First Friday

A long day at work today. That might be the nature of things to come perhaps. A lot of it got done though it took a bit of time to gather momentum. I have been in touch with my friends from Hyderabad over chat but gradually the feeling of having moved out is sinking in. Now that we have somewhat set the place up (though it will be an ongoing process determined by time and budget constraints), there have been a few pockets of time to relax, to take in the new, to be reminded of the old. All those meaningless mundane indoor shots (which of course will continue here) I used to take in Hyderabad bring back a flood of memories, of time past. One day I will talk about "The time I used to live in Hyderabad..." Perhaps I shall visit or even return but one never knows these things. It was just time to move.

Met up the person who heads the cycling club here, for tea. He sounds like a big time adventurer. In fact, he is going to be featured in a newspaper here today. There are loads of crazy rides he does and a lot of them in the hills. In theory, I have the luxury of that option being here. I have serious doubts about keeping up with these advanced riders, but I would absolutely love to join. It got me rather excited last evening, the prospect of adventure and travel.

After much struggle amid grave fears of being robbed or even attacked by "Knife-welding locals" my school friend, Sh arrived last evening. S, kept our expectations from dinner low (since most of the required utensils are yet to arrive) but came up with some yummy food. We followed it with a walk around the area at almost midnight and tried to locate the source of the sandalwood smells. Found a couple of flowers, the combination of whose fragrances might have resulted in it. We sat by the dark murky pool but were soon driven away by mosquitoes!

Sh and I remained up till almost the wee hours of morning catching up on everything. What began with optics, lenses and cameras, turned to Taleb, Poincare and even Tibetan Buddhism before ending with changes and permanence. It is sad, Sh will be moving out of the city later this month. It would have been great to have him here.

If I look back at some of the changes in the past few years, I think of the time I decided to change the job. I was comfortable then, in fact, I was doing well and so was the organization. I had formed good working relationships too and there were some interesting people. There was a certain amount of resistance when I left, but I suppose that is the case with anyone who leaves after working for a significant amount of time. But it was a different opportunity and I wanted the move after having worked and having understood a system over a period time. Very similar has been my move out of Hyderabad, though I am at the same job. It came at a point where almost everything had reached a kind of stability and I was most fortunate to have met some very good and interesting people with common interests.

But as is the case with stability, it makes us complacent. Routine renders parts of the mind rusty, for they remain unused. A kind of complacency, beneath the layer of consciousness sets in. Some of our ideas become firmer due to the absence of circumstances that can challenge them. Sh and I both talked about being stuck - "Stuckness" as Pirsig would call it, I think. For me, this is a very important point. If the train of life is to keep moving, "stuckness" is what facilitates it. These are windows of opportunities for newer discoveries about the world within as well as without.

Delhi offers newer circumstance, and as with everywhere else, some of it is desirable and some, not. I have mentioned changes before, and I think that a reason why we often resist change can be our fear that we may change along with it and as a result, lose what we hold dear. Perhaps when some underlying certainty is achieved, changes become easier to weather.

P.S. In the photo is Sh at the right top corner who found a sudden urge to check his mail just when the food got cooked, leaving it to cool on the table!