Not as suttle as they look ... these ones... :)

Disclaimer: Stolen from PreethIII's album on orkut... Not my work of art.

Here it comes...

The word you are looking for is shocking, confounding, stupefying, astonishing or even eye-popping... "Two posts in the same month... On the Procrastinator's site... Ya... somebody must have hacked his ID... Or lets hope so.. The hacker must definitely be smarter, cuter and have a better sense of blogging than the previous author, who has by now won unanimity amongst fellow bretheren bloggers, in being accepted as bench mark for ground zero skill level in all of the 3 above"

Sorry to dissapoint you folks... Looks like yours truly might be torturing you for a bit while longer... Atleast as long as the world continues spinning or till such day that the Indian football team qualifies for the World Cup. I am sure by now, many people have rushed to the core of the Earth to see what they can do to save fellow Earthlings. See folks... not that bad... atleast we agree on which of the above two is more feasible.

The immediate question pondering the mind of 'HE/She who must be being tortured right now' is what brings our hero back to the blogging arena or even better, what pre-posessed demon driven soul inspired this chap into the blogging arena. Bhetto bhetto(sit down folks)... today i will tell you the tale of a kingdom not far far away... For the sake of female readers (yes there is a prince with a face his mother could love)... For the male readers... "Brothers, i dont know u but, if u send this link to 10 friends, i promise, out of every ten phone numbers that i get, i will donate one to the nearest boys hostel. If u have heart plz fwd this, dont neglect. its true. god bless u forever."

Long long ago, when Abhishek Bachan was still a virgin and Matthew Hayden never used to wet his pants screaming "Sreesanth, Sreesanth" at night, our hero was still wondering, " Saale, ye bande blogs kyun post karte rehte hain (y are this nuts bent upon describing their daily naughty naughty habits on the internet)" while happily coding away on his PC* (translated as scrapping away on orkut - to anyone who is not my manager/team-lead/mentor/serious fellow team mate desperately looking for promotion), a fellow classmate pinged him... The conversation went something like this:

Anphy:"Hey, Ro... What you upto?"

Procrastinator:"Nothing much. Truly bored. What you upto?"

Anphy:"Kuch nahin. My favorite blogger has not posted for a while, so, life's dull"

Procrastinator ponders upon this thought, "favourite" and "blogger" in the same sentence... Isnt it scientifically established that it is statistically less probable than "President bush" and "intelligent conversation" coming in the same sentence.

Anphy:"Which blogs do you read?"

Procrastinator:"Read-a??? blogs-a?? (in that typical mallu accent).. What are you saying? I am doing much more interesting stuff like counting the number of yellow dots when I close my eyes"

Anphy:"hmmm..O ye of little faith..read this.. 'http://someLinkHere.com'"

Our procrastinator(brave as he is known to little to be), still pumped up after watching Troy, deciedes to charter into un-explored territories.

Half hour later

Procrastinator:"Wow... twenty marriage proposals as the comments of one post... wow... I have read that girls are nuts... but this nutty... seriously?"

Anphy:"You men... you will never understand women... their intricacies, their subtle complexities.. Its beyond you"

Procrastinator, ponders, "women?? intricacies...?? Isnt that what we spent a whole one hour, last nite on FTV pondering??? Neways... plan acha hain..." (brilliant idea is about to be shaped into reality). Armed with his weapons of mass destruction - paper, pencil, ruler and *ahem* - not that you idiot, this blog is PG 13 (suitable for all audiences)- i meant eraser, he chalks out the most devislishly brilliant idea. Plan ->Che din - ladki in (Project CDLI)<-
Step 1: Think of crap
Step 2: Write first iteration of crap
Step 3: Use thesaurus on every 'WOC - word of crap' in first iteration
Step 4: Add moral of the story - preferrably copied from google.com, copy paste "poem/romantic quote" from any site.
Step 5: Add pictures of N95, Ford Fiesta, Yamaha - R6 and label them "My new Mobile", "My Car" and "My bike" respectively.
Step 6: Click "Save Now"... wait for effects.

6 months later
Anphy: "Hey, hows your CDLI working out?"
Procrastinator: "No good... after two hours intense chatting yesterday, forwarded blog link to gal, to get her to smile"
pause
Anphy: "and... "
Procrastinator: "not the effect percieved... it was supposed to have her rolling on the ground laughing... desgined as comedy you know"
Anphy: "and... whats the worst that could happen"
Procrastinator: " uhmmm... 10 minutes into the blog, she ended up crying, said she wanted to get back with her 'Ex' and that she was ready to forgive him?... Havent heard from her since"

10 minutes of laughter and sounds of things falling on the ground later...

Anphy: "Ha ha... do you have the link?"

Procrastinator: "http://yetanotherachievement.blogspot.com/2007/05/love-and-nothing-like-it.html"

Go figure...

Meow Meow...

Thats what I had decieded I would name this post. Mind numbing is not what would aptly describe as the rationale behind it. There comes a time in everyone's life where he would willingly throw of his thinking cap. For the author of this post, it comes at a time that he did be easily willing to shell out of couple of 100 bucks for any mode/form of engagement whose simplicity in nature and subtle yet profound levels of deception would help him in his guile(and arguably - not vile intent).

80% of Bangalore's population would have guessed by now that I am sitting in a training room, with limited Internet access trying hard to hold my head up - yet sporting a convincing enough look to both my manager (sitting a couple of seats away from me) and the resident tutor that I am indeed doing justice to the lakhs of rupees the company is throwing away to "train" us. 70% of this 80% would also have guessed by now that I am using "unfair" means to prevent these tormentors from refraining me from my birth right -
GMail, orkut and blogger.

Its been 5 minutes since I typed my last line and that can be attributed to Mr. Trainer here, walking up and down, and stopping for what one might say is easily a disturbingly long period of time at my desk more often than one would comfortably
categorize as "occassional". I might add that this does really not come as surprising given that I am unable to wipe of my face a smile, coming from the combined effect of reading my friends blog and the sounds of "click-click-clicks" and "shit-s@#$%-s@#$-f!@#-arghhhh"'s coming from the neighbouring computers. Poor chaps... Apparently Minsweeper is the only form of revolt they could resort to.

As I continue to browse across various websites I come across, IBN-LIVE.com (Supposedly, India's highest rated online news channel). Today's headlines read: "Pack of laughing hyenas commit suicide after succumbing to depression: World wide campaign to study causes for mass suicide attempts from sections of both human as well as animal society. Eye-witness report: Many of these unfortunate souls who
have either gone into depression or have attempted suicide were last seen browsing the following site: http://yetanotherachievement.blogspot.com

My heart felt condolonces for all to the families of all this unfortunate group who apparently braved to venture through more than two paragraphs on the above link. The United Nations has declared this as the biggest emergency to hit the World since the retirement of bombshell actress Carmen Electra. President Musharraf and his sincere followers were so grieved by the incident that they decieded to declare a year long 'Period of Emergency' in the country. It is yet to be determined which of the two incidents grieved them more, but as a matter of certainity they have succumbed to the combined pressure of the two incidents. Let us observe a two minute silence for these poor crushed souls.

Ting ting ting ting.. the bell rings... I see less than 5 minutes for the end of today's class and am hence decieding to wrap this up.. Show over folks... Take care... Oh and yeah!!! If anyone hasnt guessed why this post has been titled "Meow meow", its for the simple reason that I am still recovering from the horror that last weeks CAT(Common Admission Test) was.. I would love to tell you more about it, but, then that would require a whole new post ... Wouldnt it Miss. Shaila Srivasthava?? ;)

Out of ideas!!!

If resolutions were gals, I would have had an irrefutable image as 'the PLAYBOY' of modern times. Since the dawn of time I have been flirting with 'rEsOlutionS'. My best night out on recent times would have been this New Year's Eve. A mammoth 5 resolutions. That (I did like to imagine) is more than Hugh Heffner could hope for on a single night. Unfortunately, while short-term flings/relationships are widely myhted to be every guys euphoria, somehow this doesnt exactly fit the picture.

So, in an attempt to be more consistent, i have taken, yetAnotherResolution - to counter this anti-resolutionist flirt within me. Yes, for all those who saw the irony, this would indeed mean long term committed relationship's with each of my resolutions, but, ah well - it was time for a change anyway.

Summed up, this is exactly why I am updating this blog, at this very instant of time, though I am as short of clues as the skirts dawned by Nisha Kothari, on what I am going to be penning down here. Out of the back of my head, all I can think of is:

a) Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!! Finally, 1000 kms on my bike means I finally get to take it above the - oh so slow n torturous - 50 km/hr. (The manual said something about proper mating of engine parts require me to keep speed below 50 km/hr for the first 1000kms). And the natural thought process was, well, since I havent had much luck in the mating department for GOD knows how long, atleast let my bike enjoy the pleasure.

b) Its been over a week since I wrote point number (a). So doesnt look like I ll be making any drastic life moulding changes anytime soon

c) Ah yes!!! There has been the break-up. Not the best of phases in one's lives to be in. But I guess, in modern times tis has become pretty much standard protocol.

Its funny what effects different situations in life can have on different ppl. Some people go into depression. Takin crazy decisions like ... dats it... no more gals/guys in my life. Wont ever get married.
Some, well, its routine for some. Ah!!! Dat jus means getting to sample yetAnotherGuy/gal. Bringin bk the initial euphoria of a romance just blossoming.
For me, well, like every other human being out there I like imagining that I am unique. That kind of explains to me why I am continously jumping from crest-to-trough-to-crest of some erratic sine wave, where sittin atop the crest has a loud speaker blurt into me ears.. "Yes, it was inevitable... Don tell me u din kno as u started of" and sitting down in the trough goes somethin like... "21st century man... When will things stop queing up into this inevitability wala lane??"

