Contrasts...

It's funny how meeting someone who poses a stark contrast to one's own traits shakes up one's self categorization.

For example, off late I'm starting to see myself as an optimist in stark contrast to P's cynical questioning self.

And although I feel like a blathering chatterbox around his quiet self at home, I feel like one of the quieter people at work where I'm surrounded by a bunch of loquacious women (some more than others. Oh, how I wish I could write more here :-))

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So many of us tie in our self worth to what we do over who we are. I am severely guilty of this as well. Growing up in a family that valued qualifications and achievements over most other things has made me grow up practically married to my work when I love it. And for most of the 5.5 years that I've worked where I do, I have loved what I do. I wonder if my lesson in self worth will mimic the other lessons I've learned - painfully taught and inflicted by life on me when I least expect it.

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Its almost FRIDAY!!! :D

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Escape

Each time I go back to India and imagine what my life would have been like had I stayed home in Bombay instead of making the decision to leave for hostel life and for a new city thereafter, I feel a huge sense of relief. Not at leaving my parents, but at leaving an environment that would never have let me see the world as I see it today. Only those who have known me over the last 10 years can attest to the fact that the change has been nothing short of miraculous, and unanimously described as a step in the right direction.

At the prospect of a mind that opened like it did when exposed to new cities, new people and multiple cultures, I feel an overwhelming sense of relief. At that, and at having escaped the person I could have turned into. And immense gratitude for everything I've had the privilege of experiencing in the last decade.

Hola Amigas!

In honor of my wonderful Mexican friend who arrives in Singapore next week.

Andy is one of the most inspiring people I've met while working at P&G in the last 5.5 years. She's bubbly and ever enthusiastic and one of those people who no matter how tired or snappy they are, always start the conversation with "So mate, how ARE you?". And she means it every time she asks it. Working with someone like her leaves even a work cynic like me with little option but to reciprocate the enthusiasm and revel in it.

Andy arrives in Singapore this Friday night and apart from the I-need-to-be-a-good-host jitters I usually get before such arrivals, I am also feeling a wonderful surge of excitement. I want to take her to a Tamil movie, a Bollywood party and cook her many wonderfully Indian things at home.

And before any of the diminished readership asks what I've been up to, let me answer it myself with an appropriately sheepish expression. I've been doing absolutely nothing. Yes I've moved assignments, changed bosses, dealt with P moving here and being jobless for close to 6 months, travelled to China, Hong Kong and India and had the dust settle on the very happening and chaotic beginning of married life (not quite yet, actually. Cause you know, the universe wants to keep life interesting and all that) but I haven't done enough with my time outside work, and sadly so.

So we're making a resolution to fix this situation asap. My long overdue Spanish lessons should happen sometime soon. Same for swimming. And some more travel in the beginning of the new year.

Cheers to the arrival of Andy, and hopefully a breath of fresh air into my fairly stagnating life :-)