Alrite y'all. This is an inspired piece of writing after reading this post and listening to one of my favorite songs (although the title comes from another favorite song). I have tried to keep my writing as original as I can but some similarities are bound to occur since this is after all, well, 'inspired'. It is also my first attempt at writing a short fictional story with some mix of emotions. I would not be surprised, however, if this post does not come out as good as the original one. When it comes to emotions and sentiments, I am much like Chandler Bing, "I'm not good with that part. Could I interest you in a sarcastic comment?" Anyways, enough with the background already. Here goes:
*DISCLAIMER* --- All characters in my story are fictional and any koinkydinkys are entirely coincidental. This post has been written with the sole intent of exercising my fingers so please do not try to associate and/or read between the lines.
Late November, it was a wintry afternoon in O'Hare. Akash was all excited, eagerly waiting to board his next flight to London, on his way back home to Mumbai. He had already travelled a long way on his LAX-CHI direct and was now beginning to get edgy as the weather showed no signs of clearing up. He was pacing nervously around the flight information screen waiting to find the updated time of his flight. Few minutes and he was utterly frustrated to find that his flight had been delayed by 4 hours. With nothing better to do he decided to hit the Starbucks in the terminal, connect to his office network and finalise that proposal he had been working on. Somehow he had managed to get a longer vacation with the understanding that he would be reachable even while in India and that he was still billable on all his current projects. A long vacation was the call of the hour, this was no ordinary vacation. He was heading home to get married.
Strolling on to find the Starbucks he stood in line to get a fix of his favorite. In one corner, someone sitting sideways reading up on a book, caught his eye. She sure looked familiar. Could she be Priya? No way, he told himself. He knew Priya was on her way to Austin the very same day, flying out from New York. Curiosity got the better of him and he walked that way after grabbing his mocha, and sure enough, Priya she was! He greeted her with a warm hug and both were all smiles. 'Wha .. how come you're here? Shouldn't you be on your flight to Austin?' said Akash, after he got over his initial surprise. 'Yes, thank the weather. We had to make an unscheduled stop out of our way because of the bad weather. I still have a few more hours before we get back on.' 'So we do meet after all. The irony. We made so many plans of meeting up, none of them materialised over all these years and the weather gods decide to play their part'. 'Indeed' she smiled.
'Wow, though! You haven't changed a bit. How long has it been since we saw each other, 7 years?!' 'Yes', she said with a mischievous grin on her face , ' I wish I could say the same about you'. 'I know I'm not quite the guy you knew from college anymore. Hey you're seeing me 7 years and 45 lbs later. I'm a Complan boy!' and both broke off into a hearty laugh. At the crux, no one had really changed. Both were still the same, always looking for a chance to pull each other's leg and have a good laugh. They had been through 4 years of engineering school together. Always in the same group, hanging out together, studying, partying, living each day of their lives in each others company enjoying it all. Everyone thought they were the perfect couple, in their minds, they were nothing more than very good friends. Akash went on to complete his Masters and Priya was working with some company after they graduated. Throughout they never lost touch with each other, emailing, calling, doing whatever to fill in on the latest. Since the last 3 years Priya had been onsite. Their grandiose plans to meetup along with their friends never saw the day of light with someone or the other always bailing out at the last minute. After their last plans for Denver had flopped no one ever bothered to come up with suggestions and these good friends of yesteryears were left with the only option of electronic communication, although they were in the same country, coasts apart.
'So, how are you feeling? All excited about the wedding? Everyone at home must be so busy running around with the last minute preparations, isn't it?'. 'Yeah, I wish I could have managed to get more of a vacation, but you know how hard it is even to get 3 weeks off work.' 'Yes, I know. It is quite the same for all of us. I am worried about my next trip back home. I'm sure my parents won't let me return without atleast getting engaged to someone', she chuckled. Then they went on with a long winding discussion about how almost all of the people they knew were married by now, some even having kids already.
'Priya, can I tell you something?' 'Ofcourse you can! Have you ever Not told me anything?!', she asked with a puzzled look on her face. Akash barely managed a wry smile and said, 'Thanks for always being there for me Priya'. 'What is this about, Akash?' Priya sensed there was much more to this and was preparing herself for this unusual outburst of emotions from Akash. Did she really know Akash after all these years? She had never ever known Akash to get sentimental. 'Priya, I don't know if I should be saying all this, I dont know if this is the best time to be talking about but this is something I've always wanted to tell you. This was something I could never discuss on the phone and now that we're here ...' 'I'm listening', Priya grew serious.
'I still don't know why you said No'. Over the years, Akash had fallen in love with Priya without quite realizing it. He realized how he had been taking her for granted all along in college and how badly he missed her every single day of his life. Ofcourse, he had no time for misery, with classes and work keeping him busy beyond belief during his Masters but every now and then in a reflective moment Akash thought about Priya. He had promised himself that he would pop the question at the first opportunity he got after he was self sufficient with a good job on hand and a stable life. A good job was not on the horizon immediately for Akash but he was working his way up. Few months down the line, Akash thought this was a good time, he picked up the phone to reach Priya and spoke of his intentions. Priya took her time and refused, telling Akash she never thought of him as more than a friend and said it was best to let things remain. 'Did you ever think about us after that time?' Akash quizzed, 'Did you ever wonder 'what we could've been, if you'd only let me in?' 'Akash ..', Priya quivered, 'I'd told you I was sorry .''Don't be', Akash interrupted, ' you know, I thought about it and you are not to blame'
'If anything, I should be thanking you for understanding me. You know Priya, those were hard times for me. Later that month, I lost my job. I did not sit down and cry. I fought with intent and within a week I was on my next job. Your refusal spurred me on. You always knew me as a brash, slaphappy kid, never serious about anything, always living his life easily taking each day as it comes. I cannot blame you if you did not want to spend your life with me knowing me the way I was back in college. But I wasnt the same Priya, I had changed and you did not know. I had gone through a lot after I came here. When I got my first paycheque after doing the dishes in the cafeteria all week long, I realized the value of hard earned money. I worked hard, studied with a new found purpose. I realized I had fallen for you but I could not do anything about it until I had some sort of a respectable job. Looking back, I might've rushed into proposing having completed barely a year on the job. I had nothing to prove my case that I had changed. All I ever wanted was to spend my life with you and I thought that it was already late since your parents were looking out for you. I jumped the gun and I lost my chance.'
Priya would've never known so much was behind that thank you; and yet much more to come. Akash continued, ' But you know, I owed it to myself to ask that question. Remember, back in college I had asked Amrita? I did not know what I was doing back then. But with you it was different. When I asked you I knew what I wanted in life and I was on track for achieving it with everything going on for me. After I'd broken off with Amrita I'd never thought I could ever gather enough courage again to put myself out there. Once bitten, twice shy you know. But when I'd been stupid enough to do that when I had no clue, I knew I could not live with myself had I not asked you.We were best friends, we always got along so well. I would've never gone out on a limb and proposed if I had the slightest inkling that you never once felt the way I did. But like I said, you might have thought twice because you knew me as the Akash from college. I wouldnt blame you had you based your decision on that. You never knew what I had gone through after college and you never bothered to find out and give me a chance. In the end I had no regrets for having popped the question although I got rejected. I owed it onto me and I did what felt right at that time. I am happy that I found out it wasn't to be but I still can't figure out what led you to think that way. What matters more to me is that you are just a phone call away whenever I need you and I want to thank you for that. Promise me one thing, if you can - always stay the same.'
Akash looked into her eyes and it was Priya's turn to speak. '... I ... I don't know .. I don't know what to say. Quite frankly, I am stunned. You were right, you should'nt have opened up this can of worms. Sometimes I wondered too ... ' ' Boarding business class for BA-0652 to London', Priya was cut short by a crackling voice on the PA system. 'Ohh! For Goodness, thats my flight. About time!' Akash beamed 'Well, I guess that's about it. It was so nice catching up after all these years, time just flew by. Thanks once again for letting me speak my heart out. I don't know where I would be without a friend like you'.
Akash bid a hasty goodbye and boarded his flight to live the rest of his life in denial. As she watched Akash walk by, Priya wondered if she would ever be able to claim that her life had been without any regrets, and a tear rolled down her cheek ...
Post Title : Robbie Williams - No Regrets
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Cricket WC '07
I could write and write and write but that would be just re-stating the obvious. Magnificent innings from Gilly, great allround cricket from Australia and a good fight from Sri Lanka. Go on and celebrate Australia, your 3peat has given the right to be cocky.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Mode : Repeat
How many times would you listen to a song on repeat mode in one go? If you are anything like my roomie the answer to that would be 'until the batteries burn out'!
This ties back to my post where I woke up to James Blunt moaning You're Beautiful on a beautiful weekend morning (afternoon, whatever :D) I was lolling on my bed one fine saturday morning arguing with myself whether 11 am was early enough to wake up on a Saturday. I was quickly convinced that I could get some more sleep since I had nothing to do on that weekend anyways. About half an hour later, I realised that there was something playing in the background which was distracting me big time and I couldnt stay in bed any longer listening to that sound. Unwillingly, I crawled out of the bed and strolled out into the living room following the sound. There in the far end of the room was my roomie's laptop playing this song, again and again, with mr.roomie nowhere in sight. Cursing him I hit the mute button on his laptop, the only thing I could do to save my ears, since he'd locked the comp and gone away.
Since I was now out of the bed, thanks to Mr Blunt, and it was close to noon I didnt see any point in getting back to my (ever) incomplete sleep. About 10 minutes later, in walked my roomie, hands full with grocery bags.So dude was at the grocery store all this while, unmindful of the fact that he had left the house with his laptop on, media player on repeat mode and playing such a horrible song!
I was obviously cranky that morning, not having had as much sleep as I would've liked. Part of my crankiness could also relate to how much I hate songs such as this one, with the lovey dovey lyrics hopelessly moaning out how beautiful someone was. First, the lyrics claim the singer does not know who the woman is, second - this woman is with another man, and third the singer says he was high. Get a life crackhead! For all I know he could've dreamt about this beautiful angel he saw while he was high. Oh well. Showering praise on someone is not exactly my forte, high or not, and I hate songs with hopelessly romantic lyrics. And to think that my sleep was left incomplete because of this crappy song - Aaargh!!
Back to the topic, I asked my roomie to not keep playing songs in repeat mode and especially not this one. He told me that he liked this song very much and by default he always had his music player in repeat mode, so he would've never realised the same song was playing continuously even if he was around. Ofcourse he wouldnt realise that the same song is playing, but if such a sucky song were playing, I would definitely realise and be bothered by it! But evidently he really liked this song and he made a statement when he burnt the song onto a CD about 15 times to completely fill it up with the same song and played it in his car (thankfully) quite regularly.
Surprisingly this fellow isn't the only one I've met who likes to listen to the same song over and over again. Last year when I was working at Miller, I used to have lunch with a desi teammate (lets call him A) on most days. Miller was about the good times and we often ended up taking long lunches driving across town to get to the finest food places (as were available in Milwaukee). So whenever A drove, he always had one of two songs playing - one was a remix of a song called 'Mere Naseeb mein tu hai ke nahi' and the other was 'Ya Ali'. He always hit the previous button when the track ended and we listened to the same songs day in and day out. I was unmindful the 1st few times but soon enough these songs started getting on my nerves. I dont know what joy A derived from listening to those songs over and over but somehow I got the feeling that he did this more to irritate his co-passengers than for his own enjoyment. Really! 'cos there was this other guy (lets call him B) who joined us sometimes for lunch and he hated Himesh Reshammiya from the bottom of his heart (much like most people do). Whenever B joined us for lunch, A was quick to swap CD's and put on the choicest of Himesh's nasal tracks!
