While cleaning up my harddisk, came across this old blog of mine. Felt a bit nostalgic and hence thought of publishing it here. It was written during the new year of 2005.
The days to come, are just dreams,
Only the days that passed, are our own !!
31st DEC 2003- A year ago
I was sitting inside NBAP lab, coding the RadioLinkSetupRequest procedure. I pressed ":wq" on my vim editor, gave a make at the prompt and just turned around! I can see Rajeev and Nayaka through the glassy barrier, in the next lab, vigourously discussing something. In between, Susama intervening, arguing and then turning back at the computer, continuing her documentation. I can see Aakash, running around with a piece of wire, behind dhadha, searching for something. Ratan, opened the door of our lab, and seems, he has some new doubt in the dsp code !! Nileena is sitting in the diagonal lab, infront of a big monitor, moving her eyes from one end of the monitor to the other end !! And if I see strictly through the glassy barrier, I can see a bald head, over the computers at quite a distance, which belongs to none other than our cats and dogs man !! It was quite a bit difficult to look at Rajesh, since his head was behind a PC, which always showed beautiful photos of all tamil heroines !! That PC belonged to Sheik and on the other side, there sat our roaring tiger, Mahesh, who seemed always busy at finding new things ! Hey, Anil is coming, with his big muscles ! But his face reflected sadness ! He came and told, "I had a fight with my Gym instructer and he threw me on the floor" ! How saad !
31st DEC 2004 - Today
I am sitting inside my cubicle, coding the GPS synchronization procedure. I cannot press ":wq" since everything is checked in and am leaving Motorola next week. Rajeev is not sitting in the next lab. He is in Philips and discussing with somebody else. Its not Nayaka, since Nayaka is in cdot. Susama, is no more doing any documentation. She is in Samsung and doing log analysis of a compltely working 3G system. And
where is Aakash ? I cant even see him, since he has moved to Noida, and is totally out of his dream 3G project. He is close to his home and his engagement is over ! Now-a-days, Ratan is not seen around ? Oh ! he too is in Noida, and is weeping on the failure of his project. Now he doesn't come to me for coding doubts. Nileena, has moved from the old second floor location, but still doing the same work. She has completed the
design of a card, which she had started last year and is testing it. And even if I try from here, I cant see that bald head over there. The cats and dogs man has moved from there to somewhere else. It seems, the entire
company is getting moved from the current location. Now, that pc with the photos of all those nice looking thalli girls, is no more there. The person owning that pc, has moved to Lucent. What about the person who sat opposite to him ? Oh Mahesh, he is in sasken now. Again in the second floor, but keeping up the same habit. And where is Anil ? Oh, his marriage is over naa... he is honeymooning ...
I never imagined, a year can bring such a great change.
But there is more to Come ... Lets Welcome the new year 2005 ! !
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Generations!
Suddenly the choir changed the tempo and I just came back to the occasion. It was the marriage of my cousin sister and we all had assembled in the church to bless the occasion. The priest was chanting something in Syrian, which were like magic words for all of us. May be that was required for the marriage to happen… I don’t know… strange customs that nobody know, but has to happen for the ceremony to get over! Marriage, another strange event in one’s life, when the bride and the groom ask the public for permission to live together and bring their progeny to the crowd. If the crowd disagrees, then the offspring is orphaned by the society. Interesting to look at humanly traits that sometimes go beyond logic, even though we are considered the brilliant among living things. Another aspect of this is that, if the society abandons a bride and groom from their desire, then they can avail a legal way of getting married. So the rule supports it, but the rulers do not. Ha! Private rules for the bride and the groom!
The priest was still chanting something and blessing the bride, when my thoughts ran a few years back, when we were all kids and were playing some funny games during the mid summer vacation, camped in grandma’s house. Its hardly a decade ago and we were all pretty small kids and were all equals. The past has moved to present, a generation has gone under the earth and I see, those kids have grown up now, married and have their kids playing on their laps. My grandma and her generation are all forgotten now and we all live in the present, with our own daily complexities of life, trying to nurture the future generation. Its all obvious, yet baffling sometimes. Why do I exist here? "Just" to nurture a future generation?
