Pre Paid Taxi

Last four days were as eventful as they can get.
Covered a distance of around 2200 kms  attended the marriage of two of my best friends.

As it is common with any kind of journey..it always leaves you with memories.
This one was no exception...

We landed at Jammu airport at 9:40 on the morning.
After collecting our baggage we were waiting for our friends ,who were about to reach in the next plane...

In this process...we took some 10-15 minutes...and by then a pretty long Queue came up at the Pre Paid Taxi counter.

I was standing behind some 10-15 guys in the queue.
For some reason  the queue wasn't moving for some time....

It might be because of a confused tourist who doesn't know as to where he should take a taxi.
or it might be because of the guy at the Taxi counter does not have the change to payback to the guy.

Whatever it was ...after 2-3 minutes i checked my positon in the queue.
I was still the last....

This made me feel a bit uneasy...

Why was i still the last man...i glanced at Shagun and the two friends.
I feared they might even ask...why are you still in the last position in the queue.

After 3-4 minutes a group came and enhanced the queue a bit more.
Now as i was not the last person in the queue...i felt relieved.

I couldn't believe the way i was reacting...
The people who were after me in the queue had no impact on my reaching the Taxi counter...

but..
Somehow their absence made me insecure...
and their presence made me feel better.

While in the queue...i could make up my mood swings and tried to analyse the mood swings.

This might sound a trivial occurence...
but after a bit of analysis...i found my behavior shocking.

If the people in front or the people behind in queue could decide my happiness/sadness.
It could well be happening in the day to day events as well.

The people were in front because they did something different which got them in front.
The people behind did not do something that i did and that got me ahead of them.

but whatever it was...my TAXI-BOARDING-TIME remained a absolute function of my actions...and not anybody else's.

So when ...TAXI-BOARDING is the motive...and TAXI-BOARDING-TIME is an absolute function of my position in the queue.

Why was my happiness RELATIVE to my Position in the Queue??

Office- Once Again

This is a post i wrote in 2008.

After reading http://img.ibtimes.com/www/articles/20111012/230203_google-plus-engineer-complete-failure-fail-hate-steve-yegee-reasons.htm

I felt like republishing it....so here it is.
Verbatim..uncensored....once again.... :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I get up at 9:15 in the morning,take a shower get ready and off to office..
Rickshaw man (Baba ji) is standing right there at the same spot where he has been standing for the past 1 year.Its the same rickshaw,same road,same turns same speed,same me ,same everything.I just feel he takes some other route or for god sake vary his speed a little.I know the route to office but i just hope he changes that route for once.Monotony bugs me every single day.

I enter our office lift,press 7 .Its funny how all of us are standing in the lift with our heads down and staring at each other's feet.Somehow if i do make eye contact ,i immediately break it and start looking at the cieling of the lift.

Enter the office ..i am just praying that no more new assignments have come my way ..i just hope my bug was not identified by the client.After checking the inbox and confirming my worklessness for the day.I move around to see if i am the only one who is feeling like a pig.After finding people empathizing with me..back to my seat.

I open my gmail,orkut and blog to check for any new mails,new scraps or any new comments respectively.Nope none....no new mails ...same old scraps....same comments.Then i open a programming window..just in case BOSS tends to pass by.After that i ensure that when i'll press alt-tab it will be the programming window that will open and not the orkut window.

Apart from this keep a pen paper handy.Just in case some management hovers over or around you ,you should be able to do the next three steps in not more then 0.876 seconds

Step 1)Press alt tab
Step 2)Stare at the screen with your eyebrows tensed.
Step 3)Start solving some unfathomable equation on the paper

Alrite now i have checked my mail inbox/orkut scraps around 20 times from morning and i haven't received a single mail/scrap.I remember that last time i checked it was 4457 mails/2234scraps.It still shows 4457 mails/2234 scraps but i'll check the inbox/scrapbook .May be the counter didn't increase by one but somehow a mail/scrap was received.It is quite possible ....bugs you know.

Hmm its still a long day left and all my options are exhausted......What should i do??

Ok lets check my ICICI account,Its 22nd of the month and by no chance my account would have been credited ,but still lets check how much money do i have?Did it increase from yesterday???

No it didn't ...but OMG the account balance is too less..let me check the mini statement.Where the hell have i been spending my money?
hmm i need to be more frugal.

Now i start reading all the status messages on the gtalk accounts.I do this so relegiously that i am able to make out how many people changed there status from yesterday.I must say you just need to follow these status messages and you will get real GYAN.You are just too very close to get enlightened.

