I (am)sterdam

A few more minutes before my taxi arrives. Trying to squeeze in those few thoughts that compete for their place in my mind that’s already crowded with thoughts on whether I checked under the bed and if I left something in the drawer of the hotel room. I have always wondered the chances of finding something under my hotel bed. I barely use the room. And even if I did, what are the chances that things would get cluttered so much that something would find it’s way down, of all the places, under the bed! In any case, as they say, better safe than sorry. So it’s now become a routine check in my checklist of things to do before I leave for home. Speaking of leaving for home, I’ll miss this place that hosted me for the past 3 days.

Amsterdam. What struck me most about this city is the perfect harmony of the young reckless and carefree youth and the elegant dignified history pregnant with thoughts, paintings, music and tales of the past. While the former glows into its finest as the night progresses, the latter announces its own humble yet conspicuous arrival at the wee hours of the morning. The paved roads, the brick-house sloping roof parish like and at times even medieval architecture, the almost fairy-tale parks where proud birds fight for their space among humans, the ever so common cafes by the canals where old men battle it out over a game of chess incited by thick fumes of hashish… these and so many other small things make Amsterdam a city one can’t help but pause. And wonder, often wistfully, if one will ever be able to retire in a place such as this.

Ah well, the announcement for my fight. Managed to write this post during those many pauses in my transit from the hotel to the airport. Gotta board the plane now. Gotta get back. Hmmm…. you know, as much as any new place we travel to holds us in its grip with beautiful mysteries and wonders, yet, deep in your heart, you know that you really belong somewhere else… some place perhaps very ordinary and insignificant, yet a place whose right on your heart can be reclaimed by no other… a place called home.

Let’s start from the very beginning… a very fine place to start.

I have been thinking of blogging for nearly a year since my last post. And it’s nearly year since then that I am writing a new post. Ah, procrastination, thou are the enemy I will never learn from.

So a lot has happened since I last penned my thoughts. As the triathlon season came to an end, I started working on ideas for starting a company in India. And pretty much the whole of last year seems like one blur, a roulette of desirable and undesirable events. There are several thoughts that come to mind about my experiences with starting and running ApneTeachers, which I would like to pen down, experiences which I could best explain as those many draft versions of a story a struggling author tries to write. Well, that author’s still struggling while at the corner sits that humble waste paper basket, littered with dreams.

I will attempt to write about those past few months over the duration of several blog posts. In the meantime, let’s shift back to the present. I have returned back to the Bay Area. The company that I started, www.apneteachers.com is still functioning, albeit the business model has changed. We outsource our internet based education platform to Schools and Coaching Classes in India. I have resumed my work at Marvell. And currently am writing at 4:40 am from my hotel room in Amsterdam where I’m part of the Marvell team that is participating in a new wireless standard called NGmS. Again, I’ll write more about that technology later.

The point of this post was to tell folks, but mostly myself, that I’m back. Often the best way to do something is to declare that you are doing it to others. And hope that if nothing else, your ego pulls you by the collar and drags you through the journey that you started. I’m hoping unlike my last blogging attempt, this time round I live up to these words. And I am hoping I can also teach some other folks back home how to start blogging. For unlike life, our thoughts are too valuable to let them wither unwritten….

Welcome back, me!