Eat Pray Love

Just watched the movie yesterday and I gotta say that it hit the spot someplace. I've always wondered what I am really doing with my life. I am sure a lot of us are asking ourselves the question all the time. If you are not, good luck to you since you either know what you are up to or clueless about your ignorance.

There were so many things about the characters in the movie that was touching. A woman who has lost herself in her marriage and when she gets out of it, is not sure what she is; the snarky Richard from Texas; Ketut the Balinese medicine man; her lovely friend Sofi. As the landlady in Italy says, in the end the most important thing is "familia". Liz is touched by this diverse set of people and in turn touches their lives and becomes a part of their family.

In the protagonist's path to self-discovery, she has suddenly touched something in me. It's not an emptiness, nor is it a sudden awareness of what I want. It could just be that I was able to identify with a lot of things in the movie. This one quote was the highlight of the movie for me - "When you set out in the world to help yourself, sometimes you end up helping... Tutti", where Tutti in Italian is "everyone".

PS: YMMV!

Review: 34 Bubblegums and Candies

Weird that I couldn't find this title on Amazon! There were no reviews and I didn't hear about the book before I bought it. That makes it an abnormal purchase for me.

I've heard that the book's cover art plays a part in a purchase decision. I've never personally done that before. Things that normally matter to me are the author, any reviews I've already had from trusted people (read as people who's taste match mine) and the summary behind books. Yes!! I normally read the summary. This one was an exception. Two things that made me get the book - the funny/weird title and the cover art. An impulse buy at Landmark that was worth it.

The author has done a great job with the stories. They are funny. Enough to have me laughing in the cab and the other folks pooling with me give a quizzical look. Overall a very thought provoking collection of short (at times, really short) stories that I enjoyed reading. If someone's reading my blog, you can catch the author's writing at her blog

Human Effect on the Environment

It's past 12 in the night and I am still sitting awake. Just doing some random browsing when I hear a noise. It took me a couple of minutes before I realized that it was cawing of crows - at 12 in the night. I guess our effect on how and why do things is not just on us, it is directly affecting with the sleep and hunting patterns of birds.

Twitter gadget - IE 7 - Blogger = Not working

Just noticed that my twitter updates on Blogger are working fine on Firefox and Opera but not on IE7. IE7 just shows a link to my profile on Twitter but not the live updates.

On a side note, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas (http://xkcd.com/521/). That link is courtesy Vyshnavi. That just shows that I really need to catch up on my comics RSS feed.

My experiment with status message... *FAIL*

I tried an experiment with my Google Talk status reading "I'm in love!!". It was based on this post on kwippy.com that such IM statuses are good conversation starters and people who haven't been in touch over a long period may respond to such statuses. I had the status message on for nearly a couple of hours. My verdict of the experiment: FAIL.


I got one person pinging me asking what I was in love with. Duh! This makes me wonder if it is the experiment or is it just ME? As a side note, I thought no one reads this blog. A friend of mine told me a couple of weeks back that she decided to try out Twitter after reading my tweets in the blog.

2 Komodo dragons fighting

I happened to see a YouTube video of two Komodo dragons fighting that was sent to me by a friend.



Amazing. Reminds me of 2 Sumo wrestlers grappling. Remind me not to tangle with these animals, esp when they have a poisonous bite too.

The last instant

I've just been reading Seth Godin's post called "Waiting until the last hour". Pretty interesting notion on how our notion of time has been getting more accurate relatively. Soon, we'll start measuring time in an instant, giving it some new measurable value.

On a side note, I've started reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done". I've read a lot about the system and I am really looking forward to pick up some new stuff that will let me do more, and do it better. I've tried stuff like to-do lists, mind mapping and just randomly jotting things down with a pen and paper. The think that really hurt was that there wasn't much of a price difference from the US edition ($10.20/- in Amazon when I last checked) and what I bought at Landmark (Rs 453/-).

Also messing around with Auto Hot Key. Nifty tool for auto completes and creating keyboard short cuts. I've got a new new auto completes set up. Weird that I see only a Windows based utility, though it's released with GPL.

Awesome features in Airtel site

I just had the "pleasure" of using the Airtel website to pay my phone bills. It's not that I don't do this every month. I somehow don't like having ECS for any of my payments. It's been a pleasure using the site when I tried exploring the features available.

