J O T T E R S

The scooter story-'Like father like son'

2010-10-21T12:12:00.015+05:30

I'm about 6to 7 years old standing in the gap (between the handle bar and the front seat)of my dads scooter. He is driving it at a sedate pace and i can feel the wind on my face, i decided to be brave and asked Dad if i can ride. "Sure" he says and i can feel the sway of the scooter responding to my hands, feels like magic, the thrill is enormous and i'm grinning ear to ear.

I'm 11 years old sitting pillion on my pals bicycle, facinated by the cycle i cajole my dad to buy me a second hand Hero Ranger Jr. The next day my first solo riding leasson is down hill with a steep curve and further down hill ride. I'm screaming my lungs out as im thundering downhill at impossible speeds for a 11 yr old not hoping to make the curve, i make it and i feel like the all conquering .

I'm 14 years old sitting pillion on my Dads scooter when my mechanic asks if i know to ride, i lie 'Yes'. Next day i decide to teach myself, i kick start the scooter and slowly move it and oh boy it moved. My addiction started young and by 15 i was driving motorbikes and ripping my dads scooter to whatever impossible speeds it could take.

I'm 15 years old washing my dads Maruti 800, deciding to be brave i turn on the ignition and reverse park the car. Dad is mighty pleased but sternly says 'Only reversing, okay?' Gradually i start sneaking the car out for a little spin every time i wash the car and park it exactly like it has to be parked after being reversed.

I'm 18 years old, dad was out of station and i decided to take the car on the main highway. Take it out for a quick spin to my friends house about 5 kms away and my confidence is in full bloom to handle highway driving.

I'm 23 years old, dad and mom visit me in the UK. We decide to go on a vacation and im the driver of the hired 7 seater van. Dad gets to taste my real driving skills, the needle inches towards 100 miles/hr and dad sitting with a horrified expression! Priceless!!

I'm 28 years old, have my own car and my family goes for a vacation to Mysore. Dad forces the keys of my hand and drives the car. Before i realize it he is hitting 100kmph on the hills with a childish grin on his face and i sit riveted on my seat shit scared! He is 60+ yrs old and i realize where i got my genes. Its all in the family!!

The State Bank of Idiots!!

2010-08-12T16:46:00.000+05:30

I recently had the misfortune to gift away my wallet to a perfect stranger. Having 3 different bank accounts made it all the more fun. I'm listing below my experiences with all the banks involved in blocking the cards, applying for new ones and finally reactivating them.

ICICI Bank
* Call up their call center
- Promptly attended by a very polite and courteous agent
- Very professionally dealt with the problem
- Card blocked
* Card reissued (earlier than the proposed date, with extra charges)
- Pin issued (earlier than the said date, with no extra charges)
* Call up their call center
- Card activated

AXIS Bank
* Call up their call center - Prompty attended by a very polite and curteous agent
- Card blocked* Card reissued (later than the proposed date, with extra charges) - Pin issued (later than the said date, with extra charges)* Call up their call center for reactivation - Advised to visit the nearest branch again for reactivation
* Visit the branch
- Promptly attended
- Card reactivated

State Bank of India
I look up on the net for their call center number, two different numbers turn up! One is a toll free and another is a land line number, needless to say, both the numbers were not attended to when called. I get frustrated and go to the nearest branch only to find it deserted. It was apparently lunch time and all the staff had decided to have lunch together and then sit in a corner to yap about their wives/husbands.
After an agonizing wait in a deserted branch with no customers some guy decided to return to his seat. I approach him and tell him the issue, he listens and after much deliberation tell me to call their call center. I prompty tell him that i did but nobody answered, he smiles and says 'lunch time boss!' He dials the toll free number from his desk and hands over the receiver to me. The IVR asks me to press 2 for English, i look up to ask the guy to press the number for me and he is gone! Im stading over a counter with just a receiver expecting somebody to press a number on frikkin phone a good 5 feet away. I hang up and wait, the guy comes back. I ask him to hand over the phone so that i can do the sync without me shouting orders at him to press numbers.

After the usual ritual of pressing a series of numbers, a very sweet girl answers the phone. The conversation goes like this:

Girl: Hello, Sheetal speaking. Welcome to SBI, how can i help you?
(without any goddam emotion, am i calling up an escort service for Christ’s sake!)
Me: Hai, my name is Abhishek, i've lost my card can you block it please?
Girl: Give me your accnt number. (idiot!)
Me: xxxxxxxxxx
Girl: Where are you calling from? (dumbass)
Me: Chennai
Girl: Which branch? (do I have to ask you all the frikking questions myself?)
Me: T.Nagar
Girl: Is T.Nagar in Chennai?
(i realize she is sitting up in Delhi or Mumbai)
Me: Yes
Girl (after much thought): What does T stand for?
Me: Thyagaraya
Girl: Spell it for me
Me: T*H*Y*A*G*A*R*A*Y*A
Girl: Im sorry, i dont have anything like that on my system, can you spell it again?
Me: I try again
Girl: Sorry sir, i can block your card only if you give me a correct spelling
Me (dumbfolded): How does a spelling for T categorize as a security setting!! Ask me a personal question on the account for you to confirm. (Only now I realize that the girl is actually asking me a Security question)
Girl: Ok, Give me the bank code for ‘T’ Nagar?
Me: How would I know that?
Girl: Ask the bank guy. (dumbo)
Me: (totally confused) But u said it was a security question?
Girl: (agitatedly) Sir, can you please give me the bank code?
I ask the bank guy for the code of T nagar branch and he promptly hands over a sheet to me with all the branches of SBI in India. I filter through 100’s of branches of SBI to locate T nagar branch which is invariably listed as Panagal park branch when all the while I was search on branches starting with ‘T’. After much deliberation I manage to find the branch code and tell it to the girl.
Girl: Your card is blocked now. I’ll give u a 13 digit number using which you can reapply for your Debit/Credit cards.
Me: Thank you

Armed with the 13 digit number I visit the T Nagar branch of SBI for reapplying my cards. Invariable i go on a lunch time and wait for the pan chewing ‘almost retired’ uncle to help me reapply. He advises me to fill up an application form situated somewhere between the printers. By the time I find the form and return to his desk, the uncle is gone! I duly fill up the form and wait for another agonizing 15 mins when a ‘I am still young’ maami asks me to leave the form on the table and that she will inform the guy. I thank her and leave.

[2 months later]
I have no clue about my card status……. The wait continues!

Life is beautiful........in parts that is!

2010-05-25T19:54:00.007+05:30

I sat on the couch and watched my gang of absolutely idiotic friends dance to "My dream is to fly" by Yves Larock. We were at Havana, Raintree hotels, Chennai celebrating friendship and all that comes with it, laughter, fights, jealousy, joy, sharing, crying and the last but not the least the joy of knowing we will there as friends forever.

They danced without a care in this world, the laughter, fun, gossiping, drinking was all so spontaneous. Nothing looked artificial, i could look into all their moist eyes and see the truthful innocent bonding of friendship. We have always been together in spite of the grossly different attitudes we carry as individuals. But the time had come for us to bid our goodbyes and everybody knew that on that very night.

Niteouts were never planned, Blore, Kodai, Pondy was always at a cruising distance. Drinking chai was always an excuse to drive down to Kovalam on the East Coast Road. A planned dinner will invariably be at Moonrakers in Mahabalipuram. A planned niteout will be in Bikes n Barrels and unplanned ones will always be a drinking session on the Besant nagar beach parking lot inside the cramped confines of a car.

As i watched them smile and dance and tease each other on the dance floor my mind went back to the memories and moments which will forever be etched in my memory about this gang. Its the last few days we'll all be together as individual friends. She is getting married, He is relocating to Bombay, She is flying to US and I might relocate to B'lore leaving just one guy stuck in Chennai. In effect we are celebrating the spirit of friendship and separation with equal joy and sorrow respectively.

We will thread different path, each will find his/her own circle again, we will go partying/drinking/dancing again, but for sure....if i would like to dissect my life into phases; I've just lived the best phase of my life, the guys will agree it too on their part. It can never gets better than this. Life is beautiful!!

Never listen to your heart!.......sometimes

2010-04-23T11:26:00.000+05:30

The digital clock on the dashboard shows 11:25 pm, im thundering down the elevated highway across Electronic City, Bangalore. One look at the Chevy Cruze speedo and i know im covering distances fast, very fast infact, 140kmph. Having the whole of the expressway to myself decided to put the pedal-to-the-metal. The turbo boost was instant 150's came, 170's came and went, trees and buildings were passing a tad faster and turning into a speak very quicky on the rearview.

Soon the needle was inching 190's, the car was gunning for glory with all its mighty 150+ horses going flat out. I realize suddenly there is absolute silence in the car, my passengers are dead silent. The only muffled sound was that of the turbines spinning at a furious pace. I look at the needle, its 200kmph and still there is a lot of road left and strangely the car seemed to kidd me on. It was like a galloping pure bred stallion happy that its caged life is over, moving at a frantic and controlled pace with vigorous enthusiasm which can be easily mistaken for aggression. I could literally hear my heart thumping at a 1000 beats per minute as the meter now read 210kmph and was still on the upward spiral. The Chevy Cruze was infact cruzing to glory. I realize either i have to be completely mad to listen to the car or equally insane to listen to my heart to go further. I decided neither and took my leg off the pedal. The closing meter was 210 kmph and the meter had only another 10kmph left (220kmph)!

