The Tarmac Kisser.

So, what are my options?

2015-11-14T05:06:00.003+05:30

It was the winter of 2013 when I first set my sights on the Nexus 5. It was a huge and satisfying upgrade from my Galaxy Ace (I am never going back to Samsung until it does something about its touchwiz crap). As I come close to celebrating my 2 year phone anniversary, I look around and see everyone has upgraded or is in the process of changing their phone. It has become mighty difficult to keep track of all the phones being launched left, right & center.

We discuss the pros and cons of different phones regularly. As a result of all these discussions, I am slowly and sadly realising, nothing in the phone world is coming close to exciting me.

Why doesn't any new phone launch excite me anymore! Whether performance or design, there has been hardly any incremental progress since 2013 Oct. My Nexus 5 is still going strong.

Here is a list of what my points of contention have been so far -

5 inches screen size with a width no more than 7 cm is what I feel is the optimum for my left hand (my primary phone holding device). The large gawky phones being launched with weird dimensions and screen sizes are making me sigh in disbelief and despair.

Performance wise, I have noticed minor lags (btw am talking about the app menu scrolling, not in game graphics) even in the phones claiming to be the fastest. The Nexus scrolls like lightning even today - the same as the winter of 2013. Phone makers - stuffing the phone with octacores and hexacores wont make it fast on ground. You must tweak the OS to extract the juice from the cores, but I am sure you already knew that.

Phones are this generation's cameras. I accept and confirm the fact. So you have a 20 MP camera and you have a 13 MP selfie camera. I wonder what minuscule fraction of smartphone users ever, and I mean, EVER, transfer their photos to a computer or view it on any other device other their phone! Essentially, what that means is the 20 MP/10 MB photo you just took of your breakfast cereal (or dog, or the stupid cloud rabbit), is going to sit in your phone memory until the end of time.

Large photos on phone brings me next to screens - some phone have come up with QHD screens, (2560X) against the FullHD (1920X) which I must say is a real upgrade, not just on performance but on battery emptying abilities. I seriously doubt what good is a "mobile" phone which is always connected to the wall.

I know you need to pack a mountainous battery into the phone because that is probably the only real upgrade over the years worth mentioning. Median mAH specifications have moved from mid 2000s to mid 3000s. I am not sure how well have these numbers translated to real life performance. However, if it makes your phone fat, the upgrade is at a cost of an important looks/weight factor. A phone should be sleek. Anything fatter than 8 mm needs a diet.

One plus looked good for some time but after trying them out, I don't feel they are as "awesome" as the exclusivity makes you feel about them. Apart from the invite only concept, the fingerprint scanner (oh yes, that's all I ever needed -sic-) and new body material (One X onyx) are the things that made me sit up and listen, albeit only for a few weeks.

Moto has been going great guns with its solid X and G range (clutterfree OS and attractive pricing) have been great additions to the phone ecospace. But the phones feel like sideways upgrade options compared to Nexus considering that the latter was launched eons ago.

Samsung thinks everyone in the world is a fool and will simply empty their banks for the wireless charging (which promises to solve the world wire tangling problems once and for all) and curved screens (which promises to save your date and fit into your back pocket) . No, Samsung. No! Even Nexus 4 had wireless charging. Put your money with your mouth is. Or mouth where the money..whatever.

Phone makers - please note that fingerprint scanners, facial recognition, retina scanning, dna matching and whatever else you may think of in future for helping an old Joe like me "unlock" their phone is just an additional piece of sorcery that I will never use to "unlock" my phone. The nine grid pattern unlock is the coolest thing ever.

So really, what are my options?

Maybe, I need to look for something other than a phone to upgrade. Like my microwave perhaps.

Later.

PS: Don't say Apple. If you do, I will find you and I will hide your phone. For a week.

Kolkata diaries #1

2014-04-30T01:16:00.002+05:30

It's been almost a month since I moved out of Siliguri and travelled a few hundred kilometres south to settle down in Kolkata. However, the unsettling heat and traffic have not made it easy. The month has been long and mostly eventful, but not relevant enough to be detailed here. Several firsts and a few seconds came my way. But the summary at the end of month is something I thought I should note down.

The great city of Kolkata has still not lost it's touch of nostalgia that it infects its inhabitants with. Coincidentally, I have to travel through the same routes to the same place I did I lived here the last time.

I found a decent place to stay at an exorbitant rent. I found a roommate/colleague to share the rent and other utility bills with. Eventually, there will be tales of him that will make their way to the blog too. The place I have taken up is on the eight floor, which is incidentally the top floor of the apartment building. The summers are as hot as horrible as they were when I left East India for my masters back in 2010. Probably, they have worsened over the years, thanks to global warming.

Of all the things that make life here tough, nothing is worse than the serious dearth of a yellow cab that is not already hired. Over the years, the number of cabs have gone up significantly in Kolkata. "There are over 150,000 cabs in Kolkata", informed one statistic friendly cabbie one day. I was wondering why is it that there is never one around when I needed it, when he added, "but there are also 1 crore people living here". I am not sure if he used the floating population calculation method but I deferred to the wikipedia app on my phone. Whatever be the statistic, the probability or ability of finding a cab is something I don't think I will be able to improve in the near future.

The second thing that makes life a daily debacle here is the inescapable aroma of samosas, jalebis, assorted rolls and chats that tells some part of the brain how hungry you just became. It took great effort on my part to kick the habit of unhealthy snacking, or even snacking altogether in a hopeless bid to control my weight gain.

And the final thing, is of course the loquacious bai, who is interested in how much rent we pay, when are you getting married, what is your increment like, which is basically everything I stand for. I am hoping, in a couple of months she will also advise on sound investment options.

