Boxing Day

This is that time of the year where folks go into a romantic mood, holding their hands, walking down the alleys, sharing an ice-cream and would shop till they drop. Singles try to find someone and doubles (I mean couples) will not leave this Christmas undone. Not so strikingly evident in India, but abroad yes. While abroad, you'd feel the pinch of it because you are generally away from your family and it is inevitable to stop you from thinking about your family and the time you spent with them in your heydays. And it's quite natural to go green if you are going out this season all alone to shop something. TIP: If you are alone and don't know what to do the last week of the year, the tip says, don't venture out this season as you would normally do. Very much a logical thing, but the thing is we don't listen to that thing. Definitely not to movies and malls. Trust me it works.

Amidst this chaos, ok, pathos, ok, here we go - Vamos, the next day after Christmas, Dec the 26th is called the Boxing day. Merry Christmas to you folks. Why is it called boxing day? Is it related to that physical sport boxing. No. One explanation is, Christmas gifts and presents are wrapped in boxes and hence it's called boxing day. A quick google might give you a better explanation. The quick thought that comes to my mind on a boxing day is there should be test match played in Australia. In total, three test matches should be started round the world on this day. One is underway at MCG. India did well to restrict Aus to 337 / 9 on day one. Quite an absorbing day's play and this is what I've been looking for. The real cricket bonanza lasts for two and half months. I got up at 5:30 am today to watch the match live before I left for the office. And I think this would be my schedule for the coming four days. The last time when I got up so early in the morning, was............ for a match again. Or tennis I suppose. Not for studies. This year I had been following tennis as closely as I ever did in my life. One last tour of Australia for the best middle order batsmen that India has ever produced. If captain Kumble pulls off a series win here, boy, what a comeback would it be for him at this age. Let's hope the 'Smiling assassin' kicks of the new year celebrations with a victory at MCG.

That's the sports update. And you also have a movie update lying in the store. I preferred 'Welcome' to 'Taare Zameen Par' (TZP) on saturday and I made a mistake. Welcome had comedy, but had this movie been shot a decade back I would have enjoyed it. Now that my thought process is particularly on how the movie is shot, the camera angles and the screenplay, I did not enjoy the movie. The goofy comedy looks copied from somewhere. So Welcome doesn't offer a hearty welcome.

On the flip side, the lesser commercial TZP, is better. This movie is about one kid who doesn't do well in studies and how he is transformed, is the story. First half was lengthy but should keep you hooked. And second half was gripping. Amir Khan, the only natural hero in Bollywood we have has done a great job as a director in this flick, besides acting. Boy and that boy was equally good too. The climax painting scene will evoke your emotions and even Rocks can get shattered. It's a must watch. And taare zameen par means stars on earth. We normally see stars in the sky. This movie has brought stars down to the earth . And when do we see stars in the air? When you go to a five star hotel and order just for a cup of coffee.

I wanted to...

The title would probably convey a message that it should include my wishlist. But no, it's not. It is including the things I wanted to do in life and where I ended up landing.

On the money straight away.

I wanted to do ECE, but I did EEE.
I wanted to go to USA, but I went to Sweden.
I wanted to do MBA, but I did MS.
I wanted to work in Bangalore, but I am working in Noida.
I wanted to work in Audio Codecs, but I began working in Video codecs.
I wanted to work in Video codecs, but I was put into middle layer.
I wanted to work in middle layer, but I am now put into application layer.

WTF ! What next ? That's so far the missed list, not the wished list.

I had been changing my domain constantly and unwillingly most of the times. A rather optimistic person would say, "You are cool man. You are taking life as it comes". I am not saying beep. Good thing with frequent shifting is: You get a chance to finger in unexplored territory. Bad thing is: Your exploration would only be short-lived coz you are not pursuing the territory as you wished. I hope I don't end up being a jack of all trades, master of none. Jackass is not a bad word either.

So that skit hang over in our employee meet is not over yet. My die-hard fans ( I presume two or three would be there in this world irrespective of the gender ) can find the videos here - Part1 and Part2 in youtube. I've also added the same links in the 'Employee meet' post. Clarity would not be so good. Videos are pretty much in compressed format. So I would be happy if you can understand what we were trying to say. Basic knowledge of Hindi would be required. For your information, that bloke with long locks is me. Yes, it's me. I've changed, yes! May be you can close your mouth now? I am still open for brickbats or bouquets for my performance. I owe that I would be back to my school boy looks next year. Don't know what the public outcry would be like. Just as you need guts to grow long locks, one also needs guts to get rid of those locks which you dearly maintained for close to couple of years. My heart aches when I go for the hair cut.

Last week I saw a Hindi movie called, Dus Kahaniyan ( translated to English means, 10 stories). I don't have words to express it. While I was coming out of the theater I had seen a stray dog, jumping freakishly, running around itself trying to catch it's own tail, attempting to catch mosquitoes in the air etc in that cold night. No joke. I had no idea why it was doing so. Finally I found an answer and I captured the plight of her which was very similar to ours. May be she had also seen the movie. This is what (click what) you feel (click feel) like doing after watching the movie. Tear your hair apart. Perhaps, faithful animal dog, is always right.

Net is slow

That's the Friday update. We normally get away by saying, net slow instead of saying internet is slow. A lot of slang is raking up in English and in our regional languages as well. Some people might think it is uber cool to use short cuts and slangs. I've also tried few times but it more often comes naturally. Nothing comes naturally unless you forcibly scream your lungs out.

The normal perception is, even though you haven't got anything to do with the internet for the time being, you still like to have jet setting speed hitting your modem. This is something analogous to holding a remote control in your hand, when you know that you are not going to change your favourite match or program that you are currently viewing. Something similar to having sambar in your dish along with chutney even though you are not particular about idly sambar combination. Something similar to keeping your mobile in your pocket while going out for a tea break even though you are god damn sure that there is no one who is going to call you at that hour. Few things that we involuntarily accept pretending a voluntary need. Happens more so with work. When you know that internet is slow, you have a tendency not to work. As it is, work is not hectic and on top of that if this beeping net is creeping slow and that too when it's a Friday, you can understand the mood and feel of the employees.

My thanks to the commenters who are posting their comments. So the feedback that I obtained for my skit was encouraging. A notch above, satisfactory, which I expected. I am trying my best not to project a dull image in my post in the weekend. Infact who likes to read a post that is sullen and morose. And who wants to befriend a friend who is not smiling? We don't smile often but we always like people that are smiling and chirpy. I found a blog ( www.meghalomania.com) that was interesting to read, in which the author(s) do try to paint a silly picture and yet try to bring a smile out of the reader. I would say it was interesting to read how the writer(s) penned the lines. I doubt though if I am going to visit that site again. But I had seen a quote there that tickled me.

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, and then beat you with experience - Dilbert

God knows when will I be utilised to atleast half my potential. Days are passing on. Years are marching on. But the quest for knowledge and expertise is still on. Did you ever hear Roger Federer screaming, Come on ?!

Employee meet

So it's been the longest break in my blogging so far, 16 days to be precise. This is a record and I know records are meant to be broken. One reason for this pause is my previous post itself. I want that post to be displayed as many times across the network via the Blogrush widget, so that who ever has read it might just think of their 'Happy Days' atleast once. In the meanwhile I also got a topic to write about our company's employee meet for this year which took place on Friday. And for the first time I did a skit ( a small play ) on stage with one of my friends. The response was satisfactory. Last year I did a quick 2 minute group dance, so that was the motivation for this year's performance. You can find them in youtube right here. Click here for Part1 and Part2.

Finally I could break that 7 posts per month jinx. It was a hat-trick of 7 posts until November. I also feel that my blog title should be 'Posts from Brain'. When I was writing my first post, I thought every post is called a blog, but no, every topic you write is called a 'post' and all these posts constitute one blog. Like that, you can have umpteen blogs depending on your classification like music, sports, tech, movies, hobbies etcetera. Nevertheless I don't have intention to change the title soon but I am contemplating to change the template, for quite sometime now.

I haven't got any pictures of our Employee Meet as of now to post them. If there are any donors in my office, I shall post them. I feel stupid to take my 2 MP digital camera out for taking pictures, so that is why I don't have my own pictures. We have mobiles equipped with cameras ranging from 2 MP to 5 MP resolution. But one has to consider the fact that I bought my digi cam like 4 years back with my first part time bucks. So for that reason I still like it. Did anyone say, Old is gold? No wonder I keep referring to my part time job that I once I did it, every now and then, and that is when I really slogged which I feel is good now.

After that customary speeches and award distribution our cultural events kicked off. Few songs, a skit, a guitarist, couple of dance performances and a poem were the events done by the employees. We initially had plans to rope in celebrities ( not movie celebs but TV celebs ) to add a splash of colour to the event but cost-cutting came into the scenario real fast. So the employees performing the event on stage are the celebs and on Monday morning I would be knowing if I am going to receive brickbats or bouquets for my skit. Story, screenplay, casting and direction is done by yours truly. I am expecting a few sneers by couple of girls. I definitely sneered on one girl in my office though who looks like a halloween queen. But they had two days in the weekend to forget what happened on Friday and move on with the things on Monday. Everything else went smoothly. In the end we were given a good bag that is spacious enough for half a dozen of your clothes if you are outing. The DJ there was a fat bloke with that 'yo' man get up, but his DJ'ing was booed man. He is neither playing Hindi songs nor English nor Swahili which is spoken in Mombasa. But we blokes are not so music conscious. You feed us with couple of drinks with two drops of rat poison in it and we freak out like crazy on the dance floor.

