in the wind...

Ok, Now if u have heard the song 'Blowing in the wind' by dylan,
Then read the couplets in the same way .
If you haven't then please do hear it. Its just too amazing.

How many mines must a man mine,
before he can find his gold.

Yes, and

How many names do I have to strike,
Before the right string is struck.

Yes, and

How many shantis do i neet to meet,
Before she is forever mine.

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind.

OK, from my perspective this would have been super apt some 5 years back.
But for the blog its always pertinent.
and lets assune the 'shanti' is a female version of 'kumar', 'kanth' as anup would have put it. :)

A Sinusoidal Life.

Its so important to emote. There are times when i feel I shouldn't emote. Or rather not emote in a particular way. But thinking kills the emotion. Kills relationships.

I have been through a lot over the last few months. Not before December did i think of people as losers( in a mild way), people who crib or people go off mood for just a drop of a towel. I never realised i would be in their position just after a few months. I used to have an air of superiority at people being emotional or the ones who dropped a tear before they could blink. Back then i had hit a purple patch in life, work was good, office was fun, friends were closest and life never looked better.

I made merry and how. I drank, I ate, I commented. Then one day looking at the mirror in the changing room of big bazar, I realised I had grown Fat. Now dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong being Fat, but again everything is bad with being Fat. I had gone far from being disciplined. Life had kinda gone out of my grasps. I had at that time, at that very changing room, taken a challenge. Gonna Be fit withing the next two months.

I hit the gym. I ate good food. I stopped drinking. All was in control. Life looked much better, humility was back. Then all came down. Job didn't look safe, friends didn't look closer and I was fine. I was absolutely fine. Emotion, it was gone. I thought I had conquored it all, Humour I thought was the medicine. I thought wrong.

Recently over a chat with a friend I realised a lot of things that made me percieve things in a way, that reminded me of a 10th standard kid. His tears had rolled fast and he used to laugh loud. He never gave a thought before he emoted, he was a happy kid. But again we are grown ups , grown ups have problems. Very complicated ones at that. How does he prepare himself for it. Most of them have to be solved by you, a veil of confidence to counter a mind filled with deep revere. But when you cant. Revealing emotions, can make you a lesser man. Hiding them, you can be considered just a friend and not the one whom friends confide to.

Dukh baatne se kam hota hain,
baatne waale na mile to kya karein.
Baatne waale nahin rehange
agar tum unke gum ko na samajh sake.

Life is complicated and I soon wanna find my arms to help me come out of the complications, but with a smile and the relationships intact.

A Reference for Future Tho

Hey, last few months have been really stressful. Nearly two months back CEO of my company 'moved on'. When I asked my lead 'what now'?, he very promptly replied 'move on'. As if the universe has its way of teasing us, during the same time Fast Track came up with its new ad campaign with the tag line - 'Move on man...'.

Having stalled the decision to float my resume for nearly a month, I finally did.
The reason for the procrastination was that I was in a two year bond with Epsilon. But as some of my leads pointed out that breaking a service bond in such knotty situations will be innocuous, I finally managed to garner all my foolish courage to apply.

A friend informed me of an opening in his company in the same technology (perl) I was already working on. Gave the interview and after a week I was offered a job at Tejas Networks. Now it required a decision, Tejas or Epsilon. After consulting few of my colleagues and friends I finally chose Tejas. Then began a series of corporate ordeal that almost took the fun out of my life and filled me with so much confidence to take up this evil world, that I had a 15 minutes fight with an auto driver in Kannada and managed to extract 100 bucks out of him for the damage he caused to my Activa.

The next day, I told my manager. He outright disapproved my idea of moving on. His blunt act of defense took me by surprise. I walked out saying give me one more day and I will be back with my final decision (which I had already taken). I had to handle the next meeting carefully, at stake was at least 50,000 INR.

The next man went to was my boss. I told him of my options and pop came his reply - 'leave'. That was like the last nail on my chances of staying in Epsilon.

The Next day. Managers room. Things really went fast. Along went the hope of paying only 50,000 INR. The resignation was accepted at 85,000 INR. I was literally speechless.

One week and few beers later, I am hoping I can get back atleast 60,000 INR.

And in other news, I had been to mulengiri near chikmagalur. A brisk trek with yak, his bro and subbu. The most refreshing thing since a year.
Veena's visit to bangalore and a reunion of sort cause I met Monty after three months.

