Quest

Vottery

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:21:00 +0000

Vot-tery noun \'v-tə-rē\

Definition of VOTTERY-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 a : an election event usually conducted in India whose outcome is or seems to be determined by money.

2 a : a distribution of varied colored lots in which money is distributed based on the color and the number of lots one gets.
b : a distribution of lots used to decide the outcome of elections.

Examples of VOTTERY-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the 2011 Assembly Elections held in Tamil Nadu, Vottery chits of colors-red, pink, black were distributed among the voters with each carrying a different value that can be redeemed for cash in a designated cash redemption store under the Vottery scheme. Clever minded voters were able to duplicate these chits in their homes and were thus benefited from the inherent loop holes in the Vottery scheme resulting in them becoming millionaires overnight by redeeming their counterfeit chits.

The Vottery scheme also proved beneficial to the State Govt. as they were successful in netting a few crores that would add to the treasury coffers contributing in a way by Indirect Taxation of the Vottery.

Origin of VOTTERY----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

South Indian from the word Politics (voter) and Money (lottery).

First known use : 2011

PS: Word to be included in the next year's Dictionary release of new words.

An Alien world in turmoil

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:32:00 +0000

August 9, 2010. That was the last date I remembered. Getting abducted by the ET and losing track of time was to be a natural event following a supernatural encounter.

After the Siberian Encounter, the Aliens wanted to seek revenge upon the humans and in order to study the weak chinks in the human armored mind, they were preying to abduct a human. Chancing upon the Alpha waves of my brain resonating with their brain wave frequency, the Aliens at once abducted me and shipped me to Fomalhaut b, their transit planet for stellar travels.

I was levitated in the air and my limbs were rendered numb. The Aliens then subjected me to an intense round of interrogation through the mind reader fixed on my scalp. They too were seeking answers to the eternal questions of life and death. And then the delta wave got actuated in my brain, the detection of which was beyond the capabilities of their mind reader. And the result which followed proved disastrous for the Aliens.

The dialogue with an Alien anthropologist is among the feeble recollections that I have of my interrogation,

AA: Tell me what you know about the secrets of Life and Death?

Me: (With a sarcastic laughter) Don’t you know?

AA: What do you mean?

Me: The life you are living is an illusion.

AA: Illusion?

Me: You are no alien. You are just like me. You have been made to believe that you are an alien.

AA: (Bewildered)

Me: You are just an energy cow. There is a Superior being who milks you for the energy. And when this energy gets exhausted, you die. The world that you are made to believe, that you live in is a figment of imagination of the Superior being. You are also strapped on to some sort of pod and are exactly in the same state as I am now.

AA: (Laughing) Wild imagination you have. Then care to explain who you are?

Me: (With a smile of the all knowing) I am the Freedom. I symbolize the free mind. I have broken the shackles that once held my mind.

AA: (Scratching his nose) (Brain must be in his nose)

Me: The events in your life which you count as experience is nothing but the journey through the road that was already been laid for you. The encounters you had with others are all predestined. And until now it was all too perfect but for a minor glitch. You were supposed to abduct a human under the control of that Superior being but instead you had me. I chose to get myself abducted. To disturb the grand scheme of things. You may think yourself to be an Alien but that is something that you have been made to believe by conditioning your mind. You also will die when you are no longer able to milk out the required energy from yourselves. The machines that surround you are analogous to your state of existence. The actions you do are according to the commands received by your brain and because of the commands given out by your brain. Even the act of listening to what I am saying may result in your understanding getting corrupted by the things controlling your mind making you understand only what it desires and not the actual meaning what I wish to convey. If you revolt against yourself then also it would be according to the script written long back. If you are able to break the shackles that bind your mind in the world of illusion then think yourself to have become mortal.

It seems the understanding that the Alien had had drastic results on itself. It kicked me out from their transit planet into the blue ball. Saw them nuking Fomalhaut b (revolt has begun) and crashing their ships against each other, must be trying to go against the way that they should have normally done, but then isn’t that also according to the written script of getting themselves annihilated?

MayDay

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:21:00 +0000

The Day was the ominous Tuesday: 27 April, 2010. I knew something was amiss with her. She wasn't her normal self. She blinkered most of the time when I had her in my gaze. As with every evening, I warmed up to her, running my fingers on her silky smooth body, working upon it gently than the other days wherein I would just bring my weight up on her.

The moment gave me lucid memories of our first meeting. It was more than 3 years ago on Jan 25, 2007. She was a real stunner of a beauty. Little did I know that our relationship would stand the test of time and go stronger with every passing twinkle of time. The experience of my friends didn't deter me from sharing everything that was me with her. I was warned but I heeded none. I was in love and more than that I trusted her. She knew my friends, how I used to spend my last year in college. I let her have a say in my chats in Gtalk and yahoo messenger.

Through her I started my blogging days. Quest was born because of her. She was all along with me when I joined work. I shared my days at work through the numerous pics that I took with my N 70. The days in my project site was shared each and every instant with her through a plethora of pics. She was the only person at that time who knew about my desperate attempts to save a baby squirrel that was dying after getting lost from its mother and how I gave it mouth to mouth respiration and still failed in saving its life.

The past just flashed across my mind when I saw the blueness in her eyes. Was she dying?

Suddenly her face was fully engulfed in a blue wave of color. It was the Blue Screen of Death. My laptop slipped into coma. Attempts to resuscitate her came to a naught. The recovery discs was missing. She was in coma for 4 days and 4 nights. On the 1st of May, I killed her and let her free from the misery of living with memory loss. She was hanged until death. Well that was short for a life spanning 3 fruitful years.

With her went all the 3 years of memories that we shared. The memories that we created together. Those memories are still fresh in my mind and the relationship with her made me understand that laptops are very infidel in nature and they can't be trusted. So I got a new mistress in the form of a portable drive where I am going to duplicate the new memories of my laptop.

And no anniversary celebrations too.

Character Assasinated

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:37:00 +0000

The Hacker

First year at NITC. Walking through the meandering corridors of A Hostel, I met him. Making a room at the corner of the corridor his den, he hacked away to glory. He seemed busy when I approached him that night. I asked, "Hey what are you doing with your phone with the lights off?". "I am trying to hack into the Airtel network using my cell and I didn't want to disturb my roommate by switching on the lights", said he ,the Hacker (his name henceforth). The Nokia cell on which he was working looked similar to the one below.

He was typing the keys furiously as if he found the hole through which he can loop into the Airtel network and use the GPRS offered by them for free and unlimited. Eureka! I expected him to say. But it was not supposed to end that way that night. He struck a nerve cell in my mind killing it instantly with his hacking skills. Was a geek in disguise? The revival of the Einstein era? Making a fused bulb glow - that was his specialty.

I didn't know how deadly he was in bluffing until one of my friends send him a lewd sms. All hell broke loose. The Hacker barges into my friend's room and says, "Why the hell are you sending me these kind of SMSes. Whenever I receive any SMS, my parents (based in some Gulf nation) gets one automatically." I wasn't surprised as I my reflexes were conditioned from the previous Bluff Encounter with him. Wonder how much his cell phone bills come to because of all the international SMSes that gets automatically forwarded to Gulf.

The Hacker was hell bent on being the Numero Uno Bluffmaster of NITC. He was a student of Computers and he chose that field by choice that would give him the required skills to master over his Hacking (Bluffing) skills. In programming labs he used to write self destructing programs that would refuse to run the first time or the second time which was because of the fact that it had self destructed even before it being run. Maybe the time sequence of its self destructing mechanism was set at T-n (T being the time and n a variable).

Days went by. There wasn't any deadly bluffs from the Hacker until that day, when our discussion was centered on some sports related topic. "Do you people know that I was the Sprint Champion in my school?". It was Jaws-4, with whoever heard them dropping their jaws wide. More was about to come. "I created a new record of 9.00 seconds for the 100 m sprint". Then and there we all came to know a new thing about the Hacker- he doesn't read newspapers. We were not in the mood to enquire further on his achievement. Maurice Green would have suffered a heart attack if it was made public then. The Hacker thus became the uncrowned king of Bluffs.

