(... continued from first Post. )

‘ah la la la’l…life is beautiful... ah la la la’l life goes full circle’ went the song which the two guitarist, in front of me, were trying to rehearse. And I thought how true it was. Life always goes in full circles, there are situations when you just feel that this moment, this very moment should pass away, you struggle every moment hoping so that you can rest in peace only to find out later in life that life has really gone in full circle!. When the guy plucked the first string of guitar, I thought that for me learning guitar is a much better alternative when compared to piano. Few days back my roommate had asked me if we could join the piano lessons.Although music is food for my soul, I still resisted.But now after listening to the acoustic guitar, I decided to add up this activity to my wishlist and to try and find out a tutor from any corner of this island.On our way back home from office,we were humming to old melodic songs. My roommate(the one who talked about getting piano lessons) wondered aloud that it was in these moments that he felt one should know how to play atleast one musical instrument, I agreed with him. True that I do not know about any musical instrument “uh .. may be, that’s why I sing??” was my reply. “But you do not even know how to sing!” . Because I could not beat him on that point I simply pressed on the gas, took a left turn and we were there – home.Actually, home away from home.

Natasha(name changed!) was the name of my trainer. I do not know how and why now this name came to my mind but not yesterday while I am also still trying to remember the lady’s name from Sampoorna office.I had to appear for the test on Thursday ,however, because of such short notice I was very nervous. No matter how much time the sun shines in the sky it has to set, it never complains or gets nervous before going down the horizon.The sun never complains about short notices then why should I? Back then I did complain and I still appeared for the test giving the most common excuse – ‘Not feeling well’. People like me have so made these words a cliché; the extent to which one can no longer use these words even when he is actually not feeling well!. When I returned home after the test,I had ramdom thoughts in my mind. The kind of thoughts one usually gets when he knows that something wrong was done knowingly. I was wondering what conclusions Ms. Trainer must have derived from the most frequently used cliché. Next day, things weren’t that bad she asked me how was I feeling, and gave us some call center sorta assignment(in which I peformed well!), then I had a relaxing weekend.Monday morning the people in the city had to face torrential rainfall. Neither the clouds were tired to pour down water from the skies nor I to wait for the call regarding my performance in the test. This week we were supposed to work in a 2pm-11pm shift.And in the relaxing weekend I forgot to prepare for the assignment which we were supposed to submit on Monday. The call center cab came at around 12:30 near Nerul railway station. Only between 9pm-7am they give a ‘pickup and drop from home’ facility, all other times we need to go to the nearest checkpoint.I was there in the cab waiting for another employee to join in. The cab driver went to have a pan and asked me to honk when the other guy arrives. Just when he reached the pan shop my phone rang. Renita(name changed!) told me that I had cleared the first round and had to attend tomorrow interview next day morning 10:30pm sharp in Pune.Finally, yes Renita was the lady’s name from the Sampoorna office! But hey Pune?? tomorrow? Such a short notice .. not again!! I jumped out of my seat and headed straight towards home. By the way I had tried hard to recollect her name but thanks to Rediff. The cab driver, with pan in his mouth, saw me leaving his cab. He raised his hand and tried to call me. He was finding it difficult to pronounce words because of the pan in his mouth. I looked back and waved him off with a smile on my face.

After the expressway was open to all, Pune was just a 2-3 hours drive from nerul. I had planned to catch a bus, from the Nerul highway to Pune , at six in the morning. I had to wait more than a hour for the bus which is not the usual case.Entered Pune city at wrong time – peak hours. Traffic choked all the arteries of the city and there I was sitting in the bus swearing at the traffic around just because I was late for my interview!. After I got off the bus, the first thing I had to do was to inform Renita that I was late for the interview. I did that and was comforted by her when she told me to talk to the HR guy in Pune and explain him the situation. It was 3pm when I reached the I.T. firm. Instead of asking an explanation for my late arrival I was asked to have a lunch in the cafeteria. After this I was totally relaxed, cleared all the rounds of interview and after around 3 hours I was done with all formalities which asked me to join the firm in Pune from next Monday. While signing the contract papers I could see myselves turning back and waving off to the cab driver. Then I realized that it was not the cab driver whom I waved off but it was the call center job.

I no longer needed the call center job. It was one which I had taken up to spent my idle time in vacations. But vacation was about to end. I had to wrap up everything by that weekend so that next week onwards my life could move on from Pune.I did not turn up for the call center job for the next two days. I went there on Friday morning and submitted my resignation papers. Perhaps if you did not notice that italicised morning in the previous sentence indicates the absence of Natasha from office in the early hours. When asked for the reason to leave the call center job I told them about my Post graduation plans. Almost every day after final year results someone or the other was talking about Post graduation plans so it did not take much time for me to come up with the reason for leaving the job.The seniors in the office offered their best but I couldn’t tell them the simple truth of life that ‘fate’s calling’ instead I lied.That evening Natasha gave me a call and asked me about my disappearance from the office. I told her the entire story and also about my resignation.At that point of time, I felt, she overreacted.After laughing off at her reaction I simply forgot her. But how could I forget that she was my trainer in other words ‘guru’. Since childhood I have been taught ‘Guru brahma, guru Vishnu, guru devo maheshwara; guru sakshat parabrahma tasmay shree guruvey namah’ meaning – ‘The guru is the creator, the guru is the preserver, and the guru is the destroyer. The guru is the Absolute. I bow before you. ’ Today I confess. I am sorry Natasha. Natasha was my guru because she taught me the hard way that a graceful exit is a sign of maturity, something which I lacked at that moment.