To God: The last time I had a crush I didn't tell her, I had then decided that the next girl I have crush on I am telling her the very next day. But as they say you have the best sense of humor. I shall learn, I shall learn.

Hope, things go the way its planned.
bbye!!

A little bit of this and a little too much of that

Sup Sup!!!, Its been over a month now since i have added some shit to this Internet. Though a bit of history has been troubling my black cells( they have gone rotten), but i would need to do a little more research on that to clear the fog off.

But a laaaawwwwwt has happened over this one month.
Firstly, India won, ya ahhh i am speaking about the Cricket here and quite deservingly received the grand reception. Symonds who visually lacks a little evolution wise, and our own bhajji spotting that and a bush look alike captain (aka Best batsman) of Australia added so much more to cricket, that watching cricket has never been so much fun. But nothing like a 'show of confidence before the finals and having to eat those words' defeat of Hayden's team. Thats the kind of finish India deserved. I am happy for India and the likes of bhajji. Its like the australians now know what it is to tease the 'present' India team.
Or like i like to say 'Bandar ab jaane Bhajji ka swad'. Dhoni respect.

What the hell is happening to 'Love' as i knew it man. Over the last few months that I spent in Bangalore, I started to develop this heavenly picture of Love. This primariily because people all around me were falling in love, finding their 'life partners' and being all mushy and all.
Then it hit me, the fruit has the hard seed too. Here's hoping that the rosy picture comes back. And god, dude, what about 'whole universe conspires to get that thing'.

Over the last month I have tried to keep my humor up (sadly, my friends dont think so, ahh bandar kya jaane adrak ka swad). Few of the one liners,
On shiiinoy [A Guy who has lived in Dubai] : "Dude are u cut for the dubai kinda life"...
On Ds [ Tall, Dark and Handsome guy] : "Am I a racist if I call your Intellectually Strong jokes 'Dark Humor' "....
To Su [Most fidgety person i have ever met] : Why will a girl wanna have sex with u, Ans: Cause u vibrate da...lol

Thats one thing, humor. It helps a person get through any kinda situation. I leart a lot about that from my dear friend Su. But i have realised a bad side effect of this kinda attitude. You also loose out on your emotional priorities. Its now very tough for me to feel bad about anything, that a normal human being should feel bad about. But as they say, u win some u loose some. what to do....?

Coming back to life, whats happeneing in the month of may. Eh... hmmm .. ah most of my friends were born in this freakin month. I am not going to pay for most of my meals that i have outside my house this freakin month. Why am i still calling it a freakin month. As my friend Ds puts it 'The Birthday Present Paradox'. Its the joy in giving presents, but it goes kaput when your iterations runs into a big int variable. Its better i dont explain why this isn't 'economically' a great thing. All i'll say is God, dude, 'Jab bhi lete ho chappad phad ke lete ho' :P. Chill da guys i still ENJOY giving u the gifts. 100 caughs.

Finally, why did they arrest a Czechoslovakian who was enjoying himself on a trampolin...
Cause the Czech (cheque) bounced.

Aaaaarbbbiiiiittttt
'Take care' people...

Them and I...

Then There was a meeting,
I sat there Scheming.

Then They started the discussion,
It added to my frustration.

They realised!! 'This issue is primary',
I decided my priority ' Nirvana, Double Apple and Sikandari'.

Finally some respite, they said ' Lets move on to the next issue',
I was elated, my ears heard 'Lets Wrap up this issue'.

Then They said 'We speculate, This issue is complicated'.
I died off. Pluchakkkkkkkkkk..

Shit what a shitty poem. U get the drift right??


BTW: Nirvana, Double Apple and Sikandari -> Flavors of hookah.

Debating the minimums..

Recently the Indian Law Commission headed by A R Lakshmanan decided that the minimum age for marriage for the men (too) will be reduce to 18 years. Also along with that it was decided that minimum age for consensual sex will be set at 16 years.

So here we are, this now raises a million and a half questions.

1. Why simply change it from 21 years?
2. Consensual sex… what the hell does that mean?
3. Ain’t 18 years a little too young for the present age father or mother?
4. Should we have had separate laws considering that child marriage makes sense to only fewer section (differentiated regarding culture, rural, urban or geographical) of people today?
5. What do you think is the ‘appropriate’ age for marriage and sex?