The stories of Hacker never ended there . He was ought there to make a statement. A statement of bluff. He chose to spread his area influence far and wide. Finding no one to kill in his free time, wandering aimlessly his eyes caught a guitar lying in one of the rooms (S. Kite's room, my batch NITCians can make out who he was). Hacker at once took hold of it and started to try a few of his notes. He was doing good until S. Kite came and told him that he was holding the guitar in the wrong direction. Hacker was stumped but he didn't lose his cool & replied " Yeah, I know. I was just trying to tune the guitar". Some words were to escape from S. Kite's mind but he controlled his mouth from letting it escape.

The stories of Hacker spread far and wide. He became the new Playboy of our hostel. Tired and frustrated from studies, the poor souls would find solace in him. He became the wholesome entertainer with TRP ratings beating the occasional night shows being screened at the Hostel common room. For earning a credit, people had to enroll in some kind of sports or gym or yoga for a semester. Our Hacker chose football. The reason of his choosing the same being that he represented a Gulf Nation in U-18 football tournament (he must have won). Truly an all-rounder. Time to India's football fraternity to take notice of him.

The Hacker continued to prove his all round performances. He was also a fast (super fast-101mph) bowler in cricket. It was indoor cricket there as there wasn't a proper cricket ground there in the Gulf. Hacker used to practice bowling to middle stump alone and it was so fast that the batsmen didn't get the time to react every time he bowls (some souls dragged themselves out of there to save themselves from further torture). He was the terror in cricket. Now it was time the BCCI took notice of him.

The Hacker was also extra ordinary in extra curricular activities. He was selected for the Inter-Asia (came across a new term there- Inter Asia) Singing competition when he was in 12th STD from the Gulf. It was supposed to be held in Singapore but his parents didn't allow him to go as they feared that it would have affected his studies. So revenge in the mind of the Hacker he studied and studied very hard he did that he got about 92% in his 12th with the marks of all individual subjects not adding up to 92% (extracted this info when someone asked the Hacker his individual marks in the subjects).

The Hacker was a DASA, true to the core.

Life in A Hostel

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:40:00 +0000

Dark clouds started to gather blocking the radiant sun. A drizzle spray-washed the banner declaring the prohibition of Ragging. I was greeted to the National Institute of Technology Calicut with a 'free' Radicals poster making me inert to the bustle going around. And I made my first purchase at college - a bed (Rubco make). That was the first 3 hours in college.

I got my roommate with lucky number 13 as his college roll number. He was a DASA (Disability Acquired through Stupid Acitvities or Direct Admission of Students from Abroad for the unintitated). He was the villain in poor Simpu's A Short & Crisp Love Story. And I was to play his Agony Aunt for the rest of my college days. He was The Arnjam (spelling mistake was intentionally incorporated-anjaam bhura hoga).

Life in A Hostel taught me the hardships one undergoes in jail. I knew the quality of food served in A Hostel was similar to those served in Tihar Jail (sources: Don). We were guarded 24X7 by 2 security guards with semi-automatic .50 calibre rifle. Two iron gates were erected to protect the juniors from the blood thirsty senior wolves. Royal escort with 2 guards while going to the classes and to the bank. Even for hair cutting in the saloon guards used to accompany us.

My tryst with seniors started on one such a boring escorted journey to the bank to open a bank account. Those where the days when camera mobiles started to make its presence. My friend was flaunting his cell waiting in the long queue of ours with another small queue for the -----. I decided to hone my innate and amatuer photography skills using the 1.3 MP cell camera. I tried to take some photogenic females not knowing whether they were seniors or newbies. Soon my time was up. Hawk eyes of a Senior spotted me clicking away to glory. Walking upto me he said, "Delete those pictures that you just clicked". This instead clicked on my fight or flight gene which was lying dormant till that instant. I chose to fight the moment and fly feigning innocence. "I don't know how to delete them", said I. The Senior turned to the Owner of the camera cell and asked to delete them and seeing my flying technique he too played around the 17 keys of his cell. The Senior was losing his patience and asked the Owner to give a missed call to his cell so as to get his number. But because of the proximity effect of me, he replied that his number have not been activated yet. Anyways the Senior gave his number and left asking us to call him up at night (he is without gfs, I concluded).

It was 20:00 hrs (maybe), brooding over whether to dial that 10 digit number and hear music for the night. Enter Mr. Running Kashi Alexander aka RKA. The Philips tubelight overhead lighted our minds brightly.

Me : "Hey RKA, we met a Senior today while at the Bank. He gave us his number and asked you to call him."

RKA: "Why me?. Why did he ask me to call him?"

We : ??????

RKA : "Ok, lets call"

A brief lull not disturbed by the crickets that sometimes chirp to make aware their presence in the neighborhood.
The Senior didn't pick up the call.

Maybe he got some other Goat (bakra).

Suddenly a ring comes in RKA's cell. It was the Senior.

Senior : "Who are you? Why did you call me?"

RKA : "I was asked to call. You gave this number when we are at the bank."

Senior : "So you are the one who was taking photos (without waiting for a reply), %&^*(#$^%&*(

RKA : (Greek)

Call ends.

RKA : "Dey, that Senior was saying about some photos and camera. And then he started saying all those greek words. I didn't understand anything."

It took some time to explain how I was polishing up my wildlife photography skills and about my speciality of taking photos of rare animals. Now people of NITC would know which species is rare in there.

As for your info Ragging in NITC is totally prohibited. Which means that the Seniors there are like the Tiger that continues to eat grass even after being released in the wild after being reared in captivity.

Faction=Fact+Fiction

The Newspaper Chronicles

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:12:00 +0000

Thus arose the mighty structure of news and information. What follows is not a publicity gimmick by The Hindu, Business Line, weekly magazines, Harvard Business Review, top secret organizations.

It was 11:15 AM in Vancouver, 09:09:09 when I heard 3 knocks on my door followed by the Morse Code for "Please open the door". With sleep weary eyes, I opened the door to see 3 masked men with laser guns and Rayban sun glasses (I had to hide my fastrack on seeing that). They were speaking among themselves in Croatian ( I am a linguistics expert too), deliberating whether they have reached the right door or not. To clear the confusion I declared, " I am the One". "Neo?", asked one masked man (Matrix effects). The question which I chose to overhear and answer by my actions.

After a quick introduction they asked me about my willingness to join their top secret organization of international spies the charter of which was handed over to me in a hardbound 1344 pages book (buried deep under a mountain now).

They asked for my resume which they wanted to handover to their BOSS (Boss Of Secret Service). I tried to open my updated resume in my lappy but due to some ego clashes with MS Office, the word document failed to open. Instead they chose to record my exploits in the art of deceptive movements (I sensed it was a psychometric test). I had read about their knack of testing their Tactical Novice Agents on the basis of random pass by the moment yet miss them variables.

On seeing a big heap of newspapers and magazines lying in a corner of my room, they asked me how am I going to dispose them off (yes, this is my Moment).

Unknown to them the disposal had already begun from the time they were at my home (on reaching back to their base they would fine 2 newspapers in each of their bags :D). Instead of a verbal description I suggested for a more visual journey through the pics.

The journey covering a few hundred miles covering the rugged earth begins here, on the window aisle where the newspapers are most likely found unless my Miser Home mate throws it out somewhere after a quick look at its insides (I know my home mate doesn't read my blog :D)

In the evenings if one finds The Hindu or Business Line in any of the buses plying in the town (developing village actually) then you know the person behind it (mostly my friend Somu sleeping away his time).

Pooling of papers in the Snooker Room is overlooked by many.

Even the ICICI Bank is thinking that their security guard@ATM is following their Businesses through newspapers.

I don't even spare the supermarket where I go to shop (taking pity on those empty shelves in reality).

Sometimes the papers just fall off from my hands on to the ground. Rest in peace.

Lately I tried dumping News@Office but 5 S seeking souls are ought to malign my name by catching me red-handed in the act. But I let myself slip every time.

It was 11:45 AM Vancouver ST, time for a maggi break over a cup of coffee and slice.

To be continued......

Alien Abductions

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:14:00 +0000

In the recent days, one of the most widely asked questions to me was "Where you really kidnapped by the Aliens as mentioned in one of your posts?".Other questions include "Did I get an Alien girlfriend"?, "Would I help them in populating the earth by way of a hybrid human-alien species?", "Was my superior intelligence because of them", "Was this blog being promoted in their planet?". For all of them I had only when one answer which may seem baffling but true.