But things aren't all the bad. There are some places that make living it worth the while, the numerous eateries dotting the length and breadth of the metro, the metro (which obviously is too crowded during business opening and closing hours), the new job, new friends and "Some place else". With this post, notwithstanding any dues or pending bills, I declare myself officially resettled in this new (and hopefully) promising phase of life (in a metro. Yes, that bit was supposed to be cheeky)

Later.

Exit mode.

2014-03-20T23:17:00.000+05:30

So a couple of weeks ago, I put in my resignation. It was like a soft dismissal, caught behind. My bosses were not shocked, but slightly confused. I received a few calls in the next couple of days from the bosses, and their bosses, and their bosses, everyone trying to find out why was I resigning. The predicament was, even I was unsure about the politically correct reason, and was working on fine tuning it as I was having these discussions. The story so far was, I got another job.

Answers do this thing of taking their own sweet time to come to you.

In any case, in a few days as things began to settle down, the exit mode began to set in. Let me make it very clear that not for one moment did I like my job or the situation I was in. But when the time to exit was fixed, I was inclined to think of it in a different light.

In fact, the realisation that dawned upon me was that I was going to irrevocably die in the current role. Subconsciously, I started drawing parallels between the last days of a person's life and the notice period of a job. The fact that I read "Tuesdays with Morrie" recently didn't help either.

In death, a person ends all the roles he or she has been playing during the lifetime, the role of a father, a sister, a wife or a grandmother. What we don't realise is that even during our lifetime, we experience the end of several roles.

However, either in our eagerness to enter into the next role or because we are caught up updating our Facebook status messages or sharing what we had for lunch on Whatsapp that we overlook these little transitions. It can be anything small such as leaving home for a job or ending things with a lover or as in this case, quitting your job. While we do not see it right then, but on a rainy sunday afternoon when there is no company around except your cup of coffee you begin to remember all these memories, things you used to love, used to say, used to hate, used to yearn for. And you will find that all of it is really gone, forever.

Coming back to my situation, I was into the penultimate week of my time with the organisation. And I was working harder than ever, trying to finish things I knew I did not have enough time to finish. I was putting in more hours into work than ever, and my friends, completely taken aback at the new found dedication called me a fool. I knew it was not going to make any difference to my new job, or to my old job for that matter.

No one comes after you to question your motives, intent or actions in the afterlife. However, someone on the death bed still attempts to fix as many things as he or she can in the limited time he or she has. That's why people have all these weird bucket lists.

But once you take time to sit back and think about it, the reason one tries to finish things is to make the life for others easier. Others, who he or she is leaving behind and cares for. Somehow, it turns into a race for life, a race against time, a race which you will inevitably lose and time will most certainly win. You will wonder, if there is a secret way to win the race, just once to beat time. The way to win is rather simple and somewhat an open secret. It is something people keep sharing, liking and re-sharing on Facebook, reading in Paulo Coelho's books and forgetting about before going to bed.

Try putting a bit of life into the living around you every day, so one day you are surrounded by life. Touch people, make a mark in their lives. Finish one thing everyday, from the list of things you want to do before dying. Let go of things worth dying for, they are really not worth it and hold on to things worth living for. Write, recite and email. Click photos with friends, family and strangers. Become timeless, live beyond your mortal body. And most importantly, be ready for the inevitable.

In any case, I will be in my next job, in a new city, a new role by next month. I can only hope, that my existence is not totally wiped out from the memories and email memos.

Later.

Heavy lid.

2013-01-08T22:04:00.001+05:30

Every human is a vessel. A human takes in a lot right from the moment they are conceived. As a person grows older, the things absorbed keep becoming lower in quantity and higher on quality. Only new experiences, learning and people find space in the psyche, before they are overwritten by even newer things. However, some things make a mark. Last a lifetime.

So what happens when a person takes in a lot of information, feelings, emotions. The same that happens when you pour 300 ml into a 220 ml container. Everything overflows. Now this transcends in different forms for different people. Some have a breakdown, some people have an explosive meltdown and yet others simply expand their horizons to places they have never been to. There is no right way to do this, just like a contradictory psychometric test, you simply have to take it and move on, the end results are not that important however relevant.

Coming back to the topic, let me take you to the first time man boiled water. It so must have happened that some enterprising young man or woman would have taken to a bowl of soup one fine evening and started boiling water. The water eventually must have boiled to a point where it started bubbling and spilling out of the pot. At this time, the enterprising young man or woman must have covered the same with a heavy lid.

We must take a very important lesson from the above. A lid is very important part of our lives. At the end of everyday or every weekend or every annual closing we seem to feel that we are at out wits ends, we are filled with desolation, despair, are emotionally lost. Remember, that your water is boiling out of control, and that you need to find that lid. It can be anything from a stress ball to a quick round of temple run on your smartphone. Whatever you do, make sure you keep all your water inside the kettle and don’t let it spill. After all, it’s your life and your soup.

Later

When the mountains called.

2012-10-11T00:21:00.001+05:30

When I was in college, on some evenings the need to walk down and up the hill engulfed me as my weight kept bearing down on me. Since I started with my work, I never had another opportunity to actually do something similar. Until last weekend.

It was one of the rare 2 day off weekends and I was still in bed wondering how to while away the time. At 0708 hours I got a call from my friendly colleague/trekking enthusiast asked me if I was interested to join him and another colleague on a small 2 day trip to the hills. All I asked him was what was I supposed to pack and where do I meet them. 30 minutes later I was with them and we embarked on what I can definitely claim to be one of the best experiences of my life.

Day 1

We started off the first leg of our journey to Teesta in a Tata Spacio, and that was when I realized. how beautiful this part of the country was. As we sped along, trees raced past us, it was the first time in months I had seen so much greenery. Little did I know, what awaited my in the later part of the day. But we will come to that later. In a little over an hour, we got to the coronation bridge on the Teesta river and picked up a noisy bunch of travellers who filled up the rear seats and kept us awake for the rest of our journey until Teesta.

