Story 1:Part I

I always have a fascination towards writing stories...the 2-3 page ones which end with a real bang. Looks like below is one of those attempts gone awry without an ending :) Typed in June 2005, 4 years ago and it was lying as a draft. Posting the same now . Interestingly, i am not able to remember whether it was me who really wrote this or copied it from somewhere :)
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It was an ordinary 2 lines in a postcard,but ofcourse with a great news.A person(X) is going to meet me on Dec 18th.and received the post on Dec 13rd.

The post is just to inform the same.

Still this one information can lead to a whole list of anticipations and worries.

X is not a new person.He has been a friend for 5 years and due to personal reasons, got shifted to a better job in a new town.So whenever he gets a chance,he makes sure to come this old town to meet me.

and this has been happening for the past 8 months.though the visits are not that frequent,it is just one of those days,which i really look forward to.

Whenever i receive a post about his plan of arrival,my heart skips a beat or probably it stops a while because of happiness.and the strange thing is,this happens everytime.

so the same happened this time.also i made sure that i am relatively free on that day.also i wanted to dress up well.
and still strange is that,i start wondering as what all information i can share with him.this is one thing which i never used to do in the beginning,but there were a few instances,where i regretted that i haven't shared all the information which i wanted to ,with him.
so guess planning came into picture...

also another thing is,my town is not a metropolitan city or something...it's a small town with not much of bustling activities,but with lot of retired people living around.

But it has it's own charm.Infact whenever X comes,he says that it's good to come here..so peaceful this city is.

I used to feel happy for that.Maybe thats one of the reasons,when i got a transfer in my government job to some other town nearby,i didn't shift fully.
I commute 2 hours every day back and forth.

X doesn't know this..because i don't write a letter that often.

So i decided take that afternoon off from office.And i was thinking as maybe we could meet for dinner.

The day also came.I was well dressed.

There are a few days,when we really look so radiant,happy and confident.And the thing is,it shows very obviously in our face.People take a second look at you.
On that day,even in office,the same thing happened to me.My neighbour lady colleagues asked me whether anything special today.Because they just related my afternoon off and radiance in the face, but to a altogether different reason....they thought some groom is coming to see me at home that evening.

How strange,people always conclude for this reason? And still strange, as why am not thinking of anything of that sort.

I say to them that it's not the case.I have plans of going out with my family in the evening to some place.

Women never leave a thing to settle down quickly.So even this didn't stop.They started asking me as whether my parents are looking out and how's it going?
I said,"No,i have no idea.will ask them and let you know".

Then they started talking as how much it'll cost to arrange a marriage,how lucky i am since i am working,how difficult it's going to be to manage both work and life.

It was funny to listen to all these things.But i didn't participate in the conversation.Because i wanted it die away soon.

And it did happen after an hour.
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I am still raking my brain as how i was planning to conclude the story....

1 billion downloads!

Atlast, Apple has achieved 1 billion downloads in 9 months...

Interestingly, around 21% of the apps are related to Games with 13% related to Entertainment... check this link for full stats.

And here is a perspective about the App Economy...

IPhone has single handedly altered the mobile market.
And IPhone wasn't a huge hit in India... :)

Wonder how it'll fare in China...

Also wonder whether the next 1 billion downloads will be at a more accelerated pace or slower...

Wish it is one of a kind Gold rush which wanes as time passes... But then, it might always surface back, as it is happening now in california :)

Finally, check out a few weird tests performed on the mobile.
I always wonder how exactly the back cover and battery come off, whenever i drop my MOT phone. Maybe, they are designed to be like that...still, it never ceases to surprise me...

Obama effect

Honestly, what else can be the reason for this insecurity?

If i were in Sarkozy's shoes, i would have definitely felt the same :)
Because this guy is more powerful than me due to his post, this guy is taller and leaner... :)

I am sure some people might say, look down...but it just doesn't come that easily ;)

Malaysian & Chinese Grandprix

What a disappointing races...

Somehow, i thought Malaysian was one of a kind slippage and things would be back on track for Chinese GP....so, eventhough i watched the race, didn't really want to crib about it over a post.
But Chinese seems to be worser...

I wonder what the hell is really going on in Ferrari camp...Is there any proper team coordination, teamspirit and stuff? Do people really understand what strategy is? And first of all, are these guys serious about winning any races?

