The Job

One desk after another. One kitchen after another. Thats my life for the last four and a half years. The desk, for my laptop, and the kitchen, for refreshments (mostly water) and gossip. I have been doing the rounds of offices, meeting rooms, conference calls, across cities and continents, as a traveling consultant, that I feel, I have simply lost the sense of space and belonging. I meet new clients, make new friends, setup teams, brainstorm, 'solutionize', execute projects, try to remain politically astute without getting political, and among other things get the job done. I then pack my bags, and head on to my next desk. I wonder when will this stop. Or do I even want it to. I dont know.

Am I happy? Am I sad? Am I petrified? Am I jubiliant? Am I beat? Am I lost? Am I sane?

Am I ..........................

Interesting Comments

Few Interesting Comments from family/friends/colleagues/strangers over the past two years of my stay in the States:


East Coast Folks: California, woh! I havent been there. Its like a different country......I wonder how it would be to go there......I am told they have a lot of earthquakes there....

Another East Coast Guy who has been traveling, once in two weeks to SoCal for a project: Now that I am traveling and seeing the world................Response from someone at the table: Traveling the world! Jeez, You first need to get a passport....!!

Dry Cleaning Lady at Virginia: Zip code? Me: 92626. Wow what are you doing here? Dont they have dry cleaners there? !!

Security Personnel at the airport: ID please? Me: Heres my Drivers Licence. Him: Texas, eh? Hows the weather there now? Me: I dont know, I dont live there any more. Him: So where do you live now? Me: Umm, Actually, I dont know! Seattle, Chicago, Orange County or DC. Him: Guard, I need a security check on this Asian Brother!! Me: What????

Whole Foods Clerk: Wow, so many bananas? What do you do with them? Do you go to the zoo to feed monkeys or do you have monkeys at home? Me: Well, I am the monkey!

Somebody in the Elevator talking to his friend: Man, the zoo is awesome. San Diego has the best zoo in the world. Me barging in impolitely: Which other zoos have you been to? Him: None.

My friend Jared (East coast guy, world traveler !!): The baseball World Series this year sucked man. Me who has no clue about Baseball: World Series, wow! How many countries participate? Him: Three

There are so many more, that I am not able to recollect now....will keep adding more....

Spanglish

Some broken/not so broken Spanish sentences/phrases:


Hello, How are you? - Hola, Buenos Dias, Como Esta?

I am fine, Thank you. How about you? - Mwee Bien. Gracias, y usted?

GoodBye, See you tomorrow - Adios, Hasta Manana.

Good Grief! - Que Cosa!

Where do you live? - Donde vive?

I live in USA - Vivo en Los Estados Unidos

Pleased to meet you - Mucho Gusto

Likewise - Igualmente

What is your name? - Como se Yama?

My name is Prakash Holalkere - May Yamo Prakash Holalkere

Your suitcases will arrive tomorrow - Sus maletas Yaagan manana

Old Blog Link

Sometimes I go back to my first blog link to read my old posts, and boy most of them are so funny and remind me of the good old days....

http://kashworld.blogspot.com

Buenos Dias !

Wow, the last time I posted on this blog was in March! Amazing......and sad. I should be blogging more often. I am glad to be back.....

What has happened since March? Well, I came back to Southern California on a project, was there for close to 6 months. My parents visited me then from India and we had a wonderful time together. We visited Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, St Louis, Columbia, and of course LA and Orange County. They definitely enjoyed their visit, and I felt so blessed to have them here with me.

Last Month, I packed my bags, and came to Washington DC on a new assignment. This is my second trip to the east coast, and I have a feeling I will be here for a while. I am yet to explore this beautiful city and its surroundings. I found a local Art of Living group as well, and Monday evenings is when I need to make time for the weekly kriya.

Frankly, this year has been a great year for me, personally and professionally. I have learnt so much, made new friends, traveled frequently, reached out to my extended family, got promoted, explored the unexplored.....and soon its almost end of the year.

Well, I have signed up for Spanish classes, and this blog post title represents that attempt....one of my last minute catching up on my 2008 resolutions....

Hasta Manana,

P

Sri Sri and one of his antics !

He says, he is a boy who refuses to grow up !

The American President Hopeful

What a change this would be, if an african (kenyan roots) american takes on the mantle.....

Wowwww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewc0srSKj78

Seva, Sadhana and Satsang

I am trying to find my Vashistha's Yoga book. It must be here somewhere

(http://www.amazon.com/Vasisthas-Yoga-Venkatesananda/dp/0791413640/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203817441&sr=8-1)

I believe this is the greatest spiritual work ever written. Of course, I have not traversed the length and breadth of spiritual literature to make this statement, as an authority. Its a strong belief, thats all.

I am yet to complete reading this book though. Every page is a dweller. I read a page and end up spending hours appreciating the obvious stated and fathoming the subtlety. The book is very well translated in simple english.

In the first or the second chapter, the book mentions about the Seva, Sadhana and Satsang. I have diligently been trying to increase the above three S'. Guru Rishi Pragya explains the three S's very well in this link

http://guruvaani.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/talk-on-sadhana-satsang-and-seva-by-rishi-nitya-pragya-ji/

More later...

