Lost in Translation...

25th

Dec-2008

Mallu in Delhi - Part 2

Jerry Posted in Advice, Celebrations, Cultures, Entertainment, Freedom, Fun, India, Life, ME, Men, Nation, Sexs, Town & City Life, Travelogues, Women, friends, work No Comments »

December 19, 2008 …

I didn’t expect to write this second part the very next day. But something really funny happened that i had to write about day 2.

After taking the session to a crowd, that enrolled itself for the advanced training, for something that they didn’t know, i was quite exhausted. Every time i finish a slide i’d ask them, “Did u guys understand that?”. They all will then have that look like Katrina Kaif just asked them out. Interestingly the only girl in the session, was trying out the student exercises and was cursing big time - “Yeh, kitna ghatiya system hai…”. With all that, i needed a break.

I decided to walk it up to the guest house. After all it was just a 15 min walk from the office. Got out to the main road and got on to a cycle rickshaw. I was told by my friend from Delhi that one of things to try out in Delhi was to take a ride in one of the cycle rickshaws. Hopped on to one of them and as i was nearing my guest house, i changed my plan.

(translation of my conversation with the rickshaw guy)

“Do you know any shopping malls near by..”

“Yes sir”

“Can you take me there?”

“Ok”

So he started peddling. On and on and on. On the way i see one Grand Mall, he didn’t stop there. Then i see a Mega Mall. he didnt stop there either. I asked him why he didn’t stop any where there? He replied that he will take me to a better place. 20 minutes into the ride i end up in a place like the BDA Complex in Bangalore and there was a big red board on top of that building and on it was written in white Arial Bold font - “DLF Shopping Mall”. Yes! he took me to a building named shopping mall. I just couldn’t stop laughing at myself. Paid the rickshaw guy and walked back to Mega Mall. All the way laughing at myself.

So if u ever end up in Delhi/Gurgaon/any NCR region, dont ask for shopping malls. Just ask for ‘malls’. I must warn you, if u cant say ‘mall’ with the ‘o’, and can only say that with an ‘a’; Oops! My advice - stay at home, Delhi is not the place for you. Or may be if you are lucky enough the mall can get you to a place full of ‘mall’.


18th

Nov-2008

Wedding Bells!!! Uhh What? Where’s my BFG?

Jerry Posted in Advice, Attitude, Celebrations, Cultures, Freedom, Fun, Life, Love, ME, Marriage, Men, Sexs, Thoughts, Town & City Life, Women, family, friends, home 8 Comments »

(Still wondering what a BFG is? read on…)

I was there, standing at a railway crossing. I can walk across the rails and go ahead on the road, on my way, where ever it can take me. But, No! I park my bike and start walking on the railway line. Minutes and hours pass by. I come across green meadows, houses, hills; it was a timeless journey. No thirst, no hunger, no pain, nothing. It was me, the railway line and the view. I don’t know how far i was walking. The sun was there shining high up in the sky. He never moved. I was lost in my thoughts.

It has been quite sometime that I’ve started hearing some strange sounds. It sounded like the ringing bell of an old steam-locomotive. Ting…. Ting…. Ting….

I was high on my spirits. After a long walk, i have a train to go forward. This was like the ultimate dream. Or am i dreaming? I stop to turn around. What the…. my legs are glued to the ground. I cant move!!!. I was struggling like hell to free myself. Behind me i could see the dust and smoke rising up in the horizon. What ever it may be, the dream was just about to turn ugly. My heart’s beating a 1000 beats per minute.

I look behind. I see a shining far behind. Its small, its fast and its coming my way. I’m struggling like hell. I hear the bell ringing even closer. I turn behind… What the #$#%^&^(*(&)(*_)… a pandit with neatly shaved head, big pony tail flying behind him, ringing his bell with one hand and a ‘portable’-fireplace (might be some new 21st century invention).. running towards me. What on heaven’s sake is that?

“Son”, holy crap!!! its my dad, standing to my right.

“What… How… Why…”

“Son”, jeeezzzz, its my mom, standing to my left.

“What… What are you guys doing here?”

“Tie the knot my son!!!”, they both say that with absolute precision that can even leave the most meticulously synchronized systems to shame.

