Wi Fi'ed

Last evening, I went to my alma mater PEC which has seen unprecedented changes since my graduation. The whole college has got wiFi connectivity now. So you just go, open your laptop and start googling and orkutting and downloading songs or movies or software. As my cousin(who belongs to the present generation of pecobians) sat downloading 1 thing after other, I couldn’t help getting amazed at how far pecobians have come. In the lunch break during winters, you can see people sitting on the grass, in the sun with their cool lappies with DAP (Download Accelerator) working overtime. Hostellers have made separate rooms dedicated to online gaming. In the canteen, movies are floating in the air from 1 table to the other. Guys are just ‘pinging’ their friends in the class to ‘maaro’ their proxy. What a cool, hi-tech life – for all us pass outs to be envy!!!
Our time was different, you see. In the winters, under the sun, we just sat on the scooters in the parking, or on the grass in big groups, chatting and chatting and chatting. Add to it the occasional bursts of boisterous laughs. I struggle to remember what was there about which we could sit and talk whole day.
There was no dedicated room for gaming in the hostels but yes cricket and football used to be carried out in full enthu in the grounds just outside the hostel.
In the canteen, live music used to float around with a cool guy in the center with a guitar entertaining everybody, from KK’s yaaron to Nirvana’s Dive. Or else, drawing sheets were made (those are ideally meant to be made in drawing halls with drafter, scale etc.. but .. well.. ideally) which quite often ended up having oils marks of samosas or red marks of the sauce!
And proxies.. ahh! the proxies. Well ‘generally’, it was not needed to inform friends that they had to maaro proxy. They knew that if some one has not come and the proxy is possible then it has to be done (Sometimes at the expense of one’s own attendance)
Can’t resist to tell an incident when Singal sitting on my left said “Yes sir” and “Present Sir” in 3 different voices to consecutive roll numbers before me. I was laughing so hard that I missed mine!! But what the hell.. have we ever cared??
So, I don’t really envy the generation of today. Need I???

vo Raat..

From the archives
here comes one of my creations..

Vo 6 kitabein aur unhe pakde vo narm hath
Vo chehre par pyara sa bholapan aur saadgi uske saath
Vo jhuki jhuki palkeinLe gayi mera dil halke halke
Badlon ne bhi Dekhi hamari pehli mulakat
Aur baras kar bhigo di vo Raaat

Phir badi hamari mulakatein
Bhole nahi bhoolti vo meethhi batein
Kiya usse ek din apne pyar ka izehar
Aur kiye jeene marne ke vaade hazaar
Badlon ne bhi Suni hamari pyar bhari baat
Aur baras kar bhigo di vo Raaat

Phir vo din bhi aaya
Jab juda hua mujhse mera saya
Itna hi tha saath hamara
Bichda humse pyar hamara
Badlon ne bol di toote dil ki baat
Aur baras kar bhigo di vo Raat

Of Gifting Tag Heuer and Gurgaon

Since yesterday, large amount of air time and blog space must have been used to focus on the Kaun Banega Crorepati – SRK. From the rumors of a tiff between SRK and Big B, to analyzing how well the king has filled into Shehnshah’s shoes – there have been innumerable discussions. I saw it only for some time yesterday. Then it became a bit boring for me. SRK, I thought was falling prey to the overacting which incidentally has made him famous in films. May be it was a first day jitters for him too. He was trying to create humor, which sometimes was not there.
Today, I again watched the show and felt much better. But the incident which left me dumbfounded was when SRK gifted off his Tag Heuer 2000 Aquagraph watch worth Rs 1 lakh 28 Thousand to a contestant.
I just can’t resist comparing the two giants of film industry in the TV show. I guess had KBC been launched with Amitabh for the third time too, it would have been a disaster. Shahrukh has certainly brought in a difference with him. Giving massages to the contestants, warm hugs all around, decent sense of humor and most of all his knowledge regarding the accent and basic languages of so many different parts of the country is amazing. Yes, you can say that this is what he is being paid crores and crores of rupees but no matter how rich you are, it takes guts to gift your 1 lakh watch just like that. This spontaneity was absent during the Amitabh era – who was much more conservative – a fatherly figure quite opposite to the young exuberance of Shahrukh.
One thing – seeing the show, you are guaranteed to increase your knowledge. Not in the world I could have imagined that Gurgaon is Guru ka Gaon. I always thought the first half of the name came from Gurh (jaggery). But my brain databases were updated yesterday when I came to know that the city(or village in earlier times) was gifted by Yudhishtra to Dronacahrya as a Guru Dakshina.

Signatures..

As I digged into the archives to find an old mail, I came across a variety of signatures which I have used in my mails. Stark contrasts mark the signatures 2 years ago and now... A small collection of them with commentary by the Signature itself..


Big.. Bold.. Colourful.. Confident.. Excited….. yes I have finally stepped in the big bad world.. I am not afraid of anything as I proudly ignore the impossibilities…



Some months into the job.. lots of work has sobered me up… so a little less loud.. less bold… and did you notice – that extension number has gone.. I hate any one calling when I am working (specially the PL calling with more work).. The email has come up – just mail me.. I will check it(or ignore it) when I get time… but still the impossibilities are out!!!



The Fonts are to a bare minimum now….Though I want people to know more about me.. but it shouldn’t be much evident…. But my thoughts are clearly on display – in the conspicuous Red… Thankyou’s and regard’s are out.. I don’t give a damn about it.



I have stopped thinking… so the thoughts go out…There is no excitement and color in life… I am dull and boring… just carrying on with my routine life…. A tinge of blue here and there says you are still living…




Finally… why the address.. is anyone going to post you love letters.???
Why the company name and IBU name… everyone inside the company knows where you work.. and the ones outside won’t understand what PLES, PLM means anyway!!
I have matured enough… The regards are back… and only necessary info is provided..



