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Hi !

Been a while since I put up something here, a week to be precise.

Had not been feeling like putting any thoughts. Yesterday at office was discussing with a Senior colleague whom I met after 3 years (since he was away at a Project site) and we discovered our common passion for books. Happened to come to Stephen Covey & I told him that I have the book but I was unable to complete it. He recommended me to try again. So once I got back home was looking for the book by Stephen Covey, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I rummaged through the heap of books I have collected over the years but was unable to locate it. Disappointed I was.

In the process though found an old photo album (1999') containing pictures of the first project site I had been to at Jamshedpur (Bihar....presently Jharkhand State) as I was taking my first steps into the corporate world. Also found some old photos of me & brijesh...one was of holi....another one at my house of our VIIth or VIIIth Grades and yet another one in which I was very FAT.

Also came across some books which I had fondly bought inbetween this time (6 years). Books on emotional intelligence by Daniel Coleman. The Goal by Elliyat Netanyahu. Some Premchand novels in hindi...4 or 5. Two books which I had bought but never really got to their second pages' such as The Third Wave & The Third Eye. Every Street is paved with Gold by the Daewoo founder. Some books on Personality Development & Self help, Shiv Khera's book "You can win". Magic of Thinking Big, How to read a person like a book, The art of communication and some books of Graphology (Handwriting Analysis) which I were very fond of once upon a time.

I was ashamed of myself that I have such a good collection of books but they've not been kept properly. Intend to get a rack built for it.

Frankly speaking the only passions I had in my bachelorhood were music, I have a collection of over 4000 mp3 songs on the CD's and books. Of course whatever money was left out was spent on the weekend parties in those years between 1999 & 2002.

Another passion (once upon a time...now its more of a necessity) used to be Internet. Those days (1999) surfing Internet at the cybercafes used to cost Rs.80 per hour & was beyond the reach of most people. I distinctly remember having spent almost Rs.2500 (it was a princely sum then with it being almost 30% of my monthly salary) in first 3 months of 2001 over internet surfing. I mean it was another matter that I was really caught up on the net with a person whom we came about to be good friends and we went on chatting & exchanging mails like mad, all of the 24 hours in a day. It sure was a heady feeling to share your thoughts with someone over the net who was sitting thousands of kilometers away behind a monitor just as I was. I happened to go to Bangalore accompanying one of my office colleague (also a good friend) who had to go there on some work & met this long distance friend.

I got a mobile for myself as soon as I could afford one (this was in 2000) when the call charges were Rs. 16 a minute for outgoing & more or less the same for incoming calls. The handset I got was a Mitsubishi 'Trium' and cost me Rs.3600. It was such a luxury that time that I remember I used to carry it in the pocket of my trousers, lest someone thought I was trying to show off and the only people who possessed a mobile phone in our office were me & the VP. Needless to mention his was provided by the company, mine was not. I was just an Engineer Trainee that time.

Hey but those were enjoyable times (1999-2002). At home since I did not have a computer, after coming back from office, used to read a book accompanied with Jagjit's Ghazals on the rocks. Then often used to go to a cybercafe and stayed there till 10 - 11 in the night. Back home used to make some maggi (synonymous with noodles in India) and tea. That's it the day used to come to an end. On some other days used to go to the hospital where Brijesh & gang were studying medicine and stay there for sometime, after which would go out for food at our favourite fast food joint "Hot Stuff" and then the cuppa of "Golden" chai at Samrat near the railway station.

Bliss it was !