So that makes 2 people I know until now who like to listen to one song in repeat mode until they get absolutely bored with it or for whatever better reason only they might know. I don't have to worry about A now, cos I'm not in Milwaukee anymore. The only one I need to worry about is the 'repeater' in San Diego. Nowadays things are getting better though. I've educated him on the importance of creating playlists and I get to hear about 7-8 songs in repeat mode - easier on the ears than listening to one song 50 times in a row;) Next up I want to wane him off the repeat button, but from what I've seen (or heard) so far, I think this could take a while :))
This ties back to my post where I woke up to James Blunt moaning You're Beautiful on a beautiful weekend morning (afternoon, whatever :D) I was lolling on my bed one fine saturday morning arguing with myself whether 11 am was early enough to wake up on a Saturday. I was quickly convinced that I could get some more sleep since I had nothing to do on that weekend anyways. About half an hour later, I realised that there was something playing in the background which was distracting me big time and I couldnt stay in bed any longer listening to that sound. Unwillingly, I crawled out of the bed and strolled out into the living room following the sound. There in the far end of the room was my roomie's laptop playing this song, again and again, with mr.roomie nowhere in sight. Cursing him I hit the mute button on his laptop, the only thing I could do to save my ears, since he'd locked the comp and gone away.
Since I was now out of the bed, thanks to Mr Blunt, and it was close to noon I didnt see any point in getting back to my (ever) incomplete sleep. About 10 minutes later, in walked my roomie, hands full with grocery bags.So dude was at the grocery store all this while, unmindful of the fact that he had left the house with his laptop on, media player on repeat mode and playing such a horrible song!
I was obviously cranky that morning, not having had as much sleep as I would've liked. Part of my crankiness could also relate to how much I hate songs such as this one, with the lovey dovey lyrics hopelessly moaning out how beautiful someone was. First, the lyrics claim the singer does not know who the woman is, second - this woman is with another man, and third the singer says he was high. Get a life crackhead! For all I know he could've dreamt about this beautiful angel he saw while he was high. Oh well. Showering praise on someone is not exactly my forte, high or not, and I hate songs with hopelessly romantic lyrics. And to think that my sleep was left incomplete because of this crappy song - Aaargh!!
Back to the topic, I asked my roomie to not keep playing songs in repeat mode and especially not this one. He told me that he liked this song very much and by default he always had his music player in repeat mode, so he would've never realised the same song was playing continuously even if he was around. Ofcourse he wouldnt realise that the same song is playing, but if such a sucky song were playing, I would definitely realise and be bothered by it! But evidently he really liked this song and he made a statement when he burnt the song onto a CD about 15 times to completely fill it up with the same song and played it in his car (thankfully) quite regularly.
Surprisingly this fellow isn't the only one I've met who likes to listen to the same song over and over again. Last year when I was working at Miller, I used to have lunch with a desi teammate (lets call him A) on most days. Miller was about the good times and we often ended up taking long lunches driving across town to get to the finest food places (as were available in Milwaukee). So whenever A drove, he always had one of two songs playing - one was a remix of a song called 'Mere Naseeb mein tu hai ke nahi' and the other was 'Ya Ali'. He always hit the previous button when the track ended and we listened to the same songs day in and day out. I was unmindful the 1st few times but soon enough these songs started getting on my nerves. I dont know what joy A derived from listening to those songs over and over but somehow I got the feeling that he did this more to irritate his co-passengers than for his own enjoyment. Really! 'cos there was this other guy (lets call him B) who joined us sometimes for lunch and he hated Himesh Reshammiya from the bottom of his heart (much like most people do). Whenever B joined us for lunch, A was quick to swap CD's and put on the choicest of Himesh's nasal tracks!
So that makes 2 people I know until now who like to listen to one song in repeat mode until they get absolutely bored with it or for whatever better reason only they might know. I don't have to worry about A now, cos I'm not in Milwaukee anymore. The only one I need to worry about is the 'repeater' in San Diego. Nowadays things are getting better though. I've educated him on the importance of creating playlists and I get to hear about 7-8 songs in repeat mode - easier on the ears than listening to one song 50 times in a row;) Next up I want to wane him off the repeat button, but from what I've seen (or heard) so far, I think this could take a while :))
Friday, April 20, 2007
Rain rain go away ...
... don't come to me, just stay
On the fields, where farmers pray
Pour just there, if you may
Clearly, I'm not such a big fan of the rains. I'm not a good poet either :P
Suddenly a good looking weekend has been ruined by chances of a massive storm. And I thought, somebody once crooned 'It Never Rains in Southern California'! No wonder, we didnt hear much from him. If anything, he was definitely not much of a weather guy.
I was out for lunch today when it grew overcast and began pouring within the next few minutes. I thought 'Great! There goes my $15'. Luckily for me, I was indoors by then. As I watched from the inside, patiently waiting for my meal to arrive I could see people running all over the place. That's one thing I haven't yet figured out; what's the deal with running around when it is raining? Y're gonna get wet anyway! When you get to/from your car in 3 seconds as opposed to 5, how much of a soaking have you saved yourself from? 2 seconds worth, some smartass might answer, but can you tell a person who's been in the rain for 5 seconds from a person who's been there for 3?
So let it pour. As Robert Plant wrote for Led Zep,
On the fields, where farmers pray
Pour just there, if you may
Clearly, I'm not such a big fan of the rains. I'm not a good poet either :P
Suddenly a good looking weekend has been ruined by chances of a massive storm. And I thought, somebody once crooned 'It Never Rains in Southern California'! No wonder, we didnt hear much from him. If anything, he was definitely not much of a weather guy.
I was out for lunch today when it grew overcast and began pouring within the next few minutes. I thought 'Great! There goes my $15'. Luckily for me, I was indoors by then. As I watched from the inside, patiently waiting for my meal to arrive I could see people running all over the place. That's one thing I haven't yet figured out; what's the deal with running around when it is raining? Y're gonna get wet anyway! When you get to/from your car in 3 seconds as opposed to 5, how much of a soaking have you saved yourself from? 2 seconds worth, some smartass might answer, but can you tell a person who's been in the rain for 5 seconds from a person who's been there for 3?
So let it pour. As Robert Plant wrote for Led Zep,
"These are the seasons of emotion
and like the winds they rise and fall
This is the mystery of the quotient -
Upon us all a little rain must fall"
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Top 10 things that bother me today
Not necessarily in a particular order:
- Indian cricket team remains largely unchanged despite recent wonders
- My car does not have HiD Xenon headlights
- It always feels like I've had insufficient sleep no matter how many hours I sleep on weekdays
- People responding on orkut going 'u say wassup' .. ok - wassup? Addendum : 'u say?' Ohkayyyyy. What do you want me to say?
- Adding people up on orkut. Its not like you win a prize or something if you have a zillion people on your friendlist. Ok, that could be me growing sick of orkut and yet not being able to stay away from it :P
- Documentation, paperwork and bureaucracy
- I have to shave every other day
- Blogs ...... which .... are ... written .... like ......... this ........ get some continuity in your thoughts for fck's sake! What are we playing here - connect the dots to read the hidden message?!
- Too much of the same thing over and over and over again, and another time over again. CIP - Sanjaya Malakar, Anna Nicole Smith, Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding, Shilpa Shetty, VT (ouch!)
- One more day before it is the weekend :(
Later!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
What's in a name?
I really doubt if William Shakespeare would've asked the same question, had his name been abbreviated to Shaky or Shak, and he was commonly summoned by his colleagues with this newly christened name during his times.
Last night I was talking to my roomie and he mentioned that he had a new teammate joining him soon. To quote him, "बड़ा अजीबसा नाम है यार उसका. मुझे तो pronounce भी करने को नही आता है ठीक से ... mri-na-li-ni. पता नही मेरे colleagues उसे क्या नाम से बुलाएंगे".
Dude actually stuttered a couple of times before he could get the pronunciation right - this coming from a desi was surprising. I wondered if good enunciation was one more thing I had been taking for granted all along. Generally speaking this should not be the case, because I dont think any Indian language is devoid of complex words using multiple compound alphabets (jod-akshare), and that growing up speaking our mothertongue we probably come across such words with an alarming regularity (although we tend not to notice them).
In today's world, where by and large most things are going Americana, everything has to be short, quick and efficient and this process does not spare first names either. I really feel for my southie people with names like muthukrishnan, jagannathan, unnikrishnan, balasubramaniam, rajgopalan, badrinathan and the likes. I feel more for them if these guys are working in an American workplace. Ask any firang collleague to pronounce their names in entirety and they'd rather buy lunch everyday than go through the hassle of pronouncing these tongue twisters.
Worse yet are the desi-chick-goes-hip episodes. Here Radhika becomes Rads, Sunaina becomes Su, Darshana becomes Dee and Pooja becomes Poo. I mean seriously?! Poo?!? Dont even care to think what the original name means and what the new hep cool name is (smelly) like? Poor Shaky would probably turn in his grave to know this. This, however, is self inflicted idiocy of the highest order and no one can sympathize.
I dont know what it is that makes these firangs so _ _ _ (stuck for a word here, really) that they can't bother to pronounce names that are more than 5 alphabet long. So we have a lot of Eric's, John's, David's, Sean's, Bill's and Tom's (3 alphabets; even better!) as common names in Dubya-land. If the name is longer than that be ready to chop some off, Elizabeth becomes Liz or Ellie or Lisa, Suzanne becomes Susie, William becomes Will or Bill, Margaret become Marge. Why? If you cant pronounce Indian tongue twisters I'll give it to you, but why not make an effort to pronounce atleast familiar names completely? Just doesn't happen.
My point is, there is much more to a name (and especially, an Indian name) than Shakespeare could have thought about some centuries back. It makes you known, it gives you an identity in the crowd, it is what makes you You. So wear your name with pride and make sure everyone pronounces it right (easy for me to say, I'm lucky enough to have a short name LOL)
Last night I was talking to my roomie and he mentioned that he had a new teammate joining him soon. To quote him, "बड़ा अजीबसा नाम है यार उसका. मुझे तो pronounce भी करने को नही आता है ठीक से ... mri-na-li-ni. पता नही मेरे colleagues उसे क्या नाम से बुलाएंगे".
Dude actually stuttered a couple of times before he could get the pronunciation right - this coming from a desi was surprising. I wondered if good enunciation was one more thing I had been taking for granted all along. Generally speaking this should not be the case, because I dont think any Indian language is devoid of complex words using multiple compound alphabets (jod-akshare), and that growing up speaking our mothertongue we probably come across such words with an alarming regularity (although we tend not to notice them).
In today's world, where by and large most things are going Americana, everything has to be short, quick and efficient and this process does not spare first names either. I really feel for my southie people with names like muthukrishnan, jagannathan, unnikrishnan, balasubramaniam, rajgopalan, badrinathan and the likes. I feel more for them if these guys are working in an American workplace. Ask any firang collleague to pronounce their names in entirety and they'd rather buy lunch everyday than go through the hassle of pronouncing these tongue twisters.
