The Separation

We celebrated our second anniversary this week. But now, its time for us to move on, and we will be separating next week. After all, we can’t carry on with the relationship when I am no longer here with her, right?

Two years of a great relationship! What memories I will carry with me! To say it was love at first site will be an understatement! I was in love with her even before we actually met. And the first meeting proved me right. We were made for each other. I was getting over my first crush.

But that didn’t mean the relationship was all a ride in the park. We had our ups and downs. There were days when neither of us could do anything wrong, and then there were days when even one word started a fight. But still, we carried on regardless. We knew neither of us was perfect, but we tried!

Two years have passed now. Almost three, if I start from the day we first met. Every day was a new experience. Every day taught me something new. Every day brought me new experiences. (We even have a foreign location song in this film.)

But somewhere, something was missing. My heart was now crying out for something different. My first crush was beckoning me. It was time to follow my heart. And so, we decided to separate.

So, finally I have resigned from my company, and going back to continue my studies in my favorite subject. Only one week to go, and it will not be “My Company” anymore, it will be referred as “My ex-“.

What I will miss in the company?

- The 4 months training with a great batch and even greater batch mates (hey, I miss it even now)



- My project and the night-outs (ok, I never stayed beyond 11.30, but still...)

- The project parties @ Planet X and the dinner after that in “Olive Gardens”

- My place, my computer and the “Pillar of PLM” in front of me (on my right hand side in photo ;))



- And last but not the least, my colleagues, who regularly come up with statements like this, and provided the targets for my “Puneri” sarcasm.

So with a sad heart, I am presenting the third (and last) edition of Tongue of Slips:

• "We will watch ‘Star of Wars’!!"
(In the climax of this film, Tom Cruise fights with Darth Vedar. May ‘The (F-)Fourteen’ be with you!)

• "We will start going home on Java!"
(Ok, I will start writing the code. Please fill in the blanks according to personal choice.
public class MotorCycle{…}
)

• "Panther को हिंदी में बघीरा कहेते हैं!" (Panther is called Bagheera in Hindi)
(Hindi Maha Pandit... Used Jungle Book as textbook)

• "We ordinary people have different nameplate template than PM (Project Managers)"
(public class The_Ordinary_Man extends The_Common_Man implements The_Software_Engineer)


Guys, keep up the good work, and Best Luck!!!

Roger, Tower, Fleiger is rolling...

If you have noticed, when you (ever!) shut down your windows PC, it goes through the following steps: Logging off, Closing Network Connections, Saving your settings and finally shutdown…

Speaking for myself, last week was my logoff period, I completed my remaining tasks. This week I am closing my network connections, will be completing some documents. Saving the settings comes next week, that’s when I will be “transferring all knowledge” (nice words, huh?) to my successor (cannot think of any other appropriate word)… And then comes the shutdown part. And finally, on 22nd July 2005, I will celebrate my Independence Day… by sending the “Last day @ ..” mail.

The story starts on a saturday in April. Bored at home, I came to office just for doing some timepass, and my mailbox had one new mail. I opened it with my heartbeat sounding like a hard rock night, and saw that it was a “Ja” instead of a “Nein”. (Let me tell you one thing at this point, getting a positive response from a university feels almost the same as getting a yes from your girlfriend. And till I get some experience of the latter, the comparison stands!)

Cut to 13th June 2005, and I was heading to American Embassy office in Pune. Submitted the form, and was presented with the question, “15th or 20th?” Amidst the worry that I may not complete my preps before that, I selected for 15th…

15th June finds me standing in sweltering heat of Mumbai, waiting for 11.15. 11:15 sees me still standing outside, contemplating a (not so) happy thought that I am gonna wait for 2 hours more. Like they say, when in India, follow IST.

I go inside the embassy @ 1:30, and then comes wait for another 1 hour. This time, thankfully while sitting on chairs under AC. The first thing you notice there is the notice boards displaying the news flashes in various newspapers… about how many people were caught for doing something illegal to get Visa. Nice way to welcome people, eh?

After waiting for some time under these conditions, my number is called. I wait in line in front of a window. The ever-present doubt about understanding the strange (to us) pronunciations and accent gets heightened by the nasal infection the embassy officer seems to be suffering from. The fellow in front of me in line gets the full brunt of his ire, and all my threat-receiver's dials start pinging at highest frequency. Trying to display a confident front, I stand in front of him. Then start the questions, for which everybody I know has tried to train me. 1 minute and 4 questions later, come the words, “I am granting you the visa. Best Luck!” and I don’t believe my ears. I am out of the embassy in next 2 minutes, still trying to understand that I have successfully passed one more hurdle for my Masters degree.

So, to cut the long story short, all the dials checked as normal, targets locked… and I just got cleared by Tower for taxiway 1.

Quick Quotes Quill

The Quick Quotes Quill continues its work... (With nightouts)...

So here is the next in series of some serious sayings by our industrious colleagues:

• "Can I switch off the Candle?"
  (Sure, just point out the switch for me)


• "Project program का बाप होता है!"
  (We are going to draw family trees now instead of the class diagrams... Rational Tree instead of Rational Rose)


• "Let's have Bisi 'Balle' Bath!!!"
  (I had heard about bathroom singers, but 'bathroom dancers'???? Balle Balle!!!)


