Facades of Life

Opportunity amidst opportunity

2011-05-10T12:45:00.001-07:00

My first post in a Magazine in my previous company Caritor.Thought let me put it here, lest i lose it!

"When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and one represents opportunity."

- John F. Kennedy

The world has seen the scripts change in the annals of history too many times to stumped by even the worst trials and tribulations.God forbid we need not have a 9/11 or a tsunami or a IT crash or for that sake the Great Depression of America.But we have all emerged out of it;some more successful with just guts and grit by their side ,men who sensed something that the others missed -opportunity even when adversity towered against them.You don't need the sixth sense to grab a opportunity .Its right there up for grabs but you need to take it with a pinch of risk and let your skills handle the rest.

A retrospection into the past year and you will find all sorts of disasters ,the aftermath of the tsunami ,a series of storms in coastal America,the great deluge in Mumbai,earthquakes in Kashmir,in addition to all this the industry had its own sets of worries oil touching the $70 barrel mark,more taxes and the list goes on.But still the India grows at 6 to 8% with the sensex fast closing onto the historic 10K mark,the FDI's are steadily flowing in and the FAB's are all decided on choosing India as a desired location.Seldom has the country looked any brighter.So where does all the growth come from amidst all the calamities of life and our own speculations and worries?

We had NGO's ,organizations ,individuals(silent heroes) who woke up to task whenever a disaster occurred ,men who could absorb the shock and the awe of the challenges posed.We had businessmen,venture capitalists stockbrokers even students cashing in the moolah this year on the unprecedented run of the bull in the stock market.Billions of dollars that were washed away in the blink of an eye were being compensated for .Better villages and hospitals are coming in place of the older dilapidated ones both in quake hit as well as disaster hot zones.The opportunity of building a better tomorrow was being visualized and built .Even in Iraq and Afghanistan that lay devastated by the war,companies were competing with each other for contracts and they sensed the golden chance that lay hidden in the barren lands.Companies are moving away fro the traditional markets of America and Europe and going east as well as Africa when they understood that their their products no longer thrived the markets.

Each of us are facing a problem and await the all important solution,the challenges may be in various circumstances,scale,forms,regions or situations.At the end of the day we all hate risks,adversities,changes not necessarily in that order but we hate them all the same .But studies suggest that these factors play a major role in deciding the success rates.With the changing dynamics of economy ,the stature of men seldom matter it is the genuine opportunity seeking skills that each one sees and sees first,when the chips are down that we make the quantum leap from men to demi-god status.

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner, neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify for usefulness and happiness.History always reminds us that civilizations were lost once it started to saturate or stagnate in its riches.Learn to make lemonade out of life's lemons by taking a step back to consider the bigger picture.You have two choices shape up or ship out. It builds those who are strong enough to withstand its fury and shrewd enough to learn from its repercussions - the Darwin Theory .The weak become diffident and lose focus which takes away his natural propensity to identify the big opportunity that lies hidden within the perils of the disaster.In short when such a person sees adversity, he loses many opportunities to redeem himself from the adverse situation, where as leaders of men would remain calm and composed and seizes the opportunities. They view every problem in life as a challenge or opportunity that one can benefit from.

So let us take refuge in a qoute from Disraeli -"What appear to be calamities are often the sources of fortune."

Black Friday

2011-03-07T23:40:00.001-08:00

I am always non-superstitious.But sometimes you just feel its not your day! One such day was my last day of my stay in Minneapolis.As I woke up ,as usual late ,I checked the baggage,it was strewn all around.By then it was already 9 am,and i had not even booked the taxi to the airport.Brushed my teeth in a jiffy and took a double quick bath and decided to keep my fast without breaking in the morn.After messing up twice with the taxi guys with respect to the pickup address,i decided to go to the office to drop off my stuff .I needed to say bye to a few folks there and then drop off my laptop and phone.And then i rushed back to my room to clear off all the remaining stuff from the room as was the norm .I was too preoccupied to note that i hadn't weighed my baggage yet.So i rushed down to the front desk of the service apartment to check for a weighing machine.Again none at the office even though it was a week day.As i decided to hang around and then i realized that i came down without the room keys.So i took the lift back and dragged both my bags down after locking my room and then finally found a chick in the front office.I checked the weight and was pleased with to know that i had lots of space for xtra stuff to dump.

After lots of more mishaps i finally found myself in the airport cab at 1.30 pm thought the flight was at 5 pm i thought i might as well as play safe.I reached well ahead in time all along having a healthy conversation with the taxi driver who happened to be from El Salvador.I checked myself in and then after that thought that i might as well take a look around.As i just put my hands into my pocket ,I realized i had the room keys with me.I had two options either to catch the Haiwatha rail back which comes every 20 minutes or so or take a usual taxi.But the problem was I didn't know either of them where to catch! But i found the nearest taxi as i was fast running out of time .I reached LaSalle,and threw the keys at the front desk and hurried back,pretty sure that this would be last time at least that day that i would need to return back!But since i had already checked in and had the boarding passes till Bangaluru already in hand i was pretty confident.

At around 4 i went through the security check and patiently waited for an hour before the flight took off.Once i landed in Chicago,i waited only to see that an hour later the flight was cancelled.So there goes my itinerary for a toss.I got the new tickets ,but then i lost 1 whole day,thanks to the cancellation.The cancellation had more to with less travelers than with the official reason of mechanical failure.So there i stay overnight at Chicago(atleast they gave me a hotel room),and next day i catch a flight to London,where i had to sleep overnight there too,this time at the airport.By the time i landed at London the only ones left at the busy Heathrow airport was a Pakistani housekeeping guy and a Chinese sweeper.When i took the last connecting flight from London next day afternoon,i was pretty tired and then i didn't really care what time/day i reached as long i was i would be there.And did i tell you ,i hardly caught a nap in the London flight thanks to the kicks and screams of the kiddo behind.Well don't blame me for that header now,hmm..waise i am not superstitious u know…

America America!

