Yeh hai India meri Jaan

We were contemplating going rafting to Bheemeshwari for some time now. Its about 100 kms from Bangalore. The grade is about 1-2 which is easy. I informed everyone by email that they don't need to know how to swim cause they would give us life jackets. Duh!!! Remembered to put a disclaimer that if they don't function properly then its not my fault :-) And each raft would have a trained guide. The last time I went we had an ex lawyer called Sridhar, who was at that time running an adventure company. We had gone for the 4 hour trip. I enjoyed it quite a bit. We were thrown into the water where it was safe. So that those who didn't know how to swim would feel more comfortable with the life jackets. Towards the end we jumped into the rapid and went down with the flow. The guide told us to put our feet forward. Due to the aerated water I went in and out of the water but it was fun.

Anyways we were thinking of leaving Sunday morning... then raft on the Cauvery... The plan was to be back by evening a little bit tanned and stuff but thats ok. We could also trek in the nearby area if we get time. The last time I went some elephants had rampaged thru some villages. So I warned junta that they should not talk to the elephants!!!!

Sunday Morning: 5:30am.
People started dropping out as usual. The number boiled down to 6 till the night before. I phoned Ankit in the morning to wake him up but he just fell off to sleep. Ok that makes it 5 of us. Finally when we left by about 6:30 types the number boiled down to 4. Maybe its cause I told them about the elephants. Hey I was joking!!!!!! There are no talking elephants !!!!! So Saurabh and Namita were taking turns driving while Dhruv and myself lay prostrate in the back. In case you are new to this blog, well Saurabh's van doesn't have back seats, courtesy IITM. Its replaced with a nice mattress, cushions... the works. ZZZZzzzzz.

We arrived at Cauvery fishing camp by about 9ish. Booked our places for the rafting. We couldn't get the morning slot but managed to get the afternoon one. We then had a very heavy breakfast which was proportional to the price. Since we had time on our hands we decided to go on a little excursion. Someone told us that we could go to the watch tower. Hello the watch tower was like 100 feet from the camp!!! You call that an excursion. We don't look that old do we.... do we???? So we strolled along the banks of the river. Climbed some trees... with some help of course :-) The coming down part looked tougher. When we decided to head back, somebody got this brilliant idea not to follow the same path back. I think it was me but since my mind denies coming up with any such thoughts, I have decided to give myself the benefit of the doubt. Hey.. I'm an understanding and lenient person. Someone also said that the road should be parallel to the river and just a little ahead. Hey!! lets not get into the blaming game ppl. So we then climbed a pretty steep hill. Had to hold on to grass for dear life. It itched. We thought we would get to the road and walk back along it but we just kept going up and up. When we looked back it was too steep to turn back so we again started going up and up. Finally reached the top where there was a watch tower. See... we found the other watch tower. I knew those ppl wern't lying :-) The view from the top was amazing. Well worth the climb. We had a birds eyeview of the river and the hills around us. There was another marked path to get back. Finally when we reached the road there was a board pointing in the direction we just came from. It had some pictures of bears and something was written in Kannada. Maybe it was a warning that we should not talk to any bears.

Finally we went rafting. The rafting was nice. The final rapid was a grade 3 but I enjoyed the trekking more. That was a like a grade 6... The type which only lunatics take :-) Hey later in the evening we even landed up in the lunatic asylum but thats a different story... Well read on for more.

We packed up by 6 and were on our way back. I dozzed off again at the back dreaming of the nice hot bath and the bed at home. When we neared Bangalore, we found a hit and run case lying on the road with a lot of ppl around him. Sometimes ppl like to look at others in pain. They would be afraid to help cause it would be a police case but they would just stand and look. Half asleep I suddenly hear Saurabh saying to clear the place in the back as we were taking the guy to hospital. If I were alone I don't know if I would help. I mean I would actually have to be in that situation to tell you what I would have done. Anyways, so we carried the guy into the van. None of the other onlookers decided to come to the hospital with us. I was sitting in the back with Dhruv. We found the guys phone but it seemed to be out of balance. So Dhruv used his phone to try and call some numbers from the guys phone. Couldn't get thru to anyone who could recognise who the guy with us was. Tried calling the police too, to let them know that we are talking the guy to hospital but couldn't get through. The first hospital we reached told us to take the guy to Nimhans govt hospital for a CT scan as there didn't seem to be any external injuries except for blood that kept oozing out from his mouth. We informed a nearby policeman about what we were upto and headed towards Nimhans which would take about 30 mins. Saurabh offered to drop off anyone who wanted to get off at this point as we didn't know what we would get into next. Everyone stayed :-)

