Out of Office

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

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I am leaving the city for a few weeks. Moving has been on my mind for some time now, but on Saturday my boss surprised me by consenting to my proposal. According to him, my work for the year is done. And while it would be nice to clock in a few more deals before the year ends, it is wiser to leave at this point of time, and come back, hungry, and claws sharpened for the next year. Professionally, this has been a bumper year, and he feels that there is no reason why I should be modest (Me?) and not make the most of it. In our line of work, where there is no telling what tomorrow holds in store, it makes sense to live for the day, and enjoy the spoils by the night.

Don't really have a plan, but think will head north initially, spend a few days with my parents. I have always planned my holidays well, perhaps only because they have been so rare. Date, time, location. Arrival. Departure. Over the years I have turned holiday planning into a skill, so much so that I have often requests from friends and colleagues to do the same. You can say that by proxy, I have been to a number of interesting places- Egypt, Greece, Constantinople. But the holiday I had always wanted to do was one in which there would be no plan, no pattern. Doing it this way requires time and money. And right now I have a bit of surplus on both count.

I have no tickets and no reservations. Will use road, rail and air at various points of time, as the situation demands. Have packed in a few maps and I have borrowed a laptop from the office IT- and thats the only packing I have done. There is a bike trip somewhere along the way which Tin Man is trying to get me on to. I think I will go. The bike things starts off at Hyderabad so will need to be there at some point of time. Probably, I will need to fly that leg. Then there is this person who I have to see in Delhi. He is extremely unwell - undergoing a bone marrow transplant. I avoid hospital visits- find them extremely morbid. But I owe him a lot. Probably, life as I know it now. He is not very fond of me these days and I understand why.

The idea is to travel, see, read and write.

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