The day I believed in Murphy

This was the day I truly believed in 'Murphy's law'. For the uniniated, Murphy's law is an adage that states 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. Let me begin with the man's thing. It was 5.30 in the morning and I had a train to catch in the next two hours for a meeting at Boston. That is when it dawned on me that I had run out of use-and-throw razors. I feverishly scrambled the closet to find an old one and made a desperate attempt to make myself 'presentable'. Result: I fell marginally short of Macaulay Culkin's scream in the movie, Home Alone 1. Lesson - Don't use the after-shave when you are using old razors.

The limo was on time. And so was the traffic jam. To top it, they shut one of the routes at the Lincoln Tunnel - the underwater tunnel that links New Jersey to New York City. I asked the driver if that was usual. The driver indeed appeared smart. He politely explained that drivers in NJ, in the name of beating the rush-hour traffic, make 6.30 AM the rush hour. He also suggested that I board at Newark instead of New York. Result - I had to skip breakfast and make a dash into the Penn station to catch the train. Lesson - If you want to go to New York City, take the bus. They have dedicated lanes during the rush hour.

The train started on time. I walked the entire train twice to figure where my colleague, who boarded in the previous station, was sitting. Only to realize that I walked right past him both the times. Finally, I caught up with him. Lesson - Using your phone when you are looking for some inside the train does not work. Especially, if the departure gate is well below the ground.

The good thing about Acela Express (The Amtrak train I was in) was that it had wireless Internet connectivity. And we could prepare for the meeting. Or so we thought. By the time we reached Connecticut, the train stopped not only for select stations, but also for flood on the tracks and then later for problems with air-conditioning. We had to switch trains in between at the New London station. This time, the train did not have connectivity. To make it worse, this one stopped too for flooding near Westerly, Rhode Island. The difference this time was that we found out that the train will not go any further. To top it, the power conked off, food and water ran out in the train, and it started getting stuffy inside the train. It didn't bother other folks as the train still doled out alchohol.

The black berry I had, came handy immediately. I searched for cabs in the nearest station only to find that it would cost $300 and 2 plus hours to reach Boston. In other words, I am not going to make it to the meeting on time. Result: We went back to NY in the same train, had to skip lunch, and tried attending the meeting over phone. Lesson – If you can fly, don’t take the train.

Exhausted I came back home late that night only to realize that I was travelling all day without getting anywhere, skipping food, and attending a meeting over a patchy phone connection. And why should I not believe in Murphy's law?

Getting in my hair...literally and figuratively

'Wow'...'Is that you maddy?'....'You look corporate'...'You look better''..'Did your wife like it?'...'You look different'...'some how I felt the previous one was better'...'Man! You were the only one who was different around. Not sure why you changed it.'...'But, don't lose those moves man'..'You look average bothways'. These are some of the comments that I received all of last week. But one question, kept coming back to me again and again - 'Why did you do that?'

If you were wondering what this is all about, I just had a hair cut. (About time eh!). After a lot of travel last month, I finally started going to the office pretty regularly. And this was the outcome.

Being different is hard. Holding on to a longer hair is harder. No. I am not referring to the managing part. Its the acceptance part. People find it hard to accept men with long hair. Especially if you are in sales or in Customer Liaison. Some people who were close to me were pretty vocal about it. Others were more considerate. Remember! Its not what your client thinks. Its what your boss think that your clients may think. Besides I am no Michael Jackson . And, I was almost this close in losing my credibility in the official circles.

Coming back to the question of why I did that. I honestly, didn't have an answer. So I went with a standard one. 'The one inside wasn't growing. So I thought let me do something about the one outside. Now, I have decided that one outside should be at the same level as the one inside - small'.

The travails of being a traveller

Sitting on a flight to Denver, I am casting this. I couldn’t find myself doing anything useful anyway. The last two weeks has been a blur, with me going from coast-to-coast – From New York to Phoenix to San Jose to New Jersey…and now to Denver. And, it was laced with bad food, lack of sleep, working over weekend and flying a red-eye. Despite all this, I love travelling. I really do. You always get to learn a thing or two new. See new places. And, most of the time, I end up losing weight. Certainly, not by choice though. Blame it on my vegetarianism. Above all, are my experiences with fellow travelers. Generally, I end up staring at the front seat wondering ‘is there a method to this madness?’

Picture this. Last week, I was sandwiched between two women (now hold your horses) - a 60 year old Mexican grandmother and a middle aged Buddhist nun

‘This go Phoenix? No?’ The Mexican grandmother showed me the ticket.

I looked at the ticket and assured her that she is in the right plane.

‘I crying crying yesterday’ she said with her broken English. For the next 15 minutes she tried feverishly, to make me understand, with a mixture of broken English and Spanish, why she was crying. Finally, she gave up in despair. Guess, I was not smart enough.

I turned around to strike up a conversation with the nun. Fortunately, she spoke English. As usual, the discussion started about the bad weather and moved on to other topics. The next hour and half she explained the two streams of buddhism, her life history, why she chose to be nun, and how her parents reacted to it and so on till I started snoring. I am not sure if she inserted 'cheetos' in my nose, just like they show in the ad.

I just lifted my head after typing this. The lights were switched off and most of the window shutters were down. Barring a select few reading lights, it was dark and pretty quiet. I looked out and saw the snow capped mountains below me. I murmured to myself, 'sometimes silence is really a bliss'.

Four people who inspire(d) me

This is definitely not the top five's that you typically read in web. That is probably why it has only four. These people come from different periods and are of different races. They profoundly shaped my life and my outlook and continue to do so. Made a difference - from almost being a destitute to whatever I am today.

Henry Ford - The father of mass production who revolutunized Detroit. The man who never believed in accountants or listened to his customers. He once said, 'If I had asked my customers they would have said that they need a faster horse'. Not sure if his philosophy would stick today, considering all the 'listen-to-your-customer' hype we hear everyday.

Temujin (a.k.a Genghis Khan) - The man who was born in a nomadic tribe with a blood clot grasped in his fist. By the time he died, the Mongol empire he had built from the scratch ruled almost all of Central Asia and China. And that was without Internet and GPS. Legend says his funeral escort killed everyone and anything across their path to conceal where he was buried.

Shri Ramanuja - (a.k.a Emperumanar) - The founder of Vishistadvaita, one of the classical interpretations of the hindu philosophy, who lived 120 years. And that was without steroids! He broke the traditional shackles by appointing non-brahman's to perform the Srirangam Temple's work. And that was in the 12th century A.D.

Chellamal, my Grandmother - It was 80s. I remember sitting in front of her along with my sister, eagerly listening to her while she mixed the 'kuzhambu sadam' in a small vessel and gave us one morsel at a time . She told us countless number of stories of love, courage, valor, honor, sacrifice, machievellinism, intelligence, history, and legend. Yes she fed me with more than just dinner.

This list, perhaps, will be appended some day. For now, I say adios.