Finding relief during the times of recession

These are the bad times. I read somewhere that "our greatest hopes and our worst nightmares are seldom realized". Now, when I read the daily newspapers, I read about gloomy economic scenario everywhere. Even our PM has said that the coming times are going to be tougher!! So, I ask myself whether our worst fears have been realized or there's still something unseen-and-unheard of which is about to happen??

The severity of the "global meltdown" is now more visible in every industry of India as well. Daily, we hear or read about one or the other company deciding to "downsize" or "lay-off" a few thousand employees. Even the "mass-recruiter" IT firms of India have put the brakes on their hiring spree!! It makes all of us to pray for better times. The reasons for all this (downturn) are getting published everyday in the newspaper and I do not wish to write anything about them here in my blog.

Now the subject of the blog is self explanatory but you'd be thinking what solutions do I have and why don't I just sell those solutions to the big-wigs of industry?? Seriously, I don't have any solution and we all know that the solutions, that the governments all around the world are implementing, for this recession will take time to show the results. But the main question here is what can we do or how do we find relief?? What to do when every other thing sounds depressing??

Well, I'll tell you what I've decided to do and I think many of you would like those steps that I've taken.

What I did was, I made a list of things that can bring smile on my face or a sense of joy or can entertain me during any time (war or peace:))

So, the first thing I've done is that I've stopped reading the articles that give gloomy outlooks of the economy. I just read the articles that have something about the steps to be taken or something positive only. Though my preference is reading about the recruitment plans of the companies but anyway...Yeah, yeah I know that there are not many articles nowadays that gives the news that can help to bring an upward curve on your face but if these kind of articles are not there, then you at least save time!! So you are the winner in any case and puh-leese..GK improvement can take a break for a while!! No one wants his/her GK to be full of tragedies!!

The second thing,of course, is talking to my family and friends more often. This seems very obvious or a very simple suggestion but believe me it works. I thank all these telecom companies who have made life easier for people like me who have lived most of their life outside their native place. Though the preference is meeting family and friends but talking on phone will also do.

The third thing is watching videos of some of the best innings of Sachin (here, I assume that many of you are a cricket fan and if not then you can watch any of your favorites sports' ties). My favorites are back-to-back tons against Australia in sharjah, '98 or the one against pakistan in world cup, '03 or the one against Australia in '08 in Austarlia. The list can go on and on but this gives you the idea. It's not for nothing they say "Sports is a big healer" and yes it is!!

The fourth thing is watching some of the classical movies again and again. My list includes Andaz apna apna, DCH, Golmaal('79), Lakshya and some of the Amitabh movies. My list includes either a comedy or a sort-of morale boosting stuff. 

The last thing is go for any of your greatest passions in life. Mine is learning guitar. So, in bits and pieces though, I've started troubling my jammed fingers. But the credit goes to my classmate Ankit for accepting me as a student (I think my fear worked!!).

They say that when in trouble, a person always turns to the best he has got. I've turned to the things that I know are good enough to bail me out from any kind of trouble (though bailing out the economy might be a bit difficult task:)). These are just the bad times and they will pass. The need of the hour is to keep ourselves motivated enough so that we don't loose out in the race which will go on our whole life (irrespective of the downturn or upturn!!). And believe me, we will win for sure because I believe, now, its the turn of our greatest hopes to get realized:)

These days will not come back

I've been so lucky in my life that I've always felt that the present days are the best days of my life and then the same story goes on and on. I've always been blessed with some truest friends that one can imagine. And that's why life has been so easy and entertaining. In fact one of my friends just wrote me a testimonial where he said that " keep joking with life and life wont dare to joke with you"...So true!!!

When I got a call to join one of the best colleges (If i dare to say..) of India, I was very apprehensive of the fact that incoming to my bank account will stop and then there's no end to the outgoing:( But, anyway, I decided to join the college (after troubling my friends for their advices). Everyone who heard the news was wishing me along with a word of caution. Now the caution was to be taken while roaming around the city because the city in which my "prestigious" college is located tops the crime charts every year!! I was thanking my stars because not many people get a chance to relive that life called college life. And for me it was more special as I was again wearing the student shoes after five years!!

I had decided that I'm going to make sure that I enjoy these twenty one months of my life up to the maximum and I must say that the first six months have been up to the mark:) Day ,for me, here starts one hour before the first class. The class scene can actually give David Dhawans of the Bollywood few ideas (which they badly need) for their movies. Out of the sixty students, few are busy with laptops, few with newspapers, few are sleeping and the ones like me are making life hell for the unfortunate ones sitting in the vicinity!! And ,ah, there are few (mind you.. "very few") who are actually listening to the poor prof. And then the same scene gets repeated at the rate of twenty lectures per subject per term!! But this is what I wanted to do or should I say do again?? Because the scene was not very different from what it was during the engineering days. But then at that time we were unspoiled kids. This envied "exposure" to the "global world" has made many of us manipulative. We even manipulate our emotions and feelings!!

So again joining the college life was like a dream come true. Because I know I will again go to that world where everyone is involved in some kind of rat-race and there is no time for oneself (forget about the family and friends) and that's why I'll compensate for all those coming damn years in the next fifteen months. And thats a promise which I've made to myself.

I just want to forget about the outside world and the CGPA's (though mine is not that bad!!) and keep living the life on my own terms for this golden period because I know these days will not come back!!

My first brush with blogging!!

First thing which came to my mind was do I really need to own/write a blog?? Because, my friends will agree with this, I speak a lot. So is there something which I specifically need to write? Is there something that I can write that has not been already written or said umpteen number of times? But at last I thought there are many things which I can write and share and then its free too!! Or maybe it can help me in improving my pathetic writing skills!! So move away you bachchans, aamir khans, and sardesais of the world!! Here's a new kid on the blog to give you a tough competition:)

Will surely come up with something great next time. I know the first few people who will read this are the ones I'll force!! 

Love,

Amit