‘Worry’

‘Worry’

He was worried that day. He had a son and a daughter. Both were married and had kids. His was a happy family. Whenever, he was not in high spirits, he used to think about his grandchildren and that used to light up his face, but not that day! He was far more worried. This worry was not the one that’s usual – at least not the one that vanishes with a mere ‘feel-good-thought’ like the thought of his grandson picking his moustache or his granddaughter calling him by his name (even though she doesn’t know to make a complete sentence yet) or his 50-year old wife wearing Jeans for the first time just because their granddaughter once picked up a jeans and showed it to her grandma – they all thought she wanted to see her grandma in jeans.

Today, he was worried about the girl. Why did she not come today? He waited for 15 minutes at the stop for her. For the past 3 years he was used to seeing her everyday – at least everyday he worked and she had college. He made sure he knew the holidays for the girl’s college and tried to match them with his (a privilege not given to his children/ grandchildren). It did not work when there was a vacation at college though. He did not change the shift timings just for her. He worked the same shift for the past 3 years. It started on that one day where he had to change his shift to substitute for a person who retired the day before. He felt all alone at home as his daughter had just been married and left town (Now, she is back in town though). He was attached to his daughter, but he always imagined this girl also to be his own daughter. He would wait for the girl whenever she was late. He used to wait for that smile on her face. He used to start his duty everyday with that smile followed by a pleasant ‘Good Morning’ and end the day with her smile followed by a ‘Good Night’!

Before this day - the day his shift was changed; the day she asked the bus to stop by waving her hand for the first time - he was a worried man. He used to scold and swear on people who used to drive irregularly. Something he stopped doing just because he did not want her to feel embarrassed. On the first day, she had waved her hand to stop the bus, he was preoccupied thinking about his daughter and suddenly a pedestrian crossed the road; he ‘had to’ stop the bus; she got in and smiled thankfully and that smile changed him completely. He would have stopped the bus, scolded the pedestrian through the window and then would have driven the rest of the trip with an attitude and feeling that is superior to everyone had that been any other day. Not on that day; he fell in love with that smile. He smiled back to the girl and he did not stop to fight with the pedestrian neither did he scold him through the window. In fact, he had thanked him many times through these years. This girl made him forget his daughter’s departure from his house and he had given this girl the same place as his daughter, in his heart, over a period of time. She used to sit in the seat right behind him for the whole trip and used to converse with him anything and everything in the world. He knew everything about her college and she knew everything about his family. She had, in fact, suggested the name for his granddaughter, which he liked; his daughter and his son-in-law loved.

But again today, she was not in the bus. If she was not coming the next day, she would have informed him. What had happened to her?

He had a bad day. After 3 years, he shouted at people on the way and swore at them. As soon as he left the bus at the depot, he went to the place where the girl takes the bus daily. She had told him once that she stayed in the ‘fourth house to the left’ in the lane. He sometimes used to see her walk safely to the house (when there were no other passengers in the bus to avoid them getting late). So, he knew the house. He did not worry about what her parents would think that a stranger has come to visit their daughter. He knew that her parents know him as ‘Driver Uncle’, but they did not know him by face or by name.

He rang the bell. She opened the door. He was happy to see the girl stand in front of him with the same smile. She was pleasantly surprised on seeing him and immediately apologized for not showing up that morning. She explained that her mom was not feeling well by the time she came home the day before. And she was awake the whole night. She thought of coming to the bus stop and informing him, but she had slept in the chair while thinking.

After some small talk and a hot tea with her parents, he walked back to his house thinking about what his daughter and granddaughter would be doing at that time.

~R-Square

‘The First Adventure’

‘The First Adventure’

"Let them go. I can easily catch-up with them. It will only take 2 minutes to reach them anyway. My Mom and Dad are not even looking for me now. I'll join them before they find that I was missing in the first place."

"But Wait, there's a man there. He is holding a stick too! Is it worth it to take risk? If I get caught, then it'll be real difficult for me to get out from there.
Can I sneak in and out without getting caught?
That's a possibility!
Is he facing this way or that?
I can't really tell from this far."

"Let me look for other problems.. there doesn't seem to be anybody else nearby. What if they come suddenly? Ah.. that's okay, I should be able to get out easily - after all, I am swifter than the remaining group!
Then why am I lagging?
Forget it.. I am fast!!!"

"Oh! Mom just looked at me; Does she know I am trying to sneak out? Let me stay close for a moment lest Dad also looks for me..."

