The Alchemist...

I have wanted to write this entry since the time I finished reading “The Alchemist”. It is definitely one of the most beautiful books that I have read. The central character (Santiago) has been so wonderfully presented that every person can see a small part of himself with the central character. Apart from being a very good read, the book also made me ask myself some very deep questions. What is my destiny? Am I traveling the right path? Will I end up being a baker who was destined to find a pot of gold? Frankly, I am very much afraid to even think about these questions, let alone answer them. It is said in the book that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I wonder when my teacher will arrive. I wonder if I am ready enough for a teacher.

But there is one thing said in the book which I believe totally. It is about the so called “Old man in shining armor” helping you in your life’s path. Ever since I was a kid I have always felt that there is “Someone” watching over me. Someone, whom I have never seen or met, but who always has my best interests in his mind. I call him God and the people who have read “The Alchemist” can call him the old man in the shining armor. Every time I have a bad experience he seems to be whispering in my ears – You will very soon understand why you went through this. 

Let me try and explain by taking someone examples from my life. Early in my childhood, I had to leave my hometown and study in Delhi. I am talking about a time when I was in 6^th standard. It was a new place and I absolutely hated being there. I had no friends in the place and almost always felt as a south Indian outcast among North Indians. I remember wondering why I had to go through all this rubbish. Three years later when I was leaving Delhi and going back to my hometown, I again felt miserable. This time it was because, I had made so many new friends and I will now never be able to see them again. Now, after 15 years due to a strange twist, I had to go to Gurgaon for my work and one by one I am getting back in touch with all my old friends. You cannot imagine how happy I feel whenever I meet my “long lost friends”!!!! I am glad I came here, went back and again came here. It was as if everything was planned. 

I am an electronics and communication engineer by education. I had always wanted to be a software engineer. Fate made me a telecom engineer. I was very angry on God to have made a telecom engineer out of me. It did not take me long to know that this job was “Charming”. In fact I began to love it. Everything that I had studied in my four years of engineer was proving to be useful. Today when I call my “Software engineer” friends that are more bitter then me. They are angry that studied electronics and are working on a computer. They are angry that the market is so over crowded that they have become just another person in the crowd. They are angry that their day start starts staring into a computer and ends with staring at the same computer. Today I am glad I am communication engineer and am enjoying every moment of it. It was as if everything was planned.

I used to hate traveling a lot. I liked to be in familiar surrounding with familiar faces. I hated the uncertainty that traveling brought you. My job as a communication engineer involved a lot of travel. The first time I went on a travel, I was so bloody scared and nervous that I lost 17,000 Rs from my purse. Just imagine how I felt!!!! But slowly as time went by, and I traveled more places, I began to see why people enjoy traveling. I in fact began to love it. My hate for traveling began to be replaced by a love for it. As I did so I also began to feel more confident about myself. Today I have traveled to more places then many of my “Software engineers”. I love the challenges of going to unknown places and visiting unknown people and finding friends. Now I am confident that I can go even to the North Pole and make friends there. Traveling has become such an inseparable part of me that I now wonder I did not like it before. It was as if everything was planned. 

Like all people of my generation, I too got hooked to the internet. I loved to chat my heart out online. It was during this time that I found a very interesting lady online. She was so cheerful and bright that I thought it was her that I was waiting for all these days. It was not to be. And it turned out that it was just my hormones and infatuation that were fooling around with me. She was not the girl after all. But all these chatting session somehow made me feel good about writing my heart out. I realized that I loved to put my thoughts on paper and publish it. It cleared my mind and lightened my heart. I turned to blogging. I started to write my “own” articles. Tough I do not have a big fan following, I enjoy publishing my thoughts online. What started as a routine chatting with one girl online ended up with me trying my hand on blogging and to this day I have written about 60+ blogs. I plan to write atleast a 100 more. I have found some geninuly good bloggers/blogs online. I have inspired some of my own friends to start blogging. I am loving it. It was as if everything was planned.

Quick update...

It has been a long time since I have typed in anything. I alone know how much I have missed blogging. But I have not been able to do so. One of the reason for this was that the last few days have been extremely eventful for me. Now that its 12:34 AM on a monday morning and I have time,tranquility of the night and Insomnia on my side I thought it would be a great idea to just key in whatever happened to me in the last few days.

I got the Idea of doing this after reading a wonderful blog that I nowadays visit almost on a daily basis ( http://nrsl.wordpress.com/ ). So, here goes my update.

• I came back from Nepal to India. (In a strange way I am missing Nepal).
• Visited my brother who was in Hospital due to acute Jaundice (By God's grace, he is now fine).
• Had a memorable stay in Bangalore (only one night). Met all my old roommates and chatted away the entire night. It will remain as one of the most memorable night of mine.
• Stayed in Hyderabad over a weekend. Met all the old colleagues, friends and roommates. The get together in Ameerpet with all my "Gang" really charged up my batteries.
• I FINALLY found a room near my office in Gurgaon. Gosh!!!!! I had been wanting to change my old room so badly that now I wonder how I did not so earlier.
• After finding the room, I was pissed off. The room was simply too costly for me. I cursed myself for convincing myself to move into such a costly room. But, out of the blue, I found two people who were willing to share my room. So, end of the day, I got my room and I got it for cheap. (God!!! I love you).
• I got a promotion at work. I am now a so called "Team Lead". This is a new challenge for me, I hope and pray that I respond well to this challenge as well. 
• I finished reading the Alchemist. I must admit it is one of the most wonderful book I have read in a long long time.
• Started reading "Icon". I have finished almost 25% of the book. As of now this book has portrayed Steve jobs as an "Anti hero". I don't like this, cause Steve Jobs is one of my heros. I will still go ahead and complete the book.
• I am now Chandigarh on official work. It is a wonderful place and I like the climate here. I now know first hand why bachelor like this place. Here I saw some of the most beautiful girls of India. Gosh!!! this place is heaven.

I am sure whoever reads this might give a damn about what I did all these days. I understand you. But after many many days, when I read this blog, I am sure I will be glad I wrote this :-)