Saturday, August 28, 2010

The forgotten blog

It's true!! Ever since I started my "technical" blog on wordpress, I forgot about this one. But yours royal Hankness jogged my memory. So I have lots to write about. But I'm too sleepy right now. It's 2:07am and I gotta be in office by 8am. Shit :(.

Anyway, later

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How I risked losing something I didn't have

I'm going to take a risk today. That's good right? But I'm scared. I'm scared of losing something I don't have yet. It's weird but its true. Let me explain. There's this job opportunity that has opened up. It's a fabulous company and the job profile is fantastic. It's something I've been looking for all these years and I have the right skills for it. It's something that I feel will make me happy. The problem is that the company is not in India. If I get the job, they have to sponsor me. That puts me under their "Reject him, he's alien" stamp. Think about it. Why would a company sponsor an international candidate if they find someone in their own country to do the job? It's lesser effort right ? But I will still not give up!! (Because.... whatever!!, I have to try). Well, I was told to wait until a phone screening was setup (if that ever happens). I had to send out a convincing reply. "I must have that job", I told myself. So, I started out with the same "Hi ____, I appreciate __________, I understand, Best Regards etc etc" but half way through it I felt it wasn't convincing enough. So I decided to strip my reply of all the fancy words and formalities. The casual, friendly reply that I now had in front of me was much easier to write and I felt it was more honest. But now I didn't know which one to send. I knew the one I wanted to send (the casual reply, why ? because I'm an ass) but was that how it was supposed to be done?

I still haven't decided. I have to send it tonight. I've emailed both the replies to a few close friends of mine for their advice. I know what they're going to say. "Never send an informal email" , "OMG!! Are u mad?", "You won't get the job, its a big risk, You're being a fool!". To be honest, one of them has already replied with a similar statement. But I ask you. How do I risk losing something I don't have yet ? What do I have to lose? I feel that my reply will be a little different from the hundreds and thousands of applications they receive everyday. Maybe that, gets me past the problem of the visa? Who knows? Maybe it gets me closer to a phone interview ?

Well, even if it does not. Even if they hate it, at least they'll laugh about it, talk about me over coffee for a day, maybe even remember me as "The Guy Who Sent the Weird Reply" for years to come. At least I'll be famous :D :D. (Sigh!) I know I'm going to send the casual one. I like that. I should stop hassling my friends over it. I should just send it. Should I ? Shouldn't I? Should I ? Shouldn't I? Aaaaaaaarggghhhhhh!!

You know there's a fair chance that the recruiter reads this blog. I've advertised it like a fool :P. Well, if you do. Don't blacklist me from your company.

I'm just trying to be me and this is just my life... :)


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bizarre Dream

DISCLAIMER : What you are about to read is a creation of my sub-conscious mind. I can associate the occurrence of certain events to my "awake" life but you may not make any sense of it.
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SCENE 1
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I went to my cousins house in mumbai (the cousin I dont really know) to hang out with him one afternoon. I went from Delhi btw. We spent the day talking and in the evening he asked me if I'd like to hang out on the terrace. I agreed and we went up with a couple of beers. On the terrace I saw a charpai (a bed) and his mom/sister was sleeping there. His younger brother (he has none) was sitting next to her. Both of them asked if they should go down and leave us alone in case we wanted to talk but my cousin said it was okay. So we spoke for a bit and then I decided to get going because it was pretty late at night. He dropped me off at the metro station. I went to one of the counters (and i distinctly rememeber it wasn't with the others) and I asked for 1 ticket to Delhi. I was concerned about reaching home from the Dwarka metro station (the closest one to my house in Delhi) so I told the lady behind the counter to wait while I checked with a cab service if they'd send me a cab at Dwarka. The cab service asked me the time and I looked at my watch. It was 2Am, so I told them by 4am. (Yes, I know.. I can't figure this one out too). I put the cab service on hold and asked the woman behind the counter if I'd reach by 4am. She stared at me and said, "Sir, but its only 10:30pm". I looked at my watch, it was 2am. What the hell was this woman saying ? It was then that I remembered that Mumbai & Delhi had a time difference of about 6 hours. (Don't ask me!). Anyway, I hung up on the cab service and asked the woman to give me a ticket. I decided i'd figure out a way to reach home once I reach Delhi. I yelled at her about the time difference and created a big scene. Then out of nowhere this man came inside the metro station from the right (I remember the directions very clearly) and he started helping me sort things out. We exited the station together.

