A New year begins

My absence from this blog has mostly gone unnoticed. I would like to blame the no blogging bit on the global trend that blogging is on the decline, impacted by face book and twitter. I wish I could say the same things in my case. However, that would not be completely true.Truth be told, I think I have taken a really long time to adjust to change and I don't think I have fully adjusted. And I am still trying to figure out the balance. I don’t seem to have a routine.

One of the biggest sources of discomfort for me has been the change in the work profile. From working in a mostly India time zone with all colleagues in the same time zone, this role change has shifted me to a global role. I work in a global team where my team mates sit in Beijing, Singapore, Dubai, Panama and Cincinnati, i.e. basically all time zones. Earlier when I would shut my laptop in the evening and open it the next day, I would have a few e-mails from colleagues who I would call workaholics. However, when I open my laptop in the morning in Singapore, I have close to twenty emails at the least. I now feel that I am working 24*7. And somewhere this has been playing on my mind.

The ten plus years that I have been away from home, it has been in hostels and later in Mumbai where I have had flat mates etc. Since I moved to Singapore last May, I have been staying alone. Earlier, I would leave for work around 8.30ish and leave office around say 630ish. These timings were co-ordinated with flatmates to share ride back home. Now, I do not have to adjust to other people's timings anymore and hence everything is stretchable, there are no hard stops. This is terrible.

Finally, to me, progress or growth needs to be balanced on all fronts, professional, personal, emotional, spiritual. I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that in the last few months the balance has been altered. I would now like to bring it back to a position that I feel more comfortable with. The fact that I have not read a new book in the past 4-5 months is appalling.

So, now that issues have been identified, what do I plan to do?

- First, I need a mental shift within myself. If I am to build a career in this company or any global company for that matter, I am going to be working with global teams sitting across time zones. So I first need to acknowledge this new reality and tell myself, to forget the good ol' days. They are at best ideal benchmarks when I could come in at 8.30 and leave at 6ish. In this new world, I need to figure out my own balance, which should not be defined only by in and out timings.

- Second, Emails are like death eaters, they feed on my mental consciousness and take up inordinate time. They can't be wished away and they can only be managed. I take my laptop home daily. Even though I need to answer only emails, if at all, I start working, simply because I have access to laptop. So I have decided to get smart and leverage technology (This is basically me justifying my own actions to myself J ) So as of yesterday, I have requested for a blackberry. So once I have my bb, I will leave my laptop at work and hopefully no working when am at home. Phew!

- Thirdly, I have this bad habit of keeping emails open after reading them and leaving replies half answered. Hence from now on, all emails if read, need to be action-ed - reply, forward, delete, archive etc. No keeping them open and pending.

- Fourthly, There are few things that were shared responsibilities earlier - cleaning, cooking, paying bills, ironing etc, which are now completely mine. Need to outsource some of them - standing instructions for bill payments, hire cook/maid to help clean/iron etc. so that more time can be freed. The second part is going to take some time.

- Finally, I need to get back to things that made me feel that I was making all round progress. Read more. Learn something new. I have started Spanish classes as of Jan 1, 2011. Yayy!

So, given that I consider myself better at identifying issues than necessarily solving them when it comes to myself, lets see how well I do on the above steps.

Now lastly, all the above makes it sound like doom and gloom in my life. It is not necessarily so. More on that later...

Welcome to Singapore!

Ok, I am back, by popular demand. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a reader who wondered why I wasn't writing as frequently anymore. Honestly, I did not know that there were people who read this blog other than a few people I know. So now that I am popular (yeah!), I am back to writing more.

I remember the day I landed in Singapore in May. It was 5.30 am on a Sunday morning. I cleared immigration, pulled out two big suitcases from the carousel and languorously dragged myself and my suitcases out of the airport. I stepped out, looked around, looked at a familiar face, smiled and walked ahead two steps. Something did not seem right. Then I looked at the familiar face again. My friend Uma Thurman (to borrow from Penguin) came rushing at me and gave me a big hug with a loud 'Hi' that made everyone around give us a big stare. I took a few seconds to realize what was happening. 'You wouldn't think that we would not receive you is it? Welcome to Singapore!! '.

I secretly hope that someone receives me at airports and railway stations wherever I go, but having stayed and traveled alone most of last 10 years, I never expect anyone ever. I was totally surprised to see her at the airport. Absolutely touched. Poor her, she got up at 5.15 on a Sunday morning, waking her husband up in the process. Somewhere amidst all this thinking, I realised that Uma Thurman mentioned that 'we are here to receive you'. So I asked her, who is 'We'?

She pointed me to the escalator. As if right out of a classic airport scene in a movie, Penguin descends. Only background music was missing. She limps across swiftly. Penguin had twisted her ankle the previous evening, yet was cheerfully limping over at 5 am to receive me.

As we went over to my guest house to drop my luggage, I heard their sinister plans. They wanted to garland me, play loud music at the airport amongst other things to embarrass me. However, luckily, that plan could not be executed. After dropping luggage off at my guest house, we went to Uma Thurman's house where she made amazing blueberry and choco-chip pancakes. Slurp! Pancakes/ waffles with maple syrup are among my favourite breakfast items. The start in Singapore couldn't have got better.

I got a call from my friend Sp, who couldn't make it to the airport as she had an early morning shoot. Yeah, she is acting in an amateur movie (something like Hyderabad blues) and I can bet, she is going to be amazing at it. She is playing the lead actress. So Yea Sp, invited me over to her place in the evening and was quite insistent that I meet her that evening itself. Later that evening when I landed over at her place, she whipped out a carrot cake which she had baked amidst her busy schedule for my birthday. So I cut my birthday cake, blowing a small candle, wishing hmm.., for good luck. The cake was absolutely fabulous.

