Weekends…

It’s been quite long since I had my last post published. And it seems that this year also, I will lose to my dear friend. Though there is not enough time remaining for the year to come to an end, I haven’t given up yet. So, here’s another one.

These weekends in Chennai are probably not those kind that anybody would want to experience ever. I am all alone, in a room, with the AC turned on, a TV switched to some unknown channel (tamil), and my laptop. Since this morning, I haven’t stepped out of my room for even a second. I got my breakfast, lunch and dinner ordered and delivered over the phone. A few phone calls, actually, quite a few, some sleep, Bachna Ae Haseeno (recap), some coding, some chatting and of course, some washing.

That was hw my weekend went. And I believe, as long as I am in Chennai, I will spend the weekends just like this one. I guess, this is the worst way to spend your weekends. I don’t want to go on like this for long. I want a change, ALREADY!!!!!

I want to visit the lovely beaches of Chennai, but haven’t chalked out my plans yet. Don’t know if I will ever strike it off from my things-to-do list. :)

Happy Birthday !!! Not Mine....

"System Software Engineer". This is my new designation at a new office, at a new place. A lot has changed in the last 1 month. And I have adapted to these changes well. The first change, and the most important, at-least for me was the drastic change in temperature and humidity. 1 month back, I was near to the western seas, and right now, I am about 10 kms away from the eastern seas.

About my office, well, its not a very big one. Though the campus has a pretty big parking space, it is rarely crowded by vehicles. The whole campus houses only about 200 employees. So, on an average, we get a mail every week or so, inviting us for some one's birthday. They even put up a printout near the entrance whenever someone's birthday comes, with his photo and name, and wishing him "A Very Happy Birthday". Well, that's not unusual, I guess. I am expecting pretty much the same thing, in a few days. But, they only have a passport size photo of me with them. I am wondering if the photo in the printout will be visible from a distance. Or may be, just before my birthday, they will click some photographs of me, for the printout. It is a black and white printout they paste near the entrance.

Today, there was yet another printout near the entrance, a black and white one. I wasn't wearing my glasses when I reached office. I was sweating and so, in a rush to reach my air-conditioned cubicle, I ignored it. Normally, I would have read the name and have had a look at the photograph.

I was engrossed with work after that and had completely forgotten about that printout. During lunch time, I heard some people talk about someone's birthday. Since it was in Tamil, I only picked up the word birthday. They were probably discussing about the person. When I next checked my inbox, there was an invitation for someone's birthday. I was feeling hungry, and so I was happy with the thought that I would get to eat something sweet. I also thought that I would jump on the cake, the moment it was cut, pick up 2-3 pieces of it, and run back to work. The mail didn't have the name of the person, which I thought would have been a mistake on the sender's (HR) part. They always mess up with things, I thought.

I again got busy with my work. I had to go down to the reception after some time to submit some documents for the tax thing. So, I thought I would have a look at the printout now. After submitting the documents, I walked toward the place where the prinout was pasted. I still wasn't able to read the name from a distance. I wasn't wearing my glasses yet. When, I was within my reading distance, the printout seemed to be different. The picture was unclear, and so was the name. At-last, when everything was clearly visible, I understood everything. The message was,

A Very Happy Birthday To
"Server 1"

And alongside, was it's picture, which defintely wasn't that of a human being. My hunger was gone. I was wondering, who would be blowing the candles!!!!

To kill a mosquito

Well, Google has a result for each and every phrase that you can think of. I just keyed in “To kill a mosquito”, and hit enter. It showed me 11,90,000 results. Can you believe this? I went through some of them. They were really really good, hilarious and funny. But, they mentioned about the out-dated techniques which we already know.  http://www.wikihow.com/Kill-a-Mosquito

I think I am the world’s most innovative and the best mosquito killers. Let me tell you that most of the times, I let them go away after donating a drop of my A+ blood. It gives me a sense of pleasure. But, there are times, when I really get pissed from a mosquito bite. Some of them are really so painful, that I wish I had a shot-gun. Some of them just don’t know how to bite without causing any itches or prick. Those are the ones that I hunt for. And believe me, I have a record of 100% strike rate. Hahahaha.

