Wall Street...

Farewell Wall Street

2006-07-21T02:15:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought this day would come? I never wanted it to. But come it did. The time has finally come for me to bid you all farewell. As I move away from Wall Street to new things, new places, (to join that clique i kept mentioning) I feel that Wall Street as it stands today will not be the same again. So I bid u all farewell. Thanks all for visiting my space.. and sharing my adventures. Your comments were great to read and imbibe. Made some nice friends here. Don’t worry, I wont stop reading your blogs, and who knows, one day I’ll come back with my second blog. Until then, Good Luck and Good Night!

There's a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple, too
And up in the nursery
An absurd little bird
Is popping out to say coo-coo
(Coo-coo, coo-coo)

Regretfully they tell us
But firmly they compel us
to say goodbye
To you

So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight

So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu
To you and you and you

So long, farewell
Auf Weidersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave
A sigh and say goodbye
Goodbye

Goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye

Flowers in the Window

2006-07-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, look at you now
Flowers in the window
Its such a lovely day
And Im glad that you feel the same
cos to stand up Im in the crowd
You are one in a million
And I love you so lets watch the flowers grow

Life is a flower
So precious in your hand
Carry on smiling
And the world will smile with you

Unwell

2006-07-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

All day
Staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night
Hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something
Hold on
I'm feeling like I'm headed for a
Breakdown
I don't know why
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
Me

--Matchbox 20

Location Location...

2006-07-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

For the past one year, I've told u about tales from Wall Street. I've spoken about the view. The planes. The people.

I guess its time to give u more of a view on where we are. For that I shall introduce to you a fabulous site.. wikimapia a site that does everything google maps does, but is much lighter on the system, and requires no installation. :-)
We recently tagged it on the site, so a search for Wall Street there, ought to lead u straight to the home of this blog.
Anyway, wall street, famous for its awesome view of the airport, is here. Dont wanna look at the site? Here is a snapshot of the view.

Snapshot of Wall Street

Happy hunting!

The G-10 Meet

2006-07-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately two of the members were out fighting battles, one with the influenza who invaded her, and the other with traffic as she headed out of town. Another member was held up at a foreign location and was unable to make it to the gathering.

Nonetheless, the remaining seven members made their presence felt. The itenrary for the meet was a reunion and a dinner. It had been a long time since this group had been together. This was the day when all those distances and the times spent thousands of miles away, buried deep under mountains of work was to bridged.

Now you may ask, "Whats a group without a nickname? " Well, we do have a name.. we call ourselves the BiblioPhiles! A bunch of enthu book lovers, who not only read.. but try to spread the joy of reading amongst our other friends and colleagues. This is quite easily done. Events are conducted. Newsletter(s) are written. Assistance is solicited from the other people in our organisation. Before this becomes a propoganda post, I'll stop boasting :-)

Saturday night, we all met up at a restaurant in heart of the city for dinner. With a slip of the mind on all our parts the event clashed with the humdinger (so I hear) of a match between England and Portugal. N was furious. NG was quite happy. As was AR. The rest didnt seem to be bothered too much. It was already a lot that they had managed some free time to attend the gala event ;-)

Yours truly, hosted the event. As N stays close by, and is a fellow Wall Streeter, we decided to leave together. A call from NG, and we pick her up on the way too. Trust everyone to stick to IST. 1930 being the schedules TOA, the three of us reach at 1940, to find ourselved the first at the restaurant. Soon after, NiG makes her presence felt. She brings with her, a newly purchased toy, a digital SLR camera. Now you all know how I love photography, and so I could not resist playing with it, even as I sat at a table with 3 gorgeous girls :-)

I did manage to stop soon enough tho.

Enter AR. Followed soon after by H and AH. And that was all of us. DK, was the ill lady, who sweetly called during the dinner to say hi to us all. SP missed the date of the event by a day and called me on sunday night! AA had already excused herself from the party as an emergency had crept up.

The BiblioPhiles (seven who attended)

With all of us together, the banter across the table was amazing. It had been ages since we had such a lively discussion on nothing. Was basically music to the ears. Food was great, service could have been better... but then who noticed?

And the desserts... to die for.

What did we talk abt? Thats our secret. But its something that I will not forget. And from what I hear, neither will they.

I want to thank you
for giving me the best days of my life
Oh just to be with you guys
is having the best days of my life

Memory Lane

2006-06-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

Memory Lane,
We're here again,
Back to the days,
And I'll remember them always,
So much has changed,
Now it feels like yesterday I went away.

Two years. Almost to the day. What a journey it has been. Two years ago, June 30, 2004, the first time I moved out of my house in Bombay. It was time for the baby to leave the nest. Time for studying was over. The working boy was revealed to the world. That day, two years ago, I flew to Trivandrum for my training period with the company I still work for. And now indulge me as I take a trip down memory lane.

The day began with a flight from Bombay to Trivandrum, in the land of the gods (as Kerala touts itself in the ad campaigns). The flight journey was rather interesting as there I met a friend of mine, who later became my room-mate for the next 2 months. The one and a half hour flight was quite peaceful, except, maybe for the food that was served and the occasional turbulence encountered. The flight was accentuated by the maneuvers the pilot made the airbus endure as we approached Trivandrum. To get the correct approach on the runway, the plane does a sharp turn, very close to sea level. As the plane turned, I would say the wings made an angle of 30 degrees with the ground over what I later learned was Kovalam Beach.

On landing at TVM, my friend (J) and I discovered that we were to be in the same lodge for the duration of our training. We immediately decided to be roomies. We headed out to the lodge (Safire), near the railway station, and found ourselves a room. We had got ourselves a 3 bed room. Out the two of us went scouting for a 3^rd roomie. There we met Prima! (yup that’s what we still call him). He agreed to join us. As we sat in our room, we got our first taste of the Kerala monsoon. The windows being a little cracked, one bed started to get wet.

That’s where all the fun started. We moved into another room, a sort of outhouse. Hereafter, we were known as the cottagewallas :-) This room, however, had no power points, making charging our cell phones rather difficult. Slightly frustrated by the quality of accommodation provided by such a large organization, J and I decided to try for a change in lodges. The only way we could see something like that happening was through a petition.

That’s how we got the name, petition boys! We gathered all the tenants of the lodge to our cottage, and discussed the issues we each had about the accommodation. Most supported us. One girl in particular (RA) tried to convince us otherwise. She eventually bowed down to peer pressure! That signed the petition!

So ended day 0 for the working boy.

As for day 1, I just discovered an essay we were made to write during training describing our experiences on day 1. I will quote it below:

The day had finally arrived. After twenty-one long years, it was the day I finally began to work. Here I was, at Trivandrum, on the first day of July in the year 2004, brimming with anticipation at joining (name of company).

The day began well. The bus came right on time, to pick my colleagues and I from our lodge. During the half hour bus journey that ensued, all of us sat quietly, wondering what the day held for us.

We reached office at about eight’ o’clock and were quickly ushered into the auditorium for our first day briefing. This induction was scheduled for nine a.m. but in our nervousness, none of us remembered to have breakfast.

As we waited, the clock continued to tick away and soon it was ten in the morning. We began to wonder about the nature of the company, and how such a famous company could be so relaxed about their own punctuality.

In answer to our thoughts, one of the HR officers (SR) made a grand entrance into the auditorium. We were instructed on how to fill up the service agreement, a document we all called ‘the bond.’ This was followed by a briefing on what the training would entail.

The second briefing really made me nervous, as it was purely computer science based, and I was a telecommunications student. This meant that I would really have to burn the candle to be at par with my colleagues. Lost in my thoughts, I completely missed the announcement for lunch.

When I finally did reach the canteen, it was packed like a can of sardines. There was no room to stand. Suddenly, I lost all my appetite!

The afternoon inductions were quite boring, and had it not been for the finance induction, I would have had a nice nap.

The day dragged on as we waited for our personnel files to be collected. Finally at seven in the evening, we were asked to disperse and head back to our lodge the personnel files still not accepted.

It had been a long and tiring day, and I quickly fell asleep as soon as I had reached the lodge.

This was my first day as T-21, aka Primajhol. Those days I will never forget, and am glad I had the opportunity to make such good friends. Two years and still the memory remains.

Fortune, fame
Mirror vain
Gone insane...
But the memory remains

The Clique Meets Again

2006-06-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Meet 3!

The people notorious for being late in meet one were surprisingly very early, reaching about half an hour before the scheduled gathering time. (So they say, at least!)

I reached at exactly 1700 hrs, as per the the invitation on the community. Standing outside the CCD, was trying to figure out if i had reached early or should go in and find the table where we were gonna sit. Thats where I bumped into another member of the group. He came up to clarify if I was who he thought I was (prob the advantage of having a turban, always easy to spot and recognise!!)

We walked in together to see 4 ppl already there. Two of them quite a surprise as i mentioned earlier. Slowly more new faces appeared.

Unlike the first time, however, there were no specific round table introductions. We already knew each other through the online world, and many of us had met prior to this.

Basically a few discussions on means of reaching the place, plans of what to do upon arrival, and the material to take with us. Then topics drifted to what normal ppl discuss as well ;-) Football, coffee... etc....

Two hours we sat there, and ppl grew fearful of one particular chap, who btw, gave me a lift home. The coffee addict continued with his addiction, 5 cups in an afternoon, now thats a lot isnt it?

Soon the time came to split up and head back to enjoy are respective Saturday nights.

We just not stangers anymore....... :-)

Six Weird Things

2006-06-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

5 Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said, "Oh, my! Its getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Its only Halloween fun."
Then woooooo went the wind, and out went the light,
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Well, it should have been six, but i could not find a snazzy little poem (nursery rhyme if u will) with the number 6. Suggestions open. :-)

Anyway, I've been tagged by Aparna G of Erehwon fame. Six weird things about me. Hmm.. thats a toughie. ;-)
Ok ok.. before u think I'm arrogant, I shall continue :-)

First Pumpkin: Caffeine puts me to sleep. Unless i have lots of it. By lots I mean (3 spoons of coffee!!)
Second Pumpkin: I always see things as potential photographs.
Third Pumpkin: I work on a schedule. If i dont have lunch by 2 pm, i dont need it. I dont feel hungry after sun down!
Fourth Pumpkin: I cant sleep if the fan does not have electricity. The second electricity stops flowing, I am awake, and actually watch the fan stop rotating. This happens irresepective of how tired I am and what time of the night it is.
Fifth Pumpkin: I always read between the lines, even if there are no lines to read between.
Sixth Pumpkin: There is no such thing as too sweet. I mean come on, thats just ridiculous. Sugar is always good... :-)

Whew, that came out rather fast.....

