Gods play with your Samsonite number lock

I have been a computer hacker breaking into the college intranet portal when I was denied access to C++ training material. With little digging in the internet, I got what I wanted. Actually I got bit more than what I wanted. And from then on, not that I considered myself a pro hacker but out spoke myself as the Neo. I guess that was geekier than being a hacker. Anyway, today I was more than a superficial Neo for the lock I hacked helped me in the real world. There I was trying to pack my luggage for the trip to India. And if you plan something, God would have planned something else to make your time... a little more interesting. And there He did by locking the number lock to my Samsonite hard case luggage for which I do not remember the combination. Now I have two choices. 1. Carry the 50 pound luggage to a locksmith to get it opened or 2. Try all 1000 possible combinations using the next 3 hours of this already shorter Sunday evening. I did spent 20 minutes of my time with the second option with no luck. So looking at Google chrome, reminded me of the other option. Why not ask our ever helping friend Google, a simple question "How to unlock Samsonite number lock?" And so I did to get the answer in simple steps. All you need is a torch light and a sharp eye.

PS: The below text is taken from http://www.fixya.com/support/t232042-unlock_samsonite_lock and the text is mentioned to be reply from the BagLord Samsonite Himself.

Dear Sir/Madam:
The following are the lock picking instructions you requested from Samsonite Consumer Relations.
1. Position the luggage so that the numbers on the wheel are right-side-up as they face you and set all three wheels to '0'.
2. Starting with the wheel on the left, to the right of the wheel, look into the narrow space between the right side of the wheel and the body of the lock. Look down into the shaft. (If you have a safety pin, straight pin, or thin nail file, place that in the narrow space.)
3. While looking down into the shaft, rotate the wheel slowly. You are looking for an indentation (a square notch). When you find the indentation, stop and write the number down. (If you are using a tool, the tool will fall into the indentation.)
4. Follow the process for the remaining two wheels.
5. Try to open the piece of luggage.
6. If the luggage still will not open, please try the following: a) If the number on the wheel is over 5, subtract 5 from the number showing. For example, if the number showing is 8 turn the wheel to 3 because 8-5=3.
b) If the number is under 5, add 5 to the number showing. For example if the number showing is 2 turn the wheel to 7 because 2+5=7. The numbers showing on the wheels will be your combination.
If you still have a problem with the combination lock, contact the nearest authorized repair center to your zip code for repair assistance. Our warranty and repair information can be viewed at http://www.samsonite.com under the heading "Customer Service Repair Centers" for your reference.
We appreciate your loyalty and will continue to design products that are reliable business or travel companions.

Thanks to you Samsonite for telling your little secret on breaking your own code. And I really mean it. Now if you are wondering what the combination to my luggage was, looks like I was blaming the wrong guy for messing up my mind.

Its a Fresh start.... once again

Happy New Year guys and girls!. A fresh year has started. Time to bring back the resolutions you lost in the previous year and new ones that you might want to add to the list that you would be lost before the next year. Am I starting my first post of the year in a sorrowful tone? Why so negative? Yeah! Why am I being so negative? Let’s start again. Time to fresh start your resolutions that you will try hard to maintain till the start of next year. That’s better I think. Good. I think this is the first New Year eve that went away without much excitement except few calls from friends and home. The year changed while I was in my home watching TV and talking to friends. No shouts or fireworks to welcome the year. But it was good. It was good to feel the New Year eve to be just another day and what’s better than starting the year with sitting on the couch and watching your favorite movie (The Dark Knight) on the TV. It is like blessing for a relaxed and peaceful year ahead. And So I slept very early in the night around 12:30 AM which is early even for any other day for me.
Believe me when I say I woke up early at 7:30 AM. And it was not to switch off the alarm and to get back to sleep. I really did wake up 7:30 AM and made few calls. But then, I went back to sleep. Another sign of a peaceful year ahead I think. So after relaxing and comfortable sleep, the New Year started truly at around 11 AM with more phone calls, Google chats and orkut scraps. Funny but common was wishing "Happy Birthday" instead of the Happy New Year". May be it should be considered as wishing the birth of the year 2009. So all went well including having work on a holiday and few interesting mails between the DBAs, developers and support that is always fun to watch. And if all these seem so normal for any other day, the blast was the Project party at Zuma Fun center in the evening. Visit the site and you will know what fun it promised.... for the kids. Now visit this photo album and you will know how great we were ... as kids. A perfect start for the New Year indeed.

There is always a wrong time

It is always on the wrong times you try to do the right things. And it is always the insignificant and the most immaterial tasks that get in your mind when the whole world is waiting for you to press the launch button. For example, consider this. I had been idle in the blogging world for about a month when so many things happened around me that deserve lot more reasons to speak out but I went on to be silent not even showing a sign of my presence. And here I am writing a post when I have nothing to say. Is this a defect inside my brain that always restricts me from being useful? Is it a special character of me that whenever I find something important and urgent to be taken care of, my mind becomes agitated and works hard to find something irrelevant and irresponsible that can wait forever but would flip the priority plugs in my brain to take up the unimportant one. Even when I want to change myself and do something useful, my thoughts points me to find reasons why I am not doing what I wanted to do in the first place and thereby makes me lose the precious time and I end up thinking of things I could have thought but not thought because of the thought I was thinking. I think I am still thinking of the same thought.
So to make anything fruitful to get out of this post, I will list down the thoughts that never got penned down or never got completed to enter my blog.

1. “I am a Mac and a PC” – True to Apple’s ads, the practical proof that installing windows in a Macbook is a cakewalk. Equipped with my roommate’s new Macbook, I installed Microsoft XP Professional as a secondary operating system in 2 hours. “Windows in Mac?” you might ask. And guess what? I even saw the blue installation screen of windows on the cute Macbook. It was an odd experience.
   
2. Mumbai under attack – The most terrifying event that shook the country for three days and left 180 dead and several injured. Not to forget the horrifying thought of 10 terrorists armed with automatic submachine guns and a huge backpack full of ammo and grenades could enter the country through the sea so easily and no intelligence agency had a clue of the terrorist strike. While saluting the bravery of the Indian Police and Army Commandoes who fought and many of those who gave their lives to save thousands in the fight, it was shameful and questionable on the preparedness of India against terror attacks which it has seen many times in the near past. 10 hours delay for the army to reach the spot leaving the Police with Lee Enfield rifles and pistols battle the terrorists firing with AK-47 and three days for the army commandos and ATS unit to end the battle angers and question the efficiency of the Indian civil and military protection forces.
   
