Another day with bus

Today was another eventful day catching the bus. I was not late. And the bus was also right in time. But it was an eventful one.

Let me tell the story from 8:40 AM, 15 mins before I reached the bus stop. Just like everyday, I got ready for the office. I looked at the large mirror that shows from my head to the feet. I know I didnt look good. I just scolded myself. "You should do something for THIS". Again, I blamed the mirror for that and left for the bus stop. As there was still 10 mins for the bus, I decided to walk. That will help in solving THIS. So I was walking all the way and reached the bus stop at exactly 8:57. Three minutes for the bus to come, I just stood with the rest. Sharply at 9:00, the bus came and I stood in the queue. It was good. If it was not the queue, I would have missed the bus many times before. I had the habit of coming to the bus stop at the last minute and joining the queue at the last. Thanks to the queue and the driver who gives the ticket for everyone before starting the bus. As I was nearing the front of the queue, I took my wallet to get the bus pass. Oh! oh! The bus pass was not there. I started checking all the pockets in shirt and pants though I can remember where it would be. I left in the pocket of the shirt I was wearing yesterday. With no time to go back to room, I checked the wallet for change. Damn it. No change. I could count max of 12 pences. The ticket costs 1.5 pounds. And I cant give a five pound note. The bus drivers cant give change. The system is different here that no change will be provided in the bus. You have to provide the exact bus fare. They say this system helps to reduce the time taken to serve each passenger. I felt that as a much necessary system as I know it already takes a lot of time to issue tickets to a few passengers. But today the view was different. What will I do without change. I cant give him a 5 pound note for sure. With no other option, I had to miss the bus again. Saying good bye to the bus, I walked back to my room, took the bus pass, and was running back to the bus stop in a total of 19 mins to catch the next bus. And I reached the bus stop a minute before the bus came. I saw the rear view mirror on the side of the bus and thought it has helped THIS.

Lord of war

"There are over 500 million fire arms in the worldwide circulation
That is one fire arm for every twelve people on the planet
The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?"

The movie starts with this storming dailogue. This is the story of Uri Orlov, an arms dealer who doesnt want to come out of it not because he like it, but he is good at it. A movie with cool dialogues after The Matrix. Thinking of the story line, there is nothing much. He wraps the whole story in the first scene itself. It is just a movie about his life. No thriller or heroism. Its just what happened. The dialogues were so brilliant, that it makes us feel that though he is selling arms that kills people, he is not a villian at all.

More dialogues like "How many car salesman talk about their work.huh? How many cigarette saleman? Both their products kill more people every year than mine. At least, mine has safety switch." makes you believe him to the core.

I was amazed more on the dialogues than on the movie. But there were disturbing scenes too. Actually they were the most disturbing scenes. Killing or to say it right, slaughter that happens in Africa and the amount of weapons Soviet Union had gathered during the cold war were too much to digest.

The character of Uri Orlov was portrayed too good that he is a villian disguised as a hero, but you never understand the villian part of him. He looks innocent though he is the main source supplier of the guns used in eight out of top ten war zones in the world. He says "I don't put a gun to anybody's head and make them shoot." and it even convinces most of us. He doesnt kill any people. Does he?

Of course, the final dialogues were also interesting. "I would have told you to go to hell. But I see you are already in it."

A great movie with cool dialogues that can deceive your mind from whats right and whats wrong.

Trivia: The movie has A.R.Rehman's Mumbai theme music. I was surpirsed and shocked hearing it. Wondered if hollywood copies from kollywood too. But to prove its hollywood, they had got the permission from Universal music for using the theme music.

Everything in a second

It is friday. Hoping it will become saturday soon, I got ready to office and ran to the bus stop at 8:50AM. I have two options to get the 11A bus to office. One is to walk 10 mins to get to the bus station or get a 17 bus from a stop closer to my room and reach the bus station in 5 mins. But the 17 bus from the nearby stop comes only at 8:55AM and my 11A bus to office is at 9AM. So its tight schedule. I usually get 2 mins advantage in reaching the bus station. Sometimes I had even seen the 11A bus reaching at the exact time this 17 bus reaches the bus station.

