Ah morning!

 I slept early last night. As a result, I got up around 2:30 in the morning. After fidgeting a while, and doing various other unproductive exercises, which included fretting about the next FDs I need to make, I decided to get up. I put on the lights and started reading. Thanks to my brother, I get to read interesting non-fictions once in a while. This time when he came for holidaying he got me this copy of “Think Like a Freak”, the third book in the Freakonomics series. Albeit it is a good read, my mind was drifting around occasionally. And soon enough, I started remembering every tiny winny thing about my two visits to Bahrain. I wondered why? And then I discovered the connection. Bahrain is the last place where I have remotely met dawn. Otherwise I am this incorrigibly nocturnal person. The routine itself at Bahrain is such that I had to get up in the morning. They being a desert place, start work early, around 7 or 7:30 AM and wrap up by 3 PM or so. I kept remembering the rides in Ali bhaiya’s cab, and what a friendly person he used to be. The client manager there, a lady older than me, but how well she has maintained herself. Bahrain is not the typical Islamic country, there girls are allowed to wear whatever they want, and they look extremely fashionable.  And the cars there – next only to the ones I have seen in Europe. But I have seen the only Alfa Romeo (a convertible that too) till date in SG – and I think that is by far the most beautiful car I have ever seen, and except a real Maserati and Lamborghini I guess I have seen them all. I keep dreaming about cars these days, now that I am finally ready to get myself one. I never thought I’d be able to realize this last materialistic dream of mine…but I guess it is going to happen sometime soon. At around 28 years of age, I set a few goals for myself - own house, a car, a MBA degree and a managerial job before 30. Well, it has taken a bit more time, but I have ticked them off one by one. Though there are clauses associated with each. House is not in my name, though I sponsored the construction of the entire first floor, MBA is not a regular one (it is a so called correspondence degree), managerial job never had a proper “Project Manager” designation – various similar sounding designations like “Associate Project Manager”, “Partnership and Alliance Manager” and “Project Coordinator” has been bestowed upon me, but this time I am going to get my own car, registered in my name, and I am going to drive it from day 1. I would have never dared to drive a car in Kolkata traffic, but scared to hell that I am, I leave myself no choice, because you don’t get drivers here who are ready to drive automatic cars. That is the reason I am getting an automatic car in the first place. So that I am forced to drive. 

Well, why did I get up so early, and why can’t I sleep? I am worried about my investment plans, yes. Moreover, I am not able to decide about what to do regarding a certain HR call I received yesterday regarding some job opportunity in a local software firm. The organization is not big, neither is it an MNC, and the HR guy wants me to suppress my job experience in the university, so that he can pay me better salary. Sounds very shady, doesn’t it? Why on earth do I portray myself to be so worthless as to be sitting idle for almost a year, when I can very well justify my decision to join at a lower salary? Academics and Industry don’t earn at par, so they can’t pay at par. It is as simple as that. Somehow I lost my interest in the job since then. Frustrated I might be, by the attitude and lack of process here, but I am quite content with my job all the same. Moreover, I get to explore life here. The drama plans, though stalled a bit for permissions to rehearse in the department premises, will work out soon. It is a bit scary to know that the director plans for workshop where both physical and vocal exercises need to be taken up, but still, this is the entire reason why I came back. To be able to mingle with people better, to be able to do what I could never do in Bangalore, to find some respite from the drab, uneventful life. And for that the university job is perfect. It doesn’t pay well, but I have a lot of time, quite a lot of independence and flexibility and I am my own master most of the time. 

To end up, lesson for the day – when you need time to think, better give yourself that time, some solution is bound to come out. Wow! Mornings are positive, aren’t they?