After the last year's success of my year end blog, I decided to keep up with the tradition of writing a blog on "Me & the year gone by". So, before starting to write this year, I read my blog "Adios 2008". I am not sure if I will be able to match the variety and newness of the things that I did/learnt/discovered last year but I will give it a try. Besides, I have been trying to live up to some of my new year's resolutions. Putting it down on a piece of electronic webspace will at the very least give me some motivation to keep up with one of them.
So, without much ado, after 2 complete months and 7 days I have found time to complete my 2009 year end blog. The kind of person that I am, I don't quite remember many things a year afar. However, I feel it is important to remember certain things in life. So for that very reason that I do not forget things, I commence my journey through 2009.
1) The setting for the start of year 2009 was something like this: It wasn't clear how long I was going to be in US. My brother was going to get married in March and I had to book my flight for India. I had just returned from a wonderful vacation around mid-western and South-Eastern USA. It had been quite an adventure driving 2000 miles with my cousin and his friends. In the background, I was getting desperate to do an MBA from a decent college. The economic implications were pretty dire. Graduating students were finding it tough to get jobs never mind getting great ones. But with some determination and the help of my brother, I finally applied to XLRi to create the proverbial "option" for myself.( If I had not learnt it by now, as I would learn later, options are dangerous things). I don't remember much from my January days except that I was enjoying the driving experience and my new found freedom in my own car that I had bought in Dec 08 (a Honda Civic 99).
2) Feb was extremely hectic. As expected, I got an interview call from XLRI and had to write some essays. Luckily, my interview date coincided with my India visit. I had not seen my sister in law Snehal ever before, although I had talked to her over phone and chat. So, I met her, spent a few days in Mumbai with my brother and Snehal before traveling to Nagpur. No sooner did I land in Nagpur than was I managing arrangements for my brother's wedding. I also had to travel back to Mumbai for my XL interview. My interview wasn't that great. I should have done better. But nevertheless, I had other important things to take care of and so I headed back to Nagpur. Abhay's wedding went off well and it was a nice family get-together for all cousins. Everyone was around and it was fun. A small surprise awaiting me during the trip was the good news from my cousin Utpal and his wife Harshla.
3) In March I returned back to USA and had to look for a new accommodation as my roomies were leaving for India. The search for an apartment was harrowing and ultimately I took up an apartment nearby. It was a nightmare deciding which place to rent because I had no clue how long I would be required to stay. Thankfully, the bad economy came to my rescue and vacant apartments were available on rent at attractive terms. Finding an apartment did not prove as difficult as clearing away all the furniture etc that my friends had collected over the years. It was quite a pain but I managed to dump it away to someone piece by piece. Having my own car really helped in the end!.I cannot imagine how I could have done all that without my car. I must mention my very good friend Arup who was of great help to me and was one of my only buddies left in the bay area then. I got to drive a U-HAUL truck and it was quite a scary experience even if it was only for 50 minutes.
4) In April I had moved to my new place and I was now living in a studio apartment for the first time in my life. But there was something more important that had me excited all over again. I had signed up to run the 200 mile relay marathon from Calistoga to Santa Cruz (
http://www.therelay.com/). I was going to run for the India Literacy Project (ILP) team and had pledged to raise 550$ for the cause of education in India. Just when I thought I was training really well I had a bout of throat infection. I was frustrated but determined to make it. So, no sooner had I recovered from my infection I took a bet on running the Santa Cruz half marathon. The half marathon was the suggestion of one of my running mates Suresh and I had registered for it before falling sick. Thankfully, my preparation prior to my infection came to my rescue and I finished with my personal best time of 2:15 mins (approx) having shaved nearly 10 minutes off my SFO marathon time. The fact that I had not walked for a single minute in the entire race was the most satisfying feeling I had in a long time. I had done it!
5) The next event was the relay marathon. It is one hellawa crazy running event where a team of 12 runners run 3 legs each and cover a total distance of 200 miles as a team. I was given legs 7, 19, 31 of these. It was the race of a lifetime for me and I will never forget the tremendous fun that I had during the entire race. (I was actually running with great difficulty having suffered a urinary infection just before the race and carried the pain right through the race.) The race course was extremely scenic and we had unbelievable fun competing with other teams. Although our first Van was a bit slow, we ensured that our team made it to the finish line in time for the medals. 35 hrs without any sleep, and having run 18.6 miles I was dead tired at the finish line. My group van was amazing and we had so much fun together. Shovan's one liners like "Feeling the temperature" remain some of the lasting moments of that event. The race had some personal high points for me. Halfway into my second leg, in the wee hrs of the morning, through the golden gate park, I pulled up my hamstring muscle and struggled to complete my 6.3 miles. While my Van mates kept my morale up and I managed to get over the line then, the next thing on everyone's mind was my 3rd and final leg. With a pulled hamstring, I would surely struggle to finish my 3rd leg in that state. (Of course, none of my mates knew about the infection I was carrying as well). We were in danger of getting disqualified for finishing over the time limit. We needed to make alternative plans. Some of the "star" runners in my van volunteered to run on my behalf in order to complete the race. The pressure to finish in time was immense, and I decided to make one last attempt. It was a bold move. With 4-5 hrs of rest, I thought I would be able to breathe some life back into my leg. So we decided, that I would give it one last shot myself. If I were to simply fall down during the race, someone else would take over. My teammates were equally tired, and running someone else's leg was the last thing on their minds so everyone encouraged me to the hilt. With the support of my Van mates and a slightly downward slope, I managed to give one of the most cherished performances of my life. The run through the green hills of Ben Lomond near Santa Cruz will remain an enduring "blissful" experience for me . It was a painful leg but one of the most satisfying ones. An even more important event running in the background of the relay was the charitable contribution. I managed to collect a total of 800$ for the cause of literacy in India. I learnt an important lesson during my collection drive. I realized that people gave money only to someone they knew well (credibility), or if the cause in question was important to them.