"Now, I think it is safe to leave. They are convinced that I am with them, but what about the man with the stick? He must have seen so many like me and he can easily catch me unless I take off from there as soon as I am satisfied with my adventure."

"Okay.. here I go..."
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.
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And the bird flew down to the field below to get few grains. Its maiden adventure to the fields! It reached back safely to the group in 2 minutes.

Oh, the man with the stick? It was a scare-crow!

~R-Square

WWYWIYCWAA-Wee-Why-Cwah-V-Y-Kw-aaah

WWYWIYCWAA-Wee-Why-Cwah-V-Y-Kw-aaah

WWYWIYCWAA stands for What Would You Write If You Could Write Absolutely Anything


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If I can write absolutely anything… here is what I can write ;) – To maintain the language as English I have translated (find the original conversation below)

**************************************************************************

R: I’ll be back in some time
: OK
: We don’t need to have an…
: I think we should check
: Some books, pens…
: What are you saying?
: ha, ha, ha, train…
: When I say sweep that…
: Your voice was good then.. what happened now?
: It is wrong to have 2 PAs in a project.
: I am feeling scared.
: They will allow writing exams at that time and then…
: Lock that door…
: He is saying that nobody came for verification.
: It should not be a question - 9 hours or 8.5 hours…
: If anybody goes…
: It’s not like that, in the evening the day-before…
: Bring her too. You come soon.
: Actually, I am fasting.
: Actually, I have bought this month
: I’ll come to your place
: Back to Bangalore, Back to Hyderabad. The world is round for them.
: I alone am paying 4000
: How are you doing?
: I got the deposit; I do not know anything else.
: I took 3 certifications this year
: Ok. Is that all?
: He responds quickly.
R: I am back!

*************************************************************************

For those who are troubled and not able to understand, the only statements that are in ‘Green’ are the ones that would make sense. I left my place – went to the New Food Court through the Old Food Court, Amphitheatre and back the same route. If some people saw me making notes and thought that I was out of my mind; here is what I was doing – I was noting whatever I heard on my way (discarding those which I could not understand or those that were too many to scribble). Please note that no two statements are related and were part of a single conversation except the ones in ‘Green’.

Here’s the original dialogue and the source:

Raviraj : (In Telugu) Ippude vastaanu
Team mate : OK
A talking to her teammate : We don’t need to have an…
B talking on phone : I think we should check…
C (girl) to a guy : Some books, pens,…
D (Don’t remember who) : What are you saying?

I took the stairs. A girl was tearing a paper while walking up the stairs.

A group of guys were talking near the elevator in ground floor…

E (one from the group above) : ha, ha, ha, train…

I came out and one maintenance lady was sweeping the leaves off the grass…

F to another maintenance lady : (In Telugu) Adi oodavamante…
G (guy on phone) : (In Telugu) Indaaka voice baagundi malli ippudu emaindi?
H (Group of guys) : (In Telugu) Oka project lo iddaru PA lu unte tappu.

Maintenance workers were plucking grass/ setting the path right near the Old Food Court

I (maintenance worker – one to another): (In Telugu) Naaku ayite bhayam vestondi.
J (girl to boy) : (In Telugu) Appudu ayite exams raayanistaaru. Next emo..
K (Near Apollo Clinic) : (In Telugu) Aa door lock cheyyi.
L (A person on phone) : He is saying that nobody came for verification
M (One in a group of guys) : It should not be a question – 9 hours or 8.5 hours…
N (Don’t remember who) : (In Hindi) Agar koi jaata hai…
O (Don’t remember who) : (In Telugu) Alaa kaadu monna saayantram

Some people were setting up ‘Finacle Fever’ banner. Tried to hear and understand their voices. They were looking at some weirdly (I thought) as to why this guy has a book and pen in his hand and trying to note something. I could not understand anything so left the place.

P (2 girls- the one on phone says) : (In Telugu) Aame* ni kooda pattukura. Nuvvu tondaraga ra.
Q (3 girls – one of them says) : (In Tamil) Naa fasting iraka actual aa…
R (Girl on phone) : (In Telugu) Actually, ee month konesaanu.
S (one guy to another) : I’ll come to your place.

On the way back,

T (Girl says to 2 guys) : (In Hindi) Vaapas Bangalore. Vaapas Hyderabad. Duniya gol hai unke liye.

One big group talked something in unknown (to me) language (Malayalam maybe!)

U (Girl to guy) : (In Telugu) Nenu okkadaanne 4000 pay chestunnanu

A guy meets another one on the stairs of Old Food Court

V : (In Hindi) Kaisa Hai?

