Relocated :|

As the title says, I have been relocated to the first floor from my nice little corner in the ground floor to another corner in the first floor. When I first got to know about the relocation business, I was really pissed about the whole thing, but right now i think I am feeling a little happy to have a huge window right beside me and I love a window from which I can see the sky and just keep staring for ages... besides there are a lot of people on this floor and I am hoping that much of my coding frustrations will be done away with due to the presence some knowledgable souls around me.
The guys have successfully managed to split all the BITSians and have placed us in four different corners of the floor, for the first time I won't see a BITSian if I decide to turn around in the chair and chat.:P
Whatever it is, work still needs to be done and I am looking forward to the trip just too much to even think about how this new workplace environment is going to shape up, who cares, I will be coding anyways .

Weekend Trip

Finally the office trip scheduled for the next weekend seems to be happening. We'll be leaving early on Saturday morning and should be back by Sunday night.
There are two reasons I am so keen on going on this trip, firstly because we (the interns) will be the younger than everyone else in the team, therefore very little responsibility and a lot of fun and secondly, I AM BORED OF THE USUAL WEEKEND !!! Now I'll happily launch into another of those "Bangalore is boring" lectures of mine, but there is a lot of work to be done and i am eagerly waiting for the weekend, at least something to look forward to. Only on Saturday I was complaining to Sapre, one of those poor souls who share their living quarters with me, how extraordinarily boring life can get when you have absolutely nothing to look forward to in a whole week (except, ofcourse, the friday evening)! As I said , Finally, something to look forward to . Here are some of the snaps of the place we are going to visit, Hope it hasen't changed much :P

The Snap of the month!

Stairway(s) to Heaven

The escalators in Garuda mall

Check out the Hogging snaps, most of them didn't come out :(

Food Fest!!

This weekend was another one of those wild food fests. It had started a little early with Suhel's visit and it went on till saturday evening. It was simply awesome...
We started off with a chicken snacker at KFC , followed by something called mongolian (or was it malaysian) noodles and lamb roast, not to forget the golden fried babycorn for starter. Slightly ironical to think that we ate delicious steamed corn for five bucks apeice and ended up paying almost twelve times the amount for the younger version.
Friday was another celebration of junk food, After a Paneer roll at a roadside joint and a buttered bun at another one we went off to Forum to eat at the mother of all junk food vendors, MacDonald's , the same old McGrill, medium fries and medium cola. We enjoyed ourselves groping for each others' fries and fighting over a sliver of a burger as if those little nursery days aren't over yet. Saturday afternoon found us at Takatak, another fast food joint. This time it was heavy stuff, Mutton Biryani and even I couldn't believe myself when I figured that I was too full to polish off all the food that was served to me :( But as they say, the best is always reserved for the end:
Dinner at Chung's was NICE! Hot dragon rolls smothered in the tangy hot sauce , rice noodles and some really spicy mushrooms. A fitting end to a delightful weekend. Just that the disobedient belly doesn't seem to take any notice of the painful crunches I put in every morning.

Reunion...

We met after a year and three months, Suhel and I, and a lot has changed since the last time we saw each other. He had started working for some advertising Hot Shot and I am still in the process of completing my graduation. Things have changed quite a bit. But, we can still talk like no time has passed at all. Priorities have changed as have the ways we look at life. Come to think of it seriously, there isn't much common to us anymore, except that we both go to Asansol when we go home.
We walked down MG Road and spent a lot of time trying to disentangle each other's love lifes. While he kept trying to convince me that I was in love with one woman , I was more inclined to give him a more practical approach to life and Boudhayan kept dropping smart comments every now and then. Oh, I forgot all about that chap. The three of us had started our academic careers in red checked shirts and red shorts in a little school called Wonderland Nuersery School and we studied together for 13 years , till our ICSE in 2000. So much has passed between the three of us, but when we met up after so many days, just felt like we were back to those days when homework and tiffin used to be the only matters of concern...
Will upload the snaps once Suhel gets them for me.

