Tech is blind

Technology can be blinding. Sometimes one can be so engrossed in discovering the new features that one might forget how the old original ones work. Many times as part of enhancing these new cool features, the old ones are moved around a little and the change is never mentioned, maybe because it is considered trivial.

The other day, one of our relatives visited us in a rental car. It has been sometime since I rode a rental car and I was not aware how tech friendly it has become. While bidding them goodbye, I noticed that the car keys were dangling in the start-key notch inside the car. The couple looked relaxed and unperturbed. I thought maybe they have not realised gravity of the situation and was debating to speak up my mind when the guy swiped a card in the door handle and it clicked open. That was awesome. Later he explained that like hotel keys, no one needs car keys now. All you need is a card. Swipe and the door opens. I really need such a cool car especially when I have a history of locking my car keys inside twice.

Every time, I switch cell phones, it takes me lesser time in familiarizing with the new features that to realise how the basic - call/end works. Some phone have two different button for "start" call and "end" call while others have one "talk/call" button which toggles between start and end call. When I got my touch-technology cell phone few months back, I used to fumble to end the call. During the conversation, the cellphone would get locked and the display lights would turn off. Hence when I had to end the call, I would have to unlock and then press a key or two to get the desired result. Listening to voice messages was another disastrous story. While I had cool features of setting unique ring tones for various incoming calls, capturing video, audio and still pics in my cellphone, the basic feature of making a call became complicated.

Today, my work laptop got infected and I got a substitute laptop to carry on my work. I was awed by how sleek and cool the new one looks. I attached the power cable and opened the laptop to power it on when I realised there was no "Power On" key. I wondered if this had the power of switching itself on. I felt ridiculous to ask such a trivial question so I actually studied each key but still could not find the "On" key. Feeling embarrassed, I reached out to pick up the phone to dial the help desk. I tilted my head to support the phone receiver when I saw the small "On" button way up in the edge on the side of the laptop!

Brain Drain

"Every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain".
--Homer in Simpson

I can't agree with it more especially when I am experiencing it first hand. Nowadays, whatever I read/learn/talk, stays in my head for two days before bouncing off. You can call it effect of getting older, poor concentration, trying to handle too many tasks before dropping them all, you can pick whatever. I won't remember your choice after two days. I used to be pretty good in remembering stuff. I would retain class teachings in my head for a long time. Not only would I remember what the teacher taught but also her/his gestures and mannerisms. The main reason of why I loved imitating them at home and be an entertainment to my entire family. I never needed assistance in remembering my friend's birthdays or nick names.

But things have obviously changed.

Last week, I bumped into a nice girl with a very familiar face. She beamed at me and greeted me with my name. During the initial conversation, I figured out that I worked with her in one of my previous companies three years back but still could not recall her name. She, on the other hand had an elephantine memory. She remembered my colleagues and the group I worked for. Why she even remembered my personal email id!! I had to stop her there and ask her name. I was getting dizzy talking to a person who remembered so much about me while my brain was coming up with a blank screen when I inquired it who she was.

I heard learning art or language can help keeping brain young. I started taking Violin class again. Only drawback, I didn’t remember everything I needed to practice. Once I told my teacher what I practiced at home only to realize that I practiced what was going to be taught that day!

The other day I got involved in daily chores that I completely ignored my stomach. I wound up the day's work and got ready to hit the bed when I heard rumbling. I had forgotten to eat and of course sleep never embraces an empty stomach.

I figured I need to do something about it. So I started jotting down “to-do" list daily. Now only if I can remember where the list is...

Et Tu?

The clothing industry survives only because of the women of the world. As long as we are there, they would remain profitable. With different clothing styles to colors to the latest fashion trend, the choices are unlimited. Unless you are wearing jeans and T-shirt, it’s hard to find a dress getting repeated on someone else. Last Friday, I was at the traffic light, waiting for the lights to turn green so that I can move on. I saw a lady from a distant appearing wearing a nice green top and a skirt. I could not see the design of the skirt clearly because of the distance and the other cars being on my line of sight. As she approached me, I could see complete dress and I liked it as it was pretty pleasing to the eyes. I recalled seeing the design of the skirt somewhere. The light turned green and I drove on, only to realize that I was also wearing the same green top and the skirt!

