Stranger on the Road

Travelling in Bangalore these days is simply a nightmare. And if u r in the driver's seat its pure hell!! A 10 KM stretch from e-city to Silk Board Jn. on the very infamous Hosur Road could take you anthing from 45 mins to 3 hours. But usually the painpoints start abt halfway down the route.

Yesterday was a different story. Abt a km after e-city, traffic comes to a dead stop!! Two vehicles that broke down on two diff lanes, blocking most of the traffic!! Frustrating is an under statement... I was hungry, tired and was longing for a warm cozy bed!! All these factors combined to probably give me a very grumpy appearance.. :(

Just ahead of my car, was a very common sight on Bangalore roads... the call center cabs!! They generally come in the shape of a Qualis/Safari/Indica or the good ol' Amby!! This one was a Safari and sitting on the rear end was a lady, who was trying to catch my attention.. well she was making faces at me!!

Once she found that she had me looking her way, she asked me "Why the grumpy face?!" .. and I replied.."The damn traffic!!" .. well, she said "Dont worry, just be happy n smiling!!"

The fact is the entire conversation happened through a barrier of two windshields and without a single word spoken!! Yep.. it was all using simples signs!!

As the traffic moved at a snail's pace, we continued this conversation and once we got out of it, bid her good bye..

No idea who this person is.. but whoever n wherever she is.. thank you!! :)

Airtel : Status Update

Just thot wud give an update on my predicament with the Airtel Data Card.

After all the trouble and travail that I had been through, I was able to locate that one customer care chap, who actually cared for the customer!! This chap, dunno if i shud take his name here, went way beyond his duty to ensure that I was connected!! he took care of calling up and co-ordinating with all the varied teams within Airtel to get my problem sorted out. And to top it he calls me up to confirm if my problem has been solved!! After going through two dozen good-for-nuthin people it really is a relief to find someone like that!! I promptly shot off a "customer-appreciation" mail mentioning this chap!! Hope it helps him!!:)

As for the GPRS net connection, its zimbly amazing!! The freedom to use the net newhere is gr8, after all these years of hving to dial up and sit rt next to ur telephone!! The speeds vary from 80KBPS to 220KBPS, good enough for me and it is accessible at the same rate anywhere in India, where there is an Airtel n/w!! The only stumbling block is the initial cost of the card.. 12 grands!! :(

Airtel - Anytime .. Anywhere!! * Conditions Apply

Just got a Airtel Data card, 2-3 days back. Its a credit card sized piece of hardware, that fits into the PCMCIA slot of ur laptop/PDA and lets u access the internet over GPRS/3G. Theoretically its an amazing thing coz it gives u wireless internet "Anywhere.. AnyTime"!! And thats wht tempted me to get it in the first place.. Big Mistake!!! When am i going to learn that marketing catch phrases are not to be believed!! :(

I should have seen the signs right at the beginning.. when i went to the showroom to enquire about it, the folks sitting there had no clue abt the whole stuff. They had to call up some other guy to get the details. But alas, i decided to go ahead with the card. I was assured that within 24 hrs i would be on surfing the net "Anywhere Anytime"!!

I waited for more than 24 hrs and last night installed the software and inserted the card into the PCMCIA slot.The flimsy manual that came with the card said it would be automtically detected. i waited n waited n waited n waited n after abt 30 mins called the customer care.

Now the sweet lady at customer care tells me data card queries are handled by a "specialized" service centre. Okey. I dial the new number. After a detailed trip of all the menus, the IVR informs me that this service center is available only from 10 AM to 10 PM!! So much for "AnyTime" service.!!

I am literally at my wit's end!! Repeated calls to the customer care proved futile. They had no clue whatsoever abt the data card!! :(

I waited till 10 in the morn n then finally called up the "specialized" customer care. The person on the line tells me smthing needs to be activated on my SIM and can only be done by the "normal" service center. I call up the other guy and he tells me everything is fine and active. After shuttling between the two service centers and abt a dozen "customer service" executives my problem still remains unsolved.. the final response was .. when the clock strikes 12 tonite everything wud fall in place!! ... i hope.. else if nebody needs to be connected to the net "AnyTime AnyWhere" u cud contact me for a GPRS data card!!

I hate Microsoft Word!!!!!