Blood kept oozing from the guys mouth all the time and he was making involuntary noises. Namita covered her ears... I was beside him in the back with Dhruv who was still trying to get intouch with some relation/friend of the guy.... Didn't know if he would die in front of me. One of his eye was open and the blood was frothy. I thought I was afraid of blood but I was ok. I was wondering if the noises were due to the guy choking on his own blood but then he moved one hand. "Ok make more sounds"... Cause as long as he made sounds I knew he was alive. whenever he stopped I thought that was it but then he would make some sounds again.

Finally when we arrived at Nimhans we told them that it was a hit and run case. Nimhans is the government mental hospital. We took him there to get a CT scan done. I expected people to come out running with a stretcher but I guess that happens only in the movies. So I went in to search for a stretcher but couldn't find any. Found a wheel chair and decided that that would do. The guy was heavy to lift. None of the hospital guards offered to help to lift him up and so I put all these years of gyming into use, along with Dhruv of course. Pretty heavy to carry. He kept on sliding off from the wheelchair. Must have been 60 kgs types but he felt really heavy. A little while before this we had also realised that the guy was drunk. We decided that we would call up Neeti if the law tried to turn things onto us. By this time the police arrived and took over. There were no problems. The doctors said that he was not in danger.

After the episode we were discussing that maybe we just wasted our time on a drunkard. Which may have been the cause of the accident in the first place. But then again hindsight is always accurate. I was also thinking of the incident later and the fact that I had missed Sunday church. Some of the sermons are about helping ppl in need to which I would internally nod my head. But theory is so much diff from practicals. Later on when I felt he was out of danger and a bit drunk too my thoughts of helping him further were biased by the fact that he was drunk and probably a riff raff type of person... Maybe I'm just a Sunday Christian. Well it was still Sunday :-)

We decided not to call it a day yet. We then went to a karoake lounge called Opus to get our minds onto something else. Anouksha, the viva singer and channel [V] VJ happened to be there and sang some numbers. There was also this guy called Karthik Iyer who was singing in Tamil. He sang 'Beat it' and another number in Tamil just to prove that Michael had been to Chennai :-) Barry, one of Saurabh's friend also sang. Namita too.

The Other side of History

The play 'The other side of History' was about a couple who read about the suicide of an acquaintance in the paper. They don't know too much about this other person. They know of two incidences in this persons life and use their imagination to fill in the gap and come out with a story, as they are the literary inclined types. Each of them have their own version. Their versions are drastically different from the dead man's version, which unfolds in the climax. Which actually led me to think of 'the other side of history' of the another incident.

Apurva aka AJ and I were house hunting. We landed up in Koramangala and decided to check out Jaya and Meghana's place, to get an idea of the size to rent equation. It turned out that they were celebrating one of their friend's birthdays out there, so we got some free lunch. But thats a different story. Happy b'day Anshu.

Anyways met a guy at their place whose name I shall not reveal as a matter of anonymity. You will realise why later :-) Lets just call him Mr X. So Mr X tells us that there is a place for rent he had just seen in the parallel lane. Since we were in the neighbourhood we found no harm in the offer and decided to take a look. We landed up at the door which was not locked. Mr X tells us to just push the door open and go in. So our brain thinks that no one is living there and Mr X knows that since he had been here before. Maybe some brokers are inside. So AJ pushes the door a few inches and realises that someone is still staying there. Not because we saw anyone but by the arrangement of furniture and stuff on it. So we decide to ring the bell, which felt like the decent thing to do at the time.

Then after a few moments out came this giant. 7 feet 9 inches. She had this look in her eye, of a woman scorned. There was also this twist in her mouth and she was frowning in a sulking manner. All she wanted to do was wring our necks. Yikes!!! What a waste of oxygen. Wait!!!! perhaps I am imagining that, my view being biased due to what took place later. Perhaps.

