Eating the bread I earn...Quite literally

Ate bread today for all my meals - two toasts for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, two sandwiches for snacks, toast sandwiches for dinner. Hell, I even feel like a bread now...I have all the pores and the soft center (I am a pragmatist you see ;-) ).

Let me narrate the story of my 6 months, and all the bread!!

I can truly claim that I have eaten all the bread I have earned with all my effort and toil for the past 6 months.
What the heck! I have been eating so much bread, even the Subway lady on duty during lunch knows my choice of bread by rote now!! She sees me entering the restaurant, gives me that knowing smile, pulls out the loaf she needs to from her rack, cuts it into half and passes it along the quay to her colleague handling the vegetables.

So here I am, all confident and beaming with pride that I have finally come of age, earning and eating my bread. Surely, as the wisdom of yore reverberated in my head, I'd now find contentedness, true happiness and success in life. So, day after day, month after month, I diligently follow the path that hath been layeth, in anticipation of glory that lay just round the bend.

But hey, 6 months have already gone by in a whiff. And sadly, to my utter disbelief and a reverie-breaking shock, I am beginning to realize that the bread isn't the sweetest and satisfying grub as the age old aphorisms had me believe! All I have to show for it is an horribly upset metabolism rhythm :-).

So, in my agony and depression, the realization dawns on me, like the streak of first morning light, that the "time is now" (Ref: Previous post - The ToI India Poised 2007 campaign). Time for the bread to stay on its rack and for the new age foods to roll out!! Thank you ToI...as you truly self-admittedly and humbly had said - you are the best! :P.

From tomorrow, I say, bring on the Ice-creams and the Pastries and the Maccaronies Babieee...

P.S. - Technically, "now" should have implied today, but unfortunately it's already past dinner, and my next meal is only breakfast tomorrow morning. Hence, the breaking of the shackles of bread shall happeneth from tomorrow. Ain't I a fast learner!!

India Poised - Anthems with a meaning...

ToI is running a 6-week long campaign called "India Poised" on its website and their news channel - Times Now - to mark 2007 as the year of India. The campaign's base theme - The time for India is now.

Yeah right!! Will someone please come forth and explain to this dimwitted soul which year isn't the year of India? When is "now" not the time for India? If you can explain such lofty concepts into my weasly head, I will revere your benevolence all my life!!

The skepticism and "respect" for ToI apart, the website is running a series of notes, called anthems, on India from respectable celebrities like Amithabh Bacchan and Gulzar. It is for these notes that I am putting up this blog entry. Will keep updating it as I download more of these notes from their website.

Note: I make absolutely no claim to any of these anthems. None of them are my work at all. So, ToI, please don't sue me for plagiarism or IP rights infrigement. :-).

This is Amitabh's take on India which he feels is on the verge of breaking all shackles restraining her at the moment and bound away to touch the sky. As Ian Malcolm (of Jurassic Park and The Lost World fame, played by Jeff Goldblum) would call it, "at the edge of chaos."

But, how would you like Amitabh recite this anthem out to you? That'd be a different experience altogether. Human expression paints a completely different hue of even the most mundane notes!! And this is as far from mundane as can be...

You can treat yourself to it here. Amitabh's anthem recitation.

I found the note to be quite meaningful and a subtle reality-check rap on the shoulder for someone like me living away from my homeland.

You can visit the India Poised website at http://www.indiapoised.com.

Till I am back, quietly letting the spirit sink in...

There & back again...

Well, almost two months since my last post. A lot's been going on in my head all this while.

Celebrated a lonely birthday. Was fun actually. The highlight of this birthday had to be the international telecon, 6 of us Infosys friends had. Giddy, terrific idea, though you unknowningly engendered the group which will now ensure that Jigna never experiences peace again :D.

Well, I had to leave for India the immediate morning after my birthday. Due to the elongated telecon, just barely woke up and managed to scramble onto the flight home :). That adventure deserves a separate post by itself!!

3 weeks in India were full of a lot of introspection, clearing of a mind overclouded with doubts, realizing constants in life. Questions still continue to berate me like silent sea waves upon a beleagured rock, just that the lashing is significantly less corrosive now.

Returned to Singapore today morning. And to my shock, almost everything seemed new, almost unfamiliar! Home is truly where the heart is...

And as for today itself - it was a day of surprises.

1. There was a nice layer of soot on my bed, on my furniture, on my clothes awaiting me when I opened my room. A layer of fungus on some of my clothes inside my cupboard added zing to the surprise. The recently begun construction just outside my condo is sure to give me lots of such gifts over the next few months.
2. My boss, who sits in India, arrives into Singapore today. And guess what, he flew the same flight as I. And I had zilch clue...Gulp :).
3. My mailbox saw a deluge of 600 new mails, replete with shabbily written ramble-ons from my agency, scores of attachments and million follow-up requests on a million things from various people.
4. For a change, my To-do list for the month looks half as empty as I have come to expect by now.
5. Saw an email in my box which brought totally unexpected and livening good news way ahead of their time :). Keeping my fingers crossed...(they are all pretty much knotted by now anyways).
   

As for the non-surprises, my lazy flatmate didn't get his copy of the house keys made from my set (which I had left behind with him for precisely this purpose).
Business, as usual, is "fati padi hain" ;).

Well, I am back again...in Singapore, have to ensure that I stay here, in body, mind and soul over the next few months. They are gonna prove critical.

Cheers everyone!