Weird or Creative or Weird Creativity?

I got a call from Oskar on a Sunday morning, and he asked, if I would be interested in visiting the Moderna Museet (Modern art Museum), I readily said, yes, as I didn’t have anything to do. Modern Art museum!!! Arts and me!!! Are like, like poles of magnet.

As per the plan we met at Kungstragarden and walked down to Skeppsholmen, the island where the museum is located. While walking, he told me that currently there is a touring exhibition of paintings by Max Ernst. I heard that name for the first time and I could just reply, ‘Oh Ok!’ hearing the painter’s name. To our surprise there was no entrance fee on that day, as the event was sponsored by Eurocard.

We entered the exhibition hall and it was fairly crowded. Being a first timer, I was clueless and I am sure it was reflecting in my body language. My feeling was similar to someone who entered a business meeting in swimming costumes. I collected myself, observed others and paused momentarily, in front of those huge wall mounted paintings, pretended to observe them. I was not able comprehend those weird colours and shapes in the paintings as I was trying to relate them to the real world events and objects, and could not appreciate them. It was beyond my imagination.

To add my complex, when I saw people standing in front of the paintings and relish its beauty, I thought ‘why am I not able to?’ The answer to the question was simple. I always asked myself ‘Why?!’ Instead of enjoying the fascinating colours and shapes; I was trying to understand them. I was trying to evaluate and conclude, how difficult or easy and good or bad, they are. It took a moment for me to realise that any form of art is for enjoying and not for me to evaluate. The next few minutes was interesting as I glanced through tens of paintings and sketches. We went on observing the paintings, the patterns in them, thoughts behind them, techniques used etc. They no more appeared weird to me, instead I admired the creativity and how different someone can view things around them.

It surely was a life time experience and one of the wildest things I had ever done. I would be lying if I say I have become a modern arts enthusiast, But I won’t say no to another exhibition. I suggest everyone ( with no taste for arts ) to visit the museum once, I can assure that it will be a unique experience!!!!

Weird or Creative or Weird Creativity?

Glogg

The e-mail read,

*Hi all,
Come and have a Glögg andPepparkaka.
See you in the kitchen!
//Christina*

The moment I read that, got curious to know, what on the surface of earth is called Glögg* and *Pepparkaka*.Like anyone sitting in front of a computer, opened the wikipedia.org and searched for them. Now I got fair idea that, Glögg is wine ‘like’ and Pepparkaka is biscuit ‘like’.

I saw people passing by my desk, heading to the kitchen, with their coffee mugs in their hands and I followed them. The arrangement looked like this: an Electric griddle with a saucepot on it contained the Glögg, and 3 bowls containing raisins, almonds and pepparkaka(Ginger Biscuits), all aesthetically arranged on a table.

I stood well behind in the line for my turn to fill the mug, so that I can watch colleagues who helped themselves to glögg, to understand the glöggetiquette. While standing in the line, a colleague explained that glögg is red wine with cinnamons, cardamoms, cloves, etc and served during the winter around Christmas. Well, almost all the ingredients go in to an Indian Curry too!! I filled my mug, dropped a couple of almonds and raisins in the mug and picked apepparkaka.

We stood in small circles, having a chat, while I took a couple of sips from the mug. It tasted good and a bit warm, with a strong aroma. The taste suggested that the drink should be had out of a goblet not a coffee mug. The immediately effect was, I started feeling tipsy and funny from within. The drink hits you hard. May be because its warm and alcohol vapors mix in the blood stream and reaches the gray cells quickly. I picked up an empty bottle to check the alcohol content; it read 15%v/v. A colleague joked, the temperature is just enough to evaporate the alcohol, but not enough that all of them are wasted in the air. There were couple of guys like me, who are first timers to glögg and we had some funny talks about their experiences. By now my first drink is over, and I took the courage to refill my mug and got back to my desk.

For a moment I forgot my password to unlock my computer, and I
realized glögg is not for the ‘Light Weights’!!!! Beware, you ‘Light Weights’ out there, before getting adventurous with glögg.

PS: Oops!! I forgot aboutPepparkaka, its type of ginger flavored, thin biscuits.

Glogg

Directionless

New to a place!!! You are bound to face few embarrassments during the initial days.

There is no way that you can avoid those blushes, but, recounting them will bring a smile on your face. I think its pretty easy to identify a person new to the city. Especially if you do not have good sense of directions, you will look stupid in the middle of the crowd. I am no exception to it. Initial few days in the tunnelbanna is as challenging as finding your direction without a compass in the middle of the ocean.

Every time I got out of the T-Centralen, I landed on new streets to find new buildings, new restaurants and new Shopping Malls. Thanks to umpteen number of exits that one can take.

I made it a point not to ask for the directions from people around, thinking of the surprise package that's awaiting. I read some where, 'One without direction in life goes nowhere'. I disagree with the gentleman who wrote that. One who is direction less finds new places, I believe I am nothing less than Christofer Columbus in this regard. :).

