2010 - a year of nex expectations...

Happy New Year to you all!!! Hope you have had a great time so far this year. I am quite surprised to see the weather forecast for the next 10 days....we are going to have high 20s to low 30 days till the 26th...especially after the unseasonably cold December..and the largest snowstorm since 1969. Whenever I see snow, it reminds me of 3rd February 1997. The day I saw snow on the ground for the first time in my life...we were vacationing in Gangtok, Sikkim in India. Gangtok is about 40 miles from the Indo-China border....we took a 4X4 to Changu lake at 16000 ft..but unfortunately we got stuck at about 13000 ft in an avalanche. That was the first time I experienced a snowstorm...and that was just the start...who knew on that day that I will ultimately move to Vermont. As we headed out of the city of Gangtok, we drove through the deserted villages... no sign of life to be seen...loved everything about the snow...may be because of the fact that it was my first time...I still love the snow... though I was born and raised in a tropical area, I love the snow and the frigid weather..I love the months of January and February...I understand it is pretty weird, but I cannot lie.

The not so good Tuesday

I had a meeting with one of my coworkers today. She was late and I spoke to her at around 2PM when she promised me that she would join the meeting by 2:10. By that time, she left for the day (probably the week). her 32-year old niece got killed in a car accident this morning. Life is so frail and we struggle everyday to get over it. We fight each day to rule the world, we would like win every battle that we pick. But when you are done with life, what will be left will all be the good memories. Have you ever thought about the 300 poor passengers on the ill-fated Air France flight from Brazil to France which crashed on the Atlantic? They all had a dream. All their dreams got crushed under the expanse of the ocean. I have learnt a great lesson on the day of the plane crash. Have you ever heard the Nickelback song "If today was your last day":

"If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late

Could you say goodbye to yesterday

Would you live each moment like your last

Leave old pictures in the past?

Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?

What if, what if, if todays was your last day?"

I am not a great fan of Nickelback. But it was our CEO who played this song at a company leadership conference. I got so moved by the words that I bought the song on the Itunes Store and listen to it at least once a day. Make the most of the day as there may not be a tomorrow. Embrace the people who matter to you most and tell them how much they matter to you. Everyone may not understand it, but remember that there may not be a tomorrow. Live for today. There was a popular cigarette ad in India in the eighties - "Live life kingsize". I believe in that. I always try to make the best use of today.

Monday 11/16/09

I cannot believe that the year will be over in 6 weeks. It was only yesterday that we celebrated the new year. Time flies - or is it that we are having the best time of our lives that it seems that time flies. As I sit back and remember why I will remember this year I am not sure about that. Is Barack Obama the reason that we all will remember this year? His presidency and then the Nobel Prize!!!! I was fortunate to me in the Rio in Vegas on November 4, 2008. Rio was hosting the Democrat committee of Nevada and I saw history in the making. I have never been in an incident before where the whole events happening around me were being beamed live across the world. I could see the hotel and all the things happening around me being shown live on CNN. I will remember 2009 as a landmark year in my life. My daughter turned 13 - the feeling of being a father of a teenager of course makes me feel old. I also got to meet an amazing physical trainer who has transformed my life in 6 months. I actually feel much younger, I am in a much better shape than when I turned 30. I also got to visit Paris. The city with everything old, literally, is amazing. The spirit, the vastness - thousands of people around me speaking hundreds of languages that I do not follow. Paris made me realize that this world is too big. I got to visit other parts of the world. I will also remember this year as the year I tested game meat - elk, bison. Escargots in Paris to the 80 proof wine in the Mosselle Valley in Germany to the Belgian chocolates.

Who am I?

Hi. My name is Raja. Raja is the word for the King in almost all Indian Languages. People outside India have a great misconception about "Indian" languages. I have been asked a number of times if I speak Indian. The point needs to be noted that there is no language called "Indian". There are about 22 official languages spoken in the Indian Sub Continent, but none of them is called Indian. Bengali is my mother tongue. Bengali is spoken in the state of West Bengal in eastern India. It is also the national language of Bangladesh, India's neighbor on the east. Bengali is the language that the national anthems of India and Bangladesh were written in (though 99% of Indians believe that the Indian National anthem is in Sanskrit). I grew up in West Bengal. I am Mechanical Engineer by education, though I do not dare to call myself a Mechanical Engineer. I graduated in 1993 and started my journey through the world of employment - the world which worries more about today than tomorrow. The world which loves to live in the past and future is a bleak spot on the horizon. After 16 years of working in different parts of the globe, I have learnt a great lesson in my life. I firmly believe that we learn from the past, live in our present and BUILD our future. I and only I can build my future. I have been to 3 continents so far and my bucket list has the desire of stepping on each and every continent. I am amazed to see how we are getting engrossed into the world of Social Networking. In my effort to put my name on the Social Networking maze, I have started Tweeting and Facebooking. As we get ready to embark on another week, I have decided to document my experiences and my feelings in this blog. More later.