Baby's Day Out

Took Keagan and Cathy for 'Herbie Full Loaded'. Some other friends joined us. The movie is about a car that has a mind of its own. I totally enjoyed it :-) Seen the previous Herbie movies when I was a kid.

A little bit about the kiddos. Keagan is not from Bangalore but his 7 year old cousin sister Cathy is. Taken her for some other kids movies... the last time Keagan was here I had taken them out for spiderman... He was 3 types... came dressed in a spiderman suit an all :-) Made me hold his sticky chocolate and then wiped his hands on me. When he wanted to go to the loo there was this huge line. He started making all these sounds that ppl allowed the little spiderman to go infront. Cathy is quiet but his antics can turn out to be contagious. Very very contagious.

Melissa wished me all the best when she handed him over to me. He has got this permanent mischievous look on his face. During the first half he ate something which according to him was pungent. They the sounds started!!! After managing to pacify him he decided to worry the person infront of us. Then suddenly he decided to walk around and ask ppl their seat numbers. Then Lindsay Lohan came on screen and he was quiet. Actually I was quiet too. The boy has quite a good memory... Remembered names from the movie even when it was just mentioned once... Was thinking quite logically too... was telling me what would happen and was always asking me 'why'... 'why did this happen' .. 'why did that happen' 'see I told you this would happen'... I tried to cover his eyes during some smooching scenes.. but he wanted to see the full movie...

After the interval the popcorn and drinks kept them occupied for some time. It became too silent.... C'mon I had come to see a movie with kids. During the final part of the movie I started quietly telling him to cheer and shout for the car. Basically I wanted to do it but am 26 years old you know :-(

Everyone has a child inside them and at some point in life they just let go of that child. They think they have grown wiser. Grow down ppl !!!!

Free as a bird

Free as a bird,
It’s the next best thing to be free as a bird.

Company junta was planning for an adventure camp over the weekend. We were to go white water rafting and trekking. Hmmmm.... 2 days bliss. However the rains played spoilsport, as rafting had become a bit dangerous due to the rising water level. We made some other plans since a lot of junta, along with their families, had already signed up.

We met at office on Saturday morning as planned. From there we were off to Shivasamundram water falls. I trekked till the bottom until the gaurd came to chase us away :-) Pretty steep slope at times. I wonder why I keep doing such things :-)

We also passed this college called "Yellamma Dasappa Institute of Technology" on the way. This calls for some trivia.
Que: What do you call students and alumni from that college?
.....
....
....
c'mon think think
.....
.....
.....
.....
Ans: Dunno abt north but down South you call them a bunch of YDIOTs :-)

We then went to some resort along the banks of Cauvery. Some of us slept in another place across the river. We had a tonga to drop and pick us up :-) I swam a lot. Played some games in the evening. There was this particular game where a sticker with some personality's name on it, was stuck on your forehead. You had to move around and introduce yourself to people as junta had brought their family along too. You could ask them questions about the personality on your forehead. They could reply with a 'Yes', 'No' or 'Maybe/dunno'. The idea was to guess who the personality was. So I started out, "Hi I'm Alistair. Am I a boy or a girl?". The answer was dunno. Hmph! Nice game. I ended up winning the game. Didn't get any prize though :-(

We then went to Ranganathittu Bird Santuary the next morning. Walked the 3-4 kms stretch from the resort. We also ate some ganna (sugarcane) from the fields along the way. Payed for it... didn't steal :-) As Sudhakar said, "Its their livelihood". At the santuary junta were more amazed at the crocodiles then the birds. There were these crocs which were absolutely stiff at the santuary. One of them was like less than 15-20 feet away from us. The other chap had his mouth open. As if waiting for some bird to come and sit in it. The KRS dam and other dams would be releasing water so the boatman told us that they would stop the rides in a couple of days, cause the water level would rise. Came to know today that the river is now flooded. The ride was too short though. Came back and swam some more. Went for another tonga ride in the afternoon. The horse's name is Badal. The tongawala asked me to shift my weight a bit as the tonga was tilting :-) Time to start running again. Spent some quality time sitting along the banks of the river and admiring its beauty and the sounds of nature.

Free as a bird,
It’s the next best thing to be free as a bird.

Water World

I guess many of you must be reading a lot of personal stories caused by the deluge in Mumbai. The highest recorded rainfall in India, ever. Even as I blog, Mumbai is threatened by another lashing of heavy rains.

Have been reading everywhere about the mumbai chaos.... ppl getting married over mobile phones :-) The people behind the wireless technologies must be feeling so happy now. I remember I had a chat with an elderly man in a train, about a month ago. I told him that I work on wireless technologies/products. He then told me that he used to work for the railways, sending messages using morse code. He then had some doubts as to how secure the current wireless standards are, as compared to his time. I tried to clear some of his doubts. He then smiled and said that technologies will always be there but ultimately they are used to meet the same goal. To make life easier for people.

Ok back to mumbai. Both my sisters are currently in Mumbai. My elder sister Natasha will be migrating to Australia on 5th August. So my mom had made plans to go to mumbai on the 30th of July. However due to rains all trains have been cancelled till the 6th of August. During the first deluge she was desperately trying to get thru but all phone lines were jammed. She actually fell sick and stuff :-)

She finally managed to sneak into mumbai by air yesterday, after being diverted to Goa for some time. If it was me I would have tried to cancel my ticket and woud have stayed on in Goa for some time :-) My sister tried in vain to explain to her to come later on. But I guess thats what the doctor ordered. I li'l bit of exercise :-) I saw people complaining on TV that the prices for water, taxis, basic needs etc etc have shot up in water world. Come to think of it we all do the same thing. "Pay me more cause the other company is paying higher or I'll leave" :-) esp in the IT industry in Bangalore.

Also these news channels are going a bit over board with stories... They want to be the first to air the spicy stories. There was this Air India plane (AI 111) which was scheduled to go from Mumbai to London. However there was some technical snag with the flaps of the wings. They were not working and the engines were heating up or something. They had to have an emergency landing at Delhi. The news channels were into "Breaking news" mode... They were giving minute by minute updates on the situation. "They are 4-5 fire brigades on standby". etc etc... The news channels were trying their best to spice things up. "Hello.... Firebrigades would be standard procedure". They were unnecessarily causing tension for ppl in mumbai.... c'mon tell Mumbai after the plane lands. Finally the plane landed safetly. Nothing happened. The news reporter was like,"err I didn't see smoke but I just got news that the plane landed safetly". Yeah he was actually sad that there was no smoke. His face went pale, as if he wanted something more to happen. He just wanted a story... What he needed was one tight slap :-)

Media, technology are individually just a means to an end. It is not an end in itself.

Roomies day out

Paramesh used to work with me in Cisco. He was my neighbour at work. We then went on to become flatmates, gym mates, and trip mates. He used to be an evangelist for Linux until he jumped to Microsoft, and shifted to hyderabad.

We have been on some nice trips together. Like the unplanned one to Kodaikanal. Ayush, my other rommie had joined us. On the way we met some 7 other guys who Ayush knew from some IIT training classes. We bunked together in a rest house that had exactly 10 beds. Had loads of fun. The next day, the 3 of us found ourselves on our way to Madurai. We finally landed up spending some time on Swami Vivekananda's rock in the middle of the ocean in Kanyakumari. It is not the southern most point of India as most people think. Been on some other trips with him like the one to Kudremukh etc.

We used to gym together too. Manish, our other roomie had decided to join us but he ended up in hospital :-) He started again after sometime. Param has a senti side too. There was this time we were watching Stephen Spielberg's AI. Param had tears in his eyes at the end :-) Decided not to show him any of the real senti movies. He then got friendly with his childhood friend who is now a journalist. She told him that if he asked her father for any rice mills, she would kick his butt :-) He also built a miniature house and stuff for her out of icecream sticks. We had to parcel it to Delhi.

Present Day: Param got a transfer to Seattle and had come to bangalore to say his 'tata', 'bye bye' to everyone. Manish, Param and myself decided to meet over lunch. Ayush couldn't join us cause of work. We chatted about old times, future plans etc. He has made some more progress on the journalist front too. Met her parents and stuff. However they are of different castes so there is some initial negative reaction from both parents. He knows things will work out though. I asked him what caste she is from. He said ,"I don't know", and smiled. Will be there for your marriage dude.

Had come across this poem on the web a couple of years back.

Once upon a time
============
Once upon a time
Or so the story begins
They lived happily ever after
Or so the story ends
And the stuff in the middle
Is pretty much the same
As star-crossed lovers
Overcome some seemingly
Insurmountable obstacle
To get from Once Upon A Time
To Happily Ever After
Leaving me to wonder
Whether the love begat the obstacle
Or the obstacle begat the love

- Copyright 2002, by Joseph Rohrbach

26 on the 26th

It was that time of the year. I was about to turn a year older so I decided to share my sorrows with some friends. Since the number of friends seemed to be more than my sorrows I started to wonder what to do. I really wanted to do something nice so I ended up sending out an email.