Worse yet are the desi-chick-goes-hip episodes. Here Radhika becomes Rads, Sunaina becomes Su, Darshana becomes Dee and Pooja becomes Poo. I mean seriously?! Poo?!? Dont even care to think what the original name means and what the new hep cool name is (smelly) like? Poor Shaky would probably turn in his grave to know this. This, however, is self inflicted idiocy of the highest order and no one can sympathize.
I dont know what it is that makes these firangs so _ _ _ (stuck for a word here, really) that they can't bother to pronounce names that are more than 5 alphabet long. So we have a lot of Eric's, John's, David's, Sean's, Bill's and Tom's (3 alphabets; even better!) as common names in Dubya-land. If the name is longer than that be ready to chop some off, Elizabeth becomes Liz or Ellie or Lisa, Suzanne becomes Susie, William becomes Will or Bill, Margaret become Marge. Why? If you cant pronounce Indian tongue twisters I'll give it to you, but why not make an effort to pronounce atleast familiar names completely? Just doesn't happen.
My point is, there is much more to a name (and especially, an Indian name) than Shakespeare could have thought about some centuries back. It makes you known, it gives you an identity in the crowd, it is what makes you You. So wear your name with pride and make sure everyone pronounces it right (easy for me to say, I'm lucky enough to have a short name LOL)
Monday, April 16, 2007
Freak Injury Specialist
Growing up I have always been what can be descibed as dhadpadya (for lack of one apt word in English :P). I loved to play as a kid, and still do, and most of my injuries stemmed from freak accidents on the field. And then there were some which happened because of my general dhandratpana. Either which way, to this date it is quite unusual for me to be injury free for a long time. If I dont get hurt while playing I could easily cut myself with a knife while slicing vegetables ( and that's why I cook so infrequently - to reduce the probability of such accidents LOL).
In my early years, upto 4th grade or so, I used to play soccer in school during the hour long lunchbreaks. Soccer can get quite a physical game at times and it was commonplace for me to get pushed around or be tripping over someone'e legs, the puny kid that I was. This resulted in a lot of bruised knees ever so often, and a spanking from mom for not being careful while playing served as the clincher in most cases.
For some reason that I cant remember, my loyalties changed next year onwards and I've been a regular on the basketball courts ever since. We were among the lucky ones at Loyola, to have the option of choosing to play on a mud court, a tar court or a cement court but more often than not the mud court was ignored. As I would've liked to, changing the sport did not quite help me avoid injuries. Playing on a tar court I became a little more careful while playing but it could not prevent minor injuries every once in a while like a swollen/numb finger after failing to latch on to a pass correctly. I remember carrying atleast one hurt finger right through high school and the knee and elbow bruises provided some variety and kept things interesting (?).
Fast forward a few years to my first day in Amreeka. I had just landed in the afternoon and was stuck up for lack of company that evening at the place where I was put up temporarily. It was almost the end of summer then and walking out on the patio I saw a bunch of guys playing basketball on the court right across from my apartment. With nothing better to do I decided to join them for a while. All was fun until I got an elbow in the eye and was walking around with a black eye for close to 3 weeks! That was when I learnt that if I'm playing among firangs twice my size, it's not a bad idea to avoid driving in. Lesson learnt, I managed to stay relatively injury free over the next couple of years. However, my over-enthusiasm for the sport gave my roomies something to laugh about at my expense. If only such accidents could dampen my spirit I would've given up playing a long time back :P
Last December I was visiting Pune after 3 years and I knew I had to go do the Sunday morning bball routine with the folks I played with for a few years. So here I was, landed Friday morning and off to the courts Sunday morning. When I'd enquired earlier I was told that these guys still played at 7 am, what I forgot was 7 am was IST .. stretchable time. Sure enough by 8 am everyone was there and we had a good game going on. While playing I got fouled on and came down very hard, with a slashed knee, bleeding elbow and the index and middle fingers on my right hand twice their usual size. Even that did not stop me from continuing to play with the guys because I was so damn excited to be playing. When I showed up home in that state after the game though, mom, as expected, went 'काय, एवढा घोडा झालास तरी जरा लक्ष देउन खेळता येत नाही का रे?'
I brushed off the injuries avoiding visiting the doctor for something so minor. I knew the bruises would heal in a week's time and was hoping that the swelling on my fingers would subside in similar time. However when at the end of 2 weeks the swelling showed no signs of dying down I was dragged to the docs. It was confirmed that there was definitely no fracture on the fingers and that it was more of a tendon/ligament stress. I was advised frequent fomentation to help heal the fingers, if only I remembered to do it while I was home;) So it happened with me neglecting, things never got better and I left for here with 2 swollen fingers, hauling my suitcases with great difficulty.
It took close to 4 months for the swelling to subside and now my fingers are (almost) back to their normal size. I hope my long list of injuries takes a long stop after this last one. Till then I'll keep playing the only way I know, hard :)
In my early years, upto 4th grade or so, I used to play soccer in school during the hour long lunchbreaks. Soccer can get quite a physical game at times and it was commonplace for me to get pushed around or be tripping over someone'e legs, the puny kid that I was. This resulted in a lot of bruised knees ever so often, and a spanking from mom for not being careful while playing served as the clincher in most cases.
For some reason that I cant remember, my loyalties changed next year onwards and I've been a regular on the basketball courts ever since. We were among the lucky ones at Loyola, to have the option of choosing to play on a mud court, a tar court or a cement court but more often than not the mud court was ignored. As I would've liked to, changing the sport did not quite help me avoid injuries. Playing on a tar court I became a little more careful while playing but it could not prevent minor injuries every once in a while like a swollen/numb finger after failing to latch on to a pass correctly. I remember carrying atleast one hurt finger right through high school and the knee and elbow bruises provided some variety and kept things interesting (?).
Fast forward a few years to my first day in Amreeka. I had just landed in the afternoon and was stuck up for lack of company that evening at the place where I was put up temporarily. It was almost the end of summer then and walking out on the patio I saw a bunch of guys playing basketball on the court right across from my apartment. With nothing better to do I decided to join them for a while. All was fun until I got an elbow in the eye and was walking around with a black eye for close to 3 weeks! That was when I learnt that if I'm playing among firangs twice my size, it's not a bad idea to avoid driving in. Lesson learnt, I managed to stay relatively injury free over the next couple of years. However, my over-enthusiasm for the sport gave my roomies something to laugh about at my expense. If only such accidents could dampen my spirit I would've given up playing a long time back :P
Last December I was visiting Pune after 3 years and I knew I had to go do the Sunday morning bball routine with the folks I played with for a few years. So here I was, landed Friday morning and off to the courts Sunday morning. When I'd enquired earlier I was told that these guys still played at 7 am, what I forgot was 7 am was IST .. stretchable time. Sure enough by 8 am everyone was there and we had a good game going on. While playing I got fouled on and came down very hard, with a slashed knee, bleeding elbow and the index and middle fingers on my right hand twice their usual size. Even that did not stop me from continuing to play with the guys because I was so damn excited to be playing. When I showed up home in that state after the game though, mom, as expected, went 'काय, एवढा घोडा झालास तरी जरा लक्ष देउन खेळता येत नाही का रे?'
I brushed off the injuries avoiding visiting the doctor for something so minor. I knew the bruises would heal in a week's time and was hoping that the swelling on my fingers would subside in similar time. However when at the end of 2 weeks the swelling showed no signs of dying down I was dragged to the docs. It was confirmed that there was definitely no fracture on the fingers and that it was more of a tendon/ligament stress. I was advised frequent fomentation to help heal the fingers, if only I remembered to do it while I was home;) So it happened with me neglecting, things never got better and I left for here with 2 swollen fingers, hauling my suitcases with great difficulty.
It took close to 4 months for the swelling to subside and now my fingers are (almost) back to their normal size. I hope my long list of injuries takes a long stop after this last one. Till then I'll keep playing the only way I know, hard :)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Just Buried .. err .. Married
As I write this I cannot believe 4 things:
1. A movie as soporific as Just Married can ever be produced
2. A movie can be so slow and boring that I have to watch a 2.5hr movie split up over 3 evenings
3. I have actually survived watching the mess that the movie was
4. I have so much time on my hands that I decide to write a review for the movie!
Just Married is a movie about a scary situation which I will find myself in sooner than later. Its about arranged marriage. About how couples struggle to cope coming to terms committing to spend the rest of their lives living with an absolute stranger. Well not an absolute stranger, maybe they've met once or twice before, as is the case of the protagonists of this film Abhay (Fardeen Khan) and Ritika (Esha Deol).
So it happens that these two meet at a common friends wedding and before they know it their parents have set them up to get married. They have a brief meeting once again before they marry. During that time Ritika is accompanied by her aunt who wags her mouth endlessly, like a kid high on halloween candy, and makes sure that Abhay and Ritika barely go through somewhat of a muuh-dikhai rasam. One thing leads to another and the newly wed couple is off on their honeymoon.
There-on the story starts to resemble the recently released snore 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd'. Our couple jumps onto a honeymoon bus and meet more similar couples during the journey and while at the hotel. Ofcourse every couple has its own quirks. One is an oldies couple who've been married for 30 years and constantly keep nagging each other, one is a bachpan se jaan pehchaan vala couple, one is a NRI couple; the girl with a la-dee-dah phoren accent, and one is a very happy couple who cant seem to keep their hands off each other (literally!).
As the film progresses it focuses on how Ritika, the homebred desi girl, finds it hard to get intimate with Abhay while Abhay tries to play sensitive and gives Ritika her own space and time to adjust. Abhay is eager to consummate the marriage and Ritika's comfort level with Abhay keeps on falling each day. Abhay loses cool and the already uncomfortable couple have a tiff. Then, no prizes for guessing, the rest of the story goes on to show the couple get back together and (probably) live happily ever after.
Stories of the other couples crawl along parallel lines to this story and none are really interesting. There is a slight twist where we find out why the perfect couple seemed so perfect. Mercifully no one is a superhero as was the case in Honeymoon Travels and you can only thank the script writer for that flash of brilliance (of avoiding the superhero trick I mean LOL) The climax is inflicted quite slowly and painfully on the hapless viewer and I can think of atleast one movie where a similar climax was executed in a much much better fashion.
Most performances in the movie are quite credible. Fardeen portrays the earnest, trying-to-adjust husband well and Esha plays the behenji types girl to perfection. Perizaad Zorabian struts her stuff gracefully throughout the movie; her hoarse voice serving the perfect anti-thesis to her gorgeous looks. Bikram Saluja mirrors a block of wood. Kirron Kher and Satish Shah end up taking too much footage. The rest of the cast is pretty much forgettable.
Some dialogues in the movie are extremely cheesy sugary rosogulla types and do not fail to give you the creeps. (I could've thrown in a sample line or two but I'll spare myself the agony of even skimming through that movie again). Too much cheese is never good, neither in food nor in a movie and the cheesiness becomes almost stroke inducing when the movie ends with a 'The Beginning'. I can never bother to write about the music for a Bollywood flick.
In a nutshell, a must-avoid-at-any-cost movie.
