There was a tag a few months back about the most memorable moments of your life. I never got around to do it. Finally, I decided it was time to do a I-me-myself post. So here it is.

p.s. This could be a long post, atleast by my standards. So consider yourself warned.

01-Jul-1989, Umm al Quwain (UAE): Dad got transferred on a new project to a different city for a few months. Our summer vacations had just started. So we all moved. Only to find, to our delight, that we were gonna be staying at a beach resort. For 2 months. All expenses paid. With all possible amenities. We had our own 5 bedroom villa, with a swimming pool and 24 hours room service. Life just couldn’t get any better. Fun.

09-Jun-1997, Abu Dhabi (UAE): 10^th standard CBSE board exam results. Though I was always an avg to above avg student, this was the first (and only) time I actually managed to get distinction (>75%). My first taste of success at the big stage. Achievement.

03-Dec-1998, Dubai (UAE): In athletics, the triple jump is one of the most complex events. In one smooth motion, the jumper has to hop, step and jump. It is an artistic and skillful event. And I held all possible records in school. Only one last hurdle awaited between me and the Indian Nationals. On this day, it was that jump. That one fateful jump. I broke the only record that eluded me: the under-17 category national triple jump record. Glory.

10-Nov-1999, Aurangabad (India): A very close and dear friend from school, succumbed to Leukemia. He was 17. Felt like life had come to a standstill. Sadness.

20 to 23-Dec-2002, Aurangabad/Pune (India): This has to be my crowning moment. I appeared for 4 exams on 4 consecutive days in 2 different cities. I had my final year engineering exam on 20th and 22nd Dec in Aurangabad. And  on 21st and 23rd, I had my b-school entrance exams in Pune. Aurangabad and Pune are 5 hours away. I commuted only by ST bus, that too the red ones! And I aced all 4 papers. Got above 60% in the engineering exams. And got follow-up calls from both b-schools. I still can’t believe how it happened. Unthinkable for me today. Awe.

18-Dec-2004, Delhi (India): A day that I shall never forget. After nearly 12 hours of interviews, GDs, extra-curric activities, I got my first job offer. Through campus recruitment from my B-school. We celebrated all night. I met my best buddies in B-school. Some of them are with me today while some friendships have withered with time. Including the one with my best friend. I don’t know what went wrong. Guess we just let each other down. We don’t speak anymore. But not a week goes by when I don’t think of him. 2 days after me, he got an offer as well. Those celebrations, those fun-filled and crazy days, will always be with me. Nostalgia.

02-May-2005, Bangalore (India): My first day at work. Walking through the plush corridors of a Fortune 500 company, all swanky in a dark suit, MBA from a top B-School, new dreams, goals, aspirations, set out to conquer the world – Step aside, I’ve arrived. Pride.

25-Jan-2008, Aurangabad (India): My wedding. The day couldn’t have been any better. Everything was perfect. And we looked at our best. It was a dream wedding. And thus a new phase of my life began. With my soul mate, my wife, my better half. The love of my life. Happiness.

20-Jan-2009, Aurangabad (India): The biggest moment of my life. I became a father. The first time I held my little miracle in my hands, all tiny, delicate and fragile, he kept looking at me, kept gazing at me with those small dark eyes, I can never forget that moment. Miracle.

This is it I guess. All of the above together, along with blessings of the Almightly, a few lucky breaks, flawless parenting by my folks and amazing family & friends, this is me, the man I am today.

Cheers!

Edited to add: Some other memories come to mind that were important but not big enough to make the cut such as attending a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi and meeting then president of India APJ, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, captain of the only team in history of my college to win the inter-branch cricket tournament in the first year in Aurangabad, winning a fashion pageant, “superstar of the year” award at work in Bangalore after a tough start, getting arrested at 2 am because of an accident due to a street dog right in front of the police station…..list is almost endless.

Did you know that more than 18% of South Africa population is HIV positive? And if we take Lesotho, Swaziland & Namibia, the HIV penetration is more than 20% in total. That’s like one in every five individuals. Shocking, isn’t it?

1st Dec is World AIDS Day.It is an international day to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS around the world.

There are more than 33 million people living with HIV around the world today. And nearly 2 million people died of HIV related illnesses last year.

What can we do?

1. Find out about HIV and AIDS. Discuss with family, friends and colleagues. Make sure what we know is reality and not just myths.

2. Know your HIV status. Get yourself checked if you have any doubts or were exposed to risk.

3. Discuss the use of condoms with your sexual partners to avoid transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

4. If someone tells you that they are HIV positive, respect that and don’t tell others without their permission. The virus does not spread by physical contact like shaking hands, hugs or kisses.