Break ups do teach you a lot of things I must admit. (I am not an expert in this field, so feel free to correct me if one feels these are not generalizations)

a) It reveals to you a side of you, you never knew existed. Window-2/4 of the JoHari window I believe. As you analyse the thoughts in your head, you hear a lot of "WHAT". Dat doesnt sound like the me I know.
b) You learn that gals are much better at advice than guys. Rarely, I think one will find responses such as :
- you know, a friend of a friend knows a call-girl
- get another gal, nowadays u can easily get laid
- hmmmmm... Dat reminds me...who do you think will win the coming Indo-Pak test series.
can be clubbed into remotely the same category as endearing/ empathizin/ useful. Yes, feel free to use the above comments in any court of law to de-justify the usage, "He meant well and that's wat counts".
c) Does breaking up due to circumstances mean that one cannot stay good friends? Especially if one know's that they have spent some pretty good times together.

I cud go with a (d), an (e), definitely an (f) and probably put in a (g) or (h), but the thought of the sound of "thuds" on the table from people concurrently falling asleep in different corners of the world raising yetAnotherTsunami, is somewhat concerning. After all... why break apart some lovely couples i know who are having a great time togehter. After all Que-Serai-Serai.

P.S.: Yes, I have been very very vague. You were not meant to understand wat was just written... :)

Postman - no more!!!

Posting on this page has taken the longest of times. Those who know me well, would say, well... this was very much expected... After all, he does have to hold on to the name of "Born Procrastinator"... I wish these people were right in saying that I am being nothing but plain lazy, however, recent times have been nothing but short of organized - hectic - turmoil.

Over the course of the last month, I have learned a lot of lessons, that most people would perhaps not prefer to learn the HARD way... I have met strange people, whose character sketches, probably the most trained minds in Holly/Tolly/Bolly ~ wood may not have conceived so far and seen sides of acquaintances, that seemed far distant from what one might have imagined of them.... Then again, the world is never short of surprises is it... Just as you think you have settled into the lane where everything just cruises by, life is ready to slap you with yetAnotherSurprise just across the bend.

I have to admit, some of these lessons would come as fairly obvious to the large majority of the un-insane that I keep in touch with.... For example, that the best way to learn the local language is to get into a restaurant, eat for a thousand bucks and tip 1 Rupee, or if you are a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fanatic, then the episode you choose to introduce your folks at home to the world of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. not be the one where Chandler says, "You know when you are at home with a girl and you are doing it, sometimes , images flash by in your mind... like the photocopy girl or even your mum... and you cant stop what you are doing and you just have to keep going and its like you are doing your own mum..."... Needless to say, mum took off the next instant, leaving her "little boy" feeling as weird as the extremeties to which the word can be stretched. Its ironic that probably the only two people who were involved in the enactment of the above scene are the two who will for all instances in time, till Judgement Day, fail to detect any trace of humor in what happened there.

However, there are lessons that do not come as fairly obvious to the normal human mind. Like, just coz you have had clear skies for the last 2 months doesnt mean that you can leave your bike in the company parking on a 3 day trip to your native place. Always be prepared for the worst. Simply put, you take the variables:
a) Clear skies for last 3 months
b) Lots of security at your office
c) Basement parking away from heat of sun and possible winds
Use the function WCS*(variable1, variable2,....) on these.
WCS => Worst Case Scenario
Using these three you get WCS(a, b, c) = 3 x (Heavy Rains the day after you leave) + 2 x (Extensive flooding in the basement) + (Repairs worth atleast 4000) + (Bike that now looks like a cross somwhere between an Nigerian Zebra and a Jamaican spotted cheetah)

Now this bike is special to me for reasons 1,2,3,4...99,100....1001. Perhaps, reason number 1 being the strongest that its the first major purchase of my life from apun ka pocket, from only my second job. I thoroughly enjoy my second job, which is ironic considering that I enjoyed job number 1 a lot as well. The income was not regular, but, job satisfaction was tremendous.

Now the job profile of postman may not seem to match the criteria mentioned above. But what if it were a postman, who had to only deliver mails composed by one of the most special people in his life. Now what if we removed from it the mundanity of only delivering mails, and made it dynamic, say ~ get few groceries, run minor basic errands pertaining to common household and ofcourse have the prestige of being pharmaceutical representative. How could this be even more special? Well, how about if you add to it salary and its associated perks. A special lunch/dinner every now and then. Blessings to guide you and dispel any fear of an oncoming exam/ challenge in your life. Ahh yes!!! And my personal favourite, the story that would ensue once you completed any of the above mentioned tasks. Stories from the not so recent past. Some of a war long forgotten, many of a love that movies nowadays seem lack lustre in front of.

When on June 3rd, 2006 I had to resign from the post to take up the next job, I wondered what would happen to this post. Even at age 86 my grandma, or 'Mithi' as we all lovingly called her was one of the most active people I knew. Two tractors and a crane supported by 30 fully grown elephants couldnt stop her from entering the kitchen and making special food for her grandchildren. The last thing i expected on September 12th, 2007 - was the big man upstairs terminating her license to employ and that too w/o a word of warning. I guess its the last thing anyone in the neighbourhood expected.

They say 'Everything happens for the Best'. There are situations in life where the most optimistic of souls would question that statement. What amount of 'the Best' would it take to compensate for the tears of a hundred people. The greater good seems blurry at these instances. It would take these optimists, perhaps weeks before they could see the bigger picture. Perhaps 'the BIG MAN' was one chef short and decieded to call for himself the best that there was on 'Planet Earth'. Some say, that the most important ingredient in any dish is a touch of 'Love'. I guess its no mystery then that Mithi could cook the best dishes on Earth.

P.S.: This post is dedicated to my Grandma. One of the closest people in my life, and one with whom every moment I cherished. Thanks for everything Mithi. May your blessings be with all of us, till we join you in the BIG KITCHEN upstairs.

Lots of love,
POSTMAN.

Apun gay nahin he!!!!

K... about a week or so back i was tagged by this friend Anphy... The tag asks this of me, "Write eight random facts about ur life and pass it on to 8 people"... Well... Part one seems like a good chance to advertise myself to the female community out der... Now if only i cud loan out a bit of narcissism from here i think i could do some justice to the 'art of lying very well'... Honesty, might not be the best policy here... So, ladies, if you all get very impressed by some random ranting here, well, take a token and please stand in queue... Its rite next to the line titled -"Down with the Procrastinator!!! Snipe the nut" which consists of

a) Girls who know me well

b) Girls who read my previous post (Yes... wat u heard is true... I did recieve threat notes)


The second part... what yaar... work in McAfee and spam people... ye mujhse nahin hoga... Doesnt seem rite to a person with moral fabric like mine (yes... u guessed it rite... the lying has begun)... K... enuf beating 'bout the Bush (lets leave that to Mr. Osama and the spirit of Sadam Hussain shall v)... Lemme start boring random souls here.

First and the most important thing to clear... I am not GAY... I dont know what google has against or for what reason i hav been dragged(by GOOGLE) into this massive conspiracy to defame me, but, trust me when I say this... The GAYchaat* ad often put up rite next to my blog is not my idea... Its not the first time google has tried to defame me in such a manner... Check this out. Abe yaar... Abhi, 6ft 5in man, with rippling muscles is someone you wont mistake me for even if you suffer from severe incremenosoma ( a disease i just made up in which someone like me looks like the above description) - ppl who know me would have guessed that its a very serious disease, and, Richard Gere - as soon as he hears about it will be down to kiss Shilpa Shetty all over again spread Incremenosoma awareness


Secondly, and I am absolutely sure this wont come as a surprise to you... I am exceptionally talented in the art of procrastinating.. Its what i do... Procrastinate - delegate - laze around all day while pretending to be very very busy and get my work done by others... Infact, I am so amazed of this piece of talent of mine, that i am considering taking up an MBA degree... I mite just pass out in one year, given that I am naturally gifted at all the skills a manager should possess... :)
DISCLAIMER: The above said for all practical purposes does not apply to my manager... Especially if he reads it...


Thirdly, I am very easily inspired... Anything and everything inspires me... Even the movie Shivaji...( well... for sure...if any Rajni fan reads this I am gonna end up with a broken spine tomorrow)... But, once inspired the heat drops exponentially... Dont ask me what-when-why-how...?? Manufacturing defect i think... just like the Motorola mobiles... Charges up in 20 minutes.. Discharges in 5... wow... wat a technology... I mean...companies of the repute of Motorola cant have these kind of manufacturing defects can they (:p)


Wow... I know its just the next paragraph here, but, its taken me 3 more weeks to get here..Believe it or not... I have actually been busy... Piled up under tons of work.. Mayb even quintals.. Man... My average time in the office has not been less than 11 hours for the last month... (P.S.: This sentence you are allowed to show my manager... Infact, its largely been put for his benefit... Please someone point it out to him)
Neways... where was I? Oh yeah...
Number four ... Number four would be... hmmm... I am blank... completely blank... Yeah sure, I would love to say i am daring, dashing and extremely charming... But, I hear there are laws against lying to that extent in many countries... That I cant afford... Any country that has laws weird enough as that is bound to have a female dumb enough to go into wedlock with me.