Looking around in the church, I found a photo of Jesus, slanting from the wall. The belief in rebirth is something that has implications in all religions, I think. But looking at it from another perspective, isn’t it that our progenies are our previous generations reborn? Like Richard Dawkins story of 'the selfish gene' goes, isn’t it that the basic materials that built the new generation, built from the older ones? If I think of it, I can see myself as a leaf of a gigantic tree, where there must exist an unknown link from me to the first living thing on this planet. If that link is broken somewhere, then I cannot exist now! I might be the rebirth of someone of the older generation, but I don’t know. It can also happen that many me-s exist now. Abstraction aids ignorance and hides the implementation!
Seeing that I was looking around and not listening to the prayers, I noticed a teasing look from the vicar, who had almost completed the prayers required for knot tie-ing ceremony to begin. Its something we copied from the Hindu culture. It’s something I really liked and which makes me proud of the secularism prevailing in this country. We might be of any culture or religion, but we all have a foundation, which makes us different from the rest of the world. That’s something cool to think about!
I was getting a bit bored with the things going on around me, which I don’t quite understand. All that mattered was that "very moment", the moment when that marriage took place, which marked the beginning of a new generation. Every moment has its work to do, which it does and vanishes somewhere. So is the moment when I am writing this and you are reading this. But interestingly, if you look at it, the moment, which created these words on moments, will always carry with it the presence of this very moment!
The marriage was all over and we all moved to the reception at the auditorium. From somewhere outside I came to hear this old pessimistic hindi film song: “Aanewaala pal jaane waala hey, Ho sake tho ismein zindagi bithaalo, pal yeh tho jaane walaa hey” (the moment to arrive has to leave, so if possible try to live in this moment, since this moment has to depart soon)!
The priest was still chanting something and blessing the bride, when my thoughts ran a few years back, when we were all kids and were playing some funny games during the mid summer vacation, camped in grandma’s house. Its hardly a decade ago and we were all pretty small kids and were all equals. The past has moved to present, a generation has gone under the earth and I see, those kids have grown up now, married and have their kids playing on their laps. My grandma and her generation are all forgotten now and we all live in the present, with our own daily complexities of life, trying to nurture the future generation. Its all obvious, yet baffling sometimes. Why do I exist here? "Just" to nurture a future generation?
Looking around in the church, I found a photo of Jesus, slanting from the wall. The belief in rebirth is something that has implications in all religions, I think. But looking at it from another perspective, isn’t it that our progenies are our previous generations reborn? Like Richard Dawkins story of 'the selfish gene' goes, isn’t it that the basic materials that built the new generation, built from the older ones? If I think of it, I can see myself as a leaf of a gigantic tree, where there must exist an unknown link from me to the first living thing on this planet. If that link is broken somewhere, then I cannot exist now! I might be the rebirth of someone of the older generation, but I don’t know. It can also happen that many me-s exist now. Abstraction aids ignorance and hides the implementation!
Seeing that I was looking around and not listening to the prayers, I noticed a teasing look from the vicar, who had almost completed the prayers required for knot tie-ing ceremony to begin. Its something we copied from the Hindu culture. It’s something I really liked and which makes me proud of the secularism prevailing in this country. We might be of any culture or religion, but we all have a foundation, which makes us different from the rest of the world. That’s something cool to think about!
I was getting a bit bored with the things going on around me, which I don’t quite understand. All that mattered was that "very moment", the moment when that marriage took place, which marked the beginning of a new generation. Every moment has its work to do, which it does and vanishes somewhere. So is the moment when I am writing this and you are reading this. But interestingly, if you look at it, the moment, which created these words on moments, will always carry with it the presence of this very moment!
The marriage was all over and we all moved to the reception at the auditorium. From somewhere outside I came to hear this old pessimistic hindi film song: “Aanewaala pal jaane waala hey, Ho sake tho ismein zindagi bithaalo, pal yeh tho jaane walaa hey” (the moment to arrive has to leave, so if possible try to live in this moment, since this moment has to depart soon)!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Through the veins of Calcutta!
The long awaited visit to the cultural capital of India, thus came with a spry and soon we found ourselves in the middle of a heritage less perforated by any western sophistication.
