Happy Republic Day

Republic Day mornings are always exciting. Its a nice family moment..when everyone gathers around the TV over a nice lazy breakfast. My favourite parts are the awards and the fly past...oooh and also the BSF Daredevil guys.

This morning, I woke up to a heavy fog cover. It was unusual, because it was a clear starry night yesterday. In fact we even celebrated the return of starry nights in Delhi over 9 pints of beer. Also, Jain and Sumit were back from Japan..so we just had to do something while catching up. Anyways but this morning, it was the same story all over again. The coverage of the Republic Day celebrations were affected too. We could hardly see anything from the long shots. Fortunately, the weather cleared up just in time. The fly past, which I thought, would not happen were captured magnificently by the Doordarshan cameras. Its a rare moment indeed...usually they show India Gate when the fighter jets are doing their stuff. Anyways, this time they captured the trishul formation and the vertical charlie very successfully indeed.

Republic Day at home is also characterized by my grand uncle's birthday and the yummy awesome Halwa that I make. When I was a kid, my grand uncle used to make it for me. Its one of my favourite desserts as well. When he left to Kerala a good 5-7 years back, I continued the "tradition". Its his 80th birthday this year and we are going to Kerala over the weekend to have a grand celebration.

Although I cant wait for the weekend to arrive, I dread the time in between. I have loads of work to finish and since I wont be coming back until Tuesday, every day becomes crucial. In fact I would be working from home today too. But its not as bad as it sounds..working when working from home, is somehow different. Its like a "productive" holiday where you dont feel guilty of thoroughly wasting a day.

The Week

Phew!..I just had the most hectic week of my life. I was sick, sleepy and loaded with work . To make the matters worse, it was cold outside, the mornings were full of traffic jams and the evenings were foggy as hell. I had this important release on Thursday which I did not want to miss. The series of events unfolded in the following manner.

Monday
Monday was a bit relaxed since everything "seemed to be" in control..however since I had stuff to do...I had to stay up till like 11:30-ish in the office. As soon as I stepped out..I literally could not see anything. The visibility was very low. I had come on the bike that day and it was soo damn cold! I swore to myself that I would get the car the next day (since mom was on leave). I had to drive very slowly. I reached home and had a quick dinner. It was 2:00 am by the time I slept.

Tuesday
I got up at 8:00 already late for work. I was frantically searching for the car keys when my mom told me that my brother had taken it, since his car was in the workshop. I sighed, and took the bike. The morning rush hour made a 20 minute distance to my office, a 50 minutes one. Already stressed out, I reached the office and went to work right away. The day ended at 11:30 again, but this time..the fog was worse. I had to ditch the bike at the office itself. I shared a cab with my friend Subhash. And as it turned out, the cab driver wasnt that good a driver. He was driving like a snake in the fog. I lowered the window and had to navigate him constantly. It was soo foggy that my hair (and my new beard) were wet. I reached back at 12:00-12:30 and had my dinner. Tired as hell, I went to sleep.

Wednesday
I had set the alarm for 6:30am..but when I woke up, my eyes were burning! I stopped the alarm and slept till 8:30. Since I had left my bike in the office, I had to take a Metro and an auto to the office. By wednesday, I finished my work and the Thursday deadline looked soo easy. I went back at around 12:30-1:00 and the fog was worse! Ok...driving into the fog, my advice to fellow bikers is that drive with your helmet visor up and if you can..dont wear you specs. The fog kinda condenses on the glass and it makes driving hell. It was really cold that night and I was shivering by the time I reached home. There was a power cut at my place and hence I could not get the heater working. I snuggled into the blanket but the shivering did not stop. To make matters worse, I just could not sleep. In fact my mind was racing..and I was kinda blabbering too and I was aware of it!!. I just could not sleep. I was in this half sleep - half awake state. I think I went to sleep by 4 am in the morning and woke up with a heavy head at 8. But I thought, today's the day when everything gets over. And damn how wrong was I!