As i crawled to a steady 100 kmph i realized driving gave me a better satisfaction than anything else in the world. Also realized, life has to be never taken seriously....you make your choices and dont f*c#$%in look back!!

I am an Atheist!

2010-02-24T19:47:00.000+05:30

She looked stunning in her jet black salwar. The fact that she was sitting on a rather drab railway bench made her look like an angel. Although she didn’t seem excited her eyes moved on a frantic pace and her senses seemed to respond to every twitch and movement around her.

I watched her transfixed and with great interest (obviously!), partly coz she had those mesmerizing eyes which seemed to tell a strange tale and partly coz I had nothing much to do and ogling at a beautiful girl is the best way to kill time. It had to compensate for the train delay , afterall it was already past midnight and my 11:30 pm train was late by another 20 mins.

She caught me looking at a her and I gave a sheepish nod to which she responded with the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. Having been fully occupied I didn’t notice the train pulling into the platform.

It was when I caught the reaction of the pretty girl in the black dress my heart sank. The same feeling when you fail for the first time, when you hear a terrible news, when you drink and end up calling your ex-girlfriend (and repent in the very next morning) etc etc you get the drift. The pretty girl picked up her baggage and with a series of animated hand movements mentioned to somebody next to her to help her out with the luggage. Yes, she was probably speech devoid, I stood there frozen, the world seemed to move around me. It was like waking up to a bad dream only to find the dream to be true. It was less than 10 mins back I see this extremely pretty girl all lively and beautiful and now I realize she is speech deprived. How can god create something this very beautiful only to deprive it so something so basic to exist in this world? I’ve always been an antagonist but that day I was an atheist!!

Vagabounds

2009-10-15T15:54:00.002+05:30

"A vagabond is an itinerant person. Such people may be called drifters, tramps, rogues or hobos . A vagabond is characterised by almost continuous travelling, lacking a fixed home, temporary abode or permanent." - Wikipedia

No im not a vagabond, it is just a reflection of the state of my mind. While im gradually getting used to the aspect of working from Chennai and making a new set of absolutely cracking friends my soul keeps harking back and forth between Coimbatore and Chennai. Chennai is a fine city (if u could overlook the filth, climate, population, traffic jams, power-cuts, water problems....etc).

I would have been bored to death if i'd not met a few people in the recent past. We form this amazing gang of jokers who would drive down the ECR to Mahabalipuram in the dead of the nite, have a few drinks at any day of the week, go for dinner at 3:00 am, make a mockery of every member and still be able to laugh it off. So coming to the point, during the times of recession and crises in the IT industry its a welcome relief for me to share my thoughts and feelings with this set of like minded Vagabounds.

Life has been tough on me the past few months, i've been drained emotionally and physically but have manged to hold on thanks to a few good people around me. My addiction to driving/bikes/cars helps me to keep adrift of the many problems. Thanks to this gang, none of my addictions are in short supply. I get to drive the best diesel engines at breakneck speeds and no one complaints.

All this bonding is too good to be true and im aware of the fact that good things not lasting long enough but may this gang stick on.........God willing!

Some WTF thoughts about IT

2009-08-24T18:26:00.000+05:30

This post is more of a continuation of my previous post "I wanted to be an airforce pilot".
After thinking long and hard about the goodness of being "fired" i decided to rake my brains about thoughts which we normally do not think when we are happily chewing the currency notes.

Here are a few WTF thoughts about the IT industry:

We sit in air conditioned offices all day yet complain about illness due to 'sitting in front of the computer', jeez get a life!
Our claims run to 100s of $, pounds, riyals yet complain about the company not doing enough, well did you think the company will pay for ur toilet paper!
Our yearly perks are among the highest in the job market yet its always a few % less, when did you dad get his last raise?
Our salaries/allowances are sometimes ridiculous for the actual work we do yet we complain about how grossly underpaid we are, tats coz Tom-Dick-Harry work for Mr.Gates and Mr.Jobs and you work for Mr.Raman Iyer trying to sell a code available on google!

On the lighter side:

We get to chit-chat with the female species unlike other industries since the female in IT is considered liberated...sexually or mentally...ur guess is as gud as mine
We get free coffee, snacks and in some cases even lunch....although most companies have stopped offering freebies now, anyways it tastes like mud most of the time.
Some lucky folks get to travel in business class
Some lucky folks even get fuel allowances
Some companies have the most beautiful HR girls
Some lucky folks get to work on exotic onsite locations.....im in Saudi Arabia, and tats NOT Exotic!
Everybody gets food vouchers....err i would have preferred drink vouchers
You can hire a houseboat in Kerala for a team meeting as part of the 'stress-free' work week program wherein you actually...hmmm. Furthermore, its paid for by the company!
Laptops/mobiles are part of the salary package.....if you try a bit harder the HR's personal mobile number aswell
You can go out with ur mates (read as team in the claim sheet) and get drunk on a team nite out.....ofcourse, paid for by the company
If your have the right connections, ur techi wife will be ur team member on an onsite project in Switzerland...now thats a WTF moment!

But the biggest boner is that, all of this counts for nothing when your fired due to 'non-performance' in the middle of an onsite-honeymoon in Europe with your colleague(read girlfriend)! IT folks need to understand that 'there is nothing called a free lunch'

I wanted to be an airforce pilot!!

2009-06-23T19:09:00.007+05:30

I had to rehearse 15 times before i could tell him the dreaded words.... 'Ur fired!!' Pink slips are a favorite phase among IT employers with all the recession and stock markets crumbling. The worst part is, inspite of the guy being a permanent employee he cannot challenge the decision. Simple reason being, the pink slip is a one way ticket to eternal bliss!! The pink slip has more clause than the Constitution of India.

I had to ask this new join guy to leave the project. There were the usual Ifs,buts, maybe's, ....and all the usual statements. Although he took everything in his stride, acted normal and tired to keep his keep arm from not impulsively smacking me, i swear i could hear him mouth a four letter word. Hey but who cares, today its him, tomorow its me!

To be fair, very fair that is...the guy is just 24 days old in my project, he's joined the team at the very last phase. The project is for Aramco which in itself is like a complex bureaucratic govt office with about a million systems/servers/networks and architectures. How could i expect him to deliver with so many constraints and giving him very little time to get accustomed to the Saudi way of life?

Yes, its unfair, yes its bollocks, but who the hell cares? 'IT' for all its shining glory on the facade has a dark dog-eat-dog side which nobody notices until this bloke called Recession happily strolls along every 8 years and unleashes the dirter side.

My company is hit and fairly speaking, all my colleagues kinda look forward to the dreaded word. Wish i was selected for the Air-force when i finished skool, too bad the selection guy asked me to run 3 bloody miles in 2 fuckin mins...wat am i?? Superman!!

So, I decided to take up the next best job in the world "Sitting in front of the computer 14 hrs a day"!! Now how does that compare to shooting fighter-planes for a job!...sucks eh??

Daybreak

2009-06-08T19:07:00.007+05:30

The AirIndia flight to Chennai from King Fahad Intrnal Airport was bang on time, its a 4.5 hr flight across the desert and the Arabian Sea so no spectacular scenery and moreover i will be flying just about midnite. Decided to eat the airline meal and have a nice nap till i reach chennai.

Of all the flying i've done this one had a suprise in store for me. I was sitting besides the window (i always shamelessly ask for it in the counter). Just out of the blue i gotup in the middle of my nap and witnessed an awesome sight of nature at its finesse. The sun was just about to rise over the horizon, the sky was splashed with a beautiful hue of orange/purple/yellow. A streak of bright white/orange extended right across the horizon announcing the impending arrival of the Sun. Wat a sight to behold!! In view of the pleasant surprise my brain started to rewind.

To compliment the mood, the mp3 was playing some soft romantic number and i was going nostalgic over moments which i never thought i could recollect. All the romantic misses, crushes, getaways, college friends etc etc... it was like a flood of thoughts and i was reliving my childhood and college days. I was day dreaming until the sun rise was no longer romantic and started turning out to be hot instead. Similar to life........ "No good thing lasts forever!"

Note: The photo was taken by my mobile and does no justice to the spectacle

Gone are the Tigers!

2009-04-28T20:33:00.006+05:30

The Lankan army has decided not use heavy caliber guns on the civilian population caught in the 6 sq km of land. Instead they have decided to use smaller guns to limit colletral damage. WTF!! The damage has already been done.

Im not pro-LTTE and neither am i a supporter of the Rajapakshe regime, but its a real pity to see the once famous LTTE being trashed in their own backyard, ofcourse India and other countries have given 'tactical' support to the Lankan Army but still to see a once prominent fighting force which had a fully functional Naval and Air wing and which controlled one-third of SriLanka being pulverised so mercilessly is truly spectacular.

I remember the late Anton Balasingham's comment about the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi 'It was a mistake which is regrettable', Mr. Balasingham if you were alive today you will notice what this mistake has caused to your organization, LTTE and the tamil people in SL.