“Tie what?”, i look in front of me and i almost faint. I’m holding a ‘mangalsuthru’ and there is this girl standing in front of me. I don’t know jack shit about her. Is this a right time to at least ask her name?. What am i doing …

Ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting …….

I was still sweating and breathing heavily as i jumped out of my bed. Checked around me and all round my flat just to make sure that i didn’t really wake up after my first-night… or worse 20 years after my marriage. So why do i get the feeling that this is what is going to happen to me????

Parental-pressure is high! By parental-pressure i mean damn crazy pressure that can cause you to go sleepless for days at end. If i thought that could only be the only one which can cause unrest in my serene life, i was wrong. There was… No… there IS a far more greater pressure that will eventually get happy bachelors to get married. Its scientifically called Peer-Pressure a.k.a Friends.

Celibacy is not my way of life. But Yes, face it! Its your FRIENDS who will eventually get you married. They will all be there. They are the greatest treasure that u can have. Even long after you are gone, you will live within your friends. ‘Gone’ as in not like you are dead. ‘Gone’ as in, you go on-site and they will still talk about you as, ‘Kaminaa Saala!!! On-site se kuch nahi leke aayega. Fakeeerrrr…’. You live now, not after you’re dead.

They are there. But have you ever though about what happens when they all eventually face the running-pandit, gets run over by him, never gets a chance to wake up and lives the ‘dream’. Oops you’re in trouble.

They all get married and start their family. They no longer enjoy the jokes that you shared. Even worse they even reach a point where they tell you, “Dude don’t talk about all that, she doesn’t like all that”. Worse still, his wife hates you and more worse, her husband starts having feelings for you.

Oops! your friend will change. They all change eventually and you are left alone. You just cant go and make more friends because, the ‘make-great-friends’ list gets shorter with age. Soon you will find yourself without the great friends that you used to hand out with, no new friends and you are being treated like an adult where ever you go. And i believe the later stage is definitely not where i want to find myself at.

So now there is even more pressure on you to get married…

Whats that… Ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting… Where is that BFG (Big Fucking Gun), i’m gonna kill that pandit…

WTF… its full platoon of relatives and friends marching towards me. Dad and Mom holding a garland each, friends with kids and its then i realize that the pandit was just a side-kick.

I just stand there like a scapegoat as they dance around me… Ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting…


12th

Nov-2008

The Bad Day That I Loved…

Jerry Posted in Art, Attitude, Blogging, Fun, Life, Love, ME, Marriage, Men, Sexs, Town & City Life, Women, fiction 11 Comments »

The recipe for a perfect bad day was in place. I slept through the morning alarm, woke up at 11AM and missed the meeting at 10. To top things up, i woke up with a bad headache. Hangover from last night! 2 large vodkas with coke with 2 cubes of ice, that’s all that i had. Plus the fact that i went out on a weekday for a drive with the gang. I wasn’t home till 3 in the morning.

Well, i sat there on the bed contemplating what to do now? Obviously i had to get dressed asap and reach office. In the mean time i had to think of some real good reason to tell my manager why i was late. Cant tell him that i was working late, because the release was done and there was not much of work left. Ok, the most used and reused reason always works, ‘I wasn’t feeling well, i was having a bad headache!’. Thinking that will bail me out i had a quick shower, dressed and reached office.

As if i had a clue, work piled on me when i got my senses back. I thought about the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson, now i should be Haw. How can i be Haw? Screw it, let me get through the day first. Just want to get back home. Some how i managed to push myself through what was left of the day. Remember, i reached office at 12PM. Finally after managing to stage some ‘i’m feeling sick’ drama i was out of office by 5PM. Please don’t ask me how, but i managed it.

Whats next? Took my bike and was out of Embassy Golf Links, on to Intermediate Ring Road and i was headed towards K-Town. Hmmm.. none of my friends are going to be free till 7PM. Not even my jobless sweetheart, my pseudo-wife in the group, who only has time to cut her hair. Someone should tell her that at this rate she would go hairless in a month or less. The fact is that, that someone should be Mr. India, not because he can charm her into not doing it, because she is the bully of the group and we all are, to be frank, scared to tell her this. That even applies to her ‘real’ boyfriend too.