3. Mission XOV – Ironic it might seem, it is hundred times difficult to install XP as a secondary operating system over VISTA than installing XP over Mac OS X. When I was able to achieve the latter in simple steps, the thought of installing XP in Vista-invaded Gateway Laptop sprang in my mind and the mission XP Over Vista(XOV) went over 4 days trying to find the XP drivers for all components to keep my laptop usable. Even with the help of similar minded people who had gone through the same exercise in the past, the mission ending successfully but the objective remained unclear as the laptop gets overheated fast and was hanging very often. You can learn more from my tweets are http://www.twitter.com/injey.
   
4. Rolling the cubicle dice – The last few months at work deserves a long post owing to the varied experiences on the new development project from handling the pesky offshore to the overriding manager who doesn’t understand the root cause of the problems but believes the wrong answer to be the right solution and talking with the political peer putting you in struggle for words and always demands carefully crafted sentences to avoid getting blames on things that are not really your fault. With all the tough tasks and adding my laziness and craziness there was no surprise but shock and despair that this year’s appraisal was a disaster.
   
5. Shopping on Thanksgiving – The festival of gratitude turned out to be a shopper’s arena as usual and for the first time, I became part of it. With the economy digging deep towards the earth’s core, the stores of the whole US Nation stood up and struggled to make money with the biggest sale event of the year. Still not effective due to the slump sales on the Thanksgiving Day, the single day sale got extended for a week with attractive prices in everything that you can imagine. Though I could not stand out with the crowd in the night, I was lucky enough to steal some deals online including $400 off of a Sony laptop, a hard disk and few more computer accessories and clothes that thinned my credit cards by at least $1500. There is still Christmas coming up and the retail stores are trying their best to make some sales. Never to be feared when I am here.

Lot more to come but I have to stop it here as it is starting to make sense and my mind doesn’t like it at all.

Double the surprise on a birthday!

There are lots of various surprises you can throw at a birthday party. You could invite someone that the b'day star does not expect; gift with something from their wish list; write a poem (only for your girl/boy friend); or even take them out to a place that they like the most. But these are to know how good you are. It is like writing a proof to say you are a 'nice' guy or 'lovely' girl. There is another category of bringing surprises which actually would shock the b’day star. And that could be "make them bath on rotten eggs and tomatoes; beat them to hell in the name of birthday bumps or make them sing in front of everyone knowing that a donkey can sing better. If I am given the power to throw one of these two extreme types of surprise, I would definitely want them to experience the second type. But yeah, my good heart mostly wins over the evil mind and would make me do something good which many of you might have experienced. I just want to let you know my intentions on your birthdays were spoiled by my good heart.
Now, coming to the event which is already overdue by 2 to 3 weeks in my blog, this is the birthday celebration of Satman. Getting to know about the birth date only a day before, I could not order a custom cake probably with my evil mind's work on it. But still, I wanted something to be different on the day. Being the main guys to trouble him in this town, it would be pretty obvious that there would be a birthday cake and all his friends would be invited. So after much thought, we finally decided upon the surprise to make sure that there will be no surprise and sent an IM message saying "If you don’t have any plans tonight, we will plan for your surprise party". And so on the night of October the 3rd, we consulted with him on whom to invite and what cake to order which turned out to be cheesecake. "Yuck!" said Vinayak and "I want chocolate cake" shouted back Srikanth. So when we went to our usual "Coldstone creamery" where people have started to identify us easily owing to the previous two birthday cakes we ordered in the past one month, we had tough time choosing the flavor. I sometimes wonder if Vinayak hates the word "cheese" more than the real cheese. And as everyone knows, Srikanth is a pretty tough guy (in a good way) once he decides on what he wants. With my good heart asking for Satman's favorite Cheesecake and Srikanth's thick stomach longing for the chocolate, we ended up doing what we have never done before. Also, we did the stupidest act in buying candles on the way back home. Before you can be all judgmental, please be assured that my good heart tried hard not to accept Srikanth's crazy ideas on both cake and the candles. My evil mind was all in glory and laughing happily when we reached home and prepared for the birthday party.
As if surprise never forgets to surprise, Satman was surprised with his two cakes on his 116th birthday which as per Srikanth should be read as twenty-six.

Click here to find the surprise

Soccer Weekend

Thanks to Srikanth for the new HD projector and Satman's love for Soccer and my passion for video games, we were able to set up a big screen Soccer Arena this weekend. Though the last time I played real football was during my high school days, (I lost every game) and if you do not consider the tiny guys hitting the plastic ball in our office diner (Foosball), this is a huge advancement in my sports interest. And the game play of "Winning Eleven 9" also known as "Pro Evolution Soccer" is very exciting and way better than the weak and "more-for-looks" EA FIFA titles. Not only did I hit my first goal in my first game, I won 5 games so far even against Satman who have mastered the game for years. Now, will it make this any less if I say that I won all the games through penalty shootouts? Who cares? I won. Didn't I?
I have decided to put some effort on training lessons to improve my skills. Satman, be prepared to be challenged soon!

Best "buy" from Best Buy

I know that I told a lot about being a desi. But before I begin, please be clear that I did not pull a "desi" though Satman and Srikanth can be categorized as one. This started a week back when Satman called one evening and asked for my home address and verified whether I have a cable connection at home. Though I had a doubt whether he is going to gift us a free cable connection even though my birthday is very far away, I put away that thought knowing that I might be forced to buy a new TV if we get a cable connection. When Me and Srikanth met him in Best Buy, one of America's largest electronics store chain who have absolutely no idea of what they are selling and might even say 250GB hard drive computer is faster than 160GB computer, he was acting secretive and behaved like a secret agent making unfocussed eye contacts and speaking in a low voice as if we are "watched". He was not ready to disclose his intentions even after asking him. His face appeared as if he have stolen a 55" HDTV and was wondering how to hide it in the pocket. Not able to understand what it was all about, we just waited for an hour and finally found that he pulled a "desi". The unintelligent BestBuy guys have priced a Gateway laptop at 520 which is actually sold at 800 bucks in their online store. Now getting the news from his friend, Satman had made a hush-hush purchase of the laptop and came out victorious. Now this is not the entire news. BestBuy also has an offer of $100 off on your laptop if you get a broadband connection from them. And this is where the "Desi" mind came to act. The 520 dollars laptop became just 420 when bought with an Internet connection. And guess what. You can terminate the Broadband connection as soon as billing completes. And that is what I call a "Desi buy".
Hearing the amazing deal, Srikanth too pulled a "Desi" and came out with a laptop for his own on the same day.
One must understand that no laws or rules were crossed in this deal. The wrong pricing was a mistake by the Best Buy store and they had no intention of correcting it even though the mistake was pointed directly on their website by some users. And even the broadband connection was terminated legally by the helpdesk.
So after watching this for a week and when the news reached that the price was corrected in the store but in the wrong direction from 520 to 440 dollars, I too had no hesitation in pulling off the deal. But as I mentioned in the start, I did not pull it in "Desi style" for my mind could not find any justifiable reason for taking the broadband connection and canceling it just to benefit from the offer. But still 480 (incl. taxes) for a laptop with configuration Intel Core 2 Duo 5750 2GHz processor, 4GB RAM and ATI HD2600 512MB graphics card is not a deal but a steal.