Clinking sound of coins: A guy is collecting coins from the Coca-Cola vending machine.

W (Guy on phone) : (In Telugu) Naaku deposit padindi; inkemi teleedu.
X (Guy in a group) : (In Telugu) Moodu certifications raasina ee year
Y (Girl to another girl) : (In Telugu) Ok. Anthena?
Z (A guy to girl) : (In Telugu) Quick ka respond avutaadu.

Raviraj (To teammate) : I am back!

* ‘Aame’ was actually a name. I did not want to use any names here. So, I changed the statement.

P.S: I am sorry to all the people whom I met on the way in my journey from my cubicle to my cubicle for invading into their privacy.
----------------------------------------

(My non-winning entry!!!)

“Absolutely Anything”


Now that would not count as an entry, would it? It takes only 2 words, but that is what was asked out of me. If I had to increase the number of the words I could start writing absolutely anything all over and over again. Just because there is no upper limit on the number of words, does not mean that I ramble with the words and seriously write absolutely anything. Now, to make sense I can write absolutely anything or just keep talking about ‘absolutely anything’ and write absolutely nothing.

Though I said I would write absolutely nothing, it looks like I wrote something. Does this something count as absolutely anything or nothing or is there something in this nothing too?

P.S: Don’t blame me for this utter nonsense – you asked me to write absolutely anything

Keys

Keys

There are few instances where you feel you should have waited for few more minutes before doing something.. here is one...

We went for shopping for the whole week. So, when we were back we had a lot of things to hold before getting to our house. Our house had a secured gate. So, to get into our house, I had to open the secured gate, which takes us to a common area and then of course, the key to unlock our house.

Because there were too many things to carry, I went inside the house with one bag and came back for more. This time, my friends were trying to help me get the other stuff. We came to the secured gate and I realized that I did not bring the key out. I remembered that I had not locked the house, but the secured gate gets locked automatically. I was thinking where I would have kept the key because I hadn't left it at the house (or did I?). So, I searched my pockets - I reached the front pocket of the shirt and the front pockets of my trousers still holding all the groceries.

I called my room-mate to check when he would come. He did not answer the phone (as he was driving - I found that out later). So, we decided to ring someone else's doorbell who could open the door for us. I rang the bell - our neighbour's bell (hmm... the neighbour whom we never met). The guy came and opened the door. He was sleeping, I think - by the way he looked. I thanked him and apologized for the trouble caused.

I started picking the things and turned to see that my roomie standing behind me! We waited for so much time before ringing my neighbour's doorbell and here comes my roomie..! I was thinking could he not have come a little earlier or should I have waited for some more time. I was feeling bad for my neighbor to have woken him up. We took all the bags inside and set them in the house still wondering where I would have left my keys.

As I reached my back pocket, I found my keys!

Enjoy!

~ R-Square

Gotcha!

Gotcha!

(Written on 23 Aug 2008 to unwind the mind because just watched the movie "SAW" - don't want to get involved too much... though I just posted my other blog 'Life is Beautiful' - it was written a long time back though --> To understand the relation between the movie "SAW" and the phrase "Life is Beautiful" you have to watch the movie SAW)

2 years ago, I came onsite to work at a client location for my company. There were some funny incidents that took place during the first few days and I thought I should make a note of these, but most of them slipped my mind and owing to the fact that 2 years is a lot of time to remember things (especially for me!), I forgive myself. Here are the ones I remember.

Id - Name Tags:
We used to make sure that we read the Id to get the names of people (especially girls - not to mention good looking!!!) on our way to FC (Food Court) from our desk; once we know the names, it was easy to find the details (for example: where does (s)he stay, what department (s)he works in, what department (s)he sits etc.) about that person from our employee database. Being a regular to use the company transport, I used to have a little more information on where (s)he would get down or which route (s)he goes; we used to do a lot of linking for the information each of us had. Let me mention that the discussion/ interest used to be more for girls than guys for obvious reasons; it would also be appropriate to mention here that there were no bad intentions in collecting this information. It used to stay within the group and I assure that it has caused nobody any harm!!

Now for gotcha: When traveling by flight, I was looking for the air-hostess' ids :) - not that they did not have ids... just that it was awkward trying to do that.

Restroom Confusion: It is a bit embarrassing to talk about restroom for a long time, but I love this because it took me 2-3 minutes to figure out how to get water out from the wash basin to wash my hands!!

The Washroom/ Bathroom/ Toilet of our office was a place where I had seen the technology that not only appalled me, but sometimes confused me!

