Things I miss badly

I miss all these:

1. Trivandrum
2. My room at our home in Kerala
3. My cousin, Raji
4. Reading
5. School Days
6. My friend, Anupriya
7. SunTec
8. My hostel, MTTC
9. College days
10. And what else I don't know

What I feel I must actually do at this point of time - Keep those memories fresh and start building new ones.

A Robot on the Roads of Bangalore

Wondering who this robot is? Well, its me! And want to know why I call myself so? Because I look like one while travelling (don't know about the other times) :-P

I wear a green scarf around my hair, a dark blue helmet on top of it, and finally a greyish silver jacket. Can you imagine it? Well, its ridiculous. But I can't help it. The dust and wind compels me to make a foolish appearance of myself. Anyhow I reach office and home well protected from the polluted, dusty air. There was a time when I thought that I would never wear a helmet because I disliked it. So when there was a rule forcing two-wheeler riders to wear a helmet, I was totally against it. But now being in Bangalore, even if the government repeals the law, I am going to continue wearing the helmet. :-D

And as you all know its safe to wear the helmet also. The last time I fell, I was lucky to have been wearing the helmet because I fell face down on the road. And could hear the helmet banging hardly on the tarred surface. Just can't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't worn it that day!

So if you find a robot on the roads of Bangalore, don't wonder, its me!

Nothing can stop me from blogging

Today morning as usual, after logging into Google Account, I clicked on the Blogger link. But contrary to my expectation, a warning page popped up. I refreshed and tried opening it once again. But alas, blogger has been blocked at office! :-(

I was disappointed. I could only read through the blogs but could not make new posts or edit the existing ones. I really don't know what made them to block this site. Actually they are doing a mistake by blocking blogger. Whenever I have free time, I access my blogs and make new posts. By doing this, I made sure that I didn't waste my time playing games or being idle. I spent my time productively. But now that they are determined to stop me from blogging during office hours, I have no other option than to play solitaire, sudoku, cinco, and all other accessible games during office hours, spend my time idle, and just loaf around.

Do you feel that I am free during my office hours? In a way its true to an extent. My current project doesn't consume much time always. Sometimes I am free for days at a stretch. But when we have deliverables, its just the opposite. So now don't wonder if you don't see new posts coming up regularly! (Only intended for those who enjoy reading my blogs, if any. :-D)

As per the company policy, the sites irrelevant to the business are blocked. But there is one flaw in the whole process. We work on remote desktops of which the servers are located elsewhere. So there is no blockage for the sites on the remote desktop. So now that they have blocked blogger on my local desktop, I ll surely work from my remote desktop.. :-D In short, nothing can stop me from blogging. Even if doesn't interest the ones reading it, it interests me a lot... ;-)

Thank God!!!

Everyday when I reach home with my body parts intact, I thank God. Such is the traffic and transportation problems in the Garden City. I know most of them would agree when I make this point, but yet there would be a section whose sentimental feelings with the city would not allow them to agree to the statement. But infact, its true and its known to all.

Commuting is a very grave issue in Bangalore, be it a pedestrian or a person driving a vehicle. The number of hours caught up in the traffic is countless. Movement is actually a big problem. People actually try to avoid commuting during the peak hours of traffic, but those who have to take those hours have no other options left. The road works are another major issue. The biggest example is the section of the Hosur Road from Silk Board to the Electronics City. A flyover construction has been going on there since when, I don't know. But I am seeing it from the past six months. I don't say this doesn't happen in other parts of the country, but in such a populated city, I don't think so.

Digging the sub-roads on a frequent basis is another concern. Since the Hosur Road is not fit for quick transportation, I take a shortcut. For the past six months, there was not a day when there was no construction or maintenance work going on at segments of the road. Finally during the rainy season, something more wonderful is happening. Both the sides of the muddy road are being dug. I know not for what reason. I agree it might be for some developmental purpose but does it make sense to dump the mud onto the road? A lot of people depend on that road to reach the main road. But its all ruined in the rains, and the mud dumped which makes it all slippery and congested. People on two wheelers skid and fall down frequently. But nothing is done to solve this.

Pitfalls in the middle of the roads and irregular bumps are something common everywhere. I agree that these problems prevail in all parts of the country, but the number of lives affected must be considered. Thats why I say I thank God when I reach home with my body parts INTACT!!!

Rainy days and nights

Its often said that rain invokes nostalgia, romance, and calm feelings in man. But how about a nasty, windy rain. Well I love rain in all forms. I love it the most when it rains at night. But the hell follows the next day, if its a working day!

From last two days, its raining the whole night. I sleep under my blanket warm and cozy. But my journey to the office on the two-wheeler, in the mornings are terrible. I usually take a shortcut to office which is an untarred, muddy road only because going through the main road would take me an hour caught up in traffic compared to the 15 minutes by the bad road. It was alright till last Friday except for the infrequent, never ending tarring process.

Monday morning, I was on my way after the heavy rains of the last night. The road was completely muddy and slippery. And as I am an expert at riding (for more about my expertise, see here :-D) I took extreme care to ride through. When I reached a turning, I saw that workers were digging horizontally across the road. I paused there for a moment, not knowing what to do. But they simply let me pass through a narrow bridge. Only when I reached further did I know that the road was blocked. I had to turn, go all the way back and take a different route. It was no better, but still ok.

The next day, I purposely didn't take the old route, since the last night also it rained continuously. As I was nearing my office, I thanked God that there were no major hurdles. But no sooner did I see a pool of water which covered around 500 metres of the road. I thought it would be fine and continued riding. When I reached midway I knew that the water was quite deep. I had to lift my legs so that they didn't get wet. In the middle, the vehicle slowed down. I had to maintain balance or I would fall into the knee length water. At times I felt that I was floating. Somehow I finally reached the other end. And when I returned home in the evening, it was raining heavily. I had no option than to ride. The drops felt like needles. I reached home, fully drenched.

But still I love when its rains!

Being a bit creative

My day started like any other holiday. Only difference was that my brother is not here. I was a bit idle in the morning half. But now when the day is about to end, I have done a bit different things today. I read, did a bit of gardening, cooking, and blogging... :-)

Read - I read a few pages of the book Pride and Prejudice. Actually I had read it halfway a few years back, but couldn't complete it. So now I have started it all over again.

Gardening - I visited a neighbour's house after quite a long time. On my previous visit, I had asked the aunty over there for a moneyplant. Today she gave me the plantlings. I brought them home and put one stalk in a bottle of water. Another two with roots, I planted them in a small Kwality Wall's ice cream container. For planting them, I got the required amount of sand from outside the house and set it. Now everyday, I'll check to see how big it grows. Hope it grows! Though I love gardening, I am an utter flop at it.

Cooking - Yes, I have made caramel pudding. Its all done except for two things - cooling and eating.. :-D Its already set apart for cooling. And once that is done, the final part.

Blogging - Made a new post in the new blog - www.readingloud.com. This is actually a joint effort by two other friends and my brother. Started the post on The Da Vinci Code yesterday and completed it today.

Well that's all what I did today. Looking forward to eating the pudding and completing some pending office work... :-(