And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

long time no see

2008-07-13T22:10:00.002+08:00

well i have really ignored this space for a long time and i think i need to be kicked in my bums for doing that. Before you guys queue up in front of my cabin or my home for taking turns, i must warn you, i didnt literally mean that. so now, what the f*** have i been doing for the past 6 months. Well, my life has turned topsy turvy, and this i mean literally!

for starters, as most of you who read this blog know, i have moved to india and started living in chennai. That was change number 1. And then i decided that i need to drive and bought a car and i have now learned the art of driving in Chennai.. (touch wood!!!), that was change number 2. And the most important change, my parents and my sister moved in with me.. And this was man, you wont realise, was toughest cha(llen)ge of them all.. i have not lived with them for the past 15 years and when they moved in, i was not sure how i am gonna manage.. it is not that i dont love them and i dont want them around, but it was a change, a real tough one cos i had lived all by myself and my rules for quite a while and now you had like 3 personalities more to deal with.

Man, what a roller coaster this was!! having to come home cos your mom is saying awake waiting to open the door, making sure you are not too drunk ;), calling up home in case you are gonna be late and explaining why.. these were things one takes for granted when staying alone.. guess my parents moving in is like a stepping stone to the next big thing these guys are planning.. yeah they want to get me married and are posting my photos and resumes and my life history in every goddamn marriage proposal site and office there is. I will talk about this in another blog.. this needs a lot more time and words

while i do miss the total free life i had, the fact that i had no one else who will wrest control of the tv remote from me, the fact that i could see what i wanted on tv, eat what i wanted, go out where i wanted when i wanted, with no questions.. i think this is a change i had to go through.. atleast nowadays, i get to take mom's home cooked food for lunch in the hot box everyd ay, eat fresh cooked dosas and coconut chutney when i want, even though i now have lost total control of the tv remote, have to call in and tell what time i would be home, where i am and what i am doing, and why they hear those girly noises in the background.. i think it is worth it.

p.s: i can smell hot appams.. so c ya laters..

the road not taken

2007-12-13T23:29:00.000+08:00

When i read this poem by Robert Frost, i never even imagined that one day it would be a title for a blog post that would be describing my experience in driving in India.

but seriously, it really is a road that i have never taken. You see, i got my drivers license in india, mangalore to be precise, 10 years back. and i drove in mangalore when i was learning to drive with my driving instructor.

after that, never drove in this country of mine where driving is more of an art than a science. and now, after driving in countries where people follow rules, to drive in chennai is like really a road not taken!!!

when i started last evening, i was constantly watching all 3 mirrors, sitting at the edge of my seat trying to figure out where my car starts and ends and like sweating so much with my ac on that i was drenched when i reached home.

this morning i learnt my first lesson, mirrors are not for indians.. so there u go.. stopped looking at them. I put my music full blast on, wear my seat belt (habit!!!) and then go straight and honk enough to get the guy in front of me to let me pass and ignore the honks i get at the back.. that seems to work.. so there u go.. the road not taken is not that bad after all.. but i think its gonna take me a while to get used to driving in this chaos.

There and back again...

2007-12-09T22:57:00.000+08:00

no, i am not bilbo baggins and although i have a great resemblance to gollum and have a great liking for his character, i didnt go in search of the one ring. i am writing about my recently concluded trip to singapore. it was a trip with a lot of mixed feelings. I used to tell my friends back in singapore when i used to live there that when i fly into changi airport and drive home, it felt like u know returning home, but this time, that feeling was missing. i did feel good and happy meeting all my friends and partying till 4:30 am on saturday night, felt good to sit by the river and have brunch with a beer at brewerkz and of course the thai food and the chicken rice etc etc, but it didnt feel like home.

it is quite strange how your affiliations change in such a short time span. anyways, was a good trip and used it to tie a few open ends.

now, back and unpacking my stuff and need to get some nails and hammer to start mounting my masks, and other collectibles and have to buy a dining table, a really large book case, a nice CD/dvd storage shelf, a show case for my collection of glasses and a storing shelf for the kitchen, and yeah a couple of bean bags until my dad transfers over the sofa set.

oh btw, i should be getting my maruti swift this wednesday and so looking forward to driving.. need to figure out a name for my car.. wonder what i should call her.