Just had a look at what I was 2 years ago… Aawww… How stupid I looked….
I wonder how I will look some years from now.. hope I don’t grow old… but guess I change with the changing life of the user…

Frozen...

Some years ago, one December night, I had gone to attend a marriage. It was very cold. The next day, it came in newspapers that the temperature the previous night had fallen to a new low for Chandigarh - 1 degree Celsius. Last night also a similar feeling was there. 5 layers of good protective clothing couldn’t stop the shivering. It was extraordinarily cold. It was proved this morning. The temperature had fallen to a new low – where it had not gone for the past 33 years – ZERO degree Celsius. Many of my friends, in US may argue that the temperatures there fall well below zero. But here, unlike US, there are no central heating systems installed in every car and every house, to make you comfortable where ever you are. You need to have quilt, add another one on top, then snug under it and just hope that time freezes there and then like everything else around.
It is fruitless to even wait for the morning sun to come up and heat things a bit. As I am writing these words, the sun is shining full and bright. But it still feels cold to sit in the open. I am sitting inside the greenhouse heated car and the thought of even rolling down the windows is chilling. And strange are the ways of nature - around 4 - 5 months from now, the same green house warmth of the car will be burning you down and you will be sitting in 80% less clothing and contemplating whether the air conditioner’s temperature need to be lowered further.
As of now, it is time to enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon and doze off in the warmth of ‘naturally’ heated car.

The Year Gone by

The practice of capturing all special moments is in practice for long....
But now with mobile cameras and 'aam pappad' sized digi cams, we are capable of clicking any time anywhere..
so instead of capturing special moments,here I am trying to make captured moments special..
There had to be a blog on new year...and as I was picass'ing thru all the last year photos, I realized I had at least one photograph for every month.. hence the idea of this blog...

January:
A 50 hour journey in the terrifying cold of January in a sleeper class – I am a brave person.
A One Day trip to Shimla with Rompy.




February:
Early morning Gym Sessions and in between, cricket sessions.




March:
HOLI Hai!!!! A fun filled, enjoyable, long and at the end of the day a tiring Holi celebrations




April:
Guitar Josh – joined Guitar classes for a month, learnt some basics. Here part display of guitar talent and part display of dolle sholle..




May:
Guitar fever down. Squash fever up… A very exhausting but excellent game…the Dumb Bells at Gym were replaced by the squash racquets…and the results were excellent.



June:
Home Coming. Transferred back to Chandigarh. Back to jogging amid the beautiful surroundings of lake. The evenings are always amazing here.



July:
To Hyderabad, officially this time and for 15 – 20 days rather than the 2 day trip which I made in June from Mysore.




August:
Shifted to new Infy Building in Chandigarh. The sporadic monsoon rains were more frequent now – spreading greenery all around



September:
A trip to the ancestral village. Got to drive on NH1 towards Amritsar – India has really excelled in making good highways. Eye pleasing views at the village.



October:
Holiday month. Dusshera, Diwali. Coming together of friends, party. Trip to Kasauli. Mini World Cup comes to Chandigarh. Saw the likes of Brett Lee and McGrath in action for the first time.




November:
Part of Rural Reach Program in creating awareness about computers in village schools.




December:
New laptop arrives.
A New Year Dawns in Shimla. Here lying besides the warmth of a fireplace at Vishesh's home

The Traffic Jam

A Vibrant Sun Set at Shimla

It was a trip to Shimla after nearly an year. And for the first time in car – not driven by a driver. 2 days of 2006 and half a day of 2007 passed like a breeze – a rather cold breeze, I should say, considering the freezing temperatures there. On the return journey yesterday, I took turn behind the wheels. But we caught the peak traffic time when we reached Parwanoo. Kilometers long vehicle queues – frequently brightening red lights in front, bright yellow colors, angrily looking at you from the rear view mirror – tempers rising somewhere, horns blowing elsewhere and people breaking queues to form more parallel queues.
I have been stuck in traffic jams a couple of times – but that was always within city – where you could always take a detour, if possible or the car was the one which you have been driving for years, hence like one of your body part. But this time, the body part was a bit alien - I had never driven a santro before, and I had never driven a car on a hilly terrain before. So it was a bit hesitant me behind the wheels. A car in front made a brave move. There was no on coming traffic. He broke the 2 lined vehicle queue and went ahead to form one of his own – with zero space if something wanted to come from the opposite side. Then another went behind him. The temptation was hard to resist. So our car also made a dash for it. What happened next was what had to happen. A truck was majestically making its way from the opposite side. The 2 leaders in front of us were listening to the abuses of the truck driver. The next step was to try and reverse. But one glance back and it was almost a simultaneous “aaah..” from everyone in the car., followed by “lo ji.. phasss gaye”. The line behind us was endless. Then started the process of merging the extra line back into the mainstream. Some ego clashes, horn blowing, arms waving and forcefully cutting into other cars later, we merged, moving, at one point, only millimeters away from the stranded oncoming truck. The painful process of moving at speed of inches/minute continued for eternity after that. There were a few opportunities to repeat the foray we had undertaken earlier but only one or two were taken – playing it safe the other times. The normal few minutes journey from parwanoo to kalka took years. And everyone wondered how much time it would have taken had we not attempted the first venture.
As we steered clear of the jam after kalka, we saw a truck coming from opposite side bang into a car moving in the same direction. In a matter of seconds, another mini jam had been formed behind the two. How much more complicated things became as a result of that – we will, fortunately, never know.

