Attitude, after all, is everything.

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good or bad mood. The bottom line : It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business.
We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination.
The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.

Come to East Ham.. Come Home…

Come to East Ham.. Come Home…
I feel like settled now, but I miss so many things…. I miss my Fiancée the most, I miss all the time spent with her, I miss the eating out sprees at Punjabi, village, and other restaurants, I miss the booze and Dace @ TAIKA, I miss my gang back in Bangalore, I miss my office – the I-FLEX park & my colleagues, I miss Hindi movies, I miss my CAR, I miss the music system in my Car & sprees of drive on inner ring road with Himesh Reshmiya’ songs, I miss long chats over phone with my family @ my Hometown, Hanuman Garh in Rajasthan.

So u might ask me back, are you happy then? I will say, “Not really”.

I was never like this during my previous trips abroad, because I never had this intimacy with Bangalore and what all it has given to me… But ya, it is destiny and I have to accept it & at least give it a try to enjoy it.

Till now it last 3-4 weeks, I have familiarized myself fully to the area where I live, its Island garden in Docklands. Canary Wharf is the centre of activity near us, it is hub of all the financial institutions and because so many people work here, even the real estate market has picked up well. People like to stay close to where they work so you find areas surrounding Canary Wharf full of residential areas. We guys at I-FLEX are spread in this area, some towards Stratford, (Canary wharf is in the middle) some towards Lewisham. All there are stops on DLR train.

Next thing which come to our Desi mind is to find out places where Indians / Asians are concentrated, LONDON has quite a few of them, East Ham, Southall, Wembley and some more…. I am gonna talk about East Ham in this post.

East Ham is the closest place where we can go and feel at home, it is dominated by south Indian community, you also find Pakistanis, Bangladeshis & Nigerians a lot here. You reach there you need to take jubilee line from Canary wharf and get down at west Ham & change over to Hammersmith & city line or District line and it goes straight to East Ham.
The minute you come out, you see south Indian faces, shops, grocery stores, money transfer agencies… I went there & fell in love with the place, I go there primarily to do voice chat with frenz, you get INTERNET access – 50 pence per hour, it is a bliss. I like eating the south Indians meals too. Barber shop is another attraction – get your hair cut in 5 quids where any where else it is whooping 10-15 quids.

Last time when we went there, it was my roomie’s birthday and he wanted to offer prayers to lord murugan, East Ham has two temples too, Murugan temple is more famous. Inside the temple you cant make out you are in LONDON, the statues looks like the ones in Indian temples so is the priest and the devotees….

For all others like Chinese folks or locals it’s a cheap trip to INDIA so you can find them there mainly for an eating binge. We have planned this week outing again to East Ham. A friend is hosting a lunch there. And I am really happy about it, the shop where we plan to eat is called CHENNAI DOSA.

Bhatner Durg....

Bhatner Durg 1, originally uploaded by hikaykay.

To break the monotony (too much of LONDON in my posts...) i delve in my old pics and these are the ones which are very close to my heart...

These are remains of Bhatner Durg @ Hanumangarh... my home town. (click on the image to see more pics...)

Durg means Fort, this fort has significant history attached to it, Taimur the muslim king mentioned in his autobiography "Taimure Shirki" that this fort was one among the tough ones to conquer...

whatever the history says, for us this was a perfect time pass place...
lot of my class mates at school including CP used to go there to drink beer and ........ No No.. i wont tell u. that is confidential. ask CP. He might tell u.

Market area in south hall..

Market area in south hall.., originally uploaded by hikaykay.

my latest exploration,
Chandigarh in LONDON, i mean southhall...