Flashback!

My last year in a glimpse...

'Life moves on' - Edinburgh Castle from a different angle.

Outside my Place! Shot on tripod.

'Joys of Childhood' - Shot at Silverknowes beach.

'Thoughtful' - Me, Harsh & Sampu! Aveimore Skiing resort.

'I do things besides making Love Birds' - Naughty Cupid! Shot at Brussels.

"We carry the goods for you" - Line of Trucks, Dover port

Keukenhof Garden, Holland

Skinny Bridge, Amsterdam

 Rhine Castle, Germany

Snow-clad Windmill, Belgium

'On the run', Piccadily Square, London

'Grass is always greener on the other side', Sussex

'The endless opportunities', Sussex

'Penny, Emma & Lucy', York

'Trust', York

'We drive CTE' - The mad people of my classic team

A stroll in the evening...

I normally don't shoot people on streets, feel a little shy & awkward for that. Somehow today, felt like taking a couple of pictures & here are the results...

The guy here was raising money to visit his dying father in Jamaica. He was playing free 3 minute chess matches. He had played more than 246 matches since morning & hadn't lost a single one. The girl in the picture made an amazing sketch of this guy playing. She asked me if I could take a picture. 

Address 128, Princess street, Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the outer window of a Waterstone's book shop. I really loved it.

This champ here was sitting alone in 'Princess gardens'. I know nothing unusual about it! But I expected a guy of his age to be chilling out with his buddies, girls or lazying around listening loud music. He however was intently sketching 'Edinburgh Castle'.

'Where the executioner's face is always well hidden'. 'Save Environment' exhibition at 'Princess Gardens'.

This is the Edinburgh territorial clock. At its full lush, reflecting the colors of summers, its 5 minutes faster.

P.S - All of these pictures were shot at 'Princess street'

My school Memoirs Part II - Teachers & Beatings

School is a wonderful place to be at. And what's school without teachers. Teachers, they are like second parents. They besides imparting useless knowledge in you; help in moulding the delicate conscious of a child to make a better grown up & teach you to differentiate between right and wrong. 

Yeah in the course of setting you on the right course, teachers do have to beat you up sometimes. Lucky are those who got good teachers. Luckier are those who got good beatings from teachers. Believe me school memories are like a 'Dal Tadka' without Garlic if you didn't get a beating in school days. By my narration & bragging, you might have guessed by now that I do count myself among the 'lucky' ones. Of course there was lot of hard work; read mischiefs, from my side which favored the odds towards me.

According to my advanced theory of 'Teachers-Beatings' every of my fav teacher would beat me up at least once. Yes and the theory has proved to be correct except for on one rare occasion. Confused, let me explain.

4th Standard

I was overheard by a teacher abusing one of my classmates. Her name was Mrs. Manju Tiwari. She was my science teacher & hence my fav. I got a beating. The end result; I never cussed, till I reached 12th standard.

5th Standard

Mrs. Anjali Sharma. Again my science teacher. I had picked up a musical key chain which belonged to a classmate without asking (Some of you moral people might prefer the word 'stealing'). Gosh, I got my hide tanned that day. I can swear that till date I have never forgotten the beating of that day. Lesson learnt - Never steal anything.

6th Standard

Mrs. Ramesh Kakariya. My maths teacher. Besides being my fav maths teacher, I must acknowledge that she is one of the very few teachers I have come across who knew how to teach & she loved doing it. She had the honor to lay her hands on me more than once. Always, because I was too lazy to do my homework. I remember once after getting punished, I started crying & told her 'I will tell my mom that you beat me up today'. Well, you can smile & imagine my intellectual growth by this time. She didn't smile. She just gave me a hug & said 'I am sorry, I promise I will never beat you up again'.  She kept her promise. I never missed my maths homework after that. I can vividly remember that till the time I passed off from school, even after many years she stopped teaching me, she would always tease me "I would like to see your Mom now".