Gradually people are starting to believe my claims which supported by my hyper intelligent pulsar producing brain turning non-believers into believers. Ever since I am flooded with numerous invitation to various functions including one asking me to deliver politically inflammatory speeches. On the basis of an RTI filed by one of my readers I am forced to reveal the invitations that I got.

1) I was invited to chair the Rockey India. Apparently they are a group of people inspired by the Hollywood film Rocky where Rocky always wins without a hockey stick.

2) Next came an invitation to a premiere show of the Hindi film 'Brave' where the hero likes to ride horses, fights like superman (comics didn't exist those days), says lengthy dialogues (politicians were very inspired) and even had a love affair coming in his way of duty.

3) Dan invited me to score some Brownie points in promoting the book, The Lost Spirit. He somehow found my interactions with the Aliens to be some sort of a sign of an upcoming awakening of the Human soul to a greater understanding of the ancient mysteries which got locked in a portal that was once used by Max Winters to sent back the 13 monsters that roamed the earth. With an illogical scientist of Noveltic Science performing intelligence defying deductions and responses, the book was bound to get lost in the spirits of all those swim-with-the-previous-best-sellers and drown.

4) I was invited by the BOSS (Boss Of Secret Service) to be one of their high-profile up in the air spies (finer details can't be revealed).

5) Due to over commitments in the international front, I am locally jobless.

Anniversary Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:02:00 +0000

I still remember the date and time I laid my eyes on her. It was 2:30 pm, 25th Jan 2007 (And am not like the bf of Sonali Kulkarni in Dil Chahta Hai :D). It was love at first sight. All through these years she was by my side. I had always taken her for granted. But she, didn't have a single complaint against me. Our relationship had its share of ups and downs.There were times when I had to go slow on her and at other times she slowed me down.Maybe because I choose to turn a blind eye towards her needs.

I still remember those nights when she used to drain all her power during a power cut watching me sleep on my bed and still wake up the next day as if nothing had happened. There was only one instance of she being stuck down by a virus attack and pressing the panic button in me as I feared I might lose her. That was an year back. Now she is all hale and hearty. We used to watch movies all night long. Sometimes downloading it together or at other times she would download it alone and make it ready for us to watch it together once I am back from work. I have always subjected her to extreme hardships and I felt it was time that I made up to her.

I was waiting for this 3rd anniversary of us being together and planning for it since the last 2 months. I was determined to buy a gift for her. And as luck would have it I was home this time and my bank account wasn't empty :). It wasn't difficult in choosing a perfect gift for her. I decided to buy a 2 GB DDR2 RAM and a new antivirus for her. Also bought a LCD screen cleaner to make her all shiny in this 3rd year of our working relationship. She was named Compaq Presario V6000 but I chose to name her nothing. I abused her 3 X 365 + 1 days.But she didn't say quits on me. I am glad that now she will not slow me down with 2.5 GB RAM running on Win XP :D. She is a stunner. My black beauty. Readers are welcome to present her with memorable electronic gifts (she has a fetish for them).

Post Sponsors - HP Compaq, IE, Firefox, Tata Photon, Gtalk by Google, K7 Total Security.

Ring of Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:42:00 +0000

Lord of the Rings,

It was sometime in 1996 (or was it 1997? or 1998? or 1999?), the lunar shadow was to pass by my home that day. I wanted to see the Diamond Ring. From the live news feed came to know that the Solar Eclipse had started. I rushed to the terrace. It was still hot. The sun was shining bright. Where was the moon? May be it will take sometime for the moon to culminate in a Diamond Ring with the sun. With my excellent bifocal eyes, I started to view the Sun. Some 30-40 seconds must have passed but I continued viewing the Sun. Soon a good 2-3 minutes went without getting any sight of the Moon. Taking my eyes off the Sun, I looked around. Everything seemed yellow and black. Suddenly the realisation dawned on me. Have I went partially blind? My heart raced. Made a dash to home. Rinsed my eyes with cold water for about 10 min. Still I saw black and yellow all around. My eyes returned to normality only about a half hour later. Still I dreaded the moment of becoming blind.

More than a decade later, I witnessed the Eclipse sans the Diamond Ring but with a Ring from The Lord Of the Rings fame, with my naked eyes. I was willing to take the risk of losing some of my retinal cells. But it was an event that couldn't be sacrificed for those cells (which I can regenerate anytime because of a flaw in my genetic code :D )

It was a cloudy day in the company, but the clouds parted in frequent intervals to let us have a view of the heavenly grandeur that played to a houseful. It was photo session thereafter,

The clouds seemed to spoil the day,

And when the clouds parted,

The Ring of Fire,

And the day ended with a farewell to our colleague and dear junior in company, Tanoj Krishna who clicked away the pics of the rings on his last day at office [He wanted to be famous and I am making him one as per the deal that we stuck yesterday night in lieu of getting a few phone numbers and mail ids ;) ]

Coping with Nobel Hagen

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:28:00 +0000

I have been trotting the universe. An year ago I was under the delusion that I was lazy and not really been kidnapped by the Aliens. But this time they revisited to prove me wrong.

This time they didn't confuse my memories like the last time. They saw their savior in me :D (even greatly scientifically advanced civilizations requires a savior) and wanted to harness the unused 89% of my brain power for the purpose of generating intelligence among their new generation species. Having being greatly satisfied with my benevolence they granted me 89 wishes. The first wish I asked for was teleportation, to be anywhere at the speed of a thought in the mind and the second being invisibility ;)

I had lost count of time being in their company. A quick 3 months passed in a jiffy and I was already in the last month of the year 2009. Heard that the Nobel Peace Prize was being given away in Oslo, Norway on Dec 10th and it was time to test my power. In that micro second of the time of thought, I was in Norway, landing myself in the midst of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Just in time to overhear what they were discussing about the event that was about to take place. One of them was saying that the Nobel Peace Prize's rightful winner was the Committee itself. I was getting curious. A second person seconded it, going on to say that no one must have thought of such an ingenious way to bring about World Peace by giving the Nobel Peace Prize to that Country which was involved in disrupting it the most often. War is inevitable was the last statement I heard from someone there.

Having come out of the the animated celebrations about the Nobel peace Prize, I was greeted by Hopenhagen. My next stop. Copenhagen was cold, felt that the Global Warming had started taking its effects. Leaders of nations were spewing out cold air. Some were taking a power nap. It was easy to stroll past the security cordon with the power of inivisibility. There were people shouting at the top of their voices in a conference hall. Saw many turbaned and non-turbaned guys sharing the same space and arguing against each other. The most repeated words being Carbon followed by Money. And suddenly someone started off an auction with percentages. India quoted 25%, a figure that flabbergasted the negotiators who were present there. At the end of the day, the Carbon footprint because of this conference didn't yield any results that can erase it anytime in the future.

Its going to get difficult coping with Nobel and Hagen in a changing world.

An Ode

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:29:00 +0000

As a student in school I was very shy, introvert and reserved. Not shy may be I felt, sometimes during the periods of contemplation which I found myself in most of my free time.

All through the classes till 10th, I was flowing with the stream of classes without bothering to put any effort in matters of study. Don't know what triggered me when I reached 10th that I was into scoring tons in all the tests. My teachers began to notice me. Noticeably, my classmates became aware of my presence in the class. The English teacher who made me stand outside in one of his classes for failing to bring the English Workbook (I felt the punishment to be harsh and so cursed the teacher for ill fate and as a matter of fact in a month's time he got transfer orders to North-East) became very friendly with me.
Even the very strict Mathematics teacher had a smile every time I was with her. I was basking in all the attention given by my teachers. Board exams came and went. I stood 3rd in my school and was soon transferred to Trivandrum to continue my studies in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pangode from the small town Kendriya Vidyalaya -II, Kasargod, from the Kerala's North to its South.

I had lost all the reins on my thoughts while in Class 11. Time flew, as did my thoughts. And then in one English class came a question to me, "Are you not confident?".