By this time i find myself slouching in my chair,feeling guilty about doing nothing the whole day...but then i see around and peep at my BOSS's seat.BOSS notices my stare and he jumps up from the slouch and gets himself nice and settled in his chair.
He tries to look fresh and busy.

In the next 0.876 seconds
1)He presses something on his keyboard(may be a alt-tab)
2)He stares towards the screen with his eyebrows tensed
3)He picks up the pen and starts to scribble something on a paper(may be the same unfathomable equation)

______________________________

This blog was read by my CEO.
What happened between me and CEO is not Bloggable... :D

Moroneity

Have you ever been in a situation where you did something so embarrassing that you felt like disapperaing from the scene.

I mean just after committing the act you realize that you have committed a blunder. 

I  was the protagonist in three such acts-of-blunder....

Alright... the first act was performed at the IGI Airport.

Me and my wife were about to leave for Thailand just after our marriage.

Nervous...i was..as this was my first international trip .

Same was for my wife...she was looking up to me for taking her safely to Thailand.

I couldn't have afforded to not look in control of things.

I was repeatedly getting confused with the placement of the 

passport, tickets, hotel vouchers, foreign sims, foreign currency etc etc.

I got into the check in line...the girl was checking in the baggages.

I was looking at the travellers ahead of me to somewhat learn the check in process...i didn't want to look out of clue when my turn came.

After learning from a few travellers ahead of me..it was my turn.

The girl at the counter gave a very sweet smile and extended her hand for the passports.

I saw the extended hand and shook it  gleefully . :|

She was proffessional enough to not look perturbed...and very calmly asked me for the passports.

...her smile made pretty good mockery of me.

I tried maintaining my poise...and gave a very nervous smile to Shagun as if i was still in control.

She made a  puzzled inquiring gesture towards me...asserting i was not at all in control.

I so wished i could have vanished from the scene. :)

Second story....is of this saturday.

We were enjoying the delicious paranthas made by our Maid.

The door bell rings. 

I get up to check who was there.

The door bell rings again.

I open the door to see a lady in her late 20s with a small child.

She is scolding her boy "Beta dusron ke ghar me do baar bell nahi bajate".

This is the conversation that took place between me and the lady

Lady Smiles and says "Hi"

I Smile and say "Hello"

Lady Smiles again and says "Sunita"

I smile even wider and say "Gaurav"

Lady doesn't smile this time and says "No...i mean is Sunita there?"

I blush....as i was introducing myself to someone who was only interested in our Maid Sunita.

In all that embarrasment i facilitate the meeting of Sunita and the lady.

To complete this blog i was looking for a third story for some days.

I remembered one today...and this one is back from my childhood.

Our dada ji used to live with us...

Every night my mother used to give me a glass of milk which i had to go and deliver to dada ji.

Dada ji was living in a separate flat so it took a minute or so...from my place to Dada Ji's place.

After ringing the bell Dada ji used to take 30-40 secs to open the door.

That particular day...i got a whim .

I am standing outside the door...with the glass of milk in my hand.

I ring the bell.

Suddenely i say to myself 

"If i am not able to take 10 sips of milk before Dada ji opens the door...i will score less than 85%  in my 10th boards."

So the whim had set in...and the 40 seconds had started.

I had to take a sip almost every 3 secs.

I had kept 4-5 seconds to regain my composure.

So there i was sipping away like crazy and hoping to make the 10 sips before he opens the door.

In all this frenzy i couldn't see that he was peeping through the curtain.

I mean he saw all my 10 sips.

After  i had secured my 85% target and had regained my compsure....he opens the door.

I offer him the milk...but he refuses.

He gives me a look that was full of pity...

Dada ji with a consoling touch on my shoulder "Pee le poota tu hi". 

(Please Son...you only have it.)

:D

siR Ji

i ThiNk iT was 2008..Pragati MaiDan....Delhi Book faiR.
i Had  recently developed  a penchance for readiNg books.
i Was not iNto some partiCular genre but yes biOgraphies used to fasciNate me.

iT was on a random stroll iN the book stalls when i Saw a book tiTled...iCon.
i Knew a biT about iPod and iPhone...iCon seemed as catchy as iT's other iSiBliNgs.

i Bought the book and that was how i Met STEVE JOBS for the fiRst tiMe.
i Read each and every book publiShed on Steve Jobs after that.
The love affaiR kept blossomiNg.

ThiS blog iS not what i Read about Steve Jobs...as that would be liKe  "StatiNg the already known" .
ThiS blog iS about why i Felt shattered when Steve Jobs left us on 5th October?

