I Survived

Its been almost four days since it gave up. The blue screen with messages (which btw didn't make a whole lot of sense to me) describing what possibly could have gone wrong displayed. But one thing was clear, it couldn't take it no more. Even a couple of hard restarts didn't do the trick this time, the same screen displayed over and over...With no laptop meaning- no YouTube, no Gtalk, no Economist, no Wikipedia, no Email- it appeared to me as if I was castaway from this world. Felt like I was incarcerated though I know I am free. Suddenly days seemed longer with plenty of time to do quality work and so moved things around to fill in the new found time slots and began to read this book "The Kite Runner". It is a father-son-illegal son story set in Kabul and States.

The no laptop day-1 started and ended quite differently. With zero dedicated browsing time , finished about one-third of the book in between my sleeps. Day-2 was different from day-1 too - Played tennis, phoned few friends (TG my phone was working) and completed a good portion of the story. I guess I didn't miss my lost browsing time much on day-2. I was done reading the book the following day. That day I felt like any other normal day, oblivious to the fact that my laptop is dead quite sometime.

In the last, not sure how many years, this is the longest I am with no PC. Very hard to imagine life without it. But honestly the experience was not as bad as I had imagined it would be. The one highlight is the gradual replacement of my browsing time slots with reading. I guess I got used to or may be adapted to the change. Isn't that true we, in fact all living beings must (or willing to) adapt to the changes around them in order to survive. I am no different. I think this is the fastest I have completed reading a story book thanks to my crashed laptop and also to my friend. One thing I realized for sure, laptop or no laptop- Zendagi Migzara....

Stick With It

It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because ... All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Well said Mr.Cuban.....

MSM 1980

Not a single day (at work) goes by without the mention of the acronym MSM. Lately, I have been thinking, if someone like me, authors an auto-biography what could it be possibly titled:

MSM 1980

The M's stand for 'My' and 'Memoirs' but 'S', a little unsure right now. It could be 'Sweet' or 'Sour' or 'SwOur'.

The Best Part

The best part of an academic year is the break in summer.

In +2, it is after the day of entrance examination to the professional colleges and till the day the results are announced. (Well, for me it ended on results day....)

Once the semester exams are completed, life is bindaas till the night before the first exam (of next semester finals) in a professional college.

Depending on which side of the globe one is enrolled in a post-graduate college, the best part of the academic year varies. In the west, it is short- begins on the day of completion of final exam(s)/submission of project(s) for the courses enrolled and ends on the first day of next semester.

When working, undoubtedly the best part is the vacation time. It is even better if your fare is paid, as in my case...hu hu :)

No Skiing For Desi Men

The title may not be applied to all but I think applies to most. Anyway, in the last four weeks or so went to ski twice though I know I suck at it big time...As always this time hoped that by the end of the day, (at least) I'd be able to ski down the beginner's slopes. So started to ski on a bunny slope and this is how it went. Every time I go down the slope not knowing how to control, crashed on the ice...I think out of ten such trials I was upright only twice..But each time I fell, got a free class...Few people around who saw my antics with skis were kind enough to teach me the 101's of skiing- how to maneuver the skis in order to control the speed, come to a stop without crashing and not to ski straight down the slope but to go down in a 's' path. In spite of the classes my crash numbers didn't improve much: fell down six times out of ten trials after...One time when I came to a halt (of course crashing on the ice) at the end of the slope near fence, overheard a fellow skier casually telling to the other that, it is how I intended to stop and it is no accident...She was absolutely right...

Without question my ski ventures if caught on tape, would become a candidate to be aired on AFV and would be a no surprise if voted as the funniest video of the week!

Rule of Thumb

Today when my friend turned on the radio in his car, the RJs were just moving on to the Q&A part of the program from a discussion on the phrase 'Rule of Thumb'. After returning from a friend's place, out of curiosity I just did a (re)search on the same and here's something I found about it's origin:

It is believed that English law allowed man to whip his wife with a switch as long as it is no thicker than his thumb...Uh huff!!

For centuries bits of body are being used in taking measurements and I thought the phrase originated when this part of hand, the thumb is used to estimate or measure things. I was astonished; so checked few other results from the million or so returned by Google and found that such a law never existed and it is a myth...Sigh!!

BTW here's an interesting usage of the phrase[1]:

Tailors' Rule of Thumb: A simple approximation that was used by tailors to determine the wrist, neck, and waist circumferences of a person through one single measurement of the circumference of that person's thumb. The rule states, typically, that twice the circumference of a person's thumb is the circumference of their wrist, twice the circumference of the wrist is the circumference of the neck, and twice around the neck is the person's waist.

[1]. Wikipedia.org

Yet Another Year

It is that time of the year when I sit back and plan on things to do in the next year and also start to wonder how I frittered away this year...I have been doing this (the planning part) for some years now...don't ask me about the execution/implementation part all these years though! Anyways looking back at this year, it started off quietly for me as any other year - the routine five day work weeks, in between visits to gym, occasional parties (and social drinking), Friday evening basket ball games, all night long game of cards over the weekends and tennis. In this part of the world where I am residing currently, weather is ideal for a game of tennis all year long and so started playing on a regular basis. Also planned to take few lessons but some how didn't happen (adding this to my to do list for next year!). In the second quarter of this year one of my friends bought a gaming console, XBOX 360. So for the next few evenings, nights and weekends was playing this one game called 'Gears of War' like crazy and soon got addicted to it. For me all the other activities took a backstage for a while. Believe me the graphics and background score in this game are awesome. With the time I was dedicating, soon finished playing all the stages, won all the wars, so slowly got back to my mundane activities-workout, tennis, hang outs with friends, work...

Interestingly, in the latter half of this year any topic of our discussion(s) at lunch or in a bar or sometimes even in our meetings either started or ended with talk on marriage or marriage proposal. Suddenly it seemed like the topic of the town. To me it appeared that, the cohort of people I know of my age, started feeling that it is the right time (or may be high time) to get married. And as expected this year most of my (guy) friends tied a knot-few to their college sweethearts against all odds, few to whom they have been dating for a year or so and few others to keep both sides happy, to their parent's choice. With the addition of few new members to our otherwise all guys gang, group activities have changed in the last quarter- the Friday evening basket ball games gave way to potluck events, the occasional hang outs around bars/sports-bars seemed like a distant past and the card games are played but not all night long. I think in my entire life I have never attended as many potluck events as I have in last two or three months. But no complaints here, since got to eat the delicious home-made food in all those events. These little changes (in day-to-day or past-time activities) in life are bound to happen anyway and it was just a matter of time. I guess also one has to re-define one's priorities as they move on....

Being an enthusiast of outdoor activities, I would say the best part of this year was visiting a couple of national parks during the three-day weekend breaks in summer and fall. The hikes there during the day really tested our mettle and the camping overnight in wilderness gave an opportunity to relax. I think this is all what I did mostly this year but the way this year is coming to an end is not exactly the same as it started for me or I should say not the way I planned...You know things have been a little complicated and unsettling lately. I do not know why, but what I do know is that I give a damn...

As always looking forward to a more fun-filled new year and hopefully things will settle down. Yeah! almost forgot to mention that this year also saw the birth of my blog. Ha-ha!