2013...

Jai Guru Deva,

If at all I have to sum up 2013 "Hectic" is the word that suits most.. deadlines in hours, meetings during the middle of the night and whats more some problem in the colony i live..

the starting of the year was quite sedate. However, my work load increased by 100% in the months of Feb-Mar. Some one within my partner's org was fired and I had to support all the work and the transition time was only 8 working days.. thats the starting point of the hectic work that i did. For the next 4-5months I did two people's work. And during this period, i worked more than10hrs almost everyday. I should confess that never in my professional life I worked so much. But this is not all, the worst part of this whole thing is I had to work even when I met an accident in May.

In the mean time I visited Jeevani along some of the bloggers and as usual it was a real experience. We did spend two days there and were very happy to gather and spend some quality time with the children. Now the children in Jeevani are also recognizing us and there is a good rapport between us. Sarada garu  and Anand joined us in Jeevani and seemlessly became part of our "junta". We pestered Sarada so much that started her own blog :))

Come May, I had an accident on the highway. By sheer grace of My Guru and with love of my well wishers I escaped without any fractures. People who witnessed me when I fell down were very sure that I would have broken some half a dozen bones. I had taken complete rest for almost two months, didnt do kriya also during this period which resulted in a protruding tummy :)) However, what leaves me sad was the amount of work my wife had to do during this period. I could not even get the vegetables for the house :((

May and June passed like this and June ending I went to US which is my first travel abroad. I visited Boise first and that was a very very nice and sedate place. If at all I ever get retired, I wish to remain in such a serene place. I just loved it! To everybody's surprise the time i visited Boise recorded maximum temperatures in the last 100 years. People said it was me who got that climate change and replied saying I carried some of the heat from Kadapa to Boise. After all, there are only three places on this planet which were left red hot post big bang: The Sun, Sahara desert and Kadapa :)) The peculiar thing about my Boise visit is that i had gone to the Governor's palace of Idaho and took a pic near the Abraham Lincoln's statue present near to that. That statue is the tallest Lincoln's statue west of Mississippi.

Apart from Boise, I visited Bay Area near SFO that was also good trip. I visited some of my wife's relatives who were settled there and also a God brother of mine. Also, I have met my co blogger Manchu garu once again. It was so nice to have met him. But the best of this is visiting the HP Garage. I was so happy to have taken photograph there because thats where all the software industry had started. I earn my bread and butter using computers and visiting a place where it all had started is kind of a pilgrimage.

Once I'm back from US, I am more active in the problems of colony. The burning one being the drainage issue. I came to know how painful it is to get work done by the government. A will say go to B, B will say D and D will say its not Government's responsibility :)) We were promised that our drainage problem will be resolved within 3months and even after six months we are at the same point. :((

In the month of August, I had the opportunity to visit Rajkumar's marriage in East Godavari district and that was real fun. There were more than 30 bloggers who had come and it was a family celebration for each of us. We all had an amazing time. Seeing so many of us from different backgrounds, different age groups, different regions, I'm sure Mrs. Rajkumar was scared. :)) Despite the fact that there were so many of us we still felt the void of Shankar garu. We all badly missed him.. :(( 

Anyway, I think it would be pertinent to list some of the best comedies of Raj's wedding:

1. Laurel and Hardy like combination of Banthi and Rahman.

2. Cobbler thinking Seenanna belongs to Department.

3. People playing cards as if they have gathered for that purpose.

4. Nagarjuna not very sure to whose home we went after going to Lalitha gari house.

5. My wife's anger on people in the compartment and shouting at them.

Apart from all these comedies, we had the privilege to visit some of the most talented crafts men of Etikoppaka village. Had they born in any other country they would have got all possible recognition on this planet. Alas, They fall into the category of artists who are ignored and admonished by this karma bhumi.

On the professional side, I am honoured to lead a team and I am enjoying the challenges that are associated with it. I feel fortunate that I am leading a team in HP as it has one of the best work cultures around. I am pretty sure I wouldnt have enjoyed had I been working in an Indian company. Now, I'm more keen to build my team as a successful team rather than just "another team". All through my life I lived by a rule and the rule is very simple: There may be a million reasons why I should fail but my lack of effort should not be one among them. Play the game called life all out, no half measures.

In the last part of the year I went to Hyderabad to visit my wife's relatives but could not get a chance to buy the books I wanted to buy. Now I'm seriously short of books to read. Perhaps, this is the first year after 2007 that I had not visited either Bangalore Book Fest nor Hyd Book Fest. There are two main reasons for this: I am having partner meetings almost everyday and I stay in E-city which is very far from Parade Grounds where the book festival happens. 

The final 15 days of the year was perhaps the most I cherish, I went to Srisailam along with my parents and in laws. After I had complete rest at my home in Kadapa. This is the first time since 2005 that I stayed for 15 days in my home. Thats a big relief that I needed before going into another action packed year of my life. When I am all set to leave this planet, there will be definitely one thing that I will be proud of, I lived a life that is so lively and eventful that there is no time of my life that is wasted. 

Looking ahead for a big year in 2014.

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,

-Karthik