Pondering on Freedom...

It was another late night commute in the bus.

I boarded many transit buses n finally I got a bus directly to my destination.

I quickly boarded it, thankfully, I got a seat as well. Feeling happy, I sat and started reading a book as usual.

There happened to be a daily-wager from UP in the bus. I couldn't get the full context but the local people around him were trying to push him to a separate league. They were questioning his Benglur quotient and he seems to have an above average score to his experience. They were branding him intelligent.

These local people were trying to question him in Hindi (yes... irony...) n were very good at it. At the end, one of them said 'ಪರವಾಗಿಲ್ಲಪ್ಪ! ಇವನಿಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಯಾವ್ ಯಾವ್ ಸ್ಟಾಪು ಎಲ್ಲೆಲ್ಲಿದೆ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಏನ್ ಸಿಗತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ಗೊತ್ತು. ಆದ್ರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾತ್ರ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ. '.

This actually triggered various topics among them. It started from outsiders, and then they started cribbing about the lethargy of the locals and it reached the inflation and finally about the country politics... One man started cribbing that the country would've been better had it still been under the British till today... All these wicked, corrupt politicians are selling this glorious country for selfish motives. Bleh bleh bleh...

I, as always was silent reading the book but the disturbance made me close it. I alighted at my stop and started contemplating on the thoughts they were discussing.

One should notice that for him to express that 'this country would've been better had it still been in British rule' the right to express the same is obtained by the freedom what our forefathers fought for. Had they remained silent, this guy wouldn't have got an opportunity to even say those words. He would've been in jail had he said anything against the government.

Our generation doesn't know the value of actual freedom as it was known for those who really fought during freedom struggle. You'll know the value only when you lose it.

Also, if you're so concerned about the country, you would've elected the right candidates (if only... well, that's another story...) and not crib about after voting out the wrong candidate term after term. Yeah! I'm talking of Utopia.

Before this post turns preachy, I just want you to ponder over the above questions and  think about the real value of freedom.

An incident I don't wish to recollect

Had been to college today for the alumni meet today. Met many of my friends whom I interacted with. While having a chat with the close ones, they teased me on this incident. Thought of documenting the same. All my classmates know this.

It was the first semester.

We were in the chemistry cycle of which computer science, basic electronics, chemistry etc were the subjects. Everything was new. The college, the lecturers, the students. Everything. Ours was the first batch. We boast of the freedom we got for the same reason today.

Three months had passed. We were familiar with one and all. The zeal of new college was in each one of us. People can say that we were like one family. I could've described it better if I was a poet. Duh!! It was a startup college. (Ah! Thats me!)

There was this electronic class that day. I won't disclose the name of the lecturer. She was explaining some electronic component and its working.

To be frank, analog electronics never entered my brain. Still I'm not sure why a transistor behaves exactly opposite if you increase the voltage? (I'm just blabbering gibberish! I don't recollect even the doubt I had those days, though I can google n get it back. I'm lazy)

That was another typical electronics class wherein I tried to get the sense out of it but in vain. So I guess I started thinking on my own lines of things that interested me.

I don't know what I did after that but I guess, I smiled as the output of my thought process or someone around would've cracked a joke or I was indifferent to expressions.

The lecturer took it in the wrong sense and screamed in the class.

Lecturer: "Now Sandesh, mind yourself! Behave! Don't do that again or I shall take severe action on you"

Sandesh: "Me??? eh??"

Lecturer: "Don't act smart! I would throw you outa the class if you do that again!"

Sandesh: "Ma'am, but what did I do?"

Lecturer: "Shut up and STOP staring at me. If you do that again, mind you, things will not be right!!"

And she continued.

Till date, I still am not able to figure out what was her intent in acting that way! Me checking her out vulgarly? eh! come on! I wouldn't do that to any girl on this planet to the best of my knowledge.

I could draw up these reasons:

1. She could've really felt I was checking her out!

2. She saw someone doing that in the class and couldn't directly convey the same to them and I was the scapegoat she found. (Similar such incident happened with a different lecturer though)

Nothing happened after that. She continued with the class, I was startled for a moment and continued thinking on foolish things. She didn't complain to any one as any other lunatic did.

Thankfully, things were fine after that. Good thing is that even she forgot the incident and started to act as if nothing had happened that day, till the day she got married and said "Good Bye" to the college (must be in our fourth semester)

Thanks for reading my grief! Keep looking for the next post.

This evening when I tried to help...

Am I waiting for some weird, different experiences to blog out? Not sure. Came across this one in the evening and am blogging out.

Just got down in Shivajinagar from 330C. Was waiting for Big 10, G9. 5 minutes passed to find no signs of it.

There were a series of buses coming from Meenakshi Coil street and I got myself into looking for buses heading Yelahanka while an elderly gentleman, in his mid 40s tried to cross the road, couldn't at that moment coz of traffic.

In the meantime, he saw me and a smile flashed on his face. I returned it back. He probably was waiting for that I guess. Started talking to me. Conversation goes like this.

Him: Bad day. You know how to go to Jayamahal?
Me: Yeah. You get a bus here at the terminus. Go there. you'll get lotsa buses.
H: Oh Thanks. Is bus the only way? Can I get an auto as well?
M: Yeah! Many go there. fetch one right here. There is one auto passing by. (He just flew giving us no chance to enquire).
H: So good of you. I've walked from Ulsoor to Shivajinagar and I'm very tired. I'll wait for some time to get an auto, lest I shall board a bus.
M: You have one auto here. Wait, lemme ask him. (To the auto driver). ಜಯಮಹಲ್ ಬರ್ತೀಯೇನಪ್ಪ?
Auto driver: ಜಯನಗರ ನ?
M: ಜಯನಗರ ಅಲ್ಲಪ್ಪ. ಜಯಮಹಲ್ ಹೋಟೆಲ್ಲು. ವಸಂತನಗರ ಸಿಗ್ನಲ್ ದಾಟಿ ಅಂಡರ್ ಬ್ರಿಡ್ಜು ದಾಟಿ. ಹೋಟೆಲ್ಲು. ಗೊತ್ತಾಯ್ತಾ?
A: ಸರಿ ಬನ್ನಿ.
M: (To him) I've told him the route. You can go with him.
H: Why don't you come along. Please join me.
M: No please. I'll go by bus. I've lot many waiting here. You carry on.
H: It would help me find the route quicker If you come along. Please don't hesitate. Get in. Get in. Get in...
M: Okay.
A: ಸಾರ್! ಐವತ್ತ್ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಆಗತ್ತೆ.
M: (Scratching head) He's saying it costs 50 bucks.
H: Come on. Ask him to put meter. Why is he charging extra?
A: ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಯೂ ಟರ್ನ್ ಮಾಡಕ್ಕಾಗಲ್ಲ. ಸುಮಾರ್ ದೂರ ಹೋಗಿ ಯೂ ಟರ್ನ್ ಮಾಡ್ಬೇಕು. ಜಾಸ್ತಿ ಆಗತ್ತೆ.
M: ಗುರೂ, ಇನ್ನೂ ಟೈಮ್ ೭ ಗಂಟೆ. ಆಗ್ಲೇ ಹಿಂಗಾ?
A: ನಮಗೂ ವರ್ಕ್ ಔಟ್ ಆಗ್ಬೇಕಲ್ಲಾ ಸಾರ್? ೫೦ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಕೊಡಿ. ಇಲ್ಲಾ ಇಳ್ಕೊಲ್ಲಿ.