The Invitation:
===========
Hey,

Please keep yourselves free this Sunday evening (24th July). And if you can manage to do that then drop by my place for dinner. The reason.... Well music's in the air etc etc... do you really need a reason... for those who need one here are two...

Ab tak chabees: ... and still counting.
I'll be 26 on the 26th...

Ab tak paanch: ... and still counting.
uhem.. I have made a lot of money from referral bonuses. Others go thru the grind by giving and taking the interview and I make some money on the side :-) Some even claim that I'm gonna build a house with all the bonuses :-)

Now the Big Plan:
I was planning to take you all out to Leela Palace but then we would be scattered over a number of tables. So I have decided to call you home :-) phew.
I was also planning to cook but then realized that I can't. Don't worry... we'll think of something.

The Place:
My home
aka
the place I sleep
aka
xxx

Landmarks/directions:
xxxxx

Helpnet:
xxxxx

Time:
7:30pm .... till the building ppl call the police.

Repondez s'il vous plait. Not a reply all please.
Cause I need to plan. Yeah things like cleaning the house. Removing the clothes from the sofa so that ppl can actually sit on it etc etc...

c ya,
Alistair
=========

There you go. Nice and easy. Hmmm.... As I sat there in my chair staring at the email for a few moments it finally hit me. "Yikes I have just 2 days to go. We also have a release to make at work. Are they all gonna fit in the house." I then quickly rechecked my mental picture of all of them stuffed inside my place and gave it a nod. Called up my cousin and appraised her of the situation I had put myself into. She willingly agreed to take care of ordering the food. She also said that she would bake a cake for me :-) So the plan is that people come, chat, eat and go. "Hmmmm... Nah.. how boring." Maybe I should try to channelise they energies to lift up the tempo. What would my Dad do.... Games :-) Yup, my Dad always comes up with nice games. Called my parents up and asked them to send me some ideas.

The next day went by quickly in getting a lot of office work done. My Mom sent some ideas for some games. Slept on them. However was still not getting that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know the mission will be accomplished. The next day I landed up at my cousin's place to go to the lady just down her road, who prepares some nice food. However her daughter had just delivered so she was unable to deliver. We went to someone else but that person was not at home. Yikes. We then went to a third place and they said they would deliver. I then rushed to office to complete some more work. After that I decided to work on some games. I just had to get that warm fuzzy felling. I then started to think of what my friends would like. Googled for ideas. Finally thought of a game that I just knew everyone would enjoy. However it was too much of work to prepare, so I decided to drop it. After some more thought I decided to go for it. Spent quite some time on it.

The next day we had a herculean task of cleaning the house. After that went out with my roomie Ayush to get some of the shopping done. Finally with only the food left I decided to take a half an hour nap. Called the food ppl and they give me a heart attack by saying that there is no order in that name. We finally picked up the food and then it began to pour. Finally everything went off well. Phew. Tired but with a smile on my face I finally went to sleep. C'mon.. I mean I went days without sleep. Its a good thing I used to sleep at night though :-)

Today alot of friends sent me messages wishing that life be good to me the coming year. Hmmm... Come to think of it people often ask "So howz life been to you?". But somehow its never, "So how have you been to life?". I have often wanted to ask people that, but somehow never have. So today I'll ask myself.

City of Joy

The view from the top is breathtaking. There are trees everywhere. It was to be my first visit to this city, the 'City of Joy'. My sister Sonali was getting engaged to Nikhil. I was to be picked up by Nikhil's friend Teddy.... err Teddy Bear???? Images of him started running through my head just when the airhostess thought I was smiling at her. Incase somehow I did not find Teddy Bear, I was given instructions to tell the taxi guy to take me to Biman Bose's house. The chairman of the Left Front, the ruling party in the state. He lives above Nikhil's parents place. However I met Teddy and we were off. As we moved into the city that has been a nerve centre of intellect, a home to four Nobel laureates, you realise that a lot needs to be done.

At Nikhil's place, his mom took out his sisters wedding album and then all of us became the wedding planners. From the church timings to the reception timings. From the seating arrangements to the dancing arrangements. Err.. sorry... make that from the dancing arrangements to the seating arrangements. Then the guest list. My mom already had her list. Nikhil's mom, aka Aunty Jean, is from our home town. So both the moms began exchanging notes on the guest list... friends, inlaws, outlaws et al. "What about the theme?". Nope... you can't forget the theme. "Whats the theme?". You know, like the colour of the decorations, the bridesmaids dresses, the writings on the walls. Basically a theme idea that can be adapted to your personality, style and most importantly.... budget :-) "Annette, I remember for your wedding there was some nice writings on the wall", says Aunty Jean. My dad had moved into the house just opposite my mom's when he had shifted to Nagpur. After some time they found themselves in a wedding hall with the following writing on the wall. "Ma. He's making eyes at me". My Dad retorts, "Thats why I'm wearing specs now".

We then moved to Aunty Jean's sister, Jackie's place, where we were staying. The balcony overlooked Theatre road. It was next to Park Street where the movie "Parineeta" was filmed. Then I started making plans for painting the town red. My dad was everready. My mom and sister Natasha also signed up, along with Uncle Jeff. The next day the mood was infectitious and the spirit sweeping. We went to Victoria Memorial and the museum. Then an old church nearby. Next to the church was Birla planetarium so we jumped in. There were so many stars in the sky, accompanied by a strong north wind (the fan). The ambience was.... err it was... well what can I say... the mood was infectitious and the spirit sleeping. We then headed home.

In the evening we had a short prayer service followed by a get together at Aunty Jean's place. Later in the night Nikhil narrated the story of the proposal. Phone calls for advice, practise, tension and timing. Airtel must have made some good money that day. Then Aunty Jean narrated some sweet childhood stories of Nikhil. "Sonali also must be having some sweet childhood stories." Then I start. "Yeah like the time she stabbed me with a pencil between my eyes, near the area just above the nose." A piece of lead could be seen behind the skin for nearly 9-10 years before it got assimilated into my body. I used to proudly show it off to people, like a brave soldier wounded in battle. "Thats because you bit me!". She then showed everyone the teeth marks near her thumb. Hmmm.. hu hmmmm. hu hmmm... Dinner.

There was also this time when my eldest sister Natasha hit my hand with a hammer. I was like two years old. Well she says that she doesn't remember anything so here is my version of the story. "Natasha is at an age when children are inquisitive. So she wants to know what happens when you hit your hand with a hammer. I realise what she is upto and start crying, cause I know she will hurt herself. Trust me, I know. I then bravely offer to be the guinea pig and thats that." Mother however claims that I was the one who hit Natasha's hand with a hammer. Now now... who are you gonna believe. My mother or a tiny innocent pure two year old child. Did I say innocent....

The next day the mood was still infectitious, however some spirits were still sleeping. My Dad and I made the plans. My mom decided to join in, just to make sure we don't get lost. First it will be like, "Where do you want to go now. Let it be. Don't go." After the plans are finalised it will be like, "I also want to come". I decided to let her join us cause of her umbrella, which had provided me much refuge from the sun the previous day. I mean I could have borrowed the umbrella but then again its nice if there is a woman along with you, under a flowery umbrella. After some site seeing we went to Mother's home, the house of 'The Missionaries of Charity'. Although the visiting hours had passed they allowed us to enter as we told them that we were from out of town. There is a 'Missionaries of Charity' in Nagpur, close to our place. My dad recently performed one of his magic shows out there. We visited Mother Teresa's grave, one amongst millions who discovered the human potential to make any city, the 'City of Joy'.

In the evening was the engagement. After a short prayer service which was again captured in 8mm by my dad, they were officially engaged. The cake was in the shape of a calendar showing the wedding date. Everyone got a smaller version of the cake, complete with the calendar. Neat. We then played a game where we were to guess the words of a sentence where only the first alphabet was given. Something like "7 D of the W" would be "7 Days of the Week". Uncle Jeff and I were the first to give in our papers. We would have won if not for just one which went "1000 Y in a M". Thats easy "1000 yards in a mile". Ok stop laughing... we were technically correct. 1000 yards may not be equal to a mile but there are "1000 (plus a few more) yards 'in' a mile". At the end everyone was declared a winner. However I have a theory. Nikhil's Dad, Uncle Danny, had come up with the game. It had some clues like, "39 B of the O T", "27 B of the N T", "66 B of the B", which stand for "39 Books of the Old Testament", "27 Books of the New Testament", "66 Books of the Bible". They were nicely spaced out. Maybe the intention was to check out our Bible knowledge. Especially after the violent childhood stories I thought were sweet :-) BTW Uncle Jeff got the ones about the 39 and 27 books. I'm good at Maths so I got the 66 one.