Ready, Set, Relax

Taking a break is always welcome. You don't need to go on a vacation but slowing down once in a while is relaxing. And if it comes unexpected, you are all the more thrilled.

Today morning, H volunteered to drop the kids. In the morning hustle bustle, he took both the car keys and left. I wanted to reach office early so that I could leave sooner than my usual time. I got ready quickly and for once had not forgotten to leave anything behind, only to realize that I have no keys to drive the car! Since H was already half way to his work, it made no sense for him to come back. So I had the only option left - work from home. I do exercise it once in a while but today was a surprise. Suddenly I felt so light at head. I don't have to drive to work today. I had my breakfast leisurely. It has been long since I relished a toast and tea as I often skip breakfast.

For a change, I really liked being stuck at home with no where to go. At 8:45 am, I heard a faint "beep beep". It sounded like the alarm of the sports watch which I thought was lost. But it stopped beeping before I could locate it. I wondered why it is beeping at 8:45. Maybe the watch was not corrected for daylight saving. Even then, the time would be 7:45 am!! Not sure who is it trying to wake up at time when we are generally out by 8 am.

I was working on my computer when I heard motor start suddenly, followed by some faint footsteps. A peek outside the window confirmed that the odd job men were doing the lawn moving but I still could not figure where the footsteps were coming from. I tried listening hard and figured out that it was coming from the roof. I got scared for a second. I remembered an incident that happened a decade back, when one of neighbor kids played a prank on me by calling in the middle of a rainy night saying that someone was on our roof top. I am much older now but the thought of the incident still sends chills down my spine. I gathered courage and stepped out of the house to see what’s going on. I saw a man fixing the roof top of one of my neighbors and a bunch of squirrels running around. That was a pleasant sight much better than what I had imagined. Now I am getting back to work with a hope that I would be able to relish this leisure day to my heart’s content.

All play and no work

Contrary to the popular phrase "All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy", the reverse is equally true. Work culture has changed 180 degrees in the last half of the century. From working in places walking distance from home to working in a place half the globe across. With the whole world becoming one global village, the opportunities are boundless. Of course, everything comes with a pinch of salt.

The kind of work we do, the people we interact with and also the times when we accomplish it has completely changed. I remember as a kid, I used to be off from school only on a Sunday. In fact, I loved to wear the white shirt and skirt uniform to school on Saturdays. Later, few years down the lane, we were off on 2nd and 4th Saturday. But now, many schools are corporations adopt a 5 week schedule. In fact, now there are rumors of 4 week schedule!

On one hand, there are people with 3-4 hour commute daily and in the same space are people who work from home many times a week. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on one's personality and lifestyle. I knew a nurse who used to work three 12-hour nights and used to have a 4 day weekend every week. And I have friends who end up working till 2am everyday.

There was a recent survey in some media asking if we would prefer a 4 day week schedule to 5 day. Though all of us would love to work less, I think we still yearn to work, just so that we can enjoy our leisure time. I feel the same excitement on a Friday which I did on Saturday, years back, realizing that weekend is around the corner, though the length of weekend has changed. What would you prefer for your work schedule?

Aaaa...Chooo

Common cold, though being pretty common, has no treatment. The capsules and tonics that we drain down our throat make us feel less miserable but they are not a cure. Since my childhood, I get at least two attacks of cold in a year, each time the season changes from hot to cold and vice versa. I have my own ways of battling it by inhaling steam, consuming hot drinks. I am ready to take anything as long as it doesn't get converted to into fever and I need to see a doctor.

Though I regard Doctor as a revered profession, I hate to see one for my treatment. To be precise, I don't like to take medicines. I have never completed my full dose of medicines. Each time, after taking a couple, when I start feeling fine, I stop consuming the rest of the tablets. As a kid, when I was forced to drink tonic, I would eat some sugar along with it, to alleviate the medicine's taste.

