Thursday, October 2, 2008

Life in a...Metro

6 AM: Alarm . 

6 - 8 AM: S**t, Shave, Shampoo, etc. 

8 AM: Breakfast.

8.30 AM: The once  reliable bike doesn't start first time. The chill in the air gets to it too. (Bangalore is a lot cooler than Mysore. Requires some getting used to. Don't be surprised if you catch a  cold the day after you land in Bangalore.)
 Bike starts. Off  you go.

8.30 - 9 AM: There are two options. 
1. Use the main roads where the traffic moves too fast for comfort. Jump signals. Don't stop even at red  if you are very close to making that turn or almost through the straight. No one expects you to stop. You get a series of honks if you do! 
Start moving when the counter is at 8. If not, honks again. 
No gaps in the median for your convenience. Ride some extra 500m before making the'U'. The U takes anywhere between 0 to 5 minutes. Just a damn U!
Show your ID to security. What US does to India in software, we do it people for the northeast. Every support personel (Security, Food, Dusters) I've come across so far is a 'chinki' :) 
Total time: 10-25 minutes depending on the traffic.(Far too many things depend on the traffic in Bangalore)

2. Weave through roads which are more sinster than the toughest labyrinth any greek hero
had to face. You see, this is 'Bangalore Internals', a palya. One wrong turn and you are lost! The locals aren't the most helpful. Reach the main road, and again struggle to make the U.  

9 AM: I forget the name of the person who insured her nose for its sense of smell. You step into the lift and get a mixed aroma of all deos/perfumes available! The combined effect makes me sick. I thank god when every I manage to catch an empty lift. 

9 - 9.30 AM: Eat/Dring something again for free/cash. You get refershed. 

9.30 AM - 12.30 PM: Work .Won't go into details. All cliches regarding the work of a software engineer hold. :) 

12.30 PM - 12.50 PM: Lunch. I don't like it. A few visitors say this is much much better than many other places.! 

12.50 PM - 1.40 PM: Table Tennis. :) 

1.40 PM - 4.30 PM: Work. 

4.30PM  Onwards: Loaf around. 

5 PM :The ship is homebound!  The bike, traffic and You. 

5.30 PM: Home, Internet and everything else. 

8.30 PM: Dinner 

9 PM onwards: Everything else. 

Sleep anytime between 11 to 12! 

Please include innumerable breaks for coffee, chocolate drink, Coco-cola products( No Pepsi, Coco-cola is our official drinks supplier! "Product Placement")  and cookies. 



Sunday, July 20, 2008

Calm before the storm

Warning: REALLY LONG POST!
But, do take some time off and read. I think you'll like at least some parts of this post.

Its been a long time since I last had something to say. I am awfully bored! I'll have to start working next month. So, I thought I had plenty of time to accomplish a lot of things that I had always wanted to, but never could/did. Iceman's exam review inspired me enough to come up with my own review about the 8th semester exams of VTU. But mine isn't as dramatic as his.

Advanced Computer Architecture: There's nothing advanced about it. We still refer a book written in the early 90s. This subject usually scares the hell out of us students(SE,CO anna!). Almost everyone wrote the third internals in this subject. That's partly because of the subject and partly because of the lecturer, who didn't value our blue books! So, no one knew how much they had scored!
As luck would have it, a fairly easy paper. Most of my mates have managed a decent 60+ score.

Mobile Communication: For the last 4 years, 28hrs of this subject would cover 100 marks. This time, the 28hrs covered only 80 marks. Many heavyweights got stamped! :)

Cryptography and Network security: Lots of computation in this. Math like. I liked the subject. The evaluators seem to have been really jolly when they valued our scripts. I got an unexpected score. Higher than what I had expected. So did many others. One person attend 96 marks and, yeah..u guessed it, got 96! No, I didn't get 96.

Project: Well, let's just say I am glad it's over. :) The ordeal we(my 'team') went through the day before the project will require another 'REALLY LONG POST' and will be a blow to many king sized egos.

OK, results are out. Engineering is over. The dissatisfied have applied for revaluation. A heavyweight applied for reval in a subject he/she had scored 80+.

Coming back to boredom, the power cuts begin to take their toll. So, no visual entertainment for most of the day. I turn intellectual and read Advani's autobiography, Atlas shrugged and the Discovery of India. Boring, bland books. Autobiographies are meant to be inspiring/informative rather than interesting and I've never liked Rand's work.Let's not get into book review or reasons why I didn't like them. This'll then become a 'REALLY REALLY LONG POST'.

So, have been living on a healthy dose of political thamasha on newspapers and WEEK and India Today magazines. Awfully bored! :(

Some of my closest friends have started working. Their paid vacation is over. Suddenly, the response time for each sent message has increased exponentially. Can't blame them. Probably , I'll be the same too, come next month.