Milepost near Coronation Bridge

The first stop at Teesta. (River Teesta)

Another 30 kilometers later we were there, and we had our first break and our first cup of tea on. While we waited for the bus to Kalimpong to arrive, I could not help notice the hills which now surrounded us. Covered with dense forests the mountains promised an adventurous weekend ahead.

The bus to Kalimpong finally arrived and we were lucky enough to get ourselves some seats, albeit it was the last row. In a few stops, the bus filled up to the brim, and there was hardly any space to breathe. We reached Kalimpong another hour later. The town was a quaint one, streets filled with tourists, schoolchildren, jeeps, hawkers and locals. I was low on cash, so I looked around for ATM booths. I located a couple, but both were out of order. Meanwhile my fellow travellers had located a snack house. It had a really low roof first floor, and the food was horrible too. But that was done and we were back at the bus stand, where apparently there were no buses but dozens of Mahindra and Tata jeeps, which were fast proving to be the lifelines of the mountains.

Our original plan was to get to Lava and trek to Rishop, but we could not find anyone willing to go to Lava. So we decided to get to a midpoint called Algarah and try our luck there. Another 40 minutes later, we were at Algarah. It was an even smaller town with a few quaint houses and shops. Most importantly, it had an ATM that worked. However, once again we could not find anyone willing to to take us to Lava. So we hired an Omni to take us midway to “6th mile” (which I don’t know signified what). But anyways, we left our vehicle and started walking along the mountain path to Rishop.

The climb up the mountain to Rishop

It was my first attempt at trekking since the pathetic ones since college. The path we walked on was beautiful, we were surrounded by Himalayan forests, and the altitude brought the temperature down. In a matter of minutes I was out of breath, unlike my experienced colleague who advised me to continue at my own pace taking as many breaks as I wanted. After some time, I was used to the thinner air and trudged on, albeit with numerous breaks. We walked for nearly 4-5 kilometers and reached Rishop 40 minutes later. As the mercury dipped, I wondered if my thin shirts would hold against the biting cold later in the night.

Rishop 1600 hours

It was nearly 4 by the time we reached Rishop. We looked around a bit and found a place which seemed to be the highest livable point on the hill and dropped our bags there. We decided to check out Tifindara, which was the nearest viewpoint (around 1km uphill) for viewing the Kanchenjunga. The view from Tifindara was something else altogether. It showed us very clearly the valley below, villages, farms and the clouds floating above them. It gave us a feeling of being above everything worldly. We were already at a height of more than 8000 ft and the climate was foggy and cold. I was exhausted to the bone, but at the same was time relishing it. Children playing outside, birds singing and the overall calming effect of the mountain air, brought me peace if only for a day.

The food was simple and wholesome, and we had little to complain about. The temperatures dropped fast as darkness engulfed the mountain top. The water was really cold and we had some trouble falling asleep because of the cold, in spite of being thoroughly exhausted from the day’s travel.

Day 2

Little did I know, that the second day had greater surprises waiting for me. We woke up way before the sun, at around 4 am. My colleagues decided to race the sun to Tiffindara so that they could get a clear view of the Kanchenjunga.

Kanchenjunga 0455 hours

I on the other hand, lazier of the lot, decided to walk around the backyard/viewing point of my room which was incomparably awesome as well (see pics above and below). Soon, the precipice was bustling with other travellers who had come from nearby hotels to see the Kanchenjunga in all it’s morning grandeur. As the sun inched over the mountains in the east, we could see the first rays paint a golden red shade on the otherwise faint outline of the Kanchenjunga. The sight was mesmerizing. I don’t think I could describe the sight, even if it were to save my life. I will let the pictures do the talking.

The backyard view to Kanchenjunga 0830 hours

We pulled out easy chairs onto the precipice and had our morning tea and breakfast in full view of the mountain range, majestic and white. At around 9, we cleared our bills, packed out bags, bid adieu to the Kanchenjunga and started out trek to Lava. Just as we descended from Rishop hilltop, we had a surprise awaiting us. The village houses had pretty gardens, with flowers of every possible colour. A photographer’s delight! We spend some time admiring them and then continued on our journey. Again, I was out of breath in a few minutes but I did continue right behind my fitter colleagues, not giving up yet.

Lava 1400 hours

An hour and a half later we reached Lava. Lava was much larger and more populated than Rishop. It was a full blown tourist spot, accessible by proper roads unlike Rishop where you had to choose between backbreaking jeep ride or an uphill trek. We had momos and coffee for a snack and went for a quick trip to the monastery in Lava. It reminded me of the numerous monasteries I used to frequent during my days in Bodh Gaya. Something I would not like relive. In any case, we hired a vehicle to take us up to Mount Rachela at a height of 10000 ft. It was a 7 kilometer bone shaking ride up the uninhabited mountain top. From here, we could see the entire path we took while trekking from Rishop to Lava cutting across several mountains on the way. This place too had prayer flags tied to strings fluttering wildly in the wind. My experienced colleague explained that the locals believed that the winds tend to carry spirits from the netherworld and so they put up the prayer flags at windy places to prevent them from becoming haunted. Logical, if you are superstitious. However, I loved them for their beautiful colours and placement.

^{Prayer flags on top of Rachela peak}

Soon we returned to Lava to catch the 2 30 pm bus to Kalimpong. Instead, we found another jeep which was going to Gorubathan instead. This would help us reduce our journey time back to Siliguri by a couple of hours. So we hopped in and travelled back to Damdim. On the way back we descended fast and we passed several tea gardens and farms which practices step farming in the mountains. The air became warmer gradually and more and more dusty as we approached our destination. We were at Damdim by 430 pm where we parted ways with one of our colleagues who had to go back to Jalpaiguri. We took the next bus to Siliguri and I slept off. happily exhausted and silently content. I woke up once when we were crossing the coronation bridge. I must mention, although it was almost dark, I could see the Teesta river gushing below us in full flow. We reached Siliguri at 6 30 in the evening and we parted ways promising to share photos over the next few days.