Mr. Bridget Jones

2007-11-30T00:42:00.000+08:00

Well no, i am not going to write about stones and pounds and girlfriends, if for anything else, the reason being i honestly dont know what i weigh in stones and pounds, and i am no good to land a girlfriend :p. i use too much of my head for my own good or bad. the perspective is upto you..

it has been a month since i got on here to write. been a crazy month. settling down at my new apartment. mom, dad and sis visiting me for diwali. it was really nice for a change when your folks visit you rather than you them. made a quick trip to palghat to see my granma and then ofcourse the routine of waking up, bargaining with the rick guy, going to work getting immersed, coming back, watching tv, reading some books/the morning paper and then chatting with sis and hitting the bed. hell life has to be little more interesting than that and well all is not that bad..

have a new project in my life.. courtesty ofcourse mom and dad and i knew this when i came back to india. they are not gonna let me stay single for long but then i didnt expect they would start so soon , but then life hardly happens as u plan.. so in the pretext of helping mom and dad with finding me a bride, i am visiting all the online matrimonials.. and the ****head that i am, i created my profile with the name "prenup".. it did sound funny when i created it but most of the friends of mine from the fairer sex seem to disagree with me about the humor behind this.. hey come on gals u cant be too serious about such things.. i swear i dont intend to ask for one.. me not that kind anyway.

well, right when i was thinking it has been 4 months since i traveled, lo and behold, i was asked by my boss to travel to singapore on some work and so am off tomorrow. looking forward to meeting my pals and play a round of articulate and cranium.

when i get back, i will write about the "pain of waiting for a car to be delivered in india".. till then adios amigos

Autorickshaw Wars

2007-10-30T23:59:00.000+08:00

If George Lucas were to make Star Wars again, he defn would need to visit India and take a look at the three wheelers. he could have got some new ideas on how to take some of his chase sequences and action shots of one of those space crafts flying between the asteroids.

Man, its a gamble every day i swear. It all starts with the moment you flag down a auto. The first thing is you have to tell him where you want to go and the auto guy will take a minute to think about it - i guess his brain must be going, i am god for the moment should i say yes or should i say no. and by the time he is thinking, he is actually sizing you up. some guys would ask dumb questions such as oh is that place near this building A or B or watever. What he is doing is figuring out if this guy who is talking to his is a sucker or not, if he is well dressed, then light bulb goes on!! damn, this guy must be an IT guy. so can fleece him or watever.. so after like a time of heightened anxiety he finally acquiesces. Thank you your highness!!! i tell myself.. but wait.. its not over yet.. now comes the hard part.. the bargaining.

The guys have a going rate which is their cut off and usually its about 20 Rs over the actual meter , that is if you ever get to see an actual meter that is not tampered with and by some divine grace of God, you ever get a a auto wallah actually deciding to use the meter and getting paid by it. So you see the chances of that happening are quite remote. Well going back to bargaining, see even though most autos have meters and most of them have the supposedly untamperable electronic meters, ( i doubt it.. some IT guy might start a venture on the side selling code to actually make the meter tick a little faster) its always better to fix a rate cos you never know what these guys will pull you into post the ride. i remember 10 years back when i took a auto and decide the rate as 50 RS (its ambathu rupees in tamil) and post the ride this guy started saying it was 80 Rs(embathu rupees.. dont ask me which idiotic guy had the brains to have such close sounding phoenetics for the language but that something u have to live with). well anyway, i took that guy to the cops and made him pay. Coming back to bargaining.. u see u have to fix the rate and the rate is based on a lot of factors.. refer back to sizing you up.. so it might start from 2 to 2.5 times the actual meter fare and you have to bargain it down..

the good thing is if the auto guy realizes you know what you are talking about, then they come down from the pedastal they are in and then its a ride .. the third part of the gamble. else its like, this guy rides away and you start afresh with the next guy in pipeline. The good thing is the pipeline is quite strong.

Well once you get in the auto, the ride of your life starts.. man its crazy, the weaving, the speed, the sudden brakes, and the U turns, the squeezing in between vehicles where you thought even an ant cant get in.. and by the time he stops at your destination, your gaurdian angel would have had a heart attack.

