101°C

I am in Pune now. I left Bangalore 3 months back. No, I didn’t runaway, nor was I chased away or expelled or expatriated. I left because it was time for me to chase my dreams. I left because what I was doing there, going through there was mind numbing. The daily drivel sapped me not only of energy but also free-will. How much ever a city is attractive its like a gilded cage which cannot but hide the fact that it is, indeed, a cage, bereft of freedom.

16.06.06, 2000 HRS, Clear Skies, 24°C, Bangalore Cantonment

One of the cool Bangalore evenings you always dream about. This time it was different. The train was moving away. I could see the distance already. I am going away from my family, my friends, my Bangalore…chasing a dream…I could see the sight of Ashwin, Divya, Vinay and Musheer fading away as the train rounded the corner…just the sigt was fading not them…

17.06.06, 1836 HRS, Partially Cloudy, 28°C, Pune Central

I took my Pulsar on to the slick wet pavement. I could feel the pulse in my hand, the trembling and slight muffled roar of a crescendo waiting to be unleashed. He was impatient too, being shackled inside a railway compartment for 28 HRs can do that for anyone. I gave him life and he roared. We rode into the bustle, wind running its dew laden hands through my hair, the machine a part of me, unbridled, free, joy

18.06.06, 0900 HRS, Slight Drizzle, 19°C, Apartment B403

We woke up together and we knew it was for real. After eons of separation, the half smile and the hug in the morning was enough to tell me that the choice I made was right. For now, I need to make coffee…

19.06.06, 1100 HRS, Sunny/Cloudy, 28°C, Convention Hall

Induction day was supposed to be hectic, demanding, grueling and taxing. Assignments, Presentations, Verticals, ARPU…it was al that an also provided insights into the minds of the other 101 people around me who make up Batch XI in this prestigious institute…Like this?

“Ma’am…”

“Yeah??”

“On the induction form it says I have to enter any two identification marks, but I don’t have any!”

“What do you mean? There is a mole on your forehead…write that!”

20.06.06, 1030 HRS, Warm/A.C, 17°C, Convention Hall

“So…in 80s when we had to give a Scooter as dowry for our son in law we booked it when the daughter was born, can you imagine the state?” No, we couldn’t. This was Airtel VP talking to us as a part of our induction to Symbiosis. A dynamic exuberant persona not unlike the 12 others from the various walks of corporate life who addressed us during the weeklong program.

18.06.06, 1500 HRS, Heavy Drizzle, 6°C, 5600 FT ABOVE SEA-LEVEL, SINHAGARH

We sat watching the mist roll by the mountains as the cliffs themselves sat nonchalantly. We sat under a thatch roof, 6 of us who had separated from the rest of the class while trekking Sinhagarh. Hot piping tea, smoke and silence. The place seemed untouched by human hands since 19^th century where Marathas fought their guerrilla wars. Suddenly, burst of a Himesh Reshamiya song from the teashop owners mobile shook us out of our reverie. Well, something’s’ spoiled…

03.10.06, 1730 HRS, Sunny, 18°C, Convention Hall

“So, much as we would like to select all of you, I’m afraid that our requirement is for just two”, said HR Manager from HP, “So, we have the names with us here and we would leave the honor of announcing it to your Placement Team”

I was pacing in the library after this announcement. In two minds, whether to wish I get through HP for my Summer Internship, which would mean a prestigious start to my career or to stay in Pune where I could be closer to her. Suddenly, Mohit and Diggi rushed in and the enveloped me in a crushing hug. “Congratulations Dude!!!!, You got through”

Three months into college. First company that came in for summers. I was in!

fireheads!!

the fireheads
(from l to r; vinay "headbanger" raj, musheer "miths" alam, harish "argus" menon)

connecting people

[if you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. if you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends - jeff bezos]

Here’s my formula of customer bliss:

a faulty nokia 6670

+

complaint letter loaded with sarcasm and diatribe

hi,

i am writing this mail to explain in detail the trials and tribulations that i am facing with the nokia 6670 handset that i own. i bought the said handset on 30.05.05 and used it without any issues. on 23.03.06 when i was on a call the display suddenly went blank and it wouldn’t respond and nor was i able to restart it.