• "Oh s***, my friend is getting married!"
  (That’s height of frustration for you, ladies and gentlemen!)


• "The bulb has started..."
  (/blushes… that was me. But in my defense, I forgot to add the word “glowing” at the end. Still the sentence is illuminating enough)


• "Tanmoy and Jagadish are in different folder"
  (Folder… Floor… Same difference. Maybe I am watching too much Matrix)


• "Air is water with big holes in it"
  (Deep philosophy… G g! G g! G g!)

Any additions???

मौसीज़ी.....

Came across an excellent joke... Thought should share with you... (Keep reading, have half a mind to enhance it...)


Jai: Mausi ladka IT field mein kaam karta hai...
Mausi: Hai raam...
Jai: Aajkal allocated bhi hai...
Mausi: To kya kabhi unallocated (i.e. bench pe) bhi rahta hai????
Jai: Ab C rating waalon ka allocation itni asaani se kahaan hota hai mausi...
Mausi: To kya C rating bhi aati hai uski????
Jai: PL se ladaai karne ke baad B ya uske upar ki rating to nahin na milti hai mausi...
Mausi: To kya ladaaku bhi hai????
Jai: Ab onsite jaane ko na mile to ho jaati hai kabhi-kabhi anban...
Mausi: To kya onsite bhi nahin gayaa aaj tak????
Jai: Ab civil engineers ka Visa itni jaldi kahaan lagta hai mausi...
Mausi: To kya ladka civil engineer hai???? Engineering kaun se college se kiya hai????
Jai: Bas uska pataa lagte hi hum aapko khabar kar denge!!!!!
Jai: To kya main rishta pakka samjhun mausi??
Mausi: Bhale hi hamaari ladki call center waale se shaadi kar le, par Software Engineer se kabhi nahin karegi.......

Hitch in the plans...

Was watching "Hitch" yesterday evening. A great movie, as promised by the reviews sent by my friends. Especially the scenes with The Client are howlarious. Being alone in the house, ROTFL was a very good (and only) way to complement the movie. The kissing scene between The Consultant and The Client almost made me injure myself while laughing uncontrollably. (Note to Self: Movies like this wreck havoc with your pneumatic systems, when you have a bad cough).

The "Pizza dance" reminded me of many of my friends.(Note to Self: ask the friends to watch this scene to avoid the torture to watch their Pizza, Dosa and other dances).

All in all a great movie... Was anticipating a great last half hour, when...

Mother Nature Invades. Lights flicker and finally die down. Rain and Storm visit the lonely bylanes of Mysore. Thus starts a very eventful night.

So I am left with no other option but to wait in the dark, with the distant hope that the Gods of Electricity Board will smile on me...

Now, I live with three other people... Mr. Charlie (name derived from the movie Charlie's Angels, for obvious reasons), Mr. Philosopher (again for obvious reasons), and a workaholic called Mr. Juice (reason not so obvious, will narrate the story behind this nomenclature later). Charlie comes in just before the storms and immediately sticks to his mobile. Philosopher is out with his future bride... and comes in late... bringing with him half the water in KRS dam. Seems he has ridden the bike through the rain when we are afraid (or more truthfully, too lazy) to go to terrace to pick up the clothes.

We are looking for another candle in the wind... sorry, in our house when some weird laugh fills our house. Philosopher's mobile is calling his attention to a message. (Note to Self: Check why people use such ringtones... and that too for messages). Let me tell you, the sound which in broad daylight sounds outright crazy will spook you out when it comes from some hidden corner of the room in a stormy night.

After some chatting, we decide to sleep early (by our standards). I try to get some good photographs of the storm (an attack of photographeris amateurasis), and waste 15 minutes. Then I get bored and decide to have some fun with my friend. We start creating a ghost story to match the Nature's mood.

The story goes like:

Me: "It was a dark, stormy night. The only sound was raindrops on the window panes. Lightning was flashing on a lonely building."
My Friend: "Mr. X was alone in his apartment on the topmost floor of the building, supposedly haunted! And suddenly, the lights went off."
Me: "He started searching in the night for the candle."

At this point, I think all this is too good to keep on SMS, and decide to write it down. But I cannot write in the light of my mobile, and so decide to get a candle and paper to write the story down. So I go in a vain search of candle in across our house.

My friend: "Suddenly he heard something moving in the apartment. (Some daravana music in background)".

At this point of time, I hear some sounds in the house. Turns out Philosopher is not sound asleep as yet, and wants a glass of water. The phrase "Life imitating Art" sounds alarm bells in my head, and we wisely decide to postpone completing the story to some other time. (Will post the complete story in a proper form when the happy time comes. Wait for next storm, which will be today or tomorrow, if I am not mistaken about the weather). So finally, I go to sleep.

The perfect ending to the eventful night is provided by Juice. He comes home today morning, and tells us, "I came home yesterday night. Lights were off. Door was bolted from inside. So I went back to office and slept there." As if we live in Stone Age, with all mobiles switched off during night.