Category Archives: Personal

Microsoft Surface Spoof

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I was browsing through wordpress blogs and I came across a post that posted this youtube video. I liked the comment on the part where he is routing to go somewhere on surface.

Due credit goes to : http://burnsar.wordpress.com/2007/06/23/microsoft-surface-video-spoof/ ( I saw this video there first 🙂  )

A Proposal (Pt 2)

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…. Continued from A Proposal Part I

5:15 PM

I’m waiting outside her place waiting for her to come down. I waited for a while, I was getting a little impatient and restless…. And Lo! Time just froze, my anxiety, restlessness, the sounds around, people everything, I mean everything just faded to little nothings, reduced to an insignificant existence. All I saw was her, I know its a bit hard to believe, but there I was experiencing that very emotion. She was beautiful, elegant and charming. She was wearing one Love Is In the air By Vittisof the tops I had gifted her 2 weeks back. I wonder if she feels the same…..

“Lets go”, She said.

She has already perched herself on my bike. I felt stupid that I had become oblivious to what was happening around me.

“Right!”, I started my Bike and started heading towards Koramangala like a pre-programmed bot.

“So, where are we going today?”, She asked.

“What?”, I’m a little distracted now, I’m praying to all Gods that I don’t crash into anything, but I couldn’t stop staring at her thru my rear view mirror. She is so Damn beautiful.

“I said, where are we going today? Did you bring the Uno Deck?”

“Yeah”, I replied, remote and disconnected. I was beginning to feel the gravity of the situation.

“Ok, so where ARE we going today?”, There  was a tone of ultimatum in that question. My brain pre-empted all the thoughts to tend to that query. I’m convinced that brains of any guy is hardwired to respond to such queries immediately.

“Hmmm.. How about… CCD at Indiranagar?”, Was my preferred place, isolated and chances of bumping to anybody I know was remote.

“No, its too far off, lets go somewhere closer, How about Boca Grande?”

Damn! Boca has a very high risk of bumping into known people.

“Hmmm…How about we go to Gloria Jeans instead?”, It was a nice place, We get good coffee, and I very badly need one. I’m a disaster waiting to happen…

So off we go to the Gloria Jeans. To my disappointment, half of Koramangala was there. It was crowded and only place I got had an old lady sitting facing us. I was not comfortable.

“Lets go from here!, we will go to Mocha”, I said, irritated and bugged.

She was not happy either(with the crowd, that is).

“Okay”

We took our stuff, and left the place. I was lost and dazed…. I was lost in a sea of memories, all the time I spent with her….

“……. Are you listening?”, She asked, I had no clue what she said.

“Err… Sorry what was it again, I was a bit distracted”, I said, since I could not come up with a better excuse.

“What happened? You seems to be pre-occupied since the time you picked me up, Everything Ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… just some stuff at office”, I reacted, yeah! right! Im sure she could smell the B*ll Sh*t from about a mile away. ( Paranoia is kickin in big time!)

So we hop on my noble steed and head out to the next watering hole. I was distracted. She is normally the reserved type. However, with me, she is normally  a bit chatty and we usually engage in incessant small talks. She would talk about how someone will come and give her a bunch of red roses and sweep her off from her feet. Or about her fans in her neighbourhood…  She needed a “Knight in shining armour”, she needed someone to elevate her from mere ‘existance’ to living. Will I be able to live up to her expectations? She is intelligent and beautiful and I can be best described as ‘Oink!’…..

“Are you done surveying the junction?”, a bit irritated, and a very sarcastic tone of hers snapped me back to my senses.

We were on my motorbike, stuck at the signal. My head was automatically performing a radar sweep for babes (When a guy is not fed with instructions from higher intelligence, he automatically initiates a radar sweep). I’m sure there were a lot babes on the road that day, but most of my interrupts were masked, including SIGBABES. So, nothing registered. All I could think about was her. In a strange way, she was sitting right behind me, and all I was thinking was the stuff we did together so far.

06:30 PM

We reached our intended watering hole. I park my noble steed in the stable. We walk into the place. All the seats inside were taken, besides there is absolutely no privacy there… So I find us a spot at outdoors, it was nice and isolated. “Perfect!” I thought to myself, “If she slaps me or walks out on me then I will be spared of all the embarrassment ”.

“So, where is the Mystery gift?”, She started with her attack.

“err… Lets order first.”

“Okay, anymore hints?”, she asked.

“Nope! just a little while longer!”, I replied. I have been dropping her with hints throughout the week. I guess she has some idea.

“Okay….”

Somebody took down our order, and I run out of time again… she is going to start banging on me for the gift again, I need to figure out a way to….

“Okay, NOW can you give me the mystery?”, She was eager.