GM diet on the air - Emergency Curfew on food!

I hereby declare a emergency curfew on all talks that involves the deliciousness of food especially cakes, ice creams and deep fried chicken for the next four days.
This is put in place to restrict the temptations of breaking my GM diet planned for this week. Not having any troubles following the diet plan in the second week of August, I decided to try it for a week this September too. But I must admit, it is getting difficult this time. Probably it was easier last time as one another person joined me in the diet and we had each other for support. But as I am trying it alone this time, any talk on creamy donuts or spicy masala curries is tempting me to write an exception to have limited quantity of junk food against the rule. But as Neo replies to Smith's question "Why not give up?", I say the same. "Because I chose to". So here I am fighting to up hold the law and control my mind. And I smell victory and not the cod fish at hand.

I actually wrote about the struggle and experiences from the first week, but somehow did not post it before. Boy! Am I proud to say that I reduced about 7 pounds in the first week!
>>Click here to read more

Not able to withstand the continuous criticism on my recent photographs and the fact that the weighing machine is spinning fast when I stand on it, I decided to take the sour pill of dieting. I have also tried few other ways of reducing my own personal punch bag through Gym and Apple Cider Vinegar but there are many obstacles in it. I am unable to go to gym regularly due to the legal necessity of a driving license to drive the car. And the intolerable Apple Cider Vinegar tastes more like Vinegar than Apple. Probably they added it in a proportion of 1:100000. It is the most awful syrup I have ever tasted. Even the tablet equivalent of the syrup did not make any difference. Fed up with these failed attempts, it was time to do the diet way. Contrary to many people's belief, dieting is not stopping to eat, but eating the right food. And searching for the best diet plan, I finally landed up on this GM diet.

GM diet was developed for employees and dependents of General Motors, Inc. I couldn't understand the connection between fitness and automobiles. But reading that the plan was designed in the year 1985 makes you amaze at the Employee relations program by GM.
Coming to the point, GM diet is a week program with food limited by type and not on quantity every day. For the details about the GM diet, please refer here.

Now let’s take a look at my day to day experience in GM diet.

Day 0: A diet plan for 7 days that has mostly vegetables and fruits kinda scares me out. It might be because I am used to having them between the actual meals. So taking them as the actual meal raised my eyebrows a lot. But with strong determination, I prepared myself for the diet. I enjoyed myself with delicious idlis, masala dosa, medhu vada and spicy noodles at Udipi for brunch and dose of Spinach sauce dipped tortillas, chicken wrap and grilled herb chicken at Applebee’s for dinner. One week of dieting was compensated the day before itself.
Physical state: Strong and burping after heavy dinner
Mental state: Thrilled to start the diet

Day 1: All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing three lbs. on first day are very good.

Watermelon being a favorite to me, the day started happily with watermelon in a 1 liter container for breakfast and 2 liters for lunch. Towards the evening, the stomach started showing its anger of not getting bread and cheese for the day. But I somehow controlled it by drinking a lot of water whenever the hunger tried to start. Had another liter size of Watermelon and half-a-liter container of cantaloupe for dinner. The toughest part was ordering a pizza for my flat mates and unable to taste it.
Physical state: Still strong and healthy with very less fatigue but no change in weight. The scale stills spins to an alarming position.
Mental state: Facing the challenge of avoiding junk food. Not much trouble though.

Day 2: All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Potatoes for breakfast??? What kind of diet is this anyway? But followed it heartily. Got a baking potato and micro waved it as I had no patience and time for baking it in oven for an hour. I was able to eat one whole baked potato which tasted better after adding a pinch of salt in the second half. Took a packet of Baby carrots for lunch which is the strangest meal I ever had. Like Bugs Bunny I happened to talk to the colleagues munching my carrot all the way. I was getting a bit hungry towards the night but was saved by steamed mixed vegetables with seasoning.
Physical state: Still no sign of weight decrease.
Mental state: Interesting. Everyone is talking about the diet plan. That made me feels motivated.


Day 3: A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Work was hectic and the day started with no breakfast. But no tiredness. Felt like my body was getting used to the diet. I had 1 liter container of Watermelon for lunch and a cucumber in the evening. Today brought the greatest test ever over my determination. We went to Cold stone creamery and got "Midnight delight", a three-layered chocolate ice-cream cake for my room mate's birthday and Srikanth who accompanied me bought a large scoop of ice-cream mixed with roasted almonds and was eating all the way back home. But the toughest challenge was to munch cucumbers while everyone were filling themselves with Ice-cream cake. But I survived the day and the Diet plan is still alive.
Physical state: Hurray! Scale shows a pound less. I know it is less for all the sacrifices. But it is a start.
Mental state: Waiting for the week to be over. Already plan set to visit Cold stone on Monday.

Day 4: Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

This day indeed went by easier than I thought. Consumed only 6 bananas and a glass of milk for the whole day in addition to the 10 glasses of water. Water was more for hunger than thirst quencher. Lived through the day even after discussing the possible options for Vinayak's birthday treat and best Indian restaurants close by.
Physical state: One more pound decreased! Little concerned about the slow decrease in weight.
Mental state: Appears like I can complete the diet plan successfully. Slight thoughts of repeating the plan again in the future.

Day 5: Beef and tomatoes. The beef is for iron and proteins, the tomatoes are for digestion and fiber. Lots and lots of water purify your system. You should notice colorless urine today. Your allowance calls for the equivalent of five "quarter ponders". Do not feel you have to eat all this beef. You must eat the six tomatoes.

This is the costliest diet I have ever tried. Trying to have a healthy diet, I bought organic tomatoes instead of the usual Roma tomatoes and had to pay 10 bucks for 8 tomatoes. It makes me feel worried to see the cost of naturally grown vegetables costlier than the fertilized ones. I had 2 tomatoes for breakfast followed by 2 more and a roast beef sandwich for lunch. Finished off the day with two tomatoes for dinner. Hunger had stopped completely. And even treat in an Indian restaurant did not tempt me one bit. Hoping the remaining two days will go in a breeze.
Physical state: 2 more pounds decreased. That is 4 pounds in 5 days. But I was promised at least 10 pounds in 7 days.
Mental state: Felt sleepy in the evening. No sign of hunger though the total intake was just 8 tomatoes and a sandwich.