It's not just the whole look and feel, which was pretty nice to start with. There were a ton of features - from easy bill payment to looking up my bill plan. I was really blown away with setting the personal phone numbers and analyzing the total usage and the percentage of usage for personal and professional calls. It's not really hard to do, but it was really a nice thing that they did it. I would love it if they'd have graphs too.

I just found out that I spent nearly 20 hours last month on calling people. This doesn't include the calls that I receive. That's a *lot* of time on the phone. I really need to cut back on that.

No themes for Orkut outside India?

Weird that Orkut has no themes when viewed from office network. I am sure that Google thinks that the page is accessed from some place in US/EU and gives me the same, bland old Orkut theme when I access it from office. Pretty annoying when I expect to see my customized theme that is hardly readable normally. :(

Very interesting ad

Watched a very interesting ad on TV from Max New York Life Insurance.

Loved the part when the kid goes "bfffft" when dad says "Czechoslovakia". I had to get that spell checked once... LOL. A couple of things to note in the ad - Dads are more demanding from their kids, and kids today are much more intelligent (assuming this kid is representative of the normal kid nowadays) than what I was. Guess evolution sorta balances stuff in the end.

Broadband at last

I got a BSNL broadband connection today. Yaaay!! That is so cool. No more relying on the Reliance wi max which is good while it lasts. After being around for quite some time, Reliance has still not ironed out the DHCP server issues. There are times when it gets really difficult to get an IP address. Think of a critical issue at work that needs to be solved and you can't get online. Sucks!

No more cribbing about these issues. I now have BSNL broadband. Let's hope it works well. If not, I have one more sob story for the blog. I am writing this post on the BSNL connection actually. Speedtest.net gave it a 256kbps score. The Reliance one I guess was a little faster at 300kbps.

Movies I watched in the last 24 hours: The Holiday (now on HBO) and Velli thirai (saw most of it, need to finish).

Reading: Finished the Inuyasha manga series. Also the Tsuki no Shippo series. I should soon add a link to onemanga.com on the blog. The least that I can do.

Back!! Again!

I've decided to start blogging again.... again!! Some things that I noticed about the blog being that I have over a "thousand" impressions. Guess it must be google doing all the visiting, or friends just checking in to see if I have anything interesting to say. Like I ever did!! Another thing I've noticed is that I have this ad sense account attached to this blog alone that's made 55 cents in the past year or so. Thank god I don't have to pay to maintain this account. 

Currently reading Inuyasha at onemanga.com and Head First Design Patterns. Waiting eagerly for Conn Iggulden's next book on Genghis Khan - "Genghis - Lord of the Bows". And working on something very interesting at office. For folks who haven't been in touch with me, I now work for Amazon.com. And yeah, the book links point to Amazon. ;). And no, I don't make a cent from these links. Just that finding any book on the site is easy as I work on it all the time.

I am "The One"

It's been over a year since I have blogged. I am really thinking of starting again.

Today is the day. I am feeling like "The One". No, not the one having Jet Li. I feel like Neo in Matrix. I can feel the whole day going past me in slow motion.

Nope. We are not living in a world like the Matrix. It's just that I am feeling the effect of an Incid-L and Corex that I had yesterday night. I guess I had too much of Corex. Was watching TV, and kept drinking it without realizing what I was doing. They must have a warning not to have cough syrups when you are watching TV, like this list. And make it taste horrible, so that I don't take that second swig. Or the third and the fourth.

Being in cloud 7.5 feels nice. Any way, feels nice to be back. :)

HOMGKGWAGAL

It's been a long time since I have blogged. A real long time. It's
just that I came across a copy of HOMGKGWAGAL. Ok, I've just finished
reading it, and that might be the reason I'm talking in acronyms. How
Opal Mehta Got Kissed Got Wild And Got A Life describes the life of
many Indian kids in America, working hard, excelling in academics, and
yeah, missing out on a life in general. The book was funny, atleast
most of the time. With all this talk of plagiarism etc, I had a lot of
expectations when I started reading the book. Not a big disappointment
over all. Opal's parents were really cool people, with a "get a life"
plan(HOWGAL) including Opal kissing a guy.. Wow, are her parents
"progressive" or what? The part where her dad starts listening to
Ludacris n co and greeting folks with "what's up dawg?" was funny. I
don't listen to Beyonce, nor did I get the stuff where the author
throws around brands ,cosmetics and high heels. But it was a good
read.