It was the marriage of our test lead Ananda with Ruby and it was an opportunity for us to have a preview of the land of the Bengalis, people who have immensely contributed to the culture and prosperity of our country. We were a group of seven from Windows Fax team from Microsoft India, consisting of Anand, Ajay, Naresh, Nilesh, Raghav, Renu and Myself. We did a good planning for flying, but Airdeccan was as usual sluggish in taking us on time. Seemed like they never bothered to take up punctuality in their list of qualities.
After a two-hour journey from Hyderabad, we landed in Calcutta, newly named as Kolkota, with the ‘o’ phonetically stressed, which signified Bengali articulation. Archan, our colleague and a resident of the city, with Manoj, our dev lead, who had landed in the city the day before, were there to receive us at the airport. Thus our exploration began…
From the list of items to visit, the first destination was Saurabh Ganguly’s restaurant, named Saurabhs. We were late for the lunch, but never wanted to start off our journey without filled bowels. There was a bit of confusion on the availability of buffet and we were misguided by the receptionist, which culminated in abandoning the restaurant. Finally, we crossed the road to have lunch at Golden Spoon, a typical Bengali restaurant. The food did not meet our expectations, but was ok for that time of the day. Later, we started off to have a preview of the whole city. We went over the old Howrah bridge, which stood as a mark of the city. The bridge was a marvel of perfect British engineering and fascinated us with the technology it hosted to carry along the heaviest, without any support from the Hoogly river. Later we moved across the new Howrah bridge. I did not miss the opportunity to take the beautiful snaps of the catenary, over the gleaming waters of the hoogly river basking in the dusk.
It was over 6 O clock, when we reached our roosting place in Saltlake, a residential locality where Archan stayed. Renu got separated at the airport, to meet her uncle and we were seven of us again together, with Archan to get all the data of the places to visit and then “mismanage” our trip. We were getting late for the marriage ceremony and hence rushed ourselves pulling over the kurtas and pyjamas!
The marriage was a pleasant experience for most of us, but a heavy experience for Nilesh, who dared to support, with three others, the ceremony of bringing the bride seated over a thick flat board, from her room and then making seven circles around the groom. The bride had covered her face with beetle leaves. She should not uncover her face until she made seven rounds over the groom, and then come face to face. At last, the hepta circles were over and the bride came in front of the groom and other interesting ceremonies started… we all slowly moved on to have food. The dinner reflected the richness of Bengali cuisine, with varieties of fish and mutton. Though chicken was also a favorite item, it was a bad time for chicken dishes due to the outbreak of bird flu across the country.
We reached back to our residence around 11 and then started the excitement of card games. It was the biggest excitement of the day, when we all wanted to have a brain dump game and Manoj came up with the idea of the “snatching spoon”. The game took off to its pinnacle when Ajay became the “donkey” and later graduating to complete “dumbbell” when Naresh and Ajay had to fight for the spoon. We all became donkeys one by one and finally Nilesh, Naresh and Manoj remained. It still hangs around in my mind, a tensed Nilesh, snatching the spoon from Manoj, with all the strength from his thick muscles and uttering his typical dialogue “Kya ho raha hey iss desh mein” at times… Naresh and Manoj came out as winners and we all slept at 2:30 am, thus closing the chapter of day one…
It was the marriage of our test lead Ananda with Ruby and it was an opportunity for us to have a preview of the land of the Bengalis, people who have immensely contributed to the culture and prosperity of our country. We were a group of seven from Windows Fax team from Microsoft India, consisting of Anand, Ajay, Naresh, Nilesh, Raghav, Renu and Myself. We did a good planning for flying, but Airdeccan was as usual sluggish in taking us on time. Seemed like they never bothered to take up punctuality in their list of qualities.
After a two-hour journey from Hyderabad, we landed in Calcutta, newly named as Kolkota, with the ‘o’ phonetically stressed, which signified Bengali articulation. Archan, our colleague and a resident of the city, with Manoj, our dev lead, who had landed in the city the day before, were there to receive us at the airport. Thus our exploration began…
From the list of items to visit, the first destination was Saurabh Ganguly’s restaurant, named Saurabhs. We were late for the lunch, but never wanted to start off our journey without filled bowels. There was a bit of confusion on the availability of buffet and we were misguided by the receptionist, which culminated in abandoning the restaurant. Finally, we crossed the road to have lunch at Golden Spoon, a typical Bengali restaurant. The food did not meet our expectations, but was ok for that time of the day. Later, we started off to have a preview of the whole city. We went over the old Howrah bridge, which stood as a mark of the city. The bridge was a marvel of perfect British engineering and fascinated us with the technology it hosted to carry along the heaviest, without any support from the Hoogly river. Later we moved across the new Howrah bridge. I did not miss the opportunity to take the beautiful snaps of the catenary, over the gleaming waters of the hoogly river basking in the dusk.