My definition of a new comer to the town goes as follows, from my experience in the tunnelbana:

He who comes out of the train, walking out slowly just before the last few people, takes a couple quick steps, stands still for a moment, slowly turns his heads towards either side of the platform with out looking for anything particular wondering which exit to take is a new person in the town. :)

Wish you very good luck in all the directions that you take in life....

Directionless

Desert

I thought I should write this travelogue before I forget the details of the wonderful trip to Jaisalmer.

One fine day in the hostel rooms of MREC, few people started counting the savings from their pocket money after the mess bills, DP expenses and Jai Ambe expenses, for a possibility of pulling out a trip to Jaisalmer. After persuading each other and a lot of deliberation and careful budgeting, four of them thought they can make it and I am one of them. Those were the days when we googled less frequently and only thing that could be termed as 'trip planning' was booking of return tickets to Jaisalmer.

The day of the trip arrived and the four us boarded the train to Jaisalmar with our backpacks on, on an evening from Jaipur Station. It was an over night journey from Jaipur to Jaisalmer. Indian railways offered us sound sleep in its coupe and we all arrived at Jaisalmar in the morning fresh and full of energy. I bet no Railway in the world can match the comfort is to cost ratio that Indian railways can offer. We had no reservations made for our stay. At the entrance of the station a ricksaw/auto ricksaw waala (I couldnt recollect) approached us and after telling him our budget, he took us to a house adapted to be a hotel. The price charged by the owner of the property was nominal and that was the cheapest which was well with in our budget and pretty ok when compared to our hostel rooms and toilet.

We got freshed up and hogged the Aalu ki paratha at the hotel, took some sight seeing tips from the guys in the hotel, we moved out to explore Jaisalmer. The only hue that could seen in whole of Jaisalmar is yellow or Orange. No wonder the its called 'The Golden City'. We went to the Jaisalmar fort, from which the small city looked wonderful. The fort had some temple inside it and usual stuffs like Rajas undies, soap box, comb, sword, crown etc. We had an analog camera with 32-36 snaps reel (Noone knew the exact number) and judiously used them. We also visited the havelis may be 2-3 which were homes of kings in the past and tourist places now. All these places were beyond our understanding, its architecture, history etc. and none of us put any efforts to understand them. :)

The major attraction of the trip was the trip to the sand dunes,infact thats the only thing in our minds. Thats how we visualise a desert and were taught and told thats how a desert looks like. We took a jeep to the sand dunes which was few miles away from the Jaisalmar city. Jeep generally would be used for transporting milk cans. Our joys knew no boundries looking at the sand dunes. It was beautiful. There was an ad shooting going on in the sands for some basmati rice. After bargaining for a while we hired 2 camels for the desert safary. We were 2 each on the camels which never brushed it teeth and burped close to our faces. A little boy was escorting us and controlling the camels. With all four of us on top of the camel, we had noone but him to trust. The boy entertained us by making the camel run fast, which was exciting. He also showed huge iron remains and told that was a destroyed army tank during the war. After a tiring safary we relaxed in the sands and it started raining heavily. It cant get anything better when it rains in the middle of the desert.

I do not remember the events that followed or the order in which I have written, but I remember when we boarded train to Jaipur, our seats/berths had a thick layer of sand due winds, which we cleaned up and went to sleep, before roughtly 7 years ago......

Few question in my mind:

Which month and year did we go on this trip?

Was it a direct train to Jaisalmer?

How many day/days was the trip?

Any other important place we visted in the town?

Travellers : Bharathwaj, Hariprasath, Jayapratap, Ramesh.

Mood after the trip : dont really remember

Mood after writing the blog : brought smile in my face.

Desert

Line 518

It was a typical autumn day in Stockholm, not so cold but cold enough for a jacket and constant drizzle. My day came to an end at the Office and I headed towards the boring 20 minute trip back to home. Not surprisingly the red Limo arrived on time and I got in, chose my favourite place close to the door. Line 518 is nothing less than a Limo, just that it is red instead of White or black and I don’t pay the chauffeur and he doest wear a tuxedo, most of the times drives only with me as passenger.

The bus arrived at Kista Centrum and there was an unusually big crowd waiting for it. May be the previous one did not turn up. It was little noisy enough which let me unconsciously observe things, instead of just looking. I lost my privacy but at no cost.

Through the door in the middle of the bus a lady pushed in a pram, that was spacious enough to accommodate two kids, but I could only see one sleeping in one half of it and the other half filled with ICA bags, looked like groceries supply for a month. The hood of the pram was up. Then came a old woman with another pram and pushed it to the other side in the place for the prams in the middle of the bus. Then came the third one this with a little gal aged around a year and half. The little gal was all on her own looking around with her twinkling eyes glanced through everything around curiously. The man behind the pram, who I presume to be her father was a tall, bald and had a consistent stern look on his face. There was no enough space in for the third one, but the women were kind enough to move their prams to the sides and gave way to the third one.