I keep a separate pack of hypertension tablets in my bag for my gaurdian angel and keep hoping the angel doesnt give up on me and walk away.. just a few more weeks for my car..

I am back!!!

2007-10-26T01:08:00.001+08:00

Well i wanted to say it in the style of Arnold Swazzernagger(sic!!) (or Shivashankarnair as the mallus would like to call), but then i remembered, i am 1 feet shorter, have lost all the muscle mass i gained since i stopped gymming like a year back, have put on a small tummy thanks to my periamma's curd rice and mom's food over the past 3 months and also i dun have my Honda Phantom anymore.. :((( - i had to sell it ...

In short.. i quit my old job, moved in with my parents in hyderabad..(luckily my dad didnt call me dandachoru :-)) well before i could give him a reason, while trying to decide between should i join a friend and start a firm or start discussions with a few companies i had contacted, i had one of the most luckiest breaks ever.

Power of Networking - i guess this would be a perfect example. Got in touch with a friend/batchmate of my friend/insead alumnus and lo and behold, i get a call from my current big boss.. end of the day, i landed my new job within one month of my quitting my old one. So now in chennai, joined my new role, found a new apartment, got a new TV and other stuff, and waiting for my maruti swift and my luggage to arrive from singapore.

What a year it has been.. Well, lets see, i last wrote in this space in May 2007. I stopped regular posting almost an year to the month if i am not mistaken.

It was one of those f***king long years that one wishes one never had. Well on the flip side, one always says there are people worse off. Well of course there are people worse off but then that does not mean i have to be worse than what the ideal state should be , should i? :) hell why talk about that.. it was a down trip through out the year.. one of the worst times personally and professionally.. imagine a life if you are not happy both at home and at work.. man, i swear, no one should experience this shit i went through.. not worth it..

Well i just wanted to jot down the last 12 months in one post and close this chapter of my life. After all, if I should not just do lip service to rudyard kipling's words.

If...

2007-05-14T11:11:00.000+08:00

Reading this poem by Rudyard Kipling has never failed to impress upon me the values he talks about. This is one poem i turn to when it is the darkest of times, when i am faced with challenges that seem to pin you down, when i need hope!!!

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

ultimately, u know, i have come to realise, we all live on too much Ifs and not now! and i have been doing that for a while now.. living on Ifs.. its time i started posting on this blog again.. and its time i started living again... after all life is what happens when you are busy planning (as per john lennon) and life is what is happening when you are busy figuring out what went wrong (as per me)...

life must go on..

2007-03-06T18:35:00.000+08:00

and it does after a while...

i know it has been 4 months plus since i signed on here. most of you who visit this space regularly did ask me and thats good to know that people do care.

anyways, you know i thought life had thrown enough surprises at me and right when you think you have probably taken enough, someone roles a dice and decides man, this guy probably hasnt had enough, stick it a little more up you know where.. and voila.. u get more.

been through some of the difficult times of my life the past few months. something very personal that i cant even pen it down here. still unresolved, but then life must go on.. it has taken me quite a while to get back to accepting things and although things wont be the same again, they never are really ever, life must go on.. and it does whether i like it or not.

homeward bound

2006-10-14T13:05:00.000+08:00

one very good thing about staying in singapore is the fact that it is so much easier to travel home. i still remember 2001 when i had come back to mangalore so i can be back home for diwali only for my client to have an emergency and me having to cut short my trip one day before diwali to fly to the usa to take over from my colleague. my parents were quite upset of course no doubt and i was quite sad but then hey sometimes shit happens.

hopefully this time around, nothing in my startup would go for a toss and i can have that 2 weeks with my folks. strange it may seem for a 30 year old but i miss home and i have never lived with my parents since i was 16. long time isnt it.. maybe things might work out and i can be with them or they come over to be with me in singapore. well my indian psyche hasnt changed even though have spent so many days outside home.. when it comes to such things i am still traditional as they say.. nah, no excuses, its just me...

well have spent enough time this morning googling, wikipeding, orkuting, blogging etc.. have to do my japanese homework for tomorrows lessons and have to prepare curry for tonights potluck sheesha and cranium session at my friends place..

adios...

dreams...

