Spare a Thought

The recent events in M'lore isn't really the most comforting news to anyone who has the habit of frequenting flashy restaurants with female company.
If you watched the video, you could see girls getting beaten up worse than how you'd dust your carpet against the wall on a Sunday morning. Not to be funny, but that the only other activity which comes close to the force with which these girls were hit before they could figure out where to run for cover. All because of the allegation that they were doing, may be, drugs/some dancing or drinking/ improperly dressed. All these are a possibility, people doing drugs are a lot closer to you than you would've previously imagined (for people who don't know), yes, there was some skin on show, a lot more fair skin than what the assaulter would've seen in real life all his life, but, blankets, cloaks compared to what those hooligans would probably see on the Internet every night while they jerk off. And yet, nobody is policing the Internet as aggressively as it is required today.
People taking drugs should be punished, yes, people smoking should be punished, yes too. people who drink too, i agree. As of now the police are cracking down on narcotics irrespective of gender, race and nationality, I'd stand up and clap for that. But, you don't see men slapped on the face, surrounded by a group of men and hit on the head with slippers or hurled across the street like a piece of wood if they're found smoking, drinking booze or visiting brothels, do you? No, you don't, then why this "special" treatment? Booo.... You don't have to be a feminist to figure out what happened recently wasn't merely barbaric, but totally uncivilized, heinous and fundamentalistic.
This wasn't the first of all crackdowns in the country, When i was in Chennai, there was a crackdown on a pub where a few school and college kids decided to try out a few drinks. The police raided the bar, took everyone they found (there were under-aged ones too) into custody, kept them overnight at the station, called their parents / took contact details the next morning and let them go after giving them a stern warning. Well, that was the police. The fact that a fundamentalist organization carried out this raid and not the body in-charge of law-keeping says a lot on how much control the police have over such issues of fundamentalism and extremism in the name of religion, moral values and anti-western movements.
In retrospect, a group of drunken men outraged the modesty of two women in Mumbai in full view of the public and the press, when the masses were questioned, it was largely put on the women, them being improperly dressed and wandering out at the wrong time of the night. A group of non-drunken men groped and molested college girls during the parade celebrating India's victory in the 20-Twenty world cup, the press even shamelessly took statements from one of the girls which described everything that they did to her, published them in the papers and in two days, the news just disappeared from the papers, but i see the news of Scarlet Keeling's murder in the papers even till today! Why double standards? Why don't they slap those men on their faces, beat them up with slippers for molesting? Are they afraid of something? Or do they think it's justified? Were the women "very inviting" and therefore, men being men, did it?
Whatever it is, it has happened, and I am at shame for it in front of people from other states i know. I'd surely be scared to go out with my friends, girls now. Who's to tell where they'll attack next and what guarantee do i have that I'll not be beaten up for having coffee on the 14Th of Feb with my friend (a guy) cause some deranged group of people might think I'm gay or (a girl) that I'm embracing western cultures and becoming westernized? Moral policing, the disadvantages with that according to me is that it's very perspective-based and there're no hard set rules which apply to all. I hope heads will roll over this issue and something will be done to the people responsible, be it politically or personally responsible, they should all be punished as the same.

Eclipse!