It was over 6 O clock, when we reached our roosting place in Saltlake, a residential locality where Archan stayed. Renu got separated at the airport, to meet her uncle and we were seven of us again together, with Archan to get all the data of the places to visit and then “mismanage” our trip. We were getting late for the marriage ceremony and hence rushed ourselves pulling over the kurtas and pyjamas!
The marriage was a pleasant experience for most of us, but a heavy experience for Nilesh, who dared to support, with three others, the ceremony of bringing the bride seated over a thick flat board, from her room and then making seven circles around the groom. The bride had covered her face with beetle leaves. She should not uncover her face until she made seven rounds over the groom, and then come face to face. At last, the hepta circles were over and the bride came in front of the groom and other interesting ceremonies started… we all slowly moved on to have food. The dinner reflected the richness of Bengali cuisine, with varieties of fish and mutton. Though chicken was also a favorite item, it was a bad time for chicken dishes due to the outbreak of bird flu across the country.
We reached back to our residence around 11 and then started the excitement of card games. It was the biggest excitement of the day, when we all wanted to have a brain dump game and Manoj came up with the idea of the “snatching spoon”. The game took off to its pinnacle when Ajay became the “donkey” and later graduating to complete “dumbbell” when Naresh and Ajay had to fight for the spoon. We all became donkeys one by one and finally Nilesh, Naresh and Manoj remained. It still hangs around in my mind, a tensed Nilesh, snatching the spoon from Manoj, with all the strength from his thick muscles and uttering his typical dialogue “Kya ho raha hey iss desh mein” at times… Naresh and Manoj came out as winners and we all slept at 2:30 am, thus closing the chapter of day one…
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Ant on a floating leaf
Like an ant roosting on a floating leaf,
Here sits my soul holding itself in this beef,
Carried along by the rush of the stream,
To some unknown land, coming in my dream.
Days go rushing by, ant goes travelling by,
Never knowing what is coming by,
Or never bothering what went bye,
Floating in the stream, the ant goes travelling by...
Ant wonders why I am here,
Or am I going anywhere ?
Quests after quests, leading it nowhere,
More thoughts, mind goes in despair...
Am I the king or a slave or a mere witness,
Came here just to see this world distress,
The more it tries to find out its self,
Who am I ? the quest leads it back to itself.
People try to define their fate,
With awe confidence, describing in prate,
But the destiny has already been defined,
Then how can they say, they reach the undefined.
Like an Ant on a floating leaf,
Goes my life floating in grief!
Where does the flow take me ?
Wherever it be, its the purpose I shall be...
Here sits my soul holding itself in this beef,
Carried along by the rush of the stream,
To some unknown land, coming in my dream.
Days go rushing by, ant goes travelling by,
Never knowing what is coming by,
Or never bothering what went bye,
Floating in the stream, the ant goes travelling by...
Ant wonders why I am here,
Or am I going anywhere ?
Quests after quests, leading it nowhere,
More thoughts, mind goes in despair...
Am I the king or a slave or a mere witness,
Came here just to see this world distress,
The more it tries to find out its self,
Who am I ? the quest leads it back to itself.
People try to define their fate,
With awe confidence, describing in prate,
But the destiny has already been defined,
Then how can they say, they reach the undefined.
Like an Ant on a floating leaf,
Goes my life floating in grief!
Where does the flow take me ?
Wherever it be, its the purpose I shall be...
On The Wings Of An Alligator
With the enthusiasm for the coming day, I closed my eyes...
Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. I had the anger of boxing those advertisement agencies, when I found that, the scream was indeed made by a silly lady, for losing her hair during her bath. Another stupid one suggesting her to use Livon Hair Oil to prevent losing hair.
