irony

after searching 5 kms of nh-4 for a place to lunch at, we finally found a place that served barely-edible bhurji and omlette, with a 1 hour wait time.

and we then find the most humongously sized mcDonalds a few thousand metres from it.

in the end, we had 2 lunches :P

did you just say twitter?

twitter is somehow creeping up in the scale of things that make up my life these days. it's probably partly because i've met a few (nice) people from twitter, and they really turned out to be as good, if not better, than they seemed to be online.

but i think it's also got something to do with what people are using twitter for these days.

some time ago, i was telling a close friend about twitter. he didn't quite know what it was (yes, there are actually a lot of people like that), so i tried explaining it to him.

now if you'd ask me "what is twitter?" a couple of years (or even a few months) ago, i'd typically have come up with something on the lines of "micro blogging" - which it is, in a way...but somehow isn't a very nice answer to give someone. especially if that someone doesn't blog. or worse still, doesn't read blogs (yes, i actually explained what is a blog to someone a couple of months ago...i had to actually show her my blog before she understood!!!).

so i tried a new explanation this time:

twitter is a social network.

my friend immediately cut me off with "NOT AGAIN!!!"

i persisted:

twitter is a social network with exactly 3 features:

1. you can follow other users, users can follow you, it doesn't have to be mutual.
2. users post messages either privately or publicly. public messages go to everyone who follows them. private messages go only to a specific user.
3. twitter is flexibile in all points other than the above two: users don't need to be people, posting/reading posts can be using any system, most interestingly sms/mobile web/messenger/browser plugins, etc etc.

he hasn't joined yet, but i'm not taking any bets on how long he takes to sign up :)

meta days

the past week or so has had a disproportionately large number of "meta days" - days which somehow, by their content make me reflect and understand the rest of my life, and give me that nirvanic feeling. not just peace, but singularity. the feeling of knowing where you fit in the universe, and finding yourself in that exact place.

like a few days ago, ralston's blog prompted me to say:

i can't define happiness. the only thing that i know about it is that it finds me only when i'm not looking for it.

--kris

and then a few days later, a friend and i were just chatting over a couple of drinks, and he was telling me how thoroughly he was enjoying himself thanks to him getting back to playing the guitar. it seems all his life he used to play because he wanted to be better than the rest, but he's suddenly discovered the joy of just playing for himself - experimenting in his own ways, trying to pick up new songs, and even saving up for a better (but secondhand) guitar.

and somehow, in that moment, something fell into place. i realised where i am. i'm in the exact same place as he is. i've stopped living for the future, or for the people around me. i'm back to embracing the moment, but this time more than ever before. doing things because they please me, and nothing else. loving people because i want to, not because i hope they'll love me back (something which i never thought possible by the way).

i realise that this is not a sustainable state of affairs (for example, i'm now overspending and undersleeping, overeating and underworking - tons of things like that), but still, it's the ultimate high: living for yourself.

oh and did i forget, i've been listening to awesome music too? mostly trance, but a lot of odds and ends too :)

location is everything

few new terms and some old (but rather uncommon) ones:

wfw = working from work (what you should be doing when you're at work)
hfh = homing from home (what you should be doing when you're not at work)
wfh = working from home (self explanatory)
hfw = homing from work (when you sit in the office and do things you're supposed to do at home)

sonu!

you know you're a real gem of a person if 3 of your friends happen to start chatting (separately) about unrelated topics and yet within 10 minutes of each other the topic changes to how much they miss you.

you're a gem sonu, a priceless one.

ps: the friends involved are vimal and joylyn :)

the future is futile

school life: everything is free
college life: the best things in life are free
work life: junk all the free stuff because you feel you can pay

-- kris

it's hard to live like a college student when your bank balance goes up and the time you have left goes down every month, but i'm trying :)

had a blast: check

this weekend's trip was very different from my usual ones, mainly because i set off without any planning whatsoever. i just turned up in pune on saturday morning and started calling up people to make programs. and this was despite having fixed the date over a month ago. surprisingly, it actually worked, and i managed to do almost everything i set out to!!!

bike to pune: check
learn the route from bbay to pune: check
meet my relatives (apeksha, anshul and gang): check
meet renata: check
meet deepesh: check
meet gaurang: check
meet mitul: check
meet anurag and leena: check
meet adwait: uncheck
meet shweta: check
meet aditi: uncheck
meet/wine tasting with (the other) aditi: uncheck
meet/wine tasting with michelle: uncheck
go wine tasting: check
bike around and explore pune: check
eat good food: check
booze: uncheck

that gives me a score if 11 out of 16...not bad at all for an unplanned trip!!!

in command

strange as it may sound, it's fun being commando. probably not while wearing jeans or whatever, but maybe while chilling out in shorts or tracks. i roam around my colony commando all the time, but i've always kept it a secret, thinking i was the only one with this quirk and that people may think i'm a weirdo.

that was till a few weeks ago. my friend asked if i wanted to step out (sometime around midnight) for a short drive.

we drove around the colony, tried to follow a hottie who fell flat on her face while walking on the road (in the hope of getting a good look at her face and finding out where she lives...yes, all men love doing that :P), and finally ran out of things to do. my friend then suggested we drop in at his brother's place - apparently he was having some sort of house party.

i protested: i'm not dressed up for a party (i was wearing shorts and a faded tee)

he countered that he was dressed as badly as i was.

i protested: we'll get late, i have work tomorrow.

he countered that he had to report to work 3 hours before i did.

after a great deal of hesitation, i finally told him:

"but dude, i'm commando!!!"

apparently, so was he.

the party was fun, but i didn't dare dance...and i had to be very very careful while kissing the birthday girl ;)

my secret

i'm a fucked up person. i will always be. but you won't ever realize it unless you're less fucked up than i am.

free

some people let me do whatever i want to because they don't care.

others do it because they think i know what's best for myself.

my life holds itself together because of people who fall into neither category.

thanks for being there...i may not speak of it often, but i wouldn't be able to live without you :)

terrorism win

the terrorists have succeeded.

i've always preached a lifestyle devoid of fear, much less terror...and i live by it too.

unfortunately for me, it seems terrorism can win without fear or terror.

i biked to daman a couple of days ago with my friend apoorv and a tent. it was a nice but long ride (170km to be accurate), when we finally reached the place, which i must add, was a rather well maintained tourist spot, and which made up for it's lack of natural tourist-unfriendliness (the beach was muddy, nay, mucky!) by having clean roads, well lit and architecturally beautiful street sides and monuments, and friendly locals with a chilled out attitude. but in the end it didn't matter.

our first brush with authority was while entering daman. a couple of cops waved us to the side of the road on account of our large bag. we stopped, showed them our bag and explained what was in it and what we were planning to do, had some friendly chitchat about our backgrounds, and rode off after thanking them for their vigilance.

unfortunately that experience was the best to come.

