After a month long break I am back to my blog writing. What started as an amenable husband’s promise, moved on to resolve itself into a weekly routine, grew into a travelogue and later, when expectations started trickling in, just managed to disappear altogether in its own inimitable style. Well that’s me, and I welcome you all to the Chapter 2 of my introduction. I am not methodical. I don’t like rules. I hate the routine and please don’t pin your great expectations on me. I guess this takes you all to that intriguing question “So why is he back here today?” Well, I am here to share some good news and some bad news. I intend to end today’s blog in an upbeat and positive mode, so here’s the bad one first.
Few days back some good folks at my workplace decided to go on a soft team building exercise; and what better way to do that than knocking off a few pins at the bowling alley. So, last week, on 29th September 2010, for the first time in the twenty odd months that I have been in Qatar, I visited a bowling alley. I put up a decent show in the alley and had a great time gelling with my colleagues. I was just beginning to fall in love my company all over again, but the very next day it all turned sour. That Thursday, all my project mates were summoned for an urgent meeting in the conference room and my visiting Top Bosses informed of our second pay cut. Last year, same time we were asked to do away with 4% of our pay and this year it would be another 8%. So much under the pretext of recession!
As many of my friends in India were preparing to take away hefty six figure Diwali Bonuses and envisioning celebrating life through this ensuing festive season, I was taken panicky and was visualizing clouds. Thick black clouds! Needless to say, these approaching clouds had put me in a pensive mood and taken away the cheer. Attending to office work during the last week was tough. Finally, last weekend, I borrowed some courage from my little boys; shut myself in the bedroom; pulled up a blanket; closed my eyes and stared up fearlessly at those clouds and tried to read them. And all I could read were two words ‘MOVE - ON’. I was confused. What was the message? Were they telling me to hold on headfast and move on with my life or were they asking me to get up, pack my stuff and move on from here to some place else. Anyways there was an important lesson learnt: ‘Knowing the mere answer is not enough, one should also be able to decipher it inside out’. And it was now my task to decipher it. Or in other words, it was my decision to take. Phew!
My management’s recent move had sent out a strong negative signal and alarmed me well of a possible murky future in sight. What good is a company to work for, if they are unable to even raise enough money to run their day to day businesses? And what worth is a company, whose top management views cutting wages as the only available option to make profits. Shucks! It hurts. It hurts, not because of the lesser pay check, but because this comes as an abuse and an insult to all the good work that I and all my colleagues have done on this project so far. I had already made up my mind to quit and move on. And to reinforce my decision on moving on, I called upon my old guru, Newton whose Law of Inertia literally drives me from listlessness. Yes, I am referring to that same guy with long tresses and a pointy nose, which invariably points at an angle ninety degrees away from his line of sight.
I began by asking him if the force of this abuse was good enough to push me into another state or direction and his answer was “No and Yes”. While I was trying to figure out the meaning of his answer, Newton explained that he wanted me to wait and have faith in the future and believe that the current force is too miniscule to push me into changing tracks. When he was done with the advising, he pulled out his monocles, and once again carefully pried at the clouds. He then gave out a playful smile as if he had spotted a sliver lining in those thick black clouds and let out “Fifty Five days” and vanished, leaving me awake and more lost than ever.
I woke up from my trance and asked myself: What is the significance of ‘fifty five days’? What was going to happen in (or rather after) fifty five days? Would the clouds burst off and wreak havoc or was it going to rain jewels and happiness. I guess anything could happen and the last thing that I could do was, hum on to Doris Day’s ‘Que Sera Sera’, get on with my chores and leave the future to itself. Curious, I picked up my calendar and added up fifty five days, which took me to the 2nd of December 2010. Found out that this is the day which could make or break a million hearts. For the many expatriate construction personnel like me, this date holds great significance. On 2nd of December this year FIFA decides on its bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup Venues. Qatar is bidding for the 2022 World Cup. Losing the bid would mean slowing down on all the ongoing projects and possible closure of some. In such and event, there is every chance that my company would graduate from pay cuts to job cuts. Winning the bid would be like adding roborant into my project and further aid to take off the construction activity in Qatar to new heights akin of what we observed in Dubai during the late nineties. The good thing being, that this fever would last for over a decade, and bring along ample jobs and enough dough for all to take away. So, for now I have decided to heed into Sir’s advice, and stall all moves to wait and watch for the next eight weeks. The decision involves football and I am sure to get a kick out of it. What kind of kick? Only time will tell.
So, that was the bad news. And while I wait and watch, may I ask my friends to just go on to the website http://www.qatar2022bid.com and back the bid? A big thanks to all my friends anyways.
Again, I am not just waiting and watching. I am celebrating too. And that’s the good news! Starting tomorrow, for the remainder of October we are celebrating the KeYoberfest.