But then came in a shock to her. Her pram was sandwiched between the other two with their black hoods up, denied of all the interesting things she was looking at and in the front, just the wall of the bus just few inches away from her face, blocked from all directions. In few seconds twinkle in the eyes vanished and I could just see sad eyes. The only way out to get out of this claustrophobia is to do something to get her father's attention. She turned around her head and some noise to grab the attention of her father, the man knew the motive behind it acted indifferently and ignored her, as there is nothing that he can do. After repeated attention gathering efforts and spotting a pity looks gave up on her father. She noticed the plastic tape hanging in front of her, they are used to strap on the prams, baggage etc, and put her in mouth and started chewing it, for the rest of journey and kept her busy. After a few minutes the stop arrived and pram was pulled out to get off the bus. Moment the doors opened, shine in her eyes returned back with a smile on her face..

I continued for another couple of stops to get off, it was not a boring journey, after all………

Line 518

Cozy...

One third of my life is already spent and will be spent in this place that is my cozy bed, which is unarguably the best place on the earth. There is no substitute for this place as you sink your whole face in to that soft pillow, just leaving that little space for air to enter the nostrils and defy the bright sunlight and manage to dream even in the noon.  But then, I do not miss the beautiful horizon, which I get to visualize, when I occasionally open my eyes, the light rays between the crib of my cot and the wall, from the LCD of my laptop which usually is beneath the cot, which apparently resembles the sun rise. To complement these things is the blanket which helps to cut-off me from this world. Not to mention the sense of freedom that is experienced, even though I possess only 6 X 3 sq feet in this vast planet.

 

In spite of all this I decided to cut down on my sleeping hours, as there is no assurance that I will see her in my dreams when ever I go to sleep. ;) J

Cozy...

///Work out///

2 KMs on the tread-mill….

Sweat hard till you feel the heat, inside an Air Conditioned room….

Little Motivation around J….

A nice hot water shower…..

Hand combed wet hair….

A stroll back to RMZ…..

Nothing like that… isn’t it?......Started going to gym these days J...

///Work out///

Negotiation with Nature....

I called up a friend casually and he asked about the plans for the extended weekend with October 2nd being Gandhi Jayanti. “We are going to scale the heights of KumaraParvatha!!”, I replied. “Scale!!!” was the answer from the other end, with a sense of sarcasm and a discouraging laugh. I thought at that moment that I was bragging a little. Now I can call up him to boast of my, rather our achievement of climbing the heights of KumaraParvathaJ.

 

The team of twenty two started their journey from Bangalore to Kukke-Subbramanya which is supposedly in the district of Mangalore from where the trek started. But this place could easily identify as the temple town that was visited by Sachin Tendulkar before/after his shoulder surgery ;). I tried to figure out the average age of the team, but then thought range would give an idea how diversified we are. The youngest member in the team apparently was 20 and the oldest (Oops!! I wouldn’t say oldest but the) eldest is 50. J.  They were from different professions ranging from Students, Lawyers, Engineers, Mountaineers, teachers, et al.

 

We reached Kukke in the morning at around 7:00. After finishing our breakfast, we all headed to uphill task. There was a briefing from the experts and an ice-breaker from each one of us. Few instructions were given, but the best one which caught my attention was by Mohan, “Never ask how much distance to be covered more!!! J”.  Chikki, Dry fruit Ladoos, Apples, Oranges were distributed, all these things seemed to be a extra load, after a heavy breakfast, with out realizing the calories that is to be burnt during the 5 Km steep climb.

 

The path was well laid (I think most of us would agree on thisJ) considering the terrain. It was good combination was agony and respite. There were some places where it becomes real steep taking heavy toll on everyone. This was followed by considerably flat areas. The path was going through dense forests and suns rays could hardly penetrate through greenery. I believe it would have been a hot day out there in Bangalore and few lucky ones enjoyed the coolness in the hills of Western Ghats. There was no heat except the heat that was radiating from our bodies. The place was rich in flora and only fauna which was present was we people. J.  Even though few of us looked a bit fast and energetic, the average speed remained the sameJ.  One can find the person who overtook him after a while taking a breather. J .

 

 

 

After trekking for over two and half hours we reached an area at an altitude from where we had a view of the Kukke. The place was covered with lush green grass and was looking beautiful. Many of us stopped here for long time and there were photo sessions going on. Just around 1 Km from this place is Girigadde, the place where we need to halt after a long trek. The whole team reached this place over a span of half an hour or so, between 12:30 and 1:00 and there was sense of accomplishment seen in each one of us. The caretaker of the place, Bhat and his family had prepared the lunch with a wide spread. Rice, Sambhar (Mangalorean style, it had coconut flavor in it), butter milk and mango pickle. Considering the logistics available this is the best possible and only food that one can get in that place. The food I would say was tasty and we did full justice to our stomach.