Civilians have been ruthlessly killed among the fighting and its no suprise that both the govt and the LTTE have been blamed. The govt on their part do not allow any bloody journalist or foreign body to operate in the conflict zone making a fair judgement almost impossible. Btw, the lankan govt has never been fair to the Tamil people hence the whole reason for this confict!

Now that the LTTE is crushed and no longer considered a true blood fighting force what is going to happen? Wat about the millions of tamils who have left everything and moved into Army territory gonna get? Will they be given back their properties in LTTE controlled areas? Will they be resettled in a 'strategically' safer place so that they dont regroup? Will they get employment? Will they be allowed to lead a normal life like any sinhala? These are millions of questions which need to be answered.

Like any conflict the world will soon forget what happened in SL, but the suffering Tamils will still be searching for their lost lives and limbs.

No free lunch!!

2009-04-21T23:24:00.005+05:30

Its past 9 pm and im still in office. Here in Saudi we start work at 7 am, so its 14 hrs straight now and i still dont see the light. Working onsite on an IT project is no bloody fun.

I've also practically eaten nothing the whole day and my head is a tizzy coz of looking at the laptop for so many hours. This is wat i've been stuffing down my food pipe the whole day

Cornflakes for breakfast at 6:00 am,
Coffee at 7:00 am,
Coffee at 10:00 am
Fruits at 12:00 am
Coffee at 1:30 pm
Coffee at 3:00 pm
Mocha at 5:00 pm
Cup Noodles at 8:00 pm
Tea at 9:00 pm

Not that i am complaining, i get paid fairly well and infact enjoy my work, but its a weird feeling to spend a good part of the 24 hrs in the same cubicle. You kinda become claustrophobic looking at the same cubicle, same colors, same screen and worse your brains/eyes start to beg you to look objects which are not related to work.

For some reason I keep thinking what my dad quotes everyday about life "There is nothing called a free lunch".

Today is April 14 2009

2009-04-15T00:30:00.003+05:30

I so badly wanna record this day in my life. Wish i had somebody following me with a camera for today only, only today. I have never ever been so overwhelmed in my life...im sure there will be more days like this but for a start today April 14, 2009 at Saudi Arabia is 'THE' day.
Wer do i start? ok here goes...
I squirmed, apologized a 100 times (mistakes are all mine!), felt like killing myself by jumping outta a car travelling at 140kph, apologized again, spoke my heart out to who ever would listen, reallocated tasks to my team, restrategized mine/team Visa arrangments, got managment lessons from an illustrious collegue, ran into problems which will never occur in a normal work day and the list goes on. Its 10 pm now and im still waiting for any bloody suprises which are in hold to complete my day!
Gosh, will you ever stop learning in life? I think not...but if every learning day is like this then hell no! I wud rather gladly strip to the barest minimum and brave a snow storm than face the music of my superiors.
Hitting the sack now and waiting for tomorow to start new with a new set of suprises.
Life is just so awesome!!

The woods are lovely dark and deep..........

2009-03-29T20:35:00.007+05:30

I secretly do wish for my life to be much more simpler, stress free and full of vigour but life really needs to have ups and downs. One should enjoy their sorrows and thrive in their joys. For now its mostly enjoying for me now. Life couldnt be much better. My project is delayed, my private life is a mess and still i manage to keep a happy face. I ought to be mighty proud of myself to have handled so much till now, but as Robert Frost put it " ....... and miles to go before before i sleep"

All in a days work.

2009-03-15T18:01:00.004+05:30

I am predominantly right brained and i know what makes a good design 'good' and a bad design 'bad'. My current project involves convincing ppl that the User Interface Elements i design is in conjection with project demands and user liking, which in most cases is just the opposite. I happen to lead the project and that makes it far more complicated because i am now trying to convince my designers and my client. Its like justifying murder to two sets of layers who are arguing against each other. Confusing??......that how it is when trying to do designs for a client who is so damn left brained!!

Trying to visually satisfy clients is by far the most challenging of tasks to a designer, i've tried and tested a few novel approaches.

Guage his sense of dressing, a good indicator of the type of person he is. A well dressed person is slightly easier to deal with and normally has some design sense
His desktop, a dull boring windows default desktop indicates a bad artistic sense
His legacy system, a very good indicator! A visually good system, then your dealing with somebody with good design sense
His mobile/mp3, an upto date gadget; then somebody with enough understanding of technology and awareness about latest design style

There are a few more ways i try to judge ppl but again, im being very subjective and am not right at times.

By the way, my present client dresses very badly but has a very good sense of color; that makes my life more miserable since he does not understand design but understands the colors used in these designs.

His legacy system is designed very well but has bad color schemes :( now how the hell should i judge this guy??

His mobile was created during the stone ages but has the latest iPod touch! Now, thats what i call extremeee.

I've been at loggerheads with him for so long now that i have decided to tell him this:

"No great thing is created suddenly."- Epictetus

Slumdog-bold and yet subtle

2009-03-02T18:29:00.003+05:30

The British media called in 'Poverty Porn', Mr. Bachchan hated it and none of the indian directors gave positive remarks baring a very few. So wat if Slumdog Millioner shows India in poor light. Its not like Danny Boyle has depicted an India which is not true. Every frame of the movie echo's the real India which is not covered by the media.

Any movie buff will love the movie, its pure art. Hats off to the largely indian technicians who pulled it off. Indian directors should take a leaf outta this movie and try doing something fresh and fulfilling rather than the routine song/dance/sentiment melodrama.

Watch SM for the child artists, the background score and for the bold but beautifully etched screenplay. The movie moves at breakneck speed and your held riveted in a trance till the credits roll. And does it not finish in sshtyle!! typical bollywood sshtyle.

Note to Vijay fans: he is a bloody serious aberration!! For Gods sake he cannot act and is a serious pain with his do-gooder attitude. He invariably is always the hero who worships his mother, takes care of his family/village/town/city/country! If he wants to get into politics he might aswell do it rather than begging for votes with his mass masala movies. God save the indian film industry!!

Memories....ahem!!

2009-01-27T18:33:00.003+05:30

Everybody has memories of their best moments till date. The day you came first in class(i used to!!), the day your dad bought u your first bicycle, the first time you took somebody on a date and didnt know wat to do afterwards, the first time you sneaked out your dad's car for a secret drive, the first time you crashed your car/bike....memories are aplenty and serves the purpose of day dreaming when not doing office work.
My memories of driving a motorized vehicle was way back in high school when i used to steal my dad's antique bajaj for sneaky drives. I remember the day i decided to touch past the 50km mark, the odo had only 70 or 80 as the max. These were the days when i was just learing to drive and my sense of balance on a scooter with a right engine was not too great. The needle took eons to touch the magical 50kmph mark and i was shit scared yet the rush was just magical. My heart beating a 100 paces faster than the pistons.
The same rush and adrelain, pumping a 100litres of blood into my heart came when i decided to push my Yamaha RX100 past the 100kmph mark. I had a shogun for company and it was a definite case of 'who is the boss'. That day i knew that my motorcycling days are gonna be much more fun than i had earlier imagined. My RX outflanked the Shogun and i was trembling like a kid lost in a carnival. This was pure evil rush, the rush to beat any damn bike who dares to dicatate terms to me. Having an ported RX helped me thoroughly in my college years to have the same rush over and over again but nothing like the first time you feel it.
Doing 180kmph on the Glasgow-Inverness highway on a Vauxhall with my dad and mom seated in the back bought back the exact feelings. Dad was cringing and mom looked petrified but i kept the pedal down knowing this was the only time i can get back at Dad for not allowing me to go past 100 in this old Maruti 800. The feeling, sublime!!
But the pure adrelain rush i first felt on my RX was to be overshowed by me driving a Vauxhall Zafira, a 7 seater sports version MPV with close to 3 litres. I was thumping past the 200kmph mark on the Edinburgh-Glasgow motorway well aware that there are atleast a 100 speed cameras. We were already late for the 10'o'clock London bus which my friends had to catch in order to save their job on Monday morning. For me it was enuf reasons to keep the pedal to the metal. I'll forever live that thought, the rush, the sweat, the fear, the digital speedo clicking 200, the trees and cars turning into a speck....Wow!!
That day i said "Speed is definitely better than Sex"!

Chaos Theory-Live young and Die very young

2009-01-25T17:10:00.004+05:30

Leading a chaotic life is strangely satisfying to me. Keeping my brains buzzing and bursting to the seam has not really been my cup of tea but now its become second nature, i think about a 100 things at the same time. Guess my line of work compounds it. Nowadays i simultaneously think about my next project layout design and the color of the car Vin Diesel drives in Fast'n'Furious. Is it normal? hell no.....something is definitely wrong with me.

End of the day im so stuffed with thoughts that i have no room for actions. I tried consulting my trusted doctor friend. Try yoga he suggested but added "......anywayz software Engineers dont live to be too old, so just chill out and eat your brains while it works" .......eh??WAT??

Life!