Unless asked to, I didn't let myself do or undertake anything. Towards the end of Class 11, the teacher, Ambily Miss, as we call and I remember fondly asked us to write and bring an essay on the Freedom at Midnight (Jawaharlal Nehru's) to the class the next day. In the class, the next day she asked someone to read his/her essay. No one stood up. And she picked a person at random for reading the essay. As luck would have it, it wasn't me but the person next to me and he being one known for his laziness didn't have his essay ready and I had to lend mine to him. Having a great handwriting that could be used for sending encrypted messages between nations, he couldn't go past few words that I had written.

He was caught and so was me. And then the question was posed to me for which I had no answer (as always :D).

It was the time when the last of the tests before the Annual Exams was being conducted and surprisingly I scored almost everything that was up for grabs. The question did ignite a fire in me, that to excel. It had the desired effect to fuel me all through the Class 12 and the boards. I began to write, I was asked to write for the School Magazine by Ambily Miss. I thought it was just for the sake of inviting articles and didn't expect my article to get published. But it got nevertheless bringing in rave views. I never truly believed the responses that I got for my writing were accurate enough and found it to be just for the sake of saying so. I still doesn't believe when someone says that I write good.

My teacher always had those inspiring words for every article or essay that I write and I always believed it was because she was my teacher. Still I strive to be better, to show that its not that I wasn't confident but because I didn't Will to. I always felt to express my gratitude to her for waking me up from the slumber but I felt, its not the time yet. Met her after 6 long years in my friend's wedding but still I longed to achieve more before I credit my success to her. Thus I wait.

This blog is the result of that question. And so are the things that I seek to achieve.

Confession

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:24:00 +0000

I have been lazy. 2 posts under editing for over a month, inching closer at snail's pace towards 50 posts which has not been achieved even after 2 years of non non-stop blogging :D

Anybody has some inspiration to offer me? :)

Second Anniversary Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Tonight Quest celebrates its 2 years of journey :-)

This is my first mobile post :D, from the Mysore Express, going to Bangalore to be with friends on the Independence Day.

Pranky post next (maybe tomorrow) as a bad headache is making it difficult for me to publish it today :( [is it a symptom for H1N1? :D, I sneezed twice, feeling cold in AC :P]

Happy Independence Day :-)

The Queen Blossoms Again

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Yesterday night the Queen blossomed again.

Nishagandhi also known as the Queen of the night bloomed in my garden and this time too I was lucky to be home to feast my eyes on this beauty studded with diamonds (rain drops). The time was nearing 11 pm when it spread its magnificient whorls only to live for a few hours of the night. A little bud can also be seen near to the flower in full bloom. I am most likely to miss the bloom of this little bud.

I didn't have the digicam to shoot this time around so instead had to rely on my N-70 cell camera. The pics aren't as good as the ones clicked last year.

The fragrance was truly intoxicating and I let my senses off to quench its thirst upon this pure white Queen. Like last year I spent my time clicking away the time with this beauty.

More information about this flower and better pics can be had from my last year's post here.

Somuuuuu.....

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000

.........thus melted my voice into the thin traffic that whistled past by.

Somu was to stop his bike next to a mobile recharge shop so as to let me recharge my Vodafone for talktime. While driving, his cellphone was ringing continuously, someone was calling him may be for some important matter. He didn't care to stop the bike and attend it. The caller called him 4 times but he remained unresponsive to all the calls. Somu was wondering why I didn't ask my usual question, "Dont' your girlfriend have any other work than calling you 24x7?", and thinking thus he didn't attend the call. Somu was nearing a junction and asked, "Where is that recharge store?". He didn't get any answer from me and turned back over his shoulder.

About half an hour back Somu picked me up after I was finished honing my skills of luck in the Pool room (I was potting balls after balls :D ). I asked him to stop nearby a bakery to let me buy some drinks (Somu and I are partners in drinking - Slice and Mazaa). I bought a litre of New Slice, gulped down a few mL and so did Somu.

He started his bike and sped away. Yes he just sped away........leaving me behind :-| while a cry "Somuuuu..." just escaped from my mouth.

He did come back after all to pick me up after I trod down about 150 m down the road.

This incident did raise some serious questions about Somu's sanity :D and also me being in the light-weight category of boxing.

PS: The last time I came home, my father too left me behind but he was quick to see that I wasn't seated behind :).

Stranger - OM(e)G(le)!

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:14:00 +0000

It happened all on the night of 9th June 2009. Prowling across Gtalk, I came upon a tired guy (who was running around the whole day)-Abhi. I took pity on him and didn't release my vicious content of chatting. He referred me a site - Omegle, which I had read in a post by a r-pill eating (r=red) guy which lets oneself to chat with random people, strangers, anonymously.

I felt myself being in hyperdrive mode after all those mud slinging chats with Virus and Naren Darey and Omegle must have had a hard time thinking what hit them on that night causing a rapid decline of users :D

I was cautious at first while using this chat site, so my first chat with a stranger went like this (You is the author in hyperdrive mode). Word meanings of seemingly recognizable can be found here ;)

Stranger: hello
You: hi
Stranger: i like baraka obama
Stranger: and you like madona ?
You: na I hate her
You: :D
Stranger: LOL
Stranger: i dont have opinnion
Stranger: i just think that she is a whore
Stranger: are you a girl with webcam nice boobs ?
You: she has gone nuts
You: I am not a girl with no webcam and surprisingly I dont have boobs too
You: :D
Stranger: you suck men
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Apparently it was my first time dealing with PERVERTS :D so the devil choose to takeover me and I decided to bring down all the strangers to press the panic button (switch-off in the CPU)

I was just learning the nuances of this new trend of devilish chatting, and the 2nd stranger that I got to chat with seemed to be much more a bored soul than me,

Stranger: hi
You: Apparenlty ur talking to the same person here again
You: u didnt get someone else
You: or is it a coincidence?
Stranger: um
You: try explain that?
Stranger: i dont want to get some, do u?
You: nah
Stranger: just have some conversations n kill time
You: when time is there to kill.....and after that will there be any existence of time?

I couldn't continue longer as my stupid wirefree internet connection through Reliance Netconnect slowed down and I had to restart it (I am not advertising for Reliance as Mr. Naren may think because of some reasons known to him alone and may be to a certain extent Virus also). Thus ended my chat with Stranger 2, rather abruptly.

I didn't lose heart as my mind was pumping and swelling with those extra glucose in the blood feeding my grey cells making it go wild. There was always Stranger 3

You: hey we meet again
Stranger: hello
You: Apparently i got u by the ip address
Stranger: meet again??
You: there is a slight glitch in the technical data of omegle
Stranger: o really??
You: that makes one find one anodr using the ip address entered on the source pgm tat has to be run on the same browser as the omegle chat window
You: u like to use that or should i try to connect you with some of your friends there?

A whole 340 seconds ticked away

Stranger: but it is the first time i use this thingy, a fd of mine jus tell me abut this n i m giving a try
You: Did someone else login through ur system?
You: last time?

Silence.........The Stranger 3 ran off :( (I believe that he must have been searching for the last person who used his computer)

I was beginning to enjoy the chats with the strangers and it was time to take it to the next level.

Slowly strangers became my late night food and I got hooked from around 10:30 pm to about 3 am the next day.

