I'm not an Indian!

Yes, I'm not an India, atleast that's what everybody says, even though I live in India, even though I was born in India, even tough I have lived 26 long years of my 26 year long life in India.

Not that I like to sneak away to US of A like those gujjus or punjabi's or those gulti's and hence want to prepare myself to be that way.

BTW all my gulti friends have just one ambition in life, to go an settle in USA. Ask them a question "Why?" It helps you get good girls for wives. It helps you get good dowry. What a gulti if haven't settled in USA. Man! One heck of source for drain, I mean brain drain.

Back to where I started. So why am I not an Indian? Simple, because I do not subscribe to the passions and interests, well actually the primary interest, of any and all Indians. The passion that cuts across all boundaries of caste, wealth, literacy and all the barriers we have for ourselves in here. I am not bitten by that bug. I am not ready to waste my day. I am not a fanatic who can spew statistics to either show how much an ardent follower I am or to show that I am more neck deep into this than any other. This is not my past time and this is not of my liking.

I don’t like to watch cricket.

I don’t like to watch cricket, even if it a one-day against the arch rivals India and Pakistan. I am least interested in cricket. To be true I cannot hold a bat and make an attempt to connect the bat to the ball. I an not interested in fielding. I’m not lazy, I play soccer. I do not like to gather that leather ball, or catch it.
I hate to waste 8 hours of my day watching cricket on TV and rest for whatever is left in that day to give rest to my eyes.

To me cricket is a game in where 22 idiots play and 22 million idiots watch.

So I’m not an Indian.

I still remember those days, when I was a kid. And if you are a kid who has an elder brother who’s crazy about cricket, then your life is doomed.

Summers, month of May. I come back from school, eat my lunch and about to jump into my bed to take that afternoon nap. And bang! Someone threw a ball at me. It hit my forehead and I hear your elder brother scream “Get up lets play cricket” Saying no is not an option. He has a bat in his hand and believe me being beated by a bat is worse than hell. So I reluctantly move on. Go outside the house, its terribly hot.

No No. Don’t even think about batting. It is always the same I have to ball first. Get the elder bro out and then beg for my chance to bat. So I would ball, swinger leg cutter or what ever I used to call them. And I had great stamina in balling. I used to ball for one to one and half hours continuously, while my brother used to have great time polishing his batting skills. By the way the batting end of the wicket was always fixed and was always in the shadow of the house. So I guess it would also be comforting and not traumatizing as balling with the sun shining on my head.

So I would ball for couple of hours. If I was lucky I would get my brother out.

Form here there are so many uncertainties.

- If he agrees that he is out, without saying anything, which was rare, I would get a change to bat for few minutes.

- Most of the time I had to prove to him that he was out and I was my chance to bat. And it was rare that I would win an argument and bat.

- This was the most common. If I bowl him out he used to run after me holding that bat high in the air, like a samurai wielding his sword. He would run after me yelling that how dare I bowl him out. And then I would run anywhere I could shouting for help, crying. And since my brother was more of a sports-person he would out run me corner me. And then whatever happened is history.


I don’t like cricket. I’m not an Indian.

Advice for you Mr. Singh.

So the President of largest democracy decreed, upon recommendation from the party in government adn electio commision, that Jaya Bacchan be suspended from the Raja Sabha as she was holding an office of profit.

So many allegations and deliberations on what is an office of profit and what is not, an office from which one draws/ does not draw salary even though the office pays to other office bearers or same rank... Blah... Blah…

Smajwady Party, particularly Amar Singh came out in the open yelling that there are 44 cases of people holding an office of profit and also being a member of Rajya Sabha/ Lok Sabha. Pardon me Mr. Singh, did you say that others also fall in the same group so this suspension is wrong?

Well since when has being bad been good because the guy next to you is also bad? Maybe you are in politics, so that’s why this weird thing makes sense to you. But to me that’s a chickens way out to saying that ‘Don’t blame me, I'm innocent, others also are too deep in this scam’.

Accept on the face value that crime is a crime and not a good thing just because there are so many criminals.

So Finally ...

So Finally I'm back here.
Last time that I have been off blogging for so long for the first time Or it's the first time that I've been off blogging for the last time. Whatever. Which time it may be. But i'm back.

Last 9-10 months have had been very strenous. With the project complexity rising like the Sensex and the deadlines narrowing down like the summer stream. Life is indeed tough. The pain was equal if not more than the labor pain. The effort none-the-less more.

