Could not find any..

Well, I am awake er.. stupid thing to say isn't it? If I were not awake how would I manage to write what I writing right now.Sorry all, and sorry to myself, every time when I plan to write something, I make a plan and think of topic and then start writing.. very structured you know, but this time I am trying to prove a little different.
Firstly, today is my first day without smoking any cigarette. So if some one has been reading my blog (which I am sure no one has apart from myself ), it has taken me almost more than a month and lots of goading to my cravings, to at least spend a day without smoke. The challenge is to carry on with this.  Ah! but that is the tough job.. but let us see how it fares.
Its a windy night today and with a half moon. Right now I am working on my laptop in a 7th Floor, Sea facing chic apartment in the Blauberg Area (Marine Drive) of Cape town, South Africa. Sounds like a dream locale isn't it? And yes it is.. the view is amazing.. with the wide sea open all around you and the moon shining and creating an eerie light on the sea.
Capetown is an amazing town. The first thing that strikes you when you land in the city is its cleanliness. A place with a size-able population can not be more cleaner. The roads are wide, well lit, the parks are sparkling green even in winter, the buildings are big and tastefully decorated.. a model in all respects compared to any other city in the world...be a little liberal and you would think you have reached utopia. The city boasts of the wonderful, table mountain and a gorgeous sea shore with beaches of white sands and water icy cold. All is wonderfully perfect out here.. too perfect for comfort..

I have yet been able to visit only the harbour.They call it the Waterfront and truely magnificient it is, on a clear cloudless day. The other day when I visited, the water reflected the azure sky (there was almost no clouds in there) and the different colored boats in the harbour, added a wonderful contrasting vista. I did manage to click some pictures with my limited photography skill, but the nature of the view was such, it all came out nice. (at least to me).

There are ample places to visit in Capetown, none of which I have managed to visit YET.. I am hoping against hope that I would soon be able to do so.
Ek is mal oor Cape Town my vriende..
Good Bye.

The next Big Challenge..

I have been trying to quit for a long time.But try as hard as I can, the habit just sticks.. No respite.. as soon as there is a feeling that I have nothing to do.. my fingers twitch and my eyes dart for the nearest shop with the tell tale signs of death  and disease being sold away aplomb. Yes I am talking about the stick with a burning end that slowly eats away the life just as it burn itself down. Sounds a little melodramatic eh?
My introduction to the post sounds cliche.. I myself have heard it so many times and have thought earlier, weak are those people who say so.. with no self control. (Look at me I sure have the control to stop things as soon as I want to at least that WAS what I thought).. Its a bit disconcerting when I find myself in the same position which I had so looked down upon earlier.. I just cannot quit, whenever I try to do so.. someone within me just starts finding reasons why I should carry on, as it is today, and try my vow the next day, which sadly never comes..
It has been so many times that I desperately decided that enough is enough, now is the time to prove to myself that I have the power to quit as I please.. The first days are easy, because the resolve remains strong.. but as soon as the day lingers on and moves on to the next, the resolve starts wavering..
I never felt any physical need for a smoke, it always seems to be in the mind.. the leisure time to be spent watching the smoke curl out of your own countenance.. what happens if I do not smoke, does my body feel weak or my head spins naah nothing.. physically I do not feel a thing.. its just the emptiness that kills me, it is just the feel of the the soft stick in my fingers and the feel of the smoke curling out of my mouth, that's what lures me.
Everyday when I go to sleep, I vouch to myself that I will spend a smoke free day tomorrow, but it has never happened..
But I am still trying.. and try I will till I actually achieve it.. that's the next big challenge for me.. I plan to keep a count of the number of cigarettes that I smoke each day.. hope to see a consistent zero.. some day..
Adieu..

The Privledged

It has been a different week all together. Gone are the hectic schedules each day in office, gone is the rush to reach office before the update call and gone is the necessity to wake up early. Life feels good.I can now laze around in the bed for more number of hours than I should actually be granted. [That is the reason, I wake up guilty every morning, for missing my swimming lessons or not following the earlier nights vow to get up early and run a considerable number of kilo-meters.]
I have been released from my project after a not so sentimental farewell.I am a free bird now, with minimal or almost no commitments in the office, until of course the organization can find me er.. a more suitable job profile.
The other day I was talking to one of friends, Avijit, who is very gentle by nature. He is a sort of person who avoids quarrels and wants to live a life as peaceful as can be practical. We were having one of our extended chai-ciggarette adda, when he started. "Do you know da, people in kolkata seem to have gone a little hyper now a days.!!". I was little surprised to hear this sudden change of topic, when we were actually analyzing our manager's recent spectacular portrayal of his command over English language, but that is a different discussion  all together. "yes da,  people in Kolkata seem to have gone crazy and I do not know why they do not seem to like us IT people a bit!!". Now that was a bit harsh to categorize all the wonderful denizens (apart from the "IT People") of Kolkata into IT haters. "What happened Avijit? Who kicked you?" I quipped."You know the other day I was travelling in a bus back to home from Saltlake." started Avijit."The buses in the evening are full, and that is why I had chosen to leave office a little late. The bus that I boarded was not so crowded and I had got a decent sort of place to stand. After a few stops, the rush increased and then there was sudden push from behind with some mutterings it seemed. I turned around to find a person, aged somewhere around 45,bespectacled, a little dishevelled looking at me and asking me in a not so polite tone to get rid of my bag which was somehow, obstructing him to move further on Inside the bus. I politely asked him to push and manoeuvre through, as there was no space for me to move aside my bag. You know what was the retort that I get back?". I looked back at avijit. "IT te chakri korle lokeder hab bhab change hoye jai. IT r lok hoye bus e othen keno [Translation: It seems that people who work in the IT sector have a very poor atitude and why the hell are you travelling in a bus.]" I was not surprised.
To the naive travelling in bus is not banned for the people who work in the IT sector. It seems that there is a population in Kolkata who sincerely look down upon people in this sector. The reason: People in the IT sector get showered with GOLD. They are the people who can lead a posh lifestyle with money at their hands and no clue as to how to spend it.
Even if that is the case, is there anything wrong in it? I donot think so. In this world, where there is nothing called a free lunch,  the money earned by an IT professional is because of his labours, just like any other employee in any other job.Probably people who bear this attitude towards the so called "filthy rich IT people", might think otherwise, or probably its their own frustration in achieving at what they think is the best thing possible in the world.
Probably the man who had commented on Avijit, aspires to own a car to get rid of the tiresome bus journey. Probably he has not been able to own one yet and he has made a world in his mind, where all IT professionals have cars. Probably that is why finding one IT employee slogging it out just like him in the same bus and blocking his route to the so called comfort of his known domain threatens him. There can be so many probabilities, and I would be a fool to try to analyze all those.
Whatever the reasons maybe, not all, but a section of people in Kolkata do think and sincerely look down upon people in this sector for being "the so called filthy rich".
Will this thing change? Well yes definitely, its bound to change, with so many engineers being manufactured to feed the massive Indian IT jaggernaut, its not going to be far when there would be very few people in Kolkata who donot have some one close within their own family working and thus belonging to the super priviledged "IT Sector Employee".
Till then, we might have to bear with them, ektu adjust kore nite hobe aar ki..