About our sibling wars, well we were just being ourselves. When you are small you forget about it the next day. Unless there are physical scars that remind you about it. As you get bigger sometimes it takes just a little bit longer. This time around the scars need not be physical. I'm sure there must have been many sibling fights that very same day in some corner of the world. But come to think of it, "A brotherly fight, a sisterly scream. For some these treasures of life are just a far-fetched dream." These are one of the few things that make any city the 'City of Joy'.

Wars of the Worlds

Landed up at Rohan and Pooja's place, the movie marathon runners. They have a record of watching 3 movies in a single day. Or was that 4. Well I've heard of pub hopping but cinema hopping?? Today the humble plan was to watch just one. 'The War of the Worlds'. A movie where some ipods are trying to take over the world. Wait... iPods... thats a different war in a different world. In that world there are some who want to have windows in anything and everything. Then there is a tiger thats on the prowl hoping to woo everyone with its sleek looks, elegant movements and sturdy body. Will the halo effect of the iPods help to win the war. Boot, search, crash, boom, bang! The battle continues.

Back in moviedom there were these tripods trying to take over the world. There were some good special effects but the movie was definately not scary. Well thats not what the guy next to me thought. He was like all pale and stuff??? His eyes transfixed to the screen, with his hands covered over his ears. "Hear No Evil". I chose to cover my eyes, giggling, "See no Evil". Pooja too was goofing around and had no other option but to cover her mouth, "Speak No Evil".

The interval. There was already a war brewing between Pooja and Rohan about a certain brownie, topped with ice cream and nuts. Either Rohan or Pooja thinks that she is getting fat. I haven't figured that one out yet. Rohan turns to me, "Do you think she is fat". Time stops. "HELLO!!! Don't you guys have a mirror at home". "Then use it". "Why me (sob sob)". "Will you beat me up if I say yes". "Will you beat me up if I say no". Both of them were still looking at me for an answer. Pooja was sitting besides me. "Nah". At times like this tell a story. "There is this friend of mine in a world far far away. She got married sometime back. She sent me some of their travel snaps after a pretty big gap. I reply saying the snaps are nice. She replies asking me if I noticed how much weight she had put on. I then went on to give her some advice on how to shed the extra fat." "Rule no 1. Don't diet. Never diet. Once you are off the diet your body will store more fat to be prepared for future such drops in food intake. Even if you lose weight you might end up causing some permanent damage." "Rule 2. Run. Exercise. You won't put on muscle if you follow the proper schedule." "And Rule 3. If anything backfires don't hunt me down". Short and sweet. Pooja, for the record, you are not fat. And Rohan, give her the brownie!!

Now Pooja also had a story to tell. Her face all lit up. I thought you just covered your mouth a few moments ago saying "Speak No Evil". Well this was not evil at all. It was pure. Pure entertainment :-) Anyways its a story about the world of my roomie Ayush. Also a movie marathon runner. Infact they set the record together. Well, Pooja and Rohan's 6 month wedding anniversary was the previous week. I was out of town. They called up Ayush, to go out for dinner. He tells them that he can't make it as he has some other 'commitments'. Ayush got engaged (not officially) sometime back and his fiancee, Pallavi, had just come into town. So he is sitting there, all starry eyed, typing an sms, "Hi Darling. How are you. I am with my Uncle having dinner." As the message is teleported through space and time, the world around him seems to move more slowly. Then he gets a reply. "Hi Darling. I am fine. I am also having dinner. With my husband". Arre Ayush what is this!!! Pallavi are you listening. "aaj Pooja kal koi duja". Ok ok.. it was not evil at all. It was pure. Pure faux pas.

I can imagine Ayush, a few moments earlier, pressing the send button. Then the realization of the same. After a debounce time of a few milliseconds the circuitry in the phone comes alive and starts to send signals in all directions, but in a controlled manner. "Maybe if I remove the battery the message won't go!!!", his heart still pounding. Maybe it will, cause of the capacitance leakage current that may have still been driving the radio components. This capacitance leakage current can be a very nasty thing. Especially in places where they tell you to, "SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONES!!!". So don't just go and remove the battery and put it back in, thinking that everything is off. It may just start ringing during a play, when you are seated in the first row. uhem.

The movie ended. But for Rohan and Ayush the War of the Worlds had just begun :-) I really enjoyed the 'Wars' of the Worlds. I think it should get an Oscar.

The perfect storm

It was Saturday and Nikhil was driving me around to show me some historical sites in Delhi. "I think Humayun's tomb is somwhere around here". "Ok lets check it out". We searched around for quite some time and then decided to ask for directions. Again people were not too enthusiastic to help out. Finally when we were near to it an old man told us to "Go right", then an auto guy told us "Go straight". Never trust an auto/taxi guy in Delhi if your not gonna sit in his auto/taxi. We went a little ahead and found a guy sitting on his bike parked by the side of the road, smoking grass. "Go left". When in doubt trust the guy smoking grass :-) I don't know why the taxi or auto guys don't like to help or maybe it was just me.

On the way back we picked up some stuff for the dinner that we were to cook. Nikhil had called some of the guys over. We were driving on one of the busy roads. A lot of people were eager to get back home. Then suddenly we saw someone fall. An elderly man and his wife were driving and the bus infront of them suddenly braked. The man tried to avoid it but I think the side hit his handle and he lost his balance. The lady had a royal fall. If the car infront of us was going any faster the lady's head may have been hit. The cars around them swerved and went on. Although they wern't hurt they would definately have been shaken up a bit. But people were still eager to get home. We decided to stop as I got out and helped the man to move the vehicle. Nikhil parked to the side. I asked them if they were ok but the lady who was yelling at her husband now looked at me to get some support for her case. "You tell me. Wasn't he driving fast", she looked at me still yelling at her husband. "If I knew how to drive I would drive but...". She looked at me to say something more to bolster her case. Errr change the subject.... "Water". I'll go get water from the car. "Cold water", she smiled at me. Ok cold water. We will get it from the shop across the road. Her husband was quite all the time while she kept on yelling :-) Even when we came back after a few minutes she was still poking him. He handed me the money, thanking me for the help and we moved on. I don't know for how long the storm lasted.

We had a nice dinner. Nikhil's friend Lloyd cooks pretty well. Nikhil made some nice steak. The second round was better. Maybe it was cause of the beer that fell in :-) Rahul did some impersonations of Jack Nicholson and some other guys. "Mr Gamboni".... Pretty good voice modulation, diction and depth accompanied by some facial gestures. He was wearing a pink, yes a PINK t-shirt for which there were some nasty comments from the audience. Then there was Varun. He also had a story to tell. Lloyd's list of people he didn't like kept on increasing thru the night :-) Nikhil told us about the time in Kolkata where he innocently played TT with this girl. The next morning there were people waiting outside church to beat him up :-) Everyone had stories to tell. Slept again at about 4am. The next day on the way to the airport down came the rain. It felt extremely good. I hope the rain didn't take that long for the elderly couple.

The Longest Day

June 24th, the longest day. Err... isn't it supposed to be June 21st ??? Well not this year. I was in Delhi for a friends wedding. Had arrived the previous night and was staying with Nikhil, my to be brother-in-law. "Delhi is hot!". Well I'm talking about the weather. Just a few hours earlier I was in Bangalore where people were contemplating over whether they should take out their sweaters from the closet. We decided to drive around a bit in the morning as I chose historical sites over malls. Red Fort was .... well red. The person at the counter didn't feel like telling us that there were separate tickets for the museums. Luckily we saw the person at the side pick up some. "Delhi is hot!". The weather again. Chill, I'll let you know when I have something else in mind. Anyways the trees inside didn't provide us shade for long as I discovered the hard way. They had some velvety black occupants and one particular chap didn't like me much :-) Good luck they say. Yeah. Yeah. If I was lucky I wouldn't be standing there in the first place. We finally decided to cool ourselves down with the sprinklers. The two of us became little kids as we ran around following the spray of water, spurting out of this device that employs simple physics principles in ingenious ways. The energy in the universe remains constant. We were witness to this phenomenon as the force of moving water turned the nozzle around and finally transferred the energy to us. "Cool!".

Finally I went home and got dressed up and after a few minutes landed up at Saurabh's place, just in time to catch the last of the 'Sehra Bandi' ceremony. 'Sehra' means the wedding turban and 'bandi' means 'to tie'. Well I haven't been for a complete Hindu/Jain marriage so I was taking notes. I mean I've been to Hindu marriages before but just for the important part, the food! Maxime, someone I know from Bangalore was sitting on the sofa taking notes too. This was to be the second Indian marriage he would be attending. He is basically from Switzerland, planning for a PhD in network security. This being his fourth visit to India. On the way to Saurabh's place I realized that the distance from his place to the marriage hall is pretty far. Hey I'm smart. I can figure these things out. "Is the Baraat gonna walk/dance the full distance." I mean I can run long distances but "Delhi is hot!". My fears were allayed when they put Saurabh up on the horse and he went just a little distance ahead. The cameras were on till just before he got off. The plan was to go by car to another hall where the 'Baraat' would start. I felt like wacking the horse on its behind so that it galloped ahead a bit. However I didn't want all his family members to start staring at me. Yeah.. what if the horse ran far far away :-)

I got into a car filled with a lot of kids. Maxime was along with me. Then he started to speak to me in Hindi. This guy knows a lot of words and sentences! We were listening to some Hindi songs and he recognised words. He also spoke to the kids in Hindi. They were entertained. In addition to that he knows some Tamil, English, French, Portuguese. God knows which other languages. He also writes letters in Hindi!! In fact at times his responses were faster in Hindi than they were in English.

