Sick Of Being Sick

One of the major problem with being sick is that people around you will make you feel more sick by giving sickening advises. Almost every Tom Dick and Harry has an opinion or two about your sickness. Opinions or should I say root-cause-analysis of your diseases, down to minute details.

Here are some of them, that I have been suggested rather bombarded with

o I know why you have been suffering from this disease..See your life-style, Man. You wake up at 10, go to bed at 2..what is this ?? (I suppose he himself follows a similar routine, but he still manages to find fault with this routine. Someone should inform him that you should only preach, what you practice !!

o Look at your job profile, man..You job is mostly a passive assignment, sitting in the same position almost throughout the day, with absolutely no physical activity.. You should join some Gym or some exercising club, where they would teach you, how to build strong biceps and muscle (I am not sure, what I am going to do with these n-pack abs). My friend gives these (un)friendly advices with full knowledge that I have been suffering from a muscle-disease for about 1 and 1/2 months, due to which I can't even hold a water-bottle with my right hand !! So how on earth, I was going to do weight-lifting !!

o Stop taking tea...Tea is the root-cause of all diseases. Look at me, I used to take tea and as a result, I used to suffer from lot of problems(Somewhat curiously he couldn't remember any of them !!). Now that I have stopped it, all those problems are done. Later on, I came to know that he had moved on beyond tea and started gulping coffee !!

o Try Yoga man..Based on my personal experiences, all vein related problems can surely be cured by Baba Ramdev's yoga...Yesterday, I saw it live on Astha Channel, how he miraculously cured an 80 years old lady, who was unable to move he hand. Just search it on YouTube and you will see. I promptly searched on YouTube and couldn't find any such video. Had this alleged miracle happened,It would have been surely there !!

o Take cold milk, man. Give it a try, you will not regret it. My friend went on claiming that when he was suffering from a bout of peptic ulcer, cold-milk, not real medicines, is what cured him. So this will help you recover from your your disease as well(BTW, I have been advised by my doctor to stay low on protein !!)

o Try some other alternatives like Ayurveda or Homeopathy or even Unanii. Take my words, these methods work, even when all else(read Allopathy) fails !! Just give it a shot, Man. Who knows, you may get cured.

And the list goes on and on.... I have almost lost count of them..I thought for a while and realized that when God decided to provide two ears to Humans, he surely made accommodation for such cases. So I started following the formula In One Ear Out the Other :-)

PS: Finally my orthopedician@Manipal Hospitals were able to diagnose my disease (it turns out to be Tenosynovitis). They figured out a way and after being bed-ridden for close to 2 weeks, now I am on my way to complete recovery, even without these aforementioned "friendly advices" !!

Saturday Dance

This is a story during one of 1st year freshers' parties in one of Bangalore's prominent colleges. Hope no authorities are reading this, I may end up being behind bars (After all Ragging n Freshers' Parties are all banned and in Supreme Court's eye, even non-bailable offences, warranting at least a hefty fine, if not college expulsion)

A freshers' party is being planned in one of bangalore most-flavoured pubs. Tickets are already been booked(Juniors don't even have a clue about this party). Seniors have already emptied their pockets shelling out money for these tickets. Now the only thing they need to do is push their favourate juniors to come to the party(mind you its going to be a dutch affair), so they not only have to persuade the junior to join the party, but also have to get them pay the amount of money for their entry-fee. Here is one such conversation straight out of a junior-hostel-room

Rancho: Hey you know, we have organized a freshers' party for you and your entire batch is coming(plain lie, even he knows only 100 tickets have been booked and needless to say, batch strength is way more than 100). So you need to be there.

Shashtri: But sir, we have classes every day.

Rancho: I knew it, you Moron. You people will make an excuse out of it, not to come to party. So we have organized it on Saturday evening. Anyway you will be having classes only till 1 pm and party starts in the evening.

Shashtri: Ok, fine..but what will I do sir ??

Rancho: Do whatever you feel like doing...No stopping...booze,eat,dance,masti... what else you want from a party ?? Fosters,Vodka, Rum..You name it and it will be made available..You have chicken, prawn, fish, mutton everything you want..Plus the DJ is very good, haven't you heard of this fellow Salman..He is too good a DJ (I am sure even Rancho would have heard this name for the first time in his life, but only God know, how he got to know about this DJ being " too good").. Drinks will be made absolutely free of cost and that too unlimited..what else you need, Dude ??