It had been quite a while since the last eclipse had occurred, but even then, the hype was pretty low, no warnings, no live coverages, to exclusive shows on TV channels talking for hours repeating the same 10 second clip of a woman looking at the sun through tinted glasses and no "do's and dont's", no coverage of the of the special poojas for world peace, politicians success/others' failures, country's growth etc.
What did happen without even having been asked for is the shops shut right on time, in fact, some hotels didn't even open, hard luck for a guy trying to escape from the spring cleaning (in winter) going on at home by a very over enthusiastic mother to get a cup of coffee. Roads looked deserted, there were few cars, fewer bikes and even fewer policemen, everyone having been pulled up for the R-Day parade in various places. That left Mysore like how it was supposed to be all this while, peaceful and quiet! The day was nothing special really, just another day in the cosmic sense of it all! just the sun and the moon doing their job, the earth doing it's job, and incidentally, earth happens to find itself in the right spot at the right time, sometimes to watch Venus pass by, or as in this case to watch the moon do so. I sometimes wonder, if the sun and the moon had any voices (and some attitude) they'd watch us getting all excited and the physicists trying to set up instruments to take measurements to confirm the general theory of relativity (yet again, during totality) and they'd go "yeah, so???..... dude, you just got lucky this time, we do it all the time, just that you're not around to see it!" Just a bit of nonsense thrown in to keep things light! Well, at around three in the after noon, i got bored of playing Colin McRae and beating the living daylights out of my fellow competitors, so decided to go out and witness the event and may be even take some pictures. It was a nice sight, the pics came out well too. Have a look!





Among other things, I'd been to an ice cream parlour, Kind of a famous one in Mysore and notice around eight to ten, well, as my friend sub calls them "F.O.Bs" or Fresh Off the Bus people. They weren't fresh off the bus from any town. They were fresh off induction, you know, not just any induction, Infy Induction, the time when they make you sign books full of forms, policies, waivers etc... give you a debit card with no money in it and no name on it and a flashy tag to wear! yes, the flashy tag, ID card, the most annoying piece of attire, both inside campus (when i was employed) and outside, as it was the case this evening! I remember all the HR ppl (doing their job for once) shouting at the top of their voices, still in diplomatic language, to "remove the tag when you step out of the gates, do not display your tag outside the campus" and you can always hear them think "else you're asking to be robbed (and/or groped if you happen to be dressing up like the girls i saw)". But, they never listen and they'll never learn (they actually will, when they get into production and start hating their job at which time they'll be embarrassed to admit they work in infy), unless they're robbed once, and believe me that happens! So, if you're reading this and if you're from infy, don't, i repeat, do not wear your tag on the road, nobody's gonna respect you anything more cause of that piece of thread! in fact employees look down upon you as ignorant fools! Anyway, that's my bit of social service for you! rest is your luck!
That's about it from me for today! Goodnight!