So this average height girl comes out and looks at us. She is about to blurt out something but then decided to lift one hand higher and rest it on the door frame. Maybe she wanted to give the impression that she was taller, her animal instincts working overtime, to protect herself from this pack of hyenas. She took a deep breath and then the words started to flow. It sounded like she had practised the dialogue before but maybe for someone else. "How can you just enter without knocking!!!!!". She yelled a bit more! Her voice was not as forceful as her words. She lacked the intensity. Well something was just missing I thought to myself. As AJ was in the direct line of fire he decided to speak, "Err... but we didn't enter and we did ring the bell". "Who do you think you are to just come here and disturb ppl. And why did you open the door!!!!!!". The yelling continued. "Ok something is definately missing. Breathe in. Breathe out", I say although my words don't reach her. Well who told us that we can open the door... AJ then points to Mr X and says, "Cause he... err". I think AJ wanted to beat up Mr X at that point but decided it was not the decent thing to do at the time. Well Mr X did come there before and he knew they were ppl staying there. We decided to guard our tongues and apologised, but for what we don't know. After a moment of silence, "So can we still see the house". Steam rises as we see red. SLAM!!! Ok thats more like it, I tell her. We walked away like a pack of hyenas alright. Yeah a pack of laughing hyenas :-)

I was recently telling a friend about how ppl already decide the outcome of an argument even before it starts, biased by events from before or their way of looking at things. The other side of history. Maybe she just had a fight with her boyfriend and thats why the hatred for the other sex. Or maybe her landlord was pestering her to vacate or something. Or maybe she was not prepared for a similar incident a little while back. Or maybe she was typing an email and the sound of the bell startled her and she did a reply all instead of just a reply :-) Well whatever the reason she just wanted to let it out on someone. See... we did our good deed for the day by helping her to get intouch with her emotions :-) Ok ok... we were just hit.... Hard! Lets just leave it at that.

Kaun Banega Crorepati - Goan Style !!

Haven't heard the 'ah-voice', 'what re', '* maen', 'shanna bugger', 'arree baba', 'goenchi pao' etc for a long time :-)

Well here is how the story goes:
Our friend from Benaulim, Anton Sebastiao, appeared on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the famous 'Amitabh Bachchan' hosted show.

Anton had miraculously reached the end of the rounds by saying all his Rosaries and Novenas and had already won Rs.1 crore.

"You've done very well so far," said Amitabh "but for Rs 2 crore you've only got one lifeline left - Phone a Friend.
Everything is riding on this question...will you go for it?"
"Sure," said Anton.
"Aou (I will) ek last chance marta!"

"OK..... The question is.... Which of the following birds does NOT build its own nest?
(a) Robin
(b) Sparrow
(c) Cuckoo or
(d) Crow"

"Mai-cza-gho... I not knowing dat," said Anton, "so better use my last lifeline and phone to my friend Benny Coelho from Mumbai. He is Goenkar, but he is Bandra boy and born and brought up in Mumbai so he's too smart, real shaana bugger."

Anton called up his friend in Mumbai, told him the circumstances and repeated the question to him.
"Arree Baba Anton!" cried Benny, "Sarko Endo Mure Tu, Simple it is... it's a cuckoo."
"Ah-voice, sure maen Benny?" asked Anton.
"Arrre baba hundred percent sure maen! Pakka!"

Anton hung up the phone and told Amitabh Bachan, "I tell Cookoo."
"Is that your final answer?" asked Amitabh Bachan.
"Sarkem Sure, Sir!"
There was a long, long pause, then Amitabh Bachan screamed,
"Cuckoo is the correct answer! Anton, you've just won Rs.Two Crores!!!"

The next night, Anton threw a big party for all the people from Benaulim at the Benaulim Club. Benny was specially flown in from Mumbai as the Chief Guest.

Time for speeches... Anton takes the mike and asks Benny, "Saang mure, Benny? Foo told you? How you know cookoo is not building its own nest? Otherwise you are sarkem bondo and you know nothing about birds....Your Fadder or chicher (teacher) taught you ah-what???"