1. A movie as soporific as Just Married can ever be produced
2. A movie can be so slow and boring that I have to watch a 2.5hr movie split up over 3 evenings
3. I have actually survived watching the mess that the movie was
4. I have so much time on my hands that I decide to write a review for the movie!
Just Married is a movie about a scary situation which I will find myself in sooner than later. Its about arranged marriage. About how couples struggle to cope coming to terms committing to spend the rest of their lives living with an absolute stranger. Well not an absolute stranger, maybe they've met once or twice before, as is the case of the protagonists of this film Abhay (Fardeen Khan) and Ritika (Esha Deol).
So it happens that these two meet at a common friends wedding and before they know it their parents have set them up to get married. They have a brief meeting once again before they marry. During that time Ritika is accompanied by her aunt who wags her mouth endlessly, like a kid high on halloween candy, and makes sure that Abhay and Ritika barely go through somewhat of a muuh-dikhai rasam. One thing leads to another and the newly wed couple is off on their honeymoon.
There-on the story starts to resemble the recently released snore 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd'. Our couple jumps onto a honeymoon bus and meet more similar couples during the journey and while at the hotel. Ofcourse every couple has its own quirks. One is an oldies couple who've been married for 30 years and constantly keep nagging each other, one is a bachpan se jaan pehchaan vala couple, one is a NRI couple; the girl with a la-dee-dah phoren accent, and one is a very happy couple who cant seem to keep their hands off each other (literally!).
As the film progresses it focuses on how Ritika, the homebred desi girl, finds it hard to get intimate with Abhay while Abhay tries to play sensitive and gives Ritika her own space and time to adjust. Abhay is eager to consummate the marriage and Ritika's comfort level with Abhay keeps on falling each day. Abhay loses cool and the already uncomfortable couple have a tiff. Then, no prizes for guessing, the rest of the story goes on to show the couple get back together and (probably) live happily ever after.
Stories of the other couples crawl along parallel lines to this story and none are really interesting. There is a slight twist where we find out why the perfect couple seemed so perfect. Mercifully no one is a superhero as was the case in Honeymoon Travels and you can only thank the script writer for that flash of brilliance (of avoiding the superhero trick I mean LOL) The climax is inflicted quite slowly and painfully on the hapless viewer and I can think of atleast one movie where a similar climax was executed in a much much better fashion.
Most performances in the movie are quite credible. Fardeen portrays the earnest, trying-to-adjust husband well and Esha plays the behenji types girl to perfection. Perizaad Zorabian struts her stuff gracefully throughout the movie; her hoarse voice serving the perfect anti-thesis to her gorgeous looks. Bikram Saluja mirrors a block of wood. Kirron Kher and Satish Shah end up taking too much footage. The rest of the cast is pretty much forgettable.
Some dialogues in the movie are extremely cheesy sugary rosogulla types and do not fail to give you the creeps. (I could've thrown in a sample line or two but I'll spare myself the agony of even skimming through that movie again). Too much cheese is never good, neither in food nor in a movie and the cheesiness becomes almost stroke inducing when the movie ends with a 'The Beginning'. I can never bother to write about the music for a Bollywood flick.
In a nutshell, a must-avoid-at-any-cost movie.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
More Cricketing Post-Mortem
I was browsing through Cricinfo this morning and came across some interesting lines in one of the articles. Funny how the author compares India and Pakistan to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Although they're not quite my thoughts and I don't endorse them, they're most definitely worth a post and present an interesting perspective.
Osman Saimuddin writes on Cricinfo:
'It's strange, in fact, how India and Pakistan resemble each other so. On the field, there has been a spooky sameness; results and performances in South Africa were nearly identical, the Champions Trophy and World Cup, both failures. Both batting line-ups struggle in alien conditions, as fielders both are poor and both leaders increasingly embattled and embittered. Both now rebuild.
Off it, they are cricket's Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. One, pure monied trash, influential for no other reason than having too much of it, the other straight-up trailer trash, cricket's true basket case. They are tabloid fodder, stumbling from one front page to another: religion, player factionalism, spats, coaching intrigues, politicking, doping and even possible murder. How much of the news that you have read about these two sides recently has been about their cricket?
In this world, how much could they have really enjoyed playing cricket when they know that failure, among other things, means hysterical reactions from fans and contract suspensions? Their love of the game shouldn't be questioned but they walk the field burdened, their cricket joyless. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka either have no burdens or they have managed to put them aside. They are floating in a rare time, in the midst of substantial development and progress and it shows.'
It is indeed noteworthy to see how everyone is talking about 'enjoying cricket' and you can almost see how important it is to enjoy something that you do to bring out the best performances. Jonty Rhodes mentioned that he ensures his fielding drills make the players enjoy fielding, Ravi Shastri recently said that he'd like the Indian team to enjoy their time in the middle in the next few matches. On a rather amusing note, Venkatesh Prasad being appointed as the bowling coach? Not quite a wise move for Indian 'pace' bowling, especially after our only genuine pace bowler, Kumble, has retired from one day cricket;) I can almost see Pathan bowling 6 slow balls per over now, if he can bowl any slower that is.
Osman Saimuddin writes on Cricinfo:
'It's strange, in fact, how India and Pakistan resemble each other so. On the field, there has been a spooky sameness; results and performances in South Africa were nearly identical, the Champions Trophy and World Cup, both failures. Both batting line-ups struggle in alien conditions, as fielders both are poor and both leaders increasingly embattled and embittered. Both now rebuild.
Off it, they are cricket's Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. One, pure monied trash, influential for no other reason than having too much of it, the other straight-up trailer trash, cricket's true basket case. They are tabloid fodder, stumbling from one front page to another: religion, player factionalism, spats, coaching intrigues, politicking, doping and even possible murder. How much of the news that you have read about these two sides recently has been about their cricket?
In this world, how much could they have really enjoyed playing cricket when they know that failure, among other things, means hysterical reactions from fans and contract suspensions? Their love of the game shouldn't be questioned but they walk the field burdened, their cricket joyless. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka either have no burdens or they have managed to put them aside. They are floating in a rare time, in the midst of substantial development and progress and it shows.'
It is indeed noteworthy to see how everyone is talking about 'enjoying cricket' and you can almost see how important it is to enjoy something that you do to bring out the best performances. Jonty Rhodes mentioned that he ensures his fielding drills make the players enjoy fielding, Ravi Shastri recently said that he'd like the Indian team to enjoy their time in the middle in the next few matches. On a rather amusing note, Venkatesh Prasad being appointed as the bowling coach? Not quite a wise move for Indian 'pace' bowling, especially after our only genuine pace bowler, Kumble, has retired from one day cricket;) I can almost see Pathan bowling 6 slow balls per over now, if he can bowl any slower that is.
Monday, April 9, 2007
The end is the beginning is the end
The title of this post might sound confusing to some. As is my wont this one is also related to the music, but thats not what it's all about today.
Today it's all about me, its about zero liability (well, for whatever amount of time). It's that day officially when I am debt-free. Go me!
I'm through completing the last installment on my RSX so I owe no one not a single dime anymore. No financial obligations took a long way to come, first getting over the credit card debts piled up through grad school and then the car, and now I plan to enjoy it while it lasts. Knowing me it wont be long before I'm deep in another pile LOL
In the meanwhile, I'm gonna bask in the glory of my new-found financial freedom. Here's to a new beginning (or an end).
Today it's all about me, its about zero liability (well, for whatever amount of time). It's that day officially when I am debt-free. Go me!
I'm through completing the last installment on my RSX so I owe no one not a single dime anymore. No financial obligations took a long way to come, first getting over the credit card debts piled up through grad school and then the car, and now I plan to enjoy it while it lasts. Knowing me it wont be long before I'm deep in another pile LOL
In the meanwhile, I'm gonna bask in the glory of my new-found financial freedom. Here's to a new beginning (or an end).
Friday, April 6, 2007
Good Friday
I don't care what is so special about this Friday that they decided to call it Good Friday. As far as I'm concerned, Friday Good : Monday Bad!
Fridays are better nowadays, especially at the new workplace, 'cos it is bagel day :) Which means I can skip breakfast at home, which means I can save 10 minutes in the morning, which means an extra 10 minutes of sleep! What more could I want from the last day of the week? A big, fat paycheque perhaps ;)
Fridays are better nowadays, especially at the new workplace, 'cos it is bagel day :) Which means I can skip breakfast at home, which means I can save 10 minutes in the morning, which means an extra 10 minutes of sleep! What more could I want from the last day of the week? A big, fat paycheque perhaps ;)
Thursday, April 5, 2007
बुलंद San Diego की बुलंद तसवीर
It's not often that I get excited spotting desi stuff in Amreeka, especially not in California, where you can expect to see almost any desi thing that you could ever want (or not). But last night I saw something so exclusively desi, that I just had to post up.
I was returning home with my roomie after a hearty dinner at PT. On the way back, we decided to stop over at Von's for a quick few that we needed to pick up. While my roomie was going back and forth trying to park his car in the straightest possible manner (almost an obsession for him) my eyes fell on a little red shiny thing paked in the lane right across from us. It was a scooter (not an uncommon sight nowadays) but there was something very oddly familiar about it and I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly it was. So still sitting in the car, going through the parking ordeal, I pointed out "अरे वो देख, Bajaj स्कूटर!" Bear in mind, that from where I was looking I could not see the front side of this scooter. I was very curious to find out what exactly was so teasingly familiar about the scooter, so as soon as the parking saga was over, I walked up to the scooter to check her out. To much surprise, Hamara Bajaj it was! A shiny red Bajaj Chetak!
After I got over the initial surprise and stepped into Von's a lot of questions ran through my mind. Who would want to buy a Bajaj Chetak in Amreeka? More importantly, why Bajaj? Could this be some desi guy who is so patriotic (?) that he wants to ride a 'Made in India' scooter no matter what part of the world he is in? Or could this be some gullible firang? If the owner was indeed desi, riding it would be a piece of cake for him. But would a firang know what it takes to start a Bajaj; the infamous Indian 'Tilt-A-Bajaj' trick? Would he know that the tilt could go either way, depending on the angle of the slope where the Bajaj is parked? Would he know that he'd have to clean his spark plug a gazillion times with the amount of oil oozing onto it? And the clutch wire? Who would replace that for him when it breaks every few months? Could a Bajaj consistently be driven atleast around the 45mph mark without the engine over heating?
Thinking about such inane things I walked back to the car after the groceries were done. The Chetak was still parked right there in all it's shining glory. For a moment I thought that we should wait to find out who the owner of that Bajaj really was ;)
PS: The snaps aren't the best quality 'cos they were shot with my Nokia 6233, but you can still see the Bajaj Chetak sign.
I was returning home with my roomie after a hearty dinner at PT. On the way back, we decided to stop over at Von's for a quick few that we needed to pick up. While my roomie was going back and forth trying to park his car in the straightest possible manner (almost an obsession for him) my eyes fell on a little red shiny thing paked in the lane right across from us. It was a scooter (not an uncommon sight nowadays) but there was something very oddly familiar about it and I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly it was. So still sitting in the car, going through the parking ordeal, I pointed out "अरे वो देख, Bajaj स्कूटर!" Bear in mind, that from where I was looking I could not see the front side of this scooter. I was very curious to find out what exactly was so teasingly familiar about the scooter, so as soon as the parking saga was over, I walked up to the scooter to check her out. To much surprise, Hamara Bajaj it was! A shiny red Bajaj Chetak!