This did bring a smile on my face, which quickly faded into something like - Ooops i’m screwed again - when i realized that i jumped the signal at Sony World. Throttled to the max and even before the cowboys of Bangalore Traffic Police could jump in front of my bike, i had crossed e-zone. Hmmm where do i go next. Let me go to Forum. I’ll go to Landmark and roam around till everyone is free and its time when the ‘gang’ can meet up.

I was feeling much better compared to how i had started the day. It was returning to normalcy. 30 min in Landmark and i was bored to my karmic senses. Oh crap, let me have a coffee now. I went all the way to CCD and ordered for a Mocha with an extra espresso shot. That ought to cheer me up a bit. Waiting … waiting … waiting … looking at the chicken-tikka sandwich, thinking over what had happened till now, i lost track of my environment and was cursing me in my head when,

“What a bad a day!!!”

“Tell me about it…”, i replied.

Oops. Did i just say that out loud. With ninja-reflexes and blood rushing to my head and beads of sweat forming on my forehead, i looked to the side, to find those beautiful hazel-eyes looking quizzically at me. The ninja ran for cover, more blood rushed to my head and i was sweating so badly that i could have used a shower at that point.

Read the rest of this entry »


15th

Oct-2008

Google Maps XKCD

Jerry Posted in Art, Computer and Internet, Entertainment, Fun, Geekiness, Men, Sexs, Town & City Life, Women 1 Comment »

I’m still recovering out the laugh attack that i had in the morning …

Going West

More at XKCD


20th

Sep-2008

Love Story 2008 - High Cohesion, High Coupling !

Jerry Posted in Celebrations, Cultures, Friends Blogging, Fun, Geekiness, Love, Marriage, Men, Sexs, Town & City Life, Women, fiction, friends, reading 6 Comments »

Alluwahlia Singh, the malayali, is a born techie. He speaks a dialect of English that only an Itanium-based server can decode. He is destined to be one of the greatest programming minds of his time. At
the age of 15, he got his first computer, and ever since it was his only love. They spent sleepless nights traveling through the endless world of computers and technology.

Some say, when he snores you can actually decode it as a binary code to print Fibonacci series, infinitely. When asked, he would say even before he could ever perfect the program or rather his snore, he had to wake up. Yes, he was that kind of guy.

It was the summer of 2008, May 27th. At work, Alluwahlia was deeply lost in thought. He was about to crack the Public-Key encryption and prove it as faulty. His 7th sense (the 6th sense was used for coding, so his actual 6th sense switched to the next available slot) registered the transient state of divine matter. He was startled by the effect that it left on his senses. He felt something hard in his pants. As he checked what it was, he promptly found his lost keys. His friends were amazed at the transition. Alluwahlia couldn’t believe it. So he began backtracking the logs that he had collected.


She was never meant to be a techie. Her delicate fingers were not the best for crunching keys, nor were those hazel eyes meant to look at the monitor. She was caring, affectionate, loving and sweet. Swaroopa was made by the Gods with love. She was everything that a guy could ever ask. And they say she causes half of the traffic jams in Bangalore. Yes she can’t drive if her life depended on it!

Still in the summer of 2008, May 27th. At work, Swaroopa couldn’t take the heat from the CPU anymore. She decided to take a break. If she hadn’t decided to go out at exactly 3:55:36 pm (milisecond precision is unavailable at the time of writing this post) her life would have remained the same. But things were destined to change. On her way out, she spots something — or rather someone — all engrossed in the work. (Un)fortunately, that thing — or rather he — was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen in her life. Men at Work always turned her ‘ON’. In a second, she stopped, glanced at him, and left a sigh wishing he was her’s.

Little did she realize that the butterfly-effect of the ’sigh’ would change the course of her life for ever.


In his abode, he scrambled through what he had. His 7th sense told him he was close. Yes there it was a message at around the same time he felt the ‘force’. It read, “I wish he was mine!”. The 6th sense went into overdrive and nearly took over his 7th sense as he figured out that it was a ‘Sigh’ and it came from — his heart skipped beats — on a trembling screen he read “S…W…A…R…O…O…P…A…SWAROOPA”. He trusted his computer and his calculation.

