New Year is embraced with high hopes. I believe this is the time to forget our mistakes but with the lessons learn from it to live stronger and safer. Every New Year provides an opportunity to change our life. With New Year come hopes of realizing your dreams that are either not fulfilled in the previous years or newly knit.
India faced the worst of its kind of terror in 26/11 towards the end of the year. The memories of the carnage still haunt us. The massacre had claimed the lives of 179 including women, children and people from different countries. The whole country was made to stand at gun point for 3 days by 10 militants. Our 100 thousand police and commandos were helpless against the blood thirsty terrorists and we battled for 60 hours to bring them down sacrificing the lives of some true patriots. All the 9 perpetrators were killed and one was caught alive.
Jan 1st 09 : I wished things would change by next year with tightened security, but no, I was wrong, we didn’t wake up to the alarm calls. The country was shaken with serial blast on the very first day of the year. New Year started with a serial blast in Guwahati killing 5 people and injuring more than 30. The accused was later shot dead.
Jan 5th 09: No year goes by without a natural calamity. Heavy snowfall and cold wave in north India claimed 46 lives. We accept natural disasters as we are helpless against it and there is no one to turn to against it. No matter how many lives are lost in such disasters, there is hardly anything we can do about it. It’s a simple law – The weak succumb and the strong survive. We humans are weak against the strong forces of nature; we succumb to disasters letting the nature dominate us.
Jan 9nd 09: Ongoing gun battle between security forces and terrorists continues for the 9th day. We have succeeded in blocking the terrorist from infiltrating into our territory, but at the cost of 3 lives, which includes 2 soldiers and a special police officer. The terrorist belong to JeM as per the intercepts received by the army. The army called off the poonch gun battle after an eight-day-long nonstop gun battle. The terrorist are believed to have escaped under the cover of thick fog.
There is not a single day we could live in peace. Let there be problems but not violence, bloodshed and killings. Who can be held responsible for all the unrest in the country? Is it us? If not us who else? I would say that all the trouble and agitation are posed by a minority group, an isolated group, called the fanatics or rather “undesirable elements”. This is like tumor, if you don’t kill it, it kills you. Lacerate the tumor before it proliferates. The only way to eliminate terrorism is to fight it. It’s time we stop playing the defensive game. The need of the hour is to attack. Resort to action when words fail.
Iam sure the whole world would stand by us in our effort to cull these “undesirable elements”. This is the time to unleash carnage on their territory and incapacitate them from any more heinous crimes. I know this sounds simple but tough to execute. Let’s go that extra mile in curbing terrorism; if not now, when?
Friday, January 9, 2009
Monday, December 8, 2008
Effortless victory
Certifications are nightmares. The obvious reason is that there are no short cuts. Work your ass out, sit back after office hours, put an extra effort of 2 hrs everyday for 1 to 2 weeks, mug up the entire trash; then, there is a remote chance that you might pass. Iam missing something these days, may be the interest in studies or may be an unflinching heart to work hard.
Certifications are mandatory in Infosys. Every year we are expected to complete 2 or 3 certifications. Most of these certifications require 100% dedication, which is not quite possible. I have completed 3 certifications last year. I still wonder how I did it last time when iam not able to pass even a simple one this time. Infosys Quality Standards, .Net 2.0 and Performance Engineering were among the certifications I successfully cracked last time. Out of these .Net and PE exams were really tough ordeals. Hardly few ever passed in the first attempt; most of them did in the third and the last attempt.
It was domain certification this time. My domain was Human Capital management (HCM). This is one of the least demanding and fairly simple domain in Infosys. The study material was over 1500 pages and it is impossible to go through all of it. The only hope was brain dumps; these would be out after the first few days, when the ones who have taken the certification come out with questions they had for the exam. So the smarter ones attempt last, putting least effort; Infact they don’t have to study but simply go through the question papers.
My first domain attempt was on 8th Nov. Had enough question papers to study from. I was more than confident that I would pass. Out of 50 questions 25 will be from the respective domain – HCM in my case, which I was confident of cracking. The remaining questions are compiled from other domains, and I believed the question papers would help me crack them too. I was wrong. That was a big mistake. I flunked. I was not sad that I flunked but that I failed for 1 mark made me desperate. The cut off mark was 30 and I got 29. Instinctively I banged on my head, diverting the attention of everybody around, a clear indication that I didn’t make it. I left the exam hall wretched.
The first thing I did back at my desk was to register for the next attempt which was 15 days later. The minimum gap between two attempts is 15 days! I waited for the 15 long days. I have not made any serious attempt to study. I was lazy and still am. On November 24th I attempted again for the same certification. The questions were tougher than the first time. I didn't have the courage to submit the form. I was sure of losing and the result was no different. I failed again. This time losing by 2 marks. My performance was slowly degrading. I felt dejected.
By now I was totally hopeless. We have some bizarre rules here. The rule is that you can have a maximum of 3 attempts. But for the same certification if you change the domain you can have 3 * N attempts, N being the total number of domains. I decided to drop the HCM certification. I switched to a different domain - Facilities, Finance, Infrastructure, Purchase and Legal (FFIPL). This was of course tougher than HCM, but the number of slides were lesser compared to the HCM study materials. I wanted to study this time but unfortunately was caught in some critical work and didn’t have enough time to study. I got hall ticket for the exam on 5th November. The exam was scheduled at 2:00 pm. I was not prepared and decided not to appear for the exam. Third failure in a row would depress me totally. So the best choice was to give up the exam.
On 5th November after lunch, we left to our favorite destress area - Loyal world, a small shopping mall inside the campus. I sat there along with Antony, making eyes at girls who pass by. This is also the best spot to flirt around. Iam sure no guy would ever disagree with me on this. I had to go to Airtel counter to activate my SIM. I had a sudden change of mind and decided to take the test. By then the time was 1:55 pm and it would take me 10 minutes to walk all the way to GEC – the exam centre. I took the shortcut, but half the way in and the route was blocked. They have closed the road for maintenance activities. The only road open is the main road and this would take me another 15 minutes to reach GEC, since I have already covered more than half the distance along the closed route. I ran and ran and managed to reach GEC by 2:10 pm and oops!...I didn’t know the exam hall!!..My only confidence was that usually the certifications are conducted in Devang Mehta hall or FL2 room. I rushed to Devang Mehta, only to find that the room was closed. I ran to FL2 hoping that would be the exam centre this time. The room was not closed but it was occupied by trainees. They have changed the exam centre for the first time. These were clear indications of the bad day ahead. “There is nothing more to lose, so why back off now?” I thought to myself. I dashed to the GEC security room in haste, asked them to connect me to the Education and Research – E&R admin. They pointed towards the nearby room, the E&R Admin room. Never had I noticed this room before, I was wondering how I could miss such a noteworthy room. I entered the room and asked the lady sitting in an extreme corner,”Where is the certification room?”. “It’s FL5”, came the reply from someone else. I turned back to face him, and he had a smile on his face, clearly showing his tacit disapproval of being late for the test.
I reached FL5 at 2:25 pm, late by 25 minutes. Having unfound irrational beliefs I decided not to sit on the right side of the class, this is on the lights that I failed twice sitting on the right side. The questions were tough indeed, I was completely clueless, but this time I had the advantage of being tranquil. I had no confusions, since I didn’t know anything. No knowledge, no confusion. I submitted the answers without a second thought, unlike previous times I didn’t bother to go through the answers again. I submitted the answers and looked down at the bottom area of the result sheet and saw that it was “25”, I was impassive. I didn’t even expect to get 20! But slowly scrolled up to see the session wise total and there it is, my actual score, I got 32!!. Unbelievable! I was flabbergasted. I almost passed out seeing the result. My happiness bore no bounds. Miracles happen every now and then in life, and it becomes one when you least expect it, and so it is in my case.
The next is MCTS. There are enough brain dumps to realize the next big dream, being a Microsoft certified professional. It is either Do or Die. There is no second chance. It’s a bad idea to waste free MS vouchers, and iam not an imbecile to waste one.
Certifications are mandatory in Infosys. Every year we are expected to complete 2 or 3 certifications. Most of these certifications require 100% dedication, which is not quite possible. I have completed 3 certifications last year. I still wonder how I did it last time when iam not able to pass even a simple one this time. Infosys Quality Standards, .Net 2.0 and Performance Engineering were among the certifications I successfully cracked last time. Out of these .Net and PE exams were really tough ordeals. Hardly few ever passed in the first attempt; most of them did in the third and the last attempt.
It was domain certification this time. My domain was Human Capital management (HCM). This is one of the least demanding and fairly simple domain in Infosys. The study material was over 1500 pages and it is impossible to go through all of it. The only hope was brain dumps; these would be out after the first few days, when the ones who have taken the certification come out with questions they had for the exam. So the smarter ones attempt last, putting least effort; Infact they don’t have to study but simply go through the question papers.