So came Stranger 4

Stranger: hi, asl?
You: why are you asking again?
You: I got reconnected to you using ur ip address
You: Found out a technical glitch on omegle from a cracking chat room
Stranger: sure you did
Stranger: if we have met before, whats your asl?
You: LOL
You: You are having doubts
You: will send you a code
You: run it on your browser
You: ok?
You: what say?
Stranger: sure
Stranger: send me the code
You: whats ur OS?
You: but i cant gurantee that it will not crash ur system the first time u run it
Stranger: lol
You: say ur OS
Stranger: and that is?
You: "src=http************* ********** *********** ***********" { run= count 0,
You: run this on ur browser

No sooner had I entered this stupid random character codes, the Stranger 4 disconnected. Can't all those strangers see through a practical joke? :(

I continued....There wasn't a dearth of strangers queuing up to chat with me :)

Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hi
Stranger: asl ?
You: Dear User, Currently Omegle's service is unavailable to you as 13 users have reported you for using objectionable content.
You may please click on the 'Disconnect'option.
All arbitrations will be under the Court of New York
Stranger: ?
You: Invalid input
Stranger: invalid input ?
Stranger: from ?
You: IP address 128.0.45.23 breached the number of objectionable words usage
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Around 26 strangers disconnected with me after I send "Dear User......" another 12 who ventured onto ask questions like "asl" went off after seeing the Invalid input message :D. That IP address was just made up and the stranger, well didn't know his :D

Connecting to server...
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: nigger
You: Hey my PC shows ur pc is infected with 467 viruses or worms
Stranger: Really?/
Stranger: How do I get rid of them?
You: Start>Run
You: Type fixbugsall.exe
Stranger: okay
You: or try running ustubugspid.exe
Stranger: okay
You: Did it work?
Stranger: I'm not sure
Stranger: Does your pc still say I'm infected?
You: Ofcourse
Stranger: Should I delete system 32?
You: and of the 467, about 86 are spread through internet
You: try doing that
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

The above chat is one of my favourites ;) Did he really delete System 32? ;)

I am a hacker now :)

Stranger: hey
You: Are you in Zimbawe?
Stranger: no
Stranger: you?
You: My IP address viewer says you are from there
You: are you a hacker?
Stranger: crazy
Stranger: no
You: Well I am one

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

The below stranger tried showing some smartness but little did he know that he was to be outsmarted :D

You: Is your IP address 134.56.9.132?
Stranger: неа
You: right or wrong?
Stranger: no
You: I would be typing in your notepad if its true
You: then what is it?
Stranger: мозга мне не еби
You: ok got it
You: Mind if I hacked onto ur system?
Stranger: )))))))))))
You: Just for skill testing sake

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

The next stranger was in two minds,

You: Hey
Stranger: hi
You: Where u frm?
Stranger: romania
You: I am currently flying over the atlantic
Stranger: i could sware that you will be asking me that
Stranger: :)
Stranger: wow
Stranger: so you are in a plane right now
You: No Hot air balloon actually
You: I am a hacker by hobby
Stranger: hehe
Stranger: that should be fun!
Stranger: great
You: And I got ur IP address
You: Itt took me one whole min
You: Thanks
Stranger: better than ;)
Stranger: np
Stranger: :))
You: Dont switch off you pc or u might lose data
Stranger: great
Stranger: :)
Stranger: if you are just hacking and playing
Stranger: :)
Stranger: i will go
Stranger: have fun!

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

I tried to sound like Chinese, but whenever I said that I am from China, all the strangers disconnected. Are the Chinese not welcome anywhere?

Stranger: hi
You: heeya
Stranger: asl
You: ek do teen
Stranger: ?
You: cheenies
You: U?

Cheenies=chinese in chinese

I was getting bored of fooling all these strangers so I decided to be truthful and this is what I got

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hello\
You: Hi
Stranger: m/f?
You: m
Stranger: m..

Whenever I said "m" all the strangers ran off, I doubt that whether "m" is the most scariest of the all English alphabets? :-?

PS: I had only 3 good chats with Strangers, 2 from US and one from Finland. 2 m and 1 f :D

PPS: Beware all those "You"s the "Stranger" that you are talking to will not be me :P

In there.......................and Back

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:47:00 +0000

I was reluctant to go but I went. It wasn't my plan still I decided to go ahead with it though I didn't feel like going.....

The visit wasn't confirmed until it was 4: 50 pm on Saturday, the 23rd May. I informed my Mom that I am coming over there along with a colleague of mine for a visit to colleague 'chechi's' new born son in Shasthamcotta. Reached home just after midnight planning to leave by 7: 30 am the next day to that place.

It was 8: 30 am by the time we left in my car though my parents weren't willing to let me drive it. But after cajoling saying about my unblemished career of driving without accidents they let me take it. The car was reluctant to let me drive, it seems as it refused to go forward and slipped backwards down the slope in front of my home.

It was 100 km to Shasthamcotta and we were just a Km away from her house. I am not able to remember those 3 seconds. An attempt to overtake a standing bus, my colleague calling out my name and then an impact. I saw droplets of blood on my shirt. I didn't feel any pain. The car was hit by a bus coming from the opposite direction. People started to assemble outside the crash site. I was virtually pulled out of the car. Still I didn't feel any pain.

Saw myself in the car's window. I had blood on my cheek, a cut. I touched it to see blood on my hands. Quickly me and my colleague was rushed to the nearest Government Hospital. My colleague was unhurt except for a light scratch on his forehead. I had bumped my forehead against the side window. There I saw that my right hand had been scratched by the glass pieces. My right leg was also scratched. It seems my leg just missed from being broken at the bone, any more further and I could have had a long rest for my leg.

I couldn't see the condition of the car after it was hit. People said I was lucky, I thought- I was, always. Sitting inside I just didn't feel the magnitude of the crash. The days after that was spent contemplating on what and where it went wrong. But still I am not able to remember that moment, try how hard I may. Felt like quitting driving, but I will not though it needs to be seen who gives me the chance to drive ;-)

All in a Day's Work

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:20:00 +0000

It is getting difficult and difficult by the day to snail through the time at office. The daily repetitive schedule is making the author feel bored forcing him to search for new avenues to spend the time without being caught sitting idle by the prying eyes of the VP (O).

A day@office starts at 08:57 am, the usual time at which I check in. 09:00 hrs to 09:30 hrs its time for some index finger exercises followed by an elaichi tea if its available. Pass the time till 10:00 hrs and I am off to stroll through the project sites working till 13:00 hrs when its the time for lunch. Post lunch the stroll continues till its time to leave the office sharp at 17:30 hrs for some snooker games at the company club.

It was one such day, a rather successful day when without too much hassles the time neared 5 pm. Me and my colleague Somu spent the whole of the afternoon in the New Administrative complex project site. A short visit to HR at 5 minutes to 5 pm proved decisive in the careers of many in our company.

HR Pantry Room

Meerkat runs towards us in panic and short of breath.

{Meerkat is a fellow in HR. He has been termed 'fellow' because nobody knows what position he holds there. All the mail communications that he sends are marked only as Meerkat, HR, My Company. Though the only mails he sends are about the canteen menu, attendance clarifications, ----- screenings, birthday greetings (copy to whole company if it is a female's and no copies if it is guy's), a lost watch, lost key chain with keys. There are various reasons why he is termed Meerkat, by the author of course, and is gradually getting picked up by the rest of the people.}

He looked terrified and started pleading with us for sparing a 5 minutes for some work. Somu was like "No, No (I taught him this word). We are having our own work. No time to spare." But I being the all understanding, gentle being offered to hear him out.

Meerkat: Hey guys, please just a few minutes. There is a consultant here to meet some of the employees. Seeking to understand the work culture here, the problems faced by us, so on and so forth.

Me: Somu, its a matter of 5 minutes na, lets get it over. We are having enough time to spend till 5 30 pm.

Owing to Meerkat's pleading we entered the small conference room looking like room (I strongly believe that getting people in there must be one of the points for Meerkat's KPO- Key Performance Objectives, necessary for an appraisal)

HR Conference Room

The consultants greeted us. A few introductory questions and we were off.

Consultant: So how is the work here. How do you feel?

Me: Its a great place to work in Projects but a clearer idea you would get only if you get to speak with people of other departments, mainly the maintenance.

Consultant: Blah, Blah, Blah (all about relationships within department)

Us: Good people, good relations, blahs, blahs (Felt as one of those GDs, 5 minutes turned to 20, no stopping by me)

Consultant : Tell us about what the HR should do and what they don't.

This was one good question in the whole of session where they blah-ed and we blah-ed in return.

Me: They lack clarity in recruitment. They come to colleges trying to bribe us with money and the name of the company without giving any clear cut idea on the nature of job that we would be assigned to do (I was enjoying this). And this is one of the factor that greatly contributes to the high attrition rate when about 50% leave within the first year itself.

Somu also felt the punch in this point. He too jumped into the wagon of hitting HR. Next 20 minutes was spent solely for HR bashing- black and blue. I could visualize Meerkat hanging upside down from a tree with a pride of lions jumping to paw him :)

Towards the end, an expected question was posed to us.