After that I lost my courage to sleep again and thought of getting ready for the picnic, which our company had planned for the day. With the usual sluggishness of early morning, I had an adventurous bath and within an hour, became refreshed for the journey to come.
The sun had already risen well to see me and we felt we were getting
delayed for the planned event. To cope up with the time I spent in the bathroom, I had to struggle hard to keep my hair in position, while sitting on the bike, which was streaming through the sprouting traffic of Bangalore highways.
Finally we reached the spot. I can't remember the number of buses
scheduled for the trip. But I luckily got into one of them. I found that none of my friends were in it and that made me a little nervous. The occupants were all sitting dumb and open mouthed. I was a little bewildered, on whether the bus was going for some funeral and I got into the wrong one. I looked around scratching my head and found some of my colleagues, calling me from some other bus. I realized that I had got into a bus meant for married people and there was another one for dazzling bachelors.
I took my breath back and ran towards my day. I don't exactly remember why, but I prefered to switch to my friend's bike, which was following us althrough. The journey by bike was far more flexible, with the two wheeled automobile, climbing all the terrains of the region and pushing across the slippery stones, making its way through. Passing across, a sign board captured our attention. It was on some waterfall, whose name attracted us. We decided to see the Chunchi falls and took a diversion...
Even though the name of the cataract was a little amusing, it turned out to
be a scenic one. Not so high, and deep, which made us to try some adventurous poses. It was a moment, to see the cascade splash on to rocks, spraying droplets, giving rise to a fine art of iridescence. We had a big photo session over various spots to capture as much of the fall as possible. It was a little piteous to watch a small boy, occasionally jumping into the waterfall, after climbing the whole set of steep rocks, to make his day got along. We paid him a nice amount,which I cant exactly remember, for something which we wanted to do, but he did it for us.
The journey back, from the fall was one of the rarest adventures, I ever
had. Luckily we discovered a short cut from the waterfall, to Magadhattu, our
intended picnic target. The road was totally empty and was well set forth for a bike race. I felt literally flying, when the two wheeler "pulsed" across, the narrow crooked road, in full speed, testing its engine capacity. In between, we had to pass through a sub rural village, the one of its kind, which I saw for the first time. They were looking at us helplessly, with strange faces, as if we were some aliens, with a flying shuttle crawling on the muddy roads, splashing the dust all across.
I don't remember, how much time I spent on the bike, but we ultimately
landed on target spot. I found some of my friends playing in water as if they were trying to get back to their childhood. It was really interesting to watch one of them practicing mosquito catching with frizbees, and then passing it to others, with some new found methodology, analogous to throwing a rotten egg. I did indeed catch some frizbees passing by, and later switched to capturing the beauty of the sangama to my kodak collections. I even tried to pose myself for a photo, standing on a lonely sharp wood, in the middle of water. It took so much for my friend to take that snap, which landed me in wounding my feet, from beneath, which added a bit more challenge to the picnic.
The local bus trip was an unforgettable event. Since it was more of an
antique than a bus, the driver got a little worried, when he saw our number and offered us to sit on the roof at our own risk. I managed to climb to the roof with my wounded leg, since I knew that its going to be an experience of a lifetime. We sat over the bus, hoping the beetle would move soon. Atlast, after a serious try by the driver, cleaners and wrestlers from our side, the bug slowly started moving. It was a true adventure, and an experience, when the branches of trees were coming against us, and we all sitting in lines, were waving across, to escape, like a flag flapping in the wind. The bus was moving through all the ups and downs and me sitting in the front, felt like I were in some roller-coaster ride, to miss a heart throb.
We reached the spot called Megadhattu, a rocky cascade, witnessing the
artistic talent of nature over time. It was truly a masterpiece, and was hard to
imagine such fine carvings are not by any human, but a true endeavor of nature. Even though the name of the place suggested that, the cascade used to be jumped across by capricorns, it was a little incredible, viewing the width of the flow. I don't remember, how long I spent in there, but we started back on the roof itself. This time, it was pretty crowded, since many more had switched to the roof from the ground floor, because of our adventurous delineation. Hence I had to compress myself as much as I can to find my space on the lap of somebody else. This time the waving of our heads against branches were too rregular that I could occasionally here some strange screams, followed by a curse to the neighbor.