Variety at the workplace

My immediate client counterpart grew up in the Soviet Union. Part of her growing up in Belarus, was watching bollywood movies in cinema theatres. Well, american movies were banned and bollywood movies were the nonsensical comical dramas, without any political overtones, which the government thought would be safe for its people. Dubbed in russian, along with the song and dance routines, brought people respite from the rigmaroles of the daily struggle. When she enquired what my weekend plans were, and on learning that possibly I would watch a hindi movie, trigerred her curiosity yet again. So are they still the same dance and music routines, she asked? And that is when, I came to know her tryst with bollywood movies, when she was growing up.

Another client colleague from the same project is a german. A young guy, must be the same age as me, very hardworking,. He was with us two weeks ago, but then went back to work from the Frankfurt office, for two reasons. One, that was part of the project plan, so that he could work with his manager there for a while, before heading back (he is coming back next monday) to the project location. And second, he was due for his final exam of the long distance MBA program that he has been diligently pursuing, for the last 4 years ! Apart from learning about the miserable weather patterns of Frankfurt, I got to hear many anecdotes about europe and its denizens. One of them was about a Jan 31st tradition, when women go bersek and start chopping off men's neckties, if one is wearing one. This bizzare tradition is very well practiced. According to the women, thats the day when they symbolically try to subdue men's power ! Men, on that day, wear ties that are very old and haggard, deserving a complete chop.

The next client associate that we work with is a chinese of vietnamese origin! She is again the same age as me, but a bit more crazier, I feel. She mumbles in her work ! Hardworking again, on the job all the time, but keeps talking to herself on every task. I think its the translation thats going on. She must be translating all work processes coded and discussed in english, into vietnamese, decoding it syllable by syllable and then functioning. She doesnt say much about vietnam or china or about other things. And when she is under stress, trying to deliver something on time, she goes on a binging spree. We have some snacks in the corner for hunger pangs (I stay away from them), and she devours them under stress, chatting along to herself at the same time. She is adorable.

My client manager, I am told has her roots from Ukraine. Another client planning manager has greek origins.

As I spend time working on this project, sitting in a conference room, somewhere in a suburb close to chicago, I learn so many facets of life and lifetimes, of other people. I learn about societies, customs, ideologies, notions. I am fascinated, how every day can be so much more....

The daily train journey

Although this blog is for me to post experiences that I have in the US of A, this week, I am kinda reminiscing about Bombay. I couldnt help but write something about an unique trait of the city of Mumbai, and what better or worse, than the Mumbai Local Trains.

Growing up in Mumbai and living mostly in the suburbs, makes you rely heavily on public transport to reach your college or workplace or the bank. Even if you had a car, you wouldnt want to take it out. It would take forever.

Mumbai is a long stretch of land, surrounded by the Arabian Sea. South Mumbai is the area with the fancy spots, whereas the north was the dungeon. Every morning, scores would leave their dungeons to go to work. And the fastest way to reach their goal, was to take the overcrowded local train network.

The train service, one of the most efficient services provided by the government is outdated technology, but yet functional and very much the life line. Each day, traveling on those trains, is a crash course in time management, people handling, health management, 'saving your mind' management, optimization, survival skills, and more. It could also lead to depression, stress, anxiety, cravings, and easy access to suicidal opportunities.

One of my favorite sights on the train, was that of a tall man hanging on to his newspaper neatly folded into many layers, so that the end product is a 15 * 15 cm square piece that he holds skillfully with a strong grip of his left fingers, whereas the right arm dangles, holding the overhead support. He is surrounded by other commuters on all sides, not at a safe distance, but clinging on to him or sticking to him. The shorter ones probably have their heads sticking out under the arm pits of the taller neighbour. Most of them end up breathing air, which is polluted with a generous dosage of body odour. Well, amidst all the chaos, when the train has started moving and is probably about ten mins away from the next station, calmness is restored. The tall man, focuses his attention to his reading material and reads every line on it. The interesting facet is that on the other side, another person too is reading the back side of same square literature. The untold agreement always amazed me. If the bearer of the newspaper finishes his section and wishes to unscramble the newspaper and then fold it back to a different section to read further, he asks the stranger on the other side, if its ok to do so. The stranger might ask the tall man to hold on as he still has the last bit on aishwariya rai to complete. Why would the newspaper owner be curteous enough to check on the other person? Probably because, on the next train journey, he might be on the other side, reading tidbits off another stranger's newspaper and hoping that the favor would be returned.

I want to be a monkey !

Yes, this is what I exactly told my uncle, when I was six. Unlike many other kids, who replied with fancy answers like ' I want to be a pilot ' , I naively and honestly said I wanted to be a monkey when I grow up. The 'grown - ups' found it 'wildly' amusing and since then it has been part of folk-lore, etched in my family's memory. It comes up in most family get togethers. All these years, I used to get embarassed hearing the narration again. I thought of myself, ' couldnt I have gone with the cliche ! ? Couldnt I make a cutie face and say that I wanted to be an engineer (I did graduate in electrical engineering)' .