Happy Days

It's a Friday again. In Sweden, the Friday night norm would be to catch the last bus to the disco, have a jig and comeback home. Saturday night, go to the adjacent disco. To go to any disco or pub over there, the mission would be to make it before 11pm, coz it's free. So we know the bartenders, the jacket collectors, the security staff and even the cleaning staff by face. No chance of that sort here. To get into the disco here, you need to be a couple (ofcourse of different sexes ). My friends used to ask me, why do you go to disco all alone? What's the point in going there alone? What is the fun in losing a night's sleep? I always said, I like the music. I like to dance. It's better than sitting and watching a movie all night and so I am going there. Next weekend, different person - different questions, but same answer.

During my Diwali break I had seen a movie in telugu, titled, Happy Days. So that is the title of this post. If you have a corner for a feeling like friendship, which is supposed to be the truest form of relationship but often underrated, then there is a fantastic real life like scene that most of them might have experienced or heard of it in their lifetime atleast once. The scene is described at the end.

To talk about the movie, it's a pleasant one. It is a movie about eight engineering graduates (4 boys and 4 girls), about their daily chores, their habits, their life in campus, their results in the examinations, their tryst with their partners and finally the split. It's a college life story, so most of us do find our resemblances in those scenes. I had been to this movie with my elder brother. It was really a good thing and I think it's the first time we've been together for a movie. And what better movie than this one. We both studied in the same engineering college and his friends know that I am their classmates brother. So couple of times I avoided ragging you can say. Being a junior and talking to seniors first up when you enter the college and escaping from college in the evenings to home on my brother's bike, when everyone else was pissing in their pants coz of ragging, yeah, those were happy days.

When it comes to the real Happy days, they are always your past. One would always crib in the present. The same cribbing they do it now, five years after and even 50 years after, just before their last breath due to ill health. We all love to think of past and relish it than enjoy the present and cherish it.

Happy days now were those in your childhood when you don't to have worry about money and earnings. You don't have to plan your future. Happy days now were your college days when you were busy with college life, writing records, preparing for examinations, and preparing again for those two nightmare subjects second time. You cribbed that you cannot take examinations and were fed up with them. You felt that you wanted a job and money that time. Now we have it. And what are we doing? Pondering the past real fast. If you are a bachelor, you crib that you don't have a girl friend. And if you have a girl friend, you find your friend's girl friend more attractive and seductive than yours. Five years hence, you would crib again, My bachelor days were real days. Being single is sort of blessing in disguise. You absolutely have all the time in the world to pursue any freaking hobby of yours, if only you are ready to move your ass. Happy days were those when you were newly married. Five years hence, you would crib, My honeymoon days were my real days. Your kid's grown up and he is 20 now. He is not listening to your words. You crib again, When he was kid, and when I used to come from my office, his mere sight and the innocence with which he held my hand relieved me of all my tiredness and office pressure. There is no end to this.

We more often than not waste time thinking of the past and wishing, had it been like that - I would have been somewhere else. It won't be like that because it's not bound to be that way. It won't be always the way you wanted it to be. I better stop cribbing and lecturing. I think I am hearing a crushing noise, may be you are grinding your teeth. I don't want to be A Swami Blogananda in the making. Happy days and happy moments are always the present.You are blessed to be living with all working organs doing their job more or less. If you can try and make your present that little interesting - by pursuing those little hobbies and interests of yours, you probably would be less cribbing.
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The Happy Days movie scene: Two blokes one jealous and the other being the super good, kind hearted, intelligent, decent looking are both studying in the same class. So this jealous bloke is ranked second after his final semester in the first year of engineering and this genuinely good bloke tops the class. So his jealous friend asks him, how come you topped the class by a meagre 0.5% over me? Wanting to help his friend in his acads, this good bloke helps his friend in the examinations and he intentionally drops on his overall percentage in the coming years to see his friend securing the top rank in the class.

One day this jealous bloke's girl friend is enjoying with an other male and is accidentally seen by his good friend. This good friend, blurts the affair to his jealous friend. Jealous friend doesn't listen to it and supports her. He is madly in love with her. But this good friend doesn't want him to sustain the relationship. Even his other friends advice the same. This jealous friend has wax in his ears and doesn't listen to anyone. Good friend loses his cool and accuses her a 'bitch'. The inevitable follows. An ugly fight over a girl. Friendship has taken a backseat. Jealous friend knocks the good friend down. Jealous friend's temper is raging and is in a mood to crush everyone who is coming in between them. But their common friends separate them. They already knew that the girl in the subject is a flirtatious one, but they kept quiet thinking time would settle the things. But good friend cannot keep it to himself. So he blurted out. Just when everyone thinks friendship is undervalued, their common friends ask him, why the heck do you have to blurt the truth out when we all are silent ?? This good friend replies, " I like him. I wanted to be his friend. I even gave up my dream of pursuing computer science only to be in his class. I don't want him to be cheated by his girl friend. Afterall, he is also one of our friends ya..."
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Diwali - The festival of smiles

I could finally celebrate Diwali with my parents after four years gap. That was really a good feeling. Those little things which we often receive - by default - would not be knowing the value of it unless we miss it for sometime. That duration of sometime can range from seconds to light years.

Diwali which is the festival of lights, is the most sought after occasion by every person ( in India atleast ), more so by bachelors. Bachelors because you have all the 'enthu' (-siasm-) in the world and would be willing to try different fantasies only before marriage. We guys use short cuts coz, we might probably be addressed as 'hey, he is cool' by some wannabe cool. I might be doing an essay writing over Diwali here. In my school days, the most common question in my English examination would be, write an essay over the recently celebrated festival in your village or write a leave letter to the Prinicpal requesting for a week's leave. I always preferred the latter because it's short, less room for mistakes and I perfected the art of writing a leave letter in my school days with the copied stand out line being 'please condone my absence'.

So we burnt crackers, flower pots (couple of flowers pots exploded as well adding themselves to the crackers list), sent rockets (not into space but into trees) and a 2000 wala being the highlight. Want to try 10,000 wala sometime. Some might feel burning crackers is just as burning money. Correct. But very few know that burning crackers is driving out evil spirits from their cities and ugly thoughts from their systems. History says, it's the fall of the Satan or daemon called 'Narakasur' on his D day and for us the Diwali day. So is the reason why crackers are burnt on this day. Some will even jokingly say, the smoke and noise that is generated out of the crackers will kill the mosquitoes in your house. Even toothless grannies are not laughing for this joke. And yeah if you are wondering if we need a license, we do not need a license to burn these crackers. I am just wondering as much as you did, license to burn crackers eh ? They wont kill you mate. Don't talk about your freaking safety norms now, not on this day atleast.

Diwali is one those of colorful festivals celebrated and enjoyed by everyone. A bright festival that can bring religions and relationships together. We all love seeing the sky litted with colourful explosions. A little cracker burnt on the street brings out a genuine smile. Diwali is one day to lit up the sky and your souls. It's more than a festival of lights. It's a carnival of smiles. That's pretty much with my modern day essay writing a.k.a blogging.

No change

I do have a feeling that, if I tell people what I am going to do next, I somehow reckon the work that I intended would not succeed. My DJ thing which I said, I was looking forward to in the weekend did not work out as the DJ, who I am supposed to meet, evaded me ( not sure what's there in his mind) by putting an excuse. I am not a super mind reader that can scan yours and take a print out, I might be wrong as well. So I could not try my hand. But I am not going to leave this unfulfilled wish of mine biting the dust. I have a t-shirt that has a caption saying ' I never give up' . Time to grab some inspiration out of it and work my way hard be it pestering, nagging or shelling money out of my pocket. I have to play once on the players, atleast for the two .wav CD's that I got burnt.

Beyond that, we had three days off, with Monday being a festival day celebrated in Northern India. Karva Chauth as it is called, is followed by women for their husbands to live safer and experience the torture created by their dear wives, for a little longer. Women do a fast ( if I am not supplying the wrong information here) and have their dinner in the night, only after seeing the moon. What if the moon was hiding behind the clouds ? Do they assume the light behind the clouds as the moonlight and feast on the varieties of dishes that were made ? Or what if it was a no-moon day, were my immediate doubts. Satanic brain, satanic doubts. Nonetheless, one has to sincerely appreciate their dedication and I feel the culture and family relations are strong in India till date, only I guess, due to these. What a traditional - mawkish - lunatic geek I am.

Any head on the shoulders bloke would have had a whale of a time for having three days off. And me, considering what a lazy bug I am turning out to be, with no belly yet - being the sole exception to my slim frame, spent my off days on bed watching the ever so dirty idiot box. This time it's dirty not only for the programmes it airs, but also of the dust that it is covered it. No, I am not going to clean it. May be I am trying for the best dust rested on TV award. If I clean the dirt, who is going to sort out the hissing noise that is generated continuously, the TV mechanic obviously. Unless he fixes it, I am not going to clean it and how does the mechanic know if my TV is alright or not, I have to make a phone call. So now you know how long it might take to wipe of the smooth soft dust.

I am not going to tell my adventures next time. In the first place, I shouldn't have shouted to the whole world, that I am trying for a DJ. Mistakes happen with everyone and if we try not to repeat the same, we would be better off in life. But there is always room for just that required number of mistakes only to console ourselves later, shrugging and saying, after all we are human beings.

Looking forward to...