Jan'06 was spent staying back in office late in the night. Yawing and cursing the bug on which I somehow kept working. In fact I would realize the next day that I was making more mistakes than I was correcting! But the fun of working late was that there was nobody to interrupt you every now and then with thier problems. Not because I don't want to help them or that I am scared that I do not know the solution, but because that a little more effort would have had the solution yelling on their face "Bugger See its me. I'm here. I am the solution to your problem!". Anyways I'm not afraid to admit that I don't know something. In fact I like to hear me say that I don't know something 'cause that makes me think why? And I work upon to make sure that the next time I have something to say on that problem. So much for self praise!

So now when the project neared completon, I thought I can take some time off and rest, but I was shipped off. There again the same thing started all over again except that its a little bit less hectic here!

And you are bang on target. Won yourself jackpot for guessing it right. That's the reason why I'm here with a new post now, which still looks like a disfigured and spaghetti like scribbling on a toilet paper!

Harried Harry

Full 2 days at work, not much but as many as 16 hours. Very efficiently flushed down the drain.

And when Professor Trelawney draws all those unfortunate cards life can't be easy. While I drooled on Harry and his adventures with the Half-Blood prince, my team lead was calcualting the productivity indicies for everybody in the team. No wonder my index would have mounted the FireBolt and made a nose dive.

Thank God there were builds to do. Start 4 builds to run sequentially and I have 6 hours of free time.

So Harry started his new session at Hogwarts.

Adava Kevadra.

She killed the Professor. That bitch. How could she? How could she kill Dumbledore? Weren't many other worthless people to die than Dumbledore?

Ah but yes; ofcourse the hero of the story is Harry, how could he share his glory his delight of Killing Voldemort. How could she let him, the hero, share the success with anybody, even it was Dumbledore.

I wouldn't be amazed to see Lupin, Tonks, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and many others; all of them die in Harry's quest.

And yes it would be friends who laid down their life for a good cause. They'll be remembered till the Wizardly world exists. But why couldn't the story be so written to have them alive?

Rowling you leave me growling.

Teddy, Mickey and Donald

I hate Teddy especially when he's a Bear.
I hate Mickey especially when he's a Mouse.
I hate Donald especially when he's a dick. Oops! Duck!

This was funny...

Have a nice day!
* Achcha din lo!

What's up?
*Uupar kya hai?

You're kidding!
*Tum bachcha bana rahe ho!

Don't kid me!
* Mera bachcha mat banaao!

Yo, baby! What's up?
* Beti Yo, uupar kya hai?

Cool man!
* Thandaa aadmi!

Don't mess with me, dude.
* Mere saath gandagee mat karo, ek husti.

Check this out, man!
* Iski chaanbeen karo, aadmi!

She's so fine!
* Woh itnee bedaag hai!

Listen buddy, that chick's mine, okay!?
* Suno dost, woh choozaa mera hai, theek?

Hey good looking; what's cooking?
* Arree haseenaa; kyaa pakaa rahee ho?

Are you nuts?
* Kya aap akhrot hain?

Son of a gun.
* Bachcha bandook ka.

And the best one is.....

How do you do?
* Kaise karte ho?

Where's the 3rd Floor

9.00 pm Dinner time

9.15 pm I with other colleagues and my team lead leave for dinner

9.30 pm Filled my plate to the maximum

9.35 pm It starts raining and it rains as if it would never rain again.

10.00 pm Finished dinner, still raining

10.05 pm Chatting, talking to colleagues, a loud burst of laughter everybody looks at the rookies. still raining. Found a bakra. Leg pulling, teasing.

10.10 pm Bakra beheaded, hungry we look for another.

10.11 pm Found another bakra.

10.12pm My team lead, "I've parked my car in the 3rd floor."
I, "Is it?"
"Yeah its in the multi-level car park." (We have only one)
I, " Oh! Wow. Where else you would find 3rd floor if not in a muli floor building"

10.13 pm My Team lead bids adeiu and leaves. Walking in the rain, completely drenched he thinks "I'll be back"

Sania Mirza...

So much for Sania Mirza. The rising star of the Indian tennis...
Some poeple never miss a chance and some never take a chance...
Some don't care ...

The lady has put India in top 100 tennis player map, even though its not a great feat but not trivial either. I guess they want to give credit to her for everything...!

It was a dark room...

