Aug 04

Buzzzzzz

Wish I had more than 24 hours in a day and more than 7 days in a week!! But then I’d probably only end up feeling more miserable!! Loving the new job, but damn hectic schedules. Been out of house every day for more than 12-13 hours since 3 weeks now, and even weekends are gone!  Been doing a bit of reading, barely any writing, watched some good movies, and trying to remain sane!

I feel like am on a roller coaster ride and my life’s going topsy turvy!! If only somebody can show me where the brakes are!  Feel like going to the top of a hill and screaming at the top of my voice and throw out the pent up frustrations!  1…2….3…..4…..5……take a deep breathe………

Jul 05

Update on Passport – A quickie…

Finally was able to get an appointment for tomorrow! I have decided to take every damn record I’ve had of mine since my birth and go there… let’s see how it goes…. watch this space!!!!!!

Update: Got my passport within 3 weeks of submission of documents for renewal. Although all’s well that ends well, I do wish, the citizens be spared the horror of the hassles one has to go through.  Infact, I had quite a few restless moments in the Passport Office, when they said that they did not have the records of my Passport details, although I was carrying a valid passport!!!!!

Jun 22

Life… In a Metro – 1

I had always maintained that compared to the idle musings that I write, this music spot has remained neglected. It doesn’t come to bear that I haven’t been hearing music at all. Well a hectic professional & personal life has surely has cut down on my splurges into music, but I have been hearing so many songs and albums that I could write about them for years to come. But I know, I haven’t been doing that! I don’t know to what extent I shall be able to rectify my shortcomings in this regard. But yeah, I would love to be able to post more often here. As I sat brooding over what to write about to kick start the series again, the first and foremost thing that came to my mind was the album of the movie – Life…. In
a Metro. I had watched the movie a long time ago, and some songs instantly had captured my attention. But it wasn’t until a few months ago, when I got myself the collection (which is really tough to find surprisingly!!) that I came in full realization of the beauty of this album. Its composition, its music, the
singers have done such a magnificent job that I was stunned at my audacity to have ignored it for so long!!

The album boasts of a cohort of lyricists, and singers. Syed Quadri, Sandeep Srivastava and Amitabh verma are the formers while KK, James, Soham, Suhail, Adnan Sami and Pritam belong to the latter category. The music is by Pritam, who has literally brought in a fresh wave into the industry through his talent.

The movie is directed by Anurag Basu. The movie by itself was brilliant ofcourse. So nicely intertwining the lives of seemingly different people living in the same Metro roof! Seamlessly blending into the life of one person and the other, there was never a moment of disconnection. It surely is a challenge to
handle such scripts and Basu has done an amply wonderful job.

The purpose ofcourse would be to talk of music, and songs. And here, I have chosen my favorite 4 numbers. I wouldn’t rate them based on the way I post them.

For me they are all equally brilliant and amazing. They are all so to say, different in their situations, but the brilliance of the words, and the magnificence of music is overflowing through each one distinctively! It has many of the songs repeated in the album having been remixed. To start with…

In Dino – lyrics by Syed Quadri and sung by Soham.
In Dino dil mera
mujh se hai keh raha
Tu…. khwaab saja..
Tu… jee le zara
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi muhabbat. (2)

In Dino….
Be rang si hai badi zindagi
kuch rang to bharoon
main apni tanhaayi ke waaste
ab kuch toh karoon (2)
Jab mile koi phursat..(2)
khud se karle muhobbat…
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat, kar le tu bhi muhobbat
Usko chupakar mein sabse kabhie
le chaloon kahin door
aankhon ke pyaale se peeta rahoon
uske chehre ka noor (2)
is zamaane se chupkar (2)
poori karloon mein hasrat
hai tujhe bhi ijaazat kar le tu bhi muhobbat

In dino….

 

The Rock music seems to have finally found its foray into the Bollywood realm. There used to be a time when ears shattering melee was called music – thanks to the clan of Anu Maliks who seemed as if they had all fallen on their heads on birth. Though some of them can surely be discounted. Anyways, this particular song has a soft rock music well strummed on the Guitar, soft drums and keyboard. Soham’s voice provides the right blend of melancholy and romance that go hand in hand that is so important for the lyrics to hold your attention and render them effective.
The guarded happiness of a heart that has finally come to experience Love, that it had so far craved, and finally wants to accept is well expressed in the Quadri’s words. The second para that speaks of the loving moments with the dear one stolen from the eyes of the world is absolutely astounding for its simplicty. The lines that express the desire to spend the eternity just by gazing into the loving eyes of the sweetheart, and drinking through them the brilliance of her face is sheer visual poetry. A love that indeed has to be hidden from the world, lest someone cast an evil eye!! Beautiful… just beautiful!!

Jun 22

Dried Ink….

The quill lay limp on the table,
Begging me bestow life to its limbs.
It’s lips dried, aching for the soothing
Touch of the ink, filling its innards.

Should I cure this invalid jester?
For he soon shall jump around
Mocking – me, my self, and my memories.
Ungrateful wretch! Piteous though!