These are the three maiN reasons for me feeliNg that way

1)He made me look Smarter.
ReadiNg about Jobs always gave me storiEs. StoriEs that made me feel liKe a STAR whenever i Narrated them to my friEnds. i Felt smarter just because of knowiNg those storiEs. i Loved to see the awestruck people who were amazed by the unusual ness of these storiEs.

People feel great/cool/proud when they have a huge fan base....but wiTh Steve Jobs iT was kiNd of reverse.
People felt great/cool/proud just because they were a fan of Steve Jobs.
On hiS death...everyone wanted to prove that he iS the biggest fan of Steve...and so did i.
SiR Ji ....i Was and i Am your biGgest fan.

2)He made me do weiRd thiNgs.
iN hiS Stanford speech he asked all of us to follow our hearts.
He made me do thiNgs which often had no ratiOnale...but i Did iT because SiR Ji Had assured me that the dots do connect.

He made me do a extensiVe cycle trek of 60 kms iN the hiLls ... just two days before my marriAge.
He made me go iN search of a musiC shop at 10 iN the niGht just because i Felt i Needed to play that song on HarmoniCa.
He made me bunk my offiCe for 10 days...and go on a busiNess meet iN Mumbai Spending some 30k just to meet Narayan Murthy.

3)He asked me SeriOus QuestiOns.
WiTh hiS sudden death...i Was shattered.
i Was scared...i Was scared as he was one person who proviDed hope. He gave order to my chaotiC thoughts. He asked all of us one very seriOus questiOn

‎"iF today were the last day of my liFe, would i Want to do what i Am about to do today?"


May be i Am too weak to answer thiS questiOn.
May be i Am too weak to even face thiS questiOn.


but whatever iT iS....Answer to the above questiOn iS very clear to me.

i Do whatever i Want to do...whenever i Can afford to do.
He diD whatever he wanted to do...whenever he wanted to do...and wherever he wanted to do.

Death ...the occurrence of the event iS totally random.

He went at 56 ...i Can go at 26, 36 or may be 86.
i'M not sure...when i Leave...but whenever i Do...

i Don't thiNk i Can afford to leave this questiOn answered wiTh a majoriTy of "No".

_______________________________________________________________________

Cheers to a man...who made i  so powerful.
iT's i  that he asks me to beliEve iN.

Cheers to a man ...who liVed.

Kunjum Cafe

There is this cafe in South Delhi ...Kunjum Cafe.

There are quite a few selling points of this CAFE...

To name a few..

1)There is no time limit on how long you sit in the cafe.

2)There is free WIFI in the cafe.

3)Music is really good but if you like to hear something of your choice...just plug in your iPod in the Dock.

4)The person who owns it is a ENGINEER turned MBA Turned JOURNALIST Turned TRAVELLER

5)You can go through a really well compiled collection of Travel books....actually the place is designed 

for strangers to meet and make travel plans.

Apart from these there is one thing that left me puzzled .

THESE GUYS DON'T CHARGE YOU ANYTHING....YOU PAY WHAT YOU LIKE.

I was really puzzled at the business model of this guy...you can have unlimited coffee/tea/cookies and he won't charge you a thing.

But still i tried to see through the psychology he must be working on.

When you are asked to pay whatever you feel like...

you will try to be reasonable enough...and pay atleast equal to what you would have paid at a decent cafe like that...

...as the things are free you won't order but you'll request.

After you have sat for some 1 hour or so...and have had 3 cups of pretty decent coffee...i got up to make the payment.

I went to the guy who served us...i think i was being reasonable enough and i gave him Rs 200.

He refused to take the money and directed me towards a box...in which i had to push the money in.

It was kind of Daan Patra we have in temples.

Anonymity involved in the payment process ....refuted my psychology rationale behind his business model.

A place worth a visit... :)

Security

A friend of mine...the most brilliant Programmer that i have met/seen/worked with. 

He is just absolutely in love with this coding thing.

He feels disheartened when he sees a data structure being used that you shouldn't have used.

He feels ecstatic when he sees some well designed and well thought out classes .

Algorithms will be studied for the sake of algorithms not for any company.

Design patterns will be studied not because someone told him that they would be asked in a particular company...

but for the simple reason of keeping his code beautiful.

The Child like enthusiasm that he shows for good,challenging...beautiful code is contagious.

He is so sure ,so sound in his knowledge that you can sense the security.

Whenever he is around...you feel like asking for his opinion ...because you know he'll definitely make it better.

Recently he has joined a company in which he was the 5th employee.

He is getting a salary that people get at 2.5 times his experience.

Company might be insecure in comparison to the settled ones..but he just saw a exciting work opportunity.

He knows the company can close any day...he can be fired any day...but he knows his skill better. 

Your skill security covers up for the probable job insecurity....