P.S: Posting by e-mail. WOW! It works.

Bengaluru, a traffic nightmare!!!

Bengaluru, better known as the IT capital and the Silicon valley of India now has a new tag. It now holds the title of a traffic nightmare too. Yesterday night, at around the same time (i.e. around 11), I was running for all my life was worth from one side of the Majestic bus terminus to the other. But before I tell the climax, let's go to the beginning of the story.

I had to come to Chennai by the Guwahati express. The train leaves at 11.30 pm from the Bangalore Central. Normally, it would take an hour from the Electronics City (where the hostel is) to the station. Being the soul of cautiousness that I am, I estimated a buffer of an hour and a half and decided to take a bus by 9. It must have been good enough to go, and possible come back (a tight squeeze). And we were (Vyshnavi and I) in a bus to the Town Hall at 9 pm.

It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Madivala. The roads were so packed that if you stick a rat in there, and there would be no more space. Traffic at its best!!! At this rate, companies will have to start asking employees to stay over in the night and go back home once a while (better halves be warned)!!

The next part of the journey got even more interesting. We got off at Madivala and took an auto. He charged a ton (at this rate, he can set up his own company). As part of the tour package, he was supposed to bundle us into the station in half an hour flat. He decided to throw in an unguided tour of the back alleys and the gallis of Bengaluru. Under all that glitz and charm , the old city still thrives on. The autowala made a valiant effort; but to no effect. After all the fast (read as rash) driving, and my requests in Hindi (passable at its best), I came to know that he knows tamil when he told me.. "Saar, eppo vena erangi poidunga. Fulla jaam aagi irukkku" (Sir, get down now and walk from here. Fully jammed from here onwards).

I got down with Vyshnavi and started running/walking carrying nearly 10kgs of luggage, like as if it was doomsday, and I was getting away someplace else. It was nearly 3 kms (give or take half a km), and I made it in fifteen minutes. Given the fact that I am in the typical ISP physical shape, I am still not sure how I made it. Even tried some of that Rambo stuff of "No pain! No pain!" when my legs started giving out with all that running. I never boasted of being a chivalrous soul. That, combined with the fact that I might miss my train, I left behind Vyshnavi near the over-bridge in Majestic and poured in new speed.

I reached the train at 11.17 pm, 13 minutes before the departure time. I never knew I could do this. I was totally exhausted by this time. To rub it in, the train started some ten minutes late. Why does this happen to me?!? Why was the traffic this bad? Why did I have to run? Why did the train have to start late?


(Logging out! Can't stand reliving the whole thing again)

Chronicles of an Indian Software Professional (ISP)

I am a software professional, one of those elite(!) people who claim to understand computers and act like it too. I get a ton of money as compensation for staring at the computer screen for hours. I speak many languages including assembly, C, Java, Perl and Ruby (No. That's not my (girl friend/wife)'s name). I usually speak in acronyms like FYI, ROFL, ASAP and WTF.

As far as my daily life is concerned, it is very structured, just like the code I write. I work, then browse, read news, cartoons etc online. I am very proud that my 'offline' life is nonexistent. I am young and smart. However, I am not exactly in a great physical shape. Climbing up a couple of stairs leaves me winded. Grandpa in the flat opposite can surely walk for a longer distance. And after hours of listening to music on my beloved iPod (I can't imagine how I managed to live without it), my mom has to call me a dozen times for dinner before I respond. I am really trying to get into shape. I now walk all the way to the cab, cut down on junk food ( twice a day), and have reduced caffeine consumption to just 2 ltrs/day. I just don't want to fall sick and miss work.

I love my work. It usually involves managing code written by other people (though I am not sure if I would classify them as people after seeing their code). I am a very dedicated person. I dream of debugging code and test cases, not Aishwarya Rai or Catherine Zeta Jones. I have a wonderful bunch of team mates. We share many common passions - procrastinating till the deadline, sucking up to the boss, and having a gala time all weekend by partying, sleeping and sleeping some more. I manage to blow a wad of cash in the weekend too.

