A day of high stress

Everyone spends the week-end at home or roaming around especially when your mother has come to see you from over 1000kms. This saturday was an exception to this rule. My manager asked, in fact requested, me to come on saturday and get help from a person of another team. I came at 12 noon, hoping I would get back home around 3-4. Things went awry and we could not finish what we intended and worse we were not sure what was wrong - you always get this feeling while working with hardware, especially with a TI 6416 processor, JTAG card and an ethernet card. Bloody irritating. I have run away from these hardware things right from my college days. As fate (or luck) would have it, I have to integrate the Telecom (GSM RR protocol) code with platform - c6416. Now a new week has begun - hope this one has a nice end.

Age of Empires

I was going to meet my project manager MAK on saturday, on my way I saw the DSP team's STL playing Age of Empires. Though I had played AOE during college, the bait was too much for me to withstand. I downloaded a fix for AOE 2, as it was having a bug - the opponent's will resign if we proceed to the next age first. I was at crossroads how to take this fix file to our home PC, I used my digicam as a USB stick, stored the file on to the camera, reached home, downloaded the file on the system and started playing AOE to my satiation. Now I am downloading the entire game from a site given by aani in my office PC. The site is http://gamez.org.ru/keyword/age_of_empires_2/

Kadhal oviyam lyrics

These four lines are truly amazing...
Scene: The hero who was a blind person gets back his vision. He has not seen the heroine, he desperately wants to meet her.

(Ponnezhir silai athu en vasam ilai, iru kangalil raathiri vedhanai)
iru vizhi ilai yenum oru kurai idhuvarai
idhayathil irunthathu illaye
vizhigalil ulaviya olimagal pirindhathum
unmaiyil en vizhi illaye
kanavu varum pothu avalin mughadheepam
piriya mudiyaathu thirumugam ninaivil....

small tamil kavidhaigal

I take the liberty of calling the following as kavidhais..

Scene1: Saravanan kalai who is working in TCS says he has finished a project with a great deal of effort. My response to his email:

Paarthen netru irandu vayathu kuzhandaiai
theruvil balpam kidaitha santhoshathil
Paarthen indru oru emailai - saravananidam irunthu -
alpa vishayathai muditha perumitha santhoshathil


Scene 2: Saravanan says he will kill me, if he sees me (vadham seivaanaamaam!!)
My response:
vadham panna nee yenna andha nanjundana
pitchaikkaariyidam kai yendum sadharana kirukkan thaana da nee
thalaikkanam piditha tharukkane pechai kurai
periyavargal idam sendru un moolaiai nirai

Scene 3: Worked too much on RR, so my mind was on a jog around the park.
Result:
kathavai thattina thirakkum
vaanam irunda vidiyum
romba saappitta pogum
saappudave illanna uyire poyidum

First coding

For the first time in my life, mmm....sorry the second time I have written a large piece of code. The first time I did was for the Programming and data structures lab assignment which was on FEM(finite element method), the second time is this time. I have written the code for the DSP/BIOS ramp up project. I have written more than 1500 lines of code. A big leap in my programming life. Before I started coding, I thought design is the most interesting and demanding part of a project life cycle, now I have to recant, it is coding. I was opinionated, it seems, just to be a bit heretical.

December 26 - A Tsunami

26, you can’t get a more fateful and earthquake-prone date.
It was a long night on the Christmas day, reason, birthday of a cousin. Engulfed with near and dear ones in another cousin’s house, twelve struck, cakes swallowed, pesticides gulped, clicks thundered. A person who has come on a vacation could not ask for a better moment. After the revelry with cakes, a nice conversation germinated. The first topic to crop out was how Infosys has grown, the returns of a person who had invested 150 in 1992(3) when Infosys offered shares first time. This figure of 150 came up as it was the price of a saree which one person in the conversation has gifted to another one. Had that 150 was given as shares, many such sarees could have been gifted. A good little posthumous sigh. The topic then drifted on to who is the best contributor to tamil film industry, many names came up: Ilayaraja, Rajini, Kamal, Vikram, SPB, Surya, Vijay, Chimbu and even Dhanush. This discussion was going on fine, I had a rather vicarious participation. Talks about Ilayaraja and Kamal was going on and suddenly I was playing guitar and singing ‘The Escape’, the Enrique Iglesias number, to an audience at HSS.