A Case of Frozen Knees

After many a days of practice and "psyching up" for a big run, the day was finally upon me, a clear and sunny day but chilly nonetheless. today myself and sub didn't plan on doing much. Just a stroll, eat well, sleep, have dinner and run was the plan on our minds, but turned out a little differently, I have to say. Firstly sub had to get his insurance renewed, so was off to somewhere near Mahaveer Jain college, while he was busy honking away at the chicks to make way for his one-shock machine, I was *cough* busy with other things. Once the insurance formalities were done, we were almost near his place when I, like a block head, came up with the idea of going to Gangarams. It was about turn and back to M.G road again, after doing two laps of M.G in search of parking, we finally set foot on the road and were on our way to Gangarams. I made him buy FEM (sorry sub) and I bought Bertrand Russell as usual and some book on time management, well, yes, I suck at it, thanks!
By the time we were done there and came back, it was post-lunchtime and pre-snack time at all the hotels, all except, of course, pizza hut and the good old Murali the waiter! But we didn't want to have something as heavy as a pizza, something which is good in calories, what else, pasta, garlic bread, green salad and ice tea. This is probably not the best combo of food 7 hours before a half marathon, but we couldn't improvise any further.
After that, we split wanting to catch some sleep, but both of us couldn't get any sleep, the nerves had stretched themselves tight by now! so I passed time tossing in bed till it was 1930hrs and arrived at sub's place while he was still having dinner.
There was a small discussion on what to wear and we finally agreed that we would wear something warm. But, I didn't want to run in pants, so, told him I'll change there into my shorts. When we arrived at the venue of the event, it was a medium sized part going on with bands, salsa, food and lights! I saw the Ethiopians warming up at the end of the field, and I thought I would need some warm up too (not to compete with them, mind you). I started running at a very slow pace and immediately felt the tightness in my left knee, it was then I realised that it was gonna be a long, long night!
Start time nearing, I was all set to run, when the clock hit zero, everyone started their own race, and I started mine, so extremely slow, sub was already way ahead of me, I was still cold and showing no signs of warming up. I couldn't possibly run any faster without pushing my knee over the limit, so relaxation and breathing was the key as I set my own pace, acknowledging the every enthusiastic people who were standing at the side of the road bearing the freeze just to cheer us on. At around 15 Minutes into my run, I was swamped by a group of girls each one smelling of a different perfume, perfume! in the middle on the night! the fragrance was the least of my worries! Because these were not the seasoned running girls, these were girls who belonged on the ramp, figures, you know, with the dimpled elbows, knees which've never had a scar in life and rounded calves. seeing them overtake me, caused a panic in my head. With all due respect to those girls, well done for their run, but I have been running for a year and a half now. completed 3 big runs and have been constantly practising for this, being overtaken was the last thing I expected from them. As I looked on while their silhouette kept getting smaller and smaller in the orange light, I began to calm myself down saying, "relax gk, they won't last long, they won't last long, you'll pass them all, they don't know they're going too fast, you've had more than enough training" but I was wrong, they did last long! very long! while I was nearly a kilometre before the U-turn in the course, I met sub, he was nearly two km ahead of me on the course, I asked him how long I had to run before I could turn, clearly he wasn't keeping track of distance cause all he did was shrug his shoulders and point in the direction I was running!
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the U turn came. and I was glad to make the turn, I had to go back to the start line and do this once more to finish the half marathon! surely, I could finish it walking at least. But there was something worse waiting for me. Just one hour into my run, my trot became a walk and I saw the first of the marathoners in full gallop as they zipped past me like someone was chasing them on a cho-cho match! I walked to the 10km walk and tried to run again, by then my thighs were too cold, I couldn't feel my hands and my knee was frozen solid refusing to let my leg bend! so I walked again, trying to explain to curious people why I still hadn't worked up a sweat, wasn't even panting for breath, but was already limping on the road. I made it two km and decided that I'd act wise and just call it quits, there was no point in continuing any more, I would have been risking my knee and my entire future athletic life if I had decided to continue. So I came to a stop, jumped the median and hopped on an ambulance to hitch a ride to the finish line. In the ambulance, I found one of the Ethiopians lying with cramps in both his legs, caused, he claimed, due to lack of practice owing to a sickness he'd suffered earlier.
Having reached the finish line in an ambulance, cold and broken-hearted, I went to collect my warmers and jacket, the Ethiopian was helped out of the ambulance, he was in a worse condition that I am, visibly in pain and unable to walk. I collected my clothes and was warming myself up, striking a conversation with some people nearby and waiting for sub to come. But there had been a little confusion regarding the meeting point, cause while I was sitting here waiting for him, sub had finished somewhat of a power nap on the median after finishing the race in a very decent 2hours and 56Minutes! After meeting up with him, we decided to have coffee in the nearby coffee day (we always seem to be lucky when it comes to coffee), there was a mad rush with people waiting in a queue for coffee and the ones who were lucky enough to get access to the restroom, coffee and a chair, in that order, were fast asleep in their seats! We managed to get some seats finish out coffee and were on our way back home riding in the shivering cold. we stopped on the way somewhere at a tea stall hoping to warm ourselves up with some tea. Sub here had a moment spilling the tea with a uncontrollable jerk due to the cold! The rest of the journey was pretty fine, we reached home by six and I was soon fast asleep with the thick blanket sub gave me. He on the other hand was in somewhat of a rush having completed his first half marathon and didn't sleep! so the rest of the day, he was understandably drowsy.
This was the way my first attempt at the half marathon had to end! Sad, but then, looking back at it, I consider myself to be lucky that I was able to get back to cycling the very next day. The next one is a 10k run in May. It's gonna be a different story then! Chao for now

The Big Run.

