Saturday, October 21, 2006

A new post after sometime..

Todays a bright Saturday morning, and when i looked out from the balcony in the morning, it seemed a perfect weather to go out and have fun, maybe to a park or for a picnic.. or may even be for a long drive.. So, we went out and I soon realized that the back ache, that has been troubling me for the last week, has actually left a trail.. not the ache, but the medicines i took to get rid of it.. i am still drowsy, and hence have decided not to drive anymore today..

Its kind of sad not to be out in the sun, when infact, 8 out of last 10 days have been cloudy and gloomy.. but anyways, i plan to leave that behind and enjoy the day.. so we are cooking chicken and i am writing my blog after quite sometime.. Well, anyways, found out something from my wife about blogging.. that if you do not post comments on other blogs.. you dont get people to visit your blog.. So, its quite understandable why trafic on my blog is kind of low..

well, i am kind of lazy, maybe not kind of, i am truly lazy.. but i think i am kind of going to give a try to commenting on others blogs.. not sure how long i will be able to keep it up.. but lets see..

actually, to tell the truth, even my wife got the idea from her sis, who is a voracious blogger and gets atleast 10 comments on each new entry.. so makes sense to learn from her... i rarely get more than 2 comments, one from my wife and the other one from her sis.. but well yeah, now i plan to become a little more adventurous..

so, janta log, if you stumble onto my blog, do leave a comment.. i would be really happy to reply.. and might leave more than one comment on your blog as well..

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Finding a meaning..

Well, I lived there for 4 years. And 4 years I lived with the barest of needs and the barest of things i bought.. and when i bought them.. it was not because of my marriage.. not because she wanted to.. not because i wanted to, but because we needed to as our parents were coming over.. did we care about friends and neighbours.. no.. i dont think we ever did.. i remember two of our neighbours came to our place, and that was just after we had moved in.. they said they had come over to welcome us to the neighbourhood.. we dint have furniture except for a coffee table and a single bed from my bachelor days.. the bed was the only thing we could offer them to sit on.. so they and my wife sat on the bed and i sat on the table.. i remember, uncle had great difficulty talking cause he had to turn his head 180 degrees if he wanted to address anyone other than me.. thats why it seemed he talked the most to me.. and being the bad communicator i am, must have gotten mighty bored..but that wasnt going to be all.. uncle and aunty had actually come over to talk stuff about our landlord, you know the kind of stuff people talk about, never good stuff.. and hence, we were not very upset when aunty told us later that uncle had acquired a back pain from somewhere.. we pretty much thought on the same lines and reasoned, almost at the same time that his pain had something to do with sitting on our bed.. we infact, also thought, we dint want these people in our house and hence were not going to buy furniture..

well, i got distracted.. and thats me.. by the way, that uncle and aunty never came back and we dint care.. we bought chairs, a tv, tv stand and got a few beds on rent when my parents came over.. didnt get a dining table because the coffee table was quite enuf, we thought.. though it could hardly fit in four dishes at the same time.. we had fun though.. once, while eating, i hit mom on her head with my elbow.. and people teased me about the way i eat,that my hands move so far away from my body and other foolish stuff.. sweet memories..

the reason, i did not buy much stuff was because i wanted to come to US and my company constantly delayed it.. and it was almost two years before that happened.. i came over here about 2 and half months bac.. and when i came over i realized that i am not going to be here for long either.. i am going to go back not too long into the future.. but now that i am here, i need to get settled, all over again.. and within 2 and half months, we have bought a bed and a dining table.. not that we spent much.. cause we got stuff second hand.. but you gotta to look at the table.. its more like a mirror... its beautiful.. and big enough for 6..

after i had helped the generous person with putting the heavy glass table in our dining room, i mean the table was not his, he had volunteered to bring the table to our house since we dint have a truck and he had one.. well, it was a hectic day for us, cause we got the bed and the table on the same day.. and our house suddenly looked so crowded.. so full..

once we had everything in place.. we sat down on the leather chairs that came with the table.. and she said.. we stayed in hyderabad for so long.. and everybody (parents) came there, but we dint have a proper table there.. here, we have this one and they are not here..

you know what.. sometimes.. some emotions are just too much.. they make you speechless and the words seem to come out from the eyes.. cause they become wet.. and your head seems as if its going to burst.. we sat there for quite sometime and we were speechless, before she said.. dont feel bad.. we are going to be back and we are going to have fun together..

sometimes, the fact that you feel emotions makes you feel that you are alive.. they are necessary.. necessary to make you feel human..

by the way, if we had a big table when i was in hyderabad, i would not have hit mom with my elbow.. and we would have lost the moment..