6) My next goal was to run the SF marathon which was slated for July. But I was not sure if I would stay that long in SF considering the end of my project. I had received a rejection notification from XLRI initially and I was disappointed but motivated to try a foreign school instead. So I was busy applying to universities when out of the blue, I received an email from XL informing me that I had been offered a seat and needed to join in the second week of June. After some deliberation, I decided to join XL. I had no other and better alternative available at that time. Coming back from the US meant that I had the experience of "closing down my shop".
7) In June, time had finally come to send out my LDI (Last day in Infosys) email. I quit on Thursday 04-Jun-09 and was on my way to JSR. I had never been to this part of the world so I was to looking forward to it. I had heard a lot about the region from my interactions with Manish during my college days and it was an intriguing exercise of matching facts on the ground with what I had heard from him before . I found Jamshedpur to be a pretty ordinary town/city. I was either expecting more or was used to the big urban sprawls of Western India. Talking about Eastern and Western India, apart from the vast difference in mindset, attitude, culture etc my new theory is that Northern India is as close to Eastern India as South India is to Western India.
8) Out of the many experiences at XLRi, three will always remain special for the batch of 96 odd people that joined with me. The first one was the adventure camp near Dimna lake. It was one hellawa experience. Apart from the usual team building games,we did rappling, rock climbing and still water rafting in Dimna lake. My team won the overall team event and my effort was much appreciated. Second was the village trip to West Singhbum district of Jharkhand. It was meant to provide an insight into the living conditions of the poorest of the people in India. I learnt about some customs about the tribal region that found to be markedly different from the rest of the country. I did not know that tribal people chose their own life partners unlike much of rest of India where it was arranged marriages. There is a tradition of "reverse" dowry among tribal people. The groom has to give a pair of bullocks as dowry to the bride's father before marrying his daughter. Divorces are a common occurance in the tribal region and they remarry quite easily. Tribal women enjoy lot of freedom and can leave their husbands if they so choose to because they are not well taken care off. Tribal people do not believe in modern medicine and treat themselves through "Zhad Phuk" (witch doctors). They indulge is excessive alcohol consumption and each house on the weekend is a "daru ka theka" ( the daru is made from rice and is called "hadia"). Cow and buffaloe sheds were conspicuous by their absence. I was told that tribals do not raise cows for milk as they feel milking cows is tantamount to cheating a calf of its right to it's mother's milk. How could we have never thought of it this way I wonder.
9) The third and most fascinating experience in XLRi was my "International immersion" trip to France in Nov. We covered France, Belgium and Netherlands. I saw the Lourve, Eiffel tower, champs elysees, EU Commission office in Brussels and Amsterdam apart from Lille. The trip was a memorable experience. Lille, itself was a great little city and its city center is a treat to the eyes. A ride in the 200 mph Eurorail, nightlife in Lille, the strategy project with Groupe Adeo, one-day workshop with the students of IESEG and wine and cheese tasting experience is still fresh in my memory. Now I can safely say that I have covered a decent bit of Europe and US! France will remain as one of the high points of the year. I enjoyed my stay in Lille thoroughly. The last day at the Christmas fair and the giant wheel ride was simply mind blowing.
10) There have been many other learnings during my stay in XLRI. I would tire down documenting all of them here. Instead, I would sum up to say that some of the marketing and finance lessons have been very enriching. I know a few things about a lot more things now. My mantra in life has been "know the pointers". My MBA has been good from that point of view.
Now that I look back at the moments throughout the year, I think my France trip, my relay race and Abhay's wedding would stand out for me. Getting into XLRI and learning concepts in marketing and finance etc would also go down as significant learning in my life in the past year. Phew! now that I have completed writing this post, I have just realized that it hasn't been that bad a year after all from a learning perspective. It surely is a competition to 2008... Over to you 2010...
