10 days gone without a post and there are loads of pending stuff to write about.
just don't know which one to write about.and most of the times,this confusion itself stops me from posting something.
so finally decided to write a post abt the confusion itself.:)

atlast completed one great feature for the products and the changes are integrated.so the next phase is bugfixes...hope there are not many..i think there won't be many.

saw "The Polar Express" movie..it was amazing.but i found it to be a bit lengthy.

then went to chennai on Mon evening,got my Visa stamped for US,met my friend there,watched Kadhal movie,didn't call up kota,maha...came back.

today,we had a one day team building trip to Ramoji film city,with our clients from US and Russia...it was good.but somehow i didn't like this venue for teambuilding.it could've been better.

so here i am now.there are quite a few interesting thoughts left to be written,
1.Thoughts and blog
2.Ads which captivate us
3.US and the craze
4.Schumi.

got to write soon...

From 1.20pm to 1.30pm

today is the deadline for the final changes to be provided.And the supporting team hasn't provided it.what to do? Why did i agree to work with them? guess that was a wrong decision.why can't i try that old design.oh need to book tickets.yesterday,i went,and the link was not available to chennai and the lady in the counter asked me to wait for 30 mts.so came back.need to go today and book.which train can i book,Cheran or Blue? Blue mountain might be better.hope i get tickets.btw,will sumathy be free on sunday.maybe i'll come one day early to chennai,so that i can meet maha,kota and ganja.why is the head aching now?Do we have a meeting at 2pm? let me check with my teammate.oh what happened to the Amex Card.will i get it tomm? oh,need to book hotel for 24th night stay.shdn't book Trident,it's too far from Mylapore.Does company books with other hotels.need to check it.Kadhal movie is good it seems.shd see it.need to watch Polar Express.oh need to talk my manager for leave next week.will he give? Clients are coming.so what? i shd be lucky to skip boring meetings:)maybe i'll take leave on Friday.Parents didn't go anywhere.lets go for a movie atleast.This guy doesn't know how to drive or what?Why is he applying breaks so fast and in short gaps.i better not follow so closely.oh need to get a book from Odyssey.Can i go now or go home?ok let me go tomm.this road is cool,not much traffic and absolutely no street lights at night.isn't it strange to drive at 12 midnight?how come all people sleep at the same time and the roads are deserted.even last friday,the road was so deserted and it was obvious that it is a national holiday.will everybody be glued to TV at home.oh need to get travel authorization.oh,shd get a gift to Amutha.what can i get? maybe,i'll get a Pearl string,something similar to what i gifted to Hema.Is it good to have a direct flight from Hyd to Frankfurt.Oh not so good,i could've met a few frens in Blr,if there wasn't a direct flight.Had a nice time in office today morning.how nice to have parents at home,cool food,no work at home and the presence of them itself makes life so peaceful.is this a selfish reason?

(reached home)
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it's just amazing how our mind switches from one thought to another so fast.

Helmets have been mandated in hyderabad from Jan 1st...

Police seems to be thinking that wearing an helmet will reduce the fatal accidents a lot.
I don't think that'll hold good.

There are so many blunders happening in the road...that sometimes i feel not wearing a helmet is not a big thing.
Following are a few points which just really irritate me to the core while driving and ofcourse leads me to send out some curses in tamil which nobody seems to understand here.:)

1.The Indicators are one of the most cosmetic items in a vehicle...because atleast 75% of the 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers never use them for the specified purpose..i don't understand why they r not using it...is it because of an aversion towards that sound..?
But really this creates lot of problems,when a guy suddenly comes to the left or takes a turn in a junction.

2.The next cosmetic item in a vehicle is the mirror.
I hardly see any fellow seeing the mirror first to check the vehicles coming in the back first beforetaking a turn.Infact even before overtaking the front vehicle,shouldn't we see the sideways first,to cover the blindspot.But this never happens.Infact there are lot of vehicles even without a mirror.