I conveyed the same to him, to which he kinda denied. Later after some talk agreed. I asked him to go by bus which is more economical but he resisted. He was late for an appointment by 2 hours and he can't make them wait more is what he said.

H: I've walked from Ulsoor to here. Can't walk anymore. Also, I'm not sure of getting any seat in the buses. I'll go by this but ask him to leave me right at the footsteps of the hotel.
M: ನೋಡ್ರಿ... ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ಬಾಗಲ್ ತನಕ ಬಿಡ್ಬೇಕಂತೆ. ಐವತ್ತ್ ರುಪಾಯಿ ಕೊಡ್ತಾರಂತೆ. (I was like, why the hell did I get involve in this?)
A: ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ಗೇಟ್ ತನಕ ಬಿಡ್ತೀವಿ. ಅಷ್ಟೇ.
M: He says He'll leave you till the gate. Is that okay?
H: If he talks this way, I can also talk the same. What have they thought of himself? I won't give him money if he doesn't take me to the hotel. (He also conveyed the same in Hindi, thinking that the driver understands Hindi)

The driver continued driving.

Meanwhile, we spoke about him taking an auto, a taxi from Ulsoor to Jayamahal which he explains like nobody was willing to ply in that area. I asked for autos, buses, taxis Meru, Citycabs et al to find none willing to come there. One company says that it'll take 2 hours to reach Ulsoor.

All the way, he was cursing n curbing about his situation. He says he met another person at Ulsoor who explained him the scenario (dunno how true) that nobody will come to pick you up and the best way left to you is to walk your way. That person gave him company till Shivajinagar and had gone elsewhere.

Now, this person is from Mumbai, visited Bengaluru for a conference in ITC Windsor Hotel, but stayed in Jayamahal. He had another appointment with Sobha developers at Ulsoor when all this begun.

I asked him. didn't the Sobha guys arrange for transport? He said, they didn't and I didn't ask for one. There was a mean smile on his face.

All the while, there were clashes happening between the auto driver and this person. The former used to curse in Kannada while the latter used to ask me to translate it (which I didnt) and also was swearing at him in English which he probably didn't understand.

He continued to explain things in Mumbai. About Meter Jam, people trying to man-handle rickshaw drivers and all. This went on for a few minutes and He also explained that things are the same in metros.

We spoke about lots of issues in the country. Thinking of no solutions but just to discuss problems. He also discussed about Belagavi issue and supported Karnataka in this regard. He had hatred towards the politicians starting this riot.

At Vasanthnagar junction, the auto driver asked.

A: ಏಯ್ ಐವಾನ್! ಎಲ್ಲ್ ಇಳ್ಕೊತೀಯೋ?
M: ಇನ್ನೂ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಮುಂದೆ ಹೋಗಪ್ಪ. ಅಲ್ಲೇ ಕಾನ್ಸತ್ತಲ್ಲ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ.
A: ಅವ್ರಿಗೆ ಕೇಳಿ ಸಾರ್. ರೋಡ್ ದಾಟ್ತಾರೋ? ಅಥವಾ? ಯೂ ಟರ್ನ್ ಮಾಡ್ಕೊಂಡ್ ಬರಬೇಕೋ?

He asked him to take him inside the hotel for which the driver cribbed and drove ahead.

H: I don't know one thing. These people want to increase fares according to petrol hikes. We people pay it. But still they crib? I dunno the reason. They always crib.

M: Thats human tendancy. Can't help it.

By the time, we were at the gate of Jayamahal hotel. I got down bidding him goodbye and walking away. He thanked me. and asked the driver to get inside.

A: ಅದೆಲ್ಲ ಆಗಲ್ಲ. ಗೇಟ್ ಹತ್ರ ಬಿಡ್ತೀವಿ ಅಂದಿದ್ದ್ವಿ. ಗೇಟ್ ಹತ್ರ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೀವಿ. ಒಳಗೆಲ್ಲ ಬರಲ್ಲ.
H: Now, again whats his problem? Boss... If you do nakhra, we also have to take the same route. I won't give you a penny.
A: ಏನ್ ಸಾರ್ ಇವ್ರು ಹೇಳೋದು? ಹಿಂಗೆಲ್ಲ ಆಡ್ತಾರೆ?

I was in between, concoling both of them. After 10 minutes of consoling, the driver agreed to get to the hotel entrance.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I just wanted to get outa this mess. I bid him final goodbye for which he formally said "Meet you some time" and bid adieu.

For the help I lended, I walked from Jayamahal hotel to Jayamahal bus stop.

Chaos called 'St. Mary's Feast'

If you're in ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು/Bangalore for the last week of August or the first week of September, and by your misfortune, you are bound to visit Shivajinagar/surrounding areas... I pity your condition.

Is St. Mary's feast celebrated the most in Bangalore?? I was baffled to find wikipedia's St. Mary's Bascilica, Bangalore link among the top three while I googled for St. Mary's feast. Confused, I searched in google.co.uk as well to make sure that location preferences are avoided. Still I find the same result.

What we call Bowring Church, actually St. Mary's Bascilica, the oldest church in Bangalore, located just opposite to Shivajinagar bus stand, is the source of chaos.

In short, this St. Mary's feast, is the celebration of virgin mother of Jesus, Mary (who got sainthood just because she gave birth to the messenger as a virgin??!). Did she take long to take birth (15 days of celebration)?? I don't see Christmas celebrated that long; atleast here in Bangalore.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Mary's feast celebrations started almost more than 600 years after her birth. Why did it take so long for them to celebrate? Mary's birthday is still unknown but they celebrate it on September 8th of the Gregorian calendar. There is no solid proof that it falls on September 8th.

To my misfortune, I've been to Shivajinagar during this season almost every year since a minimum of 8 years. Its getting worse year by year. The worst I experienced was today, when buses from Balekundri Circle (Indian Express) to Shivajinagar on the Meenakshi Koil Street was blocked in the morning. So every bus from Indian Express were detoured to BRV ground and reached Shivajinagar via the Central street. I calmed myself saying 'Fuhget it! This is gonna get over this week' but while coming back from Domlur to Shivajinagar, no matter how many alternative routes taken by the bus, I had to wait 1.5 hours to reach Commerical Street. All buses denied to go to Shivajinagar. Let alone buses, no vehicles. After a 10 minute walk to Shivajinagar, I was shocked to see Shivajinagar Bus Stand completely occupied by these people. How can they use it?? Never have I seen such a thing before.

