Did You Know?

That women are considered to be bad drivers even though most of the accidents involving vehicles are caused by men behind the wheels.

The only sure way to build your immune system is to have office cafeteria food everyday.

There is no such thing as a stupid engineer. There can be only a stupid manager.

That the biggest addiction in the present world is not smoking, it is cellphone or mobile as we call it.

That the surest way of making a list of jobless people in a company is to take a look at the newsgroup.

That 90% of men lie about being a teetotaler and non-smoker before getting married.

That I wrote this lame post just to get back into blogging.

The Butterfly Effect

The movie, The Butterfly Effect, was one of the best movies I have ever watched. Completely swept by Ashton Kutcher's acting. Always watched his romantic and dumb guy roles till this one and it was a pleasant surprise. Now this movie got me on thinking, what is "The Butterfly Effect"?

Its used in explaining Chaos theory. The butterfly effect was first described by Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist. His quote: "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?". The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might lead to minute changes in the atmosphere that ultimately can cause a tornado! The flapping wing causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Otherwise? The trajectory of the atmosphere may have been different.

So in that movie, a small incident in his adolescence changes his life completely, so he uses his mind power to go back and change that one incidence and it leads to nothing but mess. Now why am I talking about this? One little misapprehension of my effort in my project lead to a situation which could have stamped a black mark in my appraisal! If I hadn't been blunt and made it clear to the management, I would have lost ownership of my work. I was flying high that I bought a car, and I was pulled down to terra firma with a thud. But I carried myself well and by end of the day I got a pat on my back. Somebody remarked that no one can break my spirit.
phew! Its been a hell of a spin!

The world would be a better place...

if I just keep my big mouth shut!

Its been more than a month since I've put up a post! Been busy but not always, never got anything to write, until now.

After cooking for weeks everyday at home, I'm really frustated. I started it thinking it would be a good break from routine and fun to pass the time. But the cooking itself has become a routine. Everyday before leaving office I think, "what should I cook tonight?". Since I eat alone, there is nobody to give me their preference. I wake up in the morning and think, "So, what should I pack for lunch?" arrgghhh!! Yesterday while cooking my mom's recipe, I suddenly realized that my mother has been doing this for past three decades! I called her up and said "Amma, thank you for cooking us such delicious food everyday, never tiring. I acknowledge that its very tough to be a homemaker, I love you". She was so happy to hear this, I could hear her voice quiver. It feels nice if somebody reconizes the hard work you do, which was otherwise going un-noticed.

Nothing is Impossible

When my friend used to say, "Never say you won't do it, you don't know when you will change your mind or what situations might change the way you think", I always said "Impossible!". Yesterday I realised that he was right. I had stuck to eating food with no meat years ago and called myself "vegetarian by choice", never had I thought that even after feeling so strongly against non-vegetarian food, I would end up trying it. I was sitting next to the same friend at a restuarant, as he devoured a very delicious marinated seer fish, and believe me, I don't often see such a beautiful dish. Even before he offered a bite, I was drooling and the first time he just asked if I want to try, I was ready. But I stopped myself for sometime, still I had to try. The good girl in me begged me to stop, or was it my mental block or my conscience? But I REALLY wanted to try. So I took a teeny weeny bite of it and GOD! it was more yummy than the eggplant dish I was having. It always feels nice to do the forbidden, isn't it? Well, here the forbidden lines were drawn by me, so I could easily cross it. And to my surprise I didnt even puke. I don't know if I will muster enough courage to try again, but now I understand that one cannot think that doing something is impossible or say it can never happen, I wont do it, coz you'll never know what is going to happen in your life and what situations might arise that will change you.
Full credit for the above line goes to my friend who told this :)