"C'mon yaaar! Bas kya! What yor saying?" laughed Benny. "You Goan Paos are sometimes such daffars men.... Everybody knows a cuckoo lives in a clock."

Lost in translation

Had to drop Neeti to her college after the play. I knew that I would loose my way. I just knew it. Its like when you walk into the rain you know you are gonna get wet, but you go anyway. Err... what?? Well its this thing with my internal compass. Sometimes it just conks off. I have been to NLS before to drop Neeti but in Saurabh's car. The insides of his car are more amusing than the road so let that be my reason for not keeping track of the directions... hmmm....

Anyways I had planned to take some bread to drop on the way to find my way back but Neeti thought I was kidding. Hello!!!! She pointed to landmarks and gave me directions for returning, all along the way. So I was busy making this mental map in my head. All I gotta do is follow the mirror image. Simple :-)

But on the way back I missed the very first turn... Damn!!!! So much for the map and the mirror image... Landed up somewhere in Vijayanagar. Well I've been lost in Vijayanagar before so things did look familiar :-) Finally after a tour of half the city I reached home. I'll get it right the next time... Maybe I should have taken bread. Yeah yeah, hindsight is always accurate.

Hellos and byebyes

A couple of my batchmates arrived into the city. Met Meghana after 3 years. She was with us in Cisco before she went to IIT Mumbai for an MTech. Meghana is the big sister types of our college junta out here. Met Jaya after 2 years. She finished her Mtech at IIT Kanpur. She hasn't changed a bit. Still giggles when she talks or should I say talks when she giggles. 'Yes' is a giggle, a nod and a giggle. 'No' is a nod, a giggle and some other wierd behaviour. Then there is the 'achaaa', followed by the giggles. She used to teach in our college for a brief period too. One of her ex student tells me that ppl from mechanical and electrical used to come to attend her classes. Hello.. wern't you teaching the electronics and computer science students :-) Anyways the panchat queen is back. Long live the panchat queen. Met Appya aka AJ too. He is a really brilliant chap. Gate All India rank (AIR) 1. One of the close friends I used to study and hang out with in college. Meghana, Jaya and Appya have joined Yahoo. Welcome.

Met Rohan yesterday. He is now a CCIE, thats Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert. Was preparing for nearly 2 years for the exam. He had cleared the written exam sometime back. But thats the easy part. Gave the lab on Saturday. Its a 8 hour long gruelling test of all your routing fundaes. Amongst the younger junta to get a CCIE. Is the 115 th CCIE in India. There are about 12000 worldwide. His wife Puja was telling us that they don't know what they will talk about now that the CCIE is done with :-) Well you guys will always have your movie marathons to run!!!! Puja was telling us about how they met 5 years back. See something else to talk about. Anyways he was one of her good friend's ex-boyfriend. Well you can expect a lot of drama from there onwards. Anyways CONGRATS once again, to both of you. All the best and see you guys next year.

Romancing the Road - A weekend fling thing

It was friday and I was wondering what to do over the long weekend that was just around the corner. 15th August is India's Independence day. How will I celebrate my independence. Aamir Khan's 'Mangal Pandey - The Rising' was released. "Maybe I can catch that". Maybe I'll also catch this play called 'Weeds' at Alliance Francaise. And maybe I'll start on this book which was recommended by a friend. So I send out a mail to get some junta for the play.

Then Manish sends me a mail saying that they plan to go biking to Coorg, a place which is noted for its scenic beauty. I had been to Coorg about a year and a half back with some Cisco friends. We had been to the Tibetan settlement which has some temples. We had visited Harangi dam, Cauvery Nisargadhama. We also went to Tadevendamol, the highest peak in the region which is best for trekking. It was 3 hours uphill and a little less downhill. We also had to trek thru this area with a thick cover of trees. It was raining and leeches were falling on us :-)