Thursday
I had the car with me..so I was kinda relieved, since driving in the cold resulted in a sore throat and I dint want to make it worse (drinking plans are on the cards over the weekend). Anyways at the office, I had to merge my code in the repository, run a few tests and release it by the end of the day. I took it easy..I had to..I was tired. But as soon as I ran the first test, it crashed! I spent the entire Thursday night debugging other ppl's code and kind of got it working by 2 am. I thought of spending the night at the office since the fog was the densest.. breaking a 7 year record in Delhi. I told dad that I would come only the next day, but as it turned out, my mom had to go to the college and the car was with me. So I had to get back. Anyways, I finished up my work..got it in a shape in which it could be released and went back home. I had to drive at 20 kmph..with my head sticking out of the window to see what was ahead of me!!.

Friday
Friday was relaxed. The day was spent in finalizing everything and the release. Fortunately, since it was still Thursday night in the US, I "technically" did not miss the deadline. I stepped out of the office at 10:00 with my friend Subhash. There was a minor fog..nothing much compared to what we had over the week. We stopped to chat for a while over a smoke. By the time Subhash finished his cigarette, the weather changed!! The fog was thick...as thick as it could be!! We quickly headed towards the parking...got the bike and rode off. Midway...suddenly my clutch wire broke. It was weird, it broke in such a way that I was able to change the gear the propel the bike. However, I knew if I stopped, I would have no way to start again. And I had to stop near the Mayur Vihar DND extension. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get the bike to the first gear and get it moving. I almost popped a wheelie in the process too. Me and Subhash thought of walking the rest of the way. We walked till the next crossing when some guy on a scooter stopped and asked "Can I help you?". Damn...I was literally so shocked that I did not know what to reply. I did not expect anything like this .. atleast in Delhi. I mumbled a "Please" and he started his scooter and pushed my bike with his leg. He helped us reach the Mayur Vihar Ph1 crossing. I dragged the bike for the last kilometer or so and was sweating as hell. I reached my place at 11..so glad to see that the heater is working. I had a quick dinner and went to sleep.

I woke up at 10 am in the morning after a much needed sleep. I dont feel like doing anything today but laze around. Although its sunny but there's some haze. I hope the weekend is able to rejuvenate me for the next week..which again promises to be hectic as ever. I dont mind the work..but I just pray the weather gets better.

Randomizing

After a day of sunshine, Delhi went back into the fog cover yesterday night. I had some work to finish at the office and a daaru party in the evening. Upon reaching Samarkand (not our usual party venue), we found another bunch of ppl from my office. Twenty beers later, I dropped off my friends back to their homes and the fog became really dense. There was zero visibility. Me and Subhash sobered up lightning fast. However, as scary as it was, I have to admit it was sooo damn fun! I was playing Lamb of God in my car, which literally took the experience to a whole new level. Once back, I was too tired (drunk) to do anything. I straightaway went to sleep and woke up at 8:30 with a nice heavy head. I had to get up since the Dhobi had come. My mom has this knack of waking me up. She continuously calls out my name..literally non-stop..warning me of dire consequences if I dont wake up. You cant ignore it..you HAVE to get up..there is no second option. Anyways, in a way I was glad too...although I cant get up early, I really dont like sleeping till late in the morning. It feels as if the day is too short.
The weather is back to grey..and India is loosing wickets! I read Sehwag saying Bangladesh is an ordinary side in the newspaper today. I had a feeling something would happen. Cockiness has never done any good to anyone and lately Sehwag has been doing just that. Though he has the ability to pull it off..but comments like these often help the opponents to raise their level. Its always better to talk after the match.
Anyways the much awaited Mumbai Marathon went underway. Rohit participated in that. They were telecasting it on the TV as well. The heat and humidity caught up to the athletes who kinda struggled at the end to complete the circuit. There were lot of ppl participating in it though. It got me thinking - I gotta start running again. Hopefully from monday. I really really hope so.

Cold wave

Delhi winters had let me down for the past few years..the chill was restricted only to a few days in January as compared to almost a month 5-6 years back. However, it shut me up pretty nicely this year. Its been almost 4 full days without any sunshine. The fog is dense enough to make you nervous while driving. The other day, Wednesday, I think, I was coming back at night with zero visibility. I could just see the white road stripes till a few meters away from the wheel. Left and right were completely engulfed with thick "grey" smoke. It was like a nightmare sequence in a video game. I was driving with the windows down and my head sticking out to try and figure out the way. In the process, I missed a turn...drove into every pothole on the road and almost hit a divider...come to think of it..it was fun and it did give me a rush.
Getting up from the warm cozy bed in the morning is soo difficult...and taking a bath is almost impossible!!! One can barely tell the difference between 12 pm and 5 pm. Its very strange..like an impending doom! The birds are going berserk. They are flying like bats. Its a haunting kinda feeling..dark and gloomy. Pretty cool to go for a walk though..the chill would raise your heartbeat for sure...make you feel alive!

