6 Flags nite

Quite a procrastinated blog....

Last friday was quite an amazing night. Another one of those when you got the feeling of being 'alive'. For some moments, let go of my tensions, stresses, inhibitions and had a whale of a time. Heres a rundown of the fun rides that I had at 6 flags. The descriptions are taken from 6 flags advert pamphlet.

1) Goliath - Standing over 200 ft. tall and approaching speeds of upto 70 mph. Goliath is a giant among coasters.

My take: You gotta be a freak to take this ride as your first roller coaster. Hehehe. Seriously, once you take this, the other rides are all paplu. It takes an eternity to reach 200 ft. You feel your hearts and other parts will pop off. And the seats are such that your entire upper body is open. the first fall when you fall straight down is one helluva fall. True to its name, it sure is goliath.5/5

2) Scorcher - Riders stand not sit as they head-over-heels across a looping inverted track.

My take: Initially we thought that my friend was joking. How can you have a roller coaster with people standing?? But then, there we were, standing and thinking, ok what have we got ourselves into. You actually feel the extra g force. Quite an experience standing. Best part is when it inverts you and you are doing shirshasan in motion.:) 5/5

3) Superman (Ultimate flight) - The South's only roller coaster dives head first through tortuously twisted turns and a pretzel shaped inverted loop.

My take: No, they dont quite make you wear your inners outside to ride the roller coaster, come to think of it, that would have been the easier option :P. You sit in a bucket and strap. The floor goes down, and the seats turn so that you are facing the ground. Sounds easy..eh? 5/5

4) Batman (The ride) - Fly with batman on ski lift style trains suspended from the track.

My take: In other rides, theres some breathing space for the riders between loops. This one has none. And the worse part is turn 360 along the length of the track, which is like flipping in a car along the side. Just waiting for the ride and watchin people go all screaming put us in a spin.

Some advice for people taking the roller coaster:
1) Eat/Drink after you have taken all the rides.
2) Think of the thrills/adrenaline rush, instead of the fear of the rides. The moment you think that you wont be able to do the ride, you are right:)
3) When in the ride, just enjoy the ride and yes scream at the top of your voice ;)

Sabse vadda rupaiyya

Recipe for disaster:

Humans of different characters/personalities - 9
Some real psychos/crackpots - 1 is enough, but more the number, larger the explosion
Friendship - Few kilograms
Camaraderie - Lots of it

Wait a sec I thought this recipe is turning into a yummy recipe. Hehe, a potent ingredient is missing

Money conflict - One drop is more than enough

and Boom!!! there goes the entire kitchen up in flames.

Its been only about 3 weeks out here and its disappointing and disgusting to find people squabbling. More than people squabbling, its the fights between friends that disturbs me the most. And the amount of money involved is not that significant. Don't know if thats the 'American Money mindededness' that my fellow indians are getting polluted with, or maybe they are just an exception and I am reading just too much into it. Whatever the case be, the frenzy it has caused is really not worth it.

I am of the opinion that if you can "purchase" peace of mind, you really shouldn't think twice before buying it. Oh! how badly I miss my friends back home where money was the last thing on our minds, in fact it wasn't there at all.

So thats the simplest and quickest recipe for a disaster. If you wanna see the friendship bridges go up in flames in one sec without an atomic bomb being dropped on them, the above mentioned recipe should work well. The sad part is, theses bridges cant be rebuilt at all, no matter how strong the original construction was.

Tamatar waale ki kahani

As I sit and write this blog, I realise that the next 5 months would be crucial. With no funding from the college, my resources are burning up faster than a rocket burns fuel(yikes, what an analogy....hehe) 42 point something something times faster than it would have burnt had I been in India sitting idle. With the insecurities gradually turning into fear, I happened to receive this mail from my friend telling me of a story of the fallen tomato cart. Heres the story. The mail claims it is written by some CEO by the name bagchi. Cant really comment on that but that is unimportant anyways. I found the story interesting and it made me sit up and think. Its interesting that the when I see and compare myself against the tomato vendor, things seem so much better. I have a roof over my head, I have been admitted to a good school. Its true, that we ponder with the what ifs and what if nots that we forget about living in the present. Although the story hasnt lifted my spirits to an extent to which I would have liked it to, but when I see the bigger picture, the longer run (some of the mgmnt mumbo-jumbo that I have learnt), I realise that things will hopefully change and change for the better. I guess I will have to just wait a lot more, dunno how much, but seems like lady luck is still aint impressed with me. Will need some magic for things to change. I hope the wait isnt too long. 5 months to go and the clocks ticking and with each tick, my pulse rates increasing. I just hope that my hope is not hoping against hope. Else work on the backup plan of Wada Paav stall at times square would begin. Beware McD, you guys better hope that things change at my end, else its bad news for you guys.......