Five, Six, Seven and Eight... I am gonna keep this short just incase there are any of you somehow, by some miracle of nature still left awake... Atleast once you ALL shouldnt fall asleep during this period of weekly/monthly torture you subject yourself to. So here's the express train:

Am a big fan of travelling/trekking. Have to go out somewhere atleast once a month.

New passion... Biking.. Only coz I spend a huge amount of money on buying one, scraped one Window, which for some reason the girls find 'koooool' and have mistaken me to be extremely daring performing stunts on the same 24 7... GOD forbid any of these meet the vegetable vendor I almost ran over.

The two things that matter most to me in the world are friendship and family... Ofcourse, this select friendship is restricted to only those who strongly believe in "Never borrow, always lend if you want to keep a friend" and family cause, one of the only two ladies who have ever called me handsome (true to the saying, "A face only a mum could love") is my mum. The other, well, I dont want to divulge much information right now, but, I want to request you all to pray for her Eye Surgery scheduled later this month.

Oh... finally... I am here.. Number eight... Hmmmm... I strongly dislike the word "Whatever"... Infact I hate it... Don ask me y?? Guess its one of those crazy things every individual must have, how much ever they did like to consider themselves normal (Yes, that includes you as well)... Like a close friend once said to me... "You are unique, just like everyone else"

Oh and... wrt passing on the tag, i choose Princess Banter and Anuradha. Definitely two of the better bloggers i know and I cant wait to read their posts on this.

My Dad DOESNT understand vacations!!!!

"Here I am,
This is me,
There's nowhere else on earth i did rather be.."

Incase you are all thinking that, yet again I have been hit in the head repeatedly, with an unassorted collection of Bryan Adams CD's, for stocking away a lot more than what one might call a fair share of free-coffee, well, you are partially right... I have been filling up my stomach, and now, even certain areas of the liver and pancreas as a NON- VIOLENT mark of protest against the so called "Limited Stock of Free Soft Drinks" (We the protesters even have our very own community now)... But that was about a week ago... This week... I am at home, happily hoggin away at tons and tons of free scrumptious food.

P.S. : If you guessed that I am a mallu from the repeated use of the word Free... No prizes bro... We are a universally stingy brethren. Oh!!! And if you guessed that this blog is going to be about home and all the characters present there, give yourself three brownie points. Collect twenty and you could just win a date. I am not appending 'with me' to that sentence, coz it could and probably would scare off a lot (all two of them) of the readers.

So here it is... A small glimpse into this little abode i call as 'Veedu'

Character Sketch One: Bajh
Real Name: Babu Mathews Profession: Fathering and Fatherism's
Head of the house. Idealist, perfectionist, charming, hard working, perserverant, dynamism and intelligence is a short list of genes that were not passed down from his genes set to me. The list while lengthy enough I should warn you is by no means complete. He has just come down from Bahrain for vacation and as expected is already busy shaping up the place. While, to the naked eye the room might be spic and span, his eyes well... they could pick up a dust particle from a mile. Of the one month that he is here, he gets to gyaan (pass down his knowledge) me only fer one week... Lucky me... 22 years and you did think all the gyaan-ing has been done. Not quite is what i wud say.
We do spend our bits of time together... You kno manly types... The father son thing... For example, yesterday, we had a father son outing, which, brings me to


Character Sketch Two: Bavish
Real Name: Revon Mathews Profession: Being a sibling of variant . type cast-Very sweet to Very . very very very dangerous
Unless you guys/gals suffer frm very very (plz add 3 more very's) short term memory loss, you will remember about the father-son periodic manly outing that i mentioned some time bk... Well, these outings in the context of Home Ministry are classified as Errands... Like, yesterday, when we both drove all the way to the city to get Lakhme 651. Now, all the while during this manly outing, i could wonder only one thing.... 651??? As in, 3 digit number??? Are there like a 1000 varieties of colours girls use to impress guys??? I took a hand count then...13... thats all i cud name... I took a quick survey... the list was topped at 18 by a nearby cousin... dats it... dats all v males can do...??? 18... so y pay that extra hundred for something that, hard as we may try, cant physically distinguish??
Oh and here's what tops it... Ven i finally got to the lipstick, the shopkeeper told me, that it was a colorless variety... Hmmm... 1000 different varities of colorless lipstick??? Just when we thought, women couldnt get any more complicated.

Character Sketch Three: Hamish
Real Name: Elizabeth Mathews Profession:House wife part timing as mum
Now, mum here, well, more than anything else, she is known for Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)... How am i so well acquainted with that term?? Well, you wouldnt forget it either, if you witnessed mums sense ofsenseless reflex to these creatures... For one, I am sure dad wouldnt forget todays experience, when we went out for a drive to one of the busiest cities of Kerala (Ernakulam). Quite drive. Dad took over the wheels after a while, while I moved towards my second favorite activity - sleeping. Screeeeecccch!!!
Now, at first, I was not sure whether what transpired in the next few minutes was a dream or a bad dream*. I watched as my mum continued in probably a near successful attempt at bursting her lungs, while at the same time, jumping up and down, in only what i can guess was a random experiment to measure the spring constant of the seat.
*(It sure din seem real)

In the following scene, I gaze in horror as mum pops open the door at a traffic signal and tries in vain to beat atleast Michael Johnson's record of 100m in 10.12 seconds. I had barely recovered from this, when I see my dad being pulled out of the car by the traffic policeman for "attempting to harm a lady". I would just have gone back to sleep then if another cop didnt continue banging on my window. I noticed a spider on the roof, and, luckily enuf( being more than familiar with this kind of fiasco) guess wat had transpired in the last couple of minutes. I explained the same to the cop, while dad, trying to hide a cocktail of emotions, gently nodded along. It took a further 10 minutes to locate mum. But I am guessing that, it is short duration compared to the period of time DAD's gonna remember this incident.

Well, those are the characters that live closest to me at home. I would love to detail about the characters (i.e., three families of cousins which live next to me - each one with their unique trademarks- and each equally, if not more interesting) but, There are miles to go before I sleep and not to mention a DAD to coax b4 I sleep. I am not sure whether this mite b the best of incidents for him so far. I am sure he's got lot more interesting tales. Let me c, if i can get him to elicit a few more ;).

Of Cat and Mice and a percentage of a billion random thoughts in my head

Ever had a brief point in your life where you wished you could be invisible. Maybe run away so that no one could see you. Hide. Hide from responsibilites, ghosts of past mistakes, and, while at it avoid a few meteors that are being hurled at you by an imaginary being. Yup!!! Deny it as much as you want, but, deep down, we all know that we have been there... Something that we cannot avoid, or rather should not miss... These moments define us... And how one handles such situations defines the integrity of his/her charachter.

Ah well... A lot of big words to describe the cat and mouse games that have been going around in the office fer the last couple of weeks.

DISCLAIMER:This is gonna be one long post. So all you insomaniacs out there, come down here and lets see how much of a help Dr Ro can be. The rest of you, well, read at your own risk.

The story starts almost a couple of weeks ago when the company hires a bunch of software consultants. It was a scary day that one. Long story short, innocent little fresher was asked to interview a bunch of candidates, each 4+ years exp. minimum. And when we say innocent little fresher, we mean the kind you see on the NIIT ads, where any doofus who can spell C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R properly (without hiccupping more than two times b/w consecutive alphabets)* gets kidnapped from the doorstep of his college, is put in a chair and assigned a fancy name like 'Assistant Principal Stress Analyst cum Rejeuvanation Engineer' (which basically means, bring coffee to the boss when he looks drowsy) and is promised a rewarding career with an incentive of taking away a moderately bigger box of peanuts than the neighbourhood sabji-waali, at the end of each month for his contribution to the pockets of google and Orkut Bayyukotten. Hmmmmm!!! Could that sentence be entered in the Guiness Book of World Records for longest sentence ever? You let me know.

Each of these "engineers" can probably remember the day, when their respective companies came to their campus, enticed them with photos of FTV models in their PPT's, saying, "At HiBeeHem, we try to encourage the recruitment of more female engineers, which we believe is necessary for the progress of this country". Man. Those pseudo-messiah's. It would be another 2 months b4 any of these engineers learnt that these companies had lesser females than, Shahid Kapoor - facial hair. And the rare good ones that he would spot, would already have been tagged - Sati Saavitri Pati Vrata Bhaarathiya Naari, which essentially means, "Someone's already bagged this prize bro - go knock at some other door"

Back to story: 5 software consultants, get hired to do a job that a single LKG student, with half the IQ of a retarded mouse could do in 5 days. The team is assigned 45 days and our hero is assigned the task of guiding them in this epic mission. Easy he thought. He he. Looks like the mistress of fate, would not be letting him go that easy. 3 days into work and he soon realizes why these people get paid so much. Simply put, they were excellent naggers who had the uncanny nack of sittin rite under your nose 24 7, till YOU got their job done for them. Apt Managerial candidates these. They even knew how to make something as trivial as a spelling mismatch sound as big as an Earth quake in Timbucktoo that could bring about Tsunami's all over India.