It was a dark room. Blizzards outside wrecked havoc. Chilling. Cold. Freezing. In the next room the fire in the fireplace was dancing to the tune of winds outside. Very often I could see the shadows on the opposite wall made by those dancing flames. Oh! It was such a lovely scene. And he was there. At the other far end of the long table. A table, which to me, looked like an entire expanse of a football field. Middle of the table was a candle stand sportively sporting 5 candles, neatly arranged into a spirally rising staircase. It was such a wonderful picture. Only if he could also see...

We were like brothers. No we were brothers.

We always were together. We swayed in the morning breeze together; enjoyed the lavish evening sun together. We cherished the star studded sky and the cool and comforting moonlight. We were like brothers. No. We were brothers. Hanging form the same family tree we saw the vagaries of life and the lives go by. Life bought to existence; babies born, children transforming into adults, adults fighting for something or other, and adults dying; life undone.

I still remember those birds... The sparrows who perched so close to us. Those parrots who used to come and nibble at apples kept next to us. Those owls hooting in the night, those kids sneaking in the farm trying to steal one fruit or the other.

His whispers still echo in my ears. The picture of his face, a face with a red splash, is still fresh in my memory. He was big. Too big than me. He was sweet. Too sweet than me. He was an apple of every eye. I always looked up to him for everything. It was him I wanted to be.

And then one day our curator, the lord of the place where we in lived took us, both of us, and transported us. Detached from the family tree, away from those simple pleasures of life, that sun, those stars, that moon, those birds... I was too sad. Dejected. It was him who gave me strength. It was he who told me life changes, and changes for better. "We all grow, and we all die. We all grow from our seeds. Without us everything would stagnate. We are part of the growth of entire universe. We all die. We leave space for more growth. A growth which is better than what we witnessed, a growth which will do this world better than what we could do. We all have roles to play, we play our roles and leave. Just like the Sun. It comes every morning to give us warmth. And then it grows to give us more wrath. What would happen if it stays for ever in any particular state. We would burn in its heat or else die for lack of it. So the Sun grows and dies and leaves. That's when the moon comes to give us the comfort and cool of the night. If moon stays forever we'll shiver and die due to the same good he was supposed to do to all of us. So does every other thing. They come serve their purpose and leave. And then come back again, to do a much better job, to play a much better role in this world than they did last time."

Yes. Maybe whatever he said was true. No it must be true. Or else why... It must be true. He has to come back stronger much wiser and to serve a purpose much better than what he did this time.

But for now, as I see. He lies there still. His red skin glowing in the candle light. That would not last long. I know. They cut him open in two pieces. And those two into two pieces. They were barbarians. They never though twice. Just sliced a knife through him.

I can still see his red skin glowing in the candle light. But now its loosing its shine. His flesh is now turning reddish, more reddish. Its rusting. All the iron in him is rusting. I guess he's already dead. Sure he is. I will follow him soon. I know.

It was a dark room. Blizzards outside wrecked havoc. Chilling. Cold. Freezing. In the next room the fire in the fireplace was dancing to the tune of winds outside. Very often I could see the shadows on the opposite wall made by those dancing flames. Oh! It was such a lovely scene. And he was there. At the other far end of the long table. A table, which to me, looked like an entire expanse of a football field. Middle of the table was a candle stand sportively sporting 5 candles, neatly arranged into a spirally rising staircase. It was such a wonderful picture. Only if he could also see...

And close to me I can see a health diet book of my owner, which somewhere reads...

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

When GM takes on Microsoft

DISCLAIMER: The blog owner bears no responsibility nor can he and does not assure the veracity of the statements; nor shall he be liable for any damages of any kind induced upon anyone in whatever form.

END READERS' AGREEMENT:
If you proceed beyond this, then you agree to not hold the blog owner liable for any damages of any kind to anything living or dead, person or corporation or anything on this earth.

One of the many forwards that reach me; I present to you one of those...

Now that you are here....

"
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."


In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):


1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.


2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.


3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.


4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.


6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.


7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.


8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.


9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.


10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
"

The forwards...

With so many forwards, one for you...

1. Regular naps prevent old age... especially if you take them while driving.


2. Having one child makes you a parent; having two makes you are feree.


3. Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right andthe other is the husband!