“Any guesses? List out all the hints I have given you”

“NO! Why should I guess for something I will be getting now. Just give it “

Oh oh! Now she is eager to know what is it. Her patience is running low, she is smelling something fishy is going on. Situation is getting more and more hostile.

I reach for my pocket and take out the Uno Deck.

“This is my gift?”, She asked.

“Nope, I will give you the gift after our coffee arrive”

“Okay!”,she said pretty calmly.

Now, this is interesting, all of a sudden her eagerness vanished. I did not know how to interpret that! My brain was going haywire at this sudden twist.

Our Coffee came pretty quickly. Now I’m out of time!

I tuck back in the UNO deck in my jacket, next to the letter I had written for her.

She is going to ask again, I knew it.

“So?”, She looks at me with a hint of excitement.

“So??”, I asked her back, as though I knew nothing.

“So, what is it?”, She asks, almost too eager to contain herself.

I give her the Key chain and rambled,  “There you go, I did warn you that is nothing important!”

Now I have my hands in my Right Jacket pocket, Within it is a piece of folded paper and a deck of Uno Cards. I have make a decision, I have make one right now! Which one will I draw out? How is she going to react? I’m sure she has seen this coming, or will it be a complete surprise? Is this the end of the our little friendship or will it elevate to a new level? “Now isn’t the time to think of that, Just do it man!”, I thought to myself.

I initiated a countdown in my head “5…..4…..3…..2…………………………….1………..0.5……….0.4……..0.3……..0.2…..”  , I’m chickening out, I just took the letter and placed it on the table, next to her.

“What is this?”, She asks, Shocked and surprised.

“I want you to read it!”, I replied.

Patience is not her virtue. So she opens it and starts reading from some random location, trying to figure out what is it.

“Read it from the beginning please!”, I plead with her.

So she flips to the first page, reads for about 10 seconds and placed it back on the desk

“Oh my God! I don’t want to read this!”

“Please! I want you to! I might fumble if I speak about it.”

She picks it up and starts reading again. I thanked all Gods I knew.

She reads the whole thing, she had a very solemn expression. Situation was fast turning into a disaster, I need to gear up for a firefight.

“Why? Why did you have to do this?”, her question had no anger, just a mild disappointment.

“I had to, I thought this over and I’m sure of it. Besides, this is the only way forward”, I said.

“How so? We could have remained as good friends”

Ok, I have to react to that quickly.  “Well, we cant be this good a friends if you get married off to someone, can we? Can you justify the number of SMS ’s we exchange in a day to him?”

She is thinking now, Good!

“Besides, accept it, knowing you, haven’t we crossed lines of friendship at times? you know it!”, I was scoring big time!

“Yeah!”, she answered, her HDD still whizzing.

“I need time to think about this!”, She said, still thinking.

“Okay! take your own sweet time”

I felt relieved. I could sleep again. However, she has to worry now. She asked me for time, I will give her that. Besides I need to recharge myself for the next volley of questions she might ask.

We actually finished the coffee, and believe it or not, went for a walk followed by dinner and then dropped her back to her place. It was a good day. I just hope that her thought process ends up with something positive… 🙂

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Image Courtesy : “love is in the air….” By Vittal

A Proposal (pt 1)

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Saturday 24-Jan-2009 06:50 PM

“So?” She looks at me with a hint of excitement.

“So??” I asked her back, as though I knew nothing.

“So, what is it?” She asks, almost too eager to contain herself.

I give her the Key chain and rambled,”There you go; I did warn you that is nothing important!”

Now I have my hands in my Right Jacket pocket, within it is a piece of folded paper and a deck of Uno Cards. I have to make a decision, I have to make one right now! Which one will I draw out? How is she going to react? I’m sure she has seen this coming, or will it be a complete surprise? Is this the end of our little friendship or will it elevate to a new level? “Now isn’t the time to think of that, Just do it man!” I thought to myself.

“How did I end up in this predicament?” me again to myself……..

Friday 23-Jan-2009 11:30 PM

It has been almost a week since I slept… My brains firing in a million direction. I have a sick feeling in my tummy. Butterflies in my stomach would be an understatement, more like Rhinos and Hippos in my tummy. I have already prepared a draft on my laptop. Now all I need to do is write it down.

Right, err… where is the pen? A quick search revealed an old unused gift in one of my cupboards, a pair of trusty Parkers.

So, I sat down to write the letter. First thought, what if I screw up half way down? There is no backspace option, or undo option. Then I realized that it has been quite a while since I last attempted to write in neat handwriting.

“****! I’m gonna write a love letter, and imagine if she can’t even read it!” I thought to myself.