Not a single bus in the vicinity of Shivajinagar. I walked past the Meenakshi Koil Street towards Balekundri Circle passing by tens of beggars pleading alms on my way.

Not all agree walking from Commercial Street to Indian Express like me. Its irritating to most of them. Even the policemen couldnt control the situation. All I recollect such a thing happening was a year and half back when our infamous Devegowda called for a jana jaagruti samavesha at palace grounds affecting people commuting in the vicinity of Palace Grounds.

One more thing I need to mention here is that majority (more than 95%) of people attending this feast were Tamilians. I felt like I was in some busy town of Tamil Nadu while I walked past them. All black faces, in strikingly irritating orange uniforms (not to discriminate but to explain the fact). Was totally bugged up by their celebrations. Never have I seen Christians whom I know talk about St. Mary's feast; neither any other church celebrating it other than St. Mary's Bascilica.

I've seen Karaga/Ganesha festival being celebrated all over Bangalore but never is it this troublesome. Its distributed all over and not concentrated in one location. Blocking one of the major business zones completely for days together for some festival is irritating to many. And this St. Mary's feast started some 10 years ago I feel. Nowhere I saw it getting celebrated in my childhood.

I'd like to recall when the first person who tried to evangelize me, telling that 'truly speaking, there is no festival in Christianity; its a sin for a christian to celebrate any festival; hard core christians don't even celebrate Christmas you know... blah blah blah.' Now what is this feast considered to be??

I personally feel this is another method towards their evangelism strategy. To hell with them.

I like to give one message to those who celebrate this feast. If you want to celebrate, celebrate it in a distributed fashion and not concentrating near Shivajinagar. Its annoying to many who live in the city. First of all, get to know whether this can be celebrated after all (as your bishops, clergymen whosoever is concerned...)

Please do not try to play with the sanity of the city.

OVER N OUT.

Eye-opener...

Two/three weeks ago,

Was heading towards Malleshwara to meet Hemanth, Yogesh n Susheem @ Beagles. I boarded a BMTC from Byats.

Come Hebbal, three dumb fellas board the bus. They were busy communicating among themselves through sign language (which differed from our sign language... I felt it much more complex. Couldn't make much outa it) By their outfits they looked like Malayalis. How stupid am I to associate dumb with a language?

They incessantly communicated while I was busy playing dominoes on my mobile watching them at random intervals.

Two were seated at my back, One was facing me. You know, it was that kinda bus where four people can face each other on one compartment.

The expression on their face appears atleast over-acting; atleast to me. Ex: Laughing forcibly... Thats how they communicate. I might be a bit harsh here but thats the case with most of the handicapped.

While they communicated I never noticed the person in front of me using mobile. I was of the notion that mobiles are with everyone these days even with sweepers (not to condemn them, but addressing by their job)

I had overlooked the dumb chap using mobile. It all suddenly flashed to me when we were at Mekhri grade seperator. Of all of them, why a dumb guy has a mobile phone? What would he do with that if he cannot speak to it?

It was not a smartphone or a phone that can have any applications like games, video, audio... It was a plain Vodafone ZTE 125. You can't even listen to radio on it.

I now noticed him. Thanks to SMS. They communicate via SMS. Glad they teach them English along with their sign language.

I observed the guy till I got down at Central, and was smiling to accustom another simple but eye-opening experience.

A Blunder I must say

First of all, You might think, this blog is inactive for long... The author must have lost interest in it. Yeah... Kinda... I don't wanna blame anybody for being lazy than myself.

From the time I joined a new company, thanks for my routine... couldnt make some time to blog. To add on to it, I was a bit low from the day my today's links blog was deleted by Google for spam. It was an attempt to store links I found were interesting.. 'nuff said...

Back to blogging.

Two months ago i guess. Both of my cousins were here at Bangalore after a long time. (Probably 1.5 years later). They had brought their family along. IT was a get together for them after a long long time.

One Saturday, I set myself to meet them. One whom I had dropped home from the airport. I hadn't met the other for long.

Before I describe the incident, Lemme tell you that I'd like to complete a sentence in one language as a whole. This would lead to blunders sometimes as it happened on that day.

Now, this other cousin was becoming another father. He already had one. This blunder what I said, happened when I tried wishing him.

The moment I met him, I wished him congrats. He didnt knew why exactly I wished him and asked my why?

By the slip of the tongue, instead of wishing him, 'as you're about to become yet another father', i said 'you're yet to become another father'

Damn!!! The whole family was in a pool of laughter while I was feelin so shameful. such incidents, everytime you recollect, will give you some amount of joy n pain.

Similar incident happened yesterday by my mom (which I wouldn't be discussing here) which made me blog this. I recollect the incident of my engineering college farewell, where I had scolded people to bring me on stage without respecting the dias. Feeling so guilty for that now. But nothing can be done. Its all past. Its over.

There are many such things that happen by the slip of the tongue. the person feels so guilty and may be teased for long (which didnt happened to me in any case)

To a person like me, It will not have any impact other than some moments of shame. But I've seen people taking things seriously of such incidents. I don't want to take names.

People feeling uncomfortable to speak English, may stop speaking in public if they accustom such incidents frequently. All I can say is that its not your language. You are bound to make mistakes, sometimes in your mothertongue itself... Why worry about a foreign language? Take it easy.

Some take it in positive manner and become kinda masters in the respective field. Its all how you take it. I'm kinda 'Do I look like I give a Shit?' person. I don't bother at all.

Now that I've blogged the incident, it'll be lighter in my mind, than it already was as always.

Another encounter with a female...

Couple of weeks ago,

I was walking my way to office getting down at the bus stand. A monday morning.
Just a couple of yards behind the gates of the office.

Suddenly a bottle-green Maruti Suzuki Ritz, overtakes me and a female gets down off it. Waves bye to her hubby (boyfriend??) giving a flying kiss later.

She suddenly turns back to see me, watchin this whole episode. She felt shy n clumsy. Rushed herself towards office (kinda escaping from me).

Whenever she encounters me at the office, a hapless smile/grin appears on her face outa shame. Duh!

Need more explaination?

Two Tales, Two Thathas.

Well, the title should have been long. I was planning for 'Two tales on Two elderly gentlemen, one @ dusk and one @ dawn'. Very very long... =(

Two of my experiences on consecutive days. Here they go.

Tale 1:

Had been to one telco's office to get a connection for my mother yesterday. While I was discussing plans with a representative, an elderly gentleman entered the office with a grim face.