i took it to the nokia care center in infantry road, bangalore and gave the handset for repairs. i was asked to come after a week to collect my phone. after a week, i went there and collected the phone which they assured that will be working fine now. indeed it did, but only for a day. the next day, when i was out-station the issue resurfaced and i suffered for a week without a phone. as soon as i came back i went to the service center where i was again made to book a job sheet (for the second time) and was given another phone (a nokia 2650) while mine was being repaired.

a week later, i again went to the service center where i was told that the phone wasn’t ready. i wasn’t ready to continue using the stand-by phone and insisted on action. then, mr. rajesh nair provided me with a replacement handset which was a supposedly refurbished one from nokia. i want to bring to your notice that this said handset wouldn’t start when it was switched on and he had to give me a new battery for it. i used it fine for a day and after which, believe it or not, the phone faced the same issue. i brought it back and was convinced enough to do a re-flashing of the phone, thinking foolishly that it will resolve it. i went on a business trip again and after 2 days of functioning the phone died out on me in the middle of a conference call giving me a lot of mental anxiety.

that i was livid would be an understatement. i reached the service center again after only a week and upon faced with this dilemma; mr nair promised me a brand new handset. this was not presently available and he asked me to wait for a week. partly assured that my troubles were over, i agreed to one more week of limited connectivity and collected a new handset last week. my troubles were far from over! the handset was having the same issue again!!

in between all this visits to the service center, i had seen at least 15 (i am not exaggerating) nokia 6670 phones with the same issue and i am convinced this is something to do with the architecture of the phone. i gave the handset back to your service center yesterday and asked mr. nair to provide me with a replacement of a different model as my confidence in the handset was severely shaken! he said that it is not in his powers to replace it with another model and i was asked to write this mail. i am convinced that i am entitled for this considering the mental agony, loss of productivity, wastage of time and financial losses i have incurred due to the inability of your service center to correctly diagnose and rectify the problem associated with your handset. i request you to take my request into consideration and provide me with a solution asap.

sincerely,

harish menon

=

a brand new nokia 6680!!

road, rubber and rock n roll

long stretch of 4 lane expressway...
burning rubber at 125 per hour...
group of people who you would give your life for...
drag race in the middle of the highway...
old monk, 100 pipers and talking till the wee hours...
pure bliss....

That was our trip to Yelagiri

tamasoma

asathoma sadgamaya...

he could hear his mother shouting outside. her voice sounded tinny and eerily metallic bringing to mind one of the half-robot characters of the animation show he never missed. she was shouting at him because he was getting late for school. he had to get dressed soon in the crisp green and white uniform, have the buttery toast and tie his shoes. but before all that he had to take bath and be clean. clean? how could he? he was now rubbing the soap over his tiny body all over again. rubbing it hard and rough. the shards of water drops stinging his eyes and rolling down his cheeks with his tears, leaving eyes the misty red of an autumn sunset.

----------------

"...and the samosas! you wouldn't believe how big they are! much larger than the one in old sorabji's shop", extolled viraj. sorabji was hated, though quite unreasonably by the kids in st agnes, because according to them the way he treated the 12 year old customers was not in the strictest sense of good shop keeping and was mean in calling in debts too early.

amay listened to viraj's excited chatter languorously. the languor having come from a hard but fruitful day in the life of the 12 year old which included well aimed potshots with folded paper strips at the girls side during lunch and an entertaining football match which, much to the joy of the players involved, turned into a minor brawl and rumble.

they were walking down the road from the school gate. amay was a bit apprehensive about walking so far when the bus was about to leave in 15 minutes. but viraj was insistent."viru, if we miss the bus it will be your fault entirely. it’s getting late buddy!". viraj ignored his friend’s comments and entered the bakery with the large facade that said "fun 'n bake"

mrithyorma amithangamaya...

mother was banging at the door now. amay shuddered and picked up the soap again and started to rub it with more vigor. over his hands and the hard to reach back. lather was formed and washed away with the shower. still he wasn't feeling clean. not clean enough. he looked at his hand. wasn't there a film of sliming covering it? giving a dull glow? he was marked and he could see it. so could others! he rubbed the half dissolved bar on his hands, feeling the slight sting of soap touching the innards through raw skin.