I hope this weekend would be a little different from the previous ones. Atleast I am not cribbing this Friday in my post. That is one change. Second change is at the end of this post. So smart people can just scroll down, read the change and can close the window.

My travails with my network continued till this Friday. It was a small network setting, which our IT folk did not pay any heed to and instead concentrated on downloading drivers from the net. One has to use a screwdriver when it's needed and a sledge hammer when it is required. This stupid thing, brings a well known tale into my mind. Americans while going into space developed a super pen that works without the ink getting frozen, developing a fine tip and taking into consideration, all the crap that goes in space. That is the result after spending lot of money, resources and energy into the project. And Russians simply used a pencil in space. (Credibility of the story has to be established) Thinking that the same principle - go to google, search for drivers, download them, download their patch versions as well, as a Diwali gift - without actually addressing the problem is not the mantra all the time.

This week I was little eventful in moving my ass and went out doing little things for my own. The usual routine would be, get back from work at 7 pm and lie on the bed and watch the idiot box for couple of hours , wait for the dinner to be delivered, again watch for an hour, until I get to see few clippings of 'Comedy Junction' and then go to bed ( read as sleep, coz I will be on the bed all day long as I don't have a chair in my room) at 11:30 pm - thinking, phew, I am not having enough sleep and am just not able to sleep before 10 pm. Truth is I would get up at 8:30 am ( even in summer) , having a solid 8 hours sleep and still yawning and struggling to get up in the winter. Wanna sleep, sleep and more sleep till I get retarded and brain becomes stinkingly stale . Daddy says, nope. Yeah, I know, how people who sleep only for less than 6 hours would think now.

I went out to my friends place last night and burned couple of CD's of the songs that I like. Only a couple because, I wanted to burn my CD in .wav format, not in .mp3 . Am I nuts to burn music in incredibly bulky wav format. You don't stop asking questions, do you? And for that I had to download mp3 to wav converter and those that are available are only trial versions. So that allowed me to burn only 30 odd songs and some CD players do not recognise mp3 format. You got an answer now, happy? It's been like what, three years since I bought my second hand laptop and it's been in the cupboard for more than half its lifetime in my under, and I feel sick dodging the question, how is your laptop? I would not dispose it off, that soon and neither I don't have any plans of buying a new one. Old habits freaking die hard. I have my laptop for namesake and have friends laptops for usage sake.

So I could talk to a DJ in a restaurant cum pub and he told me to come with my own music, so I could try a hand on DJ'ing. You heard it right, DJ'ing. He told me to convert the music format and said, Just come with 10 or 20 CD's . I was like what ??? I said okay. I am all geared up this Friday. I am going this evening with two CD's and still doubtful whether this would work on his machine. I am up for something today. I shall be happy if he allows me to play couple of songs atleast for my couple of CD's. Hoping that things would go fine. I am already pumped up and at the same time my heart is beating a little faster. I would post more of my adventures with the music next week. I am really looking forward to this second change on this fantastic Friday.

Force India, eh..

I am contemplating as to what I should be writing, even before I wrote the first word in here. I've thrown a rule of thumb last week. If you don't want to blog, don't blog. I am not heeding to that rule now and may perhaps be waiting for a disaster to happen at the end of this one ( but nothing happened as I am typing these last words in the braces before publishing this post).

To talk something other than cricket, here is a chance now. I was never one of those guys who is interested in Formula one ( F1 ) and motoGP racing. Infact, I never found F1 exciting until I watched the last race of the season in the weekend, which decided the drivers championship. It was breathtaking. I haven't followed F1 before as closely as I did in the weekend and I doubt if I follow it the next year. But boy, it was an incredible race on Sunday, and the 70 odd laps finished in a jiffy. Three blokes were competing for the Drivers championship and Lewis Hamilton was all destined to take the championship as a rookie driver starting at second pole position, P2. P1 for Massa, P3 for Kimi Raikkonen and P4 for the grumpy Alonso.

The five red lights blinked off and drivers were off to a flying start and in just a matter of seconds, Hamilton was pushed to 4th place and minutes later, was pushed to 18 place after having problems with his car's gear box. And there will be only 22 people contesting a F1 race, making that to 11 pairs and each pair contests as a team, driving one car maker, say a Ferrari or a Toyota, or a BMW. It was shocking to see and I thought Hamilton's car choked when it mattered. So everyone thought it was curtains down for Hamilton, and Kimi driving the Ferrari or Alonso in McLaren-Mercedes could be the drivers champion. Hamilton was lucky to be still racing after a dreadful failure in the gear box. First time I felt, that F1 was a strategic game. You hear that often in the circuit, that a team with the best strategy would claim the title. Had it not been for the 3 pit stop strategy, I bet Hamilton would have won the title. He just needed to finish at 6th position by the end, but destiny had other plans. He finished at 7th position at the end of the race, sharing equal points with his rival team mate Alonso on 109 points. 'Ice Man' Kimi finished off the season at 110 points and was extremely lucky in claiming the title. For sure, Alonso with his peevish attitude and grumpy face will be changing the team before the start of the next season and it is interesting to see, who would partner Hamilton. Never knew motor racing is also a team game. McLaren Mercedes loss is Ferrari's gain, handing both the drivers and constructors championships to Ferrari.

What's more interesting for an Indian spectator is Vijay Mallya was in the nick of things again. One can never keep him quiet, be it the Whisky acquisitons, be it the Kingfisher airlines, or let be the Kingfisher - AirDeccan joint venture. This time the UB group chairman has a added a new feather in his cap, holding a stake in Spyker Ferrari team. It would be rechristened as 'Force India', in the next race. I find the name weird, but it's not me who acquired Spyker Ferrari. He is keen on introducing F1 to Indian soil and has even quoted, F1 can be the next big thing that Indian youngsters could be looking besides cricket. Delhi - Greater Noida is contemplating over a F1 circuit. It should meet global standards for sure. But the magnanimity of the project and the expenditure that goes in developing and maintaining the track, is worth a wait for the public. Assuming that racing hasn't really picked up in India as yet, it really has to been what the bureaucrats are upto. They should be licking their lips as they have a great opportunity to fill in their already overflowing bank accounts or donate a resplendent diamond studded pendant to their promiscuous partner.

And if I am talking about F1 or motoGP, credit goes to my colleague who fed me with the F1 and motoGP stuff, race after race for few weeks. He explained the rules, the strategies and ofcourse I paid interest in understanding the sport and learned most of it through the commentary. I felt it ridiculously boring at times, ( F1 still is, but motoGP is more interesting because you get to see more overtakes there) but I am here talking about the same sport. Things which you may not like first up, will eventually be liked by you over due course of time. Give some time for the dust to settle down before you make yourself a clown.

Computers or Doomputers?

Yeah, I understand the title was not really an ass-kicking one. But I feel it can still convey the point that I am trying to say now. So you installed both Linux and Windows on your machine. Both are working fine and you only work on Windows all your life, even though you know, it only needs you, to go to the loo for it to come crashing . You still like patched up Windows because it is freaking user-friendly. And you logged into Linux after 4 months, after struggling to remember your password and finally succeeding with the correct password after 10 valiant attempts. You are working on open source -highly appreciated, safe and secure Linux. Everyone says Linux is pretty good and whatever you do, Linux is tied barbwire hard that nothing can get into it or leaked out of it. But if you are that sort of bloke where you delete a file, which you felt is not related to the kernel and try to reboot the system to work in Windows, and you see a Grub error, boy, you are in for some trouble.

It took one long day for our supporting staff to allot sometime only for me and keep the Windows up and running. Not at all a tough job to repair Windows, but our staff, you know. Yeah, I am compassionate to my colleagues even though I was freaking irritated with their delay in attending the complaint. Don't you have those sort of blokes around you? I bet you do. Government emulated corporate mantra says, you live and let others live. I am not a super IT geek who co-authors in Computers Today. Just a normal user like any other, facing the brunt of computer emitted rays into my eyes, at times seeing imaginary dark spots when I turn my head from the monitor and look into the white light.

I had problem with Linux this time and yet I am taking a dig on Windows. How fair is that?
Problems often encountered with Windows users:

1. You are a first time user and, you don't know that your drive can be split into two separate ones. You put all your stuff in one drive, the 'C' drive. System crashes, you crash.
2.Okay, you can relatively navigate through Windows, better than the first time user. But never really felt the use of using an other drive. You have your videos, pics, movies, not to mention your 'those' videos in your normal drive, C drive, and you are negligent to transfer them to the other partition. System crashes when you were fiddling with your system folder and you really want to crash the monitor, but better sense prevailed.
3. You are neither a novice nor a half learned bloke. You are close to an expert. You did pretty well to segregate the stuff into your partitions. And you do it very regularly. But you suddenly uploaded important stuff and it is sitting neat on your desktop. You forget that and start working with your coding, downloading, hacking etc. You don't know. You see a blue screen saying, Kernel inpage error because - it did not rain when you wished. Bosh !

In addition to the aforementioned instances, staring the monitor all the time continuously would trouble your eyes. Experts say, for every 20 minutes one has to take their eyes off the monitor and look somewhere for half a minute. How about staring a buxom girl? You surf the internet for everything, and you are not maintaining your, otherwise, then and then contacts with your friends. Your relationships are spoiled. You are into work all the time and the result is the same as before. Spinal cord problems and back spams are not too far away. You eat voraciously and slouch on your comfortable chair, thinking, this is the job I wanted, only to know few years later, that you should have had a constant blood circulation to your limbs and muscles. You preserve all your data in the computer and you would think of a back up only when your data is lost. Are computers really there to help us or to hurt us?

