October 08, 2008

So Hows life

So, How is life people!

Been trying to prepare for GRE for last like 3-4 weeks. Not that I spent a lot of time preparing, but I did spend a lot of time preparing to prepare, by taking that one last nap before I study and by playing that one last game of FIFA before I get back and not touch it before October the 13th. Ya thats the date, not a friday so dont worry

This is not about GRE or preparation for GRE, this is something else. I have been living a good life for last one year or so, I am doing a job that I like doing, I am having a good personal life and all, I am talking to a lot of people, so it is not like the 6-7 months that I was interning in TI where I was basically communicating to two people and a phone and a wall.

So what is it about, life is good: no guitar ( I realize that it needs far more too much commitment that I am willing to offer, or it needs a good teacher which I am unwilling to spend time/money on because I wanted to be a self-learnt kind of shit), no writing (work keeping me too busy for any kind of writing, I am supposed to write atleast 3-4 long documents which document my work so effectively nothing else), no music (Its only once in a while I realize how long it has been since I used my headphones and then I get to it for a few hours), no running (not since the Bangalore 10k last december), no cooking (its too much effort, and Gunjan loves it, so he cooks most of the time we are not eating out, occasional bread and egg, if that qualifies as cooking), no reading (nothing, except work, no reading, I don't know why)

What else is there? No going out of town (I wish to, so much to get the heck out of here on the bike, preferably), No reading Astrix and obelix in crossword (They used to be very costly to buy, so I used to be at crosswords whole day, sometimes, and read them there: avg speed 1hr per copy)

Ok. the reason I write this blog is not to talk about whatever I have talked about till now. It is something else. One day, about 4-5 years ago, someone told me in a way of analyzing one's personality that I am very image concious. Now, being the way that I am, I want to be too complex for people to understand. Not that I put in any effort in that, but it simply works out. Anybody you see around is too complex for anybody to understand "completely". Thats simply because when u try to analyze a person, you tend to simplify things, and thereby losing out important information which becomes exception. This is true for any study, scientific or otherwise.
So what about that comment. I think it is true. The only way I think is by thinking about what others think of me. Now, this "others" is not everybody. It is people who think should think good about me. It is not people who I know are with me. I do not, in my actions, consider what people who KNOW me think about me. So that would be family and her and one or two friends who have ideas of me fixed to their mind which is very hard for any of my actions to change. So, it is not them, but everybody else.
That also, may be a simplification of sorts, and I know that there are a lot of people, a whole lot of people who think in a similar way. But the question really is, is there anyway to break free from this? When I started to think about typical ways to breakfree like going off to unknown places, I think about what those people would react to my breaking free.

This is all ok. But the biggest problem is that there are not many, in these 'others' who really care about me or what happens to me. They know me today, and used to know me 5 days later. So, it is such a waste of time to be thinking about what these guys think.

Well, it is complicated.
NO "GLOBAL GYAN" ON THE COMMENTS PLEASE.

April 17, 2008

Waynad Trip - I

I should have posted this sometime ago, but its never really too late. So here I present to you my version of the my office Waynad Trip. For all those who still have the same level of knowledge about the place called Wayad as I had about a month back, this is a place in Kerala. No back waters there, its in North kerala and mainly a hill station kind of a pace near Calicut. So why is a Boring, Office trip to a relatively unknown land worth coming up on the blog, u got to read to really find out.

2 April, Wednesday

The best thing about the trip before the trip began was that the trip was going to be on weekdays! So no weekends getting wasted in some crap team building. The problem is that I didnt really know so many people who were going. And there were many (23 to be exact) of varying shapes and sizes and covering a range of expected expiry dates, if you know what I mean. Anyway, lets not get into all those morose details, we will fast forward to the bus journey. The first good surprise was the bus. It was with AC and TV and Video. The first bad surprise would come in night, when we realize what AC Bus without a blanket could mean at night. We played 'Jab We Met' loudly on the video before everyone was allowed to sleep, thanks to a large shout to prevent a requested screening of the blockbuster 'Race'. It must really have busted some blocks. Crap! Thanks whoever it was who prevented the screening.

3rd April Thursday

We woke up to find ourselves frozen in middle of tea-estates. And we were told we had reached the resort where we were going to live for the next day and a half. It took a 20 min, good old Jeep ride, to wake us up completely and also make us reach the resort (which was on a hill) from the main road. After we reached it was already around 6:30 and we were issued with orders from the top management to be for the breakfast in about an hour. Ofcourse, people explored the beds, played cricket, tried their hands at some crazy complicated controls for showers and waited for others before everybody came down to the breakfast area by about 9 or was it 9.30
The funny thing about waiting for people in a group is that almost everybody ends up waiting for atleast somebody. And almost everybody has someone to shout at ;) [if that is in the rules, of course].

