Sony MHC-GZR5D Mini Hi-Fi

Shanu's b'day gift for me.

P.S. - Nobody delivers bass like Sony.

Diwali weekend

The lure of lucre had me at the office on Diwali Friday. Returned home by the time night had fallen & was witness to Diwali celebrations in full swing. Of late, B'lore seems to have embraced the North/East Indian Diwali celebration style .... that of making the most noise. And so there were people exploding 'aloo' bombs big enough to make car alarms go off & people stopping traffic by placing Chinese 'launcher' cracker boxes in the middle of the road.

Anyway, got home, lit up some diyas around the house. Priya had thoughtfully purchased some girly Diwali stuff & the sisters had a whale of a time burning it all up. The 2 had been planning on buying cellphones since the last couple of months & today was deemed d-day! So off it was to the dealer's.

Priya had made up her mind regarding the ....


.... Nokia X3 & that's what she bought. Shanu though, was another story. Having gone in with the Nokia C3 in mind, it took a bit of convincing to make her agree to the ....


.... Samsung Corby. It is a big moment when a middle class Indian lets go of his obsesion with Nokias & decides to try out another cellphone brand & I could feel history being made as the payment changed hands.

Came home & spent the next few hours growing increasingly engrossed with the nifty little touchscreen. Must say I'm quite impressed, even though it's got no Amoled or Android.

The rest of the weekend .... it rained. It was as if the Gods had decided to halt the downpour only for Diwali day & following it, the quota was released in full force. The rains this year have been sickening. I'm sick & tired of having to look at the same overcast sky for days on end. And the icing on the cake was when the waters took out my Walkman. Clearly, the rains this year have not been kind to moi.

Blogger's block

Will take some to get back in form.

Wildcraft

My 1st Wildcraft. Okay it's not in this color, but this is the closest representation I could get .... @495/- it's not a bad deal.

I be baker

Thanks to Betty Crocker & the Microwave, I 'baked' my 1st cake today. And it came out super .... couldn't believe it myself!

Heat!

I'm sweating inside the office! Definitely the warmest I've ever experienced in Bangalore.

Scything through ...

Moments come, which come but rarely when driving in Bangalore traffic, when we pass a signal just before it turns red, when a gap appears in the next lane just when you need it, when there is just enough space on the right of the fast lane to allow one to overtake a long line of cars & get to the front of the column, and when the soul of a driver, long suppressed, finds utterance.

Today was such a day, when nothing could stop my advance & when all potential obstacles just seemed to melt away as I approached them.

Amazing, it made me happy enough to want to make a blog post about it!

Videocon d2h

Jai ho Joy Bhaiya!

Personally, I was happy with cable, but Shanu thinks the world of this thing. So it's fine.

There was a minor flutter when I couldn't find MAX under Sports or Entertainment. Finally turned up under Movies! Yeah I forgot, they show movies when the IPL isn't on.

saved

Speeding down the back road near Silk Board junction. A kid, looking left, starts crossing the road .... from the left. About 5 metres ahead of where I am.

The guy standing near the tea stall understands the situation, whirls around to see what happens. Not that there's anything he can do. The kid is still oblivious.

The rear brake is pressed hard. The wheel locks .... the first screech ensues .... the kid whirls around, his eyes widen. The bike starts skidding to the right. I squeeze the front brake lever harder while upshifting quickly.

The kid has halted by now. I'm about a meter from him .... but I've managed to point the bike away from him. The kid stands frozen. I realize it's gonna be okay as I almost come to a standstill. He's saved by a couple of feet.

It all happens in a couple of seconds. I rev into 2nd & ride away.

>70

71.5 kilos! A gain of 3 kilos in less than 3 months. And the 1st time I have crossed the 70 mark.

Time to go easy on Shalini's cooking.

3rd March

Vini's b'day & the ol' home town's too. Me misses.

VW New Beetle RSi

My 1st scale model. A more than 5 year old item on the 1-day-I-will list.

It's a 1:32 scale diecast metal collectible manufactured by Kinsmart. Comes with pullback motor action, spoiler, and opening doors.

Holy Communion ...

.... at Bethel A G. A 1st in Bangalore. I'm getting there.

Sennheiser MX 60 Street II

Had been wanting a pair of Sennheisers since the last year or so. But they were priced prohibitively expensively. Finally spotted one within budget last Saturday at Jayanagar 4th Block, thanks to Shanu.

They perform well, though not in the league of the better ones from Sony. And they're probably my 10th pair of earphones, courtesy Sony's exasperating insulation shredding problem. With the kind of money I've blown on them, I could've bought myself an iPod. But then, I ain't an audiophile for nothing.

YPR - TATA

Early morning. The 21st of December, 2009. The YPR-HWH is scheduled to arrive at KGP at 4:05 AM. Having slept till noon during the day, I keep tossing and turning on the upper berth till about 12:30 AM. I have a nagging suspicion that the train is running late. My connector to JSR, the Purushottam arrives at KGP at 4:40 AM. It will be touch and go.

Awake at around 2:30 AM. Am down & ready by 3:30 AM. There's 1 guy at the door of the 3rd AC already. The usual conjecturing about the platform number takes place. We pause for some time near the huge Loco Shed on the outskirts of KGP station. The air is nippy .... the I-am-near-home feeling arises .... I've spent the last 38 hours inside the stuffy compartment.