2008-12-16T12:53:00.003+05:30

The last prayer call of the day voiced over the loudspeakers jolts me from my day-dreaming; its been almost 6 months in this country and atlast i get to go home. Life is very weird; especially for the travelling kind. U never know where your next assignment will be, all u think about during the projects is home, friends, family, your bike/car/cat/dog/girlfriend (they can be reagrranged in any order ;) ).

I've lived outside India for a while now; 4 yrs is kinda long enuf to make judgemental statements. India for all its flaws is still a magnet, everytime i cant wait to catch the flight home to experience the untold hasseling, pollution, traffic jams, honkings, stupid-pedestrians, superemely arrognat driver in a Benz, super egoist ticket counter person aka govt servant...the list can go on. But tats the way the country is and i love it ;)

Think it will be while before i write an other post, i've promised to myself to not touch the computer during my holiday......but..........its just a promise, can always break it.

To all the brave men!

2008-11-30T17:25:00.003+05:30

India was attacked yet again and yet again it was the brave men in the uniforms who so valiantly defended Mumbai. Today i will forget abt the tainted policemen and military personnel. Im gonna salute the police officers and miliary personnel who took the fight to the enemy and won.

They put their lives at risk to save ours, a truly supreme sacrifice. How many of us would be willing to die for somebody not even remotely related to their life??.....none!

Case in point, were the fuck are the brave men, son of the soil of Maharashtra?? MSN and Bal Thackrey and RSS are probably hiding behind their women crying and clinging on to their dear life at the sound of bombs and gun shots. Be a man and face an armed enemy of the country rather than being wimpey women and harassing unarmed casual civilians. Shame on you.

The officers and armed personnel who defended your Mumbai where not son of soil but they laid down their lives for you. MSN and similar like minded idiots should now slap themselves in their face. Shame on you.

Jai Hind!!

Of temples and mosques

2008-10-26T18:13:00.003+05:30

Its easy not to be overwhelmed by the beauracracy in Saudi Arabia, sometimes i feel its worse than India. Not that i dont love my country but considering the 'favours' u gotta do to people to get things done in India, id rather be a country hater.

Indians are hospitable, modest, brainy, innocent, god fearing...blah, blah.........yeah yeah i've heard that before. In many ways Saudi Arabia is similar to India, in India you can be the most hated, criminal, pimp arse monie laundering politician yet if you construct a temple all ur sins are washed away. Same concept here, do wat you want, but pray 5 times a day.

Everybody lives in a world of make believe...next time you donate to a temple, think of the malnutritioned street kid who so enviably watches your own son or daughter drive to school. Think stupid.....frikkin think....God can wait, not the hungry kid.

Of sin rooms and submissions

2008-09-23T01:12:00.004+05:30

So im in Saudi....its weird how things work. The other day im sittin in my house jobless talkin to mom, now im here. Its not even a year since i left UK for India but now im in Saudi. So why am i writing all this....im fuckin bored. I've got 5 document submissions and my proponents have decided to mind fuck me for the rest of this project. All my documents have gone thro' 4 versions and they still keep calling my submissions as drafts......when on earth will they stop callin my document a draft and accept it for submission......God im pissed!! Sorry abt the rambling, needed an outlet.
To make things worse, its Ramadan month so no eating, drinking in public. All canteens are closed in the office and my team has to literally tip toe to one of the 'Sin-rooms' made available to us sinners for having our lunch and coffee. Is'nt my life great!!
Further ramblings are inspired by the regular bomb blasts i see in the news, wer the this all heading to? Innocent lives are lost on a daily basis and these pimps(read politicians) dont seem to fucking care, all they do is read out prepared text in front of the press. Hello.... is anybody actually doin something??
More inspiration comes from our Prime Minister who seems to be hell bent on the Nuke Deal? Agreed it wud supply the much needed energy but is congress actually interested in beefing up security, naah not their personal black cats, but for the common man on the street.
Sorry abt the rambling......had to let go of the steam.

Realizations!!

2008-09-10T18:44:00.004+05:30

There are somethings which you realize as you grow up although most of the time u live in a state of denial. I've actually realized the following things today:

i dont know to say 'No'
i really need to control my weight, its no longer easy to stay in shape after ur 25
drinking is only for fun and should not be done religiously
learn to control your tongue when your drunk
not all beautiful girls are girlfriend material
speeding is fun but an arm and a leg is a little too much to loose
your dad is always right (well almost alwayz)
your mom still thinks your 16 yrs old and treats you like one
your girlfriend(s) are not the end of the world
you really need to start saving monie
your relatives dont need you
most of your friends dont need you
respect your parents and buy them gifts
your mobile is an extention of your body
cartoons are boring
world news actually matters
tv serials are the worst things happening to women at home
politicians suck big time, they can wipea@#$ instead of laundering monie
there are genuine good people in this world
never judge people likewise never confide in people
cricket is the most overhyped sport in India....Dhoni prbly contributes to more than half of the GDP of Jharkkhand
did i mention politicians are bigots, thiefs, criminals, pimps and they happen to decide the fate of our country.
tamil is an incredibly amazing language and has to be preserved

Compulsive confessor

2008-09-01T18:23:00.004+05:30

The compulsive confessor, google it guyz and im sure you will not be disappointed. Came across this personal blog and now im hooked, here is this young chic from delhi rambling sweet nothingsss and i cant stop reading her posts. Ya know wat is addictive abt her blog? its the way she writes about personal stuff......well everybody likes a bit of voyeurism. Hey shez releasing a book now!!! But her writing is awesome, very bold and very well written.

Culture, Urs and mine

2008-08-19T19:54:00.004+05:30

The word is isssssssssssh!! Saudi's have a tradition of not talking about the obvious. Every word you say, before it leaves your mouth has to be censored. I share my office cabin in Aramco with my saudi college, a junior yet to graduate....a great guy to spend the boring afternoon hours. We simply talk, its actually an enriching experience to sit with somebody who belongs to a totally different way of life and talk about common things...generic issues like USA, Religion, Cars, Customs...lots of things.
Religion is a defacto topic of discussion between us, he wouldnt believe that i dont pray and im not religious although im a default hindu. He talks about life, death, afterlife, afterdeath.......the fact that i dont believe in all this totally beats him. His system simply does not accept that somebody without religion can actually live. Although Ahmed(the chaps name) tried to hide his dispeasure about me not accepting his argument i could sense it. Well he is not wrong and i am right so its a stalemate.
I like Ahmed for his wayz, the guy is young, very matured and staunchly defends his religion which i think is very fair. He convinced me how Saudi Arabia 'the land of the pure' is different from other Arab nations. We in India have our own religious places with absurd and weird customs to suit traditions. Saudi Arabia is one such country where traditions far outweigh the religion.
We talk about girls, here you cannot find youngsters hanging out, well they do but guys seperately and girls with their husbands or fathers. You have sprawling malls all over the country but you dont find the vibrancy of youngsters talking, laughing, lovers walking hand in hand. Here the malls are quiet, eerily quiet where you want something to happen to break the ice.
Oh i nearly forgot, 'Rajnikaaaaaaant'. After my daily meeting with the proponents of the project we had an 'off-the-topic' discussion with the guys (all saudi's) the topic of discussion: Movies and obvious i had to justify the dance-around-the-tree routine of our illustrious actors, then out of no where i heard the name 'Rajnikaaaaaaant'....i didn believe it at first but double checked it with the guy who mentioned it and yes he is an avid fan of 'Rajinikanth'.......tell me abt it! In a country where movies are banned (no theaters in Saudi Arabia) and television and internet are highly censored...Rajinikanth is famous!!
If you think this post is highly unorganized, let me clarify that im somehow managing to blog inspite of certain restrictions and this one particular post was composed in 4 days of 2 different weeks.
Will try to keep posting...but now gotta run home....taxi waiting ;)

Outta blogger range!!

2008-08-05T21:52:00.003+05:30

Im actually in a part of the world where my internet is highly restricted and worse i dont have access to a lot of websites in my office too, so sorry guyz need to wait for another few months before i can start rambling again ;)
Im in saudi arabia on a project deputation, so will try to find a way to blog by wat so ever means possible. Moreover my blogger home page is in arabic and im just guessing the buttons to post a message ;)
Meanwhile im having real fun in this amazing company (Saudi Aramco) google it and u will know abt it, trust me......just google it and u will not be disappointed !!!

Coimbatore

2008-06-11T11:17:00.001+05:30

Ok, this is something which everybody will agree on. Coimbatore(cbe) does not rock, does not have a proper shopping mall, does not have proper roads, does not have a proper pub. But wat it does have is amazing climate, greenery, ooty and sweet water. I would not compare cbe with chennai(mas). Mas is a thriving city with a real cosmo feel about it, u have ur italian/spanish/continental joints, pubs, clubs, malls everything an individual would need to spend his monie on.

But mas has got amazingly bad weather, insanely hot and humid, polluted to the max, millions of ppl on the flithy streets, water(aaarrg!) u call that water?? and traffic, takes u eon yrs to commute from one street to the next. Wen it rains, chennai sucks big time...water everywhere, something outta "Water world" set. Draining seeping, traffic congestion and what not....

