Blogging again...from Canada

It is 5:00 AM in the morning. I am sitting in my room on the seventh floor of Holiday Inn & Suites, Ottawa, Canada. It is slightly misty outside and the sky is overcast. There is a slight drizzle. Its my kind of day.

I reached Ottawa last evening after a twenty hour journey. As it was too late to do anything else I went straight to bed after an early dinner. I was anticipating rising very late in the morning but that was not to be. Four o' clock found me wide awake. After an hour long stuggle to get back to sleep I gave up. As I didn't want to get out of my room and there wasn't really anything I could do inside it (and I had my laptop with me and internet is free) I decided to visit this blog again.

It's been more than a year since I last posted anything here. A lot has happend since then. My parents died. I quit my old job and moved back home. One year ago I could never have imagined that my life would be what it is today. But then, I guess that's life. I didn't blog about any of it because I just wasn't comfortable talking about them. And blogging about anything else seemed so pointless. But anyway, here I am ready to scribble again. And what better way to start again than from a completely new experience. Life, after all, goes on.

I am here on a business trip but that doesn't mean I am not going to try my best to have fun.

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New resolutions for old

I don't believe in new year resolutions. I don't believe there is any special day for making resolutions. If I feel the need to form a resolution, I don't wait till the start of next year or my next birthday to implement it. By a curious coincidence however, since the two years I have been making resolutions just around the time of new year. Last year, after dithering for years, I finally made up my mind to learn swimmimg. And I did it!! I can now proudly claim to know three of the four strokes in swimmimg. I don't know the last one only because I have decided to avoid the water during the winter. This year I found myself making another resolution while frolicking in the beaches of Puri. I have resolved to become financially literate. Its the unlikeliest place to be making such a resolution but recent events have not allowed me to ignore money matters even for a second, not even when I was vacationing in Puri. I have decided that the only way I can be free of such worries in the future is if I start worrying about my finances before they start troubling me. Till now I have steadfastly refused to think about investing. I believe I am temperamentally unsuited for the job. My investments have been limited to hurried buys into the first tax saving MF someone points out to me before March every year. Needless to say, the recent slowdown in the economy has gobbled up all that money and put it somewhere I can't find it. All that I about to change. I have resolved to become Mr. Investment himself. I am evolving a long term investement plan which should put the most die hard investor to shame. As a first step, I have bought a copy of the "bible" on investing - "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. I have already picked up a few invaluable tips from it but more on that later. For now let me just quote a wise woman who said, "Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort".

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Happy holidays

The days just don't seem to end. My vacation starts this friday and it seems like it is a hundred years off. The last couple of months have been pretty stressful what with multiple release schedules in office and troubles with bank accounts, loans, cars and everything else under the sun at home. This leave has come at the perfect time for me. The best part is that it is compulsory - all employees have to take the next week off. So I will not feel guilty about running off without closing all issues here. I have added a week more to the leave of my own so that I will be back only next year.

I am going home initially but then the entire family is taking off to Puri. We might even visit Konark and Chilka if we have time. I have never been to Orissa. Actually, none of us have except my Dad. He has been there four times. It is one of his favourite places. We will all be traveling together after a long, long time. I am really looking forward to it.

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