A Movie Year

As the year comes to an end, we often reflect back on what have been the specialties of the year gone. One of them, for me, has been the movies. Some excellent movies by Indian Film Industry and some Hollywood classics made this year truly memorable.
It started off with Rang De Basanti – which I would rate as the best Hindi movie I have ever seen. On similar lines was the very entertaining Lage raho Munna Bhai. If Munna Bhai MBBS made the word “bole to” and “jaadu ki jhappi” popular, it was “gandhigiri” this time around.
In the second half of the year, it was a series of literally different movies which I experienced. It started with Yun hota to kya hota which, unlike many, I enjoyed a lot. Then there was Pyar ke Side effects followed by the humourous Khosla ka Ghosla. This movie potrayed the real meaning of humour – based purely on situational comedy – it made me a real fan of Anupam Kher.
In addition to the Hindi movies, I also experienced a few English classics.
The first was Shawshank Redemption – an amazing movie – probably the best English movie I have seen. (2 of the bests of Hindi and English in one year!!) And more recently I have seen Schindler’s List, Million Dollar baby, Boys Don’t cry, Finding Neverland, Fight Club, Memento, Cinderella man.
Among this list I would say Schindler’s List was at the top. Simply amazing ‘true’ movie about a person who gave everything he had to save1100 lives during WW II. 1100 lives – think about it. The people who show bravery to save 1 life get a medal from president on 26th January and that person saved more than thousand. An amazing movie about an amazing person – I guess the best Steven Spielberg would have directed.
Fight Club – a Hindi movie of the same name was also made this year. After seeing that you want to kill the person who kept that name. The original one is a classic ranked 32 among the top 250 movies of all times. And I guess the Hindi fight club must rank 32 – from the bottom.
Memento is difficult to understand first time. It moves backward. Which means the last scene of the story is the first. And from there it moves backward. That is what you call really different movie.
With movies like Sin City, The Pianist, Hotel Rwanda, Reservoir Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous mind lined up on my hard disk, I guess the year would end on a high as far as Movies are concerned.

Time Flies...

It was a weekend dedicated to cars. From Tokyo Drift to Gone in 60 Seconds(I hadn’t seen both of these) to NFS Most wanted. It was a strange feeling carrying my laptop to my cousin’s place. It was only a couple of years ago when I used to take my hard disk to their place to give them the latest songs, software, movies etc (of which my college hostel was one of the greatest source).
And this week end I again went to them, this time it was my turn to be the recipient and get some movies and games from them which incidentally are coming from the same hostel rooms, from which it used to come some years ago. It was an experience of coming far away in time. Something which we couldn’t have thought happening some years ago. Desktops and hanging hard disks replaced by sleek laptops and miniscule pen drives. There was a time when one of we five cousins would sit on my Pentium 1, playing PC-MAN, others shouting and cheering away. Yesterday, we connected our lappies with a LAN wire and slammed our cars against each other while racing for the top spot. It was a time to realize that times sure have changed. But one thing, which I guess has not. Having not played NFS for past 2 years, I thought I had gotten over it. But, when it is there on your comp, it is still very difficult to start your computer and resist the Need for Speed. So whereas on one hand I had the feeling of being carried away in time, NFS sort of balanced it out by taking back to the old times.

Celebrations @ Infy

It was 25 year celebration time at Infy, Chandigarh. The celebrations had started in a grand way at Mysore. And they have moved on across all DC’s. Chandigarh DC being a small DC, had been allocated a lesser budget.(May be even lesser than what we used to have in college annual functions). So where we had KK at Mysore, Shaan at Hyderabad, Sonu Nigam at Bangalore, it was lesser known Parikarma here. May be it was the main reason I and may be many others were not very excited about it. Still my friends and I were there on time to witness the celebrations. And it was a rare occasion where the Chief Guest, Mr. K. Dinesh, one of the founders of Infy, arrived before everybody else. It was real sad to see the event having been poorly organized. The stage was there only for the Parikarma. The other performers, who were instrumental in balancing the affect of poor organization, had to showcase themselves on the same ground level as audience. ‘Daris’ were put on at the last moment (in fact after the scheduled start time) and that too sporadically. I imagine, the performers, many of them who performed bare feet, must have had a real tough time in the freezing cold out there.
Another goof up happened, when the announcement was made about a Bhangra performance but the participants were no where to be seen. It was a goof up which can be a part of any big event such as these. But it brought forth a chink in the armor of the Anchors. The male anchor, seemingly poorly prepared was absolutely out of sorts and confused about what was happening all around. His female counterpart was, thankfully, a saving grace.
Things started improving once the performances started. The Bhangra which as the DC head also later pointed out is generally the last to be performed, rocked and made up for the awkward situation that had been created earlier. After the performances, it was time for some speeches by the DC Head and K. Dinesh. The small crowd was not interested in the stuff that was being said but Mr. Dinesh showed why he is there at the head of a colossal company. In few minutes he was able to catch the attention of the audience with his captivating stories which he and his colleagues had experienced on the journey to make Infy where it is now.
Parikarma followed after that to a rousing welcome but I guess they didn’t had the appeal to keep the audience in front of them. They belong to a particular genre of music that is rock and I guess that didn’t match with the taste of majority of the audience. We just had the appetite for 2 songs after which we went inside the food court to satisfy our other appetite. The food I must say was excellent, though we enjoyed it more because we were the first ones to start. The ones coming later had to stand in long queues which incidentally have become a standard in Infosys. The bad start was brightly and colorfully compensated at the end of the show. As all of us were heading were heading to our vehicles, the street lights suddenly went off and there was an extended display of fireworks lighting up the night sky – thus ending a rather average day with a feel good factor.

Bandh: is it a solution?