First came the blunder of Massa waiting in the pit during Qualifying and thus ending up in 16th place in Malaysian GP...
Then came the blunder of wet tyres for Raikkonen in Malaysian GP...And there are rumours that schumi was the one who advised...Whether he did or not, what happened to the race engineer? Isn't he the one who's supposed to take the final shots??
Also what was that with Kimi having icecream so coolly after retiring from the race? We do understand that Kimi is cool about everything. But is he way too cool to be really serious?? It really looked as if he's least bothered about the whole thing...
And why was Massa shouting for a clean visor in such a frustrating, begging manner? What's going on inside the team?

Today, it was still more pathetic. His car just stopped..no grunting, no accident,nothing...just stops. It was surprising that he didn't bang the car in frustration. And this happens after removing KERS which was attributed to the non-reliability in previous 2 races!!!

And what exactly happened to Raikkonen in today's race? He was racing in 7th and ended up in 17th after a pit stop, that too on a 1 stop strategy...Eventhough, he climbed till 13th place or so, he was gradually being overtaken even in this position...

It is terribly frustrating...3 races gone and not a single point scored. The only other team with no points is Force-India! On top of that, great Stefano Dominicelli says the new diffuser rule will mean lot of redesign and that'll be ready only by Europe race time...Isn't it too late? What happened to those dominating days when everybody else used to play the catchup?

I wish these guys finish atleast in the point scoring place before Europe races...it's not easy to watch the race on TV when it's a non-ferrari on focus most of the times :)

Test your awareness

It happened during our team meeting. Over the end of the meeting, project manager(PM) asked us to wait for few mins. While we wondered what it is going to be, she connected her laptop to the projector and said she would like to show us some videos from Youtube.

And one of my colleague immediately said,"Ratings please. There are few fresh grads here."

Whole team started laughing. PM was smiling and wondering what to reply.
After few seconds, she mentioned that this was shown in the training last week and thought of sharing it with the team.

Below is the first video, a very interesting one.



At the end of the video, the PM asked us whether we saw the Bear. I replied yes. Whole team turned towards me with an admiring look. I replied,"Ofcourse, the second time...heh..heh". Many laughed, while some were giving an annoying look :):)

And below is the second one...


I didn't spot a single change...

Surangani

I first heard of this song during my NCC Trekking Camp in school days. As a part of the trekking camp, one of the night halts was in a church dormitory. We were all dead tired after a day long trek in the mountain and ready to crash. The church choir organized a small musical party and this was one of the songs sung by the Father (lyrics were totally different from the normal version. I guess it was about a fellow and his horse, don't remember the lyrics now). This was the only song which made me not to hate the musical party. Later, the senior fellows in the camp mentioned that this was a very popular song. Infact, when we returned by bus on the last day of the trek, this song was sung in the bus and thats when i heard the complete original set of lyrics. It was a very cool song when heard along with the clappings. Infact, the bus ended up with a real boisterous crowd. :)

Later, this became one of the default songs to be sung in all our college trips. Many non-tamilians weren't aware of this song, but they did pick it up very quickly. Almost always, "Roop Tere Mastana" was pitched as the next song...:)

Interestingly, no one ever knew the origin of the song. I used to think maybe it was a non-tamil tune with tamil version of lyrics.

The truth seems to be,it's a Sinhalese Baila song.
It was introduced as a remix in a Tamil movie by Illayaraja. Below is the movie clip. And it doesn't do justice to the real potent of this song when sung with clappings in a gang.



Here is a remix of this song titled,"America, America". Looks like the tune and the girl were meant to be slightly irritating. But it does convey the point :) I quite like the scene where Bush is looking at the dancing lady with an annoying smile! (1.50-1.54)

Crossing the line

KashmirLive is the news site from Indian Express group covering news from the Valley.

Here is an interesting article about the Cat and Mouse game played by the Army and Militants.

Wonder whether any kind of Human Tracking system can be implemented using GPS along the LOC...

Train journeys

Travelling in a train has its own charm which can be compared to none. And the first preference is 2nd class sitting followed by Sleeper class and the least preferred one is 3rd AC or anything else. There are several reasons for this preference list, varying from the dislike towards tinted glasses of the AC coaches to the uptight people of AC coaches. Although, nowadays one wonders as whether one is turning into the same kind of an uptight person!