1. First method (Rating : Easy) – When you feel the sting, do not move. Let them stick their trunk inside you. Let them extract a drop of blood from you. When they are done, they will draw their trunks back, and try to fly away. This is the moment. They really get heavy, and so are not able to fly at their top speed. A small splat and we regain all of your blood. This method is effective for people with low reflexes. Drawback if this method: Blood all over.

2. Second method (Rating : Intermediate) – While the guy starts drilling into your skin, they become immobile for a very short duration. Hit them!! This method overcomes the drawback of the previous method. Clean termination!!!

3. Third method (Rating : Advanced) – This is the most difficult for people who have poor hand-eye co-ordination. Killing a mosquito while it is flying requires you to be as quick as Mithun Daa. You keep following it’s trajectory, and when you are sure that you can extrapolate it’s trajectory, you are ready to go. Cup your hands around the guy, and smear it to death.

4. Fourth Method (Rating : Genius) – Target destroyed with 2 fingers. Most of the time I use this technique. While in flight, use only two of your fingers and try to catch them while in flight. This is my favourite method. :)

5. Catch them live : If you manage to catch one of them live, break their legs, or one of their wings. This is the most violent and torturous thing to do. I used this technique till I was 10.

Our Rules for RPL

First things first : What is RPL??

Any wild guesses? No? Ok, here it is, Roomies Premier League.

The name has not been in wide use, but I think the rules of the game remain the same, no matter where the game is being played. Let me give you a brief history of the game.

First year in hostel: Under ragging period, we were so terrified to even peep out of the windows in fear of our dreaded seniors. So,  after college, we had to put ourselves inside our rooms, locked up from outside. Checked and double checked!!

During this time, the foundations of our version of the game were laid down. Although, the game has it’s roots deeper than that, I will only talk about the rules that we officially had incorporated into the RPL.

1. Teams: As in any other game, here also we had two teams. But, the uniqueness was, the number of players in a team was never constant. Depending on the availability, or rather the willingness of our roomies. During exams, we had teams with as low as 1 player on each side, while on the other hand, during the start of our semesters, the number of players would sometimes even rise to 8 on each side.

2. Venue: Most of the time, it was inside our rooms. However, at times, when the teams got bigger than the rooms can accommodate, we moved out into the corridors.

3. Equipments: We are talking about cricket here. So we would certainly find similar equipments that are used in ODIs and Test Matches. BAT: Our definition, it just had to be hard enough to hit the ball without falling apart. Be it a real bat, a broken leg of a chair and when none of the above were available, we managed to get a wood piece from our mess which would have been burnt away to cook our food that night. BALL: A tennis ball preferably, a plastic ball was also used sometimes, in some versions of the game, some teams were often seen using a football. :) No definite rules here. OTHERS: None. Oh!! for wickets, we had chairs.

4. Format: Just like ICC now-a-days has at-least 3 versions of the game, we also had 3 versions of the game. ODIs: These were single matches, which were to be played till the end, and were supposed to be the shortest version of the game. Tests: A bit longer version, these matches took anywhere between a day to 5 days, to be completed. Series: A series of never ending matches, where the same teams meet and keep a record of matches won and lost. This was the most preferred version of the game since we could brag about our stats, records, make fun of others’ performances.

5. Rules: Now the finer details of the game. These rules were the most important. They were followed by each and every player honestly, though sometimes, the match had to be called off, not because of bad light or rain, but because of differences in opinions since we didn’t have an ICC like organization who could sort out the problems.