Bell rang. My aunt opened the door for the maid. It’s morning.

Half asleep, I was having a nice giggle with the engagements of the day. No, I was not thinking about the treat which the birthday baby is giving, it was something else. A thing of lot more vanity. Again a small nap. Bell rang, this time it was the imported cordless phone. Least bothered to pick it up, faking sleep I was expecting some one else to pick. It was picked up, no sooner than 9 to 10 rings. Still I was ‘sleeping’. The matter talked made me break the cocoon of faked sleep. Reason, we had had an earthquake!!! I was irritated that I could not experience it. Woke up. Officially.

People around me were talking about the earthquake. No one in the family felt it, possibly most were sleeping and the one who was awake did not feel it, possibly because she was combing her hair. A strange reason. The most vociferous was the maid. Spoon-stand rattled, doors swung, vertiginous sensation, scary. She told. I was reminded of my faked sleep.

I rushed back to my home at 830. This was to get ready for the ‘interesting’ activity I was going to complete at Devi. Pulsar DTSi, you can’t get a more responsive bike on a Sunday morning traffic. Home sweet home.

Heard my parent’s version of the earthquake. Thought some extra-terrestrial force is trying to foil the day’s engagements. First movie along with a goodfriend by the name Sruthi and College Re-union. My next company was ‘the best a man can get’. Mirror. Pimples. Oh God. A bit depressed. Slightly lit up by the hot water in the tub. The best set of dresses I could get. A dabble with Calvin Klein. Ready for the day.

Time was 0930. Top ten movies and home-made dosas. A combination I missed for more than 6 months. 1010. An outgoing call. A ten-minutes time was requested. Adrenaline rushing. Parents were talking with our neighbour, an aaj tak reporter. Water had come to Thiruvanmiyur, it would come to Besant nagar next. I was reminded of the railway time table. Left home at 1020.

A small walk and reached the Sruthi's house. Every one there was glued to Sun News. I too joined them. A news channel can’t get any thing better than an earth quake (the term tsunami was not known then). Offer of tiffin. Coyly rejected. Her father asked about the show timing, eleven was the reply. A casual talk about the Sunday traffic. 1045. We started. Happy. Elated. Vanity

Walked for some 100 metres, called for an auto. The auto-driver asking 60, no haggling. A nice talk about her acquaintance with Chennai. Not very high. The poor soul did not know even Devi theatre. Another Small banter. RMKV, Qwiky’s, Gemini flyover, Thousand lights, Spencer’s, Amma college. We were superficially mulling about M.Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi and Sagar, a guy who used to accompany her to a summer training in some part of Chennai, Thiruvanmiyur I guess. A nice little emotion coming up. Is it jealousy? Is it longing? Is it possessiveness? Reason I could not muster. Higginbothams. Signal. Left turn. People running frantically. Autos parked on the road side. Every eye was on the swollen cooum. Our auto also parked by the side. I looked down the turgid river. Never seen any thing like that before. I have not seen a single flowing river for the whole of my life till then. Got even more titillated. What better matter a guy can talk to a girl in their second tryst. Devi theatre. 1100.

We were waiting for Shankar to join. She was trying to contact her friends in Thiruvanmiyur. She talked about some weird “ahs and oohs” heard from the other side of the phone when she tried to contact that person some time back. Mood was light again. I was having a college re-union on that day evening at the Elliott’s beach. I was wondering about what would happen to that proposed meeting. A phone call to one of my friend who had arranged the re-union. He asserted that the meeting was definitely on. We were unaware of the gravity of the situation then. Meanwhile, she made a call to her home and told the cooum experience. Shankar. Shankar. Where are you? I was not an expectant friend, I thought he would not turn up, courtesy the earth quake. The verb ‘thought’ can be replaced with ‘hoped’. A typical guy’s mind. Two guys on yamaha, did some bike trick near us. A small laugh. My driving skill was lightly talked about. TVS victor, red colour, Shankar.