Coimbatore is peacefull, pleasant weather, really cooked ppl though(oops i hate to generalize), dont be fooled by the sweet 'kovai' tamil. IT is still nascent is Cbe but its catching up big time and u can tell, the infrastructure is not bummed up, the roads are beginning to get clogged, multiplexes are propping up everywhere, high rises and appt's are a common site. But does all this bring a cosmo feel to the city, sure it does only that coimbatore is becoming every bit chennai has become.

Sorry abt the rant, just though i need to speak my mind......wat are the friggin politicians upto?

Absolutely rocking!!

2008-05-28T03:11:00.000+05:30

I had to have this information posted, read http://fakesteve.blogspot.com Its quiet possibly the funniest shit you can read on the web for a long long time. Absolutely hilarious.

Aimless.........ramblings

2008-05-26T15:44:00.003+05:30

I've changed the banner of my blogspot, decided to go for the black theme......pretty gud eh?? im impressed. I thought the previous banner was nice but decided to create a new one and hey this one seems to be much better and professional!
Just when i think, i've done something well/nice/gud i realise the next time i can do it much better.
My realizations:
"U never stop learning"
"Just when u think u've given a 100%, u realize u can do much better the next time"
"Creativity is all about freedom, try limiting it, the result will show"

9 minutes of absolute freedom

2008-05-02T17:25:00.004+05:30

Ok this is something which was advocated by one of my mates, wat wud i do if i got 9 mins of absolute freedom?
* reduce crude oil prices
* get Bush a special posting in Iraq (not as a diplomat but as an army unit engaging the occupied forces) for the rest of his life
* make politicians suffer for their disregard to the society
* get myself admitted into IIM
* reduce my abs
* learn to swim
* steal a 9 min ride on an R1 (thats God, for yamaha enthus)
* crash a Rolls-Royce just for fun
and finally
* keep doin bungees of a bridge in NewZeland!!

A broken promise

2008-04-20T20:30:00.004+05:30

Ok, i broke a promise...i made a promise to myself that i wont needlessly drive like an idiot with other idiots on the road. I really dont have to put my life on the line and race with guys i hardly care abt. Of course it gives me a high wen i beat the crap outta 'em but is it really worth it?

I did it on Friday and did it 2day, i need to stop this whole "whoz the man?" stuff. Now im seriously thinking abt swapping my Yamaha for my sisters Honda. Who knowz, it cud save somebody their life.

"Speed kills", oh yeah i've heard that before!!

Wer the f*&k is my money??

2008-04-13T19:42:00.006+05:30

I made my mind to check my bank balance 2day and was in for a nice surprise, i swiped my card in the slot and clicked on mini-stmt...i waited and waited for eternity (apparently the bloody machine was conked and the security guard at the ATM didnt bother putting up a board on the machine). So I waited till the other machine was free and eagerly clicked on "mini stmt". It came finally and came with a bomb, my balance was so damn rockbottom. I've not spent a lot the past few months and i expected my balance to be healthy but its always the same, the more u yearn for something, the harder it is to get. Further more my company has made it a habit to never pay in time so id actually never calculated this months wage. But still u gotta have something left in the bank!

This means one thing, either im not earning enuf or im not saving enuf :( all i wish is a few more rupees and im a contented man but that few more rupees keep rising every month just like inflation and im never a contented man. Does anybody else out there feel the same??

Of eyes which tell you a story.

2008-03-02T17:19:00.004+05:30

On route to work everyday I've noticed this handicapped young guy sitting on the roadside near a busy bus-stop. The guy is young with an pair of the most innocent eyes i've seen, they literally seem to tell you his story. I deliberately try to make eye contact with him everyday as my office cab passes by and was hoping to give him some money the next time i see him but now i don't see him in his usual place and its now giving me a nagging feeling, i should have given him monie when i could have......hmmm keeping fingers crossed.

When i was his age i would have probably been on my bike driving up and down aimlessly and spending monie for no reason etall. But he sits in that corner helplessly looking upto people for grants and pittances. Life is so very unfair! some have everything, others have nothing....

Help!!

2008-02-03T19:12:00.000+05:30

Is it just me or does everybody else feel the same?

I really dont seem comprehend wat girls actually say, i seriously dont for God sake!!

The female species is seriously f@#$kedup!!

Yami!! the very best

2008-01-19T12:40:00.001+05:30

I ride a Yamaha RX100 and im mighty well proud abt it. My bike may be as nearly as old as me but it still rocks and can beat the shit outta any goddammed 4 strokes on the roads. My driving days are on the backburners now, im done with my college and settling down into this new job but occasionally i gun the throttle just to see if i've still got the adrelain rush to go flat out in heavy traffic. The pleasure of zipping through traffic at breakneck speeds past unsuspecting 4 strokes is just pure worth the risk!!!

I was riding home from work on friday nite, my house is on the outskirts and it normally takes me 30 mins on the state highway to reach my place. I was doin abt 60-70km/hr but since i've got a Yamaha RX100 i would sound like its doin 100km/hr. I was just beginning to enjoy the rev and the roar of the engine when a Pulsar with a female pillion rider meanly cut into me, that really pissed me off and broke my peace.

The guy obviously trying to show who's the boss to his female partner thought ill give up easily and he can boast abt it with his girlfriend. Well well well....i had other plans, we had nearly 15 kms of the state highway to ourselves, being pongal season the roads wer not as crowded, so it was just the both of us and a traffic free highway, wat a setting.

For some reason i dont like the Pulsars, i dont make assumtions, id driven many pulsars right across the plains of coimbatore to the hills of ooty, the pulsar is not a very good bike as portrayed. Its not got a gud riding position and its not rock solid at highspeeds and more over it doesnt really accelerate etall. Its cumbersome and heavy and drags from 0-100 in goddamm watever mins...

Well coming back to the race setting, i had a feeling that the pulsar was going to be fast on the straights and my only chance was acceleration. My yamaha is nearly 15yrs old but its got a new engine with just 400kms logged and i didnt want to push the bike hard. Imagine my surprise when i gunned the throttle, i was doing 90 and began to gain an definite edge over the pulsar, but by 100 the pulsar started kicking up a real fight! The bike is afterall brand new and its a performance bike..... lol!!!!

Searing past 100 the dynamics of the bikes came to play, the yamaha was rock solid and very firm on the curves and during overtaking, but the pulsar was kinda bouncing off the road at every bump and hole. I immediately knew that if i manage to go past 110 the pulsar is history and history it was!!

I raced into my neighborhood and waited by the road side to let the pulsar pass. I honked when he passed just to spoil his repute, the arse thought he could show off in front of his gurlfriend by taking on a yamaha.....idiot. And the best past....... the look on the girls face ....priceless!!!

"Somethings money cant buy for everything else there's a Yamaha!!"

Guilty pleasures!

2008-01-06T16:45:00.000+05:30

Like every common man i have my list of things id like to do before i hit the ripe old age of 60.......

1. Jump outta airplane
2. Bungee Jump from a bridge in New Zealand.
2. Own a BMW
3. Drive a Ferrari
4. Visit the 7 wonders
5. Do a road trip across Europe

The year gone by.........!!

2008-01-01T21:15:00.000+05:30

Its become a habit of me now to take a moment and reflect the year gone by, 2007 didnt promise much, but it somehow didnt disappoint either, i switched jobs, couple of the guyz got married, i came back to my own country, made a lot of new friends in office....hmm its actually not quiet the lethargic year i expected 2007 to be.

Im learning the nuances of living with my parents again. Its actually more tricky than i thought, my whole thought process has changed since i've to come back home every nite what ever the time may be. Im back to being the No.2 in the household, ur decisions are always scrutinized and critized which was never the case when i stayed alone in Glasgow. More over the family car and the stereo in my room is not entirely mine, im not allowed to drive more than 80kms/hr, i cant swear at erring drivers, i can listen to music only at a certain decibel and i cant play music rite into the night!!

Coming to 2008, i decided to buy myself a nice gift, my YAMAHA was in dire need of a new engine, so thats exactly what i did; i took to bike to the mechanic on the 30th of Dec 2007 and made sure i got the bike back on the 1st of Jan 2008. Im really happy the bike has got a spanking new engine and a much needed service.

So..an other year has gone by, im fairly satisfied with the progress i've made, but i really need to jump start 2008. The world moves very fast, if u dont make it on time, ur gonna miss the bus, and the whole world awaits to laugh at you!!

Prayer:

I hope the US stops throwing bombs on which ever country it pleases, i hope the oil price rise stops, hope i can fill up my RX100 and feel the wind on my face just like the old times.......price of petrol was Rs. 30 then!!

If God is beautiful, this Devil is a supermodel !!!

2007-12-01T10:12:00.000+05:30

Shes not got the voice of an angel,

Shes definitely not got the attributes of a supermodel,

But shes annoyingly cute, frustratingly charming and hauntingly beautiful,

Its no suprise, 'Women are created by the Devil"!!

- the Desperado.

Indiyeeeeeeeah!!!

2007-11-23T10:16:00.000+05:30

Im back in India after nearly 3.5 yrs in

. It’s been a month since I’ve found this new job in my hometown, and now I’m trying to weigh my pros and cons about my decision. Making the decision to return to India was not done in haste, it’s was a conscious decision but most importantly it was ‘my’ decision. I would have followed the heard all along but this time I decide and I follow. I don’t know how its gonna work out, God willing if it does I’m gonna pat myself in the back else I’m solely responsible.