Though presumably my answers or rather views, it will be harmful only to you if you consider it harmful :P

So, Why Simply change it from 21 years?

Since India is a republic that is enrolled in every other, some times non consequential, human rights organization. Which also includes UN ones. They have to abide by something called rights to equality, in this case ‘sex’. So men and woman should not have different laws, cool by me, But is it pragmatic in a predominantly patriarchal society to have same rules for both the sex. But then I ponder over the law and find that’s its just a law to set the minimums, not the compulsories. So that’s that if you have been through your 18 years, u are ready to get married.

Then, Consensual sex… what the hell does that mean?

Thinking like a virgin 23 year old guy, consensual sex is rather a redundant phrase. So what does consensual sex mean? whose permission do we (ahem) need to take before having sex? The law commission says that other than having the permission of those involved, they have to be above the age of 16 years. And hence, even though you have been married before the age of 16 years (socially might have been accepted, but still illegal) you are barred from having sex (again leagally). But there is a catch, the minimum age according to Child marriage act is 15 years and according to A R Lakshmanan law commission any matrimonial where the involved is below the age of 16 will be considered void. Hello?? Can somebody have CVS incorporated in the bars ( and no I am not talking about spirits) .

Now, Ain’t 18 years a little too young for the present age father or mother?

Ok so in this exponentially growing economy of india, can a family where the ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ in their teens survive? Even Rakhi sawant can answer that. NO. but then why set a minimum when it absolutely doesn’t make sense.
Then I see the big pictures, what about say a traditional marwadi family selling saaris in avenue road in Bangalore. I can (though not completely convinced) somehow make sense of the number 18. Then I catch the drift or rather the problem of the law commission which makes them set the minimum to 18.
I feel the govt. has more work on their sleeves than just simply setting minimums or maximums. They got to take the awareness programmers to a completely new high and make the people in the slums realize that just getting your daughter or son married isn’t helping your situation and make the poor from the rich cities to see the big picture.

This brings us to, Should we have had separate laws considering that child marriage makes sense to only fewer section (differentiated regarding culture, rural, urban or geographical) of people today?

We all are aware about how it’s of cultural significance or rather cultural pigeon holes to get the girl child married once they reach their teens. But today, it makes sense only to a selected community of parents. So assuming that a bangalorean or for that matter any cosmopolitan city’s laws should be different compared to say jeypore in Orissa or Bikaner in Rajasthan. Simply, because the amount of modern city demons one has to face is much more. So we need more ‘astra’ to fight them and hence higher minimum age??

But having different laws for different region is ridiculous especially the human rights related ones. But the government will have to rely on the presumably higher street smartness (big city common sense) of a city lad or lady.

And finally, What do you think is the ‘appropriate’ age for marriage and sex?

If u ask me this question I would say after 26 and 18 (subject to availability, sadly ) respectively. Simply because I feel this age of infinite growth possibilities will ask for much higher requirements to satisfy the next generation (our children) and hence having the ‘astra’ is very important. Minimum one degree of credibility and a bank balance good enough to support a family of 4 (mom, dad, wife and you) to ask the least.

And regarding sex…. [smilies]

Those Thursday evenings…

No not a Friday. No not a Monday. Yipeee it’s a Thursday. Today is going to be fun.

After a long days work preceded by longer days of work on the last three days, today is the day when there is no ‘weekly meeting’ or a ‘team meeting’ or a ‘Knowledge transfer meeting’. So I am getting out of work soon. 8:30 it will be.

8:30 pm - Boss says, ‘today there no meeting so I am finally going home early’ and starts chatting. My eyes lit up, I send my daily report, press the power button and I am off.

10:00 am- G-talk

Ds: machch

me: solle

XXXX today?

Ds: cant tell so early da

me: cool no probs

Ds: ne ways ordered yeah??

me: not yet.. thinking process

Ds: hmmm .. i think i want for myself da .. neither can i listen to songs frm my phone

me: lol

Ds: nor radio is too clear

btw tat has radio also right

me: nope

8:00 pm – G-talk

me: u there

Ds: leaving in ten min'

me: to?