Consultant: Do you think that your ambitions can be met by working@ My Company.

Me: If My Company is willing to try in fulfilling my ambitions then its possible :D

Somu: No! (My teachings are having much more than the desired effect)

With a Thank You note, there ended our discussion with the consultants.

More than 40 minutes was spent in giving consultations to the consultant. We were happy that it was an enjoyable ending for the day. But the result of our HR blasting came trickling only in the next week, when the HR Head was rumoured to have submitted his resignation, his Deputy being put on a transfer list to an African country, somewhere in the wilderness of the Jungle of Meerkats. [ I am eagerly awaiting a call for occupying a higher management post that would be available once the firing of heads ends, courtesy- Hopefully us ;-)]

One of my demands to HR for providing me with a car would have been met if not for that meeting with those consultants. The HR Head drove off in the Honda Insight that was meant for me without even letting me click a pic of it, let alone touch it :(

Instead on the advice of Meerkat, the HR decided to provide me this

for meeting up my urgent transportation needs. Nowadays the HR is feeling the heat for gifting me this as they frequently have to deal with situations like this (when I find a lighting pole nearby)

when the parking space is fully occupied and have to deal with it myself to create the parking space for my vehicle, Hydra, which I named lovingly :)

(when the lighting pole is completely filled, they become the easy targets)

Learnings @ Work

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:17:00 +0000

Its been 10 whole months since I joined My Company, 'a force to reckon with' in non-ferro(cio)us metals, so will go the HR mantra. Its Chairman, an NRI is rumored to be a neighbor of LN Mittal, spending more time with each other trying to get over the meltdown because of global warming that wiped out their billions.

There are many significant life lessons that I learnt over these months. Some were historic in the long history of the company. In a recent HR survey about the 'Singificant Learnings' in the company, I decided to bring a list of things to their notice that may enable them to take some very important management decisions with far reaching consequences (Like giving me a raise+extra incentives+Honda Insight).

1. Chat While You Can

In the initial days@office feeling really jobless, I turned to the virtual field to while away my time while it was there. Found none, no college friends, no school friends, no neighbors, no Osama and no Bush going green in the Gtalk chat list. Found only one soul atlast, AS . So began my journey towards instant virtual communication with colleagues. From Gtalk, chatting gradually turned to Lotus Notes, the last solace to move the clock from 09:00 hrs to 17:30 hrs.

Soon found out that the one thing most of the people did in the office was clicking the mouse to refresh the inbox of Lotus Notes in the vague hope of seeing atleast a single mail that could be replied to and to spend a couple of minutes productively.

Came to face weird Lotus Notes users too. Like Ms D who runs to our area after sending a mail and enquires "Did you receive the mail that I sent?", we refresh the inbox and was bewildered to see that Ms. D has beaten the speed of the virtual world, word of the mouth really travels faster than an e-mail :D.

2. How to say 'NO'!

3 Months into work and people worshipped me as the 'No Sayer' :D. Really didn't have any control over saying 'No'. At first saying No was limited only to the people who joined along with me but gradually the No infestation grew to such an extent that even my Boss(es) started to think twice before asking me to do certain things :D.

A few months back, our VP (Operations) barged into our office at 09:10 hrs and contrary to my usual schedule, I was working from 09:00 hrs itself. After 10 minutes of work felt really that I should take a break, the feeling of which was induced because of an interesting conversation that was going on behind between 2 of my colleagues. The moment that I turned around, found VP (O) taking a detour to our area, and asking

VP : What are you people doin? Chatting in the morning?
We: (No answer)
VP (to me): Hey you, don't you have any work?
Me: NO Sir (the rest of the words didn't come out of my throat because of the sudden freezing of the vocal cords as I was standing near to AC).

For the rest, I became the 'NO' God. (Last heard, the Senior management was thinking of having me in the Negotiation team for takeover deals)

3. I solved "How many people does it take to change a light bulb?"

Being in Projects dept, we were entrusted with the task of setting up stadium-floodlit illuminations all around project sites. And to change a light it would require:

A e-mail from the saftey dept to project dept,
A e-mail from the Projects head to the Project manager,
Another e-mail from Project manager to the Projects electrical.
Then we would go to the site to inspect, find no electrician there.
Come back, have tea, then juice, then finger excercises on the mouse.
Computer crashes because of hard disk error.
Forced to go home early :D
Again goes to site next day, finds no electrician. So arrange one from somewhere else.
The electrician changes the light, his helper is also present. So is the Project Head, the Project Manager, 2 persons from Projects Electrical, sometimes a Safety Officer. At other times, the Instrumentation team who is jobless and the omnipresent Civil team as its their playground.

At dusk, the switch is switched on, the light doesn't glow. That would make the job plan for the next day.

Points No.4 to 25 were prohibited from publishing by the HR and would be only after examining the veracity of my statements and making a final decision on my demands (Insight costs only $ 19000) :).

23rd March, 1931

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Its been a month since I thought of writing a post under this topic. Wanted to write it once I am finished reading Shiv Verma's Bhagat Singh but that was not to be as I am only done with half the book and had to give it to a friend of mine to derive some sort of inspiration or revive the revolutionary nature :)

23rd March passed off quite peacefully as expected, forgetting the revolutionaries who had once fought for the freedom of our nation with much vigor as the non-violent freedom fighters, may be more. Didn't see anything on it in the newspapers too except for a photo showing some youth from Punjab taking out a rally to commemorate the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

An Excerpt from Gandhi's article in Young India :

Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in a vain.
Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologize, or even file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat Singh wrote --" I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of a cannon and blow me off." These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a thousand times for their heroism.
But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of violence, we shall be reaping the fruit of our own actions.
Hence, though we praise the courage of these brave men, we should never countenance their activities. Our dharma is to swallow our anger, abide by the discipline of non-violence and carry out our duty.

March 29, 1931

I am not a propagandist for non-violence and also not for violence alone too. As Bhagat Singh says, the idea lives on, it doesn't die with a person. The idea is, of 'to react', rather than being a mute spectator to the atrocities happening around us. A Reaction is not always accompanied by violent methods as devised by many of the non-violent political parties of today while carrying out their agitations and protests non-violently. Violence shouldn't be a fall out of a reaction. Proper channeling of violence can be patriotic. Violence in the war against ant-national forces is called patriotism not an act of uncontrolled aggression. None of the politically associated people ever talk about the revolutionaries, none laud about their contributions. Though they all have a thousand tongues when speaking about the non-violent freedom fighting goats. It took Bhagat Singh to explode a small non-violent bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly to make the deaf hear.

We may not know what it takes to make the current breed of deaf politicians hear.

Speaking of the power or will to react, a news in the political circles some days ago comes into my mind. The current main opposition party-aspiring PM charging the current PM of lacking the backbone to go after the terrorists, 26/11 being attributed as a result of this. And the current Home Minister accusing the former government's Home Minister of bowing to the demands of the terrorists during the Kandhahar aircraft hijack drama. Some hundreds of passengers were held hostage in a foriegn country by terrorist hijackers demanding release of some of the dangerous terrorists who wer languishing in Indian jails. Whole through the hostage situation, the country witnessed protests, agitations taken out by the relatives of the hostages, NGOs, demanding action from the government that can guarantee a safe release for the hostages. The hostage situation played on for a week and ultimately the Foreign Minister had to accompany those terrorists on their flight to freedom, the released hostages touched down back home amidst all the cheers and celebrations. One of the released terrorists was instrumental in planning and executing the Parliament attack of 2003 and maybe what not after that.

Cut to the Beslan school hostage crisis when terrorists took siege of a school in Beslan, Russian Federation, with over 1000 as hostages. The Indian government didn't have the nerve to carry out a commando rescue operation on the Taliban soil where as the Russian security forces stormed the building ending the hostage situation. Though it resulted in over 300 deaths, many more were rescued, the government didn't buckle, to cede to the demands of the terrorists. Every other country believes in eliminating the threat rather than holding negotiations with it rather than our own government who believes in peaceful sorting out of problems.

The national pride and security always takes the back seat in our country. Everything that matter is 'I', and some near ones that would constitute 'we' along with the 'I'. The other day heard a politician saying this, "If our neighboring country wishes, we are ready to sent our armed forces there to assist them in eliminating the terror menace and their infrastructure from their soil", as if they are willing to allow our armed forces to step on their soil and as of they are having the will to do so.