Day 6: Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

The craving for food was higher today as I was just sitting in home on the weekend. With the previous days gone while being busy with work in office, sitting without any work pressed the stomach to take spicy and nutty food. It was a very hard day. Though you can eat unlimited amount of beef (meat), the fact we should eat without cheese or oil reduced the options. I settled down to sandwiches bought in Wal-Mart and removed the thick layer of cheese before eating it. But still managed to survive and the Diet continued.
Physical state: Just 1 more pound decreased. Made me wonder if I am doing anything wrong,
Mental state: I wanted to be in office so that the time will pass faster. Newton's law of relativity was playing its role.

The Final day: Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

Fruit juices at last. The day passed with lots of watermelon juice and apples and watching "Tropic Thunder" helped in passing the time. And even when Srikanth, Vinayak and Satish suggested having ice-cream from Cold Stone Creamery, I was strong enough to sit next and watch them while they were eating "I love it" size of Banana Split, Cheesecake and Chocolate fantasy ice creams. I cleared the final test of controlling the temptation with flying colors.

The Verdict: Like a school kid awaiting the exam results, I was waiting for the Monday morning but only to realize that Vinayak had tampered the zero reading of the weighing scale and it showed almost 15 pounds less than my weight at the start of the week which can not be the truth. So with final approximation of how much he changed the reading, the total count came to 6 to 8 pounds. This is a great achievement for a guy who tried to reduce weight for the last 5 months but only increased by more than 10 pounds. So the final verdict is "GM diet works!"

Speeding ticket

Should I be thankful that it did not happen a week before when I was having only the Indian driving license and my US driving license was in expired state? Or should I be worried of being stopped by a cop in the highway? Or should I be cheered for joining the majority of the US drivers who atleast have got stopped by the cop once? Should I be excited for getting my first speeding ticket and that too 20 miles above the speed limit? Or should I just teach myself to be aware of the cops while speeding? Except the first two options, rest are either stupid or unethical. But as most other adrenaline pumped young (I AM YOUNG) drivers, though I am sorry for speeding, I am somehow less concerned. After all, I was not driving reckless. There is a huge difference between ove rspeeding and reckless driving. Over speeding is like using calculator in a Engineering Maths exam. You may not be allowed to use it, but it is not going to give any formula or direct answers. But reckless driving is copying answers from the next person. You not only skip the learning part but also put yourself in danger in case that the other person is wrong. I was using a calculator and unfortunately it was a scientific one(higher speeds).

Anyway, though I learnt my lesson at heart not to speed beyond the speed limit, whats so ironic was when I told about this speeding ticket to Satman, his comment was "You got caught speeding in a Chevy Uplander (7 seater mini van)? That is lame". Now the speeding is not making me feel worried, but his question "Just Chevy Uplander????" bothers me. Would it feel better if it had been a Pontiac G6 or a Mustang GT?

PS: I do not know the fine amount yet. I am asked to get that information by calling the department office in Georgia and they told that citation is not filed into the computer till now and I have to check with them next week.

Surprise!!!!!! - Based on a true story

My best efforts in trying not to notice the birthday party that my flat mates were planning for me, which was pretty hard to ignore considering that we stay together, must have somehow created a chemical disturbance in my brain that it developed a shield around my "common" sense and made me ignore all the obvious signs that X had left about the secret surprise for the evening. So when we completed the dinner at Cafe Nirvana and were about to leave, to my surprise (real one), a chocolate ice-cream cake was brought to the table with a single candle lit on the center. As it reached the table, I was left dumb stuck with all questions on how, when and where they planned the surprise. The funny part was that I was with X the whole evening when X had bought the cake without my knowledge and the worst to hear was that the cake was bought with my own credit card as X lost the wallet. I never suspected a cake all the time. It was a complete opposite situation of what I had been talking about the whole day on how "lame" friends try to surprise you on your birthday. There I was sitting flabbergasted watching X who has been the victim of all tease and pranks in the recent days defeating me out by complete surprise. With X and Dr.P along with Deepak from the restaurant singing the birthday song, I made my secret wish and blew the candle for the second time celebrating the silver jubilee of my existence. Even though this year's birthday started and ended in the middle of offshore calls, there is no doubt it beat the previous one hands down. Let’s pray and hope it will be as interesting and eventful as the previous year.

Thanks for the surprise X and Dr.P. You made the day much happier and a memorable one.

Signs I ignored leading me to the path of "Dumb" and "Surprise!"

1. I dropped X in the Wal-Mart to buy "2 apples" for dinner. I never suspected why apples were so important for the night when we were already on the way for a treat.
2. X and Dr.P were murmuring secretly as we got out of the car in front of the restaurant.
3. After being seated, X went back to the car to get the mobile and was reluctant when I offered my help in getting the mobile.
4. Dr.P was talking about the previous experiences of the failed attempts in organizing a surprise party. (You succeeded at last Dr.P. Thanks)
5. Never realized the reason why X took the highly -priced AE classic shirt which I like very much to recheck the rate with the assistant. It later came out to be my present.
6. X was holding a camera the whole evening, but did not take any photo even while presenting the shirt.

Surprise!!!!!! - Ready, Camera, Action!

UPDATE: It turned out to be an Orange flavored cake with 12 birthday candles and a strange 'zero' shaped candle in the middle. Trust me. I tried to act surprised to my best. But most of the drama was avoided thanks to the long call we were having with offshore when Naren entered my room with a smile.
So after announcing a break from the call, I dried my throat completely trying to blow all the 12+1 candles in one go and the cake cutting ceremony went well with a butcher knife. The cake was good not only by taste but was also soft when applied on face and to my surprise (yes! It was a surprise), it was not sticky when Srikanth applied it over my head. With Vinayak's slow photography; Naren's diet cokes (that’s the booze); Anji's good heart with namesake birthday bumps and Srikanth's wicked mind to play football on my ....., the midnight surprise party was a successful one. Thanks guys for throwing a wonderful party that took me out by surprise! I never expected it from you! (Sarcasm intended)

Please find below few photos from the party!

Cutting the cake

The Surprise party gang (From left: Anji, me, Srikanth, Naren and Vinayak behind the camera)
Vinayak trying his best to make me fat

Birthday boy with cake on the face

Surprise!!!!!! - Take one!

The most difficult part of a birthday eve is the act of throwing fake surprise to your friends' un-Surprise Birthday party. Though a birthday party can happen only on the birthday eve and there is no surprise about it, everyone around you would expect you to be surprised when they bring the cake at the stroke of midnight to your room as a surprise. You will have to say all words like "Wow!", "You need not have done that", or "I never imagined this" and even "How do you guys know it is my birthday?????" even though you would have washed your face and are on your neat clothes so that the photos would look perfect. Witnessing this trend for many years from college days, it is always a difficult task for me to act surprised when all your friends live in the same room or house as you and hang out with you all the time. However as a true friend, you will never want others to appear stupid after all the hard work they put on creating the surprise. So I always take the trouble of making sure that I don’t hear any of their plans how much lame they would be sometimes to hide the cake in the refrigerator or make secret calls to the rest of the group in other Indian languages that they believe that I wont understand. What they really don’t understand is that we all obviously expect them to throw a party on the birthday and in what ever language they talk, the words "cake" and "birthday" are always voiced in English. So it is hard not to hear the obvious plans. But we still manage not to surprise our friends by acting surprised on not knowing about the surprise party.