Now my turn!!!
Here goes... I hereby tag....... (drum roll).......

Rambling Advitiya
The Variegated Sky of Aparna
Arjun and his Back Pages
The Voices of Melody
The Sane Mohit
Peregrination
Rahul
Spinning Rishi
Rupsha Chatterati
Samant the Lazy Bum
Shreya for Public Consumption
Sujata C'est La Vie
The Life and World of Tanvi

A Baker's dozen should do! :-) And anyone of you whom I missed, and feel the need to be tagged, take it from me and begone to thine blog....

How Many People?

2006-06-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

No, this is not in line with those PJs that float around. If you dont catch my drift good for you, as you have been spared.

This is a genuine question.

We have a conference room at work, which is not too far away from my cubicle. I'd give a rough estimate (guestimate?) of its dimensions to be of the order of 16ft by 8ft. Height is not of much significance, but for those nit-pickers, i'd say it is about 10 ft. The centre of the room has a table, about 6 ft long, and 3 feet wide. Ordinarily, ten chairs are placed around the table.

Now, here's the fun part. How many people do you think would be fit into such a room to conduct a meeting? Our team generally finds it stuffy with about 10 people in it. In fact, I cant remember having a meeting in there with more than 12 people.

Well, a team on my floor, occasionally decides to have full-team meetings in the room I have just described to you. Thats OK, you may say. Yet, you wonder, how many can they be?

I feel claustrophobic just thinking about it. How did they manage 35-40 people in there?

Maybe they have a witch or a wizard amongst them, and us muggles dont know about it.

Goodness Gracious, Great Drops of Water

2006-06-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures to share from my garden. A few gorgeous drops of water.

Tragedy of the Commons

2006-06-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

Had to wait a while before I could write this. Needed to cool the boiling blood. So why I am writing about a Game Theory application? The Tragedy of the Commons? You'll see.

This morning, traffic was unusually bad. There was a jam at every intersection. That's fine. It happens. I was in the Volvo, standing, but at least away from the pollution and the smoke, and the grime.. and more importantly, the blaring horns. (These volvos really keep it quiet inside the bus!)

Anyway, as I was saying, I had no qualms about the traffic. Bad days exist, and today was one of them. We trudged along the roads on the way to work.

Pass Marathahalli, big big jam... but again no issues. Few stops after that I got to sit. Listening to my discman, I enjoy the view outside, and my music. Soon after is where the trouble started.

I was sitting towards the back of the bus. About 10 rows from the driver, and there were people standing all the way between me and the driver. The bus was populated by working class people. I mean the software industry people, with laptops and all (no I don't have a laptop).

Upon reaching another intersection, this one relatively free, the bus driver suddenly gets it into him to drive on the wrong side of the road, to avoid the traffic at the next junction. Now we all know that this is not the right thing to do. It only aggravates the situation, and flares more tempers. Some of us noticed. I did too. Had it not been for the aching feet, and body (tiring gym workout in the morning) and the fight to get a seat, I'd have gone up to the driver and let him have it for trying such a stunt. So, I left it on faith for my fellow commuters, older, wiser and more sensible, to do the job.

How wrong I was. All the laptop carriers just sat there, and grinned. "Now we'll reach quicker" is all I could see on their faces! And I wont single out anybody. This set of affluents were from all regions of India. Selfish pigs.

This is why I think not much can be done with this city. The corporation tries. They are widening the roads. They are widening the bridges. They are regulating traffic. They are diverting flows. Signals have come up. Potholes are being fixed. But if the denizens don't follow simple civic rules, then how can this place improve.

Do we really need dividers on the road to make sure a 6 lane road is not 5 lanes in one direction and one in the other? Do we need cops at every intersection to fine us for any rule breaking? Or will we just bribe them and get away with it?

And the Rain Came Down

2006-05-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red

Well, I'm in bombay for a few days.. and boy, this is what I call rain. Had completely forgotten what the Bombay Monsoon was like. Its been 2 years since i last experienced it, and somehow i misplaced that memory and overwrote it with the monsoons experienced in trivandrum and bangalore.

As I landed at bombay last night, the city was being lashed by the rains. It was a beautiful sight from the sky, even as the plane was delayed due to traffic (even the airspace seems to like bangalore's model!) :-) Anyway, landed on a wet runway with a brilliant spray of water cascading water down the windows. You had to be there.

As we drove home from the airport, the rain intensified. At one point, lightnign and thunder were separated by milliseconds!

Marine Drive, and thats where I saw it. A curtain of rain keeping visibility to a minimum, and making the car move to a crawl. Roads had about 3-4 inches of water on them as well. This was with 3 hours of rainfall! Ah.. the bombay monsoons.

But no, this was not enough. The rain gods decided to show me what more they were capable of. This afternoon was another treat for the senses. Black clouds rolled across the sky, making it look to be dusk, when the time was actually about 2 pm! Soon, the heavens burst asunder, and large drops of water fell to the earth, making a swimming pool of the already soaked ground in front of my house.

By 6 pm, the roads in the colony were flooded. A tree near my bus stop had been uprooted. The rain finally slowed to a drizzle. Even as i write this, a steady drizzle pitters against my window. I really ought to go to the seaside, and have a walk. But common sense prevails.

And the rain came down
Like an angel come down from above
And the rain came down
It'll wash you away and there ain't never enough

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2006-05-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

This sunday was blessed with lovely weather. A hint of the approaching monsoon, lingered in the air all day. Partially cloudy, humid, and a strong breeze marked most of this sunday. A cool afternoon was then kissed by the some rain. A beautiful day to sleep through.. which I did in the afternoon.

Woke up after my siesta and stepped outside the house to a wonderful sight. A rainbow!

R and I considered going to CABS to search for the pot of gold. Somehow, something kept us at home..

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

The Curse Continues

2006-05-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago I had written a post involving a lack of fuel in our car... I called it "I Hope There's No Pushing Involved."

Well, the post seems to have started a curse. Something like the one in the movie "The Ring."

First, Melody, one of my readers saw this post and mocked me for it.... you can have a look at her comments on my post... and then.. she suffered the same fate.... setting up No pushing involved Part 2!

Recently another friend of mine, Rahul, came across this post. He too laughed off the situation. Voila, that night he experienced part 3. He actually started another blog to write up this experience!

And so the curse continues.... I wonder who gets to talk about part 4!

How You've Discovered Me!

2006-05-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

And I'll remember the way you found me
Now that I've been here for so long
I'll remember the way that you read me
I'll remember.....

This blog has been up for a few months now. Just under six months if i count correctly. Nonetheless, I'l measure this as roughly 2000 hits. Thats a lot of hits in about five months. (The counter came up only in December, as u can see.) Its kept me motivated to keep posting out to the world. And i've been more daring with my posts at times. I apologise to those who like the picture posts.. its just that i havent seen anything nice to photograph.

Anyway.. the reason i write this is to share with you all the different ways ppl discovered this blog. Most of them are quite interesting indeed!

Search Engine	Keyword
Google	zoxcleb
MSN UK	nightmare on wall street
MSN	pictures of ppl instead of me
Google India	titan wallstreet
Google	"titan wall street"
MSN	campion calls
Google	here comes the rain washing down the street again
MSN	mediteranean sea view
Google India	paan shops in mumbai
Google	dr. rajkumar blog
Google Korea	"paanwalla
Google	atr works at street in the paris
Google India	"kingfisher airlines"
MSN	amchi
MSN	hr wall street
MSN	here comes the rain again i want to talk like lovers do
MSN	wall street journey
Google	opinion about 118ne car
Google	wallstreet ram heat
Google	4 lane bridge at marathahalli
MSN	here comes the rain again
Google	wall street a wondering journey
Google UK	what superhero am i
Google India	titan wall street collection,bangalore
Google	night on wallstreet
Google Finland	wallstreet pink
Google India	bangalore rain yesterday
Google Romania	street bilboard
Google	outgoing clothes
Google	bmtc bangalore volvo timings
Google Poland	atr street...
Google Taiwan	"paanwalla"

And this is how you remind me...
This is how you remind me...
Of what I really am

Disclaimer: These hits are given as per the day they led to my blog. As time passed, the search engines may have updated the index to move the position of the blog in the search result. Also, these hits are in no particular order! :-)

You've Got Mail

2006-05-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

Well, someone did! :-)

Let me give you a little background on what we do here, before I carry on with this topic. Putting it into perspective for you, may make you see the humour of the situation a little better.

We work in a research lab for a company in India. Our project collaborates with a large number of European companies, and labs in the development of wireless technologies. As a result, there is a frequent exchange of e-mails between us and them.

Yesterday was a day with one such email. It came from France. There were a few problems with the language, so a colleague of mine asked us to help "translate" it. After a few minutes, we were able to grasp the meanings of his queries.

Just to annoy the person who received the mail, another colleague, hit the reply button on his mail client.. and typed a few choicy words to the french chap.

Please rephrase, dumbass...

Let me digress again. Most of us have set a default spell check in our mail clients. As a result, when u press send, the spell check is activated, and after clarifying spelling errors, the mail is sent out. Our friend here, whose mail client was being used, did not have this feature activated.

You can imagine what happened next. Send button was pressed, and the above mail was sent to France.

What followed was an intense one hour of panic. We furiously searched for his contact details on line to call him and apologise for this grievious error. Meanwhile, both, the person who sent the mail, and the colleague who receiived the original mail, sent out email apologies. Phone calls were made to France to try and apologise.

Finally, a new mail arrived.

He accepted the apology.

Criminal Activities

2006-05-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

Thats what we've been charged with at work now! The work we do involved studying of some securtiy algorithms. So off we went to google.. and entered a search string. Voila, we find some useful sites. Open them....

and...

.. the site is blocked beacause it enhances our criminal skills!!

Queues

2006-05-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

I had started this space with a theme in mind. I wanted to talk about the interesting things that happened at Wall Street. Things, however, change. So must this space. Its grown, its adapted. Thats where soem work related posts came about. Then some abt the city of Bangalore. Once again, this post has nothing to do with Wall Street. I dont even know why this belongs here. Probably need another space.

Some things never change. Take for example, alighting a bus. A company bus, for that matter. As we pull up to the company, and the bus grinds to a halt, everyone gets up and tries to alight. This includes people sitting in the back, with an entire bus load of people in front of you also trying to get off. Kind off gets annoying, when you are seated in the middle section and everyone is pushign for the door. I mean, even the bombay locals are more organised. (Darn, promised myself no more comparing blore to bom... but could not help it.)