 

 

 

Bhat’s place is a quaint red tiled roof house, it had no electricity, but the glass opening in the roof lit the whole house sufficiently, it had a cow shed besides it and place had few flowering plants which added more hue to the place. There was a small stream flowing on the other side of the house, where few had a bath and made themselves freshened up after a tiring day. The place also had plenty of supari trees, and plantain trees.

 

 

After the lunch, its time to relax and some chatting and discussions kept us busy. Few of us tried some games, puzzles and few exchanged PJs, few discussed about education, city traffic, IT industry etc. In the evening few guys went for stroll to have a look at the place. Some of them pitched in their dome tent that they had carried along, in front of the house.

 

 

Once it was dark we had no option to go out, but had to settle down in side the house, eagerly waiting for the dinner, before which the local band entertained the crowd with some classical carnatic songs. After a heavy dinner we all retired to the sleeping bags. Due to the place constraint we had to do a little permutation and combination to fit in every one of us. Before going to sleep we were instructed that we need to start at 6:30 in the morning.

 

 

Next morning without wasting anytime we started heading towards the summit at around 7:00.  We had to get the permission from the forest ranger in that area which was done by the organizers. This time the trek was a moderate one, unlike the steep slope that we climbed the previous day. Moreover the weather was at its best for trekking. It was drizzling thorough out the journey. The whole stretch was either covered by grass or barren. As we climbed up we got to see some of the breathtaking views. After trekking for an hour we reached a mantap where we all stopped for resting. Few of the members wanted to stay back there as they were getting cramps or tired and it started raining a bit heavily that time. But after persuading them they decided to join the rest. I feel that should be the decision of their lifetime as they would have missed all the adventure and the fun. After trekking for some more time. We reached a cliff where the clouds were rushing through the rocks; it was an amazing feeling to stand amidst the clouds. I confirmed that they are clouds and not mist from some expert trekkers. Now I realized what the idiom “being in cloud-nine” actually meant. The feeling of ecstasy prevailed all over the place.

 

 

After enjoying the heights for sometime we had a slight descend in the path which led to the forest which and there was sound of water flowing. This is the place where most of us encountered the most talked about creature in the trek – Leeches. I wouldn’t say the place was infested by leeches as we have gone to their dwelling. J . They had a royal feast as many of us did blood donations bigheartedly. Experienced trekkers acted indifferent towards the leech attacks and some of us panicked. I later heard that even they (leeches) were indifferent towards some of us. J.

 

 We reached a stream and followed it which led to a steep rock face which looked virtually impossible at first sight. But it was not as tough as it seemed to be and all of us made it with ease. We trekked through the slippery rocks of the stream for about 10-15 minutes to reach the much awaited moment. Yes, we made it to the summit. It was greater satisfaction than the one which we had the day before when we reached Bhatta’s place. People congratulated each other. We offered our prayers at the Siva temple and some refreshments which Prasanna had generously carried for us. After 15 minutes we started to descend, this time it was raining heavily, though while descending it didn’t require much of effort, it hurt my ankles many times as the stone under the feet betrayed many times. I and Rohan walked almost non-stop to find the Mantap on the way, we never found it and to our surprise we reached Bhatta’s place by-passing the mantap and it was the case with many of us.

 

 

It was festival day on October 2nd and lunch at Bhatta’s place was special. Immediately after the lunch people were asked to leave in batches to Kukke. The route that we took on day one was much easier, (probably we are experienced now) on day two and it just took 2 hours to reach Kukke. Most of us checked in at a hotel to have a shower and changed to a pair of dry clothes. We had our dinner at around 8:30 and took the Rajahamsa Bus to Bangalore at 10:00pm.

 

Team : Anilkumar, Arvind, Prasanna, Vasudevan, Kamlesh, Lakshminarayan, Mohan, Nalina, Narayan, Raghunath, Rajesh, Ramesh, Ravi, Reshma, Rohan, Sai, Santhosh, Shashi, Sujil, Sumathi, Sumesh, Venkat

 

Mood after the trek: Great Sense of Satisfaction.

Negotiation with Nature....

Dash.....

The spikes were nailed firmly to the ground, to get that much needed thrust. Ears were tuned finely to listen to the sound of the clapper. Of course the heart beat was little above the normal rates. Eyes focused on the track, one must agree that the track looks the best when seen from the set position from the fourth lane. Lips tightly closed after taking a deep breath. I knew that my first job is to be quick and explosive out of the start line. I can be neither early nor late. J

The starter made sure runners are in set position and there goes the starting gun. I knew that I got decent start and took-off at the right moment. I am well aware that TNT is in second lane from mine. Next 5 to 6 seconds were ecstatic, there seems to be no movement of the runners on either side of me. But my joy was short lived, I read somewhere that professional sprinters reach their maximum acceleration near the midpoint of the race and that was true with him. He over took me with great ease and looked invincible. Rest of the race was the period of maximum exertion for grabbing that coveted first place as I plunged toward my destination. I qualified for the semis finishing second. Still that was a wonderful feeling to lead the race for sometime with the fastest man of my college in the dash.