Ds: XXXX

!!

dude

me: wokay

so when will u be there

do one thing like last time just tell me wneh u are 10 mins away

Ds: 30-40 min max

k

me: cool

i am sitting ready

The call comes and off I go. Escaaaaaaaaaape

Lift->Parking lot->Cauvery emporium circle->anil kumble circle->Lavelle rd->MOCHA.

For me mocha means Hookah and Moroccan mint tea and an hour of uninhibited, non reserved, ‘khulla mann’ chatting with ds.

A perfect Thursday night: Nirvana swirling out of my mouth, the smell of mint laced with scintillating smell of tea and some whacky ass conversation about life, office, friends and everything else on this blue ass dot of a planet.

MC bill please…

Uses of Abusive Language

This .. from my archives...

Its been three days since I joined my company for training. We are being trained to be software engineers or for the more aware product developers. We are learning this high level language ‘perl’. Our trainer is also a employee of ‘epsilon’. He is pretty adept in the subject.

Ramesh is good with his teaching skills and his once in a while cynical joke keeps us awake through the course. But then there was a problem. Between us and him. It was too tough for us to connect. We tried our best. He tried his. He also tried the cliche “ Don’t call me SIR call me Ramesh (name changed), IT industry ‘funda’”. Didn’t help. At least for me it didn’t.

But then there are always these moments that come along, out of the blue, and suddenly what u been wanting to happen for days suddenly happens without a tit bit of effort. We were as usual standing in the stairway section of Duparc trinity, there he was too.
(now don’t expect me to tell why only few people go there during breaks). There it began, the need to connect was there in both us, but it required the initiation. Engineering.

For the unaware there is this habit among engineers who take immense pride in feeling that engineering has spoilt the very ‘intellect’ and has not done any justice to the ‘brains’ of eleventh and twelfth. We were all engineers. So you can now guess the topic of discussion. There it began, our man just went on and on about his experiences with dirty externals and influenced internals and how that’s the reason why he was not the topper in his collage. And how his knowledge in computer science was so immense that even toppers came to him to get an algorithm done and et all.

But eh! That’s not how it was. It was like this

our man just went on and on about his fucking experiences with asshole dirty externals and asshole influenced internals and how that’s the reason why he was not the fucking topper in his collage. And how his knowledge in computer science was so fucking immense that even toppers came to him to get an fucking algorithm done and et all.

And there it was, we suddenly knew that we had to listen to what he was saying, because he was narrating just like we would have done. For some reason we knew that this guy is ‘cool’ and we suddenly connected.

PS: please dont mind the language. sorry

ADVS. in 2008!!!!

So the verdict is out the 'CNBC TV 18 Advertisement of the year' is the Bajaj Pulsar 220 add.

Not long back in the same blog I jotted down some of bests and worsts of the Indian ads ( ref. 'I am thinking.. '. At the top was the now official 'Advertisement of the year'. I am elated that the best in the industry agreed to my choice (obviously I am not claiming any thing here ). Looking forward 2008 is going to be a real interesting year in advertisement, simply because as the competition among the corporates increases, as the number of people in India earning the larger bucks are increasing and the advertising friend & friend companies of India are becoming more digital conscious all we can do is expect more.

With a traditional, 'conservative' bank like 'CANARA BANK' is taking huge steps ahead with its policies and showcasing those changes with a brilliantly wrapped around advertising campaign- 'HUM BADLE AAPKE LIYE', to a hyped( quite deservingly so), semi philantrophic price (".. is one lakh, because a promise is a promise...".. Ratan Tata) release of the 'NANO', the start has been overwhelming.

Also over the last few months we have been seeing some of the 'DEVELOPED BRAND' ads as oppsoe to the "DEVELOPING BRAND' ads. The AIRTEL's 'lets communicate' ad, about two children across a country border has been a cinematically brialliant ad, can easily qualify for a "DEVELOPED BRAND ADV.'. I think this year promises more such adds, which kinda has a national appeal to it but in way speaks about how majestic the brand itself might be.

Heres hopig for a more 'Interesting' year for advertisement.

A hope forgone..

Voila!!...There she was again...
Hi, i told her, its been a while...

5 years i guess is a lot,
She said a 'Hi', and I knew something was right.

But a lot has not happened in those years,
The love has faded off in those years.

I stole a look, but looking into her eyes was never so tough,
That's when I realized.

She returns not to be,
She returns to say good bye.

Its the new year again...