Life's a crazy mess!

A serious case of blogger's block has been looming around me and a couple of my blogging buddies. We constantly visit each other's blogs and notice that the other hasn't blogged and procrastinate blogging on our own. Today, I'm breaking this habit and finally penning down my thoughts.

I had a wonderful New Year's Eve, the jobless (uhm...let me rephrase that, lifeless) person that I was, I went to work on New Year's eve and spend the turn of the year working on keeping two of our switches up. Uhm...to the non-technical audience, I was just making sure you guys could call your loved ones and say "Hey!! Happy New YEAR!!!" :) yep...lame but hey, I wasn't the only one there :) hehe..so there are more of us who don't really have a life. A heavy fog had hit the city then and my cab driver had an awesome time stopping every few seconds to step out and ensure that we were still on the road....and occasionally to walk around and check where we were :) After a gruelling two hours of searching for streetlights, sign boards, and insanely blind bikers speeding at 120 in a fog of visibility 50m, he finally got me home. A short nap later, I learn that most of my friends got wasted the previous night hours before the turn of the year. Hehe...so I don't have a life, the rest had way too much of it to stay up to enjoy the countdown...so hey...guess it evened out :)

Well, speaking of night activities....guess I'm getting used to the fact that I do dumb things, I fail to notice them these days. The other day I had a night activity and was to reach an Exchange at Tis Hazari at 9:45pm. Since there was this huge confusion about cabs, I finally didn't get one and was asked to get to the exchange on my own. The miser that I am, I decided to use the Metro. Left home at 8:30p and walked towards the metro station at Dwaraka Sec 10 (This is the second last station on the westward direction of the Blue Line). My plan, arrive at CP in 45 minutes, catch my connection to Kashmere Gate through the Yellow line, get the last train out of Kashmere Gate on the Red Line to Tis Hazari just in time to get there by 9:45 or 10p. Oh well, with Delhi's well known punctuality, being 15 minutes late would actually be too early!

Sigh...little was I to know that the world was conspiring against me already. I reached the station around 8:50p and well guess what happens, no train....5 minutes pass.....10....12....and finally a train pops up...yep, I had forgotten that the frequency at this station was 12 minutes and I had just missed the previous train.

A whole 40 minutes later I get a call from one of my colleagues asking me where I was and that they were leaving Tis Hazari to the site as we were getting late. I'm sure all of you have been in situations like this when your mind just fails to perform a task that it has spent over 23 years perfecting....thinking! I jumped out of the train at the next station and jumped into a rickshaw and headed to the site....uhm...now for the punch line...my dearest readers, I didn't know where the site was :) I'm almost always sleeping just before I get to this site at a place called Shaktinagar. It's in a place I haven't ventured into during the day and hence I was pretty sure I'd get lost. The rickshaw finally entered Shaktinagar Circle (it's also the market there...read my prev post to understand what they mean by "markets" here)...and yes you guessed it, I was lost...we asked a couple of people around if they knew where I wanted to go...yep sounds demented, but we tried giving it a shot anyways...finally we were informed that we were on the wrong side of Shaktinagar, and we would have to travel another 5-10kms to the right place. Time's ticking away and my colleague rung up when I hadn't reached. Thats when my dearest brain decided to work for the first time that night, and I gave my phone to the rick driver and he gave him directions. Cold winds had me numb but hey I was finally there after a whopping 20 minutes!

Scheduled Time of Departure - 8:15p
Actual Time of Departure - 8:30p
Expected Time of Arrival - 9:55p
ACtual Time of Arrival - 11:00p (Oh yes...even with Delhi's norms for punctuality, I was LATE)

Sigh...guess some things never change!

A whole five months have passed since I joined my company its been one hell of a ride. A good one at it :) After a month long training we were made to put our learnings to practice. This involved skills on kite flying, dancing, and screaming the hell out of our brains with the Rock Concerts followed by strenous physical torture on the basketball field, and the TT tables of the campus. The fun was short lived though. They had then realized that although our skills in the above were great, we were far from their desired requirements on the IT front. And poof...another training. And now another....which will be followed by another and another and another.....basically its just gonna go on till they are certain we have brains. Sigh....a never ending scenario in my case. Its what one would call an infinite loop.