I still say I am innocent and I din't know what I deleted in Linux that caused the Grub error.

Is India a safe place to live ?

What made me to come up with a post that rummages through a series of ghastly incidents which have taken place over an year ? The two Breaking News flashes that CNN-IBN was covering yesterday when I switched the idiot box at 7 pm with an intention to relax but ended up getting petrified to my last toe nail. I am a man and I admit whenever I am afraid. There are blokes who get freaking scared when they are trying to change their shirt and a rat runs over their feet whistling and wagging it's tail. They jump all over the place and yet when you ask them, Were you scared, you would be subjected to a condescending look and a reply that says, 'Man, be a man'. You will become a jack ass for few minutes, if not for a lifetime, for such an idiotic question. To add to men getting scared, I was once flying from Hyderabad to Delhi through a airline that boasts of the tag, India's coolest airline, but landed after a 10 min roller coaster ride in mid air due to turbulence. That scared my daylights off and I told my co-passenger sitting next to me, Boy, it's a roller coaster ride and I am scared. He asked me, are you not into adventures? What the,beeping, adventure experience is going to save you if incase your flight comes crashing in less than a minute? I wished he had a rocket engine tied to his back and sent to space all alone with a leaking oxygen cylinder. The air-hostess instructions before take off - put your oxygen mask first, take out your life jacket and blow air if the aircraft lands in water - would all work well when your flight hasn't taken off. Lesson learnt:
If you are a man, don't ask a man whether he is scared because they are never going to admit that. Ask a woman, she might come closer to you and if lucky, you can even get a hug.

A bomb blast occured in a mosque in Ajmer killing a couple of people and injuring a few. It happened soon after Iftar - the day long fast that Muslims observe in the month of Ramzan.That was one to start with the latest. A suicide militant attack on a police reserve camp in Srinagar with no casualties reported as yet. There was a Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad, an other sensitive place and a soft target for hooligans, when people were offering their religious prayers, in September. A Jemma Masjid blast rocked the country capital New Delhi, last year. One can add never ending list of madly triggered blasts claiming innocent lives. Police say there is a pattern going in the blasts. Investgating sleuths say, anti-social activists attacked Hindu temples and shrines previously and of late they are targetting Muslim dominated areas so as to trigger communal riots in the country. News reporter muses, Is it not safer for us to venture out on festival occasions and celebrate as before? As if this is not enough, Delhi blue line buses, the Government run transport, run over couple of persons everyday as if it's their norm. The death toll has risen close to 100 over a ten month span under the Blue line wheels. I don't have any statistics of enormous road accidents and local crimes happening all over the country. The same gruesome incidents can be going around the world with varying levels of intensity. I was shaken up with yesterday's blasts and now I am composing myself to compose a post. Allaying my fears to rest slowly and looking forward to the weekend.

And Corruption ! Corruption is escalating to untouched heights. You name a Government sector and you find corruption is their embedded right. You had a clean slate before taking up a job and your slate is scribbled, twisted and intertwined with corruption and bribes after working with government bureaucrats. Now we know why Indians living abroad do think twice to come back and settle, after treasuring relatively peaceful life and enjoying better than best comforts in comparison to their homeland. They do get paid handsomely and eking their livelihood in a much quieter environment and there is nothing wrong with their thought process, why the heck do I have to go back to India and struggle? They are right. It takes a total shift in your life style to adjust with the rising population, enough stuffed pollutants in your nostrils, the weird and uncalled blowing of horns and screams and driving your bike or car in metros is like playing a game of Roadrash or Need for Speed, in your computer. I don't feel safe anymore.I cribbed last Friday, I am cribbing today. I don't want to make it a habit. Need to relax and chill quickly, so I can come fresh to work on Monday.

But if you have a thinking that says, I was born here, I have my family and roots here, I feel I am welcomed when I step on this soil, then nothing can deter you. I belong to this land - The land of Gods, the land of temples, the land of snake charmers and elephants, the land of superstitions, the land of CULTURE, the land of an burgeoning economy. You may take an Indian out of India, but you cannot take the Indian out of him. Come what may in the future. I am an Indian and I would like to be buried in this mud.


[Views and opinions expressed by the author are his own and are not presented to offend any section of the people]

Characters in a team

It was all tailor made hectic Monday yesterday. It's a monday morning and oh no, he should be quite busy is the artificially created character that takes rounds in the corporate world. I agree that they are genuinely working persons scattered in the world, who would be having a really pain in the, beep, hectic monday. And talking about characters, I was going through this round table discussion in Cricinfo, which talks about how important is to have characters in a team. I do read Cricinfo blogs and they do write sensibly. Again, the word cricket gives you a feeling as if snakes and lizards are crawling on your skin, not for you chicks. It was a good article and every team needs characters. Sure, each one of us is an artistically etched typical character on our own, who would never try to change despite the shortcomings highlighted by your friends, but what me mean by character is, the whole team should be able to laugh with you and they should feel your absence if you aren't around. Sort of your, happy-go-lucky Aman ( played by Shah Rukh Khan) in the movie Kal ho Na ho, who has a solution to every problem of yours. We are not getting into movies now.

You are a team comprising of five different people with varying degrees of professional experience and everyone has a view point on how to handle a task and then there is a team leader who is the ring master. The team leader has got his own ring masters over him. An ideal team (of five) would be a team comprising of a pompous chatter box, a sarcastic yet point talking bloke, normally your funny chap, a calm - always on the mission sir - who sort of gives you a feeling while you enter the team that he is THE guy who is working on a 10 year old algorithm for the safe return of a space craft from Mars - geek, and then the poke in your face ever present nuisance bloke who is like a metal pin in your otherwise delicious chicken piece ( for non vegetarians) or a rare type of grass grown in the Savannahs found in your tasty sandwich ( for vegetarians), all with qualified expertise to get on with the job. And watching the ring master having pains and gains managing this rare collection of antiques in the team is the real fun. I said it would be an ideal case, so chances of that sort of team existing, is possible, but rare.

After the character description, (now I am wondering, if I too can etch characters a bit) the real character is the one who mingles well with the team. He is the one who understands the job quickly, efficiently and does it on time. Talks only when needed when it comes to the job and yet makes everyone comfortable in his team. A quick learner and a good listener. Should not hesitate to address a point to his higher officials. If you are doing that,you would automatically gain respect, though he would hardly be known his value in his company, because, don't expect your company to appreciate you genuinely saying, Good job dude. If you are chatter box that could assist you in becoming a decent character as well. Show real concern to your colleagues and listen to their cribbing. That sort of gives a solidity to him and to your stature as well. You are having a social gathering, and people should wait for your arrival, to take the proceedings from there on. And then, there is a real character, where before his entry people are having a good laugh and a banter, and after his arrival the group suddenly goes hush - hush and converses everything in a low voice for the first few minutes until they get comfortable with that bloke, only to have a whale of a time later.

Split Friday

It's been a week since I last posted. No, it's not a gaffe and neither I have a protocol to post a blog every week. I can pretty well lie as well putting an innocent face. If you are a blogger and you haven't had any incidents or things to write, better don't write. A simple tip, but a very important one. But again, you have a chalk and an eraser in your hand and want to scribble on the board. Who is stopping? Not many people follow what they say. I probably want to consider myself in that category, but no dear. You lose your word, you lose your respect. Homosapiens do say one thing and do the other and at times they don't act to their conviction. Animals don't. That gives a chance to shout on, split personality? A bit later on that. I am thinking to convert this blog into my personal diary at this point of time, but no, no plans in the near future, not in the coming 3 or 4 light years. So you can still visit then and then. But most blogs do talk about their own life which sort of sucks if it's not having content or if it's not interesting. Quality not quantity, right? Wrong. If someone is writing couple of terrific lines in his post and expecting his readers to comment on that, not me mate. I do write like what, solid three paragraphs and I barely receive comments. Solid for me, can be liquid to the reader. Dig your brain, post your thoughts, no matter even if they are dirty, and there are readers who would admire your sincerity. Reading others blogs can also be an addiction, in addition to other online addictions like - chat, movies, poker, games, hacking etc, which I was discovering it of late and if you don't find a post there, you long for it, provided you have ample time to hang on the net.

Sensitive yet interesting point, is split personality which most of us are and would scream outright from the bottom of our lungs to disagree. I haven't done a research on split personality, to comment on it, but to what I guess from the title and observed from the movie Anniyan (where the hero has multiple disorder personality, or something close to that, which is a much advanced version to what I am trying to talk now) I thought I would throw some light, candle and a kerosene lamp on to the subject. Women who do not like the subject and find the topic eeek...ridiculously scary, may stop reading right here. Men who feel what the heck is this fellow trying to say and pondering to quit reading and yet, simultaneously thinking, Oh do I come under split personality category, are called as Women from now on. This is a cheap trick to compel you to continue reading.