'Advice' is what you get when you ask for money

Yep, these are the words with which my previous CTO described the condition which they faced when they went to VCs for funding their startup. I am reminded of the same words as I face almost the same condition. Well, not exactly the same condition, but am looking for money.Anyways, so have met many people and them for funds, and each one has one same advice. "Commit for a PhD, We need long term commitment". So my take is, isnt 2 years long term? Theres this one project which has funding up until 2010. So if the project is not going to last for the entire duration of my PhD, why should these guys expect a long term commitment from me? Anyways, So everyday, my routine has been to pick up my sack, go to some prof, beg for funds, tell him that I am undecided on a PhD, and see the change in his expression, hear the same old advice, thank him, walk back dejected every single day. Dunno how many more times will I have to face the same thing. Seems like this number is going to be high.
Some days I ponder whether this is what I deserve? But then, life wouldnt be life had it been fair you see, atleast in the short term, atleast that is what I would like to believe so.
So here I am, having forefeited a fairly comfy life in search for a more comfy life. I just hope I havent screwed it up. Only time shall tell.
Yeah, "Advice" is surely what you get when you ask for money.

Missing my company.............

Having left my job in the last month and getting back to the old grind of academics, heres the list of things that I am missing.....(not in any particular order)

1) Evening snacks and the long chat sessions with my friends
2) Weekly movie
3) Friends
4) Night outs in front of terminals
5) TT Table
6) Free beverages and biscuits
7) Sweets at desk
8) My Salary :(
9) Flexi timings
10) The parties - birthday, team lunches, release parties.....
11) Entertainment server
:(

Missing everything :(

Trip from Pune to Mumbai and back - Rs 500
Food costs - Rs 250
Tickets - Rs 2200

Watching the IPL final cliffhanger match at the stadium LIVE !!!! - Priceless.

There are some moments in your life that make you feel so ALIVE that you feel so . One such moment happened to me watching the nail biting finish of the IPL final match. Heres how it all started.

It was Thursday afternoon when one of my friends told me that the tickets were available online. But the catch was the price was 2k. My threshold initially was 1500 but then thought, what the heck, lets go for it. And Thank God for my decision.

Plagiarising heavily from the Mastercard Ad, the one liner sums up the entire experience "There are somethings money surely can't buy.....

Shock Market

I opened my DeMat account long time back but it took some time to put my first penny into the Stock market. Guess, I shall attribute my reluctance to my gene pool as coming from a middle class family and that too from a Marathi middle class family where "Thy shall not put your money into the stock market" is the 11th commandment which has to be followed very religiously. For a long time, I watched the stock prices like a spectator watching a game from the sidelines, applauding, shouting, hooting, expressing a lot of emotions but all as an outsider, someone who has nothing to lose or win for that matter, no matter what the result is. All the emotions were essentially second hand experience(theres a GRE word for this but damn cant remember it[:D]). Then one day it all changed and I put my money in some stocks. Life has never been the same.
I remember participating in some mock stock competition in college some years back(finished 3rd out there btw earning around Rs 350 for an investment of Rs 50:D --- yeah apne muh miyaa mithu) where people traded mock stocks and the principle which most followed was ......If a company has some good news, people would throng to buy it, and if some bad news is put up against it, everyone would start selling. I used to wonder that although this principle was correct, it was amateurish and I was convinced that real stock market buy/ sell would not be based on such near sightedness. But having seen the stock market and some stock prices in the past 8 months, I have realized that the principle still holds true. In the recent black mondays,tuesdays.....fridays, it seems that people sell or buy on just pure good or bad sentiment. The recent mega crash in which the market crashed from 20k-21k to about 13k-14k saw lakhs and crores being wiped off in a single day. I guess people want instant money and when they see the prices of their stocks reduced to a rubble, in such a short span of time, the first reaction to the selling pressure is to run away with as much as you can take.
I sure have learnt something. People looking for large short term profits need to have big hearts and deep pockets. People do get themselves screwed in their quest for quick money. Greed is one human quality and many including me have fallen prey. Long term profits can be gained on most big companies, again theres some risk involved but then stock market means some risk. You try to wonder if you can have a scientific explanation for the stock market prices and you realise that if at all theres one, it would be something beyond my comprehension. The only explanation is good news == more buyers == increase in stock price and vice versa.
The quintessential sermons that are given in a maharashtrian family that "Stock Market हां एक जुगार आहे " now doesn't sound that wrong i suppose. In the short term, it sure is no better than BlackJack.......But then again, even blackjack can be cracked open.........