On the way we realised that we were lost so we started asking for directions. Again most people were not very enthusiastic to help out. Finally we reached the 'Baraat' hall where there was some more puja. Met Tushit, who I had met in Bangalore before. Met Meenakshi, Saurabh's childhood friend who had an experience coming to Delhi from Mumbai where she spent more than 10 hours at the airport. After that we came out as I saw a similar looking horse. Nobody should know that we came all the way by car :-) The 'Baraat' then proceeded towards the marriage hall. This is the first time I've been in a 'baraat' procession, as opposed to watching thousands of them pass by in my home town.

Neha, the groom's sister was pretty happy as she danced and danced along the way, accompanied by all of us. We even stopped traffic along the way. Everyone was honking adding to the sound of the music. Outside the hall everyone danced and danced as if there was no tomorrow. Finally the bride's people welcomed us with garlands. I got one too :-) Wearing a garland gave us special status as the girl's side welcomed us inside the hall. We took out the garlands after some time but Maxime decided to stick on to his one. Finally he took it off. Met Neeti there as she is doing an internship in Delhi, learning the ropes, makes the rules we follow. "But what about following the spirit of the rule", I asked her once. She didn't say anything. I know one day she will :-) Neeti and Saurabh are my play buddies, ever ready to freak out and do anything wild.

Then we saw the bride coming out with a chunni which is a long, flowing veil, held over her by her sisters. She came on to the dias where they were to have the garland ceremony. They have this thing where they lift up the person so that the other one can't put the garland on. Saurabh introduced me to the others up there as the bodybuilder from Maharashtra as I took my place infront. Hey... it was a college competition. A college of geeks. The first time I won there was no tough competition. The guy who had won the previous year saw me and decided to back out :-) The second time I had to fight off some stiff competition. Trained quite a bit for the second one. Anyways bodybuilder from Maharashtra... I'm not complaining :-)

Then I get an SMS from my mom. "Allaboy how r u ? What r u doing? sms. 2morrow is r wedd anniversary". She was basically worried (as usual) as to how and when I would be going back home. Although the words didn't reflect that, the time did. C'mon I'm a bodybuilder from Maharashtra. I can take care of myself. Its about 10-15 secs after the sms, while I'm walking to a quiter place outside. My mom calls, "I sent you an sms. You got it na?". She is famous for this :-)

Food! My biological clock tells me its time for dinner. I tell the others that I'll go on a reconnaisance mission before we attack. I was a little worried when I just saw some fruits and chaats when I entered the food court. Was relieved to know that the food court was actually downstairs. After food it was time for the actual wedding. Tushit and Meenakshi left. Neeti also did the vanishing act. So Maxime and myself decided to start taking notes again.

The pujari made them throw stuff into the fire, chanting verses. They walked around the fire tied to each other so that neither one can run away :-) When some ladies were busy chatting (making noise) the pujari told them,"Do you remember what you said when you got married". "No", was the answer. "Then listen!". He also made 4 men from the girls side stand in four corners and forgot about them. Finally he asked to sit after about an hour. The whole ceremony took about 3 hours or more. A christian marriage takes about 1 hour. The exchange of vows being about 10-15 mins. Thats it. The priest asks the couple stuff and they say "I do". Then he asks "If anyone has any objections that these two not be wed, let them speak now or forever hold their peace". Sometimes you would see the bride or groom slyly look over their shoulder to make sure non of their exs decide that they suddenly have an objection :-) I remember when we were small we once did a mock wedding. We made someone the priest who said all the dialogues. We even had flower girls and page boys. We got Derrick married to Diamee. They exchanged wedding vows, even wedding rings made of golden eclair wrappers. I don't remember if anyone had any objections when the priest asked us if we did.

So do people actually get married just because they exchange marriage vows. Sometimes it takes 10 mins, sometimes 3 hours. Different languages, different customs. Sometimes they don't know what they are saying cause they are kids. Thats child marriage. Ok so the two people have to be willing to be married to call it a marriage. Derrick and Diamee were kids... they were willing ??? Also are people married the picosecond after they say "I do". Or are they already married before that, the moment they decided that they wanted to be. My parents engagement was the next day, 29 years. Maybe they are married cause they have exchanged and renewed their wedding vows over the past 29 years. hmmmmm.

After the ceremony the brides sisters and friends wanted Rs 50,001 from Saurabh to give him his shoes back. Dude, I'll sell you mine for 25,000, err 20,000, err... 15 ... forget it. Met the married couple after the ceremony. It was about 4am ish. I tried to say something witty. I'm thinking to myself, "That was not witty at all. It sounded so much better and different in my head." Time to give my brain some rest.

It was about 5:30am by the time I reached the bed. I was planning to visit the Taj Mahal the same day. Had done some inquiries about the mode of travel the previous day. It was gonna take 3-4 hours either way. Maybe if I don't sleep I can make ZZZzzzzzzz.

Preacher Preacher

"The beginning and end of imagination, all at the same time." Those were the words that the narrator of the movie 'Seabiscuit', used to voice his opinion about the 'Great Industrial Revolution'. Those were the words that stuck with me after I watched 'Seabiscuit', a true story brilliantly captured in 8mm. Set in the backdrop of 'The Great Depression', its about a horse that many thought should be put to sleep. The horse however had plans of its own and went on to encourage three individuals and in turn the nation, to triumph over adversity.

We have this thing called a readers club in office which offers the readers to delve deeper into the books through discussions. Each group consists of about 5 people. Our first was a book on good programming methodology. We then read a book called 'The soul of a new machine', a 1980 pulitzer prize winner. We are currently in the middle of a book called 'Zapp! The lightning of empowerment'. Its a book for managers on ways to motivate their employees.

So there we were midway through the book, discussing, relating parts of the book to instances in office, suggesting improvements, accepting our own faults. Each meeting a scribe would be appointed to note down our discussions. Basically we would pick the person who didn't read the chapters decided upon :-) The scribe would then post our discussions on a newsgroup for company junta to discuss/view. I was the scribe for one such meeting.

I personally feel that managers are of two types. Those who manage people to do the work assigned to them, where there is a transfer of responsibility. And those who consider people as resources to complete the work assigned to them, where there is no transfer of responsibility but more like a transfer of orders to follow strictly. Something like 'The beginning and end of imagination, all at the same time". After I had posted our discussions, and my thoughts about managers, the CEO asked me to explain my one line comment on managers as it was not intuitively clear. I went on to explain it to him with a little bit of evangelistic zeal :-) This was a few weeks back.

I was to leave for Delhi for a friend's wedding. A decision that I was not sure of till the previous night due to my current workload. I decided to leave the office for the airport by 3pm, so I was quickly getting jobs done. Do some feasibility analysis and send a mail out. Then analyse some scope captures to find out why the device that usually sings like Norah Jones or cries like Carlos' guitar, was sometimes singing like me??? I knew what I had to do but it would take time. "Quick!!!". I decided to outsource some of the menial, straight forward work to one of the testers. I was happy with the thought that I would get all the work done in such a short span of time. I bragged about the outsourcing part to Sudhakar, the h/w manager who was giving me ideas on how to isolate the problem. We have worked on some gory problems before and more than knowing each others strengths we have come to know each others weaknesses. He looked at me with one eyebrow up which basically means "HELLO... Anybody up there". He told me that testers should not be treated like personal secretaries. I smiled when I understood my mistake. It was "The beginning and end of imagination, all at the same time". I quickly went to the tester and took my work back making some lame excuse. As I passed Sudhakar's place on the was out I put one eyebrow up and said "Thanks" as I rushed to catch my flight.

The secret lives of drawers

"Garbage in the universe remains constant". I think thats one of the laws of junkodynamics. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways in the morning as we came into office we saw an easel with eight color pictures. I went up the usual fleet of stairs, unconsciously tapping my fingers on the wooden railing. My footing programmed from monotony to touch the ground at exactly the right place. I opened my mailbox and out popped a mail from the CEO which threw some light on the existence of the pictures. The mail read, "The pictures are a Saturday morning snapshot of a finite set of desk drawers at Impulsesoft. Since these pictures were taken early in the morning possibly it might explain why all the drawers don't look their best. In order to keep the competition simple, you have to match four or more drawers with their owners. The drawers you will notice are numbered creatively as #1 through #8. The names of the owners (some of them) are included below."

