The Beauty, The Beast and The Homo Sapiens

It was a hot morning and cold night on that September day. It had been months now since she had left him. He was totally lost without her. “Left or Right”…. “Take a right”…. The cab driver took the right as instructed. The cab entered the muddy hip-hop road. As they tumbled and toppled along the road, he saw her!!!

He saw her in the embrace of a dark beast which lay under a dingy stair of an old apartment. Suddenly, the scene switched to muddy, greyey color (flashback!!!!) and he could see all the things that had happened between them before she left…

On one Day

“Come on dude… You need to switch off the engine once you come back home man”
“haa… Ya”. “Sure, I am logging in now…Ya, I will close that and send the mail. I know it is very important”…he muttered in the phone as she was trying to kiss his eyes …
“I need to work. It is very critical…”…
“Okay… Call me once you are done”…

On one another day

He was sitting on the sofa on his laptop… She came and sat beside him… He sat there as if she didn’t exist. He absolutely ignored her!!! She felt very bad, but didn’t say anything and just left…

On yet another day

“I don’t think I can take it anymore man”
“What did I do now?”
“You have ignored him too long. I can’t stay with you”
“See… I need to work also na… This is the time of my life when I need to work hard”
“I can’t take the sound of your active grey cells no more. They are constantly making some or the other sound. Something always keeps them active. Either it is your work or the magnetic radiations from your gadgets, or all the chemicals that you consume…I can’t stay here no more man”
“What did you say? I was making the final changes to that code re… sorry. I didn’t hear you.”
“Its okay forget it”

The Fateful Friday

He returned back home that day, really exhausted, fully beaten and battered. He searched for her everywhere. He called her aloud; he drank milk which usually made her come to him. But he had ignored her far too long. He wanted her on that day. He wanted to sleep. She was no where to be seen. He had ignored her, abused her in his quest for glory and power that she had left him completely… He lay on his bed with is eyes wide open hoping that someday she will return. His beloved will return to him someday…


Swoooosh….Back to normal colors

He saw that black beast; the black dog and felt really really jealous. The dog sleeping whereas the supposedly superior species as he considered himself didn’t or couldn't. He was really angry with himself and God for making him one of this self destructing species called Homo sapiens. He had a mobile phone in his hand; one of the best money could buy. This was one of the reasons for his beloved to go. He wondered, is this the cost he has to pay of being a superior species. He didn’t want it no more.
“Take the next Left”
……
“Go straight… This Road end”…
….

“Hey Hi, Ya sure… I am logging in. Ya that will be fixed tonight… No issues…By 8am tomorrow it will be done!!!”

(I Love happy endings and this is my story… So anything that I want to, can happen here!!!)

No, he said to himself. He can’t do this anymore… He took his wallet out and… and..... swallowed that pill that the eccentric doctor had given him…
He started counting
“One”
“Two”
“Three”
“Four”
“Bow…Bow…Arrf…. Grrrr…”….

He was no longer one of them; he was one of the beasts… He found a warm, dingy place. As he lied down, she came… She came and embraced him… Kissing his eyes…Hugging him… his Sleep was finally back with him, his beloved Sleep was back and they Lived Happily Ever After!!!

Please let me blog….

Please….
Please…
Let me blog….

I don’t need no more message logs
I don’t need no more design bogs
I want to blog
Please please let me blog

I care no more for the backlogs
I don’t want no more slog
I want to blog
Please please let me blog

Please
Please…
Let me blog…

I don’t want no mind clog
I am fed up of all dialog
I want to blog
Please please let me blog

No more java, no more prolog
I want to lie like a log
I want to blog
Please please let me blog

Please
Please….
Let me blog…

Please
Please…
Let me blog…

------------- Dead Phantom

Confusing Discussion!#@?

