Looking down the Barrel

“27 about to turn a year older, have been perpetually single”. Sounds like the most inviting tag line for every one you know to suggest girls they know for marriage. Is getting married really necessary? Having the ideal family match is more important than the ppl involved? Do people really tell the truth when they meet someone through a matrimonial ad? Do our parents know what we really are? ,Specially folks who have lived away from home for nearly a decade. 

I have a million such questions and no answers. As I look at myself and try to bump across the coming few months where the severity of these issues will quadruple I don’t know what the outcome will be. All I want is to meet someone without the eventual idea of marriage. And the reply to this is you should have found a gf. Well for some people its really easy to make frnds but really hard to go the extra mile. My only real relationship was when I was 17 and hardly lasted for a few months. Post I have met some amazing friends but none more than that. Am to be blamed I guess to an extent. If I was so afraid of an arranged marriage I should have went out on a limb to “find love”.

Dating in India is interesting there is nothing casual about it. You just cant ask that nice girl out for a coffee and then take things forward. In the last few months most of my friends have taken the plunge which accelerates the issue. The statistics are out there to see. What is visible is that marriage is an integral part of life in India not only for the kids but for parents too. The entire social fabric does not support the idea of being a bachelor and waiting till eternity for that perfect match. It’s all about the age and the cutoff limits.

If the social fabric is like this it has to be upon us to create avenues where sane people who are single and feel that they would like to more about a person they wanna spend the rest of their life with rather than just a SMS meet. Do I want a dating portal for single nearing 30 I guess I do…….

Hyderabadi concoction

Well I have been silent for ages. I wanted to let my experiences go through the test of time. The ones I remember today are the special ones. First and foremost to all the Hyderabad lovers a note of caution read up at your own risk.

People have said a ton about how sluggish is Kolkata believe you me hyd is a close second. Nothing in this city follows a deadline. Time commitment is not there at all. From multinationals too the neighborhood electrician 15 mins can be a few hrs or even a day. Fanatics is a loose term imagine a mall with around 1000 people just standing no one shopping. I was like taken a back. I feel for the mall managers $/footfall figures. Sunday the city dies completely nothing is open. Well enough hyd bashing the good part is that the local people are very nice. No discrimination to any group and a perfect cosmopolitan environment. But for those who say it’s the silicon valley of India please do look at the roads not the airport runway.

What can I tell you about my professional experience. Remember all of us use to laugh about that HR stuff. Well my organization believed in it, implemented it and even improved it with time. Amazing policies, when you are part of the system the perpetual desire to crib is so strong that you can’t praise the place but well if you are in that sector and you like hyd that’s the company to be in. I can go on record and say that if I work in that sector and in that city ever in my life you can be rest assured I have joined them again.

Let’s talk about people; Well my boss was a super cool person to work with. An amazing human being: cool, funny and very caring. We shared similar backgrounds in education (well he had been to better schools and had a degree more than I do J). From day one we had a great gelling. Learnt a lot from him but the most important lesson was that you need to keep a cool head. It’s easy to scream, shout and make a scene but to be composed and deliver your point is what makes you superior.

As far as his boss, well all I can say is that the way he wanted to shape my career was absolutely against my way of thinking so we did not share common ground. But as an individual he had one of the sharpest minds I have ever seen a person who had so much global exposure in business that he could join a meeting mid-way and still hit the bull’s eye. Today I would say that he taught me some very important lessons in life. In Indian corporate world don’t wait for the organization to ask if you want to do something more. If you want a challenge go ahead and grab it.

Well that’s to bring you update on serious issues. Will start on the fun encounters from this week. And I can promise you there are a few gems lined up your way.

Cheers