It is very strange to believe that when you are happy that god has given you eyes to watch out this beautiful world at the same time reminding you that you have tears associated with those may be good and bad for happiness and sorrow always go hand in hand otherwise your life is never equally balanced. Well my last week experience has all the tides that Life generally consists of and that makes me give the title of this experience as "Good Bad Ugly". It all started with my preparation for my official trip to Ahmadabad.
15-01-2006 : Its a holiday for the company but i had to work and was working pretty late. Somehow manages to pull off from work at around 9.30 PM. Was heading back to home, on busy main road my vehicle stops abruptly, would have been rammed by the truck coming behind, but thanks to "Newton's First Law of Motion" - was able to pull on to the roadside with my presence of mind as the external force. And then vehicle rejects to start at all that's the Ugly part. It was Good that my vehicle stopped few kms away from my office. Somehow managed to push the vehicle till the premises. Parked the vehicle and booked the office cab, Bad Idea as i had to wait another 45 mins to get into the cab.
16-01-2006 : Manages to get vehicle from my friend(so generous to trust on me though:-) ) . Though the vehicle is perfectly fine i had a bit of bad time with it also. Somehow the day passes off.
17-01-2006: Have too much of stuff to finish off but very less time in hand. Have to catch the flight at 4.20 pm meaning i have to be in the airport by 3.45 pm. With all the confusions on my travel plan and the accomodation with my travel desk personnel i mange to push off from office 2.45 PM. Reached home at 3.00 PM, didn't even realise what stuff i had packed, in the midst of all those confusions i leave home to drop the vehicle that i borrowed at my friend's place. I asked couple of autowalahs to drop me at airport none of them was ready. Finally some moolah saves me and i reach aiport well before the time 3.40 PM. Boarded the plane reached Chatrapthi Shivaji Airport. Atleast we have one Good Airport matching those ISO9001 Standards. Had a transit and boarded the flight to Ahmedabad, reached Ahmdbad and managedto get an accomodation.
18-01-2006: Had a very good breakfast left to the venue where i am supposed to enlighten the crowd having been sent all the way from blore. Had a prettly late lunch as the person incharge had an instinct that i have lunch on a very irregular basis (probably my physique has given him that idea). Some how the session concluded at 6.45 PM..as the saying when there is nothing else to thing thats when you reach a conclusion. I was completely drained off. Somebdoy advises me to check out the biggest mall in Ahmbdbad. I was really amazed at the cities roads so wide not much of traffic jams and above all very less crowd. One whole street of Malls much much better than Bengalooru i should say but not much crowd and the crowd that i was looking for. Just besides the Krishna temple is this Huge Mall called "ISKON MALL" coming up , a very good example of exploitation of the brand!!! The days ends with a nice sumptous dinner. So far everything is going in my way. "When everything is coming in your way, it means your are in the wrong lane" but i didn't realise this until i wrote this blog.
19-01-2006: Had to catch the flight at 3.20 PM so had enough time in hand and its after 2-3 weeks i guess is slept at peace for about 8 hours , got up at around 10ish, took my own sweet time and checked out the hotel at 12 pm. I thought why not check out the Sabarmati Ashram when i had so much of time in store, soon i landed up at this famousplace in Ahmdabad. Such a serene place, not much crowd, entire gyan on Mahatma the only leader that India has produced over the years, after having assimilated the information in the ashram spent sometime to with my earphones hooked on. Reached airport at around 3 PM since i didn't realise how time can fly just like that..thinking i was too late looked at the chart and realsied that flight is delayed by nother 2 hours. Somehow kills the time by putting in the thoughts that have been wandering in my head, i almost wrote 2-3 articles on diffrt subjects, thought that will publish them as soon as i land up in bangalore. But never knew that these articles had some bit of bad luck associated. Reached Mumbai and soon as i got out of the airport realsied that i missed the stylus of my new Mobile phone. An indication that a Big loss starts with only such small things.
20-01-2006 : The previous night mumbai traffic drives me crazy, i felt Bangalore is a Better Hell than Mumbai. Really tough to hop from one place to another. This day i had to finsih some of theatre stuff, so had the expereince of travelling in the local train. I relaised people just dont have time for anything all they knew is to rush ..rush and rush..and ofcourse spit at every nook and corner and paint the City more Red and Red!!!..Probably Everady Batteries should use the mumbaikars "Give Me Red" - You will get more than what you ask for...Shifted from my firend's place to the guest house as the universe was conspiring to make me the event to occur. After travelling in auto for an hour where i spent monies by which i would have taken train to the next big station Pune and come back also i believe.