Humanity, Complacency or Helplessness

It was just another usual day. Managing to get up from bed as early as 8:30am, he had bought some time for a cup of tea before his corporate bus ride.
He dodged his way around the dogs and men to reach his tea shop.
"Boss, half tea".
"Okay"...
The shopkeeper poured him a cup of tea in the small dispensable cup. As he started drinking, he over heard a small conversation between two guys sharing the small space in front of the tea shop.
Man1: "I really screwed that ICICI guy man"
Man2: "Why what happened?"
Man1: "Arey one of the representative there signed on my behalf!!!" Laughs...
Man2: "You mean he forged your signature? Oh my gawd... Why? For what?"
Man1: "Arey these ICICI guys have that prudential kuch insurance na....They have this offer by way of which, you pay a small amount from your ICICI account and you get some insurance."
Man2: "What about that?"
He had finished his tea by that time. He still had some more time. He asked for another tea and also a cigarette. He had to listen to this interesting conversation.
As he lit the nicotine inhaler, he heard Man1 continue with his interesting story...
Man1: "Arey when you open the account you have the option of going for this insurance... You have to sign on one part of the form that you are submitting.
So this intelligent fellow ha, signed for me. Since it is a very small amount it is hard to track"
Man2: "Even though it might be small... Just imagine how many more he may have cheated this way... But how did you come to know?"
Man1: "Come on man, it is not easy to fox me... What did they think? I compared all the account statements and figured out that this amount is missing from my account. This is how I got to know about this scrupulous act."
Man1 inhaled his cigarette and had this 'I am the best' look on his face... He stood there watching Man1’s face in amusement...
Man1: "I told them that I am going to file a case and stuff like this"
Man2: "So what do they say?"
Man1: "This issue has reached the top management also man..." Laughs...."Phat gaye hai unke (They are scared to death)... The Manager had called up.
Was saying sorry and pleading that I don’t take any action unless their Regional Manager meets me"... Again gives that 'I am the best' grin...
He looks at his watch and decides that he can spend another 6 to 7 minutes as he can run to reach his bus stop... He really didn't wish to miss this interesting conversation...
Man1: "See... I have made them dance right"
Man2: "Ya... But you don’t leave them man... Lodge a case...You will get your money back na?"
Man1: "Money they are ready to give back man... That I will get anyway...But you know what the manager was saying... He said that it was done by the people at the bottom part of the hierarchy and that the managers were unaware of this... Also if I complain then 3 people who are directly responsible will lose their jobs"
Man2: "So?"
Man1: "Arey come on... He also said that it will be a problem for me..." Man2 suddenly interrupted
Man2: "You mean they are threatening you?"
Man1: "Hyaa.... Abe Phat gaye hai unke... No way... But you also have to think na... Three jobs at stake yaar... I will be getting my money back also anyway..."
Man2: "Nahe nahe... You will get more if you go to the court... You can get some settlement yaar"
Man1: "But the three guys will lose their jobs... So I was just giving it another thought..."
Man2: "So what... they need to be...."
It was time for him to leave... He had got the major gist of the conversation... He ran to catch his bus which he did finally....
As he placed his butt on the seat of the "Corporate" bus, he just couldn't help but think about what he has just overheard....
He recalled the words of Sashi Tharoor in Midnight to millennium, “Discussion is an art form practiced in India… [whose] vitality is attenuated by its own irrelevance”… So he thought he should attach more relevance to the discussion that he had just overheard…
He failed to conclude what exactly was the nature of the reaction of that man, or rather the victim of the fraud…
First he thought he was complacent; complacent due to the fact that he wasn’t really acting in the strongest possible way against the injustice that had happened…

But then his thoughts wandered again to the statement made by Man2; "You mean they are threatening you?"… With this in mind he thought that perhaps the man is like the helpless common man of R.K’s cartoon… He is afraid of the corrupt Indian system and is not really ready to take the risk of filing a case in the Indian court which rather has a very sad track record.

He thought yes that must be the case and was about to put an end to the relevance drama he has spun, when he recalled yet another interesting fact…
Man1: “… 3 jobs are at stake….”

He realized, maybe he was just acting humanitarianly, for he knows how hard it is to get a job in India. How many gods let alone people have to be pleased before one gets a job… Perhaps he also must also have gone through many hardships in getting a job in DRDO as his proud batch proclaimed. Moreover he was getting his money back and that the bank was apologetic, so there was no need that three people lose their jobs…

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh…… sounded the “corporate” bus brakes… It was time to get down and get back to the routine of his own life…
He hadn’t yet reached a conclusion. His virtual palimpsest was full of contradictory facts about the discussion for which he had been a mute spectator… The contradictions arouse mainly because of the pluralism of the conditions that existed around him.
Whether the man acted out of Humanity, Complacency, Helplessness…
Suddenly…“Meeting in 10 min”…
He: “Ya… I’ll grab a coffee and be there”
He was an artist after all… a person who loves discussions…