5 minutes of time at his desk is something that would be a hard fought luxury. Rest of the day would have to be spent feeding cerelac to the boss, these consultants referred to as "THE TEAM LEAD" (To achieve the IQ level of a dead DODO was perhaps a distant reality for this chap). U gu gu gu ga... Wat did you say? You dont know the spelling of 'variable' and want me to come to your desk and fix it... Ok duddu baby... I ll jus be there... Dont cry

A cat and mouse game he would have to play. A spot did he find at the far end of the company where he could put his comp and do a remote session to his computer to work. Life would now be an adventure. New routes would he have to adopt to escape the CDB's (Cerelac Duddu Babies). A coffee break would mean sending spies ahead to monitor the premises.

Agent NOT NOT Shaven: Report your status. Is the coast clear for Mamma Mia?
Spy Chai(That means you Pichai): All seems clear. No sign of the CDB's.
Mamma Mia a.k.a. Cerelac Feeder: Are we a go spy-chai?
Spy Chai: We are a go Miss...uh sorry...Mr Mia.

The team quietly baby steps to the pantry. Long jumps across passages would minimize the probability of being spotted. And finally.

Mama Mia: Here we are boyz... The pantry... Job well done.

Spoken too soon... Here come the CDB's... Execute Plan B:Freeze.. Agent NOT NOT Shaven, Spy Chai and Soukara form a barrier round the Mama.
Mama Mia: You know the plan boys... Light rays... Block all light rays trying to reach the contours of my body. You carry this out well, and, we represent india in the Synchronized Swimming competition next year.30 seconds of suspense later, our valiant heroes are a happy bunch. A close call that was to say the least.

The next week was spent in developing more escape strategies. Better and more efficient algorithms. Maps were drawn out. Shortest routes to the nearest loo from any random point 'x' in the company as a function of distance, time and hazards encountered en route were calculated in the unlikely event that there was a fundamental flaw(S1 P1 bug) in perhaps the most robust algorithm that had been penned down by a bunch of lazy engineers.

In the last one year in the company I had never spent lesser time at the pantry or more in the loo. Toilet paper rolls had turned out to be our heroes best friend in these testing times. He would crib endlessly to them.

In the coming days, our hero wud become one with this tribe - TATA (The Available Toilet Accessories). He would share their pains, whether they be torturous songs by fellow McAloreans with the singing capacity of a feverish Himesh Reshammiya or encounters of the fourth kind with amnesiatic McAlorens who had not been taught the purpose of THE FLUSH.

Its been two weeks now since that uneventful day (the day of the hiring).The toilet GODs were not merciful ones he had learnt. They didnt answer prayers. Probably not so soon. Our hero still evades the CDB as Laloo Prasad Yadav his tooth brush.

This journey would not be an easy one, nor would it be a short one. Will our hero get through this alive? Will he be able to visit his parents who have come down to India for their once in a year trip? Or will the toilet GODS continue to heave their wrath on this poor engineer?

I am pretty much sure that right now you think I am escaped journalist from CNN-IBN. "Hi, I am Rajdeep Sardesai and the question we are asking tonight is : Should Sachin Tendulkar be endorsing VIP Frenchie or EURO underwears? To know what India thinks, log onto to www.ibnlive.com As of now 10% are in support of VIP and 8 in support of EURO. The rest have polled for our new category... "i dont give a %$&^$% beep beep beep @#%!@#$%"."

Thank you and do tune into www.yetanotherachievement.blogspot.com for more updates on this story. Join us as we track the story of our hero RGM all week only on, C-Annan-RGM. Gnite and tc yo all :). (Atleast the two of you who do read my posts)

Of Murphy and his WiCkEd wIcKeD lawZ!!!

"If there's more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way." It is most often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time," or, "Anything that can go wrong, will," or even, "If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment")

Pre Requisite:Murphy's LAW

Saturday evening 8:45 pm: He had been working continously for the past 10 hours for now, without any breaks save his not-so-brief twenty minute ordeal with the contents of the Noodle Packet. Whoever gave the caption, "Maggi two minute noodles", thought he, had conveniently forgotten to mention the HAZARDS OF MAKING NOODLES or atleast the DO NOT's. He was confident about one thing though. His next noodle session would be a grand success. In whatever way it was possible to screw up the art: "noodle-making" he had already done that evening. Next time he wouldnt forget to add the water before putting it into the microwave atleast. Not unless he wanted to he wanted to hear the sweet chants of the fire alarm and the rhythmic grace with which foreign guards uttered obscenties ...once again!!!

Yup... The signs were already there... This was going to be ONEofTHOSEdayz.

Nothing had been going right that day. He repeatedly exchanged quick glances between the circuit diagram and the bread board. Why wasnt it working? He wished he had just chosen to be a software engineer. If all else failed, there wud always be the Ctrl-C Ctrl-V.

There existed a solitary pleasant thought in his mind then. She was expecting a call from him that evening. Their first since the 3 months they had started chatting. He had precisely calculated the time differences. It should be exactly 7:33 in her watch right now. 8:50(on her watch) was the time they had agreed upon. Precautions had been taken from both sides. He was only too aware of the ordeal of "Rendezvous with beastly DAD of the beauty".

Easy he thought. 15 minutes to wrap up work. Walk home. Buy dinner. (No more fiascos tonite). Eat. Relax. Call at 10. Past reputation had earned him the epithet "the miser". Not tonite. Money didnt matter tonite.

One hour and fifteen minutes later: (10:05 pm local time)
Arrrrghhhhh!!! The generator had been screaming in his ear for the past fifteen minutes. To make things worse, there was this really irritating flashing of light coming from the distant corner of the living room for the past 5 minutes. He moved to the source. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Oh no !!! Oh no!!! How could he have been so stupid to keep the mobile in silent mode? What point was a reminder set on the alarm if it didnt have the squeaking capacity of a mouse subjected to two torturous hours of Himesh Reshammiya songs.

Its a good thing there was a phone booth just below his house. He looked into his purse.Oh Oh. Re 10. Maybe he could just say "Hello... Srini-vas here" and cut the phone. Hmmmm!!! Dont think she would be too happy abt that!!! Ah... There was always the ever dependable Shaar... Gr8 roomie this guy... Never short of cash. Only a couple of days ago had he seen Shaar hangin 500 Rs notes to dry.

He should have paid heed to the signs... This was gonna be Murphy's Day.. Shaar had chosen the wrong day to go out shopping. Atleast the wrong time... He looked to his other roomies... The smiles on their faces indicated that he would have better luck trying to squeeze wisdom out of George Bush's speeches.

ICICI bank!!! There was an ICICI atm nearby. If he leapt at lightnin pace, he could get the money just b4 'princess' put him in yetAnotherTardyNut category. Run did he to the atm. Murphy's Law: Corollary 3C: The length of the queue (esp at testing times) is inversely proportional to the amount of time one has to spare. Corollary 3C : Sub Section A: If the time left is a real number less than or equal to zero, ther would be a plus 5-member in the queue. In addition probability of there being a female shopper (the ones that would take out the money, just get out of the ATM and run back in to grab an extra 300 more) would double.

It would be 10 more minutes before he learned that, for reasons beyond paranormal, his HSBC card would not work on this ICICI atm today (the first in the last 38 times he had been to the ATM). Either that or he had picked the perfect day to forget his 6 digit pin number*.

No seconds thoughts... Our hero now made a dash to the nearest HSBC bank... Strange no queue!!!!! Surely, Murphy was trying to outsmart him... somehow. He quicky withdrew the money from the ATM.

"Where is the phone booth?", asked he to the security guard. "I think there should be one right next to Nexus building. Just go left", replied the guard in perfect English. Murphy was definitely trying to set him up here. He would show Murphy who the smarter one of the two was. There would be no indecision. Took two steps did he to the left and then run to the right. He he!!! He would only allow Murphy a teasing sniff of victory before he outwitted him.

There was a reason Murphy had a law named after him. He could not so easily be outwitted. Our hero would have to return to the phone booth right beneath his house, where the Q#%$#$ generator was trying busy trying to prove that he had the noisiest growl of them all.

Apparently, choice was something he was not going to have in plenty today. Valiantly he stepped into "ThePhoneBooth". 00-93-555-55215544. The number would remain engrained in his mind for a long time. No more hassles here.

Hmmmph!!! Was it worth it??? Would a voice somewhere in the distant corner of the world be nearly as sweet as the extreme his imagination would let him percieve?? And to what end?? What fruitful gain could there possibly be from this "conversation"... the little which he could hear, that was not drowned in the monotonous noise of the generator.

"Hey U", said a voice on the other end of the phone. There are few... very few instances in life where one gets to find out that even Imagination had its limits. The voice on the other end. Memories of the days hardships vanished in an instant. He could not have prayed and gotten anything more beautiful.

All of the best things in life are worth fighting for. Only a few of them, would you look back and say. "Hmmmmm.... I wonder if I did enuf to deserve this reward". This could easily top that list. The story has perhaps only begun.

Presenting to you...

So I walked in today morning expecting nothing out of the ordinary. I have lost count on the number of times fate has cheated me on this. Guess today was to be no exception.

As part of the daily routine, i walk around the corner of the building. I do this to skip the lift and move to the staircases. If you dont know me and I have successfully managed to convince you that I am health freak with 32 inch biceps, please stop reading here and send in your email id and phone number to rohitgm_007@yahoo.co.in (only gals and successful directors)... The rest of you, well, ya... you guessed it rite... the stair case directly opens up to the portion of the office between the HR section and Tech Support section... A place i like to call

Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia—a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient. The story of Shangri-La is based on the concept of Shambhala, a mystical city in Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Shangrila-a la-McAfee ... for obvious reasons

I seem to have a new found respect for McAfee's hiring policy now. I have to meet the head of the Tech Support incharge... Apparently his and my tastes match a lot.