Handicapped !!

The skin on the lower part of my right palm, near the wrist is dead. So are the nerve cells at the tip of my right index finger and I call this handicap mousititis. Excessive screen navigation using the mouse got my palm totally... you know what :P.

Plus there is a paunch growing out of my previously flat, well-behaved stomach and I don't blame it either. At least nine hours of sitting in front of a computer surely makes it an easy task for the belly to revolt and make its presence felt in a really ugly way. These are the two very evident physical handicaps I have been subjected to. And then there is mental fatigue. By the time I reach home after having dinner at Saleem Bhai's hotel, I am in no condition to think anything positive. Its become natural to be tired and despondent at night after hours of coding and code breaking...

Some friend of mine just reminded me that I am perhaps the only person in Bangalore to have not seen Rang De Basanti...another handicap, this time its Time that eluded me. Never found the time to go and watch. But then neither am I a fan of Aamir Khan nor am I in dire need of some patriotic inspiration and I entertain myself enough through all the net surfing (mis)adventures to actually need to go out and watch a movie in a theatre and get entertained...

The worst thing to say

They say, the worst thing to say is, "It could have been that way"...All these days I never believed them. For I had never had to say that. However, last night was another one of those long thought sessions, basically, the TV wasn't working and I was too pissed off to even try to tune it. Just lay quietly and thought...Life would have been so different had I not done decently in my four years of engineering, I would have been happy and content with whatever I got, for I wouldn't have had the choices to do all that I didn't do. I have participated in many a debate and discussion about choice is an illusion, then again I laughed and argued that choices were always fun. To have a choice was always a good thing.

However, making the wrong choice sometimes doesn't even leave you a chance to make ammends, even before you realise it, the chance is lost and you can spend the rest of your life repenting. But it will never come back...
But I guess I'll have to be content with saying , "It could have been that way".

Bloggers' Classic

I have been waiting to write this one for quite some time. A day in the life of your's truly, but it seems to be a staple component of every blog i have read or glanced through. I am sure its not a necessary component of a blog, but at the same time, it would be really entertaining to write how my life changed since the time I left campus last December.
The mornings don't start any more with the jingle of the little bells hanging from the huge banyan tree in the courtyard of our warden; someone's mobile rings , or my own alarm for eight o'clock. A sleeply walk to the bogs and the process of waking up continues till I am jostled into the complete awakening by the noisy flush! I step out into the sunny room and stare pitifully at the most lazy creatures in the world, the three room mates of mine. The nicest guys in the world, but I am sure they haven't seen 8 a.m. in Bangalore yet. Brushing my teeth, switching on the gyser happens and then its time to exercise. 45 crunches punctuated with heavy breathing, an occasional grunt and a curse or two. Bath in the life of a bachelor is naturally associated with some washing. Whether the clothes I wash get cleaned or not is not a matter of concern. What really matters is that i soak them in some soap water wait diligently for half an hour as instructed at the back of the sachet, wash them and put them on the line to dry.
A bun for breakfast follows the seven minutes walk to the office. Checking mail , when i get one. There are people in the world who will beg you to stay in touch when you leave them, but never find time to reply to an e-mail when you actually make an effort to stay in touch. The number of mails in my inbox every morning was going down...but when I checked it today...there were none...
Even before I figure out the bugs in the previous day's code, it's time for lunch. After lunch till dinner, life is spent in front of the comp or dicussing code with the room mates who reach office slightly later than me. We have cups of coffee and tea, play table tennis, surf the net, upload blogs... in a way, spend off our time, some way or the other.
By the time the ping pong rests its past nine o'clock. A tired walk to the restaurant followed by another one back to the room and after watching the TV for some time...its time sleep.
But thats when the mind starts wondering...
Those uncomfortable questions keep coming back to the fatigued brain. But before I reach a solution, I am asleep. Nightmares rule the head till the welcome chiming of the alarm ushers a new day...assuring me of another day to live .

