A Fascinating Journey

By Anuja Ranjan Kumar

‘A Fascinating Journey’ book is a journey through various phases of life- academics, job, entrepreneurship, teaching, married and social life. It is based around real life experiences with a blend of humor and fancy. This book is for anyone who loves reading and enjoys subtle humor too, irrespective of age and profession.
Mrs.Kumudini Kulkarni says in her review about this book: 'The episodes, which are in small units, are full of practical-mindedness well suited to Anuja's efficient entrepreneurship in the corporate world. In this way it seems to be a notable book to the young generation working in such places. Some of the last chapters like “Walking on Entrepreneur’s Path” or “Letter to Future Professionals” are really very useful for the young path-finders in the companies or the job seekers. Anuja’s positivity, her purity of heart and sensibility are some of the factors that make her an appealing writer. No doubt these are the qualities behind her successful life also. '

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781105743511

Book preview

A Fascinating Journey

A Fascinating Journey

Dedicated to my daughter,

Shailee

Anuja Ranjan Kumar

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 Anuja Ranjan Kumar

All rights reserved.

First Edition: May 2012

Second Edition: October 2014

ISBN: 978-1-105-74351-1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author. To reproduce this copyright protected production in any form, prior permission must be obtained from the author of this book.

Foreword

A Fascinating Journey by Anuja Kumar is an excellent example of potential writing at this young age, which is about thirty I suppose. Secondly, a Marathi person writing in English is also a matter of pride for us. It is in the form of an e-Book. E-Books are becoming popular; and a wider range at the international level is available to the readers of all corners of the world. Now she plans to publish it in the regular form.

This book as she (Anuja) says is a tour through various phases of life and as a tourist; the reader comes across a personality (the writer- Ms. Anuja) who is well built intellectually with a sound base of writing. She (Anuja) has inherited many good qualities like clear perception, decisiveness and sound footing of thinking from her father and mother. The episodes, which are in small units, are full of practical-mindedness well suited to her efficient entrepreneurship in the corporate world where she is working. In this way it seems to be a notable book to the young generation working in such places.

Humor and fancy are other important aspects, which make the Journey more fascinating. An Encounter with God, Bluff Master and Suna Hai are good examples of her subtle humor and fancy.

Some of the last chapters like Walking on Entrepreneur’s Path or Letter to Future Professionals are really very useful for the young path-finders in the companies or the job seekers.

Anuja’s positivity, her purity of heart and sensibility are some of the factors that make her an appealing writer. No doubt these are the qualities behind her successful life also.

But this journey will be incomplete if Anuja leaves many more stations of life untouched. She has started as a good writer and we the readers have more expectations from her now onwards. Many more phases of life and many more realities of life can be the subject matter of her further writings. A variety of experiences- some social, some cultural can be touched with her mighty pen and brought to the readers who are eagerly waiting for her further progress. Anuja’s Midas touch will certainly turn anything into gold.

Kumudini D. Kulkarni

M.A.(English), Retired Teacher

[e-mail]

Preface

This book is an outcome of my habit of keeping diary, the habit imbibed in me by my father. The important point he always bombarded about diary-keeping was, Write only pleasant experiences, not to write anything that may arouse a feeling of hatred or revenge. I’ve always followed this rule of thumb. Writing should also add to our pool of happiness and not subtract from it.

When I used to read my own diary at a later date, I started finding it amusing. In a certain situation we may get frustrated. But on recalling the same incident when we are out of it, we see the funny side of it. I had started submitting such incidents as articles for college magazines and later for company magazines. A very positive response from readers always encouraged me and inspired me to write. In fact during those days itself some of my colleagues had suggested publishing my articles as a book. I never took the idea seriously. It was in year 2010 that I started toying with the idea, but most of the times I left the thought without any conclusion. Finally at the year-end I was scratching my head hard for deciding my New Year Resolution. But unlike every year, where I used to follow the resolution stringently for a few days and subsequently it used to slip from my priority list, this time I wanted something that I would follow without fail. That time my husband put forth the idea of compiling a book from what was already written. It appealed me. Indeed everything has its own time! The same suggestion, which I’d got to hear from many of my friends and colleagues, now impressed me a lot. This time it was backed by the convincing ability of my husband!

When I shared this idea with my dad he was mighty impressed and started encouraging me. My dad also has a big pie in this book. His experiences have an imprint on my mind, which gets clearly reflected in this book.

Writing of book started almost from scratch- searching and collecting various diaries and articles, converting them to soft copy, discarding some of them that were company or college specific and writing new ones. It was a major challenge to make the articles appear as a book and not merely as a collection of incidents.

This book is my tour through various phases of life- academics, profession, married and social life.

