A sleepy thought

People who don’t know me well would think of me as a very silent and brooding sort of character. And indeed many times folks who know me well also would think the same !!

Why is that ?

A hint to that is in the following two proverbs and my interpretations of the same

“Walk your talk” – Talk is the root cause of misery. Not only do you expend a lot of energy, but you have to follow it up with a walk also. No talk = No walk = Lots of time to sleep. Suits me perfectly

“Practice what you preach” – Why should you even consider preaching anything ? In the era where copy-paste rules, it is highly unlikely that you have something original to say. No preaching = No practice = Lots of time to sleep. Again perfect

Not making any sense ?? Neither does it to me. I am just rambling incoherently from lack of sleep :((

Eyes wide open

And there goes my sleep again……………………………….

Slept like a baby while I was at home. Came back to Bangalore and presto my sleep vanishes.

On Monday I skipped dinner and I was up till 3 am in morning, I put that down to lack of food. On Tuesday I made and ate dinner, still no change. 3 am it is. And even when I do fall asleep, it is very interrupted.

I have no tensions at work, none at home and no major health problems. So it is puzzling why my great friend sleep has deserted me so mercilessly.

So I am pretty much irritable and not in great mood throughout the day. Nor can I focus for too long anything at hand.

Had to nip my emerging beard during my trip home. Asked my little one how I looked with the beard, she told me I look like a Karadi ( Bear ) :(( Had little option other than to return to my usual clean shaven self.

She has also clearly told me what she needs from me during my next trip home : A slipper with a tall glass heel !!!! The way she described to me , it sounded suspiciously like a stiletto heel.

Girls of this generation, I tell you …… I have to keep her away from both of my vertically challenged cooking consultants now :)

For a friend

This is for a dear friend who suffered a loss recently … [ had mentioned this poem in an earlier blog ]

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

Freedom

Finally freedom from the shackles of the co-passenger duty. I can come and go as I please , no more waiting, no more constraints !!Promptly celebrated the new found freedom by staying back in office till 10 :)

And promptly picked up a traffic ticket for signal jump in the morning too. In my defense the turn that I took always used to be a free left and they just recently installed a signal there. I was not even aware of the presence of a signal, let alone look at it !!

Went home to attend my daughter’s annual day celebration in Calicut. She was part of a group dance team. There are few things in life more enjoyable than watching a bunch of 4 year olds dancing energetically, each with their own rhythm and version of steps. My little one was bouncing around couple of days after the event too !!

Cost cutting

In the era of cost cutting, lay-offs and hike freezes, Dilbert summarizes the situation wonderfully well

http://dilbert.com/fast/2009-02-16/

Chicken curry

Though the weekend was spent mostly on my fight with asthma and chest congestion, I did manage to get out of slumber and make chicken curry !!

Recipe of course was provided by my off shore consultant. Since I did not have many of the ingredients, I had to resort to a bit of improvisation. [ Typically I have very little stock of any green stuff like coriander leaves, mint leaves etc. ]  Also since the original recipe was for Biriyani, I had to use a bit of imagination :-))

Turned out well, had it twice already. Once with chapathi and once with rice. By the way, i bought rice again this weekend after what must have been nearly 1.5 years. That time I had bought 1 kg, this time I bought 5 kgs, so I am set for the next 7.5 years . I really don’t see what the fuss is about the rising food grain prices :-)

Chest is really bad today, I hear full polyphonic sounds. Sleeping will be a challenge tonight :(( Need to get some shuteye though, I have to be up for my co-passenger duty tomorrow morning again.

While we are on the topic, as I mentioned earlier it is really hard to think of a more thankless job. You get up early in the morning [really challenging for me], you risk your life [not kidding], give up your freedom of work timings [on occasions waiting outside hungrily as the co-passenger thulps down dinner in fancy restaurants] and then get criticized & commented on every day for arriving ON time. That's right, not late, ON time !!!!

And yet the humble driver continues to report for work . Because only he knows the ultimate truth :That is why he is a driver, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is [ from The manual of the humble driver ] :-))

Hope you have a healthy week, mine is pretty much shot to pieces right now :(

Not a good day

I'm hungry, dead tired from lack of sleep, my tooth ache is bothering me incessantly and Asthma has been sniping at my heels all day .