My first domain attempt was on 8th Nov. Had enough question papers to study from. I was more than confident that I would pass. Out of 50 questions 25 will be from the respective domain – HCM in my case, which I was confident of cracking. The remaining questions are compiled from other domains, and I believed the question papers would help me crack them too. I was wrong. That was a big mistake. I flunked. I was not sad that I flunked but that I failed for 1 mark made me desperate. The cut off mark was 30 and I got 29. Instinctively I banged on my head, diverting the attention of everybody around, a clear indication that I didn’t make it. I left the exam hall wretched.
The first thing I did back at my desk was to register for the next attempt which was 15 days later. The minimum gap between two attempts is 15 days! I waited for the 15 long days. I have not made any serious attempt to study. I was lazy and still am. On November 24th I attempted again for the same certification. The questions were tougher than the first time. I didn't have the courage to submit the form. I was sure of losing and the result was no different. I failed again. This time losing by 2 marks. My performance was slowly degrading. I felt dejected.
By now I was totally hopeless. We have some bizarre rules here. The rule is that you can have a maximum of 3 attempts. But for the same certification if you change the domain you can have 3 * N attempts, N being the total number of domains. I decided to drop the HCM certification. I switched to a different domain - Facilities, Finance, Infrastructure, Purchase and Legal (FFIPL). This was of course tougher than HCM, but the number of slides were lesser compared to the HCM study materials. I wanted to study this time but unfortunately was caught in some critical work and didn’t have enough time to study. I got hall ticket for the exam on 5th November. The exam was scheduled at 2:00 pm. I was not prepared and decided not to appear for the exam. Third failure in a row would depress me totally. So the best choice was to give up the exam.
On 5th November after lunch, we left to our favorite destress area - Loyal world, a small shopping mall inside the campus. I sat there along with Antony, making eyes at girls who pass by. This is also the best spot to flirt around. Iam sure no guy would ever disagree with me on this. I had to go to Airtel counter to activate my SIM. I had a sudden change of mind and decided to take the test. By then the time was 1:55 pm and it would take me 10 minutes to walk all the way to GEC – the exam centre. I took the shortcut, but half the way in and the route was blocked. They have closed the road for maintenance activities. The only road open is the main road and this would take me another 15 minutes to reach GEC, since I have already covered more than half the distance along the closed route. I ran and ran and managed to reach GEC by 2:10 pm and oops!...I didn’t know the exam hall!!..My only confidence was that usually the certifications are conducted in Devang Mehta hall or FL2 room. I rushed to Devang Mehta, only to find that the room was closed. I ran to FL2 hoping that would be the exam centre this time. The room was not closed but it was occupied by trainees. They have changed the exam centre for the first time. These were clear indications of the bad day ahead. “There is nothing more to lose, so why back off now?” I thought to myself. I dashed to the GEC security room in haste, asked them to connect me to the Education and Research – E&R admin. They pointed towards the nearby room, the E&R Admin room. Never had I noticed this room before, I was wondering how I could miss such a noteworthy room. I entered the room and asked the lady sitting in an extreme corner,”Where is the certification room?”. “It’s FL5”, came the reply from someone else. I turned back to face him, and he had a smile on his face, clearly showing his tacit disapproval of being late for the test.
I reached FL5 at 2:25 pm, late by 25 minutes. Having unfound irrational beliefs I decided not to sit on the right side of the class, this is on the lights that I failed twice sitting on the right side. The questions were tough indeed, I was completely clueless, but this time I had the advantage of being tranquil. I had no confusions, since I didn’t know anything. No knowledge, no confusion. I submitted the answers without a second thought, unlike previous times I didn’t bother to go through the answers again. I submitted the answers and looked down at the bottom area of the result sheet and saw that it was “25”, I was impassive. I didn’t even expect to get 20! But slowly scrolled up to see the session wise total and there it is, my actual score, I got 32!!. Unbelievable! I was flabbergasted. I almost passed out seeing the result. My happiness bore no bounds. Miracles happen every now and then in life, and it becomes one when you least expect it, and so it is in my case.
The next is MCTS. There are enough brain dumps to realize the next big dream, being a Microsoft certified professional. It is either Do or Die. There is no second chance. It’s a bad idea to waste free MS vouchers, and iam not an imbecile to waste one.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
In a tight corner
I hate going to Bangalore on official grounds. The very thoughts of the clogged traffic, congested office buildings and mechanized life makes me back off instinctively. Ravi, my manager called up at around 7:00 pm and asked me to report at Bangalore the next day. This is the second time he is calling me for the same reason. I ignored him first time, I thought he didn’t mean it, but with the second call he confirmed his decisiveness. I had to go, no escape.
I report to two managers, hanging my life by a thread. The faster the rise, quicker the fall. After a long rest iam back into action. Time to work my brains out. Lot of responsibilities and challenges, the way I wanted it always. Life has regained its momentum to take up the plunges. Now iam happy but a little tensed. Iam moved out of .Net project into SAP, the opportunity I was looking forward to. Few of the team mates are based out of Bangalore including the manager, and so I had to go down to Bangalore to visit them and build a good chemistry with the new team.
I had 1000 bucks with me when I boarded the bus – one 500 rupee note and five 100 rupee notes. Spent 225 on Volvo, and kept the rest with me, which means one 500 rupee note and two 100 rupee notes. I reached Bangalore by 9:45 pm, and headed straight to the prepaid auto stand, unfortunately the counter was closed, but there were auto drivers waiting to seize me. They were waiting for a prey, and I was their lucky one. It was like a vulture patiently waiting for its prey and striking when the opportunity comes. There were some 10-15 vultures around, offering a ride for meter charge, some were genuine and said I only have to pay them meter and a half. Though I don’t like the idea of post paid auto, I was quite helpless then. The next prepaid auto stand was at the railway station, which is some 10 minutes walk from the bus stand. I wanted prepaid auto bill and to my surprise one of the auto driver promised to give me one. I didn’t quite believe him until he took me to the railway station and bribed a local policeman on duty for giving a prepaid bill. An extra 10 bucks and I got the bill.
“Electronics City”, I told the auto driver. “I will pay you what is in the bill and not a penny more”, I asserted. He agreed. On the way I felt a lot pleased and had an ephemeral sympathy for the post paid rickshaw drivers. I thought to myself, “These people, they are struggling to live, they run their whole life behind the wheels of a rickshaw for a meager 50 or 100 bucks. Iam happy to take ride on a prepaid auto. I will live, let him live too” By 10:30 pm we reached EC, in front of Infosys gate 6. The bill was for 253 bucks, but he begged for more and I decided to give him 270. I needed change and so took out the 500 rupee note, and asked him if he had change. He didn’t say a word but took the money from me. He was groping his pockets as if looking for the change and then after a short while he said, “I don’t have change”, and gave me a 100 buck back. I wondered why he was giving me that 100 rupee note. “Boss, I gave you 500 rupee”, I told him. He denied. I checked my purse and I had only two 100 rupee notes left, the 500 rupee note is missing. I didn’t spend it anywhere; I had it with me till now. I have given it to the driver and so it is missing from my purse. Definitely I have not given him 100. Iam sure he had my 500 with him. But where did this jerk hide it? I asked the security at the gate for help and they checked the auto for namesake, checked his jacket, but no luck. The money is missing. Where could he possibly hide it? This is a magic, I gave him 500 bucks and he changed it into a 100 rupee note. Unbelievable! I explained myself to the security; they were in a dilemma and couldn’t take a decision, leaving it to us to decide. I again made sure that I didn’t have that 500 rupee note. I have seen this 500 note when I boarded the auto. It can’t go missing anywhere. My money is with him. I decided to take him to the police station. Behind the jacket I could see his hands shivering, the shameless fraud is scared and I could see it in his face.
By now the time was 11:30 pm, I was so mad with anger, I didn’t have the patience to think or wait,, I took him to the police station. The security said it was some 2 kms from the campus. After going some half a kilometer, at Infosys gate 4, the rickshaw came to an abrupt stop and he said “Sir, This is running out of petrol, what we shall do now?” I felt like smacking him on the head. I didn’t give up and we started walking towards the police station. The route was a labyrinth of confusion. We have covered some 2 kms already but couldn’t find a police station, and finally after going some 4 kms found one. The police men were fast asleep; I woke them up and narrated the whole incident. They were reluctant to believe whatever I said, I didn’t expect anything different. I had no evidence. I had no witness. My eyes were my only witnesses. I couldn’t convince anyone. After all nobody likes to be disturbed while asleep, and for that matter even police men on duty are no different. But one of them, seemed to have some sympathy, and said, “Sir, we shall put him in jail, file a case against him, but first you have to recover your money from him”. I jolted my head in partial acceptance. I know there was nothing else they could do. The same officer came back with us to check the auto. We lost the route back; even the driver didn’t know where he parked the auto! He was full of tricks. One opportunity and I would have smashed his head out. I always felt I had a terrorist in me. When I lose my temper, I go mad, I might go any extend, there is no limit to the atrocious thoughts that goes through the back of my mind, but they were rarely enacted. Putting it straight, I don’t have the nerve to do it. I think extreme but act moderate.
