Monday...the 365th.....

Cell screamed. As usual, I was too sleepy to shut its mouth and Vimal had to do the honors of putting off the alarm. But today, I somehow got up without much effort . The part of myself that always tries to pull me back to bed was missing today. Suddenly, it dawned upon me, today was my 365th day in Cisco. I congratulated myself and just tried to look behind an year. As I got ready for office, all the memories from my first ever flight journey on 4th Oct, 2009 to Arsenal's 0-2 defeat on 3rd Oct, 2010 flashed in my mind. I had a real good tour of the past year of my own life.

The day started with a birthday call to Pavan. It was after I ended the call, I realized how weird I had been on the phone. I wished him and then named whatever little I knew about him and wished him loads of success in each of them....does that make sense ??

It was 9:02 am. As usual, I was the second guy to enter the office. The first, of course, was my mentor. After the usual small career planning session with him and stealing some pomegranates from his breakfast, when I went to my laptop, it suddenly popped up a meeting for which I was already 9 min late. And it was the same old 'All hands'. I thought it was going to be the same managerial jargon and that will further discourage me from my MBA plans. Reluctantly, I started the meeting. But as the meeting proceeded, I found the speaker interesting. Honestly, I don't know who the person was (since I missed his intro). Among his loads of managerial jargon he said one sensible sentence that I will never forget - Getting stuck in a traffic is the best thing that can happen to one. It is the most productive time in one's life because one is forced to sit free at that time. And we can definitely use this time to not only think on some tech issue but also reconnect with some old friends - made sense, at least to me.

Then I 'dared' to try to do something unforgettable in someone's life. I don't know if I succeeded. And yeah, it definitely became unforgettable for me.

Later in the evening, as I was about to leave, it started raining heavily. As I was waiting for the rain to slow down, I somehow wished the heavy rain to continue and I continued to watch the falling water droplets and, at times, felt the childish happiness of getting them on my palms.

Finally, the rains slowed down after half an hour which I thoroughly enjoyed like a small kid. I was on my way back. In the Volvo back home, the gushing rain water along the road side caught my attention. It looked like the water was heading towards its dream enthusiastically the way I try to head towards mine. This profuse flow of the water was adding to the liveliness of a busy Monday evening in Bangalore. Another sight that caught my eye was near my colony. As the vehicles passed through the water logged area, their headlights gleamed in the rain water. The ripples on the water made the reflection of the lights ripple and it was such a beautiful sight. I never knew I could be this close to natural beauty on a hectic first day of the week in a busy concrete jungle.

Finally, I was back home. Wait a sec, not home, I was back till my door. Then I suddenly remembered what I had forgotten yesterday and trying to remember the whole of yesterday. I had forgotten to put the keys back in the bag from my jeans. Damn ! I thought. Water logging on all my study plans! Downstairs, waiting for Vimal, I met the watchman of my building. To his surprise, I had never seen him before. His name was "Premi". When I asked him who was the 'Prem' of his life, he replied "Giving respect and courtesy to others is the 'Prem' of my life" - one more thing to add to the list of the day's memorable thoughts.

Finally, Vimal, the 'key' man arrived and I got into my house and some clean dry clothes.

What a day!

It's just the right cord striking at the right time that makes a moment unforgettable. The 'traffic' philosophy, the 'dare' (don't ask me what), the sight of the gushing road side water, the sight of the rippling reflection, Premi's words are such moments....and all in a day's package.....

So many things in one day that I will never forget. I will never forget this Monday....