After I got over the initial surprise and stepped into Von's a lot of questions ran through my mind. Who would want to buy a Bajaj Chetak in Amreeka? More importantly, why Bajaj? Could this be some desi guy who is so patriotic (?) that he wants to ride a 'Made in India' scooter no matter what part of the world he is in? Or could this be some gullible firang? If the owner was indeed desi, riding it would be a piece of cake for him. But would a firang know what it takes to start a Bajaj; the infamous Indian 'Tilt-A-Bajaj' trick? Would he know that the tilt could go either way, depending on the angle of the slope where the Bajaj is parked? Would he know that he'd have to clean his spark plug a gazillion times with the amount of oil oozing onto it? And the clutch wire? Who would replace that for him when it breaks every few months? Could a Bajaj consistently be driven atleast around the 45mph mark without the engine over heating?Thinking about such inane things I walked back to the car after the groceries were done. The Chetak was still parked right there in all it's shining glory. For a moment I thought that we should wait to find out who the owner of that Bajaj really was ;)
PS: The snaps aren't the best quality 'cos they were shot with my Nokia 6233, but you can still see the Bajaj Chetak sign.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
मराठी असे अमुची मायबोली
I *really* want to be able to write in Marathi. However, my thought process fails me, my lack of propah vocab hampers and I am unable to pen my thoughts on to paper with any kind of fluency.
Wandering around in the blogospehere, I came across this blog and it fueled my urge further to be able to write in Marathi. I could give a tooth and an ear if I can effectively write with the apparent simplistic writing style that the author of this blog has.
When I come face to face with my fear of not being an able communicator in my own mothertongue is when the sh!t hits the fan. While I can manage daily spoken marathi very fluently and never have issues understanding it, it breaks my heart to know that I am losing command over one form of the language. To be fair to myself though, writ Marathi has completed it's 14 yr exile from my life. After I gave up Marathi for German in 8th grade, I have never ever written in Marathi, not that I can remember. Naturally, there is a huge void to fill in and it will take it's own sweet time.
Someday I hope to be able to get my thoughts back on track .. until then, Daim! Sh!t!! Sucks!!!
PS: Pardon my French in this post, it's the frustration!
Wandering around in the blogospehere, I came across this blog and it fueled my urge further to be able to write in Marathi. I could give a tooth and an ear if I can effectively write with the apparent simplistic writing style that the author of this blog has.
When I come face to face with my fear of not being an able communicator in my own mothertongue is when the sh!t hits the fan. While I can manage daily spoken marathi very fluently and never have issues understanding it, it breaks my heart to know that I am losing command over one form of the language. To be fair to myself though, writ Marathi has completed it's 14 yr exile from my life. After I gave up Marathi for German in 8th grade, I have never ever written in Marathi, not that I can remember. Naturally, there is a huge void to fill in and it will take it's own sweet time.
Someday I hope to be able to get my thoughts back on track .. until then, Daim! Sh!t!! Sucks!!!
PS: Pardon my French in this post, it's the frustration!
Another day in paradise
You know it's gonna be one helluva long week when you wake up to realise it's just Tuesday. As I went to work this morning, I was about to find out what lay in store for me. Inspite of hitting snooze twice, I somehow managed to get to work by 8. To my chagrin, white BMW guy had once again beaten me to my favorite parking spot; cursing him I pulled up into the next spot available.
The first hour went by quite normally and I was just about beginning to think - hmm it's not so bad after all. But that's when the routine madness was about to set in. So a user calls me up and tells me Cognos isn't working. I go yeah it is, it's all up and running, I'm working with it right now. She explains that by Cognos she meant that one of her reports was 'acting up'. When she ran the report in the standard HTML format, the result set gave her a summary of 174 rows and when she exported the report to excel she was getting 178 rows. Excel, according to her, was magically adding up 4 rows to the total. Then I had to explain how the first four rows in the spreadsheet were report header, report title, column name and a blank row and then she found peace in life (and hopefully a little embarassment too). This is why I love all business users - they make us IT folks look like the smartest mofo's that ever walked this earth!
Sometime later my manager stopped by and told me that although the HR due date for the 'Employee Performance Planning 2007' was later this month, he would like to see the first cut of my goals by EOD. Coming from a consulting world, I had never ever been through this before and my only goals for each year would be to stick to the current project and spend as less time as possible on bench. Ofcourse, my manager was totally aware of this and it led to a long unscheduled one on one. During this, I was explained how individual goals should line up with department goals which are in turn lined up with corporate goals. We white-boarded potential initiatives that I could list as my goals and at the end of an hour agreed that the list was too long :P However, that gave me some direction to get this BS done and out of the way.
As soon as we were done there, we broke for lunch with a coupla other teammates. Nice as it was outside, we decided to hit one of the places at La Jolla shores for lunch. Hogging on a smoked salmon sandwich and getting our time in the sun, we reluctantly returned to work after a relaxing drive by the oceanside.
Most of the afternoon was spent getting things off that white-board onto paper and completing pending tasks. As is anyone's guess, the comic moments kept cropping up alongside. I'll leave the technical crap out of this one, but essentially a developer was trying to view what he did not have access to, and he thought he should, since he could see it on his team mates computer but not his. After I rerouted this request, the DBA's helped take care. At the end of the day, I did manage to turn in the 1st cut of my Performance Plan to my manager. Hopefully, that's one monkey off my back until same time next year:)
Post Title : Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise
The first hour went by quite normally and I was just about beginning to think - hmm it's not so bad after all. But that's when the routine madness was about to set in. So a user calls me up and tells me Cognos isn't working. I go yeah it is, it's all up and running, I'm working with it right now. She explains that by Cognos she meant that one of her reports was 'acting up'. When she ran the report in the standard HTML format, the result set gave her a summary of 174 rows and when she exported the report to excel she was getting 178 rows. Excel, according to her, was magically adding up 4 rows to the total. Then I had to explain how the first four rows in the spreadsheet were report header, report title, column name and a blank row and then she found peace in life (and hopefully a little embarassment too). This is why I love all business users - they make us IT folks look like the smartest mofo's that ever walked this earth!
Sometime later my manager stopped by and told me that although the HR due date for the 'Employee Performance Planning 2007' was later this month, he would like to see the first cut of my goals by EOD. Coming from a consulting world, I had never ever been through this before and my only goals for each year would be to stick to the current project and spend as less time as possible on bench. Ofcourse, my manager was totally aware of this and it led to a long unscheduled one on one. During this, I was explained how individual goals should line up with department goals which are in turn lined up with corporate goals. We white-boarded potential initiatives that I could list as my goals and at the end of an hour agreed that the list was too long :P However, that gave me some direction to get this BS done and out of the way.
As soon as we were done there, we broke for lunch with a coupla other teammates. Nice as it was outside, we decided to hit one of the places at La Jolla shores for lunch. Hogging on a smoked salmon sandwich and getting our time in the sun, we reluctantly returned to work after a relaxing drive by the oceanside.
Most of the afternoon was spent getting things off that white-board onto paper and completing pending tasks. As is anyone's guess, the comic moments kept cropping up alongside. I'll leave the technical crap out of this one, but essentially a developer was trying to view what he did not have access to, and he thought he should, since he could see it on his team mates computer but not his. After I rerouted this request, the DBA's helped take care. At the end of the day, I did manage to turn in the 1st cut of my Performance Plan to my manager. Hopefully, that's one monkey off my back until same time next year:)
Post Title : Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise
Sunday, April 1, 2007
कहीं पे निगाहें कहीं पे निशाना
The more I play darts the more I feel bad for the likes of Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Twinkle Khanna, Fardeen Khan etc. How can these guys ever enjoy the simple joys of the game of darts; squints or cockeyed that they are LOL
I am not claiming to be the best dart player ever and along with my roomie am on my way to make a sieve out of the wall that the dartboard hangs on. Check out how way past bullseye, or even the perimeter of the dartboard some of our darts have struck gold :D
Good for us that Gables charges a flat rate of $25 for holes, otherwise we were up for a bigtime penalty. Suddenly I feel like I'm living in college dorms!
I am not claiming to be the best dart player ever and along with my roomie am on my way to make a sieve out of the wall that the dartboard hangs on. Check out how way past bullseye, or even the perimeter of the dartboard some of our darts have struck gold :D
Good for us that Gables charges a flat rate of $25 for holes, otherwise we were up for a bigtime penalty. Suddenly I feel like I'm living in college dorms!Thursday, March 29, 2007
A day's worth of work
Cast & Credits (in order of appearance)
Cathy - Sr Mgr Financial Systems (from yesterday)
Tim - My manager
Bob - Visiting Instructor
Joe - Resident SME for Global Safety
Pat - External consultant working for Finance
Sally - Mgr Financial Systems
Kathy - I don't know who
Tom - External ETL guy working for external contracting company
Ben - Resident ETL team lead
Dave - Director of Operations, Manufacturing Facility
Rick - Resident Sr DBA 2
John - Resident Sr Architect
Annie - Resident Sr DBA 1
Note: All names have been changed to protect identity.
I got to my cubicle around 10 till 8 today morning, prioritising the things I had to get done. Ofcourse there was the string of emails from Cathy last night which had to be taken care of. Cathy is the kind of person, who despite being a business user, likes to play very hands-on (a little too much as I found out to my horror) and wants to be involved in every detail related to reporting and planning applications. So as that string of emails with the little red exclamation mark goes, Cathy here, was having issues saving her changes to the metadata model (!). The moment I read that email last night I called Tim and expressed my surprise as to how a business user was involved in modifying metadata models. I mean all the reports could break down if she effs things up! Tim replied helplessly that this was a battle he had lost a long time back. So business users can modify metadata as and when they like, and when their reports dont work like they should, we get BlackBerry'd in the middle of the night. Joy! Obviously Cathy also does not like to wait for such things, so by the time I got to my desk she had sent another email in the morning asking me if her access privileges had been modified yet.
Then I docked my laptop and realised I had to pick Bob up from front desk at 8-ish. Sure enough 8:00am I got a call from Frontdesk telling me Bob's here. Scrolling through emails, I got to frontdesk and brought Bob along. Bob is the trainer for a day long session we have organised tomorrow for the Global Safety folks and is here a day earlier to study the data and setup samples for training. After the 'so how've you been? Good! How about you?' I walked Bob to his cubicle for the day. Then I realised that the loaner laptop that I had requested for Bob had not yet reached there so I called up Heldesk to get that fixed. Till then I walked Bob to my cubicle and started explaining to him how our environment was setup and things we expect he'd go through during the training session tomorrow. The loaner reached my desk as we went through this and now it was time to set Bob up with Joe. Joe would explain the backend database which would help Bob understand the metadata model better and design effective samples for tomorrows training. That done I started walking back to my cubicle.
On his way to work, Tim called me up to discuss the scene with Cathy's request. He told me that he granted the requested privileges and asked me to speak to Cathy about it specifically stressing that this took time because Finance wasn't the only group we are working with and requests are dealt with in the order they are received. Getting back to my desk I got this out of the way and read through more emails that'd been shot during that time. Some more time and I started working on that long overdue report request. Before I realised it was 11 am and time for me to run into a meeting with the Finance users Cathy, Sally, Kathy and the consultants Pat and Tom. This was a meeting that had been postponed by 10 days, so I had no clue what to expect when I walked in. There was a big discussion about some ETL changes that needed to be done and an hour later I walked out of that room feeling, 'Gosh, that was a waste of time!'. I walked by Ben's cube and asked him why none of the resident ETL guys were in on the meeting, turned out he had no clue these changes were being planned!