This memoir is a result of flashing back to my college days, while I was watching the IAAF Golden League last week in Ten Sports last week.J

Dash.....

Stress-Buster....

I met a friend after quiet some time and I was shocked to see that she had put-on lot of weight, what was even more shocking was the reason!! She said she’s been overeating these days due stress and depression. I decided not to ask for the reason for depression as I thought the reason could be even more stupid. Depression Eating???  I thought to myself, what a lame excuse to hog mindlessly and grow fat.  At that instance I was not ready to believe it even.

 

I then Googled to find out more about it … Stress and Depression causes hormonal imbalance which increases appetite abnormally, causing eating disorders which result in obesity. Hmm…. Probably she wasn’t lying. In this hectic and competitive professional life, stress has become an unavoidable issue which takes toll on ones health. Tight deadlines, office politics, a tiff with a colleague, a piece of  mal-functioning program code,  thoughts about career and future all add to a stressful day. But then all these are daily hassles and everyone has to thrive on a certain amount of these things. After all, these are things that keep us motivated and do things better in life.

 

I started wondering what I usually do when I am stressed. On a stressful day I don’t miss a session at the gym to burn the extra caffeine consumed during the days work. A nice long run on the tread-mill make me feel light both mentally and physically, followed by a usual dinner and one drink of my favorite whisky, while watching late night comedy shows. Then I crawl into my bed when my computer start playing my favorite playlist which comprises of IIayaraja, Rehman, Kishore, Lobo, Beethoven, Yanni and others and allow the music to soothe the grey cells. Surely a wonderful and healthy stress busterJ   isn’t it??J .

 

Stress-Buster....

Staying Young......

During the coffee break one my colleague told me that practicing football with the SLI Team will surely improve football skills, I said without even giving a second thought “Is umar mein football khelke Ronaldinho banna hi kya??!(Am I going to become Ronaldinho playing football at this age?)”. The next moment I wondered what made me utter those words. Am I getting really old? I realized that the fact that I am growing old is getting to the sub-conscious mind for sure. What could be more agonizing than the feeling of growing old?

Those odd grey hairs, little flab getting accumulated, slight wrinkles on the face are all inevitable gift that time gives to everyone of us. After all, who in this world can beat the time? But I remember someone saying one can choose to stay young mentally and relive the childhood and age is reflected only in the heart.

I grabbed a pen and a paper, and held the pen in my left hand, if you are left handed then hold the pen in your right hand. If you are ambidextrous excuse me!!! Then I started writing my favorite rhymes, during the kinder garden days.

The ‘a’s looked like ‘d’s and the ‘p’s looked like ‘b’s J. The pen had full control over me, dragging you all over the paper. I was surprised to see my hand writing resembled the one which I had when I was four, the days my mom held my hand to help me write my home work. Anyone will love to relive and cherish those wonderful moments in life….To make it little romantic take help of your girl/boy friendJ. Don’t go to your Mom for help, she will get serious doubts that you had gone nuts….!!!!J

Staying Young......

Motivation Factor....

I had no clue as what to do last Sunday. Adding to the frustration was the power cut. The savior of the boredom, “the idiot box” popularly called as Television was of no use as it required power to live. As a last resort, I switched on my laptop hoping it will offer some entertainment. While browsing the folders I found the dump of movie “Laksya” which I had copied some time back. I decided to watch “Laksya”, one of my all time favorites. Each and every frame of that movie is worth the time spent watching. Now do I have enough charge left in the battery to watch the movie?? Yeah, my luck wasn't that bad, the power meter assured three and half hours of non-stop action.

The best thing I liked in the movie is the scenes showing army life and war scenes, which were shot realistic. As I was watching the war scenes a little thought came to my mind. What motivates the soldier in the war field? How does an officer keep the motivation levels of his soldiers high? I am sure he’s got a tough job in hand. As I have always heard and read that a motivated platoon is the key to the success of the mission. But what does the commanding officer have to offer his boys keep their confidence and morale high? Inhospitable conditions; rain of bullets; grenades going off, and Death!!! It’s a tough job indeed.….On the contrary what does a manager in an IT company have in his kitty to inspire his team? Plushy work environment; fat pay cheques; travel opportunities; job promotions. I am sure these things are better than those mentioned earlier. I started wondering whose job is a challenging one. Can anyone show death to a person and also motivate? I am sure an officer, who shows death to his jawan and manages to motivate them in order to accomplish the mission, should possess great leadership qualities.