There were some features like automatic hand-drying, automatic paper machine which had hand sensor to bring the paper out so that you could dry your hands! Now, this was in 2006 and I had seen these things for the first time though my company in India was had all the facilities; it was more manual.

This client location, had different features in different restrooms. I was seeing new equipments to wash and dry hands every time I go to a different restroom over the first 15 days.

Gotcha: One of those days, I went to a restroom and wanted to wash my hands stood near a wash basin expecting to activate the sensor to get the water "automatically". The water did not flow and my hands were now wet with soap and I had to wash my hands. There was no tap on the basin so there had to be a sensor otherwise water cannot flow (at least that's what I thought!)

A person came by to the next basin near me; water started flowing - he washed his hands and left. I thought maybe the one I was trying to use wasn't working. I waited for the person to leave and moved to the other basin. Even that wouldn't work!! Another man came in - he washed his hands and left and here I was trying to wash my hands for so much time on that very basin and I could not!!

I, then, moved to the wash basin that had a tap (built for physically challenged people), washed my hands and then left. I realized how to get water out of that other basin only during my second visit to that restroom. I had observed that there were levers below the basin so one had to walk to the basin step on the lever and water starts flowing!! Looks simple, but if you do not know.. you are doomed!

I am sure there were many others instances where I thought it was a Gotcha! situation, but looks like this itself has grown big and is kinds boring.. so that's it for now.

Enjoy!

~R-Square

Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful
(Written on 28 Jun 2008 - bedtime)

Call it a movie; call it an experience! I was watching the movie and "after" it was done - I was amazed. This is the old one.. the original is in Italian (I guess) and the movie has an unknown magic that talks about taking life a "little" easy and not to lose 'sense-of-humor' in you even during the last moments of your life (especially when you do not know whether you are going to live or die!!).

Can't talk much about the World War II [owing to my history Knowledge :( ], but sure makes me think why it started and how it would have changed most people's lives. We are certainly lucky to be born in an era where we do not have problems (not literally, comparatively speaking.. I know we have all sorts of problems in our age.. we do not know whether we will be back home once we are out of our homes in the morning, but at least there is no tension about death..)

Inspirational movie - makes you think a lot about yourself - I recommend it.. know more at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/

Enjoy!

~R-Square

Car Wash

Car Wash

Location: Kansas City, Kansas, USA

"How can you drive a car without cleaning it?"
"The first thing you should do before you start driving is to clean the car!"

I never ever would start the car after checking whether it is clean. Once I start driving if the windshield is not clean.. get the wipers on and clean it - as simple as that! Now, people may say that I am lazy, but that's okay - that's what I am!

Okay - so here is a day that I should remember for the rest of my life - the day I went to Car Wash with a couple of my friends. It was a self car wash. You need to put some quarters to start the machine. It runs for 3 minutes and to add an additional minute you put in an additional quarter. You vaccuum your car from inside and then you use soap and spray the car with water to clean it thouroughly.

It truly is really good service. You can clean it easily. The first thing I always think is whether you will get such a service in India ever. May be not, but is such a service required in India!!? It would be a lot cheaper to get it cleaned when you get your vehicle serviced..!

While doing this.. we used credit card. We had to swipe the card first - use the services and stop the soap and water and hit the "stop" button to finish the credit card transaction and both my friends forgot to hit the final "stop" and their credit cards were charged lot more than they would have wanted before they even realized. (I managed to hit the "stop" button because my eyes were on the billing display every second to see how much it was charging me.. and when I was done... immediately I hit the "stop" button.. no time wasted ;)) Now, the cars are clean, but we (together) probably paid a lot more than we should have for the cleaning!!

One of my friends who was charged more said he was not going for cleaning again because of this. I sure am not going anyway because I generally do not want to clean things.

My quote: There is difference between keeping anything tidy and keeping things untidy. When you keep things tidy they tend to get dirty and you will notice that immediately and when you keep things untidy you will not notice the difference even when it gets dirtier:)

Enjoy!

