Religious or Spiritual or Believer or...

On this last day of Navratri, I had fast again. I only fasted first and last day this time like old days and not all the nine days like last time. And yeah, theres also no meat, no alcohol, no cutting/shaving etc for nine days as well and lot more... well, i am not sure about cutting/shaving!! I always say I am not very religious but more spiritual. But I go to temple, I worship, I fast, I practice my religion and I do believe in god as well. Temples are a soothing & beautiful place and good for socializing too. Worshipping is just a way of meditating. Fasting is good for health like dieting. Practicing religion is like discplining yourself. And believing in god is just like having faith, which is very important to succeed in life. I am not giving any religious or spiritual lecture here, but there's nothing wrong with being religious. I just don't like religious fantism and blind faith that god will do wonders for your or fulfill all your wishes. And no cutting-shaving and stuff like that does sounds weird to me as well. Anyways... Jai Mata Di... Lets Rock!!

Trip to Marlborough/Westborough... Hopkinton State Park

So, it was my first trip outside the city since I came here and it was to Marlborough (& it's not where Marlboro cigarettes are made or not even remotely connected). Why was I there? There was a summer party/picnic from my work there at Hopkinton State Park. Remember those amazing picnics we used to have with family/friends as kids; all the fun & excitement of food, play & fun. can't do that now I guess!! So, I went a day in advance to be ready for the event. I took the commuter rail to go there from South Station (Boston) & reached Westborough station on Friday. Commuter rails are pretty cool, they are double storied and I traveled on the top floor to get the experience (reminded me of the double-decker bus we used to have in New Delhi when i was a kid, they are not there any more. It was like a bus on top of the bus, without a driver!!). You can buy the ticket at the station or you can even buy inside the train when the TT comes (without any fine... but make sure you buy it & don't think of going WT i.e without ticket plz). The ride was nice & the view outside the train was fine too. I reached my destination in evening & stayed with my friend for the night.

Saturday was the 1st day of Navratri so after waking up in morning I thought of going to temple. There's a temple nearby in Ashland called Laxmi Temple. It is a south Indian Temple (yeah, south Indian temples are different from North Indian Temples. They had a temporary made up Durga for navratri!!). So, I went to the temple... It's quite large in a nice place & it was good. Then I went to the park. As usual, weather was fooling & faking it. Yeah, here in US it's normal... It's so damn sunny outside but you step out & its chilly cold. Same was the scene there, it was very windy & chilly outside (& inspite of facing it so many times, I got fooled again & I was wearing just a T-shirt & left my jacket at home. it always happens here). Luckily it was better later in noon with sun kicking the heat up. It's a huge park with fake beach (it's normal in US to make fake beaches in these lovely parks. I could understand in Kansas which was thousands miles away from real beach but why here??), lovely greenery & nice grounds. Friends & people (well, everyone is not a friend) showed up in some time & they started with a game of cricket (now you get a bunch of Indian guys in a ground even in US, all they want to do is play cricket). We tried to get some American folks too to play with us (why am I saying we, I never played. I don't play cricket, or any outdoor game much for the fact!!) & taught them cricket & how similar or different it is from baseball. Suddenly they decided to quit cricket as its not fun & play soccer (yes dear, in US the football is what is played with hand & also known as American Football. & what the world calls football is known as soccer only). After some gaming the time came for food & the grills were on. The food was good & there was lots of stuff to eat, I had samosa burger (just stuff samosa inside a bun, easy-breezy. make sure you use lots of ketchup or sauce too!!) for 1st time which was actually nice. Then time came to play some team game with everyone & they decided to play rumal-dupatta (you don't know rumal-dupatta, c'mon!!) and my team won (& I did play this time & I played well!!). We also did kayaking in the lake there & I did pretty well there too. Kayaking is fun, but it needs skill too & it's real full upper-body workout. Overall it was a nice day of fun at the park... meeting new people, hanging out, eating good food & having lots of fun.

Then we drove back home & rested. In the night we went to dunkin donuts for dinner... I asked for there special toffee donut they had on display but turns out they didn't have it. Then I took a low fat blueberry muffin (I am really into low/no fat/sugar food these days. however the muffin was coated with sugar!!) & the guy offered free donut with that. I like this thing about American service industry, they always try to make sure that customers are happy & will do anything needed for that. You can't do that in India, can you?? We know how to take advantage of everything, I know people taking advantage of the return policies here (would get into more details some other time but many of you know what I mean). The mufin was actually nice & donut was okay too, then I went off to bed for the day. That's all I got for today, I know that Cambridge Carnival blog is till pending & would be coming soon. Until then guys & galz & friendz & foes... bye, take care & Jai Ho!!!