This seemed the end of the adventure and we all got into our leased buses.
Since I was a new entry to the bus, I had to compromise the back seat. The bus was moving ruthlessly over humps and we being in the back seat, were experiencing like we were in some hurdle race. An anthakshari was going on in the background, and in my nap I could occassionally hear something like "kyonki saas bi kabhi bahoo thi" from one of our naughties. The bus was jumping too hard, for me to forget the idea of having a nap and joined the anthakshari team. Very soon the team got too spirited and many more silent colleagues joined. The light system of the bus, imitated a disco room, and we all started dancing for some unknown music. The environment soon got very hot, when all got into a dancing spree. The spree was too high that the dancers were blind at they were jumping on my wounded feet. I had to move towards the
footstep. The door was closed, but I had to make sure that it was properly locked. I made a bent, when one of the dancers fell against me, the door got opened and we were thrown out ...
Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking
shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. The story On the wings of a "butterfly" was about to begin...
Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. I had the anger of boxing those advertisement agencies, when I found that, the scream was indeed made by a silly lady, for losing her hair during her bath. Another stupid one suggesting her to use Livon Hair Oil to prevent losing hair.
After that I lost my courage to sleep again and thought of getting ready for the picnic, which our company had planned for the day. With the usual sluggishness of early morning, I had an adventurous bath and within an hour, became refreshed for the journey to come.
The sun had already risen well to see me and we felt we were getting
delayed for the planned event. To cope up with the time I spent in the bathroom, I had to struggle hard to keep my hair in position, while sitting on the bike, which was streaming through the sprouting traffic of Bangalore highways.
Finally we reached the spot. I can't remember the number of buses
scheduled for the trip. But I luckily got into one of them. I found that none of my friends were in it and that made me a little nervous. The occupants were all sitting dumb and open mouthed. I was a little bewildered, on whether the bus was going for some funeral and I got into the wrong one. I looked around scratching my head and found some of my colleagues, calling me from some other bus. I realized that I had got into a bus meant for married people and there was another one for dazzling bachelors.
I took my breath back and ran towards my day. I don't exactly remember why, but I prefered to switch to my friend's bike, which was following us althrough. The journey by bike was far more flexible, with the two wheeled automobile, climbing all the terrains of the region and pushing across the slippery stones, making its way through. Passing across, a sign board captured our attention. It was on some waterfall, whose name attracted us. We decided to see the Chunchi falls and took a diversion...
Even though the name of the cataract was a little amusing, it turned out to
be a scenic one. Not so high, and deep, which made us to try some adventurous poses. It was a moment, to see the cascade splash on to rocks, spraying droplets, giving rise to a fine art of iridescence. We had a big photo session over various spots to capture as much of the fall as possible. It was a little piteous to watch a small boy, occasionally jumping into the waterfall, after climbing the whole set of steep rocks, to make his day got along. We paid him a nice amount,which I cant exactly remember, for something which we wanted to do, but he did it for us.
The journey back, from the fall was one of the rarest adventures, I ever
had. Luckily we discovered a short cut from the waterfall, to Magadhattu, our
intended picnic target. The road was totally empty and was well set forth for a bike race. I felt literally flying, when the two wheeler "pulsed" across, the narrow crooked road, in full speed, testing its engine capacity. In between, we had to pass through a sub rural village, the one of its kind, which I saw for the first time. They were looking at us helplessly, with strange faces, as if we were some aliens, with a flying shuttle crawling on the muddy roads, splashing the dust all across.
I don't remember, how much time I spent on the bike, but we ultimately
landed on target spot. I found some of my friends playing in water as if they were trying to get back to their childhood. It was really interesting to watch one of them practicing mosquito catching with frizbees, and then passing it to others, with some new found methodology, analogous to throwing a rotten egg. I did indeed catch some frizbees passing by, and later switched to capturing the beauty of the sangama to my kodak collections. I even tried to pose myself for a photo, standing on a lonely sharp wood, in the middle of water. It took so much for my friend to take that snap, which landed me in wounding my feet, from beneath, which added a bit more challenge to the picnic.
