Random Musings

I haven’t worn a night gown in ages, is the line. And it’s true, you know, very true. In fact, I haven’t worn a nightgown for as long as I can remember. But that does not matter, for this is one of the days when spelling Tuesday correctly (or not) doesn’t matter a jot.

Writing that last line makes me wonder if there are ever any days when spelling Tuesday really matters. I suppose if you draft contracts or write best-selling books it might matter, but how many of us actually do that, hm? Not many, I’m guessing. I wouldn’t mind writing a best selling book, but knowing my luck, I’m probably going to end up drafting snooze-inducing contracts. You know, it might be fun to actually write a book for children in the middle of a long and very complex contract. I mean, does anyone actually ever read those things? Unless of course it comes up for litigation, in which case the judge is going to have a ball. Ah, the thought is a funny one, is it not?

Of course, the two lawyers will probably die of apoplexy, but hey, there are too many lawyers in the world in any case.

Last evening, I was all zombied out, and riding home on my bike. I came to a red light, and while I was waiting there, I noticed an old man limp to the guy in front of me. Now, the old man, he was decently dressed, not like a beggar or someone down on his luck. The old man touched the guy on his arm and seemed to ask for something. And that guy brushed him off. So he hobbled up to me, and in polite Kannada said something to me. He saw my baffled expression and switched to English. Very politely, he says “Sir, I need eight rupees for the bus”. Normally, I would not give money, but he just seemed real, you know, not like a con-man. Yeah yeah, I know, he probably was a conman, but what the heck, it was just ten bucks (What, you expected me to ask for change??)

In any case, since this followed a rather nice weekend, I say that life is fun. Not as much fun as Roman Holiday, but fun nonetheless.

that is the question, right? However, the answer is quite simple: no-one at all, leaving them free, free as a bird, free to read, and free to be.

Another thing that might be said is that it’s deja vu all over again. In fact, it’s like the Red Queen’s race, and after a point, it’s too much like a treadmill to really be fun.

A little bit is alright, but hey hey, till then, I’ll follow the sun.

So I took a train to Delhi, and mapped the journey via GPS.

You see above a picture, but if you want to play around with the Google Map, zoom in and so on, or even download the .gpx file for your own analysis, click on Day1 or Day2.

You can also use the links at the top of the page to go there directly. Have fun

Summer draws nearer, and I get the feeling that life is getting stretched out. This month has been very complex, for a variety of reasons. On the bright side, the chaps who employ me have decided that they can afford to pay me a bit more, so that’s good.

All else is not quite well, though, and I get the feeling that I’m not quite cut out for certain things. Oh well, let’s see.

I’ve certainly been eating well these days.. lots of seafood. I went down to Madras and ate tons of great food. And I went swimming in the Bay of Bengal as well.. now that was a little scary, but great fun.

I’m sure all of you have been wondering what I’ve been up to in the last month. Nothing much really, nothing of any major import. I’m still liking the city, but certain things are getting very irksome.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I’m not saying much more than I am saying, so it’s probably a good idea to stop writing now. I’m still alive and well, and this journal is not dead; I just need to sort out some stuff in my head. I have a distinct feeling that I’ll be writing a lot more real soon.

Yeah, I’ve not written in ages. Been over a month since I wrote. I’ve been quite busy with stuff, and was lazy and all that blah.

Anyway, so what’s new? Well, quite a bit, in fact. Work remains the same; it’s good fun and I am enjoying it. Besides work, life is good. I’m no longer single, so that’s news, I suppose. Bangalore gets crazier every day, what with the Metro construction going on all over, but the weather just keeps getting better.

I’ve been driving all around town, so I’m learning the city. It’s fun

That’s pretty much it. Will be heading home around the end of this month for my convocation ceremony. Toss the hat and all that. Heh heh.

So that’s it. Quick update on my life.

Later all.

I’ve had a busy month. It all started off with me heading to Goa for a weekend of sun and surf. Throw in a little jet-skiing, and some great food, and you have one fun time. Then I came back to Bangalore, went to work for one day, and flew to Jaipur the next day.

Yup, I’m just your regular jet-setter type. Fly here, fly there, flies everywhere! Where’s my bug-spray! Eeeergh. KILL EM ALLL!