Jumping out of his seat, he ran out and hopped on to his blue Bajaj Enticer. Sensing the ‘master’, the bike auto starts and greets him, with a “Hello Allu!” in a female voice. Ignoring it all, he punches
something into his mobile and with the help of a divine navigational service (known to mankind and lesser mortals as Google Maps) he triangulates her position on the Vodafone network.

He was motionless as reality hit him. “What? She lives a kilometer away?”

Referring to his bike he mouths the command. “Bluey — take me to your master’s love”.

And loverboy on aforementioned Bluey sped — actually rocketed — towards NGV from Maharaja even before the cops in Bangalore could go “yenu speedu saar!”

Meanwhile, dreaming of the techno-man she saw at work, Swaroopa was lost in her own world, when she heard the roar of a bike. Looking down from her balcony, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Yes it’s Alluwahlia. She looked at him and gave a ’sign’ that almost crashed his system. But he decoded it with the 16-bit processor from the car that was parked nearby.

The message read, “Darling without you I’m NULL. You complete my C Programs with a semi-colon. I will always return(0) when i’m with you. Never will I ever cause any segmentation faults. My Love, My CPU, please initiate the steps to de-allocate me from his 32-bit space and re-allocate me in your giga-byte heart. assert(”Please”);”

Using the advanced predictive text of his E71 phone, he scripted the perfect Perl script to get her down. That was the beginning of the most wonderful love story in the techie world.

His friends found them drunk in each others love, and also found them drunk in each other drinks, at the Legends of Rock. She was laughing non-stop and he, by her side, talking about his latest hack.

They played Wall.E and Eve in the shambles of Kanakpura Road.

Their fun was short lived. He got a call from the parent process and had to leave in a short time. With a 98% utilization of his memory, he left Swaroopa back and flew. And with memory filled of love — virtual memory inclusive — she waits indefinitely, a blocking call without a timeout, for the return invocation.

return(0);

P. S.: However, as most projects in Bangalore, by the time this blog post was scripted, Swaroopa fell for the writer. Alluwahlia self-discontinued himself and is now an obsolete, end-of-life legacy system with no interfaces or support.

(This post has been co-authored with 2s)


17th

Aug-2008

Single, Sex and Marriage

Jerry Posted in Advice, Attitude, Cultures, Education, Life, Love, ME, Marriage, Men, Religion, Sexs, Thoughts, Town & City Life, Women, family, friends 8 Comments »

Of late, especially after i booked my flat, my folks are after me, pressurizing every bit inside me to get married. Well, thought you should know, i’ve been a bachelor and i had my share of heart breaks and breakings. After the last one, i just decided to settle with the drunk chicks at the pubs or rather get’em drunk. But how the hell am i supposed to know that my folks were having such plans for me. Trust me, its tough to be a single, good looking, smart dark bachelor down south (i love vanity). The nosy neighbors and relatives makes sure that the juice is sucked out of you. Damn you Suckers!!!

The hard part is, you don’t get to choose or say a word beyond telling yes/no to the girls that they parade in front of you. I consider myself lucky, some guys i *knew* never even had that.

Son! THIS IS YOUR BRIDE! Marry HER!

Yes dad!!!

I mean whats the whole pressure thing about? I’ve been a really well spoiled bachelor so far, waking up and sleeping with the timings of people half-way round the world, eating anything that i could lay my hands on - stale breads, half-cooked spicy chicken curry that cleans your food-track once a month, Domino’s pizzas that run for 2 days etc. etc.. Now i’m being even more responsible by booking a flat (i need to mention that it was again pressure from folks). Now that i have a place for myself, the next thing that i need to concentrate is my career, blogging, make some money etc etc. I’m not ready to be tied down.

What are the odds, that the girl they pick for you is not gonna make your life miserable? Dad’s got a comeback for that too, “At least both the families are there to help you out with that”. Then why cant i just find someone with whom i’m comfortable with? Facts to be laid straight, yes they did take care of you for a long time, but do they have to pick up your partner too.

Am i ready to take the responsibility? Hell no! May be i would like to get married, after i know that person a bit more. If not, then jumping into marriage is no different than having sex, with her and your parent’s consent!

