Year 2008: It's time for reckoning...

Today, when we are a few days from witnessing the end of year 2008 and the dawn of a new year it's time to take some time off and reckon how the year 2008 has been for me and what 2009 would probably hold.

2008 has been a mixed year for me containing both highs and lows, but overall have managed to settle things pretty well. Firstly, when I look back at the year, what will remind me the most has been the profound loss of being bereft of my grandfather whom I lost on June 12, 2008, a few days after landing in India from my US trip. He has always been like a mentor to me and his nuggets of wisdom will always be missed. A few weeks after his death, I was glancing through his photograph collection and I surprisingly came across a photograph of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru with my great grandfather shot by my grandpa. This was shot somewhere in 1950's when Nehru made his maiden visit to the city of Mangalore after taking charge as the first Prime Minister of India. Though this is a priceless photograph my grandpa never flounted it around and it just remained as one of the photographs in his collection. My salutations and homage to my beloved grandpa..I will miss you always.

I sternly believe that sometimes when we are clueless about things, god sends angelic help to us. This blog will be incomplete without a reference to this angelic support when an incident happened to me on my trip to Washington, D.C. I was in Reston, Virginia in September for a week attending a training in Oracle University. On the last day of my training I had some time off and decided to make a quick visit to Washington, D.C. visiting the Capitol Hill. It has been a childhood dream to visit the 'mall' area that comprises the US Congress, Washington Monument, National Archives Museum, White House, Lincon Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and many other monumental icons. So, I set out from my hotel with a basic map of the metro rail route and the only knowledge I had was that I needed to catch a bus from Herndon Bus Station to Westfall Church metro and alighten at Smithsonian metro station. I was all alone, but was upbeat to make this trip possible and visit places but was a little nervous as I was totally unfamiliar with the place.

When I was waiting for the bus from Herndon to Westfall Church metro, an India approached me and asked if I had a dollar with me. When I checked my wallet I realized that the smallest denomination that I had was $10. So, I quickly rushed to my cabbie who had dropped me from my hotel to the bus station and got the change and duly gave a dollar to the Indian who actually needed some currency for the bus as he had only cards with him. He gratefully introduced himself as Sunil and co-incidentally he was a native of Hyderabad. We had some good discussion about Hyderabad, US Economy & Job Security and he was telling me about his situation. I revealed to him that I had no much clue about how I would be able to make it to the 'mall' area of Washington, D.C. and he gave me all the details and guided me through the Westfall Church metro, the ticketing system over there and also shared his cell number just incase I got stuck somewhere. When I was done visiting the 'mall' and returned back to Smithsonian metro station, the last metro was about to arrive that would take me back to Westfalls Church and I suddenly realized that I was waiting at the opposite platform. I still remember running crazily over to the other platform and making it into the train in the nick of the time and people must have been wondering what' wrong with me.:) Luckily, Sunil had given me a metro ticket-voucher that helped me reduce time waiting to buy ticket and I could quickly swipe it and cross the gate and catch the last train to Virginia. Sunil, though we never knew each other and never could meet again please accept my thanks and gratitude for all your help. I hope someday you would come across this blog:)

Also, my special thanks to my India and US Deloitte colleagues who have been a great support to me especially when I was in the US and thanks guys for believing in me! My love to the kids in 'Kaliyuva Mane' and I am sure that they must be doing great.

This year taught me so many things that I would perhaps had taken a decade to learn and these learnings have made me more mature, stronger and somewhere more wiser. I am glad I could take up the habit of reading some great books, 'The Last Lecture' by Dr. Randy Pausch being the best one. Thanks Randy for whatever you taught the world and may your soul rest in peace.

In year 2009, some of the resolution would be to continue to learn to live and make a positive difference to others, set goals, work on them and achieve them. I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year to everyone and also pray for world peace. Amen!

Godspeed...May Krsna be with you!

Thanks,

Damu