Back at Infosys gate 4, where the auto was parked, the police searched the auto inside out, but to my dismay he found nothing. He asked me to search again, but no luck. I searched his jacket, his pants, all the pockets, I searched everything and everywhere I could think of. I know this sounds funny, but I was in no mood and mind to mull over it. I was robbed, abandoned and humiliated. I hated everyone around at the apprehension of being disdained. The police didn’t say a word and left in a cab that passed by. I was surprised to see that it was already 1:45 am. I have spent more than 3 hrs on this, but in vein. Things were going little out of hand. I asked him to give me the change, and he was asking for more money. He grabbed my shirt; I grabbed on his collar and shoved him away, he nearly fell down. Just then the security at gate 4 came out and interrupted the scene, which would have gone worse otherwise.
I started walking back to gate 6, but he felt unsecured around the securities at gate 6 and refused to come. I literally dragged him to gate 6. It was 2:00 am already and I was quite exhausted having walked nearly 9 kms and brawling all the way. Back at gate 6, I asked him to come back the next day, so that we could talk to the SP. Despite the awful hoax, he was leeching around for more money. I would have killed him, if only I had a gun. This was not reaching anywhere. I had to go. I didn’t have any more time to spare. But at the same time I didn’t want to give this up, not at any cost. I moved in and as the security was checking my bag and identity, the driver sneaked in, but the securities towed him out instantly. “Sir, can u please settle this first. We can’t let this go on in front of the campus. It’s a disgrace for the company. “, one of the securities said. “Let him come tomorrow, I will talk to the SP and settle this”, I replied. The security was not convinced and said, “Sir, we don’t have any evidence. So please give him something more. Sorry, we can’t help it”.
Finally I had to give him alms, the most generous one ever. I gave him 100 rupees more making it a total of 600 rupees for a bill that was only 270 bucks. He demanded 70 more rupees but I ignored him. The one thing that kept me haunting was that nobody believed me, though I was innocent. The next day I shared this story with my friends, only to find that they had similar experiences, but not as exorbitant as mine. So now there are people who would believe and understand me; only because they had similar experience. But, where do they hide the money…? We are still confused. This is something beyond magic and still remains a treacherous sleight of hand.
I report to two managers, hanging my life by a thread. The faster the rise, quicker the fall. After a long rest iam back into action. Time to work my brains out. Lot of responsibilities and challenges, the way I wanted it always. Life has regained its momentum to take up the plunges. Now iam happy but a little tensed. Iam moved out of .Net project into SAP, the opportunity I was looking forward to. Few of the team mates are based out of Bangalore including the manager, and so I had to go down to Bangalore to visit them and build a good chemistry with the new team.
I had 1000 bucks with me when I boarded the bus – one 500 rupee note and five 100 rupee notes. Spent 225 on Volvo, and kept the rest with me, which means one 500 rupee note and two 100 rupee notes. I reached Bangalore by 9:45 pm, and headed straight to the prepaid auto stand, unfortunately the counter was closed, but there were auto drivers waiting to seize me. They were waiting for a prey, and I was their lucky one. It was like a vulture patiently waiting for its prey and striking when the opportunity comes. There were some 10-15 vultures around, offering a ride for meter charge, some were genuine and said I only have to pay them meter and a half. Though I don’t like the idea of post paid auto, I was quite helpless then. The next prepaid auto stand was at the railway station, which is some 10 minutes walk from the bus stand. I wanted prepaid auto bill and to my surprise one of the auto driver promised to give me one. I didn’t quite believe him until he took me to the railway station and bribed a local policeman on duty for giving a prepaid bill. An extra 10 bucks and I got the bill.
“Electronics City”, I told the auto driver. “I will pay you what is in the bill and not a penny more”, I asserted. He agreed. On the way I felt a lot pleased and had an ephemeral sympathy for the post paid rickshaw drivers. I thought to myself, “These people, they are struggling to live, they run their whole life behind the wheels of a rickshaw for a meager 50 or 100 bucks. Iam happy to take ride on a prepaid auto. I will live, let him live too” By 10:30 pm we reached EC, in front of Infosys gate 6. The bill was for 253 bucks, but he begged for more and I decided to give him 270. I needed change and so took out the 500 rupee note, and asked him if he had change. He didn’t say a word but took the money from me. He was groping his pockets as if looking for the change and then after a short while he said, “I don’t have change”, and gave me a 100 buck back. I wondered why he was giving me that 100 rupee note. “Boss, I gave you 500 rupee”, I told him. He denied. I checked my purse and I had only two 100 rupee notes left, the 500 rupee note is missing. I didn’t spend it anywhere; I had it with me till now. I have given it to the driver and so it is missing from my purse. Definitely I have not given him 100. Iam sure he had my 500 with him. But where did this jerk hide it? I asked the security at the gate for help and they checked the auto for namesake, checked his jacket, but no luck. The money is missing. Where could he possibly hide it? This is a magic, I gave him 500 bucks and he changed it into a 100 rupee note. Unbelievable! I explained myself to the security; they were in a dilemma and couldn’t take a decision, leaving it to us to decide. I again made sure that I didn’t have that 500 rupee note. I have seen this 500 note when I boarded the auto. It can’t go missing anywhere. My money is with him. I decided to take him to the police station. Behind the jacket I could see his hands shivering, the shameless fraud is scared and I could see it in his face.
By now the time was 11:30 pm, I was so mad with anger, I didn’t have the patience to think or wait,, I took him to the police station. The security said it was some 2 kms from the campus. After going some half a kilometer, at Infosys gate 4, the rickshaw came to an abrupt stop and he said “Sir, This is running out of petrol, what we shall do now?” I felt like smacking him on the head. I didn’t give up and we started walking towards the police station. The route was a labyrinth of confusion. We have covered some 2 kms already but couldn’t find a police station, and finally after going some 4 kms found one. The police men were fast asleep; I woke them up and narrated the whole incident. They were reluctant to believe whatever I said, I didn’t expect anything different. I had no evidence. I had no witness. My eyes were my only witnesses. I couldn’t convince anyone. After all nobody likes to be disturbed while asleep, and for that matter even police men on duty are no different. But one of them, seemed to have some sympathy, and said, “Sir, we shall put him in jail, file a case against him, but first you have to recover your money from him”. I jolted my head in partial acceptance. I know there was nothing else they could do. The same officer came back with us to check the auto. We lost the route back; even the driver didn’t know where he parked the auto! He was full of tricks. One opportunity and I would have smashed his head out. I always felt I had a terrorist in me. When I lose my temper, I go mad, I might go any extend, there is no limit to the atrocious thoughts that goes through the back of my mind, but they were rarely enacted. Putting it straight, I don’t have the nerve to do it. I think extreme but act moderate.
Back at Infosys gate 4, where the auto was parked, the police searched the auto inside out, but to my dismay he found nothing. He asked me to search again, but no luck. I searched his jacket, his pants, all the pockets, I searched everything and everywhere I could think of. I know this sounds funny, but I was in no mood and mind to mull over it. I was robbed, abandoned and humiliated. I hated everyone around at the apprehension of being disdained. The police didn’t say a word and left in a cab that passed by. I was surprised to see that it was already 1:45 am. I have spent more than 3 hrs on this, but in vein. Things were going little out of hand. I asked him to give me the change, and he was asking for more money. He grabbed my shirt; I grabbed on his collar and shoved him away, he nearly fell down. Just then the security at gate 4 came out and interrupted the scene, which would have gone worse otherwise.
I started walking back to gate 6, but he felt unsecured around the securities at gate 6 and refused to come. I literally dragged him to gate 6. It was 2:00 am already and I was quite exhausted having walked nearly 9 kms and brawling all the way. Back at gate 6, I asked him to come back the next day, so that we could talk to the SP. Despite the awful hoax, he was leeching around for more money. I would have killed him, if only I had a gun. This was not reaching anywhere. I had to go. I didn’t have any more time to spare. But at the same time I didn’t want to give this up, not at any cost. I moved in and as the security was checking my bag and identity, the driver sneaked in, but the securities towed him out instantly. “Sir, can u please settle this first. We can’t let this go on in front of the campus. It’s a disgrace for the company. “, one of the securities said. “Let him come tomorrow, I will talk to the SP and settle this”, I replied. The security was not convinced and said, “Sir, we don’t have any evidence. So please give him something more. Sorry, we can’t help it”.
Finally I had to give him alms, the most generous one ever. I gave him 100 rupees more making it a total of 600 rupees for a bill that was only 270 bucks. He demanded 70 more rupees but I ignored him. The one thing that kept me haunting was that nobody believed me, though I was innocent. The next day I shared this story with my friends, only to find that they had similar experiences, but not as exorbitant as mine. So now there are people who would believe and understand me; only because they had similar experience. But, where do they hide the money…? We are still confused. This is something beyond magic and still remains a treacherous sleight of hand.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
What next?