As a closing note, the last conversation with my dad ended with him telling me this -

“As a bachelor, you live like a King and die like a Dog, Once married, you live like a Dog and die like a King”

No idea who put that in his head, but i sure did got it out. Even my mom was left gaping after that dialogue.


13th

Jun-2008

“Shut Up and Drive”

Jerry Posted in Blogging, Celebrations, Friends Blogging, Fun, Men, Rubbish, Sexs, Thoughts, Town & City Life, Women, friends, stupidity 3 Comments »

Shut Up and Drive!

courtesy hexium.


12th

Jun-2008

Deadly Competition

Jerry Posted in Advice, Cultures, Education, Entertainment, Freedom, Life, Men, Religion, Town & City Life, Women, family, work 1 Comment »

What we do these days involves competition. No matter what. A a kid we race to the gate and back. As teens we race our bikes. As adults we race against time and colleagues. The time that we live in Competition is viewed as the source of creativity and self improvement. As a kid we are expected to be the top scorer in the class, not the smartest, as teens we are expected to be responsible but not creative and as the workforce we are expected to bring in profit and not innovation.

Why does competition has to be so bad? Slowly but steadily everyone starts to keeps expectations out of you and keeps reminding you about that. You fall victim to it losing your creativity. Its because we want to beat that record and get our names in there. We benchmark every thing everyday, we fall into The Curse of Great Expectation.

But what about creativity? If i have ever done anything that is creative or innovated an idea, its because i didn’t take part in a race. On the same grounds i hate taking exams too. Exams for me is again about breaking records and false derivatives. With time being most valued, exams seems to be the only way people want to find talents.

There is a trend with the organizations now. They are still competing and very much in the race. They do it in more ‘innovative’ ways. They ask you to just innovate and come up with some thing very brilliant. Even if you didn’t mean that to be part of any race or drive the race. Its used by the organization to outrun their competitor.

The human cost to win the organization’s race or the cost of health on onself is often disregarded. But what happens to those who stay out of the competition and decide to be .. uhh .. say free. They have immense potential to be creative and inventive. But why don’t they?.

The Society is stereotyped in believing that competing is the best way to progress. So much of the things that these so called ‘free birds’ innovate are considered inferior. They eventually gets into the race to survive or fall.

I knew of a person during my college days. He was this extra brilliant guy. There wasn’t much that he couldn’t answer about technology. Few professors realized his potential. But but the rest of the folks were unforgiving. Had the mentoring right he wouldn’t had to settle for a rather uhhh normal techie kind of job with an average company.

Its time we wake up to say no to the unwanted competitions around us.


15th

May-2008

Shattered Dreams

Jerry Posted in Cultures, IT Industry, India, Life, Love, Men, Nation, Sexs, Town & City Life, Women, reading, vacation, work 4 Comments »

The monsoon breeze blew with a freshness that put everything in its path with renewed zest. It carried a very warm chillness. He felt it against his face and stood motionless. He had felt that before and rejoiced with child like innocence. But now it was different. He felt a cold lining on his cheeks. The path traced out by tears was more vivid now. A slight shiver.

Looking deep into the horizon he stood on the empty banks. His eyes fixed, some where far, searching for something lost, or, perhaps someone. He found no purpose in his existence. His ambitions, goals, dreams were now mere ashes. As i watched his head began to droop, he looked down, breathing gently. His breathing grew heavy, he looked up, left out a deep cry and dropped to his knees as i ran towards him.

I had never seen him like that. The friend i know was unfaltering and cheerful. He would grin ear-to-ear, make faces and just about do anything that would put a smile on your face.

Of lately i was seeing the change in him. That was a transition time for him. He became worse day by day. The guy looked like he could use some help. Many a time i asked him what bothered him. He would struggle and bring a smile on his face and say nothing. But you could read that in his eyes.

A week ago, when i was out with couple of my friends i spotted him along with a girl. The walked hand in hand. She leaning on his shoulders. There was an air of sadness around them. The next day at office i told of what i saw and felt the other day. I saw a tear run down his cheeks. He turned away and began typing furiously, pretending to be working.

