IRCTC, get a cape, folks!

I’m not the guy who thinks a glass is half empty, nor one who thinks the beautiful things in life are transparent. But I’m telling you – its high time IRCTC gets at least one thing – A BETTER SERVER!

Ofcourse, IRCTC saves you from standing in the long queue at the railway station, but, well it kinda makes you sit almost the same time in front of your computer :

• Waiting for the login page to appear, and then the logged-in page to appear


• Waiting for the train availability to load (with the wait-wheel going round and round and round…. Sometimes, I feel it even gives a villain laugh – “buhuhahahahahah”)

I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with ME!

The scene’s from “Watchmen” – classic DC comics graphic novel turned major motion picture. Rorschach’s been arrested, and dumped along with all the baddies he had put behind the bars. The rouges are excited as time has come up for their revenge, with Rorschach all alone in their midst. They plan an assault at the food court, and the protagonist retaliates, delivering the classic line:
“None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with *ME*!”

Ah! What a line!! So simple, but so powerful!!! One that makes you hunt mercilessly for an opportunity to throw on someone :-) The interesting fact is that one doesn’t have to be a black belt in Kung Fu, or bitten by a radioactive spider, to deliver it - What it takes, is a simple look around.

TUSGIR (The Unofficial Survival Guide to Indian Roads) Part 1: Introduction

I learned to ride a bicycle when I was around 10; and was promoted to an active cyclist by 12 when my father bought me a blue BSA SLR on the eve of Easter 1992 – my first public ride on it was to attend the Easter mass at our parish church.

The only ‘rules on the road’ I knew that day, were:

• Ride on the left side of the road (courtesy my father)


• Look both sides before you cross (courtesy my mother)

Simpler times, they were… and I did pretty well.

How I came to carry two mobiles!

It was on Sat Aug 16, 2008, that I won the bidding on my "HTC touch diamond" from Ebay, for £295 + £15 postage. It was my first smart phone - well, just that in another two days, I painfully discovered that it was "smart", but not very much of a "phone". It showed me google maps when I needed direction, it showed my GPS position when I was lost in a forest, it helped me write documents and create spreadsheets while on the move, it helped me take notes, draw pictures, record videos, click snaps, listen to radio - yup - all the works - except that I prayed each time I made a call, or took a call! Yeah - it worked like a charm except for everything except "telephoning".

"Numbers": How they change perceptions!

It was lunch time, and during general chit-chat, I broadcasted to the crowd around the table, my latest addition to the fitness regime - 20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups every morning, with an aim to raise it to 100 gradually in two months' time!

And, guess what the first response from an overwhelmed colleague was?! "How do you find time for all these!!" A couple of heads nodded along, as if, yeah! How do you!!?

5 addictions of life

Alright, been long since I'd been consumed heavily by work; and my good little friend Cris has nudged me, with a rather loud "Oy! wake up!" :-)

:-) thanks, Cris... for the nudge... and more than that, for caring to...

Well, okay, the tag is to list 5 addictions of life... and here I go...

Cape Town nocturnal

[This story follows a bit of the context set by A monsoon to haunt. Reading it before you proceed here is highly recommended]

It had been almost a year since I was stationed at Bamako, Mali as Telecommunications Field Engineer with the UN. The first year in the dark continent was quite an adventure in itself, although life was contained almost totally in Mali. I was straining for a break, may be not a vacation as such, but just a short change; and that's why I decided to accept an invitation for a week-long leadership camp at Cape Town, even though it was half a continent away!

I checked into the Table Bay Hotel at 10 past 11:00 PM on Sunday, the 20th of February, 2005. The camp stretched over the five days to follow; Saturday was free, and my return flight was scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday. Saturday would be my big day! I already had a rough agenda in my mind, one was for sure to take a snap against the statue of Bartolomeu Dias, then probably a cable-car ride up the Table Mountain, then may be check out the Lions Head, some aquatics, and then do what ever was popular in Cape Town.

Seldom did I know how dramatically things would change in the next few days to come.