2006-10-14T12:39:00.001+08:00

i am tired of dreams, am not speaking metaphorically.. i mean literally i am tired of dreams. last night was a real bad one.. i did not go out partying because i wanted to have a good nites rest but what do i get, a whole night of dreams which screwed up my sleep and at the end of the it i decided to just get out of bed to stop dreaming..

people say, you dont remember your dreams, but i very clearly do remember what i dreamt about last night. it is very strange and it is still there in my head running around like a broken tape in the background. i just dont understand this! Is this what happens when what you are dreaming about is something u need a closure on? I dunno.. i need a break and i need to stop thinking about what i dreamt but i dunno how.

Regrets

2006-10-04T21:26:00.000+08:00

Somebody asked me if i regret anything that has happenned thus far in my life. Well am not sure if this question was rhetoric or if it really meant had i regretted any aspect.

At that point, i said the usual big words, "nah, no regrets at the way my life has turned out". it has kind of become a fad to say that statement. but come on, i am sure although each person is happy about how their life has turned out, there always is regrets. If i would look at it from one perspective yeah i am happy the way life has turned out. i mean, why wouldnt i be, i started somewhere was an obsure individual, well am still obscure, but then am happy, so i can say no regrets. I can say this because for sure i dont know what would have happenned if life had taken a different course from what it took with me.

But this question made me think. What all incidents in my life were major turning points, where if i had made a different choice i would have ended up someplace else and would i be happy then? maybe maybe not. what all incidents in my life were those that i rather forget cos i screwed up big time and if they hadnt happenned what else could have been?

Looking back at my life, i do realise there are events that i regret having happenned, well i am sure everyone has their share of these events but these events for me are what i regret. I regret having hurt others, i regret having acted wierd at times, i regret some words i spoke, i regret those bad days when i have lost my tempers, i regret not having apologised to some of the persons who were involved in all the above. those are regrets and i dont think i would ever get a chance again to set things straight there and that i regret.

but if u ask me if i there are any regrets as to how my life has turned out, well no. there is no time to regret how life has turned out especially when you are happy about how it has turned out, and no point regretting some decisions that I have made that has taken me where i am.

well now i have to leave to meet a friend at the airport or i am going to regret having spent too much time on this blog and missing him.

U2 and Me too

2006-09-29T15:39:00.000+08:00

Well my favourite band is playing in Tokyo, my latest favourite place on november the 29th. I just booked my tickets to Tokyo. Tokyo here i come again.

nihongu

2006-09-25T23:32:00.000+08:00

The biggest problem in learning a new language is not having anyone to practice the language. man, i started learning japanese and its actually not that tough, but i defn need to find someone to practice speaking. maybe i shud just find that japanese chick in singapore after all ;) rite.. as though they are just waiting for me to just walk down and pick them up.

The neighbors

2006-09-21T22:36:00.000+08:00

Well i never ever imagined in my wildest dreams that i would ever get a chance to visit Pakistan. When i joined my present company 18 months or so back, it became a remote possibility. But then it really did happen two weeks ago. The visa was not easy to get but that was just the only thng that was tough. The moment my flight touched down in Islamabad, the first thing that hit me was man.. this country looks just like our own.. The airport, the people, the way they behave, their attitude, is all just desi babus personified. The only noticeable difference was that the language they spoke was a little different to hindi.

I had one of the best times of my life in Islamabad. i would be understating if i said that the hospitality i got from my colleagues there was the best. It was awesome. I will never forget the way my colleagues in pakistan took care of me. The city is by far the greenest capital i have visited. Islamabad is one of the most planned cities in the world. The other aspect - food, man it was just delicious. needless to say, i got the stomach flu after i landed in singapore because i just had too much to eat and i also added 2 kilos. I had like the best kabuli kebabs, chickens that are slow roasted over coal - called sajji, haleem, pai, brains.. etc etc.. man awesome food.. I will soon post some pictures in my other blog...

I just wish i could get more chances to visit them and also see a lot of our old historic places like gandhara, takshila, peshawar and ofcourse the cradle of indian civilisation - the harappa and mojendajaro.. some wishes come true, they just take time..

