Few of my middle names

I have this habit of coming up with some middle name for myself out of some conversation with a friend of mine. And here is some such sample conversations.

“Dude, these days I sleep very late and by the time I wake up it will be 10 in the morning!”

“Yeah, you need to work on your sleeping habit”

“Tell me this, when do you go to bed?”

“Anytime from 10:30 to 11 and I wake up by 6:30”

“How do you manage to do that?”

“You need discipline for that and Discipline is my middle name!”

----------

“Dude, did you go to gym today?”

“Yeah, I did”

“You are so regular, I want to hit gym daily dude, but somehow I am not able to, how to do you do it?”

“Dedication, it’s my middle name and you lack that in your life”

----------

“Dude, how do you read that novel when there are many people speaking loudly?”

“I do, its not a problem for me, I am almost done with this book”

“Don’t tell me, how do you do that?”

“Concentration is my middle name”

----------

“Dude, it’s been a while since I have heard your new middle name, any updates off late?”

And I replied, “Yeah, f*&$ed up is my middle name now”

About "me" not being Lucky in life...

“neenu bandiddu oLLe panauti bandange aitu” [you came like a bad omen for me]

That’s how my Dad used to tell me whenever he lost a game of cards with his friends. I never liked Mumbai and the only reason I visited Mumbai was my parents were there and also my siblings. I was made to stay back at my village with my ajji [grandma] and chikki [aunty].

He says he always used to win and whenever I go there he used to lose the game and lose good amount of money and at the end of the day, it was me who was responsible for that. For initial few times I was kind of taking it as joke. But as the frequency of he telling me the same increased, I used to feel offended and once I told him not to make me responsible for any of his illegal business, I was never unlucky for any of my friends and my friends always wanted to sit beside me in exam hall as they knew that I would help them somehow to clear the test.

As of I remember I was never unlucky for others, though it is almost evident that I am not lucky enough in life [to myself] as me getting screwed up in life is more than me getting something worthy without much of effort [I think that’s what is luck is all about – to get something without putting lots of effort]

I was not lucky enough to spend my childhood with my parents, and not even with my siblings. I was not lucky enough to hold university rank in BE [I missed it by few marks, and I was lazy enough to apply for revaluation for 2 papers in 5^th semester and those who went for revaluation got minimum of additional 10+ marks], but this is one thing which I was not worried much and the only reason for mentioning this here is to quantify my luck quotient.

I was not lucky enough to save my first love, though she said, “Girish, let’s elope and get married”. Even now she says she will never forgive me for saying a NO to her at that time. I was not lucky enough for my Dad either. I got my whole family from Mumbai to Bengaluru [was where I was working and living then] and he survived for only 6-7 months after coming to Bengaluru and last thing he did before his death was having a fight with me.

I always wanted to donate blood though I have phobia for blood [Haemophobia]. I was thinking that its one way to get out of this phobia. But I used to fail every time. Sometimes they used to declaim telling I was under weight and sometimes I used to faint during the process of blood donating, looking at blood bottles and once [here in USA], they declined saying “One has to live in USA for minimum of 3 years to donate blood!” . I was never lucky to donate a bottle of blood till now!

Whenever I walk through the corridor, I always make a point to look around before walking through a door. A friend of mine always tells me, “Dude, don’t be that conscious, take chance, you might be lucky enough to dash with a girl” and my response would be, “Dude, I know about my luck”. During my 29 years of life, I don’t remember hitting a girl, except for once!

Then I came here to Dallas, during end of August 2008 for some good reasons. And my streak of bad luck lined up big time! Immediately after a month, my girl friend broke up with me! My mother was keeping good health all these years and 3 months after me coming here she fell down from somewhere and broke her knee. I was finding it tough to manage with those two things and my sister came to me with her own problem.

I was unlucky enough to get 2 speeding tickets in a day. When many guys are lucky enough to not to get a ticket even when they were ripping off at 100+ mph, I got one when I was driving at 35 mph! My car got hit by someone behind me when I was not even a mile away from home, that too when I my car came to complete halt because of a car stopped in front of me. I was not lucky enough to enjoy my car for at least an year, forget about losing good amount of money!

And to my horror, the Police report was fabricated such a way that, it says, I was responsible for the mishap! Now I need to fight for this and my India travel is just around the corner, not even 10 days away from today! And to go through all these, all I did was, postponing my India trip by 3 weeks by paying some extra money and the day I was supposed to reach my family, I was met with that accident! Now I wonder whether I can make it as per my current plan or not!

After me coming to Dallas, and joining Nokia, 4 guys sitting in our bay changed the team or moved to different bay! And today my manager was telling me, “Girish, did you observe this, everyone sitting around you have moved to different team. Are you sure that there isn’t any problem with you!?” Though he was joking, that was when I realized, “Oh! Yeah, isn’t it! I came here and occupied this desk and all the 4 guys around me moved out!”

And he continued, “Next its Dennis’s turn”. Dennis is the one who got settled in one of the vacant desk adjacent to mine.

I replied, “I hope, he proves you all wrong”

5 minutes after that we all smelled some burning smoke and they all felt that it is coming from the PC installed 2 minutes before that in the vacant desk next to me. We all turned it off and immediately after that we got to know that it’s coming from a PC in the other corner of the office.