One should understand how hard I have been trying not to be there when Srikanth, Naren, Anji and Vinayak are busy discussing about the party tonight. Whether it was when Naren calling Vinayak to inquire about me or when Anji came home to tell Srikanth that he is going to Bi-lo to get the cake or when he called Srikanth after getting the cake, the best I could do was to act very busy exploring the features of my new iPhone. The only surprise that is not open yet is the flavor of the cake. I bet it is chocolate mousse.

A simple "hi"

It was a normal Friday evening with me on the kart racing track as usual. Driving a not-so-good kart which was skidding much adding to my frustration, I stepped on the gas as soon as I got to the straight part of the track. And that is when I found the driver no #16. It was a young girl around 16 years who was obviously racing for the first time. I could tell that as she was driving in the middle of the track at a much safer speed of about 10mph. Please note that my average speed on the track is 30mph and the maximum speed of 35 mph in the straight lane. Being used to find beginners on the track all the time which included me just a month ago, I decided to overtake easily with a wide turn. As I went closer, I found her looking at the side where her parents were waving at her. I was on the right side of her little behind the rear wheels and while I was just about to cross her, she raised her right hand from the steering wheel and in a cute girlish way, waved with her fingers up and down signalling a silent "hi" towards her parents. I immediately slowed down my kart and went along with her slowly until she turned back to face the track.

It was a blissful moment taking my mind completely off the race.
Even when you are totally drained with heavy thoughts, there are surprising moments like these that happen out of the blue sometimes and makes your heart lighter than ever.

Daffy Diner - GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daffy Diner Foosball Championship

Players:

Team 1: INJEY & Nimesh

Team 2: "Sucks" Srikanth & Vinayak the Rookie.