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Losing Innocence

It’s sad, but the truth, probably a part of the exercise called ‘growing up’. But are they the same, losing innocence and growing up, should they mean the same things??

I don’t know. Frankly, they should not, but practically, I feel they are the same things. I mean, it would have been great if we could keep the innocence throughout, but then fr that I guess you need a near perfect world. As we grow up and start facing the world on our own, we pretty much are always on guard against someone who can take advantage of us or can fool us. Isnt a good feeling not to trust anyone, but then, we have been hurt by a number of people who had lost their innocence sometime, somewhere and have hurt us.

I felt like writing this piece after I read a blog where my blogger friend talks about her friend helping a little beggar girl. The girl has to take back a certain amount to her master at the end of the day. And seems, someone did a one-upmanship on the little girl and stole her earnings for the day. My blogger friends’ friend and a few other kind hearted people accumulated the money and gave it to the beggar girl.
Good people!! I just hope they don’t meet this girl again.

Me and Patna, my roommate who claimed he was from the historical city, reached the Old Delhi Railway Station early in the morning. A 5 hr bus ride from Roorkee to Delhi was always tiring, more so because I can’t sleep on buses. Patna was to catch a train to his home town and I was to coming to Kolkata. After having a cup of tea at the station so that we could appreciate the surroundings, we decided to move around the station rather than sit at some place. Our legs were already cramped and needed some sort of exercise. As we strolled, a guy in nice clothes came up to us and said in English “I need to go back to my home town and I have lost all money on my way to Delhi. Could you be an altruist and give me 10 rupees please?” Both of us were shocked, not by the situation, but by his language. I mean we were studying for GRE and CAT, but didn’t really know where to use the word ‘altruist’ properly. I was about to ask him if he is also studying for the same exams or if he is English Hons or something, but before I could say anything, Patna handed him a 10 rupee note. 10 bucks were not easy, specially when you are in college, but that was Patna, foolish, emotional and helpful. He thanked Patna profusely for that and left. We discussed about the altruist stuff for sometime and kept our eyes out for the beauties that come by rarely in Indian railway stations.

About an hour after that, we had wandered to a different section of the railway station, when we saw the same guy coming towards us again. I think both me and Patna smiled at him when we saw him. He came up to us and said “I need to go back to my home town and I have lost all money on my way to Delhi. Could you be an altruist and give me 10 rupees please?” Of course, we had recognized him, but he had forgotten us. We were shocked, completely speechless. I was the first one to open my mouth, and I shouted at him. You bastard, cheat and I was on my way to a few more of them, when he called in his friends and I found that we had been surrounded. They threatened us to keep quiet and get out of there which we promptly did. Patna had a big lump in his throat and he found it difficult to talk even after 5 minutes.

I guess Patna lost his innocence that day. I mean, yeah you can say he grew up, cause I never saw him entertain beggars or give money to people after that.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Is it going to be over?..

I really hope so.. Yes, I am talking about my Dubai trip. You must have an idea how bored I am with the whole thing.. I hate telling that I am coming back and then not doing it.. i have told twice and it has not happened.. now i have done the grave sin of letting people know a third time.. i mean, i dint want to.. but.. by the way, i dont want to pick a fight with the guy who said 'third time lucky'.. if it has been for others, i am also human..