As I was pondering about this I saw Hrithik hoisting the Tricolor in the peak 5179 and fired the illuminating shells to indicate victory. The movie ended in a happy note with Priety and Hrithik living happily ever after….I started thinking, what to do next, to kill time…..

Motivation Factor....

Reservation....

I parked my bike and got into the building to get the shock of the day. That was a pretty long queue for this reservation center in one corner of the city and a lone lady in the counter handling both enquires and ticketing. I was bit apprehensive in the beginning then decided will go ahead and get my work done.

It looked like it would be a long wait before getting to the counter, as I picked couple of forms from the tray and went and stood in the line. A man came enquiring whether it’s the queue for reservation. What the heck?!! He thought we all were standing in the queue to go to the looJ. But the moment I knew someone is behind me in the queue I felt little happy.

I was getting bored and started reading all the instructions that was return on the walls of the reservation center. As I was reading it I was distracted by a heated argument going on between husband and wife which ended, “Haan bol, Jaana hi ki nahi” Saying this he left the place and she followed him weeping. I knew that its not the end of itJ. Then happened the most common thing in a queue, a queue-jumper was confronting with people resisting him. Though he had explanations he was pushed to the back of the queue. Amidst all this chaos a lover-boy was having a romantic chat with his girl friend, a boy was helping a old man fill the form; someone was cribbing about the non-availability of tickets. And the queue was moving in a steady pace.

The man next to me was chewing tobacco and guess was drunk and it smelled strong that I had already started feeling a mild headache. But who am I to complain? Then came a dude carrying laptop, proudly flashing his identity card, had the ear phones on and talking loud in a fake American accent, probably with a client in America- sure he should be a SW engineer. His gestures were like he has never come to railway reservation center before. But at least I am not the one to believe itJ. He looked around, made some enquiries and left the place.

Next 10-15 minutes it was virtually quiet and the line moved faster. The golden moment arrived and I was at the counter. I had 2 forms for cancellation request with me and one of the instruction on the wall read, “Only 1 form per person will be entertained”. I reluctantly gave the forms to the lady in the counter and she was kind enough to process both of them. I was bit fortunate otherwise only half of my work would have been done.

With a sigh of relief I headed back to the bike thinking, when was the last time I came to the railway reservation center? Well that was when I was in my final year of engineering!!!! It was full 3 years and probably I was bit more conscious and carefully observing things because of such a long gap…. J J

Reservation....

Pledge...

Every time Navneeth passed through that Eye hospital, he thinks of enquiring about pledging eyes for donation. One fine day he stopped by and entered the hospital. He asked the security guard at the gate, “How to go to the Eye bank?” the security guard gleefully guided him to the front office. There was mid-aged lady in the reception. He walked to the desk and asked, “What is the procedure pledge one’s eye?” She confirmed whether he is a major and asked him to take the seat. He could feel that he was treated with great respect just for that simple question. She searched for couple of drawers in the table and pulled out a yellow colored form and explained how to fill them.

He came back home and read the details carefully and filled in the form and the next day he dropped the form at the eye bank. He filled his mother’s name and contact number under the details of the kin who will fulfill his wish after his demise.

There were lots of thoughts wavering in his mind on how his parents will react to his interest. After some deep pondering he decided to meet them in person and tell them about his wish.

One fine week end he visited Jaipur, his home town. He along with his parents was watching KBC. He casually struck a conversation about eye donation. His parents being very orthodox responded positively, which surprised him. With out stopping his conversion he said to his parents that he had pledged to donate his eye after his demise and want them to fulfill his wish. There was sudden silence in the drawing room with only Big B reciting the question to the contestant to be heard.

After few seconds of silence she said to him that she was happy about his decision.

His father listening to this whole conversation smiled at him and gave a pat on his back and started reading the newspaper. He could see his mother looking at him which said “I am proud of you son” and tears well in her eyes. Navneeth pretended as if he had not noticed it and kept watching the TV though none of the questions from AB went in to his mind....

Pledge...

A Code Marathon....

Twenty four hours of non-stop action in a weekend. It’s not about guzzling loads of beer at a pub; it’s not about watching couple of bollywood blockbuster in the favorite multiplex; not about going out on long drive at thrilling speeds to a holiday spot, but non-stop coding, rather relentless tapping of the keyboard and the clicking of the mouse. Sounds crazy!! Isn’t it? Yes, a group of six decided to be a part of this crazy action.

It was Friday 15:30 hours we were there for the Code Olympics 2005 kick-off meeting. Like us there were many who have gathered and I could see lot of positive energy around. All ears were tuned to listen to the instructions and information about the event. I don’t know about the instructions, but Information was interesting than the instructions and got occasional applauses from the gathering. Big B’s movies, Chinese food for dinner, midnight snacks, mattress and pillows were main attractions. Then the Problem Scouts came to describe the problem statements. Anjina was making a quick note of all the problem titles, while Kaushik was thinking about which one is feasible.