I reach the bottom of the mail. Yup my name is there. I then proceed to take a look at my drawer. Well it was not so early in the morning and my drawer still didn't look its best. Entangled wires everywhere which were used to develop the wireless products that we build. What else... well some naked PCB boards, debug cables, bubble rap, static covers, tiny screw drivers, a phone, some iPods. Everything kept in a very disorderly fashion. Well the stuff wasn't garbage as mentioned above but thats what I was treating it like. What a sight! I then went down to look at the other pictures. Well mine wasn't that bad :-)

After going to the cafeteria I went up to look at the mail again. "Study these pictures well for they will be used in competition #2 as well. We will announce the winner before we go for volleyball this evening." A few days have passed since then. No winner was officially announced but then again no prizes for guessing who won.

Now when I come into office, I go up the usual fleet of stairs, unconsciously tapping my fingers on the wooden railing. My footing programmed from monotony to touch the ground at exactly the right place. But before I open my mail box I now think of the not so secret life of my drawer.

There's a girl on the tracks!!!!

It was a moment frozen in time by terror. It was a moment frozen in time in the Readers Digest 50th anniversary edition. I had taken the book with me to spend time during my journey to Mumbai and back. The stories are amazing. You can read them again and again and again and then get inspired all over again. This particular real life story took place in the New York subway. The story is so well written, that after 20-25 minutes of being taken through this moment in time you actually realise that this moment in time was just over a span of 1-2 minutes.

For about 30 seconds everyone on the platform expects someone else to go and help the little girl who missed her step and landed on the tracks, while her mom was screaming for help. Finally they hear the rumble of the train coming in at about 50kph. Two brave people then decide not just to be spectators. One of them nearly looses his legs in his attempt to save the girls life. He runs along the tracks and finally arrives near the girl with the train about 2-3 seconds away from him. He first moves the girl to safety and then tries to save himself. Luckily no one was hurt. I was wondering, if I was put in that situation would I also run to help that little girl. Hmmm I wonder. I mean I can write now that maybe I would. But come to think of it you have to be in that moment when your whole system (mind, body and soul) is put through the test to actually see if you can go through it.

So there I was at the railway station accompanied by my mom to see me off. I had been through some eventful days over the weekend. It was Duncan's wedding. Had been for the bachelor's party, then the wedding. Met a lot of relatives. Genuinly greeted some, smiled at the others. At the bachelor's party I was assigned the task of capturing the joyous and some embarassing moments :-) on tape. When Duncan, the groom, is watching it some eons from now I'm sure it will bring a smile on his face. Anyways it was fun. So as I was saying I was at the railway station waiting for the train. The same platform was used for the local trains which is heavily used by people to commute to work and back. People push to get in and people push to get out as the train stops for just a few seconds. You just have to go with the flow. One such local train had just passed which was not yet filled to capacity. When I say filled to capacity I mean people hanging out of the trains.

Suddenly out of nowhere I see a big black flying object, zoom in, hit a fan and fall to the ground. "There's a crow on the platform"... Wait. Please wait. I can imagine you yawning, wondering, "Its not even on the tracks!!!!". Uhem... for those of you who are still here lets go on. Ok so there's a wounded crow on the platform. People just look from far and decide to go on with their business. A few moments pass. Then we see the crow limping, trying to fly, moving towards the tracks. It can't fly but its still about a few centimeters from the end of the platform. A few more moments pass but no one decides to help. Then one elderly man, on his way to work I presume, picks up the crow and moves it to the side. You could make out that the desire to help that creature came quite naturally. Seeing that another man went and poured some water for the crow. Both of them moved on. The crow drank a little water and tried to fly again. There were a lot of crows flying all around trying to give encouragement to the little chap to fly. However it again went a few centimeters from the end of the platform and turned over.

I thought to myself. Maybe I should go and help it. I looked around to see if anyone wanted to do the honours. No one. Ok I then took out a packet to wrap around my hand. But as I walked closer I wondered if the crows above would come charging down at me. Or what if a local train came into the platform suddenly out of nowhere. What if the crow starts to wiggle and I lose my balance near the edge. Wierd thoughts were running through my head as each step I took seemed to take ages. What if the local train is crowded and someone stamps on the crow. Worse, what if they slip and people get injured too. As I neared the crow covered in its jet black fur, it looked at me and I looked at it. Both of us were quite calm then. I pulled it to the place where there was water for it. This time it somehow knew that we were just trying to help and it remained there.

My train then came into the station. I boarded it on my journey back. Why did it take me so long to go and help it. Maybe cause some of its cousins have dropped some of their belongings on me in the past :-) If it was a different bird would I have gone sooner. But God forbid, what if there was a little girl on the tracks would I do something about it. Would I risk my life for another or in the words of one of the brave men from the story above, "Would I choose to live, knowing that a certain part of me would die". I wonder.

Sweet 16

My mother's profession.... well she's a housewife... thats pronounced as "houswif" if you are interested in phonetics, with a silent 'w' and a half silent 'u'. Talking about phonetics, I remember when I was in school I would prepare with my mother for elocutions. We would focus on my breathing, voice modulation, diction, pace, face expressions, body gestures... the works. Later on the process became natural for me which helped during my short stint at dramatics in school. Even now while reading or speaking in front of an audience my voice naturally changes. I don't make any effort to change it but it just does.

All my neighbours would know that I'm preparing for a competition cause my voice was so loud :-) Otherwise I would be this real quite person. While preparing my mother knew the flow of it all so well that I would always tell her to leave the auditorium when my chance came. Cause I was afraid that I would look into hers eyes and when I made some mistake I knew she would know it. After preparing with my mother I would go to Aunty Ancy to check if I was phonetically correct. I remember her telling me how to pronounce the word housewife.... Its "hous if".... "hous if".

Anyways... so I met my mother and sisters after more than a month. We were in Mumbai for Duncan's wedding. The wedding was an excuse to meet up with my sisters who are also in Mumbai. My mom likes to travel. All you have to do is tell her she's invited and she will travel all over the country to attend your wedding. BTW Duncan is also her godchild so she had to be present.

That evening she was telling me about her journey and the people she met along the way. She was telling me ... her face all lit up and stuff.... that the person next to her was wondering who this old lady was that he would be sitting beside. He had seen that her age was mentioned as 56 on the list. Finally when she came to her seat he was like... "you don't look 56 at all... you don't even have wrinkles on your face". There was this other time when some passengers were surprised that she had childen who were so big. My mother would love it when some of our relations (who can't see too well) would say that my mom and sisters, look like sisters..... My mom and I would savour those moments. However for me, the moment would often be short lived when they would say "Let me guess... you're the eldest".... Hello!! you blooming blind bats... I'm the youngest in the family. Well I told you in the beginning itself that they can't see too well.

My mom is probably the only woman in the world who loves telling people her age. Even her email id has her year of birth prominently embedded for all to see.... 1949. She won't say she's 56.... It would be more like, "I'm going on 57".... and then she would wait for ppl's reaction. This waiting for a reaction thing is used in other scenarios too... Like when you have just eaten her cake or some food that she has prepared. If you tell her you like her cake she will bake you one full one. She has plans to start a business baking cakes... Everyone tells her that her cakes would sell like hot cake!! But everytime someone asks her to bake a cake its like, "maybe the next time I'll start charging them".

Come to think of it my dad also doesn't look his age. He doesn't have white hair. He's 57 and sometimes ends up calling my mom's cousins "Aunty" :-) It would be good for them if they are hard of hearing. Hehehe...

Clock Builder vs Time Teller

When you look at a wireless handheld consumer device there are 3 main factors that define the product besides the functionality/usecase ofcourse. The factors are the cost, the range/bandwidth and the battery life. For the end consumer they would like a lot of functionality with the cost being as low as possible. While they would love the range and battery life to be large.

Ok back to reality.... The 3 factors are related and you could consider them as the 3 points of the golden triangle that surrounds the basic use case. You have to tweak the various factors depending on the usecase. If you want more range and bandwidth, battery life will go down, cost will rise. The thumb rule... tweaking one affects another.

So there we were, trying to tweak the current consumption of the device we were building. The aim was to reduce the current consumption of a particular component from about 1.5 milli amps (1500 micro amps) to less than 10 micro amps under certain conditions. We studied the h/w schematics, the external/internal pullups/pulldowns for various paths, the chip datasheet. Discussed it with the h/w folks. I ran the various signals thru my head, keeping in mind not to break any existing functionality while trying to accomodate the new ones. We had to multiplex just a single line to communicate stuff between the main processor and the component under scrutiny. We had to think of timing issues and signal settling times due to spurious capacitances, signals. In this tiny little world of chips, super-highways and interconnects we were playing God. And as God we had to think more about the rogue signals and components that misbehave and try to get them back to the right path. Come to think of it we were just being human. hmmm...... When consuming less than 10 micro amps the component would switch off its sequential logic (logic using some clock). To get out of that low power mode we had to use the combinational logic functions of the chip. Finally we came to the conclusion that it was feasible. The feasibility analysis had to be done before writing a single line of code and the implementation itself would provide its own set of challenges. We finally ended up bringing down the current consumption to about 1 microamp but thats another story.