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SCENE 2
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I was standing in the train and next to me was this guy who had helped me earlier. We got into a conversation about the time difference and we came to the conclusion that the woman at the counter had not given me a "Rajdhani" ticket, which I usually travelled by.

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SCENE 3
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I got off the train onto a platform with this chap. We wanted to find that woman and ask her why she'd given me the wrong ticket. We started walking towards the ticket coutner (and I remember we were on the right platform. As we walked ahead I took notice of a banner which read "Maximum losses in 1 day, Rs 7.54" and a woman underneath it pointing at it. We could hear a few girls laughing behind us and when I turned around to see, I saw the colleagues of the "counter woman". We stopped them and told them what had happened. I asked them where the "counter woman" was and they pointed towards the metro station. We started walking towards it but saw something shocking on the left. There was a row of people involved in the following activity - 1 coolie stood in a bow and was handing over some money to another person (maybe a superior). It was like hafta vasooli (tax payments), and there were almost 10 coolies doing this.

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SCENE 4
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We were returning after complaining about the "counter woman" and were now on the left platform. Slowly approching in view was the "hafta vasooli" sight. While we were walking, this coolie passed us by and stopped a little ahead. He was very old, had broken teeth and was bowing over to give money to his boss. The boss looked at me and smiled reassuring me that my complaint had been taken care of. The coolie gave him Rs 1500 (I dont know why I remember this amount). I felt miserable that the coolie had to suffer because of my compaint.

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SCENE 5
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My friend was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere and then turned back towards the metro station. ( I am using metro station and ticket counter interchangeably but they mean the same thing. Just think of it like a metro station built on a railway platform inside a railway station) Anyway, I went under a staircase towards the right platform and found him sitting hiding his face on a bench underneath it. I sat down too and I cried. I was feeling bad for the old man. After a while, I got up, put my spectacles back on and said , "Let's go, we're very late".

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SCENE 6
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I'm walking up a spiral staircase with this friend of mine. We're going to visit someone who lives on the top floor. I don't remember who he was but I remember being tensed. We rang a bell and this tall man opens the door. He has a cordless phone on one ear. He's talking with somebody. We walk in and he signals us to go inside and get something. We were there to pick up something. (I don't remember what!).

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SCENE 7
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The man we went to see is dead. I don't know how. We are climbing the spiral staircase again. I don't know why. I remember being scared and excited at the same time. We reach the top floor. I don't remember if the door was open or we had the keys but we managed to get in. The man was lying on the bed. (His bed was in the kitchen or in the drawing room). My friend started teasing the corpse, making weird gestures and making fun of the dead man. I told him we should leave and we walked out. Just as he was closing the door, I saw a hard drive sortta a device that I wanted. It was kept on the edge of his sofa. The sofa was the first thing on the LEFT(I remember sides so vividly). I went up to pick the hard drive up. Next to it I saw the cordless phone and I wanted that too. I remember wanting it just because I didn't have a cordless phone. But I didn't take it. We started climbing down the staircase and I noticed there were cameras all around. "Don't look up immediately, but there are cameras all around", I whispered to my friend. He noticed them too. "They will soon know he's dead and they will track us down because of these cameras, we must find an excuse soon". But there was a problem, my friend was going to go back to his hometown. I remember being tense about the fact that all modes of communication between us might be monitored and that we were going to be summoned by law soon. (Which is funny because I dont remember being involved in the murder).

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SCENE 8
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A funny courtroom. A big window overlooking something green. A big banner in front of the window. (Don't remember wat it read). A podium (place behind which people stand and give a speech). The "Counter woman" standing behind the podium pointing a finger at us (my friend and I) standing at the opposite end of the room yelling, "They did it". She was the deceased's sister.

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JUST BEFORE I WOKE UP
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The man that was dead, was already dead for the world before he actually died.
The man was ________________ ( A participant from Big Boss). I'm not writing the name here because I don't want to get into trouble in case GOD FORBID something happens to that person and then people find this blog entry, and hold me responsible.



Funny Dream, Strange that I remember it, I don't remember most of my other dreams but I do remember this one, the sides (left, right) are crystal clear. The dream is stuck in my head. What did I do ? How did my mind make it up ? I have no freakin clue...

But that's just my "sub-conscious" life ..... !!








