The Great Train Robbery

The latest sensation in namma singara Chennai is the hijack of a train from the Moore Market station,i.e our Chennai Central EMU service track.How comical is that an unauthorised person is able to sneak into the driver's coach,start a train and take it for a jolly ride just like kids do with other kid's bicycles?

To say that this depicts is the poor state of affairs of security,authorisation procedures and overall accountability is an understatement and words probably won't do justice to the anguish of the relatives of the people who have been killed(I will not say they died because spiritually dying means you are ready to leave the world behind on your own accord and these people  certainly were not).Now don't mistake me for bringing spirtuality and philosphy into this serious issue at hand but just that it makes more sense when you see it from that point,atleast for me.

Everybody can point hands at one another and play the blame game,which is what usaually happens but spare a thought for the people injured and killed.What can offer them solace?Bringing the CBI into the fold of things might seem like a big step forward but what is to be noted is the sheer indiscipline in following regulations that should have been second nature to the guys in charge.

The need of the hour is to bring into force a stricter implementation of policies and safety regulations(all it requires is personal dedication and the thought in the back of the mind that if the work is not carried out properly it may reult in mishaps and people can get injured ).

Whether it was a prank gone horribly wrong or a calculated execution of pre-laid plans,we may or maynot never know.But the sheer thought that something like this can happen to anybody sends shivers down the spine.

Temptations

Having given myself to the regimen of taking a walk in the early morning on the basis that it is healthy for your life,I have found its side effects.Now talking of walking side effects may bring ankle sprains and leg cramps to the imaginative mind but the answer is no.Not any one of these.

My side effect is sleep.Yes SLEEP.Waking up at 5 in the morning takes a good 2 hours off my time devoted for sleep and while I would love to crash on my bunker when I return from my walk it is totally off limits as that would result in a nice archanai from my mom.So while I'll be able to ward off the remaining sleep in the morning hours,when it comes to the late afternoon say between 4 to 5, I would be totally washed.It would be like I have gone without sleep for 2-3 days and my eyes close on their own accord.That is also the time when everybody is busiest because it is near to office closing hours and naturally all would like to show that they are hardworking just as the office ends.Imagine my plight trying to keep my eyes open while having to concentrate on the work on hand.For a good understanding, try to remember your most boring professor's class just after lunch.You will get the point.

Hence not only am I tempted to catch a quick shut eye but my body metabolism also seems to gone into overdrive with my stomach grumbling every time i think of food since I started walking as an exercise.And on way my back home,the biggest task is to force my legs away from the chat shop near my house and mentally pound myself to think of  chapathis and dal instead of the sinfully good bhel puri or the delicious pani puri that the guy can whip in a jiffy.Sigh!Sigh!Sigh!.I really wonder how people try to attain nirvana when the simple task of keeping yourself healthy and monitoring your junk food consumption is taking a big toll on my senses.That is why maybe those enlightened ones are called mahans.

Exams

Attended my ISRO exam yesterday and it was actually fun to write a competitive exam, you know it makes those grey cells work a wee little more and the feeling of working with your mind rather than physically as we do in our daily jobs 90% of the time is immensely satisfying.It gave me almost an "on-the-top-of the world feeling"  because recollecting the wonderful time I had spent in college learning while going through the question paper concotes a heady mix of inexplicable enjoyment that just makes you want to grin at everybody.

All in all,a very nice Sunday I have had in a long time which would otherwise have been spent on waking late and whiling away the time on the idiot box and its cousin,the PC.

Of Hot Summers and Power cuts

When the Tamilnadu EB announced that there will be very less power shortage this year and as a result there will be fewer power cuts,I was the most happiest person in TN,believe it or not as I am one of those guys who would even on a chilly winter night like to have the fan running at full speed.

But I don't use the AC because my bronchus is a little bit sensitive to chillness that the AC produces.Hence however sweltering it may be I would like to sleep just with the fans on and the windows open. 

However for the last week or so,there has been a regular power cut in our flat especially between 10.30 and 11.00 in the night.When contacted the EB told that they were not carrying out any maintenance work.Left with no option we called them  to come and check our mains.After an hour one guy finally decided to show up.