Coming back to our story... after this daily ritual i move on to my desk... I see many familiar faces around... Not the prettiest I might add... There is something about coding that brings out in one the worst contortions of the human face...(Yup... I am talkin about the look on ur face about 49.3 microseconds b4 u punch the keyboard, screaming obscenities at his presumed ancestors...)

As I sit at my desk, reading (read as pretending to read) the documentation that I have been handed about 3 months ago, oblivious to the inevitable at hand, I feel a hand on my back... I knew this clasp all too well... The first of which (3 months ago) were followed by the words, "Checking your email eh!!! Good good... Just wanted to remind you about the deadline this weekend... If you dont finish it, well, there could be problems"... I liked this guy... How he managed to keep a straight face thru that without the slightest modulation in tone, I dont know? Guess that is what it takes to become a manager... I looked for a hint of a smile at the furthest corner of his lips... Time and experience had taught me that this was futile... So I went ahead with the obligatory... "Yes Sir... ok sir... almost ready sir..."

Flashback over***
I turn around to see him smiling... That couldnt be good... I was familiar with the smile as well... It was the cover up for impending disaster... Like "Rohit, there is a huge-mega important project headed your way" (read as ... the management has chosen you to be the next guinea pig for our random experiments)

Manager:" A few software consultants are coming from Aztec Soft today. I want you to help me interview them"
Me:jaw drops to the ground... cleans ear... pinches himself to get himself bk to reality... then says... "Pardon me sir"
Manager:"Well... nothing to worry about... You are an expert in JSP and Spring Framework now.. Just tell them about how we use JBuilder as well"
Me:"who ... what ... who... Jay Bildu??... uh!!! Sir... kya bolti tu??"
Manager:gets the point (smart man)... "Hmmm... k... you come anyway... You dont have to say anything during the meeting... I will get Muthu as well (my mentor)"
Me:"Wow... that sounds gr8"

Now ordinarily I love interviewing people... but, tis never been for their technical skills... I knew as much about technicality as Yahoo mail about avoiding spam.... (read in layman terms as ... oh man!!! u suck)... granted i had joined one of the top 10 Engineerin institutes in india on merit... but people shud (esp since the success of 5 point someone) shud hav guessed by now how much of a fluke it was

Manager:"Oh yeah!!! And Rohit... please sit at your desk for sometime today... I will need you soon"

Lets jus say that I had been absconding a lot frm my seat fer the last week... Reading loads of documentation, as you would have noted... not in the top of my hobby list

An hour later... Manager calls me into room packed with two baldies and 3 professional looking chums... The central baldi introes himself... "Hi... bla bla bla... I am 10 years experienced" (gulp) "...bla bla bla... He is 8 years bla bla bla... This is juniormost fellow... only 4.5 years experience... bla bla bla"

Intro ends...

Manager:"Rohit... These chaps will be helping with the integration of 6.0 version of the product. Rohit here has almost completed work on 7.0 (yup... the miracle of Ctrl C,Ctrl V)... so... guide them with the same"

Manager:"Muthu give them a brief intro of the architecture of the system"
Phew!!!! Lucky escape...

Manager and 10 yr baldie go to next room... Muthu speaks about old version of product...

Muthu:"Rohit... will now give an overview of the architecture of the new version and y we have chosen the underlying technologies to implement the same"

Alarm bells ring... church bells sound... sounds of firing in Karachi... phatta phatta phatta phat... Where was a major earthquake when you needed one

Me:"Ya... sure"

Me:" Ahem Ahem... throat not very well today... so ... i will make this short... cough cough..."

Me:"As Muthu has already told you... bla bla bla... and he also told you bla bla bla... and i definitely u wud remember him tellin u bla bla bla... Its all true... Wat he said at first.. true..."

10 very very very very long minutes of twistin and turning and churnin out complex words (of English dictionary) and confusing everyone in the room later...

Me:"I can imagine that I have confused you a lot... (he he)... I really want to give you an indepth view of the architecture(ya rite... as much as i wanted flea infested warts all over my body), but, I dont want to confuse and scare you all on the first day itself... So.. anytime u are free.. come down to my...errr...ahem... Muthu's desk..."

"... Any doubts??"

Junior-most:"You mentioned about Spring framework... any reason u are preffering that over Struts...???"

Me:"ya... they look prettier and sound better"

room laughs... manager comes in... "trust you hav had a good session..."

Nick of time.. I luv u ... i luv u.. i luv u...
Me:"Sir... frnds are waitin outside for lunch"
Manager:"Sure... go ahead... bye and thanx"

I had learnt something very important on this day folkz...

[b]When in doubt, act dumb... When ignorant... BULLSHIT[/b]... gnite u all

Soapless in Virajpet

Prequel:
Venue: (Long empty road joining office and home)
Charachters: Rohit(me me me me me) and Arjun.
Me: "Dont know what it is man? I feel like totally bottled up. Constrained. Just feel like I want to explode"
Arjun: "You need to go have some sex man"
Me:Hmmmm... Y not?
About half of a fraction of a milli second later, my brain comes up with a list of Top 30 Reasons as to "Y not". This was followed, by a train of hilarious laughter (like the ones you see in a sit-com). I guess this was a sign that maybe i should think of something more feasible. That's how we came up with the plan of trekking up and down a 23 km track, on this steep mountainous terrain which had forests swarmed with leaches and a slippery track this time of the year. Yup, this sounded much easier.

So there it was. Friday night. 6 monkeys and 6 back packs, filled with all the neccessary material (glucose, biscuits, loads of salt (u kno... a quick drink for the leeches), bread and jam)... As you can see, we had immense confidence in our exemplary cooking skills... Yup, we knew as much about cooking as Maneka Gandhi about the new suspension mechanism in CBZ extreme.
At 10:15 pm, we boarded our buses and had a jolly good sleep till about 4:30 next morning. Not many of you may know this, but sleeping is one of my finer talents. I mean, do you really want to challenge a guy who has(literally) slept through an earthquake, a hoax bomb call in a bus and has even slept standing 8 hrs in the general compartment of a train (during Sabarimala season). Y not just challenge ....

Once our feet were planted firmly on the ground, we(read as me) looked around in search for good omens. Hmmmm!!! Three gorgeous girls looking in my direction. This could only mean one thing. I looked into the background for signs of a UFO or invading aliens. Hmmm... surprising... no aliens. A strong sense of reality and a slightly(read as majorly) weakened sense of optimism in these departments quickly led me to realise that they were searching for the bus conductor to ask for directions. So much for good omens.
Step 2. Search for a lodge. Not the easiest of tasks. Apparently most of Karnataka had heard of our trip plans and had flooded the lodges to get a glimpse of RGC ( You wud definitely have read the 'All Hail Vasco D' Gama' and 'Spirit of Valentine' fiascos... As you can imagine... A must meet person)
Step 3. 5 lodges and loads of cribbing later, we finally come across a patient lodger ready to accomodate us ( read as irate man in torn lungi, mouthing obscenities at dis group who 'Dared disturb his slumber' (apparenly a big fan of Indian National Anthem as well (makes no sense i kno)). He lead us to a couple of rooms, with bathrooms that hadn been washed since World War II. Further analysis, led us to easily conclude that these rooms would in large probability have been used for Genetic experiments on a large variety of insects.As you mite have guessed, it didnt take long for the group to come to a consensus that, the premises be vacated immediately.

A light breakfast and a tea later, we set off (by the 8 : 15 bus) to Kakkabe. (The omens were not exactly in a very encouragin mood today and like you would probably have guessed, the bus did break down). The rest of the group, (as if by synchronized reflex reaction) took to their feet and dumped their bags on me. "Rohit, we will just be back. Look after all the bags". Hmmm.... difficult to believe that this was not a preconceived strategy. With nothing much to do, i started care-freely observing the passengers. It didnt take a 189.3 IQ to guess that most of the passengers were Mallu's. These were the ones standing around the burst tire, and, however improbable it may seem, had a different opinion on what should be the next step in fixing the tire.

Finally, at about 9:30, we begin the trek from Kakkabe. Twenty minutes was all it took to conclude that half this gang was not trekking material. Pit stops were as frequent as Salman Khan's flop movies. I have to say that the people in this area were very friendly. Most of them were only to happy to give us a drink of cold water or pose for a couple of photographs (we intended on saving our water fer the un-inhabited part of the trek). After what seemed like hours up a steep slope, we stopped to catch our breath. Excuses such as "Hmmm... I think we should wait here and enjoy the scenery around for a while" were met with immediate consensus from the rest of the group.

I would have to be lying to say that what we saw around us was anything short of breath taking. The view was awesome. Especially once we had crossed the final points of human civilization. The very sight around was more driving than all the glucose we had packed up for the trek. Even after around some 6 km of trekking we could barely see the peak of the mountain covered in mists. Probably the first really interesting zone was a forest cover. We clicked a few snaps only to discover that we had some uninvited guests in our photos. Two leeches on Devassy's hand and one on his leg. Luckily we were prepared for this (ya... v read a couple of blogs b4 coming here). We poured some salt water on his feet and hands. The leeches almost immediately jumped off. These creatures were as creepy as they were beautiful and added an element of adventure to the trip.