3.In US,the basic rule for overtaking as taught by my instructor is,If u r driving on one lane and would like to change to the other one,u need to make sure that u r able to see the headlight of the car coming on the other lane....this is the distance needed to change to that lane...atleast thats what the instructor told me and it used to work perfectly fine when i was driving and try to overtake there.
But in india,a small gap between 2 vehicles, to fit ur vehicle is enough.
This is yet another shocking thing,as even if u r driving well,there will be some junk who cuts u and goes to the other side in the road...
4.Then there are a bit more advanced species of drivers in this city...who literally drive zig-zag in the road.These are the most annoying species...there is utterly no concept of going in a straightline...their only aim is to overtake every damn vehicle...
5.and there a few people,who put the headlights in high beam...i don't understand why they do this...sometimes while driving on a heavily lit road,this high beam light really causes a kind of blindness.
6.Ok so only the great stuntmen are the nuisance in the road.No,even the newbies cause enough trouble sometimes.
One of my policies for safe driving is,"Never go behind or near a car which is "On Registration".90% of the time,that car will be driven by a newbie and they just don't drive with the flow of the traffic.
7.Ladies driving.
Actually speaking,there is nothing like,Ladies driving badly.There are equal number of men who drive stupidly.But when a lady does a wrong thing,it just seems to get highlighted.
Still I am scared of them also.I always avoid driving behind or near their car.

So is the manner of driving the only mistake among drivers,
not really,if there is even a slight chance to break the rules,that will be done.

1.Skipping the signals.
I saw one incident last week.This happened near the Public Garden signal.
It is a crossroad signal.With the vertical one going towards Nampally and the horizontal one going towards Assembly.
Signal for the road towards Nampally was red and whole traffic was waiting.And signal towards Assembly was green.After a few seconds,no vehicles were coming in that road.
One of the fellow bikewalla saw this as a great opportunity and started his bike,eventhough the signal was red.Suddenly from nowhere,there came a car towards Assembly.And there was a perfect collision.And the bikewalla got dragged with his vehicle in the road.I thought he really deserved it.Why can't he wait for some 20 more seconds.Such an impatience in life.
2.Driving when the signal turns Orange from Green.
This is the most scariest part of driving.Sometimes when the time is not shown on the signals,we have no idea when it'll turn to Orange and there is always a sense of urgency among the drivers to just get thru the signal without stopping.And the fellow on the perpendicular side of the road,just don't have enough patience for the red to turn green.
3.Blocking the Free left.
This is mainly contributed by the City Buses.That particular signal might have a free left.But these guys would have just blocked.So what happens? All the people who have to turn left are kept waiting.And this adds to up the waiting traffic,inturn creating congestion.
4.If there is a small gap in the road divider,then for sure atleast 1 vehicle per day would have used that gap to cross the road.Sometimes this looks really funny.

And there are a few drivers who struggle to get thru this stupid peak hour traffic.

1.I pity the husband who drives in the hectic 6.45pm traffic with his wife and a kid in the pillion...no wonder,when Maruti introduced the offer to exchange a 2 wheeler to a 4 wheeler,it was a big hit....
2.Amubulance.
This is a sad part.The whole road would have got jammed with heavy traffic and an ambulance would be trying to get past the traffic.There would be absolutely no way for the ambulance to pass through.He has to wait.

Apart from this the people who try to cross the road.Yes,crossing the road is one of the most difficult things to do.And i am just scared of it.There have been times,when i used vehicle just to avoid crossing the road by foot.

And when we think of all the above points,it looks like there are lot of problems or commotion caused in the road.
But most of this can be avoided by following the basic rules.

Why can't the traffic department put heavy fines,for those

1.who skip signals,
2.who don't keep up the lanes.

Why can't we have some Zebra crossings at one particular place in the road.Then all the pedestrians can cross the road in that place.

People keep telling that roads are congested,congested.
If we dig deep down for the reasons,it's not because of the width of the road,but it's because of the way of driving.Most of the times,if we keep up the rules and maintain a steady speed and if there are no cars crossing the road in between,congestion can be contained to a large extent.

I have no idea when that great day will come,when the traffic flows just smoothly.
Till then,even i would be driving with a few curses every day.

But one thing is sure,all the above points doesn't stop me in admiring the whole flow of traffic or to say driving.
I like congestion when i am in not a hurry,when my kinetic doesn't get heated up.
Maybe because,thats a perfect time to observe people around you or to look at the shops in the road.(or to put it in tamil,"paraaku parkarathu" :))

There have been times,when i feel low or boring on a sunday evening,i used to take a long drive from Punjagutta to Secunderabad Railway station and return back.
And this means 2 hours of motoring in the heavy traffic.
Apart from the inhalation of polluted air,it will be good to drive.