So what did make me come back to India, from a developed to developing country, from being a desi to being an Indian, from a weakening to a growing economy, the list endless. I might never know what triggered my move. I would say a sense of belonging and a passion to experience the growth of India first hand triggered it, but I might never know the answer.

I’ve come back to my land where people drive in the most undisciplined way, don’t say thank you, don’t hold the doors open, have no courtesy, and throw garbage right outside the garbage boxes. But i can see a million smiling faces, a will to succeed and survive in spite of the competition being cut-throat. I can truly see a million youngsters driving to work; I can see a sleeping giant awakening in spite of the corrupt politician, red taped bureaucrat and the all powerful entrepreneur trying to sell this great country. We will survive, we will succeed, and we will conquer.

-Jai Hind

For all thats worth.....!!!

2007-11-10T02:00:00.000+05:30

Either im trying too hard to rake my non-existent brains to come up with appropriate headings or im just running out of vocabularies to come up with anythin suitable for my posts.......

Well "For all thats worth" is a genuine attempt by me to address the concept of designer labels in everyday lives. My friend is crazy abt DKNY labels, she normally doesnt mind buying stuff which has got somebody's name on it. Not that i dont buy designer stuff but im quiet apprehensive abt having somebody else's name on my underwear.

People buying designer stuff can be broadly categorized into 2 types, 1) the thrill of flaunting 'u have it, u flaunt it' and 2) some just like the feeling of being in that exclusive club(limited editions) ' im classy, im rich'. The underlining principle is that ur gonna shell out a lot of monie for something thats not worth even half of the retail price. Im no God either, id happily buy a FCUK T-shirt coz its cheesy but i dont have the monie nwayz ;)

If we do a little bit of research ud notice that most of these so called exclusive designers get their stuff done in third world countries or developing nations where they can exploit the cheap labour and to an extent even child labour. No buyer is interested where his stuff is made, all he needs is some guys/gurls name written in bold on his/her underwear respectively.

U dont need designers to look good, u need confidence!!! The next time you buy designer stuff think again, your gonna blow ur money on something totally unnecessary, whereas the same people who made the stuff struggle to eat one full course of meal a day.

F-C-U-K U DESIGNERS!!!

Culdn come up with an appropriate heading!

2007-09-14T01:51:00.000+05:30

Priyanka, my collegue is a typical indian girl, witty, smart and very strong willed, oh not to mention very stubborn. She is wat i wud typically classify the indian girl of today. U can see the dreams in her eyes, a lost trance as she guages the people around her when i sit with her in our office cafe. She talks and talks like most girls and typically she would discuss her aspirations, the things she wud buy for her house, etc etc......alwayz dreamy.

Had i met Priyanka a couple of years back i wud have categorized her in a totally different league, the rebel of indian girls, picking guys, never subdued and never beaten in an argument with the guys. Now shez happily married and very subdued, its only occationally i get to see the real her when she rolls her eyes and smirks at my male chauvnistic jokes.

My point is, indian girls once married somehow seem to loose their real self, they relate a lot to their husbands and their society, they tend to project an image which may or may not reflect their inner self. In short they confine themselves to their immediate surroundings, let me stress that in most cases they dont have an option, the society demands.

Oh...sayin so ...Raj....Priyanka's hubby is a charmer, guess very few people can see the 2 sides of a coin unless ur marrying the girl u fell in love with. Raj is lucky, most of us would never know the flip side of the girl we are goin to marry.

Saying that, im thinking abt a joke i cud use to crack Priyanka up tomorow, its nice to unleash the devil once in a while.

A confused desi

2007-09-13T01:24:00.000+05:30

A group of abt 5 young desi indians hustle and bustle near a busy bus-stop in Glasgow city center, they are holding a map and are obviously trying to figure out a way to get to some place, I watch them with keen interest as they talk excitedly among themselves, they were kicking up a riot. It was then i heard one of the most absurd comments from a Pakistani guy standing in the same bus-stop , "Bloody immigrants"!!

That put my brains into overdrive, blood pumped into my heart at a furious pace, i wanted to grab the guy by his collar and remind him of his roots. Obviously he expects some peace and quiet in the bus-stop of the country he was born but that numbskull didnt probably know the phrase "Bloody immigrants" refers to him as well!! He may be 3rd generation but hez definitely an immigrant in the eyes of the natives.

I sniggered with contempt, the confused desi that he is, cannot comprehend the fact that be it how much u try to emote a 'white' guy u will alwayz be 'just another immigrant desi'.

I've got nothing against the guy, hez probably just as confused as any 3rd gen desi born in UK wud be, their loyalties always doubted abt their adopted country. But this particular guy cracked me up, confused bloody idiot!! "Roots stupid......remember ur frikkin roots....!"i told myself.

Desi's last thoughts abt Glasgow!

2007-08-05T02:53:00.000+05:30

Its almost my last few dayz in this beautiful country, not England.......Scotland. My mind races back to all the fond memories and moments ive endured in this place.

#The Glagow Platter: One of the very first things which occured to me when i landed in Glasgow International Airport is that these guyz speak a totally different twang(slang), its English alrite but its so very different, "Yes" is "Aye", "No" is "Nae", Coke/Pepsi/IrnBru is referred to as "Ginger", "Whityedaein?" meanin "Wat are you doin?" It was a weird experience, waking into Burger King or McDonalds i wud hardly understand wat the girl in the counter wud say, there have been umteen times wen id ordered a particular Burger and wud end up having another most notably in my case wud been a Cheese Burger (oh, cheese is not ur average cheese, cheese in this part of the world is mostly pork or other Red Meat)!!!!

#The Bus Journey:First Group is the bus operator in Glasgow and the thing with them is that u have to tender exact change to the driver(there are no conductors). I remember the first time i walked into the bus and handed over a £5 note for £1.50 ticket. U dont normally hand the monie to the driver, u just drop the monie into a glass box situated in front of the driver. I dropped the £5 pound note into the box and watched in horror as the driver simply smiled and said 'thanks mate', 'thanks??' wer is the remaining change i asked, he simply pointed to a small sign board with even smaller writing 'pls tender exact change'. Immediately my desi brain did the maths id effectively blown Rs.290 on a 2min bus journey!!!

#The Pub: ive gone to this pub with my collegues for the very first time, i assumed that we wud normally buy drinks for ourselves and pay for it. But these guyz apparently had other plans, one person at a time wud buy drinks for everybody. Now this is a problem, im sittin here with less than £20 quid in my pocket. Round 1: £10 blown, Round 2: £20 blown....now im dredding the inevitable, these guyz usually dont stop till Round 9. Now u can imagine my dire situation, one more round and im bust, i was makin plans to go to the toilet and drown myself. But a miracle happens, the guyz just stop suddenly for no reason. Everybody just decided to stop and go home, God surely does exist, well atleast HE was drinking in the same pub as me at that day!!!

There were many more moments and embarrasments i had to endure in this country. Id cherish every moment for a long time. Id miss Glasgow, the pubs, the drunks, the football fans and chanting, and most of all the Kilt.

Diamonds are priceless?? very true

2007-07-07T04:30:00.000+05:30

Diamonds are indeed priceless, they are beautiful, exotic and there is something abt them that makes them really really special..... they mostly come from Africa! A continent torn by civil war and poverty, rife with epidemic and aids......and all the world is bothered abt is ...the bloody diamond.

Conflict Diamond:

"...diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.." - United Nations

We as consumers, esp little princesses who want a fairy tale wedding should take into consideration that the diamonds they buy may be tainted with the blood of kids who have their arms chopped off if they dont support the Rebel movements in Sierra Leone, Liberia and other parts of Africa (remember the movie Blood Diamond). We as consumers have a responsibility to authenticate the source of the diamond we buy, any diamond which does not have a cretificate of its source is a conflict diamond.

90% of all the worlds diamonds are cut and polished in India, so india does have a hand in the 'blood-diamond' trade. So we are responsible as well for the current state of the beautiful African continent.

There is this unforgettable quote from the movie Blood Diamond "...Sometimes I wonder... will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago..."

I would never buy a diamond ring if i knew its going to cost somebody their hands, God bless Africa.

Guys and Gals- a marked difference

2007-06-26T00:11:00.000+05:30

Its been a wierd experience, not many guyz get to take a gang of girls on a tour of Scotland, i being the only guy among the 7 of us, was their official driver, photographer and tour guide. The reason for this post is that, one of the more mature girl int the gang asked me this particular question-"wats the difference between travelling with guys and travelling with girls?"

Let me stress that the viewz expressed are my own and i dont take responsibility for any offense caused- hope u(u know who u are ;) ) get the point, no point arguing with me!

The marked difference between travelling with guyz and girls is that, girls tend to forget they are on a tour and concentrate on songs, antakshari and snacks. They hell care abt wats going on outside the car apart from the occational "how beautiful is the lake, how nice is the cloud formation!"

