1-6-2007 – A canal story

I will remember this date not coz India won a series against SA, not cozI was stranded in a train for 3 hrs in single place and not even for Vinay and me falling in the canal, but I will remember it, coz I thought of bloging it for all these reasons :)

I was with my parents this weekend. Since the weather was really bleak, I decided to start early for baroda on. I boarded Saurashtra Express from Valsad at 5:00 pm from Valsad. The train was 5 hrs late. As I got a train immediately, I thought I was lucky. WRONG!!!

My train took 2 hrs to reach Surat!! 3 other trains were allowed to pass by. I was a bit angry with Lalu for that. I reached Surat at 7 and found Karnvati taking off. I ran and changed the train. I thought I was lucky. WONG AGAIN!!!!

10 minutes after we left Surat, Karnvati came to a stand still. 20 mins went by. I got a bit edgy and walked all the way till engine. I asked the driver, wats the matter. And he coldly told me that there is water in Bharuch Station and we cant go ahead till it clears. Phew!!! Day was looking really good

I waited till 10:00 pm and then thought it was wise to go to back to Surat. I got a lift till Surat Railway station. I also called up Vinay, he was gonna meet me at the station and take me to his home. He arrived few minutes after I reached Surat Station. I thought I was getting lucky!!! No need to say WRONG AGAIN :D

We had a coffee and sandwich at CCD, and we thought of taking a short cut to his home. Unfortunately it was a bad idea. We ended up on a road that we didn’t know!! Viany took a sharp u-turn. And before we could understand anything, we were in a canal. He thought there was road on the other side of the grass, and went straight over it. There was no road but a canal and now we were in it. Within few seconds water began to come into the car. I opened my door and got out. Immediately I was in waist high gushing water. I tried getting on my feet, but the canal floor was really slippery. With some struggle, I got on my feet. On the driver’s side even Vinay was struggling. We climbed out of the canal, and looked upon the car. It looked really bad. I wish I could say “WRONG AGAIN”. The only comforting fact was that the car was stuck and wont flow away with the current. Meanwhile somewhere in Ireland India beat SA first time in a one day series outside India. LUCKY

We tried to get help from passerby, but it was really difficult to get help at that time of the night. I called up Abhijeet, and he came with his friend Modi(not Narendra). We thought of gathering people and pulling the car ourselves but after taking a look at the car, we decided of not doing it. We waited for a big vehicle to come and ask help from it. Unfortunately nothing came. We finally decided of getting it out in the morning.

Next morning, we reached the site early and got a passing by tractor to help us. We pushed the car to a near-by garage and gave it for repairs. Lucily, there was no body damage, water cushioned the impact and car body was not even scratched. Even internal damage was really less. The estimate given by the mechanic was Rs 3000. that was very relieving. Finally I boarded a train from Surat and reached Baroda at 3:00 pm, 23 hours after I started from my home!!! Helluva journey !!!

For further details you may contact me or Vinay :)

World is changing

The pace at which the world around us changes is faster than one can comprehend. Now just take a look at the following site.

http://skillda.in

This site is all set to change the way online job portals work. These guys are in Beta and are not calling the site a job portal (yet). They are calling it a professional networking site. They let you add contacts, search job, post jobs, search for resumes, search for people. I have not taken a look at all the features yet

They have AI based search engine incorporated. So now when you are searching for a job, you don’t have to fill a form. You don’t have to select in a combobox, which city you are looking for job in, which technology you are looking for job in. Same for recruiters, they don’t have to fill up the big forms to search resume. There is a just a single text box. It gives you a feeling that you are using a Google like search engine

I guess the traditional job portals are gonna face some tough times ahead

World after microsoft

World after Microsoft: World after microsoft

Obsession

My latest obsession is the very word obsession. A person is always obsessed with something or the other. And usually he ends up calling the obsession a goal. And once that goal is achieved, a sense of emptiness creeps in. This emptiness stays till you find another obsession. And it won't be long before you find another obsession.

Few people say that keep on changing goals; they are not bothered about the achievements or destination. They are interested only in the journey, and hence they are not obsessed with the goal. But then they don't realize that they are obsessed with changes, with journeys. They are obsessed against monotony!!! And that's what keep them moving

Few people just like to sit idle, do nothing. They may sit at street corners, have long chats, and have cigarettes. Even they are obsessed. Their lethargy has become a very big obsession, a trap they have hard time escaping. They are obsessed to monotony!!!

So I guess, it's the obsession that keeps us going.