Now we had the problems in hand and the real problem in our hands is “Which one to take-up?” After lot of deliberation at 5:30 pm, one problem statement was agreed upon, and Shahul was asked to register for the same. Now what next? As anyone can easily guess what else could software engineer do? We went for brainstorming. After few minutes of brainstorming it was decided that we work in two different teams to approach the problem in a two different ways. Shahul, Pooja and Sharath decided to work on a solution and Kaushik, Anjina and myself to work on a different path.

Like every programmer we followed the thumb rule of searching for the solutions on the net. We all started googling! As time progressed there were ideas which emerged and disappeared. But it looked like it is possible to show a working model. Initially everything seemed to be vague and uncertain…but we were confident that things will fall in place soon.

At 8:30 pm we decided to break for dinner. Everyone did full justice to their appetite and came back to work. After a heavy dinner most of us felt sleepy. But with the each one of our tasks cut-out and busy working on it. Music was played in high volume and energy level was high enough to go tapping the keyboards.

Its 11:30 pm again time for some munchingJ. Burgers and Samosas were there to be hogged. Someone told the movie started in the cafeteria. We told to ourselves that “No distraction can attract us from reaching the goal!!”….. Actually the movie was not a great one ….

After 2 o’ clock in the night the batteries went down and started finding some cozy places in and around the cubicles to retire.

Next day morning was not fine for many of us. Lack of sleep, heavy food, and hard work J had heavy toll on us. Kaushik had to retire-hurt and went home to take rest.

As the day progressed things started working well for both the teams managed a working program which could be presented. The application looked promising as things started working slowly. We were excited at one stage we thought something is better than nothing and now started becoming bit greedy and want every thing to work. Till the neck of the moment lots of changes were made. There was relief as there is no need for us to chicken-out or go absconding before the presentation.

Evening 6:30 we had our presentation and all our work was stopped on the code at 6:00. The presentation went on well and every one of us was happy that little hard work that was put in had brought some appreciation.

With great sense of achievement we were there at the evening party. Beer started flowing and nice music was played. We enjoyed the party talking about the last 24 hours. I would take back my first line in the write-up as lots of beer was guzzled!!!J The Marathon came to end with lots of happiness and sense of achievement filled in each one of our hearts.

A Code Marathon....

Gutka for Dinner

Walking in the lawns along the Necklace road is a moment to cherish. The cool breeze that  blew from the Hussein Sagar, tall standing Buddha, little boats that shunt between the statue and the Lumbini park, quaint view of the Birla temple in the far end, large posters hanging from the roof of the multiplex, make it ideal way to relax in the weekend.

 

There are a variety of things that one can get to munch, from pop-corns to peanuts to bhel-puri. Me and my friend took some peanuts and started walking through the promenade. During which we discuss about lots of topics like Iraq war, petrol prices, strategy of MNCs, Indian economy and most importantly girls usually our topics of discussions are the ones on which we have no control at all. We usually arrive at visionary solutions to problems, without bothering who will be implementing them. Discussing these topics we walked and our peanuts got over.

 

At that moment our eyes caught a pretty girl with sparkling eyes, with neatly tied up pony tail, enchanting the people around her with her sweet talks. She was wearing a bright colored skirt and a top with multicolor flowers printed on it. She was sitting on a cart roasting corn. She looked like a nine year old who showed perfect hand-eye coordination of rotating the corn on the hot coke and kept fanning the red hot coke at the same time. She was bit busy as many were waiting for their corn to be roasted. It looked like she had little education as she didn’t have problems giving us the change for the corn we bought.

 

We sat in the lawn little away from the cart and started our discussions again. After few minutes she was bit free and she got down from the cart and went for stroll for relaxing. She went to a guy selling cigarette, gutka, on a table and bought a gutka from her hard earned one rupee. The way she opened the pack looked like she is not doing it for the first time. The moment she was about to empty it in her mouth. She saw as both watching her. I could she the embarrassment on her face and she turned her face in the opposite direction and filled her mouth with the gutka in a sneaking way and went back to work.

 

We both stopped our discussion and started walking towards the bike hardly speaking anything, thinking about the inequality in the society, which gave gutka as dinner for a little girl, haunting our minds.

Gutka for Dinner

You will be nailed for sure

Last time when I was in Chennai I took my father’s Suzuki to meet my friend. It’s a pretty old bike and one should now the tips and tricks to handle it. Usually, my father gives some points to be taken care of while driving that antique piece.

On my way suddenly I felt the rumble of the flat tyre. Luckily for me there was a shop near by to repair the punctured tyre. The guy in the shop checked the tyre for any sharp object and the pulled out the culprit that was struck to the tyre. He handed the nail to me instead of just throwing it. I went on to meet my friend on my way back again I got a flat tyre. This tells about the status of the tyre which was as smooth as a bald head. This time I was not so fortunate, I had to drag the bike a little more than a kilometer to find the mechanic shop. While the guy in the shop mended the punctured tube I was waiting outside the shop watching the road. The mechanic called me inside and gave me the second nail of the day.