West Bengal is in news for some days now. Everyday the major news on every news channel involves happenings in the state. First it was Singur for which Mamta Banerjee, who I according to me seems like always on the edge of losing sanity, is still on hunger strike. There was a huge fracas at the Bengal assembly. Furniture was broken all over and the whole assembly literally ransacked. Infact, the assembly was made open to the public for next two days to show how shamefully our appointed leaders behave. But I don’t think these half minds have even an iota of guilt on their conscience. But this incident was nothing to what took place today.
The whole of West Bengal and Kerela was closed in lieu of a bandh. The fact that the strike was initiated by the ruling party, resulted in a colossal effect. As a hindi saying goes, not even a leaf fluttered in the two states. Everything from shops, govt and private offices to trains and even airlines were left useless. OK. The strike made national headlines. It will be all over newspapers tomorrow.
But then what? Most of the unemployed and below poverty line people for whom the strike was meant for, may be didn’t even know what it was all about. They will be the first ones to forget the strike and get on with the struggles of their lives. But still it is good that leaders are concerned about the condition of the people which need attention. Strikes have always been an essential part of a protest and making a point. It was the major tool for getting independence. But the difference was that it had the whole hearted support of the whole nation. But now it is forced upon most of the people. To an average person like me, such bandhs give an impression of just gaining political mileage. How many times have we heard of such a strike being effective? Will some thing be done for the upliftment of poor people or unemployment? It is the same state govt which is not very enthusiastic about allowing IT companies and Outsourcing coming to them.
Then is not hypocrisy, what has happened today. The CPI leader was of the view that 1 such strike will not scare away the investors from the state. He may be correct. May be it will not deter the companies investing in the state but what about the people of the state – who were held ransom for a full day. No trains, no flights – the lives paralyzed. We don’t know how many families of the daily wagers had to sleep empty stomach. How many patients didn’t get timely medical attention? Business of crores of rupees was lost. And I am sure most of the people didn’t venture out – not in support of the strike but out of fear that they may be harmed. The way of protest loses its meaning when it has to be this way.
But how then should then the point be made to the government who is not listening?
Perhaps Raju Hirani can give the politicians some ideas of how to follow Gandhigiri in this case. May be, in today’s date, the CPI leaders giving roses to the Congress leaders outside the parliament will get an equal attention by the hungry media. This will save the country a lot of time and money and the people of the country will be spared a lot of inconvenience.

A visit to Mumbai

Sun Set at Chandigarh
It was a trip to the land of Sachin Tendulkar – Mumbai for me last week.
It was a rather tiring flight which delayed by 1.5 hours landed at 8.30 PM at the Chatrapati Shivaji international airport. As I came out, there was a sea of people, with names displayed in front of them, looking expectedly at a steady stream coming out of glass walls. Soon this stream will merge into this sea. It was tough experience, finding the person with my name on the paper. There were literally hundreds of them and it felt quite odd to go through each of them. And as my luck would have it, I found my name at the end of the row. The hotel I was putting up in had offered a free pickup and drop to the airport. But it seems the concept of outsourcing has penetrated deep into our society now. Many hotels had outsourced this pickup thing to an agency. So as I waited, 3 more customers were assembled, packed in a maruti van and we hit the roads of financial capital of India.
The driver seemed like a die hard fan of Michael Schumacher. But as I later realized over the next 3 – 4 days, he was not alone in Mumbai. The traffic sense is literally zero there. And yet surprisingly, I didn’t even see a vehicle touching another during my stay. I cannot help admire the driving capabilities of people. But seriously, mumbaikers need a lesson in driving sensibilities. I assume, whenever Sachin takes out his Ferrari, he would have to concentrate more than on a cricket field.
Some years ago when I had been on Mumbai (and Delhi on the way back), I had thought that Mumbai was where traffic flowed smoothly whereas in Delhi it was a chaos. But this view has reversed now (It may be the case that I had been to marine drive quite often during my last trip)
The morning I had to come back, there was a big breaking news on channels that there has been an intelligence report that there may be a terrorist threat on airports and security had been considerably beefed up specially at Delhi and Mumbai. Hence, I expected some hassles at airport. Just outside the security check, there was a board saying that items like toothpaste, deos, gels, creams etc should not be carried in the hand baggage. I contemplated removing the stuff from my bag. But then decided to keep them and see what the ‘beefed up’ security was like. Not surprisingly, I was cleared without any problem and I had almost all the things specified on the board. To add to it, I couldn’t find any indications of alertness to the threat. The policeman checking me was chatting away with his colleague while metal detecting me. Again, I can’t help compare the attitude of personal in similar positions at Delhi and even at a small airport like Chandigarh. They try to interact with you, get into some discussion and most of the times, try to get some info out of you. It must be part of the training as I don’t think so many policeman I have encountered are so outgoing type who like to get into conversations with strangers. One more thing at the airport, the Public Address system was rather poor. You couldn’t get at all what was being said. Though there were plenty of visual translations available but the PA system is a basic foundation of a railway station/airport. Even if some important announcement has to be done, it would be useless there.
Well, I guess mumbaikers would be vying for my blood after they read this piece which is all about negative aspects of the city. But it’s only a translation of my experiences this time. Had I been writing a blog some years ago, when I last came here, there would have been a post on why I loved Mumbai.

How does this happen?

I don’t know it is me only or it happens with many people.
When you ‘plan’ and tell a lie, that lie unbelievably comes true.
An incident a few days back triggered this post. And I have experienced it many times but I can’t recall them. Some of the incidents I remember are:

1. The most recent one: I had ordered a Dell laptop Online. But due to some misunderstanding between Dell and my bank, the order was delayed to be sent into production. The salesman said that it will be delivered around 10th Dec. I told him that I had to travel around 5th Dec so to please expedite the process and make the delivery at the earliest. It was a lie but to my utter disbelief, my manager said on Friday(1st Dec) that I had to travel to Mumbai on 5th (exactly same date!!!!) for a couple of days to implement something on client side. There was no travel for me on the radar and now out of the blue this happened.

