End of Chapter 1

After almost a year, i quit my first job today. As frustrating and claustrophobic as this place is, i think im gonna miss it. How many people in Bangalore can say that commute between home and work is under 10 mins? My personal record is 7 mins. Of course, i probably had some heavy music blaring in my ears.

The work had been completely unheard of. Writing patents! Im no software guy, very far from it actually. And a job in the IT capital which dint involve coding and paid decently( I have a Bachelor's degree in Electronics & Communication and my folks assumed i would be in the Major Leagues!) were very few and far in between. So when i got here and wrote a test for this company they seemed impressed with my writing and offered me a job. Was the first interview i'd ever attended.

As far a work goes, actually let me not go any further. Work is work and it gets to you. What came out of it is discovering a passion for writing. I never in a million years would have imagined that one day i would be writing for a living. Met a lot of interesting people here. Each one with a unique quirk. Quite a motley crew i must say. A very intelligent man-undoubtedly the wisest guy i have ever come across. May his soul rest in peace. A very very professional woman who has smiled maybe about 7 times since i'v gotten here. My initial team lead. And a business man. In every sense of the word. My CEO. And a girl who i found out much later loathed me because she thought i was "one of them guys". For the others i missed, you know who you are, i'l miss you all. Thanks for the good times.



This was my first job and like my first love i'll always remember it as much as i want to forget it.

Life goes on. Its a new beginning. New people to meet, new mistakes to make, new adventures to undertake.

Are we at the end?

25th July- Bangalore- Between 1:30pm and 3:00pm- 8 bombs go off. 1 dead, a dozen injured, thousands of rumours, vehicular movement at a standstill.

26th July- Ahmedabad- Upto 17 bombs detonate between 6:45pm and 9:00pm-Around 10 dead and several injured.

27th July- 12:07 in the afternoon. So far so good.

My blog seems to be a lot about deaths and the things you learn about people after they are no more. The last month and a half have been kinda hard on this front. Close friends, parents of even closer friends, uncles and aunts seem to be heaven bound. All this has been so sudden and unexpected that i wondered if doomsday could be upon on. Very stupid i know but you need to be in a situation like i am in to understand this.

So as i lay thinking about the end of the world, the Earth was facing destruction by the Vogon Constructor Fleets (Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy). This was an unfortunate coincidence.
An article my friend read out to me from a newspaper came to mind. The world would come to an end in 2012. I did some research on this and apparently according to the Mayan calender we are staring the Apocalypse in the face.

I found quite a few interesting videos on YouTube. Here is one that is surely worth a watch.


After seeing the video i expected to be jolted back to reality but surprising i felt a calm i havent felt in months. The world's gonna end!!! Yeah, so? I now do believe that the world is gonna end sometime soon, call me a fool, call me a believer of blind faith.. it doesnt matter.

The world is not going to end because of a natural disaster as most believe or even the Vogon Constructor Fleets. If its going to end its probably because of some idiot screaming obscenities at another idiot's mother or religion causing the second idiot to unload some nuclear material on the first idiot's ass.

So the message is simple. Rock on!!!

Afterlife

The sudden passing of a dear friend and colleague a few days ago in an automobile accident brought to the forefront the debate of the afterlife. An 'enlightened' fella i happen to work with seemed to think that his soul may already be in another body and may have been re-born. For someone who doesn't believe in religion and the after life this sounded like absolute Hog-wash to me. I remember a conversation with the colleague a couple of days prior to his passing where he was telling me about a book by a German author, it was called 'Siddartha' i think. It had been a long day and i only remember parts of the story. Two boys (one of the them being Siddartha) set out in search of enlightenment and after wandering the streets of northern India for a few months they come across Buddha. The story goes that Buddha offers them both the knowledge to attain enlightenment. To cut a long story short, Siddartha trudges on with his journey because he believes that enlightenment gained by Buddha is not the enlightenment he is after.

I dont quite get the concept of religion. How can millions of people swear by something just for the simple reason that millions of people before them have done the same? Isn't there an iota of doubt in your mind about the things you've been conditioned to believe from times you were not old enough to think for yourself? Im not the one who believes in spells and chants and poojas and the Gazillion other things religion- related. I may not believe in religion but i do believe in a higher power. I believe in the Siddartha way.. Go out and discover for yourself what life is. When friends or family visit a picturesque location, no matter how much or how well they describe it to you you would only fathom the beauty of it if you actually visited the place yourself. Why must it be any different when we talk about religion and spirituality?

Coming back to where we started. The afterlife. The obscurity of it is that there isn't a single person who can explain it to anyone. People having near death experiences are many. The stories about your life flashing through eyes are also many. Im not discrediting any of the people who claim to have had these near death experiences. I have had no such experiences and i wouldn't know. That being said, near death experiences has nothing to do with the afterlife. There is absolutely no way to explain the afterlife. Each person unto his own. Either you show faith and believe what has been said over the years or you find a way to either prove or disprove it.