The local bus trip was an unforgettable event. Since it was more of an
antique than a bus, the driver got a little worried, when he saw our number and offered us to sit on the roof at our own risk. I managed to climb to the roof with my wounded leg, since I knew that its going to be an experience of a lifetime. We sat over the bus, hoping the beetle would move soon. Atlast, after a serious try by the driver, cleaners and wrestlers from our side, the bug slowly started moving. It was a true adventure, and an experience, when the branches of trees were coming against us, and we all sitting in lines, were waving across, to escape, like a flag flapping in the wind. The bus was moving through all the ups and downs and me sitting in the front, felt like I were in some roller-coaster ride, to miss a heart throb.
We reached the spot called Megadhattu, a rocky cascade, witnessing the
artistic talent of nature over time. It was truly a masterpiece, and was hard to
imagine such fine carvings are not by any human, but a true endeavor of nature. Even though the name of the place suggested that, the cascade used to be jumped across by capricorns, it was a little incredible, viewing the width of the flow. I don't remember, how long I spent in there, but we started back on the roof itself. This time, it was pretty crowded, since many more had switched to the roof from the ground floor, because of our adventurous delineation. Hence I had to compress myself as much as I can to find my space on the lap of somebody else. This time the waving of our heads against branches were too rregular that I could occasionally here some strange screams, followed by a curse to the neighbor.
This seemed the end of the adventure and we all got into our leased buses.
Since I was a new entry to the bus, I had to compromise the back seat. The bus was moving ruthlessly over humps and we being in the back seat, were experiencing like we were in some hurdle race. An anthakshari was going on in the background, and in my nap I could occassionally hear something like "kyonki saas bi kabhi bahoo thi" from one of our naughties. The bus was jumping too hard, for me to forget the idea of having a nap and joined the anthakshari team. Very soon the team got too spirited and many more silent colleagues joined. The light system of the bus, imitated a disco room, and we all started dancing for some unknown music. The environment soon got very hot, when all got into a dancing spree. The spree was too high that the dancers were blind at they were jumping on my wounded feet. I had to move towards the
footstep. The door was closed, but I had to make sure that it was properly locked. I made a bent, when one of the dancers fell against me, the door got opened and we were thrown out ...
Suddenly, a loud sharp cry of some lady, pierced my ears. With a shocking
shiver, I opened my eyes, and stood up in bed,to see what had happened. It was early morning and my friend had switched on the stupid box. The story On the wings of a "butterfly" was about to begin...
Footprints in the sands of time
Like the deciduous leaves of a gigantic tree, our group is deteriorating day after day. Recollecting the days gone, we arrive at that auspicious day, which started it all, that one-day at sona 3.
Whenever the clock turned 11, you could see an exotic flower, with forty wonderful petals, all well arranged in a circle, with the most beautiful four of them carefully placed at the centre, chatting and drinking tea, surrounded by a chunk of astonished musical instruments. Those boring lecture hours, when we could see a sleeping Simha, a smiling Sheik, a stubborn Sai or a snoring Susama, and the lecturer remarking, "I can see two people sleeping over there", and we asking each other, weren't those, myself and you, who were sleeping !! The day at Nandi Hills, when we all turned skittish, playing around and teasing monkeys. How many dogs and monkeys were stilled, when the camera flashed in the hands of our renowned bluffer, Biplab.
The days went on and on and on and here we are... At the juncture to say good bye ... That Beautiful flower, with forty petals under one stem is no more. Some have been taken away by wind, some got dropped by excess heat, and some hanging around, not knowing when to break loose. But wherever we may be, we shall always be bound by that omnipresent truth of friendship. All those days we spent under this wonderful Organization, shall always be remembered, like the "Footprints in the Sands of Time".
A White Wall painted Red
I got selected in Motorola, and had a medical checkup as it used to be. It was in Wockhardt, and since it is very near to my company, I smuggled in for the checkup during my office hours. As soon as I entered, the receptionist verified my checkup-list and asked me to wait. I sat on the nearby sofa, relaxed. Soon a chap and his girl friend came and sat just opposite to me. They were chatting and looking at me, curiously. I thought for a moment, why, Am I that handsome? Again that lady was staring at me ! I found a little embarrassing, but didn't show.