The Damn Mask

Truth is stranger than fiction. What a statement! Let me put my interpretation of this same statement.
Fiction is just a shadow of the truth that happens in this world. A shadow which has the same outline and structure, but missing something very vital.
This vital thing is the color. The color in case of fiction is the real emotion, real happiness, real tears and fears.
Life is an Act and we are all actors. Unlike the movie actors who are just shadows of the actual world characters, we are real actors. The ones with the color! Everyday we wake up wearing a mask and perfrom the act we intend to perfectly and neatly without knowing that we are actually hiding under the mask. One might wonder whats under this mask... Well nobody gets to see it neither the person herself or her outer world. When you get bored of one mask you change it with another. We are always acting, pretending to be somebody. We never get to know who we are and suddenly one dies. The mask, the sticky mask persists. You are remembered as a person with certain characteristics based on the mask in which you have been seen. The damn mask never goes away. As Twain puts it "We are just Echoes"... and further he says "We are just compost heap made up of the decayed heredities, moral and physical."
The matrix persists and the pretensions continue... So much so that these become the real things and finally you end up saying "Show must go on....."
P.S.
I dont know why I wrote this and whether it makes any sense. It just a thought that came and I had to jot it down. Maybe in the future I read it again and i feel... What crap was this and manage a good laugh...

Life - A journey? A Destination?...

"What do you think about life dude as it is right now?" asked Rocky...
"Well actually, if I think about it sitting here between the woods its beautiful man, in fact it rocks..." said I...
"hmmm.... We need to live life by the hour man. Live and not repent what you did an hour back!!!"
"hmmm..."
There was a sudden silence. Amidst the woods, the silence was intimidating to the extent that I lost touch with all four dimensions.
As I got lost in thoughts, I remembered what I was thinking as I drove on the beautiful road to Kemmangundi...

Life is like the road. You overtake a vehicle in front of you, there is one more. You overtake that; there is another... and another and another...
However fast you are, there is always someone in front of you on the Road. Okay you reached your so called destination, but then there is some road ahead for you.
Again there are some more vehicles ahead of you. So the race never ends. You are never on the podium. There are always vehicles carrying the esteemed souls that are ahead of you...
Its a long journey. That is what life is; A journey. All that matters is the road you traveled.
That is the part in which you live your life. Destination is always one. You become one of the five elements. The final destination, however dark it may seem is the only eternal truth. Death!
I am no authority to say whether it is right to consider life a journey or a destination. All I can see, one enjoys life it it is treated more like a journey that a destination.
"Karmanya Vadhikaraste, Maa phalesu Kadachana"....

Well too philosophical right... Try this... Empty road, wind hitting your face, the hymn of your engine... You go in a trance. That is the trance when the mind wanders into unexplored territory.
That is when the grey cells of the part of your brain which are usually numb come alive and you think the thoughts such as above...
Well... All I can say is...

Revvin' up the engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go

Ride into the Danger Zone...

Out along the edges
Always where I burn to be
The further on the edge
The hotter the intensity

Ride into the Danger Zone...
I went to the Danger Zone....

P.S. Adopted from the Top Gun OST; Danger Zone performed by Kenny Loggins.

Kahani Color Color ki…

The budget indicates another F******** year is over!!! Hey, it’s F for financial, what were you thinking??
That means again we have had our appraisals… Yes, the act of classification of someone with respect to ones worth.
Don’t stop reading now… I am not going to crib about my appraisal…
So why did I at all mention about it? All we do after appraisal is crib right???
Well to a great extent yes, but this cribbing comes in various sizes, shapes and colors depending on the intensity of the personality…
A rainbow is caused when the mighty Sun shines onto soft droplets of moisture. The same sun, the same water but 7 different colors…
Don’t go into physics and start analyzing the statements now, just read along to know the different colors of corporate cribbing after appraisal…

The Green Goblin…

In places where talking about % hike is not a crime (It is not in fact!!!), the green goblins are a common place.
Green symbolizes jealously and so does the green goblin’s cribbing style… In this style, the cribbing is triggered by the fact that, one has got more and one hasn’t. It is neither qualitative nor quantitative. Comparison is the key word in this style of cribbing and what is compared has no rules!!! Yes cribbing doesn’t need rules!!!!

The Red Crab…

These crabs are rare species and are scattered in all the environments irrespective of any pre-conditions. This kind of cribbing is characterized by extreme rage, shouting and making life sick for all those who are working with the crab. The read crabs are dangerous and almost always end the cribbing by changing their homes!!!