Forgot to mention that I've been doing a lot of research on bikes. I plan to buy one next month or in early September. Some friends have helped. Some(one) say(s) i won't buy one! Iceman's mails helped a lot. :)

The one other thing that I've done is watch Kurosawa's classics. Really impressed. Yet to watch the Dollar Trilogy. I still haven't watched even a single episode of 24 which was lent to me by a good friend some time ago. The Dark Knight is now #1 on IMDB's Top 250. I think it's because of the hype that it's Heath Ledger's last film. He died in January this year. I haven't watched the movie yet. I don't mind changing my opinion after watching the movie. I usually don't like superhero movies.

So, that's about it. This is all i had to say. I am glad I haven't made the routine "Now I am an engineer" post. I hope the power situation improves. Can't do much without it! On the verge of completing all the three afore mentioned books. That's 2500+ pages in 2 weeks.

I hope, the appearance of "REALLY LONG POST" and "REALLY REALLY LONG POST" more than once did irritate you. I hope you smirked.

I just previewed the post, and I'll have to make it a little longer to make it a "REALLY LONG POST". So, here is something that I didn't want to post, but now will.

I had planned to write a book!
Pure fiction with the usual disclaimer. I misguided one friend by telling him that it'll be based on Freaky Chakra (REALLY BORING, POINTLESS MOVIE). But, I wanted to write about a policeman of the Raj. He commits suicide bang on 0000h 15th August,1947 for having shot at his 'own people' in the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. I had wanted to play Rand and be very philosophical about guilt! I freakishly wanted to call it "Tryst with destiny"!
But I didn't write, rather type anything.
Guess I just lost interest.

I hope you are still smirking.

Finally, the reason for the title; I am awfully bored. I'll soon be very busy. It's obvious now, isn't it.

You surely must be smirking now!

Upon reading the first line/disclaimer, if you had scrolled down to look at the lenght of the post, you are not a fool or unintelligent or a person with low IQ as many e-mails claim. You are just normal.

The smirk is now a grin, isn't it?

Ciao.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Welcome to the real world!

Congratulations, graduates.Welcome to the real world, where there isn't any summer vacation and Christmas holidays start on the night of December 24th and end shortly after the wrapping paper comes off.

It is a painful course that you are about to take. The lessons come unannounced! :)
But to aid you upon your entry into the real world, a few of your predecessors have compiled some sage advice. Heed the following words well. They will do you much more good than all your homework.

IN THE REAL WORLD


Never answer an advertisement seeking a "liberal room-mate." You probably are not that liberal.
Having a drink with the boys every night after work is a bad idea. Notice that the boss doesn't do it. That's why he is the boss and they're the boys.
Buy an alarm clock that works! :P
They aren't kidding when they say, "Wash whites separately."
Never date a women whose father calls here "Princess." Chances are, she believes it.
Never date a man who still goes shopping with his mother.
Life insurance is best for married people; otherwise, the chief beneficiary is the life-insurance company.
Eat good meals. Greasy snacks take their toll.
If you don't like your job, quit. Otherwise, shut up.
If you get invited to a wedding, send a gift. Otherwise, don't expect a crowd when your turn comes!
Be nice to ordinary people. You are still one of them!
Never date someone you work with. Especially the boss.
No one sells a car because it runs too well.
At some point in your life, your family will be all you have. Treat them right.
Everyone is lonely at times. Learning to deal with it is part of growing up.
The only thing worse than asking people how much money they make is telling them how much you make.
Dirty laundry never goes away.
If you make a mess of things, admit it.

Hurry up and learn patience! :)

The urge to pass this excellent article as my own was tremendous. But, it is in fact written by Wes Smith for Reader's digest such a long time ago that the pages of the book are now yellow! The book is called, "HOW TO BE EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL". It doesn't contain the usual boring jargon-filled motivational articles, but contains real life situations and solutions and draws conclusions from the actions of the people involved.

The people involved range from the African-American tennis champ Arthur Ashe to Dale Carnegie(How to win friends and influence people) to the original ad guru
David Ogilvy to Lee Iaccoca(Ford and Chrysler are what they are today because of him).

Signing off with this excellent quote from the same book.

" I think the help that a man gets from a good wife is like nothing else in the world. And that's where our superiority over women comes in: we can have a good wife, they can't!".

Yeah, the books has a lot of witty humor! ;)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Our Accident!

Accident, Ramesh Arvind's new movie has got some really good reviews. Most newspapers said that the suspense-thriller genre was being revisited after a long time, great movie, don't miss etc etc... As u might have guessed already, I, along with my friends decided to go watch it.

The omens were bad. Holla said he wouldn't come. He said his head ached. At 10 in the morning! Hard to believe.

I was the first to reach the theater and I had about Rs.150 with me. I thought I would be able to buy 4 tickets with such an amount. But, the ticket price is Rs.40 per head! So, I had to wait for the others to arrive. After a few phone calls, Ravi and Akshith arrived, sooner than they would have :)

Ravi bought the tickets!