Happy .....er not so Happy Birthday

Birthdays come and birthdays go, but this birthday was my weirdest. It was different as it wasn't preceded by any excitement but on the contrary filled up with a feeling of trying to hold on to my previous age. When you are a child, you always want more and more birthdays, you want them to come fast as you look forward to get rid of the 'child' tag and become an adult. I have concluded that this eagerness lasts until the age 24, after which you want just the opposite. Birthdays should come as late as possible, try to delay the inevitable, well in this case you cant even try. So birthdays will no longer remain birthdays. As Ronan Keating sings, life is surely a roller coaster and you gotta ride it. Just that roller coasters end with a steep drop where all the fun is, life begins with a steep drop and then at some point of time, the fun ceases and the ride turns into more of a slow, gradual upward movement against the gravity, with no more steep drops where one can scream, shout, laugh, wave......[:(] I came across this interesting and real funny perspective on how life should be.
Anyways, this birthday was weird and memorable, made even more memorable by employees of ATN. Thanks to them, I remembered my bday for the next 4 days.......ouch it still hurts.....
Some thoughts:
1) Age could be made expressed always as keeping 24 yrs as base value. So 25 yrs would be 24 yrs 12 months..........
2) Use of different numeric base. So 25 yrs would be 19 in hex......(Thanks to phdcomics for this suggestion)
3) Tax people who ask your age but do not accept it in the above two formats.

Bryan bhaiyya says 18 till I die. Worth a try.......

Ratzzzz.....its 2008

Well, its that time of the year again when everyone wishes "Happy" new year. Point to be noted ...."Happy". And its the Rat year....ye!!!! So, I decide to look around for Chinese astrology. Why? Well I have enough time to kill. So any random topic is good enough.[:)] Google throws up this site http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/2008.htm
The site has enough material for me on which i can waste time since i do not believe in too much astrology, let alone chinese one. But the results that this site throws up are really interesting.
Apparently I am a Green cow born in the year of black pig and it can be said that i am a wood cow.Hehehe. So far so good. My lucky element is Metal. Now the real fun starts. The site concludes the following things about the green cow, wood for the year 2008, the rat year.
1) Rat is the Romantic Star only for people born in year of Rabbit, Sheep or Pig. If Rabbit, Sheep and Pig people look for the love, they have more chance to meet the opposite sex. (Oh ho.....sahi hai dost, sahi hai)
2) Therefore Female Water and Wood men have more chance to meet the female in 2008. If they have good relationship with their girls now, they can think about the marriage, specially for the ones born in years of Rabbit, Sheep and Pig. If the marriage doesn't happen in 2008 for above-mentioned people still have very good chance and relationship with their boy or girl friends.(I am already starting to love chini astro)

The site also charts my rise and fall of my life and believe it or not predicts it too.
3) I was luckless between ages 10-19.(Yeah....I would second that)
4) 20-29 my luck improves big time as compared to 10-19.(No signs of that currently happening.......)
5) 30-79 my luck is the best, and I shall have the best years.(Now you are talking........Hehehe;))
6) And finally 80-89 would again see a fall in my luck.(If I live that long......)

So in conclusion, this year as per my Chini dost log hopefully
1) I shall meet my lady.
2) My luck should rise and become better.

Tdays Jan6 2008, shall retrospect on this post on Jan6 2009. So keep an eye on that post.Hehehe

So what do 'Your' chinese stars say....eh?

P.S. All conclusions have been derived using the prediction results as told by the site http://www.chineseastrologyonline.com/2008.htm which uses state of the art equipments and cutting edge technology.

Oh man, so near yet so faaaaaar..........

