Signing off the First month at CBE

Dear Gowri
Normally occupation / employment is referred to as many different ways by sullen and demoralised folk – "Kuppai Kottarathu", "Vayithu Pozhaippu", "Thalai ezhuthu" & so on. I am quite empathetic about such descriptions which come out of boredom , monotony, helplessness and frustrations at work. For that matter, me too had my spells of all negative feelings at work not too long ago! My dreams on early retirement from working is not because I am multi-skilled and I am raring to go (People say at the time of retirement, huh ? "will be doing things closer to heart that I always wanted to do !!"; On the contrary, it is an attempt to escape from the current reality which is not too overwhelming.

Well, with lot of pride as well as humility, I am glad to make this posting at the end of the first month at the new location of my office.
Yes !! I arrived here on 6th Jan and this month had been one of the most eventful and blissful period that I can recall from my recent memory.

First things first, there was absolutely no depression spell as I was fully engaged for most of the days including week ends….and the things that I miss physically (Computer, my favourite spots at Chennai, Hotel HSB to name a few….Sorry, forgot my dear family !!) do not matter enough to brude about – considering the positive things that I am enjoying here.
Being alone and doing all the household works does not bore / tire me too much (at least until now) and I am enjoying the fun of getting organized one by one. For that matter, I never had any miseries of a stranger in a new city (Not sure when my poem "Anniyam" is going to be released, Hmm…..No time for dreaming yaar !!).
All things like reaching my temporary house, finding a new house, shifting and arranging the home, getting used to various routes, shopping, getting introduced to neighbours and new acquaintances, planning the week ends and Chennai visits…….!! Well in the same breath, let me also confess that I had been in a cocoon for so long time that to get bored or monotonous with this phase of life is going to take some more time.
I do have an interesting phase at office where I have the privilege to be involved and take a closer look of things taking shape in the final stages of the fit outs of the building and participating in some of the activities with lot of coordination and follow ups with Chennai. Since I am aware that this phase is too temporary, before the place gets filled up with the Transferred employees, enjoying every single day becomes lot more colourful.
Last but not the least, for a while Magic Man Baba disappeared from my life who seem to gently tap into my day to day routine quite frequently making his presence felt too often. There was a phase (from Sep to Dec) when I did not get reminded about him as much as the earlier 6 months as I was undergoing a huge depression spell and with mind getting lighter and heart free from any negative feelings, he reaches me once a while, reminding that he too travelled along with me when I reached this city. (Did I tell you, I visited a big Baba temple here twice so far – Even reaching the temple was itself so smooth and interesting which I can define as a "miracle"….Well, perhaps you are making faces on my weird imaginations !!)

Well, the above points account for the "pride" element, but I also stated "humility" that I feel in the earlier part of this posting, huh ?

Well, I had to stay close to 16 hours in a day at Appolo, Chennai doing virtually nothing, it did not disturb me much…. I lost my purse here with quite a heavy amount, I did not get bothered much more than making a posting out of it…..My time management skills are put to extreme tests during my Chennai visit, I take it in my stride….I am at times getting reminded of the un-writtten poem and a one pager that is half way through for my office friends, I am not perturbed much….!! Beginning to understand the "circle of concern" and "circle of influence" in much better way these days and learning the art of eating in bite size chunks….!! While I am a bit intense on getting my "to do" list reduced and keep it in manageable size, I also enjoy the whole process of self management these days – without feeling any pressure within.

Going back to the first sentence of this mail, my next posting is on "kuppai kottarathu"…..which was a small incident that happened today morning. As usual, the small incident triggered some big thoughts and kept me busy while I walked down briskly from the main road to our office (once the teams come from Chennai, we will have a pick up and drop – until then I am "enjoying" the public bus journey and the 1.5 KM walk to office from Main Road. Don’t want to take the mobike daily to office)
Stay tuned to the next posting on "kuppai" !!
Suchoo