Split personality is a personality that has a split, if you go by the name. No attempted joke this time. Often, you can figure out the meaning of a complicated discombobulated (more than once, I am trying to put my diminishing GRE vocab in my posts) word from the name itself. You behave in one way - the soft, cultured, naive, honest, obsequious bloke in the office and at the social gatherings. And you are a brash, demanding, rustic, equivocal, domineering person with your comfortable folk around? You don't have to satisfy all the criterion to come under the subject category. If you exhibited any one of the antonym characters at some time, to those you initially portrayed that termed you as a good person, Rock says, you have a problem and calls it a split personality. Dint you yell initially that no I don't have one ? Oh yeah, you call it, ethics of normal life, to behave in a cultured and dignified way. Okay. So then, why can't you be the same way with the closely associated people around you? No, it is not possible because we have to behave the right way at the right place or else you would be put in a mental asylum. Agreed. So you agree that your personality varies from people to people? That means it's split and hence a new definition of split personality has risen this Friday evening, when infact most of the younger folk would be drenching in alcohol and clubbing today and I am here blogging and redefining my own terms. Very few people can carry the same way inside and outside. They do have an identity for doing so, but that may have been tagged with a heavy price. All meek people do curb their natural instincts and act accordingly to the situation. As long as your contrast in personality doesn't vary in striking proportions you will be given a chance to live and move freely with the people. And if once your monkey mind takes total control over you and your actions, you've only got yourself to blame.

Media frenzy in India

Wa-kee-wa, a palindrome in pronunciation and an African word if I heard it right, in the movie Blood Diamond, which means, watz up boy ? Boy says, Heroes homecoming was yesterday's news bulletin in CNN - IBN, now called as TV 18 network, and Welcome home was the front page blow up in Times of India (TOI) newspaper today. And who are the heroes ? No Arnold, no Bruce Willis, no Megastar, no Superstar, no Shahrukh, no Hrithik and no not even our soldiers, who are the REAL heroes who never get a recognition from the media, who fight day in and day out at the Siachen and Burma borders protecting every inch of space which is being attacked by neighbouring countries. Fortunately, India is covered with oceans to the left and right half of it's side, otherwise half the billion population would have gone in protecting the country. The real heroes according to the media, are our cricketers who won the Twenty20 World cup, beep. I was a good boy in my previous post, but don't expect that here.

You must have known by now that I can talk a bit about cricket and despite that I detest the media hype that is being clattered around our cricketers. To me, T20 world cup victory hardly matters. Yes, they defeated the best teams in the abruptly condensed form of the game, but T20 format is a money spinner, a great spectacle for the fans and a massive boost for the game that can extend cricket to to other non-playing countries. Fullstop. Gone are those days where I used to quickly turn the newspaper to the last page for sports, specifically a gusted interest to see a headline on cricket. Now it's all cricket on the front page. Everything else is taking a backseat. Everyone's is cashing on the game and the real purpose of watching a news bulletin is lost. I hate that to the core. I wonder how non-cricket fans, who call it a mad game where a person hits the ball and the other 11 on the field are there to stop it, running amok like a jerk, from reaching the boundary, jumping and diving in the process, would feel it. And to add this frenzy, TV18 talks to it's reporters at three different locations possibly - Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore - in their prime time news bulletin at 9pm for 10 minutes - asking them, why don't we get recognition for other sports like hockey and football or even Chess, where Viswanathan Anand might be a World Grandmaster again, other than cricket. And the reporters or the experts in the studio said, cricket has been the passion or interest of the people without actually answering the question. Rightly so, you'd never expect a correct answer for the answers which are inherently known to everyone. They air cricket in their primetime to increase their TRP ratings. They air Salman Khan's departure from Mumbai to Jodhpur, including the flight details and the time, coz he is the Bollywood's good boy, but projected bad boy. A reporter will be in Mumbai before the flights departure asking his counterpart at Jodhpur , Has the flight got delayed ? They tell you what Sanjay Dutt ate in his jail when he was arrested in connection with the 93' Mumbai blasts. In doing so, they get more ads,they can increase their revenues. If one news channel does that, other 24 x 7 news channels including the regional channels, are forced to do the same, if not, they are caught napping. It's all about money, honey.

Despite the surge in news channels, I still feel, the slow yet steadily paced DD English news is the best. Anything in excess, vexes. So I got fed up at TV18's coverage and the unprecedented interest those news readers show in delivering the content to the public including the diction. It appears all sham when they show all about cricket's wham-bham. I am not too far from rapping.
I switched to Discovery again, and they are back to their regular stuff, though watch worthy this time. I have the liberty to create my own words in blogging and you have the privilege to read those. A reporter goes to Northern India, around the Himalayas - Uttarakhand region, but centered around the Ganges / Gangotri flowing places, on her search for spiritual quest. It's quite soothing to see that show. I had been to Hrishikesh and outer mountain ranges in the Himalayas. It was quite an experience. A very pleasant one. Anything around the Ganges and the Himalayas, trying to know about the history is appeasing. Ganges is so pure, you have to see it, to believe it. One can see the real nature there. Am I not mellowing down? So the reporter asks a Sadhu who has been spending his life for 40 odd years in one of the villages around the Himalayan border - Who am I ? Where have I come from? And where I am going in this life? The Sadhu quietly replies, you have to isolate yourself from the self.

Revisiting GITAM

Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, is my college where I had done my Bachelors and now a deemed university after 25 years of its establishment. Gitam is the acronym, and sort of hair stands stiff on the hand and sends goosebumps when you mention the very name, more so, to outsiders who've only heard of it as a good college, but never studied there. Not anywhere close to IIT, the standards or the research activities, but the serene surroundings enroute to college, the sheer pride that you are studying in Gitam and the bike ride on the beach road everyday, if I think of it now, is terrific. Now that it has become an university, it has to be seen whether the brand Gitam is kept high as before or if it comes to dilution once it really starts adding more departments and courses to the already existing number. I happened to visit Gitam after 5 years, when I had been there last week for a break and I have got the topic to talk now. I thought of writing this blog in two parts, but I am putting it all at one place. So you know that you got to your have cup of hot tea beside.

I took the bus from MVP, the bus stop where we try to jostle for a foots place on the foot board with books in one hand and grabbing whatever thing that comes to the other hand, to cling onto the already crowded bus coming from Siripuram. I actually intended to take the bus during the peak hours, around 8:30 am in the morning to get a feel of actually going to the college, but it was raining hard and I postponed my plans to afternoon. Bus route 900K was relatively free to get in, though the stinking fish smell was present all through the 18 minutes journey. I asked for a ticket and the bus conductor had a double take at my appearance, before he punched one. I had to smile to shoo him away from my presence. So I got the first hand reaction of the students or the staff whom I would be meeting in the college, but who cares man now.

I straight away went to Visweswaraya Bhavan to see and meet any of the staff that I know off. As I enter the building, I see to my left, the much famed Chemistry lab which used to be a nightmare to freshers and the lab attendant there recognised me, though not my name but my department and introduced me to Ramnatham sir. I wasn't expecting the lab attendant to recognise me, though I could identify him and he was the first known face to be seen. Sir kindly obliged and spent few minutes with me talking about the departments and recollecting the memories of 1998, when the lab first got shifted to the present location. Asked my whereabouts and is very much a soft spoken guy now and you can see the hidden glee on his face and in his words, by talking to an 5 years ex-student. As I was thinking to take leave, I saw Maths sir, Achary Sir, quickly springing on the steps. I move towards him and Oh man, and he is exuberant as ever. He enquired about my family, my job, my health - the same love and affection that he showed in the college days. I took a picture with him and he felt very happy for me. He went to his department and I can hear him talking about me all through the way with his colleagues. The massive dedication to his job, the unmatched commitment all mixed with a tinge of love towards his students is incredible. I felt great to meet him as I wanted to meet him first, before I proceed to our department.

Rapid construction work was going in between the engineering buildings. As I head to our building, Sir Arthur Cotton Bhavan, I could see my classmate who is working as a teacher there. Our department head, ASR Sir has recognised me, even my name. We spoke about the regular stuff. I then enquired for my classmate and he is an Assistant Professor there. He came out of the classroom to meet me and once he was done with his class I met him and his wife. The first married couple in our 98 - 02' batch, who are working as teaching staff in Gitam. I and this bloke went to the canteen and had a samosa and banana shake, reminiscing the past. I bid goodbye to these people and headed to the labs section. The most dreaded, manic machines lab was found closed and I took a picture of it. The circle and the leeway on which we used to write records and prepared for the laborations came to my mind. I strolled around the college taking pictures wherever I can. I could see guys playing basket ball in the indoor stadium. Cannot say much about their game coz I hardly played baskeball in my life, but I can say they are little qualified height wise to play the game. I'd probably consider myself a Michael Jordan if I nail one in 10 shots. When I felt I was getting old, I headed my way to the fascinating Rushikonda beach and the bus stop, skipping Mother Teresa Bhavan and the hostels. It was hazy and drizzling, which reminded me of the ragging days in my first year. Sea Inn restaurant, which used to serve delicious meal, was found in dilapidated condition and still it hasn't changed its thatched roof.

Huge flock of students were waiting at the bus stop. I was clicking pictures as if I may not visit the place for the next 100 years. It would definitely be more than 5 years before I get onto that route again. As I was heading to the bus stop, which never has a bus shelter, I let one bus go pass by. I wait for the next one and in comes route number 17B. Students were getting ready to get into the bus early to grab a seat and so did I. I thought I would do a little adventure to give one final shot at, getting into a running bus. I ready myself, with mobile, camera and wallet everything intact. I hold the side rod close to the steps, run a few paces with the same speed as of the bus and hop ! Boy, I still have it in my legs as I was the first one to get into it. Being the first one into a moving a bus and grabbing a seat not only for you, but for your friend as well was one of those forgotten little victories. During my college days, it was me and my good friend, were the first ones to get out of the class and take the first bus home, chit chatting about the daily stuff and girls all the way. But this time, I only had to take the bus back all alone with enriched memories.

