It is now increasingly becoming clear that I will NOT be findind a job, especially due to my age (who wants to hire a 57 year 'old' man, no matter how experienced he is and all that). At this age my options are limited, especially since I do not possess monetary assets and neither am I inclined to raise funds throgh borrowing.

There is one very promising avenue still open - volunteering. A few organisations like VSO (I worked with them in Guyana) welcome 'veterans' - actually they are happy that I am available and keep sending me various openings. I have been monitoring them and found a couple that were very interesting. But as it turned out first one in Tanzania required experience in Oil and Natural Gas and the second one in Bangladesh was an 'employee' job, a requirement I had noticed. Anyway, the contact person at VSO keeps sending me jobs and keeps encouraging me, for which I am immensely grateful.

The other option of course is go to the US and find a job. This I am going to discuss with my brother when I go there next. From what I have worked out, if I can find a job which pays me between $ 50K and $ 80K, I should be alright, even if I rent a small apartment. Of course I will need to be careful and choosy about the location, but that I feel should not be an issue. The real issues here will be a. how my multi millionaire brother will feel about my working in a low paying job, and b. what the next crazy thing that the insane president of the US is goin to do.

Silent Mornings

If I spend the early half of morning - say up to 9 am - my days - working or non working are more productive. Especially if there is no conversation whatsoever. Just some music playing in the background while I go about finishing the morning routine, with the day's plan being formulated in my head, all the time. Once I get ready and come out of the bedroom, I am ready to converse or interact.
When I was in Mumbai, working at Rockym, I would normally have no verbal interaction at all, apart from wishing the security staff a very good morning, till I reached office. Even the bus conductors knew where I would be getting off and I would just hand over the amount for the ticket and they would issue the ticket. No need to say anything. Those silent morning days were the best.
I realised this because wife has a pathological need to talk, especially ask non sensical, non relevant and unnecassary questions - that irritates me because it breaks my morning chain of thought. If I don't answer or answer in monosyllables, she gets angry and more questions follow, ruining my day even further.

I have misophonia, which is described leterally as 'hatred of sounds'. In my case I get irritated by chewing or slurping sounds, sounds that are emitted by chips bags - especially in a movie theatre and of course sounds of loud burping. Initially I had thought there was something wrong only with me, but then GoogleBaba told me that it is actually a medical condition and there is no sure cure for it.

I thought of it today because wife returned after a fortnight long trip. She has a stomach condition which makes her burp loudly through the day, and it literally gets on my nerves - at least sometimes. Last evening after we had retired for the night, I realised that I had a very peaceful fortnight while she was away. Now we are back to routine of her burping and I get irritated.

Sigh!

I had completely forgotten about this occasional blog which I had started almost two years ago. Then Blogger sent me a mail, asking if I still wanted to be notified about comments and it was like a wake up call to start again.
I now regret forgetting this one. So much has happened in the intervening time! So many life changing events! It would have been an interesting journey and journal to keep track of all those events and plaes.
Anyway, here it is to a new start. From now on, I will try and write, jot down, record whenever and whatever I can.
Should be a cleansing experience for sure, if nothing else.

Some one paid a tribute to all his 'teachers' in an newspaper article and sent me a link to read. Read that I was one of his teachers whom he had paid tributes to. I thanked him for that, and said that I wasn't sure if I should be on the list, since I had not 'taught' anything to anyone. In return he said that I was the one who 'taught' him to read widely and that my sense of humor helped him learn a lot.

Strange but true!

The hotel opposite my bus stop is a favorite for Arab tourists and visitors. I frequently see them getting out of the hotel, boarding a chauffeur driven SUV and going away on whatever they ahve planned for the day.

Some street urchins stay in a closed store front next to the bus stop. The moment they spot the Arabs walking out of the hotel gates, they run across the road and descend upon the tourists like vultures, surrounding them and shamelessly demanding money or whatever they give them. This is a daily occurrence and all of the parties involved it has become a routine. I am sure the tourists get used to the urchins on the first day of their arrival and learn either to ignore them or give them something.

The crow came in from the window carrying a dead, half eaten rat.

I was just getting out of bed, not yet fully awake, and saw him/her sitting on the window sill with his offering.

After showing it to me s/he flew off. I had to check if any body parts were left behind. Luckily, there were none.

S/he returned later to pick the daily bread ration. After finishing the rat I suppose.