2010-12-24T07:30:00.001-08:00

Yeah by this time you would be knowing that i would be somewhere in US updating my blog(yeah here in Downtown MPLS).The following read is a kind of eye-opener for people as instructions not to do and what would happen if you try to do a joshy! So the moment i got my marching orders from my manager ,all the excitement within me died.Oh no..atleast most of the folks around me were more excited and giving me their purchase orders as to what to buy and as well as dire consequences in the eventuality of me not getting it.I don't know why i didn't have the excitement ,probably because i was not having my GF along (incase ur wondering who,this is just to spice up the blog!) , or because i would be missing my planet Kerala more or yeah there is this slight hitch of the temperatures being an average of –20 degree Celsius(coming from India where namma blr is close to +20 degree now).So once i got my visa date interview ,i just moved around as if i had nothing to worry.I got a pretty small flight to Chennai where i was supposed to have my visa interview.And i hate em as you have the feeling that you are riding in a Maruti 800 on Banarghatta road.But once i landed in Chennai i was amazed to see that the metro contruction was going on there too.So more jam to follow .After an hour in the traffic, i reached the hotel.I was made to wait another hour there and i took the liberty of having dinner in the mean time.So soon after i took bath(or did I?) and then snoozed off.I didn't arrange my papers not learn what lies to tell to the consulate officer! But to grace of the Almighty i got up somewhere around midnight and managed to arrange all that in an hour and slept off again.Morning i took a cab which was booked from the hotel itself and damn expensive.I knew why because there were a lot of rather hundreds of mosquitoes in the cab.So i reached the Consulate to see a queue at 7 am in the morning.So when my turn came i got in and came inside what looked like a examination hall.People with their certificates,documents anxious faces and suddenly out of the blue,the security guy asks me “kai ill unnum illalo alle?”.

No wonder where you go there is bound to a Malayali.When i passed the security check in BLR,the guy comes and asks “engotta?”.Then i realised there are many malayali’s hiding behind the skin of various characters unknown to mankind.As i waited my turn with bated breath,finally the officer comes in and starts taking the interviews,mine was 5th i presume and two were rejected already ahead of me.2/4 was not a bad ratio.Though i felt i might go the other half.So when i finally faced him,i mumbled my answers and then suddenly he looked at me!There he was like a school teacher and i felt as if i need i didnt do my homework .So more questions ensured that i was thoroughly meant for B1!And then finally it was all over and i literally ran our of the compound.

”Auto saarrrrrr”,these are the last things you want to hear after your anxious moments.The fun part in Chennai is ,the meter in autos there are kept to let you know that they are also high tech!Else you might fool the auto guy(gracious no..can i do this in this lifetime?).Anyways i managed to reach the hotel back using broken Tamil.So when i was to return from Chennai,i took the liberty of having lunch late and a small nap.All because the cabbie told me i would reach the airoport safely in 30 min.And so it turned ,that the traffic was even more pathetic than the previous day and it took the driver lots of skills and my praying skills to reach there just a few minutes before the last check-in call(and thanks to a few guys who let me ahead of them at check-in).And again as i lazed my life,and the date to travel finally came, i was still in my slumber until 24 hours before i realized i didn't have anything packed to face the brute winter there,absolutely nothing.So i took the previous afternoon half off,after i filled my tax,my timesheets ,sending mails ,taking printouts and lots more.As my flight was early morning at 7am next day, i thought i would sleep early.I came in home at 5.00pm and then went to big bazaar ,got my stuff in a few hours and then came running back only to realise i had forgotten a few more!So after all this mess,i knew i was running on empty cylinders and took a break at the local Sagar nearby at 10.00pm.Finally when i started packing the bags it was already 11.00 and when i finished it was 2.00am in the morning and the cabbie would come to pick me up at around 3.45.So even as i slept the cab guy called me enquire about my point,and i lost couple of more minutes of sleep.So finally i got 45 minutes of sleep .And then i woke myself up and dumped myself and my luggage into the cab.When i finally reached the airport it was around 4.00 and i took 10 minutes to just get out of the car! Man i was already running out of sleep and after the immigration and the security check-in i dozed off till my flight came in.So finally when i caught my BA flight,i caught up on all the lost sleep,and even managed to watch a few films in between.

Finally i escaped India only to watch myself flying over Pakistan and Afghanistan !More sleep lost.But at least i was served hot breakfast on BA which was really refreshing.Finally before landing in Hearthrow,i lost another half an hour because of hectic schedules.As we finally hit terminal 5 ,it was good to feel the air outside.But the turbulence was really bad as you can judge from the pic above.And I had as my mate Amit,who was also travelling to MPLS.Since he was newly wed,he had this responsibility of calling his wifey and keeping her in sync.So we went in search of the Phone booth,and found that we need pounds in coins to call it.And my roaming Vodaphone was not working nor was there any free WIFI available.Finally he got into a internet booth and mailed her!I tried the Skype and for some reason it didn't work either.

So we took the connecting flight to Chicago and dully filled in our I-94 forms and i caught up on more sleep and wine!Finally i got to see snow in Chicago.The entire city was bubbling with energy from above.The immigration check was quick and the officer let me in without much ado and we caught our flight to the MPLS waiting for more than couple of hours and after moving around a few gates.But this time Amit managed to call his wifey after I begged for some quarters from some Mexican maids!I first went to a store where i bought gums, so that we can get change,but then she returned only 3 quarters and she would give us more change!We didn't want to argue and so i had to beg from those amazing ladies who were gracious enough to lend us a few quarters.Gracias Ladies!Anyways we got into the flight and within and hour reached Minneapolis and it was lovely to see the entire city in covered with snow.We took some time to get to the taxi as there was none to guide us at midnight.But soon enough we landed in front our hotel which cost us something like 40 bucks.But to talk to the African-American driver was a nightmare as he couldn't understand my British English! So i left my British English to the queen and starting to rap to make him understand.Finally he gave me the receipt and i gave him his tip and hit the bed as soon as possible.But not before i updated myself on the FB.I cant stop it can I?

Midnight Flight

2010-11-26T09:55:00.001-08:00

Deepawali holiday trip to native proved pretty costly for me this time around ,as the return e-ticket turned elusive.There are probably more than a few crore people in Kerala and half of them you would find them on the Island express.And with people joining in from Covai,(as the train takes a detour via TN)the melee is seen to be believed(for all the doubting thomaskutties who think i am exaggerating).I was among the lucky few who was dumb enough to think that my waiting listed e-ticket ,would finally convert ,and found myself rushing to buy a second class ticket.This second class ticket is genuinely third class.It would be a serious challenge to anyone with a meager sense or rather common sense to even fathom or have the audacity to enter it.One day we might have the Survivor series depicted on it.

Let me describe the coach,for people who are new to the world of railwaynomics! Like Laloo,the coach is also inhabited by his countrymen(literally country),who feel demeaning to enter this coach and be respectful to his/her brethren.The moment you step(or onto someone!) into the coach,the steps and the sideways of the entrance are occupied by people who are drunk enough,who senses are numb enough to enjoy the travel(i wish i were drunk too)!From here the push/pull mechanism starts,ie people who would want to get out vs people who would want to get it,neither would give the other an inch.So in the eventuality of you having to get down in between,you would have to start pushing yourself a couple of stations before.Even if you manage to get inside this famed coach,treat yourself to the Baskin Robbins, if you manage to get home in one piece.I think the stores in India can learn a lesson or two in Planograms ,such is the way each square inch is utilised here.But like my earlier posts on rail travel,there is a sense of companionship here in this coach as each one has his story to tell and most often than not,all of these would be waiting list passengers.