This weekend's the TOI Bengaluru Midnight Marathon a much anticipated event since it's going to be my first half-marathon, considering I complete the whole thing in some decent time! In view of that I started preparing for it since the past week or so and my injured left leg hasn't made it optimal so far. I thought rationally and decided that since my left leg is going to get injured again in the marathon anyway, why should I strain it even more in training and risk the chance of completing the event? but, if I become a couch potato for a week it'll mean the end of this run! I won't make it past 5K for sure, so, I needed to keep the legs pumped up, at the same time, avoiding any further impact-related exercises which would harm my left knee any further. What's the only alternative? yup, cycling! The plan was to do around 25km a day in the morning cold. Things have gone slightly off track cause I've managed to cycle 10km one day, 16km the other and today I somehow managed a good 28km in the morning,Chamundi Hill to back. (heh, some consolation). It was difficult today, may be because of the dinner I had yesterday, only chapathi, no carbs etc. The plan is to eat as much carbs as possible this week, but it's only easier said than done when you get bored easily with more than two servings of rice, potatoes are bad for our stomach, high-energy chocolates are expensive and late to kick in and there're no banana shops in the morning when you forget to keep a stock of it at home.
28 minutes was the time it read on my watch, 4 minutes slower than my best time, but a very effective one as I concentrated on using all the muscles in my legs and backside, equally in both the legs, which ended up giving me a backache when I was almost at the summit.
Things are going fine, my impact-free exercise routine seems to be working, my knee is recovering, I'm burning off whatever little fat-pockets I had remaining and my muscles are getting used to being used for hours at a stretch without complaining. Fluids levels are on the level most of the times unlike Nov/Dec 2007 when I used to dehydrate every alternate day and had to top up salts externally to stop myself from going dizzy and disoriented while walking, heart-rate is in the late 40's early 50's beats per minute, so physiologically I'm prepared, mentally I can force myself to be prepared, physically, hmm , not so sure about my left knee to be frank, still a little worried about that. The race is going to be in the middle of the night, and at that time, the only logical way would be forward whether you are able to run or not. It's not like the earlier races I've run, where people could just skip the median, catch an auto and go back to the parking lot in the stadium. This is going to be in the middle of the night, thinking about it, it'll be 1 in the morning, 1 AM when runners are going to start giving up, probably 10k into their runs, due to multiple factors, the darkness, not being able to see the road that far ahead causes an anxiety which can sap you off energy, improper dinner/dinner time, the cold which might cause cramps, the time of the day and how it affects the body in the form of fatigue and sleep etc. Many factors totally.
The cold is now one of my biggest worries. I've observed that I always take time to warm up. It would not be a good idea to turn up to the even in those skimpy running shorts and tee shirt. I'll have to wear something very warm till the time I go join the group to take the start, but then how long will that take? where will I keep the warmers? how long should I warm up? I'm sure it's going to be at least 12 degrees on that night, probably even lesser. may be it wasn't a good idea for the organization to hold a midnight race in the dead of winter.
But then, all these are just thoughts, once I put on my shoes, I'm sure many of those thoughts are going to disappear, leaving very few things to worry about, probably only the cold. being stranded in the middle, probably will never happen, but even if it happens, I'm counting on the race volunteers to help me out with it. Hmm , so a few more days of exercise left. Planning to stop with Friday morning's workout and then keep stretching, warmed up all of Friday and Saturday, eating good food, having a good sleep and using my legs as little as possible.
Interesting indeed, have to wait and see how this one turns out! One thing is for sure though, I will be a little more fitter than at least a few people in the group, so if I'm having these worries, they should be having nightmares about it. So, if they're fine, it's either ignorance or confidence, either way, it helps not to worry about such things, yes? Wish me luck!

p.s. if anything goes wrong, Shazo will be on standby I hope. Stay awake Shazo!

The last meeting of 2008, zara hatke!

I couldn't have put it better than Shazo did! :) Just read and enjoy!

My First Long By Shazo!

