A Little Lunacy!

Five months in Chennai just flew by, albeit at the pace of a kiwi with one wing strapped behind its back. The final few days in Chennai were quite eventful, with me and my team having to toil in order to meet the deadline for a project. Add to that, the excitement of moving to a new place and it felt like 24 hours in a day were not enough.

The new place in question is Pune, which will now be the hub of my blogging activities. I’ve not been able to explore the place so far, but the signs are good and maybe I’ll start liking this city. Of course, the one thing that I’ve learned in my first few days is that the transport system in Pune… err… sucks. Compared to Chennai which had connectivity to almost every nearby suburb by means of local trains, over here you have to rely on the 6-seater rickshaws and the ST buses. And you need to wait for them for a long time. Depending on your luck, it could be a while before you manage to get a ride. Of course, the situation might be different in the city. I don’t want to check it for myself, though.

It’s been raining/drizzling (delete according to time of day) ever since I’ve arrived here, which is in start contrast to the sweltering heat of Chennai. My office, being located on the outskirts of the city, has a scenic view of the mountains. I just hope I don’t end up spending hours looking through the window rather than staring at my monitor.  More on that when I get my workstation.

That’s it, then. I’ll be spending the weekend getting my house in order and learning about the route to my office. And once that’s done, work awaits me on Monday. Cheers, and have a great weekend, fellas!

Popularity: 1% [?]

What does a bored man do when he finally gets some time for himself? He blogs.

Well in my case, I tend to save myself the trouble of writing something and instead, when I have some free time I fiddle with the blog’s theme. Call it stupid if you like, but that’s the way it goes for me. A lazy Saturday made even lazier by the doctor’s pills was spent in searching for a new look for my blog. At least it will remove the cobwebs, if not shoo away the spiders from my site. The 8 legged creatures will be back soon as I’ll inevitably go back to my busy life.

Speaking of life, there’s been a sort of revolution. Gone are the days when I moseyed over to the office after waking up just in time.  Now I need to wake up at least 2 hours before I’m expected at my workplace, thanks to my new abode. Yes, I’ve finally moved closer to the city and closer to civilization. And although I have joined the horde of commuters who travel… actually, they just stuff themselves into the local train and hope that merciful Lord will somehow push them out of the tin when they reach their destination. It’s a small price to pay for the convenience that you get by staying closer to the city. For one, you won’t die of hunger. Ever. There’s always some or the other eatery that’s open for a Sunday dinner.

Ah, dinner. That reminds me of the beans that I cooked (burnt would be a better word) today. Yup, yours truly is now trying his hand at cooking food. Don’t laugh or I’ll shove a spoonful into your mouth. Safe to say, I won’t be assisting Sanjeev Kapoor on his show any time in the near future. But at least I can survive for a few days even if all restaurants go on an indefinite strike.

Okay, I think that should be enough for today. After a month, I’ve finally managed to clear the cobwebs from my site and make a blog post. That should set me up for about 2 weeks of busy-ness (is that a word?). And lest I forget, I also need to write an article for The Final 3rd. Don’t want that site to become a carbon copy of mine, crying out for attention while weeping in a corner.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Is this little mini-series turning out to be some sort of weekly soap? I hope not, because then I’ll have to down shutters and move to the mountains to regain my sanity!

I hoped that I wouldn’t crib about the weather again and my prayers seem to have been answered by The Almighty. The city of Chennai (or in my case, the outskirts of Chennai) have been receiving rain showers daily since the past 3 days. I would be lying if I said that I was expecting rains here at this time of the year. One of my friends actually expressed his amazement at this natural phenomenon thus – “Bloody hell! It rains in these parts too?”. We made it a point never to curse the rain Gods ever again.

Meanwhile, I had another misadventure with a Hindi+English-illiterate shopkeeper. I wanted a 500ml bottle of Sprite and if that wasn’t available I was willing to settle for a baby bottle of LMN. My attempts at guiding the grocer to the goods using a combination of hand gestures plus broken English bore no fruit. Finally I had to use the linked-list concept of ‘next->next->element found’ to get what I wanted. I left with a cold drink and a hot head.

Another curious incident that occurred last week was when me and my friends went out to dinner. In order to avoid any conflicts, we go Dutch as a rule. I was bored of the usual stuff, so I ordered a Paneer dish. At times like these, it’s easy to make assumptions about the price and I dismissed it as a non-issue since I considered myself to be a regular at this particular restaurant, fully acquainted with the pricing structure. Dinner was served and midway through the dining I realized that my order was beyond the capacity of my tummy. There was no way I could finish it. None of my friends were willing to lend a spoon/fork/handful since they had already filled up their tanks. Leaving the plate half-full (optimism, you see) was the only option. As I walked up to pay the bill, I was shocked to find that my ‘for-a-change’ dinner cost double of what I usually spend on a meal. I turned back and saw my (still) half-full plate being carried away by the waiter, the contents laughing and sticking out their collective tongues at me.

“Hey! Bring it back! I’m not done yet!!”, I almost shouted.

So that was the week that was. Next week has already begun and that means more trips to the coffee machine and if the weather stays pleasant, maybe I’ll get to visit the real Chennai too!

Popularity: 2% [?]