Missed Opportunities

During over a year of travelling, thinking and vagabonding, I have come to realize that every time you make a choice to do something, you are also making a choice to not do many other things. The question I am faced at the end of any period is 'Did I make the right choices?' This is not an efficiency tirade. So, I am not discussing whether I made the most efficient use of my time. Its just a question of whether I did what I would have liked to do and whether I was good enough to overcome inertia and try out things I wanted to. Looking back at my 'independent life', which I would count as having started from 1999, when I was 17 and joined Bachelors in Engineering, a lot of opportunities have come my way. 11 years and counting to be precise. Each second of these 11 years, I have made choices to do something or sit idle. How have I fared? What have I missed? Below is a laundry list of things I could have done but did not do (and this is much shorter than it should be because I dont remember most of what I missed). I am sure if I think hard, I can find reasons (read excuses) to justify why I did not do these but thats beside the point. The opportunity was there, I was around, the time was right and I did not do it. This list will hopefully serve as a reminder of how much have I missed versus how little have I really done.

1. Life in graduation - joined 1999, ended 2003 with a B Tech in Electronics and Communication
• Missed learning French/German - course was on offer, I attended one class and gave up.
• Missed travelling around - was young, did not care about comforts, could have seen the length and breadth of East India but chose not to. Was anyway not attending lots of classes.
• Missed being a good engineer - poor attendance, lack of interest in general.
• Missed playing badminton - was good at it but never did it regularly enough. Played once for college but did not follow up.
• Missed listening to new music - had people from all states of India, all listening to their regional music plus lots of them listening to English music. I just stuck to what I liked and only added some to my PC when I liked them. Never tried anything new out of the blue.
• Missed drinking - had a mental block (or whatever) against drinking. The one opportunity I had to try everything and be silly, I missed.
• Missed Bengali food - had converted to vegetarianism a couple of years before I joined and continued. Missed the brilliant bengali fish preparations and lots of other non veg food.
2. Life in Post Graduation - joined 2003, ended 2005 with a PGDM
• Missed studies - yet again!
• Missed drinking and non veg yet again - Lucknow had the best selection of non veg joints and the brilliant Awadhi cuisine and I had none of it. Mistake repeated from Bengal!
• Missed learning new sports - had good sporting infrastructure, could have tried out tennis, volleyball but never did it for long enough to really learn.
• Missed partying - there was a weekly party at the institute, drinking, dancing, fooling around et al and I had none of it.
3. Life in Chennai - worked for Citigroup for about 21 months
• Missed travel - hardly saw anything except local Chennai. South India was beckoning and I was sleeping.
• Missed local food - for a while till I was veggie, I missed Chettinad cuisine. Had the sense to convert later.
• Missed learning swimming - was earning well enough to pay for lessons but never did it.
• Missed learning anything - outside office, I learnt nothing new.
• Missed staying fit - transformed into a balloon.
• Missed meeting friends - was too 'busy' with work.
4. Life in London - worked for Citigroup for about 27 months
• Missed travel - travelled about 4 countries, could have done much better.
• Missed drinking - of all things, missed drinking while in London. The breadth of offering was mind boggling but my mind was closed.
• Missed making many new friends - dont ask why, I dont know.
• Missed historical sites - went to quite a few but missed many more.

Have you ever thought on these lines? What are the opportunities you have missed? Please feel free to post in comments.

Footloose in Dilli

Its winter again. There is no trekking again. I go crazy again. This winter, its walking Old Delhi (Dilli) and learning Spanish. Its not all crazy though. Learning a language has been a long standing dream. Walking Delhi is a way of getting out of my comfort zone (again!) and doing something diametrically opposite to what I have done in the last over 1 year. It promises to be as different from mountain trekking as is possible.

All of it goes on a blog called 'Footloose in Dilli'. Suggestions and company for the walk are welcome.