41 days

2006-09-09T12:06:00.000+08:00

well thats the time since my last post. Never in the past three years since i took up writing a blog have I neglected this space for this long. Well reasons reasons reasons.. simple 3 words.. i was busy, but then i need to allocate a few minutes to keeping this blog up to date.. promise to myself- will do it definitely

Apart from turning 30 and making a second trip to Tokyo to hire and induct a new business development person and starting on my japanese lessons, life has been pretty much the same. parents are moving to hyderabad and that would make my trips to india easier cos its just a direct 4 hour flight. Man, earlier i used to dread going home cos of the flight to chennai and then the 7 hour train journey to my home. you kinda use up your holiday in just traveling to the destination. Hopefully, now, i can go home more often!

The trip to Tokyo was more fun this time. I even experienced a earthquake that measured 5.5. I was in the 8th floor at my office and suddenly, you heard this wierd rumbling sound and i thought oops thats definitely an earthquake and the next second, i could feel the shake and the building kinda swayed. I looked at my colleage, she wasnt hassled and she confirmed it was an erathquake and my other colleague was like kanags, you are lucky to experience this. Man i was like shit what if this building collapses.. well nothing happenned apart from the swaying for a few seconds and then everything went back to normal.

Actually, this time around my esteem for the japanese shot up sky high. After a red eye flight, i had gone to the ticket counter to book the train ticket from airport to tokyo city. I left my passport bag at the counter and totally forgot about it. Walkedl ike 500 meters down to the train and went up to cabin one and was waiting to board the train. Like 2 minutes before the train starts, this lady comes running with my passport bag. I had not even realised until then that i didnt have the passport with me. She hands it over and i was speechless. of course i thanked her and all that. but i swear never anywhere in the world would something like this happen. Back home in India, the passport would probably have been flicked by the next customer at the ticket counter and would have gone to the mafia for redistribution. Or in singapore, the bag would have gone to the lost and found (hopefully).. she did not have any reason whatsoever to run 500 meters and find me and give me the bag but she did it. I love this country and i loved every minute of my stay there.

Well now, i am getting ready to my trip to Islamabad to meet my colleagues there and discuss some technology strategies and timelines for a product launch. My first trip to Pakistan. it took ages to get my visa approved and now i am looking forward to being there. Will write about my experiences in Islamabad when i am back.

lost in translation

2006-07-29T22:11:00.000+08:00

it is my 4th day in tokyo now. just got back to my hotel room which is no more than 100 sq ft in area. one of the amallest room i have ever stayed in, in my life. Actually reminds me of the size of my hostel room back in BITS, pilani, india where i did my undergrad. the difference is the room is air conditioned, has a tv, PC and a nice bathroom with a toilet that has controls that can squirt water, adjust tempertatures of water being squirted etc..

well let me not get into details of how i used my toilet. the city tokyo literally never sleeps. i have spent 4 days here so far and in between meetings and after work i have spent enough time exploring the city. i decided against taking a day trip to mt fuji cos this is the rainy season and sometimes clouds play spoil sport. today being an off day i spent like 10 hours walking around the city and last nite my colleague took me to some cool spots as well. i had already fallen in love with tokyo and now i am in love even more. i just need to learn the language. the subway is one of the best in the world. the food is awesome. the gals are cuter by the minute, the sake and shocu are the bets drinks in the world. the city is a little expensive but i am sure the pay packages will make up for it.

i walked around the city and took a ton of trips on the subway. visited the imperial palace garderns, the tokyo tower which is modelled on eiffel, the roppongi hills area which is the worlds costliest real estate, the tokyo dome area and the meiji shrine. nice welcome break from work and it is too bad i am feeling all worn out and cant stay out more. and too bad i cant speak the language. the city is a feast to the eyes from the lights, the neon adverts, the cute girls and everything else.

in the past few days i learnt a lot from the business angle as well. from my talks with my friends and business partners, i have been able to understand how business moves here, how it is still a male dominated society and what i need to do from my business stand point.

all in all, a great eye opener. i have always been intrigued by japan and its culture and now after being here in first person, i am even more appreciative. when i get back, i need to start to learn this language so that the next time i make a visit, i can actually speak to a few people instead of making signs and pointing to menus and yeah it will help if i can tell a girl she actually looks damn cute..