I was getting hungry now and I drove Bob along for a quick lunch to the Quiznos down the street. It was a gorgeous day and felt great sitting outside nibbling on the Cabo chicken. While having lunch Bob regaled me with stories of his surfing adventures and his various successful career gigs. Post lunch, I was cruising along on my report when Tim stopped by and pulled me into a meeting with Ben, Dave, Rick, John and Annie. This was to discuss the design of a scaleable database system to support our new manufacturing facility and enable advanced reporting off the SCADA systems. All the people in the meeting, except me, have been working for about 8 years at the least, so one can only imagine how much of the discussion I was involved in. Silence is golden indeed!
That done, I got back to work and Cathy sent another email with the little red exclamation mark in the corner. Apparently one of her ETL loads was failing on her and she needed to get that fixed and in the meanwhile needed the Dev environment pointing to the production database so she could carry on with her work. This was my 2nd shock of the day. Why was Cathy modifying ETL jobs?!? Why did she even have access to do this? So I leaned over into Ben's cube searching for answers. Ben went, 'I have no frikkin' idea dude!'. Wow! I decided to not bother about this and kept chipping away at my report. I checked for time and it was 4:45 pm already. Frick! I had to implement and test user security for tomorrows training! 45 minutes later, with more ridiculous emails floating around, I completed this task and called it a day.
Cathy - Sr Mgr Financial Systems (from yesterday)
Tim - My manager
Bob - Visiting Instructor
Joe - Resident SME for Global Safety
Pat - External consultant working for Finance
Sally - Mgr Financial Systems
Kathy - I don't know who
Tom - External ETL guy working for external contracting company
Ben - Resident ETL team lead
Dave - Director of Operations, Manufacturing Facility
Rick - Resident Sr DBA 2
John - Resident Sr Architect
Annie - Resident Sr DBA 1
Note: All names have been changed to protect identity.
I got to my cubicle around 10 till 8 today morning, prioritising the things I had to get done. Ofcourse there was the string of emails from Cathy last night which had to be taken care of. Cathy is the kind of person, who despite being a business user, likes to play very hands-on (a little too much as I found out to my horror) and wants to be involved in every detail related to reporting and planning applications. So as that string of emails with the little red exclamation mark goes, Cathy here, was having issues saving her changes to the metadata model (!). The moment I read that email last night I called Tim and expressed my surprise as to how a business user was involved in modifying metadata models. I mean all the reports could break down if she effs things up! Tim replied helplessly that this was a battle he had lost a long time back. So business users can modify metadata as and when they like, and when their reports dont work like they should, we get BlackBerry'd in the middle of the night. Joy! Obviously Cathy also does not like to wait for such things, so by the time I got to my desk she had sent another email in the morning asking me if her access privileges had been modified yet.
Then I docked my laptop and realised I had to pick Bob up from front desk at 8-ish. Sure enough 8:00am I got a call from Frontdesk telling me Bob's here. Scrolling through emails, I got to frontdesk and brought Bob along. Bob is the trainer for a day long session we have organised tomorrow for the Global Safety folks and is here a day earlier to study the data and setup samples for training. After the 'so how've you been? Good! How about you?' I walked Bob to his cubicle for the day. Then I realised that the loaner laptop that I had requested for Bob had not yet reached there so I called up Heldesk to get that fixed. Till then I walked Bob to my cubicle and started explaining to him how our environment was setup and things we expect he'd go through during the training session tomorrow. The loaner reached my desk as we went through this and now it was time to set Bob up with Joe. Joe would explain the backend database which would help Bob understand the metadata model better and design effective samples for tomorrows training. That done I started walking back to my cubicle.
On his way to work, Tim called me up to discuss the scene with Cathy's request. He told me that he granted the requested privileges and asked me to speak to Cathy about it specifically stressing that this took time because Finance wasn't the only group we are working with and requests are dealt with in the order they are received. Getting back to my desk I got this out of the way and read through more emails that'd been shot during that time. Some more time and I started working on that long overdue report request. Before I realised it was 11 am and time for me to run into a meeting with the Finance users Cathy, Sally, Kathy and the consultants Pat and Tom. This was a meeting that had been postponed by 10 days, so I had no clue what to expect when I walked in. There was a big discussion about some ETL changes that needed to be done and an hour later I walked out of that room feeling, 'Gosh, that was a waste of time!'. I walked by Ben's cube and asked him why none of the resident ETL guys were in on the meeting, turned out he had no clue these changes were being planned!
I was getting hungry now and I drove Bob along for a quick lunch to the Quiznos down the street. It was a gorgeous day and felt great sitting outside nibbling on the Cabo chicken. While having lunch Bob regaled me with stories of his surfing adventures and his various successful career gigs. Post lunch, I was cruising along on my report when Tim stopped by and pulled me into a meeting with Ben, Dave, Rick, John and Annie. This was to discuss the design of a scaleable database system to support our new manufacturing facility and enable advanced reporting off the SCADA systems. All the people in the meeting, except me, have been working for about 8 years at the least, so one can only imagine how much of the discussion I was involved in. Silence is golden indeed!
That done, I got back to work and Cathy sent another email with the little red exclamation mark in the corner. Apparently one of her ETL loads was failing on her and she needed to get that fixed and in the meanwhile needed the Dev environment pointing to the production database so she could carry on with her work. This was my 2nd shock of the day. Why was Cathy modifying ETL jobs?!? Why did she even have access to do this? So I leaned over into Ben's cube searching for answers. Ben went, 'I have no frikkin' idea dude!'. Wow! I decided to not bother about this and kept chipping away at my report. I checked for time and it was 4:45 pm already. Frick! I had to implement and test user security for tomorrows training! 45 minutes later, with more ridiculous emails floating around, I completed this task and called it a day.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)
While this is the name of one of Groove Armada's albums, it also happens to be the theme of Mr Hot & Mr Kool.
Yes, my unfortunate tryst with B grade Bollywood movies continues. Now B grade might conjure up mental images of a skin flick with Payal Rohatgi (who else?!) in the lead role, but dont raise your eyebrows just yet. This one is B grade stricly for the quality of the movie and is devoid of sleaze. Ofcourse, when I 'picked' this movie up I was mostly aware of what lay in store. Like all other times, my sole objective for watching this movie was getting through 2 hours.
The movie stars all newcomers in lead roles and some familiar support cast. And so the story goes that two good for nothing losers from some dehaat in India land up in London overnight listening to advice from a local quack. They land up a job in some company called LeLe undergarments (why am I writing this?) whose owner, Shahbaaz Khan, is always hitting on one of the employees Pooja De. Time for Corny joke 1 -> Mr LeLe: Pooja De De .. Pooja: Kya du? While you go 'Jeez!' listening to this you can tell that there are more of such corny jokes coming along and thats the only aspect where the movie does not disappoint =))
Back to the story, Zulfi Sayed (who?) aka Lakshmanprasad something becomes Lucky and Yash Pandit (again, who??) aka Prem Amar Tripathi becomes Pat after they land in London. Now that they have a job they start looking for the 2nd most important thing that they'd set out in search for - a woman in their lives. Lucky thinks he is geting lucky with a girl but suddenly loses interest in her after Pat cons him into believing that she is indeed seeing Pat and not Lucky. Along the while, Pat actually falls for Pooja (yes Pooja De De) and then the movie winds up after sorting out all the confusion.
Khalid Mohammed, my favorite movie critic and columnist, once wrote reviewing for Anupama Verma, 'Anupama should stick to modeling; clay, that is'. I'd say the same for Zulfi Sayed. He carries a deadpan face throughout the movie and delivers all dialogues without bothering to emote once. Yash Pandit on the other hand emotes like he's filling in for Zulfi too and ends up hamming most of his scenes. The ladies are extremely forgettable, both in the looks and acting departments.
To sum it up, I got what I was looking for from the movie, something to kill 2 hours with. Watch it if you have absolutely nothing to do;)
Thus ends my first attempt at reviewing a movie. Ripping it apart to shreds feels good!
Yes, my unfortunate tryst with B grade Bollywood movies continues. Now B grade might conjure up mental images of a skin flick with Payal Rohatgi (who else?!) in the lead role, but dont raise your eyebrows just yet. This one is B grade stricly for the quality of the movie and is devoid of sleaze. Ofcourse, when I 'picked' this movie up I was mostly aware of what lay in store. Like all other times, my sole objective for watching this movie was getting through 2 hours.
The movie stars all newcomers in lead roles and some familiar support cast. And so the story goes that two good for nothing losers from some dehaat in India land up in London overnight listening to advice from a local quack. They land up a job in some company called LeLe undergarments (why am I writing this?) whose owner, Shahbaaz Khan, is always hitting on one of the employees Pooja De. Time for Corny joke 1 -> Mr LeLe: Pooja De De .. Pooja: Kya du? While you go 'Jeez!' listening to this you can tell that there are more of such corny jokes coming along and thats the only aspect where the movie does not disappoint =))
Back to the story, Zulfi Sayed (who?) aka Lakshmanprasad something becomes Lucky and Yash Pandit (again, who??) aka Prem Amar Tripathi becomes Pat after they land in London. Now that they have a job they start looking for the 2nd most important thing that they'd set out in search for - a woman in their lives. Lucky thinks he is geting lucky with a girl but suddenly loses interest in her after Pat cons him into believing that she is indeed seeing Pat and not Lucky. Along the while, Pat actually falls for Pooja (yes Pooja De De) and then the movie winds up after sorting out all the confusion.
Khalid Mohammed, my favorite movie critic and columnist, once wrote reviewing for Anupama Verma, 'Anupama should stick to modeling; clay, that is'. I'd say the same for Zulfi Sayed. He carries a deadpan face throughout the movie and delivers all dialogues without bothering to emote once. Yash Pandit on the other hand emotes like he's filling in for Zulfi too and ends up hamming most of his scenes. The ladies are extremely forgettable, both in the looks and acting departments.
To sum it up, I got what I was looking for from the movie, something to kill 2 hours with. Watch it if you have absolutely nothing to do;)
Thus ends my first attempt at reviewing a movie. Ripping it apart to shreds feels good!
S'more 10dulkar bashing
That's right, it's Tendulkar bashing time once again. Almost every desi who has ever played cricket fancies taking a dig against Tendulkar blaming him for team India's dysfunctional performance in World Cup 2007. Such are times. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, this is going to be hard to get over so soon and sooner or later I had to write again on this topic. Alright, alright, I know cricket is a teamsport and it is unfair, almost idiotic, to blame an individual and it requires a collective effort for a team to win such a big tournament, but then blogging is all about freedom of expression, innit?
So what prompted me to write once again about this? Kobe Bryant! Yes, he of LA Lakers fame. Following the NBA on and off, I have always been a big fan of Kobe. Not so much of the Lakers as much as Kobe though. Infact a few years back while I was rooting for the Sacramento Kings I had a hard team keeping loyalties when the Lakers played the Kings. Years later, the Lakers are a different team but Kobe is still the same, if better. If anyone's been going through news you might have read that Kobe has been averaging 54 points per game over the last 5 games! That's what I call a team player, that's what I call a champion. One who takes the onus on himself to make things happen to take his team to victory no matter what the circumstances. Not one who walks off the pitch clean bowled the third ball he faces when his team is in dire straits. How many times have we seen Kobe rain jumpers and lead the Lakers to a victory? Endless. How many times have we seen Tendulkar play an innings of substance and lead India to victory when it was most needed? Can't really tell, can ya?