We paid him back of course :)

Adarsh as always was the last to arrive. We went in. Someone tripped on the steps and had a great fall! The usual banter went on until Priety Zinta gets up and has a bath in the BSNL ad. Whistles from all corners.

Next up, we see this certificate.

Name: Mr. Garagasa (18) U
etc......


Akshith is all worked up.
"Lo, Mr.Garagasa anthe".
I said, "Trailer bhaiya".

What happened next had those sitting next to/above/below us in a fit of laugher!

It was actually Mr.Garagasa!

Akshith:"THUUUUUUUU, Garagasa kan ro".

Me: "LS ticket thogonda, he should have asked".

LS: "Nangenu gotilla, nan bari ticket togonde"

Me:"Lo, bartha posters nodknod bande. Ella kade Ranjit and Gayatri antha hakidru".

Adarsh:"Lo, theaterli ellu Accident postere irlilla, neevu estu confident aagi helidralla antha nanu sumnidde!". He says this now!

Akshith: "Enro madodu eega".

Me:"In enu, lets watch this thing".

LS: "Satya in love thara aaghodre?".

No one listed to wat he said. We were all busy doing different things. Akshith asks the person sitting in front of us " Idu accident alwa?" (Pun intended :) ) He replies,"Illa, Mr.Garagasa".

LS asks the same to the person sitting next to him. He says" Ivattu shukravara, film change!"
Adarsh is fiddling with his mobile(he always does that when he is worked up) and i am actually trying to watch the movie!

The first 20 minutes were actually good. Some idiot kept shouting "Bheja Fry remakeu, scene to scene...." Another person sitting next to Ravi was laughing as though this was the comedy movie of the year! Have to admit though, some parts of the movie were really hilarious!

Then started this "sakkat ಕುಯ್ತನೆ" thing. We actually got bored.

During the Intermission

Akshith: "Lo, hogana banni. Saku! Thumba peteelu".

Me:"Dud kot aaythalla, nodabidona".

Akshith:"Photo tegyana? Accident badlu Garagasa nodid aaythu antha hakobahudu. LS digicam tegi".

LS has this should-I or should-I-not look on his face.

Adarsh: "Mobile alle tegithini bido".

We also get the good news that it'll be a mass bunk in the afternoon!

Akshith and Adarsh click a lot of pics.

"Shuru aaythu".

Someone:"Avn hendthi bandlu. Evnu Mandakini anthane...he he he"! (Something to do with the movie....this show people could second guess what would happen. I have such movies)

We get busy with the movie again.

As expected, the ending was quite senti and LS had these waterlogged eyes which Akshith made sure he would show to anyone who cared to look at anything but the movie.

The biggest joke of course was when, after the movie, Adarsh said," Ninne nanu Holla band kelkond hodvi. Garagasa anthane heldru.Accident Ranjitli matra".
He says this now. Again! :)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

No title! :P

I got the date of joining mail from the company i am placed in today. The jargon in the mail was quite a put-off, but it's now confirmed that I will be yet another software engineer in an already 'busting-at-the-seams' Bangalore, come mid July.

I might as well add "Stereotype software engineer" to my about me! :P

A Page 1 story on TIMES OF INDIA (Bangalore Edition) some days ago claimed that all freshmen recruits would have to wait for three months to one year before they could join the company which recruited them. The reason of course was the sub-prime crisis, slowdown, blah!

Now, this led to a lot of problems. It got uncles, aunts, relatives and other well wishers excited. It didn't help when a friend told my mother that Infy DOJ is somewhere in December. My father thought I would spend three months in front of the PS2! How I wish I could do that! :)

Everyone wanted to know when i would be joining.
They just wouldn't take 'I don't know' as an answer!

"Why don't you send a mail to the HR" said one aunt.

Another said, "Ask that senior who works there".


Well, I somehow managed to stay away from their pestering for some time. Now that I've got this mail, it'll be very interesting to see how they react!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Obscura/Libre open source fest

Obscura/Libre( i couldn't figure out the name of the fest as the organizers had used both the names!!) fest went unnoticed! I believe the organizers could have done better, especially with the publicity campaign. Nevertheless, i had a great time. :)

There were some very good events related to open source and a fine game design contest to boot for the coding aficionados. I won both the Open Source Quiz and the Linuz Quiz. Adarsh, for a change, was a reliable team mate! :) (Aashith, for some reason chose not to attend) . Adarsh won the Cryptix event with some help from me. :)

Here i post some of the questions that were asked:

Google's headquarters. (Sitter)
Logo's of various open source companies.
Expand GIMP, GRUB, GNOME...standard questions. Wiki for the answers.
Expand BOFH: Bastard operator from hell (I believe i was the only one who got this! Wiki for more details :) )
A question on the Alien package manager etc....

Ravi LS was disappointed for not having won any event. He had some 'covering' issues! :)

There were lots of talks, by Google, Mozilla etc. I didn't attend them. I don't attend talks. They are boring.

That's it. :)