Friday, September 25, 2009

The Next Government Office

I had applied for a telephone connection at my apartment because my roommate was too lazy to work towards getting the internet connection. Being the internet bug that I am, it wasn't possible to live with the idea of not having 24/7 access to the internet. I first approached Reliance broadband. Their fellows even visited my flat with a humongous square wireless dish. But who would've known the descendent's of Mr. Ambani would not be able to get a signal on the 14th floor because their broadcast towers are too low. So, the only alternative I now had was MTNL because the idiots in my building , for some reason won't allow Hathway connections or any other ISP for that matter that puts up wires. :|

My adventure with MTNL began with my application for a fixed land line which is a prerequisite to avail of TriBand (their broadband service). While filling out the form I made it a point to mention to the lady across the table that they should contact me on my cell phone before installing the MTNL line. She noted my mobile number and gave me a strange unformatted dot matrix printed receipt for the service amount of Rs. 500/- that they charged. I asked her how long it'd take and she assured me that I would get the connection within the week. I asked her how soon I could get the internet connection. She said it would take another week after I submit the TriBand form (a separate application form) and the deposit for the modem. I thanked her and walked out.

Days went by, then weeks went by and I got quite busy with work to think about the internet connection. After I resigned (Wooohoooo!!) I realized that I wouldn't need the phone connection anymore and decided to return the MTNL office to get a refund. This is where things got exciting. So there I was , one morning, unshaved, unkempt standing next to the Charkop bus stand about to relive something similar to the Passport office (see old posts). I went in to find the lady who had helped me last time but couldn't. Apparently, the other day she was filling in for the one who was actually in charge of new connections. I managed to find the lady in charge and I filled her in about my problem. I told her I would appreciate if I could get a refund as the connection hadn't yet been installed. She looked into her software, looked at me and looked back at her screen. Then slowly she looked at me again and said, "But the connection has already been given, your number is XXXXXXXX". I was so dumbstruck that I couldn't stop staring at her face for 10 seconds. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about ?. I asked her, "Can you confirm the address please". She read out my address. I informed her that I wasn't aware of any connection that had been installed at my place and I never got any call from MTNL telling me that they were coming to install the phone. She shook her head twice and said "Please meet Trivedi at the Sector 9 office. They handle all the connections". I knew arguing with her would be pointless. I took directions to the "other" MTNL office and set out to meet Mr. Trivedi. (the incharge!).

Trivedi was sitting with 2 random people doing some random stuff with random registers. I took a seat on a sofa placed on the left side of a typical government office cabin. It took a while for the random things to conclude and finally I was summoned by his highness Trivedi. I explained my problem again and told him I had not received any phone call regarding the connection. "We couldn't call you, you were not home" replied Trivedi. I tried keeping my cool and told him "I HAD LEFT MY MOBILE NUMBER. I DONT HAVE TO BE HOME TO RECEIVE CALLS ON IT. THAT'S WHY I HAVE A MOBILE. THAT'S WHY ITS CALLED A MOBILE. I CAN BE LOCOMOTIVE AND STILL RECEIVE CALLS. MOREOVER I CAN'T RECEIVE ANY CALLS ON THE NON EXISTENT NUMBER YOU HAVE BEEN OR HOPING TO CALL ME AT, BECAUSE IT WAS NEVER INSTALLED .... MORON!!" , well in a more sophisticated tone of course. He double checked his logs and said "Well, they didn't send the mobile number with the work order". "Who didn't send what ?", I asked. I honestly didn't know what he was talking about. After a few more questions I figured out that he was trying to pass the buck back to the first office. So I yelled!!! what else was I supposed to do ? I lost it. I told him that I didn't care about the work order. I had left my mobile number and I should've gotten a call. I told him I needed to cancel the connection and the lady in the first office had told me that I needed a letter from him to do so. He heard me unwillingly and finally decided that he wasn't in a position to take a decision. So he presented me to his Boss. I had to narrate my story again.... I was quite sick of it by now. The boss seemed exceptionally cool about the whole situation and told Trivedi to ask me to go back to the first office and fill up a surrender form. I interrupted and asked what was I supposed to surrender when I hadn't received anything to surrender. I guess they soon realized that I wasn't new to being bounced around government office departments and finally after an hour of painful explanation Trivedi wrote me the cancellation letter. I took the letter back to the first office and presented it to the lady who had asked for it. She wasn't expecting me so soon. She told me to submit it at Counter #1. So I went to counter #1. It was unattended. Oh! what a surprise. Fortunately, the lady (YEAH!!, Lot of women working at MTNL) at counter 1 wasn't long. I told her why I was there and how I was told to get the cancellation letter. She yelled out to the first lady and asked her what the hell was going on. They exchanged a few words and I was directed to go into the managers office. The manager or whoever he was , was quite a jackass. I sung out my woes to him and he very casually said "It's not our problem, we only send out work orders. I have your number in the system. I don't know why Trivedi didn't call you.". I explained t0 him that for me "MTNL" was one body. I didn't care and wasn't concerned with miscommunication between their departments. He was quite stuck up and began enlightening me with the structure of MTNL and how they had a million different departments and that one department could not take responsibility for a screw up that any other department did. I had had enough. I stood up and yelled. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT". The neighbours took notice (my intention :P ) and a few MTNL officials poured in (just what I needed, more stuck up idiots). I created a huge scene till they finally agreed to cancel my phone line. But the ass that I am I wanted more ( !! ). I told them I wanted my cheque at my Delhi address. Of course they weren't going to agree on that. So after a few more allegations, shouts and scenes they requested me to give in a written application. I drafted a quick one , attached it to my receipt copies, the cancellation letter copy and handed it to the lady at counter #1. I told her I'd like an acknowledgment. She browsed through my application and asked me to get a photocopy/xerox. Now, they didn't have a bloody copier in the office and it was almost lunch time (Government office lunches are never ending!). I told her to wait for me before going to lunch and returned with the copy within 10 minutes. At last I got the acknowledgment and finally got out.