Now it is beyond doubt that Tendulkar has the numbers behind him to warrant a place in the team, but how long can Team India bank on a player who clearly appears to be past his prime? Everytime Sachin is written off he comes and scores a big hundred, adding to his humongous tally, piling on personal records and his critics go a hiding. But where does that leave the team? Does it get them back on the winning track? Does it make them feel good as an outfit? Does this one hundred warrant that Sachin is 'back' and that he will be firing on all cylinders in all the matches to come? NO! Some might say, such is the game of cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties (Note to self: Stop using cliches). But when Sachin is getting out cheaply, do we see any intent on his part to make things happen and lead his team to a better position? Cut back to Kobe man who dishes the ball around (more nowadays post-Shaq) when he realises his jumpers arent quite kissing the net. I have never seen a man more win-hungry than Kobe; except for a certain Schumi, that is. Everytime Kobe walks to the middle his eyes burn with intent, you can almost see in his eyes how much he hates to lose. A lot of times critics have blamed Kobe to be very selfish, not being a team player; but why complain as long as the team is winning? After all, its not really about how you play the game, it IS about whether you win or lose. That's what makes great players, champions of the game. The Dwyane Wade's and the LeBron James' may try but I don't think they can quite match Kobe in what he does.
And Sachin? I think I've made my point(s) already. I just hope he does not go through the ignominy of being forced to retire from the game, being dropped, 'cos that would be a huge shame.
I'd love to end this post with a hilarious fwd that I received this morning.
Two people to blame for India's world cup failure:
1. Indira Gandhi (for creating Bangladesh)
2. Hanuman ( Not destroying Lanka completely)
So what prompted me to write once again about this? Kobe Bryant! Yes, he of LA Lakers fame. Following the NBA on and off, I have always been a big fan of Kobe. Not so much of the Lakers as much as Kobe though. Infact a few years back while I was rooting for the Sacramento Kings I had a hard team keeping loyalties when the Lakers played the Kings. Years later, the Lakers are a different team but Kobe is still the same, if better. If anyone's been going through news you might have read that Kobe has been averaging 54 points per game over the last 5 games! That's what I call a team player, that's what I call a champion. One who takes the onus on himself to make things happen to take his team to victory no matter what the circumstances. Not one who walks off the pitch clean bowled the third ball he faces when his team is in dire straits. How many times have we seen Kobe rain jumpers and lead the Lakers to a victory? Endless. How many times have we seen Tendulkar play an innings of substance and lead India to victory when it was most needed? Can't really tell, can ya?
Now it is beyond doubt that Tendulkar has the numbers behind him to warrant a place in the team, but how long can Team India bank on a player who clearly appears to be past his prime? Everytime Sachin is written off he comes and scores a big hundred, adding to his humongous tally, piling on personal records and his critics go a hiding. But where does that leave the team? Does it get them back on the winning track? Does it make them feel good as an outfit? Does this one hundred warrant that Sachin is 'back' and that he will be firing on all cylinders in all the matches to come? NO! Some might say, such is the game of cricket, the game of glorious uncertainties (Note to self: Stop using cliches). But when Sachin is getting out cheaply, do we see any intent on his part to make things happen and lead his team to a better position? Cut back to Kobe man who dishes the ball around (more nowadays post-Shaq) when he realises his jumpers arent quite kissing the net. I have never seen a man more win-hungry than Kobe; except for a certain Schumi, that is. Everytime Kobe walks to the middle his eyes burn with intent, you can almost see in his eyes how much he hates to lose. A lot of times critics have blamed Kobe to be very selfish, not being a team player; but why complain as long as the team is winning? After all, its not really about how you play the game, it IS about whether you win or lose. That's what makes great players, champions of the game. The Dwyane Wade's and the LeBron James' may try but I don't think they can quite match Kobe in what he does.
And Sachin? I think I've made my point(s) already. I just hope he does not go through the ignominy of being forced to retire from the game, being dropped, 'cos that would be a huge shame.
I'd love to end this post with a hilarious fwd that I received this morning.
Two people to blame for India's world cup failure:
1. Indira Gandhi (for creating Bangladesh)
2. Hanuman ( Not destroying Lanka completely)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Je kya hai be?!?
Youtubing for a bit last night I came across this video :)
I miss thee Channel [V]. The Channel [V] of yore, the one with all the SS Sodhi ads, Banjo Macho ads, Punjabi Santa Claus', Udham Singh, Laila Rouass, Kamaal Sidhu, Sophia Haque, Nina Manuel ... the one which played 'good' music ... not the crap that is being dished out today :x
I miss thee Channel [V]. The Channel [V] of yore, the one with all the SS Sodhi ads, Banjo Macho ads, Punjabi Santa Claus', Udham Singh, Laila Rouass, Kamaal Sidhu, Sophia Haque, Nina Manuel ... the one which played 'good' music ... not the crap that is being dished out today :x
Monday, March 26, 2007
Transliteration - एक नम्बर!
नुक्तेच ब्लँग्विश्वात पदार्पण केल्यामुले मी अजूनही बरयाच गोष्टिंशी खेळून पाहत आहे आणि एखाद्या लहान मुलाला खेळणयांचया दुकानात मोकाट फिरताना जो आनंद मिळतो तशीच काहिशी माझी अवस्था आहें ॰ जरी ही विन्ग्र्जी मधे लिहून त्वरित मराठीत भाषांतर करण्याची सोय असली तरीही एक गोष्टं नक्की की ही प्रक्रिया आहें भलतिच किचकट॰ ह्या एवढ्या ४ ओळी छापता छापता माझा बिचारा जीव सुकला!
मराठीत ब्लॉग लिहिणयाचया माझ्या उत्साहाला तात्पुरते तरी विरजण लागले आहें , पाहुया पुढे काय होते ते!
रजा असावी ...
Fact of the Matter: Typing these many lines and correcting the spellings, trying to get the finer nuances of the language right, took me well over half an hour। Even now the Marathi is not completely up to the mark in some places but I just ran out on patience। I should try installing the Baraha editor and blogging in Marathi but I'll leave it for some other time. Besides, I just realised the fact that I am starting to struggle with the language :(( For evidence, check out the verbatim translation of the sentence : 'One thing is for sure, the process is very cumbersome.' Not at all happy about this!
मराठीत ब्लॉग लिहिणयाचया माझ्या उत्साहाला तात्पुरते तरी विरजण लागले आहें , पाहुया पुढे काय होते ते!
रजा असावी ...
Fact of the Matter: Typing these many lines and correcting the spellings, trying to get the finer nuances of the language right, took me well over half an hour। Even now the Marathi is not completely up to the mark in some places but I just ran out on patience। I should try installing the Baraha editor and blogging in Marathi but I'll leave it for some other time. Besides, I just realised the fact that I am starting to struggle with the language :(( For evidence, check out the verbatim translation of the sentence : 'One thing is for sure, the process is very cumbersome.' Not at all happy about this!
Who tastes dog food? How do we even know its good?!?!
Regular viewers of Seinfeld would possibly laugh right out of their chairs remembering Elaine mouth these lines. While this post has nothing to do with dog food or its taste or Elaine or Seinfeld, it does have a similarly irrelative question that crossed my mind browsing through the news this morning.
And the question is : Who works in banks these days?
This is a time when every other guy you know seems to be working in IT or something related to it. Mind well that it is not necessary to have a technical background to get a freshers job in any of the IT companies. Infact (surprise surprise) some companies actually run print ads asking specifically for people with non-technical backgrounds. Within all my friends on orkut I can only point out a few who do something radically different and I envy those guys for it. I would say it is safe to generalise that ours is a generation whose income is driven mostly by the IT boom and its widespread reach into even the smallest of corporations. Today the scene back home is such that straight out of school grads pocket jobs anywhere around the Rs. 25k per month mark working in an IT company. Anyone having such a good income can be easily considered financially stable and .. ahem .. marketable. Very unlike the generation of our parents. If you look at those folks, a very wide cross section of people they know would most probably be working in banks or some kind of a financially related institution. Naturally, at their time I'd assume, a bank job was considered to be a very good job. So, if 2 and 2 indeed make 4, yesterday's job in a bank is today's job in an IT company!
Which brings me back to my original question, who really works in banks these days?
Update: When I read the news earlier this morning there was something which said Citigroup was opening up more banking centres in India. By the time, I got to the end of writing this entry, news is they're actually cutting down on abt 15,000 (!) jobs.
And the question is : Who works in banks these days?
This is a time when every other guy you know seems to be working in IT or something related to it. Mind well that it is not necessary to have a technical background to get a freshers job in any of the IT companies. Infact (surprise surprise) some companies actually run print ads asking specifically for people with non-technical backgrounds. Within all my friends on orkut I can only point out a few who do something radically different and I envy those guys for it. I would say it is safe to generalise that ours is a generation whose income is driven mostly by the IT boom and its widespread reach into even the smallest of corporations. Today the scene back home is such that straight out of school grads pocket jobs anywhere around the Rs. 25k per month mark working in an IT company. Anyone having such a good income can be easily considered financially stable and .. ahem .. marketable. Very unlike the generation of our parents. If you look at those folks, a very wide cross section of people they know would most probably be working in banks or some kind of a financially related institution. Naturally, at their time I'd assume, a bank job was considered to be a very good job. So, if 2 and 2 indeed make 4, yesterday's job in a bank is today's job in an IT company!
Which brings me back to my original question, who really works in banks these days?
Update: When I read the news earlier this morning there was something which said Citigroup was opening up more banking centres in India. By the time, I got to the end of writing this entry, news is they're actually cutting down on abt 15,000 (!) jobs.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Template Woes
I'd started off the blog without bothering too much about the decor, in line with my usual way of keeping things functional. Last night I had some time on my hands and I started tinkering around with the look and feel of the blog trying to 'personalise' it. No wonder then that even one template failed to catch my eye. This was bringing things to the other end of the spectrum, from mere functional to hoity-toity.
Most of the standard templates that Blogger provided had one or the other point which went against their favor (Robert, इनमें से एक भी ठीक नही है! किसीकी नाक टेढ़ी है तो किसीकी आँख!!) I almost always hate the plain jane looking interface with a black background, hell I dont even like black backgrounds on my desktop! So getting that look on the blog was out of the question. Towards the end of an hour and having had enough sifting through atleast 10 templates I finally settled for the current one. Not that I am all too happy with it but this one's atleast about okay. This one has too much grey in it. Grey, to me, is too dark depressing and gloomy. I can go on and on about how I hate overcast grey skies, gloomy weather and the rains but I'll try and stick to the topic for now.
Maybe on another day when I have some more time to kill I'll look around and pimp my blog up ;) Tic Tac Blue it is until then!