I thank my dad, Lt. Col. D.V.Kulkarni (Retd.), for developing the interest and art of writing in me; Mr. Ranjan Kumar, my husband, for constantly encouraging me to write a book; my sister, Mrs. Dipti Kulkarni and mom for supporting me. As always mom, Mrs. Vasanti Kulkarni- a teacher by profession- played a silent but very significant role. I also thank all the near and dear ones, friends, colleagues and professors who were the role players in some way or the other.

Anuja Ranjan Kumar

[e-mail]

Introduction

This book brings together various experiences of life- be it during learning, teaching, social or corporate world. It is based around real life experiences but not exactly in the same chronology. Some chapters are even flights of fancy based on observations.

Unfortunately I’m not the kind of reader who keeps down a book at hand only after finishing it. I dog-ear a page that I’m at, get back to work and don’t get to hold the book for a long time, sometimes days together. So I again start reading a few pages prior to where I’d ended to get a hook of the story. So I specifically chose to write book in such a fashion that chapters are short ones and where maintaining continuity in reading is not very important!

This book is for anyone who loves reading and enjoys subtle humor too, irrespective of age and profession.

Anuja Ranjan Kumar

About the Author

Anuja is the Founder and Director of BootSimply Solutions (http://www.bootsimply.com). It is a startup, which innovates simplicity in software applications. She had topped college during Computer Engineering. She worked with IBM, Geometric and HCL before starting her own venture.

She had interest in writing since long. She has bagged prizes at various essay-writing competitions. Her articles have been published in various magazines and newspapers. She regularly writes technical as well as non-technical blogs. Her writing reflects that she is a keen observer.

Undertaking challenges fascinates her. In her industry, she is known as someone who unveils the innate potential of folks. She takes the onus on herself to drive and motivate the team. She is often invited for conducting seminars for college students.

Apart from writing, painting is Anuja’s passion. Her creative eye and love for nature are clearly visible in her paintings. She loves collecting various things like antiques, stones, stamps and coins. She tries her hand at harmonium and also at times uses her vocal cord.

Anuja lives in Pune with her husband and daughter.

Obituary

The abundance of magazines in office made me handle them quite frequently. Whenever I picked up any magazine, I used to start scanning it from the reverse. Soon it became a part of me, a habit of mine till date. My ulterior motive is to read obituary. Not that I take pleasure in reading obituary, but I always think that one day my obituary may appear with a photograph of mine. With this obsession, I have taken my numerous photographs. But so far I have been unable to clinch the issue, which would invoke instant sympathy by seeing my photograph. But I am sure that I would succeed one day with the present state-of-the-art technology. My next worry is about who would send my obituary to any of the magazines. So I always keep my diaries spread around- not knowing when death would strike me. I am not very confident about this method. When I am writing to my friends, I invariably write about myself, thinking that, at least my friends should be able to write my decent obituary. Even this method is not foolproof. The dictum friend in need........... is no more true in today’s changed value system. So I’ve decided to create a record to facilitate my well-wisher to write my obituary. I am keeping photocopies of my would-be-obituary at various places so that at least some of my sympathizers can lay their hands on it and of course send it to appropriate magazine along with my state-of-the-art photograph. Here is my own obituary (of course bracketed words should be omitted):

It is with deep sorrow and grief (really?) that we regret sad (or happy?) and untimely (non-sense!) demise of Ms. Anuja at the young age (?) of 28. Born on 01 Apr 1983 (All Fools’ Day), she graduated as an engineer (against her wishes!) from University of Pune in 2005. During her illustrious career (?) in the software world, she held various appointments like catalyst between project team and HR manager, caterers’ overseer and numerous secretarial appointments. During one of the projects she even served as Business Analyst-cum-Tester where she created numerous enemies (It is better to have a noble enemy than a foolish friend). She expected perfection even in activities that were in fact perfunctory. Maybe her perfectionism was the cruel culprit behind attracting so many enemies. During another such project she created commotion by opting to be a technical writer rather than as a software developer. As a result of which, she got plenty of time and sharpened the skill for writing. Sometime during mid of her career she took over an additional (or only?) task, the prestigious assignment of Employees’ Food Welfare. Here she was a threat from within. She learned the secret art of making food that is cooked in bulk, very delicious (either let the cockroaches roaming in the utensil stay in it while cooking or let the utensil be licked by a cat or a dog) because of which, it is believed she was planning to leave software job and step into the catering world.

Apart from being a philatelist and a numismatist, she was fond of collecting various stone pieces and antique items especially of metals. This interest of hers had made her house a museum (or a store room/dumping ground?). Her affection toward her canvas paintings is clearly depicted by the fact that she never gifted her art creativities to anyone on any occasion (or no one ever appreciated them?).

Ms. Anuja, a curio, died of "flora