P.S. Congrats Shazo!

Happy New year!

Hello Folks,
It was great having your company this year, I say that with reference to the company i have found both online and off. I look forward to your company, support, help and motivation (whichever applicable to the situation, with many thanks to the ones you have already offered this year long, now that i remember in retrospect!) in the coming year and the experiences, memories and challenges that might be awaiting me/us in the new year which is about to dawn on us all! Hope you all have a good time!

A few things I'd like to shout out to a few people:
Mr Unicorn -->Things were as turbulent to you as it was for me, let's hope the grass is green on the other side :P
Shazo --> I don't think you'd wanna realx ever! :-/ how about a change in your biological time zone for the next year? ;)
Sidd--> Good luck for the "year of the exams"
Mr Rx --> relax, certifications come and go, Jan 1st 2009 comes only once!
Kitt & abhi --> nothing in particular, happy new year anyway! :P

Congrats to all the people who got married/engaged and Hurray to the ones who're not when '09 enters!

All the best of the guys who're flying abroad for studies in early '09

For those who whine about their job every weekend (there're literally millions of them, but only hundreds i know), here, you get one more year to do so! ;)

Clarification: The wishes were in no particular order, so no importance should be given to the order of the list!

And for all my blog followers/readers/commenters, keep blogging, hope to hear more from you people in the new year!

Happy New Year to all of you!

That's All Folks!

Marooned

This weekend was a strange one. With all my friends on their bike in far away Gokarna, the route I've missed twice due to various reasons, I was left almost all alone to spend away the time this weekend. Thursday somehow went well, with Christmas spirit taking over me and a friend, while I got a new pair of Nike running shoes, he got me a pretty huge plum cake & pastries at Loyal World.
Friday, I badly wanted to try out my new running shoes in the morning, but sadly, due to my sleep cycle being a displaced by three hours, mornings for me usually happens as 9AM! So, had to push the plan to evening. I spent all day doing nothing that could be termed important and was waiting for 5:30 to try out my new running shoes. On to Kukkarahalli lake and I immediately found out two things, one, that me left knee still hurts as if I was injured the day before and two, my threshold for pain is not high as I want it to be. I thought it would be a tough job for me on the 10Th of Jan. So, I went ahead anyway trying to complete the course on the injured knee. A sad, and excruciatingly painful, 25 minutes later I finished, almost visibly in pain and very angry! I knew for sure I wasn't gonna be running on Saturday! so had to think about something else to do! When I went home that evening, I got my hands full with a sudden shock! The internet wasn't working! Any sort of fiddling would not bring the ADSL light on my modem back on! I spent the next few hours restarting the modem and staring at the LED trying to will it on and was having anxiety attacks in the process! Quite surprised as to what went wrong, I went to sleep after playing Colin McRae rally for a while.
Saturday was upon me, I had the job of getting my internet fixed. I was at the doorstep of BSNL even before they had a chance to sweep it. They directed me to a room to lodge my complaint. The room was full of WLL devices, new modems and old modems with only on person sitting and working on a computer! So that had to be the broadband service room! I told him what was wrong; he booked a complaint and told me they'd act soon! I wasn't sure how soon, but they seemed concerned enough. In the meanwhile, while I was there, I thought I might as well ask them about the WiFi card for my modem which I would be in need of if I buy a WiFi enabled device. The guy told me that the contract with Huawei, the manufacturer of the modem I have, and BSNL has ended, and therefore there's no stock of the card! I'd heard this story before, so I thought I'll just drag it a bit and went to the box of old modems and asked if I could have a look at it. He said I could. I just picked up a modem which I had and told him I wanted a card for that. He looked around a few times, then came to me and asked me whether I know how to configure it, on hearing a yes, he fished out another old modem from the box. pulled out its WiFi card, and gave it to me, Free of Charge! And said "take it and go"!! I said my share of thanks and left happy knowing I have a card which would otherwise cost me Rs.1000, all because someone was in a good mood that day! The BSNL person attending to complaints then came home and did some tests on my number and announced that it was a line fault since the line had some water inside it, there was some voltage showing up in the tests and therefore the ADSL light wasn't up. He then said that the whole line has to be replaced and since he was not the person with that responsibility, it will have to wait till Monday! I spent the remainder of the day, checking mail on my mobile phone, not because I'm addicted to it, but because of other commitments. And there's no bigger flush for your pocket than checking two mail accounts on GPRS and sometimes replying to them! On Saturday evening it was agreed that my friend and I would go cycling to the Chamundi hill as usual.
Sunday morning, an extremely chilly, icy morning with pockets of fog in many places. My friend and I went up the hill in a leisurely pace, 44 minutes is the time we took to complete it, just under double the time I have taken on my best attempt. We talked for a while, watched a couple of foreigners get robbed off their packet of chips by monkeys. They're evolving, they know how to tear open a packet of lays without spilling it on the ground!