Things changed. The cloud of uncertainty around my future plans has become denser. The one thing I hate in life is sitting idle. There was a time when opportunities were flowing in seamlessly one after the other. Those were the peak times of my career. No opportunity was ever wasted.
One fair morning I got a mail from my GM about the new team structure. I was at the pantry on a tea break, just then Narayan, lovingly called Naree!! ….Lols!!...came up to me and told me about the mail. I refused to believe what he said, neglecting it as his prank. Back at the desk I was shocked to see the mail. Till then I was reporting to Syam – such a cool guy, he was more like a friend than a manager. Helpful and knowledgeable. I enjoyed every minute working with him. He is an ideal manager; never puts stress on the team mates and his attitude towards work is amazing. He is good at prioritizing work and completes them on time. I have always looked at him with high admiration. I have seen and heard about a lot of managers who are arrogant, egoistic and unmindful of others feelings. Syam is an exception. These eulogies are from deep within my heart and please don’t take them as flattery – there are people who take such high praises with suspicion. These are from my experience and true to the very sense. I used to banter my friends working with snobbish, supercilious managers. Nobody wants to work with such managers and most of my friends envied my luck on this matter. I found it very difficult to accept the fact that I have to report to someone else now. I was torn to pieces and felt dejected, but kept telling myself not to lose hope and that things change for the good.
The new manager is Ravi. I don’t know much about him, but people have diverse opinion about him. Some say he is a cool chap and some have contradictory opinions about him. Iam not exposed to him enough to frame an opinion now – I had little or no interaction with him.
Syam asked me to “Grab this opportunity”! I don’t understand the opportunity I have here. As far as I understand, the only opportunity I have is to sit idle all the time, not having any work to do. I vegetate sitting jobless all the time. This is one of the least appreciated times in life and the one I never wanted to encounter, but destiny was a little too cruel on me. Told the new manager about the pending tasks, but he doesn’t seem to have paid any attention to it. He simply neglected them, neglected all my mails. I don’t understand why. How could managers be so unbothered and carefree? I never complained - yes,being stoical is the key.
There are innumerous things I could think of to kill time, but iam lazy and there is no real motivation. The only thing that keeps me alive is blogging. I wanted to develop an application to automate the quality process, but demoralized by the prospective new practices to be followed soon after the rollout of SAP across our unit. Sometimes I keep myself busy reading movie reviews and sometimes go through Infy Bulletin board. Now there is new platform for photographers – SLRBB, the place for people who have interest in photography to share their thoughts and snaps. It was in existence since a long time but made public recently. Thought I don’t have a photo to claim or any thoughts to share about photography I like to read all the posts. I don’t miss any.
What is the next best thing to do? Iam worried about it….no iam not really worried…iam….iam anxious!..I have high hopes about tomorrow and that keeps me going.
One fair morning I got a mail from my GM about the new team structure. I was at the pantry on a tea break, just then Narayan, lovingly called Naree!! ….Lols!!...came up to me and told me about the mail. I refused to believe what he said, neglecting it as his prank. Back at the desk I was shocked to see the mail. Till then I was reporting to Syam – such a cool guy, he was more like a friend than a manager. Helpful and knowledgeable. I enjoyed every minute working with him. He is an ideal manager; never puts stress on the team mates and his attitude towards work is amazing. He is good at prioritizing work and completes them on time. I have always looked at him with high admiration. I have seen and heard about a lot of managers who are arrogant, egoistic and unmindful of others feelings. Syam is an exception. These eulogies are from deep within my heart and please don’t take them as flattery – there are people who take such high praises with suspicion. These are from my experience and true to the very sense. I used to banter my friends working with snobbish, supercilious managers. Nobody wants to work with such managers and most of my friends envied my luck on this matter. I found it very difficult to accept the fact that I have to report to someone else now. I was torn to pieces and felt dejected, but kept telling myself not to lose hope and that things change for the good.
The new manager is Ravi. I don’t know much about him, but people have diverse opinion about him. Some say he is a cool chap and some have contradictory opinions about him. Iam not exposed to him enough to frame an opinion now – I had little or no interaction with him.
Syam asked me to “Grab this opportunity”! I don’t understand the opportunity I have here. As far as I understand, the only opportunity I have is to sit idle all the time, not having any work to do. I vegetate sitting jobless all the time. This is one of the least appreciated times in life and the one I never wanted to encounter, but destiny was a little too cruel on me. Told the new manager about the pending tasks, but he doesn’t seem to have paid any attention to it. He simply neglected them, neglected all my mails. I don’t understand why. How could managers be so unbothered and carefree? I never complained - yes,being stoical is the key.
There are innumerous things I could think of to kill time, but iam lazy and there is no real motivation. The only thing that keeps me alive is blogging. I wanted to develop an application to automate the quality process, but demoralized by the prospective new practices to be followed soon after the rollout of SAP across our unit. Sometimes I keep myself busy reading movie reviews and sometimes go through Infy Bulletin board. Now there is new platform for photographers – SLRBB, the place for people who have interest in photography to share their thoughts and snaps. It was in existence since a long time but made public recently. Thought I don’t have a photo to claim or any thoughts to share about photography I like to read all the posts. I don’t miss any.
What is the next best thing to do? Iam worried about it….no iam not really worried…iam….iam anxious!..I have high hopes about tomorrow and that keeps me going.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Memoirs of mesmerizing Goa trip
This was a late planned trip and so the onward bus journey wasn’t comfortable and the bus struggled to get us there in 20 hrs!!!...no better than a shuttle. It was a semi deluxe with no push back and poor leg space, but we somehow managed to put up with all the inconveniences, in high hopes of the upcoming good days at Goa. The bus on itself was a miracle…or mebbe the route…the more we travel the more the distance would be!...at some point of time I saw a Bridgestone saying the distance left was 150 kms and after moving some 8-10 kms it was again 156 kms…how could one explain this? This happened a lot of times. I concluded that the bus was travelling in circles….well what else could this be? So reaching Goa was a distant dream realized after 20 hrs of travelling. The driver was extremely kind to pull over at each and every possible stop waiting till the last passenger at the platform boards the bus! By around 2:00 am the bus was overcrowded and the whole crowd was getting blocked around my seat, just then I noticed a boy around 15-16 yrs sleeping on the floor and was adaptive to use his sandals as pillow. He was sound asleep and was least bothered about the people around, stamping on him as they passed by. I wish I could sleep like him - not to be awaked by the disturbances around. At 4:30 am there was a board which read – “Panaji – 230 kms”, surprisingly at 8:30 am the distance was again an unconquerable 168 kms! Finally at 11:15 am we reached Panaji.
Let me introduce the group. We were a group of seven – Naveen, Dilip, Antony, Jiben, Aswin, Mithun and I. All mallus. Naveen was the only vegetarian in the group; dilip wanted to be so but slipped later. Jiben was the chief photographer; his photography had a professional touch. Aswin was very gregarious and talkative at times. Mithun preferred to remain silent most of the time. Antony was the real hero – his dressing, style and sun glasses …all that he tried had a Goan style. The introduction will not be complete without one more thing – Except naveen and dilip the rest of us loved to Imbibe!
We were tired of the last night sleep over and this was evident on every one’s face. From Panaji bus stand we took cab to Seema hotel residency located 5-6 kms from the city. After a small quarrel we paid them 250 bucks though they demanded 300. As one of my friend rightly said, a multiple of the money saved here was paid off elsewhere …you will know it soon!
First day: The rooms in Seema hotel were not good enough, but who cares...we hardly spent any time in the room. The room backdoor opened towards a lake and the view was good. There were cargo ships carrying sand and scrap iron sailing around frequently. Soon we got the Goa tourist map only to realize that we are staying far away from the main tourist spots. This place was recommended by my neighbor in Mysore. He was in Goa for 5 years, supposed to know the tourist places well. I don’t understand why he asked me to stay in Seema – far away from the main land. We decided to shift to a place close to the beach. We took a bike – Honda shine and car – Zen for local commutation. 5 in the car and 2 in bike. I love riding bike and grabbed the opportunity. Aswin was with me on bike. We started immediately after the sumptuous lunch.
The first place we visited was the BASILICA OF BOM JESUS church. It is famous for the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier ,who died when he was only 9 in 1515. Recently somebody chopped off the finger and so the coffin was placed high up inside a tomb. Naveen brought a camera, but didn’t know how to operate it. After some trial and error we clicked the first clear shot of the Mummy. After a brief photo session outside the church we did a small shopping- some half pants and T-shirts…those were not worth the money. The half pants couldn’t withstand the rough usage at the sea and were torn soon. The next spot was some beach – I can’t quite recollect the name. It was a desolated beach. We didn’t want to waste much time there and so left for the next beach which was no better than the first except that there were quite a few beautiful objects to be captured on camera…Yes I mean it…those beautiful objects are gorgeous ladies strolling around with their boyfriends. We know the risk involved in flicking but their sensuous beauty gave us the strength to overcome fear and managed to take couple of beautiful snaps. By now it was 6:00pm but we decided to go to one more beach – Calingut, one of the most popular beaches in Goa.