5. Wear a red ribbon as a symbol of support, and to raise awareness.

Lets unite in our fight against HIV and AIDS.

Source:
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2008_Global_report.asp

1. Just one no-nonsense way to convey their message – by bawling at top of their lungs

2. Hugs and kisses are such a natural way for these little wonders to express themselves.

3. ‘I love you’ would simply mean I love you though it really sounds like ‘gugu gaga brrr’

4. The word enemy does not exist in their dictionary except ofcourse the pediatrician

5. Ever heard of non-photogenic babies? Adults need to learn the art of effortless posing.

6. Demands must equal fulfillment – Simple

7. Babies always smell so good just as they are

8. Crawling to walking to running – it all just happens

9. You never get bored of babies

10. Talkative and noisy is normal

11. Look great in whatever they wear and even better without them

12. No such thing like “I’ve had a long day” or “We need to talk” from them. Nagging? What’s that?

13. Farts are style statements – any time, any place, any decibel

14. Smiles are for free

15. You can call them by all kinds of names

p.s. I read something similar in a magazine, improvised it and came up with my own 15.

Weddings are complicated. Not only for the bride and groom, who take their vows and promise to spend the rest of eternity together, but also for everyone else. Strange things happen during weddings. Some of consequence while others, not worth a dime.

I attended a wedding yesterday. A reception actually. It was alright. Usual stuff. You know whats the worst part about such weddings and receptions? That, by the time everything gets wrapped it, its way past midnight. And y’know whats the problem with that? Finding a god-damn parking when you get back home! I mean, what am I supposed to be do with my car at 1 am in the morning? Shove it up my…err back pocket or drive it right into the lobby of my building, or better yet, might as well just sleep in it!

Common sense prevailed and I chose the obvious. Park the car along with 3 other cars that are blocking a dozen other cars and leave my phone number on the dashboard. We do that quite often. Infact people leave their cell phone numbers on the dashboard all the time regardless of the parking space or time. Anyways, so at 1.30 am, I hit the sack wondering which kind soul will act as my alarm the following morning and hoping as hell no jerk decides to take his car out at any other ungodly hour. The alarm did ring and it sure was my cell phone. But the one I set. For 6.10 am. I woke up and wondered why hasn’t anyone called me yet. I ponder for a minute. Should I just go down, move the car, come back and then get ready for work? Or should I quickly take a shower, dress up and then go down, once and for all, and leave for work? The chose the second option. Option 1 was obsolete. If no cars have moved yet, then how is 6.15 am any different from 1.15 am? With enough calculations by the minute to even make Kip Thorne blush, I stepped into the shower.

But even Thorne cannot account for Murphy’s law. At exactly that precise moment when the shampoo and shower gel are doing what they do best, quite uncharacteristically, the cell phone rings.

Sometimes I wish I was sloshed at such times with not a care of the world. But then how drunk is drunk enough? As said by Matt Damon in The Legend of Bagger Vance, “You see every drink of liquor you take kills a thousand brain cells. Now that doesn’t much matter ‘cos we got billions more. And first the sadness cells die so you smile real big. And then the quiet cells go so you just say everything real loud for no reason at all. That’s ok, that’s ok because the stupid cells go next, so everything you say is real smart. And finally, come the memory cells. These are tough sons of bitches to kill.” Guess being a teetotaler has its advantages.

By the way, this one’s not worth a dime.

Look what my wife gifted me before she left for India….

A Wilson tennis racket!!!! That too the one that Roger Federer uses. Well, not the exact same racket he uses but with the same measurements, built and specifications.

I’ve been wanting one for ages. And now I have it. Thanks a lot, dear. This is one of my best gifts ever

OK, so that brings me to another point. My wife and kiddo have gone to India for their vacation. I will be traveling later this month, hopefully. Its not been easy at home without them. In my wife, I miss my friend. In my kiddo, I miss my toy. But alas, I was never going to get a long leave from work. But that does not mean she gets to spend lesser time at her home coz of me. So, I sent her a month in advance.

And that brings me to the next round of snaps on this post. Without wifey around, I’ve been trying my hand at cooking. Though I have my mom, sis and sis-in-laws around, I like to try out stuff every now and then. And yesterday, was one such day. Dietary requirements meant I was supposed to have a few vegetables (cooked or uncooked) for lunch. I took matters in my own hands. Hunted down a recipe for ‘Mix Veg Stew’ and this was the outcome:

It turned out excellent. Sweetish and tangy. With lots of capsicum, cauliflower, potatoes and tomatoes. Exactly as per the reciepe. Though I was supposed to add mushrooms and brown sugar but didn’t have any. The picture does not do justice to the taste. In the end, I had a hearty meal. Ofcourse, I did need mom’s help in chopping onions and tomatoes. But the rest, my creation!