2. Another one I can remember is when I had to come to Chandigarh for my convocation from Mysore. In the excitement of coming, I left Mysore for Bangalore quite early whereas I could have taken a later train and made it on time comfortably. My PL called on phone asking where I was. So I lied that my flight had been rescheduled and it was departing a bit early so had to come soon. What a poor excuse – always it is flights and trains getting delayed. Never heard of flight being early. But unbelievingly, I got a sms a few minutes later that the flight had been pre-poned – not much but by around 15 – 20 minutes. And I was requested to reach the airport accordingly.

3. Another one. Once in class 12th I was late for tuition. I thought I will tell the teacher that my scooter got punctured. And the next moment I see my scooter wobbling. It was like – No!!!! How is this possible… I didn’t make it to the tuition ultimately.

There are many more which I can’t remember but I have surely experienced. It is still something to ponder for me – that how is such a thing possible. Now please don’t say that it is God who is listening to what lie I said and He made the lie a truth. If that happens, then the thousands of false promises made by politicians should also come true. ;)

A Fi(e)ry End to the Month

As I came out of office, I saw a Fire Brigade rushing towards the Infy main gate.."Fire? In infosys". It was impossible. It is something like what people used to think some 94 years ago - "Titanic is unsinkable".. but titanic did sink.. and one Infy building did catch fire yesterday..and coincidentally it was the infy building which is shaped like a ship - u can call it titanic.


From Today's TOI: Fire at Infosys, Chandigarh

There was thick smoke coming out of the Hostel block - which houses the hostels, and a part of the food court. The fire seemed to be out, but within 15 minutes I saw 3 more fire brigades rushing, suggesting it was not a minor one.
As I reached home, witnessing some more sirens and revolving red lights on the way, I put on the TV in anticipation of some news about the incident. But a much bigger fire had caught the attention of all news channels. Dalits, angered by the insult to the statue of Ambedkar in Kanpur,were in rage all over Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka . They burnt a train, caused havoc, disrupted normal life.



Though it may not be the case, but there are high chances that the same statue had the fate of a normal statue in India - rotting away, used by birds for most part of the year and coming in use only on birthdays/death anniversary of the great soul. This incident caused death of 2 young people. I guess this is more insult to the departed soul than spoiling his statue.
Later on in the night there was another news on a car suddenly catching fire, in Delhi, killing the occupant. A burning building, train and now a car- it was too much of fire for me for the day...

Those were the days.....

Tagged by … who else – Fleiger…

The Wonder Years Tag…

1.Write 8-10 things about childhood ( 1-12 years) that you miss.
2.Write 8-10 things that you disliked about childhood.
3.Tag a few people.

Hard to write about age 1 - 12 years..but I guess I have managed pretty well to keep out the memories after around class 8th..

What I miss about my childhood

1. The long summer vacations, when cousins used to come and stay for more than a month... 2 months of masti..think of it now.. 2 free months...hardly possible anytime in future.

2. Cricket on the porch: well, the porch has been the field since class 1...that is what 18 years now...you can't say I miss it, because I still play here.

3. Going to school on Cycle: Guess a cycle is a symbol of freedom in younger days. I enjoyed going to school - under hot sun, or in rain wearing a raincoat or in the fog in winters on the Hero Ranger with straight handles ;)

4. Aluminum foil Ball - I kept it for a long time after school time also. it was such a master piece. made out of aluminum foil of each day's lunch, it took a long time to bring it to the shape it was. Lots of "catch-um-catch" was played with it.

5. Trump Cards- they were a rage - weren't they? Started with 30 cards one and later some 200 cards or something. Bret Hitman Hart(rank 2) was the fav. Hulk Hogan - rank 1. Yokozuna - heaviest. Giant Gonzalves - tallest.

6. Chacha Chaudhary - guess have read most of the comics of the guy whose mind was faster than a computer. (Don’t know if it can compete with today’s Core 2 duo's) and his companion whose anger resulted in a volcano being erupted somewhere.

7. Chuppan-Chupayi - "the boundary is from here to here".. "do a pugan ka pugata" ... "go and give the den" "1.2.3.4.5.....50.. i am coming"... "ayis-pyss.. dhappa".. Nice game.. isn't it??

8. The excitement before bursting crackers on diwali... hurrying through the pooja... and then rushing to light the 'phuljhadi', ‘anaar’, ‘charakhdi’ etc

9. Studying in the car during winters.. it was my fav place to study even in college.. chilly days, bright sunshine with the car trapping all the heat inside.. if you want you can also put on light music... and after lunch can sleep sound on the back seat..

10. Sleeping under the sky in summers.. the thought of it is itself exciting ..isn't it... today, you cant sleep if the AC is not there!!!


What I disliked about childhood

1. The frequent trips to the dentist.. I don’t know how many of my teeth have been uprooted and how many hours I have sat under that small operating light..

2. Sanskrit - I dont know how I got 98 marks in sanskrit...and I dont know how I learnt those 'pathti, pathsi, pathanti'

3. Drawing, Music and Craft classes - never been my forte - in the last SUPW(craft) class I managed a C, I guess..And my fight with colors has been historic...but the drawing did help later..a mechanical engineer has engg drawing almost all 4 years..though we have drafters and all to do it.. but sometimes you had to do those in 5 minutes, sitting in canteen without even a scale.. may be the drawing classes of school did help there.

4. Writing long Hindi essays as HHW - Holiday HomeWork during summer vacations. That was a pain..

Like Fleiger, I am also forced to stop here as can't think of any more dislikes..

Whom I am going to tag

Any one willing to go down memory lane...

The Home Ground..

It happened after more than 2 years.
We were back on the local turf - surrounded by walls who had heard countless 'howzatts'... marked by glass windows, some of whose predecessors had cracked under the pressure, the wooden chair got the best place to view the event. It stood where earlier a plastic chair used to stand - just behind the man with the bat- acting as the wood to be shattered.
The bat.. ahh.. The Bat, which has hit innumerable boundaries and sixes, has felt the sweat of countless hands across many grounds in the city. The poor thing was rotting away in some corner.. until its owner(me) got on to the chair and then on to his friend's (rompy’s) shoulders..and then on to the roof store...to retrieve it from its exile.