Pictures of the place start to flash in front of me. My first reaction is 'Yessss I'm game'.... But its about 260+ kms one way. That will take about 7+ hours on bike, including the stops on the way. And its raining quite a bit too!!!! It will definately be raining in Coorg. "Why can't we go by some other transport". What I actually mean't was, "I'm a bit afraid to go that far on a bike. It will be a bit dangerous on the highway!!!!!". But Manish said that the bike ride would be nice. I then told him that I would think about it. Basically was a little bit freaked out with the idea of doing such a long distance on bike :-) And it could rain too. Wait I already said that. Yikes I'm looping.... Yikes... Wait I already said that!!!!! And if my mother calls I'll say that I have gone out with friends to have food. err... yeah 260+ kms out of the city to have food :-) Didn't want to lie you see. And didn't want to tell the truth either cause then she would find some way to convince me to drop the idea. If I told my dad he would probably want to join me. At his end he was planning a fishing trip and then a crab hunting expedition the next day.

The Appetiser on Saturday evening
The play "Weeds" is a love story set in the aftermath of 9/11. It tells the story of Rafiq from Bangladesh and Teerta from Calcutta, who fall in love in their youth but part ways due to various obstacles. They meet again through an exchange of letters after 9/11. It was a play that looks at the human side of violence, basically the story behind the violence. It had nothing to do with 9/11. Ppl sometimes grow like weeds if they are not taken care of when they are young. I enjoyed the play and it did get some bonus points for being a love story :-)

I finally met Manish on Saturday night at around 9:30pm, still undecided. 'Knock knock'. I mean I really wanted to go but..... He opens the door and my mouth starts to blabber, "So who all are coming. Whats the plan. When are WE off". Change of weather you see. Went home, packed in 20 mins and came back to Gopa's place to sleep at about 12 or so. There would be 3 of us who would be going for the trip. Manish, my ex roomie, Ligeo George, ex Cisco friend and me. We decided to take 3 bikes as it would be safer than taking a pillion rider. Ligeo has a bullet and has been on the road for some long bike expeditions, sometimes alone. I have a Pulsar and Manish has a Fiero.

Sunday: Day 1.
We slept by 2 ish. The alarm woke us up at 5:30. We had planned to meet by 6am in front of Cisco. I check that I have packed everything. And not to forget the open mind and adventurous spirit. Deja vu :-) We are off by about 6:20 types. First we make a trip to the petrol bunk. Check the air pressure etc. I reset my kms counter.

0 kms:
The weather is cloudy. It could rain a bit later. But nothing could dampen our spirits :-) You see I had already made up my mind that I would enjoy myself and that the trip would be nice. And once you have done that, what could possibly go wrong. duh!!!

20 kms:
We are near the outskirts of the city. The roads in Bangalore are not the type people would drool over. After sometime we would hit the Mysore highway. The last time I went on it, I remember it was in need of some plastic surgery.

30kms - 50kms: The crush
The mysore highway starts. We hit some smooth stretches. There are not many vehicles on the road. The road is nice and the path is alluring. There is appropriate banking on the curves. Now I know why they were saying that we should go on bikes. Its just me and the open road ahead. And not to forget the wind and the sounds. The air was flowing through the gap between the visor and it sounded as if it was whistling at the road. I tried to whistle too but realised that I can't.

Breakfast:
We make a stop for breakfast at about 7:30 types at Hotel Kamat. As soon as I got off the bike my butt began to ache. So did my shoulders and back. Met some ex Cisco friends there. Manju, Abhishek, his brother and a friend. They were on their way to Mysore for the weekend. The place is crawling with people on their way out of the city, most of them driving safely in cars. A bit after 8 we were on our way again. By that time there was this huge crowd outside waiting to get in.

60kms - 130kms: The wooing begins
The roads are as inviting as before and we just zoom off into the horizon, periodically checking up on each other that everything is fine. Every now and then one of us would take the lead to keep the pace. At various points along the road one side was shut for construction, so you had traffic in both directions on the same side. We had to be extra careful along these stretches. But when traffic was going in one direction we were relaxed and trying hard to romance the road. When there were no vehicles in sight, its just you, the bike and the open road ahead. The almost constant roar of the engine starts to get louder and louder. You feel the wind violently brush again you trying to push you back when in reality you are cutting through it. It enters thru the gaps in you sleeves and gives you this tingling sensation. You can feel the lower part of your pants flutter in unison, massaging your calves. You start to maneuver your body in search of that perfect relaxed position. Hands stretched out. Your upper body pushed back by the wind as if your body has given into it. Resting on your bag which is pressed down behind on the seat. You are constantly looking at the road and it smiles back at you. The feeling is so so ..... Well the feeling is so so... DON'T FALL ASLEEP ON THE HIGHWAY!!!

