Being on the other side of the fence

One of my colleagues has quit the Firm and is leaving this Friday to pursue his family business. This follows after another one of my colleagues left for another company last week. He was with us for about two and half years and had been in Hyderabad when I had joined. There is hardly anything that I could do to prevent their departures, apart from taking a pursuasive approach to retain them. Well, I plan to write the professional side of the story on my other blog, named as my consulting days, but here I would dwelve upon how it feels to bid farewell.

Not too many days ago, I was with another firm, after having worked with another firm, which I had changed having worked for yet another firm. So, I have been bid farewells, and most times these functions were celebrations for me since I was chasing my dreams of better work environment, better work content, better compensation and several other things. But here I have been blessed with the best I could demand from life. A job that merges the strengths of my education in engineering as well as finance, an extremely supportive boss, good clients, and friendly people to work with, I have it all. Sometimes, the administrative support is found wanting and life can be hectic with frantic travel schedule, but it clearly is a case of bunch of roses with a just a few thorns. But whether to count roses or the thorns is entirely my own prerogative.

Now, I am already missing some of my colleagues here. It is sad that we have to go our own ways as we get calling by our dreams and aspirations. I remember having spent lot of fun times together, lot of thought-provoking analysis done together, lot of pizzas eaten together and lot of casual chats engaged together too. We don't have them anymore, at least not in the same way as we did then. So, the parting ways is not really temporary as we tend to believe at the farewell. It is permanent and hence, of course, not very pleasing.

But then, is not life like that always? Nothing remains with anyone other than oneself and the scars picked on the rugged paths of life. Unless, of course, we meet our Creator on the way and recognize Him as our constant companion. Hence, true happyness lies in befriending Him.

(Picture is that of one of our picnics this year.)

Whose Approval Matters?

I was thinking of how others' opinions shape up my idea of who I am. It indeed is amazing that we give so much significance to what others have to say about us and possibly not so much about what we think is right. Be it my roundness in shape, my ideas about movies, music and politics and my idea about what is right and wrong in life, they all have a heavy influence of the opinions of others. The other day someone in Delhi said that I have grown balder and I spent needless hours looking anxiously at my receding hairline. Someone else suggested that I had become fairer and I couldn't help gazing my skin. The other day a few of my friends read my writing on this blog and that made me realize that I wrote well.

On a slightly serious note, do I not decide about helping others based on the approvals of others? Do I not work a particular way to seek someone's appreciation? Do I not write anything with a view of how others will react? Am I really free?

Well, that leads to another question, how indeed can I become really free? If I stop worrying about what others think about my deeds, it can make me reckless. Many of our generation, and possibly of the generations to come, will follow the reckless path to their own peril. I have witnessed most believers of freedom tread that downward spiralling path, primarily due to the fact that if they tend to think themselves as the absolute authority of their lives and have desires of living a 'different' and 'unique' life, sinful things attract them most as these days sin has indeed been skillfully packaged as 'different' and 'unique'.

Well, the final point which I wish to drive you home is that let not the world decide your fete, let you not be seeking their approval, let you not chase what the world thinks is different and unique, instead, let God take control of your thoughts and actions, let Him approve of your deeds, let He be a witness to your uniqueness and difference, and let Him appreciate your work. This is, since nothing but His and His alone consent matters. It is His approval upon our homegoing that will see us reign with Him.

(The picure here is from last year's Christmas programme aptly titled "The Reason for the Season")

My babies

Parenting is no mean job. Supriya is carrying and we expect our baby to be born by mid of March 2009. That would be our first biological child, although in Chetu we have our first real baby already. She has been a blessing to us through her presence in our thicks and thins for the last decade. She is Supriya's batchmate from her business school and she works with me. It's been a joy to know her. We are both very proud of her and we feel she has accomplished a lot in her career already. She has expertise in the utilities sector which very few people in India can boast of. And at the same time, she has been humble and has always served the Firm wholeheartedly. That's indeed very much like my child.

Well, going back to parenting, we have been reading a lot of books which talk of how effective parenting begins right from the formation of baby in mother's womb. All these have gone on to short of intimidate us. And like always, we revert to our God for His counsel and His mercies and grace. We pray that He will sanctify our seed and take care of the baby as He has done for us.

With Chetu it has always been easy, she heeds to our advice with almost no protest. We don't have much to advise her is another part of the story. She is a parents' delight and I really can not ascribe that to my genes. We hope that she gets the best from life, that she fully deserves. May my babies prosper and delight everyone around them. And may God's blessings flow through them abundantly and bring forth light to the world.

(The picture is from Sailu's marriage. Sailu is another lovely friend of my wife.)

Diamond is forever

Diamond is forever, and diamond is forever the best friend of ladies. No universal truth like these ones. I have never understood the reason though. Neither has my wife been able to share the same with me. But a diamond shall brighten a man's life through the glitter in the eyes of longing wife. This has been inscribed in stone and none has been able to disapprove.

Well, the only thing that I have found of interest in diamonds is how they are mined! That's the limitation I have being a mining engineer. But that's not the point for writing this piece. The point is the pride in Supriya's eyes that wearing a diamond ring has caused (look at the picture). I wish I could give her lot more of these diamonds! If only I owned a diamond mine!

God is My Shephard

I am not alone when I am alone,

My Lord my God is with me for my companion.

I am not afraid when fury of fear strikes,

For my Lord says He will never forsake nor leave me.

When going gets tough I am not anxious,

He who feeds birds and beasts shall keep me always.

When I am persecuted and am wary of the troubles,

It does not pain as love of the Lord heals my wounds.

I am tempted and the evil lures me,

I fail, fall and sin, but repent and my God forgives my sins.

I am happy and with peace I rest in His mercy,

For my Father, my God loves me.

(The picture is of Umian Lake near Shillong, taken from Rikynjai Resort. God's beautiful creation!)