Commentators: Apple and Orange
Venue: Daffy Diner

Date: June 13th 2008, Friday

Time: 6:00 PM

Apple: Hello readers! Its a lovely day as I meet you once again on the daily match between the awesome Duo INJEY and Nimesh vs "Sucks" Srikanth & Vinayak the Rookie. This is your Apple on the air with Orange who has just stepped in.
Apple: Hello Orange. How do you feel today?
Orange: Thanks Apple. I am already feeling that its going to be a great match.
Apple: I too feel the same Orange. The excitement is in the air as every other day in the foosball tournament in this magnificentDaffy Diner room.
Orange: No doubt about that. The players are already holding the bar ready for the final game of the day.
Apple: Yeah! I can see that now. INJEY and the Rookie are in the defensive positions as usual with Nimesh and Srikanth taking the aggression.
Orange: But who knows where the aggression will start. You must be aware of INJEY's zap shots. The ball just passes from the goal keeper to the goal post on the other side at lightning speeds.
Apple: Hell yeah! Orange. Thanks for reminding me. God knows how he does that. But did you notice that we have Srikanth on the offensive side. And you can expect a tough competition here. And of course, those two would be playing in their own area leaving Nimesh and Vinayak with time to finish a beer.
Orange: Well said. Ok. I think the game is about to start. Please recall that it is 2-0 games in favor of INJEY & Nimesh now. Here we go and the ball is in.
Apple: Srikanth takes the first shot as usual.
Orange: And INJEY blocks it as usual. He returns it back to the center of the table.
Apple: Nicely picked by Nimesh. Did you notice, he has a knack of controlling the midfield.
Orange: It goes to Vinayak though. He does the cross shot and the ball passes untouched straight to INJEY.
Apple: Stopped again. Tries to hit straight but stopped by "Sucks" Srikanth.
Orange: Oh no! Here they go.
Apple: Srikanth strikes hard. But blocked. Pulls the ball and sends it cross to the side of the post. *Blocked* He waits while holding the ball.
Orange: This is going to be a tricky shot. And he does that. Right forward passes the ball to the middle man and off the shot goes back to the right end of the post.
Apple: Oh S#%t! INJEY stopped that. He returns it with a straight shot.
Orange: Zap! The first goal. What a shot! I bet the speed topped 30mph.
Apple: Here they compose for the game again and the ball is in.
Orange: Damn! Second goal. Direct shot by Nimesh from the 1st midfielder. No way for Vinayak to stop. 2-0 for Nimesh.
Apple: There was no time even to think. The ball is in again.
Apple: Srikanth zaps the ball to the post. But S#%t! INJEY is there already. He does the cross shot. Stopped by Srikanth. Blocked by INJEY. Held by Srikanth. Shot back to the post. What not. Blocked again.
Srikanth: Sucks!!!
Orange: Here he goes. Now you know why he is called "Sucks" Srikanth.
Apple: INJEY does the cross shot. It reaches the midfield now. Picked up by Srikanth. And he shows his Mid-field Cross court trick. The ball goes at 60 degrees from left to the right corner of the goal post.
Orange: Oh!!!!! That was close. It hit the post and gets to the safe legs of INJEY. Here he goes again with his zap shot.
Apple: That was lucky. Vinayak just happens to be in the right place in the right time for once.
Orange: And he sends it straight to INJEY.
Apple: Did you see that? The ball went very slow. But no one was able to touch that. I wonder how he does that?
Orange: Everyone here have tricks under their palms here.
Apple: The ball is on hold with INJEY. He plans hard and here it is. Hits the Attacker on the other end, gets deflected and jumps inside the post. GOAL!!!!!
Orange: Thats 3-0 to INJEY. It sure was a lucky goal. No doubt about that.
Apple: yeah! But in games like these, you are bound to get one now and then and you can't ignore it.
Orange: The ball is in again. Srikanth takes the shot and once AGAIN, INJEY blocks that.
Apple: A smile on Nimesh's face. INJEY sends it back. Nimesh picks it with his midfielders. The ball hits the corner of the table and back to Vinayak. He hits straight. Blocked by Nimesh. Vinayak holds it.
Orange: I think he is trying for the zap shot.
Apple: But its INJEY's own. Dont think he can..... GOAL!!!!!!! Nimesh does the counterattack to Vinayak's zap shot and now the score reads 4-0.
Orange: I think you should call it 4-L0ve.
Apple: *laughing* Sure Orange. 4-"L0ve forever" ha ha.
Orange: ha ha. Back to the game. INJEY is holding the ball. He hits it but is stopped by Srikanth. Srikanth does the Squeeze-through-the-sides trick.
Apple: Didnt work though. The ball is sent back to midfield by INJEY. Nimesh takes it and fires it out of the table.
Orange: What a shot! Bad it wasnt a goal. The game continues.
Apple: Nimesh blocks Srikanth's midfielder. Sends it to the attacker now. Vinayak gets ready now as the ball is still with Nimesh.
Orange: One mistake they have been doing is slowing down the game to plan. It elimiates the surprise on the opponent.
Apple: But you must understand the pressure inside the game. They have to breathe before they can think.
Orange: Nimesh still waiting with the ball. And flips it.... slow.
Apple: And its a goal! Vinayak moved early thinking its a fast ball.
Orange: And it cost them another point. 5-0.. sorry. 5-"L0ve".
Apple: Ball is in, Srikanth picks up but we know what happened then. INJEY sends it back.
Orange: Srikanth makes the mistake. He hit the ball back to his side instead.
Apple: And Vinayak sends it safe inside his own post. Its a self-goal!!!!!! 6-0.. "L0ve" again.
Orange: You can see Srikanth very furious now.
Srikanth: "Sucks!!!!"
Apple & Orange: AND WE KNOW WHY HE IS CALLED "SUCKS" SRIKANTH.
Apple: Oh my! I love this game. The ball is in "once again".
Orange: Srikanth hits. *Blocked* He sends it again. *Blocked* Tries the slow ball now. *Blocked again* Drags from the side and smashes. *BLOCKED*
Apple: No wonder he is furious. INJEY slips the ball with an angle shot.
Orange: INJEY is at his best today. 6 matches won at a straight already.
Apple: Lets see if he can continue that.
Orange: The ball is stopped by Vinayak. Tries for the straight shot. Blocked, held and returned back by Nimesh. Another score for Nimesh. 7-0.
Apple: Are you thinking what I am thinking?
Orange: Hell yeah! Could it happen? Lets wait and see.
Apple: The ball is in.
Apple: Another shot straight to INJEY. It is as if "He knows" where the ball goes.
Orange: Zap shot again!
Apple: But it misses the post and goes outside the table.
Orange: No one have ever done that remember. 7-0 is itself a record on its own.
Apple: There is always a first time for everything you know.
Orange: 3 more points to decide if today gets to be the first.
Apple: Zap!!!!!!!! This time by Nimesh. What a shot by the midfielder. 8-Love.
Orange: Srikanth is cursing the rookie now. ha ha.
Apple: Poor guy used to be a irritating sensation when INJEY takes the aggression bars. Now he is getting bashed up.
Orange: INJEY and Nimesh seems to be immersed inside the game.
Apple: Thats true. But all they have to do is to be patient and hold their breath.
Orange: .... and shoot a goal.... like this!!!!!! What a shot. Lucky one though.
Apple: The ball was deflected by almost every player on the table. Not sure which foosman should be awarded the goal.
Orange: No one is talking here. Everyone's heart beating in unison as we fight for the final point. 9-LOVE.
Apple: The ball is in. Srikanth takes the shot. Oh!!!!!!
Orange: So Close!!!! INJEY blocks... leaves it as the ball goes again towards the post. But then saved at the last fraction of the second.
Apple: He sends it back straight. Blocked by Vinayak. He returns back. It hits the corner on the other end straight to INJEY's men.
Apple: INJEY hits hard. Blocked by Srikanth and back to INJEY. He hits again and gets blocked again.
Orange: This time it is with Srikanth. He waits.
Apple: I cant believe what will happen if he makes it.
Orange: He goes for the Squeeze-through-the-sides trick!!!!!!
Apple: BLOCKED!
Orange: Phew! That was close. INJEY does the angle shot.
Apple: Blocked by Srikanth's midfielder. Does the Mid-field Cross court trick.
Orange: BLOCKED!
Apple: Returns it back with another angle shot.
Orange: Again held by Srikanth. But this time took over by Nimesh. He sends the ball to the corner.
Apple: Vinayak is there.
Orange: Geez! That was a perfect angle shot. The slow ball went untouched and almost makes to the goal post.
Apple: Sent back by INJEY. This play is extending longer than ever.
Orange: Another heartbeat skipped as the ball bounces back from Vinayak's goal post.
Apple: Lucky for him. Nice angle shot again but blocked by Nimesh's midfielders.
Orange: Yeah! Very lucky indeed. Nimesh shoots to the corner. Taken by Vinayak.
Apple: He tries for another angle shot but blocked by the attackers. He hits it again and this time it passes the attackers.
Orange: ..... and GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apple: Unbelievable but true! Everyone is screaming now.
Orange: Can you believe the last shot?
Apple: Believe it or not! It happened today. What an end to the greatest game ever played as Nimesh tries Srikanth's own "Mid-field Cross court trick" and almost makes it.
Orange: But thanks to Vinayak's defenders, the ball was deflected to the goal post bringing the awesome game to an end of 10-"LOVE".
Apple: INJEY and Nimesh are giving high-five to each other while Srikanth and Vinayak get booed once again.
Orange: Does this mean that this is the end of Srikanth's trash talks?
Srikanth: Its all fluke man! total flukes!
Apple: Looks like the answer is "No". ha ha. What do you think INJEY and Nimesh would do about that?
Orange: Hmmm! If I know them right, they should let the losers talk. They did not win. Atleast let them do something that they are good at. "Talk".
Apple: Well said! Well said!
Orange: Ha ha. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. We hope to bring you more in the future. But don't hope for a comeback from Srikanth and Vinayak. They are off with just... "Talks". Good bye and have a nice day!

PS: I hope all the players take this post on the lighter side and continue 'talk'ing and try to play as every other day.

Vroooooooom on Friday the 13th

This is the latest update on the Go-karting races, I talked about in my previous post. Lot of happenings on this eventful Friday the 13th.

• The record was broken again as I vrooomed at a surprising 33.173 seconds beating my previous best of 33.548s.
• And once again I maintained in the Top 10 of the day list (actually 10th).
• Placed an average of 34.3s beating Sachin, the master of karts by more than a second.
• Yet lost 10 bucks in bet against Sachin on finding who gets the faster time in each lap. Damn! I should have placed bet on average time.

Go! INJEY! Go!