our next brush with authority (my friend's, actually, because i had rode off with my camera looking for interesting places while he caught an early-evening post-drinks siesta) was very unpalatable to say the least.

to cut things short, we were rudely shooed off the beach, bags, baggage, and hurriedly rolled up tent in tow, citing security reasons. apparently camping on the beach is prohibited in daman, due to orders from "higher ups", who we have not taken "permission" from, and who are "not available" to give permission.

the strangest part is that other people were allowed onto the beach more than 3 hours later, well after dark, and the cops themselves were sitting around at their vantage point that could barely cover 1/3rd of the beach - which was the brightly lit up section.

we were a harmless pair of civil adults, who were willing to be watched/searched/identified, who just wanted to stay on the beach for a night. the cops would be there all night (if not, i guess all this surveillance would be meaningless), and we were staying in a brightly lit area where they could keep an eye on us from any appreciable distance.

now there's talk of all christmas/new year celebrations being called off. and that includes in goa, where i'm supposed to celebrate the new year.

i just hope all these harebrained "security measures" actually deter terrorists...because if they're half as intelligent as i am they'll find atleast a dozen ways to get in without being spotted. like the dark sections of the beach. far away from the cops. and also, keep a couple of accomplices to keep an eye on the cops, who are probably going to be dozing at their stations a few hours later.

i think i'm finally pissed off with terrorists. and if there's a terrorist act anywhere near me after having already ruined my few and much required vacations, i'm gonna be super-pissed with the authorities too.

the terrorists have succeeded.

howdy!!!

i occasionally come up with conversational nuggets that seem too cool to have not been thought up by anyone before. like a few days ago:

t: howdy?
k: not so dowdy!

strangely enough, google doesn't seem to back me up. which means it could actually be something freshly coined by me. which also means you could notch up your coolness quotient a couple of points by slipping it into conversation with me or anyone who appreciates the finer points of the queen's language :)

ps: usage should be self explanatory. if you can't figure what dowdy means, please go stand in a corner and look at a wall. :P

food

i finally have discovered the criteria for knowing when i've found true love.

she's the one i'll love more than goa sausage and steaming hot pav.

she's the one i'll pick over a lifetime supply of sorpotel and fresh sanna.

ladies, here's your cue. i've taken all the uncertainty out of it :)

ps: i'm serious. it was a moment of realization 5 minutes ago. thanks sonu for asking me the right questions :)

important facts about batteries

i was doing some research on rechargeable batteries a few days ago, and i uncovered a few nuggets of info (gleaned from many online sources, but unfortunately i didn't save the links at the time)

first of all, knowing which battery type you're using is important. most devices use NiMH batteries these days, but NiCd is still used in cordless phones, toys etc that don't need a lot of power. all cameras, laptops, cellphones, mp3 players etc. use NiMH batteries. batteries are usually the first (and most expensive) part of a laptop to fail. read on and learn:

• NiMH batteries cannot be charged in a NiCd charger. they will simply explode. NiCd batteries can be charged in a NiMH charger though. Look carefully for NiMH written on a charger before trying to charge NiMH batteries.
  
• NiCd and NiMH batteries can be overcharged by keeping them on the charger for too much time after they've finished charging. which means, using your laptop while keeping in plugged into the charger even when the battery is full (a very common practice) causes it to heat and reduce its life.
• you can tell a battery is fully charged by it's temperature. when it's charging, it will be slightly warm, but when it's fully charged the temperature increases significantly. if the charger automatically switches off when the battery is full (look for an indicator light), the temperature will subsequently drop, but if not, temperature is the best gauge of when to switch off the charger.
• do not drain a NiMH or NiCd battery below 10%. if you do, the battery goes dead and will refuse to be subsequently charged. you'll have to just throw it away. most electronic devices are intelligent enough to detect when the battery is down to 10% - they call that 10% as "battery empty" and switch off. analog devices like bulbs, motors, speakers, toys etc don't, so you need to switch them off the moment their brightness/speed/volume *starts* dropping (rechargeable batteries keep a constant voltage for the top 90% of their charge, and drop dramatically at the last 10%).
• NiCd batteries *do* have the memory effect i.e. if they're repeatedly charged before they're drained to 10%, they lose that capacity, and take many rounds of full draining/charging before they can regain it. NiMH batteries don't have the memory effect, so they can be charged at any time, except when they're already full.
  

live

terror-inspired blog posts are so cliched. they're either about (in no particular order)

• what happened


• the damage caused


• the mindlessness of the perpetrators


• the uselessness of bystanders/powers that be/cops/<insert pet peeve here>


• pictures of the aftermath


• shamanistic incantations of hope and "spirit"


• anger/fear

well, i don't care about any of the above. the world is a sick place, and it gets sicker each day, with or without my help.

you know what i care about? i care about how i live my life. i want to live and die with no regrets. be it by old age or gunshot or losing my limbs and dragging myself across the road in a trail of blood till i bleed to death. on or off live tv camera.

if i'm not afraid to die, terrorists won't get any satisfaction out of killing me. and if they do, then i've managed to create satisfaction for someone else without losing any of mine. either way, i have nothing to lose, and i've already gained everything i need.

cheers!

taking a bow

i've recently been awarded by winnie the poohi of "catawampus me" fame. while my french is not very good, i shall do my bit to spread the joy to the part of the blogosphere i know and love...but first off, a big thanks for this award!!! i quote winnie (meena in real life :P) verbatim:

Kris : Again, met over the blogosphere. What I really love about your blog is its apparent simplicity! and the honesty with which you blog :)

oh and the award:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

and now i shall present this award to some of my most "connecting" blogs:

"ideasyncrasies" by weirdisgood - the blog that inspired me to start. she posts once in a month, but straight from the heart. if i'm truthful, she's brutal :)

"makes no difference" by joylyn - i just love her wit and sense of humour. i used to almost be afraid of her in real life, till she told me she's pissed off with the world because it's the most satisfying thing to be.

"insight out" by the shmoo - another old favourite. talks about everything from her life to the world around her, to the front page of today's newspapers. never fails to make me laugh. or smile. or want to both at the same time.

"a story a day" and "poetry" by nothingman - both raw, uncut and unblurred expressions of a mind that may seem crazy, but is secretly buried inside all of us. not for the faint hearted. or the weak of imagination.