Anyways after the feasibility analysis, we were wondering what we should charge the customer for this feature. It was a small feature but everyone would love to be paid a lot for anything and everything they do. While the person who you are doing it for would love to get it done for free or as part of some previous payment.

Ok back to reality.... So my manager decides to call a meeting of the team and the program manager to discuss the technical details of the feature, and the pricing for it related to the man hours to be allocated. We spoke of the technical feasibility and came to the conclusion that it would take a couple of days to complete, which included full regression testing. Regarding the pricing he and the program manager could have come to a decision on it. They didn't need us in the discussion as we were engineers and that was not part of our job profile. We then went into some philosophical discussions about doing the right thing and decided that it was something we had missed and so we should not charge the customer for it.

Looking back I feel my manager came into the meeting already decided. He didn't want to just force his decision upon us. I had a feeling that this was on his mind from the beginning of the meeting. Trust me I did :-) He could have just told us what his decision was and we would have left it at that. No questions asked. However he didn't want to just tell us the time as per his clock. He wanted us engineers to build the clock so that we can tell the time in the future.

The Gift

It was Kathleen's birthday, my cousin's daughter. She is 7 now and I was at Bangalore Central wondering what to buy her. I had some time... and I had already thought about the plan... the plan? Yes the plan of action... so the plan was to go to the toys section, choose something..... don't buy it yet.... go around do some window shopping... then go back... pick up the gift and leave. When I say pick up the gift I mean buy it ... just making things clear :-)

Anyways.... So I head towards the toys section forced by the layout of the mall to look at other stuff which I don't intend to buy. I spend about 10 mins out there and decide on something. Gawd!!! that was quick... I still have a lot of time. Window shopping to the rescue. I land up at the clothes section where I know that I can spend time. I have this habit where I like to check out a lot of stuff before I finally pick up something. Often this process is not completed in the same day!!! Thats why I like to shop alone when I'm scouting for clothes.... Its just that the thing that I'm buying has to strike a chord with me. Its called the 'aaahhhhaaa!' feeling. Wierd na :-) .... I am like this only maacha.... Well.. I ended up buying some Jeans which I liked....

"Its about 7... ok back to the toys section... pick up the gift and off to my cousin's place"..... So I'm there at the toys section standing in front of the gift that I had earlier decided to buy and I ask myself, "If I was 7, would I like it". I stand there staring at what I have in my hands... Thinking.... Trying to put myself in her shoes. Her shoes don't fit me so I'm trying harder. I start to feel a bit uncomfortable. Not because of the tight shoes but with my choice. Then it comes out, "Naaahh!". Ok then pick up something else....

So I'm looking around and finally spot something that manages to catch my fancy. Its called a starters engineering set or something... It has these tiny little things which you have to join together to form bigger things. It has tiny little beams and nuts and bolts inside which you have to attach together to form stuff.... interesting stuff... Models of a plane, a car, a pulley system are given on the front. I think to myself, "Once you get the hang of it you just have to use your imagination to build whatever you want". Thats the key .... "Use your imagination"... to build something.... maybe even something out of the ordinary. Its like you have all these sounds inside your head but only when you follow certain rules and join them in certain ways do they become music. Otherwise its just..... its just.... well its just plain simple noise.

I don't know if she will like it but I sure felt like opening up the box there and then and building something. I know some ppl in office who would love this gift :-) My hands began to itch. The neurons in my brain started to send out these messages. The "aaahhhaaa!" feeling. That it.. thats the gift I'll give her. Well come to think of it she already has the gift, the gift to use her imagination to build something..... It just that she just has to discover it. So what I was giving her was not a 'gift' per se. It was a means to an end. An end where she has to realize her gift and then decide whether to pursue it further or no. Its a choice that she has to make. Will she be taken over by the force.... the "aaahhhaaa!" feeling.

Games people play.

It was a day like any other day at work. Everyone was busy as usual... fighting dragons, building new battleships, polishing the existing ones, forging alliances, at times sailing through murky waters, and planning for the road ahead. We were at our lunch break when the captain entered and saw four of us, Mayank, Sandeep, Himanshu and myself. He told us to meet him after lunch.

So there we were in the captain's cabin wondering why he had called for this meeting. Then he suggested that we play a game. "A game?? now!!! .... Hello, I have work to do!". Well I didn't tell him that :-) As the words went through the various filters it came out as, "ok so lets play the game". BTW what is the game. He then suggested that we each come up with 2 words. I was appointed as the scribe as I was closest to the board. We didn't know what the game was yet but we presumed that we would have to do something with those words. "What does the captain have up his sleeve?". Our brains were put on high alert. Then one by one the words found their way from the deep crevices of our brain to the board. Converted along the way from signals to vibrations then back to signals. My brain was on extra high alert as I crossed checked the spellings before I sent out signals to my hand to scribble something on the board. There were words like 'revolution', 'volunteer', 'mission', 'money', 'celebration', 'man', 'which', 'adhoc', 'time' and then 'Jackie Chan'. 'Jackie Chan' ???

Ok what next. The captain then told us to write a paragraph using those words. "Well thats not too bad. I can do it", I thought to myself as the alert level of my brain came down. We took about 5-10 mins to complete it. Then each one read out what they had written. The four of us started the paragraph using the words 'Jackie Chan', two referring to the film star while the other two used it as just another name. Our paragraphs revolved around the person 'Jackie Chan'. The captain used the word 'Jackie Chan' in a different way.

We were a bit more comfortable after each one finished reading out what he had written. The captain then went on to explain as to why he had just put us through this drill. He told us that his father suffers from Parkinsons disease and the doctor has advised him to do things outside of his 'comfort zone'. His father reads the newspapers a lot but does not do a lot of writing. He shaves with his right hand, now he tries to do it with his left. Doing something out of his comfort zone would help to stimulate his brain and as some researchers have shown may also help in growing new brain cells. It was earlier thought that we cannot grow new brain cells.

He then told us that he was surprised with the words we had come up with cause most of them like 'man', 'which', 'time' and a few others were 2nd-3rd grade or even lower standard vocalubary. We were discussing that some people would try to fit all the words in 1 or 2 sentences. Then I came up with "Revolution, volunteer, mission, money, celebration, man, which, adhoc, time are words from the dictionary. Even Jackie Chan knows that!". HeHeHe... everyone laughed half heartily. That sounded so much better in my head. Anyways... we then decided to come up with two more words each. Our brains then came up with 'Ornithology', 'masochist', some others without any trouble. Someone came up with a name of an unknown German poet. Atleast thats what he told us the person was.

So why did we come up with easy words the first time. Maybe it was the fear of the unknown, the fear of making a fool of ourselves in front of our peers and especially the captain. Maybe we didn't want to move out of our comfort zone. But as the captain later put it, "We need to move out of our comfort zone. We need to constantly challenge ourselves. We need to try out other things which may also be outside the domain of our work. Try something out of the ordinary from our daily routine to stimulate ourselves. We need to push ourselves and face the unknown with discomfort at first. Then slowly make that our comfort zone. Only then can we grow from what we are to what we will become in the future".

Well just a few days back my manager was talking to me about comfort zones and discomfort zones. He actually used the same words, "comfort zone". It seems quite a few people in the company have been playing games :-)

Episode III Dark Wader: Revenge of the Sithy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
well actually yesterday, earth, JP Nagar Bangalore.
The sun disappeared at around 3.45 pm on Friday as the
Force was enveloped by dark, electrified clouds racing across
the sky. The soul of the Force was left battered and bruised over
the past few days due to its inability to cope with the rains. Blackouts,
flooded streets, its hi-tech status down the drains. Jedi Knights... Wake up!

I was busy in office doing some work. Well I had to write it, just incase my manager reads this blog. Then we heard the rumble and saw flashes of lightening. "Early".. I thought to myself. It had been raining heavily for the past 4 days. It would rain only in the evenings, then the lights would go out. However the next morning the sun would be shining down on everyone as if nothing had happened. This was a daily affair.

Within minutes, we were engulfed in a torrent of rain. 59.2mm in one hour... One of the heaviest in recent times. Traffic stopped! Two wheelers were too scared to venture into the unknown as they waited with baited breath for the storm to pass. As they waded through the streets they bore witness to the fury of nature. Trees were uprooted. 150 in the city... 80 in JP Nagar itself... Some buses and other vehicles were damaged cause trees fell on them.