In an attempt to not get too adventurous and being the students of science that we are, decieded to carry on a little experiment. We poured a little salt water on all our legs b4 walking into this forest. We then picked up a leech or two and put it on our legs. Presto.... What once stuck like magnets, could now just not cling on to our feet. The mighty army was indominable. We gallantly marched thru the forest(a sense of accomplishment in our hearts) - Yes yes... u guessed it rite... v r software engineers... and this is abt as much adventure as we get... :)

Once thru the first of the forests we realized that we hadn even completed half our trip. The way ahead was only getting steeper and the destination was nowhere in sight. We paced up ( last bus frm here is supposed to be @ 7:30 pm, and it was already 11:15). Our second(read as two millionth) pit stop was a huge boulder en route. A few blogs we had read b4 embarking on this epic mission, had revealed to us that a small five minute diversion would lead us to a small stream frm where we could fill in some water. There was however 'the catch'. Getting to this source of water, would mean, crossing yetAnotherForestStrip, only marshier, and, with leeches at every other step... ya... i kno.. like some of the rides at WonderLa... (only these rides dont suck blood).

Mayb it was the pumped up adrenalin... (or someone had added drugs to our glucose powder), but, all of us just had to go in and get the water... no one wanted to stay back... (The above sentence is purely fictional and has only been added with the incentive to impress some dumb (preferrably neccessarily good looking) gals...)

Ten minutes later we were on our way again... There was a peak visible every 5 minutes, and, just when we made it to one, we realized that this wasnt anywhere near the final destination and that we still had a long way to go. However, our group was not one to be easily discouraged. (yup... another one of those impress sentences)... We made our minds that we would do this or die (read as lie to everyone that we had indeed climbed to the top). 30 minutes after the boulder, we were still panting and the top was nowhere in sight. If we thought that we had seen the last of the forests (which we indeed had), we were mistaken... Voila... Right in front... Forest number 3... I am not a man of biology, but, with every passing forest, we realized that the percentage/density of blood sucking creatures(no I m not talkin abt ur manager) was only increasing. To top things, ample-sunlight(as we wud shortly realize) was not one of the positive features of this forest.

20 minutes later, we could finally catch a glimpse of the peak. This is it folks. We mite have been exhausted (after 11 km of upward ascen), but, we were pumped.. The energy seemed to build in us, as if out of now where. We paced ourselves up and started competing with nearby snails (they were drugged... they must have been... how else could you explain the ease with which they were winning this race??)

Ahh the top... Wat a beautiful sight... Bare chested(yup... we realized that it is humanly possible to profusely-sweat at a height of 5850ft), we dropped ourselves to the floor. (Not b4 i and Binesh -being the first of our group to make it to the top- took out a Banyan and made flags there).... A small sacrifice to commemorate our valiant* efforts.

At this point, the children is us, (awakened after a really long slumber) started running amock... There was no mummy around to say, "Hey, dont stand at the edge of that cliff"... "One more step and you will plummet to ur deaths"..."U eat that vendakya curry, or, I m going to tell your daddy about it"...So... we did wat comes naturally to us (or to any retarted common senseless creation of GOD)... Play "Who can stand closer to the edge"... A number of photos were taken in (seemingly) death defying positions (only to realise later that the mist was gonna be a big spoil sport wrt how these photos wud turn out). Two hours (and two battery dead cameras later) we began the final descent.

Crossing forests had now become cliche, thanks to Annapurna Salt (official sponsor of the Procrastinator)... The descent was much faster than the ascent... There was only one prayer on the tip of our lips, and, as if the big man was just waiting for us to ask, he showered his blessings upon us... Ah the sweet rain... What more could one possibly ask for?? I guess it goes without telling that the majority of the group didn bother opening their umbrellas... It was awesome... The thirst and the dryness simultaneoulsy quenched... For some, it was more than yetAnotherRainfall... It was the first time their clothes had seen water in a very long time (washing machine on fritz + 6 lazy miserly bachelors = not surprising at all is it??)

It was sheer magic... If we thought that view going upward was heavenly, we were mistaken... The rains had transformed the entire land... A step closer to heaven it felt... If you have a chance, you definitely dont want to miss out on this trek folks.. :)

By 6:30 p.m., we reached the starting point of the trek (23 kms in 8 hrs... Could some one check if that is a new world record.... *ahem*.... you dont have to laugh that loudly... i get it)... Neway... as luck wud have it, we missed the last bus back to Virajpet... Luckily, a group of really friendly men offered to take us to town (24 km away) for as little as 550 Rs... I started looking around for the luxury-buisness class-private jet they would be taking us in?? Hmmmm... strange... no landing strip in sight... only one broken down little jeep... I must have heard him wrong... I cleared my ears and said.... "Five Rs fifty paise... for that jeep..... k... sounds reasonable"... I could be wrong, but, the profanities that followed, led me to believe that he didn share my sense of humor....Its a good thing that i din follow Kannada slangs.

We, being the gentlemen we are, politely* refused.
*This part of the blog has been slightly modified in order to cater to the family audience.

Seconds later, (yup... the big man was indeed very happy with something i had done on the top), a young lady stopped her Bolero in front of us and asked whether we did be needing a lift to the city...?? Now, we may not be the brightest men in all the land, but, stuff like this, (esp free stuff)... we dont let them go by that easy.

(K... so maybe the lady was not so young... and maybe the lady was a huge fat man with a burly moustache driving yetAnotherBrokenDownJeep, but,... I think i would prefer to remember this day otherwise... ;)


Not so cute when they are sucking on your hand

View from the top

Beautiful isnt it

Bring out the glucose

Paddy field en route... Told you it was awesome

Love and nothing like it

If you take the period of evolution as a base line, one might say that I hadn known her for very long. Somehow, time never seems to be a factor of relevance in these matters ( you can choose to believe otherwise). Keeping this in mind, I could definitely say with a certain degree of certainity that she was upset. (to put things mildly)

How did it happen? Where did it happen? For many, the question of greater relevance at this point might be, "When did it all begin?". Honestly speaking, I dont have a definitive answer to all these. Many a time, I have sat back and tried to isolate a single point in the brief time line of my existence. I didnt know what I was looking for. Was it a single solitary event? Did it develop over the course of time? None of these questions seemed relevant at this point of time. For now, all that mattered was that things werent alright (Atleast, it was not the perfect life I ~ and as i understand many of you ~ expect it to be)

Honestly, I really dont understand why she is behaving this way. Maybe it was the way I had treated her? Atleast that is what 'The Inner Voice' says. (I dont know about u guys, but, I have never really been a fan of this voice. It often says the silliest of things. Ones that, more often than not, SEEM to want to get you into *trouble*).

The voice seems to be saying something rite now. Am not sure I want to decipher it. It seems to go along the lines of "You know perfectly when all this started. It was the money. Things werent always this way. The JOB. Is that all that matters to you? And the money? Is this new cash inflow your excuse for treating her this way?"

Very few people, know about the relation she and I share (and mayb i intend on keeping it that way). These people knew that she had changed me in a way none other could. Existence without her seemed impossible, more importantly, irrelevant. If only one could go back in time and set things right. Hmmmph!!! If only things were that easy. What was the big guy up there trying to teach us anyway? Why couldnt there be a single clause (a tear) in the fabric of time that said, "You know what. If its that important to you... go ahead... Bend time... But only this once".

You know what. I can identify a billion people who have probably isolated this one instance in time. Many, that would give their life for this - "once"

In the absence of this clause (or till someone proves that darn Einstein's* theory wrong), I guess I have only one choice. Pray. Pray that time would heal all.

*Apparently, he spend a gazillion days proving that, as a mathematical certainity, TIME TRAVEL WAS IMPOSSIBLE

I want to tell her that I am sorry for the pain that I' ve caused. Unlike most others, ego has never been a big issue with me (hmmph...who am I kidding?) Anyway, this was one instance that I was willing to let it all go. All the ego in the world din matter (as Pete would put it) a horse's ass. If only I could tell her that, in the end, it had and is still hurting me a lot more than it had her. I knew that it was true. No man would probably have born this kind of pain, which is when I decieded, no more eating Thai food from the Forum. Allah. This shud be a once in a lifetime event for the really daring at heart. I re-iterate ONCE in a life time. ( I believe the horror of this event was once telecast on axn max x) Grotesque, it was, to say the least. It was not just me. Some of room mates had also part taken in this horror. All of them, had their stomach upset. I guess, the stomach didnt mean as much to them as it did to me.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Whoa... Dont run away folks. That's what she sounds like when she is upset. (She's been making a lot of funny noises lately) Not a Britney Spears. I know. But, i guess they never are when they are that....hmmm... how do you put it? Out of sync?? I guess, I had nothing better to do with the money frm the job than spend it on experimenting with my stomach. At this point of time, you are all probably wondering, "#$@%!#$%!@#$%!@#$%", I have been told that under 13 kids have been reading this blog lately. Hence the discretion. I empathize with you. Even I want to kill myself. Wat other sorry SOB wud be in the office on MayDay tryin to meet the whims of his senior office colleague? "I dont like this variable name )it seems). Change the whole program, you have been writing for months and make it work with this change (dat cud basically affect entire code flow), cause the name i suggested sounds prettier." aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And u wonder why software engineers get paid so much. Oh!!! And in case, you have been wondering about the topic of the post (check this out)

A friggin funny thing this love is isnt it. At its surface (just a singular emotion). Under the pretty hide, a plethora of complicated emotions, more vicious than they stand good for. Why we get our hands dirty with it? None of us know. Yet, for all I know, all run after it (till they learn their lesson). Guess, we will never know till we get there will we. Na... dats just a lie. Its all around you. Dont look to hard for it (or you just might miss, what is there rite in front of you). :)

Home Sweet Home

Its been two months since I started writing this blog, and, so far I can see that its been a resounding success. I mean all the readers have been tremendously encouraging. The sheer volume of comments in each post is over-whelming (two in the last and four in the one before). I have been so inspired by my own posts, that I myself have put in 50% of those comments.