4. They said we should all pay our tax with a smile. I tried - butthey wanted cash.


5. A child's greatest period of growth is the month after you'vepurchased new school uniforms.


6. Don't feel bad. A lot of people have no talent.


7. Don't marry the person you want to live with, marry the one youcannot live without...but whatever you do, you'll regret it later.


8. You can't buy love . . . but you pay heavily for it.


9. True friends stab you in the front.


10. Forgiveness is giving up my right to hate you for hurting me.


11. Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.


12. Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you gettired


13. My wife and I always compromise. I admit I'm wrong and she agreeswith me.


14. Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.


15. Ladies first. Pretty ladies sooner.


16. It doesn't matter how often a married man changes his job, hestill ends up with the same boss.


17. They call our language the mother tongue because the father seldomgets to speak.


18. Saving is the best thing. Especially when your parents have doneit for you.


19. Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talkbecause they have to say something


20. Real friends are the ones who survive transitions between addressbooks

Voilla! Analytical Learner... Blah! Blah!

To gauge yourself take the test!

Here are your survey results!

Your Cognitive Style Index is 46 which indicates that you are an Analytical learner.

This survey measured your Cognitive Style. Cognitive Style affects how you organize and process new information while learning.

Intuitive learners [scores of 0 to 38] are less concerned with detail. They have an open-ended approach to solving problems and work best without strict rules. They are in touch with their feelings and need to feel personally involved in their work.

Analytical learners [scores of 39 to 76] give attention to detail. They focus on facts and "hard data" and rely on what experts say. They are logical in their approach to learning and do things step-by-step. They excel in structured, well-organized learning situations.

Neutral learners [scores of around 38] can learn using both intuitive and analytic modes.

Thanks again for taking the time to complete the survey,

Elena

Managers in an autorickshaw

It was raining in the morning day before yesterday. And I overslept. Woke complete 1 hour late than usual, missed my company cab and had to hire an autorickshaw to office. Rs. 70.00 down the drain. :(


A peculiar thing that I observed is that on every signalled crossing the autorickshaw driver killed the engine. And then just 2-3 seconds before the signal turned green he started the engine. I was amazed at the accuracy of his estimation. This was not a stand alone case but I observed the same thing at all the crossings. I put my brain to some rigorous work and dug into all the memories of travel in an autorickshaw and found that this was true for all aurtorickshaw drivers and at all crossings. Amazing.


Why don't all the managers undergo a trainning course on how to drive an autorickshaw, of duration 1 year or 6 months so that they can be better at estimation. They are pathetic are estimating how much time is required to finish a project. Way off the track. Or else what? I finished Harry Potter and the Order of pheonix and Da Vini Code in office, Half way through the Lord of the Rings trilogy...


Add to this that you can shout and swear at your manager, which you definitely cannot do in routine office life but can certainly do when he's a autorickshaw driver.


BTW this is does not in any way relate to my manager. He's a nice person very efficient and effective in all the things he does.


Does anyone of you people know him?

Sucking Itinerary

Sometimes there's nothing better than reading google.groups. And for certain there's nothing great than finishing Harry Potter and Order of Pheonix in 2 days, sitting in my comfortable chair, sipping tea, good music playing with intermittent periods of checking mail.


And this one is icing on the cake. Doing all this in office.


But seriously this itinerary sucks, sucks big time.

In the elevator... it so happened

In the elevator... it so happened...

Why are the managers the way they are. Not that they are very rude, bossy, overyfriendly or all of that sorts. In fact my manager is a mast manager. But sometimes...

For instance this other day after having lunch I was on my way back to my cubicle. My Mananger had been on a week's vacation and he had come back the same day. He took the same elevator I was in. After exchange of Hi. How was the vacation Blah...Blah which moreso was because there was nothing else to do in the small elevator.

At this point I'd make an OT (off - topic) observation. Ever noticed the elevator has an information inside. 13 persons only. XYZ kgs only. What amuses me is the fact that the lift doesn't even have enough space for 13 people to stand. Atmost 10 people can board the lift with their nose just a whisker awayfrom the other's! For once I thought that's an eskimo way of greeting which these people practise.

13 LOL. Only famished people.

Back to topic. So my manager asked me How's life? Pat came the reply Comfortable

The next day my team lead comes to me and says What did you say to him, that you have plenty of free time!

What? What else do you expect in answer, if you ask somebody How's life? OR is it should I say.

Life sucks. I'm in deep shit. Life's miserable. Add to it the peanuts that you pay. The f****** AC also doesn't work, the room tempreature is at 25 degrees. The food is terrible...

