Punch the keys

There seems to be some sort of speed control in the meru cabs. It might be there with the other cab companies too, but I am on a meru right now, and each time the driver goes above 80 kmph, a lady's voice warns politely, that the car is over the speed limit and to slow down. This feature is definitely needed to bring psycho drivers under control. I have been in many cabs, autos and buses that, for the sheer driving skills of the person in charge has brought me fervently praying, as if it were my last. Heck, even the pilot today got me to the same emotion barely 5 minutes after take off. That really took skill, I mean, no chance of turbulence and yet the flight was all groaning and shaking. It really felt like it would fall off the sky. Anyways, coming back to speed limits. The ride on the cab and the constant reminders by the lady has a unsettling effect. Since the road is bare clean and smooth. I wondered if this blanket speed restriction actually helped...

Recently my friend told me that he never knew so many things were made in Belgium. He had come back from an official trip to Belgium and, ever since his return to India, had been seeing stuff that were marked "Made in Belgium". Have you come across this kind of experience too? I know I have. When my wife and I were expecting our first child, we started to observe pregnant woman. I mean wherever we went, we would encounter at least a couple of them. Be it near the office, shops, restaurants.. It was crazy and funny at the same time. I have been trying to find if there was some word to describe such a concept. Even though I searched some, nothing comes across that fits well. Very strange how the senses zoom in on the familiar. Like for me, of late, I have been quick to catch any FLS that is part of words. Especially when they are in capitals. For example, I was quick to catch the FLS on the sugar packet on my desk even though it were upside down. I had not noticed it earl...

Its a new year... not even a day old, this year now..    But the clock will tick on this one too, just like it did on the previous ones... Only 366 days this one has to pass away..    yes, look at the bright side, one day extra this year.  People rejoice and are all excited all over the globe.    Merrily chanting away the wishes and cries happiness at the newness of the year. No one knows when the new year turns to old.   Is it just the next day that the "new" year becomes a regular year? Or does it last longer.

A couple of weeks back, during my visit to Hyderabad, I marvelled at the superb roads that were being laid out. Wide and spacious with proper service roads and exits, I mentioned to the taxi driver that with a little touch-up here and there, it would soon look like the foreign locations. He nodded in agreement and said yes, just a matter of time. Hyderabad, by nature, is a rocky territory. Construction is not easy. But the modern equipments help in getting the job done quickly. The pace with which the buildings spring up and become functional is sheer amazing. The drive from airport to my office is about an hour long and this gave me enough time to reflect on the development. It is not only the roads which were being developed. Huge buildings and campuses were coming up on both sides as well, and indicating the prosperous times. As most people would be, and I was not able to decide on which side I was. OK, so I am assuming here that there are indeed two sides. One w...

Nostalgia can strike anytime. It is funny how some place or object can open up a memory that you would not have thought of for many months or years even. Some small things give you a blast from the past and it is not necessary that the memory is accompanied by the sadness associated with Nostalgia. Yesterday, while rummaging through a cabinet in a meeting room, I found this item which brought back a lot of memories from more than a decade ago. 1.44 MB used to be huge at a time. Hard to explain it to kids now, but that's the way it was. Wow, I am suddenly feeling old too. Anyways, I have real fond memories of booting up the 286 machine that belonged to my friend. One disk was used to bootup and then the next was used to load prince. Yep, prince of persia in DOS. We used to spend quite a bit time, just going through the limited commands on the boot disk and reading the help for these. It was tough to maintain these disks too. Kerala is pretty humid and if these disks were not...

I find myself looking at the blank pages of a diary and wondering what words I should be writing on them. Each year its the same. And as usual no great words or deeds appear in my thoughts and I am reluctant to spoil the fresh clean pages of the diary. Why is it so difficult to start writing on a new diary? I keep asking myself this question every year. Yeah, I do fill out the page that asks for detail. You know, the fill on the dotted lines stuff, asking personal information. And then begins the dilemma of how to write in those fresh pages. Then some time in the middle of the year, I pick up the diary that's lying around, all empty pages and all, and start to scribble notes or whatever it is that I needed at that time. By this time, the pages would not be in the same condition as it was printed. Many of the diaries that are given out are made of not so great quality paper. Some of them would even be turning yellowish. Whatever the state of the diary, i could never fill out t...

Recently I have found myself doing at least one online transaction every day. No, I am not exaggerating at all! I travel between Coimbatore and Ernakulam on weekends and that requires two ticket purchases. Thanks to even bus booking being online, I just log on to purchase the tickets. But in the past couple of weeks or more, I have not only been buying tickets online. I have been paying my taxes (yes multiple), paying bills(yes lots of them), buying stuff from books to a mobile. Everything is online! Isn't that cool. I love it because I get it delivered at the address I want. The only thorn is when the bank decides to play cranky. It gets really frustrating like yesterday when I had to try four times before I could finally book my seat on the bus. The problem is that since site blocks the seat for 30 mins or more so that there are no double bookings. But since my bank failed to complete the transaction, I would need to wait for about 30 mins to book the same seat. Finally afte...