Land of the Rising sun

2006-07-27T10:35:00.000+08:00

Well first time in the land of the rising sun and i went with like 9 hours sleep in the past 40 hours. I finally conned (read as convinced) by boss into sending me to Japan on a business trip. Actually it is a business trip and i have like 2 meeting on average a day plus a conference to attend.

I have never fallen in love with a place on first sight and Tokyo was just awesome. one of the most polite and friendlist set of people in the world i would say. too bad i dont know japanese and have to just smile and they really make an effort to help with signs etc. The cabbies ..man, these cabbies are sent from heaven. .. after staying in sg and getting used to the majority of the permanently "dick in my arse" kinda attitude of cabbies, the tokyo cabbies are a welcome change. They are damn polite, even though they cant talk english, if you tell them the place name and show them a map or phone, make an effort to call the place and get directions and drop you. The road and the subway system are the best i have seen. The city is full of like multi tiers of roads and higways like stacked on each other and they just blend into the city scape. The only aspect is man things are damn expensive.

Well i have got work to do now. will update on the tokyo nite life in the next post.

Episode I - the phantom menace

2006-07-27T10:27:00.000+08:00

The phantom is not menacing me.. I however have a strange feeling it is definitely a source of menace to my apartment's maintenance folks. you see,, two weeks back i finally decided to act on this desire for a street bike , havent named it desire yet, but have to give her a name soon. I purchased a really cool blue Honda Phantom 150 cc cruiser in the second hand market. The bike was in awesome shape and condition.

After a few days of back to biking blues, now i am rocking the singapore F1 circuit. yeah, if they ever decide to race at just 100 kms per hour maximum speed i will be right there at the bottom. am probably one of those riskaverse drivers out there. but then hey u need to be careful. Anyways, the deal is i am finally a biker in singapore. No more waiting for those stupid Cabs and paying 4 bucks for calling one and seeing all these stupid cab buggers buzzing past you and not stopping to pick u up. Well bye bye to all that..

the phantom is doing good except for a small leak in the 2T oil tank which needs to be fixed, and ofcourse need to find some hot babe to fill the back seat.. That would be Episode II - Attack of the blondes. will write about that next time..

the day i got stoned...

2006-07-05T22:07:00.000+08:00

I finally got the break.. My life which was nothing but interesting routine if i can use that phrase, got a kick in the butt cos someone decided to make it a little more interesting..

nah, i didnt get a holiday, change in job, or location or watever. i literally got a break.. yeah, a surgery to break my kidney stones.. that definitely sounds corny, but what the heck.

It has been a week since i had a coffee, beer, or any form of alcohol or a nice meal in a good restaurant. I was on home cooked kichdi thanks to my boss who prepared and sent them over, and about 3-4 liters of water every day till yesterday.

all started with this worst pain a man can experience that hit me at around 5 am on 29th june. after 2 hours of struggling to figure out what the heck is going wrong, puking everything that was inside my stomach, and running out of options as to figuring out what the pain was about, and with the pain just increasing every minute, i flagged down a cab and went down to the emergency unit in a hospital about 4 kms from my home. Do you realise the cabbies tend to follow all traffic rules and go really slow just when you need them to break all the rules and go fast? i guess its in built into their psyche to do just the opposite of what you intend them to do.

any way, after reaching the emergency and filling in some stupid forms, and waiting for the doc for about 15 minutes, and answering like tons of questions i was finally given a pain killer. man, why the hell does the emergency unit expect you to fill a bunch of forms when you tell them you have pain and need a doc immediately.. i swear this world needs a munna bhai mbbs or patch adams..

anyway, after two rounds of pain killer shots and a xray and a CT scan, the doc diagnosed that i had kidney stones that need a procedure asap. So there u go, all alone in singapore, i decided to undergo the procedure called ESWL.. a shockwave treatment where they ping your urinary tract with sound waves to Break up the stones.. after a nite in the hospital and after i made sure i tell all my friends to come visit me in the hospital.. hey come on i have never been admitted in a hospital before in my life and never been given pain killer shots and never had a procedure done on me before.. so there u go.. a lot of first time events..

well, for now, doc has said no coffee.. and since i was suffering from caffeine withdrawal symptoms has agreed to let me have one cup a day, no drinks for a while cos i have high uric acid and am on antibiotics, no calcium rich food such as tomotoes, carrots, cabbage.. shucks.. reduced meat intake.. man.. i am screwed..

i was looking for interesting times.. and when work was getting really interesting, when i was losing weight and gaining muscles, here comes the stones.. well i have lost 1 kg since last thursday.. and no the stones werent that heavy..

