CnH!

This is how it all started.

The Lost Art of Writing

As I sat in my training today taking down notes, I realized how long it has actually been since I wrote a whole page. Not taking into account the few words I may write in the occasional greeting card, it has been really very long. How did that happen?

I remember the first time we were allowed to write with pens in school. It was very important that we used a fountain pen because it was supposed to help us improve our handwriting. It was very exciting, something so new. I used to try writing in so many different handwritings before I decided which I liked.

When I was in college, I did not care what I wrote. :P Writing to us in college meant writing messages in chits that were passed around in class. It also meant paying attention and scribbling something down when the lecturer walked by our seat.

I now work in a software company. There. You got your answer. No wonder I don't write anymore. My computer has everything I need. You name it, my HP system has it. So why bother even buying a pen? None of the guys in my team have a pen. I mean, come on guys, you don't even have to pay. The company provides free stationery. :P

My keyboard has all the alphabets and my system has a million empty word documents. Life is so simple!

Despite that justification, I do feel guilty when I read my notes. It is completely illegible and looks like the pen has been tied to a hen's leg. Which is why I have decided I am going to write better from tomorrow. It is okay to be that excited school kid who is eager to have a neat handwriting. :)

By the end of the month, whether or not I become a SAP expert, I hope I redeem my lost art of writing.

The Auto – An Amazing Invention

This post is exclusively about the most common mode of Indian transport – the auto! :)

Everyone, I literally mean everyone, would have traveled in an auto at least once in their life. It is an exhilarating and out-of-the-world experience. Especially on our amazing Indian roads.

There are many types of autos – school autos, those that are meant for school children, but used for a lot of other purposes outside school hours for a few extra bucks. Then there is the famous yellow coloured auto whose sole purpose is it to drop a person from one place to another. They have other purposes too, like school autos. There are also bigger autos that are used for transportation of goods. Of course, there are the share autos – the common man’s most common mode of transport.

The auto’s design makes for some interesting food for thought. It is a three wheeled vehicle. They are generally fitted with an air-cooled scooter version of a two-stroke engine , with handlebar controls instead of a steering-wheel. It can go up to 50km/hr as per its design, but our auto drivers have no qualm taking it as high as they want. It has a small cabin in the front to seat the driver, and a seat at the back that can hold up to 4 people. Ah, but who cares! I can’t part with my family of ten. We will definitely go in the same auto. Who cares if it is overflowing with people! :P

No vehicle can turn abruptly like an auto can. An auto can actually make a full 360 degree turn with very little effort. So while you are driving on the road, if you are taken aback by the sudden appearance of an auto in your path, not to worry. It’s just our dear auto drivers making a turn.

Auto drivers can make some really amazing maneuvers. If you are running late to some place, all you have to do is tell the auto driver to go soon and hold on to dear life. You reach your destination before you can snap your fingers!

With its novel triangular form, cruising in traffic becomes easy, with the front single wheel negotiating the available gap, and the two rear wheels forcing a larger space. None of the weakly attempted traffic rules can reduce the resulting traffic slow-down issues. As a result, it is a common sight to see our autos standing is different angles and orientations at a traffic signal. I once had an auto driver asking me to keep my feet up on my scooty (I had rested them on the road as the traffic was very slow moving) so that he could use that gap to squeeze through the slow moving traffic.

Apart from this, our auto drivers are excellent conversationalists and eavesdroppers. You may be having an intent conversation with your friend, but do not be surprised if you receive an input from the driver. Poor fellow, probably got bored. Even English isn’t a safe language to escape their listening skills as, hold you breath, some of our auto drivers are well educated degree-holders! Unemployment would have goaded them into becoming an auto driver. I bet they wouldn’t be ready to give it up even if they landed a job that honours their degree. Come on, who wants a job in an office when you are earning more driving an auto! Seriously. I sometimes feel ashamed about the phone I have. They have better mobile phones!

All said and done, autos are still the most favourite and common mode of transport and so much fun! Why go abroad to experience a roller-coaster ride when you can have it here everyday! We are, after all, riding what James Bond rode everyday. ;)

Enjoy your auto ride! :)

Got up in the Wrong Side of the Bed?

Sometimes, before we go to bed in the night, we think of the day we’ve had. This usually happens only if we have had an extremely happy or an extremely bad day. If it was extremely happy day, all’s well and we hope for the next day to be the same.

However, if the day was bad, we curse everything that comes in sight. Right from the time we got up in the morning, who/what we laid eyes on first thing in the morning to the poor cat for all it did was cross the road.

It’s ironic that when the day is good, the happiness lasts for a while and we get all geared up for the next day, but when the day is bad, the grumpiness lasts longer and we have a constant felling that something bad is going to happen till the minute we go to bed.

There was this day when everything I did seemed to go wrong. I was so pissed and upset I thought I would browse awhile before I went to bed. And what do I find? The net is down! These are the times when I believe that the Almighty has the last word. :P

I have learned to look at the positives in the negatives, but that doesn’t work sometimes. Which is why I have my backup. ;)

There is a song by Daniel Powter called Bad Day. I bet a lot of you would have heard it. The real fun is to hear its Alvin and the Chipmunks version. It really lightens you up. There is nothing more fun than hearing the song in a chipmunk’s voice.

The lyrics go something like this..

Where is the moment we needed the most?