Shashtri: But sir, I don't drink..Why should I go ??

Rancho(somewhat disappointed):
Ok, I understand you don't drink. But you can have chickens and prawns.. Haven't you heard of this restaurant' recipes. Almost every bangalorean knows about it.

Shashtri: Ok agreed sir, I would have loved being there trying out these non-veg dishes, but unfortunately I don't non-veg on Saturday.. Its against our rituals and dharma.

Rancho:(seemingly frustated with the excuse-list gradually piling up) Don't worry, if you can't eat non-veg. You can still try vegetable dishes.I am sure you will love vegeterian dishes there..Its veg dishes are famous all over bangalore (Rancho himself is a non-vegeterian and he never had these so-called famous veg-dishes even once !!, but he still tries his level best selling it to his Junior)..

Shashtri: Sorry sir, there is no point in going there.. I will be plainly bored being there (In his eyes, he seems to have been convinced Rancho that its worthless for him being in the party) I won't drink nor I can eat non-veg on Saturday..

Rancho: (almost angry and at the same time helpless)
Are you sure, you don't want to come ??

Shashtri: Yes, sir.. (You could see the grin on his face, only if he could remember the Ragging-time fundae that Senior is always right and above you and its impossible to put them down)..Poor chap..

Rancho(here comes the master-stroke):
But you can at least dance on Saturday, Right ?? Its not against any (damn) ritual or Dharma ?? (you could sense the winning smile on this face)

Shashtri, seeming flattened by this knock-out punch from his Senior, is left completely speechless. Unfortunately he has no more arguments to support his cause..He had lost this war of words..

He has no option but to accept the invitation and pay Rancho the entry-fee. Rancho pats him on the back and says: Do come for the party, you will enjoy like never before (I really doubt, if he really meant those words..Now that he has sold the ticket, he can rest in peace, right ?? After all, he has recovered the amount, he had spent..Who cares, whether Shashtrij is coming to the party or not ??)

Two days later, Shashtri turns up for the party, all geared up to extract full-value out of his entry-fees. He drinks more than any one else and also went against his rituals and consumed so much chicken on D-day that even after a week, people could smell chicken in hostel-toilets !!

Overdose Of Reality

Of late, I have been going through what can rightfully be termed as an "Overdose of Reality", Coming to terms with the fact how harsh the outside world can be and it indeed is. But I must thank my stars and above all almighty that I got it at probably the most opportune moment. When I was down and out - down with a severely torn ligament and out of action for close to a month already having had my left leg plastered.

Well, down-and-out I may be, agreed, I have no hesitation in admitting that I needed a kick up my arse very badly, probably one of a KO punch proportion and precisely that's what I have got :)

As Steve Jobs rightly puts it across in one of his interviews, post his ignominious exit from Apple, the very company he founded in a garage with few of his college-friends, in one of his unauthorized auto-biography "iCon" - "Sometimes you don't get what you want, you only get what you need" and believe me that's exactly what has happened with me too !! So probably I shouldn't feel too disheartened with all these happenings surrounding me.

After all Steve Jobs himself has gone through it and didn't he came back with a vengeance in a brilliant second-act in business-world, witnessed once-in-a-generation ?? I sure can weather this storm and come out of it with flying colour with my self-image enhanced and an increased focus towards my personal and professional life and most importantly moving towards fulfilling all my long-cherished dreams, which have not quite turned into nightmares yet(Touch Wood !!).