"just pazz" by paras - a recent discovery. this guy has a great sense of humour, and is a great storyteller. love his stuff.

singularity of purpose

i've been riding for a few months now, and the experience has taught me, among other things, a lot about myself.

i've come to appreciate the adaptability of the human body/mind to quickly respond to situations it probably wasn't originally designed for.

to select the path of maximum survival in a split second.

to react faster than i imagined possible.

to react faster than i could even think.

to judge the gap between two vehicles when i hurtle past them at double their speed, leaning towards the slower vehicle as soon as it's safe to do so. the difference in my response when a collision is avoidable, and when it's not (thankfully only had a couple of those, and with *zero* injuries to me or my bike). without any conscious thought.

but one thing has struck me the most: the way my non-critical senses/activities come to a halt in a split second situation.

i call that singularity of purpose.

i love my job

you know you love your job if you can't decide whether to put a :( or a :) after saying "i'm up to my neck in work" :D

- kris, while up to his neck in work :)

happy music

a couple of days ago, i was in a terrible mood. i was just pissed and feeling like fighting/making others want to fight with me. i rode like a madman, cursed people on the road, was super nasty with my friends, to the point when i realised the only way i could prevent any further damage was to simply stop talking to people till this phase blew over.

i also realised that the songs that were playing in my head were megadeth and marilyn manson. and the only songs on my mp3 player were by eminem (i'm listening to my music collection alphabetically - it's taken me 7 months to get to halfway-through-e :D)

at the end of a long, sickening, aggravated day of training at work, i went back to my desk. as i unlocked my computer, a song started playing in my head. walking on clouds by dj tiesto. it wasn't in my phone/player, so i googled it, found it on youtube and listened to the audio over my office headset.

after listening to it 3 times, i had an almost 180 degree change of mood.

i just realised, there are no angry trance numbers - and there are way more happy trance tracks than in any other genre of music.

dj tiesto saved my day - again!!! :)

amazed by google

a couple of minutes ago i was listening to dj tiesto's "walking on clouds" (super-duper amazing song!!!), and i wanted the lyrics to go along with it. for some random reason, i couldn't remember the name of the song at that moment, and was feeling too lazy to check. as a random shot in the dark, i googled the first 3 words of the song: "chase fading moments". and the lyrics came up on the first page (not right on top, but it was 4th result - right in the middle of my screen).

best of all, i got the words wrong. it's actually chase faded days.

i'm not sure what's more mindblowing now, the song or google's ability to guess what i'm thinking. maybe both :D

dreamcatching

i had 3 dreams last night that i could recall. all 3 of them were noteworthy. two of them involved me, and another one was a story involving a random family whose faces i don't recognize.

when i woke up, i actually decided i'm gonna blog one of them, and i even decided which one - but i've now decided against it as the details are quickly fading away, and have already blurred to the point of being mostly incoherent.

still, there's one quote by my mom (in that dream) that's worth recording:

if someone insults me in your presence, ignore it and let it go. i'd rather laugh at him on the road than cry at your funeral.

- mom, in my dream, 20 minutes ago

bsaically part of that dream involved getting into a fight because someone said something about my mom. the strange thing is that this is not the sort of thing i'd do in real life anyway - but i guess dreams don't have to be that strongly connected to reality :)

smarty pants

sometimes i simply crack myself up:

(insert arbit conversation here)
s: yeah, you smarty pants!
k: i know, i'm smarty pants. i look pretty dumb without my pants :P

indirect anonymity fail

a friend of mine doesn't like me linking to his semi-professional blog with his real name, presumably because of privacy concerns. i broke that rule a couple of hours ago, unwittingly i guess, but still.

anyway, my justification is that anyone who wants to know who he is can figure his real name with enough of thought. here's the process, for the lazy:

1. every post of his has the footer: "posted by <x> at xx:xx PM..."


2. quite a few of his posts have comments by a person with the same name <x>


3. clicking on the comment takes you to <x>'s blogger profile page. it has his first name, industry, and country.


4. scroll down a bit ad you will see that he also has a personal blog. with his full (real) name as the title

there you go dude. thanks for the timepass. it was a pleasure, really :P

russian

my office dress code allows me to wear formals, semi-formals or "smart casuals" during office hours. so given the weather and my resistance to any sort of straitjacketing, i usually dress in smart casuals.

of course, i make occasional random exceptions. today was one such exception. so was september 22nd.

the reactions of some of my friends were rather interesting:

sneha: do you only wear formals on girls' birthdays? (september 22 was her birthday, and today is another female friend's)

vamsi: why are you dressed up today? what's the occasion? (to which my reply was "i only dress up on girls' birthdays" :P)

apoorv: dude!!! you look russian!!! (and he said it today *and* on september 22nd)

social networking for offline world

i recently called my parents to my comp to show them pics of my cousins living in singapore/korea/australia. they love photos, especially of people they don't see often - so they enjoyed an hour or so of me clicking around my cousins' albums.

somewhere near the end of the hour:

dad: so many photos, doesn't your email get full?
me: no, this is not email. they put up these photos on the internet.
dad: oh, they made a website!
me: no, they didn't make the website. this site is where they put up the photos.
dad: so they put up their photos on someone else's site. don't they get corrupted? do they get viruses?
me: no no!! nothing of the sort. it's safe.
mom: oh!!! everyone can see all their photos!!!
me: no, not everyone. only their friends.
dad: so how did you find it? did they send it by email?
me: no, you can search. i found it from - he's already their friend.
mom & dad: ok. so many photos!!!
me: there are thousands. you'll get bored.
mom: but you're their cousin, not their friend.
me: i just call them my friend. then the site asks them if they're my friend. if they say yes, we're both each other's friends.
mom: how funny.

earlier start

i thought i was early when i reached office at 6am last month.

i broke the record by 15 minutes today. this photo was clicked as i logged into my pc (note the blurry wall clock: 5:50 am mumbai time :D)


apparently i wasn't the first guy in the office though (unless there are people who use the parking lot as free parking - can't say anything about that :P)


oh and the security guys were extra polite to me, going out of their way to say "good morning" to me. wonder whether it was just because of the surprise, or because they saw tears in my eyes.

btw, the tears were because of riding at flat 80 all the way from home to work - it's just one straight road except for the first and last 100 metres :)

too many times

too many times, you have been high
too many times, you ran away, in need to cry
too many times, your body lies awake
too many times, these pills you take
too many times, you woken up depressed
too many times, you put your life to the test
too many times, you've taken this trip
too many times, you have slipped
too many times, your body cant take
too many times, you made a mistake
too many times, you haven't realized
too many times, you mind became paralyzed

lyrics by kai tracid. almost seems like it was inspired by my life.

go away!

i have friends who have been avoiding me. some of them admit it, others deny it. all of them expect me to treat them normally.

i'm very sorry, but that's not the way things work with me.

you'll only be forgiven if:

1. you stop avoiding me
2. promise never to do it again
3. i start avoiding you

yeah, all 3 of them, in that order.

don't forget to wave!!!

my friend and i have arrived at a new way of saying goodbye:

friend 1: see you later, alligator!
friend 2: in a while, crocodile!

it's so funny i hope more people start using it :)

resolutions

made a couple of resolutions this sunday:

1. no dui (or rui, in my case) - simply not worth the chance of getting thrown in jail, however tiny.
2. gym starts this week. period.
3. start tracking my expenses again. now.
4. put the time management training back into practice. it failed the first time, but i'm gonna tweak it a bit to make sure that doesn't happen again.