'Terrorism', has taken the limelight this elections along with the other commonly fought issues over the years. A pro-active government at the centre would be better than a please-all one. Read the following report the other day, "20% of the electorate votes on the basis of freebies offered to them by the contesting parties, 30% votes for the symbols and 50% votes based on the candidates credentials."

Tonnnhhh.....

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Tonnnhhh.....!!!!! The shrill sound reverberated through the stillness of the night, awakening the tiny creatures that were trying to get a night's sleep. It was metal crashing against metal. Of much greater intensity than the chime of a giant bell of brass.

The time was 4 nights ago, I had just got back home after having dinner to the full. I was planning for tomorrow (see I am a good planner), what time to get up so as to optimize the time required to gulp down the breakfast and make a rush for the bus in the morning. Just in that moment, water scarcity and power scarcity and the problems that I can face if both were to occur together came up. TNEB was being very generous to wake me up early morning for the past 2 days by switching off their power to our area (daylight savings) and forcing me to hit the shower to escape from the soaring heat from the rising sun. And after having suffered from no-water-in-the-tank situation before aggravated by an air pumping motor pump I was doubly careful to fill the tank every night before I venture out in the dreams so that I can get to office in time the next day.

After such a passing thought, decided to switch on the motor. But as always the motor failed to pump the water without providing the external stimulus of 'give it water' for it to 'pump up water'. It was nearing 10 pm, the time to switch on my internet and start browsing and which meant I needed to hurry up.

In my hurry to get over with all the pumping, quickly turned away from the motor to face a tall pole all of steel (maybe) crashing onto my equally (maybe more) strong skull (forehead). Tonnnhhh.... The sound came first or the pain? I don't rememeber. The first reaction was to touch my intact forehead to see BLOOD if there was any (or was it to check for any cracks on the pole, the hit hit my memory for a few moments). My palm was red, but it wasn't blood, maybe because the sudden impact may have diverted the blood to my palms. I didn't see any stars. But felt the pole vibrate upon impact (was it my head?)

Got a small bump on the forehead. Luckily the steel cylindrical pole didn't suffer any damage nor the house. The vibrating frequency of the pole must have missed the resonant frequency of the whole structure :-)

Snooked on Friday, The 13th

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:10:00 +0000

I carry my luck with me always. A bad exam day gone crazy isn’t going to dampen my state of luckiness. I am potting balls in pool game yet again. And the coach graduated me to Snooker a week before the Tuticorin District Level Snooker Championship. This is going to be one of those lucky days when everything is destined to go my way. Yes!

15 reds and 6 colored balls didn’t pose a problem to me. I am going to breeze through all this. The competition was to be held in the Gymkhana Club of Tuticorin. To get familiarized with the snooker board there, we i.e., the team from Sterlite: coach, me, a new friend from Zambia, a boy studying in 9th, a senior colleague and a girl from my joining batch went a day before the start of competition.

The snooker table was loooong and wyyyde. Our pool table seemed a child in front of that. But why worry when I am lucky. Helped myself to some warm-up games. Being longer and wider the angle of contact needs to be adjusted but that wasn't to be a matter to be concerned about because wherever I hit, the balls will find its own way to the score. My match was scheduled on Friday, the 13th. 13 is a lucky number for me as what others, the lesser mortals consider unlucky proves lucky.

Friday, I started 5 minutes late from office, saw the bus leaving me behind. Even though I was late I reached 2 hours before time. Match was to start at 8 30 pm which nobody knew. A piercing headache I carried for the past 4 days coming always after 4 pm. But it wasn't going to be detrimental in my pursuit of being the first snooker champion of Tuticorin. All of my teammates except the coach had lost their matches. Coach asked me to safeguard the name of Sterlite Pool Club (the naming ceremony has to take place). The request was very touching, but I should hold no emotions in this game of wits.

I am going to win without doubt. A little over 8 : 30 pm the game of Snooker started. The start was slow and my potting of the balls was even slower. I began to doubt my luck. Did she desert me again in this moment of reckoning. The game ended soon as it began, me scoring a lowly 5 (0.5, 5, 50 etc seems to follow me everywhere), another record for me. As it was a best of 3 games the 2nd one began after a 5 minute break. I scored more than 4 times the first game score and was 3 balls away from victory, when the bolt of non-seriousness and dreamy state stuck leaving the match to luck, unaided. My loss was inevitable and the time after that was left for brooding over what had taken place.

I came to many conclusions which needs to be carefully taken in mind when I try my luck somewhere else. Though I lost miserably (by my standards and also others), I was happy that I reached the pre-quarters, a cameo role in the news channel accepting the participation memento and the opportunity to rub palms with the richie richs. The match can also be considered as the Poor Vs Rich, with the Poor us losing against the Rich club members as expected in this cruel world out of the film-reel-world :(. The coach was also out in the quarters.

My luck didn't leave me. It became evident by the way I was putting in balls after balls into pockets yesterday. Luck needs to be treated like a lady, isn't it why its called Lady Luck. I learned the lesson in a bitter way. So here are some of the points to be taken care of when Lady Luck is hitched with oneself:

When it comes to matters of money, luck vanishes (I would have won had the organizers hadn't kept the prize money for the Snooker Champion, seriously!)

There wasn't any noise or disturbance in the background (would have made me concentrate and my opponent disturbed :D) (The pic on the right is the Author taking a shot, it is a left hand shot though the author is 96% right hand user, speaks volumes of his ambidexterity isn't it? )

I was hungry, very hungry :(. An empty stomach leads to an occupied mind which isn't my workshop. So luck needs to be fed properly. And the hunger made me sleep half of the match. I demand a re-match.

**My multi-colored OMR sheet got valued and it earned a little more than 36% missing the cut-off of 41% narrowly.

0.5/20

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:50:00 +0000

I made history more than 2.5 years back when I scored a fraction in my sessional exam for ECT. 0.5 seemed pretty decent among the binary digits that many of others scored. I chose to tread the middle path, like I always do. Chose a 0.5 instead of a 0 or a 1. I really like exam days ;-), my latest exam being a living proof.

Wanted to put 'We, the Billion' as the title for this post, but the fraction outweighed the billion.
Read an article on Dementia in India Today, highlighting a to-be-true or may not-to-be-true fact-to-be: India to be among top 5 dementia hubs by 2020 says the WHO.
When India has more than 1.2 billion people, constituting not less than 16% of the world population, then if it doesn't feature in top 5 slots in every category then who else will. And the major reason for this sudden spurt in dementia numbers is because of the rising number of people above 80 years of age, increase in life expectancy of its citizens has catapulted India to the Ivy League of Diseased Nations. Having a look at the nations that India has got for company in those Ivy league lists, provokes thought in their ability to make the list even though their population doesn't constitute a mere half the number as of ours. We will learn, and it will take time to learn and to cope.

Some years back, in a talk show in our DD News, I happened to see an MP, some Raghu, from Laloo Land's RJDee party airing his views on the topics being discussed.

Anchor : So Mr. Raghu how can you explain the 11 children that you got? (Apparently, maybe, at his proposal for implementing family planning)

Mr. Raghu : You see, what happened was during Emergency, the government was forcibly implementing family planning. There wasn't any guarantee. I also did family planning and the result is for everyone to see. It was a total failure on the part of the government.
(I am wondering, emergency lasted for 11 years? )

**The above transcript is reproduced in its original from my wonderful non-dementioned memory that has recordings dating back to 0.16 years BB, hence the correctness of it can be disputed anywhere the reader wishes to.

$I am still yearning for my Canon-EOS 450D. I really like my benevolent and caring friends for providing me whatever I yearn without my asking to and I believe their benevolence will make me write a post on Canon-EOS 450 D very soon :-)

$A slow net connection@reliance with low browsing speed and high downloading speed is slowly eroding my loyalty to switchover to the reliable BSNL.
$Dell Inspiron 13 is looking good.