After taking snacks from a mallu hotel we left for Calingut which was 25 kms away. Mithun opted the car and Antony accompanied me on bike. The road was very good and I was riding at 70-80 kms/hr. We were almost there but then the roads were very narrow. I was behind a car at a turning and just then I saw someone in bike about to overtake that car, I didn’t want him to overtake me and so ripped to 60 kms/hr and overtook the car only to find a car coming from the opposite end. My mind gave away to my instincts; I didn’t know what to do. It was an almost certain accident, could even turn worse considering the speed at which we were moving. My heart started to beat faster and I could feel it pounding behind the great rib cage. No time to think... Only action. The lives of two of us solely depended on my instincts. The car must me coming at some 50-60 kms/hr and even if he managed to stop at a short distance the bike wouldn’t come to a halt in such short distance. I don’t know what all went through my mind in that small fraction of second. I recalled my mom’s words….not to ride fast and get carried away by the thrill of it. Before I could do anything the bike started skidding without ever loosing balance. The handle was rock hard and banged against the car’s front door leaving deep scratches all over and in the process the bike came to a halt without a scar on either of us. Unbelievable!!!!! Walking away safe without a scar after a near death accident is a luck very few are bestowed with. Thank god we are alive. Thank god iam alive to see my parents again. The car driver rushed out of the car and locked my bike and took the key, he was joined by a local. It was all my mistake and I have to pay for what I have done to his car. They demanded 300 bucks, I fought in vain to bring it down but then they would call the police. It’s better to settle it for 3000/- than making a fuss. The settlement was made on the spot. The bike lost the right indicator and the headlight shield… I wonder how much the bike owner would charge me for this. The very thought of the accident sends a shiver down my spine. Later Antony told me that he jumped out of the bike as it skidded. Things would have been different had he not done that. So it was our combined instincts that saved us.
Calingut was some 3 kms away. Though the previous incident kept on haunting me all the while I pretended as if nothing happened. The beach was simply superb and crowded with foreigners. We ambled along the coast for some time cracking jokes at each other and misinterpreting the behavior of the local restaurant people – giving new meaning to their language. There is a general misconception about Goa that people come here for boozing and for dating – true to some extent. Our prejudistic mind tends to take everything in the wrong sense and considered anything and everything as containing sexual connotations! We took snacks from one of the beach side restaurants; the restaurant guys were tricky but not good enough. They tried in vain to force us into eating something which we haven’t ordered! We came to know from one of our friends that there is vacancy in one of the villas nearby Calingut beach. We fixed the deal and decided to shift to the new place the next day.
The night at Seema was all fun. Bought a full bottle “Black Dog” for the five of us and had a wonderful time boozing. Antony’s performances after boozing made us roll on the floor laughing. His peculiar style of saying “Show” “Show” after boozing was more than funny that I couldn’t control myself laughing. The whole party turned out to be very boisterous that the receptionist had to come over to our room asking us to be silent. I had never been in such high spirits in the recent past.
Second day: We woke up pretty early so as to shift to the new villa. I was woken up by the bike owner, I didn’t care to wash my face, went straight down to meet him. He made a predictable estimate of 650 bucks and I had to pay it. So the accident cost me 3650/-. Soon we got ready and left for the villa – Palm groove, in a qualis arranged by avinash – the villa owner. This was a really good place to stay in that it is cheap and closer to the beaches. This time we got a pulsar and a Maruti 800, the rents being cheaper. It was fun traveling in pulsar.
Calingut was out first destination. The sea sports are very popular and adventurous. Bargaining didn’t help reduce the cost of the rides. The rates were uniform everywhere. We were approached by a local fellow, though we bargained he refused to accept and finally he had the deal and asked us to sit in a restaurant. We waited for nearly an hour but this chap had absconded, but this small spell at the restaurant turned out to be fruitful. I could get quite a few snaps of the foreigners. Some were really good. I regret having missed some good opportunities! In the mean time two of us were caught for photographing a couple on the beach side. The guy was furious and wanted all the photos deleted. We could do nothing but delete it, things would have been worse had the locals intervened. Those deleted ones were excellent snaps.
The first ride we tried was Para gliding. Though this looks like a real big deal it’s not much thrilling. There is a parachute attached to a speed boat. You will be tied to the parachute and as the boat moves the parachute glides and flies high in the air. It’s good when the parachute takes off but then on it’s no fun. You are suspended from the parachute for the rest of the time. You will get a wonderful view of the whole sea and coast. We were not happy with Para gliding and spending 500 bucks for it. The next ride was banana ride. This was interesting. A cylindrical kind of boat is tied to a speedboat. 5 people can sit on this banana boat at a time. The speed boat pulls the banana boat to the sea and as it turns it twists the banana ride pushing down everyone on the ride in to the sea. The boat waits until everyone mounts back. This is repeated thrice. It is fun swimming in the middle of the sea. I enjoyed it a lot. On the second fall I was the last one to climb back. I managed to climb but the momentum was just too much that I fell from the other end back to the sea again...lols!!!!...it was so funny. I gasped for breath but somehow managed to get back on to the ride again. Dilip was even funnier. Just like me he was also the last one to climb back but he pulled down everyone as he tried to climb back. Naveen was no better. He pulled down the operator of the glide into the sea and wouldn’t let him climb back. The operator climbed back and tried to pull naveen back onto the ride, it was tough, so everybody joined him in getting naveen back. The operator was exhausted that he asked – “Is he a hero or a zero?” This was the last ride we tried. By then it was 3:30 pm and time for lunch...I was already starving. My new half pants were already torn and this was more than embarrassing and I didn’t have a spare trouser. I restrained the humiliation and went for lunch at the nearby restaurant.
After the heavy meal we went back to the room. I had the fun of my life time riding with a torn trouser on burning hot pulsar. Stopped on the way to get some water, poured it over the seat to cool it down. My posterior was already half burned! Back in the room we took shower and without wasting much time went to the next beach. There were some 4 beaches, said to be the best beaches. This was highly recommended by a cab driver @ palm groove. Travelling over 20 kms we reached the beach but it was the most desolated beaches I have seen so far. There were some small wooden tents under construction, mebbe it’s not the right time to come to this beach. These small tents are for the upcoming tourist season. The movie Josh was shot here at this beach. With no one around the beach is the ideal place for writers to pen down their thoughts. You will be lost in thoughts sitting on this beach side. The placid sea, the cool breeze and the low tide makes the beach very beautiful. I wanted to stay there for some more time but then we didn’t have enough time. The next big plan was to go to pub. Tittos is the best in class; it is the best pub in India. This is close to Calingut, Bagha area. Tittos is only for couples, but single entry is permitted upon paying a higher rate. This was as told by one of our friend who recently toured Goa. We were well told in advance by the locals that the entry is only for couples and others are not allowed and there is no such thing as paying higher rates for single entry. We decided to try our luck at Tittos, but unfortunately only couples were permitted. This was a big loss. Tittos is said to be one of the must visit pub in Goa – the only one of its kind in India. Next time I should go to Tittos with my prospective girl friend!!....kidding…iam still a single. Having missed this chance we went to 9 hour pub. This was an open air pub but crowded by tourist. By the time we reached there it was almost closed. But sat there for some time before going back to the room to booze! Back at the villa we had the food and drinks ready. Though there were families staying around the place avinash had permitted as to booze at the restaurant premises, so we were extra cautious not to disturb anyone. It was already 11:30 pm and lights were off in all other villas except ours. As we boozed Jiben and Aswin were busy talking about the Onam celebrations and this was more than boring to me. Even after repeated request to change the subject they kept talking the same stuff. I haven’t enjoyed boozing as much as I did yesterday. We drunkards were joined by Naveen and dilip and they had fun watching us drink!
Third day: The last day at goa! After the heavy breakfast we went to a Fort popularly known as the “dil Chahta hai” fort – this was where the movie “Dil Chahta hai” was shot. This was a beautiful place. The fort was partially demolished. This is one of the best places for taking good snaps. In the scorching heat of the sun it was difficult to climb all the way up the fort. The view from the top of the fort was amazing. The lush green plains on one side and the serene sea on the other side. The place was covered with dry grass – this reminded me of the wheatish grass seen in the movie Gladiator. I had such a wonderful nostalgic feeling going around the “Gladiator grass”. Took couple of photos around this place. This must the one place where we have taken the most number of snaps. Our first group photo session was at this place- all the seven of us together. The foreigner was more than happy to take a snap when offered an opportunity. At the entrance to the fort there is a rusted gate, anything inside the gate looks like locked in jail from outside. Dilip took a snap from outside the gate with all the 6 of us holding on to the gate from inside; it was as if all of us were locked in prison. This was a great photo and a misleading one too!