Batsman's view
It was then the game began once again.. the neighbors were awakened.. the walls were jumped to retrieve the ball..the ooohs and aaah’s came as the ball missed he wicket or the catches went down..
It was a case of home ground - literally. The rules are tough .. one tip one hand – out...shot hitting the walls directly - out... shots going over the wall - out..
Personally, it is by virtue of playing here - on the porch of my home... that has improved the quality of my defense...of playing with soft hands... of concentrating for long time and sticking to the wicket...of playing late.. etc etc..
so raman phaji.. now you know how I got the confidence of playing against your express bowling in our early morning sessions...
Bowler's view
so this weekend, it was back to the porch for the hard hitting lolly, who made most of his runs in fours....rompy, who chased the highest target and the usual me, who accumulated runs slowly and steadily without giving the opposition many chances of getting me out...(the combination of three of us can be deadly.. hahahaha)
The bodies playing there were those of the ones working in MNC's but the soul was that of normal college going guys..
only Lolly's LML and Rompyz CBZ were missing outside the gate....
An offer for the Indian team - come and practice here before the world cup..
I am sure it will do wonders..

Fielder's view of Bowler

Fielder's view of Batsman

Young and Shining India

25th November, 2006 has been etched in my mind as a day when I experienced something truly different in my life. Today, I was a part of Rural Reach program which has been started by Infosys. In this we had been formed into 10 teams of around 6-7 people each and were assigned 10 different schools in near by rural areas. I was a part of 7 member team which went to Govt High School in Sarangpur. In the morning the taxi was preloaded with a desktop, some refreshments, gifts and mementos to distribute among the students.
The plan was simple - reach the school at 9.00, interact with principal and faculty, start the session at 9.30. Continue till around 1.00 and return back to infy by 1.30. Pretty straightforward. We were also given a CD with PPT’s to show.
As we reached the school, this is how the things unfolded.

• As we identified the school from the main road, it seemed a small school. 3-4 year olds were playing outside. It was like – Are we going to teach kids like these?? The school building was small. And the talks among us brought out the apprehension of not getting enough students as audience. So many times it happens that first impressions are wrong.
  As it turned out later, the team interacted with around 300 students from class 5th to 10th.
  
  
  
• We met the principal and were offered excellently made tea. Discussion carried on, on how to divide the groups and take sessions. But I guess in cases like these, theories are just useless. You have to get into practicalities. Had we kept on sitting, we wouldn’t have come to a conclusion even after hours – happens so many times in meetings. As two ‘practical’ school staff entered the picture, things started to shape up. Within minutes we identified the rooms and they took responsibility to fill in the students. Problems had just started.
  
  
• We got a rude shock as we saw only a packet of some 20 chocolates, few pencils and pens as gifts. Sensing we would be addressing large number of audience, we needed more incentives. Nimesh took the responsibility of bringing in more stuff as we pooled in more money from our side. How much difficulty he had in getting chocolates and toffees in a rural area in the early morning hour – we will never come to know. But rest of us had some problems of our own to handle.
  
  
• Girls – Surabhi, Swati and Vandana took the responsibility of facing classes below 7th and going by the response we saw from those kiddies later when we were leaving, I was sure they had done an excellent job. Moreover, I felt that girls were more adept at handling small children rather than the higher classes who can get rowdy.
  
  
• We had 2 rooms for classes 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th. Infy desktop was installed in say room 1. For the second, I got in touch with the Computer teacher. She was a very young and sweet and soft spoken teacher and as I loaded the PPT from the CD in their machine, I asked her about the status of the computer knowledge of the students there. What I perceived during the talk to follow was a bit of frustration from a teacher who was trying to make a difference. She told:
  
  
  
  • The students were from very poor families as the relatively rich had access to schools of big towns nearby.
    
  • There was a computer fees levied which was a deterrent to students enrolling for computer course. Though they were trying to bring the fees down.
    
  • Students were not interested in joining the course because to them, it was just useless as regards to future job prospects. This point, I decided to concentrate on while addressing the students.
    
  • The subject syllabus involved from basics till HTML to class 10th. Frankly that was a shock for me. I didn’t know what HTML was till college. Moreover, we had been told that some of the school children didn’t even know what a computer is. And here they were learning HTML. We were in for more pleasant shocks later on during the interaction.
    
  
  
  
• The second computer we took to room 2 under the glare of students. There was no power here. The person told that room1 had the power switch. So we moved the extension wire to room 2. But the switch in room1 didn’t work. So I rushed with a school admin person to nearby shops. After a long walk, one of the shopkeeper gave us the extension. During the walk, the admin person made me privy to the politics going on in the school. He had his own problems to rue about – about the biased principal, the arrogant right hand man, the rogue students who had no sense and who created nuisance 24X7. What I felt afterwards about the children was very confident, eager to learn, largely without inhibitions with good learnability. If that is called rogueness, senselessness – well I beg to strongly differ. Yes, there are some naughty ones but what I feel is they can be moulded easily. I mean, I now see some of my naughty school mates – I can’t believe how time has changed them.
  