wish me luck, fellows!!!

password secrecy fail

q: what's the best place to type my password, to ensure the exact opposite of secrecy?
a: in my team's group chat room, where all 30+ people from my team (and some 20+ people from outside my team who randomly hang around) are online.

and i just did it around 5 minutes ago.

the story is interesting:

my pc has been having a weird problem since today morning, where the ctrl+alt+del key combination has stopped working, so instead of locking my pc, i just switch off my monitors.

by force of habit, the moment i sat at my desk, i hit ctrl+alt+del and entered my password. i'm so used to doing this that i can type my password and hit enter before the monitors can get out of standby, so nothing seemed amiss till i realised they were switched off.

the last thing i checked before switching off my monitors and heading for the meeting was the team's group chat room.

wicked!

a few days ago, someone called my beard wicked.

you know, i just realized, wicked is one word that doesn't sound evil any more. it just sounds super duper cool.

and wicked!!!

chinese!

for three weeks, in my office, google reader switched to chinese (no clue why!!!), and i couldn't figure out how to turn it back to good ol' queen's english.

the best part about google reader is that it's actually quite usable in a language you don't understand, once you've used it a bit. i survived for 3 weeks before i got over my laziness and figured how to change it back (hint: "settings" is the 4th link from right, in the upper right corner)

oh and a few days before i changed it back, i snagged a screenshot as proof (note the near-empty reading list - proves that i've been using it)

the matrix. it's all around us.

last night, my socks were knocked off by my friend who claimed to be at kashid at the same time as i was. tonight, the same thing happened. again.

okay, so these friends headed to kashid on sunday, so they just about missed me, but i passed them on the road!!! we didn't recognise each other, tripping as i was on the road and my music, and with my well tinted helmet and all!!!

better still, in the course of the same conversation, we both suggested that we should bike to goa - and agreed. i said i'll do it twice, because i've already planned on going once. but that was before i asked him when he was planning to go - because he was planning to go on the same date as i was!!! december 27th!!!

the conversation then steered to other destinations to bike to before goa - and apparently we're both planning to bike to pune. on the same weekend!!! that's november 8th, btw.

i can't call this a coincidence any more. it just can't be.

near misses

recently a couple of coincidences startled me. like on monday, when i went to the russel peters' show in mumbai, a friend of mine who was also there, was looking for me but apparently didn't find me.

freakiest of all, was the fact that we were sitting in adjacent rows...his seat was h40 and mine was i40!!!

the puzzle was sorted out when we figured that he was at h40 on the ground floor and i was at i40 on the first floor :)

a couple of hours later came a real biggie.

i was showering at 1:45am last night, with my phone playing music from its ziploc bag (i do that all the time :D) when it rang.

friend: "wassup".
me: "what the fuck???!!!"

apparently he didn't realise it was the middle of the night :D, and yeah, while i'm usually up at this time i don't like the thought of people taking that for granted (just in case i decided to sleep early for a change, no?)

and then came the *mindfucking* revelation. he was in kashid last weekend when i was camping alone. he finally figured that out from the green tent in my facebook album.

guess what. i saw him there. he and two other guys were the only other people on the beach that afternoon. they played with a beach ball, and then a frisbee. i remember looking at them and wondering if i should join them.

guess what. they saw me too. my friend apparently envied me my tent and suggested to his friends that since i'm all alone, they should beat me up and take my tent.

the only reason i didn't ask him if he wanted to come to kashid, was because i was intent on going alone. in fact, the thought had crossed my mind just the night before, while i was packing.

to add to the coincidences, it was his first trip to kashid (i, on the other hand, am quite a regular :D)

i still can't believe it happened.

camp out alone

i went camping alone last weekend. it was something i always wanted to do, but never ended up doing because there was always something to do with my friends, and i would give that more importance. unfortunately for me, i'm a compulsive program-maker. if i have a holiday, i will call every last friend in the hope of finding something interesting or nice to do with him/her/them. which means that it's very hard to get a completely free weekend to go off by myself.

thankfully, last weekend was the weekend before diwali (oh yeah, happy diwali, everyone!!!) so a lot of people were back home with their families, and a few others had cleaning and house chores to do. plus there were no new movies. and of course, i was getting a lil restive. so at 10pm on friday night, i decided this is it, and i'm going.

here's a few things i kept in mind while packing:

• travel light (i had to bike for 4+ hours with my bag - and that included my tent - so that was even more important than usual).


• carry enough of identification, both with me and in my bag.


• carry stuff to read that i won't get bored of (i took 3 books, so i could choose depending on my mood).


• carry a lot of good music and charge my player completely.


• charge my phone completely. don't put music on my phone, as phone charge is more important if i need to contact people.


• carry plenty of cash.


• carry a good torch and plenty of batteries - super important!!!

one bad thing that i did was that i didn't inform my folks i was going alone till after i reached (they wouldn't have allowed me to go :D). i shudder to think of what would have happened if i got caught in a bad accident. i guess i'll tell my parents next time, because they'll let me go now :P. also, i usually didn't carry my watch and jacket, so i had to switch my phone on whenever i needed to know the time (not that the time was important, except when i was going to sleep, waking up, and leaving)

that's it, really. i enjoyed my ride alone (stayed off the music before sunrise, because i really needed to focus on the road in the dark). pitching the tent was amazing, swimming in the sea alone was amazing, making sandcastles alone was amazing, reading is better in a hammock than anywhere else, watching the sun set over a couple of beers with my camera in hand was splendid too.

i made a couple of friends over my last beer - that was something absolutely new to me. i never talk to strangers if i had someone accompanying me, whether on vacation or not. i guess it's much easier when i'm alone :)

swimming in the sea in the dark was simply mindblowing. it was way better than i imagined in my wildest dreams. this is only the second time i tried it, and swimming alone was....hmmm....i've run out of adjectives. just out of this world.

i had a crisis to deal with too - my tent was locked with a numeric combination lock, and i couldn't unlock it in the dark. my torch, bike keys, matches, candle, everything other than myself, were inside the tent. that's one thing i learned. next time, i'll hide a torch somewhere *before* the sun sets :D

watching the stars come out in the sky, dinner under the stars (i carried a enough of canned food and fruit - didn't have to buy anything other than a few loaves of pav and a cup of tea, and of course the beer). in fact, it was so amazing, it was almost mystical. i spent most of the evening singing to myself. strangely, i sang a lot of spiritual songs, and that's something i rarely ever do. i guess the beauty of nature around me did that :)

oh and i can't forget to mention crabs. i learned how to outwit those quick legged and wily creatures after an hour of aimlessly wandering around the beach in the dark. it was absolutely fascinating, watching them react and adapt to my presence and interference :)

i bumped into my new found friends again on my way back to my tent. it seems they wanted to check on me to see if i was fine. they found the tent closed and assumed i was asleep, when i was actually busy catching crabs at the end of the beach. ah well. i guess they were as happy to see me as i was to see them. they shared their bottle of port wine, i watched on as they played with their sparklers and rockets, and then they went back to their resort. that was the last of my dose of humanity for this trip.

