Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Modern Karna

Once upon a time, a great human named Karna was present on this earth. He is most popularly known as the "dhana vallal" (one who donates selflessly). He has never uttered the word "no" in his lifetime and gave away a large part of his wealth to the people who were in need. More so, he went to the extent of giving his kavasa-kundala to Lord Krishna during the historic Mahabaratha war.

What is the relation of Karna with this post? Well, I have a school friend named Nagarajan who did some really good things that made me come up with this. Specifically, 2 things that almost touched me was,
1. He spent a full 14 hours with me during the distress period and kept checking on me every alternate day; one of the prime reasons why the tension, around that time, fell off me like the nine pins.
2. He is an Information Technology graduate. 10 GB of space means a lot to any IT geek/non-geek because when you get more space, you pump in more software and fill up the disk. This guy gave away his 10 GB hard disk to another of my friends without the latter asking him.

That is awesome spirit. Hey Naga, it is people like you who make the world a better place to live in. Thanks for all the support da :D

Monday, June 26, 2006

Blog Camp

It's happening again :-) BarCamp Chennai was an out-standing success. The same crew is now organising BlogCamp - India's biggest blogging 'un'conference, set to happen in Chennai :-)

The meeting at woodland's drive inn was truly fun.

Check out more details at the Blog Camp wiki. There are some more exciting details that's not to be revealed right now ;-)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Chennai Central

Monday morning, I was supposed to drop one of my friend's mom at the Chennai Central station. The train was scheduled to depart at 6.25 AM. We reached the station by 6 AM. As we went there on my bike, I told her to wait at a place so that I can park my bike and come back to pick her up. I parked the bike and came back at 6.05 AM. Lo and behold!! she was missing. I was even having her bag with me.

Frantically, I searched all the places in and around where I told her to stand. There were still no signs of her. I came back and ran through all the freaking 10 platforms. Time was 6.17:29 AM. She is still nowhere to be found. Time is 6.22 AM now. Absolutely no info about her whereabouts. Imagine my tension in the morning when a lady is missing at just about 15 minutes before the departure of the train. I thought of complaining to the police, so that they will make an announcement through all the platforms, announcing her name.

Two minutes later, I heard an announcement that the train was departing from platform 11. I ran to platform 11 from 7 and found her near the 2nd coach after the engine. Heaved a heavy sigh of relief and shouted at her! he he he... When I asked her the reason for her sudden disapperance, she told that someone came to her and told the train was about to leave in 5 minutes. "F" I thought and let her board the train. The train had started moving by then. When I came back home and told my mom what had happened, she was ROTFL :-)

Thursday, June 15, 2006

User Interface Bug in Gmail ;-)

Hi!! I have found a UI bug in Gmail. If you take a look at your gmail inbox, note the placement of the "Delete" button. Its the 3rd button.






Now, take a look at the "Delete" button at the Spam tab. Its the 1st button. Lots of times, I have clicked on "Not Spam" button and (doh!!) went on a hunting spree at inbox to perform the S&D operation ;-) S&D = Search and Destroy heheh!...








It would be better if the "Delete Forever" button is placed after the "Not Spam" button.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

The Last Rite

My father passed away on 5th June 2006 at 3.35 PM. I lost a person who was more of a friend to me than a dad. He was the only one with whom I shared everything. Everything = everything from studies to friends to girls to etc. etc. and yes he too was the same with me. He also openly discussed many issues that dads will find it difficult/impossible to discuss with their children. Natural disasters happen only for a few seconds and leave very little time for reaction. Nature
was (and is) a bit cruel on that part :((

Anyway, what has happened has happened and life has to continue. Therefore, in his memory and with his blessings, I will fulfill all his wishes and dreams. He made our life very comfortable. His planning was meticulous and we are always learning from him.

Three weeks before this shocking incident, I had this gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. On 24th June, the day of the last university exam, I was feeling sick. I wasn't able to revise the subject properly and this guy was the only one to whom I let the feeling creep out. Without turning back, I made a dash to the bus after the exam got over. Only on seeing my dad at home, I felt relieved. Sometimes, at nights, I have even touched his chest to feel the heart beat. PHEW!!

Right now, I'm alright. I have let out all the feelings and ready to take on the responsibilities and the challenges. One main reason for that is, I felt the heart beat of my dad stop right under my palm. Thank God I didn't cry at those very sensitive moments. My brother had good awareness to call 1066 (ambulance for emergency) immediately and telephone his friend and our cousin who were here within a few minutes. It is those few hours after death that matters when people are more important than anything else. The more people are near and the more the place of death is crowded, the more comfortable it is.

I want to describe those last few moments with dad, but it is difficult even to try and speak about it, leave alone write about it. I went to the bank today to deposit some money. My hands were shivering uncontrollably because where I saw my dad working a few days ago, that seat is empty now. That empty chair caused me to sweat. My cousin was with me and things eased out a little.

Tomorrow is the 5th day. The rituals are starting from tomorrow. Huge thanks to all the friends, relatives and unknown people who are supporting us.

Praying for the soul of my dad to rest in peace.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

That Power Cut !!

Shit!! the power cut yesterday night threw me off-track so much that I was sulking for a while ;-). Ok... the point is, I was doing the following things.

1. Trying out AT commands on my k300i mobile phone.
2. Installing Open Solaris 10 on vmware.
3. Reading Joel on Software.
4. etc. etc.

All those things hung up when the UPS started blaring the warning signal. This is one of the moments I strongly felt the need for a laptop.