ASHES

Sometimes my mind wonders, what exactly is the ideal way to spend a day? The first thought is of being comprehensively engrossed with work at office such that I don’t get time to think of whether I had fun that day or not. The second thought is to do many things in one day such as play cricket, work at office, have a nice lunch and dinner have a nice long coding session and go to sleep. The third is to sit at home watch Friends on the laptop, and sit some more and sit more and go to sleep. None however, seem fulfilling.

I keep thinking about doing that one bit extra that would make me happy each day. This by the way is the motto of every human so I am no different. But what that one bit is or could be is something that doesn’t click. So using an iterative process to find that out I took step one – I bought a guitar. Well why waste time explaining what I did with it on a blog if I didn’t play it for even 7 days. So chuck it, guitar is out of the radar.

The second step was actually transpired from my desire to grow professionally, which is getting stronger by the day. I decided to register for GMAT and picked a date. It was purely coincidental that I picked 4^th of July. I bought a book to prepare and this time it stuck. I have been regularly studying since then (regularly by my definition of course). But coming at 11 from the office all tired and sucked out, the studying becomes quite a pain. So it became strictly professional with no enjoyment to be gained out of it.

Three weeks ago both my flatmates moved out to get to bigger things in life and I am mostly alone at home. The ‘boriyat’ has started to creep in. So in an effort to pick things up I took step three and joined a fitness centre. As most of you know my body is in a great shape, actually shapes, so going to the gym was not such a bad idea. It was a costly deal but I took the risk.

It’s only been a week so far at the gym and thankfully I haven’t missed a day yet. Can’t say right now whether its sticking with me or not, but here is what I have now – I get up at around 8 – 8.30 in the morning and go to office by 9.30, work for around 10 hours and then leave for the gym at around 8, work out at the gym till about 9.30 – 10, eat my dinner, mostly alone, and get back home by 11 in the night, from 11 to 12 I check mails and stuff, from 12 to 1 – 1.30 I study. If I then have some energy left I watch Friends and go to sleep by 2 only to get up at 8.30 next morning. That’s what you call a busy day... and how!

The gym so far is good, its refreshing once you get through your workout because there is that sense of accomplishment. It definitely doesn’t give me much time to think about other things. This blog is an exception I guess.

The interesting thing is that five days in the gym I realised that going to a gym can be like being in a relationship. You have to be regular if you want anything to materialise; you have to work hard every day but at the end of the day you are happy; they take care of you, your health and your diet; and in some cases they will ask you to quit smoking!

P.S. For the record Aarti has never asked me to quit smoking, and as I say that I don’t think even the gym instructors have. :)