As I tucked into my bed that night, slowly drifting to sleep, I smiled at the great start I had in Singapore.

Change is in the Air

This blog has been silent for a while. It is not that there has been nothing to write about. It is just That, I was waiting for opportune time to convey it. So here goes.

I remember reading somewhere in the beginning of the year in some in flight magazine that this year would be the year of change. And a year of change it has been. It started, as if on cue, right on New Year’s Day. My landlord called us up to inform me that she does not want to renew the lease and hence is giving us a month's notice and that we had to vacate the house by Feb 1st. We were well settled in that place, our support systems everything well established. We had a routine going. The house was in a quiet neighbourhood (What a rarity in Mumbai!) and we had gotten to know neighbours and other people around. We tried our best to renew the lease, but well, it wasn't to be. And thus began our house hunt.

The house we had been living so far was a fully furnished place. If we were to look for a furnished place, that had its own consequences. It further narrowed down our choices and it also limited us to relatively older apartments. Coincidentally, my flatmate's cousin was shifting out of Mumbai and he was willing to sell off his furniture to us at discounted prices. He was recently married and had purchased the entire lot (fridge, microwave, table, bed, wardrobes, washing machine etc) less than a year ago. So now armed with relatively new furnishings we hunted for a new house in Mumbai.

Tallboy (who was mentioned earlier in this blog) had moved into a new apartment complex a couple of months ago. We quite liked the apartment complex and narrowed down to the same complex for us also. We tried to house hunt without hiring a broker (real estate consultant if you please). We scourged through internet sites, called up friends and acquaintances and even spoke to watchmen in the apartment complexes we were interested in. Alas! We were unfortunate in the search. With the moving out date fast approaching, we were left with no choice. We hired a broker and by end of the week we had finalised an apartment in the same complex that we had been looking. The brokerage amount was steep, but it was something we couldn't escape.

We are now quite thrilled with the apartment. It is a brand new two bedroom apartment, with new woodwork etc. It is on the 10th floor and I believe it has an awesome view. Here is the view from the balcony.

I had a bit of travelling to do during February and every weekend was spent setting up this house- shopping for curtains and cushions, interviewing maids, setting up the kitchen etc. So by early march we could claim that we had more or less set up the entire house. I still don't have internet at home and access most of the stuff from my mobile.

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Cut scene! Change location! Bangalore. I had been on a lookout for a property to buy in Bangalore for close to 9 months now. I had narrowed down to a particular property by October, identified and negotiated with a seller by November, got approvals for loan and purchased a compact two bedroom apartment by January end. I am quite excited by the buy. The complex is constructed by reputed builders, has a condominium like feel to it. It is huge with 500 apartments spread over 8-10 acres with all recreation amenities like tennis courts, swimming pool, gym, clubhouse, badminton and squash courts and so on. It has a very active association and a lot of events happen quite regularly. I am now submerged completely under a pile of huge debt, but hey, I think I have an awesome view from the balcony that makes up for everything. So Yayy!

From the date of purchase till now we have been working on the interiors for the house. I picked up a lot of interior design magazines and read them cover to cover for ideas, googled for different types of woods and so on. After some intense negotiations with interior designers we narrowed down on one. Of course, Google Sketchup was extremely useful. I quickly learnt that software and designed 3d model of the apartment. That helped us a lot in planning woodwork often giving great perspective on the space that would be occupied/left free and so on. It is a tedious job, I tell you! To imagine what the output would look like, what purpose each wardrobe, shelf etc would serve, whether the design would look good, matching the fan/lamp shades to the decor of the room and so on. Phew!

We had Grihapravesham/house warming on the 11^th of March. I had taken 10 days off from the 11^th to the 20^th as there were many minor pending activities to be completed for the house which needed my presence. My mom and brother had chipped in a lot over the past one month and I did not want to trouble them further. It also helped that my cousin's marriage also fell in the same week and hence was able to attend that wedding too.

So finally on the 20^th of March, I could happily proclaim that my trip has been a success. The house is completely done up and ready for immediate occupation. We have also fixed up tenants for the house who would be occupying it from April 1.

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So in brief ever since the year has started, I have spent an insane amount of time in house related activities. I have been in back to back telephonic conversations with designer, plumber, cable guy, electrician for two different houses which have left me so warped that I have called Bangalore contacts for some Bombay house related work and asked them why they hadn't turned up.

So the first 75 days or 2.5 months of the year have been crazily busy. But it has been a whole new experience and a lot of fun in many ways!

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Hold on people. Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost! The mother of all changes is yet to be revealed.

When I was in Bangalore, I get a call from my manager confirming the outcome of a conversation that I had been having him for a couple of weeks. I have been offered a role in Singapore for a period of 3 years and would have to relocate to Singapore effective May 1^st. A new team was being setup in the region and I would be part of this team working on a $500 Million brand with major markets in SE Asia and China. The profile that he describes seems very interesting. To be honest, I knew that a role change was due, but I was expecting around Sep-October. This is way too quick. But hey I am not complaining. :)

I am quite looking forward to my stint in Singapore. Professionally it is great. I am going to be part of a growing business with a significant investment pipeline. Working on new markets with a team that is quite diverse ( geographically dispersed is going to be quite a learning experience. Personally too I am quite excited. I have many friends and colleagues in Singapore who are as eager of my move there as me. I am sure I will get to travel much more easily to SE Asian countries and may be even sneak in a trip to watch a Boxing Day test match in Oz land.

So having setup this house in Bombay completely, I am to take it down by April end and relocate to Singapore. The next few months are going to be quite hectic. I have to close quite a few projects, on board the next person onto the role, onboard myself to the next role, search for new house and set it up all over again in Singapore.

If the first 3 months can bring in so much change, wonder what the rest of the year holds in store.