So, on 18th may, i called up emirates to reschedule my ticket, to the 30th may. And this is what comes up, Sir, we do not have tickets to Hyderabad till 17th of June. What would you like to do Sir? took me sometime to understand that this was happening.. you have a flight to kolkata??.. can i get that one? let me see, sir.. yes, when would you like to.. blah blah..

woof, so it appears i am gonna flying in to kolkata, my home town..

i called her up and told her, will be in cal on 30th.. what??.. cal??.. what time??. how did this happen??.. babuji has magical effects, cause how do things like this keep happening e'time.. and how does he predict em?

called up ma, and told her that i cant come to hyd cause there are no tickets.. what what??.. no tickets??.. so what will happen.. how will you come..
i will come to kolkata.. what. kolkata.. kolkata.. ???
yes kolkata.. when? .. 30th.. +- 2 days.. shall we come to pick you.. please come...
please come and pick me.. i would be happy..

looking forward to it.. fingers crossed..

Friday, May 05, 2006

Its a trick..

I am bored.. and I need to do something to get my life back to track.. everything appears gloomy and kind of lazy.. I had been thinking about this latey and have been quite convinced that 'life sucks'. Its an effort to talk to people and i have been able to turn people off in the last few days by my 'life sucks' attitude..

Well, after sulking for about two weeks.. I kind of realized that something needs to be done about this.. It being so hot outside in Dubai these days, going out was not an option. Weighing all options(there werent many), I decided that going to the gym and having a thorough workout was the best option.. So I went to the gym today.. Somehow, everytime i go to the gym, which i do once every six months to keep in shape.. i find none of the machines/apparatus, whatever you call them, work for me.
This happens everytime.. and this is how it happens.. i go to any machine and try pressing on the button that says start.. and nothing happens.. so i go all around it trying to figure out if it is connected and all.. sadly, nothing seems to be wrong.. and it still does not work..
after around five minutes, when i have convinced myself and the others that something is grossly wrong with this one.. i get on top again and press some other buttons and it starts..

i am not sure, these silly machines seem to test me.. can they see me going around them.. i mean, if they didn't start at all, i could have claimed that somethings wrong with them.. but they start just when i feel like shouting aloud.. something seems to be wrong with this one..

Friday, April 21, 2006

In Dubai

Dubai.. hmmm.. didnt really know what to expect when they told me that I have to go to Dubai. Short term.. they said.. and believe me, that was some relief. Though the truth remains and has been confirmed this time as well: no project remains a short term one, or atleast it invariably extends to something thats one and half times you thought... well, actually, i did have an idea, call it a misconception, of what i was expecting from dubai..

Well you intelligent folks, tell me where is Dubai? What!! Near Russia!! I thought you were reading my blog cause you were some intellectual.. now i know you are not.. what a shame!! anyways, welcome to the league. By the way, my recommendation, you need some serious lessons in geography starting with 'the world is more like an apple than a pizza'. Well, Dubai is in the middle east, in UAE. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that? That its not an open society.. that its religious to the point of being fundamentalist.. and negative stuff like that.. If you didnt think that way, then you might be an intellec after all who makes a few dumb errors sometimes.... as for me, i had a conception of middle east as described and truly, i feel ashamed to own these now.. how ignorant and arrogant can one be? you really need to be here to believe that this place is very open and modern... and offcourse, pleasently different from what i thought.

Work!! Woork!! Wooork!!Well, thats what I did when I came here. My client is setting up a new telco here, called Du, which promises to break the monopoly of the government telco, Etisalat. As such, there is a lot of activity and buzz all around the middle east, most of it however is in the floor where I sit, or atleast thats how it appears to me. We sit on the third floor of Dubai Media City, Bldg 14, in the middle of 200 people. And try to get some work done while people keep shouting from all sides. Helps me understand the basics of how to avoid communication. Well, not that this environment is new to me, and launcing a new company is never an organized event. And I am quite happy to be a part of bringing a new company to life..
However, after 2 weeks of working day and night, I decided that this is enough, and i need to go have a look at the city.. so i went through the tourist guides and maps.. and planned my day out.. bilal, who is my boss at work and roommate here, joined in on friday morning. So we took a cab and went into the city. I had tried to find out the bus routes cause that makes it cheaper and hence, the journeys more enjoyable, but it was confusing and there was not much information available. Anyways, we visited a lot of places, the old city, the dubai museum, al fahedi street where bilal bought a digital camera, which was much cheaper than in the US, he said.. then we went to the dubai creek and experienced the famous abra rides.. that was the most interesting thing i guess, because thats the first time, i came to know that dubai people deal in something other than dirhams and dollars, and these are fils, which is in fact, a lower denomination of the dirhams (1 dirham = 100 fils).