And we laughed a lot the entire day.

Even now you can hear a roar of laughter if somebody around asks How's Life?

The engineers with no TV to them...

Ever been in front of that idiot box. Well plenty of times. Many hours of the day; in fact for one reason or the other, stuck up on one channel or the other.

I was also on one of those channels when I thought why is it so that there so less if not any programs dedicated to engineers. Are we the lost part of this habitable planet? Have we become a vestige? Or is it that we are those back room slaves who never get across that door?


Whatever be the reason , the fact still remains that there hasn't been anyengineer per se on the television. You'll find housewives trying to mess up their calm lives; doctors trying to somehow mess up with their patients so that they can get some more money out of him or else trying hard
to save a patient just in time; lawyers pacing up and down the court hall yelling on top of their voices to convince the judge that their client is not guilty. But never an engineer trying hard to solve the problem at hand, pulling his hairs to get the things right and enjoying the pleasure the
intellectual happiness, so to say, that he would get when his product gets ready.

Never.

The closet the television could get to engineers were Dr. Brown, the mad inventor who built a time machine out of a DeLorean car in Back to the Future; MacGyver, not an engineer but who seemed to have engineering skills; and Gyro Gearloose, Walt Disney's engineer/inventor.

To quote "The National Academy of Engineering, in a 1986 survey, confirmed that the public perceived engineers as self-absorbed, rigid, and possessing poor social skills. One respondent said engineers were social misfits with whom he would not want to be trapped in an elevator because they were difficult to communicate with. Little wonder that entertainment
writers steer clear of us except, perhaps, for comic relief."

Doesn't this look like a positive feedback system, with no chance of things settling down to something more than something transient. The people feel engineers to be self-absorbed, long haired, unkempt and greasy, rigid, cocooned rats like creatures who live and die in the holes they call as lab or work space. So keep the people away from what they 'fear'.

But I guess there's also an other side to it. People respond to and feel more comfortable with things they have had first hand experience with. Not that third party experience or narration is not interesting, but it all passes as gossip as something which never happened to them but nevertheless was equally engrossing, or else all those crime serials or crime buster
serials wouldn't have been popular. Anyways this is off the topic at hand. The viewers can identify with lawyers, doctors, housewives, cops and all the other pervasive professions. The engineer, and now allow me to broaden the horizon to include researchers, are not in any of those.

"Possessing poor social skills" I certainly don't agree. This is a sweepingly generalized statement and is grossly incorrect.


To this effect I would say that Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic Channel to name a few, incidentally they are my favorites led by History Channel, have done a lot. Specially the History and Discovery Channel, I can smell some partisan behavior here, are the leader. With documentaries on engineering marvels, Wings, Modern Marvel, Boys Toys, Nokia innovations and so on and so forth they tell the world about what all engineering has and can do and with due exposure of engineers.

World form the other side...

I never thought I would be placed in that situation so soon. Never had even
a vague idea about it.


It was sudden transformation. And it took a lot of courage. The new role
demanded a lot more responsibility and also the fear of what if
? When it came I had not thought it would come with so much
stealth.


I was enjoying my day at office. Having completed most of what I was
supposed to do; I was 2 weeks ahead of schedule. That made me suspect that
either I've improved or else the people who had estimated the time to
complete the project were pathetic, poor at estimation. Obviously being a
youngster in this young industry (merely 60 years old) I believed in the
latter. The former had no chance of acceptance. I had read somewhere
Thou know Thy the best. But at same time some words were resonating
Boss is always right . Whatever be the reason, the point is I was
ahead of schedule.


My project manager came to me and said Hi, LM. How's it going. For a
moment I thought what? What going? Confused beyond any more confusion,
perplexed I looked at him and said Comfortable. Comfortable!
Comfortable, what was supposed to be going went comfortably. I smiled at my
witty answer. Ok. So let me give you some work. For once I was very
excited, thought I might be asked to mentor the new trainee. No prizes for
guessing who (s)he was. I was being asked for last 2-3 weeks to prepare to
transform to a mentor's role. No doubts she looked beautiful.


Ok. Tomorrow 3.30 pm you take 3-4 interviews. What?
Interview! Shocked I was. I had never been on that side of the table. Have
always been the one whose ass was on fire. The interviewing panel drumming
on my bums. Hmmm. You answered this question. How about this one. Gee I
knew you couldn't! I took me a while to brush together my lost senses
and I replied, interview, well that's a difficult task and I don't think I'm
ready for it now. Oh! It shouldn't be difficult for you. You have been in
interviews. You'll do a good job. ??!


