Mixed feelings (biased towards the negative)

Marriage might be a very happy occassion for family, friends, relatives etc. but it is as fun for the people getting married?
Here is a potential groom perspective
1. Putting salt in the hostel mess drinking water tank
2. Waking up all night pretending to study when you actually looked forward to was the lovely plain dosa and chutney breakfast in the mess
3. Chatting with friends and recording the same on tapes only to send it to the girls' hostel to let your special friend know what it's like in a boys' hostel
4. Running out of money during the end of a semester and making do with a 5 rs rice served with plain gravy free of cost
5. Failing in 4 exams in one semester and clearing all of those subjects in the next semester along with scoring a distinction in the regular ones
6. Calling up girls' hostel late at night and pretending to be a handsome smart stranger guy
7. Doing an MBA in Goa... GOA!!! for God's sake
8. Making the most intelligent girl in the campus fall in love with you
9. Spending 4 months of the MBA programme in Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Luxembour etc... All those places!!! for God's sake
10. Sipping beer... and rum and whisky and vodka and whatever a 12rs/peg cost can get you by the side of the Mandovi river in a full moon light
11. Going back to the same place again and sipping beer... and rum and whisky and vodka and whatever 12rs can get you
12. And when you are fed up of that (fed up of what???) going to the beach getting knee deep in waters and sipping beer... and rum and..... and this at 1 AM at night
13. After all of this getting a great job in a TATA company with a nice salary
14. Living in the baap of all Indian cities - Mumbai...
15. Going on an official trip to Bangkok and doing what people do in Bangkok (and Pattaya ;)
16. Staying at a sexy flat in Mumbai with a fridge, TV and friends...
17. Getting beer pints to flat, inviting friends over, filling the entire living room with empty beer bottles
18. Not sleeping after all that fun and going for a breakfast of Nalli Nahari in Mohammad Ali Road at 4 am
19. Meeting an old college friend at 8 PM in Leopold's in Colaba and carrying on the party till 7 AM next morning with breakfast
20. All the while playing part launching new products, selling them in the market, designing ad campaigns, frequent flying across the country...

So, in a nutshell life has been the stuff dreams are made of .. am more than happily giving up all of that by getting married with a hope that the sacrifice is worth it- fortunately or unfortunately I won't be the only person ensuring it.

Dissapointments = Learnings

Every incident is a learning. When you face a setback you start feeling gloomy but there’s another way to handle it – take it as a learning. Extract lessons out of the episode and grow as an individual unless of course you want to feel gloomy because you derive pleasure out of it.. yes there are people who like to be sad because they enjoy being sad.
I really like this famous quote by Socrates – “By all means marry. If you get a good wife you’ll be happy, if you get a bad one you’ll become a philosopher.” What amazing way to look at negatives – in fact what amazing way to make the negative glossier, exciting and the positive a boring existence.

Boring existence? This brings us to another point – when you are always happy, always fine do you get bored of it. Do negatives/setbacks/failures create excitement, enthusiasm in an otherwise mundane existence which if true again tells us why it is actually nice if you encounter failures… does it not spice up your life!

So today, which coincidentally is also my birthday, may have had the worst possible beginning (which I will not disclose) and has left me with a very bad impression of relationships in general but it’s up to me to sit and crib about it or to take learnings out of it, apply it in future and encounter similar recurrence with stoicism and tolerance, isn’t that the best birthday gift I can give myself?

Here’s wishing myself a very Happy Birthday and hope I keep learning more and more out of this amazing life God has given me!