It’s all about money, honey!

I am the kind of person, who takes life as it comes [I know, cliché, so what?]. Usually, i am the  go-with-the-flow type of person, who really cannot be bothered with anything pretty much.

So when I started working, back in 2004, I was just working! I mean, I was doing what was assigned to me, and then at the end of the month, took home my salary. That's it. 

I wasn't building a career. I didn’t intend to. What’s a career anyway, if you look at life from a higher perspective? 

Moreover, with a crazy mind that I have to put up with, any career choice would go into the back-seat as soon as I get used to it. 

Getting used-to-something is equal to getting-bored-of something.

I know I am losing out of an audience by writing pieces of crap here.  

But what I mean to say is, that if I get used to a certain kind of work – it becomes monotonous and ultimately boring.

Then I need that change. 

Change comes with a lot of sacrifices, a lot of moving-out-of-the-coveted-comfort-zone and a whole lot of crap. 

But you know what, I love the crap. It makes life interesting. 

Sometimes, it’s becomes so interesting (and I am not saying in a good-way) that I wish I could get back The boring.

Okay, It’s just something I wish. I don’t really want it.

As everyone says, change is the only constant. Be it Mr. Change, I love you.

There-there... I am moving out of my original intent of writing this post.

Getting back on track now.

So a few years down the line, in between "having a baby", "taking a hiatus from work” and “joining back to work” I realized, that just doing what was assigned, wasn’t really enough. 

I needed to build a career. I mean any career which could get my prolonged attention.

Software industry was the safe bet.

So, what skill does an IT person need to build a career?

Technical competence, eh?

Over the years, I acquired a few skills. Improved upon the ones I had. 

For me, it was all about doing good work, and meeting interesting people along the way was a plus.

When it came to compensation in monetary terms, I couldn’t care less! 

It just didn’t matter to me how much dough I made. All I cared about is, work culture, company environment, eccentric people, and everything on those lines. 

You know all those fancy ideologies which are fed upon us in those growing years. 

But someday we all have to WAKE UP. The real world is a bit different, a lot different I say.

It’s a man-eats-man out here! Or a man-eats-woman……ummmm…woman-eats-man….awwww… whatever! Somebody is definitely eating out somebody!

So, my wake-up-call came in last year(a bit delayed i must say), and being a go-with-a-flow person, it took me a while to pick up that wake-up-call and really listen to what it has to say.

And it told me, in quite clear terms, “Hey girl, you are living in a dream world.” An imaginary space where everything was just ideal, where everything wasn’t judged on the basis of its net worth.

Where, life wasn’t judged on the basis of…well…ummhh… money! Here, I said it. Yeah, that’s what the wake-up-call said, “F*** your ideology, you need to make dough darling”.

And here I was thinking that work meant – something which I enjoy doing.

The wake-up-call said, it’s NOT!

Work really just meant – MONEY, in bold capital letters.

That’s it, it doesn’t matter what you do, it only matters how much you make?

So, now enriched with this new set of thoughts, I want to move ahead in my career.

There’s a small hitch though, and it does make life slightly skewed. Becoz’ I still have a feeling, deep inside, that “money-isn’t-everything”. 

Money can buy me Versace Sun Glasses, but I can’t buy me a rainbow.

Money can buy me Jimmy Choos, but all I really want is a pair of sneakers to trek through the mountains.

Foolish, these deep thoughts… shhhush shush….

Anyway, let’s keep it simple, let me go-with-the-flow (I am still the same, Gawwd!) with this new found ideology.

We will see how it goes.

  

So, for now….It’s all about money, honey!

Nothing-ness

Winnie The Pooh says "Let's do Nothing all the time".


I say, "Doing nothing" is an absolutely wonderful idea, but only for Winnie the Pooh. I mean, Can i do Nothing?
For me, Nothing is equal to Boredom.

Nothing means "I have got nothing to do". As opposed to, "I want to do Nothing".
Nothing is not a choice. Only Winnie the Pooh can choose to do Nothing.

When i have Nothing to do, i become restless. When i become restless, i do all kinds of stuff i shouldn't be doing. So for me, doing nothing is a really-really bad idea. Because doing nothing leads to a lot of un-doing later. You know what i mean!

Like for instance, i need to un-do a lot of weight that i have put on during those doing-nothing days.
You do get the drift, right? I am the kind of person who loves to eat when i am doing nothing. Are there more like me out there? Eat-while-you-do-nothing types?


People, let me tell you something, this is something you should NOT be proud of.

I mean, this is like the worst-est thing!

Anyway, isn't there a purpose for which we were born?
A higher meaning to our existence.
I believe that we all are here for some reason. We got to search for that reason. And we got to find it. Many of us just pass through life without really FINDING it. Without knowing why we were born.
Isn't that absurd? It's almost like "Let's do nothing all our LIFE".

Working 8 hrs a day. Going home. Watching TV. Eating. Sleeping. This routine = NOTHING.

What do they mean, when they say, "Get a life"?

I feel, they mean, GO, FIND THE REASON.

Yeah, go, find the reason you were born.

Do not live the nothing-ness. Do not perish before you find the exact reason for which you landed on this Planet.

Be it becoming wanderer for life. Or bringing up your children with your total dedication.
Becoming a writer. Becoming a dancer. Or just smelling the flowers when they bloom.
Going to the mountains. Getting wet in the rain.
Giving a helping hand to those who need. Loving animals, saving them.
Saving trees.