I am still as of writing very scared, what if. What if the person knows
everything I ask? Does it mean he's good or I've lost my edge? What if (s)he
doesn't answer any question, does it mean that he's bad or I'm worse in
taking an interview? What if I find him/her good enough to be recommended
and the other panel members do not, does it mean I've failed in making
judgment? What if I found him/her good enough and recommend, (s)he is hired
and then fails to perform, does it mean I've failed?


Yes and No.


Maybe some questions don't have binary answers.


Let's wait for tomorrow.


Sometime it has to be a first time, so why not it be at the first
opportunity itself!

Few good things in life

Past few weekends have been great for me. Specially the last week. Lot many good happened to me and to people around me.

My cousin took the last step to enter the black hall. The Passing> Out Parade (POP) . He's now going to Indian Military Academy, Dehradoon. After two years he'll be a commissioned officer in Indian Army. He'll wear that green uniform then. And I'll ask him to salute his elder brother and have a snap taken. He's the same boy who used to wash his feet every time he went outside. And now he's typical> army man.

My school time friend, we are still in contact even though its been more than 10 years since we met for the first time and 3 years since we last met. He was posted somewhere in Assam and now he's been transferred to the Pune air base. He's been put into the Sukhoi squadron. He was earlier with Mig21 as far as I remember. He stood first in his entire batch of air force pilots. I just can't wait to go to Pune and see him as well as the Sukhoi. In fact the excitement of seeing the bird is more than that of seeing him.

One of my 6 PG (Post grad not paying guest!) time friends is seeing girls and will probably settle down with one of them. He's getting married in next 3-4 months.

This weekend we cooked food at home and the demand was for pumpkin (kaddu) and poori, a deep fried bread kind. We made delicious pumpkin dish and 30 poori's to be savored by 3 of us.

Last week there was not much work load, so I could browse a lot. Everyday 6pm to 8pm I swam across sites, urls.

Had great fun.

This kind of week should repeat more too often.

Worst Case Scenarios

Having planned for a week long vacation with my family almost a month before, worst things start happenning.

Just before start of vacation there's network outage in the company, I cannot do any work and the work pressure mounts.

One day before I have to leave the network is alive again and to add to my woes there's a deluge of mails asking me to do "some" more work! That day I stayed back in the office till 5 in the morning to finish most of what I could finish. The vacation seemed to be too much far, too much needed.

The next day I come to office, in half sleep, with my luggage, work for few more hours,well actually 6, before I plan to leave and catch my train. I meet my Lead and say "I gotta go, have train in 1 hour". And he looks at me with hollowed eyes. "Are you leaving" with an expression on his face which suggested "Is it necessary to go?". I make a sorry face, an expression that suggested "What? I couldn't hear it. Anyways I couldn't understand it. You know I as planning for it for last 1 month" "BYE".

I reach the railway station.

I'm very tired and want to sleep. Habitual of the habit (!) I browse through the reservation list to see how many F's are there in the list. None of my interest. Too old or too young. There is a group of students in the next coupe. They make my life hell. Playing Antakshri all night. Yelling at the top of their voice, the act they fondly called as singing, they ruined my night. Humble request falls falt on its face. Its already 1 in the morning; I had boarded the train at 5 in the evening. I fell asleep. The cries and yells were now acting as lullabies.

Morning 5'o clock. Its time to alight the train. Destination.

2 days into the vacation.

Accusotmed to doing something in the office, being busy, I end up in a shock. Boredom, nothing to do. The evenings turn into a torture. I am forced to watch those mega soap operas on Sony Television, Start Plus... all those which mysteriously always start with alphabet K. Kyonki Saas bh kabh bahu thi, KKusum, Kahani ghar ghar ki. Amazingly all the serials seem to have same cast same plot and possibly same ending!

Twice in a day I start a discussion with my uncle and loose the battle. But like Rana Pratap who ate bread made out of grass but didn'tsurrender, I continue my war.

The TV remote control malfunctions unannounced. I can't watch WildOn or Poor Man's Bikini Beach on AXN. To those who find it difficult to understand why, we in INDIA still avoid doing some things infront of elders, which might be as mundane as smoking, even when we are parents of dozen children!