morning was mostly just breakfast, a beachside crap (don't ask me to elaborate :)), a quick dip, packing up, calling home, and leaving.

the ride back was amazing, and i did it in record time and just 1 proper break (this time i wasn't scared because i had got the hang of handling the huge bag perfectly). all the screwed up parts of the road were near mumbai - basically nh4 is completely unmotorable from panvel to mumbra. it was so bad my bag partly ripped with the jerks despite me riding below 10kmph. thankfully my bag held, and it reached home in one piece...probably can't use it again tho. which is a pity, it was just perfect for a 1 man trip :(

anyway...that was my weekend. 24 hours (precisely 24 from pitching to unpitching the tent!) on an amazing beach, almost entirely alone. i'm planning on doing it again and again. maybe atleast twice a year, when the weather is right and if i can find other good campsites :)

screw you all, i'm going home!!!

apparently my blog paints a very sanitized view of my life.



i really don't know how my blog is this clean. maybe it's because i used to blog a lot from work, and old habits (even "good" ones) die hard :D

ps: link picked up from jadis' blog :)

pitching a tent alone

i went camping this weekend at kashid. on bike. alone.

my first challenge was packing everything in a way that i could manage riding for around 180 kms each way, including bumpy village roads, national highways and everything in between (and to make things worse, i still have very clear memories and scars from the accident that happened the last time i tried that).



my second challenge was pitching the tent alone.








everything else was easy in comparison (except for packing the tent by myself - no photos of that :D)

caught on a fence

i have an interesting dilemma.

i want to go camping *alone* at kashid, this weekend. no one else that i know wants me to go. and i'm of two minds myself.

if i'm going, i have an hour to pack and then 5 hours to sleep.

rant

i'm tired of:

people who stop returning my calls and messages, avoid meeting up with me, and then pretend nothing's happened.

people who assume that since i'm usually the first to call/message them, they can just stop calling me.

people who take my company for granted.

i'm sick of you all. not because of what you do (although that's bad too, it's forgivable), but because you refuse to see that you're doing something wrong, and that it's hurting me. and because this refusal is not based on hints, but plain verbal conversations.

the girlfriend problem

of late, a lot of my friends have been suggesting that one of the possible solutions to my multitude of problems is to get a girlfriend (or to make it sound more achievable, "find a nice girl who likes you"). which is ironic, because just a couple of weeks ago i ditched the nearest chance i've had of getting one in recent times (i.e. a girl who probably once liked me, and who i like(d) too, but with whom things went very awry - and that's like the closest by an order of magnitude :D)

anyway, back to the problem at hand. i need to find a girl who likes me. now unfortunately, one of the problems that's being attempted to be solved is that i tend to get lonely, and that tends to make me depressed, which causes a whole lot of other problems for me. also, i tend like cheerful, smiley girls, someone who generally has a positive outlook on life (if she didn't, she couldn't help motivate me to solve my problems, no?). but cheerful, positive girls like cheerful, positive, happy guys. and i can't be one till after i've found such a girl. and hence forms a recursive loop with no obvious exit.

the only way out that i can see is for me to date a cheerful (+female, +single) psychotherapist. hmmm.

addicted to blogging???

apparently i'm 80% addicted to blogging, whatever that means. which is strange, because the person i got the link from is 80% addicted too! must be some magic in the number :P
80%

random factlets

in a moment of boredom, i arbitly decided to tag myself from winnie the poohi's blog :P

have i done the following, if so when?

• Smoked a cigarette: plenty. not regularly though.


• Done some form of dope: plenty again. not regularly either.


• Crashed a friend's car: nope.


• Stolen a car: nope.


• Been in love: about half the time.


• Been dumped: once.


• Shoplifted: unintentionally :P


• Been fired: not yet :D


• Been in a fist fight: when i was a kid...yeah!


• Sneaked out of your parent's house: all the time!


• Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back: yeah, only once. still getting over it.


• Gone on a blind date: once. we ended up seeing each other for months afterward.


• Lied to a friend: a few times. but always told the truth in the end.


• Skipped school: nope. bunked one and a half month of college straight.


• Seen someone die: yeah. two gory accidents.


• Had a crush on one of your internet friends: yup. dated them too.


• Been to Singapore: not yet.


• Been to Mexico: not yet.


• Been on a plane: yeah, just this year.


• Eaten sushi: not yet. will probably do it this year.


• Been skiing-snow or water: not yet. will probably do it this year.


• Met someone from the internet: more than i can count. many became my best friends. i also dated two of them.


• Been at a concert: yeah, just one. dj tiesto. mindblowing!!!


• Taken painkillers: not anymore...but i used to.


• Love someone or miss someone right now: yeah. both.


• Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by: yeah, in the strangest of places.


• Made a snow angel: nope.


• Had a tea party: nope. but i played house-house with the girl next door and pretended to make tea.


• Flown a kite: in school. sucked at it.


• Built a sand castle: yeah, as a kid. huge ones. can't remember how i managed them!!!


• Gone puddle jumping: in school.


• Played dress up: was played dress up on. would rather not recall it.


• Jumped into a pile of leaves: yeah...every time the trees in my building were trimmed.


• Gone sledding: nope.


• Cheated while playing a game: just a few times. never been caught.


• Been lonely: all the time these days.


• Fallen asleep at work/school: all the time. slept during interviews and got the job too.


• Used a fake ID: yup. for 2 years. lost my college and didn't want to cough up the fine.


• Watched the sun set: love it!!!


• Watched someone sleep: all time time. almost everyone looks beautiful when asleep.


• Felt an earthquake: don't remember. no big ones for sure.


• Slept beneath the stars: yeah, do it a few times every year.


• Been tickled: a few times today.


• Been robbed: nope.


• Been misunderstood: all the time. sometimes i even want to.


• Pet a reindeer/goat/kangaroo: goat, i think.. or maybe a sheep. i was too small to remember which.


• Won a contest: plenty. programming, djing, drawing, lucky draws...etc.


• Run a red light/stop sign: about 5 times today.


• Been suspended from school: nope. was threatened to from school and college, multiple times.


• Been in a car crash: nope.


• Had braces: yeah.


• Felt like an outcast/third person: yeah, but i outgrew that.


• Eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one night: yeah.


• Had deja vu: more times than i can remember.


• Danced in the moonlight: yeah. just recently.


• Liked the way you looked: not since a while :(


• Witnessed a crime: yup. committed a few too. nothing serious though.


• Questioned your heart: occasionally.


• Been obsessed with post-it notes: yeah...once long ago in school and then on my first job.


• Squished mud through your bare feet: not intentionally. had to be pulled out by my dad.


• Been lost: everytime i go someplace new.


• Been on the opposite side of the country: about 3/4th of the way there.