Praying. Loving.

Hell, there's so much that you can do beside doing Nothing.

Do it. Don't just exist.

Just like you, i am searching for my REASON too.

And when i find, i will write it up for you.

"Doing nothing, ahhhh?" Leave it to Pooh, i say!

Love life.
Peace.

Cut the chase, please!

People, i bought a house last year.
And ever since, life has become.....err...ummm....so much more challenging.

This is my story of purchasing a house.... and then chasing...and chasing... a lot of other stuff.

All this began when on one fine day, my younger brother mentioned about his friend booking a house in Bangalore. At that point, i was like kind-of interested in investing on a property.
Please note - Only kind-of interested, not really-really interested.
So out of curiosity i asked about the details of his purchase like how much/which location/which builder and other general details.

Within no time, i had booked an apartment out there. And i was neck-deep in the whole builder-buyer formalities/exchanges.

So far, things were going smooth. I took a construction linked payment plan. For those of you who don't know what it means - It means that i don't have to sell myself and make a full payment to the builder. But I can simply chop off one body part every two months and pay the builder.
Pun intended.

I made the second payment. Smooth.

For the rest of the payments, i decided to apply for a Home Loan.

Getting a Home Loan would be a child's play for me.
As - I am financially independent. I have no liability. Good background. Well educated.
Okay, i am not bragging. That's just how I AM. (wink-wink)

It would be easy peasy for me to get a Loan. Or so i thought!

As it turned out, it was NOT easy. In fact, it was so much more complicated that i almost thought of registering myself into a mental institute.

And those of you who know me, do know how cracked-up i already am!

Just for your benefit, if you ever want to apply for a home loan.
Brace yourself up for a STORM!
And also get yourself updated about :-
CIBIL
Good home loan providers
Dealing-with-unfriendly-to-the-point-of-annoying customer care people
Be ready to fill up so many forms that your brain will take-off from your skull
Be prepared to number-of-f#$@#g-times that you have to sign on a single sheet of paper. I mean, come on, one signature would not mean anything. You are NOT Barack Obama. You got to sign on every corner. This, multiplied by a thousand sheets!!!!!! Arggghhh...

Last but not the least, you also should know how to remain sane even when your insides are shouting "GET ME OUTTA HERE PLEEEEEEEEZZZ"!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all this struggle, my home loan got approved. Let me tell you people, getting a Home Loan approved is a big thing! Okay! You got to have it in you, peeps!!

In between all this, something very unusual, something which never ever happened with anyone. Happened to me.

To get the Home Loan disbursed, i have to provide the bank a Builder-buyer agreement. Its sort of an agreement between the Builder and the buyer. With Builder stating that "You have purchased a house from me and from now on i am going to screw your happiness".

And the Builder has stuck to his words so far.

Anyway, moving on I requested the builder to provide me the agreement. After a lot of e-mailing/calling/harassing, the builder finally dispatched the Property papers, agreement and related documents, through Speed Post.


A couple of days go by, i tracked the status of the parcel through online tracking system. Surprise, surprise - It says delivered!

But where?

Not to my home.

After much ado (my family almost started acting like Sherlock) I got to know - 

The documents did reach the Speed Post office near my Delhi home. The postman did pick it up and instead of delivering it to my home, that damn-fool-lazy-bugger-of-a-man gave the parcel to the guard. Just imagine, my original home agreement lying in the hands of an unreliable, unauthorized guard!!

This guard did an equally stupid thing and kept the parcel on top of the letter boxes of our apartment.
He informed my dad about the parcel. My dad, as forgetful as he is, he totally forgot about it.

Now the whole parcel was missing.

Can you believe it? After going through so much trouble, i still did not have the agreement. My next payment due date crossed. My home loan not disbursed.

Oh-those-ultimate-upsetting-angry-days!!! Almost a month passed by, with no sign of the parcel.

My begging/e-mailing/requesting/demanding the builder to nullify the current agreement and preparing the fresh one, went on and on. And there seemed no end to it.

I even tried to lodge a police complaint about the loss of documents. But police just acted like police, and refused to lodge a complaint saying, "How can you lose something which you didn't recieved at the first place?"

Awww, they were right. I lost something i dint recieve!

So when nothing seemed to work. My aunty asked me to visit a temple in Haridwar.
Its a temple where people wish and tie a thread on a tree. And when their wishes come true, they have to go back and open a thread.
I had visited it 8 yrs back and i had tied a thread. Being a lazy bum, i never bothered to open it once my wish was fulfilled.

So this was the time!

I went there. I prayed. I opened a thread.

Came back home.

Voila!

The very next day, the agreement papers were lying on the top of the letter boxes.

My kid and one of his friend found it, and my kid saw my photo on the agreement.
He said, "She looks like my mommmeeee"!
They got the agreement back home and asked me if it was mine. 

And i was like..... WHAAAAAAAAAAT THE F$@KKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

Now, i believe in MIRACLES.
I believe in GOD.

I believe that someone much more powerful than me and you is there.

Loving us, protecting us.

Now i have deposited the agreement to the bank.

The process is still going on!

Hopefully it will go on a bit more smoothly. I am tired.

I don't want the chasing.

Cut the chase, God. Make things easy for me.

Love life. Too much.
Peace.