Tuesday, February 21, 2006

My Big Fat South Indian Wedding!

It has happened many a time in the past, a North Indian boy getting married to a south Indian girl.
So whats new? Well, probably nothing new except for, this was the first North meets South wedding I been to!
In fact, the characters are my colleagues and the groom being one of my closest friends too. His name is Bunty (not real name, if I were to mention the real name, I doubt, any one would read this -;)) and lets call the bride well, you guessed it, Bubly!

So, here is my side of Bunty aur Bubly Wedding story!

A little history on how Bunty met Bubly!

The first time they met each other, Bubly prayed her heart out for Bunty! You will soon see why.
Bunty and Bubly had studied in REC Trichy, a college very well known among its students.
Their first encounter was, interestingly, on their last day in the college as students. That too, while boarding the bus to the railway station to catch the train for home!
As typical of any city bus in India, more people were traveling on the footboard, than inside. Bunty was clearly struggling to get into the bus, what with all the knowledge he accumulated over the course of 4 years were metabolized into FAT and placed around his waist and in every direction thereof. Yes, 4 years of engineering wisdom has made Bunty a well rounded figure!
Poor Bubly, she was stuck behind Bunty. Missing this bus would mean missing the train too. Bubly prayed. Pleaded to all those gods she knew, to help Bunty get in and just about every one waiting behind him as well.
Wooohooo! in a fit of miracle, Bunty managed to get both his foot on to the footboard. The prayers are more than answered! Bubly too managed to sneak in, before the bus conductor could yell "Rrrriiittttaa!", signaling its time to take the people on the footboard to their destination.

After this eventful first meeting, they met again. This time in Bangalore! Now, here they are, for reasons best know to them, having decided to enter the wed lock.

OK. Let me confess that this first meeting stuff was a little imaginary(or lacking there of) story of mine. But what can I do, if both of them are not willing to tell me how they become the Salim and Anarkali of our time. C'mmon guys I have to tell a story here!
The wedding was to be held at the Bride's native, a not so picturesque place in Tamilnadu called Trichy. But what unfolded on the way and back, more than made up for the place.
... well, that and the rest will be the fodder for my next blog!
The Train to Trichy! please stay tuned -;)

Ah, Notepad! a rambling on my fav text editor!

The setting must be pretty familiar to most of us, it was one of those meetings, where you are being introduced to the various departments in your firm.
The speaker is some one who specializes in making people sleep when that is the last thing in their mind. And the topic is the value addition they bring in to the organization and the software tools which help them bring in those value addition. I'm sorry for repeating the words value addition in the previous sentence. Perhaps, it has to do with all those "value addition" and "moving up the value chain" meetings I been to!

Acrobat Writer, MS Word, Help Builder, Photoshop... the software tool list was long.

But sadly, our humble Notepad application never found a mention!

"Don’t we use Notepad application here at all? " an inquisitive soul in the audience.

"Yes we do!" nodded the speaker.

"Then, doesn’t it deserves a mention here?", the eager soul again.

The speaker was not sure! And the guffaws which emerged from the audience were, if anything, to suggest this eager soul being silly, yet again!

They must have been using it more times than the tools mentioned above or even more than the total number of times put together.

I'm sure their Run window will vouch for it too... and still the scorn!

To make the insult to the Notepad complete, the Windows operating system has placed it so far in the Programs list that if one bothers to measure the distance one's mouse has traveled over the years, to open the Notepad; the distance Ferdinand Magellan covered to circumnavigate the world in his ship would look meager (luckily Magellan's ship was not built by the same engineers who built Titanic!) .
If you are wondering who this Ferdinand Magellan is, he was the author of the theory "If you run in a circle you will end up where you have started!"

But as fate would have it, to give Magellan his due credit in the human history (which incidentally only studied by humans!), there is an easier way to invoke the Notepad by typing it into the Windows Run window.

To my mind, there is hardly an application which is taken for granted as much as Notepad is. Sadly the reason being the human being's inability to appreciate common sense! If that point brings a grin on to your face, I suggest, you read human history; again. Trust me, It is full of that!

As a matter of fact, Notepad is closer to life than any other application is.
It never thought in order to get one's idea across, one need to make it in BOLD or Italics as there is no human language which lets one speak in Italics (not to confuse Italian with Italics). And I am yet to come across some one who talks in BOLD too!

Notepad never allow you to undo the last 16008 changes or mistakes because if you are making so many, need I say, you are not supposed to be doing it, really!

And coming close to life, this is a luxury life never offers to you. Simply put, there isn't a way to undo any of our acts... then why spoil us!

I'm grateful to Notepad for it never tried to correct Madan Lal as Madam Lolly, nor did it suggest me to change my name (my dad's too!) just because the dictionary it carries doesn’t have our!

I'm often amazed by the braveness displayed by the Notepad. It never shies away from any file you asked it to open. The last time when I opened a .dll file, it did show me the amount of junk gone into the making of that dll!

Notepad hasnt changed much over the years, perhaps it knows "More they change... more they remain the same!" and "all those changes are not really changes too!"

So, my dear reader, next time you open a Notepad, spare a thought for this no-nonsense tool.

Not the least because it will not force you to click on START when actually what you want to do is a SHUTDOWN, as saddled by the Operating System you and I use!

Monday, February 20, 2006

In The Promised Land

Finally, here i am! in the promised land!!!
A land where all craps are accepted!
A land where everyone voice an opinion even when they dont have one!
A land where anonymous far out number ... err... nonymous?!
A land where a morron can masquerade as mr. cool and the fattest of them can feign the fittest!

(i know all these sound real craps, but then, i did make that point early enough, didnt i? -;)