This, however, is not limited to only the bus. Take, for example, an aeroplane. The ones, i've flown in are roughly 200 seaters; 6 seats to a row, and 3 on either side of an aisle. Am sure you know what I'm talking about. What I narrate is something that I have seen on every flight, be it to Bombay, Bangalore, or Trivandrum.

The plane lands at the airport, and taxis to the runway. The captain makes an announcement informing the passengers not to stand up till the plane comes to a complete halt. Does anyone listen? NO! As soon as we touch earth, people jump up to get their handbags out of the overhead cabin, and rush to the nearest exit. One of the many reasons I prefer window seats. None of this pushing-shoving to be experienced and u can continue to be blissfully ignorant of this behaviour.

I cant quite figure out, however, what it is that makes us so jumpy to get off the transport, and carry on? Is it so urgent that we have to run?

One of the Good Things in Bangalore

2006-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

I know I have been complaining abt Bangalore a lot on occasion. But I must reiterate its not all that bad. All I ususally mean, is that its no Bombay. Of course, I am biased towards my home city. Who wouldn't be? It also helps that I grew up next to the sea!

No, dont worry.. nobody has a gun to my head... This is being written of my on volition. :-)

What made me say this all of a sudden? Well, the initiative is not very new. Almost three months have elapsed now. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), suddenly grew some brains, and implemented something every office goer would dream about - AC Public Transport. Yes, thats right, they introduced the AC Volvo bus for commuters.

The Volvo that plies on Bangalore Roads

Now thats smart thinking. A lot of people use this bus, on my route to work. After 8 am, its quite tough to get a seat in these buses. I hear, however, that en route to Electronics City, the buses go empty.

Whats better, is that these buses make travel economical. For a distance of nearly 12 kilometres, from my house to work, the fare is substantially cheaper than auto, and not that much more expensive that the regular bus. (Why auto? well Bangalore did not begin as a big enough city to have taxis!)
The fare :

Auto: Rs. 100/-
Regular BMTC Bus: Rs 9/-
AC Volvo: Rs 24/-

It gets better! The frequency, again on my route, which btw is Airport Road to ITPL, is amazing - every 30 minutes! So its convenient as well. What more can anyone ask for? It gives u comfort with convenience. And one can always trust Volvo to give you a comfortable ride.

9 to 5

2006-05-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

missing nine to five
what a way to have a sunday
barely getting by
it`s all taking and no giving
they just take ur power
then they never let u live it
it`s enough to drive you crazy
if you let it

Nine to seven thirty actually, but who's counting... What am I talking about? Hmm, i probably should tell you before you think I am mad.

Yet again we lost electricity. No, this was not one of those rain related outages. This was scheduled. A newspaper notification appeared on Saturday claiming that there will be a power outtage on Sunday in well pretty much all of East Bangalore. Nine-thirty to five were the timings they gave. And promptly, at nine thirty the electrons cease to flow in the wires.

This is all well and good till you realise its Sunday.. its hot... and there is nothing to do. Too hot to sleep, too hot to read. No electricity so no music to listen to. Radio is horrible in this city, except for a few hours. How I wish Go 92.5 were here. Well, considering they just went nuts and went desi, no.. i'm glad they arent.

Anyway, somehow managed to read some fiction. It was too hot and muggy to read the papers I had taken home to read for the weekend. :-(

Time inched on... minutes seemed to take eternity. (A good thing considering that I nearly finished a 400 page book in about 4 hours.) Not such a good thing, considering there was no circulation of air.

Five o clock came... and went... No electricity....

Anger!! My F-1 race... I'm gonna miss it...... :-@

Five thirty.... still nothing....

Get a call from a friend... he suggests we go see Munich... readily agree...

Six thirty... still no power... the race is almost over.... and I leave for an AC Movie Hall... to watch Munich..

Happy Birthday K

2006-05-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday brought about the birthday of one of our neighbourettes, K. I missed the midnight celebrations, as I was a leep, and, well it would just be odd going to a house full of girls at midnight! ;-)

Did go in the evening though. Special invite came on my cellphone.. thanks for that girls. Upon my arrival, I was introduced to the new girl in the house, RN, or rather, she introduced herself to me by making sure I was who I was. (Had no idea, they talked abt me in the house) ;-) Well, RN, then got busy getting her internet connection installed, while T, N, and I sang as K cut her cake.

Of course, the normal process of feeding the bday girl ensued, and then some photos were taken. Most of which I dont feel I ought to publish without the permission of the subjects. Once again, sorry to RM for running out of battery just as she came to get her snap taken in the group snap!

All in all a great time, and once again, wishing K a very Happy Birthday.

And again

2006-05-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yes.. it rained again today. Let me rephrase. It poured today.

Started earlier today. One hour early. In fact, almost like the reversal of the tides, which come an hour later everyday.

Four pm, and the sky went black. The rain lashed down in more fury today than it did yesterday. Wonderful stuff.

This time the rain let up as i got into the bus, and then returned to full glory as I alighted. Headed back to the same shop as yesterday, had an ice cream and milk. Nothing like ice cream in the rain, I tell you.

In one of the short lulls, i rushed home, to no electricity!! As always! Decided, it was time to get shutter happy!

The candle that lit up my room :-)

Trying to get its star shaped shadow.

Whats this? Any guesses...

Bet u did not think of this!

The fan's still not moving...

Not even now! :-(

For the record, electricity came back at 1915 hrs, about an hour after I reached home.

Summer Rain

2006-05-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

And it rained. No this is not the typical bangalore rain. It was fierce. Hard and heavy. And long... All distinguishing it from whats typical of this place. And the memories it brought back..... sigh. :-)

Havent seen this rain for a while. We had a bright and sunny day this morning. Nicely toasted anyone who dared to venture out in the afternoon, like i did... But thats besides the point.

Afternoon tea, and its still hot. But soon after, the clouds appeared. Dark, and menacing, they loomed in the horizon.

Got in the bus to head home. And thats when the heavens opened up. Big buckets of water lashed down on the earth. The smell of moist earth wafted up, and wow.. its just perfume for the nose ;-)

Thats when I saw a fuse box explode outside the bus. What a spark that was! Big and bright.

And the rain was not done yet... thats when it pciked up... Visibility dropped to almost 5 feet. I dontknow how the bus driver managed to drive the bus, what with one hand wiping the mist that settled on the inner part of the windshield, and one hand on the horn. Hang on, who was steering?! Me confused now!

Finally reached my stop.. and what amazing rain it was. Even more than cats and dogs... more like cows and bulls, to coin an expression! Ran into a shop, and had a lovely veg puff. Then some milk.. and still the rain continued unabated.

Thats when it happened. A bilboard in front of the shop tore. No i have not made a mistake. It tore. Bilboards have a cloth front, which just tore. That was the power of the wind that was blowing through airport road. :-)

the fury of the rain, the wind, the smell.. they all brought back memories of the bbay monsoon to me.. something I have not seen for 2 years now!!

As the rain finally abated, one hour after it began, I started my wade home. The water was ankle deep in most places. So i get to wear sneakers to work tomorrow! Yipee! :-)

And of coruse, upon reachign home.. as per bangalore's tradition, there was no electricity. For some reason the corporation feels it better to cut off the power even when a few drops fall to the ground. Even as i wrote this post, electricity went twice!

Anyway, this is not a rant, so I'l end it on a happy note.

I lost myself
I lost myself in the summer rain

Raining now
Raining now

Raining down on us
Raining down it
Rained

Anura, aka Salientia

2006-05-07T03:01:00.000-07:00

We had a strange visitor at ur place last night. It was the Anura or Salienta. In English? Well it was either a Toad, or a Frog. Not sure which one :-)

And yes, he posed for the cameras. Quite a celebrity I must say!

I Hope There's No Pushing Involved

2006-05-05T05:24:00.000-07:00

Friday evening.

Get into my friend/colleague's (H) car. His first statement is "I need to fill gas." I nod, noting the point.

We drive out of work. Pass one petrol station. I bring up the issue of petrol, which H had mentioned as he started the car. We both feel we can probably reach the next one. Thats when I come up with the gem, "I hope there's no pushing involved." :-)

Any guesses what happened? We reached Marathahalli and as we ascended the bridge, the bane of bangaloreans travelling east, the car dried up. For those of you unfamiliar with bangalore, let me explain a little more.

Imagine a road, two lanes on either side, heavily used, converging into a one lane road on a bridge with no escape. Well thats where we ran out of fuel.

Here, have a look, although the picture does not give u the feeling of scale that every commuter in bangalore can elaborate upon!

Anyway, I get out of the car, and push it, as H steers the car to the side of the road, to avoid any inconvenience we may cause to the rest of the traffic. I tell you, its not that tough to push a car... or else the 3 days of gym I recently had, have been of real use ;-)

Once done, I wait in the car and H hitches a ride on a friendly motorcyclist's bike to the nearest petrol bunk, about a kilometer away.

Sitting in the car, I took to watchin the reactions of the people as they drove past the car. Was quite interesting. Almost everyone turned to see who was in the car. Most shook their head in disdain. How I wish I had a camera on me to capture the various faces of this city...

Its funny how we always curse the fool who runs out of fuel at such a strategic location. I can remember how H and I always mocked the people who had starnded cars right in the midst of the most heavily trafficked place on the route. Of course the mocking is immediately followed up with a steady stream of curses.

We both knew that this was the fate we had today as well, yet we were unable to wipe that grin of our faces. The situation was just too amusing!

And.. to top it all... there was NO traffic jam caused by this incident. Stunned? So were we. Till we saw all the cops on the road, regulating the flow to perfection. If only they would do something like this regularly. And the discipline on the road.. man.. that was too good to be true.

Did not take us too long to realise what was the cause of this. Some VIP was on his way. Pretty soon, we saw the cop cars waving flags, and clearing the road in front of them, approach behind us. In between the cop jeeps, were two VIP cars. Indians. Once they passed us, H quickly tailed them to ensure he is not stopped anywhere along the way. And thats what happened. We had a free flowing ride from Marathahalli to the Airport!

Which is where I got off... (I stay there, if u dont know).

All in all, "it was fun, but lets not do this too often!"

More Strangers

2006-05-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Yup. Met some more of them today. Not as unknown as the first time, however. The mails and online conferences had familiarised most of us with each other. This time, however, it included two new faces, and me.

We were to be joined by two more faces from the last gathering. Unavoidable circumstances prevented them from joining us at the Leela Palace. (One being held up in another state on account of the long weekend, the other held up by a broken-down bike on his return back to the state!)