The moment he came, he started scolding another rep black n blue; reason being excess amount on his broadband bill. The sales rep/installation crew who had installed broadband in his house and had promised the old guy that the bill wont cross Rs 500/-

Probably this thatha is tech savvy or atleast internet savvy. To his bad luck, I think his plan wasnt an unlimited connection. He has crossed the limits and had got a lumpsome bill of Rs 1.7k and change. Poor fellow is now baffled and has travelled 4km from his house to the telco office to enquire. Guess he doesnt know about customer care (not that they're any better, but alteast that would've avoided his travel)

He was not satisfied by the justification given by the helpless rep. Now, the rep called the installer, his higher officials n whosoever are concerned but in vain of help to thatha.

He continued his swearings... in fact, increased them two folds... All the stupids, rascals etc came outa his mouth. Irritated employee asked him to stay quiet but it was of no use.

Meanwhile thatha made some calls scolding the person on the other side. He must be the installer. Rep was insisting him to speak him in Kannadaif he could coz the other party isnt well versed in any other lingo, he would start a sentence in Kannada and switch over to English. No comments...

I got my connection while thatha continued swearing.

Tale 2:

Wakey wakey... This morning I had to visit supermarket as my father was busy with some other work. Gotta get some milk, vegitables etc. Now, this supermarket, is say 200 steps from my house, fresh stocks come everyday @ 08:15 am. I went there by 8:10, to make sure that the precious commodity, milk doesnt get over. There are instances wherein I have returned back going by 9 o' clock. I dont wanna take chances.

I saw some familiar faces of which one of them is another thatha. Never have I spoken with them but they are familiar.

Okay! 8:15, no news about the delivery truck. Welcome sign for my othla sense. I roamed around the mart, checkin things out. The same old beans, carrots, oats etc. Meanwhile I saw this thatha speaking to the wardboys n stewardesses sometimes cuddling them. Normal thatha behavior. 8:25 and still the truck hasnt arrived. I continued.

8:30 it passed by. Its a narrow road, it went ahead to park in the opposite direction so that it can just go once the delivery is complete. It came but there was a Santro in the usual place of its parking. The driver was waiting...

It happened to be a customer's santro who was billing. His mom was also by his side billing. He had a long list. Took a lot of time to complete. It was already 8:45 and thatha lost his temper. He started scolding. Asked him to move the vehicle. Hesitant customer (lets call him Mr. X for short) never cared and continued with the billing. Even the wardboys requested to move, he said, he is almost done with the billing and would take the car once its done.

Thatha started swearing bastards n bullshits on this person. Mr. X in his late thirtys or early fortys got enraged and counter sweared thatha though he was done with the billing. His mother intervened for no use. This went on for another 15 minutes. Rest were silent including me.

One of the stewardess came in between now, talking to Mr. X in Telugu to calm down and take his car. He never budged and asked support on his side rather moving his vehicle. Seems this thatha is also a teluguite. Now the conversation shifted to telugu from English (Sadly no Kannada)

9:15, still the truck was waiting for its parking place with these two quarelling with all swearings. Even the mother joined with Mr. X swearing 'Gudd mooskond pora' to thatha. Havoc...

Enough was enough. I was bored of watchin stuffs n wastin time watchin these stupids fight, I intervened, and asked X to move the vehicle instead of quarrelling. Though I was indifferent, (probably partially on behalf of thatha, as I was waiting for milk).

Now this thatha come over me, swearing that 'nobody has the guts to fight injustice! blah blah blah!!!' I ignored them while Mr. X pleaded me to explain the same to thatha. Thatha now turned his complete attention to me and started to blame my escapism. Again I ignored and came inside while X moved to move his vehicle.

As he was moving, this short tempered, lunatic thatha continued the swearings on X. Thank god, I was saved. Things didnt get over. X parked the vehicle some meters ahead, made way for the truck, came back and started quarrelling with thatha.

Bah!! 3-4 stewardesses came to the rescue of their supermarket, many people from streets barged in and somehow consoled them both. One of them scolded thatha and asked him to leave the premises after his purchase. He continued swearings ad infinitum and was gone in 5 minutes after getting milk.

Thats it of the tales.

At the end, what I wanted to say was that some of these elderly gentlemen are very very short tempered. I meet such creatures atleast once in a week. They just want everything their way and any small mistake enrages them to the peak. They dont care about the etiquettes, dignity and just want the opposite side to be tamed. What I suggest in such scenarios is to justify your stand once, if it is not welcomed, you better walk out or else, the whole day you'll be irritated by the fight...

Your comments please...

Big 10, Akka n Me

This saturday, myself and Akka were returning from the bank in Sahakarnagar. When we came to byats, we saw a BIG 10 bus. What followed will be said later but,

For non-Bangaloreans, (also, for those Bangaloreans who least travel in the bus, Hehe!) BIG 10 buses are BMTC buses which drop you off at a certain popular location within the city to the suburbs. Or as BTIS says,

Big10 services, connect the Central Business District with different parts of the city

These locations within the central where most buses wouldn't stop. Ex: BRV grounds to Yelahanka Puttenahalli. One might get confused where is this BRV grounds? Its on the Cubbon Road (parallel to MG Road), check it out.

We do have Kendra Saarige buses of which more could be found here.

Enough off the topic, but before diggin more into the post, just have a look at the BIG 10 logo.


Akka started off with the conversation.

Akka: ಹೇಯ್! ಈ ಬಿಗ್ ೧೦ ಅಂತ ಬರ್ದಿರೋದ್ ನೋಡು. ಅದ್ ಯಾಕ್ ಹಾಗ್ ಸೊಟ್ಟ ಬರದಿದ್ದರೆ?
Me: ಅಲ್ವಾ? fullu italics ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೆ.
Akka: ಅದ್ ಯಾಕ್ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಗ್ ಸೊಟ್ಟ ಬರದಿದ್ದಾರೋ??!!
Me: ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಾ? ಹೇಯ್! ಸರಿಯಾಗ್ ನೋಡು! ಅದು ಇರೋದು ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷಲ್ಲಿ.
Akka: ಏನೋ ಹೇಳ್ತೀಯಾ? ಅದ್ ಇರೋದು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ. ಕಣ್ ಬಿಟ್ಟ್ ಸರಿಯಾಗ್ ನೋಡು.
Me: ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಅದ್ ಯಾವ್ angle ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣ್ಸತ್ತೆ ನಿಂಗೆ? ಡೈರೆಕ್ಟ್ ಆಗಿ ನೋಡು. B I G ಅಂತ ದೊಡ್ಡದಾಗಿ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷಲ್ಲೇ ಬರ್ದಿದ್ದಾರೆ...

