A typical day of my life in Shanghai begins with me waking up(duh!), getting ready for office, dump my laptop into my bag ,work, return home from work,undump the laptop from my bag, sit in front of the laptop till i realize its time to have dinner and then sleep. This routine was perfect for a guy who was least bit bothered about his ever increasing waistline until the dreaded happened. The internet speed started hitting rock bottom !!
Now what do you do, when the only entertainment you have after work becomes a pain in the ass. It takes all the time in the world just to open my inbox,and almost the same amount of time to read a mail. This was like the entire nation waiting for Tendulkar to score his hundredth international hundred with the difference that we can expect him to score anytime but I wasnt sure my inbox would ever open. It was like Anna Hazare fasting to get the Lokpal Bill passed with the difference there was no fasting in my case. It was like Scrat who almost has his acorn but can never quite cling onto it for ever and in this case there was no difference. It was irritating,frustrating and I haven't abused anything else more in a long time.Indians rely highly on google products and facebook for keeping up with friends and for fun.
But , China has other ideas. They have disputes with google and when u r online chatting wid friends using gtalk, it suddenly goes for a walk without any notice. I think they hate facebook, blogging sites etc. They dont even open unless you use a proxy. The time I have my dinner at and the time it takes to load a page are directly related. The longer it takes for a page to load, so much delayed is my dinner time.
I beleive in the adage whatever happens happens for the good. Now,as it so turned out I had to look for other means to entertain myself. I realized I cant depend on machines to keep me occupied. There was a whole world outside. I found the Lost Symbol sitting on my table and time just flew once I opened the book. I had rediscovered my reading habits. Reading had always been one of my ways of spending time from childhood, but I lost it on the way growing up. Now, I have started jogging, working out, blogging, started learning chinese from books, chinese colleagues. I used to strain my eyes before, now its time for those unused muscles of mine to receive some thrashing. Who would have thought so much good would come out of this ? But whatever said and done, I still cannot deny the fact that the Internet connection sucks.!! :)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Super powers
After watching the movie Unbreakable starring Bruce Willis, in which he realises at the end he has some kind of super power(sorry for the spoiler for those who havent watched the movie yet !), i keep thinking maybe i too have some kind of super power which is going to just show up sooner or later.
Wouldn't it be just great to have some super power ? Like if I was just able to reach office in a wink of the eye instead of travelling through the crazy traffic of chennai for 35 min. Or if I had the power to remember each and every thing i had done till now so that i could just pick up the "important" document I had thrown away somewhere a few weeks back. Or even better, if I could make things happen by just thinking about it, that would be the most awesome super power.
But, come to think of this a bit more, I realize all these super powers are for my selfish reasons and in the end it does not affect anyone but me. I am doing neither good for me or anyone else. Having one of the aforesaid super powers, will just make me lazier than I already am. For a person like me the saying "With greater power comes greater responsibility" doesn't apply.
On second thought,maybe it wont be so bad having a super power. I might actually do something good with it. I might not be as irresponsible as I credit myself with. There is a definitely a part of me which wants to good for the people. Having a super power might just push me to do the right things.
Anyways having said so far, I am pretty much sure the future has different plans for me than bestowing me with a super power. But i will be waiting for my Samuel L jackson to turn up. It might not be a power to defy death, or extra ordinary strength but atleast something which brings out a super hero in me.
Wouldn't it be just great to have some super power ? Like if I was just able to reach office in a wink of the eye instead of travelling through the crazy traffic of chennai for 35 min. Or if I had the power to remember each and every thing i had done till now so that i could just pick up the "important" document I had thrown away somewhere a few weeks back. Or even better, if I could make things happen by just thinking about it, that would be the most awesome super power.
But, come to think of this a bit more, I realize all these super powers are for my selfish reasons and in the end it does not affect anyone but me. I am doing neither good for me or anyone else. Having one of the aforesaid super powers, will just make me lazier than I already am. For a person like me the saying "With greater power comes greater responsibility" doesn't apply.
On second thought,maybe it wont be so bad having a super power. I might actually do something good with it. I might not be as irresponsible as I credit myself with. There is a definitely a part of me which wants to good for the people. Having a super power might just push me to do the right things.
Anyways having said so far, I am pretty much sure the future has different plans for me than bestowing me with a super power. But i will be waiting for my Samuel L jackson to turn up. It might not be a power to defy death, or extra ordinary strength but atleast something which brings out a super hero in me.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
A Myriad of thoughts - II
Recently, I have been thinking all kinds of stuff. For instance, i was wondering what if all the technological advancements we have made so far, it was already achieved by people millions of years ago. Something bad, very bad happened and that everything got covered up and we have not found traces of anything anywhere. Bad , in the sense that the world was about to end and the people then knew about it . So with their advanced technology and stuff they just packed about everything here and left without a trace. They moved to another planet and so we remain ignorant about such a life. The solar system then exploded and the whole big bang and stuff( or whatever caused the universe) repeated itself and here we are again. We are just starting from scratch again and the whole process is going to repeat for how many times god knows !!. I think i just reversed the script of the movie Wall E. Or is this the beginning of craziness. I am not sure what, but these are things I keep thinking.
