A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 21

Saturday, 20th May 2023

Live Life King Size!

Who doesn't want to? Most of us, I'd say. Anyhow, this post is not a tutorial on how to live life king size - wish I'd known the secret to it.

Before you plan to live your life king size, the 1st step you need to take is to define your "king size." It could be different for each of us. While for some of us, it would be big houses and cars, for others it would be contributing back to the society. While for some, it would be to travel the world, for others it would be simply to keep their family happy. Define your king size.

Today a friend of my mother-in-law came to visit and stay with us for the night. She is into her 70s, unmarried and still working in a school teaching little kids. She finds happiness in that and that might be her king size life. A cousin of hers had come to drop her to our flat. He is currently retired, earning passive income from his rental properties and put his kids to good educational institutions. That might be his king size life.

For me, like I said in one of my older posts, the goal is to earn as much as I earn now without depending on my job. And get all the time I want to, to write, to travel, and to explore the world. That is my king size life.

Have you defined your king size life yet?

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 20

Friday, 19th May 2023

Right Foot Forward!

After a very long time, our Company is bringing back the walkathon challenge. I love walking! It lets me explore places like no other modes of transportation. I have found many hidden gems in many cities just because I was walking.

Even after travelling through the same route many a times, I have missed many good places just because I was riding a bike. All it took was a walk through the same route to find awesome places.

If I were given enough time and resources, I would prefer walking to most places. I used to walk both ways to my office once upon a time - a round trip of around 8 km. Back in my hometown, my wife and I have casually walked from my house to her house - a distance of 11 km.

One of my earliest long-distance walks (compared to age) was when we were in school, probably I was 7th grade - so around 12 years old. My friend and I somehow missed our school bus, and don't ask why, we decided to walk to our homes - may be around 7-8 km away. Did I miss to tell that I grew up in the city of Muscat, Oman? Yeah, a desert country. But we did it. Well, it was not that we were walking across sand dunes; it was pretty much cities and town all the way.

I may not have realized how much I love to walk then - but now I do. In hindsight, maybe I sub-consciously loved walking already.

Anyhow, looking forward to this walkathon event conducted by the Company. Keep walking!

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 19

Thursday, 18th May 2023

5 Star Deluxe!

What came to mind? Hotels? If yes, you guessed right. 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star and 5 star are the more popular ratings we have heard for various hotels.

You have heard 7 star too? Well, such a rating does not really exist. It is just a self-promotion gimmick it seems. Though there is one another level above 5 star - it is called 5 star deluxe.

Today we had a team lunch, organized by the Company, at such a 5 star deluxe restaurant located pretty close to our office. The hotel itself was very posh - the ambience, the decor, the furniture, the staff, everything superb, until we got to the food. The variety of food that was placed for the buffet lunch was humongous. From soups to 10-15 types of salads, a big spread of starters, main courses, and desserts. I was very impressed by the spread. But most of the food was not flavorful. It seemed as though it was prepared for the Western palate. The food was Indian but tasted far from Indian.

I had wanted to take my family to this place one day, not anymore. It would really be a waste of around ₹ 2,000/- per head.

5 star for the ambience, 5 star for the variety of the food, and 1 star for the taste of the food.

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 18

Wednesday, 17th May 2023

Kasu Panam Thuttu Money Money!

No, no, no. Don't excited already by reading the post title. Reading this post won't make you rich overnight. Hey wait! You should still read this! 😜

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 17

Tuesday, 16th May 2023

The Different Humans!

Note: I wanted this post to be gender neutral. Hence, I will be referring to the protagonist in this post as Bloopy (derived by combining Blue and Pink).

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 16

Monday, 15th May 2023

Tears of Happiness!

When was the last time you felt so happy that your eyes welled up? It is different state of emotion.

It happened to me today. Before today the last time it happened to me was 3 years ago. My sister was pregnant at that time, and she sent a picture of her ultrasound scan on her 1st trimester. Although we know that she has been carrying, it was at the moment at which I saw the ultrasound it hit me hard that she was carrying a life and my nephew/niece is real and we are going to love him or her a lot. Tears welled up at that very moment.

And today the reason was my brother. My brother has been aspiring to be a pilot since a very long time. It has been more than 5 years since he completed his pilot course and got his license. And soon after Covid-19 struck, and the air travel was banned which put airline companies in a very difficult space. Pilots were not being recruited since there was no flights flying. Throughout the global pandemic this was the situation. Slowly, after 3 years, flights started resuming slowly, but the airline industry was badly hit and in no situation to hire again. As a matter of fact, many pilots had to take huge pay cuts for the industry to sustain. Only over the last few months some airline companies have started recruitment. Last month my brother attended one such aptitude test. Today he got confirmation that he had cleared the 1st round is eligible for further rounds. This! This news is what bought tears to my eyes.

After having to learn so much, so much of effort, enduring so many downs through all these years, we finally succeeded!

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 15

Sunday, 14th May 2023

Selling Point!

We have been trying to buy a couple of tables for our flat. One, a coffee table and two, a dining table. But over the past 1 year, for reasons many, we weren't able to buy any of the 2. Finally, today we decided to at least buy the coffee table. We went to the furniture shop nearby where we found a table which we liked.

In the evening we reached the shop, and it was the younger brother of the owner who was at the shop at that time. Luckily, the table which we saw a couple of weeks ago was still available there. We enquired about the price again just to confirm. The younger brother said it costs ₹ 4,000/-. We were shocked. 2 weeks ago, when we came the shop, the owner (elder brother) told us that this very same table costs ₹ 2,800/- and we informed him about it. He calls his brother and put me on the call and after some discussion it was confirmed that the table costed ₹ 2,800/- only.

We closely inspected the table and told the younger brother that we would like to buy this table, but don't want this piece since it had at least 3 damages that were visible outright and enquired if we can get a new piece.

I am not sure how as a salesperson he told what he told next.

"We can get a new piece for you, that is no problem. It will take 2 weeks. But I cannot guarantee that the new piece also will not be damaged."

We were like: 😲😲😳

Soon after we left the shop - not really happy. Again, our hopes of getting a table was going down the drain.

Back at home, I called up the elder brother and informed him about our dialog with his brother. He told us not to worry, and he will get us the table without any problems. 2 weeks ago, we had met the elder brother, and we liked the interaction with him. He was a good salesperson. The younger brother - not much so. Either he is a bad salesman, or he is brutally honest, and I am not sure if both these qualities can go hand in hand.

End note: We paid the advance for the coffee table, and it should be at our flat in a week or two. Next - a dining table.