• Swam in the ocean: atleast twice a year.


• Felt like dying: yeah, a few times.


• Cried yourself to sleep: only a couple of times. don't want to try and remember them.


• Played cops and robbers: all the time...as a kid


• Recently colored with crayons: nope. sketch-pens.


• Sang karaoke: yeah. love it, and suck at it too.


• Paid for a meal with only coins: regularly, in college.


• Done something you told yourself you wouldn't: all the time.


• Made prank phone calls: yeah, but gave myself away each time.


• Laughed until some kind of liquid came out of your nose: yeah. and eyes and mouth too.


• Caught a snowflake on your tongue: nope.


• Danced in the rain: done almost anything that could be done in the rain.


• A letter to Santa Claus: yeah. probably just once.


• Been kissed under the mistletoe: nope.


• Watched the sun rise with someone you care about: do best friends count? yeah.


• Blown bubbles: long long ago. bandra fair.


• Made a bonfire on the beach: atleast once a year.


• Crashed a party: nope.


• Gone roller skating: yeah. gave up after the first try and a lot of bumps.


• Had a wish come true: just a few.


• Jumped off a bridge: nope.


• Ate dog/cat food: ewww...gross!!!


• Told a complete stranger you loved them: nope. might try that sometime soon ;)


• Kissed a mirror: nope. not with my looks, never!!!


• Sang in the shower: almost all the time.


• Had a dream that you married someone: more than i can count.


• Glued your hand to something: yeah, but nothing that wouldn't come off.


• Kissed a photo: yeah. don't wanna think about it.


• Climbed a water tower: nope. am too scared of heights for that.


• Screamed at the top of your lungs: yeah. just a couple of times. not in anger.


• Done a one-handed cartwheel: nope.


• Talked on the phone for more than 5 hours: my record is 7 hours.


• Picked and ate an apple right off the tree: nope. only berries.


• Climbed a tree: yeah. aforementioned berry tree.


• Had a tree house: wish i had one. probably will someday.


• Been too scared to watch a scary movie alone: yeah. just a few.


• Believe in ghosts: nope.


• Have more than 30 pairs of shoes: my lifetime average is 2. my current (and lifetime maximum) count is 5


• Worn a really ugly outfit to school: does my uniform count?


• Gone streaking: almost.


• Gone doorbell ditching: yeah. as a teenager.


• Been pushed into a pool/hot tub with all your clothes on: yup. pool, sea.


• Told you're hot by a complete stranger: does online count? it was a stranger's pick up line!!! on me!!! i almost died laughing!!!


• Broken a bone: yeah. index finger.


• Been easily amused: all the time.


• Caught a fish then ate it: tried to, but wasn't allowed.


• Caught a butterfly: when i was a very little kid.


• Laughed so hard you cried: yeah, happens once in a while.


• Cried so hard you laughed: nope. dunno if it's even possible.


• Cheated on a test: almost all the time in my last 3 years of college.


• Forgotten some one's name: all the time. i can learn max 1 name per day.


• French braided some one's hair: got my own hair french plaited...does that count? i'm a guy damnit!!!


• Gone skinny dipping in a pool/hot tub/river: nope.


• Been threatened to be kicked out of your house or been kicked out of your house: yeah, only remember it happening once...for a couple of hours.


• Loved someone so much you would gladly die for THEM: never really was in such a situation, but yeah, probably.


• Cheated on someone: nope.


• Talk to yourself when no one's around: all the time!!!


• Hate someone you once loved: hated, but not anymore.


• Love someone you once hated: nope.


• Kissed the phone for the person on the other side: yeah.


• Kissed the person on the other side of the phone: wtf's that supposed to mean???

i now tag vamsi, marj and the shmoo

autouncorrect

my phone has an amazing feature - they call it xt9. it looks at what i've typed and offers to autocomplete it, and also autocorrect it, based on properly-spelled english words that could have been formed by pressing adjacent keys instead (my phone has a qwerty keypad).

now this would have worked great if most of my errors were caused by pressing adjacent keys (for example, what happens on my comp). unfortunately, on my phone, most of my errors are due to skipping keys or pressing them too many times (basically my keypad is screwed up due to overuse :P)

so what happens when my phone tries to correct mistakes it's not trained to recognise? here's some amazing examples:

i think beter mba than that dcs u robin n within at hoe or workin

u imo whathe digging own grave n stirring own souup

anyway...u got my point spreadsheet so ruts good

i refused to turn off xt9 despite my friend's protests, on the grounds that it had given me the best laugh i've ever had in months :D

if you get what i was trying to say, please let me know because i haven't been able to figure it out myself.

of balloons and virginity

a popular joke (okay, only because i keep telling it to my bored friends) goes:

q: what's the similarity between a balloon and virginity?
a: one prick, all gone.

this week of my life reminds me of this joke.

one morning of going to work at 6 and look what happened to my week:

• i got a cold and bad throat on monday


• i got a stomach upset and a splitting all-day-headache (to go with the cold and cough) on tuesday


• i was so sick on wednesday that i had to take a day off from work

thankfully, thursday is a holiday. and friday should be fine.

early start

i couldn't sleep so i biked to work at 6am today. the sun wasn't in the sky yet. it's monday morning. enough said.

i'm your best friend

i never realised how big an ego i had for a very long time. it stayed a well kept secret (from myself at first, and then from just the rest of the world) for many years. i've finally come to accept and publicly acknowledge it, but that took a lot of time and introspection and battling of mysterious things inside my head.

the weirdest thing about my ego is that my friends refuse to accept that it exists till i lay it out and dissect my behaviour to atom-sized particles.

for example (and this is just one of many), quite a few of my friends think of me as helpful. i'm the sort who will go out of my way to help my friends when they need it, talk them through their worries at the cost of my sleep, travel for a couple of hours to meet them just because they're lonely, all just for them.

it's not because i'm a nice guy.

it's because i want to be their best friend.

i learned this about myself the hard way. i learned this from the few incidents when i've actually been acting hurt and even downright unfriendly and unreasonable and tantrummy, just because someone who i'd do anything for didn't confide in me about a big decision she was about to make, a crisis that i didn't hear about.

if i want to be your friend (and friend is not the same as aquaintance) i won't like being anything other than your best friend. ditto for being your computer fixer, music guide, vacation buddy, you name it.

what it feels like for a man

i just sawed through a 5mm thick steel cable with half a hacksaw blade and my bare hands (couldn't find a saw, so it was just the blade and my trusty hand).

in related news, my left thumb isn't just handy, it's handy *and* lucky. and i got only one blister and half a cut. and a big testosterone rush. :D

born to try

in a moment of need, a song was sent to lift my spirit when i didn't know that it was meant to fly...read on, it's beautiful...and if you can, listen to it too :)

born to try

Doing everything that I believe in
Going by the rules that I've been taught
More understanding of what's around me
And protected from the walls of love