Later.

P.S: I was amazed to see I had full network coverage when at such altitudes. Must say, I was impressed by Vodafone.

Ghaziabad diaries

2012-08-30T20:01:00.001+05:30

As my stint at Ghaziabad draws to a close, I look back at the couple of weeks that went by really fast. After the Bodhgaya stint which was, to say the least, an eye opening and skin darkening experience like no other, a month in Ghaziabad (NCR) was a welcome change.

First things first, food was immensely more suitable to my palate that the fare I had to deal with back in good ol’ Lord Buddha’s abode. With the first meal, I was somewhat certain that I was going to gain back all the lost pounds. And then some. The change in my address was again a helping hand to give me some peace of mind and adequate level of security that was ensured by the society guards where I was stationed for the month. Again, another improvement considering the streets of semi-urban Bihar rife with aggressive young men with poor social and outstanding skirmishing skills. After two months of nearly complete isolation I finally found solace in the company of fellow trainees. Not that I am a vociferous social animal but I could now take advantage of all those combo deals at restaurants and share auto fares ^_^. And have someone to express my animosities during the otherwise silent meals I have had for the past two months. Other than that, it’s always a good to have a friends nearby. If someone asked me, if I have gained some confidence after the first few months of being employed, my answer would be a yes. And then quickly a no at the back of my head. The trick is in being confident about exuding confidence rather than having any at all. That part can be sorted out later (read never). But that’s how this world works, or maybe I am just rambling. All in all, walk the walk, but don’t talk unless you are sure what you are talking about.

By this time, I think some of you must have already guessed the flow of this post. It’s along lines similar to the uber-popular pyramid of needs (everyone seems to know about/talk about it these days, no more the closely guarded secret of management studies). If you had not guessed it so far, then I have also provided the diagrammatic depiction of the pyramid (source is of course Wikipedia) for your reference at the end of this post.

There will be certainly no prizes for guessing what my final para is going to be about. I have had little opportunity to explore my problem solving abilities or creativity. But of all the different instances that come to my mind, there are two events that are tied for first place when I felt most “actualized”. Help me choose. One was when I was wolfing down KFC’s 26 pc chicken wings bucket with my ~very safety oriented~ friend, Abhay and the other was boogying to ‘Hari and Sukhmani live’ with SIBMates, Aditya and Srusthi.

Later.

The livelier wheels.

2012-06-22T17:41:00.001+05:30

As it happens, I was returning from Gaya to Patna after a week of work related stay in Bodhgaya. The person who was supposed to drop me off at the station, did drop me off with a smile and two pieces of information. You have passenger trains in every half hour and the ticket costs Rs 15/- (Gaya to Patna is approximately 100 kms).

He was right but not entirely as the next train was two hours away. Without an option I decided to look for a spot. To sit of course but I couldn’t find any under the shade. So I settled for one in the sun (it was 4 pm), that was near a IRCTC snacks counter. Between holding my breath to avoid taking in the usual “smells” of the railway line and keeping an eye on the counter attendant, I decided this was the first time in days I had a couple of hours to myself. While I held on to my “spot”, in the couple of hours I saw the platform swell with humanity and then become empty with every passing train.

Meanwhile, I was playing with my own apprehensions. I was a traveller no doubt, but never a passenger. And had definitely never travelled on a passenger train. I had a couple of bags and without a seat, I didn’t know if I could last the 3 and a half hour journey standing. As the train pulled into station, I could see a massive tsunami of local population build up everywhere, there was literally no space to stand. The overhead bridge, the platform, the ground on the other side of the tracks, even the tracks had people on them waiting to jump on the oncoming train. As the train slowed down, a mad scramble ensued wherein passengers tried to disembark with all their belongings intact, living or dead (yes, some had goats and others had bicycles as their luggage). I saw others trying to “mark” their seat with hanky, towels, the Re 1 newspaper they just bought on the platform (“Abtak Bihar”). I had a realization, I have a handkerchief too! And thus I threw it, and “marked my spot”. Once aboard, I recovered my kerchief and claimed my prized seat!

The time taken to cover the 100 kms was excruciatingly long and filled with cries of different sorts. Hawkers selling groundnuts, pea nuts, fries, orange flavoured “pepsi” (seriously) and more Re 1 newspapers (now in colour!). About 10 stations later a young boy a little girl of 3 or 4 sat down beside me, the little girl was exhausted and kept falling asleep on me. This would not have been that significant except a few stations later, a group of enthusiastic mourners boarded the train with a dead body which they were probably planning to cremate in Patna. I would have been aghast at the sight but I only realized what were they shouting about when we reached Patna when I decided to take the “door less taken” to alight. It was only later I realized why that particular door was being avoided by the rest of the travellers. Well, all I could think of is, that’s life and then there is of course death.

Later.

The only time for rest.

2012-06-16T23:51:00.001+05:30

There are many things are happening around me and with me, I want to write about it, but I get so tired by the time I reach the laptop in the evening that.. all I can do is prepare for the next day. :|

In any case, I want to keep a personal journal as to what happened today. The day began with an auto ride to Gaya, which tragically ended with the auto trying to share the same space at the same time as that of a mango cart. So as the auto hit the stand, the mangoes tumbled down onto the street as fast the as passengers tumbled out of the auto and disappeared into the crowd. I took another auto and finally reached Gandhi maidan after overshooting to the fire-station and a reverse pickup by one of the MDs.

Once on the state highway, the temperature soared to 44 odd degree Celsius, but the speedometer managed to keep the mercury’s company never daring to move above 45. With the loo in full flow, I managed to get the traditional piece of cloth I knew for sure was going to save my life and wrapped it around my head for dear life. My head stopped burning instantly and I got instant enlightenment to why all terrorists look the way they do. The bandana thing not only helps you hide your identity but cools your head during a tough mission as well.

