Heads and Tails

May-17, 2004, Chennai, India

I have to go to work today. Why on earth do Sundays pass away very quickly? I peeped out through the window and saw a raven sitting on the tree next door. "One for Sorrow." was the thought that went inside my mind. We used to play this prank while at school. I started out for work in my Monday formals and it was not very far off when I stepped my leg on a hot bake of cow dung in the road. It was my brand new pair of shoes. Rushed back home, changed it and it was all jogging to the bus stand. I shouldn't miss the office bus at 7.30 am. But, I missed it by a few seconds. I caught a passing auto and got in at the next stop. Just as I was about to settle down, the driver gave a sudden halt and I landed on to the lap of a lady. The way she looked at me almost burned me to ashes.

"Sorry, that was because of the sudden break."

She didn't even have the courtesy to reply anything. I reached the office on time. I'm involved in a software development team for a major Retail firm in USA. There was a small issue in one of the modules we developed and the client has sent out his apprehensions over it. Finally the blame had come down on me and I was in consistent meetings with my leads. It was in one of the meeting at 11.00 am, my friend Vijayan, a stockbroker and my financial advisor, kept calling to my mobile. When my manager showed signs of irritation, I switched off my mobile. I had to skip my lunch that day for the issue and it was at 4.00 pm that things started settling out. I never had such a worst day at work. It was then I remembered that Vijayan had called me up.

"Hey Ajay, What were you doing?" was his voice in a hard tone

"Macha, big time meeting... Wazzzup?"

"It was a black Monday for market. Sensex crashed over 500 points."

Gosh, I had invested a good part of my earnings in the market on Vijayan's advice. My loss is estimated to be aroung one lakh. I felt too distressed and started off home. Amidst heavy traffic, I reached home at around 9pm and after a quick bath sat for the dinner.

"What’s this Shika? Salt, salt, salt in almost everything...."

"Ajay I'm sorry, I forgot to taste that..." was her reply.

"You'll keep on doing these mistakes."

I rose up and had some lassi and went to bed. Shika didn't speak a single word to me till then and in bed, she was lying facing the other side. I never had a bad day as today. "One for sorrow" turned out to be true. It was all shouting, scolding and swearing the whole day. I shouldn't have done these. The world was a mirror; it reflected the same way I looked upon it. I shouldn't have been rude to Shika either. We had a love marriage, both of us from entirely different family, cultural and religious background. I saw the scar in her forehead. It was the punishment she got from her father for our love. Both of our parents have disowned us since we became man and wife. I kissed on her forehead promising I'll never be rude to her and went to sleep. I also decided not to lose my temper henceforth.

May-18, 2004, Chennai, India

I walked in the roads very carefully and didn't have any problems till I reached my office. My clients have come back to us with an apology stating that our approach was indeed correct and there was oversight from their part. Had I been given an opportunity to think yesterday, I would've brought to everyone's notice yesterday. After a small meeting with my lead, I called up my friend Vijayan to buy some more shares to recover the loss I incurred yesterday. I know its a risk, but something in my mind wanted me to go for it.

I reached home a bit early. I also bought a new saree for Shika. Dal, rice, chappati and kheer all tasted too good today. At night in bed, she came near me took my hands and placed it on her and whispered, “Thanks a lot.”. I became the happiest person in the world when I came to know that I'm going to be a dad.

May - 19, 2005, Dallas, USA

I'm now here for the production support for the same project. Shika and my newborn Akaash are also with me. After Akaash was born, both of our parents reconciled with us. Some of the shares I bought doubled, some tripled and now all in green. Things were cool though some small issues used to crop in between. I started to handle things in a smooth way with no pushing down the stress to anyone else.

I understood that this journey is never a smooth sail. There would be a euphoria followed by a very bad phase. Every downhill would be followed by an uphill and so on.

Buzz Buzz goes my mobile. 10 new Mission Critical Blocking Defects are opened....

-Sudhin

posted by Unknown @ 1:52 AM