So, first I try some random writings on A4 sheets that I borrowed from my office. I realized that my handwriting was as steady and straight as a piss drunk doing a rope walk. It was almost as though my writings had no bearings… “Ok, there has got to something better”. A quick search revealed a nice empty book containing ruled papers. So I start writing the letter. Most of it was a Copy/Paste from the Screen to paper. It had a nice structure to it though. A 4-lined poetry stating my intention, a small write up on why I wrote this as a letter. And then I poured my heart out.

“Well, Writing looks crap, but it’s the best I can do, given the circumstances…” I consoled myself.

Right now, the Hippos and Rhinos have started tap dancing in my tummy!

Saturday 24-Jan-2009 04:30 AM

The D-day! I was up way too early, I cannot sleep. I was excited and nervous. I’m about to take one of the biggest chances! I have known her for a while now, and she is one of my very good friends. As against the common advice to subtly put it across, I have chosen a more direct approach. If things did not work as planned, whatever friendship we shared will also come to an abrupt stop. But I had to do this, I was certain.

Time was 08:00 AM.

I took a bath and heads out to one of the temples I frequent often. After that I head to one of the Cafe Coffee Days for breakfast. I start living in past, nothing is going to be same after today.

I still remember, the first time I met her. I thought she was beautiful, but never thought we could even be friends. She kept a dignified distance, and I respected that. I was amused at where we are, today, about take the next step from good friends.

“Can I take your Order sir?”

“Yes, 1 Mocha and a Spinach and Corn Sandwich”, I replied mechanically, dry and slightly irritated.

“This isn’t working! I need a distraction!”, I thought to myself.

I called up my mom & dad. They have always been a guiding light and a beacon of hope for me. Dad was bright and sunny, his usual self. He was the “Chandler” of our family :). Spoke to my mom too, who kept me informed of all the happenings back home. She was the like my portal to our family.

I headed out of CCD and rode back to my place… I was feeling cranky and drowsy; I don’t remember when was the last time I slept well.

Up comes her call, my heart skipped a beat or two.

“Hello”, I said.

“Hello, when are we meeting up?”

“How does 5 Sound?”, I asked.

“Ok, Let me know when you are starting from your place….”

“Sure”

“Bye…”

“Bye”.

Hmmm, Now I need to push a couple of hours… I need to sleep, but I can’t because I was too charged up! I spent the next couple of hours in half asleep state….

We started hanging out and meeting each other over weekends. Initially, I used to call her out just because I had a feeling that she could use a good company. But as I started spending time with her, I realize that there is more to her than what she appears to be. She was very intelligent and sensible. She understood and voiced certain aspects about me that I wasn’t aware of. I have been out smarted and out witted by her a lot of times. I’m lucky that I could keep company of such a person…..

4:30 PM

Phone alarm starts buzzing, I finally got up after what seems to be an eternity, I was not very happy because I couldn’t sleep well, coz I was too excited, and I was too sleepy to do anything else. And it felt like T-Rex’s in my tummy. Exhausted from excitement, Insomnia and anxiety, I got ready a little slow… She had messaged me earlier, asking me to get the UNO card deck. So I carefully tucked in the letter and UNO card deck in my jacket.

Now, I have been giving her hints that there is going be a mystery surprise/gift for her today. So I needed a backup plan (in case I drop my balls, and not give her the letter). I scourged around and found a nice keychain that I got from Singapore. Perfect! I did hint her that it is very inexpensive gift.

I start out from my place, slowly, with a prayer. I will not return as the same person. I felt like I’m going on a mission where my return was not guaranteed. I felt like a suicide bomber….

To be continued…

Long Long vacation!

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Yeah, it has been long since I posted anything here…

Did you run out of stories and random musings?

No! I have way too many things to tell now! There has been so much that happened between now August 18 2008 and February 1 2009.

So why in the name of mother Mary did you not post anything?

Err, its complicated. There has been too many things, and too little time to blog.

OK, Einstein! Are you gonna blog regularly from now on?

I guess so. But no Guarantees …..  It Depends (Thanks to Hexium for such an enlightening post)

I hope I will be writing some stuff over here from now on… A lil personal, a lil technical… but all in all a weblog of my observations and interests.

Let ’em Be!

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This is more like a response post to the Jerry’s post here.

Disclaimer : Random Ramble ahead!

I believe there is a fine line of difference between parenting and policing. A good parent is a guide and a role model. Policing is something when one is forced to do something. The biggest challenge of a parent is to when to draw the line. The line is difficult decision because it can vary for kid to kid, and across the age groups. It is very easy to be overprotective of their kids and shield them from the world as much as possible. But what happens to them when they enter the real world? They crumble, some adapt, others wont. Some will take it by their stride, others will crumble.

