Of Italian keyboards and Barbie Dolls

Just signing off one of the pretty lousy days of my life .. Mucked it up from the start.. . Got up an hour late.. got totally drenched on the way from the office parking space to the front door.. Spilled hot coffee on my pants ( and just as when I thought I could take all this in my big all forgiving stride.. comes the mother of all ) ...

I KONKED OF MY IBM T40's MOTHER BOARD !!

Whoaaaa !! For a sec, it feels like I can allow myself a small shirt-collar raise ceremony .. Crashing the thinkpad is not a joke.. But wait a sec. Let me try figure out what I did... Was I in my lets-see-how-much-dust-can-we-blow-from-the-processor mode? No.. Did I read a jumper manual? Nyet !! Or was the Idiots Guide to EChip Circuitry at my desk.. NO. I was just dabbling at something on VC... Then why the hell did it just decide to leave its *motherly duties and die? And it knew I had the all important delivery tomorrow..

Anyways.. the wise man hath spoke:

"There Shall never be a dearth of ‘Vella’s in any office corridor anywhere in the world"

I was swarmed too, and the only solace I could find in the wisecracks was that the average melanin content of their originators is different from what I generally find back home .. The comments range a wide perspective too.. from "see whether we can discharge the capacitor" to "why dont we plug in the HDD to the nearby Dell"

My Italian colleague has graciously agreed to spare me his T41p for the rest of the night.. He says.. "Enjoye"
But the head scratchers are plenty at this front too. Pausa might mean pause.. but. BlocS is a ScrollLock and Stamp means PrintScreen.. Canc is what you press for Delete.. "Kanch" is how its pronounced quirped Marco, the Pound symbol stands for # the ( stands for ) and the & stands for ^ and e stands for { And DONT EVEN BOTHER IF YOU HAVE a special character in ya password.. :))

Funny key locations too.. I thank the IBM ppl they have kept the basic keys the same.. The German ones are even more horrifying.. They are all jumbled up..

One of the things that bewilder me when I view the American society is their version of the zeons old concept of buy and sell. Back in India, or let me generalize it to the developing nations, there are quite a few basic realms of trade which transgress economical hierarchy and allow millions of people to form small independent worlds of socio-economic interdependence.. We have thousands of people supporting their families just by selling bread, or by knitting baskets, or opening a Road side Dhaba, or running the auto.. Every industry has many branches and segments, from grass root rural to small scale cottage to large industries. Here? Most of these industries that we see on the roads are only for Corporate houses. The poor man can just consume and pay.. or serve the company.. I see the malls (Walmart, Target, Harris Teeter) , Garments (Sears, Hechts, Dillards) , Electronics (Best Buy, Circuit City, Electronic City) , Food (Food Lion/ or some other name) , Restaurants (Hardees, Bojangles, Taco Bell, McDonalds) Cars, Rentals, House Accessories, And None of them are in the reach of the poor.. for town after town , village after village , city after city, you will get the same Brands, the same color the same taste.. I used to keep asking myself.. What does the poor do for a living? Or maybe there aren’t as many..

Clothes that would fit a city for 3 years.. Food worth feeding thousands… A thousand cars to choose from just for rent. It all does fit perfectly into the great magnanimous vision America and its culture prides in itself. “Its Always more than the eyes can see, More than what you can grasp in one go” . You have to crane your neck at its skyscraper, gasp at its power, get blinded by its glare, and fear its dark . Gigantic..Plentiful, Awe-Inspiring.

Life is easy. Maybe some Choices are too.

Got blinded by a collection of about a 100 Barbie dolls, just the other day while searching for a gift to my cute little cousin Punpun the other day. I always thought about how crazy and foolish small girls could get over a piece of plastic ... but just looking at each of those models each time my heart filled with joy and a smile passed my lips. I now realize what a child’s dreams can be made of, and how much love the mute idols..,, can bring to the toddlers . God bless its creator J Choosing was very tough.. but I had narrowed to Barbie in Naples.. and Barbie the Dream princess .. waitin for Ken..

I chose the latter.

And Italy striketh back..

Long Time, No C

Sorry Bloggy,

Ignored you after just our first conversation.. Got a bit bz.
Plead ya, forgivance this time.. okay? Wont mess up again.

For my pals, who know all , and some who dont.. or just for the record.