Quotes

Following are a few quotes which i saw as signatures over some emails.
funny and amazing.

1.sometimes i look up in the sky and wonder - is there intelligent life out there, or are they stupid like us!

2.It was like a major flashback, that's the first thing.
Then it got depressing, that's the second thing.
And then it wasn't that bad , that's the third thing.
But then it was over, that's the fourth thing.

3.if you are going to walk on thin ice,you might as well dance

4.The fire of failure tempers the steel of a man's character.

5.If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons??

i really don't want to point that my work was the reason for this delay in writing a new post.but that's the fact...

after a very long time,did a full night out on 3rd...left office at 5.00am on 4th.(what a way to start first day in office in 2005).

and came back at 9.30am to office.and one strange thing happened.i met my manager at 10.00am.
Here is the conversation that happened between us

Myself:Hello,Good Morning

Manager:I wanted to ask you one thing.Why did u stay so late? What are you upto now?

(Myself was utterly shocked,because i never expected him to know that i was in office till that time.And i was also surprised as how he knew abt it.Because none of my teammates knew abt this and even the security personnel will inform only as a weekly update.But i just kept my face blank with a slight smile)

Myself: No,actually i left a bit early.

(This was a lie.But i do this sometimes)

Manager:What at 4.45am?

Myself:Actually the feature is not working after the code is merged to the latest platform.So i started looking into it and didn't know that the time was 4am.

(This was a utter lie.I was fully aware of the time.But i can't say that)

Manager:What is this? Why do you want to work like this? I am perfectly fine with it being slipped by a day or two.I don't want to see these kind of night-outs in future.

Myself:Yes right.Even i was not interested in doing a night-out.But i really didn't want to slip the dates.So thought it might be very helpful if i just do a night-out for a day.

(This was 100% True.)

Manager:OK.

(Then we went to cafetaria for a coffee.And he starts)

Manager:So u wonder how i knew abt this night-out?

Myself:Yes,i didn't expect the security to inform u so fast.

Manager:No.Security didn't inform me.

(I was completely surprised.I immediately doubted whether i sent any mail or something before leaving to somebody.No i didn't do any stupid thing like that)

Myself:Oh,then.

(I was abt to ask,got any spy or what?.But that wld've sounded too much:) and i regretted abt my cynical mind)

Manager:You solved one request in the system.

(Oh god,yes right.If we update any request in our Process system,there are a bunch of moderators who'll be receiving mails.And my manager is one among them.But this is really kind of a spam,because on a single day,there will hundreds of updation and they keep receiving mails.when i was in the moderator group,i had a rule in outlook,which automatically fwds the mail to Deleted Items:))

Myself:But you will be receiving hundreds,how did u spot this?

Manager:Yes.I cleaned it before leaving for the day.And i don't receive hundreds after 9 or 10pm.

(I was smiling now)
Myself:Great.I never knew this.Will make sure not to do this mistake again.

My manager couldn't help,but started laughing....He might have thought that there are few people,who are just incorrigable.
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Then my yearly review dialog came on 4th evening.
He reemphasized that it is not good to do nightouts,as i might be able to do it now as a bachelor,but it's not possible to sustain always and lot of other valid points.

I reemphasized that sometimes it might be good to do one night-out,if the work can be completed instead of slipping the dates.

Then at the end of the review,somehow,we were talking about the dialogs we had over the years.He has been my manager for the 2 and half years.And i always used to be one of the critics in the dialog.

It is the forum where i put my opinions without any hesitation,but in a polished,professional manner.

He just told me,"Ya i remember,in our first dialog meeting,i mentioned that women are not supposed to stay after 8.30pm in work,as per the Indian Law.And u questioned me,"Are we not missing an opportunity to work then?".I still remember it."

Believe me,this was THE utter shock.Was i such a feminist some time back or am still a feminist at heart or was it just a spontaneous question at that time?

Whatever maybe,i was still more shocked to know that he remembers it till date.

I smiled and asked him,"So u still remember it?"

He replied,"Yes.we used to have quite interesting conversations in the dialog meeting"

Now no wonder,he has a good respect on me.

I am thinking now as what all have i questioned like this,which he remembers.
Not only he,but my colleagues as well...