Once again I was the first to be spotted.. and the one that people will approach and then ask if I was me. (Well, not like that exactly, but you get the picture, I presume)

Sat down at the Barista @ the afore-mentioned place, and there began our discourse. No introductions this time... just head on into normal conversation as if we had known each other for years! Quite nice... and rather different from the last time. This trio of people were more closely linked by not only one, but two threads....

Not as many acronyms this time.. just the same number... a few times... 15-213 ... and its implications to our choices...

Most of you are probably wondering what on earth I am talking about... a little too high context... My apologies.. but as per the clause from the last post in this chain... confidentiality is of utmost importance...

One change.. this time I have a snap! :-)

Night

2006-04-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Its night.. its hot.. and its boring... what do you do?

Well, I decided to do something that I hadnt done for a long time.. go to my terrace.

Inspired move that turned out to be. Millions of mosquitoes buzzing around my ears.. and irritating my hands, and legs... and face...

But it was worth it.. got to see a stunning moon ... second moon I think it was..

Here.. you tell me...

And of course.. as i was being bitten.. and enjoying my photography.. I realised, you've never seen Wall Street by night! So here you are:

What a Delay

2006-04-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

You just have to see it to believe it!
The mail servers here, at work are sort of really screwed up these days. Nobody anticipated them to be so bad, however.

A friend of mine, just got a mail from an airline, giving him his flight details for a journey that occurred in January this year. Upon checking the time stamp of the mail, we quickly realised that it was not the fault of the airline. The mail was despatched well in time for the journey. It arrived in his inbox, however, today.

Thats a delay of 3 months!!!!

Dont believe me? Have a look yourself.

The Mail with the sent timestamp (1/25/2006)

The Inbox with the arrival timestamp (4/26/2006 - sent by goodtimes)

I wonder how the server even managed it. Could it be that the server, just forgot? Or maybe it was understaffed!

Seriosuly, makes you wonder if we are just bonded labour to these guys... with no personal lives. (Mind you, that flight was on official business!!)

Kingfisher ATR?

2006-04-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Somehow I was always under the impression that Kingfisher airlines, the airline which boasted full service at true value, was going to consist of an all Airbus fleet. My beliefs came unfounded this evening, as I walked home.

Reaching Wall Street, I saw a Kingfisher ATR take off. It had just become airborne, which permitted me to be perfectly sure that I was not hallucinating, in spite of a full day at work :-)

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but didnt Kingfisher Airlines launch saying that its going to be an all Airbus fleet?

A Kingfisher Airbus taxis back to the airport

P Has left the street

2006-04-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

Unbenownst to half of Wall Street, one of the neighbourettes has now moved out. (By half of Wall Street, I mean this blogger, and his room-mates).

All we can say is, Where is our party?

Kidding... hope you have a great time wherever you are P, and best wishes for your married life!

Which Superhero am I?

2006-04-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

My results:
I am Superman

Now what can I say about that?! :-)

Superman		70%
Green Lantern		65%
Spider-Man		65%
Supergirl		60%
Iron Man		55%
The Flash		55%
Wonder Woman		50%
Hulk		50%
Robin		47%
Batman		45%
Catwoman		40%

Mild-mannered. Good.
Strong. Love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

/dev/null

2006-04-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

In case you are wondering, /dev/null is a Linux (or more appropriately Unix) term. It is a special file that discards all data written to it, and provides no data to any process that reads from it. In Unix programmer jargon, it may also be called the bit bucket or black hole.
Now, to the more important point of why I am talking about a null device on Wall Street. Lately my posts seem to have centered away from Wall Street. I cant help it, nothing fun happens here anymore.

Back to /dev/null.

I have known this person, lets just call him DN (for /dev/null), for quite some time now. At first he seemed to be one of those ppl who are slightly off the ordinary. Thats OK. Good to be different.

As time passed, he slowly began to reveal his true qualities.

A strange fascination for corrupting any word.
Generally making noises to and assigning them some meaning.
Extremely strong desire to be spiritual.

Dont get me wrong. I have nothing against all of this. Its just that after some point it gets annoying. Especially when he is so insecure that he needs to constantly make his presence felt with certain oddities that he posseses. Some might call them idiosyncracies, but somehow I think otherwise. There is something terribly wrong here, but I dont want to play psychiatrist either.

The desire to always want to be in a conversation is not only irritating most times, but also very rude. Especially if the conversation had nothing to do with you. Nonetheless, no matter how many times it is explained, the behavior continues.

The spirituality part we would all endure. One cant be intolerant of such things. We are all open minded people. Somehow, things changed, and he appears to be more of a fraud now.

If one is spiritual, and so devout in your following of the inscriptions, and takes a regular pilgrimage to cleanse ones sins from the past life, then why would u want a gun on you? The claim is that one must not kill, but then he also wants to "shoot a few people through the centre of their heads." And of course the gun is also for protection so that nobody kills you. But then he is so frustrated with life that he wants to die anyway! Contradictions....

DN also seems to be of the opinion that nobody is at the same level of conciosuness as him. We are all morons with nothing but the material world to pursue. He is at a different level altogether... another plane of consciousness. Although he thinks of us as equals... he cant relate to us as such. Then why trouble us and hang out with us all the time?

I know I have no right to judge a person. After all, who am I to do that. I am sure I have my own flaws.. but I hope that they are not as "bad."

The Collector's Collection

2006-04-20T02:16:00.000-07:00

As per a request by Lazzybum, I shall now give a small write up about each of the movies mentioned in the post below.

Disclaimer: none of the plot descriptions are my own. I have used them from sites obtained by google :-)

The Breakfast Club - John Hughes writes and directs this dramatic comedy about five Chicago high school kids that are from different circles and stations in life being forced to spend a Saturday together in detention. Before the day is over this group finds out that they have more in common than they thought and even some friendships are created.
The Kid - Charlie Chaplin's study of a tramp teaming up with a street kid (the cute little Jackie Coogan) has a fine line to tread between humour and pathos, and true to what you would expect of his best work, does it superbly. The tramp always manages to wring the hearts of his viewers and adding a little boy to the mix was the finishing touch.
Gold Rush - Gold Rush is one example that Charlie Chaplin was the father of American comedy. Even though Chaplin loves to press political, economical, or social messages in his films, The Gold Rush remains true to its genre.
Before Sunrise - Before Sunrise is a passionate and intelligent romance between a young American (Jesse) and a French student (Celine). A chance encounter on the train incites intrigue, and Jesse provocatively suggests that Celine postpones her return to France and embarks instead on a spontaneous expedition to Vienna. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds.
Before Sunset - Jesse, a writer from the US, and Celine, a Frenchwoman working for an environment protection organization, acquainted nine years ago on the train from Budapest to Vienna, meet again when Jesse arrives in Paris for a reading of his new book. As they have only a few hours until his plane leaves, they stroll through Paris, talking about their experiences, views and whether they still love each other, although Jesse is already married with a kid.
Wonder Years - This 1988-1993 period dramedy takes place during the turbulent times of the late 1960s and 1970s. The show focuses on Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), a young teenager living in a quiet middle-class suburb, and his family and friends. Throughout the series' 5-year run, Kevin deals with middle and high school, encounters puberty, has ups and downs with childhood sweetheart Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), deals with annoying older brother Wayne, and hangs out with geeky-but-lovable Paul (Josh Saviano). The series is told from Kevin's point-of-view through the narration of Daniel Stern.
Taxi Driver - A New York City taxi driver violently and brutally lashes out at the scum of society after encounters with several diverse individuals, including a beautiful campaign worker, an underage hooker, a murderous pimp, and a presidential candidate.
O Brother Where Art Thou - Three stumblebum convicts escape to go on a quest for treasure and meet various characters while learning where their real fortune lies set in 1930s Deep South.
The Bicycle Thief - Antonio Ricci, unemployed for over two years, is overjoyed when he's finally given a job putting up posters. There's a catch, though - he needs a bicycle as a requirement of the job, so he pawns the family linen to get a pawned bicycle back. He goes off to his first day's work, truly happy for the first time in years - and the title of the film gives away what happens next...
Amelie - Amélie is a shy waitress in a Montmartre café. After returning a long-lost childhood treasure to a former occupant of her apartment, and seeing the effect it has on him, she decides to set out on a mission to make others happy and in the meantime pursues a quirky guy who collects discarded photo booth pictures.
Forrest Gump - Needs no introduction, I hope.
Life is Beautiful - Once again, this ought to be known by all!
Cool Runnings - Based on the true story of the First Jamacian bobsled team trying to make it to the winter olympics.
Meet Joe Black - Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins enter into a most unusual gentleman's agreement. Wealthy media tycoon William Parrish (Hopkins) leads a charmed existence until Death (Pitt) comes calling with an extraordinary proposition - he'll delay Bill's imminent demise in exchange for a tour of life. Innocent, enigmatic and often hilarious, Joe (Pitt) disrupts Bill's world of privilege and corporate intrigue. But when he falls for Bill's beautiful daughter (Claire Forlani), Joe threatens to change the rules. Now Bill must fight not for his future, but for those he loves in this bittersweet tale of life and death.
As Good As it Gets - The trials and tribulations of a compulsive writer, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson). After his homosexual neighbor (Greg Kinnear) is brutally beaten, he is entrusted to the care of the neighbor's dog, with a difficult relationship with a waitress (Helen Hunt) to add on top of that. What develops is a weekend trip/triangle between these three individuals, and together they learn the true meaning of "the sunny side of life".

Hope to hear from you on this collection, and others I can add to it.

Pink

2006-04-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

Pink it´s the new obsession
Pink it´s not even a question
Pink it´s the color of passion
`Cause today it just goes with the fashion

Why am i talking pink? Well, because, for the first time since I can remember, I saw a pink car. A pink Premier 118NE to be precise. It kind of caught me of guard! Still in shock!

Here Comes The Rain Again

2006-04-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

------------------------------------------

Rain, feel it on my finger tips
Hear it on my window pane
Your love's coming down like
Rain, wash away my sorrow
Take away my pain
Your love's coming down like rain

Cine Spree

2006-04-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

Recently been on a movie watching and acquiring spree. Have already seen/got movies such as

The Breakfast Club
The Kid
Gold Rush
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Episodes of Wonder Years
Taxi Driver
O Brother Where Art Thou
The Bicycle Thieves

Am in the process of obtaining

Amelie
Forrest Gump
Life is Beautiful

Now I'm running out of movies to watch. Suggestions will be welcome. Looking for classics... anyone assist me here?

Bangalore Closes

2006-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Received word in the afternoon that a famous Kannada actor, Dr. Rajkumar, had passed away. This information, however, was prefaced and epilogued with warnings that one must be wary of Bangalore today and tomorrow.