The last place to visit in Goa was the Aghoda fort and the Bagha beach. This was not such an interesting fort; there was a jail around this area used during the times of the Portuguese in India. Not having enough time to spare we left for Bagha beach. We went to a sea side restaurant for lunch, the complete view of the beach from a cool place! We could enjoy the beach view without getting baked in the scorching heat. “Fini” is the delicacy drink of Goa. We had 2 pegs of “Fini”, it was really good. I wanted to take more but then controlled myself since we have to travel back the same day. As we sat there eating starters, imbibing Fini and enjoying the view, a small girl around 5-6 yrs old spread a mat on the beach; she was accompanied by a boy, probably her brother. The boy started playing drums on a broken steel plate and the girl started dancing and doing wonderful acrobatics. We were taken by surprised to see this. I immediately took the camera and clicked few snaps. I get easily carried away seeing children struggling to live. This was one instance. After the performance I gave her 10 bucks, - worth paying for the few snaps I have taken. More starters followed and we had the best food in the last 3 days. It was quite expensive too. By then it was 3:45 pm and it was high time we go back to the room and get ready to leave!
The return bus was at 5:30 pm and we reached there on time. The return was comfortable. It was an Airavat. Air conditioned with enough leg space. Antony sat next to me leaving Jiben alone….but someone has to sit alone since we are seven and the bus is a 2 seater. I slept well and reached back Bangalore by 6:00 am. Unbelievable!...The return took hardly 12 hrs as against the onward trip which took 20 hrs nearly. Reached back Mysore by 8:30am…Putting an end to the 3 day blitzkrieg. This would definitely be one of the most memorable days in my life and the one I would love to cherish forever. Those were the best days of my life!
Appreciate the reader's valuable comments.
Let me introduce the group. We were a group of seven – Naveen, Dilip, Antony, Jiben, Aswin, Mithun and I. All mallus. Naveen was the only vegetarian in the group; dilip wanted to be so but slipped later. Jiben was the chief photographer; his photography had a professional touch. Aswin was very gregarious and talkative at times. Mithun preferred to remain silent most of the time. Antony was the real hero – his dressing, style and sun glasses …all that he tried had a Goan style. The introduction will not be complete without one more thing – Except naveen and dilip the rest of us loved to Imbibe!
We were tired of the last night sleep over and this was evident on every one’s face. From Panaji bus stand we took cab to Seema hotel residency located 5-6 kms from the city. After a small quarrel we paid them 250 bucks though they demanded 300. As one of my friend rightly said, a multiple of the money saved here was paid off elsewhere …you will know it soon!
First day: The rooms in Seema hotel were not good enough, but who cares...we hardly spent any time in the room. The room backdoor opened towards a lake and the view was good. There were cargo ships carrying sand and scrap iron sailing around frequently. Soon we got the Goa tourist map only to realize that we are staying far away from the main tourist spots. This place was recommended by my neighbor in Mysore. He was in Goa for 5 years, supposed to know the tourist places well. I don’t understand why he asked me to stay in Seema – far away from the main land. We decided to shift to a place close to the beach. We took a bike – Honda shine and car – Zen for local commutation. 5 in the car and 2 in bike. I love riding bike and grabbed the opportunity. Aswin was with me on bike. We started immediately after the sumptuous lunch.
The first place we visited was the BASILICA OF BOM JESUS church. It is famous for the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier ,who died when he was only 9 in 1515. Recently somebody chopped off the finger and so the coffin was placed high up inside a tomb. Naveen brought a camera, but didn’t know how to operate it. After some trial and error we clicked the first clear shot of the Mummy. After a brief photo session outside the church we did a small shopping- some half pants and T-shirts…those were not worth the money. The half pants couldn’t withstand the rough usage at the sea and were torn soon. The next spot was some beach – I can’t quite recollect the name. It was a desolated beach. We didn’t want to waste much time there and so left for the next beach which was no better than the first except that there were quite a few beautiful objects to be captured on camera…Yes I mean it…those beautiful objects are gorgeous ladies strolling around with their boyfriends. We know the risk involved in flicking but their sensuous beauty gave us the strength to overcome fear and managed to take couple of beautiful snaps. By now it was 6:00pm but we decided to go to one more beach – Calingut, one of the most popular beaches in Goa.
After taking snacks from a mallu hotel we left for Calingut which was 25 kms away. Mithun opted the car and Antony accompanied me on bike. The road was very good and I was riding at 70-80 kms/hr. We were almost there but then the roads were very narrow. I was behind a car at a turning and just then I saw someone in bike about to overtake that car, I didn’t want him to overtake me and so ripped to 60 kms/hr and overtook the car only to find a car coming from the opposite end. My mind gave away to my instincts; I didn’t know what to do. It was an almost certain accident, could even turn worse considering the speed at which we were moving. My heart started to beat faster and I could feel it pounding behind the great rib cage. No time to think... Only action. The lives of two of us solely depended on my instincts. The car must me coming at some 50-60 kms/hr and even if he managed to stop at a short distance the bike wouldn’t come to a halt in such short distance. I don’t know what all went through my mind in that small fraction of second. I recalled my mom’s words….not to ride fast and get carried away by the thrill of it. Before I could do anything the bike started skidding without ever loosing balance. The handle was rock hard and banged against the car’s front door leaving deep scratches all over and in the process the bike came to a halt without a scar on either of us. Unbelievable!!!!! Walking away safe without a scar after a near death accident is a luck very few are bestowed with. Thank god we are alive. Thank god iam alive to see my parents again. The car driver rushed out of the car and locked my bike and took the key, he was joined by a local. It was all my mistake and I have to pay for what I have done to his car. They demanded 300 bucks, I fought in vain to bring it down but then they would call the police. It’s better to settle it for 3000/- than making a fuss. The settlement was made on the spot. The bike lost the right indicator and the headlight shield… I wonder how much the bike owner would charge me for this. The very thought of the accident sends a shiver down my spine. Later Antony told me that he jumped out of the bike as it skidded. Things would have been different had he not done that. So it was our combined instincts that saved us.
Calingut was some 3 kms away. Though the previous incident kept on haunting me all the while I pretended as if nothing happened. The beach was simply superb and crowded with foreigners. We ambled along the coast for some time cracking jokes at each other and misinterpreting the behavior of the local restaurant people – giving new meaning to their language. There is a general misconception about Goa that people come here for boozing and for dating – true to some extent. Our prejudistic mind tends to take everything in the wrong sense and considered anything and everything as containing sexual connotations! We took snacks from one of the beach side restaurants; the restaurant guys were tricky but not good enough. They tried in vain to force us into eating something which we haven’t ordered! We came to know from one of our friends that there is vacancy in one of the villas nearby Calingut beach. We fixed the deal and decided to shift to the new place the next day.
The night at Seema was all fun. Bought a full bottle “Black Dog” for the five of us and had a wonderful time boozing. Antony’s performances after boozing made us roll on the floor laughing. His peculiar style of saying “Show” “Show” after boozing was more than funny that I couldn’t control myself laughing. The whole party turned out to be very boisterous that the receptionist had to come over to our room asking us to be silent. I had never been in such high spirits in the recent past.
Second day: We woke up pretty early so as to shift to the new villa. I was woken up by the bike owner, I didn’t care to wash my face, went straight down to meet him. He made a predictable estimate of 650 bucks and I had to pay it. So the accident cost me 3650/-. Soon we got ready and left for the villa – Palm groove, in a qualis arranged by avinash – the villa owner. This was a really good place to stay in that it is cheap and closer to the beaches. This time we got a pulsar and a Maruti 800, the rents being cheaper. It was fun traveling in pulsar.
Calingut was out first destination. The sea sports are very popular and adventurous. Bargaining didn’t help reduce the cost of the rides. The rates were uniform everywhere. We were approached by a local fellow, though we bargained he refused to accept and finally he had the deal and asked us to sit in a restaurant. We waited for nearly an hour but this chap had absconded, but this small spell at the restaurant turned out to be fruitful. I could get quite a few snaps of the foreigners. Some were really good. I regret having missed some good opportunities! In the mean time two of us were caught for photographing a couple on the beach side. The guy was furious and wanted all the photos deleted. We could do nothing but delete it, things would have been worse had the locals intervened. Those deleted ones were excellent snaps.