He came,he saw and he proclaimed "Fuse poiduchu saar".As pompous as Julius Ceaser when he spoke those 3 immortal words "Vini,Vidi,Vici" .

After changing the fuse we paid him the usual amount that is mandatory unofficially.I could have kicked myself for that but the flat association saw it fit to pay him what he asked so where is the opinion of one person going to hold water.The reason "Ippo kudukulana adutha vatti vara mattanga".

Hollering about bribes and overcharging will take this post quite of context which is not what I intend to do.

Anyway the next day,the same thing happened and the same routine was enacted.The same guy came,said the same thing(why am i using so many "same"s) and fixed the fuse. 

Day 3. Repeatuuu

Day 4. Repeatuuu

Now, before you think I am going to proceed till 365, hold your horses because this where the proverbial twist in the story takes place( God, I sound like an amateurish screen play writer).

The next day the events repeated themselves(haha,I have not used "same" for 40 words) and in my sweat filled anger I felt like putting my fists through the mains a la Jackie Chan in some kung fu movies that they show in Vijay TV on Saturday nights,which I gratefully did not because the only result would have been shattered knuckles.

Fortunately, the EB officials were alerted due to the curious repeat of the same problem over and over again and they decided to send a senior technician.

The guy who ambled over to our flat said that in his analysis(yes!! he used the word analysis),the issue was overloading of the mains,the reason for which was the use of AC's in all our 12 flats in the compound.This sounded ridiculous as last summer there was no such issues and I told him so.

Naturally, he got angry, said I didn't understand how the power transmission works and et al. before I finally waved my engineering tag before him and shut him up for good.Man, that felt sweet, you know to shut up someone who acts like a know-it-all with that one remark "I AM AN ENGINEER".

That night the problem was temporarily fixed and the next morning they promised to send someone to look into the issue.The next day,3 people actually turned up and went through the rigmarole of looking at the connections from the transformer to the pole and from the pole to the flat mains and that was where the culprit lay.

You see,the week before we started having this phenomenon of isolated power cuts the Corporation people had dug up our road for laying out pipes for the storm water drains and they accidentally had punctured one of the cables going to our flat mains,which in reality had caused us to have only 2 phases rather than the 3 phases which is normal and this was responsible for the overloading as the load of that phase had been diverted to be shared by the other two.

As the problem had been identified,it may seem it was a simple matter of replacing that cable and setting things right but alas it was not to be.The difficulty in moving ahead was that though EB had the power to change cables overhead, if they wanted to do something with cables that ran below the ground, you(meaning the person who has the problem not the EB) have to take the permission of the Corporation by giving them a request letter in writing for digging the road.After it was approved,the EB would then carry on their work.

Funny how two wings of the corporation act like separate autonomous bodies with no communication between them.Anyhow that is the state of things and it wasn't until two days ago that the problem was totally rectified be relaying that cable.

My nights have been much better since then and I have actually managed to blog regularly,which given my predisposition to slacking is quite a feat by itself.Not that blogging is a feat,but trying not be a slacker is.

 

Oops!I did it again

Yes.I did it again.After so many resolutions,daily remainders on my mobile and what not,I have succesfully missed out yet again to update my blog in more than a year.
That awful feeling you have when you know that you must have done something that was entirely doable and yet you didn't do it  is now washing in waves over me.It is not disgust,it is not self-pity nor it is some sort of guilty feeling.
It is something that makes you so angry that you want to rage around for hours at yourself yet you don't simply because of the fact that you know the reason is you slacked and biting your own head off isn't going to help matters.
I don't know whteher my ranting is in the least bit coherent but sometimes just writing what you exactly want to convey even if it doesn't make sense to others is very cathartic.

Why do my blogs always meander towards cricket???

My God!Why do I always take such a long break between posting blogs.This is a question I have asked myself umpteen number of times and the answer is no where near than the ICL being recognized by the BCCI. That the question is not philosophical or rheotorical is well understood but to coin a term that exactly defines my inability to update regularly is beyond my reach.Perhaps like the 'Lazy eye' syndrome,I should term it as something scientific sounding like 'Lazioblogalis', which cut down to its barest form means "I am a moron so lazy that i can't even update blogs regularly".

