Quote of the day

"The more I think about things, the more I see no rhyme or reason in life -- no one knows why some things work out, and some things don't -- why some of us get lucky -- and some of us..."
- Bella (Gina McKee) in the movie Notting Hill. Notting Hill is one of my favorite movies of all time.

I'm fascinated by the randomness and luck in life, though I don't think about luck/randomness while doing anything good/bad but time and again I realise after the fact why some complicated things work out so quietly and ordinarily and some simple issues give you such a hard time. I believe perspectives and attitudes in life plays an important role in how you pursue each day, week.... life, work. It's remarkable how people having positive attitude always end up having happy experiences and outcomes even in a new situation.
For e.g. A survey in NYC for people looking for street parking in NYC every night/evening always find parking, not because they know the streets or spots to look but because of their attitude.

I'm sold.

Talks and Discussions - Bhushan

I invited Bhushan Shah for writing this post, he's the B dude I mentioned in the previous post who recently visited me from Chicago. He has taken forward the discussion of conversations and has elaborated his views on his migration process to the US as a student and asked me to take this post further as a discussion. So I urge all of you to write about your experiences if you ever stayed away from your home country, families as students or on work. People who've never gone through this process can give their views (if any) on what stopped them or what they think about the process. I've been a passive reader (without putting my comments) to many blogs, but this discussion would kind of give me a reality check on how many people actually visit my blog (not that it's important).
So for discussing it further write in your comments. Bhushan would surely appreciate it. Thanks!

For clarification, I'm the 'PJ' in the post and those are my initials. Some of my friends from SAKEC have given me that nick and it's one of my many nick names.

So after much nudging from PJ I am sending the following for his blog.

First of all let me thank him for his great hospitality and I do hope to return the great treatment. I feel the same about meeting old friends or new acquaintances. The interesting thing about meeting old friends is that the conversation begins where one left off, the time passes but the bonds remain as strong as ever. Not particularly sure about being more or less mature, but one thing does remain constant and that is “change”. I believe our reaction and adaptation to change shape our experiences and eventually who we are.

We had an opportunity to talk about myriad of topics and it could have been a broader discussion had time permitted. The interesting thing about it all is that PJ and I were addressing all of them with the perspective of “FOBs” (I don’t consider us Fresh of the Boat, but for lack of a better term for people in our shoes). Now as I write this note I wonder how the whole discussion would have shaped had we been in India, or even if the same topics would have been discussed.

Five years back the decision to come to the US was a no brainer, all of us pretty much were swept by the euphoria. Now students considering coming to the US have much higher stakes to evaluate. All of us are risk takers and the differentiating factor is our appetite for risk, some take the plunge and others keep wondering “what if”. The challenges of surviving in the US have been far from subtle but with every struggle there is a sense of achievement and the satisfaction of being fit enough to have survived it. Not sure how everybody else feels about the whole migration process but I would surely like to hear about it. I constantly struggle with the fact that no amount of success or monetary remuneration can compensate for the time we spend away from our families.

Someone once told me that “Life isn’t simple”, my instant retort was that “Life is as simple as we want it to be”. Have we all then added more variables to the equation of life?

Knowing that PJ and I are from traditional Gujarati families had we both decided not to come to the US, we would have met over a Sunday dinner in Mumbai with our respective spouses and the discussion would have been completely different. I also wouldn’t be distracting you with this blog :).

Saludos!

These were excellent thoughts and was very well written. Thanks Bhushan for writing this one for me. This exercise will foster good exchange of individual perspectives and views and hope it encourages you to write your own blog. I'm sure it would be a very good read.


Here's the last day (late night at Dunkin Donuts) picture with Bhushan during his recent visit.

Dialogues - Fuel for thoughts

I love good dialogues especially with old friends whom I'm catching up after a long time. All of us cross paths with a lot of new people during our school/college years or work life, some interesting and some not so very interesting. I was fortunate to meet some very interesting people (hope they find me interesting too... ;) ) whom I shared good camaraderie and were a regular part of life for those growing up years.

Life is moving at a faster pace than ever and friends who once were everyday buddies have become rare planned ocassions. I'm fine with that, c'est la vie..... BUT I want to grab those rare ocassions, have fun, catch up on old times and make the most out of it.

There were couple of ocassions recently where I met old buddies from USC and SAKEC and I enjoyed every moment of it. B (buddy from SAKEC) was at my place for a weekend and we met after almost 4 years. Both of us have changed (matured if you say so....) he always was, but enhanced further with an MBA which he got recently and I'm yearning for. We had some nice dialogues on so many different subjects, even hard to remember. Big conversation on why he went to Business School and what can be done for getting into a good school, good job after MBA, Marriage, Business Opportunities, Job Opportunities, War in Iraq.
Thanks for stopping by!

I also met Harish and Babloo in Virginia 2-3 weekends back and it was good to see both of them after a long time even though both are just 4-5 hours far. We had nice lunch/dinner at a restaurant in Baltimore harbor. (I love restaurants on water-fronts). It was good to see both of them.

This year I also went to my first Thanksgiving Dinner at a colleague's place which I thoroughly enjoyed without doubt. Met some really fascinating and delightful people (my colleagues family and neighbors) had sumptuous Vegetarian food and desert. Had nice chat with my colleagues family, I was struck by their humbleness, simplicity and love for simple things in life. Gave me a lot of fuel for thinking about the world and approaches in life. Looking forward to my next meeting with them. Thanks for the wonderful dinner!

I look forward to more such encounters with old buddies and new interesting people who will mature to old buddies with the investment of time and many such conversations. Anyone passing by, I'm always ready to meet for a dialogue over lunch/dinner. I'm only a phone call away!

This topic reminds me of 100 Years by Five for Fighting.