  
  
  
• Now after most problems sorted out, the sessions began. Anoop and Rajendra were in room 2 with classes 8th and 9th while Nimesh and I took up room 1(classes 7th and 10th). It was 2.5 hours of plain fun and eye opening after that. The PPT’s given by infy were not opened once. We started with paint brush. I wanted to convey the point that learning computers has a great benefit in future as regards to high paying jobs as well as basic jobs. And this Nimesh and I conveyed pretty effectively – going by the responses later. I had not really imagined that we could carry on for 2 -3 hours, but when it started, everything just flowed. To our surprise, they knew stuff which even I didn’t know even till college. They drew in paint, opened word docs, changed the font, color of text. One of them even wrote his name in power point and made it appear in a stylish way in the slide show. I was impressed and guess, so was Nimesh. I thought knowing the full form of HTML was the high point. The chap who told seemed from a poor bihari migrant family but had the air of the studious kinds which we all must have encountered some time or the other in our lives.
  
  
• We gave them info about the internet – the basics of how it worked. What are the uses it has – about email, chatting. What is the use of screen saver, how to change wallpapers etc. To make sure it was drilled down in their soft minds, we got it repeated over and over.
  
  
• In between, to have fun they were asked to perform some songs, dance, jokes etc.
  This was the time to see their confidence. They were literally fighting to come on stage to perform. We had jokes, dances and lots of Punjabi songs. Also, we asked history, geo, maths questions. Not everyone knew the capital of Karnataka ,but everyone knew the local geography – capital of India, Punjab, Haryana. Strangely Trivandrum was quite popular. The 1st answer when asked about capital of a southern state came as Trivandrum.
  I guess only 1 was aware of ‘father of nation’ while most knew Bhagat Singh. Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Kajol, even Manmohan Singh and Abdul Kalam had the reach which Gandhi did not. We had problems of language here, as they sometimes didn't understand what rectangle or geography or trignometry was and we got confused between 'chakor' and 'chauras or whether 'bhoogol' was geography only or something else. Also we were asked to ask questions on Hindi language. Hindi !!.. what do you ask on Hindi subject?? Also we, so used to speaking 'Hinglsih' now, had some difficulty communicating in hindi without the influx of english words in between.
  
  
  
  
• Scores of chocolates, pens, wafers were distributed during the session. We had 3 trophies to give away. The 1st one went to a very confident girl. She had not enrolled in the computer course but the way she summarized what all had been said, left no doubt that she deserved it. The second went to the studious guy. He was soft spoken and a bit shy. But he came out and answered the ‘tough’ questions and in his low pitched voice gave his own interpretations of the world of computers and their uses. For the 3rd we made 3 -4 students to summarize everything. The trophy went to a girl who had actively participated during the whole event.
  I hope that we made those young bright minds a bit more aware, bit more confident, and helped overcome their shyness by recognizing them in front of everyone. This was a small effort on our side. And the experience has enriched me and given strength to my belief that India is indeed shining – not only in software companies of Bangalore or call centers of Gurgaon or number of McDonald’s being opened or sprawling malls but here in small villages at the root level where the future of India is being written. Yes, there are problems which will be always there but those can be overcome if we have the will. And if we spare some of our efforts towards this side – in a hope to strengthen the base to build a strong country tomorrow.
  

The greatest indicator of the zeal of students, the enthusiasm, the will to learn and perform and if I can immodestly say, success of our program came at the end. After we had distributed 3 trophies, one 7th class kid came up to me and said in Punjabi, “Next time when you come, that trophy will be mine”. I was speechless.

The Computer Journey

When I signed up to volunteer for a program to go to some village nearby and spread computer literacy in a school, my thoughts tried to fathom how I gained my computer literacy ?
The thoughts had to travel a lot. It was class 8th or 9th when I had my first tryst with computers. It was in school that I first saw a computer. We were taught about abacus, generations of computers, types of computers, difference between typewriter and computer and many such theoretical stuff which we had to mug up. On the practical side how to operate the floppy drive (the 5.25 inch
one) and some basic DOS commands. Later we were to learn wordstar in class 10th, which ended the official school learning in the field of computers.
At home, it was a 386/486 computer my father had brought home for a few days which brought me real close to the thing, supposed to be invented by Charles Babbage. The horizontal CPU with monitor on top, no mouse, and the 5.25 inch floppy drive(I still have couple of 'those' floppies) gave me the freedom to explore things without time constraints, like in school. I guess I used to try out commands, play some basic DOS games like PC man and bricks on that.
Next in my life was a Pentium I – the latest in town those days. It had an amazing 8MB RAM and a 600 MB Hard Disk. The vertical CPU was a neighbor’s envy and Owner’s pride those days – though not many neighbors had a computer then. The basic OS was DOS and you had to type “WIN” on the prompt to open the windows 3.1. Windows was an entirely new thing. Paint brush and Solitaire was the fav past time. Some games were installed which had better graphics. That resulted in the computer being packed for around 1.5 years as it interfered with the 11th and 12th studies.
It was reinstated in college though by then I was seriously lacking behind in knowledge and the technologies in those times. It was my friend Lalit who helped me bring back to the world of computers. It was with him I had seen the IIT screening result on something called internet. Then under his guidance I opened my first email id – on USA.net. The first year in college was spent exploring the net and writing C programs on my old Pentium I. But by now something called Mp3 had come. And if on that good ol’ machine, winamp was started, everything else used to go down.
By the end of 1st year, it was realized that the 4 year old P-1 had served enough and that gave way to the keyboard, I am typing these words on. Of course the keyboard was accompanied by a 128 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD, 128 MB dedicated (to games) Graphics card, 833 MHZ Pentium 3. It has given me company through the college years from the era of 56K dialups to today’s broadband. The poor thing never had its CPU cover screwed. Its HDD always hung lose – ready to be taken out within seconds. Infinite movies were watched on it and it still has one of the widest ranges of song collection.

In between 2 years were spent outside home during which I worked on the best machine I have had till now – the one I inherited from Fleiger – the 1GB RAM, Pentium 4 with a flat LCD monitor. And now as I expectedly wait for my new laptop to be delivered to me, I think how I have been a part of one of the biggest revolutions – from a bulky, black and white 386 to a 3 kg , true color ‘core 2 duo’.