Maybe I can spill the sweetened moments?
The warm touch of your lips behind the tavern –
Memories that light the darkened corners,
Of a befuddled mind – vague & abstruse.

My generosity is overwhelming –
The quill is dipped in the elixir – the thirst quenched.
The gale of winds swirling the ocean,
Tossing me about – the rush of your memories.

The alleys and roads, the valleys and woods,
The fragrance of your being, the pain of your leaving,
The laughter, the cries, the whispers and sighs,
Flooding my being, impaling the thoughts.

The void that wraps me feels so dear!
Deathly icy hands, clasping me tight.
The time seems distant, endless sift of sand –
The ink has dried yet again, waiting a story grand.

-Praveen

May 06

A Pain called Indian Passport Office!

Here’s a billion dollar question. Who is the jerk that came up with the design for the Indian Passport Website? www.passportindia.gov.in, if anything is just another huge pain in the posterior.  It is ridiculous to think of the pain a legal citizen of this country has to go through to get a passport renewed. I had held myself back from writing a scathing post a few months ago about this issue, but going through the harrowing experience of renewing the passport has only augmented the hatred that was building up against the process that has been put in place and also against the enterprise that is maintaining the web interface.

Sure, India is being ruled by a bunch of fuck-ups (and am not talking of only the ruling party, it very much includes the opposition too) and it only shows how determined they are in screwing up the citizens of this country.  While it is not sufficient that they siphon of vulgarly huge amount of moolah, they want to extract a savage happiness out of the inconvenience meted out to common man to access some of his most principle and rightful services & needs. 

If there ever was an example for a perfectly good idea being messed up because of the sheer idiocy of the system, then our passport system would be a wonderful specimen to be considered for this. Sure, there are many contenders in India at the moment, but then, for me, this holds the spotlight. So there! 😛

God forbid but if you ever have to renew your sorry passport or get a new one, under the dreamy eyes of ever having to fly out of country on a “phoren” “assignmentu”, then ensure that you’ll get out of Bangalore and revise your records to reflect that you are residing in a different city, heck a different state altogether!  

So what’s my point of grouse you ask? Its either me, or every freakin’ person in Bangalore is traveling abroad and is traveling in the next one month! For the past 15 days, I’ve had the glorious opportunity to be logging in every day at precisely 9:45 AM (because that’s when I am able to reach office, though I leave home at 8:15 AM) and realize that there are no appointments available in the 2 PSKs (Passport Seva Kendra a.k.a Pesky Seva Kendra a.k.a Pathetically Sadistic Whatever-the-hell-of-a-Kendra) of Bangalore. Somehow magically everyday, between 9:00 AM & 9:45 AM ALL the available slots for the day one month later gets filled up.  It is really interesting that every day, we have the exact number of people logging in at precisely the same time and exhausting all the available slots that too one month in advance!  Sherlock Holmes would’ve smoked away to his death without being able to resolve this mystery! Well, being the logically oriented lot that we Indians are, am sure you’d tell me that I should’ve managed to login precisely at 9:00 AM or even before and then try to book the appointment.  Pffttt! So what happens when our esteemed self logs in at 9:00 AM?! The page throws a blank! Apparently TCS doesn’t have enough servers to support the traffic, or the great esteemed Government of India, just doesn’t bother to pay TCS well enough for the maintenance of the website.

Sure India is a country teeming with techies and brain whizkids of the world, who are phenomenally great in “servicing” products for other countries. We are a bunch of people who take great pride to let the world know that we do the maintenance of great many softwares for them, and even compete with eachother for an opportunity to go “onsite” and serve.  But talk about developing a user-friendly application for home use! And it raises a stink that can send a bean-fart for cover!

The website for the Passport application is anything but userfriendly.  It is not that I did not have the opportunity for booking an appointment.  Nearly 3 months ago, I did manage to get the appointment and even visited the PSK for the renewal of the passport. The website listed the documents that were needed for the renewal and when I presented them there, the chap unceremoniously dismissed them quoting another document that was NOT listed on the website.  Now mind you, that I had even called the so called “customer service” number listed on the website, only to be told that the documents on the website was sufficient and would ensure the renewal. But apparently, the shots are being called by someone else inside the office, and surely he does wear the pants! The lack of information being one of the issues, the design and usability testing for the website is far from satisfactory!  One wonders, what sort of idea an IT major such as TCS which boasts itself of great customer satisfaction and service record, had in mind when even reviewing this! Are they so phenomenally dumb that they couldn’t grasp the simplest of the facts about what an end-user would want to experience?!  I feel, a bunch of disgruntled guys, who hadn’t got an onsite-opportunity designed this portal and are maintaining it.

I fail to understand the logic for opening the booking window for exactly one day in advance! If I am not able to book the slots for 6th June, why shouldn’t I be able to book one for 7th today?!! Would it make sense for a person to be trying everyday to book at 9:00 AM, causing the server to crash unable to hold the traffic.

