12 to 12...

8 days in, so far so good, I'm sure I am not on to all 12 but I think I'm doing the basics right. Especially the Top 2 items that I decided I will NOT DO. It's really an attempt to cleanse myself. God, Give me the strength to emerge a better person from this.

Glory be to Sai. Peace be to All.

Something's gotta give...

Lightning just struck. A bright orange streak that ran through a thick black cloud. Right in front of me as I sit here at the Red Carpet Club West at the Denver International Airport looking out at the runways and the neatly parked planes. It's Friday evening and I'm waiting to go home. It's been a long week. "How many hours a week are you working?" asked my boss today. "I sleep about 4 or 5 hours a day", I said. This week I slept even less. The urge to close things out and stay on top won over the urge to sleep and have a good time. I did have a good time actually. I met a great client this week, unlike any other. A man who treated everyone him like a king. A true leader. And I seemed to have shared a strange chemistry with him. He asked me about cricket and listened patiently as I explained the game. He listened patiently to all my stories. He's the kind of guy that Feiner would meet and go, "Wow! whatta guy?". I didn't slack even a bit. Even as I walked up the escalator to my first ever entry in an airport lounge, I was solving the final problem of the week. It worked. And that meant the weekend would be better. Not necessarily good but better than if I had that last work problem on my mind. Many things have happened this week. The rigor returned. Working like a beast became pleasurable again. You know why? Because all the while, I believed "Something's gotta give..." I believed that working hard can never go wrong. I believed that life will give. And give it did this week. Even as I strode out for fresh air when I felt sleepy on Thursday night, it gave me the energy to get back to work and not Give up. Even as I pulled out my laptop sitting on the bench on the courtyard, it gave me the message from my boss about the raise I have long awaited. It's not much but it's a sign. And when I clicked my account this morning in a time of tight finances, it gave me the bonus whose timing one could never be sure of. It gave me the strength till the last minute. It gave me the people who helped me every bit of the way to keep me successful in what I do. Those people just emerged from nowhere when it mattered most. At 6 pm, at 8 pm and at 3 am in India to help me fix a problem. And it gave me that friendly attendant who, when he knew I just missed the wait listed upgrade to first class, offered me the exit row aisle seat with more leg room. Not to forget the shuffle feature on my Blackberry's music application that gives me my favorite songs, time and again. CaLl it God, call it life, call it fortune or call it what you want. But there's something out there that can do more than you. Something that guides you, takes care of you and sometimes even denies you because it's not good for you or not the right tine yet. There's something out there that you can't conceive but when you believe acts exactly as you believed. That's the key. Believe. I believed through all the grind that "something's gotta give..." And that something gave me what I believed.

It's another thing that I like to give that something a form. Jai to Sai. Peace be be to all.