Yeah, we met through a common friend. I must express my gratitude to him. It was definately love at first sight. I looked and admired her like a car enthusiast admiring a ferrari. A bit dazzled by her beauty, by her looks and then she was in my arms, in my hands. Oh boy, what a feeling it was. Yes, God must have taken ages to carve her out. In the black darkness of the night, she shone like a star. She was in a black dress, all quiet and reserved. I had to make the first move for sure. A single touch was all needed for her to open up and did she open up or what. Like a small child, who opens his eyes to the lightest of touch, a smile lit her face, so bright, that all other things around her faded into darkness. It was my dream to see her, but I never imagined that she would be in my hands. All the right curves, right shape and .....she could fit inside a pocket too.......er... pocket? Yeah the I-Phone, Apple's I-phone, Apple I Phone it was and what a piece of technology it is. Watching the features and the demos on TV is one thing but experiencing its super cool features in hand is 100 times more exciting. Great work by the Apple team. Hats off for thinking and then producing such magic. I wish i would own it someday..............

Someday someway together we'll be baby, I will take n you will take your time..........................

Hum aisehi hain,aise hi rahenge, kabhi nahi sudharenge

When will this country's citizens acquire some civic sense? When? When?
Last evening, I went out for some Diwali shopping with my friends and the entire journey....from home to the shopping malls and back was worth remembering for all the wrong reasons. The journey had just started when a sleek Honda Civic came and stopped beside us. The window rolled down and guess what, a young guy brandishing his designer glasses and his designer clothes, pushes his sick face out of the window and guess what, spits right on the road. Would he have done the same thing had he been in any other country? The answer is no. Its just here, in India, that he has got the guts to do it. That was just the beginning of the evening.
Next we stop at a traffic signal for the obvious reason.....The traffic signal was RED. Again, we hear of a vroom, another young guy, rich,spoilt brat, wearing black shades(maybe thats why he couldnt see the red light), leather jacket, on his million dollar bike, zips past us, breaking the signal with such impunity that it would put any politician in Bihar to shame. Again, the same question, Would he have the balls to cross even the Zebra Crossing, had he been in say US or any other country?
The worse was yet to come. While walking in the walking plaza on the MG road, we saw it so littered by the crowd, that it was almost stinking. MG road, by virtue of being in camp, would be used by a cosmopolitan crowd, who can be safely assumed to be rich and literate. But wait a minute, does literate mean having civic sense too? Well, as far as India is considered, the answer is no. So what do we see? We see, many people most of them young and from well to do families, throwing filth on the road as if MG road was a part of Dust bin. Again the question repeats, why cant these people have simple,plain civic sense of keeping their city clean?
All of the above three incidents were all the more disappointing since everyone was young, and broke the law with impunity. Although making roads filthy is not punishable out here in my country, but people just don't believe in exercising some self-control. They need some fear, fear of being punished,fear of being put into jail, fear of being fined, fear of being rapped on their knuckles for them to obey a rule.But my question is why? We live in a civilized society and these are simple,plain unwritten rules.
These idiotic rich brats will speak in flawless English, imitate everything from the West, their clothes, style,accent,music everything except plain civic sense. I have become fed up with sights of such stupid young people. I am reminded of Madhav Apte from the movie Dombivali Fast, and feel like taking a baseball bat and breaking the mouth of anyone who spits on the road, smashing the vehicles which break traffic signal and rapping the knuckles of those who make the streets filthy.
Why on earth, is it so damn hard for people to acquire civic sense? How stupid can one be? I hope all such people become a part of Brain Drain. But wait a minute, this cant even be called "Brain" drain.
Yeh log kabhi nahi sudharenge, Aise logon ko sirf dande ki bhasha samajhti hai.

An off day

This could well be one of my worst days of my life as i feel low in spirit and enthusiasm. Down,down down is the way, in which my day has gone. The day had a good beginning, and i thought that this could very well be a decent day. How wrong was I. Its not that i feel down because things have not gone my way. There have been many days, when things don't go my way, but today, I was hoping, and expecting certain things. They say, never expect. But its a human tendency to expect from everything and anything, but the "day" had other ideas. It slapped and whipped me in all possible ways and in all possible areas, to leave me, at the end of the day, bleeding all over and wrenching in pain. I tried to fight, but you see, you just cannot fight this day. The day was in no mood to just leave in a state of pain. It wanted me to take up a knife, cut me open, gorge out all my organs, and laugh at me in sadistic fashion. Well, now that the day has come to an end, i do not know whether to laugh or cry, because i have reached a level of insensitivity to pain, since you just cant feel the pain after you have been subjected to such things. As the song goes "Gam se ab ghabaraana kaisa gam sau baar mila.....