Now enough of self-criticism.

Let us come to the topic of the day which is why do my blogs always contain some cricket or other.The reason is simple.I love cricket and blogging about it and reliving those moments of glory is always a welcome proposal.

Now that India had toured Australia,being beaten in the test series 2-1 which we should won by the same scoreline thanks to Australia playing with 13 players on the field(Yup!You guessed correctly,the umpires are whom I am referring to),I have arrived at the conclusion that either India is extremely unlucky with umpires whenever we go abroad(for further details refer my India tour of England blog)or those who officiate should be renamed 'MORONS' because even a blind man will officiate better.Not that it mattered a whole lot for we literally and royally ****** Australia in the ODI series.How it must have felt for Ponting in the last edition of the series,one can only imagine.

Coming to other matters,my job is going good,got myself a new mobile and I plan to write regular blogs,not just something that involves cricket but something philosophical, idiotical, or whatever crap that i can churn out of my mind that makes it worth reading.

A lot of things

Its been a really really long time since i had updated my blog, 3 months and 17 days to be precise.Not that i was really busy, it was just the exact opposite .I had so much time time and so little to do that I didn't know what to write in my blogs except the following : "Eat,Sleep,watch TV".And posting it over and over even though it was what i had been doing might make people think i am off my rockers.

A lot of things have also happened since my last blog.India won the T20 world cup,its biggest triumph since the 1983 World Cup and that with a young side led by the awesome Dhoni and ably aided by that swashbuckler of a batsman,Yuvraj Singh.What a tournament it was!The first match washed out,the second against Pakistan going on to a bowl out,losing the next to New Zealand and making sure that all of India was going crazy not knowing whether we would reach the semis or not.Then came the innings of a lifetime by Yuvraj.Carting a bowler of Chris Broad's pace(not that he is a Lee or Akhtar, but a still pacy) for six sixes in over must be what most batsmen think of but very few achieve.And it was indeed a scintillating display from Yuvraj in that match that settled the issue in our favor.The next against SA was a clear example of choking bowling making the batsmen play their shots out of desperation. India's bowlers were progressing fast and this match clearly illustrated their level heads in a pressure match against the home team.

The semifinal against Australia was a cracker of a contrast with our batting showing its class and a total of 189 was always a winning total against any team but Australia.And why it was considered like that was shown by Andrew Symonds especially after Australia lost early wickets.Carting the bowlers around the park with disdain,he almost single handedly guided Australia to victory if not for that peach of a delivery from Irfan Pathan that crashed into Symonds stumps.Then came Bhajji,"Turbanator" as he was affectionately called by Australia to bowl the 18th over with 33 runs required and bowled the most magnificient over of his life giving only 5 runs and crashing through Clarke's guard with a magnificient yorker.That settled the match and we would take on arch rivals Pakistan in the final, a dream final which was anticipated eagerly by many but not expected to happen given the appalling inconsistency both the teams are capable of.

As for the final, there is no need to to elaborate.No Indian who watched it could forget the nail biting finish with India being crowned Champions.Back home, the series against Australia was closely fought even though we lost 4-2.

The series against Pakistan saw some exceptional batting by Jaffer, Yuvraj and the most grittiest cricketer you would ever see after Steve Waugh , our 'Dada' Ganguly.His bat conducting a symphony with the Pakistan being the box seat audience, Ganguly showed us why he was gifted enough to score a century on debut,that too on the hallowed turf of Lords.His shots through the offside were majestic to say the least and proved beyond doubt that he is indeed the 'God of Offside' as Boycott rightly termed him. With Dada entering what they term as the 'zone' and our batting looking solid, the tour of Australia promises to crackling.If our bowlers live up to our expectations, the results are going to be too good to imagine.

All my wait for my joining date has been spent in the detailed analysis of these matches and now that it has been resolved I can hardly wait to join.