And by then I got a call from my manager, “Hello Girish, what is the problem with you. Even the PC next to you has burnt!!”

I said, “No no, it’s not the one, it’s from a different PC”

He responded, “I was just joking”

I just smiled and he disconnected the call.

I hope and wish that I am not unlucky for others at least! Being responsible for someone else’s misery is the last thing I want to be!

Year 2009

During last week of 2009, there were few threads running on my head to recollect all funny events and to add some important events and make up a nice story out of it. I kind of made up a story too. But, there was a different plot penned by him, for me. So, here I am…

When 2009 just started I was at Los Angeles with my cousin and he wanted to take me to clubs and dance floors. But I was not carrying my passport and I dint had a Driving License then. He gave me proper lecture to make me realize how important it is to have DL here in USA, not just for driving, but also for witnessing every other types of fun.

So, the year started with me getting my Driving License here and also I started working out at LA fitness. Though it was not even 6 months since I came here to USA, I had lost 4 kgs and I was left with 2 months to gain that lost weight before me visiting home[India]. Else my mother would worry the moment she sees me.

I went home during March, had some good time with mom and sister and screwed up my personal life, which was completely f&%$ed up long back [Oh yeah, you are right, it’s about love, we guys live with past].

And the first thing which I did after coming back was buying a car. Yeah, it was love at first sight. I went to BMW showroom, saw that car and fell for her the moment I saw her. She was black, bright and vibrant. I drove her for ten minutes and she was so smooth, she was so strong and she was well in control. There was nothing much that I had to do with her, just enjoy the drive and have all pleasure!

Though it was well beyond my budget and limit, I made sure that I got her. I got everything that she needed to make sure that she will be all safe for next 5 years. And she was mine. I owned my first car, which was BMW 335i. And we lived happily, making a nice pair.

2009 was all about road trips! We drove to San Antonio, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Big Bend. It is absolute fun when you drive; it is more when you drive like crazy. There were bad experience also; I got 2 speeding tickets during our trip to Colorado, that too within 5 hours gap. Once I was speeding up to 82 mph in 65 mph speed limit and the 2^nd time I got it when I was driving at 35 mph in 30 mph speed limit zone. Interestingly, when my friends were ripping off at 100 + mph, nothing would happen. The timing and the bad luck used to be just perfect with me, whenever I drive.

A friend of mine sends me links to few nice blogs and I liked this particular lines in one such blogs “If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it”. But it was too late by then and of course now it is irreverent ;-)

If you are a failure, how much ever you shout, whatever you tell, how much ever you make sense – nobody is going to give any damn to you. If you are a success, your every damn action will carry hell lots of meaning and messages. You don’t have to do anything; people will get things out of it.

Got confused or not making any sense? You are right, I am a failure J

There were some funny things as well. I was discussing [using communicator chat] with a friend of mine about movies. I was suggesting her few movies and even she was suggesting me few.

She said, “Watch this movie [I forgot the name], it’s really good. But it has lots of violence”

“Violence!? I don’t enjoy violence much, I don’t like too much of blood in movies”

“Oh, then watch this movie [I don’t remember the name of this movie as well, I wish I remember ;-)]”

I started looking for my to-watch-movie-list file and I said, “Yeah, sure I will watch it”

“But, it has lots of sex; I don’t think you like sex either!”

I was left with no words to respond back to comment. I regrouped all my courage and responded with a smile and closed the chat window, not even bothering to save the movie name. Yeah, there was some history with this girl, which is not important to share here. Things dint end there. I did the next stupid thing of telling it to two of my friends.

And their response was, “I wouldn’t have felt this bad if she slapped you on your face, but not this comment from a girl”.

And finally, 2009 was about to wind up and letting 2010 in and we guys decided to have some fun at Austin. We drove to Austin and this time I took my car as Austin is close by city, hardly 200 miles. We had good time, we welcomed 2010 at 6^th street of Austin downtown, with loads of crowds dancing and getting crazy, wild on the road.

We came back to Dallas on Jan 1^st night, had proper dinner at close by Indian restaurant and I was driving back home, less than a mile away from home. I saw a lady on phone blocking our way, the SUV in front of me waiting for her to let him move and I braked my car to halt and I was looking at that lady telling, “What the hell is she doing?”

That was the only thing that I remember and by then it was too late to realize that she was f&%$ing with me and I got f%$#ed badly. A car behind me, coming with all his will [speed], banged my car from back and my car was thrown out of the road, hitting and jumping the curb and finally falling on the grassy area. Air bags ejected out to save us and we realized all these only when everything was over. Luckily none of us were injured, we were all intact. But my car got smashed beyond repair, front and rear bumper got crushed, my laptop which was in the trunk got smashed, I lost all my personal data in the laptop and I lost my car, which I love like crazy. It was the most shocking 15 minutes of my life. I don’t think me having bumper to bumper insurance on my car [through BMW for next 5 years] and full coverage auto insurance will help me in getting back my car in shape and that same experience.

I wanted to start 2010 by ending 2009, by letting the past move on as I failed miserably to correct things which I wanted badly. I had realized that there is nothing that I can do about it and what I want can never be realized and can never be what I have to do. So, only way was to let things go.

But what happened next is, “Girish, you can’t escape from your past. I have different plans for you; let’s start your new year with a BANG and not by ending PAST”