I had a strange fascination in childhood. I would prefer to get hurt and have a bandage wound around my leg or hand instead of being down with fever. For some stupid reason, I used to feel bandage of one arm or one leg makes one look smarter - yeah, yeah, like a war time hero. I have bruised myself couple of times and felt good sporting a white bandage around my leg. Though I was in high spirits at that time, now I hate to see the mark that the wound has left behind. Once while playing, my brother accidentally hit my head with a bat. Initially, seeing the stream of blood running from my forehead, I got scared. Later, I felt like a mini hero when everyone I met kept asking me about it.

The other thing I don’t like is getting injections. For the same reason, I don’t like getting flu shots. I am down with cough and pretty bad throat now. I am trying cure it using some home made remedies. The problem with cough and cold is, I don’t get the correct amount of sympathy. Had I got hurt or be down with fever, I would have been asked to stop working and take care of myself. But now, the world goes around as if nothing as happened to me, only stopping occasionally to say “Bless You”.

Catch me if you can

Walking is one of my favorite activities. Even though I am not able to devote time for a morning or evening walk, I enjoy whatever walking I am able to accomplish during a day. I do not mind parking my car further away and taking few extra steps to enter my work building.

I think in any other part of the world except USA, people would do this activity, more out of necessity if not by choice. Seeing people walk also increases the vibrancy of a place. No wonder New York City and Mumbai are so electrifying.

In my younger days, I have walked 5 miles from a cousin's house to mine. In a nice evening, the walk would be gratifying and I would enjoy the small markets, parks and the residential complexes that came along the way. As a kid, I and my brother used to walk to school. I used to carry a school bag on my shoulders, holding its large strap/holder across my neck. According to my brother I used to walk so slow that he had to drag me with the strap. I think they stopped making those school bags now, which is good – reducing torture from elder siblings.

Years later, when I started working, I had a manager, who would zoom past like a breeze, actually tornado would be more appropriate. I could never figure out if a slow moving manager was better than a faster one. One can at least be prepared once a slow moving manager approaches one's desk. In case of the faster one, all you experience is a gust of wind in your way. But I assumed if he is zooming past, he would have little time to grasp what is shown in my screen. Now all these do not even matter.

Few months back, I watched the “Walk Marathon” held in New York City in the TV. The lady who came first had just become a new mother. She enjoyed walking so much that not even motherhood stopped her.

Recently people have told me that they see me only as a flicker as I go past them. To the extent that one of them asked me if I was a sprinter in school and if he can call me "PT Usha"! I never realized the increase in my gait. In my family, I know people who walk faster than me. I believe I picked up speed while trying to keep pace with them. In any case, if I can accomplish some exercise by just walking, I should be far from complaining.

With all the bags and baggages

I like to travel/roam about light, with minimum things in my hand. To be more precise, with just one thing in my hand. Since I need to have a handbag, I like if everything fits into my bag. My bag should not be too huge, which means I need to carry less and/or the things need to be smaller in size.

You can imagine my plight in rainy days. Though I have nothing against rain, I just do not like to carry an extra baggage of umbrella. If you ask me, there is no point in having one. In light rains, one cannot get much wet. Even if one does, it is easy to get dried up quickly. In heavy rains, there is no point to have an umbrella as in any case, one is going to get wet. However, this logic is not well taken by my family. So, I do have a small umbrella, which can be folded into a size of about one foot and can easily fit in my bag. We used to have a bigger sturdy umbrella, which we lost last year. It was a good one and would protect us from any sort of rain. In spite of its good qualities, I would never take it with me just because of its size.

With the same logic, I cannot carry a separate lunch bag. I don't mind taking lunch to work as long as the lunch box can fit into my bag. I know friends, who have nice lunch bags, which hold lunch and snacks for the whole day. These all are good for others but not for me. Lately, I have this trouble of remembering to take lunch boxes home. If I eat my lunch and don’t have the box near my bag, you can be assured that it is going to rest at least one more night at my desk.

Last week, I had forgotten to take my lunch boxes home twice. So, on Thursday when I came to work with my third lunch box, I made a mental note to take all the three back home in the evening. Since it was a long weekend for us (yes, we were off on Good Friday), we were given an option to leave early on Thursday. In all that excitement, I forgot to take my lunch boxes again. Can you imagine forgetting thrice on a four day week?