3 Idiots

After soo many ppl raving about the movie..me, Viral, Amaresh and his roomie Shashwat booked the tickets for last sunday for the matinee show. We always book the matinee show so that there's enough time for beer afterwards. Anyways, coming back to the main point, the movie is really fun. There are certain sappy bollywood parts in it as well but the good parts does overshadow it completely. I thought the guy who played Chatur was awesome!...and so was Boman Irani. One more thing that I loved about the movie was that the songs dint distract the pace of the movie. There's just one song and that too in which you get to see a wet Kareena Kapoor..hence, no complaints. The second half does rely on classic Bollywood high voltage emotional drama stuff but the funny bits in between make up for it. As far as the Chetan Bhagat controversy is concerned my stand is that both are wrong in their places. Chetan Bhagat cannot really say that the movie is 80-90% of the book. Sure, the background and some bits are similar but the script is very different. The script writers have done a really nice job and adapted the novel really well. Its very much original. And I felt the movie was funnier and wittier than the book..and hence his claim that the one-liners are all from FPS is not entirely true. Having said that I also feel that they could have mentioned his name in the credits. It could have come up sooner than it does..maybe right after the movie ends and stuff. It comes a bit late..and it would be missed by most of the indian audience..who rush out from the theater as soon as a movie finishes. But, its not that people dint know that the movie is based on FPS. It would have been a lot cooler if Chetan would have been a little more classy. Everyone who has read the book would realize that its definitely based on the novel and those who havent would most likely want to read the book because the movie is so fun. If he would have been a little more graceful, it could have won him more admirers. Anyways I did have a nice time laughing esp when Chatur gives that speech during Teacher's Day. Awesome stuff.

Happy new year

Its the end of another year, which, in my opinion, went by the quickest of all the years that have gone by. Needless to say I had a blast. If I sit back and reminisce, the thing which comes out in Bold is the number of daaru parties that I had last year. Its a clear winner. Never in my life have I enjoyed so many happy hours over the course of the year. The last year also saw me in my best fitness level (in the initial parts) and the worst of it (by the end). I was all gung-ho about my new found love for running in the initial part of the year. I also completed my first 10K run in Bangalore with Rohit in May. However, I gained a lot of weight in the middle of last year which caused lower back pains while I ran. This also saw me pull off from the Airtel Half Marathon just a week before. Its been a month since I joined the gym again to loose weight and I hope to continue my running this year. Speaking of sports, my team Block or Bleed won the NPL, our intra-office cricket tournament, the second time in a row fairly comfortably. Apart from the finals which was soo awesome...I remember one more match when we literally reduced one of our opponents to tears when we bowled them out for 27!! Ahh..good times indeed.
Work has been pretty hectic last year but they came in phases. June to August was my busiest ever with me spending all my weekends and nights in the office. This was also the year which saw me bag two awards at the Foundation Day which was a surprise. Office has been a lot fun lately with all my gang back in India. From the last 2 years the gang had been incomplete with some of us being here and the others being in Japan. We truly realized this as being a rare event and celebrated every moment of it.
Apart from work, I also joined BITS Pilani to pursue my masters. I was looking forward to test myself whether there has been any difference in my maturity levels when it comes to studies. I thought since I was older, my approach towards the subjects would be a bit different than it was in college. Sadly, I am worse! But thankfully I kinda passed my first sem exams with decent scores. I hope to get my scores up in the months to come (although I seriously doubt it). If everything goes as per plan, I would be graduating next year... when I would be 27!...wow!!..I am getting old!
Anyways although I dont have any resolutions and stuff...but I did think of stuff to do this year. Let's see how many I can pull off.
1. Loose weight.
2. Run one half marathon.
3. Cut back a bit ...only a bit...on the booze.
4. Learn at least one cool guitar solo.
5. Save some money.

All the best to me!