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14 months and 20 days...

The title is the amount of time that has roughly passed since the evening spent in Shimla, sipping coffee with my stuff all packed and thinking about the new job and the life I was going to begin in Dehradun.

Sitting here in Chandigarh, I am trying to look back at all that has transpired in this time. Trying to make sense of it all. Moving to Dehradun was fun, I found new friends there and helpful colleagues. A landlord who treated me like family and a house with a view. 

It was a good time in Dehradun, work wasn't exactly great, which is why given the choice I opted to relocate to Chandigarh. But that will come later. Around this time I found a lovely companion. Some one who really tests my self control yet with whom I can lose all control and be myself, no façade or masks. 

A person pure of heart, witty, sticks to her guns like glue, shares my passion for reading, hates pink, and most of all likes me for who I am. I wouldn't have it any other way. In Dehradun I tried my hand at making the house I'd rented into a home.

I bought my first car in Dehradun. Not a very jazzy or famous or great car, just a simple, small Tata Nano. But that's all I could afford at the time. Besides, for a family of two, I think the nano is big enough. I could write an entire blog post on the amazing piece of engineering, but this is not the one. I just might write another post.

Dehradun saw mom staying with me for an extended period of time, almost 3 months. Immensely enjoyable on one hand, but on the other hand, very frankly, after living for a year or so on your own, all alone, I was finding mom helping around the house kinda awkward and uncomfortable. It was a good time.

But then the inevitable happened. My hunger for challenges and the Dehradun office's more than apparent lack of the kind of challenges I was looking for resulted in me barking up a few trees, shaking a few branches and getting myself transferred to Chandigarh.

Nothing could take me back, not the proximity to Mussourie, not the lower cost of living or the somewhat laid back routine of the small office. I was getting bored despite the best efforts from my colleagues to help me out.

I moved to Chandigarh, in the beginning of July, lock, stock and barrel. Although I would have to say, this move was different form the move from Shimla in some ways. For one, I wasn't alone, mom helped me pack and move. I did not have the time to pack as efficiently as before and finally I had a great deal more stuff to haul than the shimla - dehradun trip. I had added a fridge, a few chairs, some more clothes and bags, some kitchen ware and since I was driving down my car, my bike had to be transported too. 

But that is another story altogether. The office in Chandigarh is a magnificent building right at the edge of the sity, which made it easier for me to take up accommodation on the outskirts of the city, where the rates aren't so steep. Chandigarh is a costly place, although fuel and alcohol are cheaper than Dehradun, but still the distance I have to travel, house rent etc is all extra here.

About the work... there is lots to do. If I can find the time,even the kind of work I wanted to do. But if I can find the time. A lot of people in the office means, office politics, favourites and slackers who get by doing nothing or just counting on others to get things done. 

I have managed to make a certain reputation for myself but staying aloof, taking on a completing versatile tasks and bringing in experiences from previous employments to improve current systems. I have rediscovered the artist in me. A facet, buried and forgotten a long time ago in the pursuit of better grades and science.

I rarely find time for myself despite the Saturdays being off, I mostly laze around on weekends tired and worn after a weeks worth of work. Being a desk job and more of commuting by personal transport means that I have put on weight. Not to mention the rich food of Punjab.

All in all its been a good stint so far. I wait my wife to finish her PhD and join me here in our home. The house in Chandigarh is far from becoming a home, but its getting there.

Sitting at the computer, typing out this post, with music playing in my ears and a mug of hot chocolate to warm me, I remember the day I sat contemplating the future in Shimla. I contemplate not the future now, but the past. What I have achieved and where it may take me from here.....

Comments

Vishal said…
Nice post ! :)

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