* * *

Till college days, train travels were very limited. To be honest, guess this is one of the many reasons for not choosing any college in the native town :)

After joining college, travel by passenger train was part of the home trips. It was a 6 hour journey and one used to look forward to these trips. The thrill used to start in bunking 2 afternoon classes, then trying to catch a bus to central bus stand, getting down in a signal near station and running to the station so as not to miss the train :) My brother used to wonder why i make a great hullaballoo for every trip when one could easily catch a bus which takes only 5 hours. Well, one should never try to be too practical for everything. These were the trivial experiences which ought to be enjoyed to the fullest.

And the train used to be half empty almost all the times. One got to sit peacefully over a window seat, graze over the lush paddy fields & coconut trees, try counting the number of wagons attached to the freight trains, write about life, read novels and doze off in between...One even tried writing poems.(but wasn't a great success!)

Now that i am remembering those great days, i really seem to miss those lazy moments.

* * *

One of the other interesting part of the train journey used to be the conversations with fellow travellers. Generally, when people come to know as which college one was studying, there used to be an immediate increase in respect. This would be followed by questions as how one prepared for 12th public exam and entrance, tips for their son/daughter/nephew/niece and general guidance as what courses to be pursued after 12th.

Honestly, at that time, one did relish those moments, as it was considered as yet another attestation of one's achievement. Nowadays one seems to kind of detest this kind of change in respect... because all these things seem to overlook the individual as an individual. hmmm... who said people don't change over years? :)

There were also a few nice general conversations. Once there was a lady, who told her entire life story as where she was born, raised and how her life was at in-laws place. She was telling me that she really wanted to earn a bit and be slightly economically independent. I was suggesting her that she should learn tailoring, learn to do painting and embroidery work on clothes and gave example as how one lady near my place was earning so much by working from home itself. (That lady used to charge quite heavily for the painting works!)

And the other time, there was an old couple sitting next to me and the person was telling me about his career with Indian Railways. We also talked about India and life in general. Only one instance of the whole conversation is still fresh in my mind. While talking about life, he mentioned that one ought to compromise in a family. And my question was,"But how can one compromise always? There is only a limit to which one can compromise". His reply was,"Why do you try to set a limit over compromise? It should be done whole heartedly and to the fullest".

I never agreed fully at that time...but then, i never thought of the whole heartedness till he pointed out. Also, at the end of the conversation, when he was getting down on a station, he said it was a great pleasure talking to me and he hoped that i remain a good citizen and do good things for the country and wished me goodluck. I was surprised and very happy to hear his words.

* * *

So overall, there were quite a few nice moments of train journey during college life...

Nowadays, not sure whether one is the same person. Because, not often one attempts to strike a conversation with fellow travellers. There is always a professional distance. Maybe, as we grow old, we end up having lot of secrets in life or we become more appreciative of personal space or we seem to get easily annoyed over other individuals trying to ask questions about our personal lives. And honestly, we, Indians, are so curious about everything. The moment a person strikes a conversation, one wants to know his/her life story including one's job, salary, family, marital status,etc....

Few weeks ago, i was waiting in the railway station to catch a train over the weekend. A person was sitting next to me. Apparently, he's from a place near to my city. When he enquired about my destination, he was happy and immediately striked a conversation. 5 mins into the conversation, he started asking as how the recession is affecting our industry in India. 10 mins into the conversation, he asked me where i was working(both past and present). 20 mins into the conversation, he enquired about my marital status and started talking as how difficult it's to find a matching groom/bride nowadays, how in his days, he married the first girl whom his mother found for him. 30 mins into the conversation, he enquired about my caste and asked about the belief over horoscope. And luckily, the train arrived. If the conversation had continued, he would've for sure started matchmaking discussion. And the thing is, the person was so open to talk about his life and he seemed to expect the same from others... So, one can't even snap off easily. One ends up giving bits and pieces of information in all round about manner out of politeness.
On top of all this, at the end, when he came to know that i have booked a sleeper class ticket, he joked as whether it was a recession effect. I was actually ready to run off from that place, still smiled and said that i prefer sleeper class for an overnight sleep. And for that, he replied,"Yes, thats a very smart move. Only if a day journey is involved, AC coach makes sense".

So, eventhough, one politely dodges all the questions to a maximum extent, it's a totally tiring act. One has to be really careful as what to be said and what not. I truly regretted for sitting near that person.