The origin of Bob

As I get my feet firmly rooted to the ground, after that roving reporter Rovaan has drawn a parallelism to Roark, I embark my journey to coin a new word for your - our immediate manager who is affectionately termed as 'Bob', before I head for a week's break. The evolution and description of Bob, and how this character is etched will be presented later. Before getting into the details, I would like to say, there can be more than Bob in your office as you scale up the hierarchical ladder, say Bobs. I never claimed any copyrights for my blog, but for this character, I'd say, I need to be referred if you are using it. You are at liberty to use this word for non-commercial purposes but if you are trying to commercialize on this name, I'd expect you to put a reference to this link in your writing or usage. And last night, I woke up in the middle of the night due to running nose, only to start sketching this character.

My colleague (who sits next to me) and I, were discussing about bosses yesterday and he came up with the word Bob, his previous boss in his previous company, and the very name has rung bells in my cranium. This actual Bob used to sit in the 16th floor of a building and my colleague used to work somewhere in 8th floor of a building. And if anyone does a mistake in the work, and if he still pretended he was flawless in the delivered piece of job, Bob, used to come all the way to his cubicle, fold his hands, put a grim face and would ask you to test it right in front of him - the same section of code that you delivered and pretended flawless. And if you were caught and stranded like a ferry in an ocean, Bob would be giving a wry smile and a wink, and one out of your three lives is docked in the office.

I only had taken the name from that conversation and now am putting my definition to the same. The two B's in the front and the rear of the word B-O-B do resemble human ears to an extent and the big hollow O, through which your F-16 fighter crafts can carry a mock drill, is the head. So, if you blow air into one ear (B), it passes through the shallow hollow head (O) and safely reaches the other end (B), making a resonating noise. So to me, managers are meant to be dumb headed and yet, are portrayed as the omniscient lot of the corporate world. Fortunately I don't have anyone named Bob in my office and if I get one in my future, I might really be trying blowing air in one of his ears. No offense to the name, but one has to find a nick name to his Boss at some point of their time and this is it. I might be a Bob one day as well, so everyone has to get through that phase of life at some point of time.

Typical Bob's characters and deeds can be, you could be given a pink slip by Bob because he came to know that you were making out with Jenna Jameson, the Swedish porn star, in your dreams last night. He got furious with his wife the previous evening and he doesn't want to go home till 10 pm the next day and compels you to stay till late night, even if you are done with the work. Lazy Bob doesn't want to replace his second hand car's tyres with his winter tyres as winter sets in, and asks you to pick him up from his house citing reasons that his car was broken. He neatly tucks his belly and shirt in his trousers and tightens his mouth and lips when he tries to know, some unknown things from you and still giving you ample evidence that he is called BOB for no reason, by opening his mouth. Most of the times he receives credit for the good work you've done and he hardly gives a pat on your back. He is the first one to get rattled and petrified if his superior authority asks him to make modifications in the work, which eventually has to be carried by his team. 9 out of 10 times he supports the management and the only time he supports you is, allowing you to get married, as though he is funding the celebration. Thinks the whole day to grant you leave for half a day when he infact, drops saliva in front of his superiors to get his things done and wont be seen in his chair for most of the time, giving an impression that he is busy.

Cant stop raving about the fictitious, yet nattily dressed, omnipresent character, Bob.I have to put an end to this at some stage. So I am now. One can write volumes of books on Bob, like your Harry Potter series. Incredible Bob is a blob. Outright, I can see one Bob in here, how many do you have?

Day dreaming

Man, I am slogging in for blogging out, trying to muster every detail for blogging, the widgets you can add on, the HTML links that can be put in your writing allowing your blog to be presented in a better way...everything all alone and online. Yeah , alone needs a special mention because we were used to spoon feeding from childhood and you say its all pig shit when you don't have proper content in your blog ? True. But when you have the intention to make the act better, you dig deeper. I have the intention. Jesus Christ, why can't we, for a second think normally? So I added Google search button in my blog page and my colleague said, who would come and do a Google search in your blog and instead recommended, its better if you have an option which searches only this blog, and I added it. Voila. God bless him.

Weekend, I was watching a show in Discovery channel about the magnificent engineering constructions in the world. Though the telecast we receive is pretty much customised to Indian standards and viewership, they do show some good international knowledge - enriching programmes, amidst the regular chaotic Bombay traffic or a story about the livelihood of a long white bearded abandoned Sadhu living in the interiors of one of the most ancient cities of India, Varanasi. But this time I happened to watch a magnificent construction that is going in a small city in Spain, where they are planning to build a shopping mall, food court, entertainment stuff, what not, everything at one location on the top of a small hill. Nothing new, but the sheer design and the gigantic glass pieces that are embedded on the outside of the building is breathtaking. Motive behind this construction was to promote the city and develop tourism, fair enough. As I was watching the show, invariably I was wondering, why don't we have marvellous constructions going in our country, apart from the 400 year old Taj. The answer: The next day I happened to see in the news, a fly over under construction in one of the prime commercial areas in Hyderabad, came down crashing killing 20 people and injuring double the number. I dare not to think about construction work again, let alone the magnificent ones.

If, the, why don't we undertake marvellous constructions was one part of my daily dreaming, here comes the classic case of day dreaming. And you thought I was blabbering without any reference to the title all the way? So its not only me who is stupid. I went to bed early last night, for me early is 10 pm. So I was dreaming and dreaming and dreaming all through the night, and I hear a small explosion, loud enough that has woken me up and put me into reality. No, I am not living in Iraq or Anantnag - Baramulla regions of Kashmir to get used to it. So I look around the room and through the broken window pane I peep outside while still lying on the bed feeling everything is fine. A small gleam of street light entering my room from the half open back door, has allowed me to take a look at the ceiling, as I see the fan's rotations dropping. I realised it was a transformer blast due to sudden surge in the power or a trip off which controls the excess voltage to apartments. The result - a power cut. We had power back up and as the fan started picking up speed, though I could still count the number of blades in the fan, it was fast enough to put me back to sleep and my mobile showed 1am as I continued dreaming. I generally don't remember my dreams. Now this is normal, as with everyone else. Otherwise there would have been another blog titled, 'My dreams'.

No its not over yet as I am really referring to the subject matter now. My mobile was shouting, 'It's time to get up, the time is eight thirty. It's time to get up, the time is eight thirty '. d-A-m-N , even it has an accent. I feel I have an automatic clock inside my body and that was saying it was still 4 am as I was trying to ignore the repeated alarm shouts. I would normally get up on the third or fourth shout, not because I don't like sleeping that extra bit but I hate hearing that voice and to stop it, I wake up. So after like 10 shouts and feeling what the heck on earth was going, I was brought back into reality again and I realised it was my dear lady voice who cares for me everyday, day in and day out that sends me to the office, tirelessly. I get up and check the time and my lady voice is always correct! It was 8:30 am and had to run to my office. Fortunately this time, there was no one to splash water on my face while putting an end to my day dreaming.

India clinch a thriller at the Oval

With cricket being one of the passions, it won't be too long before I publish a full fledged blog and today is the time to go for it. If you are not a **die-hard cricket** fan you can stop reading right here. Thanks, visit again. All those people who has a tendency of checking cricket score once in a while just because your colleagues are discussing it, and spitting spiteful comments and asinine remarks on the best players that India has ever produced can also get back to work. But hey, I do check scores and analyze the game myself whenever I can, even though I am not into debates regarding the same. Okay. You are considered. When I mean die hard, the sheer victory evokes that dying spirit in you, which will make you elated, which will give you confidence to do your activity the next day, which will let you forgive the past blunders that the team has committed, which will give you satisfaction that you've achieved something on that victory day, which will keep you hyperactive for the remaining hours of the day- is the need of the hour. By analysis, we mean blokes who have been watching the game for more than a decade, say 15 years, listening to each and every detail in the commentary, who can quickly judge an Lbw decision on first look just as an umpire can, who can predict what could possibly happen in next couple of deliveries and who has a gut feeling that they are talking right about cricket all the time without any proclivity to the players.

Having been set a stiff target of 316 in 50 overs by England at the Oval, India were off to a flier by the 22nd over with the score card reading 150 for no loss. Just when you felt that the match was going to be one sided, Ganguly holed out to Pietersen at covers and India were one down. Tendulkar, the champion bastman, whose batting form in the series reminds you of the Tendulkar in 1994 in New Zealand, was at his imperious best. With a dont care attitude and a free swing of the arms he is back at the top of his game in this match. The trademark Tendulkar stroke, thrusting his front foot forward,with a straight bat, striking the ball straight down the ground, back past the bowler - the shot that holds your breath for couple of seconds until the ball hits the advertisment hoardings- is back! And din't you gape at that shot by, saying, "Oh man...." without a blink? That's when you know the Little Master is at his belligerent best.