Most of the standard templates that Blogger provided had one or the other point which went against their favor (Robert, इनमें से एक भी ठीक नही है! किसीकी नाक टेढ़ी है तो किसीकी आँख!!) I almost always hate the plain jane looking interface with a black background, hell I dont even like black backgrounds on my desktop! So getting that look on the blog was out of the question. Towards the end of an hour and having had enough sifting through atleast 10 templates I finally settled for the current one. Not that I am all too happy with it but this one's atleast about okay. This one has too much grey in it. Grey, to me, is too dark depressing and gloomy. I can go on and on about how I hate overcast grey skies, gloomy weather and the rains but I'll try and stick to the topic for now.
Maybe on another day when I have some more time to kill I'll look around and pimp my blog up ;) Tic Tac Blue it is until then!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
(What's the Story) Morning Glory
Last night a forgettable Friday was capped up by an even more forgettable movie. For some reason, I decided to watch the new desi movie, Hattrick. Now most desi movies are forgettable but this one had that little extra special element. I dont know what irritated me more about this movie - the fact that I stayed up late to watch a crappy movie, that it was really a bad movie or that it had such a bad print that I felt like cracking the screen on my laptop.
Honestly, I cant even remember the last time I watched a rip which was so terrible in quality. And not that it was one of those low size rips, it was a full 700MB, yet it failed the bar. Dont get me wrong, there's been so many good rips out there with low size, like Anthony Kaun Hai, 350 MB yet really good but this was just an utter piece of sh!te. After crawling through the movie, I checked back on DT, and there were loads of comments echoing the same. Which reminded me to always look through some of the comments before greedily snatching any new movie that is on offer!
The movie itself was nothing great. The theme was quite boring, more so after India's dismal exit, and though the cast was great they could only do so much to hold together a paper thin storyline। Rimi Sen was all about the hotness as expected and she did a fine job - at looking good ;)
Rewind to a couple of hours back this morning when I woke up to James Blunt's You're Beautiful (more about this tragedy in a later post) After going through the usual strings of emails and news and hanging around a while on orkut, here I am blogging listening to BF & N in the background. Now I have to decide what I want to get done this weekend (which usually amounts to nothing much). One thing I definitely want to do though is get to Walmart and get that dart board I've been wanting ever since! After last week's fiasco, when the set did not contain any darts at all, I hope I get a better one this time and spend some time honing my skill at darts :D
Later!
PS: 12:30pm on a weekend IS morning. It's morning according to the MDT timezone, the MY Daylight Time timezone LOL
Honestly, I cant even remember the last time I watched a rip which was so terrible in quality. And not that it was one of those low size rips, it was a full 700MB, yet it failed the bar. Dont get me wrong, there's been so many good rips out there with low size, like Anthony Kaun Hai, 350 MB yet really good but this was just an utter piece of sh!te. After crawling through the movie, I checked back on DT, and there were loads of comments echoing the same. Which reminded me to always look through some of the comments before greedily snatching any new movie that is on offer!
The movie itself was nothing great. The theme was quite boring, more so after India's dismal exit, and though the cast was great they could only do so much to hold together a paper thin storyline। Rimi Sen was all about the hotness as expected and she did a fine job - at looking good ;)
Rewind to a couple of hours back this morning when I woke up to James Blunt's You're Beautiful (more about this tragedy in a later post) After going through the usual strings of emails and news and hanging around a while on orkut, here I am blogging listening to BF & N in the background. Now I have to decide what I want to get done this weekend (which usually amounts to nothing much). One thing I definitely want to do though is get to Walmart and get that dart board I've been wanting ever since! After last week's fiasco, when the set did not contain any darts at all, I hope I get a better one this time and spend some time honing my skill at darts :D
Later!
PS: 12:30pm on a weekend IS morning. It's morning according to the MDT timezone, the MY Daylight Time timezone LOL
Friday, March 23, 2007
How I saved $60
Like countless of my desi brethren out there I sit dejected tonight. The feeling is still sinking in, India dropping out of the World Cup without even qualifying for the Super 8's is not an easy thought to digest. They had been labeled 'commercial favorites' (whatever that term means) to win the World Cup after all. I mean, I am one to call a spade a spade, so realistically speaking India was going to drop out sooner than later. Looking at the previous few games India had played, it would take a fool to bet his horses on this Indian team. But still, given India's on-paper strength, it would've been another audacious foo' to write them off so early in the tournament.
Pakistan had already ensured on their part that this would be a boring World Cup. They played themselves out of the competition way too early and denied us the privilege of whooping their a$ses out of the World Cup. For most, the best part of the World Cup had been lost. We know most times our team isn't in the capacity to actually win the World cup, so defeating Pakistan in a World Cup match serves as our comfort blanket. Most Indians would agree, that given our team strength, beating Pakistan is more important than winning a World Cup. This time this wasn't to be. Little did we know that the Indian team was going to put up a show that would make Pakistan look like the best team in the world. They got snapped up by Bangladesh and returned to spank poor hapless Bermuda to all parts of the ground. In another part of the Caribbeans, a spin wiz was smacking his fingers anticipating the contest to come. India were, again only on-paper, the best players of spin.
India had the privilege of playing 3 of the best one-day players of modern times in Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly (hats off for his great comeback). Uthappa was looking fairly comfortable and promising at the top along with the big three. They had a dependable middle order with the return of Yuvraj Singh and the big hitting Dhoni. The tail had shown in previous games that it could wag and do its bit. The bowling was as has always been (read, not that great). Given this, it is hard to analyse what really went wrong. First the capitulation against a bunch of teens and then this - making a mess in a do-or-die match. I'm sure reams and reams of paper will be wasted on this, experts making a comment and another, trying to express their POV; to no use nevertheless.
Due credit to Sri Lanka though. Murali has always been one of the best spinners and the way he made easy meat of some of our players only provides further evidence why the man commands respect no matter what kind of a pitch he plays on.
Unfortunately, I wasnt able to watch the match (and do NOT intend to watch the highlights) so I cannot comment on the quality of cricket that was played, but with a reputation at stake one would imagine that both teams would have gone and played their hearts out in the middle. Not true with one big man though, Tendulkar. I am too insignificant to talk in dishonor against the great man but I cannot help but express my discontent. Historically, Tendulkar has never stood up and counted for the team when it has mattered the most and today was no different. Getting out on the 3rd ball he faced in a do or die match is not taking responsibility. When so much is at stake one would expect the senior players to stand up and take charge. Here, our man walks in and out. I'm sorry, but that is just not becoming of a man who is regarded as the greatest Indian player to have picked up the cricket bat. What plays on his mind in such big games, only he can tell. I was at work following the match and when Tendulkar was out I was .. I was .. I cant really express in words what I felt .. that feeling was well beyond words. The only thing that came to my mind, after getting over that shock, that could come any close to what I experienced was Ramgopal Bajaj in AAA going "रवीना की माँ, मैं आ रहा हू!" Jokes apart, from then on, it was just a matter of completing the formalities for the Sri Lankan team. With the Murali threat looming large, none of the middle and lower order batsmen could have done much and thats exactly what happened. Oh well!
All said and done, I am not angry, nor am I the least bit frustrated. I feel sad. Sad for the 3 best players of the Indian team who took India to such glorious heights over the last decade and a half. For them to bow out of the game without a World Cup against their name is utter injustice. I will never say that the team did not try their best and this pic below speaks for itself.
My heart goes out to the big 3.
R.I.P Glory days of Indian cricket ...
Ohh, and I almost forgot! I'd promised myself earlier this week that I'd pay to watch the matches online after India advances into the Super 8's . Waiting for the outcome of today's game, I saved $60 ;)
Pakistan had already ensured on their part that this would be a boring World Cup. They played themselves out of the competition way too early and denied us the privilege of whooping their a$ses out of the World Cup. For most, the best part of the World Cup had been lost. We know most times our team isn't in the capacity to actually win the World cup, so defeating Pakistan in a World Cup match serves as our comfort blanket. Most Indians would agree, that given our team strength, beating Pakistan is more important than winning a World Cup. This time this wasn't to be. Little did we know that the Indian team was going to put up a show that would make Pakistan look like the best team in the world. They got snapped up by Bangladesh and returned to spank poor hapless Bermuda to all parts of the ground. In another part of the Caribbeans, a spin wiz was smacking his fingers anticipating the contest to come. India were, again only on-paper, the best players of spin.
India had the privilege of playing 3 of the best one-day players of modern times in Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly (hats off for his great comeback). Uthappa was looking fairly comfortable and promising at the top along with the big three. They had a dependable middle order with the return of Yuvraj Singh and the big hitting Dhoni. The tail had shown in previous games that it could wag and do its bit. The bowling was as has always been (read, not that great). Given this, it is hard to analyse what really went wrong. First the capitulation against a bunch of teens and then this - making a mess in a do-or-die match. I'm sure reams and reams of paper will be wasted on this, experts making a comment and another, trying to express their POV; to no use nevertheless.
Due credit to Sri Lanka though. Murali has always been one of the best spinners and the way he made easy meat of some of our players only provides further evidence why the man commands respect no matter what kind of a pitch he plays on.
Unfortunately, I wasnt able to watch the match (and do NOT intend to watch the highlights) so I cannot comment on the quality of cricket that was played, but with a reputation at stake one would imagine that both teams would have gone and played their hearts out in the middle. Not true with one big man though, Tendulkar. I am too insignificant to talk in dishonor against the great man but I cannot help but express my discontent. Historically, Tendulkar has never stood up and counted for the team when it has mattered the most and today was no different. Getting out on the 3rd ball he faced in a do or die match is not taking responsibility. When so much is at stake one would expect the senior players to stand up and take charge. Here, our man walks in and out. I'm sorry, but that is just not becoming of a man who is regarded as the greatest Indian player to have picked up the cricket bat. What plays on his mind in such big games, only he can tell. I was at work following the match and when Tendulkar was out I was .. I was .. I cant really express in words what I felt .. that feeling was well beyond words. The only thing that came to my mind, after getting over that shock, that could come any close to what I experienced was Ramgopal Bajaj in AAA going "रवीना की माँ, मैं आ रहा हू!" Jokes apart, from then on, it was just a matter of completing the formalities for the Sri Lankan team. With the Murali threat looming large, none of the middle and lower order batsmen could have done much and thats exactly what happened. Oh well!
All said and done, I am not angry, nor am I the least bit frustrated. I feel sad. Sad for the 3 best players of the Indian team who took India to such glorious heights over the last decade and a half. For them to bow out of the game without a World Cup against their name is utter injustice. I will never say that the team did not try their best and this pic below speaks for itself.
My heart goes out to the big 3.
R.I.P Glory days of Indian cricket ...
Ohh, and I almost forgot! I'd promised myself earlier this week that I'd pay to watch the matches online after India advances into the Super 8's . Waiting for the outcome of today's game, I saved $60 ;)
Here I come ...
... finally an entrant into the world of blogging. One of the things I've always gone back and forth about for a long time now has been writing a blog. Gosh, I dont know, must've been atleast 6 years now that I've wanted to, but never really did start blogging.
Like I'd once mentioned to Rohan, blogging is the natural effect of someone having a lot of free time on their hands. Go make your own assumptions =))
As with most bloggers, I will try and update frequently, but it's not really done till it's really done, now is it;)
Like I'd once mentioned to Rohan, blogging is the natural effect of someone having a lot of free time on their hands. Go make your own assumptions =))
As with most bloggers, I will try and update frequently, but it's not really done till it's really done, now is it;)
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