7th Standard

Of all the times I have been beaten up, this one was the most puzzling. Mrs Kaur, She was a mild mannered soul & I was in her good books. I don't exactly remember the chain of incidents, but she did give me a beating to remember her by one day. The thing that always puzzles me is why did she do it? I am not saying that I wouldn't have done anything wrong to deserve it. Being what I was, anybody could find 10 reasons to give me a punishment in a single day. She had been teaching me for the past 2 years & I had never seen her beat up somebody, except for an occasional slap. Then why did she choose me up?

BTW, the bad influence of my life, Jai, & me were pretty close by now & the graph of punishments vs time had shot up exponentially.

8th Standard

I had always been into comics. But this was the golden era for me. I would buy, borrow, exchange & even visit libraries to read comics. Well, my passion for reading comics was overflowing, I was reading one tucked nicely between my textbook during a class, when all of a sudden my hindi teacher 'Miss C.K Soni' asked me to stand up & recite a para of the poem. I was in the world of 'Super Commando Dhruv' fighting with all the baddies of the world. The return from 'Raj Nagar' was a little painful. The beating was just a part of the prize. Miss Soni told the story to every teacher in the Staff room & for months to come, every teacher would ask me if I had a comic between the pages of my text book. Of course, this made me famous. 

9th Standard

My most fav teacher, Mrs Shehnaz Siddiqui. I have never come across somebody like her. She found me saying something(nothing good) about my sanskrit teacher. No she didn't gave me a beating, just a single slap! It didn't hurt much either. But after her class, she called me aside & took me for a walk. She sat with me for 45 minutes, giving words of advice. I had sat with her on those pavements before also, but then generally she would be gossiping with me asking about the girls I liked & things like that. That day it was different. 

I got punishments on countless occasions even after that. But I was never beaten up by teachers. Partly because I was a good student, partly because I started bunking classes from 10th standard & partly because of the things she said to me that day.

Yeah I did mention about my 'Teachers-Beatings' theory. The rare occasion where my theory fails is during the times of 11th & 12th standard. My Physics lecturer, P.K Sharma was the coolest chap in the whole school & had all the good traits of a teacher. He never boasted. He was humble enough to acknowledge that he didn't knew the answer of this particular query & he would work on it. He once told me "You are very intelligent, perhaps one of the most brilliant young minds I have ever taught but you are not a good student. A good student should have 3D qualities:- Discipline, Dedication & Determination. Which of the three do you think you do have?" I preferred silence as the only reply.

My another fav was Mrs Kumar, my english teacher. While I never gave my Physics teacher a chance to complain, Mrs Kumar had umpteen chances of that served her on a platter. She never took it! Her fav complain was "I have taught both you & Naren; & you are nothing like him". I tried explaining her a couple of times that she shouldn't compare the genius & the greatest buffoon of the family. Couldn't!

If you are thinking that the number of times I have been beaten up are really less, let me clear that these laurels of affection are the ones which were handed over by my fav teachers. And these are the ones which I still do remember, 8 years after school time! Let me put it this way "How many do you remember?"

Am I too mean?

Am I too mean & egoistic?

Or is it that I just don't care?

Am I too focussed towards my goals?

Or is it that I have lost the humane touch?

Do friendship, love, honor mean anything to me?

Or is it that I am just another sucker for success?

Just random waves of thoughts!

I guess cold doesn't brings out the best in me.

Had a team lunch today. The whole team is nostalgic that I am going back; & I am feeling nothing!

I wish I could be the 15 year old again, when I would run to Dad or my Uncle for opinions on every small thing! I rarely do talk to either of them nowadays. On second thoughts, I rarely do get a chance to talk to people who really matter to me.

Sick Bay...

"On a Day like today,

The whole world could change,

The sun's gonna shine,

Shine through the rain,

On a day like today..."

That's my morning status call from offshore which I take daily between 6:30 to 7. I woke up & found that my body temperature is higher than usual; my throat is hoarse, parched & I am barely able to croak words out! 

"Hello"

"Hello Rajesh, This is N here, this is the morning status call."

"Ok, N I have a sore throat & I wouldn't be able to talk much. So tell me."