Another 70 Kms away, we reached a place called Kurtha or kurda or something which apparently had a power outage for a month and a dearth of bottled water or any water in chilled condition. The only way we could quench out thirst was with the help of a person who was running an ice-factory on generator power and helped us chill a couple of bottles of water in his ice. May the lord bless his ice factory.

On the way back, we could see Laluji’s festoons every few ks and began to anticipate the worst. An election convoy making its way towards us for a speech thing arranged on the decorated village ground we just passed. Thankfully we managed to reach the outskirts of Gaya, before the convoy of a 100 vehicles, SUVs, cars, bikes, autos passed us as we waited on the footpath.

Making my way to Bodhgaya from gaya on the auto, I was filled with visions from the fiasco earlier that morning. In any case, I hung on to the rods for dear life with only 2.66” of seat left for me to sit on. After enduring 25 minutes of bhojpuri music on full volume, which seemingly kept playing the same lines all over again every 3 minutes, I reached the hotel.

Later.

Just another Summer @BBSR

2012-05-01T01:01:00.002+05:30

Hello world

I was dead, but recent happenings have awakened me from my deep slumber. For one, I am nearly done with my student life and am about to say goodbye to all things nice and tasty (For example, the add on Credit card from dad).

Am back from Pune, and although I am happy to be home, am unhappy with the temperatures that keep soaring like a Sivakasi rocket on a diwali night. But then I love the untimely showers that break the mercury's flight along with a few trees and automobiles in the city. All in all, it's a mixed bag. Just the other day, I was so bored that I actually decided to visit the local museums. It was indeed a historical day out.

Thereafter I have been awaiting my passport to arrive. After 2 years, a few weeks is nothing is comparision. I paid the passport office an ominous visit again, just like a pilgrim who would want to wash his sins after a semester of wrong doings.

Oh, and aai (my maternal grandma) arrived to fill the space for my mum, who is absent from the scene still spending time with father. And boy oh boy is she the lady with a mission (grandma I mean). She would cook up something to eat and feed me all day long. She is going to fatten me up like a goat being prepared for the sacrificial altar. Sometimes I think it's the love, or maybe it's just the cholesterol speaking.

As the first half of my final long holiday draws to a close, I must say it has been a wonderful time at home, although I don't know how much of a home it is now...

Later

P.S: The last week brought some shocking revelations but I don't think I am obliged to discuss them here. Only thing, they caused me a lot of disturbance and dread. Hopefully, it will pass. Amen

They call me names.

2012-02-23T03:01:00.001+05:30

As I enter the final leg of my life at Symbi, Lavale (and away from it, given the point of time I am writing this post), I am still waiting for the moment when I start feeling nostalgic about things, moments, places, people. People keep asking me critical questions all the time which have rather silly answers that I don’t want to provide right there lest I look like a moron. Hence, this post.

The Traveller.

Now this is something which is characteristic of me at many levels. The apparent reason is because I have travelled somewhere near 20000 kms using a combination of popular modes of transportation including but not limited to buses, flights, cars, trains, motorbikes and my trusty pair of legs. I also travelled in terms of my credentials, from a Bachelors’ in technology to a Masters in Human Resources management. People look at me now as if I am someone now, and not the nobody I was a couple of years ago. I wonder what has brought out this sudden revelation –sic- . Now that the apparent reason is un-curious-ified, the not to apparent one needs to delineated. I interacted with a number of people directly and indirectly, understood them or misunderstood them, all this while learning more and more about them , their dreams, aspirations, schemes, plans, mental maps. These interactions have been responsible for innumerable crests and troughs which if measured in clicks would easily surpass the aforementioned physical aggregate. I wish I could have emerged unscathed but we all know how impossible that is, but I try to minimize the damage from the fallout. The rules are the same as in the real world. Duck, cover your head and pray. My gtalk status reads, “The traveller”.

The Prioritizer.

Life becomes very simple to lead if you know which turn to take whenever you meet a fork in the road. It’s called decision making, and is simply the one unavoidable aspect of living that connects your past with your present, your regrets and your successes, your friends and your enemies and sometimes your life and death. The ideal situation would be when one could take any decision without it having any adverse consequences. But it would be better for one to realize that we live in a universe where limitations are a reality and exceptions are rules. I will reveal my talisman of decision making in the hope that some of you who have little clue on how to go about it, could benefit from the same. It’s simple really, all you have to do is decide what is more important to you, and taking which decision will bring you closer to it. Heh. Yes the trick lies not in the talisman but in the process of prioritizing. You see, if you have your priorities sorted, you will have little to be apprehensive in life. It’s like having a loaded dice in while playing snakes and ladders. You get ladders when you want them, where you want them. But prioritizing can be a real pain, because everything you have ever wanted, owned or known has a priority attached, and this level of importance dynamically changes with passage of time, and with every new decision you take. Keeping track of them is indeed a critical task. All I can say is, good luck to all of us with sorting our lives out.

The Right-doer.

I like being right all the time. How many of us don’t? It’s not possible though, and the times when I feel I am wrong, I react. Sometimes I am in denial mode, at other times I may become aggressive or even violent. This obsession with being right has consumed me. There is something I want to clarify with everyone else. Being wrong is not bad, but wanting to be right all the time is. There are times when you are wrong, gladly accept the mistakes you have made and don’t repeat them. It’s important to be righteous, and never as important to be right.

Later.

Don't be afraid

2011-12-16T01:47:00.002+05:30

A new beginning is always symbolic. Sometimes its the untangling of the mess we make of our lives. At other times its about calming the whirlwind of troubles we get into. Sacrifices are always made in such situations. Some by ourselves, but most by others who aren't a part of the newness.

