the bag repair lady

This happened a few months ago, may be 1 month ago, am not too sure; but I will remember it for a long time to come. Why I am going to remember it, I am not really very sure, but I guess when you read the incident you will realize what it is that struck me and imprinted it on my memory. If you get it right, it means you know me well.

I have this Che Guevara bag, dirty green ('twas green but I guess over 2 years of abuse and not washing it has gotten dirty :D) and something I think is a style statement but most others think makes me look like a beggary scholar; I just love this bag since it is very nice and it is the only thing that I bought for myself from Europe. The bag's handle tore because I had overfilled it with some weird stuff and I was looking desperately looking for someone in my area to repair it for me. But I could not find anyone to repair it. So off I went to good old 4th block shopping complex to get it repaired.

There is this lady who has a small bag repair shop next to Raghavendra complex, just near the coffee day coffee pudi store. She has been around for a while and appa always says she is the best person to repair bags. I went along there and gave my bag.

Me: Swalpa bag repair maaDbeku. Urgent ittu
Lady: En aagide
Me: Handle kitthoytu, matte zipppu kittbandide
Lady: Torsi (she inspects it and says), naaLe banni saar, madhyana kodteeni
Me: naaLe sunday alva, tegdirteera?
Lady: Full week working saar, tumba kelasa ide, bengalurinda ella kade inda janaa bartaare, mg road, yeshwantpur ella kade inda bartaare, paapa allinda ella bandaaga naavu illa heLakke agalla alla, nanna maga oDi hoda, ee vayasallu ishtella kelasa maadbeku, en maaDodu.... naaLe banni saar bag kodteeni
Me: Aaytamma naaLe barteeni, naanu yaavagalu ille barodu, appa kooDa ille barodu
Lady: Gottu nanage neevu channagi, neevu chikkavaru aagiddaginda nodtaa ideeni.... nimma tande kooda gottu....

I went back the next day. The bag was well repaired, looked good as new and she charged me 25 rupees for it. Appa would have been scandalized by the amount but would have agreed as she does a good job. But the icing on the cake was that she found and returned a pair of headphones I had displaced and replaced. God bless her I thought, thanked her and walked away....

Some people I guess are genuinely good... and they restore the faith in goodness that most people make you lose so easily.

The fine line

It is weird but we all go through this! Atleast I think we all do and I definitely do!

And that is this eternal question of whether " I am doing too much of too few or too little of too many."

And the question has no one right answer!

It is a constant turmoil that haunts me all the time and causes me to sometime discontinue things that I was so passionate about before, things that I stood very strongly for. But today I find myself not so keen and don’t do it at all.

This is a complex dynamic decision based on current and future commitments, current time availability, the constantly changing priorities, ad hoc work that comes up, boredom with existing things that you have been doing and so on.

And this question will like a non-linear optimization align how much time and effort spent on how many number of things in line with the above stated parameters. To make it more complex, all you need to add is the whims and fancies of the person that you are.

See it is so complex that you don’t know what is right and what is wrong! And for someone to judge you at this point and say you are lazy, or you don’t have your priorities right and all that is not correct. Like I was telling P today, never judge a person wearing you shoes, I used to do it, today I don’t, I would have lost out on a lot of very good friends of mine if I had continued to be so judgmental. I am still opinionated but I don’t judge people so harshly anymore and I am so much more open.

Also, I am open to change, much more than ever before and I can understand if people's priorities change. When priorities change, the " I am doing too much of too few or too little of too many" question pops up and you change things you are doing. Don't judge someone as wrong when this change happens for this change was bound to happen and it did, whether you like it or not.

Inspiration

It is often said that you become like the company you keep :)
And I so realized it today.

There was this senior guy from an allied practice at work who came and spoke. And man-o-man I am so bowled over. Energy, passion, intelligence and sharpness. After being partner in a very reputed consulting firm for a long time, the man goes and becomes executive advisor to the college drop out who sells computers and then sets up entire operations in a South East Asian country and now sells computers here. Too much I say, the guy is tremendous.

But what matters more to me is that after so long someone was able to get me thinking again, about what it is that I am doing in my life, why I am becoming one of those dull energyless boring creatures. I am constantly fighting the complacence that is building in, but today's talk was the kick that I needed the most and if not anything else, the raw passion and urge to do what I want to do is back again :)

Thanks a ton, Kingan Happyan! Thanks so much!

People are all that matter

I met A's girl A for coffee today.
Sitting under Barista's orange chatri and sipping cold coffee, alternately watching the fountain and the planes that land from up close, I realized again that all we need is a simple life with the amount of amount to sustain a life style you want. She agrees with what I think. She said all I want is a simple life, there is no meaning to the madness of working. It is pointless to work, beinig away from people you want, from the life you want, all just for money, which is never earned but only spent.

There was sadness in the beautiful girl's eyes. She simple misses A too much. Papa ya, 6 years they have been off together and now A wants to make money out of a job that he was interested in and now bored of. They need to be together. I can't see them not be together. Their being together makes all the madness in their world worth it! Aye A, find that bengaluru jaab no? whatsay?

Whats the problem with long hair?

I am growing my hair long, I want a pony tail.
I have received numerous threats, comments pleads to cut it, from "Yuck it looks horrible, cuuuuuuuuut it" to "Please kaNo putta, haircuttige hogu", from "Yappa, saaku ninna avataara, hogI cut maadsu koodalnaa" to amma pleading with me to cut my lovely locks :)

But the best was when Unmarried Assamese concoction said "I am not meeting you with long hair, as a principle I don't meet guys with long hair"

What karma! We are not seeing each other, I am not going to a party as her date and I am not meeting a prospective groom for her such that she may be judged by the friends and may be embaressed. But nahi, madam is not happy with my long hair. By principle, she wont meet me :)

I am smart too, I told her "I don't by principle meet fat girls (she said she has crossed her own limits)" :D

Somethings never change - Thank God

I met an old friend yesterday, we spent 2 terms of a dreadful course together and it would have not been as much fun, if not for him.

I met him, he is this hot shot i-banker now, but he is still the same. Wears the same stupid clothes and comes and eats at restaurants, nice classy ones, in stupid bathroom slippers and bermudas. And yesterday I was expecting him to do that and he did just that.

The talk was as peaceful and nice as ever. Guess somethings never change and I am glad that they don't.