"Sorry Rajesh. I was talking to V, come again please."

I just cursed him & repeated myself again.

"Oh, Ok... What happened by the way, you got drenched in the rain or something?"

"Everybody is going to ask me questions today, whose answers can't be given in yes or no" I thought to myself.

I took a bold decision! To use one of my sick leaves & rest for the day. 

"N, If there is nothing unusual, I would like to cut off the call now. I wouldn't be in today, so if you guys have any problems, call me"

I tried to compensate for the sleepless night. All of a sudden the bedroom door opens & a voice calls out 

"Are you not planing to go to office?"

"No" I managed to reply.

"Why? Some date?" the voice asks again.

"You moron, do I look like I am going out for a date" my mind shrieked; but I calmed the fury and replied "Not feeling well."

"Ok, enjoy the day." replies the voice. 

That's my friend Harsh.

Finally I was able to let myself go into the slumber of sleep. I was about to slay the dragon in my dreams when my cell phone went off again. I tried to clear my head, thinking who could be calling me. Fortunately it's just a reminder "Yesh's B'day"

"Damn the world, Now I will have to call her." 

I called her up three times, nobody picked up. Believe me, I have never felt so elated in my life that somebody missed my call.

I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sleep right now. So I dragged my wary bones out of the bed & crawled towards the bathroom. Splashed some water on my face, gargled. I left the idea of brushing my teeth besides the wash basin & headed for the kitchen. I had a couple of sandwiches, a glass of luke warm milk with honey.

"Ah, that felt better" I said to myself.

"Cr croak oak oohhk" I heard. "Weird echo" I thought to myself.

I came back & started to play "Crisis Core" on PSP. Hehehe... It was my lucky day here at least, I completed 7 missions in one sitting. By that time I had started sweating profusely & shivering violently. 

"Time for a break" I thought.

I took a paracetomol & dove in the blanket, heads down. 

And then it rang again. I cursed all the techies, the whole of the Bank's staff, the whole of my company, the mobile phone companies & all the network providers in the world in a single breath.

"That felt good, I must do it more often" I smiled to myself.

"Hello Rajesh, I have some doubt regarding what I have done."

"Why the hell do you guys call me once you already have done something?" I said to myself. "Yes what happened?"

...

The rest of the conversation was  totally technical & I had to convince the person that if he has screwed it up already, not to mess with it more. I told him to contact the environment manager & proceed only if he says it is important. 

"Else I will pick it up first thing tomorrow morning."

"Ok, I will talk to him then. Do you want me to give you a call afterwards?"

"Dude, for gods sake, you are not my Girl friend" I thought "No, call me up only if you do have any problems"

Of course by now, you must have guessed that he did call me up again. 

It was a bad-bad day. I talked to some 6-7 of my friends today on messenger or something & everybody thought that I was chilling out at home.

"Cool, Dude. So chilling out at home!"

"Sahi hai... mast ayyashi chal rahi hai scotland main"

"What happened, had too much yesterday night?"

"Who were you roaming around with last night, Man?"

"Hangover?"

Overall, I had a bad day. However, It did became better as the sun wore down & evening approached. 

"Ah, all's well that ends well."

Rain, Rain, Go away... Little Johnny wants to Play

"Don't be sad, my child; Hear the music" says the thunder "I am playing it only for you."

"I don't know what you mean. I can't hear any music." I shout back.

"But you have to listen carefully my child." The thunder god replies.

I concentrate, stretching my brows  & then all of a sudden I am able to hear it. 

The crystal droplets falling from high above in the sky. They travel so far, & just blow away to tiny fragments on the hot cobblestones. They make a tiny beat 'Put' when hey hit the tin roof or the tar road. The lucky ones are just absorbed by the parched earth. The luckiest ones hang from the green leaves, each one of them reflecting the rainbow at the horizon. It's as if the leaves are in love with the pearls & fear to let them go. 

Shot outside my house, after a rainy day. Tried the max aperture of 3.5; shutter speed is pretty low though & hence the sharpness. It's hard to get out of bed when you are sick.