----------------

he was amar. amar bhaiyya as he was called. he was funny, had a collection of amusing anecdote and was miles apart from the perpetually cross and sour sorabji. most important of al, he was a patient listener to the oft ill-treated (as they think) 12 year olds at the thresholds of teenage and puberty. it seemed to fascinate amay that there were grown ups in this world who did not smirk in a superior fashion when you talked to them about the meanness of teachers and the ache that they felt when a girl looked at them. the second was never uttered to any one.

he soon became a regular visitor there and always managed to sneak in time even during the lunch hour to pay a quick visit. it was on sports day that fate played spoilsport on him. the multitude of students, visitors, parents and guests were too much for the school transport to handle at one go and it was decided that they would run shuttles. amay was happy that he got an extra one hour in which he could show the football trophy he had won.

he sat on the edge of amar bhaiya's bed in the attic of the shop, which was closed for the sunday, showing him the trophy. amar bhaiya ran his hands over the trophy and remarked "it’s nice, congrats!". his hands traced a line from the top of the shield to the base nested on amay's thighs. his hands did not stop there as they slowly ran down his thighs, past the seams of his sports shorts. dirty sports shorts.

tamasoma jyothirgamaya...

his eyes fell on a small piece of marble that had broken off from the side of the tub. his hands and the whole flesh of his body were raw with the soap and constant rubbing. he didn’t feel clean. something seemed to be still stuck to him. an all pervading mist of slime, sin and dirt. try as he might, he wasn't able to remove it. maybe the rough jagged edge of the stone would help? his hands shuddered when he gasped the stone. like he had shuddered when he was bound helpless and with a rag in his mouth. gagged to fear while he was being violated.

----------------

his father found him sprawled on the floor, whimpering. the skin on his torso and hands torn. the blood mixed with the soap and the clogged water near the drain to form a pink and white ensemble that seemed painful. he was grasping the marble piece still in his hands.

----------------

[ as adults, we have some ways to oppose harassment. whether we do or not, is a different matter. but we can yell, scream, try to fight back physically and attempt to raise awareness about it. but what does a child do? their inherent trust in adults, their fear to question their motives and actions, and their own inability to distinguish between right and wrong often leaves them powerless ]

zarhat

[i don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war -georges clemenceau]

i found this in amit varma's blog india uncut:

just off the corner of namak mandi, i get chatting with a gentleman named mohammad anwar, who makes and duplicates keys. as soon as mr anwar learns that i'm from india, he asks , "have you heard of sher shah suri?""er, yes," i reply."well then, you must know that he built the grand trunk road, which connects peshawar to calcutta. now, that grand trunk road, to me, is more of a truth than india and pakistan."he nods wisely here. i nod as well.

(the gt road actually goes beyond both peshawar and calcutta, but you get the point.)

googled!

i got this idea from google. anyone who browses google would have seen the ever changing logos. the one that changes according to the occassion.
like these:




well, from now on thats what even i'm gonna do!! as a small first step (and a giant leap for my blog) today's logo would de inspired by holi, the festival of colors

suggestions? comments? well, the comments section is always open...

metamorphosis

auto-mation?

it happens only in bangalore

doppelganger

there’s a nifty tool called msn polygamy which lets you run 2 instances of messenger on your computer. you can login with 2 different ids at the same time. i usually login with both my official and personal ids. what i have done is; i have added one id in the other’s list.

sometimes, i open a messenger window and chat to myself, from one id to another. the chat heats up so much that i have pretty intense conversations.

it freaks out the people around me…

sometimes, i don’t even remember typing some of the replies and feels like i am chatting with someone else…

that’s freaks me out…

do you have any weird stuff like this that you do? the comments section is open...

lazy friday chat

1500 HRS (IST), Company IM
gary: had ur lunch?
olivia: yup
gary: i had just now
gary: what are u doing this weekend
olivia: hmm…nothing specific. might jus meet some frins..
gary: with paula?
olivia: gosh...we both have lotsa othr frinds other than each other…hehe
gary: :)
gary: if you want, we can watch a movie
olivia: if i want????
gary: yes, which one do you want to?
olivia: when did i say i wantd 2?
gary: ok, when is ur birthday
gary: mine is 26^th nov
gary: urs
gary: ?
olivia: 8^th march
gary: wow, my mom's b’day
olivia: sorry, 8^th july i mean
gary: hey, that’s my cousin's b’day
olivia: on which day are there no b’days?
gary: what?