(Now, both of us realize that its actually in both Kannada and English)

Akka: ಹೌದಲ್ಲೋ! Direct ಆಗೇ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದ ಹಾಗ್ ಕಾಣಿಸ್ತ ಇದೆ.
Me: ನೀನ್ ಹೇಳೋದು ಕರೆಕ್ಟು. ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೂ ಇದೆ. ನಾನ್ ಇದೆ ಮೊದ್ಲು ನೋಡ್ತಾ ಇರೋದು ಈ ಥರ. ನಿಜವಾಗಲು ಈ ಲೋಗೋ ಮಾಡಿದವನಿಗೆ ಅವಾರ್ಡ್ ಕೊಡ್ಬೇಕು.

Now, lemme explain to the non-Kannada readers as to what went on in that conversation. She was seeing that logo in Kannada font and wasn't aware of the english font in it, while I was seeing the English logo and couldn't recognize the Kannada hidden in it (Some of you might swear me for this... Hehe). But we came to know about this mutually when we disclosed it.

Those who know both Kannada and English fonts, check it out. It is a beautiful logo created by BMTC (the logo creator has to be awarded to come up with such a wonderful logo).

After this incident, i realised as to why there were circles on top of the B and I characters of English font. Those were to make it also readable in Kannada.

I thank Akka in sharin the info to me in this respect, she would thank for what I shared... Nullifies... =)

since this incident, I see the Kannada font more than the English font. This pic above was taken after this incident exclusive for this post.

Were you one of us? or had you already noticed both the fonts? Share it.

Feel so good to find such minute interesting facts. Aint you?

Innond Naayi Kathe...

4-5 Days ago...

3:30 AM, Was in a deep slumber.

3:45 AM, the power was off. Thanks BESCOM...

3:50 AM, a dog in the neighborhood started barking like anything. It went on for 5 minutes... Surprisingly nobody, including its owner never bothered to stop it.

4:00 AM, I got bugged, got up, went to the balcony. Was mesmerized to recognize the rhythmic barking of the dog. It was barking in the same pitch, same tune etc...

Sandesh: Ey Pthu! Baay muchcho! Nettag malgakku bidalla! [Flippin Heck! Shut up! Won't you let us sleep in peace?]

the dog just stopped for a while, again started barking, but with a low pitch.

S: Muchchteeyo ilvo baayi? Raatri hottu en badkontu ninge roga? [Won't you shut up? What has struck you in the night?]

After two more rounds of scoldings, the dog, became silent. I came in and then I recognized that there was no power. Recollected that the PC was on, since I had left it to fetch the updates. Rushed towards the PC, shut it off... Went back to sleep. 10 minutes, the alarm beeped... I thought I slept the wrong time. Changed the alarm signal to a customized no sound file, went to sleep.

7:30 AM, I woke up, finished my praatah karma.

7:45 AM, I went to the house where the dog belonged, it was lying beside in a loathsome manner, I then asked,

S: Yaar mane naayi idu? [whose dog is this?]

Owner: Namde, yaake? [Ours, Why?]

S: Raatri ella bogaltittalla? nimg yaarigu echchra aaglillva? namm maneli ellargu echchra aaythu! ellargu nidre kaata aaytu. [It was barking all night long, didn't you guys notice? Everyone was awake in our home. Nobody had a sound sleep]

O: Oh! Saari! [Oh! Sorry!]

S: Innmelaadru sariyaag nodkolli. [Keep watching atleast from now on...]

I came home. Was reading newspaper. My dad noticed that there was a Thallo Gaadi [trolley] missing in the empty side beside our house which is right beside the highway. That trolley was belonging to the house owner I had just spoken to.

He went to them and enquired about it. That was when they knew it. They used to lock it everyday, but unfortunately, that day, they didnt. A robber had arrived and had taken away that trolley.

Things started falling into place in my mind about the dog's barking. Thanks for its superior hearing n sensing abilities...

At the Optician...

More experiences...

Had been to Cubbon Park to meet my high-school friend. While leaving home, Dad asked me to get my sister's spectacles from the optician which I agreed.

After the meeting, I set myself to the optician who is a bit close to our family as we are one of his regular customers.

Was greeted well, I was early by 15 minutes. Was asked to wait.

It is a busy place you know... Lot many people entered the shop after me. A male was there at the shop before I entered. After me, another male came followed by a girl with her mother.

Looking at the girl, I felt, she must be studying in her 10th or 1st PUC. Just a guess. Don't go weird. A typical brahminic Mom and Daughter.

I had no better work to do. Was happily waiting.

Seems like she was using spectacles since 5 years and a month ago, her eye-sight is blurred. She contacted her doc and was there to get her fresh glasses.

Enter a mom and her son. They were Muslim. Could make it from their clothes and their Urdu. She, the muslim mom stood right beside the girl. Dunno whether she hadn't took her bath or hadn't washed her burkha for ages, She was literally stinking. They don't care.

Girl became consious. Was irritated by the female. She moved and stood behind her mom. Hehehe! =)

The muslim pair had their work done. The moved on, while I still waited there to get my order serviced watching other customers, specially the girl and her mom.

The optician was busy explaining her about the looks of the glasses. Pros and Cons of each model she was interested in. As every other teenage girl, she was a bit too hesitant in choosing. She used to wear each and every frame she got interested in, busy watching herself in the mirror. (How can she be clearly looking at the mirror with those dummy glasses? I dunno!!)

She was asking her mom about the looks of the specs. "Mom! How am I looking in this?"
Mom used to usually say good. What else would she say?
She must be thinking "What would my friends comment on it? How do they take this frame as?" etc...

The optician was sincerely commenting in a humorous way at each frame. Nice timepass. You look gorgeous in that frame. You look like your granny in this one... goes on.

15 minutes passed. I got my order. I bid adieu to the optician while she was still busy selecting frame with a confused look.

Another thread from my Enggy Days...

Stepped onto V semester.

We had , Operating Systems(OS), System Software(SS), Introduction to Unix, Computer Graphics(CG), Object Oriented Software Development(OOSD) and of course labs.

All was fine. Lemme tell you about the incidents that took place in that semester with a particular lecturer.

She was newly appointed in our college to handle System Software subject. I wont disclose her name. People who studied with me, would guess her name.

Checking out my III sem results and the IV sem happenings, senior lecturers who handled us, had a good impression on me. I'm not boasting. Just go to our college, even now and ask the teachers who handled us about me, they'll have the same opinion. Though some may say that I'm nuts, someone like whom this post is about.

These senior lecturers, imposed the image what they had on the new lecturers who had recently joined. They had also explained about those studs whom they aren't comfortable with too. I was in the former list as told before.

Now, this SS lecturer, first had a very good impression on me. She used to teach looking at me, most of the time thinking that I'm the bright stud there. Who knew all such things at that time? eh?

The text what we had for SS was pretty boring. Couldn't find interest in reading that. I was never reading that book unlike others that semester.