Start -> Does Shanim have the required intelligence? -> * If yes, Place in project ; * If no, Place in training -> Add another training to list -> Repeat query, if no re-iterate, else case yes.

Basically I've never been able to reach the "case yes" criteria as of yet. Hence, I'm enjoying the training :) But hey I ain't complaining, I'm joining my time in the company, its an absolutely lovely place to be in, not just for the chicks, but for the work culture and every bit of the company. Uhm.....guess I haven't mentioned the company's name yet have I? Its none other than the third best IT firm in India, the Rainbow flowered Wipro Techonolgies :) The place to be in!

Last night I'd met up with one of schoolmates at Indranagar. Sundays do change the whole traffic scene in Bangalore. The roads are more or less empty, and I love riding around in my ever-loving CBZ then. A quick trip on the Inner Ring road and through CMH, I finally got to where we had decided to meet. "Cake Walk" was our destination but to our luck, it was full. We decided then to move onto the Cafe Coffee Day at CMH - Full again, 12th Main...full....100ft Rd....Full...finally after a long ride into Jeevan Bhima Nagar CCD we found a space to sit! Phew! And this is with Coffee Days ever few metres in Bangalore. I wonder what it would have been without them. hmmmm....yeah I guess the Barissta at Leela would overflow then. Oh well back to what I was getting at. We had this conversation that kicked off with the traffic at Bangalore and moved onto VAT and Power distribution in India (which according to a mag which he'd read is poor in india with approximately 50% loss in distribution alone!).

What got most of my attention was his conversation on the traffic scenario. Its true, Bangalore does have its share of good roads, why it has good roads all over and not just in select regions but the catch? All roads lead to Rome they say, in Bangalore, its more like "All Roads lead to a galli". Wide roads that have over 3 lanes suddenly disappear into tiny half laned roads with the same volume of buses, cars and ricks plying. Its more like a funnel trying to stuff in as many cars as possible to their destinations (A good example beng the Inner Ring Road as you head towards Koramangala). What more, we have a junction or a traffic signal every few metres, on an avg 500m apart. Yep, these are the reasons for our gridlocks.

"What about Hosur Road?" would be your question. Yep that was mine too :) Local traffic and the devious plan on BMTC to place all bus stops immediately after a junction! We spend over 10 minutes waiting for all the bikes, ricks and tempos to cross over in a junction...say in Singasandra and just as we assume the road has been cleared for movement, a BMTC/Tamil bound bus decides to stop and take in passengers, taking in not just the hard shoulder but the left lane to prevent anyone from moving ahead.

For the first time, I seem to see a solution in the right direction by our govt. They're off to build an elevated highway. But what I can't seem to understand is that why couldn't they think of this ages earlier? Did they really have to wait this long?? Bangalore, 5 yrs ago was probably the best place to be in...lovely roads, great weather, beautiful green promenades, shady trees, sparkling lakes and the works! Now, when you think of Bangalore, you think of cars, bikes, cars, bikes and more cars, and dust all around. A prayer goes out to all those who decide to take the Hosur Road to work (Electronic City ie.) for we may not know which Hosur bound/Wipro/Infy bus or truck would run over him. Quite a contrast won't you all agree?

The world hasn't really ended and there's always a second chance, lets just all pray that things do get better and the present HDK govt. keep their word on bringin back the Bangalore that we all once knew to be the "Green City of India"

A very merry Christmas to all of you out there! I love this day....quite a few reasons, one of it being gifts...sadly Santa seems to be forgetting me almost every year, but its always fun seeing kids' eyes glowing when they see themselves surrounded by gifts.

And there is something else special about this day. Its the only day when overweight guys (I plan on joining this group pretty soon) are really looked upon :) After all...Mr. Claus is hell overweight! And all of seem to be spoiling his diet by treating him with milk and cookies on X'mas eve......hmmm...think about it, with a population of over 1.5 billion, lets say around 40% of the same celebrate Xmas.....of which a generous 40% (most of us are lazy to bake those cookies in the first place, the rest would've finished it before our moms could leave some for our fat delivery boy :) ...ok ok sorry Santa...now i know why he's been forgetting me)....now with those numbers, its a lot of cookies...the guy must be gaining atleast 300kgs every Xmas eve! Poor him...uhm...wait I should be feeling sorry for his reindeers!