So here i was onto this train again on a Diwali,with a second class ticket.In this myriad country,there a reservation seat for everyone, including the politician to the beggar.You could see everyone arguing and fighting for his qouta,from the local MLA to the ex-armyman to the handicapped(i would soon fit here).As i tried bribing my way to a seat,i found to my dismay that none of the usual Ticket Checkers have come.This added to woes, as fate was slowly pushing me to the 2nd Class.Then i tried my luck in sleeper tiers and found even RAC’s were not getting cleared.As night closed in, i decided i would stay put in a sleeper this time instead of 2nd class(which is all the same).Stay put means, you would get to sit down near the loo(railway loos have eulogies written for em,and half of the male fantasies on their walls,authors would have posted their tele nos too!).I met a guy from Thrissur,who happened to work in BLR,as an accountant and he too was in the same basket of fate.As we contemplated on the next events in the eventually of a “Get Out” from the TT,a few more unreserved people from other coaches landed in.We knew we would all land in trouble sooner or later.As we had our had our dinner ,we decided to stay put,and as Gandhiji had shown in S.A to demand our rights(did he say ticketless??).Now to do this, would be to question the jurisdiction of the TT,who is as ignorant your pleas, as a teacher loving to hear your wails when he tweaks your ears.Finally we decided,that if we had to get down(or rather shoved out),we would drag on ,till Erode or Salem from where the journey to blr would be another 4-5 hours.But to our amazement the TT didn’t enter the coach, till the train chugged into Covai.Till that moment the compartment which was kind of peaceful,turned houseful.An entire set of family folks from thatha,aunty,father,mother,sister,cousin,baby,anna,akka,grandmother,grandfather and a lots more hopped in.Again we got pushed back.But here fate played a different card.One of the chaps,forgot to get his wife(i think it was on purpose) or rather his wife gave him a miss and her ticket was free!So voila,we made some dealings/auditions with the guy to play the role of his wife, to get her ticket.The deal was finalised,but the TT who got in from Covai,was so strict ,that we couldn’t even manage to get our asses in the compartment.

There would only be two options now,now to stay put or to hop out!We decided to go for the latter.So there after enduring the toilette fragrance for some lingering moments,we disembarked on our next plan at Erode at around 1.30am.I and my friend got down and caught the nearest available bus to Erode bus station.There we caught on a bus that was bound for Salem.The bus pulled on pretty slow and shook terribly and in between an old chap landed near the door! Amidst all this, i managed to catch some sleep for 1 hour as the bus took another extra one hour to reach Salem at 3.30 am.There we got down and made ourselves sure that we would get into some superr fast or express.So much to our confusion every other bus was a superfast or deluxe bus.Also we had to get into a queue ,at one end of the bus station to get into a bus.People were queued up and busses were being filled!As we hopped into another Deluxe bus,I managed to get some window seats .But sadly it was very near the door(now i know why they were empty!).As the bus slowly moved on,we asked the conductor to close the window above the door.I still remember the shock,that even as he pulled the entire frame came down,leaving the window half open,and us to the mercy of furious cold winds.I had by mistake taken my tested jacket along in the bag!I pulled it upto my ears and whipped out my bedsheet and wrapped myself like a newborn baby with just the eyes and the nose visible.

The bus pulled on and we tired souls dozed off more of fatigue than the comfort of our seats.I realised it was Krishnagiri ,only when i woke up at around 6 in the morning .Shit, i realised we were running late on a busy Monday morning,but had no options.In between it drizzled and thankfully the shutters on the windows worked for a change.As the morning winds blasted on us,I realised i was still in my mummy version.People who got in ,smiled at me as if i were Vadivelu’s cousin and sure i didn’t disappoint them!For all i cared was another couple of hours of sleep and my bengaluru to welcome me back.As the landscape slowly changed and tress gave way to concrete structures and IT parks ,Electronic City came up and as usual was buzzling in the morning traffic frenzy.It was at this point that i realised that my phone was switched off and i was more like a crusoe for the rest of the world.I landed at Madivala an hour later at 8.30 am,and bade farewell to my buddy and finally landed on two feet at Madivala market.Even as my world came back to me ,auto drivers started coming to me,”Auto saar,bari 120 rupees”……..

“Train No-6525 Bangalore Kanyakumari Express will be arriving shortly on platform no 2….”

2010-04-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

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As i write with my ass half numb,thumb toe bruised and back aching like hell.. i recall some of the interesting events that happened post this announcement.As usual the Changanacherry Railway station is full as expected ,since its Easter(and Record Liquor sales too!) revelry was getting over.I lazed my way to the ticket counter and got myself a 2nd class ticket.I had no reservation,finally after hours of futile efforts.Ok so be it,I think there would have been others also who would share my grief,as there are many who suffer because of the lack of a double track from Ernakulam to Kayamkulam.The bus vendors were making a killing this summer and they wanted it that way(no double track) as it would kill their business.Also because of the weirdness of Indian Politics,no Railway Ministry in his right mind would focus on any other state other than his!(we losers are yet to have our Rail Mantri).So even as i contemplated my entry into the pre-historic(i will tell you why)general class,i saw my friend,Lijo standing there and chatting away i with another pal,Anish.So here we are discussing everything and anything under guys world-which hardly goes beyond gals,liquor and code,and our wait for “The Train” starts.So what if the train pulls in and hour late,we still have a train,thanks Mam B,i mean Mamata Banerjee!

As we devoured topics from the friends to foe to marriages to liquor(ok it always comes back here…),an old lady tried to sell her merchandise of unniappam,to us three with her histrionics.I had already given the lady 10 bucks as she was in need of money more than anything else,but Lijo still went ahead and bought a packet.As crowds started getting frustrated,we waited with sweats pouring down our backs and water down our throats.The train pulls in a full hour later and as i rummaged through the coaches to check with any familiar Ticket Checker so that i can buy myself a ticket.But to my bad luck,it was very much crowded and the only TTR that i could see was busy shouting at a guy for entering a reserved compartment.So finally i enter the much fancied General coach.Wait a minute,did i say enter….i am sorry,try to enter was what i meant.There are people sitting on the steps,bathroom,upper lower berths and twice that number of people standing and twice that number of luggage,in fact there were more luggage that people!So as my mind started analyzing and my right foot(its auspicious) searching for a foothold,i knew this would be a tough ride ahead.But i just managed to get in the “Wave”.This is a phenomenon that occurs when you stand in the path of a motley crowd trying to find its way in/out.In this case i found myself 10 cm inside and it required a Wave to achieve it,so you can guess the number of people inside the general compartment.There were nearly 130 people in that compartment.(note how i purposefully missed that exclamation mark there).Well this is the common scene in a average popular train in India.This compartment used to be for the middle class,often called the 2nd class,but now that the social fabric has changed and Indian middle class no longer remain so(they travel in AC coaches),the unreserved and the poor go through this suffering coach.As I just stood inside on one foot,a guy got a call on his cell asking if “he got a seat”.Well he replied yes,in fact he replied he was in air! People stood there immobile for hours and twitching only to get a breath of some fresh sweaty air.Hmm..well it was not as bad as it sounds.Its just that you will have some gals shawl.hair on your face and at the same time someone poking your nose and some *** stamping his authority on your foot,while someone is pricking your ass and yeah you have a heady mix of sweat ,fart and burps thrown in as freebies.At this moment some guy started playing “Saari umr hum ,mar mar ke jee liye,ek pal to ab hame je lene do”.Happy hour folks!But i saw your adjust karo attitude of the Indian public even in this misery.A gentleman with this hands both busy was fast losing his grip on his mundu,so he coolly asks the guy beside him to tie it for him.Team work,bravo lots to learn here.