Shankar joined us. I remember the old adage about Lord Siva and an animal related to stock market. We were waiting to get in. It was 1115. The show was only at 1145. A nice little chat about nothing. Doors opened. Going to Devi paradise, in tune with its name, we had to climb, rather walk on a ramp to the third floor.

Little super star. Apart from the few moments at the beginning of the movie, when I did not know how to react in a girl's company, the experience of the movie was one to cherish, at least till the next movie with her. There were lot of scenes to laugh about in the movie, especially Jyotika’s initial ones. I personally liked the song, ‘Manmathaney nee kalaignan thaan’ very much. I liked both the music and the lyrics. Lyrics would be even more liked by a girl. I enjoy it by swapping the genders. I got a rather funny sms during the movie. It was from Saravanan, my college mate. It went like this. ‘Yedir paaraatha sambavangalaal indru maalai kadarkaraiyil nadakka iruntha re-union Shakes & creamsil (a hangout near our college) nadai perum. Podhu makkal peethi adaiya vendam endru kettu kolllappadugiraargal’. Movie again. ‘Kaadhal valarthen’ song was also very good. We had some good fun when jyotika was dancing like there is no tomorrow in the song ‘en aasai mythiliye’. The End. We started back home.

Reached her home. An expected enquiry about the movie. Non-plussed about the possible answer I could give. Reason is obvious. Sruthi praised the movie, to repeat her words, 'it is like an English movie: serial killing'. I gave a rather diplomatic reply and gazed the TV for the latest tsunami update. Suddenly she came with a small gift. It looked small. It was 1515. We had the college re-union at 1600. So had to leave. Home.

No one was there. Every one had gone to the treat which the birthday baby gave at Saravana Bhavan. I had to wait 10-15 minutes. Opened the gift. A gold plated designer table clock. Honestly, I was stunned. I did not expect a gift so good. Ecstatic. Tried to call her back. I wanted to let her know the extent of my happiness and ecstasy. No response. An equally enthusiastic sms was composed and sent. No response. I was not unhappy.

1545. Santro xing entered. Reluctant to show the gift to others. I sneaked in, talked about the reverse-flowing cooum and left within 5 minutes to shakes & creams. First to reach there. One by one people accrued. 1645. Had a nostalgic feeling when we entered shakes & creams. Saravanan was the cynosure of all the comments because of the exchange of some sms messages exchanged in the past month among the friends. Had a nice round of pizza, ice-creams, milk shakes. Suddenly a phone call to Yokesh. The message was weird. A 19 metre high tide is coming towards chennai shore, so get back home soon. Some of the friends were planning to go to Elliott’s beach, trying to be adventurous. Bill was paid. Some went towards beach, not sure they went till beach. Reached home around 1845.

It was new, news and news for the remainder of the day. Sun news, NDTV, BBC, Headlines today, Sun news, NDTV…Scores of people were reported dead. I am not sure whether the feeling in the mind was one of sympathy. It was something else. I did not feel bad for the human tragedy. A bit enthused by the fact that I will be the cynosure of questions and attraction when I get back to Gurgaon. Of couse, I am humanitarian. Huge number of deaths were reported from Srilanka, Nagapattinam. At that time, the number of deaths from Indonesia was considerably less. Even one of my relative staying in the kalpakkam township had to leave for Nagercoil. 2000. Sun TV was showing some gruesome pictures of the death and devastation. A sad day for the human race.

At the end of the day, I asked ‘how was the day?’ to myself. A Birthday, good chat with relatives, earthquake, first movie with a good friend, tsunami, college re-union. Though my mind says, ‘It was OK, given the tragedy’, but my heart says, ‘Badiya tha!!’

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