Speaking of giving, since I'm completely broke, I've decided to dedicate this blog to all my friends whom I had planned big gifts for but ended up being broke and couldn't even afford a 'Mentos' for them. This blog is dedicated to all my pals who made me who I am....will be mentioning a few names, but since I have too many complaints coming around about how long my posts are, I wouldn't be able to put all your names...sorry guys

First and foremost, let me start with my dearest gang in school....Akshath, Jameel, Jasim and Livin....the five of us were often call the Backside boys...no we weren't a band and we sucked at singing...but well there was another reason for the name. It all started with our Math sir in the 11th grade..the bugger couldn't speak english for peanuts! We guys prefered sitting at the back, you see its more comfortable sitting there and sleeping rather than smelling his mouth stuffed with 'paan' and suffocating to death! He hence called us Backside...we modified it a bit :)

uhm...small rewind, going back to my 9th and 10th, it was Mudassir, Abizar and Osama...something common here? Yep all four of us are muslims and we lived nearby...I was the only southie in the gang and maaan did I have a tough time learning Hindi (Mumbai-style)....rather learning how to speak the language...I still can't write well...hehe I studied the language for over six years and I still suck at it! The last Hindi exam I wrote, I passed with just 5 marks above the pass mark...and this was after a 11 hour phone conversation with another pal of mine Ajay (the guy was a brainiac!!!!) discussing every single mathra in the bloody classwork book...did it work? naaaaa...:) Muddi is out in Dubai trying to figure out why he is still studying when all of us are working and Abizar is in Pune trying to figure out which chemical would result in the next fuel revolution (he's a Chem Engineer)...as for Osama....if any of you know where this guy is, please do inform me....the last I heard was that he was walking around someplace in Mumbai looking like the local "Bhai"....hmmm...

Mumbai reminds me...Vicky...buddy how can I forget ya??? Vikas is a guy who is still a kid by heart....and he's got a stomach that seems to have no end. Doctors tried to figure things out by telling him he had a stone and operated on it...they're still baffled. The guy can stuff himself with two whole pizzas, 2 burgers and a 1 foot Subway sandwich and still have enough space in his stomach to eat dinner at home.....which usually is a lot of rice and a couple of curries. Yeah now you guys know where I got my eating habits from! The guy is a big fan of Manga cartoons...so if any of you have a bunch of Pokemon or similar cartoon tapes...let me know..

The blog would seriously be incomplete if I don't mention two gals who really left a mark in my life...Aparna and Zahabiya.......yep yep thaliya thaliya...and yes I was teased with both these gals in school....uhm...come to think of it I was teased with all gals in school....sigh...A2Z...now I remember :( alright let me get back to wat I was trying to write out here. Two real sweet gals, seriously! Zahabiya was the short tempered...wait...wat am i saying "was"...she is still the same short tempered idiot who keeps getting bugged about everything around her...esp me :) hehe I'm scared to meet her now actually, might end up getting my leg amputated or something....but I admire the gal a lot for the strength she had and got through some of the worst things in life :) as for Aparna...she's one of the sweetest gals I know...yep I know there are quite a few of her classmates who would beg to differ...but hey...she is!

Speaking of strong ppl...I can't forget Sushmita there....she's actually the strongest gal pal I've made in my life...and probably the most creative of the lot...she's out there planning her new Youth Mag for Chennai...the very best of luck to her!