I came to work today with no lunch as I do not have a box at home to carry it. The first thing I did in the morning was to pile up all the lunch boxes near my bag, so that I definitely take them home tonight. One of them has spent a whole week at my desk! Thankfully, I do clean my boxes after having lunch else there would have been a plague at my work desk.

C'est la vie

I do have a good sense of direction. But as even experts can falter, I do have a plausibility of losing my way once in a while. This has happened so frequently in last few months that in any unfamiliar road, my toddler checks if I know where I am going.

I have to buy something from a wedding registry at a store for a reception we need to attend this weekend. There is a store branch near my work and home. The one near my home is actually a good driving distance. So, in order to save time, my mind came up with this brilliant idea of purchasing the gifts close to my work. I am not familiar with all the roads close to my office but a little adventure in the afternoon is always fun, isn't it?

To save some more time, I checked online for the items that could be purchased. For whatever reasons, the website did not allow search of non purchased items. I had to browse through the whole registry to figure out what I would like to buy. As luck would have it, any item I liked was already bought.

In the whole hassle, I did not check the exact location of the store and went off to the close by mall where I assumed the store was located. The store was not located where I assumed, but was in a place where it was actually built, which was not too hard to find.

Since I had not figured out the gift I wanted to buy, I had to go to a cash register to get the wedding registry printed out. The lady at the register tried her best to help me get a printout. But for some reason, it failed to show up the items. She conveniently put the blame on the new cash registers which they have acquired and not familiar with. Finally, after about fifteen tries and couple of phone calls, she successfully printed out the item list. To my surprise and pleasure, only the non purchased items were printed. I took the small piece of paper and grabbed the next available store lady to help me get these, only to realize that this particular store carry none of the non purchased items!

And the winner is....

Winning is a great feeling. I am not talking about winning a Grand Slam title or a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer award. Err.. I have never won any of these, at least not yet. I am talking about winning tiny-miny prizes on small quizzes.

As a kid, I remember jumping with joy when I won a Rs 2 or Rs 5 raffle on a kids Tambola in a school fest. I guess I ate some chocolates or ice-cream with that money. Now I believe, those currency notes have no value unless 2 zeros are added next to them. I won't be surprised if they don't even exist.

Years later, I used to participate in all the games played in baby showers hosted for my friends and cousins. I would win in each of these showers, the prize invariably being a scented candle. It was not the prize but the idea of participating and winning that used to excite me.
Last year, we had a raffle at my work place where we needed to answer few questions. The first prize, being lunch with the Department Manager(he was a nice, smart guy), two other prizes being books. While submitting my answers, the guy at the desk remarked that all the answers seem fine and I might be a good contender for lunch with the big shot. I told me emphatically that I do not want to win the first prize and would like to win a book. I did win, though a different book. One should not be too choosy about free stuff.

Why all this rambling? Today, I won a CD for answering a question on EBC radio, which I listen to while on my way to work and back home. The question was very simple - Who is considered 20th century best women's tennis player? Who can it be other than Steffi Graf. I am a little more excited as I used to be a huge fan of hers. The CD is just a collection of some dhinchak hindi songs but the satisfaction of winning it, is priceless.

Can it get any worse...

We are nearing our drop-dead date. If you are in software industry , you know exactly what I mean - yes tomorrow is friday and we have a release, work is not completely done but hoping to finish. You must be wondering if I am out of my mind. How much can you accomplish in a day? Well, believe me, miracles do happen. And I am so sure it would strike again tomorrow. Yes, our release day will get postponed :)

I was just analysing what all is left in my part to do. We are trying to migrate to a new version and also enhancing along the way. There is one particular section which I am missing out. I know I am supposed to migrate it but I do not find the code. I talk to my team lead. I do believe ghosts exist in software. How else can you explain the umpteen number of times something going wrong, you do all you can but no luck and mysteriously everything start working fine! Well, my teamlead says you are supposed to refer to our old code , go to "XXXX" project, checkout the head. Well, I did just that, I retort back but I do not see anything. Then I realise I had checked out a wrong version of the code. Sweet. One day to go and I am working on a wrong version. But didn't I tell you I believe in miracles. Waiting for it to happen...