This part of my life is called “2010”

2010 has been one hell of an year for me.They say time teaches you valuable lessons, that way 2010 has definitely given me a crash course, personally and professionally.It’s more of a reiteration of the things that i perhaps just thought about. I stepped into 2010 just fresh from losing a job on 31st Dec,2009. On this morning when I was busy making evening plans and deciding on which pub to hit, an early morning meet with our board of directors gave an unexpected shock of our company’s closure. With no early indications of such an event, it was indeed time’s cruel moment for all the employees of the company.

The unexpected welcome to a new Year was definitely a tough thing to handle, especially when you have a family whose only source of strength, mentally and economically is you. As I can’t afford any panic to set into my mom’s mind, I have no option but to start the new year with a lie. I somehow managed a lie that our office is getting renovated and we are working from home for next one month or so. The tough part is not just to decide upon future course of action, but also to handle any voice which says “I already warned you not to join start-ups like these”.

The worst part is that this incident caught me completely off-guard. With not much of savings to back me up, I could only sustain few more months without a Job. Anyways, luckily for me, before the lie became unmanageable, I landed with another job offer, this time in Bangalore. All thanks to my friend who literally bailed me out with a referral and a solid hyping of my profile.

Lessons I have learnt:

1) It’s fine to lie to Ur loved ones if it can avoid panic

2) Just because start ups have higher chance of failure doesn’t mean u shudn’t take a risk. In fact, it’s worth taking such a risk sometime in your career. Well, what this company taught me is something which no other company would ever be able to.It has opened all new doors to me and changed my entire outlook towards life.

3) Save for rainy day, u never know when u may need it

Although my initial mood of leaving Hyderabad and going to Bangalore was full of skepticism, i was proven wrong. After almost 5 years, I got a chance to meet my engineering friends. The best part about college friends is that even if u meet after a long long time, you guys talk as if it’s just yesterday that u met. No formalities, no false smiles, direct fun.

Not only did i get a chance to meet old friends, but had an opportunity to make new friends. My cool flatmates and chilled out colleagues. In fact, I also happened to make friends much younger than me in turn making me feel lot younger. (Hey, am not so old, c’mon just 28).Had long chats, intense discussions, random blabbering and sometimes simple silence. It’s not how long is your friendship, it’s about how intense it is.

Lessons I have learnt:

1) Have friends of all age groups and from various professions, i broadens your outlook. makes you always feel fresh in life.

However, for the first time in my life, i experienced people who are same age as me bossing me around, just because they had so called MBA degrees up their sleeves. Two things about these guys has distinctly struck me. Their urge to participate in rat race (if there’s no such thing is office, they’ll create it) and the shallowness that their MBA degrees added to their otherwise good levels of intelligence. I distinctly remember how few of these guys used abbreviations and jargon for the heck of it completely disregarding the fact that they don’t fit the context. It doesn’t mean all these guys are similar, I have also met some really sensible and intelligent MBAs who think outside their text books and apply common sense.

Lessons I have learnt

1) MBAs teach as much bullshit as that of valuable lessons, it’s up to the individual to learn things selectively

2) Never do an MBA just because others are doing it

Got a chance to go on few long drives and got to watch the real country side. The beauty of the nature and the chance to get in touch with the country side has definitely helped me to see life differently and re-prioritize few things. The mundane daily routine of our corporate lives have paralyzed me for too long. I have made travelling and biking etc as the top priorities for the rest of my life.

Lessons I have learnt

1) Grab every opportunity to travel to a new place, its gonna be really enriching.

Almost came this close, i mean this close to who i thought to be the “girl of my life”. But alas, fate has some other plans. Anyways, I tried my luck and gave what i thought to be my best shot.

Lessons I have learnt

1) Try ur luck, the helplessness of not trying is worse that the failure itself.

2) life goes on absolutely as usual. specially for guys 🙂

Happened to witness tragic death of a close relative and came to hear of another death of a friend. In both cases, they must have planned so many things about their lives in the days to come. But as they say, “Life is what happens to you, when you are busy planning something else”.

Lessons I have learnt

1) The realization that life can ditch you any time is all the more reason to live in the moment and enjoy the present, It’s indeed a “present”.

Parallely, I have witnessed lots of outside stories which doesn’t hold much significance to me at this time. The multi-crore scams, the commonwealth games, Sachin refusing to grow old, finally Spain conquering the world cup, the face book revolution, the new mobile generation, the global economy, the Korean War, shiela ki jawaanis and the enviable packages and job offers for the new bunch of kids.

Lessons I have learnt

1) Lead your own sweet life, let the outside things be no more than news to u

Now am back to Hyderabad and back to home sweet home. Hoping for another exciting New Year. I’m not bothered about successes or failures, am only interested in exciting times. Am sure 2011 will teach me new lessons and make me realize few more things in a hard manner. It may teach me things which are opposite of what i believed so far, but i don’t care. I’m just looking and looking ahead. If the path ahead is rocky lemme trek, if it’s all dark, let me explore and if it’s all grass lemme have a memorable walk.