Coming a full circle

everything comes back a full circle. be it in life or in a relationship or in accounting. the key thing to note here is balance. in a fair test of flipping a coin, both sides have to have equal probability of occurance. if the balance of fairness is missing, the results dont even out. and same goes for life, relationships and accounting. if you can't balance out the opposite aspects of it, you can't experience the full impact.

so lets go from the more specific to the more ubiquitous. accounting first. the rule says debit comes in and credit goes out. the same transaction has to have two sides to it, and only then can you balance the balance sheet. sounds funny, but i guess they named the sheet that way just to doubly emphasize on what needs to be done. in relationships the key is to balance the male and female energies. both individuals have complicated percentages of both of these energies and exhibit them differently. the man needs space, the woman needs independence. it is the same need of freedom but in different situations and in different ways. the man needs a centrifugal force to stabilize him, the woman needs support to help her face the world. this can be extrapolated to trust, affection, companionship and more. and the rule to balance a relationship is communication, which includes both to convey and to grasp. not just to tell and to listen. and with time, as relationships mature, the individuals mirror each other in an increasingly synchronized way.

and same goes for life too. from personal experience, i remember the interview at IIMC and how i was unable to convince them why i needed an MBA to run an NGO. My conscience struggled with that, it never left me at peace. And then began the shifting assignments, the incessant search for my passion, the continued turbulence. when i got to IESE, the first of my struggles was laid to rest. that of pursuing an MBA, without shying away from that complicated streak of engaging in social development. the albatross of rejecting a final call finally came off my neck. and then i dived deeper into the bigger struggle of finding my passion. consulting was it, i thought before i got here. i like talking and thats what consultants do. then the banking tour and the london experience happened, and i thought banking it is, i love numbers!! and then i signed up for the responsible club and in a moment the familiar struggle of past 5 years flashed before my eyes. but the contraints were not very far away. i have an elephant of a loan, i want to get married and settle down soon. how soon, i dont know. but with that, i was back at where i had started, completing a full circle.

there are manipulations, that drive you away from the balancing out the circle. sometimes you wander away from the center and though it does delay the process, it cannot interrupt it. you eventually learn how to balance the balance sheet, to find where the missing entry went. in a relationship, you learn to be in the other person's shoes and to be empathetic to his point of view. and in life, you learn to remember where the origin is, where you have come from, coz in the end that is where you will go. this is the philosophy of life that is reflected in all religions. you just need to acknowledge and experience it.

Diwali and evolution

change is the only constant and yet somethings never change.

lets start from the beginning. i did not realise it was diwali till about two days before the d-day. we had this event being planned, different from what i had ever done on diwali and i was honestly not excited about it at all, even thinking that the tickets were beyond my budget. but on the d-day it was fun. 8 of us got together and set-up a 2 min dance sequence. it felt nice to move to bollywood music after so long. and to go back to traditional indian finery. the event was a much bigger success than what any of us had anticipated. not only did the dinner-drinks-dance night get sold out, (this after increasing the capacity to 100 seats from 80, we still had a huge waiting list that we had to refuse but also the star performers - the spanish girls dancing to bollywood, had the whole crowd amazed by their expressions and attitude that could come only if you breathed bollywood like any other indian. within a matter of a couple of songs they had everyone dancing literally to "their fingertips" as they would say in chaste hindi. tracks like babuji jara dheere chalo, desi girl, twist, and even a bharatnatyam number made my diwali eve a never before expereince. on the whole by the speed at which the videos got uploaded on youtube, i reckon this was one off the best diwali celebrations i have had.

talking about the youtube link which i have pasted here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x1su7lCFgk, i now go to the evolution bit of this story. There was a time back in school when i would dance taking care my parents didnt take objection to my extra curricular participation. this time they took objection to the way we choreographed the dance. back in school days, pictures would take ages to develop and be shared, and now i have my parents instantly connected to my life 10000 miles away, and that too at the click of the button. and now comes the cream of it all. they put me on skype during the laxmi pujan, and i attended the aarti, the prasad, even the firework sounds. now thats what i mean by evolution. (of course i didnt get to eat the prasad, mom very conveniently had it on my behalf).

later back here on that night i attended a frnds party, and thus had the reason to do the diwali milan in new clothes. i did miss the fireworks, i.e. until today.

technically i can still say its diwali, and here is how i got my share of fireworks. this is from less than an hour ago. i get back from school at dinner time, and think i will bake some quick readymade pizza. so i put it in the microwave, put the timer to 10 mins and go to my room to change and settle down. and then i get this familiar smell, feels like i am out on the diwali lit street and there is smoke around me. i walk into the kitchen which is smoky by now, pull out my pizza which is burnt to the core by now and turn the house into one that could well be having a havan. yeah so it was a diwali and navmi havan combined into one for me.

some things never change. i will never stop forgetting. i had a similar smoky incident within the first month of shifting to pune three years ago. and diwali will never stop being the symbol of festivities, sweets and celebration for me, even if through skype. amen.

London Dreams

this MBA experience is proving to be a lot more than i ever expected. and it was during my three-day trip to London that some more facets became apparent.

to quote the cliched advice, you need to experience it to know the difference. the life is different, and much more international. the London of my perception before this visit was much like my perception of this mba. hectic, competitive, cold and professional, and intimidating. but once i allowed myself to sink into the experience, many more aspects surfaced. first of all the sheer size of exposure. in mba you are exposed to a class of 225 students and their potential networks and the seniors and the professors. then the vast expanse of knowledge, and experiences. every class, every case, i go through a oh-is-that-how-it-is feeling. the rapidly evaporating yet seemingly long hours and the potential of work one starts squeezing into a single day, realising how much more one can really do. further, the alternatives for passing your time- facebooking, La Ramblas, the avenues for partying, salsa and beaches.

in london whatever i saw was enormous for my standards. two banking districts and their immense scale of operations; a 7-floor modern art gallery; the scale of city chugging along on the tube and buses, not like mumbai where your status is determined by the number of cars you own; the biggest grocery store i ever saw, the biggest designer brands on a crowded crazy street. n like you have subjects in MBA endless to explore and discuss, there are cuisines in London. i almost felt i was back in koregaon park trying out the different restaurants - italian, indian, moroccon, and not to forget my favourite apple tart dessert.

the lesson learnt is learn to adapt and to balance. the lack of sleep hours, the necessity of working on your cases as well as your CV, studies versus networking at the BOW, resting versus cooking, its all about balance. and just the same way, adapt and balance in london. gell into the crowd and yet maintain your own identity, clothes, food, culture, and finally balance your work against your personal life. to be honest i was never besotted with London, until now. london dreams are calling and it is this mba that will decide whether i fulfill them or not.