A. How to get a batsman out?

In addition to the normal rules prevailing in international cricket, we had amended the rules to suit RPL. Here they are:

• One tip one hand out
• 3 consecutive body touches (ball hitting your body, a replacement for LBW)
• hitting the ball directly to one of the walls
• 3 consecutive misses

B. Bowling rules ?

• Under-arm compulsory
• Speed limit – 60 km/hr
• Body line bowling allowed
• Negative tactics were encouraged

C. Runs?

• One run if you connect the ball with the bat
• No sixes allowed, you are out if you hit a six
• For fours, you should ground the ball at-least once before it hits the walls
• 0 runs if you don’t hit the ball
• No running between the wickets

D. Match abandoned due to ?

• Lunch, dinner, breakfast or class time
• Power failures during night matches
• Disagreement between players (no umpires!!)
• Ball hit out of the room through the windows/balcony
• A broken bat

I might have forgotten to add other rules of the game. So I kindly request anybody and everybody who are familiar with the rules to add to this list. RPL rocked. I miss them so much.

Trip towards the sea…

I am definitely not a travel freak, but then, India is such a big country, that you have to travel 2000 kms to get to your home. Last week I did some travelling, all alone. Though the experience was one of it’s kind, I don’t intend to travel in that direction ever again.

My destination :

 

 

CHENNAI

 

 

 

Just for your knowledge, I HATE SWEATING.

On Tuesday morning, I had to catch the train, at 6:30. It was easy. After walking for some metres, I was lucky to get an auto-rick, and that too at the normal rate. I reached the station in time. And when the train finally arrived, I cuddled into my seat, without any problems. I had only one bag-pack. The journey was about to last only 24 hrs, to and fro, so there wasn’t much to carry.

But, as soon as I boarded the train, my horoscope for the day was activated.

Whatever I saw, it had a pinch of Tamil Nadu. The people, the morning newspaper that my neighbour was reading, the talks of other passengers and everything else. I had “Masala Dosa” for breakfast. It was very different from what we get in Bangalore. The Dosawala, to my surprise, wasn’t speaking Hindi, not even Kannada or English. And in this part of the world, people normally don’t speak Oriya. So, how do I communicate? Alphabets are one thing, I really don’t know why the number system cannot be generalized for all languages? With the help of a fellow passenger, I was able to pay off the Dosawala. I felt sleepy, the AC in the compartment was tuned perfectly to suit the weather. The travel would last 6 more hours.

After 6 hours, the train stopped at the “Chennai Central”. I had heard a lot about this monument. This was the first time that I would see it with my own eyes. I was very excited. The moment I set my foot out of the train, a drop of sweat trickled down behind my right ear. I didn’t seem to notice it. I had hardly taken a couple of steps towards the exit, I realized that I was sweating profusely.

Being a well-informed traveller, I knew that Chennai was the “humid-est “ of all the cities. I was prepared for this. The handkerchief that was lying in my pocket got a chance to feel the heat, and taste the salt of my sweat.

From the station, I had to go to a place which was very difficult for me to even utter. Just near the entrance, 5 auto-walas surrounded me, “Saaaar, Auto” ???

I promptly refused, and walked away from them only to find another group of auto-walas waiting for me. The bus stop was just in-front of the station. I looked at one of them. Gosh!!! Everything was in “Tamil”. I asked one fellow, if he knew a place called “Semancherry” and how far was it. He replied in Tamil. The next person also seemed to know only Tamil. After 4-5 tries, I gave up and finally walked towards the auto-walas. He knew the place, Great!!! “Saaar, 450”.

I fled.

Luckily, I was able to reach the place in time for the interview changing 2 buses.

The interviewer, seeing me, laughed and said,”Boy, we need more ACs in here”.

The interview went on for one and a half hour, and with 2 ACs switched on, I was still sweating.

After the interview, I changed 2 buses and took an auto to reach at the “Chennai Central” just in time. Now I remember that I had missed my lunch. I didn’t have to look hard for dinner. There was a Biriyani Counter, from where I had my lunch-cum-dinner. A glass of fresh lime juice, i thought would dry up all the sweat . But it didn’t help. Even the cool evening breeze failed to evaporate my sweat. The return journey was in a sleeper coach. Though I was sleeping on the return journey, I was still sweating.

I had planned to visit the Marina Beach, but was short on time. I will go again in the winters there to see if I sweat again.