Having attempted a big heave over mid wicket to which he was unable to connect, Sachin was seen holding his back expressing pain and fatigue. After hitting sumptuous strokes, he experienced cramps and when he was on 94, was out to nothing of a shot to Monty Panesar. Gambhir played a handy knock. With Yuvraj and Dravid disappearing in quick succession, despite both being in rich vein of form in the series, left India tottering at 234 for 5 with 80 runs needed off the last 10 overs. Dhoni had taken his time in the middle and consumed more than enough balls to have a sighter, and England were a sniffing a victory. Robin Uthappa, the young unsung lad from Karnataka, is the hero of the day. After having couple of streaky fours behind the wicket and his share of luck, he remained composed and they both had taken India to striking distance ,before Dhoni departed at 294, needing 22 runs off last 12 balls. Couple of fours in the penultimate over meant, India needed 10 runs of the last over with two wickets in hand. First delivery, Stuart Broad to Uthappa, a couple taken. Second delivery, Khan run out at the non strikers end in an attempt to sprint for a quick single. Tension mounts. Uthappa still on strike with 8 runs needed of 4 deliveries. Two wickets remaining. Next delivery, with the fine leg up in the circle , Uthappa tried a cheeky four down the leg side and India are a hit away from an emphatic victory. Now the final leg is pushed back to the fence and long off is brought inside the circle. Broad bowls a yorker length ball, Uthappa takes couple of steps down the pitch and smokes it straight past the bowler for a four. And boy, what a shot that was for a winning stroke chasing a mammoth score ! It was Yuvraj, who was in his tracks ran straight onto the pitch and gave a warm hug and jumped, embracing him for few moments. He was holding him tight, not leaving him and that was one of those wildest celebrations you'd ever see for clinching a thriller.

Sachin in the post match interview stated, as long as he scores a 90 and gets out, and if the team wins from there on, he said, he'd prefer that than a century. Wasn't he emotional, is Sachin? So is Dravid and Sourav. They are playing as a unit now. They are supporting each other than ever before. They know that they are in their twilight of their careers and are thoroughly enjoying each and every bit of the game now than in the past.

The three big boys of Indian cricket whom we all revered and worshiped are back at their helm of affairs for one final onslaught. We burn effigies when India doesn't do well, we feel we are blessed when we get to see their repertoire of strokes, we exonerate them when they give us a humdinger, we take it to the heart when they get emotional over the post match conferences, we even shed a tear or two when they celebrate a hard fought thriller. Cricket is not anywhere present in our religion, it's there in our blood !

Blog and a little more

Blog is a place where you can post your thoughts, share information with your readers, express yourself, update your daily activities etc..it's all what you thought, ha ? No offense, I felt the same too until I encountered few blogs which were totally dedicated as a medium for posting jobs ( like your job portals), marketing their products, sharing obscene videos ( yeah, who is interested in the regular stuff eh) and have to wait a little longer to know what more can I add to the list. And all this is done for FREE. Bottom line for today, blog acts as a website. As simple as that. It is no more a decent place. Any notions of blog being a great place, have to dismissed with disdain at this moment, though most of the blogs are still serving the purpose for what they are actually meant.

It's just another website where you can upload, literally everything, though I presume it is not as straight forward as paid sites on the web, but it still is a good starting point for people to play with. Limited features you might feel upfront, but what more do you expect when you hardly shell a penny out of your pocket and can still manage few bucks into your bank account by displaying ads on your blog. Extracting the best features of your blog depends on your research on the web while adding RSS feeds like feedburner, digg.com etc can provide better user interface and options to muck around. I prefer to keep my blogs simple, straight and if possible, try to make a statement out of it and will always cater to what it is intended for.

Weekend stuff

Not always there should be a topic in the blog. Blog can act as a journal or a diary to your, if not daily, then to your weekly activities. While writing this stuff and when one is not actually comfortable with typing or with the language, can be a pain in the......( you know it) anyways, ass. I don't mean I am extraordinary in the above said skills, make no mistake, not even anywhere close to that. It sort of gives a feel good factor after a month or so, about you or the stuff, which you initially thought is a crap, that you posted.

And what was my weekend like ? It wasn't as boring as initially intended. No movies for a change. Could eke out time by sleeping all day long on Saturday and watching the match till late in the night,between Roger 'The majestic' Federer and the 6 foot 9 inch, lanky, hard serving, hailing from University of Georgia, John Isner. Just as his impressive profile so was his play against the Legend in the third round, that he actually managed to snatch the first set from Roger in 40 odd minutes in the tie-breaker. Any chance of causing an upset were quickly annihilated and Federer is not called great just for nothing, as he raised his game by a notch and simply taming the young American in the remaining three sets. Lesson for the upcoming player who just burst onto the ATP scene this year. As a note on cricket as usual, India winning the match against England and trailing the 7 match series 3-2, not because of their worst fielding on display but because of a series of good knocks by their top five batsmen. People around me in the office, most of the time talk about sports as though I am the legal sports expert or as if I am their sports appointed secretary. Anything other than sports with me, is a hush - hush affair. It's they who has to figure that out, not me. Invariably, this sports section always creeps into my blog, involuntarily at times as well. And what sports can I confidently talk about ? Cricket and tennis. No, not even your Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal - soccer. The soccer stuff I knew, I already blurted it out, the team names.

Remembering an instance on Friday morning when I was quickly walking to my office which is situated a few hundred metres from my house, Yeah, I am the lucky few chaps currently in this world, who is avoiding a traffic jam on their way to their office - A dandy neatly shaven, young Sadhu, who dressed in Orange robe, was asking me for money. Why? Because he needs it. Crazy you. I ignored him and increased the pace in my walk to avert any chance of him chasing me down. Had it been a foreigner, he would have been chased till he donated his debit card. By foreigners, we only mean white Caucasians, preferably Americans and Europeans. Chinese, Africans, Middle east & South East Asian inhabitants are excluded from the foreigners list and can breathe a sigh of relief. We want free money and easy money by begging, be it a world bank or a pedestrian. The sadhu said, I would be successful in my work that day. Little did he know that I hardly believe in superstitions.

Lazy - Disinclined to activity or exertion

There are times with each one of us, where we might have felt L-A-Z-Y at sometime or the other, whether in office or house or at any place where you visited . At this point of time, I am precisely ...beeping...lazy about the stuff that's going around me and I resorted to blogging to spring in some action.

The subject today - you got it. If you din't, you are retarded. Do the following steps and you'd be on earth atleast, if not on moon, provided you don't over do these. Stretch your legs, puts your hands at the back of your head, look at the roof, listen to music ( no, no music, it makes you active) rest your head on the chair, turn your eyes left and right for once, take a deep breath and relax. You'd suddenly wonder how I wish this madly paced world would come to a grinding halt. It's good to relax and do things at your own pace and not over exert yourself. Leave the office things in the office. Work in the office itself is a burden ( it's not for me at this stage of my career, so that's why I am blogging ) and why the heck do you folks want to take those office things to your house as well, causing additional burden, venting your frustrations to the dearest ones around you? Because it is only on living things like pets, humans or even trees, that you want to throw your might on. So ,next time when you want to bully someone or when you feel like banging your monitor hard, so ...beeping ...hard that you can't even think of gluing it again and putting it back into shape for reuse, look yourself in the mirror - the serious, ugly, idiotic, jack- ass face ( and you thought you are the smartest and charismatic bloke on earth) and try throwing your might on yourself. Bet, you cannot sustain doing that for long. You'd be back to normal, quicker than when you had the intention on yelling at people around you.

Laziness is caused when people are complacent with their job, when they do not have any specific targets to achieve for the month, when you feel you had seen most things in life, when people are reluctant to move, when you are not guided by someone at your workplace or not properly taken care of, when you eat excessively, when you are fat and when you don't have specific interests in your life and etcetera. These are not facts of life taken from a life science journal but are things that are made out of introspection. Subject matter is going to strike again and again. So , to eliminate this bug, get busy with something.

And why am I preaching here like a dumb ass ? Because Laziness leads to frustration. Frustration is the mother of all disasters. So peeeooopull ( people ) , as I remind of my Italian friend in my graduation who had this peculiar way of saying 'people', I guess, a part of it comes with their language as well, if you feel like doing nothing in this world - start blogging, start browsing, make a phone call to a jerk who can talk at length, listen to music, run on the road ( read as jog) like a streaker on a cricket ground, watch porn, munch popcorn, try rapping (What's my name ??? doggieee......dogg) - engage yourself in some freaking activity that moves your presently firmly rooted feet. Let the thoughts in your brain flow as smoothly as girl's mane - wow, some rhyme there - don't make the brain sedate , don't get complacent. And if you do so, you'd feel you are well past your prime. You would start thinking, I was good in my past, but now, oflate I feel, I lost a touch of memory, I'm not as competitive as I used to be which would make you lethargic and am I not starting all over again, damn.

And did we talk about jack ass before ? How often we become or been forced into one? I was 'Lazy' in booking my air ticket from Delhi to Hyderabad by one day. I was excited to find a cheaper fare yesterday and I delayed booking the ticket thinking, ah ...let me book tomorrow. Now I end up paying more than double the offer price today. And boy, I became one today !

Crib and cricket

What am I doing here when the match between India and England is going to start in 15 minutes ? Crib on others,and that's the topic for today. So you folks can decide at the outset itself, whether to go ahead with the reading or not. Remember, cribbing is one of the pillars on which this blog stands on? For other pillars, go and check your house basement.

And just as other colleagues, I too happened to apply for a product through our company.
Reason: We get it like 25 % off on the market price on the product. ( Oops,trade secret revealed...) Lesson: When you get cheap things, they for sure, 1. Consume your time 2.Test your patience. If you are a kungfu,karate,taekwondo fighter, you want to knock their...beep...off,those people who behave as if they are the Masters and we are the Slaves. Politeness and dignity hardly matter in this part of the world. You are rich, talkative, rustic, bohemian ( and dumb ass ) natured - The answer - Sir, yes sir, anything for you Sir. Soft, cultured, naive and 'he is also a human - let him treat that way' attitude - Sir, all rules for you Sir. I can never understand this disparity between people - laurels for one and rules for the other. Now you know why we are light years behind the Western world despite the media projecting us as,'Yeah, we are inching closer'. We pretend to be fair, but damn, we don't because we cannot. And life goes on.