I have known this person for some time now...and i want to keep knowing him for as long as i can .

As he is the one who helped me understand...

"There are two kind of job seekers  -   secure ones and the insecure ones.

There are two kind of jobs              -   secure ones and the insecure ones.

Match almost always is diagonal."  

Happy

A lot of rickshaw pullers and daily wage workers leave their villages and come to Delhi in search of work. This is probably a story about one of them. 

For most of them,the family is in the village and they are alone in Delhi.....working for a living. 

They do go to their village at times...and at time it is their families who come to Delhi. 

Just like each one of us... 

whenever they are visiting the villages they do take some gifts along.

and just like each one of us... 

whenever their families visit them... 

they do take them out to show the city they have been living in. 

Sometimes i see them on a metro station... 

The head of the family(father) takes a lot of pride in introducing the family to the DELHI METRO. 

He buys them a token each and then surprises them by telling them that this is the Ticket. 

Each one of them is amused as to what kind of ticket is that. 

A small demo follows. 

Touch the token on the gate..the gate flap opens...enter and that's it. 

Kids are usually excited to try this...ladies a bit apprehensive. 

So the elder son gets to go in first. Father prompts him at every step...and in three easy steps he is in. 

Now it's the mother and the infant in her arms.. 

There are a lot of things to be handled...the saree..the ghunghat..the toddler and the token ofcourse. 

She takes some time...as she seems to be short of confidence. 

She might do something wrong. 

The son asks her to come fast as it is too easy...what is it that she doesn't understand?

Father asks him to be quiet and assures his wife to do the three steps..prompting begins again. 

Touch the token on the gate..the gate flap opens...enter and that's it.

She does it this time.

Crossing the gate is followed with a giggle from the lady ,the son and the father ...Toddler is amused too. 

All of them seem Happy. 

Now the father asks them to queue up as everybody does so in Metro. 

He takes a lot of pride in telling them that no body huddles up like they did in the village bus. 

It's so very organized over here. 

The father keeps waiting for the metro as he wants to impress his family even more with this state of the art piece of transport. 

The moment it is visible on the station he looks on to his son and wife as to check if they  are amused enough or not. 

He's happy to see the big wide eyes. 

If they hadn't been amused enough..he had his believe-it-or-not-facts ready about the delhi metro. 

The metro is as usual crowded ...the people are pushing ...fuming...angry at god knows what... 

Amongst all this crowd ...the family gets in ...

The father holding the son tight...the mother holding the infant...and the eye contact holding them both. 

In all this chaos..they are listening to the announcement...they are even more bemused by the fact that the guy making the announcements repeats about the door-opening announcement every 1 minute. 

 At every station the family glanced at the father as he might signal to get off. 

Finally They get off at Huda City center. 

The boy kept telling his father about how a guy was almost stuck in the closing doors at one of the stations... The father dismisses it all very nonchalantly as this happens everyday... 

he even scares him by telling him about an ACCIDENT in which a girl lost both her legs under the metro.

The mother asks them to slow down as the infant was troubling her and she was not able to keep up with them. 

They wait for her and from IFFCO chowk they take a Auto... 

The father had planned to show them the Airplanes take off. 

He had kept it a surprise...no one knew after the Metro what would it be. 

They were already awestruck after the Metro thing...he knew the airplane take off would just blow them away. 

There is this road which is parallel to IGI Airport's runway and many a times i have seen people standing and watching the planes take off...the observing distance is less than 50 mtrs. 

The family reaches there and the father announces the surprise. 

The sons excitement holds no bound as this may be the biggest and the most exciting story he was taking back to his village. 

A plane taking off and that too at walkabale distance. 

The wife was happy as well.... 

The husband......Proud. 

After some moments of wait A huge Kingfisher A380 started moving back.... 

The kid starts jumping...the toddler has his eyes wide open 

The father puts his arm on his wife's shoulder.. 

The family totally engaged in the forward backward maneuvers of the plane....

Infact there are around 100 more groups like these..all standing in a queue.. 

In next two minutes...plane is right in front of them. 

Father takes the boy in his arms...points towards the rising plane. 

Mother does the same with the infant. 

so do the other groups... 

They whistle...They clap... 

Someone feels proud to have shown this to his family... 

Some feel proud to be wife to a person who everyday sees this... 

While the plane is taking off there might be a similar family inside the plane that is going through the same emotions......may be they are excited for their first flight. 

Or May be they are amused at the people who are shouting ..clapping and pointing towards them while they take off. 

Whatever it is ..both sides of the plane had a proud father...a excited mother..an extremely happy child. 

Everyone looked so same ... Happy for a reason ...that was completely their own.