* * *

This is exactly the reason why nowadays, whenever one gets into the train, one starts listening to the IPod...So, this virtually shuts the outside world. At times, this makes the kids/children in the same compartment more curious about us :)

And last week, on an afternoon return journey, i tried the same. Got into the train. There were other individuals sitting and reading paper or chatting. I was the first one to take the IPod out. It successfully played the first video. Then it stopped. No more music to be heard. When one tried to play the music, it just didn't play it. After every few seconds, it automatically skipped to the next song. It was utterly frustrating. No amount of staring at the IPod seemed to make it work :)

So, one was left with an option to either read the novel, "The Sea" or open a long pending Kakuro puzzle book. I tried reading the novel and it just wasn't the right moment to read it. So ended up with the puzzle book. It was the first time i was trying to solve this puzzle and it seemed to be slightly difficult than sudoku. On top of that, there was only pencil and no eraser. It isn't easy to write the numbers on corners and figure out for the whole grid. So, one did end up cursing Apple dev team for writing such a pathetic IPod software :)

* * *

And the next day, when i connected the IPod to comp, iTunes detects a corruption in the IPod and i was asked to Restore the IPod. Interesting, because this is the first time, it had happened.

True roots

Here is an ad which i have never seen before. Thats because i am in India and this is meant to those who are trying to stick to their true roots(India) while hanging over the sky (non-India) ;) (only pun intended :))



Music is great. And the more food than plate is totally amazing :)
I disagree with a few things in the ad - the more spice than food, nodding for yes doesn't apply for all Indians.

This is another ad for the same brand. Looks quite highly exaggerated.(Or is this the real truth?)



The site "whydowedothis" is interesting. One learning from a comment is ABCDs are also termed as coconuts - Brown outside white inside...wonder who coin these "spot on" terms :)

Great or No Leader?!

Well, i am pretty sure this post is going to make some people use curse words as "WTF" or smile disapprovingly with a reply,"Oh...please".

Either way, this is going to be written :)

There were few official trainings at office. One particular slide in yesterday's training made me smile noddingly. Following is the content of the slide.
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Lao Tzu has discovered this truth 2500 years ago...

A bad leader is one who is despised by people.
A good leader is one who is revered by people.
A great leader is one who makes people say,"we did it ourselves".
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Here is the exact quote from Lao Tzu - "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." (Link)

Once the presenter finished explaining this slide, i asked him a question,"As per the last line, great leader seems to be equal to no leader. In that case, there might also be an instance where the Team achieved success with no contribution from the leader."
He smiled and said,"Yes, theoretically, that is correct. But, very rarely, one finds such a team. So, most of the times, there is always a great leader behind".

This reminded me of a conversation with my previous team member. He was ruminating over the point that he had a nice time in the previous team. I promptly replied that it was also because of me as a team lead. His reply was,"Oh, please. No. The team was great. We were the right set of people".

So, it was either one of those rare teams...or the team leader was great ;) :)

Post race fiasco

So Trulli was awarded 3rd place after the race. Few hours later, Stewards identify that Trulli had overtaken Hamilton when Safety Car was out, which is against the rules. Trulli was penalized and Hamilton was awarded 3rd place. Few days later, fresh evidences surface proving that Hamilton let Trulli overtake him when Safety car was out and didn't reveal the same to Stewards when questioned after the race.

Now Stewards are totally pissed off because their decision was wrong and it was wrong because Lewis Hamilton and McLaren misled them. Stewards have realized their wrong decision and now awarded the 3rd place back to Trulli and disqualified Hamilton.

Here is the Press Release about Stewards decision - containing the evidences. The video present in Youtube seems to be removed due to FIA Copyright claim!

But, what is the punishment for deliberately misleading(and thus cheating) the Stewards? That too a team which was caught in a spying scandal and punished heavily...

Apparently, McLaren has decided not to appeal against this! And here is the Q&A with McLaren team boss, Martin Whitmarsh.

Interestingly, are the Brits thinking that Hamilton has been treated unfairly? Check the BBC poll, 66% among 24815 voters say Yes.

Wonder how F1 would be without Hamilton? hmm....probably slightly different!

Note : "The Greatest" contest is on espnstar.com. Schumi is leading with a whopping majority :)