KeYoberfest commences on 11th October every year with our elder son Kevin’s birthday and ends on 31st October, with our younger son Yohan’s birthday. This year Kevin turns six and Yohan turns two, and everyone is invited to join us in our celebrations. I have a bar full of variety liquor, box full of chocolates and there's plenty of juice and ice cream in the fridge. So here's formally inviting all our friends to join us in the celebrations. Just drop in at our place anytime. We are celebrating 24x7.
Welcome to the KeYoberfest!
Few days back some good folks at my workplace decided to go on a soft team building exercise; and what better way to do that than knocking off a few pins at the bowling alley. So, last week, on 29th September 2010, for the first time in the twenty odd months that I have been in Qatar, I visited a bowling alley. I put up a decent show in the alley and had a great time gelling with my colleagues. I was just beginning to fall in love my company all over again, but the very next day it all turned sour. That Thursday, all my project mates were summoned for an urgent meeting in the conference room and my visiting Top Bosses informed of our second pay cut. Last year, same time we were asked to do away with 4% of our pay and this year it would be another 8%. So much under the pretext of recession!
As many of my friends in India were preparing to take away hefty six figure Diwali Bonuses and envisioning celebrating life through this ensuing festive season, I was taken panicky and was visualizing clouds. Thick black clouds! Needless to say, these approaching clouds had put me in a pensive mood and taken away the cheer. Attending to office work during the last week was tough. Finally, last weekend, I borrowed some courage from my little boys; shut myself in the bedroom; pulled up a blanket; closed my eyes and stared up fearlessly at those clouds and tried to read them. And all I could read were two words ‘MOVE - ON’. I was confused. What was the message? Were they telling me to hold on headfast and move on with my life or were they asking me to get up, pack my stuff and move on from here to some place else. Anyways there was an important lesson learnt: ‘Knowing the mere answer is not enough, one should also be able to decipher it inside out’. And it was now my task to decipher it. Or in other words, it was my decision to take. Phew!
My management’s recent move had sent out a strong negative signal and alarmed me well of a possible murky future in sight. What good is a company to work for, if they are unable to even raise enough money to run their day to day businesses? And what worth is a company, whose top management views cutting wages as the only available option to make profits. Shucks! It hurts. It hurts, not because of the lesser pay check, but because this comes as an abuse and an insult to all the good work that I and all my colleagues have done on this project so far. I had already made up my mind to quit and move on. And to reinforce my decision on moving on, I called upon my old guru, Newton whose Law of Inertia literally drives me from listlessness. Yes, I am referring to that same guy with long tresses and a pointy nose, which invariably points at an angle ninety degrees away from his line of sight.
I began by asking him if the force of this abuse was good enough to push me into another state or direction and his answer was “No and Yes”. While I was trying to figure out the meaning of his answer, Newton explained that he wanted me to wait and have faith in the future and believe that the current force is too miniscule to push me into changing tracks. When he was done with the advising, he pulled out his monocles, and once again carefully pried at the clouds. He then gave out a playful smile as if he had spotted a sliver lining in those thick black clouds and let out “Fifty Five days” and vanished, leaving me awake and more lost than ever.
I woke up from my trance and asked myself: What is the significance of ‘fifty five days’? What was going to happen in (or rather after) fifty five days? Would the clouds burst off and wreak havoc or was it going to rain jewels and happiness. I guess anything could happen and the last thing that I could do was, hum on to Doris Day’s ‘Que Sera Sera’, get on with my chores and leave the future to itself. Curious, I picked up my calendar and added up fifty five days, which took me to the 2nd of December 2010. Found out that this is the day which could make or break a million hearts. For the many expatriate construction personnel like me, this date holds great significance. On 2nd of December this year FIFA decides on its bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup Venues. Qatar is bidding for the 2022 World Cup. Losing the bid would mean slowing down on all the ongoing projects and possible closure of some. In such and event, there is every chance that my company would graduate from pay cuts to job cuts. Winning the bid would be like adding roborant into my project and further aid to take off the construction activity in Qatar to new heights akin of what we observed in Dubai during the late nineties. The good thing being, that this fever would last for over a decade, and bring along ample jobs and enough dough for all to take away. So, for now I have decided to heed into Sir’s advice, and stall all moves to wait and watch for the next eight weeks. The decision involves football and I am sure to get a kick out of it. What kind of kick? Only time will tell.
So, that was the bad news. And while I wait and watch, may I ask my friends to just go on to the website http://www.qatar2022bid.com and back the bid? A big thanks to all my friends anyways.
Again, I am not just waiting and watching. I am celebrating too. And that’s the good news! Starting tomorrow, for the remainder of October we are celebrating the KeYoberfest.
KeYoberfest commences on 11th October every year with our elder son Kevin’s birthday and ends on 31st October, with our younger son Yohan’s birthday. This year Kevin turns six and Yohan turns two, and everyone is invited to join us in our celebrations. I have a bar full of variety liquor, box full of chocolates and there's plenty of juice and ice cream in the fridge. So here's formally inviting all our friends to join us in the celebrations. Just drop in at our place anytime. We are celebrating 24x7.
Welcome to the KeYoberfest!