Then as i managed to get a breather and managed to get in from the Nataraja posture that i was in for the past half an hour,the train pulled to Kottayam.Well to add to the 130 inside there were 50 waiting to join inside.Well whoever said the phrase the more the merrier would never have ventured out here!So as a few people hopped out,i grabbed the chance,and pushed myself ahead and eyed for any remote chances of a seat.Its then that i saw a guy just like myself sitting on the side seat all by himself!How dare he??having greeted him with ”swalpa adjust”,which is the equivalent of hello in this context,i managed cover half my ass.Well rest as they say is history.The guy next to me left at EKM,leaving me extra space!From there on the crowd grew and only after Palakkad did we manage to get some stale air again.As i pondered on my dinner ,i saw that people here had the distinct advantage that no TTR would ever venture here!But one thing amidst all this mayhem was that people connected pretty soon.And shared stuff and displayed some rare bonhomie to strangers.People became friends just with a smile,a snack,a tea or gossip.Even as the compartment became louder and louder with lots of young aspiring nursing gals and guys trying to impress,i started my own chat show with guys sharing our seats.Later we even shared food,now that’s a first!But such was the power of this new found togetherness that people just laughed away the current situation.Well people just cracked jokes and discussed current affairs as if they knew each other since childhood.I had now been seated for long ,and i sympathized with some of the guys who were trying to catch a quick nap while standing.So we came up with the idea of sharing our seats on a rotation basis ,so that each one can get some rest.So while this was an option of the few,the others soon took out their newspapers and settled on the floor.Some guys rearranged the luggage thrown on Upper berths and sat there!While some others shyly went on noting things that were going on ,as their pride was at stake!hmm..come the twelfth hour and all pride vanished to thin air.People were drowsy and they had to sit,so people had to adjust and sit while some like us took to the rotation policy game!There was this one girl who wanted none of this and tried to put up a fight with Goddess “Nidradevi”.Well after an hour she was noted sleeping on a guys lap,just as if they were a couple!Hah..the wonders of sleep!

Well people understood one another better in this adversity,and adjusted very well.I don't know where this famous Mallu spirit goes off once ,we walk out?After reaching Covai in TN,people locked themselves in the compartment as there was no more space for people to enter. We bought ourselves tea at 2.00 am and began to contemplate on sleep.But this was not to be,i didn't get sleep and started a standup meeting a guy impromptu and allowed another mate to sit in my place and sleep. As the train pulled itself into Bangarpet in early morn at 4.30,i got my seat back and then dozed away to glory!All along people pulled chains and the train got halted at a couple of places.Ohh the Indian railway,as i woke myself up to the stink of the garbage on the tracks and the sight of people relieving themselves(that reminded me that Visu is near…hmm Visu kani..),i thought this might well be my railway morning ragaa!

Tujhe Dekha To Ye Jana Sanam

2010-01-29T11:57:00.001-08:00

I must start saying that people who want to leave via the Volvo from Manyata should avoid the 6.30 to 7.30 period as no busses come that way.Having said that the following story is nowhere related to the above statement. As Nish and myself hopped on the Volvo bus after an hour long wait on the outer ring road just outside the Manyata Tech Park,we realized that we had some pretty faces for company.Since one of them were already occupied with her boyfriend we were pretty much involved with the second!We had hardly paid for our tickets, when we noticed the female sitting ahead of us,and she was pretty(am i overusing this word..ok she was not that great!..case of sour grapes..you will soon know why).We were discussing some office stuff as usual when Nish noticed that she was smiling @us.Boy did we get excited!Ok then he turned to me and said “I think she is smiling @you”.I said “No ways”,i know what i am good at and looking good is definitely not an attribute you can ass sociate(the space is left intentional) with me.And by the way this is why you should always do your SWOT analysis.Its come in handy in these situations.But then Nish got anxious.Was she looking at him?!Ohh please no way.Even as we were discussing the pros and cons of who should be the rightful heir to her smile,the couple in front of us left us.

There are several ways to come around this strange issue,but definitely reading my previous blog will not help you.But she one thing became clear to us all,she was smiling @us.Now we started validating our looks and hair.Man even the street dog has a better fur on it tail that the locks of hair on my head! Then we started checking the zippers(you know where) and shoes.They were all right,but still she smiled on to embarrass us more.All this while we were aware that atleast rest of the bus were also giving here her due attention .Now that we were confident that the girl was fully impressed with us ,in comes the stop at belandur and Miss X walks out.Behind her comes this guy and they together walk out smiling.That guy was seated right behind me!!I think i need not explain more as to why the girl was smiling and to whom.But we were not ashamed not because we are thick skinned,but …………….we went on the next topic was the guy his brother or BF?..well that makes for another blog!!

Thou $hall Negotiate!