Finally we pull in. I step down on the platform .... it's exactly 4:05 AM! We are on platform 3 .... start walking toward the shaded part .... it's a relief I won't have to lug the unbelievably heavy VIP all the way to the waiting room like I had to in 2007 & 2008. Reach a tea shop & ask the vendor where the Purushottam comes in. He replies it comes in right on this platform. Cool. Ask him for a cup. It's good to hear Eastern Indian Hindi after a long time.

The announcements for various trains are on. No mention of my train. As I finish the tea, the YPR-HWH begins moving out. Even as it picks up speed, the voice over the PA system announces my train number .... it's on time & coming in within 10 minutes .... super!

I move over to the platform's edge & peer into the direction I think it will be coming in from. Obviously it should be the direction in which the YPR-HWH just went since, JSR is the other way. And suddenly, it's in .... coming in from the JSR side! I'm confused .... is this the other train, coming from Delhi? Anyway, let's check the reservation chart .... which turns out does not have my name on it. Hop on to the coach anyway.

# 55, a side lower is my reserved berth. And it's empty. Good. The caretaker appears .... I confirm with him .... yes, this train does go on to JSR. Sit down, make myself comfortable & pull out the Walkman. Daddy calls & confirms my position. And then the train lurches backward .... going back in the direction it entered the station .... no wonder the halt here is for 25 minutes .... the engine was changing ends.

All is well as we pick up speed. It's close to 5 in the morning but it's inky black outside. I let it sink in .... my last rail journey as a bachelor .... Belinda Carlisle sings 'Circle In The Sand' on the earphones. Time passes quickly. The train shoots past stations draped in darkness with the exception of the lone signalman holding up the signal lamp with it's blinking green LEDs.

And then I spy it, around an hour after the train left KGP, dawn is breaking over the horizon. I seem to be the only one awake on the train. And then it keeps on getting brighter. We cross the state border, Chakulia passes, Ghatshila too, it's overbridge clearly visible now. Govindpur appears, I pack up the Walkman. The journey home is always the sweetest. Stand at the door ..... the electric loco shed appears & soon we have halted at platform 3. JSR, good ol's JSR.

So everything worked out according to plan. The departure, the journey, the connection & the arrival. Daddy is there looking tired. We take the overbridge, Daddy pays 10 bucks to the coolie who asks for 20. I pay him off & sit in the car. I've come home for something big .... let's start it off on a good note.

The route home is dusty as usual. On arrival, Ratan uncle is on the driveway with Chhotu. Am meeting him after around 20 years. And Y Fi greets me inside. Her affection is real & touching .... unlike a lot of others in the family. I am home.

All good things .....

Moved.

The 7 year association with Sid & Arni & the 4 year stay at #77 is over. It's all a bit overwhelming.

Journeys end. Friends depart.
Every phase of life comes to an end.
But every end is also a new beginning.
It is a new chapter waiting to open.

Today

Raced a Dominos Pizza delivery boy today .... & won. Brought back a lot of memories from the ol' school days. It feels good to give up all that defensive driving & go wild once in a while.

Vinod got transferred out of OBS today. Good for him since the boy was desperate for billability, but I'll miss his company. This billability funda has taken all the fun out of IT, at least in this company.

Weinbrenner

.... the newest addition to the shoe rack.

iPod Nano 'Chromatic'

Courtesy Arni who returned from the US this morning.

Working @ Ahmed Plaza

Having been placed on the 'free pool' in these now deadly dangerous recessionary times, while IT companies are laying people off using whichever excuse possible .... the opening (& subsequent call up) from Infotech came like a huge relief.

It meant that I'd have to work at Ahmed Plaza - a small company facility that I'd never paid much attention to on the way to the EC campus. Reported there on 6th July probably. Jayamohan came across as the professional boss .... somebody for whom work came first .... fair enough. I liked his introductory talk though.

Then there were the colleagues .... Mantuno, Prashant and Rahul. Though Rahul wasn't on our project, he would always accompany us on our tea/coffee breaks. These 3 were some of the nicest guys I've ever met. I won't forget the numerous chat sessions we had while having coffee outside the office and often under the Bangalore Elevated Tollway flyover between pillar nos 196 and 197!

The work was mostly forgettable ..... calling up Deepak who was in Delhi & forever reluctant to take our calls, alongside Puneet, whom I somehow never got around to liking. Apart from this there was work on the prototype and .... that was about it.

The memories that stand out are those of the food .... it was horrible. I lost a few kilos in the 2 months I was there. And of course, the announcement of the technology change .... 'the client has decided not to go ahead with xxx platform since they don't want to spend on the licenses' .... effectively placing those of us who had just transferred in from Technologies & didn't want to relocate to Gurgaon/Hyderabad exposed to the vagaries of the free pool once again.

Anyway, all that's over now ..... Sarjapur is a far better place - food-wise; traffic-wise; facility-wise and 'greenery'-wise.

But there's one thing about A.P. that I'll miss .... the fantastic views just across the boundary walls. After all, how often does one get to see stuff like this ....



.... yup, a yard full of spanking new Beemers belonging to the adjacent BMW dealer.