All of them do make a sound; collectively they make the music.

It's beautiful. 

You can't feel it sitting in your comfortable abode. To feel it you have to be out in the open. Take a quiet stroll alone with the raindrops slowly hitting you across the face. You will feel lighter; the world would seem a better place to live in. Sit near a river under a tree, with somebody whom you love & everything you wanted to tell hem will be said by those raindrops. The world seems to have a pink tint now. It's a feeling. You have to feel that music. I think this is the most beautiful sounds you will hear from nature, besides the sound of wind roaring on a mountain. 

Scotland is beautiful in rains, So is India.

Enjoy the music. I had my share; I hope you get yours too.

Time... Tick, Tick, Tick

A teary eyed father is waving at his leaving Daughter. As she turns her back to him, the last one week he had spent with her, flashes before his eyes. The whole 1 week is over in 2 seconds. He smiles, thinking of the pleasant memories of the last week. He thinks of the long days he would have to spend now at his office, alone.

"Time has run away so fast in the last week, I bet it wouldn't be so slick in the coming days." He says to himself.

A skinny teenager is checking out his balance on an ATM machine. His dad had transferred him the money 2 days back but the amount has still not been credited to his account. The display turns up & reads 

'Ledger Balance - 7000 Rs'  

'Account Balance - 95 Rs'

He wishes the numbers to fall down from the above floor to the latter. But this doesn't seems to be happening. In the last 2 days, he has checked his balance 9 times & the amount seems to be stuck on 'Ledger balance'.  

"The time seems to have stopped" The teenager thinks.

"The only thing you should value is time. The time you have today, will not come tomorrow & the time you have tomorrow will be different than that of today."

This was one of the fav sayings of my maternal Grand-Dad. Everyone of his lectures would start with this saying. I wouldn't pretend that I was an obedient child & took that saying to my heart, rather I used to hate it!

But today, when I look back down the lane, past the last 7 years which I have spent away from my Grandparents, I recognize the wisdom of those words. In fact I am not ashamed at all to say that I would have been in a much better position, if I had taken that saying to my heart a little earlier in my life. I would prefer to hand over this one saying to my kids when I have the chance to parent them.

"Well, my dear Sweetheart. I am gonna give you only piece of Advice. Now don't think that your Father is an intelligent man & is making all this up by himself. This advice has been handed over to your father by his Grandfather. The only thing you should value is Time. Know that the time you have today is not going to return tomorrow. 

What you have today is unique. Try to enjoy it. Have memories from it that you can cherish tomorrow. It doesn't matter whether you are having a gala or you are sad. If you really live up the moment, you are going to have memories of this moment some years down the lane & you will have lots of reason to smile. If you don't you will have the same number of reasons for regret.

Wisdom comes from the realization that the present is yours. Live it to the hilt. Always remember, Fools cry thinking of the good times they had in their past. Greater Fools are looking for good times in future. The wise cherish the beautiful memories from the past & care for the future, but above all they live for the day. Because they know that the future will be a part of what they do today, & they are already in the process of making a memorable past. So value 'Time', my angel. "

I have always thought how fast do the hands of the clock seem to tick away when you are enjoying yourself, & how slowly do the numbers change when you are in a tight situation. Why is it that in the former situation, you suddenly get a glimpse of your wrist watch & gasp amazed 'Where did the time fly away?'. And how childish is of people to tap their 'Swatch', 'Rolex' & 'Omega' timepieces doubting that they have stopped somehow in the latter situation.

It's a strange thing. Isn't it?

Laughter at work

These are some of the real incidents I faced here with my team.

Me & one of my colleagues were talking about movies

Me:               So Khowlie, Did you watch the 'Dark Knight'?

Khowlie:    No, its too fictitious for my tastes. 

Me:               Hmm...

Khowlie:    You know I like an element of truth in my movies.

Me:               That's great. So which movie did you watch last that 

                       you really liked?

Now I was expecting him to say something like 'Into the wild', 'Bucket list', 'We own the night', 'American Gangster' or something on lines.