Cheers.

The other day, I was having an interesting discussion with IHM and Sols on how different are we in real lives as compared to our virtual lives (or blog lives).

I think we live a dual life. Both could be similar or completely different. Why I say dual life is because our blog profile takes up a large portion of our time daily. It is very important to us. We give ourselves to it every day. We login without fail. We take out time from our daily chores and routines just for that. We make friends on blogs. We discuss stuff. We joke around. We have fun. And then, we logout and get back to our lives. To our families. To work. To the real world. Isn’t this like living dual lives?

In real life, we interact with people face-to-face, hear their voices, have physical contact, laugh out loud (in the real way and not just LOL!) while in the virtual life, we interact using only words and sentences. We send hugs and smileys and LOLs. We share our thoughts through comments that we can undo or edit if we want. Can we do that I real life as well? Would you walk up to someone you barely know and give him/her a hug? Or can we really speak out all that we write in comments?

So here’s a question to all of you. How similar are we to our virtual profiles? There are several bloggers out there who blog only through aliases. We associate that alias to that person. Are you and your alias the same? What do you all think? Lets hear it from the horse’s mouth. How similar are you to your blog profiles?

As for me, I think the real me, Masood Salem, and the blogger me, Logical Obscurity, are ‘almost’ the same. When I write a post, I write about what I think and what I stand for. IHM said it quite aptly “our blogs are a reflection of us”. I think that’s true. Where I differ is, in real life, I don’t speak up as much as I do on blogs and comments. For instance, on social issues, or on parenting, or on the global economy. I may hold opinions but do I have enough opportunities to express my opinion about these issues daily? I don’t think so. Plus, I don’t bother too much as well. Likewise when I meet different people. To many, I appear warm, funny and hospitable. But to many others, I may be silent, snobbish or egoistic. What I am trying to say is, in real life, our negative traits or characteristics, if any, are evident every now and then. But on blogs and comments, aren’t we making a concise attempt to reveal only our positive side, being all nice and sugar-coated?

Yesterday I completed two years of blogging. It’s unbelievable to think how far I have come compared to where and when I started. This blog was just a medium for self-expression (something that I never believed in before I started blogging). And now its an integral part of my life. Kinda like my virtual life.

Sometimes I feel I am actually living a dual life. One where I meet people with flesh and blood, and the other where I meet people only through words and comments. If something substantial happens in real life, it has to be updated on the virtual life.

Often wonder how similar are these dual lives. Am I too different in real life? Very few people know both of me closely. But I never really bothered to figure that out. Doesn’t really matter. As long as both co-exist peacefully.

I wrote a post last year on my first blog birthday. I summarized what blogging was to me then. So I don’t want to do a similar post this time. Rather let me think of what really changed from last year? Just one thing I guess. Ibrahim . He became a part of my life. Being a father, a parent, has been the single-most important, the biggest difference from last year. And I don’t think anything else can override this one ever.

Everyone ends up saying the same things on such posts – thank yous and sorrys and we go about raving about how blogging has changed our lives and how we made such great friends through blogs etc etc. I’ll not say all that. Its been said before. And I have nothing new to add.

So lets just keep doing what we do. And keep having fun. And keep blogging away to glory.

Lots of love.

Blog Action Day is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. This year’s topic is climate change.

Climate change is one of the most important threat to our environment today. And one the driving reasons behind climate change is global warming. In simple words, global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere due to emission of greenhouse gases. And the simplicity ends there. The effects of global warming are far more profound. Please visit this link that shows the top 100 effects of global warming. And be prepared to be shocked!

So let’s get directly to the point. Call for action. We can make a difference. What can we do?

1. Use electricity smartly. Switch off those lights when you leave a room or electronic appliances when not in use like your mobile charger or laptop. Use certified green products.

2. Use water efficiently. Is that bubble bath really that necessary? Think twice before filling up your bath tub with all that water. Take care of all the water leaks. And close that tap while you brush, will ya?

3. Reuse and recycle. Newspapers and bottles can be reused or recycled. Find where you can do that in your city or locality.

4. Manage waste disposal properly. Don’t throw that chocolate wrapper just anywhere you fancy. Find a waste bin.

5. Reduce dependence on plastic. Next time you step into Carrefour or Big Bazaar, go green and use paper bags.

6. Use less energy for your commute. How about public transport every once in a while? Or better yet, just walk. That way, even you remain healthy along with the environment.

7. And incase you do drive, then buy smart, service your car and check your tire pressure regularly. A well maintained car and tires go a long way to maintain fuel economy and reduce greenhouse emissions.