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

They tell me your blue skies fade to grey

They tell me your passion's gone away

And I don't need no carryin' on

You stand in the line just to hit a new low

You're faking a smile with the coffee to go

You tell me your life's been way off line

You're falling to pieces every time

And I don't need no carryin' on

'Cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie

You work on a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day, the camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day

You had a bad day

Well you need a blue sky holiday

The point is they laugh at what you say

And I don't need no carryin' on

You had a bad day, you're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie

You work on a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day, the camera don't lie

You're coming back down and you really don't mind

You had a bad day

Mmm, a holiday

Sometimes the system goes on the blink

And the whole thing it turns out wrong

You might not make it back and you know

That you could be well oh that strong

And I'm not wrong

So where was the passion when you need it the most?

Oh you and I

You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost

'Cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

You say you don't know, you tell me don't lie

You work on a smile and you go for a ride

You had a bad day, you see what you're like

And how does it feel for one more time?

You had a bad day

You had a bad day

So here’s the answer to my bad day. :)

It's Summer Time!

It’s that time of the year again. Actually, in Chennai, the climate is hot almost the whole year. But this is a special time! It’s a time dedicated to the glory of the Sun.

It’s summer! :)

When we were in school, these few hot months meant the best time in all of the year. It meant a two month break from school. It meant going out to play everyday, regardless of the scorching heat. It meant having countless ice creams with a simple reason given to our strict parents – It’s so hot! ;)

We also understood, or were made to understand, that, with the lovely vacation, came huge responsibilities. We were graduating to the next year! Be it to the 4^th grade or the 8^th grade, we were always treated like we were graduating 10 grades higher. ‘It is going to be a lot tougher. You are going to learn a lot of new stuff. You have to top at least this year.’ And blah blah. Despite all this, we used to look forward to an exciting year ahead.

Now, when we are ten years older, summer means driving to office wearing a sweltering helmet. By the time we reach office, we are sweating so much we feel like taking a shower again. Come to think of it, I think it would be a good idea to install bathing compartments in office. It would, at least, uplift our mood to work. :P

However, just like when we were kids, we still look forward to all the exciting things we can do. We hang out with friends during the weekends, catch up on movies, go to the beach… It’s not that we don’t do all this at other times, but summer somehow makes it special. I mean, we have more college and kids hanging out to comment about and to think ‘Sigh. Was I ever like that when I was a kid? Times sure change fast.’ ;) Summer still serves as the best excuse we give our still strict parents – ‘It’s hot mom. I can’t stay in. Am going to the mall/theatre/beach with my friends.’

I would say, in spite of all the heat, which is what Chennai is famous for, summer is still the best time of the year.

Someone once told me that there are only three climates in Chennai – Hot, hotter and hottest. I guess I love Chennai with all its heat. :)

Simple Solutions.. Really??

It’s funny how sometimes solutions to some of life’s problems are the dumbest ones. Take for example, I was doing my usual testing today. I was unable to generate a particular PDF file. I logged into the remote server box, but it was working fine there. My team mate came to my seat and tried a whole lot of things I didn’t understand. It was getting generated everywhere except in the particular environment that I was trying.

Finally, he closed the application, restarted it and tried again. Voila! There it was!

He actually left my seat saying ‘See I fixed the issue’. I was like ‘Hey what WAS the issue in the first place?’ He said ‘Who knows. Whatever it was, I fixed it.’:P

Your computer hangs, you restart. Your phone hangs, you restart. It seems to be a common, working solution for almost everything. It’s like the common solution for bikes that don’t start – tilt them and kick again. Too bad we can’t do that for cars. :P

Too bad, too, that we can’t restart some parts of our lives and live them again. This time right.

Is perceive the same as perseverant?

I was watching the Miss India pageant tonight. Only for one reason - Maddy was the host! :) Anyway, ten girls were chosen for the semi-final round. It was a question round. One of the contestants was asked the question by a jury member (don't really know her.. a designer or something..) which was something like 'what is the one quality in you that you feel has helped you succeed' or 'brought you so far' or whatever. Her answer was absolutely interesting. She said 'Good evening blah blah. The one quality that I feel blah blah is perseverance. I believe that I have come so far only because I was perseverant. One has to have the ability to perceive. Only then will they be able to succeed.' And she went on about being perseverant and the ability to perceive.

It beats me. I am no Shakespeare, but I know English well enough to say that they don't mean the same. Perseverance is the persistence shown for an action. To perceive is to become aware of or to know something. I can't even put down her answer to the due-to-nervousness category. Some girls stammered a bit. She spoke wonderfully. Only, it didn't make any sense. The jury member who asked her the question had a weird look on her face and mumbled a thanks with a 'what was that' expression.

This leads me to wonder. We Indians are perceived as the kind of people who are always trying to fit in. Trying to be something we are not. All this poor girl did was try to put her thoughts across. She just didn't know the right words.

We are desperately trying to make everyone around us believe that we are internationally bred. Why is it that good education need not be important as long as we can talk in English (That too with an accent. In India!) and know how to act like we belong to the Queen's family? I know friends who use GRE English in their daily conversations! Heck, who understands! :P

If we notice, during the Miss World or Miss Universe pageants, there are contestants from some countries who answer in their native language and someone translates it for them. That is not something to feel belittled about. Accepting we don't know something is always better than making a fool of oneself, don't you think? What's important is for you to get your thoughts across. Using high-funda words may get you some raised eyebrows, but it really is not worth the risk unless you absolutely know what you're talking about.

Like someone once said - It is better to be thought a fool than speak and clear all doubts. ;)

I say, be proud to be Indian and be proud about all that you know. There is no need for us to prove ourselves to others. Be proud to be yourself! :)

Here I come!

I am a blogger at last! It's my boredom that has motivated me to do this. I have always wondered what's so great about blogging. I have found out that for one, it helps you from killing yourself out of boredom. :P

For those who are wondering what my blog title means and what you are gonna find here, I have only one answer - I don't know that myself! We'll have to wait and see.

But I got one thing to say - My dog ate my blog!!