I just fail to understand that a country which is a seething cauldron of IT bigwigs, has a pedestrian interface and design for the government websites. Many a times, the certificate for the session that is opened is lost mid-way, and the user is asked to relogin again and again to the passport website.  Legitimate passwords are lost, and I have been left wondering if there is an expiry period for the password or if something went wrong! If the security features for a critical website such as the one containing our passport related details are so poor, what security are we looking at for our protection?!  Maybe am blowing matters out of proportion, or maybe I am just venting out a lot of frustration, but accessibility for services is not a light matter atleast IMHO. 

As a country, we have been complacent towards the governance.  We have resigned to the fact that our politicians are rogues, and rowdies, criminals and dirty scoundrels.  Sure they are all of that!  But who is stopping us from bringing about a change?  Who has stopped us from voting against these same sterile and incompetent eunuchs to power or preventing them from ransacking a country of its glory?!!  I know this is rhetoric.  Flushing out a shit that has accumulated in our system since decades due to our negligence and complacency is not an over-night, one blog-post task…….

P.S:- Interestingly enough, though there is a provision for online submission of the form, each time you fill it out and hit the “submit” button, a sweet technical snag appears out of nowhere and the submission never happens (Also, the error codes seem to change each time the submit button is hit!!!!!). Well, do you care to save the form in between so you don’t have to refill it all through once again?!! You imbecile fool you! Ofcourse even then the technical snag pops out like the Jack-in-the-box. Surely the joke’s on us! Thank you Govt. of India/Ministry of External (sucking) affairs & TCS! Go soak your head in a bucket of water for me please!

Passport_error

The pain of submission

May 03

Ramblings on the way home….

Disclaimer:  When one writes with a rather pissed off outlook, seldom would they write about anything cheerful. So, my readers will have to bear with me on this post. 🙂

Traveling home in Bangalore traffic on a rainy day, can be either an enchanting experience, or a harrowing and excruciating torture depending on what one chooses to do with the time lying at hand. Given that I’ve always been accused by my readers for being inconsistent and irregular in my writings, (after much soliloquy) I thought I may as well utilize this time to write.  So going forward if you are lucky enough to see more of me online, well you know who to thank! 😉

Oh! One personal update – I quit MindTree. Am with a new company now, and in a newer, challenging and more satisfying role.  Lemme ask you this. How does it feel when you are handed something new?  Whether it’s an object or a situation, a person or a relationship, anything new that confronts us or materializes in the mundane existences of our lives, leaves us a cauldron of emotions. There is either a promise in our dreams or a nightmare.  But reaction is a certainty. They (the new entrants) manifest as choices.  And every choice forks a path in front of us. If only it were as direct as picking the yellow brick road! 🙂

The decision to quit MindTree wasn’t easy.  I guess it’s true for any change that we opt for – personal or professional.  We would’ve established a certain comfort level, cushioned our ass(et)s and soon enough there is a rumble in the paradise we’ve built and we have to get to the task of re-doing the entire job.  I happened to ask a fellow colleague of mine who had served quite a number of years in this company (hats off to that!) why he chose to stick on. All he quipped was that he didn’t want to go through the pain of a job change and get onto proving his worth in a new organization altogether.  Nothing wrong in that at all! But I shudder at the thought of ending up with such stagnant thoughts. Change is the order of nature.  Yet, invariably we strive hard to resist it. Whether its aging, death, relationships or diet! 🙂 From age defying creams to extravagant silicon implants, man is in a constant struggle to preserve his cushioned ass(et)s. 😛

Is the fear probably one of failure? Of the unknown? Of our abilities or inabilities to scale up? Fears are myriad. But the crippling effect they have on us rendering us incapable of change, is universal.  Yet, nature that programmed these fears, also in its beauty holds the key to unlocking the treasure trove of optimism and hope that lights the darkest corners of mind.  We meet a person, or get an offer, that splashes a riot of colors on our plain existence.  The one hand we held in passing, turns out to be a pillar of support, and gives a confidence hitherto unfelt. The window of opportunity that opens brings in new light and a promise of a better land.  The howling tornado ceases to exist, and the seas part to reveal the road to a promised land.  And we set off on a journey.  The fear follows us doggedly, but the thrust of hope far exceeds the shackles of pessimism desiring to hold us back.

This promise has exposed itself in both my personal as well as professional lives.  I know that I’ve steered into waters that have never been charted, atleast not on my map.  It’s an adventure in deed.  After all, I’ve always considered myself an Explorer.  And more over, no one has ever written stories out of everyday matters (well none except the writers of Ekta’s clan of soap makers i.e.)

So as I resigned from MindTree, and ventured out, I knew that my hand was held by a power. The power of Love – the love for my field and technology.  I am back in the area I’ve cherished and always longed to work in.  Personally too…..but that’s a different story.  Perhaps meant for another long journey home?  Its time to signoff now… am nearing my stop. 1.5 hours of sheer verbal diarrhea.  Oh well…. U know me 🙂