2006-06-24T16:06:00.000+08:00

I had once written about how time tends to stand still when you have nothing to do. Today i will have to write a corollary to that about how time also tends to hit the speed of light when you have so much to do. Anyone who has some idea of physics will kick my arse for that last statement. yeah, time and light and the space and the space time curve, and black holes and time warps etc etc.. i know about all that and i have also spent some of my time and lost a few of my hairs in solving some problems from the 1001 problems listed by one Dr Irodov. Anyone who has been to IIT or has written the IIT JEE exams will know of Irodov..

Time is very unforgiving and relentless in its mission to just elapse and we just end up getting caught in that journey time seems to be making to god knows where. Well all philosophical mumbo jumbos aside, what i am life has been damn busy. At work, my company has reached a phase where we are caught between cash flows and cash reserves and strategic growth needs.. yeah yeah the business buzzwords.. am trying to allocate whatever time i have between leading a team to increase sales and bookings, work with the mgmt in creating a strategic roadmap for the next 2 years and presales, firefights and the like.. Outside of work, worldcup makes me stay awake till late in the night, gym has been eating atleast 5 hours a week, weekend partying another 5 hours.

oh btw, i finally got my visa approved for a business trip to Islamabad to spend some time with my colleagues there. Man getting this visa was one hell of a ride. had to make so many cab trips to the high commission here. the cab fees are 10 times the fees i paid for the visa. well anyways, shud be making the trip in july sometime. look forward to visiting Pakistan.

well i have started to notice that my posts have become dry and dull. need a boost to get back into my writing.. maybe i need a break

bridget jones diary...

2006-06-08T23:09:00.000+08:00

Well no i didnt watch that movie or read that book again.. u gotta have time for that in the first place..
I was about to note down on this space the following.. and i didnt want a plagiarism case on me so mentioned her name just to provide copyright protection to the author.
6 June 2006:
date supposed to be that of the beast.. well i swear i did not do anything.. however much i wish i am unfortunately not the devils incarnate
weight: reduced by 2 kgs in a month.. not bad.. wonder how many stones that is
single scene : as single as ever..
number of times got stoned last month : none
number of times i was high and nearly stoned : 1
number of times went out drinking last month - 5 much lesser.
amount of alcohol had last month - defn 50% lesser than previous month
hair style : still balding..
waistline : lost 1/2 inch yaaay...
work hours : same old 9 - 10 with an hour break in between for the gym and another for lunch
clubbing scene : not much change.. although visited zouk in singapore. realised my taste for house music has not changed since the last visit 2 yrs ago..I hate house music
marriage scene : parents staying away from putting any further pressure for now which is good.
movie scene: havent even caught Da vinci code yet what can i say i am a loser
books scene : still struggling to find time to read my last 4 months of nat geo
swimming scene: hit the pool every weekend .. almost
golfing: man i need to get my butt to the dricing range this weekend
nothing else to add for the moment.. will post if my life were anything more interesting..

It takes one to know one.

2006-05-22T23:34:00.000+08:00

It takes one to know one. I mean, i have heard this idiom umpteen number of times. But i believe it has been used and misused umpteem number of times as well. Let us look at this logically.

Every living thing has some basic level cognitive skill. They are aware that they exist. They can very easily identify their own kind, their predators, their prey and their mate. So a lion can identify another lion, can identify a lioness, can identify its prey be it deer, or zebra or it can make sense of a new thing it comes across within its limited cognitive capacity. If i take it forward, you dont need to be a deer to know that the object you are looking at is a deer. you could be a lion or you could be a tiger or you could be a man to identify that a deer is a deer.

So next time you use the idiom "it takes one to know one" i suggest understanding the correct usage of this idiom before using it. After all it does take a knowledgeable user of english to understand how to use the phrase..