So no complains, only a note of Thanks. Thanks to all, who "helped" me during this tough time of mine. Thanks to all who made me realize that I was leading a rudderless life, aimlessly drifting every now and then and willing to buck to any pressure almost at-the-drop-of-a-hat and not-at-all willing to come out of my comfort-zone.O Lord, please bestow your blessings, in whatever way you can, onto all those individuals, who have helped me realize my self which is worth much-more than what my current belief stands at and helped me come out of a situation where I was sitting pretty on my past laurels, complacent with my current position being comfortably placed in a Fortune-100 Company (This company at-times may put government-offices to shame when it comes to work by few of its not-so-productive-yet-thriving employees)

This episode has further strengthened my belief in God and more so in Geeta, as one of Geeta's verse says "Whatever happens to you is not without a strong reason and God doesn't do anything with anyone unknowingly"

Hello World from WordPress

Here comes my first blog on Wordpress. And Wordpress has been smart enough to name my first posting as 'Hello World' just like any programming language has been naming(and will alwaye be doing so in future) its first program as helloworld !! No wonder, WordPress is proclaimed to be better than its rival BlogSpot by its ardent fans all over the world, I am yet to verify those claims though !!

Although I am not new to blogging, having been the owner of a blog which has witnessed some not-so-bad writings from me over past 4 years, albeit in a stop-start fashion. Ever since I turned Pro after graduating from one of India's premier colleges IIT Kharagpur with a B.Tech(H) from Computer Science and Engg, I have been fascinated towards English-writings, more so towards anything Angrezi. This has more to do with the fact that I did virtually nothing when it came to enhancing my language-credentials during my 4 years long-stay in IIT campus. But due to my lethargy (They mayn't accept it openly, but all software engineers are lazy by default, probably justifying an old proverb "one of programer's virtue is laziness") I have not been able to do so on a consistent basis. But If you still find enough reasons to be interested in my bits-and-pieces posts, you can always find them @http://www.sumansays.blogspot.com/

A word of Caution: Please lower your expectations to rock-bottom, you may very well feel disappointed after paying a visit to my blog, which in my humble opinion, can be classified along side some of average blog-postings you will find almost anywhere on the web writings. You may be one of those who beg to differ, but probably my magnum-opus (so far) has been http://sumansays.blogspot.com/2005/04/story-of-iit-kgp-computer-science.html (I am sure this post will form an interesting read for you. If not, I am more than just willing to receive those brickbats of yours. Feel free to shout and voice your opinions by providing appropriate comments !!)

Although after spending 4 and half years in India's golden-goose flagship software industry, I would be the first one to admit (I am sure there are many more in my friend-circle and my relatives alike who also feel the same way) that I have failed to justify my talents especially after being allowed to function as a one-man-army at my work, as opposed to one-amongst-the-few pawns in a big-team. Being dubbed as an IITian and that too from computer science stream, has already handed me over a distinct advantage over my contemporaries, but I have failed to make the most of opportunities that have landed my way and trust me they were aplenty.

As Kishore Biyani, the undisputed Raja of India's Organized Retail Revolution, rightly puts it in his book ''It Happened In India'" , An opportunity that knocks at your door, may not be there forever and by the time you pull up your socks and set out to chase your dreams, time may very well have turned its tide !! Well as they say, its never too late for anything, but only time will tell whether I have already missed the train to my success !!

PS: This is my first blog on WordPress :-)

In Memory Of My Mitra Akhil

Pappa, Pappa. See, I have written a small story, said a kid, about 6-7 year old, so excited at his work, that he is almost shouting, as if he made a discovery of 'Eureka Proportion'

Father replied with a cheering tone, Good, very good !!

Don't you want me to read out its content ?? Kid asks his father

Which language its written in, he asks, seemingly unconcerned about the content

Its written in Hindi Pappa, came the reply.

Hindi !! exclaimed the father. As he starts developing 'that' heavy-headed-feeling, he goes down on his knees, holding his head with both his hands.

What happened Pappa, Anything wrong ?? Are you not feeling well ?? A somewhat worried kid rushes to his father.

As he hugs his son, father says, No, no, I am OK, son. But I am having headache because of your writings. Can't you write in any language other than Hindi,Son ?? Don't you know about the current state of our "Mother-Tongue" Hindi in our own country ?? Do you still want to lead a miserable life of a hindi poet/writer just like Varmajee, BuchhiBabu and SinhaSahab did, after endorsing Hindi all their lives.

PS: This is a shameless ripoff of a similar story originally written in Maithili by one of my true friends, Akhil Anand aka Praveenjee. Just substitute Hindi in place of English and Maithili in place of Hindi, you almost have his version. I remember his story bit-by-bit, even though more than a decade has passed by since I last met him. So no credit to me for this blog, please, except for the translation-part !!