Come the first internals. First day, we had OS and SS i guess. IT was a monday. I concentrated on OS, My uncle had come home from Michigan, was spending time with him neglecting the sessionals. We'd been to "Doddaaladamara" near Bidadi, the previous day. I had taken the SS book so that I could read something in case I made some time. No use. I couldn't make time for that. Who wishes to read when your family is on a trip?

Okay! I wrote the sessionals. Ma'am was horrified granting me marks. First time in my Enggy career, I had got a single digit, 2 or 3 I guess. Not sure.

She distributed the marks sheet, after the class, she called me to the staff room.

Ma'am - Why Sandesh? What happened to you?
Sandesh - I'd been to a trip with my family. Will perform well in the coming internals ma'am.
M - You've got internals and you'd been to a trip? Are you joking?
S - No Ma'am, We had our uncle coming down all the way from US, he's leaving in another week or so. I thought of giving him company. Dunno when he'll come back.
M - Thats okay! Don't do it another time. Best of luck. :-)
S - Thanks ma'am! =)

One thing, she didn't notice right from the first ady of her class is, she didn't notice me and Susheem playing book cricket during her class. That was our usual routine in boring classes. We were not at all interested in SS. Dunno, the subject was too boring and was made even boring with this lecturer.

just two weeks before the second sessionals, we were caught red handed playing book cricket in her class. Previously, she didn't leave the dias, but now that she got that I'm not paying much interest into her class, she used to roam around. That fine day, we didn't notice her coming. She scolded us like hell and asked not to repeat it.

Since that day, The look she used to give while teaching, turned into a stare.

I scored 11 in my second internals. Failing to get a minimum of 15 as an average. I think, that was the first subject i failed to get a minimum in the internals.

Meanwhile, I was called by my senior lecturers, including the HOD, for the complaint lodged by our SS lecturer and was asked about my behaviour in her class. I just waved it off as a little mischief. They also didnt take it in a serious way. The belief they had in me was not that easily shakeable.

Right since the second internals, she used to get irritated by my presence in the class. She used to find one or the other reason to scold me and my benchers. The slang of hers, "No way! not at all a way" became quite common among our class. A couple of times, she denied attendance for me.

One fine day, in her class, she again, saw me playing "Byatarayanapura Vs Vidyaranyapura" match with susheem, She asked us to walk out. We happily walked out.

Another day, she saw me talking with Susheem and Daksha in her class. She made us stand in her class, scolded for 5 minutes and sent all three of us outa the class.

One fine day, she just sent me outa the class. She asked if anybody is interested in going out may do so. Daksha majestically came out making signs of "Whats the big deal? Makes no difference." right in front of her. Hehehe!

Somedays later, she was bugged up sending us out. She said, If you're coming only for the sake of attendance, you may please leave. I'll give attendance for all. She expected us to leave. We didnt. Since that day, she started neglecting us.

I somehow, managed to get a 24 in the third internals to get a minimum of 15 in the internals. Good that she didnt had the grudge in granting marks.

After that sem, she never took our class just for the reason that I'm there in that class. Huh! Can't help it.

There is nothing much in this post left apart from dedication. I dedicate this post to her. Hope this post kept you entertained for a while. =)

Contradiction...

Will blog out two of my contradicting experiences today. Bad one first.

A few days ago, say a week back, I had to take my grand parents to a function going on near West Of Chord road, Rajajinagar. I dropped them off at the hall and was searching for parking space which I didn't find there.

Just a couple of yards further, I see space but there was sunlight. I didn't want my car to bask, I moved ahead a couple of blocks to find some shade just beside a house, which had these letters carved just beside the gate (ಹರ್ಷ, ....... ರಾವ್).

I parked, though I saw the owner of the house staring at me while he took his dog to pee. He was constantly staring at me and my car. I felt uncomfortable and asked him.

Sandesh: "ನಿಮ್ಗೆನಾದ್ರು ತೊಂದರೆ ಆಯ್ತಾ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಗಾಡಿ ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ?" [You got a problem with me parking my vehicle here in front of your house? eh?]

House Owner: "????"

Sandesh: "ನಿಮ್ಗೆನಾದ್ರು ತೊಂದರೆ ಆಯ್ತಾ ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಗಾಡಿ ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ?"

House Owner: [In a rude manner] "Whats your problem man?"

Sandesh: [Harshly] "I said, you got a problem with my parking in front of your house?"

House Owner: [pacifying] "No! No!! Go ahead!!"

I was feeling like I shouldnt have spoken in English to teach him a lesson. Dunno what was going on in my mind at that instant, I ditched him and moved ahead to the function. After that I was feeling like why should they hang a board in Kannada if they speak English outside? Its plain "GAANCHALI".

Now to the good contrary experience.

This was say in November 2008. Book fair was going on at Palace Grounds. As usual, was browsing through the heaps of books. Moving on from stall to stall, row by row just skimming through the content of books I got interested.

All of a sudden, I recollect that I had seen a book say in the previous row, somehow missed it absent minded. It flashed through my mind and I was eager to take it. I rushed back through the row. While I was heading to the concerned bookstall when all of the following happened within two seconds.

I hit a guy badly. He was furious. He was opening his mouth to scold me while I said "ಕ್ಷಮಿಸಿ" (Kannada for Sorry) he saw me saying that in Kannada. He smiled and said "ಪರವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ" (Its okay) and moved ahead. Speaking Kannada in Bangalore has become a thing to get perplexed these days. Isnt it normal?

Just check out both these scenarios. How contradicting? aint it?

Beg your pardon, Mastercard...

Having a sumptuous supper at home - Priceless!
Walking in the drizzle after the meal half naked [Shirts off! dont get weird] - Double Priceless!!
Drizzle turns downpour, you continue till you feel digested - Triple Priceless!!!
Entering home once again through the front door, totally drenched with your mom staring at you - Priceless to the nth order!!!!!!!

There are somethings you can do alone... For everything else, there is Family.

Plagiarism - Views on it.

This post is regarding the blogathon against plagiarism which I had promised Shrinidhi to post today.

TheFreeDictionary.com defines it as "The act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation."

In simple English, it means flicking someone else's idea, propertie, [usually which is creative] and giving it their name without mentioning the original author.

I've seen many such cases. Will mention my own case, which is not that big or critical enough though... Here is how Nidhi's picture got flicked by The Times of India.

Simple plagiarism examples you can see is local showrooms, photoshops where they have photos of many celebrities like film stars, cricketers, other less popular sports players like tennis etc to attract people. Such cases cant be reprimanded as the profit they make from such things is pretty meagre. They dont know what is plagiarism, thats one thing, also, if they are aware of it, they dont know how to give credit to the propreitery owner. We can ignore such cases.

