Things I do which I can't explain myself

I am a paranoid about symmetry. Especially with my feet and hands.

With my hands it is along the X,Y and Z axes. If I make an action with my hand where in my hand pointing along an imaginary X axes, I HAVE TO make the same action along the Y and Z axes relative to the X axis.

With my feet(which is limited in movement compared to my hands) the symmetry is with respect to 45degrees axis on the X-Y plane.

If i go to sleep on one side, and if I do wake up, i turn over to maintain symmetry.

I remember phone numbers by thinking of deep, intricate links between the numbers and positions of the numbers- with the logic mostly involving prime numbers.

I multiply numbers using the overs concept. Let me explain. If you ask me 42*7, in my mind it is 42 overs is 252 balls + 42 runs for runrate of 7, so 294.

I usually change the gear of my bike when the Tacho meter needle and the speedometer needle is almost parallel.

TRIVANDRUM

I hated Trivandrum at first. Why would I? It was nothing like Bangalore. Also I went there at the wrong time. What added to that was I went there alone, usually batches from a college are called together. The fact that there is a very schoolish atmosphere at TCS there with rules everywhere did not help. I also went during peak summer and was given really lousy accomodation there. So I guess the first month and half at Trivandrum I became a loner. Preferred staying alone.

This was the absolute rejection phase where I could not like anything about the place. But the surprising thing was when I came down to Bangalore- and I did try coming as much as I could- I missed the peace I had there. Nobody to bother you, away from the problems, so close to nature everything.

Gradually I started accepting the place as it is, without any comparison. Started making new friends. I actually started like it. Soon it was like I was finding excuses to not go back during long weekends.

The best part about Trivandrum is that though it is the capital, it is such a laid back city. The place I was staying at is just a km and a half from the sea. There is this fisherman’s beach called which is completely empty. Much better than the commercial Kovalam beach which was just 2 kms away from where I stayed. The view from CLC( Corporate Learning Centre, TCS) is just amazing. Just coconut trees which looks like grass from the distance and the Arabian sea. The view from top is beautiful, the sea on one side and the start of the western ghats on the other.

My favourite place is varkala, where I’ve had so many fond memories. Sleeping on the beach, all night, drunk; going swimming pretty far into sea, standing on the cliff viewing the sea on one side and hills and greenery on one side while drinking beer. This has to be one of my favourite places in the whole world - not that I have travelled much- but still.

The place I stayed at is called TCS Executive Hostel. There is this little stream flowing just behind it- you could go sit there for hours and not hear anything other birds chirping and frogs croaking. There was this bar called B6 just close by where almost everybody from TCS would be there on Friday nights – they had to be there- there were no other bars nearby.

I came there during a really really tough period in my life, and I changed, and matured and learnt a lot. I made a lot of good friends – Rohith, Mamatha, Umar, Liza, Mansa, Rajath, Pawan, Ashok, Malli, Pooja, Bhanu, Chivu, Manohar, Harsha, Lovepreet ( yes that’s a name), Mindri, Praveen, Sameer, of course our HR Shafiq and Finance guy Ashutosh and Cheta from the Nayar shop and anybody else I might have missed out on. You made my stay awesome. Especially Rohith, Mansa and Umar

Thank you Trivandrum- my favourite place in the world( along with Bangalore that is)

My Shared Auto

Aerial view of a Shared Auto

I travel everyday to work in a shared auto. The concept of a shared auto is something like a extremely scaled down version of a bus. The share auto guys go from one point to another along a popular path. They have regular pickup/drop off points enroute.

I start of near Ameerpet where the Share auto starts. Since it is the starting point, the autos are usually empty. The auto drivers wait till the auto is 75% filled i.e about 6 customers before leaving the place. So usually when I get into my auto I am made to wait a good 15mins before it actually leaves. He keeps moving the auto in random directions around a particular point(usually a bus stop) making a mess of the traffic and irritating the hell out of the bus driver.

Now this is a normal auto seen in most cities. But how people sit inside is a little different. In the rear- where normally 3 medium sized men can squeeze in- about 4 people are made to sit. Usually plump ladies with huge bags of vegetables or wailing kids on their laps. Sitting here is a luxury. The priority order goes like this - First ladies, then old men, then huge men, then middle aged men. So the smaller built young men like are usually made to sit in front next to the auto driver.Now in front there is a single seat with extended flaps on either side. The auto driver sits at the front edge of his seat. 2 men sit on either side of the driver. 2 more men are made to sit bside them. Usually the unlucky ones like me get this priveleged Corner. The area covered by my posterior will probably be about 5sq cm. I have to hold onto my bag in one hand and to my life in another. It is advisable to turn your neck at an uncomfortably weird angle to avoid the smelly armpit of the person just next to you.

This ride coupled with really horrible dichik dichik Telugu music costs me just Rs 15 :)

Honeymoon Phase Termination

In life, experiences are a lot like Indian marriages.. Your relationship could be that experience, it could be your experience in a new place or with a new technology at work.. so you get the point..but it is more apt for relationships
I have a good friend. Since he is an important part of my life, and might be mentioned in my further posts, he shall henceforth be referred to as ‘Sanakla’ .
So sanakla gets to know a girl (sanakli). This is the Introduction phase.
After this is the courtship phase. During the courtship phase sanakla impresses the sanakli and sanakli gets familiar with him. There the dropping of defences . Though people are highly opinionated, they start changing their opinions proactively during this phase.
After this is the honeymoon phase. During this phase people are blind in their judgements and they start seeing things through rose coloured glasses. Everything is awesome in this phase. The things people find cute in this phase are usually the things people find irritating later on.
Now please note… people can exit the equation at any moment in any phase. So what happens during exits.
For an exit to be called successful there are 2 critical requirements- timing and synchronization.
Synchronization as in the exit should be discussed by the parties involved and a suitable exit strategy can be developed. Else one partner could end up stranded.
Timing as in during which moment in which phase does the exit occur.
Now unfortunately for my friend Sanakla, he got caught on the wrong side of both the critical requirements. The sanakli exited at the Honeymoon phase with Sanakla still deep in the honeymoon phase which displays total lack of synchronization. Since this occurred during the honeymoon phase, our poor sanakla has only rosy memories of cute incidents. Things normally rated as 8-9/10 are amplified in the mind and rated 19-21/10. Since he never reached the Reality phase, he has not had the reality check which tells him 8-9 though good on its own is not a 19-21. Now whenever he meets a new girl, it is a comparison with a 21 which is pretty hard for the new girl to live up to.
So the solution for this problem is another Honeymoon phase with a proper reality check after that. But to get to a new honeymoon phase he needs to come out of this one first…. Which makes the problem recursive for poor sanakla :(