The heart bleeds for the olden days. Like the smell of an old tome, the memories of the past will always be trapped in the book of our lives. If you miss them, you can turn back to the old pages for a whiff, and a read. But the new pages need to be written, for the book must go on.

Predicaments will hover around you like mendicants all your life. My advice, don't support beggary. Give them a coin of your precious peace and they will ask for two more tomorrow.

Always count the blessings, not the curses. For curses are far too many to number, but the few blessings we get in our lifetime will always be enough to get over all your curses. And make sure, when doing something or refraining from something, that it will not be regretted the day after.

Look for success, be excited at the prospect of great achievements. They give meaning to your efforts. And remember, a new beginning will not always be new. A life is stringed together by a number of new beginnings. Don't be afraid.

Later.

P.S: Happy New Year. And Take care

Sometimes I forget how to.

2011-09-08T20:19:00.000+05:30

It's been so long that I forget how to write. Write for myself that is. I know how to put words to paper, a lot of them actually. Some making sense, others simply nonsense. Sometime you need to write for yourself. Not for your readers, not for marks, not for money. Write to pass time, write to lighten your load, write to enlighten your road. You can choose to write nonsense too, but that's not point. You can do other things too, like read a comic and imagine what would it be to create flames from your palms, watch mindless sitcoms in search of meaning of life, listen to music to drown yourself in the superficial silence. The daily deafening drone. It bores the life out of your nostrils. You don't even feel like breathing.

That's when you realize you have a blog you can escape to. I mean twitter, facebook, google+ are all ok. But sometimes, you need make time for the unsocial you. I don't know if that's even a thing with people. Being unsocial. Maybe it's a phase. It's that time of your life, or your day (to make it less melodramatic) when you -

don't feel like chatting with any person online on FB or Gtalk
can't think of those make believe clever retorts on twitter
don't have assignments which you have to try and escape (get it done by someone else)
can't think of smarties to get a sizable number (enough to guarantee a good night sleep) of likes/comments on FB
have downloaded and read all the free comics you could find comixology
have listened/skipped through all the tracks on your iPod (even on shuffle!) twice.

Think you have a pretty good idea of what I want to express. (Any more hints and you'd start predicting my daily routine with heightened accuracy). I like a little uncertainty. Just a little, not to much. Like right now, I am uncertain about why my left eye is twitching incurably since last night. Maybe I am getting some superpowers from using this new blogger interface. Maybe not. I mean what are the chances of that. I don't expect any of you to know the answer to that. The only thing that could probably answer that is the onboard computer on "The heart of gold". Yes, I finished reading the first Hitchhiker's book. Twice.

Sometimes, I wonder if they should have a measure for levels of boredom. Or panic for that matter. (Happiness and sadness would be too easy to measure). Another exciting metric would be the level of horniness. Would be a life saver. Enough. Am bored already.

Later.

P.S: Am so bored, am going to look for synonyms for bored. So that I don't get bored of saying I am bored too many times. I mean, have you ever wondered what would happen if people get bored of getting bored. If you ask me, I think that is the day, the world will come to an end. O_o

And thus came the camel downhill

2011-07-18T01:58:00.001+05:30

Or in other words "ab aya uunt pahad ke neeche"

We, the previleged students of b-schools who believe that the world is for us to buy need to have an undestanding that before buying the world we must know how is it to live in this world. Reading the following article I flashbacked to the days during my first hostel stay when I was left with 10 bucks a day ration in the last week of every month.

TOI: IIM-B students live the life of have-nots

Later

How not to make a video

2011-07-02T21:02:00.001+05:30

Hello friends.

Welcome to my first and probably the only tutorial on how not to make videos.

Make sure you have the some knowledge of the video making software and what you can do with it, or at least know someone who will do it for you. Do not attempt to learn the software in one night and make a video the next morning.

Second, always make sure you have your equipment, cameraman, and yourself ready and at one place before attempting to shoot any footage for the video.

Third, and most important part. Always have a backup to fall upon.

Later.

P.S: If I had followed the above I (and the rest of the IT team) would probably not have to able to make this little composition in less than 30 hours flat.

The IT Team. 2011. SIBM Pune, India.

Awesome artwork

2011-06-29T01:04:00.001+05:30

I have come across quite a lot of goodstuff since I started exploring the android world. Just wanted to share a couple of screenshots pf some great artwork I discovered on the comixology app.

As for me am busy doing cheap content writing and learning adobe Aftereffects, thanks to youtube. Need to make an awesome video for the team.

Later

Rains at Lavale

2011-06-29T00:58:00.001+05:30

The best time to visit Lavale is now. On and off rains, misty weather, pleasant breeze and a whole new batch of freshers to explore. XD

Am still waiting for the second stipend and its getting a little late since I need to pay off some heavy debts. What else, classes have started and so has bunking. New faculties same old classmates, although everyone seems to have become wiser after summers.

Just hope to enjoy life for all it's worth. 10 months left on the hill and counting.

Later.

Projected Progress

2011-05-29T20:30:00.001+05:30

Am already at the last leg of my summer internship at Chennai. It has been pretty uneventful so far. Well that is not counting the experience gained over the past two months, the things I have learnt, the grub I have had to survive upon Yada yada...

There are a few things I can now boast about that definitely take my life skills up two notches. Haggling with Chennai autorickshaw annas (AA), spending a summer in horribly hot humid Chennai are a few to start off with. The key to survival for an outsider in Chennai is pretty simple according to me. You must invariably possess the following two things. An aggreeable roommate and airconditioning. The logic is quite simple. Your auto spends halve and you are less resistive towards exploring new places. Respectively. Which could sometimes also be outside Chennai (yes we went to Pondicherry on a bike). Apart from that you have someone to boast or complain to whenever you won or lost one of those small day to day battles at the office or with the AAs.