The Blue Whale…

These are the gentle giants and they are the most silent cribbers. They are the loyalists, the faithful and they are generally called Chu’s by the Crabs and the Goblins because of this attitude. In their style of cribbing, it is all self assuring talk. You hear statements like “It’s alright…”, “Money is not the ultimate goal…”, “He said I will get onsite…” and stuffs like… “Chodo yaar… Mast raho…” It is very difficult to predict the next step of these gentle giants…

The White Tiger…

The Tigers unlike the wild ones are the sufferers here. They are innocent by nature and are not able to comprehend why this has happened. They crib without any comparison unlike the Goblins. Their cribbing is all statistics, all numbers; Purely Qualitative and Quantitative. Their style is characterized by the sarcasm in their comments. They show the disappointment in a polished way. But under this polish lies a beast that might be unleashed at any time. Once that beast is unleashed, God help the guys on the other side of the line!!!

The Chameleons…

These are the funniest of all the cribbers. These chameleons are not sure whether whet they have got is good or bad… So they take the color of the species around them, be it green, red, blue or white… They just follow. They generally don’t feel anything about what has happened and manage to sleep calmly even though they have cribbed whole day!!! They are generally harmless…

The Black Crow…

Black is no color and hence this is the darkest cribbing you can find in the industry. These crows actually flock together and crib only when in company of any one of the above species… They hatch a plan and somehow by hook or crook always end up with good grades… But mysteriously nobody knows of their grades… These guys crib and crib as if they have got the worst that was on offer and all this is just part of their next game plan. They get all the inside stories and what all other species are thinking and sketch the map for the next year’s appraisal. They are the cold hearted players of the game. In fact they are the GAME the whole reason of all the confusion and colors!!!

So my dear readers, you saw the cribbing use of Irony here… English is a funny language, colors can signify joy… Colors can signify melancholy…
It is up to us to decide what we want them to represent…

P.S.
I thank the makers of K series for giving us titles which can be used so flexibly!!!

A Ride into the Danger Zone....

The souvenir adoring my cubicle

When I was fiddling with some stuff in my bag I happened to find something. It was something like a souvenir for me of one of the greatest experiences this season. This something was a laminated paper cap used by me for protection from the mighty Apollo. It carries an emblem, with has our three lions and an eagle flying just below them. Yes, no points for guessing… It’s the emblem of our Air Force… Bharatiya Vaayu Sena…

This cap came into my possession when I had been to see the Aero India Show – 2007. It was a Sunday and unlike usual Sundays, we got up rather early and by 9:45 we were in the parking. We had to wait for some of our friends as they were late. Luckily we entered the air field just in time for the majestic show. Since IAF is celebrating its platinum jubilee, it was a special aero show. It was special in many aspects as well. We will come to that in a moment… As we were entering the air field, one of the IAF soldier gave us these caps. We took our caps and went ahead hoping to find some place to watch the show. We didn’t believe what we saw. All the front rows were filled and everyone was standing on chairs to see the runway… Be a roman in rome and thus we followed the crowd and did the same thing….

The show was kicked off with the beautiful display of stunts by the saras helicopter group. My friend was timely in pointing out that Indian helicopter pilots are on par or even better than any others in the world and was also quick to point out that unfortunately our fighter plane pilots don’t have that status… The display of SARAS was mind blowing. I just mentioned about this aero show being special… Firstly I was present there (Yes I am still a narcissist) and secondly never were so many foreign planes shown in aero India show before. We saw the agile F-16. Nothing in the whole show could beat the maneuverability of this American killing machine. It was the sleek, fast and very very agile… I would say it looked like the best in the business. We saw Graffin (Not sure of the spelling) a Sweden make I guess… It was fast… It was so fast that I missed its photo 5 times before I got the timing just right to capture it. It was a super sonic and was really loud!!! We also had the FA-18. They were good. There were many other foreign aircrafts. One more was Mig-35, the newest and the mightiest of all the foreign planes that flew in the exhibition. However it looked too bulky and wasn’t even half as impressive as F-16.