Bangalore-Mysore Non-Stop

6 45 PM Sunday evening, Tanjavur express slowly screeches to a halt at the Bangalore station. Scores of people get down and try to make their way through the stairs or the subway. Among this crowd you can find a kind of people who have few common characteristics. They are young, tired and malnourished faces, dark circles, usually carrying a small backpack. They are usually very sharp in recognising species of their own kind. They are glad to meet buddies and school mates and they quickly ask each other the same set of questions. "So, where are you working?" "What platform?". And no, they are not talking about the station platform. This kind goes back to work on Monday morning, dragging their lethargic body and somehow manage to make it through the week. When its Friday and they all jump in glee and rush back to the same station in the evening. They beg their managers, lie, do anything to make it there in time for the 6 15 train. This smart species have come up with a brilliant plan to buy tickets and have a seating, no matter how large the crowd. For this they operate in a gang. This train is usually overflowing. One person stands in the long queue, bearing the stinch, the massive crowd, pulling and pushing and manages to buy tickets for the rest of the gang. Two or more directly enter the platform and alight the train and hold the seat. For about half an hour they endure numerous people coming and asking if the seats are taken and also argue with people who think this arrangement is wrong. Then with few calls and messages, they all are united just before the train leaves. They go home to enjoy one day of the weekend and again on Sunday the story repeats. This kind call themselves as Software Engineers, but not many have any idea of what they actually do.

This cute, cuddly, adorable little thing is a year old now :)

Why Not Me??

When something has really gone bad, when you are miserable, when life sucks, when life is so hopeless that hell can't be worse, you cry out "why me?!". Why haven't you ever thought "why not me?". Why should you think you don't deserve such an ill fate? When all humans deserve happiness then why dont we all deserve tragedy? When there is devastation in a different part of the country, you are relieved to say "Thank God, it didn't happen here", but somebody stuck in that same calamity will think, "why did this happen to me?". Why the tendancy to assume that nothing wrong can happen? Why compare to other person's life and think "why don't I have what she has?". Have you ever thought that she might be asking herself the same question?

Why can't the police tow your car among all the others which are in the no-parking zone? Why shouldn't you have a running nose on the day of a very big party? Why shouldn't your debit card stop working in an ATM when its an emergency? Why shouldn't your bike break down when you are late to office? Why shouldn't your friend pick you among all her other friends, to do her a favor which you hate to do? Why should most of the cricket matches be played on a Sunday?!
We all are of the same species, then how can you be special or God sent that nothing wrong can happen to you? And... why am I writing this post?

Every Day is a Winding Road

If Bangalore traffic never ceases to surprise you then the traffic police are not far behind. Of course, we can never doubt their ability to manage this crazy and ever growing traffic, but maybe they are not thinking clear or the pollution might have got them. If anybody wants to defend them, then think of the Richmond circle flyover. It is believed that it has a record of being probably the only manned flyover in the world. For people who are still thinking "why?", let me tell you that flyovers are not only built to avoid traffic congestion but also to reduce signals and help the police. And now, they go a step ahead and confuse all the commuters going past the centre of the city by reversing all the one ways. First day it felt like the traffic police is trying to play hide and seek. They hide the route to your destination and you go round and round and finally reach your destination or end up where you began. On top of that, the bus commuters now have to stand in the opposite direction of the bus shelter, while the shelter beams with all the glowing ads clearly visible, I guess the advertisers will be the only people who wont be complaining. I've never seen a single road being divided into two opposite one ways. A narrow one way is now open for vehicles in the other direction. If you are not careful, you might slam into a barricade, for which no effort has been taken to put warning signals of their presence. Now my favourite pass time is to find out the shortest path to home, or sit and think where I want to go and how do I reach there. So now I ask, is the Bangalore traffice police trying to test our intelligence or gloat theirs?

PS: If this has any resemblance to any of the "sunday" articles, then its purely co-incidental.

This was taken from a borrowed camera, on top of a hill in Kerala. I was actually focusing my colleagues in front of this pretty tree through which thick rays of sun were penetrating. But just before I clicked, a thin film of cloud passed through us, I immediately lifted the cam and captured this beautiful shot. You can also see my project mate trying to figure out why I changed my focus ;)