In any case it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. But yes it was bad enough. Among other things to worry about I have second results which have come out and I have no clue as to what I have scored. Juniors coming in. Credit card debts. Sorry dad. Getting back late on campus. PPO woes. And so on. But thats the best part, as long as I have something to complain about I will have something to blog about too.

Later.

Toss the coin. And decide yourself

2011-05-07T19:55:00.001+05:30

I will tell you what. A simple funda that I use when in dilemma.

Its called introspection by the coin. Or simply "toss the coin". Here is how it works.

1) get a regular 1 rupee coin. Check if it has exactly 1 head and 1 tail.
2) now toss it. Heads for option 1 and tails for option 2
3) if you get heads ask youself what are the pros of "options 2" and cons of option 1. And vice versa
4) if you cant satisfy yourself at first go. Then go for best of 3.
5) when three tosses are done. Repeat step 3. If not satisfied with your own reasoning move to best of 5. And so on.
6) continue until you are satisfied with yourself.

For some it may seem kiddish. However I have discovered that it is a very powerful introspection tool. Sometimes your subconscious already knows the answer to your dilemmas. All you have to is probe yourself.

Although you toss the coin it doesnt decide your fate. You yourself do. At the end of the day, its always better to follow ones own reasoning than to blame someone else for making or influencing your choices.

P.S. Try at your own risk but thank me if you find this little trick useful. Try it on smaller day to day dilemmas first. And then scale up to bigger things.

Later

Hello world.c(hennai)

2011-04-30T15:41:00.001+05:30

Hello everyone.

Even as I write the above line if wonder if there is even anyone left who reads the authorforsaken blog of mine.

Whatever be the case, even as I browsed through the android app market I could not help download the blogger app. Something about just doesn't let me quit. I don't know what it is, ah well never mind.

Did I tell you, I got a new phone? No. Did I tell you I am enduring Chennai heat for my summer project? No. Did I tell you I have become fat, making all my nightmares come true. No. Seems like there is a lot of catching up to be done. No problem, now with my handy dandy mobile phone blogging app my blog and I will never be separated again. Well, at least not until I find a better app.

Speaking of Chennai where I am currently working, and will continue to for another 40 days I can say a few things I have observed so far. One, you should learn two three key worlds so as to haggle with the auto guys properly. Two, always check your food and drink for vermin, insects and the linke before eating. No, not street food I mean proper eating joints where you normally don't expect to find any. Three, I am not sure what else you can get but one thing you will get for sure at midnight in Chennai is good idli and dosa.

Having said all that I might also add I spend most of my waking hours exploring the android world these days. And hopefully for the next few months as well. When I am not doing that I do some activities for attempting to successfully complete my internship with HCCB.

Think that's a long enough post for a mobile phone app. Now where is that publish button.

Later.

404 NOT FOUND 2011

2011-02-11T00:42:00.001+05:30

SIBM Pune Online treasure hunt event now ONLINE

GO GO GO! http://www.sibm.net/transcend11/404notfound/

Discussions Forums on: www.404notfound2011.blogspot.com

of which Tarmackisser “Deneverkid” is a proud member.

Much needed sleep

2011-02-02T08:05:00.001+05:30

It had been at least a couple of weeks since I had a complete and satisfying sleep. Recently I got an unplanned chance to do so and now that I have woken up after 11 hours of mildly interrupted slumber I am so excited that I feel I must blog about it too, having twittered and facebooked about it already.

I got my chance last night, evening actually. At around 1805 hours I was feeling slightly drowsy, having accumulated sleeplessness over the past 10 days of 4 hours night time sleep. So I closed the laptop lid and covered it with the pillow and rested my head on it. The was disturbed once at around umm, I don’t remember but it was my roomie removing the laptop from under the pillow for some reason. I got a few calls, non-irritating ones and a few irritating messages. I took the calls and ignored the messages, bunked a batch address and carried on. I had very vivid, and detailed, no to mentioned HD dreams, but I don’t remember the content all that much.

I woke up at around 2 am to check that it was 2 am. And then decided it was too early to wake up. And hence I resumed my slumber and it finally got over 3 hours later when my body clock said, that’s enough my boy. Once up, I thought of attending to other unworldly chores, like cleaning up my laptop, internally I mean. It had become slow and software was not updated and all that stuff I love to do to kill time. So I got around to killing time, learning more about Google vs Microsoft war, installing Firefox 4 Beta, getting the new Windows Live writer 2011 and using it to blog about the most needed thing for MBA students and hardworking professionals. Sleep.

Later

Full on(e) entertainment

2011-02-01T11:18:00.000+05:30

Blogging somewhere, where it matters, somewhat. O_o Do check it out.

Bodyguard brings Salman to Symbiosis campus

Republic Day Special

2011-01-26T12:59:00.001+05:30

A little something I came up when I was doing some research about India China relationships. Must read :)

India: China,should i be your foe or friend?

China:... Free Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, Democracy, competing for Energy, arms market in Pakistan, using Pakistan to contain India.. well we dont think you are important

India: If that be so then why are you so religious about propping Pakistan up to nag India? Nuke and missile transfers, infrastructure, weapons, tanks, aircraft, phew! thankyou so much for not showing interest in India!! Probably you would have been feeding the Pakistanis out of your hands had you shown any more interest in India!!!

Houston : hahahahahaha

India: so what is it going to be?

Houston : China.. why are you always so stuck up? You are not the only emerging power...

China: Well, we will never be surpassed, there is no way a democracy like India could make sweat shops upon sweat shops for hapless Chinese to work in.. after all death in a factory serving the nation is better than unknown death in countryside.. and while I am at it we will continue to poison your kids with our deadly toys

India: well why do you get so caught up in idealogy when all that is asked is a simple question

Houston: China is stalling like always, lets arrange a well publicised meeting with His Holiness The Dalai Lama, that will speed things up!