One Fine Morning..

I wake up early
Many chores to deal
The month is November
And the morning air chill

The sun is rising up
In the far.. over the hill
The rays seep thru the windows
Warming up the room they fill

On the cozy bed they fall
Challenging my will
In this busy life, I think..
How many times, the inner voice we kill
And not enjoy the small moments
Which make life worth while..

I call the office
And feign ill
Then remove the tie and get under the blanket
Letting the sun intoxicate like a sleeping pill

Identity - a Fiction

Some training in Bangalore took me to the city I had left more than a year ago. And it was a bit nostalgic to be back and meet some old friends. I had also decided to go to Mysore on week end to meet friends there.
As I crashed on the bed of the guest house room after an exhausting Thursday, the TV told me that there was a Karnataka Bandh the next day. Some so called Patriotic Kannadigas wanted to protect their language and culture from being westernized and being lost so they had decided to help the state and the country incur loses of crores of rupees the next day.
Just then Ajit called from Mysore.
“Tomorrow has been declared a holiday. Why don’t you come to Mysore tomorrow only”
“Is it?? I didn’t get any mail for this?”
“Oh! May be because you are not in the Bangalore users List”
“Ya! May be. Ok then I will come tomorrow only.”
“But try not to come by Volvo. There may be some trouble”
“Ok. I will catch the train – 11:15 one!”
“Fine then. See you tomorrow. By the way your favourite Sholay is coming on Max”
“Oh.. is it?? Hhahaha… have to see it..”
I put on Sholay where a demanding Gabbar Singh was saying, “yeh Haath mujhko de de Thakur”.
It is a serious scene of the movie and how it is more fun for us now, I amused as Mr. Gabbar brought down the two swords with an evil shriek. Is it so easy to cut off the arms of a person, I thought and moved on to Star Sports where the prolix Navjot Sidhu was into his normal fight with words.
I started a bit early for station next morning with buffer for any bandh induced delay. But there was none. The usual Bustling Bangalore Station looked like a lonely desert, due to the bandh. It took me hardly 10 minutes to get the ticket and reach platform 6. I had come quite early and even the train had not yet docked at the platform. So I sat down on the bench, took out my CD player and got immersed in the mellifluous voice of Hariharan.
I was pulled out of the spell by a rough, bulky man. From his dark face and thick growth of hair on his face, it seemed like he had just come out of jail. He spoke something in Kannad.
“Kannad.. Illa”, I replied.
“Listening.. What??”, he tried his hand at English.
“Damn!! Does he want me to share headphones with him”, I thought uneasily.
“Songs”, I replied.
“Hindi???”, he again asked.
I nodded in affirmation.
Then suddenly he started speaking angrily and quickly in Kannad.
“No understand….”, I tried to explain.
“Only Kannada songs”, he said pointing to the CD player. “No Hindi”
“what the hell!!”, I was frustrated.
Then out of no where he snatched the CD player and threw it. I was trembling with anger. Finding nothing to hit him with, I pushed him hard.
In return, I saw his arm in full swing and a perfectly timed slap landing on my face with a elegant follow through. I felt my face heat up and go red like a cherry.
Then suddenly I woke up. Sun’s rays were falling on my face. The CD had played out and the loudspeakers on the platform were playing some Kannad Song.
“Oh Shit! That was a dream”. I was perspiring.
Some people had arrived at the platform now but the train was still not there.
Then what I saw resulted in my heart missing a beat.
I saw that same bulky, ugly man whom I had seen in my dream walking towards me in slow heavy steps.
“Oh!”, my mind suddenly realized “I must have seen the person when I came here. And the dreaded image stuck”
But the man seemed to be coming straight to me. He indeed was. As he came closer I could smell that he was drunk. He came and said something in Kannad. I was reliving my nightmare.
“No.. kannad”, I replied hesitatingly.
“why.. you here…”, he asked.
“Going to Mysore”
“You from delhi??”
“ya..ya.. delhi..”
Then suddenly he burst out.
“why you northies come here??”
“this is our state… you spoiling our state…”
Then some abuses in Kannad.
“Go back to your state….. you don’t know Kannad… why you here.. Run away.. get lost”, he went on and on.

My shock and fear was being converted to a rage.
“What get lost…. Haan….What state ”, I finally replied simmering.
“Is this not India?? We come here to work far from home… and what get lost…”
“Get Lostttttt!!!”, he shouted with spit falling all around.
“Just shut up.. piyaakad saala… you get lost”. I shouted along with some Punjabi abuses.
He went off walking quickly from where he had come.
“What idiot”, I thought sitting down. “It is due to these kind of foolish people that some demagogues are able to divide people into hindus and muslims… kannad and non kannad.. northies and southies… How can any one even think this way…Who fills this kind of crap in the minds of people… Why is that people are finding their identity as a member of a state rather than a nation.. infact in today’s flat world it is more of member of world rather than nation also.. On one hand we talk of globalization and boundaries between countries dissolving… and then you see such kind of people intent to building back the walls…I will surely write a blog on this.”
As I was going through the turmoil, I heard a loud cry. Some 5 – 6 people armed with chains, rods and swords were running in my direction. The bulky gunda was leading the pack.
“Is this really happening???”, I was dumbfounded and frozen.
By the time I realized, they were on me.
Shouting obscenities in Kannad, they hit me with a chain on the back. A rod landed on my chest leaving me gaping for air. Then the bulky man said something to his fellows. And 2 of them caught my hands, stretched them and held them tightly there.
The bulky moved in with 2 swords in his hands, looking more menacing than even Gabbar Singh. “Oh Shit.. I was thinking about this last night only. And now it is happening to me.”
Bulky was saying. “You work with these hands in my state.. I will cut them off”
Then all of a sudden, my mobile on the bedside rang and I woke up trembling.