Midnight Flight

 

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….”

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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

           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!

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!

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

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

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!