But today, the 17 bus was late. So I took the 7 bus which stops one stop before the bus station. But its hardly 50m from the station.I was looking for the 11A bus all the way just to find it infront of the 7 bus. I was just hoping that I would catch the bus in time. Suddenly the traffic signal went red and like a movie, the 11A bus went away while my bus was still behind the signal. Damn. in 30 seconds, the bus again started and we were on track. I can see the 11A after few cars infront. My mind just said that I could catch the bus anyway. If it was India, I would have jumped out and ran to the bus infront. No one would worry about that. But in UK, things are different. The doors of the bus are closed and you cant even stand near the door. When we were almost near the next stop, there was the traffic signal again. As before, the 11A bus just passed the signal and the signal turned red. Oh! no. I had to wait for another 15 secs and the signal went green.

The bus was moving slowly and I wished that I could push the bus from the back. Why should I push the bus. I could even run to the station if I can get down. With these stupid thoughts in mind, my bus came to the final stop. With little doubt, I starting walking fast to the bus station. With the doubt increasing more, I started running to the bus station. I could see the 11A bus and the passengers getting inside the bus in queue. I would have no chance of getting the bus if its India. All passengers would have got in in 5 seconds and the driver will take off even before the last passenger is inside the bus. But here, each passenger would get in, get the ticket even if it means searching the purse for the coins and it may take few minutes. After every passenger has gone in, the driver would close the doors and then start the bus. I can see the last passenger getting in. I was running fast and the door was closing slowly. The whole world went to slow motion with me waving my hands running behind the bus. And I was reaching the door side, when the driver started the engine and drove off. No use of running behind the bus with closed doors. The driver wont care even if I am running with the speed of the bus. I thought he even knew that I am running towards the bus, but he didnt care. Its time for the bus to leave and he left. I was standing in the bus stop and saw the time 9:01. The bus was late today and still I missed the bus in a second.

Morning alarm

Today was another day woken by the fire alarm. Thankfully, it went off at 7 AM only. With my mobile alarm set to 7:30 AM I wanted a long sleep before getting ready to the office. Once again, the fire alarm went off waking me up from the dream. I was frustrated rather than worried about the alarm. I stood up, stretched my hands, put on a t shirt, took the room keys and the mobile before walking towards the door. I even combed my hair looking at the mirror as I know most of my house mates would have fresh by 7AM and I dont want to show a sleepy face infront of them. With everything clear, I went downstairs to see that they were disabling the alarm as before. What a day. With the alarm disabled, I went back to the room as if the milkman has been answered.
I sincerely hope that the story of Fox and the shepherd wont come in this case.

Snooze the fire alarm

After playing computer games till midnight, i slept on fantastic friday with the only thought that I should wake up only after 10 AM. But fate always fights with the thoughts we have and makes the reality unexpected to us. So in my sound sleep, I suddenly started hearing the alarm. I was so sleepy but I could think of my daily mobile alarm that goes off at 7:30 AM. With little strength, i woke up with half open eyes and decided to switch off the mobile alarm. But the mobile was not there on the table. I must have kept it in the winter jacket. I stood up slowly and tried to find the mobile in the dark. My brain noticed that it sounded differently than my mobile. But still my mind wanted to stop the mobile alarm and get back to sleep. With half consciousness that it might not be my mobile, my brain was again telling me that its dark and it couldnt have dawned.

My brain knocked my head again when I found the time to be 4:30 AM. The sound was too loud now and I found the mobile. But the mobile alarm had not gone off. Not able to understand the reason for that sound, my sleepy mind pushed me to check whether the mobile is making these noises. My brain again knocked me to realise the situation and pulled me to look up. Then I found the grave situation. It was the fire alarm. All my senses came back to full alertness and I was wondering what to do. Too many stories and thoughts rushed at the same time and my brain was like 'whooa! cool down man'. I recounted the story in which an Infoscian got trapped in fire when he tried to get his passport before getting to safety. There was the talk that we should run out of the house immediately if the fire alarm goes off. And there was the thought, that it could just be a fire drill. What an idiot i would be to think that someone conducts a fire drill at 4:30 AM in the morning and that in a house. All these thoughts came in just few seconds and I was still standing in my room trying to figure out what to do.

I immediately went outside my room, half of my mind trying to pitcurise fire all over the house and the other half still sleepy and telling it is a fire drill. When I came out of my room, there was no sign of fire and the person staying opposite to my room, came out with the same tiredness and walked downstairs slowly. I really wondered whether I would do the same, in case of real fire. Still I am not sure whether there is real fire downstairs. So I too walked downstairs slowly trying to notice any sign of fire. All other house mates have already gathered and were looking at the fire alarm indicator. Phew! It obviously means its not fire. Must be some fault in the alarm system. We took the alarm manual and read the instructions to reset the alarm. With few codes pressed, the alarm stopped immediately. Thats great.

