mood: poetry

writing for the heck of it is what you might find below. but well, if one insists on writing in some specific format as opposed to conventional prose, then weird ideas start flowing. an example is the poem below. even i don't know where it stemmed from, but why analyse?

there was a noun
it used to frown
if you asked it why
it used to cry

with time it got archaic
no one looked at it
and so it played a trick
used a li'l amount of wit

it changed itself to slang
became an instant hit
if you dont guess - dang :(
else proudly say i did it !!

Lost In Time..

so strange how fast time can fly
after that intimacy
we can't even look each other in the eye..

now you stand here at the altar
as i wonder
do you think it's going to falter..

the tree by the river is still so young
can't even reach
you're so far flung..

who'll tell you i'm still so numb
as you ponder over
standing by my tomb..

now as I lie peaceful at last
i wonder how
time has sailed so fast...

Inzamam by name, aloo by shape..

Most cricketers who are not comfortable in conversing in English go prepared for some standard questions that are asked from them when commentators chat with them during the awards ceremony.

Inzamam was once asked a different question after Pakistan won the match for which he was not prepared. He always had a standard response to the first question but this time..

Tony Greig: "So Inzy, that's fantastic, your wife is pregnant for the second time!"

Inzamam: "As-salam walequm. Bismillah ur-Rehman nir-Rahim. All credit goes to the boys everyone worked hard for it especially Afridi it was tight situation when he went in without his strokes it not have been possible.He was pulling the good balls also Bob Woolmer keeping close watch on progress and giving instructions.It's all team effort which pulled us out of big hole. Inshallah, we all will work together as team put in big effort and deliver good result all the time."

I found this on the Internet, and I was immediately about to carve out my interview with Inzy. Surely someone would have done this before, I thought. Goes without saying I was right there. Check this out. Nothing gross there, gets slapstick at times, but a worthwhile read..

The long pursuit..

2005, the year I will remember mainly as the long hair year. Dshud said I should be growing long hair and both of us went into this not-to-have-a-haircut mode. Fair enough for her, I thought, as a girl she must have been used to it - maintaining long hair, that is. I signed up nevertheless.

All guys who have sported long hair will concur with me here. There are 2 phases, which if a guy can survive, then there is no stopping from sporting long hair. But those 2 phases are very crucial. The first phase is when the hair grow to a stage when they are more than overgrown, but not fit to be called as 'long hair'. A time when a truckload of unsolicited advice comes your way. 'I do not think long hair will suit you', 'Do you really think you want to do this?', 'Sheesh, go have a hair cut' and the likes will haunt you.

A few days later, you need to trim your hair which are now haphazard in shape. Once they are levelled, they would look better once the length of the hair is worth being called 'long'. But before one reaches this milestone, there is another overgrown-but-not-really-long stage. Another round of unsolicited advice. And those who fall weak here, generally never pursue this further. But those who wade their way past this stage, and go on to the stage where they feel satisfied with the length of hair, the high is awesome.

I did grow my hair long, and for some strange reasons, having a digital camera at hand, I never took pictures of how I looked then. I managed to pick out a few photos taken by my ever-so-good friends a couple of months before I finally had a.. yes, haircut.



About to sleep at Rajgad. I manage to carve out a smile for an enthusiastic Tejas Mulay.







Having breakfast on the Rajgad trek. The hair aren't tamed at all, as can be seen obviously. Gives prominence to the hair.






Peacefully enjoying at the nedha at Rajgad. Few forts in Sahyadri have this nedha, about which I'll write sometime later.









Not fully awake as yet.. Nothing like trekking in the rainy season, especially in the Sahyadri mountain range. Lush greenery, and I can go on..




Hookah @ Shisha Cafe.. A different angle, something that suits the look, eh?

26

Coincidentally, it's post number 26 on this blog. And I turned 26 too, sharing my birthday with Galileo Galilei. The grand Aquarian date being February 15. Well, Chandrika loves to pick up choiciest of words to wish on birthdays, and this time there was no particular change in her style. Goes she: "So how does it feel to be on the other side of the quarter?". Nicely put. Laterally speaking, it feels good to be on the other side of the quarter. Literally speaking, well..

Batch mates are getting married, a considerable number of juniors have tied the knot too. Discussions on this topic are gaining major priority in the friend circle. With parents, the casual push is always there, but they know me. Not part of my active thought process at all.

It was Shruti Kothari's birthday on Feb 16, and we're just a day apart. Same year coincidentally. It was nice of Kaveeta and Shruti to come to Kiva yesterday, especially on her (Shruti's) birthday. We had to wait for quite some time till Coming Back to Life was played by the DJ who did not want to interrupt the tempo. Well, Shruti had to wait for a while, since that psychedelic number (our favourite) is one of the last few to be played, signalling the end of the day.

Despite her workload, Meenal managed to carve out some time and made it to Kiva as well. I felt very sad since I could not spend time with her as Shruti chose another table, and being her birthday, I spent quite some time with her. I do owe an apology to Manjit, Nikhil, Gautam, Vaibhavi, Darshana, Khushboo and Kaivalya for being away from them for quite some time on the day where I played host. Coincidences happen, and they continue to..

Footprints in the code base of NetBackup..

Lives of great programmers all remind us
We can make our code sublime
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the (source) code bases of softwares..

Yes, that should have reminded you of 'A Psalm of Life' by H.W.Longfellow. I'm A.P.Shortfellow here. Longfellow used to write, maybe for a living as well. I (aka Shortfellow) too write for a living, but my scope is restricted. I write English in a syntactical format, and what I write, along with what several hundred people like me write, is fed to some tool, which churns out what the world calls software.