AI gaa

I have always been intrigued by how the human mind works. They say that what differentiates us humans from other creatures on this planet is this processor. Even science has not been able to explain it in its entirety. They say the gates of this processor are the nerve cells, and apparently some chemical thingy, triggers of various things in the body. Imagine the things that the mind has to take care of.....On the external front, handle the enormous amounts of information that the five senses are sending it continuously. The pictures, the sounds, the tastes, the feel, the smells, analyze each and every thing, decide and then instruct the muscles so as to control the movements accordingly. All this while, it has to cater to the internal workings too, check energy levels, enzyme levels, instruct the glands to secrete them, lookout for cells that need food, see that oxygen level is maintained, monitor heart to see that it keeps on pumping the blood, etc etc. Am no expert in biology, but there must be zillion things on brains mind to take care of. Then theres the third front which probably is what makes us unique in the animal kingdom. This is the meta-physical/spiritual/logical/emotional front. I have clubbed everything in under one front because all of them share the common process of thought-process. What is a thought process? How can some chemical reactions trigger of say my answer to 2+2? or say questions like who am i? or the different feelings that i experience? or for that matter, how can it trigger me to write this thing? The first and second front has been reproduced to a large extent, with automation as the example. As to the third front, the race is on. A.I. Yeah, artificial intelligence as they. Its a no debate as to whos more powerful on the first two fronts, humans or machines? Countless science fiction books, movies have been made as to what happens when machines overtake us in the third front. Could it be possible that one day, science fiction would come true? What would be the tipping point if that happens? Its not possible right now, that the machines/robots start thinking on their own, and when they do so, quite obviously, they shall think for themselves first. But taking a hypothetical scenario in which this thing does happen, how will it all start? Probably, in some research labs, with a computer scientist working with a super computer, trying to run his some AI program. He hits the enter key, sees a bug, and cringes with disappointment. Damn, the value should have been 294.7364 and not 294.4356 Have to build the program all over again. Compiled the program, 0 errors, 214 warnings. Smiles back on the prof's face. . He hits the enter key, and.........

What have we here, laddie? Mysterious scribblings? A secret code? No, poems, no less! Poems, everybody!

Sittin in the audi, n watching the show,
was thinkin to myself, if i could be a pro

can i dance or can i write, can i paint or atleast sing?
isnt there any talent in me, that i can call my own "thing"?

singin is wut i started out wid, but what awaited me was gloom
my songs wouldnt go, beyond the confines of the bathroom

had a shot at painting, thought i would do that with ease
my masterpieces were limited, to graphs in my ppts.

tried my hand at writing,thought its same as writing notes
the only ficion i wrote, were my weekly status reports

writin whackky one liners, that wont require any slog,
but the ones that were appreciated, were sysouts and user-action log.

writing neat little poems, is what i tried in rage,
lookin at the this one, dont think it will go beyond this page.

Sittin in the audi, the show sure was a treat
best place for me out here, seems to be the audience seat.

Conversation with Kerala Bus Conductor

Scene 1:
Location: Mangalore Bus Stand

Dialogues:

Me: Yeh bus Kannur jaayega kya?
Conductor: ?(Puzzled look on his face)

Me:(Thinking, that explaining with broken english and hand gestures might help in the conversation) Bus (pointing to the bus) goes("hands on steering wheel" gesture ) Kannur?
Conductor: (With a poker face) This bus will go to Payyanoor. From there, Kannur is pretty near. You can take another bus from there.

Tikdun Motha gumboot aalya mule purna pravaas, tondaawar bot thevun gapchup kela.

Humri photu to kheencho........