Grrrrrr... there isnt nething that i hv despised so much in my life!! ...am sick n tired of making word docs one after the other.. n more in the pipeline!! :(

Waiting for a mind-reading software that would automatically transfer my thoughts into a word doc!! now that wud be an amazing invention!! Bill Gates.. u listening buddy?!!

Early to Rise....

Among my friends and colleagues, its a well know fact that I can never ever get up early in the morning.. even if my life depended on it!! Oh by the way even 8 AM qualifies as "very early" by my standard. Me being at office by 10 AM itself is considered an amazing event!! ..

but today i broke all odds (to be frank even surprised myself!!) and was up and about by 6 AM (yes u read it right.. no its not a typo)!!!! Why did i do that?!.. well the reason to that would violate certain company policies.. so for now lets just focuz on this once in a blue moon occasion.

Had set up my faithful music system to wake me up by 6 AM.. and it is indeed a spiritual experience to be woken up by devotional songs and chants.. and a discovery to know that bangalore's only private FM channel played devotional songs in the morning!! (that wud be reason enuff to stay put in bed for sm more time!!) .. by abt 20 mins had made myself a cuppa coffee (with no paper to read..sigh!! c people r not meant to get up early!!!) and was all set to leave for work n work out (not in that order though!!)

Bangalore these days is notorious for traffic jams n snarls.. thot leaving early wud save me frm that.. but no!!.. i got myself stuck behind a Formula X (where X is 1 greater than the largest possible number) race between two fully loaded trucks...man I honked my brains out and after abt 10 mins one of the "racers" decided to give up and I manage to forge ahead.. (Remind me again.. why is getting up early good?!!)

Finally managed to reach work (in one piece!!) and after a work out, break fast, meeting, coffee, yet another meeting here I am waiting for my lunch partners!! Oh boy .. i can hear my stomach grumbling and growling (in abt 10 mins it wud be audible to the entire floor!!).. this getting up early is hard work.. wonder how people manage to do that on a daily basis!!... i bow to such folks!!..

neways to get rid of early morning blues a few tips.. (found it on a site and they did come handy today)..

	1 Take action at night to shorten your morning preparation time so that you can set the alarm for 15 minutes later than usual. Wash your hair, pack lunches, lay out your outfit or pack your briefcase at night.
2.	Hop out of bed the moment you wake up. Lingering in that downy comforter will only draw out the agony.
3.	End your shower with a jolt of cold water to tear yourself out of your grogginess. Or exercise in the morning to get your blood pumping and to release those feel-good endorphins.
4.	Get out in the sunlight. Bright light tells your body that it is indeed the morning and helps reset your internal clock.
5.	Drink coffee or another caffeine beverage. Although it's not healthy to drink caffeine to the point of addiction, caffeine, when used in moderation, can give your early mornings that much-needed oomph and alertness.

What Am I?!

Way back in primary school, we were taught a lesson abt the story of the bat. Neither a complete bird nor a complete animal, it cud not be classified into either.. I am now facing a similar identity crisis!! What am I?!..I am a keralite.. proud to be one at that.. but still I am not a hardcore keralite.. most of my mallu frens think that away... what abt the rest?!!.. for them I am a perfect mallu(think of irony!!)..

I majored in CS.. so am I a geek?!!.. no way.. thats what my classmates wud say.. but the rest?!!.. well just the other way!!

Am I an introvert or an extrovert?!.. am i the sporty type or the bookish?! am i modern or traditional?!.. am i this or that?!!

well what am i?!.. am i what they call non-conformist?! one who does not wish to be labelled?!.. but isnt that itself an oxy moron?!

in the end is it good not being labelled?!.. the answer i am sure is out there.. mocking @ me.. someday i will know..

The Indian Job

Was going through an article on rediff , abt precious jewels in the world. Interesting to note that most of them were plundered and looted from India at various points of time in history!! That got me thinking..

Assume a hypothetical situation - a group of indians commit a hollywood-style heist and capture the koh-i-noor diamond from the British crown in London. They manage to return to India with the koh-i-noor and promptly hand it over to the Indian governement with lotsa fanfare n publicity.

Now here is where the problem starts. What course of action should the government of India taking in such a situation - should it return the koh-i-noor back to Britain and show that we r still loyal servants of the crown or should it keep the diamond and condone the act of international robbery?!! .. How wud the British Government react?! Is this reason enough to launch a war on India?!.. what abt the International Community .. on whose side would it be?!... just my thots.. wud luv to hear what others hv to say abt it...

Delayed...