Right, that pun fell very flat. Apologies all, I’m coming off a very long week at work. Since I gallivanted around for ten days, I had to work hard to make up. I did it with time to spare, of course, me being me (now that’s a laugh). Work was fun this month, since I was doing something interesting. Graphics geeks, read the mag next month. ‘Nuff said.

Yes, so my Jaipur trip was quite interesting. Had a lot of fun, and managed to hang out with some old pals. It gets boring here in Bangalore sometimes, since I don’t really hang out much. But Diwali was explosive, quite literally. Yes, noise pollution, and all that, but what the heck. After this, came back here.

My roomie is off for a holiday, so I’ve been hanging out on my own for the past few days. It’s fun, but ordering in food for one is a pain. The minimum delivery clause haunts me these days. I resort to creative food juggling, trying to go past that damm minimum while simultaneously not ordering too much food. I see you ask, “Can there ever be too much food?”. Well pal, I used to think so too, but after eating one large lasange, one large pasta, and a side order of fires, I felt so bloody Italian, I almost dressed in Armani and head-butted the newspaper guy.

The end of the year is nigh. (you read world, didn’t you? admit it!), and things are proceeding smoothly enough. Except for one sad little thing that I intend to rectify tomorrow. I’m all out of books to read.. oh the horror! So tomorrow, off I go that lovely place, Blossom’s, and stock up. A couple of k’s worth of books should be plenty, eh?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I bought a multimeter. A nice digital one, that will up my geek cred. What will I do with it? Oh, that’s a story for another time.

In college today we had the 100 mt sprint. Now that was one event that I really wanted to win. I graduate next month, and I doubt very much that I will be doing any competitive running after this. Long story short, I did win, very very narrowly, but I won. woo hoo and all that. Now I can graduate, safe in the knowledge that if nothing else, at least I was the fastest chap in college

It’s a useful skill to have. When trouble arrives, I can be a hundred meters away in 11 seconds! In social situations, even though you can’t really run, at least at the back of my head I know that if push really does come to shove, poof! Nag is gone! Yes, I know, I sound like a total coward. However, the social situation I am talking about is not one when a belligerent drunk comes bumping into me, looking for a casus belli. Those are different. No, I am talking about situations where one cannot fight one’s way out, and where it would be rude to use wit.

Anyway, I did of course pull my hamstring, so now I am limping all over the place. And yes, before you think that this is an extremely narcissistic post, let me tell you that in the three on three football that followed, I scored twice.. for the other team , so I am suitably chastened.

Played three on three basketball too, when my friend and teammate Arun managed to crock his ankle, leaving just Tillu and I. The other team was kind enough to offer to play two on two, and we played on. It was not a very fun game, and it was all my fault. I played very selfishly, and did not pass the ball to Tillu at all. So though we won, it was not fun at all. Sigh.

Anyway, enough of this. I am off home tomorrow for Mom’s birthday. And then onwards, to Delhi and Bangalore to watch Iron Maiden.

Yes, and my phone committed hara kiri yesterday, so I lost all my phone numbers. I have since bought a new phone, but it’s not activated yet. If you know me, please call me in a day or so, so that I can save your number!

So that’s that, for the moment.

A nice alphabet there. Stands for so many things. Delhi, dreary, devastating, dull, dastardly.. see what I mean?

Of course, being a regular to this journal, you’ll know that an opening like that signifies that I have nothing to write about, and so am trying desperately to hold your attention with a catchy opening line.

Well, it worked, didn’t it? You’re still reading. So stop complaining.

I’ve been hanging around in Delhi more than I have been in college this sem. Been coming here every chance I get. This time, I came for the CLC debate, and had fun. My teammate was debating for the first time, so we ended up having loads of fun, and heck, we actually managed to qualify for the quarter-finals! Got knocked out eventually to another DU team doing another prepared debate (sigh!), but at least we did fun debates.

Now I’m hanging around with my brother and Choti, my sis-in-law.  We are eating lots of food, watching lots of movies, and having nice long conversations. I’m probably going to be hanging around here for a couple more days, before I head back to college.

I’m watching bits of Gone With the Wind.  Viven Leigh and Clark Gable.. What a movie! The sets, the acting, the whole spread out lavish extravaganza. Bravo!!

Oh yeah, I may be going to watch Iron Maiden perform live at Bangalore! My bestest friend (heh heh heh), has agreed to pay my way, some part of it at least.. So B’lore, here I come!! It ought to be fun, considering that Maiden is supposed to be one of the best live performances around!