Guyz tend to observe a lot, they wud spot a parking space or a road sign without a hitch, they wud see the tree on a mountain as opposed to a girl seeing the mountain as one big entity. Guyz dont play antakshari and will never pay attention to a lyric of a song when on a tour, they are more bothered abt wat's goin on outside the vehicle not wats going on inside the vehicle. Guyz discuss politics and history of the place to an extent but girls dont really seem to bother abt the history of the place they are visting, all they need is a photograph.

Guyz have a better sense of direction and stick to a schedule, girls dont know that a schedule exists and dont tend to stick to the itenary, time constrains are never given attention, they think we cud somehow reach the place on time. And guyz dont normally eat inside a car, even if they do...its only goin to be crips for their beer.

I dont know abt other girls but these girls are total foodies, i was under the impression i was driving a food van for 3 days, oddly enough the van and me smelt the same, imagine Walkers crips and Chocolate Muffins!! Im pretty sure they(girls) wud have bought some 300 Muffins for the 3 day trip!! When i went to drop off the van, i cud see the disgust on the guys' face, im pretty sure he wud have spent the rest of the week cleaning the vans interior alone, every possible space and gap was occupied by a piece of crisp or a cake!!

As far as ive noticed, girls tend to be concious eaters, i.e they cannot make do with a snak instead of stopping over for a light brunch, guyz wud happily skip a meal or two but girls tend to pay attention to eating on time and also wat they eat.

Now coming to the good part, The best thing about travelling with girls is that girls are real fun to travel with(i was the only guy among them ;) ), though u can never really find out the exact meaning in a girls vocabulary, i mean their 'yes' is a 'no', their 'maybe' is a 'BigNo' i kinda got a sneak peek into their minds. They talk and talk non-stop like there is no tomorrow. The music is non-stop so is the gabbling, ur eyes and ears are engaged 24hrs. They kinda eat ur brains inside out like a parasite, but in a totally good way.

Oh I must not fail to mention "getting fed", an apple, a cookie, can of coke or watever it may be will surely find its way to my mouth ;) This wud never happen wen i travel with my guy friends, they 'wont' pass on food items to the 'driver'. They just cannot comprehend that i also need food to survive!! Whatever little snack we buy for our beer is finished in a jiffy and the driver does not get to either drink the beer or eat the food...pathetic B%£$*d$!!

So in all i cud conclude that girls are afterall not that bad to travel with apart from the constant nagging behind ur ears. But i got to travel with some real lovely gurls so no regrets for me though ;) Im a guy afterall, girls are alwayz welcome aboard!!

I Own the Road!!!

2007-05-08T03:20:00.000+05:30

She is the one thing i wud cherish throughout my life, im not married yet and my-kinda-girl does not exist(yet) so the thing i most cherish is a Yamaha RX100. Thinking abt her is erotic enough to tingle my....err, whoa!im taking this too far!!

I still remember the first time id lay my eyes on her, it wud be love at first sight. She stood there gleaming in her chrome and silver, the picture is still etched in my brain, all cud just muster is a WOW! That was the beginning of my adventure and love affair. Like every teenager i wanted a bike to satisfy my thirst for thrill. Id sit and day dream abt a bike that oozes style and speed, but must confess ive never thought my dad wud get me an RX100 for godsake.

An RX is GOD to guyz like me who grew up watching the bike tear down the highway at breakneck speeds and that unique erotic exhaust noise that would make heads turn, girls wer an extra plus though ;) This bike oozes style and thrill, it could be stripped to its frame and still look gud, its pickup would leave other bikes huffing and puffing in its smoke, its insane 0-100km/hr would leave u speechess and yet its tyres will stick to the road like it being glued. Man, i cud go on and on abt an RX100.

My biker gang was pretty kweel, they wud no matter wat, take their bikes to wherever their arses went. We shared some pretty nice rides to Ooty, Kodaikanal, Valparai, Kovai kuttralam..... and the list bloody goes on. The gang of freaks included: Lushan with his stylish Yamaha YBX, Muthu on pristine Suzuki Fiero(he's also got a Yamaha RX135), Amar with his barebone Yamaha RX100(he's also got a Yamaha Crux and a Libero!!) Arunkumar with his insane Yamaha Crux, occationally Naveen and Gokul wud join us with their.....again Yamaha RX135's.

Oh yeah, my RX100 was stripped and totally reworked to do some really gud driving. It had some kweel colors too, Subaru blue with a splash of yellow!! wierd combination that stood out. Now ive run of out words to describe my various trips and im gettin nostalgic thinking abt them, so i wanna stop here enjoy the wind on my face and cherish my memories. Ciao!!! long live the gang!!

Women or I-robot??

2007-04-25T02:48:00.000+05:30

Its become such a routine that now my body works like a clockwork. Its 6:45am and bang my darn alarm goes off (alwayz rite in the middle of nice romantic or sleezy dream), i obviously put my phone on snooze hoping to recontinue my dream but alas before i know it the alarm goes off again.

Before i stumble my way to the shower i manage to switch-on the kettle for some nice tea to 'awake' me up. So thats me showered and barely awake when i crib and moan abt my shirt not being ironed or not matching with the tie. As alwayz i either find my tie or my shirt but not both of them together!!! Eventually i find my tie holed up inbetween the couches or wedged firmly somewhere.

In between my battle with the tie and shirt i wud have put the bread on the toaster and by now it wud be nothing but a black toasted piece of carbon deposits. So eventually after im all dressed and eaten wat is left of the carbon deposits, im bloody late for my bus. Grabbing my jacket i charge down the stairs just to meet my beautiful next door neighbour, acting casual i chat her up on the way to the bus stop(inspite of knowing im late, wat a pervert!!).

Ofcourse, i miss my bus and wait for an agonising 10 mins for the next bus to arrive. Eventually arriving at my office i head straight to the cafe to grab some final "wake me up"hot chocolate. I manage to make it to my desk at 8:29 huffing and puffing looking like ive escaped from a war-zone. Well this is not exactly how my manager wants me to look in front of the clients so he asks me how i manage to look like this everyday other day. I give him the same bloody answer "u've a woman to do ur chores" not that it makes any sense but just my realisation that women are afterall necessary in a mans life. But i'll stick to "Its a mans world". Necessity is the mother of all invention, ill buy a Robot instead.....lol!

Best Moments in life (Part 1)

2007-03-08T02:05:00.000+05:30

I can never really tell my best moments in life from the worst, coz my worst moments have in one way or the other have been responsible for my best ones....!!confusin??

Let me explain:
# the day the bastards whom i to stood up for stabbed my back i realised never to trust an opportunist.
# the day my dad refused to buy me a brand new bike, i got my Yamaha RX100 (second hand).
# the day i decided i didnt wanna go to THE USA, i came to UK instead, better still to Scotland.

Well there are 100's more like the above instances but its ironic that my best moments have alwayz followed a cock up.

Cherished memories of the following instances will forever be embedded in my memory:
*first college bunking to go to the movies.
*first trip with my new pals to Kovai kuttralam(Waterfalls)
*first accident and the subsequent coverup(wud never forget Lushan chipping in with money for the repairs)
*first time i drove my bike to college, tearing down the highway
*first mass bunk of our class to ooty(innumberable trips thereafter).
*trips to Videghi falls(with classmates and then with my other gang)
*mass bunkin to Bangalore in Lush's Bolero and Harish's Matiz.
*trips to Kodaikanal, Valparai(Pollachi).
*college farewell

The land of Scots

2007-03-06T04:07:00.000+05:30

Glasgow City is a classic example of victorian architecture combined with modern buildings. Glaswegians are typically Scots who hate the English, not like their Edinburgh counterparts who have a more pro-england attitude. I like the Scots for who they are, friendly, not hard working and fiercely independent(tho' scotland is not an independent country), they are proud of their country and their drinking culture and ofcourse their fanatical football teams(Rangers & Celtic).

Glasgow is a city teeming with pubs and European crowd, mainly Polish(characterised by uniquely good looking women). You also get a lot of European students who study in the various famous universities like Uni. of Glasgow, Uni of Strathclyde, Uni of Paisley(thats my uni, had to add it outta compulsion though its no way as gud as the others!!) Then there are the asians mainly Pakistanis who runs the various 'Indian' restaurants/take aways, Warehouses and Corner shops. You will not find many Guju's and Punjabis like u find in London tho' they are a sizable population.

Id driven pretty much coast-to-coast of UK and Scotland is by far the most awe-inspiring and beautiful place u cud drive across. The Highlands have some of the most jaw-dropping places on the face of the Earth and its tourism service is upto the task of promoting even a small stream as a Waterfall!!

The only hazzard as such in Scotland are the 'junkies', they are real entertaining folks, but if u observe them from a distance. Go anywhere close when they are in their element and u've had it, they wud chew ur face off!! Oh, junkies are basically addicts,drunk, jobless guys/gals who depend on gov. benefits. They are amazing guys who wud even part with their roll-n-sausage but not with their rollups(tobacco rolled in a paper).

Edinburgh, the other twin is a real snob, so are the ppl, just like their English counterparts, bloody arrogant bastards. Its very touristy but nothin like Glasgow which has far more friendly people and a real metro feel, not to mention the fashionable girls ;)

Stevo-the man!!