[This was a post that i started out almost a year back, but never got to complete it!! So finally better late than never!!]
There r days when everything that can go wrong.. well simply does go wrong!! June 23/24 2005 was one such for me.

I was in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain and was flying back to Bangalore. My team mates had left by an earlier flight and I was staying back with my cousin who works in Bahrain. I was scheduled to take a GulfAir flight from Bahrain to Mumbai and a connecting Jet Airways flight from onwards to Bangalore.

My flight out of Bahrain was scheduled at 10:30 PM and my cousin dropped me off at the airport at a quarter to 8. Went straight for the GF counters (surprisingly empty!!) and presented my tickets and passport. The gentleman at the counter, a Bahraini who spoke bits n pieces of English, asked me if I worked in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. I said no I was there on business visa. He looks at me with a confused look and says " Passport no cancel"!! I give him an even more confused look and a civilized version of "What the F***?!!" .. when he consults the lady in the next counter and informs me that "Passport must cancel!!" .. Like tht was helpful.. I told him that I did not get what he wanted, when he points to his superior's cabin and says "Talk Supervisor".

The supervisor luckily spoke better English and after going through my passport, informed me that since I am on a 7-day visa I needed no such thing as a cancellation. Oh yeah "Passport must cancel" actually is required for foreigners holding a work permit visa in Bahrain. They need some sort of an exit stamping in order to leave the country!!

Relieved I walked back to the reservation counter, where the queue was now snaking three times over!! Tried being civil and waited patiently for my turn (Big Mistake!!). Scanned all the GF staff on various counter and finally went to one where the guy looked cheerful and spoke good English. He takes my ticket and passport, goes through the passport and starts issuing me a ticket without any questions asked!! Man i should hv come here in the first place.. I am looking forward to a comfy nap, when suddenly the guy at counter stares at his screen, the motions for his supervisor and they start talking to each other in Arabic. Totally clueless I ask them wht the matter was. Apparently the flight was overbooked and the economy class is full. That meant I would be on standby.

If I was at the earlier counter, I would have hammered that chap to death!! Anyways being the eternal optimist, I expected a possible upgrade to Business class and accepted the standby status. While I waited almost 15-20 people were added on to the stand by list.

The clock ticked past 9:30 and we still had no news. At 9:40 they opened 3 business class seats and there were almost 7 times that number on standby. As luck (or rather lack of it) wud hv it, there were two young kids and a very old lady who were given priority.

Alarm bells started ringing in my head!! Hv heard lotsa tales of Mid-East airliners ill-treating stranded passengers from the Indian sub-continent. I rushed to the supervisor and informed him that it is absolutely important that I reach India the next day blah blah blah. he assured me that he will try to do his best. After about 5 mins, my name is called out and I get my boarding pass!!

But, wait my boarding pass says I am travelling to Abu Dhabi, not Bombay!!! I start to point out the mistake, the agent hands me one more boarding pass - Abu Dhabi to Mumbai!! I am being re-routed via Abu Dhabi. 45 mins stopver at AUH and then from there a 3.5 hrs flight to Mumbai which lands at around 5:20 AM. Good enough I thought, still have more than an hour to catch my Jet Airways flight. My only worry now, was that I didnt hv enough time to grab some chocs at the duty-free!!

After a pretty un-eventful flight to AUH, we land at a remote bay and are taken to the terminal in busses. At the transit lounge, find out that the Bombay flight is delayed by 30 mins!! Prayers answered, I do my bit of shopping and arrive at the gate promptly.Boarding done and after abt 30 mins we are still on the tarmac!! Smthings definitely wrong.

The captain comes online and announces that there was a snag with the onboard computer and that they would have to reboot it. That meant they would have to switch off the powersupply to the aircraft and switch on again!! Wow.. I thot we did that only with our Home PCs!! Anyways all that done and Captain giving an all OK, we are pushed back and we start taxi-ing. On the main runway engines all revved up, the flight starts on it flight to Mumbai... but just as we lift off, we are back on the runway again.. Pilot aborts take off!! The same computer snag appears again!! Am not sure whether I was pissed off at this or relieved that the snag did not appear 10 mins later while we were mid flight!!