(laughter)
well, this guy needs a serious shakedown on basic rules of hitting-on someone!!

decisions

steve jobs once asked john sculley:
"do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water? or, do you want a chance to change the world?"

i think. contemplate. i imagine.
roar of the wind that blows from the frontiers unconquered.
the battle of "what i want" vs "what i got" rages in the arena of my mind.

apocalypse

"ring a ring of uranium,
pocket full of plutonium,
fission, fusion,
we all fall down."

imagine...the countries of the world standing in a circle.
imagine...they are holding hands.
imagine...they are chanting this..

knowledge

over a hundred years ago a university student found himself seated in a train by the side of a person who seemed to be well-to do peasant. he was praying the rosary and moving the beads in his fingers. "sir, do you still believe in such outdated things?" asked the student of the old man. "yes, i do. do you not?" asked the man. the student burst out into a laughter and said, "i do not believe in such silly things. take my advice. throw the rosary out through this window, and learn what science has to say about it". "science? i do not understand this science? perhaps you can explain it to me.", the man said humbly with some tears in his eyes. the student saw that the man was deeply moved. so to avoid further hurting the feelings of the man, he said: "please give me your address and i will send you some literature to help you on the matter." the man fumbled in the inside pocket of his coat and gave the boy his visiting card. on glancing at the card, the student, lowered his head in shame and became silent. on the card he read: "louis pasteur, director of the institute of scientific research, paris."

the force

(drum roll) dum..dum..dum..dum-de-dum..dum-de-dum...
long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…

i was watching star wars yesterday. not one of the new fangled episodes i to iii which are choc a bloc with visual effects and cgi (i mean, george, i know you own ilm and probably don’t have to pay a penny for those server farms but there’s a line between visual eyecandy and visual diarrhea!) but the original star wars which is now episode iv: a new hope.

its one of my favorite movies ever. if you strip it down and examine it all you would find is a storyline that’s mediocre, visual effects that are asinine and a slew of confrontations. but add george lucas’s magical story telling approach, harrison ford’s charisma, james earl jones’ voice, stunning landscapes, plethora of weird and inimitable characters (chewbacca an all-time favorite!) and an ensemble cast you get pure unadulterated magic!!

if you haven’t watched it yet go to the nearest video store and grab a dvd of all the three classic star wars movies. get the digitally re-mastered version, they have better visual effects. may the force be with you!!

an unfinished life

[new year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions - mark twain]

at last i am blogging. well, i feel like the guy who’s back in his wife’s arm after a long time. love is there but there a wall of aloofness that blocks intimacy. maybe its because there was a long hiatus between this and my last one. there has been a lot happening in my personal and professional life but i don’t want to bore anyone (least of all myself) i have been very unjustified towards my blog for the past few months and plan to make up for it this year.

i am starting the year by renaming my blog. good bye “the lone wolf” and welcome to “an unfinished life” well, if that’s not a spanking new start then maybe the resolution to blog more is? as my resolutions go, this is the most aesthetic one and lets see how successful i am in keeping it.

well, there i go!! i have fallen into the age old fallacy of the new year. isn’t the new year just hype? new year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. i wonder why? what’s the point when what happens every new year is the same? yesterday, we all smoke our last cigarettes, took our last drink and swore our last oath. today, we are a pious and exemplary community. thirty days from now, we shall have cast our resolutions to the winds and gone back to our vices and embrace them with a fresh vigor.

also, why should the resolutions begin on the first? i do think new year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on new year's day, don't you? since, because it's an extension of new year's eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. also dieting on new year's day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. i think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on january the second.

anyway, i think my brain is satiated by all the ramblings that i did now. these were inside my brain like cobwebs and were cluttering up valuable brainspace. mush needed. now without further ado, let me go on…living…and unfinished life…