Yesterdays movie, what's that, I even forgot the name. Oh yeah, Transformers - Spielberg, one of the executive producers. No, it's not Spielberg's name ,that has driven me to the movie, but my colleagues bike did ( attempted joke ) . I went on his bike straight from work. First half was alright.Second half could have been better.The story: Fight between Protectors and Destroyers, both being aliens. Our Sam has a secret that was targetted by the Destroyers that could allow them to be superpowers of the world and our Protectors, do what, Protect the world from destruction.The official name for protectors and destroyers is different in the movie.
Sam saves the world by not letting the cube for which the destroyers are after. Everyone is happy but the audience are not.There were only 10 people in the theater yesterday including the theater care takers. Graphics are fine, climax is predictable. Movie is for 2.5 hours which I felt was longer than long enough. When it comes to movies, I am a critic first. And you talk of any Hollywood movie, all the disasters happens only in USA and around, and its only they who can protect the world with their sophisticated technology ,weapons and stealth bombers. Now, dont ask me, what about 9/11 ?!

Alrightey mates, gotta go, nice weekend. Indian openers are calling. Sachin is trying his best to score a century today as I glance the online scorecard and if he does that, we are going to lose again today !

The weekend blog

Although I am here not to please anyone, I am trying to sound a bit pleasing to the readers as I was restrained in using the dreaded four letter word , by my friends. I instead use the sound ....beep... as a replacement to that. So whenever I want to use the famous four lettered word, I'd rather say ....beeeeepppp.....Curtailed with the freedom I would still try to maintain the intensity in the blog, nevermind, you freaking ...beeepers....

There is a movie called 'Marigold' with Salman Khan in the lead role. Well, if you don't know who that bloke is I've got a wonderful chance to describe him now. This 5 foot something midget, whom we lovingly call as 'tingu', who hardly wears a shirt in the songs, who shakes his chest and butt rigorously with hands running over his own chest ( btw, his only dance move till date ), will be trying to woo a foreigner in this movie. It's normally the heroines in the movie who would be wearing high- heel sandals to match the height of the heroes, but in his case, its him who would be trying the high heeled shoes but still falling short of the height and comes below the heroines eyes. He is the ever so - trying to act - cool dude in Bollywood giving an impression to the outside world that girls are dying for him at every street corner slitting their wrists.

Now as far as the movie is concerned, I was fooled by the print and the electronic media that it is a Hollywood movie. That is the only point which has driven me to the movie. There is only one foreign actress and the rest of the casting is desis. I got to know that the director and the production team is from Hollywood, but then if it is from hollywood, why do we have songs and dance numbers in the movie...beep....? Of all the actors why do they have to choose Salman Khan...beep...? Is he the best of the lot ? Or given any day, is he the best dancer ever, even if you wake him up in the middle of the night? There will not be any answers to these but the only answer I got for myself is, I was forced to watch a disaster. A gruelling and painstakingly directed movie for 2 hours.

It's even more disgusting because I went with a male colleague of mine and I happened to see couples kissing passionately in the theater. The couple sitting to my left and the one sitting in my front row were merrily making it out. No chance to see anything of that sort to my right because it was my colleague sitting there. At the intermission, it was me and my colleague who stood up to go out for a break and believe me, no one else in the theater was interested for the break. Everyone is cosy in their seats with their mates and suddenly seemed like the Intermission is an interruption to them. We like to do everything in the dark as kissing in public is not allowed in India. So after the break we changed our places to the front row where there were no people so that we can concentrate only on the movie rather than the public display of affection ( PDA) . The couples got their moneys worth but not for us. And once the lights were off after the break, the PDA goes on again !

Tour snippets

After writing the previous blog for almost two hours, (yeah, you read it right) taking my own time in correction and updating the links, I decided I should give a week's break. But now inspired by cricinfo blogs at this 14 hundredth hour ( 2PM to those whose left brain is dormant ), - "inspired" is a beautiful word to surrogate plagiarism; I just can't wait to write an other blog. In this case I got inspired to write an other blog, but not the beautifully carved inspired in the quotes I just referred to.

During my golden triangle tour I had seen couple of instances which I found were amusing. 1. A rickshaw puller in Jaipur dropped a foreigner at a place and asked fifty rupees for his service. This white foreigner had a bizzare expression on his face, literally conveying , wha' da ...(beep).. ?? Immediately the rickshaw puller's colleague came to his rescue and said, He know - no english, it is fifteeenn, no fiftyyy, fifteeen....And this stranger breathed a sigh of relief. 2. Again, a foreigner, a white foreigner. Yes, we are so freaking obsessed with the colour white, that if you telecast an ad in TV which says, cow shit turns you fair in 4 weeks we would be up for the challenge, painting our faces with that shit, sleeping the whole night and waiting for the next night. So this foreigner after getting out of the rickshaw was waving his credit card to the rickshaw puller and seemed like asking him, Do you accept credit cards? Little did that rickshaw fellow know about the usage of credit card, I suspect. Had he known that he would have said ' Yes' and would have sprinted from there in no time. Next time our intelligent foreigner would be thinking twice to even book air tickets on his credit card.

Oh yes and the traffic jam. How can I forget that ?! We were on our way back to Delhi and we got stuck in a traffic jam at the vastly and the fastly developing city,Gurgaon ( the millennium city as they dearly say) It was like what, we travelled 2 - 3 kilometers in that beautiful slow ride for two hours at 10 pm and we were pissed off. Even more, when we reached the end of the traffic jam, there were police barricades stopping each and every vehicle, looking at the faces of the passengers in the cars and why ? The next day is August 15th, the Indian Independence day ! Lesson learnt: Neva' eva' travel the night before Aug 15th, in and around Delhi.

Talking again about the beautifully etched "inspiration", did somebody say genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? We software engineers just do the opposite.

The Golden Triangle trip

Finally I got a chance to visit the places around Delhi after being here for 9 months - the tourist heavyweights in India, The Taj Mahal in Agra, Jaipur in Rajasthan and the local sight seeing of Delhi. These three places put together as the Golden Triangle is one huge money spinner for the country as well as the localites, who do their best to empty your pockets and fill in theirs. The distances are almost equal and you can call it as an equilateral golden triangle with each side making upto 250 kms. Angles between the sides here is not exactly 60 degrees for you math freaks. In English, Delhi - Agra is 250 kms, Agra - Jaipur is approximately the same and Jaipur - Delhi is again 250 kms. Now you get the point and so do I, as I started the blog straight on the point because I know that it will be long ass blog from now on. Brace yourself.

Note: If you are clicking on the links and are bombarded with spam, I am no least bit responsible for it.

After our round of Delhi sightseeing with India gate ,Qutab Minar, Mahatma Gandhi memorial and Indira Gandhi memorial hogging the limelight, we had taken rest for the day and headed to Agra the next day. We also got to see Mathura, the birth place of Lord Krishna on our way and we reached the Taj Mahal at 4 pm. Its magnificent, the first impression. The beautiful thing with the Taj more than itself, would be your picture. Any living or dead object captured infront of Taj looks lively. Taj is made of white marble and the quality of marble is different for different parts which I felt was a smart move. For example, the base was constructed with marble from India and as you progress up towards the tomb and other shit,(I dont know the terms) the marble used was an imported one. Cost cutting was present even then and why not, when you are taking of a giant monument for love called, the Taj.

It would take couple of hours to absorb its beauty and the gentle breeze from the river Yamuna will let you savor the moment, even more if you are holding the hand of your opposite sex. As I went with my family we headed to Jaipur, saving those extra minutes of mine. We night halted at Jaipur. It was like 11pm by the time we reached there considering that Agra - Jaipur highway is under construction, which is scheduled to become a four lane highway, by the end of sometime frame, possibly before the next elections. In India we dont follow the deadlines strictly, because every deadline has an extended deadline.

Next morning we headed to the Pink city, called Jaipur. It's called pink not because of gays if any, there, but because of the pink and red brick colour of the city walls at the historical places. The Amer fort or the Jaipur fort rocks. If you haven't seen a fort or presuming that you've seen those little fort like structures and termed them as a fort, then you gotta see this. This one is for real and you may not only get lost with the beauty of it but may also lose your way while your excitement to explore the fort doesn't stop. Its situated right in the center and surrounded by small mountains and the sheer extension of the boundary wall of the fort on all the neighboring mountains is breathtaking. A sense of solidarity will creep into your itinerary after seeing the Hawa Mahal ( the palace of the winds ) and the grand Jaipur museum. You'd feel ah okay, I am full and satisfied today with my tour, than those few minutes of satisfaction which you would normally experience elsewhere.

The best way to go through this tour is to book a cab with 4 or 5 people so it costs less per head, or you better take government organised travels which would come to 1800 Rs per head, for Indians. Yeah we have different prices for Indians and foreigners. The entry ticket for the Taj is Rs 20 ( half a US dollar ) + Rs 50 for the camera, for brownies (Indians) and for foreigners including whites and blacks, it is 750 Rs. ( Work on it you math folks 1 USD = 40 INR ). approximately.

I am feeling if I am taking a mock essay test today as if TOEFL is round the corner. My mom, after the trip and moments before departing from Delhi, seemed like she learned the art of holding her tears back . But my grandmom couldn't !