Most of us from Northern parts of India were stunned. The man, a legend in his own right, I am sure, had passed away of natural causes. There was no reason, we thought for people to express their sorrow on the city. Their city.

Alas, we were wrong. Soon reports trickled in off riots in the city. Incidents of stone throwing were reported. Then we heard about buses being burnt. Roads were closed.

In no mood to work, considering the state of affairs in the city, my colleagues and I pushed off to the canteen to have some tea. Panicky people everywhere. All wondering what was happening. We even heard dialogues from people explaining the situation to their friends. One such gem was," Yaar, South India mein to aise hi hota hai!" (In South India, this is how it happens)

Back to our desks, and an email from our trusty HR awaits us. Buses leaving work have been indefinitely postponed. Apparently the security head at work had received word from the cops that all the crosses in the city were blocked. All traffic into the city had been stopped.

It seemed the office gates were open, so four of us (basically my colleagues at work) decided to venture out in the car. Headed out, and saw that company buses had started plying.

The journey was thankfully not very eventful. We did not see any of the violent protests that were talked about. A few ppl did, however, stop their vehicles to indulge in a public display of fighting by the road sides. And of course traffic bad, but then thats the Bangalore way, after all.

Reached home, and words of Bangalore being closed reached me. Turns out, as of now, that these words are true. Will check with higher ups tho. So that means no work tomorrow. We'l compensate for it I'm sure.

I still cant believe this is how this city functions. It touts itself as the new silicon valley, India's IT industry is practically headquartered here. Yet all these companies vacated their employees. True, they must be wary of our safety. Also true, the common public of Karnataka see us as the outsiders who stole and spoilt their city. And its not like anything good has happened here because of the IT industry. Traffic has gone up, pollution has gone up, tempartures have soared, and its become unliveable for the common public. But i digress.

An unscheduled long weekend is now upon us.. just wish this was not why it has bestowed upon us. What do we do?

"South India mein to aise hi hota hai!"

Gathering of Strangers

2006-04-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Thats what it started out as.

Sunday evening a bunch of us, unknown to each other, yet linked with a common thread decided to meet up. Call it a meet'n'greet if you will. So after 5 pm, at Koshys, you would have seen about 15-20 ppl huddled around 3 small tables, animatedly talking.

And what a bunch of ppl they are!

Below is a rough and extremely sketchy bit of what we were up to.

1600 hrs.
Get a call from one over enthusiastic chap who has already reached the venue in the hope that someone else would be there as well. I tell him I'm still relaxing at home, and will reach only after 1700 hrs, going by the kind of response a similar gathering at bbay got.

1705 hrs.
Reach the venue. Meet one guy and 2 girls standing outside the place waiting for someone. Being a sardar, I tend to be easily noticeable. Seeing me, they came up to me and asked if I was me (by name of course, silly!). Together the 4 of us walk into the place, and the enthusiastic caller is sitting at a small table for 4 with another one of the gang.
We get the tables arranged, adding another table to this, and the 6 of us sit down.
A round of intros start.

1730 hrs
More ppl enter... More intros.
Something to drink arrives.

We realise that our common thread involves a lot of acronyms. They start flying across the table.

IN
ISTM
INI
ECE
LTI
SCS
ETC
MISM
SE

the list just went on.

1800 hrs.
More ppl... more intros...
Seems we had ppl from all ages! Freshers to ppl who've been working for 4 years. Software professionals. Students. All there.

There seemed to be a parallel reunion happening as well, some ppl knew each other across the table.

1830 hrs.
Ppl decided to head home with promises of meeting again soon...
Thats when the mobile number swapping happened.

16 ppl, each exchanging numbers with each other leads to a very big combination equation. You do the math!

1900 hrs.
Everyone goes their separate ways home. Get a drop home from one of the gang. Thanks for that. :-)

All in all a great time. I know we started out as strangers, but am sure i can say we came away as friends.

P.S. As per request, the nature and reason of the gathering has been omitted.

Return to Silence

2006-04-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back at Wall Street. And the situation here almost resembles the one in New York. Silent, and nothing in spectacular. Nothing of the sort of Dalal Street.

Let me explain.
In my week since I returned, I have been unable to meet'n'greet anyone. Met my roomies, of course, but that's about it.

So I scream from the top of my lungs
What's goin' on
And I say hey....
And I say hey what's goin' on
And I say hey....
I said hey what's goin' on

Wonder what's up with everyone. Someone say hi!

The Mumbai Paanwalla

2006-04-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Their network is unprecedented. Wherever you go, you find at least five paanwallas (tobacco shops) around. This is the kind of reach that corporates vie for. And they sure are versatile.

One would normally assume that these shops would contain only the usual goods, viz cigarettes, paan, tobacco etc..
But they also have some of the other needs of usual mumbaikars. Like revenue stamps. :-)

Thats right!
Revenue stamps.

Had to run around the city this morning. And for some reason i needed revenue stamps. "On a sunday?," I thought. But then I was told that i'l get it with the neighboring paan shop!

Not only did he know which paanwalla will have it, but he gave me directions to that shop that will have it! The chain continued, and eventually i found a paan shop with some revenue stamps!

Stunning. With this kind of coverage, it's tough to beat them. I mean think about it.
Five paan shops near every post office. (on average) So it adds to the convenience of the denizens. Plus they are open on sundays!

Now thats amchi mumbai for you!!

Sea Face

2006-03-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

I think i should temporarily rename this blog to Sea Face. At least while I enjoy the sea here in Bombay...

I dont know what it is, but there is something about this place that somehow soothes the mind. The serenity of the place.. its just wonderful. The lapping of the waves on the shore somehow resonate with the mind and whatever u feel is just absorbed by the sea.

This is what I really miss in Bangalore. The freedom of the open sea. Surrounded by land on all sides, gives me the feeling of being trapped. Locked in tight with nowhere to go. You know that whichever direction you look, its all mud.

Why? I guess I have been luck enough to see what the sea can do. Her fury, her calmness. Her mood swings. The ability to drown out anything when needed. Nothing on land is comparable. NOTHING!

And so i sit by the sea every evening, whenever I can, and just admire the view.

One and a half hours

2006-03-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

Time to fly from Banagalore to Bombay: 1.5 hours
Time in taxi from Bombay Airport to Home: 1.5 hours!

The mystery that is travel in India.. go figure. :-)

This is my story....
Left home on wall street at 0730 hrs yesterday morning.. (thanks to G for the ride to the airport)
Walked in.. went though the routine, and sat down with my book. (Simoqin Prophecies). Lovely book.. thank R for recommending.
At 0830 realised that there still was no announcement for my flight departing at 0835! Asked someone if i missed the announcement. :-)
Hadn't. Continued Reading.

0835. Boarding announced. But not at gate 1, at gate 3. Rush to the overbridge and board the Indian aircraft! Stunned at its size...
An Airbus A300. As i trekked to my seat, I wondered how many people flew to Bombay on tuesday mornings! To give u the scale of the aircraft, the configuration of the plane was 2-4-2. (For the uninitiated, thats 2 window seats, aisle, 4 seats, aisle, 2 window seats)
Now u understand!

Snuggled up with my book.. occasionally looking out the window.

Take off at 0900.. land at 1030!
Half an hour late.. but thats OK.

1040. In taxi. Start drive to town. Encountered traffic near Bandra. And thats where i saw why i missed bombay so much!
Stuck in a traffic jam, and everyone waited patiently.. no horns blaring etc. Now thats called discipline. And thats why i did not realise i spent an hour and a half in the cab till i got off.
Trust me, in bangalore, u realise when u spend 10 mintues in traffic! :)

Before anyone plans to make me disappear on my return..i'l shut up for now!

Quote of the Day

2006-03-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

An infrastructure maintenance guy at our office came running to see if any of the wireless equipment at work were on. If they were, we ought to inform the Information and Security Manager.

And this is because, get this:"We proudly tell all our clients that there is no wireless connectivity at any of our offices." (He said this with a straight face. He actually believed it!)

By the way, I work at a technical consulting firm. (or something to that effect)

Peeved, Electricity leaves Wall Street

2006-03-19T03:15:00.000-08:00

Our bureau
Wall Street, March 19

Facing tremendoues Resistance, Volt and his companion Ampere, decided to part ways with Wall Street today. This meant that the residents of the area had to make do without the presence of Electricity for a parts of their day.

As we write this report, talks are under way to ensure that no further discomfort is felt, after all citizens lives are at stake here.

We spoke to Z, a citizen of Wall Street earlier today. "This is ridiculous. Why must they do such stuff on weekends, when everyone is home from work? Must we really be made to feel the pinch? And talk about timing, today there is an F-1 race as well. Thankfully I managed to see the last lap. But i still missed all the fun. Cant they do somethign about this? Really beginning to feel this place is devolving into a village. Its no wonder they call this place the IT Village!"

It is still unclear what caused the split. Sources close to all parties are extremely tight-lipped causing speculation that this may not be the last of the issue. In fact, this is not the first time that such an incident has occurred. Only last week, Electricity was not permitted to enter the area. The only difference is that last time around such an event was announced before hand, to ensure that nobody is overly inconvenienced.

The crisis for the day seemed to be over just after lunch when normalcy was restored. This however, was more of a temporary reprieve, as thigns fell into disarray soon after. Now for the fourth time this day, Electricity has ventured to foray into the area of Wall Street.

At the time of going to press, the situation seems to have returned to, as Z would say, a normal city form.

One comes... another goes

2006-03-17T01:00:00.001-08:00

More good byes. Thats one problem with staying at Wall Street. You get to see everyone off. Whats the problem with that, you may ask?

Its not a formal send off, its just the last time u know u will see that person for a long time. Have done it regularly since at least May last year.

First, a room-mate IBS moved out. Initially went far away.. then came closer. In the city still, but havent seen him for a long time. Not since AM left.
Then NiG flew out. (she tried the first time at least, and then finally the second attempt saw her leave the city).
Then there was SHn. He went, he came, he went again!
Then a former room-mate M. (well he took a train, but still)
Then we had AH, who just came back.
Then another room-mate AM.
Then H.
Then SP.
And yesterday AG.

Too many I must say. And these are the ones i saw off. There were some I missed too (K, MD, DH for example)!!

Anyway.. good for them.. nice to have so many friends from here who are now out somewhere.. most of them being in another country, as the nature of the job needs. Means I can get lots of gifts and chocolates!! :-D

See now I'm just being greedy.....

Wall Street Surprise

2006-03-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Normal day today. Except maybe for it being the festival of colours across the country, and this city was operational! :-(

So spent another lethargic day there and then headed home. But i digress thats not what i am writing about. Just thought i'd set the mood.

