Nostalgic memories of Worklife

19th June, 2007

15th June was my last day at offish, as I was about to embark on a academic voyage for the next two years. It was like, I was ending everything that was good and fun, in anticipation of something better. There is no guarantee that whatever becomes of the future, will be better than what I had already in my hands. But still human beings take such seemingly stupid steps. That was eczhaktly my state of mind in those days ...

My typical worklife was as follows: Go anytime to offish. Finish your work. Then one has loads of time to do TP. We used to go for movies anytime during the week. We used to play LAN games like AOE, AOM, Warcraft and CS for as along as we could. We all had no insecurity in terms of money or work. Cannot summarize the past 2 years in tonnes of literature. It was one of the best times in my life.

My exit from the company was also pleasant for me. I got praises from everyone for my work. I never believed that I was making substantial contribution to my team, but when it was the time for me to leave, I was made realized. On the personal front, I hope the friends tht I made along the journey do not forget me. I dont know how well I will be able to live upto their expectations, but one thing I am sure of is, I will have a special place for them in my heart.

7-generation meet at Talaja

April 27th to May 2nd, 2007

Our family had planned a get-together. Now let me clarify by what I mean by **family**. We cherish brotherly bonds with cousins who trace back to 5 to 7 generations. We were in all 80 people gathered for doing some family ritual. According to the belief, it is established that our ancestors protect us and take care of us. They have the answers and solutions to our present-day problems. For example: If someone is facig some illness or someone's children are not getting married, they seek answers from the holy spirit. We performed a havan (ancient hindu ritual) and established the shrine for our ancestors and kul devi.

Now let me describe my hectic itinerary. I left Pune, on Saturday 28th April afternoon and reached Mumbai by 5pm. Then I had to catch a train from Bandra at 9:00 pm. We reached Baroda at around 5 am and from there we hired a cab to reach Talaja ( my native place ) by 9 am. Then we climbed the mountain and participated in a religious ritual at the peak of Talaja mountain. The ritual was called adhar abhishek. In the evening we decided to go to Palitana. So, mom, dad, bhai, bhabhi, me and my nephew all of us reached Palitana in the evening. Next day early morning we climbed the holy Palitana. Up there, we performed our usual rituals and then started descending it in the scorching heat around 12:30 pm. Without food, water and shoes it was a testing coup, but I managed it somehow. Then we went to Bhavnagar to meet bhabhi's aunt who had take diksha long ago. We had food at "Food Point, Bhavnagar" and then we reached Talaja late in the evening.

There, back at Talaja we had a family meeting where the nuances of the havan were being decided. I have been religious throughout my life, but I had never witnessed such a ritual. This ritual baffled some of the principles of Jainism. So in a way it was hard for me to believe in whatever was being done. I tried to discuss this with my father, but he also had no conclusively answer to it. There were some stories/incidences which approved of the presence of family-protectors. Also, somethings took me away from it.

On a side-note, this made me relate this all to a classic animated film, MULAN. Mulan is a chinese film which highlights the ancient Chinese family rituals and also shows how an intelligent girl saves the Chinese empire from being invaded by Mongol tribes.

A journey to Yester-years - Ganga Jamuna

May 20, 2007

Lazing out on Sunday, I turned on the television-box. It was showing "Ganga Jamuna", staring Dilip Kumar and Vaijanti Mala. It was an exquisite novelty. Everything seemed to have a novel touch. Those easy and silly dance steps. The touching songs like "Nain Lad gayi hai to manva ma kasak hoibe kari", "Dhundo dhundo re sajna.." and "Do Hanso ka Joda beechad gaya re ..." etc. The obvious sets, hide-and-seek type love story and the dhishum dhishum fight sequences. The archaic cursing style like "Dayan, Bhangan, etc". I appreciated and enjoyed every bit of the movie. Once in a while going back in time really helps enliven one's thought and also generates liking towards the old-ways of doing things.