The feedback i have recieved in person has been even better. I owe a lot to my room-mates here. They have been very encouragin on this front. Devasssy said, "the other day, I was so bored, I read all your posts that were written in English. It took me a whole 30 seconds. There were the google ads and Chickmaglur trip photos. Couldnt really understand much else"

Funda, not to be outdone, din take long before adding, "Dude, its very true what you write in your posts. 'What am I talking about?'. I dont have any idea, and I dont think many of the other reader's would disagree." (P.S. : This comment was on the post i deleted last week. So, no use searching for it.)

RGC, (ah yes our smart and handsome hero), as is characteristic of him puts it very subtly, "I came to your blog, read one para and clicked on the link to that chick's blog." Dear, RGC, I appreciate your honesty and frankness, but, buddy, you dont have to be completely honest all of the time.

In other news, after a very gruellin 2 months continuous at the office( weekends included), I am finally at HOME SWEET HOME. Before coming home, I did the requisite little shopping from FORUM mall. 3 families of eagerly waiting cousins, who prefer to address me as 'Chocolate evide' (read as Where r the chocolates'),every time I come home, somehow add to the in-evitability of this pit stop. The sheer volume of eye candy didnt also do much to cut down the shopping time to half.

After about an hour of roaming, it came to dawn upon me that none of the girls were actually gonna come up to me and say, "Hi.. I have been noticing you for a while. If you dont mind, would you like to join me for a coffee?". Realising this, i headed straight for the bus stop.

The trip home was very exciting. I couldnt have slept if i wanted to. The guy sitting next to me gave me a as-pleasant-as-poison-ivy-on-christmas kinda smile. 4 years in Calicut(famous for its as-happy-as-gay culture) had taught me that shutting my eyes even for a moment could prove to be a dangerous gamble. The film they had put on wasnt exactly helping the cause... Somehow, 3 guys chasing a frog that supposedly helps them identify, which is the witch out of the two actresses on screen -hmmmm- not my cup of tea.

It has begun

There is a guy in the opposite cubicle playing music at high volume. I see two team mates, both head banging - only in very different ways. I know one of them is enjoying the music. The other, well, currently his goal seems to be punch a hole thru his desk.

RGM aka xIOnIx better known as me belongs to the extremely rare breed of human's called the people pleaser. Now, this breed of humans have a very peculiar problem. They need every human being on Earth to like them. No, they cant have exception's to this rule . It hurts. It hurts their pride and even more so(for reasons beyond the paranormal) their concsience. Their deepest fears measure two in number -
a) Diversity .........
b) Politics ..........

Para 1 is a classic example of Deep Fear (a). Deep Fear (b) is something i had hoped i would never be involved in. Even in college i tried to keep away from it, atleast whatever little of it was present in a college, where politics were 'supposedly' banned.

Apparently or so I have come to learn, this isnt part of the algorithm the big man upstairs has prepared for us. The master plan includes a step (with no conditional escape sequence) which says that we all one day have to face our greatest fears. The past week for the most part, were filled with negotiations, attempted match-fixings, if i dare say b/w me and the Almighty. I might have known that all the tricks up my sleeve + two of my most powerful trump card's would do nothing to mould his mood. The master plan did not have a flaw. Hence, it could not be broken. It could not be shaped thru mere mortal yearnings.

Ahhhhhh!!!! Enuf of the philosophiticsm(dont look it up on Webster's... I just made up that word). Let's have a brief look into what I am talking about shall we. I am not sure if many of you remember, but, about a few months ago, I was drawn into the trap of "the project that should not be named". It strikes fear into the heart of engineer's as Lord Voldemort( I can take his name... I 'm not a muggle) in the heart of non-muggles. Every other engineer who had worked on this project had either lost sanity(the lucky ones) or left the company within nine months of starting off(regular nightmares still haunt these poor souls). The management realises that it would be best to draw someone naive into the clutches of this monster.

Said one clever manager to the other, "Why not trap that nut(read as poor little me) who keeps wandering from cubicle to cubicle and once to often for comfort into the HR section?. Its not like he is gonna get a job anywhere else.He cant run away." Heinous laugh follows.

During the course of the next week, the manager arms him with what he thinks is more equipment than he will ever require for this mission.

Manager:"Now you remember whatever i told you. There is a little group of, well, not-so-nice people who live on the other side of this mountain. We call them vampires. They come out only at night, so, you will need this torch."
PHooL(PHoor Little Naive Me): "Hmmmmm"
Manager(chooses his words carefully): "They should not be infinite in number. So you should not have any trouble eliminating their entire race"
PHooL:"Cool"
Manager: "Here is your metal cross, garlic spray, 5 silver bullets, this rust-coloured(or so he claims) gun. Use ANY one of these and he should dissappear into a cloud of smoke"
PHool:"Will, I really need all this?"
Manager: "Actually, no. But, since this is a first for you, we want to make things really easy for you" (Smiles - he must have been practising for a long time now to perfect that)
"Oh and here. You can take this wooden stake too. Mite come in handy"
PHooL:"Wow ... geee.... golly" (now totally overwhelmed and at a loss for words)


Our hero sets off in the direction of his mission, fully convinced, that truly there would be none in this world more luckier than him. OOooooooooooooooooooh, how naive could he be. Oblivious was he to the fact, that these so called vampires feasted on human blood. Oblivious was he to the fact that these monsters could fly. Oblivious, was he to the fact that these vile creations of time did not have souls. Their actions were not bound by conscience. Their wrath knew no limits.

He didnt understand the deep stench around him. Why didnt someone tell him that it was from the deep shit he was walking into?

For four months, our hero walked through the shit. Being the smart man he was, it didnt take him more than a month to figure out that he was in Deep Shit. Its viscosity just thick enough to keep him stuck in it,while not permittin him to sink in its sins.

**************--------------------> Into present day

A couple of days ago, I recieved this mail. Actually it was a chain of mails. Summarized, its contents translated as follows. (My) Manager's manager tells senior executives (product development incharge and VP of India operations) that he would like to give a demonstration of the (seemingly) excellent work that has been carried out so far. Wow, talk about opportunity coming and slapping you hard in your face. "Wake up boy... Its time to cash in".. Kisi ne sahin kaha hai, "Dene waala jab bhi deta, deta chappad phaadke"

Well, not that good, but, good enuf anyway. I mean presentation with the big shots. Ever come across a shorter foot path to success. As one would have expected, envy (check it out) and success do come hand in hand. Suddenly, our hero is caught in the midst of a political debacle.

Salient features of debacle:
a) New news, manager to give presentation to big shots (after I give him and his immediate manager a presentation on all the work I carried out)
b) I have no issues with point (a)(manager is a very nice and helpful guy), but, what makes it interesting is that, my mentor for the task (apparently:sworn enemy of the manager) hates the fact that manager dearest gets to take credit for the same, after him and me do all the swimmin thru deep shit.
c) Further confusions caused when people come and tell mentor, "Dude, that new chap Rohit has done a gr8 job with that ePO work na"
Harmless sentence, when read by a third party. But when read as, "Manager and Rohit make project a huge success, without ANY other external help", well, then it becomes a problem.

How i will convey to the chap, that I am without a doubt eternally grateful for all his help... I do not know. When put in a pickle where i have to choose between manager and his sworn enemy, what do I do... I do not know... Interesting isnt it... Ah well, "Que serai serai...."

Oh yeah... and here is something interesting that I came across in a blog recently...Am sure a lot of you will have valuable comments on the same :))

Google tried to frame me!!!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, if there is any truth to that saying, what you are gonna see today will be nothin short of a novel. How, i would luv to go into detail about the backdrop, the contexts and the backstage drama that surrounded these 'non-incidental-works of art'. Unfortunately, neither lady luck, nor the mistress of time seems to be in the mood to shower their special blessings upon me and there is just so much piling up on me that there mite just be an avalanche breakdown (kindly excuse the lingo -> After joinin software, the days of muggin up electronic jargon seem like good ol days to me.... wow... there is somethin
neither I nor any student of Hema Rani wud have ever thought they did say.. )

pseudo Thousand word instance 1:

When i blocked my blog a couple of days ago, thousands* of you asked me what happened. There were rumors, there were assumptions. There was a bandh in TN followed by one in AP. CNN IBN said, "Sachin slams Greg". Ya, I know it doesnt bear any relevance, but, you shud have seen the look on your face :-). You see, about a week ago I added google adsense on this page. About two days ago, the account got approved. The idea is that 'the all powerful google' -kindly ignore the volumes of sarcasm in that phrasing- puts RELEVANT ads on your page based on its contents. Well, I will let the picture do all the talking.



