the aftermath....

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thought a month or more has passed, people still manage to embarrass me as they gush about how proud they are of me, how wonderful an achievement it has been for the community/district/gender/state/galli...
"how studious you must be!!"
"how proud your parents are!!"
"how big an achievement it is!!
"you just cleared the mother of all exams!!"

don't get me wrong, i enjoy all the attention... have always done...:) :) but it's hard to answer all those rhetorical questions without seeming immodest... it's an entirely trivial matter that i am a thoroughly immodest person who only likes to pass for a modest one... and do, occasionally... ;) ;)

seriously, i just chucked my job without much thought, as though for a new year resolution in dec 2007 (not 2008, as 'The Hindu' got it wrong), sat down for more studying than i ever managed in my entire life... took up subjects i had never had an inkling or interest about... ruined my body with stress-ulcers... they still haunt me... was stuck in my teeny-weeny home town with no social contact except the occasional milk-man, mail-man or the newspaper-man...

the worst was the taste of luxury i had for the 19 months i worked at Infy... not flush with money ever in my life, the deluge of it for those 19 months spoilt my taste... and as i gave up the job, i had to give up many more things... it was hard... not to have that occasional pizza/burger... no shopping for two years... you get used to it though... like i was used to the Rs.120 bottle of Pantene shampoo but had to resort to the Rs.1.50 sachet... maybe that was why watching 'Pursuit of Happyness' hit so close... too close for comfort...

but now that i'm across, it just seems like a dark, stormy night i had to endure for the first light of morning... which was as certain as... as mornings are... (forgive my flowery language... i just read Thomas Hardy...)

and now that all's happy and gay, i get really, obnoxiously, *$#*@ed if someone suggests anything on the lines of modesty... like some do...
"419??? wow!! that's 418 people better than you are!!"
I am tracking down the man in my spare time from generating reports at the Big Blue...