Predictable is Boring?

 Mostly, it is. Could be one reason why life in India is exciting.. all kinds of things happen unexpectedly, lowering the BQ- Boredom Quotient. Maids don't show up, rain falls when it shouldn't, delivery guys of all kinds show up all the time, and you have random conversations with people every day if you go out.

In the U.S., it was sometimes boring. We went to the mall, just to get some excitement in to the day, and see new faces, apart from on TV.

Do something unexpected. Yesterday, we had a couple of grand nieces do some make-up for me and my daughter, and it was great fun. Totally unexpected, and the little ones enjoyed themselves thoroughly using us as guinea pigs. I remember letting another (grand) niece in Bangalore draw something on my palm, and it was another fun moment for us both!

Depends on what you want to do. Buy a kachori, a sabudana wada, or a new toffee flavour just for the heck of it. Fly a kite. Take a bus ride, a metro ride or go watch a show in town. Or a movie-minus the expensive popcorn. Have tea in a new restaurant.. or a biryani.

Point is... yeah, you got it. Do something unexpected, whimsical each day. Seize the day.

People Who Did Unexpected Things

 Some People Who Did Unexpected Things-

Well, students first. Jogeswari took me through her company, Golftripz, to my first international Golf tournament. No, I didn't win, but it was a fantastic experience.

Padmapriya Janakiraman became a full-fledged heroine. Still is, for me.. she continues to act, actually.

Abhinav Kamal started a digital agency, when most people couldn't spell the D - I wrote a case on that company, and made the most of it. He now directs films..

Surbhi Mehta Chadha and her hubby brought me a bottle of wine in our first meeting in Delhi.. she found out from Vrinda Khanna that I liked red!

Siri Adi picked me up and showed me a Golf course near where she lived, and then we had some coffee brewed by her Dad!

Shraddha Nigdikar cooked for me. So did Pallavi Bajpai, so cool.

Kedar Muley persisted until I met him and a band of IMTans at Thane ..

Pratima Gaikwad treated me to a biryani in my backyard- Hyderabad!

Not entirely unexpected, but Venugopal Reddy (engg. classmate) took me out to Golf in Delhi and Hyderabad!

Smita Dabholkar Singh organised two well-attended book launches of my autobiography at Nagpur and Pune, and Jaya Jha gave us a surprise by attending at Pune- her company published it for me.

Neha Adiga and Anusha Soni dropped in at our place in Pune.

Kiran Kenjale did a lot of things, way back in USA, including showing us Disneyland, and NBC studios..

Shatakshi T. sent me a goodies pack, just like that..

Aditi Gupta and Gary S played Golf with us at IMT.

Rajni Verma got me a moustache for my Dev Anand impersonation at a music group meet we had in Bangalore.

End of First Episode... to be continued.

Death Unexpected

We are sure about meeting it one day, only we are not certain when. But sometimes, it catches us unawares when someone goes before his time, for some reasons unknown. Had to face such a moment recently, when my wife's brother who was 52, passed away unexpectedly. Ganesh had been a great help when we drove from Hyderabad (where I worked), to Harihar (where I was going with family). And several other times. I remember him running around during my wedding too, looking after the arrangements, as the event was in their house in Pune, in 1988.

He also visited us in the U.S. where I was getting a Ph.D. (with my ma-in-law). He is second from left in the pic below, from that trip.

Good memories, of times spent well. He lived in Mumbai, but got busy and we had not met in a while. And then, this..

On Handling the Non-routine

It is very important to learn how to handle the unexpected, non-routine situations in life. Let me try and illustrate.

There are many things we expect, or even take for granted. Simple example- we expect parents to be around for a long time. Suppose one of them is absent, or passes away early, what are you supposed to do?

You fail in a class/course. What next?

Your spouse threatens to walk out of your love marriage...?

You are fired. From your job. Much more common in the U.S., now the fever is catching on in India.

Your aspirations to get into a program, a course, a sports team, are not fulfilled.

You are broke, because of over-using your credit cards/taking on too many loans.

Many of these situations can seem nerve-racking, or worse. More so because nobody told you this could happen to YOU. How you deal with these may be vital to your well-being. Of course, in all these situations, it helps to have someone like a mentor, or a friend to talk to. But I know of lots of people who have faced one of the situations described here, and come out looking good, in control, after the immediate trauma had passed. There are many different ways of coming back, including finding alternative avenues to engage onself, or starting off on a new hobby, or just taking a break to think things through.

My leadership stint also taught me that work-related situations can get sticky, and need careful handling. They can cause trauma to others, and therefore, being thoughtful rather than hastily "fixing" things is a useful way to approach things. 

Meetings

Some are planned, others fortuitous (hope that's the right word). Happened to do a bit of both. Or rather, both happened on this visit to Bangalore. I had a planned meeting with an IMT Nagpur (ex) student, and ran into another from PESIT while taking a walk. And yet another friend from my IIM batch.

It is always a pleasure to be recognised, more so when you least expect it. So it was this time. This is not the first time, because I have ex-students all over the country. The first time I was surprised was in Mumbai a few years ago when Padmapriya, ex-student from Kirloskar Institute met me after recognising me in low light in an instant. I thought with the grey hair and so on, that would be close to impossible. The second, at a Delhi airport, when another PESIT student found me, and said he was living in Delhi, married to a batchmate.

Monday's incident was also similar, as it was dark, and Sowmya appeared out of the blue (or black), and said she worked close by. Anyway, it was great catching up, and we did quite a bit of it. She is also responsible for the readership of this blog taking off (through her blog which is a good one).

Today there is a planned meeting on the cards, with a couple of faculty friends. The weather here is lovely, adding another dimension to the simple pleasures of life. Cheers to more such meetings, planned or not!