Another form of plagiarism is what i'm gonna explain with an example in this paragraph. Can you call this plagiarism, i cant say but its kinda plagiarism for me. If you can recollect, We had a detergent Nirma (Think it still does exist... dunno), which was quite popular till 90s. While a competitor called Nima comes in with almost same logo, same kinda size... almost identical to Nirma with some variants but with a lower price, people tend to take such things. Another example would be Nokla 95 available in National Market [ Bangalore ], compared to Nokia N95. Its features are almost same, some cases, better than Nokia N95 they say, but available at a price of Rs. 5000 when compared to 20 odd grands for N95. I think it as plagiarism coz they are using the brandname of Nokia to some extent.

I'll explain my experience with plagiarism. I upload some funny pics on orkut.co.in and I do have many of my friends following it. Some of my friends, friends, flicked my pics and didnt even mention my name. One of my friend, noticed this and informed me, on asking that person, you know what he did? He made the photos private. Bugger! I dunno how many have done sucha thing but its common.

This is to a lower scale, I dont mind people flicking my pics and posting it in their profile, but this can cause harm. If they use it to some criminal purpose? what can we do? What if they use our pic in some terrorists websites? Forget that, don't you think that it is robbery? In this internet world, its not that only tangible things can come under robbery. What if giants like TOI flick?

Few of the remedies i can think of are :

1. Develop a mechanism through which you can't save a picture. [ I've seen many sites that do not allow right click, dunno about the mechanism, but its easy].

2. Clever people would take a snapshot using ksnapshot [linux] or Shift+Print Screen on Windows or through some software which allows you to take snapshots of the screen. Some sites even disable this. Mechanism they follow is unknown to me. Will search on it and let you know.

3. Place an ugly mark, or a watermark on pictures [if it is a photograph], this somehow would make the pic ugly and some of the readers might object.

If you can think of anything else? do comment.

Any technical mechanism can be for and against it. There are softwares which can do wonder and do whatever you want with pics. If you comeup with a mechanism against plagiarism, the plagiars would come up with another mechanism to overcome it.

Finally, Its upto the flicker to mention the original author from the moral point of view, that would make both sides happy.

HNS, our High School Principal passes away...

All you Seshadripuram Boys' High Schoolites, FYKI, our Principal, H.N.Shivakumar Aaradhya is no more from today.

I dunno about his tenure in that institution butsurely he would have completed some 30 years teaching there. Though, students of SBHS have a mixed feelings towards him, I truly respect him for being our Principal during my tenure there. He was simplistic, though hard when it comes to handling issues with sturdy students. Many had nicknamed him which I shall not mention in this post atleast as it would disrespect him on his obituary post.

Reason I called him simple is based on this incident. That was my 8th standard. I had to apply for my student pass provided courtesy B.T.S then, (now BMTC), school timings were over and almost everybody were home. I was late waiting for my sister to accompany me home, while I needed to attest my Principal's signature on the form provided by BTS, he was leaving and I went to him, asking him to sign the form. If it was any other Head Master, he would have surely sighed, would have asked me to come the next day to the office and get it done. He took the form, signed, asked about my details in a friendly way (Not as a Principal), smiled and took his way. This is one such incident i recollect remembering him.

If you go to any of the lecturers of SBHS and ask who was the worst, of all classes, they would surely point to us, the 'B section'. Will post stories of high school as i recollect, but even H.N.S had this notion which makes us feel proud sometimes as well as bad sometimes. Thats a long story.

He also used to take classes. He was a science teacher, physics was his subject. He used to take only the 10th students. Nuclear physics was his topic. He taught well is all I can say.

Well, can't think of anything else of him. Thats it for now. LHSRIP.

Incident with Tattoo Rani

Well, was thinking of writing something funny to find this.

This belongs to the can't help it categories. Yeah! You got it right! About the female employees I work with.

That day, had got a direct bus to Devarabisanahalli from Byatarayanapura. Unfortunately, I had got a window seat which can see backwards to the motion of the vehicle. i.e., If the bus is moving forward, I could see the people behind the bus.

Had crossed the Karthiknagara. Was heading towards Maraththalli.

I saw a Zen Estillo driven by a female. It was slow moving traffic. You know my hobbies. I watch things around be it a cart moving or a volvo. This female in the Zen Estillo was making faces to the traffic.

After 2 minutes, the slow moving traffic turned to be a jam. This female seems to have strict time sense. She started her make up in the car. I started watching her keenly to just see what she does.

If you guys wanna know the description about the girl, Sorry! I'm bad at those. You can consider her to be an average girl who looks like she is interested in parties in the first look. ( Atleast thats what I found I saw her first, Though I've come to a conclusion to not judge people...)

She applied lipstick, powdered herself and did things I can't explain. I dont find words for her appliances of makeup. Be it whatever, it went on for another 5 minutes.

Still jam. She was cribbing about the traffic and started looking outside. Just for an instant she noticed me checking her out and started panicing. The first thing she did was to check whether her shirt is buttoned.

This is one thing I find females doing often. They judge majority of males in that sense though I wasn't doing what she thought in the least possible corner in my mind.

I stopped staring at her after that and turned towards some other random thing. Five minutes passed and I saw her checking her shirt again. Damn!!! Just stop it! I'm not staring at you!!!

Two minutes passed by and I noticed something which I aint supposed to see in her car. That car had the same parking stickers as of my company. Yappa devare!!

She might have noticed me clearly as sun was bright that day. I couldn't see her face clearly as she had closed all her windows and her windsheild was tainted in the top. I now began to look at her as to recognise the face ( Whether she is someone i know ). Thank god! She wasn't. AFAIK, she belonged to some non-technical team as per my knowledge. Though, I had seen her in the office a couple of times, I didnt pay much attention towards her (As i do with majority of the females at work).

Jams cleared. She overtook our bus. I sighed. Got down at Devarabisanahalli.

Unfortunately, I saw her that afternoon at the cafeteria while having lunch. She was having lunch with her collegues all seem to be with her calibre. I noticed one thing. She usually wears sleeveless shirts and there is a tattoo on her left arm. My prediction of her being a party goer was confirmed with that to a major extent. (And more support came from eavesdropping I hear these days whenever I see her in the cafeteria, her talk will be somewhere around these areas)

I gave my self a pat on my back for my stupid judgement. Discussed this incident with Srinath and both of us, named her to be "Tattoo Rani". Hehehehe!!

We have named many females with different names based on their action just for fun. Will come up with those stories soon. Keep waiting...

Do post your comments on this episode. =)

In the medical stores...

Was searching for a tablet which is pretty rare in almost all medical stores. Thats available only selected stores. Been searching for this since almost 1 month.

Appa was askin abt it every weekend but I was not able to find the store. Finally, I recollected the store I had last bought it from. I set myself to go there and get it done.

Just went to the store to find none there. Bending onto the desk, I found one girl (may be 7th standard at the max). I recollected myself sitting in the cash counter of our hotel. Instantly there was a smile on my face.