You are LIFE of the Team...

My manager Parasu said this for me in a Casual 360 Feedback we had yesterday, I did expect something good but not something so awesome. How did I feel... Amazing & very-very Happy! of course!! Others had there own views about me... like I am very sharp person, I am smart, I am cool but intelligent and intellectual (i guess people expect Intellectuals to be uncool & boring, I am not). I was also told that I am very friendly, quite approachable and have solutions for almost anything & everything for the team. Also that I am the coolest, most efficient, amazing & best person they ever met and all of them love & idolize me (yeah-yeah, I might be exaggerating at a few places. but so what, its my blog yaar!!). Feedback & Appreciation are very important in Life, not just at work or outside but in our personal lives as well. It's important to get and give the right feedback to your friends & family and make sure you know how things are going and how you are faring at it. It's nice to say a few words of appreciation at the right moments for your loved ones & let them know how much you appreciate them being in your life & how thankful you are. Thanks a lot everyone, Thanksss!!!
TRM Training was a nice experience (had to be, how many times you get paid to get trained & study!!) & I really learnt a lot. I put a lot of myself in these trainings and really worked hard (to not sleep, lol). It was a great team and I would definitely miss it; my manager is a nice guy & I really admire him too (he might be reading the blog so had to say this, lol... ohh, hope he's not reading this!!). It makes a lot of difference if you have the right kind of team & leadership around you, it gives you the right opportunity & energy to perform & grow. And ofcourse it's important to love what you are doing (atleast you have to not hate it...). Now we would be moving on to a new project & looking forward for good times in future (urgh, this is what TRM training does to you and you start talking of Forwards & Futures... grrr!!). Everything else is just cool, nothing special happened. I was on Navratri Vrat which got over on Friday, did all days fasting this time which was cool, Jai Mata Di!!. Alright boys n girls and dear friends, that's it for now. Please keep blogging & keep reading my blogs (& COMMENT to let me know of your views). This is RAHUL saying, Good Bye & Good Luck... JAI HO!!!!!

Happy Navratri... जय माता दी!!!

The past week has been quite uneventful and so has been the weekends, nothing special happened. The weather was nice many times and I was mostly doing nothing. The boring TRM training was still going on in office part of which got almost over (would be totally finished in a week or two). My shoulder is getting better but i m still in lil pain. I actually showed to a 'zarrah' or 'maalishwalla'desi medicine as well. He said that its a muscle pull claimed to cure it in 3-4 days. It is not totally cured yet but its is feeling better, maybe because of the painkiller tablets he crushes & mixes in his medicine (i did see painkiller tablets lying on his table). A new experiment, lets see how it goes... On following one of my office friend's advice and he gave me some oil massage & tuesday I went towards Noida for some work and had to take Greater Noida Express Way. It's a nice road but goes on so straight & long without any proper directions/pointers that its very easy to get confused. I drifted kilometers away from Sec-127 where I had to go and then had to come all the way back. Another FYI... I was looking pretty cool that day wearing half-shirt & nice formal wear; that day I was standing outside this building just waiting for someone to come out & there were some cool girls standing/sitting outside from one of the offices there. They were looking at me very interestingly n nicely & kinda smiling too, then one of the girl sheepishly took out her cellphone pretending to be talking & tried to click my picture secretly. I am not kidding or boasting ppl, it really happened... she looked that I have seen it & after that she was really coming to talk to me; but by then the person coming to meet me from the building came out & I had to leave (still wondering who the person was, it was my DAD). Not very sure what's all going on & what should I do, I just hope it's all for good and brings some good!!

Navratri have started this week & I have planned to keep fast for all the 9 days, i used to fast for first & last day earlier. I have also been keeping fasts every Monday (not Solah-Somvaar for a good wife as ppl think... Monday is considered Lord Shiva's day) these days; but its not out of any blind-faith or something like that. It's for many decent reasons including healthy dieting (& practicing to fast & remain without food when needed if i need that in future sometime, lol) and just as a self-enlightenment process. It feels good... Alright boys n girls and dear friends, that's it for now. Please keep blogging & keep reading my blogs (& COMMENT to let me know of your views). This is RAHUL saying, Good Bye & Good Luck... HAPPY NAVRATRI , JAI MATA DI & JAI HO!!!!!