130 Kms: Stop for directions
I pass familiar territory, where I had spent 2 days about 2 weeks back. We stop to ask for directions to Coorg. We were to drive along the road to Ranganathittu, a bird santuary. 2 weeks back we had gone on foot and the stretch took us about 30+ mins. This time around it took us just 3 ish minutes and it just didn't feel the same.

160kms: The budding photographer or madness.
The past few kilometers were just lovely. It was lush green on either side. Ligeo commented that it would get even better. I have been to Coorg once before but only now was I appreciating the journey. We stopped near a field to eat. I had some apples and Manish had some chikki. I went around exploring and capturing things like the field. I also wanted to get a real close shot of the road. So there I was flat on the road clicking snaps. Ligeo was keeping watch to warn me of any vehicles coming in my direction from behind.

200 kms: Stop for chai.
When we removed our helmets I realised that I was tanned. The journey so far was cloudy but I manage to get a tan real fast. I decided to romp around while the other two drank some tea. There were these kids who were following me wherever I went, wanting to be included in the scenery that I wanted to capture.

200 kms - 230 kms:
The road ahead was not that smooth. Infact it was badly scared. However falling in love is not about finding the perfect thing, its about learning to see an imperfect thing perfectly. Read that in the Readers Digest eons ago :-) Anyways the scenery was lovely and the memories from before managed to allay our newly felt emotions. At one point there was this beautiful stretch with a thick cover of trees on either side. It appeared as if we were driving thru a tunnel and the road never seemed to end. Caught that moment in 0s and 1s as well.

The Tibetian Golden Temple:
We paid a visit to the Tibetan settlement. The place is awesome. You see green fields all around and then in the middle of them you see these golden structures popping out. Its about a 4-5 kms drive to the main temple. All along the road you have tall grass. When you reach the temple you see a lot of monks dressed in maroon and yellowish robes. There are a lot of children among them. Inside the temples there are huge golden statues of buddha. They have these huge drums and trumpets which is used during their prayer sessions. The sounds resonate within you and evoke a brief feeling of complacency. We then drove around within the settlement itself. It had a very cute little water body which gelled very well with the surroundings. There was a monastery close by which not many outsiders visit. Inside they had these huge cylindrical cloth hangings. The entrance to the monastery overlooked a wide field. There was another golden building nearby which was not being used presently. Some children were playing cricket in front of it. We had lunch at some place within the settlement itself.

Destination Madikeri:
We were off again and this time the roads wiggled and curved on the hills. The temperature dropped and mist was in the air. We were on our way to Madikeri, 1525 m above sea level, the district headquarters of Coorg. The place has a lot to offer. Misty hills, lush forest, acres and acres of tea and coffee plantation and breathtaking views. I looked at my distance indicator. It was about 280kms and the time was about 4:30pm. The mist gave an illusion as if it was later in the day. There was a slight drizzle on the way. That didn't dampen my spirit. As I said I had packed an open mind and an adventurous spirit :-) The first thing on our mind was where do we freshen up and sleep for the night. A lot of ppl would have booked the hotels way in advance. Wherever we went the hotels were completely booked. Not surprised. We went up some slopes and down some slopes and finally landed up back where some auto guy had told us that some people give houses on rent. The road was very narrow and the gradient was steep. There was a nice house with a garden. It overlooked a valley. We spoke to the lady incharge and got the ground floor dirt cheap. She was very very nice and we ended up giving her more than the negotiated amount the next day. She was anything but business minded.

We freshened up and headed out for dinner. At night we spent some time chatting in the veranda. The air was misty and you could hear a lot of crickets in the background. It was pretty cold. We were in Coorg and when in Coorg do as Coorgies do. It didn't feel that cold anymore :-) I took out some shots of the wheels of the bike. And then I flashed the camera a few inches from their faces, just for kicks. We then planned for the next day. Wake up at 6. Leave the house by 7 latest. Yeah Yeah.