The mention of lunch made me hungry and I remembered a chaat shop close by. I ate a sandwich, some dahi puri and washed it down with coconut water. I was refueled and all set to face the NEXT GOVERNMENT OFFICE.

But that's just my life....

Monday, September 21, 2009

The best smiley in the world.

Whoever invented the smiley - :) is a sucker. Poor fellow doesn't get enough credit for his amazing discovery. Evolution changes everything. The smiley as we knew it has disseminated into these irritating off springs. I mean seriously, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS 0_o .

My favorite smiley is :-P. I love it. It reminds me of myself. Sometimes I add a nose, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood. But it's quite a versatile smiley. It actually gives you a benefit of doubt. That's how amazing it is. For example, if you're chatting with a hot girl and you want to get a little flirtatious with her but you take it a little too far, and you feel that she's going to take offense, fear not. Just add a :-P and all of it turns into a big joke.

But the smiley is pretty useless with people who don't know how to use it well. I mean you can't just shove it anywhere you like. Problem is I think most folks don't know what the smiley represents. So here goes. :-P, I'm going to break it down. : = eyes , - = nose, P= tongue. In short, it's just a character showing his/her tongue :P.

:P :-P :-P

I need to find some interesting topics to write about...

Everybody loves the "F" word.

(He he he he !!), What the auck are you laughing at, you bucking retard. :-P. Sounds amazing doesn't it ? I love using the F word. I'm sure you do too because if you don't then you're just a dumb cuck. I don't think it's regarded as a curse word anymore. Everyone uses it, it sounds funny and hilarious and I don't see any reason for people to get offended if I yell out, DUCK! U!. Even god got replaced with the F word. I remember times when people exclaimed "Oh God!". I also remember the time when they changed it to "Oh Euck!". As of the current century we've decided to get rid of the "Oh" and people just tend to go "Guck!!!!!!!" when something Hucks up. It saves time I guess. I don't know man, I don't really Iucking care. I'm stuck in my bloody office and it's almost 1 am. My Sunday got ruined and I'm so Jucking pissed off , it's not even a joke. So, I'm just writing random blog entries. KUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!! you bloody Luckers, let me go home.....

Anyway, my point was the F word is amazing. Do you know why ?? huh?? huh?? huh ?? It's simple. I've gone through half the alphabets using random Mucking letters but it just doesn't feel right. That's because the F word is NUCKING SUPERB!!!


NOTE : This blog entry is a result of absolute frustration and a high degree of boredom.

Go to hell...

Love

Oucker.



Saturday, September 19, 2009

Flying Fish

After 2 years of being vegetarian I finally succumbed to a nice bbq'd juicy succulent marinated chicken leg and ever since there's been no looking back. I feel bad and think about going back to vegetarianism but as of now I'm kinda ignoring my conscience. Anyway, last night I had a dream about a fish. A Pomfret to be precise. (It's a diamond shaped fish). The strange thing about the dream was that I wasn't eating the fish. I had apparently managed to tie a knot around the fish's tail and I was flying it like a kite. Why ?? I have no idea.. But it was quite hilarious when I thought about it in the morning.

I wonder what's next.

Phew!