Lets see what Ive done since July..
a) Brought up the project I have been leading since March to a good shape. Have battled resistance, competition, technical difficulties and now am starting to see the efforts bear fruit .. am pretty happy at myself..
b) Reached Raleigh , North Carolina Its been 3 months here at the Candlewood Suites,
c) Visited New York, Washington , Pittsburgh, Have driven for almost 3000 miles since these past three months, Tried out the Chevy Malibu (awesome car), the Mazda 6 (sports modelish but bad mileage) and the Oldsmobile Alero (Naaaaaahhhh) !!
d) Splashed at the Atlantic.. waded across the brooks... trekked the hills and viewed the beautiful waterfalls at North Carolina..
e) Caught up with atleast 15 friends over this period (cousins, schoolmates, neighborhood mates, ex office mates) .. some of them even after 7.5 years.. Did loads of talking..
f) Loads of American culture.. American ppl , movies, series, Presidential debates, roads n highways, malls n markets, blacks and whites, (A) football and baseball, food and restaurants, hangouts, museums and torrid weather (hurricanes) :)
g) Missed my folks and all my friends back home..

What else is up? What else is arnd?
a) Cricket, Cricket, Cricket.. India Australia At Home.. We trail by 0-1 at this stage.. With Tendulkar out of the first two tests with a Tennis elbow and Sourav and guys horribly out of form I think we should be lucky to survive with even a single draw..
b) Two of my friends.. Aparna and Harsh ..getting married.. Aparna on the 8th of October.. Harsh on the 8th of December, Pretty happy for both of 'em
c) maybe a MS degree?
d) Growing a teeny weeny paunch :)
e) Loads of shopping for friends and relatives .. the loved ones :) and some fer myself..
f) Hearing New songs.. Veer Zaara, Swades... also.. old ones.. loads of Mozart, and Mohd. Rafi..
g) Happy Birthday to the Phenom .. Amitabh Bachhan .. I love most of his movies..
Sholay,Chupke Chupke, Amar Akbar Anthony, Mard, Deewar, Kabhi Kabhi, Silsila, Anand, Agneepath, Namakharam, Baghbaan , Abhimaan, Zanjeer, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Namak Halaal, Mili, Sharaabi,Lawaaris, Naseeb, Coolie, Kaalia, Trishul, Shahenshah,Kaante, Majboor, Hum, Khuda Gawah mostly in this order :) The others I dont like much..
h) The first Afghan elections since years and years.. Tho I seriously think , the US media here is closed and biased, I think it showed some really heartening images about the Afghanis ... I hope the country gets some peace.. and some development.. and have some kind of economic and social independence..


What may the future hold?
a) Back home in Delhi for the festivites next week.. October 18th... starting.. will be visiting Ma n Dad after a long time.. and would be back for the Durga Puja after 4 long years.. Just Cant wait :)
b) A bit of planning for the next 3 years
c) Updating my blog and website.. (will tell you the site url a bit later when its presentable).. Over the next days.. I plan to update this space with more about myself.. .. about me .. my life.. my past and my profession.. my likes and dislikes..
d) Loads of excercise and toning up (courtesy previous section Point d)
e) Learning more of Distribution Transformers .... and Learning more of .NET ... (it still continues to fascinate me)

Before I sign off for the day.. I must admit the fact that there was one specific thing that made me write up today. .. I read up my friend Sameer's blog after a long time..Ran through some of his archive writings, and enjoyed them a lot.. Maybe its time.. I start keying up as well. :) ...


BBye for now.. Meet you tomorrow.. (and yes i know, tomrw is 24 hours and not 3 months :)) )

Archan

Its a start...

Well, I guess I got to start after all.. 
 
' have been thinking of setting up my own space...  on the web.. .for quite a long time now.. maybe more than a year... 
 
just to write .. about anything ... everything...    maybe  it should be a diary.. or could I probably just post my writings? maybe the editorials.. song lyrics....  code snippets?  or the current news analysis and stuff... 
or even a show case of my "creative mind" ?? (eh .. )!!
 
Havent thought of how this should look like.. who-all  to share it with...  Do I give this blog a name? Archan's World Right Here Right Now???  (Yuckk !! Sounds Awful !!)  maybe there is something better...
Do I make it a conversational? ...  what about the decorations..  structuring and stuff? What about photos? 
 
No Clue...  will see..
 
Well I am a bit certain about some things for sure...
 
 I wouldnt make it too formal... or even the flashy jazzy kinds...  they way ppl fill their webspace... cos i think neither would quite relate to my persona... I would want this space ideally to reflect me and my thoughts.. 
My writing wont be constrained on any rule, motto, moral or aesthetics.. they should really just reflect my mood for the day/time...
 
And now that I have started it, I should post regularly.. and post anything which appeals to me, and be regular... 
 
Nevertheless , I wouldn't want this to be an entirely personal affair..  My select friends and relatives should be able to view all I write,  contribute , comment at their will. 
 
But the most important part of all...  I want this to be something which I can read on and on for years and cherish for the rest of my life...  I hope I can make this a success.
 
So Here I go...  I will start my journey ..for all to see..