Anyways we were deplaned and after a good 12 hr wait at Abu Dhabi airport, we finally got back into another aircraft at 1 in the afternoon!! In those 12 hrs, got sick of staring at the blue tiles tht make up the Abu Dhabi airport!! Abu Dhabi airport is pretty much a poor cousin of Dubai. Not much to do out there. Called up home to tell them I would be delayed and later called up Jet Airways to re-schedule my domestic flight. The lady at the other end informed me it was taken care of and i just needed to walk to their counter and would be accomodated in the next flight.

There was this lady, Ms. Shetty, who was travelling back to India for the first time, after visiting her husband in Bahrain. She had been re-routed like me. We got chatting and found out tht we were in the same row. She wanted a window seat and I gladly exchanged it for her aisle seat.

The GF flight landed in the Mumbai with all the passengers "applauding" the airlines for finally making it to Mumbai. It was raining outside and we got out into the familiar "urinal-pointing" stench of Chatrapati Shivaji International Terminal!! At the customs check point, the customs officer pointed out tht I had a digi cam and would hav to pay duty on that!! That camera (Sony P32) was a good 2 years old and had bought it on a previous jaunt. Tried convincing the same to the officer, who wanted me to prove it was old!! At this point Ms. Shetty who wa swith me thru immigration and customs asked me if it was a new camera. Immediately the custom officer says ," See, even your WIFE says its new!!!" Shell shocked , both of us shout out, WE ARE NOT MARRIED!!! Visibly embarassed, the officer mumbles an apology and lets us go!! That was a nice way to end an otherwise disastrous journey!!

With some luck, catch a Jet flight to Bangalore and land up home at 10 in the night and simply crash into my bed!! Home Sweet Home!!

When Wishes Come True.. well Almost!!

The year 2005. The sport Formula 1. The event Canadian Grand Prix. 12 laps into the race.

For a die-hard Ferrari fan, the situation could not hv been more hopeless. After ruthlessly dominating the F1 scene in 2004, this year the scarlet team seem more like "also-rans"!! The year definitely seems like going the Renault or McLaren way.

The initial laps of of the Canadian GP were no different. Despite starting from P2, Schumi was languishing outside the top 10 after his first pit stop. Rubino starting dead last , was still entangled with the tail enders!!

Having just reached home n switched on the TV , I almost had the impulse of switching it off n heading off to my warm n inviting bed.. but I decided to weather out this scarlet thrashing!!

Coupla laps more n the situation is no diff!! :( I am not a very religious sorta person, but I am forced to look heavenwards n pray for divine intervention!! if sm 8-9 cars crash out of the race, I cud hv a ferrari on the podium.. a long shot yeah, but quite possible!!

10-15 laps go by n I hv decided that the concept of God is pretty fictitious .. or maybe I hv used up my quota of wishes..

and then it started happening.. on Lap 34, race leader fisichella is slowing down.. hydraulics failure .. his race is over.. 1 down , few more to go..

5 laps down, the flavor of the season, Alonso brushes his renault against the concrete , damaging his suspension n suspending himself frm the race in the process.. my faith in the supreme being slowly starts building!! :)

Now we hv 2 McLarens leading and Button n Schumi almost half a minute behind them.. in F1 terms thats an awesome margin to cover up..

but once again .. Lady Luck finally seems to be smiling @ the prancing horse... Button grazes his BAR against the wall n his car is in pieces.. one more car off n an added bonus.. the safety car is out!! .. Yipee .. the 30 second diff between Schumi n the McLarens evaporates into 3 seconds!!

Safety car stays on n almost everyone dives into the pits. Looks like its gng to be flat out upto the chequered flag.. but trust Montoya to spice things up..

Jumping a red light is common on the streets, but on a F1 circuit?!!.. what was he thinking?! neways he is black flagged by the marshals n out of the race.. Schumi is now second!!..

The cup of joy simply overfloeth!!;) behind all these action, rubino has calmly pulled himself to 5th position, with Trulli sandwiched bewteen the two ferraris!! But not for long.. Trulli was out of the race, with his front brakes exploding ferociously!!

2 Ferraris in the top 3!!! last year that wud hv been greeted with,"yeah sure, so whats new?!!" .. but not in 2005.. for the first time this year, the Tifosi hv smthing to celebrate!! :)

Schumi did push Kimi (that kinda rhymes doesnt it!!) till the very end, but the 2-3 for ferrari realy did make my day!! Way to go ferrari.. hope the prancing horses make a phoenix like come back!!

Made myself a midnite snack n toasted a Diet Coke to the Scarlet Team.. what a race.. n oh yeah.. Thank You God!! :)