As per answers.com, the correct usage of this idiom should be based on the following definition. The idiom means "The person who expressed criticism has similar faults to the person being criticized. This classic retort to an insult dates from the early 1900s. For example, You say she's a terrible cook? It takes one to know one! For a synonym, see pot calling the kettle black. A near equivalent is the proverbial it takes a thief to catch a thief, meaning “no one is better at finding a wrongdoer than another wrongdoer.” First recorded in 1665, it remains current."

As you can see the idiom has a flaw.. u dont really need to be a cook to know the food u are eating tastes like crap.. u just need to know how good food tastes like to understand the difference. similarly, u can also be a cop or someone who watches CSI to know how to identify a thief. so basically, you dont need to be a dog to know that the idiotic annoying barking object is a the dog.. u just need to know what a dog and what a bark is to understand that.. that is cognition.
unfortunately, the world is full of people without enough cognitive skills..

2006-05-22T23:32:00.000+08:00

You know, Seinfeld just answered my question on ladies and shoes and put them in perspective.

As per him, women and shoes are like men and cleavage. Doesnt matter how many times you have seen them before, men just get drawn to cleavage and i am no exception.. Now, i understand the relationship between women and shoes.. thanks seinfeld!!!

barking dogs seldom bite..

2006-05-15T23:09:00.000+08:00

my first teacher was my mom.. of course everyones is unless of course due to some sad circumstances you had to learn from someone else. I dont think this is the first thing she taught me, even if she tried to i dont think it would have registered in my brain when i was a baby.

However, i remember one set of incidents very well. I used to be called the villain by my aunts and uncles.. just cos of one reason, i used to beat the shit out of my cousin. He was 6 months junior to me and i always liked to make him cry and run away with his toys and they used to lock him in a room just to keep me away. In any case, my mom first slapped me a couple of times when i kept doing this. When i did not stop, she whacked me a few times and i do remember even getting a whip from one of my uncles belt. of course she told me she used to cry after hitting me. moms are moms.. but then i was a spoilt kid and needed to be shown the way. The lesson that she tried to teach me was not to get into fights unnecessarily and not to bother another life. I think i learnt the lesson fast, because in the last 29 years, i have only incident where i have hit someone and in that case, i broke that guys nose with one punch. I was 12 and luckily things did not escalate.

I never entered into a fist fight ever again and i never entered into an argument unless the argument was constructive or it was some position i really held steadfast to. Some of these positions were like my full faith in capitalism, ayn rands objectivism, the question of ethics, and values etc. When did i learn this.. well cant pinpoint a time, i guess by experience, and it was not something insead or bits taught me.

If you are a sane person, you always know to ignore Barking Dogs and just walk past them. Cos your time is worth more than picking up that stone and giving that dumb mad dog a thrash on its back (SPCA please forgive me, i wouldnt advice hitting dogs that mean you no harm and only as a means of self defense). I remember this incident in mangalore when a pack of dogs chased us when we were driving a bike and all i had to do was stop the bike and get off the bike and the dogs just ran away.

Why am i writing this? well one aspect i never learnt was how to stop thinking about the barking dogs after u ignore and walk past them. Even though i ignore these stupid barking dogs, i couldnt stop thinking about how these barking dogs came to be there in the first place. I wonder what this dogs mom taught it, i wonder what this dogs experience had taught it and why they keep barking just increasing entropy in the universe with no gain whatsoever. does the dog want to prove that it is bigger than everything else it is barking at. Does the dog have such a big ego that it doesnt even know it stinks. I really wonder.. I think i have to grow some more to stop caring about this aspect altogether, cos the time i spent thinking about why this dog sucks could have been used someplace constructively.. well actually i think right now i am being atleast creative about it by writing this piece.

you know, my mom did teach me one lesson.. barking dogs seldom bite. just stare at them and they whimper away to pick up barking with some other stranger.. you dont need to go to insead or bits to have learnt this.. just some brains and a life that shows u experiences..

to think or not to think

2006-05-13T17:41:00.000+08:00

Thinking about the future is scary.

Thinking about the past is even scarier cos you know those actions are yet to have a reaction which is going to occur in the future, unless of course you travel through time and either go back and change these past events or go forward and figure out the future and act differently.

Well since time travel is not yet feasible, it is better not to Think!!!