So whatever, we reached the place from where we were to start the treck at about 10:30 and when we started the trek, I knew what this was going to be. Another usual walk around the trees (tea estate in this case) which people believe to be treks. Good treks are all in Garhwal and all. So the walk around the tea estate started off on a decent note with some of the people dropping out. But suddenly the guide broke through the estate and started going the elavated way. What! This was not what I expected. Anyway, it should not last too long. So we kept on climbing for sometime. And we knew this wasnt going to be easy. Should have gone to the gym more often.

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This is an old post which I stopped writing to come back and finish. But never got around to finishing. What happened was that the peaks kept coming one after the other. And at one time you could only see one peak. It was funny and frustrating at the same time. And it felt like a great achievement when we actually reached the top. I will upload the pics once. It was great picture wise too :)

March 27, 2008

Of Paint and poster

There are paints, there are papers, there are brushes and there are posters.

Some make paints, some papers, some grow trees for papers, some cut wood for brushes, some make posters and a lot of others do a lot other things
Some make sure that the posters are made and Some others sell those posters.

March 22, 2008

What turns things on and off

A lot of times it is hard to see why something are right and others not so. Why something that you see to be complete and perfectly true, is opposed by people who think completely opposite. I was reading a roommate's story recently (he plans to publish a book sometime, and I think he should), he used a very interesting phrase, "asymmetry in relationships". I know this has nothing to do with the first two lines of this text, but somewhere there is a relationship. one side is asymmetry is a very frustrating thing. And second is that the first two lines of this text start to hold good for all that stands when the assymetry comes into picture.

March 10, 2008

COming out of Hibernation

When asked why he would like to go to the moon, Niel Armstrong replied "it will be a small step for a man, but a great leap for the mankind". When asked if he would ever like to go to Mars too, he said, if mankind takes too many leaps, it'll be tired too soon. The best way to loose fat is to run at a slower pace for longer time. (Yes, am finally going to gym in morning more or less regularly). And mankind needs to loose the weight of all the people and ideas that people have, crap that people have built, loads of fats to loose. So he said, he didn't really want to go to Mars. Asked if he was sure, mankind with all that fat be able to take the leap when he takes that step on moon, He said with his good old grin, No I am not really sure, but I hope so. I am doing so much as to take small step, cant mankind just get up and take a leap, once in a while, I am even ready to sacrifice going to Mars, if the mankind leaps just once.

There were many questions in our interviewers mind, but Armstrong was very strong on his arms and he was in a hurry, so the interview could not really go on very long.

The rest is history, he used the same line when he took the step. unfortunately mankind was too unkind to take even a small step with him, forget the leaps. If there was any leap at all, it was the hearts of armstrong and his kind which were leaping heaps and bounds. Mankind is still sitting hard growing fatter everyday.

There is a lot to be said about such things, but I would only say that Armstrong and his strong arm were sorry that they did not let our interviewer ask some more questions, as he might've had more lines to deliver.

But then there is no point complaining after its all happened. Am working these days, in bits and pieces, very small bits and very small pieces. For ex. today morning I come to office at 8.45, in gym till 10.10, selecting songs for the gym CD that I am planning to make till 12.20, opened some sites and lunch followed by TT till 2.30, and that followed by the suggestion of looking for some free download for FIFA 08, and some more songs for the gym CD, and finally at 5.30 start something on that verilog thing, I am supposed to be doing for last 3 weeks or something. At 6.05 I feel like opening orkut, and then blogger, and its 6.30 now!!!
In few minutes, my dear colleague would come to ask me to come for snacks, and I would gladly oblige, and then by 7, I would come back and 8/8.30 I would leave. Will reach home arnd 9.00. Being out of home for abt 13 hours, in office premise for abt 12 hours! And this is some great amount of work!
its not as if it is an off day today, its been like this for sometime, quite sometime.

Anyway, my friends celebrated my birthday, on my birthday. Celebrated 2-3 birthdays since, and called few people last week, two of them had their birthday. One recieved my call, other couldnt.

Life is long and not that bad. Not that great either. As long as there are movies like JA coming along, life's definitely not great, not at all. Thank God that movies aint like songs which can be played on radios and stuff like that in public places, otherwise some of these movies would kill you if they are played as frequently as Radio Mirchi played Doorie when the album was first released. I used to like the song then.

I will post the list of songs on the CD that I am currently making for gym. I dun have a huge collection to pick from is one problem. I hope it turns out good as this is one project I have started on my own in a long time.