Khowlie:    Oh, you see I don't watch lot of movies, But the last one 

                       which I really liked was 'Bruce Almighty'

This one happened during Christmas party

Me:          People owning a Lamborghini Diablo shouldn't live 

                  in London!

Lisa:        Do you have kids?

I was thinking to myself 'How does my having kids affect her having a Lamboghini?'

Me:          No Lisa, I am not married.

Lisa:        Grow up boy, whoever told you that you have to be 

                  married to have kids?  

This happened when I was trying to teach Graham how to write performance oriented Rex'es

Me:             Now Graham, You see the MIPS on the machine 

                     is constant. 

Graham:   Yes, I understand that.

Me:             So the time taken for your script to run will be 

                     decided by the cyclomatic complexity.

Graham:   I think I understand that.

I gave him insights to how the loosely coupled & tightly coupled multi processor machines work. At this time, Craig who is the technical architect of the system & is one of the really fundu person pitched in...

Craig:        Where did you learn all that stuff? I didn't knew 

                     half of that!

Me:             In college. 

Craig:         You are a freaking example of perfect Indian.

Me:             And what is that supposed to mean?

Craig:         You know everything about computers!

Love

"Have the passion to love people when they need you,

& the courage to let them go when they want you to."

Read it somewhere, liked it!!!

Please Forgive me...

Another of my Fav songs by Bryan Adams. This was sung for 'So far So good' album, 1993. 

The lyrics are written by Bryan Adams & Robert Lange. It's amazing.

Its strange but the first time you hear it, it sounds as if its sung by a heart broken person. It's only when you listen carefully that you will realize that you cant be farther from the truth.

He is not asking for forgiveness because he believes that he has hurt her. What he is trying to say is that even though you ask me to forget you, I cant do that. And I am sorry for that. 

If you listen carefully, the lyrics will tell you that the singer is missing those times & no matter how much you ask him to forget it, he can't do it. He doesn't regret anything. He is happy. It's because that time is a cherised part of his life. It's as if its in his blood stream. Now you can't take out something from somebody's blood stream, Can you?

The song isn't sad, it's full of life! And that is why it's one of my favorites.

The Knight & his sacrifices

Have you given away something which you cherish more than your life just for the reason that somebody will be happy? Have you ever wondered how hard is it to sacrifice some part of your life; especially when you know it will never be acknowledged? Have you ever wondered what pain a martyr goes through? Have you ever thought what it feels like to be on the receiving end of being somebody's second priority. & the worst is you have nobody to talk to about it!

Gosh, it is hell!

Now don't get the wrong idea. I am not talking about myself. Being the pompous & self acclaimed egoist I am, I would never do that. I am talking about the latest of the Batman series 'The Dark Knight'. 

The movie's story is nothing new. But it does show you a different side of the Batman. The normal dark side of the superhero has been portrayed so much that people do forget what would be the humane side of the poor guy. The 'Dark Knight' gives away the happiness in his life so that the commoner of Gotham can sleep peacefully. He let goes of the person he loves most, believing that she will return back when things are better. No wonder they call him the knight, the bravest of the warriors who don't show emotions even when their world is getting ripped apart.

Christian Bale is awesome in the movie both as Batman, the superhero & Bruce Wayne, the multi Billionaire playboy. Aaron Eckhart, as Harvey Dent is also good, but he is awesome once he transforms into the character of 'Two-Face'. Of course late 'Heath Ledger' overshadows every other person in the movie as 'The Joker'. The way he says "This city deserves a better class of criminal & I am going to give it to her" is awesome. He certainly deserves Oscar for the movie, though I doubt if they give Oscar posthumously. The special effects wouldn't disappoint you either. 

Best Dialogue in the movie, again by the Joker:- 

"Good evening Ladies & Gentlemen, we are tonight's entertainment."