We (me and akka) used to rush to hotel once we were done with our homework when we were studying in S.V.V.K ( a school in the neighbourhood). We had all the time in the world and did all sorts of things in the hotel as well as our old house. (Hale mane, which still exists besides the new airport road). We were sitting either in the cash counter or the black table at the end and playing things like the tic tac toe et al. Our regular customers were watching us play and were cheering us up sometimes. We didn't had anything else to do and were just wiling away our time there.

I think even she was one such girl. I asked whether there were anybody in the store. She called the compounder who was in the midst of medicines to query as to what I wanted.

I bought the medicine. Payed the money and he gave it to the girl to give me the change. She is intelligent and naughty. The bill was 169/-, I had payed 200 bucks for which she returned with 30 bucks along with a 1 rupee chocolate. If it would have been elders, they would have given mint which I hate. She gives what she likes. She had given me a 1 rupee chocolate ( yeah! made outa chocolate) which I prefer over mint any day.

I threw a smile for the chocolate which even she returned. =). I returned from the store munchin the chocolate, recollecting my childhood days in our Hotel...

Throw a smile if you wanna get it done

Met i7 for the first time face-to-face yesterday along with susheem. We just spent time in discussing about random things. After the discussion, we decided to have something for our stomach. Went to adigas, had one onion dose and a coffee each and were going back to beagles.

Susheem said that its time and he had to go home. At the same time, an auto-driver broke our attention. Here is the conversation.

Auto Driver - 'Saar! erad aivath idya?' (Sir, have you got two fifties?)

Sandesh - Aivaththa?? Illa. Nodtheeni thadeeri. (Fifty? Nope! Wait, Lemme check?)

[while i noticed that it was for a female... i7 may comment on this...]

Sandesh - Onde aivathth ide. Ley nimm yaar hatranaadru innondh aivathth idyenro? ( Have only one. Sisyas, have you got one more by any chance? )

Susheem - Nodtheeni thadi ( Wait, Lemme check...) [Fumbles in his billfold]

i7 - Aivathth paisa ide siva (I've got 50 paisa) [As if he is a big fan of 50 cent]

Meanwhile, the female watches us fumbling our wallets, is worried, (natural female instinct) and forcibly puts a mild smile on i7's PJ. This is what hurts. Bringing in an artificial smile to get your work done? Don't you think thats cheap? Now, you can't say that she might have smiled naturally. Nope! I've seen that and any one who saw it would surely recognize that smile.

I was about to give one twenty rupees note and three tens while i7 comes up with a fifty.

She is so happy for that. She got what she wanted. I handed out the notes in her hand in return to which she gave me a 100 rupee note and she vanished along with another "Thanks". Good that she has the courtesy to say that. The auto driver thanked again and I gave the change (20 + 10 *3) to i7.

Sush went to bus stop. It started raining. Myself and i7 started to continue our discussion under a building in front of Adigas and the female was walking in the drizzle...

Failure @ Office, Successful @ home

This is regarding my transition of OS in both the localities.

Lemme tell you abt the failure first. I've been recently shifted to another project at work. That project needs .net framework. I was using a linux box till last week for all my official purposes.

I knew that mono is compatible with .net which is being developed my Novell and tried installing mono on my machine at office. Its an RHEL 4 box for which the preferred method was to install yum, place the mono repository file under the yum.reposd directory and leave the rest to yum about the mono installation.

Installing yum was a problem. The official yum site has newer versions of yum but has no page which contains the proper method to install yum. I struggled 2 days installing yum when my sys-admin anirudh helped me with using the cent-OS version of yum for mono installation. After an hour of research on that and re-creating the yum RPM for RHEL 4 repository, I successfully installed yum.

Things didnt stop. The actual problem arised here. After placing the mono.repo file under '/etc/yum.reposd' directory, my gateway was blocking yum from downloading the mono RPMs from ftp.novell.com. Oops. To deduce this it took me 1 hour but infortunately the solution was not known to me as my sys-admin refused to unblock all ports. ftp.novell.com was not accessible through FTP. We were able to successfully access the above site through http. After 4 long days of discussion with the network team of sys-admin team, They finally enabled it to know that the port that they are using is different from the usual. (I havent tried much. This is what my sys-admin told me.)

We were not able to download even after enabling the particular site. Anirudh suggested me to try red-carpet to install mono even though I said that its specific to novell. I tried it in front of him where the dependencies for that RPM increased nearly exponentially. We dropped that idea.

We even tried downloading the RPMs seperately ourselves and installing. This didnt work either. Poooooof!

My sys-admin seems to be a good innovative thinker. We have this USB modem from Tata-Indicom for all our laptop users. He suggested that why not we try installing mono though yum with this connection. I agreed.

We faced one more problem here. That modem didnt have linux drivers along with its setup CD. What crap? We checked the tata-indicom site to know only that It has drivers for Windows as well as Mac OS X but not Linux.

We called up the customer care to find out that even they do not know how to make it work on Linux. Isn't Linux popular here? Shit!

They escalated the call and replied that they would send a customer executive to resolve the issue, who came to our office after consulting me on saturday. He didnt knew what the problem was and was just sent with a fake reason to my office. After understanding the problem, even he said that he doesn't know the solution for this problem. He had tackled this once before but in vain.

He said that he would consult his seniors and lemme know the solution. After calling them, they said that they will consult their seniors to which the y replied with "There is a section on Linux in the user manual sent with the CD."

Final hope. We tried even that. i.e.,

1. Login as root.
2. insert the USB modem.
3. run wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
4. this should detect the modem and alter the afore mentioned conf file.
5. We need to edit the above file (wvdial.conf) to change the phone number, user name as well as password to #777, internet and internet respectively.
6. Add one more line to the file at the end with the entry
stupid mode = 1
(How correct)

7. try wvdial now to check the internet connection.

8. Press ctrl - c to end the connection.

Fortunately the network connection was successful but was damn slow. slower than the dial up connection. I waited 30 minutes to connect to google but in vain.

This made us dropout even this idea.

Frustrated with my activities since two weeks, my manager was angry with my performance. He asked me to not waste any time installing mono and wanted me to go with a dual boot.

Now, never in my office PC have I installed Windows. I hated that. I always wanted to work with LINUX. This seemed like failure to me (Though I spent two full days on the name of installation of Windows, Linux and its utilities, good reason to enjoy atleast on these causes)

Due process, I lost all my official mails sent throughout 2.8 years of my career here. My manager is on leave. Dunno what will be his reaction on this... :(

Altogether this constitutes to what I call failure at office.

Now, lemme quickly finish this post as to why I'm successful at home. All at home were used to windows at home. I had downloaded the brand new Fedora 9 (as of today, this is the latest version of Fedora, nicknamed Sulphur). Today I was able to solve the major problem of network connection as I've explained it here.

I no longer have windows installed on my PC. Its fast, error free to a large extent and virus, worm free which makes me like Linux more for the moment being. There are lot many to mention it here.

Hope I'll find something better at office and good things continue at home.