saving him, even though he maintained absolute faith in God for whole life. God just replied, "Dear son, who do you think sent your neighbors, that stranger in boat and the army rescue team? Even I can do only so much to help someone. The rest is up to that person. You have to meet me halfway to enable me to help you."

I'm back!!!

I'm back after a long break. I have been busy with work, travel and miscellaneous other things, and somehow kept postponing writing the next post. To my readers (I fancy that I have some :-) ), all I can say is that it's good to know that someone is waiting for my next post.

Coming to think about waiting, let's decide what is more fun: making someone wait for you, or waiting for someone. Both things have their positive and negative aspects. Some people (read girls :-) ) make it a policy to arrive late for every occasion.

When you are making someone wait, it feels good to know that someone is waiting for you. Maybe you just want to hear : "Do you know how long I've waited?" on finally arriving, which makes you feel loved and cared for. But on the other hand, are you not also wishing to be with that someone as soon as possible? So in effect, this is making 2 people suffer simultaneously, when none should have.

On the other hand, when you are waiting for someone, you keep getting more and more annoyed and restless. But the moment the person you are waiting for appears, the emotional high you get makes the wait worthwhile. Given a choice, you probably will want to wait and get that kick again. At least I will :-)

I went to Darjeeling, Gangtok, Guwahati and Shillong in December for a 9 day trip. Also went to Rishikesh, Haridwar and Mussorie in January for 3 days. Will write about these trips whenever I get some time.