...yet still, life moves on

dealing with the loss of a loved one is so hard. far harder than one could imagine. everybody means differently to everybody else. for some a friend, for some others, even more closer - a wife, a parent, a sibling, a son/daughter. to each their own, to some - many.

hard to believe it was 3 sundays back that we spent an evening with a very dear friend's parents. an evening of good food, of talk, of fond memories and remembrances. few people she didn't remember/mention, or that's how it felt. people from tens of years back, some from the last few. friends, strangers, neighbours, parents, children, grand children... so many people whose path crossed theirs. the friend and i mostly listened that evening. their elderly, cheerful voices recounting good times and the occasional words of wisdom. an evening we'll remember forever - for us and for those who weren't around. felt guilty and under-deserving that the evening deserved an audience who were closer and to whom she meant far, far more than the two of us. they deserved to be around that evening. really did.

she passed away that saturday, unable to sustain a third heart attack in as many days. a cardiac arrest just hours after taken off life support. a grim reminder that life is so fragile. that every moment you live is a moment spent, it matters and is impossible to reclaim. that life has no "undo". every word said is said, every action taken is taken, every moment spent is gone. be grateful for the past times and wishful for the future.

all my life i've been told, read about and sometimes spoke about how important it is to have goals. at work, in life - with others and your own self. however i've never been able to set any useful ones for myself. i distinctly recollect sarathmenon popping the question many times - "where do you see yourself in, say 5y?". i never had an answer. the last couple of weeks have mostly been such a personal trainwreck. too many events and personal enough to not put them in here. but suffice to say i've not been my proudest. thankfully, things at work have been far far better. that's some solace to seek. anyway, the realisation that there has got to be sufficient changes and the thoughts that have led to it have been quite a soul stirring journey. a journey that's gonna take a while. maybe for the first time in all my life, i've realised and felt the power of setting and working towards a goal. this feels so motivating and fulfilling. i haven't felt as driven as soon as i wake up and through the day, as i am now. all of a sudden there's so little time, so much to think about and much more to do. while it's still easy to write about it, i hope i don't lose focus, direction and positional parameters. 'nuff said...

to sum up in one sentence: switzerland is *amazingly* beautiful. breathtaking scenery everywhere around. it's hard to find a frame that isn't scenic or good looking. in all we visited three cities in switzerland (zurich, interlaken and luzern) before moving to paris. as always, there are a ton of photos and uploading all of them in one go would be pretty stupid. so i've divided them into each city we visited.

here's the first - zurich. rested for the remaining part of day 1 and visited rhine falls on day 2. it's nothing spectacular but a good visit nevertheless. here's the first set of photos from the two days:


zurich/rhine falls on Flickr by initrd

as always, please comment on the pics!


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Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams. All rights reserved.


i know it's annoying. one or two tweets per day is forgivable, but clearly, this is spam. so beginning today, i'm bettering syndication. i'll not be shipping @replies anymore. it's fairly useless. also, if you want to *opt-out* of tweets altogether, leave a comment on this post :)

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happpy buddday aivalli!

• 09:13 is heading to brahmin's coffee bar with vyfe for an awesome breakfast + coffee :D #
• 09:15 @fox2mike it usually isn't. the last thing you want is something unexpected/new to wake you on sunday morning :) new stuff only on monday... #
• 12:51 @sarathmenon dude, you might want to do a google image search for the place (am on gprs) #

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• 10:02 crap, #twitter isn't updating via sms!!! baaaaaaaaaah!!! #wtf #

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• 14:17 @m_mekin congrats! looks choo cuuute! #
• 14:58 @m_mekin yup, twitter sure does need a friends-only option :( #

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• 11:48 a nice evening with @ramyakiran's kid: sn.im/pranava #

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