Well, we took a number of rides on the abra's. Abra is a nothing but a boat, which are used by the local people to cross over from one side of the Dubai Creek to the other. These cost us 50 fils and I was quite happy. Its a real frenzy when you try to get into the abra at peak hours.. mostly because there are a lot of people and not enough space on the abra during those times.. and the driver is at the peak of his glory telling people that they cannot get into his boat as its full.. at non peak hours, they would go down to the street to fetch you.. another practical example of the policies of demand and supply.. was it adam sandler... or adam smith.. anyways..

So, that was one part of Dubai, the old city, comprising of parts of Bur Dubai and Deira. We crossed over to the other side of the creek and walked a long distace by the Creek until we got to the gulf. That ended our day as we took a cab to come back. We had walked for quite a long distance. I mean, I am a software engineer and most of my day passes by sitting on my chair and trying to crack some silly abstract issue about why a dumb piece of data is not getting loaded into an equally dumb table.. and here i was, trying to cover half the city of dubai on foot on a single day.. i mean, guys, what more are you looking for.. offcourse, you dont expect me to sprint like carl lewis...

On some other day, we went out with Rob, who is our project manager and an excellent communicator. Well, I have no dumb clue as to how he can get his points across so clearly. I have tried all through my life to get my point across and have ended up confusing people.. silly people, they need to spoon fed to make them understand stuff.. i have given up on teaching them.. its not worthwhile.. i feel.. anyways, so the three of us went out, i mean bilal was there too.. so, we went to the old city, took some abra rides and then came back to rob's hotel where we spent some nice time at the pub at his hotel.. man, i miss beer here.. and i had a lot that day.. i dont like it, these guys do not sell drinks unless you have a license.. now, i am new to this place, where the hell am i going to get a license from... i guess you got to live within the rules of the place.. so i am doing that..

By the way, Dubai is quite modern and there are lots of nice malls and huge buildings.. and they are very different from the ones you get to see in the western countries.. i mean i am no architect.. (maybe i have some qualities.. i did study civil engineering for a year).. but i understood that the buildings are more triangular than squarish.. not to say that they do not have square buildings, but they have some spectacular triangular buildings.. i guess you can relate them to the pyramids.. i mean the ones in egypt.. and i guess they also experiment with architecture pretty much.. they have some unique structures.. like the burj al arab.

People, my sincere thanks if you are reading this line.. i mean you deserve a chocolate from me.. offcourse if you enjoy one.. if you dont, you can give one to me.. cause i enjoy them..

Take Care guys..

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Venturing into Blogosphere

Finally I think I am going to bring this thing to reality. Had been thinking of creating this for quite sometime now, but man, i aaam laaaaaaaazzzy, very lazy. At one point of time, I had just forgotten why exactly i had thought i needed a blog. Imagine.. Well, not that I remember now, but anways, I dont care anymore, I mean we think of so many things and then think of ways we want to achieve them. Does it always happen like that.. like things falling in place and completing the jigsaw puzzle.. no it doesn't. Sometimes it just needs to start at some point, i guess and that need not be an important one either...

Hey guys, are you still reading?? Inspite of all this?? I mean, I am happy, but is this really that good.. Must be, otherwise, why would an intelli guy/gal like you read this anyway. Well, now that I have created this space (space.. can that be created..) or rather borrowed this space from the Internet, I would really need to plan it up and decide on the content of this. Man, that really requires some serious thinking. What I am going to put up here so that you come back to read this shit..

Maybe I will put up a few pics of myself. Would that be good enough to make you come back.. hell no.. I will put up a few pics of me and my sweetheart.. she is lovely but mine.. well, let me think.. maybe I can put up some good (hopefully) pieces from time to time... i guess that will sustain your interest.. i mean, i know you guys are demanding, you need good stuff to read.. but be co-operative, people..

Will catch you again on the next blog..

Take Care Guys..