21-01-2006 : The Day arrives for which i have actually landed up in mumbai.Its the "Mumbai Marathon". Got pretty early just to say good luck to my fellas who were on a mission to clean the cauvery basin in Bangalore, soon i was ready in my shorts and the new Sneakers. Had a good B/F and set off to Aazad Maidan. We were in total 30 in number. The atmosphere at Azaad maidan was really inspiring so much of crowd had gathered to run!!! I couldn't belive myself. Finally we here the Gun Shot, and we were on a roll shouting slogans making noise to make sure people recognise us we have come all over from Bangalore and ofcourse the NGO's for which we volunteer. It took almost an hour to complete the Dream Run for there were lots and lots of people running. Each one running for a different cause some running for the protection of tigers, other for Child Rights, few for Women Empowerment somebody for HIV and soon i lost the count of causes as i passed across. It gave me feeling "Running is no more a Race, It is a Religion". It was an aesthitic feeling to run on the marine drive of Mumbai, there were small kids handing down bottles of water to the runners at intervals encouraging the full and half martahoners. Running amongst the crowd with cheer girls engouraging, the Navy band in full swing and ofcourse the deafning music with all the latest item numbers. Soon after the run we reached a restaurant to grab something for we were too tired, but had to wait an hour for the food to be served. To kill the time we came on the roads and were cheering those full marathon runners. I still remember "Dr. Roy - 74 year Old running the full marathon 42 KM" I was just cheering him up and soon our folks started with me. This really made me feel "Nothing is impossible - as long as you have the will power to do it..remember the Alchemsit when you want to achieve something the Universe will conspire to make it happen ..we just need to listen to our heart and follow your dream" Indeed thats what Dr. Roy was Doing, apparently he finished the run in 5hours + whereas the younk folks took more time. Truly he is an inspiring icon. We were cheering rest of the runners who were almost few kms away from the finishing line. Few runners who were almost giving up started to run again with our words "Little More to Go...Keep Running..". Soon the restaturant opened had a sumptuos lunch and was heading back to the guest house filled with those memories ..with the vibrant atmosphere throughtout the run..i got a feeling Mumbai Rocks, would definitely like to come back the next year and run the Half Marathon (21KM).
So far it has been Good Expereince and probably few bad things which you might have to figure out. But here i had to come across an Ugly incident.
2.30 PM : I have reached the guest house, we were supposed to have the meeting but wanted to freshen up and then go for it. I reach to my room and guess what i discover, my Baggage is missing. The Fasicnating looking bag might have prompted the person to break into the room and steal the same. But more than the Bag the stuff with in it is what i miss. I had my Laptop which has now become part and parcel of my life in the bag, and the backup thumb drive 2 GB, and other important accesories except my mobile phone and wallet . For few minutes my mind went black as i was not worried about the Laptop but i was worried about the Intellectual information of 60 GB that I lost the effect of which will be felt within no time. All that things that excite me, the entire background information of the same is in my laptop and have never taken backup. All those months of hard work has vanished with in those running hours. Though lodged a police complaint with too much of running around i couldn't restore what i lost. I had to postpone my flight for another 2 hours to finish the FIR exercise just to avoid any hassles at the work place.
The lesson learnt "Take Backup of you Data regularly" thats the bright way of looking at things..however this will still pinch me in some corner but do i GOI (Get Over It) by saying it it just the ill luck that is associated with it had gone. Apparently there was parallel accident that happened at the same time in Blore which makes me feel more in the dumps.
I am not sure if i have to blame myself for the jinx of things happening as i am not able to understand the pattern of the ill luck being associated however from one sweet corner i get an advise "take a breather and take one thing at a time"..but how do i tell you the moment i take the breathe in and leave out some other thing gets stuck and makes the breath out really tough. Yet to come out of the those cluthces but Do i brood over and keep cribbing or just sing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", yes though little down in the dumps i dont want to be silly chumps and want to look only at the "Right Side of the Life" reminding us "the Last Laugh is always on Us".
With the awesome Expereince of the Mumbai Marathon and the not so good experience of my Baggage i am signing off just because i have exceeded the word limit of boring you!!!
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