Once I came home and slept, I woke up only at 4 after being knocked out cold for more than three hours all thanks to the previous night when I spent gaming and slept at 2! Sunday evening, I loafed about a bit, talked to the returning heroes from Gokarna and went home.
This morning, Monday, the BSNL guys came home at 11 and started digging all over the place searching for some cable that they'd laid long long ago! after many unsuccessful test pits, they found the cable and started tracing it to the junction which they had to search out too. To avoid all this, the person came up with a bright idea to run the tests again from the local switch box for out area. Then it was diagnosed as a CPE (customer premises equipment) fault and not the line fault as it was informed to me on Saturday! Soon there were a swarm of BSNL guys in my home trying to find out what the problem was, then suddenly to our shock! the ADSL lit up as if nothing happened! everything was pinging! no packet loses, full speed, no trace of the chaos which had struck on Friday night! So, they all had a small laugh and left scratching their heads leaving only the poor guy who dug up half the front yard searching for a cable to clean up his mess! he did that and gave me a number to contact for further complaints regarding broadband and he left too! I was quite relieved that it was all over, because a few more hours without internet and I would've been forced to buy a Plug and Play modem! Phew! what a weekend!

Last Minute Troubles

Tomorrow, the 25Th of December 2008, five friends of mine are going on a trip to Gokarna and back, covering many places in between. This is the second time that i am gonna miss riding my bike on that route. The reason why i didn't go this time, is an entirely different philosophical discussion which i shall skip for obvious reasons.
Me and my friend (Mr. RX, if you remember him from my earlier posts), were having our regular brew of strong coffee at our regular hang out hotel. After that I asked him whether he needs some tools, puncture repair kit, spare tube, air pump etc, which have come to great use on earlier trips, just to help the guys if they happen to run into trouble along the way. He had told me that since none of them know how to remove a wheel, any tools that i give would be only extra weight on their backs to carry. So that idea was scratched off the book. Having wished him a happy and safe journey, we left for our homes.
Then at 9:30 at night, i get a call from him saying that his bike has a flat tyre and there're no mechanics around to fix it! People who know me well know that I'm always all excited to do such things, and I'd rather do such things myself than let somebody hammer at my bike mercilessly. I packed up my tools and left for his place. On reaching, it was quite obvious that he had a flat tyre, and there was a nail stuck in it. What was not obvious is that the nail was 2 inches long. And the troubles were just beginning. I found out that the spare tyre i had taken had no pin in it. And i couldn't remove the pin from the punctured tyre to put it on to this one. This happened to be a blessing in disguise as it saved him the trouble of changing tubes again in Hassan tomorrow morning, cause i knew there was no way that the tube i had could withstand those distances on the patch it already had on it. This info we found out from the puncture guy who had to be woken up from sleep to fix the wheel we'd taken to him. He told, the punctured tube was useless and the tube I'd taken to him, the one which was already patched, was of little use too and confirmed my fears that if put, it would give up in under 100km! He goes in and brings a brand new locally-made tube, it's not good, but is surely better than the one i held in my hand. Finally we got it fitted on the tyre and took the wheel home and fitted it back the bike under the light of mobile phones and streetlights! the whole thing took a little more than 1 hour to complete! kinda unfortunate just before a big trip, but better now than in the middle of nowhere! Once again the bike burst into life and the test ride was two-big-thumbs-up! I wish them a happy journey and will be looking forward to meeting them on Sunday evening when they return!