So I've missed many pals but I better move onto college else I just won't finish this post! College got me a big sister (yep in addition to the three I already have)...her name's Sheetal...the gal has soo much energy in her, I'm sure it would be enough to power the whole of South India!!! She was more or less my mini mentor in college, esp during those lousy Jr-Sr ego clashes...Vicky is busy looting her off her salary at this very moment by hogging away a bunch of free dinners :) Sheetal...don't worry, I'll be there soon :)

My hostelmates....Vijay, Ajith, Aji, Aneesh, Bobby, Jom, Saras, Abhi, Fiyaz, Ameen, Jose, Sujith, Jobin, John, Mathai, Pattar, Sukesh, Thahsin, Shaheen, Tinku, Shamju, Anuraj, Geo, Sony, Costy, Naigil, Sanju and every1 else from the MH....thanks for bringing a smile on my face everyday and the billion kicks on my ass for my birthday!

My roomie for three years, Shameer....the guy has seriously great talent with his guitar...wonder if he'll make a good replacement for Santana.....hmmmmm...naaaa maybe not ;)

My projectmates...Basheer and Manoj...these guys are the best...Basheer for one taught us all to take life as cool as possible and Manoj...the guy can make any situation hilarious.....if he were writing this blog instead of me, I'm sure half you guys would end up having a high BP for the laughter induced!

Anu Jose Pala....the idiot whom I made my little sis...she's the gal who taught me how to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk....and then realise that my bill has actually sky rocketed!!!

Jayarani...a gal who thinks of everything...let me explain, on our tour to Goa and Bangalore in the 3rd year, she carried everything except the kitchen sink....seriously! anything we needed, she had in one of her bags!

Deepak, Manu, Vivin, Silas, Sajan, Sneha, Bency and all the other juniors in the Training and Placement Cell of my college...it was teamwork in lieing to different companies about how great our college was.....it was only when I was out of college that I realised we weren't really lieing!!!

Alright so maybe she's not from my college, but Susan...a friend who has always managed to bring a smile on my face even at my worst days....yeah she doesn't realise this but everytime I call her to console her about her endless problems ;) (she's surely gonna kill me for this), she goes on laughing at every sentence I speak...yeah some call it madness...but I call it cute...and yeah...she's one of the only ppl who comment on my site every other week....(Sameera you're another one...shall include you in my next post for sure)....speaking of Susan...how can I forget dear ol' Anoop...the nutty idiot who does the craziest of things...as an example...this guy actually travelled from his college to his place in Trv around 4 hrs and then went back halfway and got back home all in a day's time (or was it two?)....watever and the reason was pretty funny...not getting into that, 'coz im sure he's already ready to beat me up!

And last but not the least...Tina...the sweetest gal I've met...she's celebrating her Birthday today, so lets all wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! :)

So that's my Christmas gift for this year...hope all of you enjoyed it....

Merry Christmas once again!!!!!!!

PS: To all those whose names I haven't mentioned....am reeeeally sorry, but this post is getting waaaaay too long...sorreeeeee

Its almost 4am and has been one long night. Yep, I’ve been packing and since I leave at 5:30 in the morning to the Railway Station to catch my train to Cochin it doesn’t really make sense sleeping. All those who don’t know me too well, yep I’m a crazy insomniac who doesn’t like the idea of sleeping. I’ve always come home for the weekends from my college in Chengannur during my four years there and there have been days when I hadn’t slept on both Sat night as well as Sun night and I would end up having a nice nap during my labs. Its always fun being caught ‘coz at most times I end up answering all the questions asked by my dearest lecturers when I’m half asleep. Hmmm…have a feeling I ought to sleep more often, might actually come up with some innovation that I can patent and make millions…

Wanted to start this blog entry talking a bit on marriages. I really can’t understand the concept behind putting tons of gold on the bride. I really pity brides on their marriages, they’ve to paste a smile on their faces 24X7 as well as hold all the gold on their neck without stooping. Hmmmmm………guys seriously wats the point in all that? Yes ppl, it does imply that we guys will have to end up giving her a massage on her neck for atleast a month plus to get it back to normal….in case you’re a keralite muslim....increase that tenfold! Our cultures are pretty unique…and I guess I kinda figured out where the world got an idea of putting an ‘L’ board on vehicles with users who’ve just got a new license (alright its not exactly a new license but more of a learner’s license…didn’t want our naughty users to get ideas). You see our nation devised this ages back, its called “virunnu” in here, when the newly weds have to visit every single household in a 3000 mile radius and yep the poor bride will have to carry the ‘L’ board (read ‘tons of jewelry on her neck’)….why? I’ve never understood. Guess it was a scam that was created by our forefathers and the jewel tycoons like Alukkas and Bhima back when we were some molecule of carbon deep within the crust of the earth…..if it were…you guys at Exon and K-Mart…learn something!