The first ride we tried was Para gliding. Though this looks like a real big deal it’s not much thrilling. There is a parachute attached to a speed boat. You will be tied to the parachute and as the boat moves the parachute glides and flies high in the air. It’s good when the parachute takes off but then on it’s no fun. You are suspended from the parachute for the rest of the time. You will get a wonderful view of the whole sea and coast. We were not happy with Para gliding and spending 500 bucks for it. The next ride was banana ride. This was interesting. A cylindrical kind of boat is tied to a speedboat. 5 people can sit on this banana boat at a time. The speed boat pulls the banana boat to the sea and as it turns it twists the banana ride pushing down everyone on the ride in to the sea. The boat waits until everyone mounts back. This is repeated thrice. It is fun swimming in the middle of the sea. I enjoyed it a lot. On the second fall I was the last one to climb back. I managed to climb but the momentum was just too much that I fell from the other end back to the sea again...lols!!!!...it was so funny. I gasped for breath but somehow managed to get back on to the ride again. Dilip was even funnier. Just like me he was also the last one to climb back but he pulled down everyone as he tried to climb back. Naveen was no better. He pulled down the operator of the glide into the sea and wouldn’t let him climb back. The operator climbed back and tried to pull naveen back onto the ride, it was tough, so everybody joined him in getting naveen back. The operator was exhausted that he asked – “Is he a hero or a zero?” This was the last ride we tried. By then it was 3:30 pm and time for lunch...I was already starving. My new half pants were already torn and this was more than embarrassing and I didn’t have a spare trouser. I restrained the humiliation and went for lunch at the nearby restaurant.
After the heavy meal we went back to the room. I had the fun of my life time riding with a torn trouser on burning hot pulsar. Stopped on the way to get some water, poured it over the seat to cool it down. My posterior was already half burned! Back in the room we took shower and without wasting much time went to the next beach. There were some 4 beaches, said to be the best beaches. This was highly recommended by a cab driver @ palm groove. Travelling over 20 kms we reached the beach but it was the most desolated beaches I have seen so far. There were some small wooden tents under construction, mebbe it’s not the right time to come to this beach. These small tents are for the upcoming tourist season. The movie Josh was shot here at this beach. With no one around the beach is the ideal place for writers to pen down their thoughts. You will be lost in thoughts sitting on this beach side. The placid sea, the cool breeze and the low tide makes the beach very beautiful. I wanted to stay there for some more time but then we didn’t have enough time. The next big plan was to go to pub. Tittos is the best in class; it is the best pub in India. This is close to Calingut, Bagha area. Tittos is only for couples, but single entry is permitted upon paying a higher rate. This was as told by one of our friend who recently toured Goa. We were well told in advance by the locals that the entry is only for couples and others are not allowed and there is no such thing as paying higher rates for single entry. We decided to try our luck at Tittos, but unfortunately only couples were permitted. This was a big loss. Tittos is said to be one of the must visit pub in Goa – the only one of its kind in India. Next time I should go to Tittos with my prospective girl friend!!....kidding…iam still a single. Having missed this chance we went to 9 hour pub. This was an open air pub but crowded by tourist. By the time we reached there it was almost closed. But sat there for some time before going back to the room to booze! Back at the villa we had the food and drinks ready. Though there were families staying around the place avinash had permitted as to booze at the restaurant premises, so we were extra cautious not to disturb anyone. It was already 11:30 pm and lights were off in all other villas except ours. As we boozed Jiben and Aswin were busy talking about the Onam celebrations and this was more than boring to me. Even after repeated request to change the subject they kept talking the same stuff. I haven’t enjoyed boozing as much as I did yesterday. We drunkards were joined by Naveen and dilip and they had fun watching us drink!
Third day: The last day at goa! After the heavy breakfast we went to a Fort popularly known as the “dil Chahta hai” fort – this was where the movie “Dil Chahta hai” was shot. This was a beautiful place. The fort was partially demolished. This is one of the best places for taking good snaps. In the scorching heat of the sun it was difficult to climb all the way up the fort. The view from the top of the fort was amazing. The lush green plains on one side and the serene sea on the other side. The place was covered with dry grass – this reminded me of the wheatish grass seen in the movie Gladiator. I had such a wonderful nostalgic feeling going around the “Gladiator grass”. Took couple of photos around this place. This must the one place where we have taken the most number of snaps. Our first group photo session was at this place- all the seven of us together. The foreigner was more than happy to take a snap when offered an opportunity. At the entrance to the fort there is a rusted gate, anything inside the gate looks like locked in jail from outside. Dilip took a snap from outside the gate with all the 6 of us holding on to the gate from inside; it was as if all of us were locked in prison. This was a great photo and a misleading one too!
The last place to visit in Goa was the Aghoda fort and the Bagha beach. This was not such an interesting fort; there was a jail around this area used during the times of the Portuguese in India. Not having enough time to spare we left for Bagha beach. We went to a sea side restaurant for lunch, the complete view of the beach from a cool place! We could enjoy the beach view without getting baked in the scorching heat. “Fini” is the delicacy drink of Goa. We had 2 pegs of “Fini”, it was really good. I wanted to take more but then controlled myself since we have to travel back the same day. As we sat there eating starters, imbibing Fini and enjoying the view, a small girl around 5-6 yrs old spread a mat on the beach; she was accompanied by a boy, probably her brother. The boy started playing drums on a broken steel plate and the girl started dancing and doing wonderful acrobatics. We were taken by surprised to see this. I immediately took the camera and clicked few snaps. I get easily carried away seeing children struggling to live. This was one instance. After the performance I gave her 10 bucks, - worth paying for the few snaps I have taken. More starters followed and we had the best food in the last 3 days. It was quite expensive too. By then it was 3:45 pm and it was high time we go back to the room and get ready to leave!
The return bus was at 5:30 pm and we reached there on time. The return was comfortable. It was an Airavat. Air conditioned with enough leg space. Antony sat next to me leaving Jiben alone….but someone has to sit alone since we are seven and the bus is a 2 seater. I slept well and reached back Bangalore by 6:00 am. Unbelievable!...The return took hardly 12 hrs as against the onward trip which took 20 hrs nearly. Reached back Mysore by 8:30am…Putting an end to the 3 day blitzkrieg. This would definitely be one of the most memorable days in my life and the one I would love to cherish forever. Those were the best days of my life!
Appreciate the reader's valuable comments.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
In new style
Just had a haircut yesterday. The mundane parlor, the mundane barber and my untamable hair. This was the longest time I ever waited in a saloon – nearly two hours. Since I didn’t have much work yesterday I left for the saloon by 4:00 pm. It was well crowded with the Infosys trainees. I patiently waited for my turn, and soon got a token. This was a new system in the parlor, may be to control the crowd. My token number was 19 and soon it was my turn but I declined and waited for my regular hair dresser to come. This made me wait indefinitely since he was out somewhere. I had no interest in reading the magazines or newspapers kept in the saloon. I enjoyed watching others getting hair cut. There are 4 hair dressing chairs and one of it was occupied by a guy doing facial. This facial operation takes hours sparing only 3 chairs. Kumar came finally putting an end to my patient waiting. Kumar is my regular hair dresser…he is a cool chap. He tried a new style with my hair and I liked it. I have changed…my looks changed… I know it doesn’t look so good but different from the traditional style I have adopted since childhood. Happy me.
It was kind of pouring heavily outside. Though there are enough umbrellas in the campus it’s difficult to get one. I waited for some time and was surprised to see someone standing in the rain without holding the umbrella he had with him. I went to him and asked for the umbrella….”No iam waiting for my friend. I can’t give it”….was his immediate reply. This was ridiculous he is standing in the rain and doesn’t use the umbrella he has neither would he let me use it. After a small argument he gave it to me. I was so lost in arguments that I forgot to thank him. I thank people for all petty reasons but unfortunately forget virtues when they are really required. Damn it….I said to myself.
Even the heavy rain couldn’t stop me from going back to my room, though I was totally drenched in the rain, it couldn’t be worse. It continued to rain heavily and I was lucky I reached back before the rain lashed violently on the road. Though I don’t like Maggie noodles ,I was forced to take it since there was no other option for dinner…it was impossible going out for dinner in this heavy rain. Dinner was not that bad. Maggie, Milano biscuit and a five star chocolate. More the Maggie I eat more the electricity bill I pay. We don’t have a gas stove; we only have an electric one! It consumes hell lot of current that you get consumed by it at the end of the month.
It was a difficult choice to make… which movie should I watch today….I have more than 300 movies and most of them are classics. Randomly I picked up IRREVERSIBLE – a French movie. It was an irreversibly painful movie to watch. You will never forget what you saw in this movie - such raw gore and violence that it would stay in my mind for ever since I don’t want to remember it! Such a ridiculous and strange is the mind. You force him to remember something, it would forget; You ask him to forget something, it would cherish it…..what a complimentary effect. I have a seen a lot of movies but this one was a lot different in that it had bloody violence and was unfathomably real. But accepting the facts the movie is a classic and a must watch. Iam sure nobody would dare to watch it more than once! The movie makes you think about the very roots of human insanity. No wonder if you become a misanthropist watching the movie. I enjoy rape scenes in movies but his one was not one of them! Believe me. The rape scene is so real and disturbing that you would want to kill the rapist with your own hands. No girl could ever bear the brunt of such a brutal and torturous rape. The whole movie is shot backwards. The revenge on tapeworm- the rapist is the starting shot and finally unwinds to the early life of Monica who was pregnant at the time of rape. Violence at the beginning makes the movie more intense...well supported by the background score, the distorted images and the rapidly moving camera. This is definitely not entertaining but worth watching.