Kaboom!

This morning, a friend had brought over his laptop for some major upgrades. While I was trying to configure the network on the dreaded Vista Home Ultimate, My comp went *poof*!!!!!!!!! It had done that before a few times, but it always started up after fiddling with the wires a little, but this time, nothing! no life!
I thought: "oh man, now Windows affects hardware too",
I felt there was too much load on it so, I disconnected the CD-ROM IDE & the floppy controllers and also the spare fan and then tried, nothing! then I switched off the UPS and switched it on, just in case it might help, the UPS went "ktttrrrrrkkk" and never came back again! hmmm... this was getting serious! One of the good friends trying to help me out, suggested that I should try plugging it in directly to the power outlet. I thought that was sensible, since there was no way my ups would turn on now, I might as well see if my comp is fried or not. I plugged it into the wall outlet and turned it on and it went KABOOM!!! sparks from the motherboard and the house MCB tripped! and that, ladies and gentlemen, was the time dear GK broke out a rare sweat, hurriedly grabbing the torch I searched for blown transistors on the board, nothing was seen thankfully. Without wasting much time, I disconnected all the cables from the back and took it to the repair shop ( I was afraid to explore further after I saw sparks). There he said it was a SMPS problem, he got a brand new 450w SMPS out of the box and fitted it in the cabinet, switched it on, and voilà! worked like a charm! My CPU is filled out with stuff the details of which I will not bore you with here right now!
Then it was time for the UPS, gave it to repair and was asked to come in the evening when I was told that the fuses and the MOSFETs (whose function in a UPS I don't quite understand) were fried! He asked me what all I connect to the UPS, I said, 1 CPU, 2 monitors and one modem. he asks which monitors, I said one 22" LCD and another 14" CRT, and he stared at me as though he would've assaulted me any minute for abusing a product of a company he works for by overloading it with appliances! asks me to either use a higher capacity UPS or stop using the LCD monitor! O_O Since I didn't know I had made such a big mistake in the eyes of the APC community, I kept quiet, took delivery of the UPS and went back home. Connected them all back together and my computer works like a charm again! Considering that I bought this baby in the June of 2004, she's still holding up to my demands pretty well! Anyway, this just saved me from a potential pocket-burning purchase of 30K for a motherboard, processor, ram and graphics card replacement which I should've gone through if my motherboard was fried! It was all over in 750 bucks! A close call! But saved because of my lucky stars!

The Diary Dilemma!