Talking of money, my dad feels that IT people are responsible for the increasing prices. Since we earn more, we can afford to pay more for less, driving up the prices. He feels they are evil, even though his kid belongs to this unique species.
I don't exactly disagree with the prices thing, but not to his face. You see, I am not supposed to agree with my father. Ever. Period.

I am job hopping this month, as the other company is offering an extra 1k a month. Not that I need the money. But someone else might end up snapping the post (and the extra cash), so I decided to pick it up. The fact that the other office has more number of single women was also in favor of the other company. This is because of my total lack of dating life. There is something about being an IT professional that repels girls like mortien with mosquitoes.

On the whole, I belong to a very unique species of creatures of modern India. I prefer jet setting all over the world, talk in dollars and dinars, eat pizza and coke, and still come back home to a simple dinner cooked by mom. I understand that I am full of contradictions. But then, why shouldn't I be?

BTW, the wh0l3 po5t is in English for the no0bs and n0n-IT muggl3s, 4nd no7 1n l33t. C0de on f0lk5, and may th3 s0urc3 b3 w1th y0u..

[This thing is added later after some friends asked me about some details. THIS PIECE IS FICTION. It doesn't actually reflect life..]

Why write such testimonials?

I know.. It has been a long time since I have blogged. But, I just couldn't stop when I went to orkut today..

Why do most people write such "loser" testimonials? When you write about some "ABC", it usually starts as..


Well, what do I say about ABC? (or) Where do I start?


If you don't know what to say, please stop there. Why make an attempt and write really dumb stuff. Start somewhere for heavens sake. Just don't write out what you are thinking.

Nearly every alternate person in orkut is defined as crazy. They can't stop being funny, and are always the greatest people on earth. They are always helpful. They are sweet. They are colorful. Even the one testimonial that I managed to coax out of a friend about me is like that. I really hope that this utopian state can be reached some time on planet earth (we can leave the "crazy" part out).

Better stop myself before I go overboard..

A ray of hope

She was happy. There was finally some hope in the end of a long dark tunnel. Her children would eat well from tomorrow. There is a chance that they might even get to go to school, and become someone important. Her spirits were high. Her husband, a bulldozer driver, will get some work from tomorrow. She silently thanked the gods for all the new demolition work on the Cooum bank and the extra people needed to do it. In any case, there would be food in the plate tomorrow.

Down the drain

It was his dream. He had put in a lot of effort to realize it. He had pledged every material possession he had, taken a loan and borrowed some more. It was his own house. It was small, lovely and at the wrong place. He had been sold the land saying that all the documents were in order. And now, the government order to clear encroachments around the Cooum river endangered his house. Cooum in the outlet for sewage in Chennai. There was nothing he could do. His dreams were going down the drain.

Funny poem @ Railway counter

Long time since I made a post. But today, I saw something that I really, really had to post. This thing that I read was funny. First, let me give you people an idea of the situation.

There I was, at the Koramangala BDA complex waiting for cancelling my ticket to Chennai Express on Sunday. I was in a really irritated mood, since I had been standing for nearly 5 hours. First, from 12.30 to 2 I was at the Electronics City reservation counter, where the guy promptly closed at 2 pm (I would love to see if he opens the counter precisely at 8am, and yeah, I know I am whining). Then, I was standing in the BDA complex, again in a long queue. I saw this poem neatly framed on one of the pillars inside the room having the counters. Here goes...

[Read at your own caution. No damages can be claimed if you hurt yourself laughing. Posted as accurately as possible.]

---

The moment Ur in Tension,
U will lose Ur Attention,
Then U r in Total Confusion,
And you will spoil personal Relation,
Ultimately, you won't get Co-operation,
Then u will make things Complication,
Then Ur BP may also rise, Caution,
And you may have to take Medication,
And try to think about Solution,
Instead understand the Situation,
It is only for Ur Prevention,
If u understand my Intention,
You will never come again to Tension... Anonymous

---

God, I couldn't stop laughing for some time. Not many people care to read notices. People write some weird stuff, like this notice that I found th eother day...

"People should not seat the first floor after 6 pm.. By Order xxxx.."

Wow! That is some statement folks.. I am not saying that I am perfect. I know I am not, but people need to read what they are writing before they put it up in public places. Well, I am off for a holiday for a week at Chennai (come tide or high water, which the case in Chennai now =)) )