China: hey no! please dont do that! I think I have you by your balls USD 2T forex, remember? global banker, remember?

Houston: No, I dont think so, lost 'em in AfPak and the other in Iraq.

China: So what about the F-22 for Pakistan to help it fight Taliban in the WoT

Houston: Well, what?

India: *^#&*^#*^, What the fish????

China: The Taliban, they that have beards, long flowing clothes, suicide on their minds and go ack-ack-ing at the sight of any infidels.. the last time they boarded a flight in the US they crash landed it, 9/11 bing! They whooped our a$$ in Xinjiang too!

Houston: this F-22 thing is news to me.. oh and the Taliban what about them? We will first focus on WoT and then look at other ills plaguing the world.. that responsibility comes with natural leadership of the world
India: But Pakistan is still clamouring for a nuke deal and combat drones, the purchase list just gets longer.. this is getting insane

China: (thinking.. how can I control these two with an iron fist like I do my people.. I am not used to opinion.. CCP rules!) .. thinking...Free Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, Democracy, competing for Energy, arms market in Pakistan, using Pakistan to contain India.... thinking too much...India & Houston meanwhile give up after waiting on China's response for a few years.

Later.

Lost my way around. Again.

2011-01-20T01:11:00.001+05:30

It’s been literally months since I fired up my Live writer. First of all, apologies to all of them who asked me if I had stopped blogging and I replied that I was just too busy. To tell the truth, I have no idea how (or why) time flew by in the past couple of months.

Some times I had nothing to write, and at other times when I had some thing, there was no time. Whichever be the case, I was somehow kept from being the tarmackisser. In the month of November (or was it October) I appeared for my first MBA end semester examinations. The days were a blur. All I can remember is 4 hour sleep time and daily 2 hour CS 1.6 sessions with my roomie without fail. It wasn’t until a month later that I found that I had miraculously passed. Interestingly, I wasn’t even in town when the results were out.

Apart from that, the IT team finished development of its new portal, ImprinT. Somewhere in the middle of December, I along with two other classmates of mine got shortlisted for a competition being conducted at XLRI, Jamshedpur. (Note for noobs: XLRI is considered the Mecca for HR/IR in India.) It was a whole lot of fun, travelling through 5 cities in a span of 12 hours. Pune to Mumbai to Delhi to Ranchi to Jamshedpur. By the way, we won third prize there! The other winners were stalwarts from XLRI senior year. A point to be noted here was that I engaged in some serious networking during this trip and I hope the reap rich rewards for the same sooner than later. lol

Nothing much has changed in the new year. New year resolutions are still made. And broken within the first week of the new year. As usual, I hadn’t made any. Oh! I almost forgot. I gained a few inches around the waist and some chub on my cheeks. So, I kinda sorta started jogging!! And missing a few richly prepared meals of the SIBM mess hall. Hope to get back into shape soon. I wonder if blogging would help me lose me some weight. ( Maybe that could motivate me to blog more often ). Sigh**

Had a mad night out in Mumbai one evening. It was an awesome trip, featuring the now world famous Gateway of India, the Taj Hotel, The Leopold cafe, the new Bandra Worli sea link and of course Marine drive. The city was electrifying as ever, the crowds noisy and thick even after midnight. After the 2008 attack, the Gateway of India has been literally turned into a fortress like stronghold with heavy gunnery and patrolmen stationed all around the Taj and the Gateway. The heightened security is a sight to behold.

And finally, the thing I had been waiting for had arrived. Need for Speed hot pursuit 3. It is sooooohooo cool. I like busting them cars up like tin cans, and doing 400kmph on the Veyron. Uff uff. I could go on and on…Anyway, the SIBM Pune admissions process is underway and thus I and several others like me have become “buddy”s for the aspirants. I must take leave now to attend to my Buddys, but fear not for I will be back soon. And how. (That’s a rhetorical question, not supposed to be answered)

Later.

The days of the white PC.

2010-11-26T11:14:00.001+05:30

It wasn’t long back when operating a computer was something wondrous, since a computer in itself was so rare, not to mention overly priced. That was also the period when computers were weak calculating machines, moody, and white. Even imagining them in any other colour was nothing less than technological blasphemy. And Terabytes of memory existed only on paper and maybe in some secret government facility, the location of which is obviously classified.

And if we consider the period in terms of human years and not in terms of Moore years, it isn’t really that long. I was still in school when I touched my first “working” computer which did an impressive 44 Mhz on the clock and could make the turtle go wild all over the screen. Those were the days when computer viruses and the influenza virus were believed to affect both humans and computers. God forbid, if you sneezed near a computer, the lab assistant used to take you to task.

Ten years hence, I am still in a school, of a different kind of course ( am doing an MBA ), using computers of different kinds, operating on a different level altogether. The sizes of computers have undergone a high degree of miniaturization. Desktops to laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones. Even as I speak, a tablet revolution is underway with every computer manufacturer under the sun readying itself to launch some tablet or the other. Interestingly, the tablets sport a 1Ghz processor (Snapdragon Qualcomm), which if I do the math correctly, has more computing capacity than all the computers in every school in my city put together in my school days. What’s more, they come in all sort of colours. Red, Blue, Green, Pink?!?, and of course sometimes white as well.

Funnily enough, the miniaturization of size, addition of potential usages and exponential increase of memory and computing capacity have only left us wanting for more. It has invaded our lives in ways we never thought it would. Well, to be honest I am not really sure, to what extent has it invaded your life but it definitely has followed me around. I did my engineering with computer sciences and thought it was over when I joined a Bschool. Somehow it seems, I still continue to learn more about IT than anything else on campus. Maybe it’s a good thing, but I am yet to confirm the same. For now, I will just try and go through the flow and hope to live through a few more Moore years.