Unaware of the damage being caused we went out into the balcony to get close to the rain. There was lightning, strong gusty winds and sheets of rain. We all savoured the moment protected by the quaint building we call an office. Later there was a blackout in JP Nagar as I presume was the case with most parts of the city.

In the evening I became the dark wader, as I set out on a mission to fill my tummy. On my way I surveyed the damage... Trees blocked the streets. Poles were brought down. Every road was affected... atleast in JP Nagar. I went home that night through the dark roads... lucky to find the lights still on. There was some hope. The mossies wouldn't get the better of me.

My first half marathon

I wish I could run like no one's timing,
I wish I could let my soul lay bare,
I wish I could just go a prancing,
I wish music's in the air.

Ran my first half marathon on Sunday May 15th. Had started preparing about a month ago. Used to run a max of 2-3 kms before that on the gym's treadmill. Timing improves with practise where you start to understand your limitations and pace yourself properly. The max I had done in practise was abt 15kms in about 1hr 40+ mins. This was 2 weeks back. I remember then that I actually got bored running around in circles and stopped :-) Improved on my timing and could then do abt 10kms in 55mins. Did quite a bit of 5-10 kms runs with a gap of 1-3 days.

I spent the night at Manish's place in Shantinagar since it is about 5-10 mins walking distance from Kantheerva stadium where the marathon starts. On the day of the event I ate few bananas in the morning. Covered likely friction areas of my body with petroleum jelly (vaseline) and stuffed my pockets with some sweets. Decided to run with some wireless music to give me company along the way. Put an iPod (in button locked mode) attached to a bluetooth stereo adaptor in my back pocket. The adaptor is one of the two products I've been working on over the past 4-5 months.

5:53am: Finally armed and dangerous and err... umm... feeling a little bit sticky too, I set out to do something I've never done before. ('Chariots of fire' music in the background).... As I start walking towards the stadium I feel this sudden rush of adrenaline. I've trained hard for this day. I feel I can run at top speed to the stadium and still would have enough energy to run the marathon. Then I finally utter my first words of the day..... "Auto!".

The half marathon started about 30 mins after the full marathon. I started the run with some jazz.... We first went thru Cubbon park, then passed in front of VidhanSoudha. There was a lot of shade till the golf course... Then there were some downhill and uphill sections. I walked the uphill ones.... I was cruising along when the iPod went to some whacko state. I guess running with a 20GB hard disk device jingling in your back pocket could cause it to misbehave. After a little bit of wrestling with the iPod and multiple tries to reboot it did things start to work again... This happened about 2-3 times again along the way. The wireless headphone and wireless adaptor (built by us) worked fine all along and crossed the finish line with dignity :-). A lot of other runners had music to accompany them but none of them had wireless music. I guess I could consider myself as the first half marathon runner (in India atleast) to run with "music in the air" over stereo bluetooth :-) Got a lot of curious/envious looks from ppl along the way.... "GEEK!!" :-) Ok ... I'm sorry for getting into my PR role yet again.... back to the marathon...

There were water stations at a gap of every 2kms. Not too many ppl along the roads initially to cheer us... The view on the Hebbal flyover (halfway mark) was lovely... The lake beside it added to the scenery. A bit after this my weight and age caught up with me as I saw some elderly runners breeze past me.... C'mon I was just being polite and allowed them to pass by!!!! .... Then the front runner, a local bangalorean, of the full marathon passed us on his way back. He was followed by some international runners... They all had so much energy... they just ran and ran and ran and disappeared beyond the horizon....

Lost my energy during the end. Walked half of the last 6kms :-)..... By this time the ppl along the roads increased, cheering us to go on, lying that there was only 3 kms left when there were actually 4-5kms left.... May God bless their souls.... Towards the end the water stations seemed to be far far away.... At one point I was actually eyeing some of the half filled water bottles thrown along the road.... Luckily I had sweets in my pockets. Also felt minor cramps but managed to stretch and then continue. There was also 2 other runners who had my level of stamina..... From the start of the race we kept on overtaking each other, then we would slow down while the other would overtake.... so we kinda maintained the pace for the other person... towards the end we started running together.... started chatting and giving each other encouragement to go on.

As I entered the Kantheerva stadium there were thousands of ppl cheering us on... most of them were the the celebration run (7 kms run) participants which was yet to start. Finally when I entered the stadium and saw the finish line which was abt 20-30 meters away, I tried to run faster... However I got a cramp in my right leg cause of the increase in speed and stopped.... I tried to hop on the left leg but it couldn't support my body... Then the crowd shouted louder :-)... A volunteer even came up to help me but I refused and limped across the finish line while the crowd cheered me on.... I felt a bit guilty as it seemed like a scene out of a hindi movie.... So I kinda completed in style... make that hindi film estyle :-) assisted by some jazz composed by my cousin, some Dil Chahta Hai, Ray Charles and finally Norah Jones enabled by a product with moi inside.....

Plan to run more.... the incentives... tanned skin, blistered feet, aching legs, back and shoulder blades.... and finally the joy of completing... cheered along the way by unknown faces and smiling policemen who stop traffic for you.....

In terms of organising the event I feel that they should have noted the timing for all those who completed. There were about 5-10 officials sitting at the finishing line noting down something when ppl finished.... They gave us blank certificates at the end.... no name .. no timing... This calls for the acceptance speech. Ok here goes, "blah, blah, blah. And finally, Mom and Dad this ones for you!!! [sob, sob]. I mean the blank certificate. Either one of you can write your name out there and put whatever timing you want." Well I completed in about 2 hrs 17 mins types.. but don't know the official timing as I was busy attending to the cramp I got at the end... Luckily the guy who finished just before me checked his timing... I'm sure there are many others who don't know their timing... However I would like to thank them for the wonderful experience. It felt great to participate....

iWISH

Wrote this for one of the products we have built at Impulsesoft. iWISH which stands for Impulsesoft's Wireless Stereo Headphone. Its an attempt to sum up the music experience.

iWISH

I wish I could dance like no one's watching.

I wish I could let my soul lay bare.

I wish I could just go a prancing.

iWISH music's in the air.

Alistair D'souza (2005)

Understanding Others, Educating Ourselves.

Saurabh sent out a mail saying that AID India is conducting a state wide education survey in TN where they would go village to village and test the reading, writing and math skills of children. Basically an attempt to evaluate the education standard in the schools there. Decided to go as I've never done such a thing a before. Besides he also mentioned that Tamil/Telegu skills were NOT necessary for participating...

We decided to have a meeting a week before we actually went to the villages. We met at Saurabh's place where we given an introduction to AID followed by AID Bangalore activities . A few of the exisiting volunteers spoke about their work like the Joy of Learning program and related experiences. We were then briefed about the TN-wide education survey. We then tried to come up with our future Plan of Action which led to a long and interesting discussion with ppl putting forward their views of how a survey in villages should be carried out, some speaking out of previous experience. I was a silent observer.

On May 8th which was a Sunday, about 14 volunteers were to meet at Sulagiri, Krishnagiri District in TamilNadu. Ayush, my roommate joined in. We were to carry out the survey in Sulagiri as it was closer to Bangalore. AID-Chennai volunteers would carry out similar surveys in other parts of TamilNadu. Some of us met at Silkboard flyover. It took us about 1 hour to reach Sulagiri. And yeah... we definately played Swades on the way.... besides Ayush is a SRK fan. We drove along the bangalore-hosur-krishnagiri highway. It was a nice stretch. As we came closer to Sulagiri we saw a lot more greenery. Sulagiri is the panchayat level village and has several other villages under it. It has private and govt schools and Tamil or Telugu is taught in all.

We first filled our tummies with a good breakfast and then divided ourselves into 3 groups as we had 3 cars. I was grouped with Ayush, my roomie and colleague at Impulsesoft. Kavitha and Vamsi who are a phd couple. Kavitha is doing drug research and Vamsi works for Strand Genomics. Then there was Rajesh who works for Microsoft Research labs. Material for the survey was distributed. I only understood the math part as the numbers were in english numerals. The other stuff was greek to me.... well actually Tamil and Telugu. We then distributed the villages and set off in our respective directions. Vamsi, Kavitha and Rajesh transliterated the material. Ayush and myself were assigned the math stuff as we were useless ppl as far as the mode of communication of the village chirdren was concerned. We learned how to pronounce the basic words for addition, substraction, multiplication and division. Since we used English numerals we did ok.

Useless ppl in other groups managed to get by with their newly acquired vocabulary of 5 Tamil words and by ‘outsourcing’ where kids tested other kids. Others transliterated the material and were able to test writing skills. The actual written content was then evaluated by a volunteer who knew the language. They also spoke to the village elders to find out about the state of medical facilities, water, electricity. Testing the kids was easy. There would be some initial work to break the ice but then they would get there friends to be tested. It was nice to know that the mid day meal programmes were still carried out in schools even though it was vacation time. By afternoon we had done about 3 villages, testing an average of 25-30 children in each. We then lunched on some chocolate cake made by my mom. My cousin was just back from my hometown and my mom had sent a lot of goodies :-) We then went to about 3 more villages after that. By the end of the day, between the 3 groups we had covered about 15 villages!