2009-07-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

How many times have we felt that,if we had that probably held on for a little longer or if we had such and such info then we could have very well converted the circumstances in our favour.Most often than not it happens when we meet our regular sales rep,the HR of the company,our argumentative neighbours ,our so called -IN LAWS(who gave them a degree?),the sabjeewala and on...Yes the particular topic hit me,when i read the bestseller named "You can negotiate anything" by Herb Cohen.His simple tenets made me think,and think from the point of the winner of the negotiation.Why is it that we send in specialists when we need to tackle an imbroglio like a hijack situation or handling a tough diplomat or for that matter getting an approval for an agreement.
There is often a misconception, that we often bargain harder only with people we do business with.But we are unknowingly doing so at home and everywhere else also.I am doing so when i say to my nephew "A choco after you have your breakfast,completely".So also when i turn up and tell my dad,"I need the latest gadget,as i topped the exam!",even if the timing is wrong and the world is in a recession!What i would like to scrutinize is why we end up on the wrong side of a negotiation.Primarily we lose because we are lazy by birth.Lackadaisical am I?Didn't anyone tell you that it was my birthright?How many of us would actually love to go through the entire Form16 and its various other sections so that we can file the tax online ourselves?(I hardly do.).We would rather give the tax consultant,his due money every year,rather than spend that extra time to go through the document.Aah alas ignorance is bliss!But at who's expense?So also in many metro's we would rather not go to the vegetable market and get fresh stuff @ cheaper rates and bargain our way to glory like most middle class housewife's would(Oh..their skills are awesome and would even put the best salesman to shame with their bargaining skills).We would rather hop into one of those food bazaars or food malls and get whatever at whatever rates.After all time is money time and yes we all love time!
We also have a nonchalance approach, which leads to less homework done on the topic at hand.So in the end, we have very less war material with which we can bargain.Also we give the opposite guy, more that subtle hints,that we are totally lost and you please guide us!How often do we quote,, that we can take the shopkeeper to consumer court in case the goods are faulty?(hardly any)How often does the auto/Taxi guy take you for a jolly ride in case you don't know the shortest or at best the route to our destination?Now that we didn't know,we can still make it our day,but we still give him hints that we are new to this part of the town,when we inadvertently make calls or receive calls.Mind you,he is hearing you all the while,even though he might seem distracted or disinterested.We also lose out on a lot of deals,because we are less persistent ,and are too much hurt,when our desired Master Plan A doesn't work.When i was travelling by train,last week there was this Hare Krishna guy who wanted to sell off his Bhagawat Gita books to people.And there was this NRI too.But the customer said a straight NO,the first time.The seller left off and came again a second round and this time the NRI said a No after having a look at the book .Then again he came a 3rd and a 4th time and finally the guy bought the book which was in Malayalam,which infact was a language, he didn't know!Also whenever we enter a negotiation of any kind, we shouldn't lose our purpose or aim of that negotiation.And we shouldn't enter any negotiation just because we can make a killing!How many times have we gone to malls and ended up buying stuff we know we would hardly wear??(please...i got it dirt cheap!)
Negotiation is a game and the one who holds the aces should use them only as a winning point.And in case we don't have any we can still bluff our way to glory Also it makes sense to evaluate the person who is on the other side of the equation.He might be totally lost and drowning,but is he giving that expression away?In which case how do we take advantage of the situation?Many a time we make a mistake by underestimating the fellow and reveal our aces pretty soon.So if the person on the other side of the table is also an equal competitor,he would probably try to go beyond the ordinary,scoff at you,sneer at you,praise you loud,give myriad excuses.But we we fall prey to any of these ,we are dead meat.How often we give way to loud boisterous people?How often do we keep quiet at such people who repeated get away ? But that is a different Blog altogether!Finally something to chew on..
"Never get angry,never make a threat.Reason with People-Don Corleone(The Godfather)"

ThomasKutty Vittoda!

2009-07-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

It is a popular line, from a Malyalam movie called "In Harihar Nagar".Well for all the GenX guys ,who missed the 90's cinema's, well they got a taste of it recently, in the second part of movie.Well my nephew was no exception(he is just three) and could just go on the whole day just repeating it wherever he went, Sometimes to the embarrass us all and sometimes it would have more disastrous consequences.Recently when he came home for a visit,and started blaring out,when Mr Thomaskutty our neighbour shouted back"Erada athu?eh?".Well needless to say the little fella got shocked and kept quiet for sometime!Another incident happened at my in-laws place when he started off again just as a guy had entered home.Needless to say the guy would have got flustered,as to why the kid wants me out, the moment he entered!Well to round it off,when we were reciting our evening prayers,and when the time came to go around and say praise be to Jesus Christ,the little fella went off again.I dont think dad was much pleased with his demeanor.
Well the next day when we went visiting our latest addition to the family Mr Jason,he started off again before the baby,"Thomaskutty vitoda"!I don't know whats with this catchy phrases and kids ,but i do realise that once it get stuck on to them, they don't let go of it that easily.And all along this time they make sure,that the rest of the family have a tough time!Well i am reminded of this story that dad told me sometime back.There was a guy, who caught this phrase "poda auve"(slang in Malayalam for "get lost").He used to throw it at all and sundry.And once when his dad said something,he replied the same.Needless to say ,the fella got a piece of his mind!
I know that we have a difficult time,with children especially when they are in their mood!I must close off, borrowing a snippet from Salman Rushdie's "Midnights Children".The little gujju children in the galli's screaming to a catchy one "Su che?,saru che. danda leke maru che".Bogus and dangerous but catchy all the same!
*Note(Thomaskutty Vittoda means "off you go Thomas" in malayalam)

