More "The Namesake"

Been reading that book again.... Looks like it will take me at-least a dozen more re-reads to get it out of my system.
"The thought of Christmas overwhelms Nikhil. Last year they went to Moushumi's parents' house. This year they will go to Pemberton Road. He no longer looks forward to the holiday; he wants only to be on the other side of the season. His impatience makes him feel that he is, incontrovertibly, finally, an adult".

I can say the same thing for myself. Only it would'nt be Christmas but Diwali....

Now WHO would have thought of this!!!!

Sometimes the Singapore Government simply leaves me speechless!

What to do?

All right! So its done!
I had my first tape-out in my new outfit yesterday.
Can you imagine a tape-out without nights-out? One in which at no point of time you think that things are out of control? Well this one was like that. We got into tape-out mode one week ago, but tape-out mode was just another extra hour in the evening. Everyone still managed to leave work at seven. Only at the last day I had to stay till three and that too because I had made a mistake in firing a really long simulation and had to fire it again.

Now apparently the entire team has a "rest-period" for six weeks while the chip arrives.
Six weeks!!!
A colleague of mine was telling me the other day that silicon can be expected only six weeks after release to fab. I innocently asked him what people do in that period. He looked at me in confusion, looked at his compatriot with the expression, "what's with this guy?" and says "Nothing of course!!"
Then it was my turn to have the expression, "What's with this guy?". But its true! For the next six weeks nothing has been planned. I guess I will catch up on my reading for a change.

Have you noticed how boring it is to land up at work and have nothing to do? I sit and gawk around. Then I check gmail. Then I check rediff. Then timesofindia.com. Then a few blogs and in fifteen minutes I do not know what to do next.
I tried searching about string theory to put myself up-to-speed on the developments but gave up on it in five minutes. They talk pure Swahili!

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Today this associate of mine e-mailed me from Bay Area. The signature on his email read:
(Particulars changed to protect identity)

ABC Kumar
Converters Group
XYZ Semiconductors
San-Diego USA
"Arbiet Macht Frei"

(Arbiet Macht Frei loosely translated from German means "Works makes you free". This was the motto of the Aushwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp)

I think he is over-worked.

Up yours to the Pakis!!!

We ALWAYS win!!!!

This can happen only in Singapore

This morning I received my mobile phone bill. I was quite flummoxed by the in-ordinately large bill when I noticed that according to the mobile company at least, I have spent a major part of my month in Malaysia and was therefore on international roaming.

International Roaming??? Hell I have been doing nothing but waking up in the mornings and going to work!

Well this is how it panned out: My office is in the northern part of Singapore. The Malaysian border check-point is a fifteen minute drive from it. So its quite normal for my stupid cell-phone to catch hold of the Malaysian cellphone providers' network which has a stronger footprint.
My boss smilingly assured me that if I wanted to talk on local call rates to anyone in Indonesia, all I had to do was drive fifteen minutes in another direction from my office. Now I am thinking..... If I were to drive ANOTHER fifteen minutes towards the East, would I catch hold of some cellphone base-station in the Andamans??? That would solve my calling-home problems right away!!!!

Man! I hate shopping...

If you ever want to torture me, all you have to do is hand me some cash and tell me to go and buy myself a wardrobe full of clothes. When it comes to buying books and music CDs I can claim to almost enjoy the process but when it comes to buying shirts and shoes, all I do is grit my teeth and try to get it over with as quickly as possible. I have gone to limits like going to work in shoes with my toes sticking out for a fortnight while waiting for a guardian angel to come and buy shoes for me with no intervention on my part (except having to pay the bills of course). 

Nothing like that ever happens of course.. 

I always have the feeling that if I buy something:

1. It won't fit me when I try it out again at home (as if I were a Complan boy who gains inches in minutes)

2. I won't like the shade when I wake up next morning

3. While trying out all the permutations of shirts, trousers and shoes, the sales-woman is sniggering at my taste in clothes..

4. ... or is laughing at the ratty socks I am wearing (which need a replacement themselves but I have yet to come round to replacing them..)

So the shopping pattern with me is normally ... six months no activity....one day enough shopping to fill my wardrobe to overflowing... six months no activity....

Last week I bought myself a pair of shoes (along with three shirts, two trousers, one T-shirt and another pair of shoes...). Next morning I got a feeling that the shade of the pair of sport shoes is decidedly feminine. Then it turned out to be one size too small. 

Normal occurrence with Kanan Saurabh whose idea of buying shoes is 

1. To rush in a shoe-shop 

2. Stare psychotically around him 

3. Pick a pair at random 

4. Hand a fist-ful of bills to the bemused cashier and 

5. Rush out for dear life...

Buying a replacement is among my week's to-do list right now. But ... Man! I hate shopping...

 

Could it be????

Just compare the two:

Hyderabad blasts:

Date: 25 th August, 2007

No of bombs: 2

No of killed: 42

Class of target: Soft (Civilians)

Rawalpindi blasts:

Date: 4th September, 2007 (10 days later)

No of bombs: 2

No of killed: 29???

Class of target: Semi-hard (Defence employees)

Now I am thinking, is it tit-for-tat? 

Is this an indication of the Indian guys FINALLY waking up and saying that two can play at the same game, and that we can play it better than you???

Foot in the mouth and other stories....

Today we were having a dinner at work. All of us were there: me, my colleagues and my boss. 

The conversation somehow turned to how this particular woman made it to the most powerful women in the world list. She is a politically well-connected lady whose meteoric rise coincided with her making those political connections. Someone said that her previous venture was a major flop. She managed to screw up the enterprise but still made it to where she is at present.

To this someone said "Yeah, it does not matter what you know and what you do..."

And I unthinking-ly chimed in saying, "All it matters is who you know and who you do...."

The topic of the conversation changed in record time....

*******************

Today in the local bus, an African-American couple had to dis-embark pell-mell at the first place the bus stopped with their precious cargo. 

Toilet paper rolls. 

Three sacks of it.

They could not handle the sympathetic looks they got from every direction. While they were sitting in the bus (and while I was sitting behind them), a couple of Tamil aunties got very solicitous.

"Americans leh!! Local food very spicy no!!!"

A Chinese uncle very hospitably asked,  "Got them at an offer lah???"

Five minutes later, the couple were outside the bus.

This is why I love ACDC

Just follow the guitar in this 

And the drums in this one

One of the hallmarks of this band is Angus Young doing all sorts of things on the stage in a school boy uniform. You will see that in the first video, though  in that he is on a van.

The lead singer (Bon Scott) in the first video is not the one who sings in the second one (Brian Johnson). Bon Scott died in typical rock star fashion out of a suspected drug overdose.

Anyway...why am I giving you this history lesson. Listen to the two songs and enjoy. If you need more, catch hold of me when I am in India this December.... :D