Anyway, so MS decides to throw a party at our place for our "trekking gang" as we seem to call each other. (Introductions: MS, MD, MA, SB, N)
After a lot of hemming and hawing R and I agree to the usage of our place for this get-together.

Evening around 1930 MD calls from SB's cell. Come to Gonghura's, a restaurant just off Wall Street. Me change to outgoing clothes, and head off..

Sit down at the table with MS, MD, MA, and SB. We all waiting for R and N. Speak to R, he is held up at work, and regrettably cant make it. MS receives a call from N, and she goes to direct her to the table.

Next thing we know, AH walks in the door, screaming "SURPRISE!!!!" I think MS has recorded the looks on all our faces at that instant! :-) Someday I'l show u guys. To put it in context, AH has just spent 8 months in Arizona, and had snet a mail 2 days ago saying she would be there for another 3-4 months at least.

So there we are listening to the foreign return girl lugging her bottle of mineral water, and complaining abt the pollution in nemma bangaluru ;-) Kidding...

Then as N walked in, and she appeared the most shocked of all. She just stared open mouthed for about a second before she screamed!!

All in all a memorable dinner..

Thanks MS for organising the event. :-)

I won! I won!

2006-03-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

Before u begin to wonder, this is completely unrelated to Wall Street :-)
Just an online competition I won... 3rd place mind u. And here's the proof:

Have a look at what it was all about here.

Now I await the virtual gift voucher!

Birthday Time

2006-03-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday marked the birthday of yet another member of Wall Street. N turned the ripe old age of ... well, she'l kill me if i told u! :-)

And what a busy girl she is! Even her room-mates feel she was on the phone so much that they could not really celebrate her bday at the appropriate hour. (everyone knows that the best time is midnight the day ur bday starts)

Nonetheless, some fun we did have. R and I went over there at abt 2200 hrs last night and enjoyed some cake.. and made her face enjoy it as well.

Looks delicious doesnt it?

Happy Birthday to N, once again!

Wall Street's Back (alright)

2006-03-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

Everybody
Rock your body
Everybody
Rock your body right
Wall Street's back alright

Now throw your hands up in the air
And wave 'em around like you just don't care
If you wanna party let me hear you yell
'Cause we've got it goin' on again

You heard right! Wall Street is on-line again!

The Eye Blinked

2006-03-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

That's right. Our eye blinked. (refer previous post)

Apparently R, G and I panicked a little too soon. It seems A did open up his computer that morning, which is how the RAM got placed in the wrong direction.

What a collective sigh of relief we all breathed saturday morning, when we did hear about this from A.

Current Status: The PC is still on the blink. :-(

Ghost in the Machine

2006-03-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

All the hoopla about getting the net at home, well, it turned out to be short-lived. Reached home yesterday evening, aftr a hard day at work, and switched on the computer....

But it refused to turn on.... :-(

Unplugged and replugged the entire apparatus..
still no luck...

Panic.. what happened.. why ....

Call A. Ask him if it worked in the morning when he used it. Answer : NO.
But it worked at seven when i used it before leaving for work. It did have a problem shutting down, but R took care of that... ;-)

A suggests I open it up and have a look...

Now I, although an engineer, am a novice when it comes to internals of computers. So I call up R, and ask him how good he is with this stuff. He claims full proficiency, having done stuff to his comp back in his college days.

R reaches home, and opens up the PC. He gives the novice a guided tour.

This is the CPU, this is the heat sink, this is the fan.. This is the RAM. Expletives... oh crap.. the RAM is in the wrong way!!!!! How the @#!$ can the comp work with the RAM in the wrong way. Its not possible! But it worked in the morning. And then it did not work at 11 when A wanted to use it. How did the RAM get in the wrong way? Frightening stuff!!

We replace the RAM the right way around, and then switch on the comp. It boots!! Yipee....
But wait.. the monitor is not detecting it! Shit.. neither is the keyboard! Frantically we press CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK, SCROLL LOCK, to see the LEDs glow. No luck!

:-(

But now we have bigger problems on our hands...How did the RAM invert? It cant possibly just hop to it and say "now I wanna see how it feels in this direction." Evrything else at home seems in place. No locks broken, no missing gadgetry...

Whats going on? How can or did this happen?

Even with our eye constantly watching?!

Wall Street Goes Off-Line

2006-03-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

Thats right.... short-lived it was...

Wall Street is now Online

2006-03-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yes its true.... Yesterday, we got the Internet guys to come and set up the DSL to the house.

And what a long process it was. They started at around noon, when they called R at work, and asked his permission to drill a hole in our wall. He borrowed a friends bike, and rode home, to meet the landlady, and obtain such permission.

A and R then watched them a bit as they proceeded to dig up the roads around wall street. Thankfully they left Wall Street untouched :-)

I cam home at 1800, and watched them install the router to the house. At 2045, the guy came to set up the internal wiring. He left at 2230! After which R and I went cyber-happy!

Downloaded my favourite browser... and some of its extensions.. downloaded the various messengers.. and set them up with our headset and mic... And then R managed to talk to ppl!

I tried too, but some ppl like NG were very busy in a meeting of sorts!

So now Wall Street has ushered in the era of broadband.. The irony of it, however, is that the broadband cable runs through the sewers!!

Cook out

2006-03-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

Its dinner time, and I'm hungry.. What do I do?
Fed up of ordering out, I decided to cook myself a meal. Thats right, a nice sumptuous meal to be cooked by me, for me.
Dont worry, I had done it before. Many times. Just never on my own and without instructions from mom.
Yesterday I did it with both conditions failed.

R was supposed to come and assist, but he got held up, so it was all me!
And my mom was out when I called for assitance, so had to make do with a few helpful tips from my sis, and a lot of memory. Oh and yes, a lot of mockery from my sis as well... but hey, thats normal! :-)

So what did I cook?
Bhindi-Aalloo! (Thats Okra with potatoes for the non-Hindi speakers out there)
Went to the grocery shop looking for something to prepare. The Bhindi was the only thing that looked fresh, so I decided, what the heck, lets go with that. Bought half a kg of it, and some potatoes. Headed home to fire up the kitchen.

I wont go into the steps I took to prepare the meal. Needless to say it turned out good. Enjoyed eating it with bread. Hold your horses! Bread u ask? Well, I cant go about and cook chapattis as well, now can I. Give me time, and I'll get there... And then you shall all be cordially invited to dinner!

Party of Four

2006-02-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Strange things transpired at Wall Street last night.

All four inhabitants of our humble abode (nest), were home by 2230 hrs! Yup, thats right... there was me, G, R and A (in order of appearance).

I honestly cant remember the last time that happened on a week day! (We do meet up on weekends.) And before any of u start wondering, most times everyone is home for the night... its just that our timings are a little skewed.

Anyway, here's wondering what actually got such an unusual event to occur....

Update to What A Rush

2006-02-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Turns out that the race against time was won. S, however, was not allowed to board the plane, which was due to take off in 5 minutes time.
So what did our adventurer do?
He goes off running abt the airport looking for alternate flights to catch. Catches one at midnight, reaches Amchi Mumbai at 2 am.

Read about it, in his own words here.

Oops he did it again!

Only In India....

2006-02-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

Will you find such a pretty picture... and more so on our beloved Wall Street :-)

What A Rush

2006-02-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening, about five, got a call from S. Here's how the conversation went:

me: Hey, whats up?
S: Lots of things!!
me: Cool...like what?
S: Well, me going to Bombay tonight.
me: Why?
S: Going on-site!
me: WOW! Where to? How long?
S: I told u, Bombay. Sitting in the client's office. Two months is what they say right now. Lets see.
me: Lucky you. So when's the flight?
S: Well, its at 9. What time will u be back?
me: sevenish.
S: me too. see u there.

So i was home by seven. Texted R to come a little early to, as S would be leaving. R arrived at about eight. We then began to wonder when S planed on coming home, packing and then embarking on the long 5 min walk to the airport.

2015 hrs: no sign of S. Cant call him, as he's lost his cell.

2030 hrs: still no sign.

2040 hrs: R and I both agree, S will miss his flight. Then i narrate to R a story S told me about how he missed his flight from his previous on-site gig.

2046 hrs: S comes home. He had apparently left his office at 1915 and got stuck in the famous Hosur Road Traffic Jam.

2050 hrs: S leaves home with 2 bags. Leaves his big suitcase here for the time-being.

2115 hrs: R and I see the plane on the taxi-way.

Since S has not come back since, we assume that he actually managed to catch the 2100 hr flight to Bombay!

JAM!!!!

2006-02-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

Another traffice jam... thankfully I was not involved in this one. Better still, I was a very enthusiastic spectator. For this was no ordinary traffic jam. This was a traffic jam involving A320s Boeing 737s, ATRs and even an A310! At one point in time there were 10 planes stranded on the taxiway.

Reason for the jam?? It seems to be the testing of 3 military aircraft that held up traffic last saturday morning. And we got to see all of them :-)

MiG - 27 takes off
MiG - 21 lands
(Look Carefully)
MiG - 29 lands (this one was spectacular.. it flared up before landing!)

Have a look, and u tell me this could not have been fun to watch :-)

Here u see the Maharaja waiting behind the Common Man:

Sunrise Sunset

2006-02-07T02:30:00.000-08:00

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

We recently had some beautiful days of sunrises and sunsets at Wall Street. The cold mornings have been very conducive to mystical fog that envelopes the world around us, leaving a mirage of being in the clouds, even with both feet firmly on the ground.

The evening sun has its own command on the sky. The magical hues that it creates as it slowly retires for the day, are nothing but inspirational. Here, however, we focus more on the setting sun, than its environment.

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

... EET

2006-02-05T19:30:00.000-08:00

I know I promised to post about this a very long time ago. Blame my room-mate, A, for that. He just sent me the pictures. And what's this story without pictures?

I'm hoping some of you wondered how I managed to put up a photo of the completely painted Wall Street in the background, when R was caught half way through his paint job. Go on, check. In the initial post, R left only the letters Wall Str painted on the wall. Well, the mystery is solved.. so wonder no more. (Ah, how I pander to my own ego!)

If u look closely at the snaps, you will see a timestamp on them. So I wont lie as to when this event transpired. It happened on Boxing Day, that's 26th Dec for the uninitiated.

I had promised to call over our neighbourettes, N, T, K, RM, and P for dinner. Having graciously been gifted a holiday by the company I work for, I thought that this would be a good day to honour my commitment. Decided to call them over around 8 that evening. R had some personal engagement to attend to after his previous evening's maggi fiasco, so he would only be able to help after that. Anyway, I digress..