After working for more than 4 years in the software industry, I find myself in the position of a software developer (politically correct term: Software Engineer). Recently I decided to move out of a team. The current team I work for, is part of a world class product named NetBackup.

Today happens to be a milestone in my working career. It's the first time that I have checked in code in the NetBackup source code base. Leaving one's own footprint in the source code base of such world class products makes one feel good.

And so long as I like my work, nothing beats it. Every other activity is fuelled by achievements at work, and assures that life's not a drag. So Feb 13th also becomes an important date now. Feb 14th is celebrated by most of the world. Feb 15th - Galileo and I.

Good times.

Given up alcohol consumption effective 3rd Feb 2006

.

Karnatak High School Reunion: The Se7en Pals

February 07, 2006. By around 2045 IST, seven people meet. A decade ago, in 1995, these folk had completed their schooling from an institute by the name Karnatak High School (KHS). Another decade ago, around 1985, some of them had begun their education from here. Some joined later. Nevertheless, today was the day when these chaps (yours truly included) decided to meet and get nostalgic.

Atul Nulkar, who presently resides in Colorado, is back home after 3 long years. Among other plans, he has a wish to catch up with school folk, an idea that he triggers off well before he leaves US for Pune. Not many respond. Naturally, not many were expected. After calling up those who could possibly make it, the quorum of 7 includes:

1. Atul Nulkar (from Pune, presently in Colorado)
2. Ashish Joshi (Pune)
3. Shantanu Gogate (Pune)*
4. Aaswad Kulkarni (Pune)
5. Sarika Joshi (Pune)
6. Adarsh Padmanabhan (Pune)
7. Aniket Anikhindi (Pune)

* used to attend Morning Shift in KHS, all others Afternoon Shift.

Gitanjali was about to attend but was unwell :( and Madhura was suddenly uncontactable for 2 odd days. Pritam Paithankar had deadline problems, Mithun Wali had to work through the night. Rahul Deshpande had, as usual, some singing to do (He's a big shot in Pune by now). That's about those who could probably have made it, but missed it anyways.

Folk in the image below (LtoR):
Atul Nulkar, Ashish Joshi, Shantanu Gogate

The initial meeting place was Hotel Vaishali. Sarika had postponed the meeting time from 2000 hrs to 2030 hrs. We decided to have dinner at Hotel Surya, a pretty close by place. And we walked down to realise that Hotel Surya was demolished and a new building had been erected there. After Sarika arrived, people made a fuss about where to go next (these things never stop I guess). We ultimately managed to finalise on Bamboo House.

People were not really interested in food or anything else, getting nostalgic was the idea and so it happened. With the irritating waiter around, we had to ensure that we would give the hotel enough business for occupying a table during prime time. Kingfisher Strong for some, soup for some. And recollecting the (g)old events, idiosyncrasies of teachers as well as pals, h(z)eroic deeds etcetera were recalled.

Some prominent memories:

* Chinmay Pawaskar was remembered for reading batlaakar (Hindi for telling) as balaatkar (Hindi for rape) thrice in a row in a Hindi class.

* In a Marathi class, the teacher wanted students to tell words ending with khor. Ashish Joshi was ready with darodekhor (Marathi for dacoits) but before he could say it, someone else mentioned that. And when he had to say his word, he promptly said haramkhor (Marathi for rascal). The teacher got furious, but then Ashish was happy that his turn was over.

* Confession books (slam books) were confiscated for reasons still unknown to us. There used to be a "dated till..." value to be filled by everyone who filled confession books. Rohan Pandhare had, in his style, written "dated till Datta Madam stops scolding". And Datta Madam read out the very same thing in class, leaving us all in splits.

* Most of the guys recollected that Tejaswini Patwardhan was popular as a Madhuri Dixit look alike.

* Ravindra Kulkarni was remembered for his powerful cricketing shots and bowling, Prasenjit Pathak for his typical ways.

* Rajendra Joshi, the Physical Training (PT) as well as Marathi teacher, was recollected for his erratic ways. He had once thrown a duster at me, I ducked and Kranti was hit on her forehead. Arvind Paranjape, the Drawing teacher was recollected too since he used to beat up kids who did not do their homework. Gauri Chavan ma'am was remembered mainly because she was such a babe.

* My typicality of blinking eyes was recollected, and Chandrika Kulkarni madam thought that I was having convulsions when I blinked eyes in the way I used to. She advised that I should go home, and I promptly did (taking advantage of the situation :) ). And this was in class 3 :-D

The reunion also had an intro session - everybody just gave a brief up on the previous decade - basically after completing school.


Folks in the image above (LtoR):
Atul Nulkar, Ashish Joshi, Shantanu Gogate, Aaswad Kulkarni, Sarika Joshi, Adarsh Padmanabhan.

Sarika started getting fussy about a cat who was moving around the table. She supposedly hates cats, quote unquote "I can live with a cat around as long as she sits in peace and lets me live in peace". What on earth was that roaming cat going to do to someone like Sarika? The cat would have to be utterly crazy. In the process, Sarika managed to irritate most of us, leaving her chair many times, mentioning it googol times that she can't stand a cat. She was lucky to be amongst a set of tolerant people ;-)

We decided to have paan at Portico on JM Road. Adarsh did not spare a single chance of clicking photographs, and it made sense too, after all, having a digital camera with capacity enough to click hundreds of photographs, if one doesn't, then it's a waste of a camera. I can't possibly put in all 30-odd images here..

Pals since Junior KG (LtoR): Aniket Anikhindi, Ashish Joshi
















Da boys..(LtoR): Atul Nulkar, Ashish Joshi, Shantanu Gogate,
Adarsh Padmanabhan, Aaswad Kulkarni, Aniket Anikhindi.















Memories, memories and more memories.. Let's hope we have more crowd for the next reunion.