Time to sleep. If there is somebody out there reading this, please do post your valuable comments.
It was kind of pouring heavily outside. Though there are enough umbrellas in the campus it’s difficult to get one. I waited for some time and was surprised to see someone standing in the rain without holding the umbrella he had with him. I went to him and asked for the umbrella….”No iam waiting for my friend. I can’t give it”….was his immediate reply. This was ridiculous he is standing in the rain and doesn’t use the umbrella he has neither would he let me use it. After a small argument he gave it to me. I was so lost in arguments that I forgot to thank him. I thank people for all petty reasons but unfortunately forget virtues when they are really required. Damn it….I said to myself.
Even the heavy rain couldn’t stop me from going back to my room, though I was totally drenched in the rain, it couldn’t be worse. It continued to rain heavily and I was lucky I reached back before the rain lashed violently on the road. Though I don’t like Maggie noodles ,I was forced to take it since there was no other option for dinner…it was impossible going out for dinner in this heavy rain. Dinner was not that bad. Maggie, Milano biscuit and a five star chocolate. More the Maggie I eat more the electricity bill I pay. We don’t have a gas stove; we only have an electric one! It consumes hell lot of current that you get consumed by it at the end of the month.
It was a difficult choice to make… which movie should I watch today….I have more than 300 movies and most of them are classics. Randomly I picked up IRREVERSIBLE – a French movie. It was an irreversibly painful movie to watch. You will never forget what you saw in this movie - such raw gore and violence that it would stay in my mind for ever since I don’t want to remember it! Such a ridiculous and strange is the mind. You force him to remember something, it would forget; You ask him to forget something, it would cherish it…..what a complimentary effect. I have a seen a lot of movies but this one was a lot different in that it had bloody violence and was unfathomably real. But accepting the facts the movie is a classic and a must watch. Iam sure nobody would dare to watch it more than once! The movie makes you think about the very roots of human insanity. No wonder if you become a misanthropist watching the movie. I enjoy rape scenes in movies but his one was not one of them! Believe me. The rape scene is so real and disturbing that you would want to kill the rapist with your own hands. No girl could ever bear the brunt of such a brutal and torturous rape. The whole movie is shot backwards. The revenge on tapeworm- the rapist is the starting shot and finally unwinds to the early life of Monica who was pregnant at the time of rape. Violence at the beginning makes the movie more intense...well supported by the background score, the distorted images and the rapidly moving camera. This is definitely not entertaining but worth watching.
Time to sleep. If there is somebody out there reading this, please do post your valuable comments.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Life without Google
Altercating over some thing has always been one of my past times. It ranges from petty bio data of gorgeous girls to politics to technology. Rarely these arguments reach a point of conclusion. Mostly I enjoy such frivolous arguments and when it fails to conclude. Recently we had a fight over the distance from Miami to Washington DC. The arguments turned out to be very loud and just then someone came up with the idea of Googling out the distance and within a button click we got the distance - 1,373 miles. That’s the power of Google. Anything below the sun can be found in Google.
It’s impossible to imagine a life without Google. Right from morning to Evening people live with Google and it’s no wonder if they dream Google. In my professional life there is not one day when I haven’t used Google. I still wonder what my professional life would be without Google. I strongly believe that Google never cheats on you nor lets you down. You will get results for any query no matter how complicated it is. If it doesn’t give you the intended result it definitely points you in the right direction.
Like the saying goes - necessity is the mother of all inventions; it was in my final year engineering that I realized the true potential and vast knowledgebase in Google. Final year projects are always considered a matter of prestige and so we decided to take up a project rarely endeavored by any one. It was an Operating System; we named it MaestrOS – The master OS. We had enough documents to start with that was not enough. The whole system has to be developed in C and assembly language and we were short of an OS development skill using C! Soon it was clear that this would not go any further and we had stringent deadlines. So developing an OS on our own was out of question and it was too late to back off since we have already frozen the design documents and got approval from HOD. So it was either Do or Die. This was the time I decided to test my Googling skills.
From Dawn to Dusk I was with Google looking for Code snippets that would help in some way. This went on for weeks. And as days passed by I started losing hope. Though I could find a lot of materials on developing an Operating System they missed something or the other that were critical. Some would have all the code but would not compile and then there are some that would compile but would not run and then there were some that would compile run and finally crash due to incompatibility issues. Soon after 4 weeks on the 32th day surprisingly I got a system similar to the one we designed, but the worst part was that it would not compile and there were around 300 odd errors! I decided not to look for any more systems and started to debug and fix the issues. Imagine debugging each and every bug with the error statement goggled out to find the actual cause of error. But in a week’s time all the errors were fixed and I was so happy I didn’t bother to run the code and flashed this news to the project mates. Everybody wanted to test the system and we decided to install the new system in a different hard disk dedicated for this purpose. On the evening that day I tried to run the code but it threw run time exceptions which was even harder to debug and again Google at my service and soon got the solution though this took me another 2 weeks to fix the run time issue. But finally the whole system is ready to be simulated in a virtual hard disk. But we were not satisfied and decided to for the ultimate and started to work on porting this OS into an Actual hard Disk. This was the most challenging and the one that corrupted my hard disk the most. With essential tips from Google I had to rewrite the assembly code and some post boot C files to make it an Actual OS that would run on a real hard disk. My happiness bore no bounds and the whole project turned out to be a big success at the end. Thanks to Google!
Soon after the college days I joined Infosys. Trained to work in .NET and forced to work alone for an Appraisal system, I had more challenging days ahead. We had a lot of new requirements that were challenging both technically and functionally. I don’t believe in asking technical doubts to colleagues, I believe in Google more than anyone else. I can’t think of one enhancement completed without some Googling. One of the most challenging and enduring task was an online version of an Excel report. Believe me; the whole system is made of Google in bits and pieces. My only job was to make sure that the gap is filled and the jigsaw completed! The power of Google is magical and unbelievable.
It’s impossible to imagine a life without Google. Right from morning to Evening people live with Google and it’s no wonder if they dream Google. In my professional life there is not one day when I haven’t used Google. I still wonder what my professional life would be without Google. I strongly believe that Google never cheats on you nor lets you down. You will get results for any query no matter how complicated it is. If it doesn’t give you the intended result it definitely points you in the right direction.
Like the saying goes - necessity is the mother of all inventions; it was in my final year engineering that I realized the true potential and vast knowledgebase in Google. Final year projects are always considered a matter of prestige and so we decided to take up a project rarely endeavored by any one. It was an Operating System; we named it MaestrOS – The master OS. We had enough documents to start with that was not enough. The whole system has to be developed in C and assembly language and we were short of an OS development skill using C! Soon it was clear that this would not go any further and we had stringent deadlines. So developing an OS on our own was out of question and it was too late to back off since we have already frozen the design documents and got approval from HOD. So it was either Do or Die. This was the time I decided to test my Googling skills.
From Dawn to Dusk I was with Google looking for Code snippets that would help in some way. This went on for weeks. And as days passed by I started losing hope. Though I could find a lot of materials on developing an Operating System they missed something or the other that were critical. Some would have all the code but would not compile and then there are some that would compile but would not run and then there were some that would compile run and finally crash due to incompatibility issues. Soon after 4 weeks on the 32th day surprisingly I got a system similar to the one we designed, but the worst part was that it would not compile and there were around 300 odd errors! I decided not to look for any more systems and started to debug and fix the issues. Imagine debugging each and every bug with the error statement goggled out to find the actual cause of error. But in a week’s time all the errors were fixed and I was so happy I didn’t bother to run the code and flashed this news to the project mates. Everybody wanted to test the system and we decided to install the new system in a different hard disk dedicated for this purpose. On the evening that day I tried to run the code but it threw run time exceptions which was even harder to debug and again Google at my service and soon got the solution though this took me another 2 weeks to fix the run time issue. But finally the whole system is ready to be simulated in a virtual hard disk. But we were not satisfied and decided to for the ultimate and started to work on porting this OS into an Actual hard Disk. This was the most challenging and the one that corrupted my hard disk the most. With essential tips from Google I had to rewrite the assembly code and some post boot C files to make it an Actual OS that would run on a real hard disk. My happiness bore no bounds and the whole project turned out to be a big success at the end. Thanks to Google!
Soon after the college days I joined Infosys. Trained to work in .NET and forced to work alone for an Appraisal system, I had more challenging days ahead. We had a lot of new requirements that were challenging both technically and functionally. I don’t believe in asking technical doubts to colleagues, I believe in Google more than anyone else. I can’t think of one enhancement completed without some Googling. One of the most challenging and enduring task was an online version of an Excel report. Believe me; the whole system is made of Google in bits and pieces. My only job was to make sure that the gap is filled and the jigsaw completed! The power of Google is magical and unbelievable.
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