I was loosing him. I pushed for an answer. He just replied,

“Even my folks don’t trust me. They where my greatest strength. I told them everything, hoping they would help me. But they are far from convinced. They want me to come back home and join a company there…”

With moist eyes he just walked out..

I contemplated that his relation with the girl was unapproved at home. There was nothing that i could do.

Things changed from bad to worse in the last two days. I saw him opening a letter and the disbelief an agony on his face upon reading that. He came to me and asked if i could just take him some where far from the hustles of the city. He mentioned, it was time for me to know.

Got into my car and we just drove away from the madness of the city. The first of the monsoon clouds where beginning to build up in the sky. I just pushed on. I was taking to the place where i always ran for a bit of peace.

The first of the drops were beginning to break away from the clouds and shatter against the windshield. They looked like suicide bombers. As i stopped. The rain was pouring down with all vigor. We sat in the car. With his head down and tears flowing down, he just sat there. We just sat there. Dont know for how long. The only sound was the heavy drops breaking on the roof. The rumbling was like a premonition for something bad to come. I wanted to belive otherwise, but i couldn’t cheat my heart.

The rain began to calm and that left an eerie silence between us. I don’t know how long we sat there. He broke the silence. His voice trembling

“She left me. I loved her with all my heart. Still she left me. I was helpless”

“There would be something, that we can do. Give me her number, i will talk to her.”, out of desperation and the scary thought of loosing a friend i mumbled.

“No! There is nothing left to do. She has gone far. Far from any of our reach. My parents if only they could believe me…”

He opened the door and ran towards the shore. I followed.

The rain was now gone. Sun was struggling to break out of the clouds. Nature looked so beautiful and gorgeous. The whole place was damped. Narrow streams of water still flowing towards the river. The first monsoon shower. It was beautiful…

His breathing grew heavy, he looked up, left out a deep cry and dropped to his knees as i ran towards him. I helped him on to his feet. He hugged me. I couldn’t fight my tears. He broke away, walked two steps and stopped.

After a deep sigh, he reached for his pocket and took our an envelope. I recognized it as the one that i saw with him days before. He opened it and handed me the letter.

With trembling hands i opened the folds…

“Appraisal Letter 2008″


6th

May-2008

Cheerleader’s diary

Jerry Posted in Cricket, Cultures, Entertainment, IPL, Men, Nation, News and politics, Rock, Sexs, Sport, Twenty20, Women 1 Comment »

http://iplt20.com/images/621x356/1mhydpun7.jpg

Already the cheerleaders are causing heads to turn(or rather bend down and look up), distract batsmen, increasing stampedes near their place on the field.

Shobhaa De has written this hilarious article - Cheerleader’s diary.

I must say i couldn’t stop laughing …

Here are some excerpts

…Gee… I am like totally weirded out by this whole India gig. Like these Indians are majorly weird! Especially that minister dude from Mumbai who wants to ban us from shaking our pom poms. Come on, man. Chill out. It’s really hot out there. Like 40 degrees C, okay? What do you want us gals to wear? Eskimo suits? Oh oh, I get it — we are the ones getting the heat up, right baby? That’s our job, honey! We get paid for it. Ask that cutie with the big mama earstuds who hired us — Veejay. The bigger, the better, he said. We thought he was referring to the crowds in the stadium…

…Especially those handsome hunks with ponytails who are on the field playing some bizarro game that’s not half as much fun as baseball or soccer. We were told it’s called ‘Cricket’. What a cute name! I always thought cricket was an insect!…

…Occasionally, they also watch the game, especially when that funny umpire is dancing and prancing behind three sticks. The teams are like Russian salad, with players of all hues mixed up in the bowl. Our job is easy — we cheer for the boss’ team….

…Of course, there are some gross guys who ask us to bend forward for a better shot, but we aren’t stooopid. We turn around and show our fannies instead. Pretty smart, huh?…

….Indian chicks are way out wild, try clubbing with them… their moves would give pole dancers a complex. Maybe that minister dude should party with locals and scope the scene for himself…. night riding, anyone? We luv our groovy work and groovy undies errr, costumes….

ROTFLOL… :lol:

But have to agree they are Hot :

http://iplt20.com/images/621x356/DSC_6776.jpg

Pic courtesy - DLF League