And for about two weeks i totally believed that Dec 21,2012 is the last day for all us. Those were the two weeks of incessant rains in chennai. The mood the rains created as I sat at home and heard it beating against the walls and roofs of houses just terrified me . Those were also the times i read a lot of theories of how the world would end. I did a bit of a googling on the topic and the comments in many of the forums gave an impression that the 2012 theory was correct and could not be just ignored. But after the rains, I have been feeling pretty good and and i realized that there was nothing one could do about that.
But then i put my two thoughts together . If the world was really going to end by 2012, we really havent advanced enough to just pack up our stuff and go somewhere else like our foreforeforeforefore fathers and mothers did.. So i guess history wouldnt be repeated and my two thoughts are just loads of crap or an indication to seriously hope that the world wouldnt end by 2012.
Or maybe its time to see a doctor.. :)
Anyways, i am done with this . Share your crazy thoughts if any.
And for about two weeks i totally believed that Dec 21,2012 is the last day for all us. Those were the two weeks of incessant rains in chennai. The mood the rains created as I sat at home and heard it beating against the walls and roofs of houses just terrified me . Those were also the times i read a lot of theories of how the world would end. I did a bit of a googling on the topic and the comments in many of the forums gave an impression that the 2012 theory was correct and could not be just ignored. But after the rains, I have been feeling pretty good and and i realized that there was nothing one could do about that.
But then i put my two thoughts together . If the world was really going to end by 2012, we really havent advanced enough to just pack up our stuff and go somewhere else like our foreforeforeforefore fathers and mothers did.. So i guess history wouldnt be repeated and my two thoughts are just loads of crap or an indication to seriously hope that the world wouldnt end by 2012.
Or maybe its time to see a doctor.. :)
Anyways, i am done with this . Share your crazy thoughts if any.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
S4 57,58,60 CNF
I am going to write about an incident that happened many years ago. Yes,it does involve a train journey.
We had gone to kerala to attend my grandmom's 80th bday celebs.After the celebrations , we got ready(my father,mother and me) for the journey back home. My mother, tensed as she is everytime before a journey made us reach the railway station an hour early before the actual arrival of the train. We sat at the station just talking about the day and having some quality family time.Now, we were waiting for the 9.00 PM Alleppey train to arrive. And we were there by 8 itself. So we had a lot of time to chit chat. Though we had around 1 hour with us, we didn't give the ticket a second look.
By 8.45 , Chennai Mail came and left. With its departure, we got up and walked to the coach of the train before it arrived. The coach was S4 and the seats were 57,58,60 CNF. When the train arrived, we got in and located our seats. In our seats were an elderly couple. We dedided to let them know of the ownership of the seats they were sitting in after we finshed our dinner. We slowly had our dinner and we let them know of our intention to sleep where they were sitting. That's when they told us that the seats belonged to them. My father quickly took out the ticket and verified again. It was the same number as them. We both had identical tickets. Then we checked the dates. The date too was correct.Since. their ticket was already verified by the TTE, my father went searching for him.
My father found him and told him the problem. The TTE looked at our ticket and then looked at my father and said "You can pay a fine and then travel". My father was taken aback. He asked why should we pay the fine.It is the mistake of the railway reservation system.The TTE pointed to the train name to my father. He then realised that we had taken the wromg train!!!! We were supposed to board the 8.45 Chennai MAil and not the 9.00 PM Allppey Express. Not knowing what to do, my father asked for our next step. We weren't ready to go to the general compartent.So we ended up doing a favour to the TTE and he aranged three berths for us ovrenight. We apologised to the elderly couple and slept thnking what a fool we had made of ourselves.
You might be thinking that this might have been one of our first journeys by train, We had been travelling on the train for 25 years before this incident and this had never happened to any one of us. And this didn happen many years ago. It happened just two weeks back. I didn want u guys thinking how careless we were until the end of this post...
I don't understand how on earth we boarded the wrong train. Anyways we learnt our lesson that day.
We had gone to kerala to attend my grandmom's 80th bday celebs.After the celebrations , we got ready(my father,mother and me) for the journey back home. My mother, tensed as she is everytime before a journey made us reach the railway station an hour early before the actual arrival of the train. We sat at the station just talking about the day and having some quality family time.Now, we were waiting for the 9.00 PM Alleppey train to arrive. And we were there by 8 itself. So we had a lot of time to chit chat. Though we had around 1 hour with us, we didn't give the ticket a second look.