A friend of mine is down in the dumps, and I’m hoping to help out. I guess February is a blue month. I was down and out too for a while, which is why I wasn’t writing at all, but now I’m better, for the most part.

Oh well, I have no job, no money, no admission to any Univ, anywhere in the world, and no idea what I am going to do next! Sounds like fun!

Over and out!

Been ages since I wrote anything. Why is that? Is that because my life is so full of thrills that I have no time to write, or is it because I have nothing to write about.. Hmm, what do you think? This could be a half-full/half-empty kinda pseudo-psychological test, heh.

Anyways, the reason that I did not write is pretty much the usual. Too bored to, putting it off, not having anything to write about, you know, the usual jazz. But now I am determined to write, even if little pink unicorns gore me to death in retaliation!

I’m going to LinuxAsia next week. This should be good fun. They’ve invited me as a delegate, which essentially means that I get free food.. and when the food is catered by India Habitat Center, it’s going to be good food. Of course, I shall get some serious journalistic work done as well

Oh yeah, thanks to BSNL increasing speeds on their DSL network, I can now run a Linux server at home, and me being me, of course I’ve set up a VPN using OpenVPN. Why? Just for kicks! It’s always fun to vpn through your own server, with absolutely no restrictions, do what you want kinda thing. I’m going to set up more network-y stuff on the server, and have geeky fun. Geeky Fun is the best kind of fun. You set up something cool, and then walk around smirking at people, because they have no idea of the power you wield.. heh heh heh.. minions! Of course, the flip side is that all the women think you are leering at them, and all the guys wonder why you have an idiotic grin, and you end up with no friends, and a case of eve-teasing.. not that that has ever happened with me, thank you very much!

On the subject of Linux, I must say that Edgy Eft, the latest version of Ubuntu is pretty damm good on a laptop. I’ve set it up on my Thinkpad T-43, and it does fly! Everything worked pretty much out of the box, and I didn’t need to tinker with any config files.. almost disappointing, I tell you. Of course, my server is running Ubuntu server LTS as well. I keep Windows on my desktop to play games in, but am seriously beginning to think about getting rid of it. Once I master Pro Evolution 6, I’ll do that

All my classmates are now avidly hunting jobs. Recruitment is on in college, and the air is full of rumors about huge pay packages and wonderful perks. And what am I doing? Sleeping, mostly. No one in their right mind would give me a job! heh heh. Oh well, I shall venture forth into the world, and get myself a job soon enough. Unless I get in abroad.
I just bit into a chocolate chip cookie.. I bet you want one too now, don’t you? Heh heh, Polly want a cookie? No cookie for you!

I’m off now, chasing cars.

The last month has been crazy. Travelling between Delhi and Jodhpur as if I were travelling between the hostel and the mess. Attending class, playing basketball, trying to get some work done, and watching the days go by.

I’m finally back in my room after a week of travel and craziness, and I’m weary.

I participated in the Google Wordmasters challenge, and that was fun. I have no clue how I did, since I don’t know what they are looking for, but I had fun writing about old science fiction movies. And robbie the robot.

Played Monopoly, and managed to get lots of money without a single card. A few strategic partnerships, and bob’s your uncle.. Spoke about the Lord of the Rings, and fantasy and science fiction, and Asimov. ate and ate and ate and ate… and ate.

Helped a friend in trouble, and watched the devil wears prada. Got to know my sister in law a little better, and saw how my brother is very happy. Missed home a lot, and missed mom more than that.

Actually asked a girl out for a date, and realized that I should not bother. I can’t do the usual things, and I think I come across as rather pathetic for even trying. Well, I might not be that bad, but in any which case, I’m not the usual sort. Which is good, and bad, and miserable, and ecstatic all at once.

Met some Pakistani people, and debated them on a host of issues. Lost some, won some, and made some friends. Came on TV, briefly, and got fifteen milliseconds of fame, as the camera panned across my face. Spent all my money, and watched friends get drunk and goofy, and break through their normal reserved self’s.

Watching the weather change, and winter approach, as the days get shorter, and the air gets keener, even as the sun shines furiously, trying hard to prove that it is still the king! A losing battle, but one that has been fought since time immemorial.

Oh well, that’s that. Write to me someone, and let me know you exist.