Was stuck in a traffic one day, and there was a truck in front of me, and it moved abt 10 inches, and it made way for my bike and millions of bike behind me to move atleast 50 m. I was reminded of Mr Armstrong.

Our interviewer GJ, had some more questions which he found the answers to himself. He was seriously confused abt how a small step for a man can be giant leap for the mankind. He came up with many explainations, the best by far was a man stepping into a pothole, which went through the earth and he falling and falling for a long time, and when he came out of the other side, mankind had taken a giant leap. Only doubt in his mind was about how Mr Armstrong was going to find such a pot hole to fall through. There were other explanations on his mind with something to do with a man and his horse and horse shit and all.

Currently Playing my gym playlist, does it look like I am too fascinated with the idea of this CD? Well maybe, who knows. who knows anything anyway.

January 04, 2008

Keep them on

I have long been thinking about writing here. i have even longer been thinking about writing this story. Well lets have it done with.

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There was this guy, he wasn't really crazy about bikes or anything. He wasn't usually crazy for many things at all. Sometimes he even missed not being crazy for things, but that is not what is important to the story, so we'll let it go.

So he wasn't really crazy about bikes, but it was long since he wanted to have one. He wasn't really impulsive and so didnt just jump into doing what he wanted to. He was the type who gave unusually long thought to most things, and would end up doing whatever the first thought was.

He had a problem with the bike thing though, he didnt ever like the helmets. It was better earlier, he would think, people weren't forced to save their lives. He figured that it was probably a PITA for the people who then had to handle the deadbodies and all, but then, they would still have to handle living bodies after the accidents. Why the hell do people care so much about others lives. Anyways, now since he cared about his wallet and its contents, he wore the helmets whenever he went out on a borowed bike.

So then after the long thought about getting or not getting a bike was over, the decision was the first thought which had hit him about six months ago 'I should get a bike'. He decided to do that. He talked with a lot of people about which one and technical aspects. He compared things which he did not know full-forms of. Numbers were enough. Higher would usually be better.

He was still pissed with the helmet rule, and now that he would be using a bike more often, it meant more of headache. But then he had to get one. And he got one.

So then how the drama would have it. He bought the bike, and the helmet and some other accessories which he did not know existed, before getting into conversation with the dealer. And he was on his way back home. Happy he was. Satisfied smile on his face. The handles turned out to not be as comfortable for the 2 hour ride home, as he had felt on 5 minutes test ride. But its ok, he would get used to it. His friend's bike didn't even have a very comfortable seat. He chose his helmet well. How must he be looking riding the sexy bike. The bike has the best in class looks. He would buy the sweets from shop at the end of the row and who would be the first person to ride behind him. He knew, he would not love it if others asked for his bike too often. He wouldnt be able to refuse. But its ok. He would take care of the bike. The bike will be the most well maintained one in his circle. Four years later his friends saying 'man, this is some bike after all this time'. HORNNNN, THUDDD, and next thing he heard was people shouting 'Oye' in quick sucession. He didn't anything much after that.

He opened his eyes, and suddenly he felt his head light, and looked for his helmet. Then he started recalling the series of events. A person in white, doctor, talking to his father. He couldn't hear very clearly. "He's lucky..........save ...... hand .......hurt....... walk.....life ..... 15 days....... helmet .......... life ......... bike is..... lucky ..... helmet"

Camera zoom-out, doctor talking to his father replayed in third person: "He's lucky to have survived. We could not save his hands and one of his feet. He has injuries on spine because of which he would not be able to sit up, stand or walk for life. We would keep him in observation for 15 days. His condition is still very critical. But we are hopeful that he will live. Helmet saved his life. The bike itself is in such a horrible condition. He is lucky to have survived because of wearing the helmet."

Its been 5 years now. They dont come to visit very often. People have their work to handle. And his treatment and therapy have to be paid for. The nurse was feeding him the soup and the soup flowed out of his mouth on both sides. He could still not eat solid food. The nurse was feeding him because he could still not sit up. He would stare at the cieling. It was still difficult to turn his head. His sister found it too much hardwork to stand in such way that her face obstructed the view of the cieling. He had asked her to do that, partly because he wanted to see her face, and partly because he was bored of the view. He could speak. And he would talk to the nurse often, since it had been about 8 months since he talked to anybody else. His mother used to come and he used to hear her cry. Then she stopped coming. He used to talk to the nurse about his mother, and his girlfriend, and how he had bought his bike. And about how lucky he was to have been wearing the helmet. He was alive. Or so had the doctor said.