Okay, here we go.
Focus.
Speed. I am speed.
One winner.
Fourty-two losers.
I eat losers for breakfast.
No, no. Stay focused.
Speed.
I'm faster than fast,
Quicker than quick.
I am Lightning!
-- Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars"

You think that I am flaunting about myself. Don’t you? But I don’t care. I won the race! Didn’t I?
It’s been just 2 months and I already won not just one race but two. What’s more? I beat my own personal best on the track and got into the Top 10 of that day. When I play Need for Speed, people always ask the same question, "What good do you get by racing in the computer?” And my answer would be "It lets me do what I could not do in the real world". But now, I got my chance in the form of Go-karting on the Victory Lane Indoor center just 10 miles from my home to put all the efforts and tricks into reality. Now don’t judge that this is some 5 mph kids track in theme parks like MGM and Kishkintha in India that even a child in his/her stroller can overtake. We are talking about professionally maintained track with fully geared 40 mph karts driven by experienced racers.

When Sachin (not the cricketer) introduced me to the world of karting, it was like entering a new world. But the only difference was that I sometimes get the feeling that I know the world very well. When I first started learning to drive the car, I understood one important lesson. You have to feel the car's movements within you. Your mind has to get together with the car's. Once that is done, you can control and drive the car in anyway you want. And this is what I did in the karting race as it is more important to know how to control the kart here. Too many sharp turns; you need to understand when to brake, slow down, overtake and zap. Believe me when I say, it is not easy as it seems while watching from the sides. With the small and flat body of the kart, you always tend to skid when you turn while speeding fast. And it is built as a safety measure inside the kart to slow down when you skid or turn rough. Add to this that picking up the speed again is not fast enough. So you have to very careful on what you do in turns. A lot of patience and experiments can tell you how to get around. Though few tips from the pros might help you, but it is always your experience that will count inside the track.

When I started my first race on 28th March 2008, I recorded my best time with 38.831 seconds which was 6.832 seconds behind the first place. I also realized that things so different when you compete with real people instead of AI in the computer game. 1. People don’t slow down for you to keep the race interesting. 2. They don’t try to hit you to get you off the track and so you can’t hit them too. 3. To make it worse, if you are shown a blue flag, you have to MOVE OVER for the guy who is coming faster behind you and that for a beginner like me is MOVING OVER for everyone else in the race. So I started counting on how many times I MOVED OVER instead of how many cars I over took and that had been the winning factor for most of the races. I always wanted to finish at least one lap with no one overtaking me. And I think I have achieved it once or twice in the 6 races in the last month. But June was different. I have started to count the number of times I overtake and it has reached 20 or more. And here I am winning my first race and entered the Daily hall of fame.

Does this mean there is something more ahead? It sure is. Watch over racers. A new rookie on the rise!

PS: I am compelled by the pure heart to mention that the races in June were mostly against new players that include Satman who appears to be a promising driver to challenge me soon, his roommate Seetharam, Vinayak who forgot that he is in a racing track and was searching for turn indicators in the kart, Nimesh who I crashed hard on the track for not MOVING OVER and his wife Bhakti who did not kill me for crashing her husband. More drivers welcome as long as they have zero experience in races (betting on horse races excluded). Go karting Go.

New roommate to the extreme!

I agree, I have had worse shocking moments before and I have met people from the completely opposite side of my world. I have friends who vaguely remember Mario as a coin collecting game. And worse, Pac man is someone who packs the gifts for the post man. I used to grind my teeth hard and squeeze out the stress buster in those moments of pain and disbelief.
But come on. You can't ask me who Prince of Persia is. For a guy who carried a stick and jumped over the roof of closely built houses in our village just to imitate the great savior of the damsel in distress, asking such a question explodes the arteries pumping the blood fast out of my heart. Had I not been reading about the next installment of POP Saga: Heir Apparent from Game Informer magazine, I would have gone to the kitchen, heat the pan and keep my fingers over it to test if this is some nightmare? It makes me doubt if the dooms day have arrived when no good is known to humans. But I withheld the pain within myself and answered him explaining the legends of the great hero of the computer gaming industry very calmly.
And do you know why? After watching the movie "Forbidden Kingdom" last week, he asked me who "Jackie Lee" is. I could have beaten myself to death, but was saved as he corrected himself that he know "Jackie Chan" but not the other monkey hero( Jet Li).

I still need to understand that the world is so diverse and there exists people in such far extremes from us.

Tour de Atlanta on a Pontiac - The Perfect Start

A perfectly planned tour is not possible for me to plan. Best example was our New Year Eve's plan to go to a beach and enjoy the night while they lower the huge silver ball into the sea. But we were planning for a long time that we ended up being kicked out of the dance floor from a local pub. From that day, I decided to let things happen on its own and enjoy whats in the store. And trust me, it is always fun. Now consider the last weekend trip to Atlanta. We talked about the tour on Wednesday; cancelled it on Thursday and again decided to go on Friday afternoon. And it happened to be one of the best tours in US.
On Wednesday, when I and S who had come to Charlotte recently were just talking, S suggested a trip to near by place. A call was made to R and was told that we will be in Atlanta for the weekend. Cancelling all his important assignments like "sleep for 16 hrs", "chat for 20 hrs" and "don’t see the sunlight for 2 days", he agreed. But on the next day, R was given a transfer out of Atlanta. And we believed it. We did not think that he was trying to avoid us. But the good soul in him woke up again on Friday and there I was renting a Pontiac G6 for our 250 mile drive to Atlanta. "This is going to be fun", I said.
It was a perfect start with a thrilling ride. We started late as usual around 8:30 PM instead of the planned 6:00PM. With S insisting that she will drive first, I took the maximum risk and seated tight in the passenger seat. And though it was night, the day already looked bright as lost the way. For people who don’t know me, getting lost on the way is de-facto for every trip. And that happens even when we have a GPS speaking out the directions in a female voice. Like every other man on the planet, I always find it very difficult to listen to women and I take the wrong turn at least once in every trip. It is funny that even a computer generated female voice proves to be female that it never finds the easiest path to get back on the track. May be women hate saying U-turns. It is always their turn for everything. That is why they ask you to drive a mile and go for a circle through deserted roads and woods before finally bringing back to the road at least 5 miles behind. But I did not realize that S would also do the same. Waiting for Exit 10B, we forgot to take Exit 10 and had to go through woods before we took a U-turn as we noticed huge trucks and scary drivers blocking the way. Luckily, we did not run over any stranger and no axe yielding hitchhiker crossed our path. It is heartening that we have not got any letter saying "I know what you did last weekend". At 8:30 PM we had our dinner in Burger King, thanks to S for insisting that she will pay for the dinner out of her violet colored wallet. With food done, we continued the travel again. But this time, it was a safe journey with me behind the wheels. So by 12:14 AM, 30 mins ahead of the schedule, GPS brought us the good news "We are at the destination". The only problem was that we were stuck at the back of red-brick walled building which did not appear to be R's home. And there we go again to denote that we are in the perfect trip getting lost again with the GPS.