Now, I will admit that the whole idea of google ads was to generate revenue. But, that is definitely not the buisness I had in mind. For all the guys who had sent me well wishes for the same and added that they would come to support my buisness in whatever way they could, thank you for the genuine concern and 'guileless' intent but I guess I will have to dissappoint u. For all the gals(and Devassy) who had sent in applications, sorry... No openings

pseudo Thousand word instance 2, 3 and 4:

Dale Carnegie (renowned author and Leadership instructor), says that the there is a desire in every human that surpasses both his primal and carnal
instincts and that is the feeling of importance. Care to disagree? I am sure you will have different thoughts once you see what some people will do
to get anywhere within the frame outer ridges of the photo. I am sure that Orkut has done nothing but compound the same. :D






pseudo Thousand word instance 5:

Now dats wat i call culinary art:

If you are regular reader here, you probably have been wondering for a while now, what is that Dosa my manager keeps referring to. In the very very likely event that you have not read beyond the topic
or Date of the blog, you are definitely wondering what that grotesque image loaded just below is. I wont keep you all in suspense for much longer folks. This is it... However hard, it may be for you to believe
what you see below is (or atleast was intended to be) a DOSA. I guess this once and for all shatters the myth that there is some act of genius that eludes 'THE RGC'
If he can do this without using any toxic ingredients, well, there really isnt much else he cant do. Is there???



pseudo Thousand word instance 6:

Oh yeah, and we also went to Mysore last weekend. The trip was very ;;;;;;;;interesting;;;;;;;; and there is lots to write abt there also.. :)



* maybe divided by 20 and then further divided by 5. I guess you would have to divide by 5 once more to get the rite figure. Thanks Anphy
and Meera for ur genuine concern *sniff* (tears in my eyes rite now)

I never really believed in black magic. I never believed in hexes not in jinxes. That was RGM about a year ago. Today after 2 months of ePO integration ( the project i am currently working on), i have come to believe that there really may be something to what they call the paranormal... Either that or Rohit G. Mathews has finally flipped

FLASHBACK::::::::::::::::::
It all started 2 months ago. As part of my daily ritual, i was just roaming around the office finding who else is as jobless as me, sometimes accidently roaming into the HR section to keep a watchout for potentially interesting new recruits. (If you are a male wondering what might be so interesting in the HR section, you are definitely not above 13 years of age and shouldnt be reading this blog)

Up in the distance i notice that i had encroached upon doing so my managers line of sight. Having faced identical situations b4, i never made such roam abouts without being fully armed. Instanteously, as if by reflex, I pull out the pen from my holster and mini notepad from the dangling quiver. A set of questions i had prepared overnight serve as the neccessary ammunition. i direct my sights to the nearest compadre (read as team-mate) and stun him with a barrage of questions, questions that would have flabbergasted Herbert Schildt himself and in a style that would have made Navjot Singh Sidhu proud.

Its too late. The predator( read as 'my reporting manager') moves stealthily towards the unsuspecting prey (read as 'poor innocent me'). The prey fears for the worst. His mind rapidly starts preparing answers to the questions that would be shot at him with only seconds to do so ("what happend to the task i gav u two weeks ago":"y r u never at ur desk when i come der":"bla -bla bla-bla bla"). He closes his eyes and looks to inspiration from his mentor for such tasks. It would be exactly like it was in the movie 'The Matrix'. If he were quick enuf he could get away with as little as just a tiny scratch from a bullet. IF HE VER LUCKY.

But, what is this? The predator is shelling out a smile at our prey. Is it the calm b4 the storm? (Only later wud our hero realise that it was indeed the Manager's trump card that he had taken out)

"Rohit", he says. "Are you free? I want to discuss something with you".

Long story short, he convinces our hero to take up ePO integration. He didnt have a choice folks. He was lured in with crafty words like, " You will the contact point for two of McAfee's biggest teams" : "Huge visibility" : "Latest technologies" : "Opportunity knockin". OOOOOOHhhh!!! How unsuspecting and gullible mite our hero have been to fall into this trap.

***********************
Flashback over.... wake up folks... :)

Anyways its two months since that day now. To give you a small peak into how things are here right now i am gonna take a small clipping from a mail that i had written to a friend a few days ago.

******************************************
THE SCENE IS A MEETING: Held last Tuesday
******************************************

...Things here have just stepped into a higher gear... Srini(new manager for this task) has just conveyed the importance of the deadline on April 7th.... His exact words were, "I dont want Rohit disturbed at all. Team, dont overload him with work. He already has a lot of work, much more than anyone else in the team. The reputation of MIC is at stake here. (at this point, my heart and stomach start mimickin the noises you mite have heard in Terminator 3: they were still using that silly ploy). Rohit, if you dont want, you dont have to attend the Thursday All Hands meeting at TAJ. You can stay here and work :D... I sheepishly said, "Thank you sir..." for saving me from all that delicious free food - i wished i had added

Ah well... lets c this shud be fun... I dont c the deadline happenin anyway... Yesterday was the second time in the last week that Muthu(my mentor for the task) spent 3 continous hours at my desk before conceding, "Ok Rohit... you are dead... I dont know what to do... Let GOD save you"... You have to appreciate the genuine concern he has... especially considerin that he is an Athiest...

**************************************************
At this point of my typing the mail, my teammate pops by my desk and says. "aio... look at the very busy person sittin der and typin an essay.... Is it the documentation for ePO 4.0?" Sarcasm as i know it, had never been one of the weak points of mallu's. He was no exception.

Oops there is my manager now. "Ver is that pen and notepad...??? Aaah... pray for me....On second thot, pray for some other poor soul. Things really cant get worse from here can they ;)

Everybody has one...

There is a famous saying, "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one". Its World Cup season, and the above quotation holds more significance now than it did hold for the last 3 years or for the next three years to come. Its not surprising is it when you are talking about a country of one billion devotees, who worship cricket.

The fact that this is the only team to have seen a REAL LIVE version of the WORLD CUP doesnt exactly help the cause does it. I mean, its probably been a while since the Indian hockey team had a glimpse of the same. Sania Mirza doesnt look to be getting enuf time away from Mohanlal and Malabar Gold Jewellery to play enuf tennis.
Vishwanathan Anand, our only other ray of hope was last seen kidnapped on the premises of NIIT on live TV. Seems a bunch of black coated men think that any Tom, Dick or Harry who walks out of NIIT is good enuf to join the IT race.

He he... wat am I talking abt??? I kno very well, how I got in here... If they were ever looking for software-caliber I would definitely not be in the IT industry folks. I hear, last year, CTS robbed anyone who could spell the word engineer (almost correctly in either English or Tamil) from the Anna University premises. Several children have been reported missing. In one case an 8 year old girl who went to drop a tiffin box to her brother was swept off her feet (the janitor did it) and taken into McAfee Inc. She(then labelled Asst SFTWR Dev Engineer) was sitting in the cubicle next to me , till one fine day I saw her photo in the newspaper:missing (those of who know me wud easily have guessed that it was in Bangalore Times rite next to the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip).

I being the good samaritan that I am, immediately reported it to the relevant authorities. U shud hav seen the delite on the face of her parents. I cant really say the same about her though. For reasons beyond me, she actually seemed to be enjoying sittin around in the company, jus browsin around the net and orkut, and getting paid a lot of money. Its almost as if she did not like going to school and doing homework. Strange kid i tell you.

Speaking of kids, i ll wrap up the suspense of our main issue of concern (ya, the one in the last blog that said : "Gee I hope i remember to meet my Vini at FORUM "(b'lore shopping mall)). After several alarms set on my computer, mobile and watch(courtesy cubicle mate) interrupting my busy schedule of hard working (read as perfect blend of orkutting, meebo and pretending to work(considering the upcoming upraisal)) i realised that the ribbon i had tied on my hand was to remind of this very meeting.

Now dis doesnt mean that i was not looking forward to this get together. Far from it, Vini dearest is among my list Top Ten humans i respect the most in this world. A really brave and extremely charming gal. She's had to go thru a lot in life. A lot more than any other i know. And she has kept a brave face thru it all. Seems like nothin can break this little gal. If you meet her, you would definitely say, "This cant be the Vini Rohit is talking about. She is far to cheerful and kiddish for that". Well, that's Vini for you folks. Wat can i say? Some people are born tough. But you dont find many tough ones in such a pretty packaging.

Between... good guess. This girl was my first crush after I came(back) to India. And yes, like all my other previous crushes, she too calls me Bhaiyya. Its like the equivalent of "exit(0)" in computer programming. There is no cleaner escape sequence. Only thing it terminates the parent program (In this case "me") almost instantaneously. Once this set of events has been repeated with one gal, we[most mallu good lookin males ;-) ] pick our selves up and look for the next gal.

(for gal="hotnsmart"; gal > "18 years of age"; gal++)
{
checkoutgal();
meetgal();
if(girl.bhaiyya.muscles > "18 inch biceps")
{
continue; // skip this iteration of the loop
}
elseif(girl.papa == "fond of obscenities" && "walks around with rifle")
{
continue;
}
elseif(girl.callsyou("bhaiyya"))
{
while(brokenhearted)
sleep();

definitelycontinue;
}

if(gal.wantstomarryU)
{
moanAlot();
claimPretentiousResponsibilityToFamily(L"Immediately");
}
elseif(gal.happyAsGalFrnd())
{
keepInMind("There are many good gals out there");
girl.Search("where current grl frnd cant find");
continue;
}
}
}

Chalo... That's enuf for tonite... Gotta watch the India-Sri Lanka match (do you think it is fixed??... Let me know)... Oh and Vini, incase you still dont know, my mobile has been confirmed lost. I cancelled the SIM about 15 minutes after that. Luckily there was a HUTCH shop nearby :)