All that you see is me
And all I truly believe

That I was born to try
I've learned to love
Be understanding
And believe in life
But you've got to make choices
Be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like

But I was born to try

No point in talking what you should have been
And regretting the things that went on
Life's full of mistakes, destinies and fate
Remove the clouds look at the bigger picture

And all that you see is me
And all I truly believe

That I was born to try
I've learned to love
Be understanding
And believe in life
But you've got to make choices
Be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like

But I was born to try

All that you see is me
All I truly believe
All that you see is me
And all I truly believe

That I was born to try

I've learned to love
Be understanding
And believe in life
But you've got to make choices
Be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like

But I was born to try

But you've got to make choices
Be wrong or right
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like

But I was born to try

- born to try, by delta goodrem

packed like sardines in a crushed tin can

for the past 3 weeks, my life has turned so busy that i no longer have time to even check my mail, read, blog, or phone my friends outside of weekends.

the strangest thing is that this happened right after i attended a company sponsored training on "making more time".

ironic, isn't it?

well...before anyone jumps to point anything out, i *did* learn a lot from the training, and i *did* put most of those things into practice.

the secret is simple: they asked me to make a list of goals (short, medium, long term) and list my day-to-day activities. they then asked me to list the activities that didn't have anything to do with my goals, and also find goals that didn't have any corresponding activities. finally we made up an action plan based on these exercises.

working and health are my priorities, so i now have to ensure i work hard, spend most of my productive energy during my (long) work hours on work itself, reserve an hour daily for exercise, eat regularly and sleep well.

i wonder how long i can continue this for, before i collapse out of the sheer monotony of my day-to-day life.

ps: title inspired by radiohead's "packed like sardines in a crushed tin box"

what it feels like for a girl

girls can wear jeans
and cut their hair short
wear shirts and boots
cause its ok to be a boy
but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading
cause you think that being a girl is degrading
but secretly you'd love to know what its like
wouldn't you?
what it feels like for a girl

madonna, what it feels like a girl

okay, i wasn't listening to the original, but the "above and beyond" remix. still, it's one song that i should never listen to when i'm riding...because it will probably make me do a suicidal 0-100 and crash into a tree :D

why?

i'm surprised at the superficiality of my life. twenty five years on this planet, and i still haven't yet thought this question through:

"why am i here? what am i living for?"

i guess on some level i figured that i don't need to know my destination as long as i keep moving in the right direction, correct?

i seem to have hit a problem. all this while, there was only one way to go. study and get through school, get into college, graduate and get out of college, post-graduate, get a job...fairly simple and obvious.

unfortunately for me, there is no single "right direction" any more. i'm at a crossroad and i don't know where i want to go. for the past 3 weeks, i've been taking halting steps down each way, only to beat a retreat a little later.

strangely enough, the decision seems easy enough for everyone around me who's aware of this choice i have to make. people who hear this problem have their answer ready almost by reflex. and they're almost unanimous. i, on the other hand, have experimented with their directions and am not as sure.

the answer to the question will give me my direction. but the answer has to be mine.

alone

a few days ago, i was having a discussion with my friends over lunch about how long we could survive without contact with any humans (in person or over the phone etc.) except through the internet. i.e. contact through surfing/chatting etc allowed, but nothing else. that would also imply no getting out of the house (unless you live in a barren wilderness...but we didn't consider that possibility)

vamsi said 1 month.

sneha and aarti said a week.

i said not more than a few hours.

today i prove my point yet again.

three hours at home with no one to talk to on the phone, no chance of going out (thanks to ganpati immersion and heavy rain), a super-fast net connection and virtually unlimited media on my comp and dvd collection, and i'm feeling sick and depressed.

i think my internet connection *causes* depression, rather than alleviating it.

freaky defaults

i just joined friendfeed 5 minutes ago. since i somehow mistakenly assumed it to have been recently brought over by google (this is what happens when i read too much news out of that one corner of my eye :P) i trusted it with my gmail/facebook ids right away. of course, i later had a doubt and googled it (hmm...google again!!!) and realised i was wrong...but i guess it's too late now, and the site looks trustworthy so what the hell :D

so after importing my gmail contacts and facebook profile, i decided to import my blog. and freaked out (click to zoom on screenshot)



those guys guessed my blog address...damn!!! fine, it was just an example of what my blog address could look like, but what the hell!!!

ps: it also reminded me of seth godin's recent post on "the uncanny valley"

obscured by feeds

apparently, i'm the only person on google reader who subscribes to these feeds:

Short Tales of Adventure on the High Seas
Life's Musings
The Silly Lil' Irish Girl - Kris
DeeSee
sitanshu
Apoorv Khurasia's View Point
Makes no difference!
Its a Mind Game...
Ashwins
Insomnia in the middle of nowhere
Vimal can't hack WHAT?
Life: As I see it, while I live it
Espresso Economics
Navigating The Universe
malluGeek@play:/var/coredump$
Free World At Linux
Old Insomnia Cure in a New Blog!
The Web Is A Chakravyu!
Aero-philately
Nickolai Kinny's Facebook Notes

some of them are actually pretty good. want to expand your horizons? try subscribing!!!

ps: some of them are rarely updated.

pps: post title inspired by ess dee's blog, obscured by words. this one's worth a look too!!!

dreaming of you

my phone periodically checks my gmail for me. today morning, sometime between my alarm going off and me actually dragging myself out of bed (or sometime between me first opening my eyes and actually waking - same thing), my phone rang its email tone. 3 new emails, it said.

i don't remember what were those mails (or even who sent them), i only remember that i read the first one before deleting it (deleting on my phone archives it in gmail).

i read the sender and the subject of the second one and *dreamed* about the content of the mail before deleting it.

the phone then fell out of my hand and onto my pillow, and i dreamed about who sent the third mail, what was the subject, and what was in the mail too.

and then, i opened my eyes, saw the phone on my pillow and wondered what the hell i just did...and when i realised it, i thought: "i must tell someone this!!!"

i still don't know what was in the second mail...i only know that those were good dreams :)

my life, as seen by google reader

disclaimer: while the graph is a screenshot taken from my google reader an hour ago, the captions are entirely made up :P

crappy quotes

i don't know what's with people and dumb quotes these days. i only know i'm being subjected to way more than i deserve.

- Kris

that's right. people seem to have either lowered their standards of quoting others, or (more possibly) lost them altogether.

i have friends who used to come up with amazing one liners like this one:

life is hard, but its harder if you are stupid.

but these days, all i get are things like these:

when dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane

we can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision

my theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything - even if you have no clue what you're doing

why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

the list goes on and on and on...so much that i'm considering making a label called crappy quotes for all the dumb ones that my "friends" share in google reader.

get a life fellas...learn to quote me!!!

disconnected

For 27 years I’ve been trying to believe and confide in
Different people I’ve found.
Some of them got closer than others
And someone wouldn’t even bother and then you came around
I didn’t really know what to call you, you didn’t know me at all
But I was happy to explain.
I never really knew how to move you
So I tried to intrude through the little holes in your veins
And I saw you
But that’s not an invitation
That’s all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I’ve seen you, I know you
But I don’t know
How to connect, so I disconnect

You always seem to know where to find me and I’m still here behind you
In the corner of your eye.
I’ll never really learn how to love you
But I know that I love you through the hole in the sky.