It's 8 pm in night , I am in office and there is no sight of my passenger yet. Life of a driver is indeed tough and without many rewards :-((

Manual of the humble driver

Heavily inspired by Paulo Coelho’s Manual of the Warrior of Light :-)), original passage can be found at this link

Every driver has felt afraid of his passenger canceling a booking
Every driver has, at some time in the past, been late to arrive
Every driver has trodden a road that is filled with potholes
Every driver has suffered the whims of his passengers
Every driver has, at least once, believed that he was not a driver
Every driver has failed in his duties
Every driver has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no'
Every driver has hurt some of his passengers
That is why he is a driver, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is

Creativity is tough, Plagiarism is easy

Sleep backlog

Hoping to clear up on some piled up sleep back log this weekend. In case you are wondering why, this article should give you a fair indication :-)

To be fair, my trainee driver is improving quite well. Apart from one occasion, when she nearly put me in a coffin, that is. We both survived and here I am tapping away happily on my keyboard

Reading should also be interesting with John Grisham and Muhammed Yunus beckoning me.

Asthma is knocking on my doors again, this time I am hoping to somehow keep lids on it.

Hope is very deceitful , isn’t it ? Yet many people seem to think without hope there is no life …

Well I don’t seem to have a life now, so does the converse hold true ? Am I a hopeless case ? ;-))

Hope you have a good weekend ;) Adios …

Random Thought

How tiger does it, I happened to see this book while I was out book shopping.

A thought occurred to me that how Tiger does it would be entirely useless to me. First reason is that I bet Tiger never read a book to figure out how to do things on a golf course :). Second reason is why would I want to try an emulate a genius ?? A genius is so not because he did things a certain way BUT only he/she has the ability to do things that way. Ordinary mortals have no use for their techniques.

So would you want to try the Tiger way ? I prefer more of the Maradona way myself :)

Reading update

Q : What does reading a bad book teach you ?
A : To be more careful with your money in future

I just finished reading two below average books.

First one is a true story named How Starbucks saved my life. Written in such a mediocre fashion that I felt even I should have a go at writing a book: “How not reading such books saves you pain” is what I will name it. Story of a guy who loses his high flying job and ends up working at Starbucks. I found it to be completely lacking in any sort of momentum. The attempts of author to do flashbacks into his past based on some situations he encounters in his new life is weak and sometimes even laughable. The only good part of the book is that I got a 25% discount on it !!

The second one cost me more money and left an even more bitter taste in the mouth . Stranger in Paradise by Robert B Parker. Quite likely that most of Mr. Parker’s books will remain strangers to me, and paradise does look a distant dream when you read the above book.

“Jesse nodded” seems to be an overwhelming favorite line of the author. In fact the author has some obsession about getting all his characters to keep nodding. I was also nodding off towards the end !! Entire book is filled with conversation between people, none longer than 2 lines. Felt as if I was reading the script of a stage show. There was no suspense, no thrill and very little mystery.

I am hoping one of my all time favorites John Grisham will recover some of his long lost writing flair with the recently released The Associate. Just started on it, looks decent so far.

I am pretty sure I will enjoy Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, which is next in line after I am done with Grisham.

My co-passenger duty causes me to get up early around 6 am, so I am unable to read too late into the night :(

Chief Driving Mentor

Got a slight promotion from my driver role. I am elevated to a driving mentor / co-passenger now. That is someone who just sits helplessly in front seat, seeing his life flash right in front of his eyes as his friend wrestles with the controls of a Maruti Suzuki Swift.

Stall , jump and jerk, stall, near miss on a 2 wheeler, pedestrian crossing , brake , brake , brake , BRAAAAKKKKKEEEEEEE ... Sweat pouring off me as if I am running a marathon in 40 deg C heat. Even 30 minutes of intense cardio workout won't push up your heart rate as high as this !!

Why do you do this, did I hear you ask ?