Graffin finally caught on camera

Then there were the Indian exhibits (the planes that are part of the IAF). Finally we saw a fully functional LCA!!! I must say, it was really impressive. It is small, very small… My friend made a comment that it is completely indigenous etc etc… The other said, it is not even 1/10th as impressive as F-16 (ya we were absolutely awed by the American killer) and it was almost 10 years older to LCA. However I was impressed by LCA. It looked cool!!!! It was interesting to note that IAF has the lightest aircraft LCA and also the heaviest SU-30 in its quiver… The SU-30 is gigantic and very very loud… It looked very muscular and was a great sight to watch it fly by….

LCA - Indias Pride

Catching the LCA.....

By the time these planes were done, we were drained out. Without breakfast, just 2 Munches to munch on and standing in the grueling heat had taken its toll… But then all this was worth the experience we had. Content, we went looking for something to eat. We had assumed that the second part of the show is just a repetition of the morning show. We were so so wrong… Luckily we did ask one of the IAF officers and got to know that it was a whole day show. So we hogged on something and resumed our places on the chairs… As the second session started, I saw that the same planes were coming again and for some reasons all my energies were renewed and I started cheering for just about everything!!! I got some stares and glares as if it really mattered… I was getting bored when suddenly the announcement came….
It was the Suryakiran team which was to perform…. A group of 9 aircrafts which perform unbelievable air stunts which bring ones heart to his mouth… It was the best thing that we had seen the whole day… It was dangerous, it was thrilling, it was chilling and above all neck breaking for the spectators as the Suryakirans flew all around painting the sky in Indian tri-color. Man in not born with the ability to turn his head 360 degrees. It was a serious disability while watching the Suryakirans fly by… I can just go on and on, on the stunts they performed… But words are just words. You need to be there to believe it… You need to be there to feel it…. With a renewed sense of pride we returned from that show….
IAF really rocks!!!

Suryakirans...

Suryakirans...

Best of 2006....

You might have heard of the movie “Abhay”, as I am sure you wouldn’t have seen it after reading its review. I did watch it; Kamal Hassan (KH) is my favorite actor and people sometimes say I resemble him!!! Well whether I do or not, I enjoy his acting…
So I watched Abhay and also read about it… Rather it was the opposite, I read and then I watched the movie… In the interviews about Abhay, KH tried to substantiate his usage of cartoons. According to him, cartoons are the most violent creation of man; the most melancholic way of expressing something. You see his movie and you do feel that way. You must have read “You said it”. It is also dark. Seldom do popular cartoon strips have beautiful messages. In a way it makes sense also using cartoon to express things that you need to. It is a nice way to vent out your feelings without directly pointing fingers at anybody, “After all it is just a cartoon” is the bottom line.
So with these thoughts in mind, I tried my hand with cartooning. Well, I am not that greatly creative. So I didn’t create my own cartoon and even if I had done it would take time for that character to become popular. But I can make 1 + 1 = 2. So, I decided to use my favorite cartoon characters “Calvin” and his friend “Hobbes” to make the “2” I was talking about. The expressions were Watterson’s but the expressed views were mine…. I tried to use Calvin’s beautiful wide varied expression to express my ideas, my views and my state of mind…. I really thank Bill for giving us the most creative and so expressive and the so mysterious Calvin!!!
Unlike Bill, my canvas was the company white board which I painted with markers copying the expressions of Calvin to match the view I wanted to express on that given day.
Here are some that are my best of 2006…

2nd Nov 2006:
Notes: This is after I had to do a work around to fix a problem. The actual solution would take longer, but we had to do it fast. Hence this…

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4th Nov 2006:
Notes: This was on the 3rd consecutive Saturday when we had to work….

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7th Oct 2006:
Notes: We had to work on another Saturday, because of the Belgaum problem.

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7th Nov 2006:
This was when I had to work in excel continuously for 4 days!!!

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9th Nov 2006:
This was done for 2 reasons,
a) One of my friends got a great GRE score
b) Another friend had a great summers placement

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17th Nov 2006:
We had to put in loads of extra hours of work. Hence this…

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27th Sep 2006:
Against gandigiri….

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13th Dec 2006:
Well when I realized capitalism has its flaws….

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11th Dec 2006:
After Code Olympics – A 24 Hour coding extravaganza….

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20th Dec 2006:
I was held on gun point to say something good about the fairer sex. Being a feminist I could have, but then Calvin needs to be a bit sarcastic… That’s his style!!!

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24th Nov 2006:
This was when I had to redo some amount of code due to a process called transporting of code…

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Happy New Year..... Have a great year ahead!!!