Where I see you
And that’s not an invitation
That’s all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I’ve seen you, I know you
But I don’t know
How to connect, so I disconnect

Well this is an invitation
It’s not a threat
If you want communication
That’s what you get
I’m talking and talking
But I don’t know
How to connect
And I hold a record for being patient
With your kind of hesitation
I need you, you want me
But I don’t know
How to connect, so I disconnect
I disconnect.

- Communication, by the Cardigans

restraint

i'm very surprised at what holds me back. a couple of days ago, i was the last person to jump up to save my friend from a fistfight that he got himself into (thankfully the rest of my friends got him out by the time i reacted).

on the other hand, today, i almost wrote this comment on someone's blog:

i'd love to give you some constructive criticism, but i doubt it's possible for you to construct anything. i suggest you learn to think, and then learn to write.

i even got as far as opening the comments page on his blog...the thought that finally stopped me from hitting submit was the fact that i could restrain myself from jumping into a fight (i hate violence) even when it was my friend's safety at stake, but i can't restrain myself from hurting someone just because i thought his posts were crap.

beaking news!!!

i may appear on etv tonight (18th august) with a few friends at 7pm or thereabouts...and probably look pretty stupid too. turn on your tv if you have nothing better to do :P

Things i wish i said

I wonder...is it better to say something i mean, even if i know it's going to have a completely different effect from what i intended, or should i simply remain silent?

Something just sprang to my mind 5 minutes ago:

"one glance at you lights me up like a thousand rays
a word from you cures me like no other ways
the time we spend apart feels like it'll never end
i dont know what can be but i'm so glad to be your friend"

25

every birthday is different. two years ago, it was my first ever surprise party, organised by the first girl i truly loved. last year, i was in a hospital and staring at what seemed like the end of all my dreams, when i finally found my reason to live.

i wonder what's in store for me today.

multitasking bankruptcy

multitasking bankruptcy: when you have so many apps open on your pc that you can't work any more unless you save everything, log off, log back on, and start with a clean desktop.

- kris, 8th august 2008

feels exactly the same as starting work on monday morning, and hence is usually postponed to the point of absolute frustration due to the unpleasant association :D

The edge

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go - only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly!

-Anonymous, via email, today morning

lolspeak win

apparently, my blog post is the only result for the google search for "mobyel fon" (with or without the quotes :P)

employee motivation fail

captured on my handy cellphone a few weeks ago. hmmm.

lolspeak: i can have mobyel fon?

i'm a fan and regular subscriber of lolcats: i can has cheeseburger, and i find their brand of english (sorry, lolspeak) quite amusing.

today, i ended up reading lolspeak in a rather surprising location: a sony ericsson g900 phone review.

i quote:

heyyoukiwi says:

Found 1 big problem wif d new software update. tried a couple of stereo blue2 in d market, all of them can onli listen to music but cannot support d handsfree profile, onli se original 1 can. damm disappointed man, coz tot of getting motorola s605 to go along wif my se g900, still cant figure out y is tat happening man. anyone encoutered?

strangely enough, the review and first few comments were in pretty decent english, but once the lolspeak started, there was no turning back (with the notable exception of the author's comments :P). wonder if that's a social phenomenon at work here.

ps: the se g900 is a kickass phone. i'd buy one myself the moment i find someone ready to trade my road-warrioresque xda zinc for anything more than peanuts :D

Surprise!

A quickly made plan to trek (or rather, hike) up lohagad fort, apparently one of the easiest treks in the region, turned into something else altogether when we decided to take a detour and trek up the neighbouring vizapur fort instead. Apparently the only way up/down was through a wildly gushing stream, despite assurances from the people around that a path existed too.

Highlights:

I forgot my windcheater at home

I ripped my trackpants on the way up and had to wear shorts for the way down...and that included making my way through thorny bushes

I slipped and pulled a muscle in my right leg and had to limp all the way down

We spent so much of time looking for the path (the fort wall runs atleast 5km) that we had to trek back through the sunset and partly in twilight...with no torches and dying cellphones.

Still, the experience and the views made up for it - the things we experienced we just too awesome to be any way captured by a camera (although we did try :D)

Once my leg's fine, i wanna go trekking again :)

Trust and carelessness

I often leave my wallet lying at my desk at work while i walk around, grab some coffee, or even attend meetings and have lunch. I guess that's trust (when everyone's earning better than you are, why would they bother with crime?)

Last night, i was feeling like taking the bike for a spin, and since i was wearing a pair of shorts, i put my wallet (which contained my license) in the dash, and rode off.

Guess where i found it today morning.

Same place. Same condition. Not a note or credit card touched. And this is in broad daylight, in front of the entrance to my apartment. And my wallet was loaded (a few lacs counting my cards, a few thousand in cash!). If the guy who washes my bike every morning had taken it, it'd probably cover his lifetime's income :D

I guess the people who passed it are either completely trustworthy or blind :P

vodafone advertises their ripoff

what's a really sneaky way to make money? advertise a service, and then make it more expensive!

a few days ago, when vodafone texted me to inform that my free calls and night-time discounts don't apply to conference calls, i was pissed.

when i spotted their advertisements for their conferencing service on tv today, i realised how evil their plan was.

conferencing has been around since i've had a vodafone connection (4 years now) and more. it's always been free. and no one ever advertised it.

oh and the advertisements aren't some cheap inserts in my newspaper. no, they really had to do it big. one minute prime time advertisements. played over and over again.

why don't they just stop advertising and give me cheaper call rates? i'd love to promote vodafone for free (and i've been doing it all along too, except that i might not any more)

airtel sucks!!!

thanks to a few of my friends who use airtel, i've been kinda frustrated with the mobile provider for the past few weeks. apparently someone on twitter with a lil-above-average ESP and a way-above-average sense of humour sensed my frustration and requested me to follow him/her/it.

here's what the sidebar of airtelsucks' twitter profile looks like:



the line that got me rotfl was the one about the follower request:

"accept airtelsucks or deny airtelsucks"

i guess that didn't quite come out right...or did it? hmmm :P

oh and www.airtel.com still links to vodafone. nice!!!

no mail today

gmail's smtp server has mysteriously stopped allowing me to send mail from my trusty xda zinc for the past week or so. as a result, i have an ever-increasing outbox. how long will it be before i decide the messages are irrelevant and delete them from my outbox? i'd love to know.

ps: title inspired from my favourite herman's hermits song, "no milk today" :)