Alright I’m kinda happy with my research and I have to say it out again (all those who’ve heard this before..sorry…I’m too excited)…well its something pretty interesting. “More than 90% of all Indian girls have their names ending with a vowel.”  This does include names that end with a ‘Y’…replace that with an ‘I’ or and ‘E’ and it’s the same result…..yaaaaay!!! Three cheers to Shanim and his discoveries :)

There’s another thing I kinda wanna tell you guys about. A friend of mine was telling me about a forward he got. I can’t really remember the exact thing but it was something like this. A guy and a girl were on a bike, the guy was going fast (duh! nothing new!!) and the girl asked him to slow down as she was getting scared (quit nagging for a change). The guy said it was fun and he refused to slow down but after a while he did….and then he suddenly asked her to tell him how much she loved him and then asked her to take his helmet and put it on. The next thing you know the newspapers scream loud and wide that there was a bike accident and the guy dies while the girl survives….

Ok so it does sound pretty sweet and romantic and stuff…but lets give it a second thought. Theoretically, brake failures aren’t dangerous unless you’re going downhill, you’ve run out of road or you’ve no brains. You see, there is something called engine braking wherein you just leave the accelerator, and start lowering the gears as you gradually reduce speed. Yeah it may cause you engine to blow, but hey wat’s more important, your bike’s engine or your life? You decide! Secondly, he asked her to take his helmet off and put it on…now if I were riding a bike with a brake failure, the last thing I would want is a big huge thing taken off my face to take my vision off the road for a few seconds…the way helmets here are designed, lets make that a few minutes! If they did get into an accident, I’m sure it must’ve been ‘coz of that! And lastly, what was he thinking in the first place?!?!?!?? Its his love we’re talking about right? Who would in their sane mind ride a bike recklessly fast when you have your most precious possession behind you? Ok this sounds pretty weird from one of the most reckless bike riders living inside the Corporation of Trivandrum (also known as Thiruvidangore/Travancore/Thiruvananthapuram…and if some ppl have their way with it Ananthapuri)…but well its true, I wouldn’t ever want the person who sits behind me get hurt ‘coz of me, and well if its someone I love, trust me I’d be going as slow as possible :)….you see, knowing ‘that’ person is sitting behind me, I wouldn’t want the ride to end in the first place….so why move fast??

Weird thoughts yes…aaaah weird reminds me, does any1 really know wat the red button with an inverted triangle on your car is for? Apparently none of the drivers in Kerala do. According to them it’s to tell everyone around them that they’re moving forward in a junction and not taking a turn….hmmm…I personally think most of these guys are just warning us how dangerous they can be in a junction and to keep off. For God’s sake it’s a Hazard light!!! Pissed me off the other day when I had taken my darling out to celebrate the lowering of fuel prices here. Got into sooo many thoughts I’d forgotten to pay attention to the road……a long ride later I came to my senses and well I was halfway to Kanyakumari and had already crossed the border into Tamil Nadu!…I really gotta start concentrating! Speaking of which, I made a huge blunder a while back. Had to get tickets for the morning train and since I hate standing in a long line early in the morning, I decided to get it at 9pm….left home and headed to the railway station which is around 13kms from my place, stood in the line and when I had just another person in front of me I realized I had left my wallet in front of my PC!!! sigh, had to come all the way back and go again to get the ticket :( pathetic me!

Anyways, guess this entry is long enough already…stopping for now…will be back in India  second week of October and hopefully shall keep blogging during my vacation.

Cya guys….

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback :) Alright Alright, I get the picture, will cut down the length of my posts from now on. Hope you guys will continue visiting.