By 8.45 , Chennai Mail came and left. With its departure, we got up and walked to the coach of the train before it arrived. The coach was S4 and the seats were 57,58,60 CNF. When the train arrived, we got in and located our seats. In our seats were an elderly couple. We dedided to let them know of the ownership of the seats they were sitting in after we finshed our dinner. We slowly had our dinner and we let them know of our intention to sleep where they were sitting. That's when they told us that the seats belonged to them. My father quickly took out the ticket and verified again. It was the same number as them. We both had identical tickets. Then we checked the dates. The date too was correct.Since. their ticket was already verified by the TTE, my father went searching for him.
My father found him and told him the problem. The TTE looked at our ticket and then looked at my father and said "You can pay a fine and then travel". My father was taken aback. He asked why should we pay the fine.It is the mistake of the railway reservation system.The TTE pointed to the train name to my father. He then realised that we had taken the wromg train!!!! We were supposed to board the 8.45 Chennai MAil and not the 9.00 PM Allppey Express. Not knowing what to do, my father asked for our next step. We weren't ready to go to the general compartent.So we ended up doing a favour to the TTE and he aranged three berths for us ovrenight. We apologised to the elderly couple and slept thnking what a fool we had made of ourselves.
You might be thinking that this might have been one of our first journeys by train, We had been travelling on the train for 25 years before this incident and this had never happened to any one of us. And this didn happen many years ago. It happened just two weeks back. I didn want u guys thinking how careless we were until the end of this post...
I don't understand how on earth we boarded the wrong train. Anyways we learnt our lesson that day.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Impatient
I have become so impatient with myself and my life that i don't have the patience to finish off something that i started. I don't even have the patience to finish off this...
Thursday, April 23, 2009
What next?
I was wondering how the basic necessities needed by man has changed over centuries. I can't guess what's next.
Here's a table that I have made and believe is almost accurate to a certain degree.
When I said my table is accurate I didn't mentions I would not exaggerate just to make a joke out of it.Maybe some of the facts aren't true but most of them are.You are welcome to fill in the gaps.
If ever an ancient man was to visit the 21st century he would be thinking "hey it wasn't like this when i left this place."
So what's next???
Here's a table that I have made and believe is almost accurate to a certain degree.
When I said my table is accurate I didn't mentions I would not exaggerate just to make a joke out of it.Maybe some of the facts aren't true but most of them are.You are welcome to fill in the gaps.
If ever an ancient man was to visit the 21st century he would be thinking "hey it wasn't like this when i left this place."
So what's next???
Saturday, April 4, 2009
(no subject)
The last i posted something on this blog was around one month back. Then I had a lot of topics in my mind that i wanted to write about.Those were the days I wasn't subjected to much work at office.But then as things turn out since then I haven't reached home before ten.The moment i come home I have dinner and i am off to bed for around 8 hrs before i force myself out of bed for another day of 10 grueling hours.I don't seem to be working much but I always end up reaching home late. Anyways what I was coming to say was all those topics I had in my mind seem to have gone for a long walk.think as hard I may can I can't seem to remember. Since I am without a topic I again turn the wheel around.I started with my first ever post not knowing what to write about.I have reached my starting point again. Maybe this post too I shall write about what I should write about.
Anyways the latest thing to happen in my life is revisiting college for convocation. But the best part about me going to convocation is that I didn't go for convocation. I never attended the function and I didn't receive my certificate.this may bring satisfaction to some people who wanted to come but were unable to do so. I got only a day's leave for the convocation.Only the monday the programme was conducted. the function started at 5 and my train was at 5.30 in the evening. There was no way I could stay for the programme. But it was worth a visit. I met people knowing that this might be the last time our life crossed paths. Bidding farewell to people on that day was as overwhelming as on the last day of college.But then thre was a consolation on the last day of college.We all knew there would be a convocation and that we would be able to meet up back again. But now with the convocation over another chance of reliving college memories seems bleak. Maybe we should have a get together soon.Say 2 - 3 yrs from now. We will all be settled and we can make it grand. It's a nice feeling already thnking about it. Let's wait and watch what happens.
I started this post not knowing what to write but it looks I did have a topic in mind. Anyways let the topic be as it is.
Anyways the latest thing to happen in my life is revisiting college for convocation. But the best part about me going to convocation is that I didn't go for convocation. I never attended the function and I didn't receive my certificate.this may bring satisfaction to some people who wanted to come but were unable to do so. I got only a day's leave for the convocation.Only the monday the programme was conducted. the function started at 5 and my train was at 5.30 in the evening. There was no way I could stay for the programme. But it was worth a visit. I met people knowing that this might be the last time our life crossed paths. Bidding farewell to people on that day was as overwhelming as on the last day of college.But then thre was a consolation on the last day of college.We all knew there would be a convocation and that we would be able to meet up back again. But now with the convocation over another chance of reliving college memories seems bleak. Maybe we should have a get together soon.Say 2 - 3 yrs from now. We will all be settled and we can make it grand. It's a nice feeling already thnking about it. Let's wait and watch what happens.
I started this post not knowing what to write but it looks I did have a topic in mind. Anyways let the topic be as it is.
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