I also remember the next question from my uncle. He asked ' Why do you want to be a monkey' ?. I had a darn good reason. According to my imaginative mind, built by many wildlife bedtime stories by my dad, a monkey can jump from tree to tree and can eat any fruit it wants. It can eat a banana now and a mango next. Simple pleasures! That was good enough to get the whole house erupt in laughter and comments such as , ' how adorable' ! Although my parents felt it was adorable, they were a bit embarrased then, I think. In a social circle, it doesnt help, if one's kid mentions that it wants to be a primate, when grown up. They would probably want their children to have the same aspirations that a society aspires for their offsprings. An engineer, a doctor, a lawyer....and dad's day at work would have been brighter, the next day.

Today, as I look back, I am glad I have fullfilled my naive ambition. I am like a monkey now. I am a raw vegan. I only eat fruits and vegetables (mostly greens, uncooked). I can proudly say, that I am one of the lucky few who has gone on to fulfill his/her ambition. How many of us, can say this, beamingly? :)

Three bags and no baggage

Recently used this phrase and kinda liked it. Thats how I can summarize my current state of affairs. Well, if you add my bagpack and the laptop and the guitar, its six bags and no baggage(s). No baggage, cause I feel free. The most, I have felt than ever before.

One should travel. Any person who has stayed at a single spot, needs to move. The movement, triggers upliftment. Or else you rot. Same is with the mind. Explore new ideas, listen to what others have to say, you dont have to agree, but atleast have an open mind. Dont be biased.

I want to live in the moment. No past to haunt, and no future to overplan. Patting myself on the back, actually, I am doing a pretty good job. I am happy, I am contented.

I have aspirations, plans and hopes. I have thought about them, and have written them down.

I have suffered pain in the past. I will suffer pain in the present. I know that. But I have forgotten the pain and will forget it again, whenever I am subjected to it.

And a place called Deerfield

I spent the weekend, going to the Venice and Santa Monica beaches, back in California. How busy were these spots? Folks, surfing, running, working out, cycling, etc and having a ball! I took a roller coaster ride, which on couple of turns, gives a breathtaking view of the ocean. I also took a free basketball throw challenge at the fun & games area. Three shots for 5 $ ! I got all three, and won three basketballs. I chose a Tar Heels ball and a Cal Ball. Tar Heels, of course the number one college basketball team and a favorite! I didnt take the third one. My hands were full.

And how about life in Deerfield? Although I have been there only for a week, I am wondering what outdoor activities, I could take up. Skiing? Hockey? Of course, only if I find time after soon to increase office hours! How can people live in these temperatures? A concept so alien to me! But again, I consider myself as an explorer, and I am sure, the field of deers, would ignite some local passion in me.

I hope I can write more on the local life in this town. Soon.

Omniprescence

The Art of Living group, is omnipresent. And thats what I like the most about it. I flew into Deerfield, and one of the first things I did, was to reach out over the internet to local AOL groups, and immediately found one at Northbrook. I look forward to meeting them and participating in the Satsangs and the kriyas. Monday, is the slotted time for the satsang, and I might end up missing the first one. No prizes for guessing why ! Work, work and work !!!

Coming back to the group, the AOL idealogy is spread across the globe. Groups exist in every town. And the entry is always wide open. Each group welcomes you with open arms and showers love.

IF not Monday, I am looking forward to Thursday!

Where am I headed next?

Hello world, happy new year. I am glad to be back and posting again. Well, one of my new year resolutions is to blog more. Lets see, how long this one lasts! :)

Well, its the first week of a new year. My next assignment is based out of deerfield, IL. I hope to see a lot of deer there!! I have to be at the client site, 8:30 am sharp on Monday, January 07th! Well, till last week, I was only going to be in Chicago during the last month of January, as a trainer for a new bunch of BI aspirants. With my next project in Illinois, I guess I will be spending more time in and around Chicago.

People would call me crazy for accepting a role/project in windy Chicago, at this time of the year. Well, I am addressing two of my (many) new year resolutions with this choice. One, I want to travel more this year. Traveling from west coast to the east or the midwest and back, and beyond probably. Second, I want to do more things that I fear. Cold, windy weather is what most of us dont fancy. I have been in California for a year now, and have got used to the sun. But, I want to step out of the comfort zone and face the snow!

Plus most of my buddies stay in the midwest and the east coast. I have some extended family too around there, and its high time I paid them a visit.

January 7th also marks a year for me at my new workplace. I remember December in Seattle last year. We had a rude snow and rain storm disrupting life. Power was out for two weeks, at a stretch, trees resting on roofs, houses swept away, and lives lost! Meanwhile, I was huddled with many at the Microsoft Sammamish Campus, as I used to consult there. The little time that I spent in the apartment, clothed in three trousers and four shirts, I played chess, ate fruits and listened to Bollywood music in my head. The phone battery and lines eventually died down, making communication difficult. We seeked warmer homes, places where power had returned. Folks, spent more time in their cars, with the heat on. Darkness everywhere. I was supposed to be in the most developed country, but the speed at which everything got disrupted, was similar to a similar incident in Mumbai. And the speed at which life came back to normalcy, Mumbai scored higher. The spirit of Mumbai, wins, everytime!