I go to a VCD/DVD shop to get some movies to watch. The store (?) has none except "Bride and Prejudice" and that too in hindi "Balle Balle: Amrtisarto LA". I thought "Dheere Dheere yahan se sarak le".

Come Diwali and I am in no mood to fire some crackers. "Loudmouth, what happened no crackers?" For once I had a good feeling of refraining from polluting the air, not burning those fancy fireworks, the products of an industry which employs a lot many children. Well this was a ephemeral feeling. But those raid of questions certainly made me feel like grabbing all the crackers from everybody I could catch and fire them all at onego.

Finally, Diwali and come a lot many invitations for dinner and lunch. Eating is my favourite hobby pastime and also possibly the only kind of work Ienjoy. In fact I at 3kgs of bitter gourd (karela) in this one week.I'm so fond of it. The connoisseur of food had a good time eating all the dishes and that too in huge quantities.

Back to usual. Same old food served by company caterer, same old cubicle...

And so was born the legend ...

Not so long ago in a non-descript village in countryside people did talked about this Legend, nicknamed DD. The old called him Debar Donst but the youths preferred to call him Dare Devil.
The children couldn't understand what it was, nor were the stories of this DD narrated to them so often. This village, like many other of kinds, had a cemetery not very far from the village limits. A cemetery not like other cemeteries. This had an eerie silence surrounding it, a cast of ill omens. This cemetery lived in the shadows of the dead.
For ages grandparents told their grandchildren, mothers frightened their children if the kids didn't have their glass of milk or the meal finished. Going out in the night was considered darest of the dares. Bedtime stories were told before the sun settled in its nest in west. Doors were closed before moon lightened up. People asleep before the stars came out. This was the village with a burial ground, which used to become the playground of the dead. So was said and told to others. Nobody knew how is started. Nobody ever questioned. Nobody ever dared to venture out and find the truth. Like the universal truth the dictum of gray haired people was accepted and honored. But as with any other place, as with any other story, there was one called DD.

Though he wasn't too brave and daringthough he wasn't too smart to be an outright maverick, he had many dares under his belt. Having traveled a lot to many distant lands across the seven oceans he didn't subscribe to the ghost stories his parents told him and their parents told to them and their parents told to their parents.
At a very young age he had traveled to far off lands of long eyed people. It was told that the country, called China, was full of dragons fire spitting beasts that could fly. Strange was the land and strange were its people. DD had also been to someplace where everywhere there was ice. As far as one could see it was ice. He called it the land of the Queen. Such strange were the ways and equally strange was DD's life. When DD came back from his tour he revolted against the dictates of the village council and the fear of the cemetery. He said he would go to the cemetery and come back alive to prove that everybody was wrong all along. They were captivated by the imaginations of their ancestors and riveted by their own imaginations and uncanny conclusions.

That day he waited till it was dark. A lunar eclipse. Even the stars didn't dare to have a peek at what was being done. An old man already on the verge of death was asked to keep a watch on DD that he did what he said he would do. He entered the cemetery roamed around. Prayed at his mother's grave, talked something to the grave of his neighbor and then started to return. The ghosts as if were woken up by his prayers and his talking were waiting to pounce on him and shred him to tatters. The moment he got up from the grave he felt his trousers being pulled from behind. Somebody was holding the end and pulling it. GHOSTS! The kingdom of DEAD was indeed alive. He saw a flash of light cross the sky. His eyes reddened, he started sweating profusely, breathing very hard. DD felt strong pain near his left shoulder. Someone was pressing hard on his chest. Someone was trying to gorge out his thumping heart. He had a cardiac arrest and he died on the spot. The old man saw everything. He was in tears, shaking as he witnessed this gory act. He had seen DD pray and talk to so many graves. He has seen him walking and now he was seeing him dead. The ghosts had feasted on him. It was more than what he could endure. The he had been a witness to all, the kid growing into a man until now was, witness to all his mischiefs and now witness to his beastly drama of death.

He had also seen his trousers get entangled in that thorny bush. In the morning the villagers took his body and buried it in the same place he had fallen dead.

And so was born the legend of DD, Dare Devil for some and Daring Dude for others who had challenged the creatures of the other world and laid down his life.Even now going out in the night is considered darest of the dares. Bedtime stories are told before the sun settles in its nest in west. Doors are closed before moon lightens up. People go to sleep before the stars come out.

END.