A lot like love...

So, as promised, I am back. Although, technically, I never left. :P

So, as I said, I left out a few people in my first post. People that made a profound stamp on my life after my teens, when they say the real life of a person starts, when you leave the home, go to college, get a job, make a life.

I figured the the first person on this list deserves an entire post of her own. So, here goes.
This is about someone whom anybody who knew me back in my college days would know.
I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I think it was the second day of college, and I hadn't brought any pencils to class(typical of me). It was the engineering graphics class. So if you don't have a pencil, you might as well not be in class. So, I say, excuse me, can I borrow your pencil, she says, okay and gives me this tiny little pencil, the lead of which broke as soon as I pressed it on the paper. Another incident I clearly remember is her yelling at me because I commented on her dress and we weren't really friends then. The next thing I remember was asking her cell number.

In typical movie fashion, boy sees girl, boy goes crazy, boy talks to girl, gets even crazier, almost asks her out, just to realise she already has a boyfriend, asks me to be her friend. Now, that is where the cliché's ended. I said okay, lets be friends, and trust me, that changed everything. I had the most amazing time in college with her, so much so that I basically don't remember much about my college other than her. Details are for some other time, because frankly I could write a book. Anyway, fast forward to end of the awesome college days, we reach Chennai together. People don't really believe when I say this, but I had an amazing time there, inspite of all the heat, the humidity, the narrow minded people, lack of fun places, lack of good food. Impossible to not enjoy in good company. From there, we move to Bangalore, where another twist awaited me. Priorities change, relationships weaken, life changes. I spend perhaps a few of the toughest months of my life there. I believe Einstein once said "I am thankful to all those who said no. It's because of them, I did it myself." I am thankful to her for saying NO at the right time, right place, in the right scenario. Then I got all the motivation I needed to crack the GRE, TOEFL and here I am, in (arguably) the best country in the world working on stuff that I really care about. She stopped living my life for me, handed me the reigns. Its just one of those things, when the time is right, the stars align, and life changes for the better.

Note: I assume you notice the lack of any first name, I think its for the best.
I called her Sweets, let us all just call her that. :)

<<<Dhiraj>>>

My story so far!!!

Hello People, I know its been a long time since I started this blog and haven't really posted anything.
To be honest, there hasn't been anything to post about during my days in Bangalore. All that's changed now! Life has!!!

I am back in school, a Masters program in Computer Forensics, in the US of A. And its been almost a month I have been here, and have liked it a lot. I met a few Indians who have been here and read the first post of my sisters blog, and it got me thinking too. Its pretty odd when I think about it, my family bought a new home, their first in Goa, and I couldn't live in it for even a day. It sucked then, it sucks now. Not much 1 could do about it. I have made a home for myself here now. Since moving here though, the most common question I get asked is What I have missed the most, in these past few weeks. I have to be frank, the thing Iv missed the most is my bike. Of course, I am not counting my family in this matter because that goes without saying. What I also miss, as everyone would obviously expect, is the food. I mean, the polluted, dust filled stinky roads in Bangalore, and the small tiny but beautiful roads in Goa may not be as magnificent as they are here, but damn, they lead to some places that offer some amazing food. Although, the advantage is I learn how to cook. that can never go to waste.

Speaking of roads, its amazing how the road rules are followed, I kinda like that, what I don't feel comfortable with is that there are too few people here, at least in Birmingham, AL. So the streets are pretty deserted all the time, which is crazy (All my Indian friends will get that one! :P).

I miss, gosh I miss speaking in Hindi, listening to all of that crazy slang acting like punctuation in the middle of all the sentences every time I spoke with my friends. Yeah, I miss them too, never said it to anyone but I do. Im not quite sure what stops me every time I try to say it, which is probably why I'm typing it here, but I miss them. The amazing group at Ocwen, I never had a workplace environment so conducive to work in, like at Ocwen, thanks to all of them. If u guys read this, I miss you'll a lot. Agnelo, Shawn, Sid, Corolie, Maria, Stephen, my bro Dhiraj, Fazil, and of course Bernice. The next company I worked for -Wipro, and moved to Chennai(the land of the lungi dance - as its called now). I cannot forget the great times. The amazing singing moment(by Niladri) in Kodiakanal, if Im not wrong, the Pondicherry trip where we landed on a dry day, and had to eat at that shady restaurant in the night, Hogneakkal, Yercaud. I was happy, with Terence, Amit, Amruta, Amanda - The Goenkaars!!! :). Also made a whole bunch of new awesome friends. Seed, Soldier(I honestly didn't know their real names for days after we became friends), Utpal, Niladri, Atif(our main competitor in coming late for training). The next stop brought with it, the storm, after the previous calm. Bangalore!!!!!! Phew, tested the heck out of me. My entire story of Bangalore should probably be another series of posts altogether, but in short, I lost all these friends by then and had to make a whole new bunch. And I did, my entire basketball team(again, another post dedicated to just these guys - for sure), the Tornadoes, my team at my new office(MA - new post new post! :P), the kids at Springfields and the guys at the last house in Bangalore I lived at in HSR. During this entire time, all I thought about, was getting out of there. But now that Im here, I miss them all. Of course, UAB is every thing that I expected, and more, but I guess its gonna take me a long time, and a few friends before I can see a home for myself here.

The process has begun, lets see where it leads me...

I promise my next posts won't be this big. Its just that, the people who know me, will understand, when I start talking, its really tough to make me stop.

Thank you for bearing with me for this long, and for those who read, please do comment and let me know what you think of it! :) For those who like, I promise, there's more coming, beginning with the most important people in my life, all of whom I left out in this entire text.

Until then,

Cheers,
Dhiraj
"What you see mainly depends on what you look for!"