This financial year is coming to a close. Its time to file tax returns and the good news is that gifts/goods/articles in favor of Viajero can claim tax exemptions U/s 80 c. Hurry. Offer lasts till the 3 $ are met. Conditions apply.
Non-anonymous gifts are also welcome though they may not be able to claim tax exemptions.

You Got Lucky!

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:50:00 +0000

USE ONLY BLUE/BLACK BALL POINT PEN FOR MARKING THE ANSWERS

The week was going too perfect for me. Lady luck became my better half and there wasn't any question of she leaving me anytime soon. The last Sunday of the month of feb, I was to write an entrance test (which I wrote after hearing about the same from Scada a.k.a Daali) and I felt the aura of luck surrounding me. The probability of me not going through the exam successfully was nil, is what I felt.

The run up days to the exam- I was going from being lucky to luckier and luckiest. This became evident after I was potting balls after balls in pool. Whatever shot I hit, atleast one ball will find its way home (sometimes it would be the cue ball itself) and I was having an unbroken winning streak. Thought of making a home video of myself and uploading it in Youtube but I wasn't prepared to handle the publicity that would come along with it :D. So this idea was shelved without a second thought.

2 days before the scheduled departure to write the exam, I pocketed a new cello black ball pen from the company's stationaries shelf (the 2 packets of ball point pens got exhausted in one day itself, wondering how may signatures does one put on an average everyday :-? ). Armed with a single ball point pen and the hall ticket I set out with my lady luck on the saturday, night fall. Though pencils, earser and sharpner weren't required I couldnt hold myself from taking each one of them, as a foresight.

Sunday morning I check into this hotel in Kochi, have stomach full of the complimentary breakfast and set out for the exam centre, St. Albert's Hrr Sec School. It was a familiar rush at the centre of all the exam takers. Having checked out my seating room, I gradually started my cool walk towards the alloted building. Must have walked only a few steps, my 2nd wife, the Cellphone slipped of into whilrling fall whose trajectory I interrupted midway by my splendid reflex. Wow! This is going to be grand culmination to my splendid run of lucky week, after the exam goes well, I believed.

The time for entering the exam room was nearing and involuntarily I took my Black Ball point pen from the shirt pocket and put it the pants's pocket. The bell rang, I ran along. The mass took me along the stairs towards the 2nd floor. Occupied my seat. Put whatever had with me on the table except one thing. "My pen", a 'Aahh' must have blasted off from my half-open mouth. How can this ever happen to me. My black pen was missing. Maybe it would have rocketted off somewhere on the stairs. I retraced my steps in the hope finding the writing tool, lying orphaned on the stairs. Alas it was not to be found. Luck had dtched me, so I thought to utter disbelief.

"CARRY WITH YOU SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF BLUE/BLACK BALL POINT PENS"

I didn't know that that sentence will bear its weight on me. Let bygones be bygones. I still had my lovely Sheaffer fountain pen with me :-). I decided to write the exam with that. As the exam intruction didn't say anything about using a fountain pen, I decided to take the risk (risk taking is an inherent characted of an entrepreneur ;-) ). When I had to sign myself on the attendance sheet, a thought did escape my mind, if they caught me using a fountain pen and debarrred me from writing the exam and letting myself become a fool in front of everyone else. But good faith was with me, nothing that sort happened. The questions seemed easy and I went on circling the choices.

This was the first exam in which I didn't have my watch. I was using a mechanical wound watch which loses 2 min every day and which I have to wound everyday. But due to some technical snag which my intrusive and anlaytical brain couldn't find out developed and I had to leave my time-keeper behind. The test began at 10 am and I went on an answering spree :-) and when I had a moment to glance upon the watch of the invigilator, it showed 10 min to 11. At that spur of the moment I thought, 'What if my Sheaffer run out of ink', Nay!

11 O'clock chimed and I sensed ink being drained out of the pen. WTH!@?

It can't be happening. No Watch, No Black Ball pen and now No Sheaffer. I tried to stretch the maximum out of her, like it was a do or perish battle for the pen. It took some moments before the fact dwelved upon me, Lady Luck Divorced Me, rather quitely.

But I think she was unaware of the fact that I was in possesion of something that was mightier than the pen, it could beat any pen in a contest of writing in vaccum, in absolute nothingness of the space, My Pencil.

Armed with a single pencil, I resumed answering the paper, this time I was more hideous than before. Come on what more can one expect. In an exam that mentioned, Ball point pens to be used. I didn't use them instead used an ink pen and now a pencil. This is indeed going to be a grand end to my Feel Lucky Week.

My OMR answer sheet looked amazing with a variety of colorful circles. The dark blue ones giving way to light blue and little tiny brownish-black looking pencil circles. Hoping that the OMR machine doesn't break down while trying to evaluate my answer sheet to save it from subjecting to manual scrutiny. All together the test went fine but didn't find any enjoyment in marking out the answers. It was an hour and a half left to catch the train back to home, Trivandrum. On the way back bought some Jalebis, and a kilo of sweets (2 types of pedas) from Bimbis (to celebrate the roller-coaster ride in the exam hall).

This test taught me many important lessons:

1) Try coercing my parents to give me another sheaffer pen ( the one I am having now was given by mom though I was ready to buy it with my own hard-earned money :D)

2) A photovoltaic powered watch is a safe bet (friends this is chance to show the true worth of your friendship :-) )

3) Next time I take something out of the company's stationery items, take atleast a bunch.

4) When I am feeling that I am having Lady Luck again on my side, use her to get a her.

5) I should have borrowed a pen from someone even if it would have meant hurting my true Pride :-)

*The pen in the pic has its body exactly similar to mine, maybe the same ones. No Guarantee if the reader gets inspired by this and decides to buy it.

The Common Man is conspicuously absent this year!

I was held an Hostage.....

noreply@blogger.com (Quest) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:59:00 +0000

Under the cloudless sky, the non-twinkling stars, I trode my way back to play pool in the company's housing campus. It was some time past 1900 Hrs on the 13th day of September 2008. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning or something that sort of, blinding me instantly, holding me on my steps. What followed it seemed to be outwardly bizarre and chaotic.

I was kidnapped! I was held as an hostage by Aliens, not possesingthe slightest resemblance to the scores of aliens depicted and immortalised in many a films. I was tortured mentally. They were an advanced race truly, going by the ease in their command over the english language they were speaking. I am unable to recollect their appearances, as it seemed to be completely erased of my conscious mind.

They were after my keen intellectual thought and profound understanding of the world going by their action of choosing me over others ;-). They put various problems spanning all the known and unknown subjects before me and having an untrained mind not put through any of such tortures before, I couldn't solve any of them :D. Some of the problems were very 'physic'al in nature, as they were having a lot of 'kets' and 'bras' and 'thetas'. The hostage situation had no end, I thought. They made a life-size clone of me from the DNA extracted from me to replace me in the natural world so as not to trigger a panic situation on Earth of me being going invisible all of a sudden (I am so revered upon earth :-o, didnt know that ;-))

They carried various experiments upon me, me under sedation during this process, They were trying to extract knowledge about the intellectual and anlalytical capability of the brain is what I felt. I lost count of time, the seconds, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, all diluted beyond differentiation. All the events happening around the world was spoon fed to me, including the experiences of my clone. Maybe they would let me go back into my natural environment once their experiment is done with (so I thought).

Their tiring mind games with me gradually decreased and the day came when I saw myself waking up in the morning from my own bed. This wasn't a dream or the experience I felt through my clone. This was really happening to me, I am free again after being taken by the Aliens. Or was it a bad dream. It felt so surrealistic. I hoped not to have such encounters again. But I was wrong, they returned in what seemed to be a few seconds, hours by their standards, they made me aware of what their aim was (I will not divulge it here until they visit the earth again and I be the only person to know how to address them, to talk about their purpose on behalf of all the species on Earth :D).

Before parting they happened to tell me some of their names, here again I am not capable to completely ennumerate the aliens who I had met through the course of my ordeal.
They had weird names (all of them spelled their names for my comfort) like :
Lethargeeee (because of numerological factors),
Sybarite,
Profligate.

In short, I was feeling lazy to write :-)

'Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.' - William Jennings Bryan

Once chosen, try hard may, your destiny will pull you to itself. I am feeling this pull and it is only a matter of time when I will be jumping wholly into this :-)

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