2000 hrs.
Call R to check when he will be coming. He, after all was going to bring some of the required ingredients. Phone not reachable.

2030 hrs.
R calls to say he is on his way, and will be bringing the requisite foodstuff.

2045 hrs.
R arrives, and the cooking begins.

2100 hrs.
Still no sign of the neighbourettes. Call N. T answers. Claims they will be there in 5 min. Breathe a sigh of relief. We had another half an hour!

2120 hrs.
N, T, and K arrive with Ice-cream. R joins them along with A in the main room, to pig out. (Was S there? I cant remember!)
N keeps trying to drag me out of the kitchen to have the ice cream. But not in the middle of cooking. I finally put the rice on to boil, and have whatever was left of the ice-cream. Mmmm.. Chocolate chip ice cream. Can still taste it. :-) Thanks gals.

2145 hrs.
Dinner is served.
A sumptuous meal of Rajma, Cholle, and Rice served with pickle and mango chutney. (all cooked by me btw, in case any single ladies are reading this) If u don't believe it was sumptuous ask the girls who were present. They are still alive and kicking!

2225 hrs.
People want to see the garden. When I lead them there, they get scared of all the creepy crawlies that could also join them there. (I talk about the insects with 6-8 legs; not us!)
A conversation arises as to why we have not completed painting Wall Str. We tell them we left it for them to do!
They laugh......

.... And then demand the can of paint and the brush. R gladly hands it over to them. A gets his camera. I get shutter happy!
The girls contemplating how to tackle the task at hand

The girls hard at work

A job well done

Deja vu

2006-01-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

Y: What did you just say?
Z: Nothing. Just had a little deja vu.
Y: What happened? What did you see?
Z: A white Innova went past me and then I saw another that looked just like it.
Y: How much like it? Was it the same car?
Z: It might have been. I'm not sure.
What is it?

Y: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.

I wonder what they changed today. Two deja vu's in the span of five minutes. The Innova sure looked identical to the one that passed me. Down to the number printed across its windscreen! (Forgot to look at the license plate)

And the other..well.. that could be more of a conincidence.
Just like Jan 1, today Feb 1 had bangalore shrouded in a cozy white cotton like blanket. Ah.. how I wish I could stay at hoem today too!

Which brings me back to my point of contention, what did they change today?

Titan Wall Street

2006-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

Had no idea we were so famous. Titan actually went and created a watch for people of our street. ;-)

Titan Wall Street... Kaam karne waalon ke liye!

But nobody here has an MBA degree....
Wont say some people arent trying for it though!

Campion Calls...

2006-01-27T22:15:00.000-08:00

Campion calls, Campion calls to courage and high chivalry;
Campion calls, Campion calls to share responsibility;
To peace, love, and charity; to honor, truth and loyalty;
Campion calls, Campion calls, Campion calls to you and me.

Fair School, thy gracious gifts of mind and soul let me not miss;
We pray that all thy sons may reach their goal's eternal bliss.
There is a challenge every man must meet, who walks by day,
But Campion steers me lest my wandering feet from grace should stray.

Campion calls, Campion calls to courage and high chivalry;
Campion calls, Campion calls to share responsibility;
To peace, love, and charity; to honor, truth and loyalty;
Campion calls, Campion calls, Campion calls to you and me.

Campion Calls is available for download in WMA format.

Eight years its been since I last saw most of these guys. That, by any measure is a very long time indeed. More so if its the guys you spent your first ten years of education with!

The stories we reminsced about. The nostalgia. The random things we all remember! Had a blast of time. Wish I was not out of touch with these guys for so long. Now that will be rectified!

The school visit. Amazing that our teachers, the ones that are still in school at least, actually remembered us! Today I saw that even our teachers, even the ones who taught us at Junior School, are human. They were the beacons in our youth, and their moulding has us all standing proud where we are today!

Glad I could meet them all again, and I promise never to lose touch again!

Amchi Mumbai

2006-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

The fresh sea breeze...
The BEST buses...
The local trains...
My home...

School...
School Friends...
Reunions...
Mumbai!

The colony...
The rocks...
The clear night skies...
Home!

Smooth roads...
Friendly people...
Helpful cab drivers...
Amchi Mumbai :-)

Glad to be here again for the short soujorn.... and hope it never ends!

To Fly...

2006-01-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

Since the dawn of known history, human kind has been endeavoruing to enter new frontiers. As time progressed, humans learnt the skills that enabled them to make fire, tools, and other things that could cover their basic amenities. Cursed with being landgrubbers, one thing always seemed to fascinate them most; the gift of flight....

True, we now have airplanes and blimps, but its still not the same. To be suspended in the air without anything below your feet, well, that is a completely different experience. If you wonder how I can make such statements, dont. I recently had the privelege of doing something similar. I went parasailing.

Parasailing, though novel in its own right, does not allow you the freedom that one would like if you wish to further the analogy with the birds. For that you need to go paragliding. But, hey, one step at a time :-)

The event was a lot of fun, for the brief period of time it lasted. They say time flies when you are having fun, but I tell you, wehn you fly along with time, she sure goes supersonic on you! Three minutes I floated in the air (so I am told), but it felt like a few seconds to me.

As one goes airborne, the feeling is just tremendous. Suddenly, for the first time, your body is not in contact with any land-hugging thing. Once you overcome those initial goosebumps, well, thats when the fun begins. Honestly, I had no idea Bangalore was so green. :-)

Parasailing, in pictures:

First you show some excitement! (SP does a good job of that here)

Parachute opens...

Up.. up...

... and away we go!

But now, here I am, with my feet firmly on the ground again :-(

Help!!

2006-01-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

I need a word.. something to describe my feelings when added to the situation i posted about yesterday.

Its now 4 days out of 5 with no electricity.. and to top it all... now there is no water either...

:-(

Hate (v.)

2006-01-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

The emotion one feels for a city when, for three days out of the last four, there is no electricity.

e.g. I hate Bangalore.

Time Traveling...

2006-01-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

It happened again yesterday evening. Bangalore decided to switch off. No electricity most of the evening. At least they did switch it on eventually. For that I am thankful.

Came home at the usual time from office yesterday(about 1730 hrs), to be welcomed to a world of no electricity! Suffering from a nasty cold, I did not take time to notice this at first, as I quickly downed the Orange and Grape Tropicana I had bought. My logic was to pump my body full of Vitamin C :-)

Soon, S and I found ourselves standing on our patio, enjoying the lovely sunset in the clear skies. Wish I had taken out my camera to share it with you.

We watched a couple of planes land, before the mosquitoes drove us back to our shelter.... which is when the electricity returned.

No that's not the end of the post! It didn't stay too long. The duration of the return, was long enough for us to realize the water pump was not pumping water to our tank. Time to act like the plumber, and fix it.

That done, the electricity goes phut again!

Here's where the time traveling bit comes in. Sitting in the dark, and having used up the flashlight battery, and the digital camera battery, we were wondering what to do. That's when we decided to pull out the radio. Adamant that we were not going to listen to the crappy Radio City, our tuning fingers drifted over to Short Wave Radio. I wonder if any of you have even heard of it ;-)

As S tuned the set, we managed to catch the frequencies of Voice of America, BBC, some Arabic Channels, some Tamil channels, lots of gospel channels, and some other weak signals. We now have a rough idea of where to place the set and at what bands stations of interest air.

All in all, something positive came out of this experience. I can safely say I am better prepared for the next power outage!

Mysterious Visitors at Wall Street....

2006-01-07T05:03:00.000-08:00

Who are they? Some mysterious planes descended in our backyard this morning.. I wonder whom the 2 planes belong to; such small planes that they are....

Enlighten us??

For a feel of how small the planes really were.. have a look at this:

The mystery remains....

Birthday on Wall Street...

2006-01-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be aware that it was my birthday last week. The 29th to be precise.
And what a day it was... :-)

Started quite early... approximately 1215 (correct me if I'm wrong R, S, G, AA, N). There I was, peacefully enjoying my night's sleep as I aged another year. But not for long. The above mentioned people cam knocking on my door, and R ensured I was awake in no time. Somewhat of a surprise, I must say, since everyone knows how much I like my sleep. (I do switch of my mobile phone when I sleep, so you can imagine.)

A bigger surprise, however, was the presence of N and AA! They dont even stay with us. Now that I was completely awake, I was led to the main room where a cake lay awaiting me! A delicious cake. (Still tryign to figure out what flavour it was. Someone help?)

My Birthday Cake

The cake cutting was followed up with tradition. A slice was nicely smothered all over my face, beard and all, by... (yes I remember whom you are, so beware!!) :-)

And then the birthday bumps... by the two guests.. N and AA. Thankfully, the guys took pity on the baby of the house. As for N and AA, thats strike two

Whats a birthday without a gift? The Wall Street gang got me a book. The collection of P.G. Wodehouse.

All in all, had a great time!

Thanks Wall Street.....

Foggy Start to 2006

2006-01-01T21:45:00.000-08:00

Early morning Jan 1, 2006, I woke up to a world blanketed in white. No, it did not snow! Come on, this is Bangalore, it cant snow here. I wish it could, however.

Wall Street was draped in a white shawl trying to keep snug in this cold world. The sheet was so thick that visibility was very low. I rubbed my eyes to ensure I had not gone blind becasue of the new year festivities. Unable to convinice myself, I grabbed the camera, and dashed off to the terrace, while the rest of my room-mates, and my 2 guests (D and NG) were asleep.

Here, I provide evidence of what I saw!

I now look forward to the year ahead, and walk on to see what it has to offer.. unconcerned about the obstacles that the year has in store, like these people below.

Happy Gregorian New Year Earthlings...

2005-12-31T10:30:00.000-08:00

"There, that faint dot in the center - that's the largest rock known in our Solar System. It is larger than every known asteroid, moon, and comet nucleus. It is larger than any other local rocky planet. (Nobody knows for sure what size rocks lie at the cores of Jovian planets, or orbit other stars.) It used to be the largest rock of any type known until earlier this year. The Voyager 1 spacecraft took the above picture of the giant space rock in 1990 from the outer Solar System. This rock is so large its gravity makes it nearly spherical, and holds heavy gases near its surface. Today, this rock starts another orbit around its parent star, for roughly the 5 billionth time, spinning over 350 times during each trip. Happy Gregorian Calendar New Year to all the human inhabitants of this rock we call Earth." -APOD

Santa Visits Wall Street.

2005-12-28T19:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all....

Its a few days late, but I did not want to write this without the images.

