Happiest Moment..

"What was your happiest moment in Poornam?" - My Queenie Aunty's fruit salad had only just came. The question was from Amar, while we were sitting in the Koder House, Fort Cochi on the Easter Day. We, means Amar, Sangeetha, Sojish, Visakh and I. "Well.. hmmm.. Amar, I was always happy with Poornam, except the occasional frustrations..". Having consoled atleast myself with an answer, I went back to my fruit salad. Being not a person who would give in easily, Amar persisted in - "Still, think of it .. What was your happiest moment in Poornam". "err.. I haven't given it such a considerable thought till now".

I thought about it. However hard I tried, I didn't find the happiest moment. Not because there isn't any, but, there are many.

If I list down the moments here, those who don't know me will get bored because it would not be a point of interest for them. And those who are close to me, will again get bored, because those are the stories which they already know.

Anyway, looking back, there is a 22 (or 21? Not sure) year old girl sitting in front of an interview panel. The basic question was, "how would you be able to manage your family and work together after you get married, especially after having kids too". Being as reckless for the age , pat went the answer, "I can appoint an aaya for the kids". The picture then zooms into a paper, in which she was asked to write down the syntax of the socket function, which she had used many times in her final year project. And, on a close-up view, the paper showed only "socket( , , ).. (scratching head) what was the parameters by the way..". Anyway, by whatever destiny in store for her, she got through .. [the photo on top is the beautiful building she entered and started her career from].

And its been 2 years + 6 months since that interview was conducted.

Within these time duration, she has learned many things about life, and has come a lot way from the quiet , yet noisy kid who passed out of MES Engineering college in 2003. Also, she has learned that "appointing an aaya" is not a solution to balance famliy and work (though she is not yet married).

Being happy with life is always relative. That too, when it comes to work, we are in the midst of comparisons always. For me, while working in Poornam, questions vary from -

1. How much do you get there?
2. How much do you earn compared to your "this" friend, or "that"?
3. Why don't you go to a "big" company like Infosys, or Wipro?
4. It's been two years right? No plans for jumping company?
5. Why don't you go to B'lore or Chennai and try for a job?

If you have a solid, logical answer which satisfies your heart for each of these, you will be happy. The answer needn't satisfy the person who posed the question. Because, mostly he wouldn't be asking it for an accurate answer [assuming its not your parents].

Whenever you go out, atleast one person would ask you, "where are you going?". My father used to tell the story of Balan Nair in my village. He always answered such a question with, "just to Bombay only". The questioner would blink his eyes twice and open his mouth. If some onlooker questioned Balan Nair about the genuineness of the answer (because he would be "going to Bombay", in his natural "mundu" and shirt which he wore during work, which happen to be masonry), Balan Nair would reply, "He didn't ask the question to know where I am going...".

For people in Kerala, job and marriage of children etc are just topics to ignite a discussion whether it is a wedding party, or a funeral function. :-)

The above questions are only from around. Among colleagues and friends, it would always be more critical questions, like "Am I doing the work which aids my career on a long-term view?", "Or, where will I stand in 5 years from now?", which are, to be frank, extremely logical. Yet again, here also, the "Balan Nair Effect" persists. If you feel atleast a tinge of hopelessness in your answers when you hear these questions, you can't remain happy anymore. Either find an answer which satisfies your heart or cease to be happy :-)

Coming back to Amar's question, which now ultimately takes me to Robert Frost.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.