Digesting dreams...

If I were to believe the famous Idiom, "Morning shows the day" and apply it to the present week, life doesn't look rosy at all. Right now I am chewing a tab of Gelusil MPS and sitting at office typing away on the key pad. All the delicious stuff ( Chicken at KFC, the delicious MacD's softee, Salim Bhai ka Paratha, some soft fresh buns, banana chips and half a dozen other less important ingredients to a rocking weekend!) that reached my stomach through out the weekend doesn't seem to do much for the well being of the same.

My obsession with the Laptop continues, checked out a couple of heavy duty, smart apple notebooks. Really funky but bloody costly too. Even if i think of buying them after another four months, i won't have the dosh..:( The Lenovo X series thingie still seems to be the best bet! the only other lappy i liked is too bloody heavy for my shoulder and the lighter versions are too heavy for the pocket. Such are the problems faced by the common man when it comes to fulfilling little material dreams...

I guess the pun I intended to use in the title is a bit too much to digest :P ...

Still in the Lyrics Haze...

This time it's another really famous song, Stairway to heaven (Led Zep). Again, I had never read through the lyrics properly before yesterday. These four lines are not intriguing, but really inspiring again. I dunno why these things seem so inspiring to me, but there is definitely something. Something that talks about freedom, happiness, laughter. Its been ages since I've fallen off the bed in a fit of laughter. And I ain't all that old yet. He..He.
Interaction with nature has also been reduced to a bare minimum... the long walks or bicycle rides through the fields I went on every now and then, while on campus have stopped altogether. Bangalore is not the place to live in if your walks down the dirt track mean something to you... but as the singer says..

And it’s whispered that soon
If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

She's just a woman!

Have you ever listened to the song "She's always a woman" by Billy Joel?

I just went through the lyrics the 14th time today and I am still intrigued. What was the man thinking when he wrote the song. I dunno what to write...here's the lyrics...see if you think the way i do. Perhaps I am too confused to think anything, but this song does have something about it which is not true and neither is it totally false...there, I am in my state of eternal confusion again...

She's Always a Woman


She can kill with a smile
She can wound with her eyes
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies
And she only reveals what she wants you to see
She hides like a child
But she's always a woman to me

She can lead you to love
She can take your or leave you
She can ask for the truth
But she'll never believe you
And she'll take what you give her as long as it's free
She steals like a thief
But she's always a woman to me

Oh--she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh--and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind

She will promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then she'll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you're bleedin'
But she'll bring out the best
And the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself
Cause she's always a woman to me

Oh--she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She's ahead of her time
Oh--and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind

She is frequently kind
And she's suddenly cruel
She can do as she pleases
She's nobody's fool
But she can't be convicted
She's earned her degree
And the most she will do
Is throw shadows at you
But she's always a woman to me

To smash or not to smash...

The game of table tennis is easy, that is, if you know how and when to smash that little ball with all your might! I never seem to get the timing right. Losing game after game either because the ball was too low for a forehand smash or too high for a back hand one... and then there is this concern about my partner if we play a doubles game, with the increased number of stakes to the only table at office, people have forgotten that there ever existed a singles version of the game. We have to wait in queues to get a chance to occupy the space behind one quarter of the table and play a game of patience ( read: waiting for the opposition to get frustrated with rallying and smash the ball into the net). Agression is totally lost and its always a game of patience and placement. In a working environment, even in a game like TT we end up playing the thinking game; only yesterday while going for dinner we were complaining how our natural games have changed and how we are supressing our instincts to play a safe game... a hint of how life changes in the bigger world, eh?

Inspiration

I don't follow cricket with the zeal that an average Indian follows it with. I spent most of the time sleeping through the third test match while my room mates were busy discussing the different strategies that the team could have used to salvage some pride in the lost match. My laziness is not a sign of disinterest, just that i think its totally the teams business to do what they think is right, for the fact that they are there and I am not, means that they know better.