Research is my career, high risk-low return projects are my bread and butter :-))

Read the following excerpt from A few good men, the conversation would not be entirely out of place between me and my friend.

Jessep: Have you ever put your life in another mans hands, and in return, asked him to put his life in yours?
Kaffee: No Sir.
Jessep: We follow orders, we follow orders or people die, it's that simple. Are we clear?
Kaffee: Yes, Sir.
Jessep: Are we clear!
Kaffee: Crystal.

The orders here would of course my commands to stop, turn, brake etc which are almost always ignored. As you can guess, I do not get the responses that Kaffee gives above :-((

According to historical Indian traditions, Indian females never drove Maruti Swifts, maybe there is an opportunity for Sriram Sena to step in and do their bit and save me !!  [ One point troubles me about the entire Sriram Sena episode. Traditionally Indian men too never visited pubs, because there were no pubs back then !! How come no one wants to bash up the pub going men ? I guess that argument is futile. They say never fight with a pig, you will get more and more dirty and pig will just keep loving it ]

Will I survive this shock treatment ? Stay tuned to find out :-)

PV cabs

Reports suggest that a highly rated cab service has been cornering quite a bit of business around the Marathahalli area. Named after the driver's initials, PV cab service has quickly established a name for itself among needy customers. Some of the key benefits of PV cab service includes

• Zero tariff plans, an occasional meal or cup of tea is sufficient. Has been known to operate even without these benefits
• Wide coverage area : Whitefield, AECS layout, Marathahalli, Yemlur , Airport Road and Indiranagar. Extended range of operation on customer request
• High availability factor of almost 24 x 7. Some rivals might accuse that this is because the driver has no other life. PV maintains a dignified silence on these allegations
• Phone/e-mail/SMS/Instant messenger booking facility
• On time arrival in over 99% of cases
• Improved passenger comfort with AC and latest Hindi songs. Any song available on request with just 24 hour notice. Ability to interface customer's MP3 players to car audio system
• Significant improvement in passenger safety after the adoption of conservative driving style

PV cabs would like to welcome suggestions on how to improve service in future

Daughter of the East

The latest book that I read has been Daughter of the East , which is an autobiographical account of Benazir Bhutto. Although the latter part of the book are quite repetitive and boring, I was hooked by the initial portions. Especially the ones involving the trial and execution of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

I am always fascinated by these incredible tales of courage, people who refused to back down in spite of clearly knowing that they would lose their lives. One of my friends suggested that it may be a hunger for power which prompts folks like Bhutto to take on such risks. While I do not understand what drives people like these, I am not sure that it can be explained simply as a need for power.

I am quoting some lines from The Autobiography of Malcolm-X as told to Alex Haley . The Malcolm-X autobiography is one of the most extreme biographies I have read. The anger and determination of this man bursts through in this book.

" I am only facing the facts when I know that any moment of any day, or any night, could bring me death

....... it always stayed on my mind that I would die a violent death.

To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred per cent dedication I have to whatever I believe in-these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age".

That is not something a power hungry man would say.

I would like to think that I would stand up for what I believe in. Would I risk my life for it ? Probably not ...

Channa-Batura

Master chef continues his foray into north Indian dishes with a massively successful attempt on Channa-Batura.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so have a look at my master pieces below !! 

Making of batura is not very tough. I took 1.5 cup maida, 1/2 cup curd, half tea spoon of baking powder , some hot water and kneaded the dough just as for chapathi. Most recipes mentioned using baking soda. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and I did not have it in stock. Checked the ingredients of baking powder, it also contained sodium bicarbonate, so figured not much harm can come from using it. In fact I have no idea if baking soda and baking powder are the same !!

I kept aside the dough for close to 2 hours, again most recipes recommend 8 hours. [ I can rarely plan cooking that much in advance :) ] I figured the disadvantage of keeping for a shorter time is that dough would not ferment well. Now what impact that has on taste is unknown to me

I did not make the white channa as that is not something that I cook or stock. So I made black channa curry instead, with a tinge of coconut milk added at the end.

Tasted quite nice. I'll let the admiring world add another feather to my cap :)

Gosh, soon I will have so many feathers that people may mistake me for a bird !!