However, for me the action & the special effects of the movie are secondary. I loved the way the director has handled the emotions of Batman transforming into Bruce Wayne. The way he still goes on, sacrificing the only thing worth cherishing in his life, even when he knows that he will never gain anything from it. I wonder how would poor Bruce feel if he comes to know that 'Rachel' did leave him for 'Harvey Dent' . 

Whoever said that being a Hero is easy must certainly have been drinking. A must see for all action freaks. 

Three cheers for all the heroes in the world, who have got the heart to sacrifice something in their life for the sake of other's happiness. I wonder where would this mean world be without them!

    

Deadly experience

Last night my mom and I were sitting in the living room, talking about life... In-between, we talked about the idea of living or dying.

I said to her: ' Mom, never let me live in a vegetative state, totally dependent on machines and surviving on liquids from a bottle. If you see me in that state I beg of you to disconnect all the contraptions that are keeping me alive, I'd very much rather die'.

My mom looked at me with real admiration, got up from the sofa...

and proceeded to disconnect the TV, the Cable, the Dish, the DVD, the Computer, the Cell Phone, the Ipod, and the Xbox; and then went to the fridge and threw away all my beer!!

...I ALMOST DIED!!!"

P.S - This didn't happen with me; though i empathize with the narrator. I got this as a FWD from a Friend.

    

Atom... An engineering marvel

 Have you ever wondered what's the difference between an engineering Marvel & a technology masterpiece.

In my opinion, every technology marvel has to be a engineering marvel. A technology masterpiece is something which makes use of the cutting edge technology, the latest equipment & the best of the workmanship. Of course, it will be costly. An engineering marvel, doesn't necessarily means the same. What it means is the best use of the available equipment & resources, the very best of the designs & pushing the limits of engineering laws to its extreme. 

A macbook, if you see is a good example of Engineering marvel. It doesn't have the extreme technology available in the market, but it is so focussed on its purpose & so tightly knit that everything falls into place. The price is due to the brand name, of course.

Let me push the analogy a step further. 

A Ferrari Enzo is an apt example of Technological masterpiece. It is so bent on achieving its goal, that everything else takes a back seat, even though it hasn't got any. It might be impractical , but still it is a technology masterpiece. No wonder it costs more than 500,000 Pounds.

An Atom on the other hand is a phenomenal example of engineering marvel. This is a benchmark in the engineering standards. Made by a company named Ariel, consisting only of 7 employees, this car creates a niche for itself.

Specs:-

Body weight                                         500 Kgs

Chasis                                                     Bronze welded ERW/CDS steel tube

Engine                                                    2.0 Honda 4 Cylinder i-VTec

Displacement                                       2000 cc

Power                                                     245 Bhp/300 Bhp Supercharged

Weight/Power                                    600 Bhp per tonne

0-60                                                        2.9 S

Top Speed                                             More than 120 mph

Price                                                        29,000 Pounds

"I have never ever driven anything, that accelerates so fast"

- Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

Don't believe me, see this...   Atom featured in BBC

Incredible, isn't it? As I said, an engineering marvel.

Want to buy one, visit the official Ariel website. 

And remember, next time somebody tells you "Costliest is the best", be sure to tell them about Atom.      

                                                    

Happy Friendship's Day

All those lucky bastards who had the good luck to have been tagged with my friendship, I wish you guys a Happy Friendship's Day.

Of course, this is just an excuse!

I bought a Manfrotto couple of days back. I didn't get much chance to use it till now. But today shaking away my laziness, I ventured into the streets at 10 O'Clock in the night to get some pictures. They are not especially good, because I am still learning.

I am facing 2 problems here. The white balance is not correct. I can manage that. The highlights are all washed out in the sky. But worst is people don't seem to drive in Edinburgh after 9. I don't get enough vehicle trail lights. Come on guys, move out of your home, go out!

These shots are taken from a bridge 5 minutes away from my place. Since I was already late, I couldn't compose. Also the limited view from the over-bridge makes the choices limited. All the 3 pictures are cropped.

The thing which troubles me most is I am not able to guess the correct exposure for these shots. I guess, I do need more practice & loads of it too!

Anyway Guys, I hope you do have a lovely day ahead.