Great Expectations

A Zen proverb rightly states ~ "The obstacle is the path"
How true is that! Of late I have been counting instances that proved it over and over again for me. Not that I never came across such instances before, but just that I have too much of idle time now and I am bothering to keep proper count for a change.

The first example could well be my blogging faculties which almost went into a coma state after I got to Bangalore. When I left Lucknow for the summers one thing I was overly excited about was that I would get to blog more systematically now, since there would be more time. Every night before going to bed I travel up the memory stack for the day to see if there was anything that I could put down on the blog. But thanks to my swinging mood, I was so exasperated by the new found boring life that I could never even think of a single such thing. That was the first great expectation which faced an even greater slump.

 The first week in Bangalore was impossibly boring and then I slid into the new frame custom designed for me. Almost one and a half month through, I am afraid I am enjoying the solitude, or is it the new found friends here? I am clueless, but I am feeling much better now. I am loving the climate, feeling more with my fellow hostelers and obviously very much at home in office. The last remnant of the previous sentence is probably inappropriately structured, but then that is what it is like. I like the human beings there, though the government attitude does show up accasionally on a face or two.

Still, the dearth of those sedulous practices that were ingrained into our helL routines, keeps making me feel that I want to be back in college as soon as possible. [:P]  So I got to crafting my report well ahead of my usual schedules. Then came the next pleasant surprise -  the respondents who were to fill up my surveys are impossibly busy people and so the "Findings and Conclusion" part will have to be indefinitely put on hold. It was even more excting to realize that this indefinite timeline could well stretch into another week and there I see my dreams of early riddance shattered to mere crumbs and dust.

Another great surprise was on hold until I reported to my guide this morning. She will not be available throughout the first half of next week. Special thanks to the holiday calendar which never shows up in times of need - Thursday is a holiday, and my presentation will happen only next Friday and that is very much the day I had chosen to bid adieu to Bangalore with my bags all packed. Now I have another trouble brewing in the undergrowth of my petal laden path. As I mentioned, this is nothing new to me. It has been happening right from the time I was to be admitted to my kindergarten and the pattern is still going strong. Twenty years down the lane, things seem to be working exactly the same way for me.

My inference from these little experiences is that most of it which starts teda-meda ends well for me. Well, there have been cases too when good starts have given good finishes (I have certainly not forgotten about the bad starts and good starts which gave absolutely no chances to  make finishes), but the joy is always more when the tough start gives a smooth finish. Like Shakespeare aptly said for all times to come, "All's well that ends well". Hope the next week proves him right once more, else I lose at stake four more days of my life to Bangalore. One more relevant quote here, though that sounds like a bit of an extra dose from me.

"If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them - not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone" ~ Anne Bronte