Today I finally went for Friday prayers after a whole 2 weeks....no I wasn't lazy, its just that life wasn't letting me. Two weeks back I was halfway home from Abu Dhabi (ok so maybe Bangalore ain't halfway, but you get the picture) and then last week I was in Administrative hell....also called Kerala Water Authority....the buggers actually charged us close to 5k on water! Alright so we haven't been paying for 10 yrs, but seriously, hasn't God gifted us water and hasn't He given us the right to use water without paying for it!?! Sigh....anyways after a bunch of walking up to different offices strategically placed 10 kms apart from each other in the city, I've finally been instructed by the accounts dept in my ward to pay the bill 4 days later (4 days from today ie.) as he has to update the details of my account. Four days to update a record?? Talk about efficiency....uhm...but wait, I would too, 'coz it would take forever to find a record in the piles of dusty files that lie in these offices.

Anyways, back to where I'd started, I went for prayers and it felt good. Finally got to talk to God about a few things I needed. Its like a huge shopping list everytime I go for Juma'a. Once the prayer was over, I was out and on my way to my bike, which I had to park on the other side of the newly constructed underpass in the city. This is another architectural wonder in Trivandrum. Why a wonder you ask? Well firstly, it really doesn't serve a purpose (yet). The approach roads are designed such that you will reach the tunnel at an alarming speed of 10kmph! No I didn't miss a digit there, I actually meant ten kilometers per hour! The other day I had decided to actually use this underpass....wanted to go from Palayam to Bakery Junction and well this was the best option (the alternative was to drive...ok ride my bike 4kms round two stadiums and cut in to ..... oh well u get the pt, go a long way round). I moved in a real slow pace and finally got to the tunnel, was impressed at the design (barring the bump at the bottom of the tunnel) and was able to cruise through at 80kmph (yeah guys 80 is pretty fascinating here....and considered reckless, more on that later) and finally when i got out of it I get to see a broken down sign that says "One Way"!!! A huge screech and a stare from the man in white and khaki later I was stopped right at the center of the road. Started moving reeeeally slowly and with a huge smile I asked the cop if it was safe to move further or had I lost another 100bucks as a ticket. He just laughed and said it was ok...shocked me! Supposedly PWD considers all sign boards on the road as art and they refuse to remove the same once its no longer required....wats worse? The real "One ways" don't have signboards, just a cop on the other side of the road with a big fat book of tickets. (I've always been lucky, high speeds and tactical movements behind buses and ricks have always helped)

Speaking of my riding, yes ppl I'm considered unsafe on the roads, and so are the rest of the licensed drivers in Trivandrum. Owing to my speeds, most people refrain from sitting pillion on my bike (barring a few friends who love taking risks....got all of them to sign Life insurance with me as the benefactor ;)). So the next time you are in Trivandrum and you see a Blue CBZ with a person whose face is blinded by a bright white light (no this is not my halo....neither is it an ad for a toothpaste...its just the glare off my forehead) avoid sticking your hand out for a lift, 'coz im sure you would regret it.

So what exactly had I started this blog for again....aaah yesh, the Palayam underpass...Its soo beautifully constructed and the engineers have to be applauded for their innovation. This can surely be considered the most idiotic construction as we actually have to walk almost a km to cross over to the other side of the tunnel thanks to there being no provisions for pedestrians....to the guys at Punj & Lloyd, atleast a ropeway would have been good.....besides that, well I'm in for progress, and I'm sure within a year or two, once the road works are finally complete in our heavily dug up town, its gonna be one smooth ride.

Suggestion to Punj & Lloyd, please allot a lane for protesters from the Secreteriat to the Legislative Assembly. You really don't need to build more roads, just get that done and all traffic problems in the city shall disappear.

Alright call me lazy. This morning i woke up to find my ever so efficient broadband connection dead. I was in a state of shock. Without hesitation, I'd called up the local customer care center here in Trivandrum and I got an appointment for the evening. Aaaaaaaaaah! How was I to survive the whole morning without exchanging bits of 1s and 0s to ppl around the world?!!?!? I would be cut off from civilization for just too long! Naheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Alright once the whole drama queen session was done with i decided to get some sleep and wake up when I was a little more sane. Guess I needed a real long time for that 'coz i ended up waking up at 12pm!