This evening when I had been to Sapna Book Store, I saw the most comprehensive collection of diaries for the coming year that I have ever seen in my ten years that I've been visiting Sapna. Each year, the diaries get more exquisite and complex adding more features and better paper. To top it all, enter a company called Nightingale, probably the finest paper in India that I have ever seen, and even in their range, there are only a few papers which take my M-nibbed Parker which I've been using for nearly 11 years now! Consequently, people say it writes like a sketch-pen! but glide it does! it's the smoothing thing I've ever written with, so smooth that it almost goes out of control while writing! I know what you're thinking, no you may not write with it when you meet me and yes I'll stop bragging about my fountain pen! It was because of this fountain pen that I started getting addicted to Nightingale.
I'll tell you why I brought this topic about my Parker. Well, I have a habit of writing (do I have to add the word literally at the end of that sentence? :P) yes, writing with a pen! Well, all you "Abhimani DevruagLu" out there, as NataSarvabhouma "Annavru" Dr. Rajkumar used to say, happened to catch me in a story telling mood, now face it! I'll have to tell you why I started writing! ok here goes,
When we shifted to Mysore from B'lore for second PU, I was nearly into clinical depression for a few months! I'd never seen a college where people studied in lunch breaks, refused to share notes and wrote in the same page in three different colours! The roads were too empty and I'd never seen a traffic signal for miles on end! so I thought I'll get back to reality and contact my friends in B'lore to ask what's happening there! What better way than to call up huh? yeah, go ok GK call and talk, you too are human, I thought. What I heard from them wasn't good, it seemed Forum was all the buzz there. I'd shifted in April, and to my luck, on July 3rd 2002 radio city FM 91, B'lore's first FM radio station started! "Man full English, Early morning metallica, Saturdays are club nights with Suresh Venkat and DJ Ivan, The late show with Priya Ganapathy, Rebel Yell with Jonzie and Santosh Gnaynakan a.k.a saggy" is what my friends told me over the phone, even letting me listen to a song! After a month, dad almost burst a vein seeing the telephone bill. He said, the next time I got him such a bill, the telephone goes and I along with it! So, I had to resort to more primitive methods to keep in touch and keep listening.
Those were the days of quality, a plain black-and-white cellphone would cost you 6K and you could hammer a coffin with it, not like the cheap mobiles of today which stop working once you drop it! So, I could never afford a mobile too. So, struck a deal with my dad to supply me with 25 inland letters every month and I'd stay away from the phone. I'd never seen a quicker response from him, for the letters were on my desk the same evening by the time I came back from college! Letter problem solved. Now listening.
During those days of 2002, there would be a power cut every evening and during that time I'd write letters to all my friends, listening to a new-found interest of mine, Shortwave Radio first on my Panasonic System and later on my old Sony IFC-22, I'd usually listen to the BBC world service, which I do even today. So, while I was listening, an idea struck me, "why not make the biggest possible antenna and put it on the terrace, Shortwaves require no orientation, so it'll work" , so I went around stealing all the stray telephone wires, skinning them for hours and then joining them to make one hell of an antenna, probably a hundred or more feet long, which went out of my window to the terrace, I had to instruct people at home not to touch the wire or the system while it was raining, I didn't want to get myself or them zapped with a billion volts of lightning. Work it did! For the next three years, I got near crystal clear reception of Radio City which ended only when other newer radio stations started polluting the signal and also cause of increased use of cellphone and cellphone towers everywhere!
Anyway, letter writing, right, stick to the point GK. I used to write letters, with my fountain pen, till it started blotting on the letters, that's when I switched over to pencils for letters. From then on, I've been writing letters, when I was not able to write letters, I would write a diary and those two hobbies have stayed with me till today, albeit a little dormant. So, the habit of buying diaries every year. As the years passed, the stuff I write in them has diminished to only a shadow of what it used to be when I had all the time for it. Buy the buying hasn't stopped.
But recently there was a revolution of thought process in my head (I like coining such terms, it makes me feel intelligent :P) and I suddenly had a rush of ideas and thoughts which were extremely volatile but seemed immensely profound and eternally useful because of which I felt I should always have a book & a pen with me so that I can write them down and use it later. So, when I got some money, I went and got a compact Nightingale Jute bound diary. But then the actual dilemma started, the diary was too small and I wasn't able to write more than four lines in a day's space, but, if I had bought a bigger one, it wouldn't have been portable enough. So eventually only half the diary got filled and the other half of all the "revolutionary thoughts" vanished into thin air!
And this evening in Sapna, I committed the same mistake again, I bought an identical sized Rayon bound compact diary, But then this year, I'm staying pretty much glued to my seat at home scratching my head. So this bright red thing should be pretty much right in front of my eyes all the time. So, look out world! I'm armed with my "thoughts & ideas" (sounds similar to "ideas and opinions" eh? ) and it's all going to come down in ink on my brand new diary from the 1St of Jan '09! hurray for that!
So, will I get the mood to write again, Peace!
Cheers!