8. No smoking. I know this is a tough one for all the smokers out there. But guess what? Smoking kills. Not just you but even who inhale your smoke. And that smoke messes up the environment. So?

9. Do you bit in making this planet green. Plant trees, flowers in your backyard. Or keep pots in the balcony. Don’t pluck flowers from gardens.

10. Spread the word. Buzz it. Tweet it. Scrap it. Shout it. Email it. Blog it.

Lets save the environment. For us. For our kids. For our future.

Sitting in a boring training on territory planning and account management. Thankfully we were allowed to carry our laptops to the training room so atleast I won’t die of boredom.Work has begun to look better. The economy is showing signs of coming out of recession. Thats good news for me because that means my customers will now have budgets for IT investments. And thats when yours truly will come in the picture. Fingers crossed.

I’ve finally got my hands on Dan Brown’s latest. So lets see if he takes us on a roller coaster ride like in “The Da Vinci Code” or be a dud like in “Deception Point” or “Digital Fortress”. For the record, I read both of them 3 yrs ago and was really disappointed.

Also, I have finally started my diet today. Not too long ago, I had almost hit my target weight but in the last two months, I totally neglected the diet & workouts and here I am, back to square 1. Need to lose 11 kg now. I’ve set a date of 1st Dec 09 to achieve this. Will be following the atkins diet plan as well as other fitness and workout plans. Hopefully my next update will be with more ‘fitter’ news.

And guess what? I think my kiddo is going to follow my footsteps into sports. I can proudly claim that he can now throw a ball. All of 8 months and that kid is able to grab and throw a ball a good 3 meters. Now, all I have to do is wait till he’s able to throw it 22 yards and, ladies and gentlemen, we’ll have a new cricket player amongst us. India’s next cricket superstar! Btw, full credit for this has to go to his grandpa. He’s the one who thought Ibrahim how to throw. And as the age old saying goes “practice makes perfect”, my kid, the genius that he is , already knows this. So what does he do to practice? He throws whatever he gets his hand on! Need I say more?!?

My wife may travel to India later this month. Still tentative. Last time she was gone, I missed her so bloody much that I wrote my first and only poem! Not sure how I am going to get around this time. But I have a couple of weeks to prepare myself. It’s funny how two people get together thanks to this wonderful institution called ‘marriage’ and then you can’t think of life without that person even though you’ve spent your life before marriage without that person. This one person, my better half, makes this life worthwhile. At times we may not agree to the same things or have the same interests or opinions but we’ve agreed to disagree. She’s stood by me on my toughest decisions and she’s taken some tough decisions for me. I rely and respect her judgement and advice. She’s made me look good in places where I could have looked real bad. At the end of a long day at work, one sight of her smiling face or a chirpy ‘hello’ on the phone makes the bluest of the blues go away. Fifty years down the line, when I look back at my life and be given an option to do it all over again, I’d not have it any other way than the way I have it right now.

…my blessings and white hair!

Yes, its my birthday today. Its that day of the year again. Last year, when I turned 27, I declared that it is the best age of my life. I was recently married, on the verge of becoming a dad, guns blazing at work etc etc. But come to think of it, not much has changed since last year so why can’t this be my best age? I am a dad now and its still not too long ago that I got married. Though work is a touch disappointing from last year. But I guess being a dad covers up for all that has not worked out over the last 1 year.

A few days back I told my wife that I need to make a list of things I want to do before I’m 30. Not sure if thats such a good idea knowing my habit of procrastination and, ofcourse, laziness. I may never come around to even make that list. My wife replied, why don’t you just go ahead and start doing all those things. Why depend on a list? I resisted the idea then but I think thats exactly what I am gonna do. No more lists for me. The wish list I made on my 15th birthday is still not complete so what are the odds that I will get to the bottom of this one?!?

There are a few things I want to do, places to visit and new stuff to learn (not to forget: new gadgets to own!) I think I’ll just take it up as and when I feel like it. What I really need to change is my health. Not been keeping too well lately. So need to get on to a more healthy lifestyle. Change my diet plan, start some workouts and physical activities.

As for today, no big plans actually. I’m off from work today and for the rest of this week not recover completely from my illness. Will spend the day with my wife and kiddo. Maybe step out for dinner. Grab a movie or something. I honestly think that once you become a parent, birthday celebrations are not for you anymore. Ofcourse a little something here and there is fine but cake, candles, gifts, decorations, parties, the works, are for our kids now.

So thank you in advance for all the wishes and good words. Its just morning and I’ve received so many bday wishes already. Thanks again and for those who haven’t wished yet, what are ya waiting for?