I just wondered why invariably both the guys have to give the nail to me instead of throwing it. I could think of few reasons. The bike owner would like to keep the nail as a souvenir, or the mechanic want to boast off his finding the nail that got struck, or to use it to hang a painting at home, or in my case it could be to remind me to change the old bald head tyre. It could be anything….what could be the psychology behind it???!!!!

But I am damn sure of one thing; if in future anyone of you had to get a flat tyre repaired the mechanic will surely return the nail that got struck in your wheelJ. Even if happened to be a Ferrari got a punctured tyre due to a nail Jon the F1 track and the pit-stop crew member finds it, he would surely handover the nail to Michael Schumacher!!!!!

You will be nailed for sure

A Rare Night-Out

Its 4.02 AM. Probably it’s my first night-out since my DSP (Digital Signal ProcessingJ) exam way back in 2oo2. It’s a cool way to welcome the weekend isn’t? I knew that I have the whole Saturday to compensate for this. The reason behind this extra-ordinary night-out is an ordinary “Chocolate”.

I and my friend decided to watch a movie at Innovative. Though it was drizzling a bit it was not heavy and didn’t stop us from driving. We managed to reach the multiplex on time. Thanks to a lady who was driving a Kine, who made us follow like the rats that followed the Pied-pier, but she didn’t drown us. She maneuvered her bike through the traffic on the edge of the marshy road with lots of water log whose depth was unknown and we just followed.

Much to our surprise we found the theater to be empty and got tickets for the movie, Chocolate. We took a butta (Corn) and entered the hall which was practically empty with tens of people and couple of rats to accompany us. I guess these rats also followed in the lady on the Kine. All four was finished the corn and waiting for the painfully boring movie to finish. No wonder that the hall was empty. At 10:15 came the much awaited moment when the screens fell.

We had dinner at a restaurant opposite to the theater. We did full justice to our stomach; both of us hardly spoke a word and had our dinner in silence, except for occasional slurping. My friend had to go a long way to back home so I suggested him to stay at my place. We went for stroll on the Ring Road, for a change, on the broad divider which was covered by grass.

On the way to my home we decided to go to office to enjoy the beauty of the lawns and the canopies. Our search for the office for next ten minutes went in vain. We couldn’t find it on the Google Earth and then made the decision to sleep at the bunker. There were two of them already there to welcome us and we gleefully took the upper berths that were empty. I was not feeling sleepy at all since the place was bit warm but my friend managed to sleep.

I was terribly missing the sound of that old Khaitan at home which sounds nothing less than a cradlesong. I kept counting the metal bars around the crib, but couldn’t count those twenty five metal bars anymore. I came back to my desk and now browsing and reading some old mails to enjoy my night-out. Now its 4:37 in the morning. I don’t want to miss the sunrise so going back to browse…. and hopefully won’t drowse ……

A Rare Night-Out

That Parking made me ponder

Much awaited moment of the week came. I started building a Sabai (in Tamil means a group of people who are interested in doing not so important things) to enjoy that wonderful Friday evening. We all decided to meet at Prasads Multiplex to watch a movie for which we could manage to get tickets. I started winding up, tidied my desk, felt relieved when I pressed the wonderful combination of keys in my keyboard –Ctrl + Alt + Del.

I went down to the cellar to see my proud possession. She was shining and looking gorgeous, than ever before because she has undergone a water-wash a day before. I started my beautiful pulsar and started driving. I remembered and recited in my mind the golden rule of driving in the Nawab City of Hyderabad- “You take care of yourself, I take care of myself”. I enjoyed my drive and the city was looking more attractive as the trees and the dividers are colorfully lit with serial bulbs for some major event that is to be held.

Without any hiccups I reached the best place for entertainment in the city and found a parking place for my loved possession and approached the man in the parking area for collecting my token. It was Rs 3 for two-wheelers and Rs 10 for four wheelers.

I managed 3 Rs change from my wallet and asked for a token. The man doesn’t seem to be hearing me as he was surrounded by lots of 10 Rupee notes catching his eyes from the owners of the cars. Those 10 Rs notes were looking more tempting than the coins that I had in my hand. I waited and kept asking for the token but my words went unheard.

Many four-wheeler owners who came after me got the token and moved ahead. I lost my patience and shouted at the man there “Bhai Saab, main idher bahuth dher se kada hun aap sirf cars ke liye token dethe ho” ( I am standing here since long you are giving token for cars only). To my surprise there came a voice from behind me in fake American accent “This is India Man”. It was a proud car owner who came after me and got a parking token.

I got a parking ticket and walked in to the multiplex to meet my friends, pondering how could a man who doesn’t have the courtesy stand in the line to get his ticket comment on the country, so irresponsibly.

That Parking made me ponder