As is known to all, Santa visits houses all across the world, on Christmas eve. That, however was in the days of yore when the population was not over 6 billion! These days, there is some delay, but yes he does make it around. There is one caveat though, you must have a fireplace ;-)

In that sense, we were quite lucky(apologies to T). In spite of no fireplace (that we have seen at least) Santa paid us a visit. He might have used the planes that land so frequently right outside the doorstep. Anyway, that is not what concerns us. What matters is that he did come. And he brought something. Its not what you would expect Santa to come trooping around with, and hence shocked us quite a bit.

I mean, who would expect Santa to have henchmen? And here he was with not one, but two of them. He explained that these guys were used to take care of the naughty kids!

Santa flanked by his henchmen.

This is how Santa treats the naughty kids!

So all you naughty kids, beware!!

Hot Tip

2005-12-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

Psst...
Some information for you... but keep it hush hush.. i could get in trouble for leaking this insider information... but its worth knowing..

Santa visited Wall Street on Xmas day. And he brought with him something nobody thought he would have.. for more information and pictures, watch this space...
Something was completed this weekend.. that was pending for quite a while.. cant tell u much right now... but ask N, T, or K for more info... am sure R, S and A will keep their lips sealed till the incriminating evidence is out!

oh and yeah.. this is more of a helpful hint than anything else..
clicking on any image on the blog.. will actually take u to a high resolution picture... just an FYI :-)

The secret garden

2005-12-19T01:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that life on wall street leads to tension..
What some people may not, however, be aware of is the hidden serenity provided by such a location.

I have already shown you some plane pictures.. and the lovely Bangalore Airport. As residents of Wall Street, am sure all of us (A, G, R, S, & I, not to mention our friendly neighbours, N, RM, K, P, T) find such views quite relaxing. Except maybe when the Blue Dart plane decides to drop us a visit, at midnight. The rumble of the DC-10 (R, correct me if i am wrong) is enough to rattle all the windows.

But, I digress, this is not the garden i refer to. Unbenkownst to many, the house i stay at has a lovely garden, that seems to be in bloom off late. Saturday morning, to alleviate my boredom, I set out to the garden and got shutter happy.

Pic(k) of the Week gone by

2005-12-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

In keeping with markets all over the world, Wall Street hopes to be able to give a list of the pic(k) of the previous week's performers.
I sincerely hope that this list is regularly updated. I do not wish to be investigated later, for hiding information from the other traders of Wall Street.

Report follows:
The week started out slow. There was not much activity on the street, and volumes were quite low.
Singapore, however did show some activity with their cargo, as well as the passenger variants.

Singapore showing some activity. (Two shots of the cargo variant, and one of the passenger variant)

The week then warmed up as the spices from Thailand got moving..
(Thai Airways head for takeoff)
as well as the jet load of spices...
(Spice jet at night)
As the sun set on the week, we saw the apporach of more activites in the near future...
(A plane approaches the runway.)

I shall now close this report with the stunning view of a plane drving off into the sunset.

House on Haunted Street

2005-12-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

We just realised our place is haunted.

Some time ago, we visited the terrace to enjoy the serene view of the airstrip

thats when we came across the haunting...

u see above, the ghost approaching us...

i managed to get a close shot of the monster... he seemed to be pretty thrilled to have his photo taken!

then he took my photo!!

Nightmare on Wall Street

2005-11-28T01:36:00.000-08:00

We had a visitor last week. Well, he started out as a visitor. Then the story unfolded. And as the many threads were put together, we got this thick rope (metaphorically speaking) which/whom I now intend on warning u all about.

A lot of this information has been gathered from others at home, so I apologise for any errors that may creep into my narration.

CAT Sunday (21/11/2005):
R [refer previous blog] calls me after CAT to say he had an interesting exam. He basically psyched out the people in his centre having arrived for the exam in tracks and a sweat shirt, giving everyone the impresion that he studied so hard, he had no time to get dressed. The true story is quite different actually, but I digress.

It is now that R receives a call from a batchmate of his, lets call him X. Now R has been warned against associating with X, but R has the human spirit in him which makes him want to give this person a chance. And R suffered for it.

X comes to meet R at the test centre. Using X's bike, R & X ride off to the book fair at Palace grounds. There X gets bored quite quickly, and starts to bore R with his tales of "conquest" in many cities. And his techniques. Pretty soon, R realises that this is not the way to spend his post CAT freedom.

1630 hrs that day
R and I are supposed to meet up a bunch of friends at a mall in bangalore (will not name it as i refuse to give publicity if not paid for it!) Unfortunately, or rather as it turned out, fortunately, I enjoyed my sunday afternoon sleeping at home.

R heads off to the coffee place in the mall.. and X decided to drop him there. (he has a bike u see.) At the mall, X props himself, uninvited, with the rest of the gang, and introduces himself as R's friend. (R still cringes at the thought)

X cleverly sits near the girls, and quickly obtains their phone numbers. He then progresses to boast to the entire table how he is amazing. He has been working for over 3 months now, and is still on bench! People dont dare give him a project to work on, and he gladly boasts about it. Apparently he interacted with the CEO of the company.. and claims to have the best of relations with the top brass of the company. (again no name, as i am still unpaid!)

2000 hrs that day
X calls me up to enquire about dinner plans. I tell him that A, S, and I are off to our nearby dhaba. He says he will join us. And so does X!

2100 hrs that day
We all meet up at the dhaba. Introductions are passed around. And X starts his story again. There was some story which ended with, when elephants walk, let the dogs bark or somethign to that effect. I was already too zonked to pay attention.

Dinner comes and goes...

The stories persisit.

2200 hrs that day
Dinner over, the four of us from Wall Street (R, S, A, and I) who came for dinner decide to go home and catch Mission Udaan. X decided to join us.
X and R decide to use X's bike. The three of us walk. Thankfully!

10 min later R calls me to say that X's bike has been punctured and that they are looking for a mechanic. Its 10 PM on a sunday night. The chances were very slim. So X got to crash at our place for the night.

During mission udaan, it was quite interesting to watch as X tried to explain the fundamentals of aeronautics to R, an aeronautical engineer! The frustration levels in the room soared, and slowly we all turned in to sleep.

Day 2: 22/11/2005
I awake at my usual 545 am, and prepare to get ready for the monday in office ahead. Surprisingly R is already awake, and heads out for an early morning jog. He did do this when he first moved in, so it was not too strange for me.

I leave home at 0700 hrs, and from what i hear so does R, but not before X borrows 200 rupees from R.

G, another room-mate comes home at 0715. S introduces him to X, and goes back to sleep. G is already late, but given that X is R's friend, is cordial enough to strike up a conversation. Something that still scares him!

And the stories began... G waited patiently.. and finally left at 0845, already one and a half hours late.

Halfway to office he realises that he has left his phone at home. Faced with the choice of spending a day without his phone, and going back to face X, G decides to carry on without his phone. You need to know G to realise how hard it must have been for him.

That evening, R narrates to me this entire story.

But wait, its not over yet.

Day 3: 23/11/2005
X calls R and tells him he is comign to reutrn R's money. R would rather lose hsi money than spend any time with X, but somehow succumbs to the pressure.

2000 hrs that day
X drops in. I head off to my room. X and R head off to the ATM to withdraw money to pay R. At the ATM, X's debit card is swallowed. X has 50 bucks on him.. and no debit card. He is furious. He abuses the guard. He abuses the machine. He kicks the machine. He calls the bank helpline and abuses them. He is really pissed.

He then suggests he and R go watch a movie. He says it will be tough to survive without his debit card. But then he has five credit cards to survive on!!!

R really wants to go home. He has a test in office the next day, and he needs to study! R passes this information to X, who responds in his manner, " Chill.. I am here.. lets hang for a bit."

R finally convinces X to drop him home, and then leave.

Day 4: 24/11/2005
R and I are enjoying our evenign at home. We open the door to get some fresh air, and guess who is standing outside.. X. Its been raining, he drove 8 km in the wet to come and "hang." I quickly run to my room, and let R handle this.

Five minutes into the conversation, R enters my room strangling himself. He needs help.. and fast, before we have a homicide on our case. I dont think the cops would drive away if we had a murder/homicide here. I mean its no case of vandalism!

Beign the nice room-mate that I am (sic), I decide to intervene. I send R back out into the war zone. And then proceed to message a friend, N. I tell her to call R and give him work to do. This is all on the hope that X will have some sense prevail, and leave if both of us are busy.

X, however, has other ideas. He says " I am there na? Lets chill and hang!"

R then proceeds to take out his books, and starts studying. X is then slowly edged out of the house.

We have not heard from him since....

Some of you may feel we have been mean in marginalising X. But you had to be there to understand our reactions. Its somewhat like the saying on rear view mirrors. "Characters in the story are worse than they appear!)

Vandals!

2005-11-21T00:40:00.000-08:00

I still dont know why we did it. Maybe beacause we thought it would be fun. Maybe we just wanted to christen the place. Or maybe, we just wanted the thrill. Not that we were expecting a thrill.
Friday evening. I was at home relaxing, when as usual, the electricity decided it needed a break. Not a very long one, mind you. Just for an hour or so. Thats probably the rest the electricity in bangalore needs to run the entire IT industry of the country. But never mind. I'm not complaining about that. At least not today!

To enliven our evening, my room-mate (lets call him R) and I decided to have some fun! Maybe it was the orange juice we had drunk earlier that made us do this ;-)

A bit of geography now. We stay right next to the airport. Literally. As u will see in subsequent pictures.

Anyway, here we decided that the airport wall was too generic a name for an "object" we see everyday. It gives us a boundary. You could say it helps keeps the planes away from our house. So we wanted to name it! R came up with WALL STREET. In those colours too!

Uninterrupted.. some more writing..

Now the thrill part of it all....
I (the photographer) was supposed to be the lookout man too. I was so engrossed in capturing this event for the posterity.. and u ppl, that i failed to hear the police radio as TWO cops on a motorcycle.. carrying a Lathi slowed to a stop near our friend R. Having stood some distance away to take photos as R posed, I maintained my distance.

R caught blue-handed and subsequently trying to wash his hands off the matter!

The ensuing conversation was quite interesting!

Cop1: [to R] What you are doing?
(I was actually quite surprised he spoke to us in English!)
R: Sir... I am writing Wall Street, sir....
Cop1:(apparently taken aback) .... Oh.. ok.
Cop2:What is your name?
R: Sir... R... Sir.
Cop1: Where do you stay?
R: Sir, here sir. (Points across the street to our house.)

What happened next, really stunned us. You would now expect the cops to probably hit us or warn or us or do something!

They drove off...