With the alarm resetted, with no clue to notice if the fire breaks for real, we all went to our room to sleep. I had just reached my room, the alarm went off again. I got frustrated and placed the ear phones into my ears and played songs with high volume. The alarm sound was more louder than that and I got bit worried or rather bit frightened about this. There indeed seems to be fire in the house. Off I went back downstairs and we all had the same expression in our face. "Why cant we just switch off the alarm?" There shouldnt be fire. Everyone needed a sleep I became bold and checked the kitchen for any gas leakage. Everything looked fine. It must be some fault after all. One of the house mate decided to cut the power to the alarm itself. Everyone were ready to face the real fire than to be woken up by the false alarm. We tried entering the codes again, just to find the alarm sounding again and again after 2 minutes. We almost lost the sleep when we decided to disable the alarm instead of resetting it. We noticed that the fault indicator was on in the system.

The house owner had alreay got his signal at this home. I dont know how. May be there is some electonic system that sends some signal to the house owner's home or may be someone just called him and he was on the way. We werent ready to wait for the house owner and we disabled the alarm ourself and went back to get some sleep. I was unsure if the alarm would go off again and I waited for some half an hour till I found no sign of the alarm going off. Atlast, i switched off the music and went for a sound sleep and I woke up only at 11:30 that day.

Midnight in Monte Carlo - Part 1

Disclaimer: I have allowed the right side of my brain mix with its left side while writing this story. So you may find more of my creativity combined with facts in this. This is fact combined with fiction.

I missed the chance of my lifetime. I knew its now or never. But I missed the chance. They say opportunity knocks the door only once. It had knocked much louder and left. Its gone. I stood there missing the sole chance of that day. I wondered what I am doing in this big dazzling party. Its not a question. Its just an exclamation.

Until few minutes before, I had thought I had found the reason for coming to this party where I know a very few people and that too not very well at all. But now, I felt like a stranger once again.

2 HOURS BEFORE

I was running rather than walking back from office. The party is at 7:15 and I am just leaving the office. The distance from office to my room is about a mile and it takes 20 mins by walk. I also need time to get ready for this party. I can take the bus too. But I don't usually do that. I want to enjoy the long walk watching the scenic landscape along the way. Even in this hurry to get ready for the party, I didn't want to take the bus. There I was running like a school kid out of his classroom as soon as the bell rings.

I reached my room in 15 mins after getting strange looks from the people on the road. I don't care anyway. It's the first ever dance party I am invited to and I am not going to be late for that by any chance. I booked a taxi for the travel to the party as I don't know the directions to reach this place. The address showed,

MIDNIGHT IN

MONTE CARLO

Venue: Science Museum

"What kind of party would be orgainzed in a Science Museum?", one of my colleague quoted when we got the invitation cards. "Who cares, as long as wine and girls are there" said another.

"I heard they have an excellent DJ there. He plays all kind of songs set to match the perfect mood of the dancers bringing the party very much live", the third said.

"Its a Christmas Party organised by the company dude. With all the money pouring in, I am sure their arrangements will be the brilliant."

"It better be…. I am renting a Porsche for this party's sake. It better be good"

Wow! I wonder how much it will cost him. "Come on guys, this is just a party orgainsed by the office. You are all going to see the same faces you are seeing everyday in office…. Are they….', I added.

"Not the same faces dude. Many other companies are joining us. I am already looking out for a particular gal in this."

"Whatever, I am leaving for the day guys", I said and closed my thinkpad.

The voice on the phone came again, "Can you tell the address again please"

I returned back to the present and said the address again. I was still doubtful about going to a science museum for a Christmas party.

Half an hour to get ready, I started my thinkpad again and started itunes. It started with Mission Impossible theme song. I thought of taking a hot shower but decided against it as the time was less and taking a shower before the party looked more dramatic as I have read in many novels. I just laughed and washed my face. Gosh! The water was too cold. I haven't turned the hot water tap. Returning back to the senses, I turned the tap and washed my face well with warm water. It was really refreshing.