It was an enriching experience. People are polite and good hosts. Reading and writing is not that much of a problem as is their math skills. Some of the kids in higher standards lack basic math skills such as subtraction with carry over.

I remember Vamsi telling me during our first meeting that AID is not about any particular religion or anything. Our group of 5 had a Jain, some Hindus and a Christian. Your beliefs are your religion and atleast for that day we all had the same religion.

Madness, Fireflies and Chocolate Mint Liqueur

Its a Saturday afternoon and I'm nice an comfy in bed. Then I get a call. I'm a bit disoriented. Its Neeti and Saurabh... The Jain cousins... "We are already at Rangashankara, when are you coming". I look at the time. Its about 6:30-6:40pm types. "I'll be there in 20-30 mins". I switch on the geyser and decide to lay down on the bed as the water will take some time to get hot. I wake up after about 10-15 mins, go to bathe but decide I have to have a shave too. The phone rings again. Its Neeti.... "Where are you... Its 7... we are waiting here... They have opened the gates and are allowing ppl to go inside.... we won't get the front seats."... I look at the time... "I'll be there in 10 mins. It will only take me about 5 mins by bike."..... Shucks... now it hit me... I have ALL the tickets. I quickly have a bath and try to search for some clothes that don't need ironing. Can't find any .... ok turn the iron on.... The phone rings again.... It Neeti again... "You better get your butt out here soon". "Err... I'm just leaving the house"... Yeah right... I still have to dress up.... Well its ok it was a simple white lie. C'mon it was well intentioned wasn't it... well intentioned to save my butt :-)

Ok so I finally get on my bike and am on my way to the theatre. The phone rings again but I'm smart... yeah I don't pick it up :-) Finally arrive by about 7:25... 5 minutes before the play can start and 5 mins after the first warning bell. Neeti and her friend Deepti manage to get front seats as they have friends all over. Half the place was filled with NLS junta. Myself and Saurabh enter. We are not too late... thats what we keep telling ourselves... We also get to choose our seats.... yeah either waaaay behind or waaaay over to the side... ok thats not tooo bad... I mean it could have been worse.... Like the time the doors were shut and we had to watch the play thru a glass screen from outside. hmmmm... That should have taught me something...

Finally the play starts... "Madness" Its an adaptation of Paulo Coelho's "Veronica Decides to Die". About a girl who decides to commit suicide but somehow gets saved. She is now in a mental hosptial and is told that due to her suicide attempt her heart will fail in 7 days. The storyline was good but the performances could have been better. However one of the artist performed pretty well. Well I have been going for plays for quite some time. I have seen performances of all caliber... the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think I qualify to be a critic. However always remember to mention that "one of the artist performed pretty well" just incase you come across that 'one' artist in the future :-).... Just kidding... One of the artist did perform extremely well.

The four of us then decided to head out towards Fireflies, a beautiful eco-ashram on Kanakpura Road, about 30kms out of the city. First we decide to get some anti mosquito cream and we pick up some chocolate mint liqueur and some other stuff from my place. The mode of transport... Saurabh's convertible. Its a nice car... You have two seats in front and thats it. The behind part is converted into a nice sleeping area. It has a nice comfy matress with cushions, pillows... the works!! He says that the back seats are at IIT Madras and they refuse to return it to him cause they like it too much.

The show was from 6pm to 6am... We skipped dinner as we could grab a bite at the flee market at Fireflies with the intention to witness a unique way of honouring the earth through an all-night music, dance, and film festival. The theme for this year was "the tree". We reached the venue at about 10:30-11 and remained till morning... We already had our tickets which cost Rs. 200. You could buy them at the entrance too. The stage was under a big Banyan tree... with three sides surrounded with stone stairs to make it like an amphitheatre... We took the pillows and cushions and of course the chocolate mint liqueur and other stuff. The pillows and cushions were a God send... Thanks Saurabh... thanks IIT Madras for taking his back seat. Sitting on stone for that long can cause some complications. Some junta had also come with sleeping bags. We were even thinking of getting the mattress from the car. That wasn't my idea... I don't come up with such wierd ideas. We ate some nice salads at the flee market for dinner.

There were all sort of performances... flute recitals... indian classical instruments... indian classical dance performances... then some western fusion music etc... Vasundara Das sang... Then at the end there was also some heavy metal by two bands.... the heavy metal was more of shouting. They couldn't sing. However 'one' of the artists performed pretty well.. Uhem.. playing it safe again :-) One band played well, but couldn't sing... The other band messed up some good rock songs....

We headed back home at about 6am. Neeti and Deepti dozed off behind. Saurabh was his usual self. No comments... Went straight home and hit the sack.... hard! Slept till about 4pm.

Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child

Alone, so self-contained she lies,

Looking ahead through the tears in her eyes.

She welcomes tomorrow but with a sigh,

Silenced by an angel's lullaby.

Uncertain of feelings she feels inside,

These rules of life she must abide.

So near, yet so far she's going,

She feels it too, on her face its showing.

She will leave behind for us to see,

Fond memories, for all eternity.

And will take away as she departs,

The laughter that once lit our hearts.

- Alistair D'souza (Nov 2000)

The Winds of Change

The Winds of Change

Change is a constant, or so they say.

Life moves on, thats just the way.

Aided through time's prism, it seems to portray,

As dawn turns dusk, and night turns day.

Change is a constant, or so we are told.

As the rigors of life in front of us, unfold.

Change to be noticed, change to be heard,

We'll soon fade away, isn't that whats feared.

Change of behaviour, change of style,

Just to fit in for a little while.

Change of desires, change of heart,

Lets turn a new page and begin from the start.

Change of ideas, change of thought,

For some apt cause for which we so vehemently fought.

Change of costume, so goes the adage,

Believe it or not, all the world's a stage.

Change is a constant, we start to believe.

Change for changes' sake, we can't tend to perceive.

But change for the better, that we must.

Till the end of days, when we turn to dust.

So change is a constant, some beg to contend,

Our ethos and our credo, thats something we should defend.

- Alistair D'souza (Nov 2004)

The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years

Masterpieces of God's creation, we are members of His flock,

Sent down to earth thru special delivery by His heavenly stork.

Membership for life we have to this club called Human Race,

Enthusiasm, promise and innocence written all over our face.

In this game of life, novices are we,

A small tender branch of our large family tree.

With our mentors beside us as each step we take.

Guiding us thru this maze of rules and virtues, for our own sake.

Unleashing on us, a plethora of knowledge and innovation,

The use of which lies ultimately at our own discretion.

We experience friendship, being parted only by the night,

Exploring alluring paths, we believe we are always right.

Sometimes we hurt each other, causing us great pain,

But the very next moment, we are best friends again.

Feelings of our first love, we wish forever it may be,

The memories of which will last till eternity.

Having mixed emotions, be begin to drift away,

Only to find someone else coming our way.

Nuturing our viable ambitions as each day goes by,

We begin to dream of building castles in the sky.

When the whole world knows of our thoughts profound,

They advise us to first build our foundation on the ground.

Finally prepared to face the world and have our praises sung,

Ironically we embark on a journey thats already begun.

In this rat race, as our innocence and integrity we try,

We don't seem to care as our conscience begins to die.

For some worldly pleasures as these new ways we choose,

Unknowingly and unconsciously a part of ourselves we lose.

- Alistair D'souza (1998)

Nobody's Children

My first poem.

Ever thought what your world would be like without the loved ones around you. Well for some it's just a way of life. I put myself into their shoes and attempted to pen down their emotions. The poem is an attempt not only to emphathize and accept them for who they are but also for us to be grateful for the lives we lead.

Nobody's Children

Born in a world with no kith and kin,

Deserted we are cause of somebody else's sin.

Often misunderstood, we are a victim of people's scorn,

Our reputation being based on the way we were born.

People often remind us of the bad blood we possess,

Hurting our feelings and causing us great distress.

In this kind of social life when we can't partake,

We pray to the Lord our soul to take.

Alone we are in a world unknown,

Knowing nobody loves us our heart is torn.

In this sea of emotions our tears go dry,

And somewhere down the line we forget how to cry.

We know not what family values are,

With a fragile ego, we often feel under par.

No father's love, no mother's touch,

Everybody deserves atleast this much.

A brotherly fight, a sisterly scream,

These treasures of life are just a far-fetched dream.

They left us this way, we know not why,

It remains a mystery until we die.

We pray to God our characters to mould,

And be our guide as the mysteries of life unfold.

And show us the way to reach our prime,

So that we may leave our footprints in the sands of time.

Alistair D'souza (1998)