B-DotNet Bangalore TechEd 2009

2009-07-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Its been some time that the actual event has been over.But there were a few topics that remain fresh in the mind.Some like Windows 7,Azure and Cloud Computing have been in the news for some time now,so it was natural that these topics be discussed in BDot-Net 2009.So on Saturday 20th when I woke up,(actually nish woke me up..I was still enjoying my sat morn sleep)I awaited with bated excitement about the topics that were going to be discussed in the community meet.As i awaited Nish to pick me up that morning ,i checked out the place and found it to be RV Dental College,JP Nagar.Landing at the gate i saw the organizers removing the BdotNet poster from the gate, and we got to know that the event was on. As we entered the auditorium, we were worried if we would get the right seats.But once we registered ourselves,we found the hall to be relatively empty, a stark contrast to the anticipation as the tickets for the event were sold out pretty early.
As I sat in the 4th row from the front, I saw a tall lanky guy going around with a lap top.Only later did i realise that the guy was Mr Ramkumar, our first speaker.He gave us an intro into Cloud and he technologies surrounding itAlso about how companies were building up their data centers in Iceland so that they could have natural cooling and save energy.He also touched upon how companies were using their own power plants near to their data centers as this would lead to lesser wastage of energy,which would otherwise occur if the data center and the power plants to power them were away.But the way did i say that it started half an hour late?Ok anyways poor Mr Ramkumar had to wind up by 10,thats half an hour less .But the next topic Windows 7 by Vijay and Vic had us up in our seats in eagerness.After all it was supposedly the saviour of OS for MS having badly screwed up Vista.Though Vic said that he liked Vista,i had no doubts what so ever that very few in crowd would have given it even a ** rating,provided they would have given us a Survey, like the many they bombarded us with(I don't know whats with sponsors and surveys)!There were more than a couple of surveys which we had nothing to do with.Vijay and Vic gave a quick intro into how useful the new OS was.While Vijay gave a quick intro into Kernel Enhancements, Vic showed us a live demo on Location Sensors .Though Vic said that Windows 7 were a lot better that Vista,we wouldnt believe him until he said that he could run it on 700 Mhz CPUs.Thats a cool number given that the resources(read Memory,Hard disk space as well as Processing speeds)required to run an MS OS goes up exponentially whenever they release a new one.Well they had enough features to come up with a new OS!
Next on cards,Chaitra started the talk on ASP.Net 4.0.Though the features were nice,I was looking forward to tea that would be served next!But Chaitra made sure that we worked hard for it, as she went through all the features in the Gen Next of ASP.NET(you would have guessed it by now that i am not a ASP developer by now!).After a long time i got the break and nish and myself grabbed some .We rushed back again into the hall after 10 min, though we would be first to come back .So much so for thinking we would be late!!After some 15 min the talk on BizTalk started.Now this was unknown territory to me,but Kashi(speaker) was prety much a la Saurav Ganguly,in the sense that he would take his own time in explaining everything(thats so uncommon and so non techie!) that he made it a childs play.But i could already feel people getting fidgety(I think my stomach also gave raised the concern about food having given breakfast a miss) .So finaly we had some good lunch from some caterer's ,and yeah it was free.I should admit these Bdotnet(well i am missing.BitPro guys were also involved in the event.Kalyan,the founder would be really angry) guys really spent some effort into that.Thanks guys.
After lunch we had "Birds of the same feather - BizTalk Server and WCF" by Meena.I thought the speaker would be pretty young or atleast in their mid thirties,but here was Meena who would be IMHO in her forties or more and teaching us a thing or two about being a techie!But the session was mighty interesting about how the two technologies would overcome each others limitations.Hats off Meena.After that we had a Session on Silverlight too before we could wind up.Vic was always there for another entertaining session.Well he showed us how easy presentation layer could be now,we all were dazzled by graphics as well as UI of Silverlight.Meanwhile vijay and co made sure all the speakers had their share of limelight by clicking away at them with an SLR (i presume which was Vic's).Also there were goodies to be given away for guys who raised questions,basically any question.(why am i here?!!)But one fella from the front always had his hands up and for no reason he would always be handed over the mike and at the end of the day he had enough goodies to setup his own shop!I didnt understand why they wouldnt give everyone a chance,But only later did i realize that guys who helped them organise were some college fellas, who had no idea about event mgmt.We had a great mgmt talk from Sampath who instilled some confidence in us showing us some great videos and som great slides which all talked about how we can get our act together and go ahead bang on!(i wish i sould bring some of my office mates here!)
Anyways, day one over and i was mightly pleased that one more saturday of my life didnt go waste!Next day we were early again,so we went across the RV play ground and had a nice cuppa and watched the young kids playing cricket with their coaches in toe.Once we landed back,Janakiram and Niraj, showed us the power of Microsoft Azure.They showed us a demo on how we could actually deploy our app in the Cloud!!Wow ,this was bloody good technology for all new entrepreneurs ,who couldnt afford all the infrastructure needed for office. Having held us in rapt attention for an hour Gayatri gave us a session on Building custom activities in WF.I must admit i was new to WF and was aready ready to doze off ,had it not been for the tea which woke me up till lunch.But after tea we had a lovely session in Beyond Relational SQL Server 2008: Managing unstructured and semi structured Data by Praveen who taught us how we could manage unstructured data and as well as gave us an insight into spacial datatypes and hierarchy ids.After lunch it was "Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010" from M.Ismail.Though i must say i am pretty much naiveto admin talks like these,he showed me precisely why we shouldn't as admin could very much filter what we received via mail.It was followed up by Windows Server 2008 R2 Overview by Kalyan and Ravikanth who showed us the power of blade servers(courtesy Dell) and why not!He showed us the features of Server 2008 R2 which we could lay our hands on ,only to realise later that it would run only only on 64bit processors. Finally before tea they gave us a session on Virtualization 360 - Technical Overview by praveen,I would say he was awesome so much as the session was.
To wind it up we had a demo on Infragistics by Vic on the new controls that they had developed.
I have always been a fan of their controls having used them a couple of years back,they are cool guys and trust me they offer you a lot more features than anybody out there.No wonder they are the leaders in the market in their space(Click here to know more).Finally we had the speakers to thank everyone and a dumb quiz just to check if we were still awake!But the event came to an end as we awaited our cd's ,which we were told we would get only at the end of it all ,we got to know that the cd's for Win 7 were over.We back with our Win Server 2008 rc2 cd's hoping we would get some day a 64bit processor to deploy.But great effort from the Bdotnet guys.Cheers!!
Here are some links that i picked up from the event
Bdotnet Downloads
http://bdotnet.in/files/
teched2009
http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2009/
Live Services
http://dev.live.com/

The travails of the Nor”MAD”s

2009-01-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

So there they left for another outing,the gang with their paraphernalia packed up and ready but whither to? This is an all adventure and action packed venture to the Scantily clad Stony hill called the Skandagiri..How contended and peaceful would my Saturday be otherwise under my blanket ,but for some stupid idea by some ishtupid to conquer the hill(who do they think I am Tenzing or some thapa?dont ask ma loving friends lest the say I am!).Phew its so lovely to have people poke you up in the morning as if they are duty bound to wake their friends just in case they wake up earlier once in a blue moon(that blue moon always turns up when I am amidst) and let u know that they have..Dear Rash now I know why they call u RASH..I know.Poor Nish was more unlucky as he was frightful of the consequences of sleeping, while his friend was being tutored by Madam R.(u know who..)Mri was already up and ready by 6 ,while I lay cuddled up.Finally everyone was ready to go ,but we had to pick up our usual suspect Miss Sam, poor femme fatale ..y??.... I will tell you after this line break!

As we tried to stuff outselves in the back of the car, which included just the four of us, I found one leg xtra. Aiayla…then I found it was Sami’s who was seated to the extreme corner ,but her legs found way to reach to the other end. All along the drive it was extremely foggy and we were all the more worried as Nish had promised to show some of Bond’s driving skills that morning. Finally after we nearly crashed into a diversion board,we managed to reach the base camp!
Then we started our trek to the top ,huffing and puffing,finding our way where there were none. In between we found a lot of fellow adventurers, who had come to do timepass!(they would hardly reach 20% of the trek and then quit) But we managed to keep climbing despite a lot of difficulties as Nish & Co had probs climbing and we were fast running out of water.But still we found more time to take rest ,than trek and still reach the top.Once we were there , we found a small tea shop in a cave,much better than the one near Manyata office!We feasted ourselves on bread omlette and tea.And then shooting.We tried all the familiar poses, enough to give monkeys a complex!After a lot of time spent idling away we finally decided to move down.