Day 2:
6am... We were enveloped in mist as we opened our eyes in the morning. It was raining outside. zzzzzz....... 8am.. we wake up and are ready to leave by 9ish. Our first destination was Abbey falls. It was drizzling off and on. Again the road to Abbey falls was breathtaking. Mist was still in the air. After Abbey falls we were off to Raja's seat. It overlooks a valley. However all we saw was mist. I managed to capture some nice shots of misty trees. We then decided to let our bikes take us wherever they wanted. We drove around the city and sneaked into some narrow, less travelled paths. The path took us to this place near a hill. It gave us a panoramic view of Coorg below. We climbed the hill a bit and sat there, each one in our own world.

12:30pm: The journey back
We decided to head back home. Another 260+ kms lay ahead of us.

320-420kms: The rain
It drizzled and rained and poured. And drizzled and poured and rained. And then it poured and rained and drizzled. And it stung too. Driving on a wet road is dangerous. You have to be extra alert. Manish and Ligeo began to crib about the rain. It had been hounding us for the past couple of hours. That coupled with the not so perfect road. I however didn't feel that way. As I said before I had packed an open mind and an adventurous spirit .... err and a raincoat. Oh yeah... did I mention before that I was the only one who had a raincoat :-) Ahem, umm... I had my raincoat to protect me from head to toe. My shoes got wet. My feet felt cold and some water did manage to seep in thru the zips. The other two got totally drenched. We stopped at the same place for tea and some biscuits. The rain seemed to be following us. The chaiwalla told us that it started raining just a few mintues before we arrived. We were off again. Manish told me that when he shivered, he had to remove his leg off the gear as it violently shook. When Ligeo yawned his whole body shook. On the way the rain drops pierced into my knuckles. It felt like I was getting a free acupuncture session. I could feel some cold droplets seep thru openings in the raincoat and touch my skin. The rain felt nice however the other two were cribbing all along the way. They decided to change clothes at the side of the road. The full monty. Ok well.. a half monty.

420 kms: Lunch Time and story time
It was about 3pm and we had just covered 100kms. It still seemed that the rain clouds were following us. We decided to break for lunch. Ligeo then told us about a biking expedition, where he had skid with his pillion seater. He had gone biking with a friend. It was raining and he suddenly had to break at 70kms/hr. They both lost balance and got bruised. They went to a hospital to get cleaned up. Ligeo is a Mallu but he doesn't look like one. I don't know what Mallus should look like. Anyways there were these three mallu nurses who were cribbing about their boss in front of both of them. They assumed that these two guys don't know the language. Then they started passing comments about the guys. One of them even said something about Ligeo's lips and stuff.... Finally on his way out Ligeo told them something in Malayalee. Two of the nurses freaked out and ran away, totally embarassed. The other one blushed.

420-560kms: Deja vu
Finally the rain stopped and the sun peeped out through the clouds. The road ahead was as inviting as the previous day. However this time there was a little more traffic. But our bikes seemed to remember the emotions from the previous day and they definately had a mind of their own.

560kms - 580kms:
We were nearing Bangalore and our speed dropped to about 50kms/hr then 40 then 30 at times.... we crawled into the city but missed the lashing of the rain by a few minutes. We reached Manish's place a little after six.

Parting words:
We were reminiscing about the trip and finally it was time to leave. I mentioned that the bikes didn't give any trouble. Then Ligeo smiled and said, "Yeah and we didn't have any casualties". Casualties..... Thats a pretty strong word. It was on his mind too. He is a veteran when it comes to biking but it was at the back of his mind all along. Hmmmm... And I thought I was the only one who was thinking in that direction. I'm sure Manish had thought about it too. But at the beginning of the trip both of them appeared as if thoughts like these were never on their mind. Well so did I :-) Come to think of it I tried hard to romance the road. A bit too hard at times. There were others too who were trying real hard to gain its attention. But no matter how hard you try, it just takes you for a ride :-) And if anything happens it would forget about you in a jiffy. It was a weekend fling thing. Maybe the sparks will fly some other time. Till then.

About this particluar trip what else can I say. The destination was nice but sometimes if you just open your eyes the journey is even better.

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 :-)