Later one more lady came, she too, for a medical checkup, probably a company provided, just like mine. She was of my height and good looking. She came and sat beside me. I didn't care. Soon the receptionist called my name and I went to her, and while talking, I just turned around to have a glance at the lady who was sitting near me. Only then I found a photo hanging from the wall, with a subtitle saying, “Save your kid from polio, Take a vaccine today! ", I was taken to my feet, but didn't show it up !
Later I moved up to the X-ray room, and found this lady following me. She was filtered at the X-ray room entry and I went in. Later I came back and moved on for the eye checkup. This lady came back from the X-Ray room and again sat near me. I wanted to ask her, her name, but soon the eye specialist called me and I moved on. Coming back, I found, she was not there. I found myself a little nervous. I enquired the receptionist about that girl. The receptionist responded, by telling, she had gone for blood checkup. I waited quietly. Receptionist asked in a stentorian tone, "Don’t you want to check your urine and stool ? ". I woke up to the situation and moved on! Coming back, I found her sitting over there. Oh yes! I just moved on and sat near her. She was not looking at me, so I asked her name. She said, "Anjali ... ", and then she asked me mine. I asked her, which company she has got into. She seemed too polite and said "siinz", I couldn't hear it properly, but what’s there, I responded, "siinz is a very good company". She corrected, "Its not siinz, its nssiz". Still I couldn't hear it properly. But I didn't give up. "Oh, I think one of my friends is working in
nssiz". She arose again for the second time to correct me, but this time with a little more sound. "Its ANZ technologies". I tried to hide my impatience, "Oh yaa, you have the office here itself naa, in Cunningham road?”. She was going to reply, when the receptionist interrupted and she was called for the ECG test. If they did that test on me, at that moment, they could have traced some abnormality in my heart!
All my tests were over and she had something pending. The receptionist told, I could have my lunch and come back, since the doctor will be back only by 2'O clock. I looked back, but she was not there, and I hesitatingly retired for my lunch. I came back by 1:30 itself, hoping to find her there, but was disappointed to see one more guy sitting beside her. I think it was her company-mate. I about-turned and marched towards the hot Cunningham road for a walk to make it 2 pm.
Later one more lady came, she too, for a medical checkup, probably a company provided, just like mine. She was of my height and good looking. She came and sat beside me. I didn't care. Soon the receptionist called my name and I went to her, and while talking, I just turned around to have a glance at the lady who was sitting near me. Only then I found a photo hanging from the wall, with a subtitle saying, “Save your kid from polio, Take a vaccine today! ", I was taken to my feet, but didn't show it up !
Later I moved up to the X-ray room, and found this lady following me. She was filtered at the X-ray room entry and I went in. Later I came back and moved on for the eye checkup. This lady came back from the X-Ray room and again sat near me. I wanted to ask her, her name, but soon the eye specialist called me and I moved on. Coming back, I found, she was not there. I found myself a little nervous. I enquired the receptionist about that girl. The receptionist responded, by telling, she had gone for blood checkup. I waited quietly. Receptionist asked in a stentorian tone, "Don’t you want to check your urine and stool ? ". I woke up to the situation and moved on! Coming back, I found her sitting over there. Oh yes! I just moved on and sat near her. She was not looking at me, so I asked her name. She said, "Anjali ... ", and then she asked me mine. I asked her, which company she has got into. She seemed too polite and said "siinz", I couldn't hear it properly, but what’s there, I responded, "siinz is a very good company". She corrected, "Its not siinz, its nssiz". Still I couldn't hear it properly. But I didn't give up. "Oh, I think one of my friends is working in
nssiz". She arose again for the second time to correct me, but this time with a little more sound. "Its ANZ technologies". I tried to hide my impatience, "Oh yaa, you have the office here itself naa, in Cunningham road?”. She was going to reply, when the receptionist interrupted and she was called for the ECG test. If they did that test on me, at that moment, they could have traced some abnormality in my heart!
All my tests were over and she had something pending. The receptionist told, I could have my lunch and come back, since the doctor will be back only by 2'O clock. I looked back, but she was not there, and I hesitatingly retired for my lunch. I came back by 1:30 itself, hoping to find her there, but was disappointed to see one more guy sitting beside her. I think it was her company-mate. I about-turned and marched towards the hot Cunningham road for a walk to make it 2 pm.
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