A casual conversation with a friend was what introduced me to words like shutter speed, aperture, camera lenses etc. Yes, the world of photography. So, I decided to make myself more aware of these photographic terms and their significance while clicking pitures. The same friend had shown me a Canon SLR camera which costed about 28k, and i said to myself, who in the world would buy something like that for clicking pictures when you get amazin digicams for half the price. I am sure there must be people who treat their SLR's as not some instrument of photography, but as an extension of their own bodies. These are the people for whom, i guess clicking pictures with a digicam would be sacrilege. For gamers, it would be playstations,xboxes...., in similar fashion, i guess for photographers, it would be SLR's. Imagine a converstation between photographers n am sure they would mention a SLR in the same breath as car lovers would mention mercedes, or terrorists would mention AK-47s,56s? eh?
Nowadays, the term googling has become synonymous with searching something, n i had read somewhere that Google Inc had trademarked the term 'googling'. Newez, me veering of the subject....(Apologies to google for using it though.)tried to google some basic stuff about amateur photography. the site https://photo.net explains everything about photography, but it got too technical for me and hence decided to look out on google videos.
I had already heard about the Rule of thirds while clicking pictures, but in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiYHT-JvoqI , it has been explained in neat fashion, where at the end you really find the rule of thirds, extremely simple to put into practice.
Apparently depth of field or depth of focus is an important part of photography. Following video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzedefUXARE explains the same using photographs. Very nicely done tutorial showing how the aperture size affects the depth of field. The next http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpWtq-haaCQ video shows in general usage of a digicam, but i really liked the photoz in which the difference due to shutter speed is shown. I sure am atleast gona try to implement some of these tips so as to say. As far as the SLR goes well i would say, that can wait....

Here Cometh the Rains

2nd July 2007,
After 3 days of incessant rain, the morning is dry and seems like i shall make it to office without having any part of my body 'dripping' in water. But wait a minute....The met dept had predicted 3 more days of rain. Naah, who trusts the met dept anyways. I get ready to go, start my bike and then..... yeah the met dept did get it right this time around. Thankfully, it is a drizzle and i manage to get to office, relatively dry. And then, it starts raining cats n dogs, elephants n dinosaurs or whatever you want to call it. I haven't seen so much water pouring in one day in Pune.
I get down to work and the entire day i keep hearing and seeing the downpour. The day ends prematurely for me at 7:30 but decide to delay my departure hoping that the rains would go away. Plus still had to see the remaining part of the movie Hotel Rwanda. Nice movie though. The movie finishes but not the rains. I eventually decide to push off, but my bike has other ideas. I am reminded of my own version of Murphy's law "If something has to go wrong, it will do so, exactly when you dont want it to." Anyways, the bike seems to be in no mood to take me home. So, I decide to take the PMT as Rickshaws refuse to ferry people to other side of the town. By the time I reach the bus stand, I am completely wet. Theres a threshold point of 'wetness quotient' if i may call it that. beyond which you really stop protecting yourself from the rain, actually you really stop caring because you cant get any 'wetter' than this.
So as i wait for the bus, i remember the recently released movie '1 40 ki last local'. Naah but no Neha dhupias out here. hehehe.... But theres this man, who comes and talks to me regarding how difficult it has been for him to reach work because of the rain I am like, wutever boss, why should i care. But then later realise hes on a high with a peg or two, more than his daily dose. The PMT buses refuse to stop in spite of me frantically waving like a person drowning. Should i go back to office at spend the night? Just then an indica taxi comes. The drunkard gets onto it and the driver asks me if i was interested in joining. Kothrud suddenly seems to be an elusive place. I hop into the car, and then realise, fuck i havent even asked the driver about how much it would cost me. Plus he isnt even dropping me to home, rides only till deccan. Wut if he charges me 500? the cars jam packed, and i start getting weird ideas. Could this be a trap? man, then i am surely screwed big time. The driver misses a turn, n my thoughts drift to the amount of money i am carrying, mobile, watch , aroung 15k? Fuck...but then the driver steers back to the original route. Realise hes drunk too. Hehehe.....Seems like everyone in the city is on a high. I am dropped at Deccan with all my belongings intact and i am lighter by only 10 bucks. Phew....Now to the next bus stop..... As i walk, my floaters seem to have had enough water and are now squeezin it all out. The journey doesnt seem to end. Luckily, i find a bus on my route. As the bus wades through water, i find that Karve road is filled with knee deep water. I find a maruti stuck with water upto its wind sheild and i realise that the concretisation of half of road has led to all this inundation. Finally, get down at my stop. Still about a kilometre of walking to do. The low lying societies and the slums are now filled up with water. I see people with bucket, pipes trying to remove water from their houses, but with rain still continuing, i really feel sorry for them. Decide to click some pics of the road or is it a river? Hehehe... and they say India Shining......Hehehehe.....Finally and yeah finally reach home. Its been a long day for me, and as i sit filling up my blog, i just hope that tomorrow is a much better day.