But before we came down ,we got a valuable bottle of water from the chai walla.Please don’t ask the source.Rash swore that she would never drink it and so did I.But by the time we came down ,the bottle was over and we had drunk the last drop of it.The trek below was painful as we lost way and all were tired.Luckily the chai walla came along and we were safely guided home.But the climb down was more adventurous, as we lost all energy and more often than not lost our brakes.The rocks were pretty steep too and we soon found that taking rest breaks would do us no harm.Poor chai walla had to wait with us,so much for being our guide.But we knew the guy would have earned his money that day!Most of us found our legs twisted and painful as fatigue soon took over.

Finally we reached Nish’s car and though it was burning like hell,because it lay exposed to sunlight all along ,we were all dead vegetables.After a refreshing lunch near the outskirts of the city ,we were soon driving to Rash’s place and we were just waiting to hit The Bean Bags!

Split Personality..

2008-10-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

Last night as i jumped into my infamous bailgadi(namma cab),seldom did i realise ,that i would know the definition of my title the hard way.Even as i jostled in the 1st floor,and finally found my cab,only to realise that the front seats were taken and i had to jump behind.It was an indica and we were expecting three people behind.Even as i prayed that the third wouldnt come,there comes Mr Abdul rushing in with his toothy smile.I smiled back too like a genie(though if i had the muscles of one i would love to smash his count of 32 to 16.... well those were enough for him to chew his food).So there i am pushed in the centre of the back seat and how little did i know that it would be the ride of a lifetime.

Not that i dont know how "well maintained" the cabs are ,but i found this one a bit weird,as something was jutting out from between the seats.Also there was this weird smell even as i entered it."Good heavens please reach me home fast".You will in all possibility reach home fast,if the roads are not that crowded,which never is ,but there is no possibility of reaching safe and sound!But today there was no other way but this.It was my destiny.I was the ONE.I didnt need the oracle to realise that .As soon as the cab zooted off, only to stop at the gates of the IT park,i realised that the wood/metal that was jutting out was trying my patience.As i shifted my ass across,the metal would slip way and then poke me again.Before long we reached the traffic zone and we were moving at a snails pace.As the drag prolonged,i was pretty much at discomfort.Even as i tried to focus my mind on some song,the fm starts blaring "Chitrana ..Chitrana...",my god can this be worse.Yes ofcourse as i realised later there was a old jagjit singh hit"tum itna jo muskura rahe ho,kya gham hai jisko chupa rahe ho"!

I have always known that fear had a contract with divinity.As the bumps up the road ahead soon turned me from an hardcore atheist to a "bhakt prahlada" in a matter of seconds!As i tried to remember my prayers the first of the many potholes came,and off goes my cry..the passengers try to ignore me..But soon after the second,third and many more they stared at me like i had abused them.I tried my best to keep the cries low,but anyone who gets a poke in the *#**$ would know it better.As i was learning the new found definition of split personality,i realised that perhaps this was one of the very innovative ways for actors,who love to get into the character to learn some new tricks, in their quest for perfection.U would guess very so that i was getting split,as i was going crazy.Then there up ahead comes the mother of all bumps!I took adequate precaution before hand,and i pushed myself up in the seat,only to come down banging later.I guess prayers and songs were of no use,as i lay assaulted by my cab!The only comfort came as one of my cabmates got off,and i shifted across with my bruised ass.This ride was definitely one big pain in the .. u know where!

Sheee... magaa!!

2008-10-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there were 5 friends ...
And one day, just out of the blue they decided to go to shimoga..
Ohh..I forgot to give the guys an introduction.One was a Sam,a 6 foot something gal with a BIG heart,whose favourite pastime was drugs..so later she followed her heart and became a pharmacist!The second was a northeast chick called Rash,but without the flat nose and chinki eyes!She was this bindaas female who used to hang out with guys only.The third character was a guy called Mri,who was the angry young maan of our aaiyooo proj,who had a friend called Viral(no his parents didnt hate him!!).So they went together...Ohh did i miss out somebody?One..two..three..four..and ya a guy from Planet Kerala..for the timebeing we would call him SPK(does that sound familiar)Superr Personality from Kerala.

Ok there they go..We get together at Rash's place after a hard day of work(did we?) and order pizza for dinner and wait for our cab.They watched some stuff on tv and then decided to move on by 10.15,which became 10.20 thanks to Rash not knowing where the keys are..thankfully she managed to lose her keys in her pockets! They stuffed themselves in the Maruti Omni along with the baggage and moved on to Central Railways station.The train was there on the platform and they had to sit outside as it was pretty hot inside..and ofcourse they could do a lot of MLA work..Dont know MLA?Hmm see that u guys are a fresher though not to the concept of Mouth Looking Agents.Later after some 10 mins, the guy from planet Kerala begins to yawn incessantly .Sam and the others push him into his Berth, so that he doesnt transmit the deadly disease to them.After an hour more of waiting,joking and laughter the train finally pushes itself off @11.45 .While the others are busy adjusting their baggage and making themselves comfortable,SPK is busy romancing a mallukutty in his dreams.

"Slam,dhadang,dishum",and SPK wakes up ,its early morning @ 2.30 and someone is busy unfolding the middle tier of the side berth waking Mr SPK.No apologies,not even a sense of regret.It was rude, but the guy in the middle tier acted as if it was his daily chore to wake up the poor fellow on top tier.With much difficulty SPK finally gets his sleep back.His friends are busy watching him as if watching a comedy scene and they think the guy deserves it for all the pranks SPK has played on them.

“Koffeeeeeee,Kofeeeeee”.The guys bringing in the beverages in the Indian railways have such shrill voices.Even if SPK would have been having a spaceflight,he would be brought back to earth.Anyways its nearing 6.00 and people seem to be getting down and the train is a lot emptier now.Finally all the friends get ready to land on Shimoga.The guys get into a couple of autos and check into a hotel called Jewel Rock.Bath,breakfast and a couple of hours later, the gang is getting ready to have a blast in Shimoga. The Sumo is ready and everybody hops onto it. First stop is a Dam ,where the gang took a couple of snaps and moved on to Elephant camp. That was awesome(that was the only time when SPK had to remember his prayers),because there were a lot of elephants roaming around with the ever watchful howda on its back. ”Poor animals”, sympathized the Maneka Gandhi of the team, Miss Rash. Even its dung would have killed them.There were a couple of chained elephants too,that’s when the gang would swell their chests with courage and walk with a swagger,only to jump into the nearby bushes, whenever they see a elephant coming their way.
But the camp was pretty good .The elephants had a good bath in the nearby river and most of us were left watching agape at how the mahout had the courage to poke the mighty one and cleanse it and get away with this whole act. Sam and Viral even managed to get a feel of the elephants, my are they not daring! There was this little elephant who managed to just keep its head above the water. But still it went all the way down the river with its mommy elephant. That was a cute one. After being there for more than an hour of posing and photos, the gang moved on.