R-Square

Lost & Found

Lost & Found Written on 17 Nov 2006 (In flight to Los Angeles - LAX for a long awaited vacation)
Whenever I watched Bollywood (Indian Hindi Movies, based out of Bombay a.k.a Mumbai) movies with the funda of 'family song' in it, I used to think this is possible only in movies with a lot of imagination. Typical example would be 'Yaadon ki Baarat'. One happy family meets a disaster or an unforeseen incident and all the family members (generally brothers) are separated. Fate brings them together typically after they are grown up adults and one of them starts the 'family song' towards the climax of the movie and the other brothers join in to complete the song.. and lo! the "family song" reunites the "bichde hue bhai" (separated brothers).
After watching such movies, I have always wondered whether the whole family sings this song daily to memorize so that it would be useful when they get separated (foreseeing the unforeseen!!) Such movies are 'masala' movies and you have to flow with the movie without expecting too much logic. Let it be 'Meri Jung', 'Waqt' (the old one) or 'Amar Akbar Anthony' - they are all based on separate and reunite.. a happy ending.. and the most important thing is that they are all hits!

Until recently I did not realize the importance of the family song.. NO, I am not separated from my family and neither does my family have a 'patented' song. I was sitting at my colleague's desk and getting some work done with his help. A messenger window popped up on his screen and he was replying to his friend's message. Usually, whenever I am free, I sing (wrong again, I am not a singer - in fact, my voice is so horrible that everyone asks me to SHUT UP).. okay so, I hum whenever I am free (sometimes even when I am busy)..

He turned to me and said, "How do you know this song?"

..and before I could respond he said "KV?"

I smiled and said, "Yes". He was from the KV Family!

(KV => Kendriya Vidyalaya; A school which has several branches across India and the syllabus and the music lessons and the mode of teaching is similar across all the branches). The song was one among the many printed in our school diary :)

Now, I do not think I will ever point the directors/ story writers of the "Lost and Found" movies at fault, 'coz I think at least one of them would have gone through similar thing to have thought of the idea of such a movie...

Enjoy!

~ R-Square

My first blog!

My first blog!

Creating a blog and starting to write this is in itself is a big achievement for a person who is lazy and loves to procrastinate!

You will find me writing here something that I would have been thinking over for some time. Writing it in a blog would just clarify my thought process and would help me know what I want!

This might seem odd and you might be thinking why should I even read his blogs if all he talks about is himself!!? To think of it.. this is my blog - so I would write what I want (Oops I am arrogant!).

No - seriously, I will be discussing some situations from time to time or some incidents that I feel like telling somebody (who better than myself :)) - because no one knows that I have started writing blogs.. hopefully you will find these interesting enough to read..

Starting to write this took me some time after I decided "I have to write" because the account that I got created about 2 years ago was not used to write even one blog - and so was deactivated! Figuring out the things took some time but "All's well that ends well"... here I am writing (typing) my first blog...

What better than on Fool's Day!!! If I do not continue writing the blogs "Happy Fools' Day" and if I continue writing blogs then "I always tell the truth!"

P.S: I read a caption in my friend's gtalk (Google Talk) status that goes "Always tell the truth even if you have to make it up!" - so that's what it is..

Enjoy!

~ R-Square

To Be or Not To Be..

To Be or Not To Be..

Nope, this is not about Hamlet - it's about me.

I have a lot of relatives and friends here in the United States and I knew I will always be asked/ forced/ tempted to stay back once I have come here on the job. People have mocked me for making a decision that is against their will and those of you reading this and still saying "Raviraj is a fool" - all I can say is "Thanks for the compliments!!"

America, as I have heard since my childhood, is a land of opportunities; a place where your dreams can be fulfilled. [Agreed that I sleep a lot ( & so dream a lot!!), but have never seen a dream that ends in America. I have always dreamt of my school (Kendriya Vidayalaya No.1 Uppal :)), my home (Ashoknagar) and the games we played when I was a child, but never dreamt of settling in America]

I have heard a lot about the opportunities for self and for one's children, the opportunities to earn and save money and a lot more advantages viz. infrastructure, less traffic, less number of tensions when it comes to daily chores or for thinking about the "less important" utility bills - that save a lot of time - but somehow I am not yet convinced to settle here.

It is not about the patriotism (love for my country - India) or about me "not liking" the US (in fact, I like many things about US). The only thing that is missing for me is that I never felt that "Yes! This is the place I want to be..!" when I am in US.

I might be making a wrong decision right now. People say this is the time to earn and save - and here I am (the forever careless) turning a "deaf-ear" to all the people who are wanting good for me.

If ever there is a time when I want to move out (of my city & country) and settle in some different place - US would be the first place that comes to my mind because I know how things work here. I have really settled well here and it was really easy to adjust with people and weather.

It is just like I have tasted it - I will come back if I want it again. If I go back it is not that I will not be allowed into the country again... so, here I come India.. (specifically, Hyderabad!!) -

hmm.. not so soon.. there's still a lot of time left to go back...

The Hyderabadi...
R-Square