A Night out at my office

Its been many times that i have spent the entire night at the office doing work, and i have been asked many times how on earth is it possible to work the entire night. My answer is simple. When your Boss is sitting on your head, its not that hard not to work the entire night. Heres an hourly peek into what happens as the night progresses:

6pm-7 : Boss comes in, Hey, i will need that thing complete by tomorrow morning.Me - Oh F*$K, gone my sleep. What all things are on my plate??? Oh shoot , these are things to do??

7-8: Shall do this, wont do that, this need not be done, that can be pushed for next release, that ought to go in.

(tic-toc,tic-toc,)

8-9:(People leaving for their homes) Oh shit, how many hours of work remaining??
2? 3?4?(chances of my work estimates being correct are as less as india winning the WC , futball WC i mean.)

9-10: Food,food,food, gotta have some. Oh Company's canteen's closed, maggi- life saver. phew.
10-11: click click click click, (Me thinkin---This lyf sucks man), damn, this thing aint working , what are my options? do i have any option?? clock races faster than Schumis ferrari.

11-12: Coffee time, glug glug glug glug aaah. sleeps gone for 15 mins, y aint this damn thing working, chuck the elegant options, workarounds? need to complete it tomorrow......man, how on earth is this going to happen.

12-1: (Posture change from sitting in chair to half sleeping with legs on desk) As murphys law says, if something can go wrong it definitely will and(my addition) The level of difficulty of any problem is inversely proportional to the amount of time left before a deadline.

1-2: break needed, orkut, rediff, gmail etc etc. gone 1 hr, need some refreshments, coffee coffee, more coffee.aha, alive for 15 more minutes.

2-3: comp screens getting hazy , ants walkin on my screen, wake up boy wake up, lets put some loud muzzic, speakers, where are the Damn speakers???? search search search, ......... aha here they are. Lets make a playlist( there go 15 mins) atlast, dhik chak dhik chak dhik chak.....$$$$$

3-4: lemme take a power nap of 15 min, which gets translated to 45 mins.(more scattered coffee mugs)

4-5: ooooh, morngs just round the corner. birds chirpin, thats bad news, work left? huge, lemme chop down some to do items......

5-6: morngs here,damn, am screwed big time. no chance , pack up time, mail writing time, asking boss for more time ..........

6-7: send mail, pack up, drive home, see pple going out for jogging, kids to school, while me retrning home. damn wut a lyf.

next day:

Boss: Hey, i will need that thing complete by tomorrow morning.Me - Oh F*$K, gone my sleep ...................................

Hasta La Vista Schumi

With the 2006 F-1 season coming to an end, it surely will be remembered for Schumi's last season rather than Alonso's second straight championship title, which is rather unfortunate. Theres no question about Schumi being one of the best drivers of all time( Some say he is the best), although his way of winning titles, by ruthless driving, sometimes putting not only his life but also others' lives at peril was something which I always hated. His style is sometimes called as killer instinct but i think he crossed the line way too many times and got away with it. His overtaking maneuvers were surely breathtaking but his philosophy of "Win at all costs" didnt really appeal to me. Who can forget his duels with Villenueve on the last race where in he nudged Jaques out of the championship title race. Theres no secret about his so called enmity with almost all the present and past F-1 drivers especially Alonso. Thanks to the advancements in car safety technology, drivers like Schumi do not end up taking lives of other drivers in their quest to win F-1 Titles. With him retiring, there will be many who shall be missing, but not me and the other F-1 drivers. Hasta La Vista Schumi.

A tale of 2 mirzas

Yesterday i saw this song called "Mujhe tumse muhabbat hai" in which Dia Mirza is dancing with minimal clothes on, with water getting sprayed all over. Now take the case of another Mirza, Sania who was criticised by one section of her community for wearing revealing clothes. Infact they had a fatwa issued against poor Sania. Now,there has to be someone who also has seen Dia's gyrations in the song.How come there was no objection to that song? Infact Sania is up there on court making her country proud and these people have a problem with her dress?Whereas Dia is dancing/bathing in front of so many people wearing absolutely nothing and they dont have a problem with that. I think all these people who object simply want attention in the media. I hope some sanity prevails atleast in the media and they do not highlight such trivial issues.I am also trying to understand this funda of fatwa.probably in the next one.