Later the gang moved on to a bird sanctuary, where there were more people than birds.After moving along for another hour or so ,the gang finally hit Kuvempu’s house(the kannada literary maestro).Nice little house though,lots of old stuff and literature.The gang couldn’t take in cams and relied on the explanation of the guide for answers.Some 8-9 doctorates the poet had, and they had none amongst them.A long drive from there,and a lunch later,slowly they moved ahead on a hilly peak.There was a jain temple on top,with lovely little pond with lots of fishes.The view from the top was absolutely stunning.Nice breeze and the sound of cow bells ringing from somewhere below.The man from kerala ,Mr SPK did manage to have a conversation with the bulls at the end of which he got chased out.Then to agumbe sunset point,where along with the monkeys the gang sat and had chats.Soon they returned back to their base in hotel Jewel Rock.Or did they..somewhere late in the night as they were going back, Miss Rash suddenly gets a call from the jungle or rather wants to hear the creeping sound of the bamboo trees rubbing against each other.By this time the driver ,who has given up all hope during the course of our journey(The guys had a nice time tweaking his so called sony deck which was infact one in a million as it used to get restarted much like our softwares when the going gets tough!) is freaking out.Rash as cool as ever orders the driver to slowdown.And there they are in the middle of a nowhere road ,in midst of a jungle, awaiting bliss!!
Next morning ,the gang had to leave early and poor Mri had to take a shower in cold water.But miraculously though the other two fellas go hot water.Anyways, they ride along to visit a temple ,which falls across a river and they need to cross it in a ferry.But the view was as beautiful as hilarious,because there was a lot of commotion with a myriad of people coming along with their families and their entire paraphernalia. Girls with toys, boys with balls, boys with girls,…ok let us stop @ that!.Soon they were into the waters and across..and the bus ride once it landed across was literally rocking…
Once back from the temple ,the gang went to their final leg of their trip , the jog falls. By then everybody were dead tired. finally when it came to trekking except Mri and Viral no one dared to go down to the falls..But the view was truly majestic with a rainbow across the falls.While Mri and Viral wasted away time toiling though the arduous climb, Mr SPK,Sam and Rash gorged on some “light” snacks which included dosa,noodles,lays,biscuits and so on. While they were at it the “hotel” which was just was a modern day replica of a shack , couple of kittens and their new born pussy began to amuse them,or rather irritate as SPK would put it, since he had a gut feeling that the young one was feeling rather cozy round his legs.Soon they were joined by Mri and Viral who seemed to have caught a viral,finally.
At the end of their exhausitive day,they spent some time on their favorite activity, MLA again.And their goes our Uncle Appokootan Nayar again fida on some bored Bong chick.But as they sat atop the view ,from where Jog Falls was a mirage,they got to see some of familiar poses invented by Famous Indian Photographapher.There was this stupid idiot who wanted a entire family to get a picture of themselves,while precariously standing just on the edge of a cliff.Another macho guy was trying to ask his babe to get on top of a wall so that he could get a “cool” snap.There was this whole tamilian family with all the ammas and thathas and their children and great grandchildren trying to fit in a single pic.There were also a lot of monkeys in between trying to better their skills on the trees nearby.
As it grew darker the gang slowly moved back to the Shimoga railway station. Koooooo chuk chuk …as the train gathered speed..all went back to sleep in hope of waking up energized and back to ……..work!And as usual people from all walks of life walk over poor Mr Spk's sleep!Lights off please!!

Adious Hamara Bajaj

2008-02-14T23:48:00.000-08:00

As the old machine chugged along with despair, it might have muttered... “years ago I was this young machine out in shining armor .Carried them all along and this is what I get! Not even a decent farewell ,not even a word of gratitude .Nothing, but a scrap metal is what I am to them now.”As the Dad once again tried to kick start it, it just wouldn’t let itself start .After cleaning the spark plug again and then some persuasions, it finally gave allowed itself to be started. Perhaps a final appeal to the owner, to give it some more time.”Joshy” I heard my name being beckoned to render the service of pushing the two wheeler from the shed.
“I will never learn to drive that one”, I sighed as I pushed the stubborn two wheeler. Never mind I have qualified myself from being a mere spectator to a big time “pusher”! The scooter on the other hand had a look of scorn on his face, perhaps sneering at me with a look that said “The whole family has learnt to drive ,except u moron. Now don’t degrade myself by sitting on my backseat.” My head stooped, perhaps the machine had point there in laughing at my expense.
Anyway I ran alongside dad and pushed it out. Dad was just done fixing the spark plug. Soon after we ( I mean dad did it, but it’s a managerial way of saying it when u have no role in it!) fixed the spark plug problem, the side cover failed to fit. So the two engineers(Dad and myself) sat down to fix a simple little problem to no avail. “Too much”, I thought “what the hell is your problem?”, I queried the machine. “It defies sense”(something dad had declared long time ago I hardly have).My software brain simply couldn’t decipher this mechanical problem. I am after all only a gizmo guy.
Finally dad did that too and so nothing was left for the machine in its defense to stall it being sent into the pages of history. As I pondered onto the historic moment, dad scolded “open the gates will you?”I opened the gates as I have been rendering this service for years.
B2/90 Hindustan Cables, WB the quarters where we stayed, and where I first remember seeing the Chetak , and it has been a part of our family for nearly two decades now. Wow two decades!! It has certainly defied the laws of thermodynamics or even the performance guaranteed by Bajaj themselves. It rode us to church, to Amladahi market in Chitttaranjan , to office for dad, to playgrounds, relatives houses, Officers Colony, Causia (both Upper and Lower).It was a well oiled Chittaranjan locomotive(in the words of late Fr Mckessack) .Later when it was brought back to Kerala, it supported us in our time of need by helping us bring all the goods from native Kavalam to home and vice versa. It has would have given an auto a run for its money, for the sheer weight it carried without giving much trouble .The bumpy muddy tracks, over the grass across gravel it simply awesome .
A generation went by and slowly as the combined forces of wear and tear and age began to take its toll on the “Hamara Bajaj”, Dad decided it would be better to sell it off.
There will of course be something missing from our scooter shed .
“Joshy close the gate”, as I suddenly awoke from my myriad of thoughts .Dad had come back ,but this time no Chetak to ride beside him.Perhaps dad alone could match the machine in performance and could have given it a farewell befitting it.
Chalti Ka naam Chetak,hamara bajaj.

(just check this out for old time's sake..!)

http://www.santabanta.com/video.asp?video=1894