However, yesterday's match was inspiring, the TV in the office is at some distance from where I sit and I started running towards the TV when Sachin was on 95, but by the time I reached it I could only see the replay of his dismissal.

But then Dhoni came out, all guns blazing and surely, that was inspiration. To see one man tear apart the morale of a whole team is great, especially when the team is Pakistan. The last thirteen overs were mind blowing. He cut, he drove, he pulled ....basically he just enjoyed himself and in the process gave India a victory which nothing less than phenomenal.
Its inspiring, to see what ONE man can do if he does it right!

Minister,Defend yourself!

I had never thought i would end up writing about politics on my blog! But in the present circumstances, i guess i feel too strongly about something and i had better write it down before it takes a back seat.
After dinner, we sat down in front of the TV for this show called Devil's Advocate which is a series of exclusive interviews of emminent personalities with Karan Thapar. I must say i am a huge fan of Karan Thapar for the way he handles his interviews. His inteview with the then Defence minister, George Fernandez was the first one in a chain of interviews that I had seen. However that is not the point of this post.
Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee was on the Recieving end of Karan's pointed questioning yesterday and he did make a fool of himself. Really sorry of using such a strong word, the behaviour of the minister was not only outrageous but also he was not able to answer any of the questions directed to him even close to convincingly... I was really shocked to see how a defence minister could be so evasive and unclear in his responses to a set of straight forward questions (after they were clarified three to four times by the interviewer). For every question his answer was "I don't agree with you" or " This is your conclusion!" or "Everything that was necessary has been done" or"You are not a court of law!" or something as unbelieveable as "Don't make me answer the same question twice".He refused to make any statement on any of the issues adressed during the interview.
What kind of a statesman are you minister if you can't defend yourself , your department or your government in a well meaning interview? How will the country depend on you to defend it incase of a not so well meaning operation from across the border!
Pranab Mukherjee not only tainted himself but definitely clarified one fact, that the defence ministry is one confused bunch of people who don't have their figures right or don't want to keep the people informed. I guess the country could do with a few more people who at least know how to handle an adept interviewer.
Minister, please learn to defend yourself properly before you get down to the task of defending the country.

Growing up.

Another day went by..another nine hours spent in the office , typing away on the comp...lines of code , incomprehensible to the normal human being, hated by the not-so-normal ones and despised by the one who writes it. 183 english tracks played in my ears almost twice before i realised that i have been listening to the same songs for quite sometime. Life in a corner of a building where I am totally unreachable , except through the internet, gets to one a little too fast. There is not much to show for a whole day spent in front of a comp, especially when you know that everything you did right from the morning needs to be changed to incorporate a simple detail which you might have forgotten due to a momentary lapse of reason (i guess the music caught me there ;)) ...
A lunch loaded with the kind of vitamins and proteins a dietician would give his right hand for and devoid of the essential human requirement, Taste, is consumed with the minimum fuss. followed by another marathon session of trying to understand and create obsure procedures for vaguer needs of out-of-the world engineers. Perhaps this is how you know you are grown. I would have pulled the house down had my food not tasted good when i as a kid at home. When you do everything you hated with just as much compassion as you tend to your favourite flower bed or with as much interest as you read your first peice of porn literature, you can safely conclude that you've grown up.

Desk Magic!!

Did a new book ever increase your interest to study a lot? Or were you one of those geeks who would study just as much whether its a new book or an old one? Any thing new always got my interest soaring in trying to use it, whether it's a new book or a new Table tennis bat... And so is the case with a desk. But slightly different, we were assigned desks at the company a couple of days back...and the enthusiam to sit at my own chair and getting down to work on my own project and listening to my own music on my own headphones really makes a whole lot of difference... I haven't done as much work on my project in a whole week as I did yesterday and i am sure its all about having my own place in this office. One place that i can call mine, no disturbances.I guess I am a bit selfish, but more than that i think its just Desk Magic!