Too Many To Remember

How can so many important events happen on a single day in one's life? Yesterday was one such day. It started with me waking up as usual at 9:00 AM. But whats weird is that I thought it is a weekend and decided to sleep more. If it is not for my colleague who called with the morning alarm at 10AM, I would have never realized that I have to be in office today. With the weather and many other reasons overruling my decision to walk to office for the past few days, today happened to be bright and I started my commitment to walk to office everyday. And so I reached the office at 11 AM which was about the right time my manager came looking for me for a meeting. He is still not aware of my earliness to office. (Sarcasm intended). And so after the meeting went fine, to prove that is not so any other day, my manager wanted to talk in private with me and blew up the obvious but frightening news that he wants me to help in composing a song for the blind here whose belief is that if they cant see the instruments then no one is playing music. It was hard time convincing him that I have seen musical notes only in cartoons. But still he was not convinced and appreciated me that I can make my own tunes. With this episode hanging in the middle, it was surprising when we found that it was our client manager's birthday and I had to go to Costco to buy a cake. And there I was walking back to home and drove the car to Costco delaying my lunch by 2 hrs. But still, things were different today that the Veggie Sub in Quiznos actually tasted good for the first time. Afternoon was also not normal with one of my few long-time visitor of this blog and one who I thought knows me better commented that I am writing philosophical and romantic stuff these days which is so unusual of me. To my question whether I look like a nerd with long weird hair and bifocal lenses with no sense for sentiments, the answer came to be YES. I am having tough time on whether to take that as a compliment or not. Not to be forgotten for the day was the photo I took with the Vice President not of the United States but still of our client. The only problem was that I had to face the computer screen while she was standing behind me facing the camera. So good luck to everyone finding my back in this month's corporate magazine.

Soon bored by the photo shoots in office, I returned home for an early sleep but ended up watching a Telugu movie. Before you can question, I would like to say that I watched it from an Original DVD that was brought from India. I even had to advise my baggage-packing roommate on the size of his cabin baggage. And not finding a measuring tape to decide how much 61cms is, I found the box of the garbage bag and it measured up to 51cms there by proving his bag was definitely 70cms or more and is outside the Airlines restriction of the size of cabin baggage. Another distinguishing fact for the day was that I cut cabbage instead of the usual onions for dinner. But as usual, my roommate prepared the dinner while I just ate them. And if you think all these are so stupid and could happen on any other day, hear this. I cracked the mind of someone who believed can never be undisturbed by my mails daily for more than two weeks. The funny part was "that person" vent out the frustration at another person who just happened to be in a place closer than me. I am glad that things were not so sluggish and it was good to have something to blog about.

Click WWW for Everything, Almost

When I was planning for the SFO tour, I made all the arrangements from booking flight tickets to hotel room reservations online. There was no need to call or visit anywhere prior to the travel. Even when my uncle wanted to buy fruit at 11 'o' clock in the night, I was able to locate a fruit store nearer to my hotel with directions. So the life is simplified and eased to the comfort of any simple man by the Global Internet. It may not appear ludicrous now to say News travel faster than sound with the help of Internet. The once large strange world is brought to our reach just by a few clicks.

So I can easily say that 'almost' everything can be achieved with Internet. I say 'Almost' because, my recent experience with opening a bank account with Citibank through online became a waste of time as it still needed the help of snail mail service or fax for a signature and address proof. In the world of digital security, the need for a hand written signature as an identity confirmation created a confused impression for me. Also though we say Internet has brought the world as Global Village, it appears that the WorldWideWeb is allowed to handle US customers only. So after my initial registration online, I was asked to call the customer care to give the same details again to open the bank account. As everyone would say "I know what it is like to call customer care", after hours of talking and repeating same things and even faxing all the necessary documents twice to avoid the delays of snail mail, it happened that the fax has not reached the Citibank office and I have to call the customer care again to check on the status after few more days. Frustrated after waiting for more than a month and still not able to open a bank account, I decided to give up on using Citibank.

Coincidently, I had to take my colleague who came from India recently to Bank of America office last week during the lunch break. So when he went with the assistant to open an account for him, I used the opportunity and I also opened a savings bank account within the next 30 mins. That was faster than billing in Wal-mart and it was my second best experience in opening bank account. The first being with ICICI Bank when I joined Infosys in Bangalore. All the freshers were seated in a large auditorium and the forms were circulated to everyone like exam papers. At the end of next 10 mins, the forms were collected back and my first own Debit card was in my hands ready to be swiped.

The One-eyed Nissan

The one-eyed pirate finally got his other eye fixed on Friday. I am talking about my Nissan's head lights. I am not sure from when it had been wearing the eye patch, but it is many months since I had clearly seen the road during the night. And it was the left eye that was hurt added more difficulty of seeing the road. Please note, in US, the steering wheel is in the left side of the car and naturally the driver has to hold the steering wheel while seeing the road. With not much experience in driving car at nights (I couldnt drive at day time either as I didnt have license before), I first assumed that it is the maximum brightness from any proper headlights. And sometimes, I would blame my glasses which many times is covered with fingerprints. But it was not before hyperactive HemanT(pronounced 'T' stressed) noticed the patch on the left eye that I understood that there was nothing wrong with my eyes. I understood that I had to fix the headlights soon. Even so, as people say there has to be time for everything, the time never came for fixing the head lights for a very long time.

My initial thought of using fix-it-on-your-own proved to be dangerous as I had played repairing toy cars only and the result had always been worse than before. For example, in my childhood when I tried to fix the door of my sister's precious toy car, which she never allows anyone to touch, I had removed the whole body of the car but for some strange reason, I couldnt put it back. I do not remember what happened after that. I can only recall my sister crying on the top of her voice. So keeping away the self-fix option, I decided to search for a mechanic. Consulting with friends who already own vehicles, it became clear that in US, the service charge will be costlier than the product cost. No wonder, IT service industry is a very costly business here and it is a boon to all the Indian IT companies for drilling money better than oil through mass and cheap labour. Because of these reasons, I spent more time on trying to find the economic store that will not drill my wallet. And it took me 2 months to understand that there is none to fix my car without drilling my credit card through my wallet. And thats why at last I took my car to the Nissan authorised car service center who charged me 40 bucks for doing basic checkup and reported that everything was fine including my head lights. Only after asking twice about the left eye of my car were they able to identify the problem. I just wonder how difficult will it be to test the car head lights? May be the mechanic checked everything by sitting inside the car like me. Or may be he was having problems with his eyes that he couldnt identify the brightness (not)emitted from the head lights. Or may be he thought my car was winking at the new Nissan 350z parked next to it. But he should have realised that something is wrong when it winked at the Nissan Frontier truck. Whatever it may be, he finally fixed it by replacing the head lights and added another 40 dollars to the bill. With the card swiped and 80 dollars bidding bye-bye from my wallet, my car got its eyesight back and it winks no more at others including Porchse Speedster at night.