The music player was playing Golden eye when I took my new tuxedo from the shelf. The music matched with the style the tuxedo showcased at the right time. When the song was ending, I was in my tuxedo, adjusting the Bow tie to the perfection. I imagined more like a James bond getting ready so smoothly with nothing but style. Yeah. My name is Bond, James bond. The taxi sounded from outside. Perfect timing. I looked around to check if I have taken everything I need for the evening. Added with a new perfume, adjusted the kerchief in my coat, tried a nice smile at the mirror which looked still awkward. I blamed the mirror for that, though I know the truth. Then my eyes caught my camera. Should I take it? Will they allow it? I don't know how its going to be? An imagination came to me with some well built body guard coming to me picking my camera and lifting me by the collars and shouting "No cameras!" I decided not to take the camera and kept it back in the cupboard. Then I left to find my escort.

"Am I going to travel in THIS?" I would consider not going to the party at all than going there in that. I regretted calling that taxi company every bit. The driver stood there smiling at me with the door opened. I wondered if that smile had a laugh hiding in it.

To be continued......

Even in your hardest moments

Sometimes, I feel so bad that I dont want to know anything at all. A blank mind with no thoughts, no feelings or no dreams. But that would mean I am nothing. But I am not nothing. There are lot around me and lot within me. I cant live without these. But I am not able to take these in my head too. The toughest times are here. And I regret every day that these are here because of only me. I am not able to face them too. Today, I was in such a state that I am just staring at the computer screen without thinking anything. My hands goes on doing something and it looks like a blog. With these hard moments, there was something that made me laugh. It was not a great joke or a interesting event. Its just the team meeting in our project. As usual, everyone from client side were there. Its the final team meeting as the project is nearing its end. So everyone went on to share their views in the two years they spent in this project. And there were only a few persons who went on with the business talks. The rest were the usual entertaining jesters trying to bring out the fun they had all this time. People went to comment on their abroad trips that ranged from Vietnam(someone lost their luggage and had to wear the company tshirt for work) to Sydney(good club dances). And the Manager had a twist in his speech with talking about the happenings in his personal life in the time he was in the project. He talked about his 30th anniversary, his daughter finishing her PHd and his son getting job in Accenture, the company he had hated for a long time. We learnt nothing from the meeting but it was all laughs and moving away from the hard thoughts in the mind. It was a ice breaker. The meeting ended with a champagne and cake. I took both and had the last.

Even in your hardest moments, the world has something to cheer you up. Just look for it and you can win the world.

Aeon himself

Blogging is something that helps you express to a wider audience. Its a place where one can boldly raise views which they will hesitate to talk about in the real world.

Though I havent discussed much serious things, I have put on thoughts that I would find it difficult to discuss with the world directly. And I have pressed so many people to get into this virtual world and enjoy the wonderful journey. A few understood and boarded the ship, while many just waved good bye and left with a sigh.

Here is one person from the view who came aboard the ship and is ready to explore and stay connected in this virtual world.

I know he always acts superior than his age. But I never thought his words are aslo superior. Here is the time himself saying about his aeons.

Aeon - An immeasurably long period of time

Life in a blurred vision

Every day, I wake up with the thought, why cant it just become the night again. Why not I can just skip the day time. I wished I can be a vampire who sleeps all day, nothing to care about even if he is killed. I just wish I dont have to face this world..... all at the same time. Many persons think that being in onsite is a luxury. And they are right. Its a luxury of adding more money to your pocket. But what they dont know is being away from all that you care. With everyday here, I get a lot more challenges or lot more difficulties that keeps me away from my personal work. I am pulled away from persons I care the most, the persons who care about me the most and those who are always with me especially at bad times. Here I am typing a blog not to connect to the outer world, but to my own friends whom I could have told all the same directly. Time was dragged away from me. I could hold on to a few time personally. And with the work growing more, the time I think about myself keeps on decreasing. I stopped thinking about my future life. All became a blur. In the blurred vision like a ice sheet deposited on the glass, i am able to wipe a part of it and see the world through it. And it was only the project. My personal life is still covered by ice. I can see some images or actually faces behind the ice covered glass. But I cant check them yet. There is still the project running on and I wont be able to keep the whole glass clean. Let me clean them slowly. I have taken the work now. Let the rest wait and we all pray that sun shines soon and everything will be fine.

Hot cross buns

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns

This is a nice rhyme that I like so much and used to rhyme it when I was a kid. This rhyme was so interesting to me that I imagined a lot of hot cross buns but had never tasted it before until yesterday. That was the moment, I lost the liking towards it. I didnt like the taste at all. It smells different and i hate the taste. One bite and I kept it away. May be, I had imagined a lot about this but actually found it to be just a fruit bun with some cherries or raisins in it. I hate christmas cakes mainly because it has lot of raisins. This looks the same. More to loose when more you expect.

Hot cross buns!!