I think, a good parent should be a guide , a mentor to life. There is no point in giving a distorted and idealistic reality. Why do that, is it because the world is too cruel for a child to grasp ? Why not show the kid the beauty that lies within this cruel world? aah, thats where the challenge lies, we have a vicious circle going on here. How do you expect the parent to show the beauty of this world when he/she himself/herself does not appreciate it? Mainly, because they too have been spoon fed, taught about the idealistic, fictitious world, then forced into the harsh cruel reality and then forced to survive.

So how do we break out of this endless loop? Well, agreed parents do not think so kindly of this world. But they can let the children taste them first hand and let them decide. What really needs to be done is instil a strong sense of morality in the kid. Allow them to think on their own free will. Suggest, not force them what is right and wrong. Leave the decisions to the child and let him face the consequences (That is if he can handle it… ). Do not blame the kid for the mistakes he did, instead tell him why a mistake is, well, a mistake; let me arrive upon why it is wrong.

Was I raised this way, well, not entirely! I was thrashed for my mistakes. But I always had the nerve to ask em why they thought it was wrong. I remember the time I asked my dad ” Do women have to be married to have kids”. His answer was a very honest “Not necessarily!” ( I was 8 that time.. ) . I cannot forget that, because that was the reality of the world, not some “idealistic” reality. Agreed I did not understand it fully then, but when I did come to know about it, I couldn’t help but admire his honest answer.

But as I got older, they respected my privacy and never interfered with whatever I wanted to do. They warn me if they felt I was not on right track, but never compelled. As a result, I never had a drop of liquor (except wine, that too at home, with my parents 🙂  ) till I started working. Why? Because I felt that doing something like that with my dad’s money is not appropriate. The first drink I had was when I could buy one on my own. I never rebelled with my parents, because I never had to.. They supported in every way they can, even when they never understood the reasons for my actions. I had a gang in college where almost everyone boozed. I used to hang out with em, even go to bars with em.. But I never touched booze then (Thats right, I damn proud bout that) .

The biggest gift they gave me was the freedom to think of my own. They let me decide where to draw the lines, and what should be my morals. They assisted but never dictated. Thus, I drew my own lines, decided my own rules for myself. Did I make mistakes, of course I did. I made some spectacular mistakes. But that was the point, we learn from our mistakes, fully understanding the life and circumstances around you.

Today, just like always, they give me a choice on my life. Did I turn out Ok? Yes I did. Did i become a rich successful man? Nope, not yet. But Im on my way there, I know I’am. Besides, if u were successful right from the start, when will u have all the fun ?? 😉

Yamaha R15

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Indian Bikers have long waited for this. Best bike to hit our shores till date was RD-350. That was in 1980’s. Then for a long, long time we had 100cc punters. Till Hero Honda introduced CBZ, a 150cc break from the crowd bike. Taking a cue from CBZ’s success, we now TVS Apache and Bajaj Pulsars and Hero Honda’s Karizma.
But something was lacking. No doubt all of em are good bikes. But there was something missing, we dont have a true blue sports bike…. That is, until today.
After a slew shitty bikes Yamaha has finally decided to bring its well known ‘R’ badge.
Derived from Yamaha’s very very popular R1, we have something of a baby-R1 , called R15.
While the full blooded R1 is good for 180PS with an engine displacing 1000cc, the baby R15 will only do 17Ps from its liquid cooled 150 cc , and has 6 gears to spread its power.
Ok before we call it Puny, understand that R15 engine and chasis is developed more or less in the lines of R1 (R1 lineage in R15 is more than just skin deep).
Also the Curb weight of R15 is 131Kgs. This will give it a Power to Weight ratio of ~129 bhp/ton. Not bad..however Pulsar 220 with approx 150 Kgs and 20 BHP will be ~133 BHP/ton. So what makes R15 tick ? For one, a six speed box can keep the bike in powerband longer. Second, from what I have read in other posts handling of this bike is quite good (has to be, if its comming from R1 stables).

Overall I feel its a mixed bag. I’m quite disappointed that it only makes 17PS (which is not bad for 150cc motor, but for something with R1 lineage it sounds puny). But with 6speed and a sporty engine with a highly “flickable” chasis, I think this might be able to edge out the current cream of the crop 220’s and ZMA’s. But we need to wait till we see a complete review on this bike.

BTW, price is slated to be around a Lakh and there are claims that the bike will come with the full kit (jacket, helmet and gloves).

You can read more on this bike here –> http://www.yamaha-motor-india.com/product/r15/index.html

Update : Check out the overdrive first impression on the bike.. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGMn8f-1PI )