2007-02-10T06:43:00.000+05:30

Its something which totally blew me off my mind, Steven my manager was walking around with a couple of bin bags around my cabin. I didnt mind coz i know he is eccentric et times but peering above to his desk i noticed that one of the cleaners was sitting in his cabin...eh??..wat the fuck is happenin?? a manager waking around the floor with bin bags and a cleaner sitting in his chair!! Well, apparently the cleaner was not well and my manager decided to empty the bins and clear out the tables on her behalf. This he did not to gain any positive remarks from his collegues but just out of 'human-ness'. I could literally see the gratitude the cleaner felt towards Steven.

Steven could have been like any other manager, not bothering to care abt the poor lady and go about his business but he went out of the way to help this lady whom he might never have noticed the day before. I was literally awe stuck by the guys attitude, actions speak louder than words so they say, we know eveybody is gud at heart but who really does go outta the way to help people? very few indeed.

I've worked in India and Abroad and there is one fundamental difference, dignity of labour. Steven respected the Cleaner for her duty and vice versa, there is no High level and Low level here whereas in India we find a vast hierarchy and people being looked up/down upon depending on the type of job. Guess we'll have to live with it. Im pretty sure i wont find many-a-Stevens in India.

Motorway madness.........

2007-01-02T06:14:00.000+05:30

Its 2:30 am and raining cats and dogs and i cant see yards ahead of my bonnet, yet im tearing down the motorway towards Glasgow back from Edinburgh's Hogmany. Everything around me is blurd, the dials, signals, lanes everything, never have i been so non-connected to the car, im usually a very passionate driver, i literally talk to my car but today feels so very different. Im not concentrating enough, its only wen my friend in the passenger seat shakes me from my dream world that i come to my senses.

So wat am i thinking abt, wats so fuckin eating my brains?? Id never felt so kinda strange after a New Years party, my brain just keeps harking back to the previous yrs, the people ive been close to, the people who have ment a lot to me then/now, the people who pulled the rug beneath my feet.....loads of things running in my mind, clogged with unnecessary thoughts and emotions.

When i sit down and really think abt the previous couple of yrs its been a big 'learning curve'. Ive learned a lot, matured my thinking process, been wounded, bruised and tourtured(all mentally). Now im more measured, all that bashing has really made me take a 'U' turn in life and made me stare at the real wicked face of reality. Time is the biggest healer and also is the biggest teacher.

Saddam, hanged.

2006-12-30T15:21:00.000+05:30

President Saddam Hussain is dead, hanged. Americans have done away with another of their iconic creations on the lines of Osama bin Laden and many other tyrrants and dictators. Ever wondered why Saddam who was a poster boy of the US was hunted down and hanged? To hell with the Americans, their greed for world domination, oil and "Big Brother" attitude is fuelling hatred and fear.

Bush might look like a real fcuked up clown with his many famous impersonations and jokes but that man runs the world, every damn move he makes is how he wants them. He is the worlds' policeman having his toes and fingers in every countries arse. He runs the world the way he wants the world to run, is that bastard not clever??

Let me give u a few points to ponder over these imperialistic nations who have not yet given up on imperialism:

# Terrorism was introduced to the world by British and American intelligence to counter Russian Commuism.
# Saddam was a creation of the US to counter Iran's clerial and radical adventures
# George H Bush, was the director for a bank which fuelled the Nazi war machine during the Second World War.
# Geroge W Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and a host of other top american politicians have stakes in Zapata Oil which was created by Geroge HW Bush.

Ironically these countries now strive to for world-peace by being the largest producers of arms and ammunitions which they export via their many arms dealers to third world countries like Sudan, Somalia and rest of Africa and South America to fuel insurgency and civil war.

So where is the world heading to? Im clueless, US is and will remain a potent force for many years to come. Thankfully this is the clowns' last term as president but there will be more clowns to take his place coz US has a govt. inside a govt. Its aspirations of world domination has just started. We just have to wait and watch as the drama unfolds. The clowns in a stars and stripes will keep clowing around and we wont realise until our arse is on fire just like Iraq's.

Sensitivity? WTF??

2006-12-28T06:28:00.000+05:30

Guyz are considered to be the insensitive lot, they tend to forget b'days, due dates and wat not. Yeah, gurls are sensitive....accepted, but only when it comes to themselves. They are NOT sensitive to things/people which are outside their perimeter of acceptance. I might not be old enough to make psychological assumptions but im definitely not a lame duck to accept preconcieved notions that 'girls are the sensitive lot'.

As far as i can see, girls have this unique ability to block out things/people their consider no-longer wanted entirely from their brain box. It is truly an amazing achievement for a gender which is considered 'soft, gentle and sensitive'. Im not sacarstic, its just that im in awe abt the female species which so famously keeps cribbing abt our sensitivity or rather the lack of it.

Im aware people wud disagree with me on this particular post but i dont give a flying fudge!! Girls are insensitive, they are sensitive enough only when the issue of sensitivity concerns themselves.

The Gang, tkns to Orkut

2006-12-25T06:50:00.000+05:30

There used to be this group of guyz/gals who used to hang around, I wont mention the names its really not necessary. I wont forget our trips to Koval Kuttralam, Videghi Falls, etc. We were a really nice group of teens in their prime enjoyin life until we split for reasons unknown. After the gang split i really didnt think in my faintest imagination that all of us would again end up on Orkut and be in touch again. This post is not just to talk abt The Gang but abt Orkut.

Apart from The Gang, all my long lost friends suddenly appeared outa nowhere, tkns to Orkut. And hey, im not over-reacting, i never knew it wud be humanely possible for me to establish any sort of communication with them cosidering some of the guyz i lost touch with were 10 -12 yrs bac!!!

Technology is something which we have taken for granted, my dad was dumbstruck wen i told him abt Orkut and my long lost frends. He felt sad that his generation is past that stage. We are the privileged generation of ipods, mobiles, Playstations and wat not.

College!!!

2006-12-24T04:19:00.000+05:30

Well,wat can i say abt my college life. Can i say abt the mass bunks we put just to get some fresh air from the hills of Ooty which was abt 2hrs drive or cud i say abt the ego clashes we had with other dept's which wud for no god damn reason end up with skirmishes.

My friends from college wer everything, ive made some very gud frends who shared my thirst for travel and riding. We used to drive all the way to Kodai or Valparai near Pollachi just for the heck of it. And wen our IIIyr tour was cancelled we mass-bunked and drove all the way to B'lore(our original destination) just to show whose the "Boss". Such was our passion for drivin that going to Ooty became somethin like driving into town for a quick meal.

Gurls wer a big 'no' in my gang(ironically everybody from that gang is either married off or goin around now....bloody hypocrates!!!), Bikes wer everythin, they wer our partners, lovers call wat u may. I was devoted to her, id spend all my money(cosidering my RX's thirst for Petrol). At the slightest chance we wud push off for the weekend havin little or no money. I remember drivin downhill from Ooty to Mettuppalyam with my ignitions turned off, just to save fuel and thats a fucking 55 kilometers of sheer ghat roads and downhill.

How i miss those glorious dayz of hanging around with absolutely no responsibility, not thinking abt the future, ranking the girls in the college, pitying the guyz who put 'kadalai', sitting in my workshop and servicing my bike, wow life was so much more peaceful back then.

Maturity in the making

2006-12-23T20:03:00.000+05:30

Years of stayin away from home is finally bringing out ma inner-self, makin me who i am today. Harking back to my yesteryears i realise how immatured and dumb-ass ive been well i know everybody feels the same but id been a complete Idiot!!!

To start off with, id not been bad in studies but hey id never made an effort to be gud in it so therein lies ma quandry, am i gud or bad in studies? i really never know!!!
Im not a bad sports person, i still crib abt my chances of not representing my school in badminton coz my best frend bac then was my class teachers nephew and he got the chance inspite of him not being gud enough. I was quiet a gud player havin trained by a national coach.

Its school again this time, i trained with my teammates for the school zonals but never got the call- reason : my coach didnt know how to contact me wen he picked his final 11!!! therein goes my damn luck again.

Bac again in the college dayz id been a sub for the badminton team(thou' the team was only 3 ppl strong), it never occured to me to go all out and play competitive. Id happily stick around just for the fact that i cud miss my classes or get OnDuty wen a tournament is on.

As for studies, i kept loads of arrears durin my inital college dayz, the simple reason being, im addicted to my Yamaha RX100(Id dedicate a post to my bike later). Eventually i turned around to studies again and made some sound progress and passed my Masters with some pretty convincing stats. But it still occurs to me that i could have done much better had i realised b4 that the world we live in 2day is so Dog-eat-Dog.

First post

2006-12-23T19:30:00.000+05:30

Thou' im not averse to reading anythin which i can lay ma hands on, its never occured to me to Blogg. Well for a start, patience is not im ma blood, but now im tryin to make an effort to start bloggin- courtesy, a long time frend, how? i chanced to read her scribbling's and though "Y culdnt i try doin that?" and hey full credit to her way with words and vocabs which i dont hope to match etall. One thing which really stuck me was her simplicity in the lang, it was readable not like the other bloggers who try to make a fashion statment with their hi-funda vocabs and language....Piss off show-offs!!!