A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 5

Thursday, 4th May 2023

Rain!

Another working day at office, but today was more of team building than work. We had a team building game played along with our extended team. The game played today was Raja Chor Mantri Sipahi. നമ്മടെ കള്ളനും പൊലീസും. അയിനാണ്.

Anyway, we were way more in number for this game than usual. So, the game coordinators came up with some extra characters for the game - King, Queen, Minister, Dancer, Singer, Police and Thief. It was a fun filled half an hour. There was also a birthday celebration for one of my team members.

The day just flew by and frankly, I couldn't get much work done. At around 6.30 PM, a teammate informed me that it looks like it was going to rain. I prepared to start from office. Since I commute by a motorbike, I should reach home before it starts raining. I left office, took the lift to ground floor only to realize it was already pouring heavily. I waited more than half an hour for the intensity of the rain to reduce. When it did reduce slightly, I rode and was drenched by the time I reached home.

My wife prepared egg fried rice for dinner, and we had chicken Manchurian delivered from a nearby restaurant. We continued watching Somebody Feed Phil - Mississippi Delta episode.

And that's all for today. Ciao.

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 4

Wednesday, 3rd May 2023

Apples & Droids!

It was another working day without much happening. At office finished off some work that was started yesterday. A colleague bought a new phone. An iPhone 13. She was an Android user and is new to iPhone. Curious to know about why she made the switch, I asked her. Well, she just wanted to feel and get to know what the thing about iPhone is that everyone talks about. I asked her if she is into videography or photography, since iPhone camera is definitely awesome. To that she replied in negative. She mentioned it is more secure. Well, I did not think it was a very solid reason to spend ₹70k - it may be more than ₹40k - ₹50k more than an Android phone with similar specifications. But her life, her rules. 😀

During our morning tea break, another colleague asked me if I did not like iPhones. To which I replied that it is not that I do not like iPhones, it is just that I can get what I want with an Android phone at a much lesser price. For example, the current phone I am using, Redmi Note 10 Pro, has served me excellently well for more than 2 years. Even today I get around a day and half of battery on it (touchwood), allows me to take pretty good photographs and videos. Pretty content with it.

I would put that extra money elsewhere - since I am looking to grow wealth - a goal I started taking seriously only recently. May be more on that in another post.

If at all someday, I need to do something that requires an iPhone or Apple product, I would buy it. For example, maybe I want to do something related to media and some serious video editing or 3D rendering, then I might opt for an Apple product.

Back home, ended the day watching Seinfeld over dinner.

Until tomorrow, tada!

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 3

Tuesday, 2nd May 2023

Things Not Planned!

Disclaimer: Another unhappening day.

Since I have decided to try to write something here every day, I will tend to write some gibberish here even though nothing special happened during the day on this Pale Blue Dot. Today is one such day. Nothing interesting at all.

I have been working in IT for 13 years, and yet there are the blues when you have to return back to office after a long weekend. It was a usual day at office, something came up as an emergency putting the planned work at halt. 

My wife did pack yesterday's biriyani for lunch today and lunch was probably the highlight of today. The biriyani's flavors mixed very well today. It was much yum than yesterday. Note: The picture on the right is from yesterday.

I was planning on leaving early from office since I thought it might rain heavily in the evening like yesterday but got caught up with work and meetings. Ended up leaving at 8:30 PM, but hey, it did not rain. Back at home, we cooked dinner, watched Somebody Feed Phil - Singapore episode. We touched upon why Phil does not plan episodes in cities of countries like India, Pakistan, etc. which are an epicenter for any international foodie. Most of the episodes are from 1st world cities. Would love to see an Indian episode on this show.

So here is hoping tomorrow would be a more interesting day, but it is another working day, and there is a very high chance it is going to be another mundane day.

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 2

Monday, 1st May 2023

Workers Unite!

Disclaimer: An unhappening day.

May Day, a day to honor struggles and achievements of labor movements fighting for workers' rights. And what do we did today? Almost nothing! Just sat at home and cooked meals. And watched a movie.

Well, I guess we did do justice to the day - by staying off work.

Recently, my wife and I decided to ensure we finish our breakfasts before 9 am. This allows us to get ample time during the day to do a lot of things. Just like a new year resolution, we broke the habit in less than 3 days. But we did not digress by a lot. We finished our breakfasts by 10 am after which we stepped out for grocery shopping to prepare chicken biriyani as decided yesterday.

After a quick shopping and we were back home in 45 minutes. Before staring work in the kitchen, we had to pick something to watch. We usually watch something while we cook - something we could watch without paying much attention. And we try to cover some very popular movies released when we were kids but haven't watched yet. Today, fortunately, I quickly came up with a suggestion - Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer Josh. Released in 2000, most of us are familiar with the songs in the movie. Like we wanted, this was something we could watch without paying much attention.

Just 15 minutes before the movie ended, our biriyani was ready. I did forget to mention that the biriyani was cooked in our newly bought stainless steel utensil. Only last week, my wife decided to get rid of all our Teflon coated utensils and switch to steel or iron utensils. The biriyani pot was thus inaugurated today.

We set out the table for lunch and the next task was to select something to watch while having lunch. This time we could choose to watch something that required attention. We spent 10 minutes trying to find something to watch - from Netflix to Disney Hotstar and back to Netflix we were browsing through titles. And finally decided to watch Tom Hanks starrer A Man Called Otto.

And nothing much happened during the rest of the day. Fin.

A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 1

Sunday, 30th April 2023

Spread Love!

So back to writing here only after a mere 2 years! Well, let's say I just took a Covid-19 break. 😛

I just thought I'd try to write something here every day about something that's happening in life. It may be just even a small paragraph of some event or a feeling I've had on a day. So, let's go.

________

My wife and I went to spend an evening at the Church Street in Bengaluru today. One of the things we have been thinking about doing for a while is to visit the very popular Blossom Book House here. After having spent around an hour and 40 minutes there, we walked down Brigade Road and happened to enter 5th Avenue Mall. My wife was getting hungry (as usual) and we decided to get a roll (wrap) from Tottos Pizza.

A security personnel was responsible for crowd control here. Customers who order food from the 4-5 shops here tend to block the entrance to the mall. The security personnel politely asks people to clear the way to the entrance to the mall by asking them to stand on the sides of the entrance.

While my wife was ordering the roll from Tottos Pizza, I waited near the shop. It was then that I witnessed something that prompted me to write this blog post.

A middle-aged couple bought a box of regular sized pizza. They approached the security personnel and offered him a slice of the pizza. The security personnel promptly refused to accept the food. Maybe he was shy. Maybe he was not supposed to accept things from customers. Maybe could be any reason. Anyhow, the couple tried to insist that the security take the pizza slice, but he refused. But it seemed like the couple had made up their mind, in goodwill, to give the pizza slice. After insisting for a couple of more times, the security eventually accepted the offer. He took the pizza slice and walked a few meters away from the mall to the footpath. He then quickly ate the pizza holding it away from his workplace, seemingly not wanting someone to see him eat.

A few minutes later he was back to work and continued ushering people to the side of the mall entrance. Only difference now is that he started working with a nice smile on his face!

It's really the small things that sometimes make people happy. Spread love people, spread love! 💕

Evolution of ക്വാറന്റൈൻ

പണ്ട്, അതായത് ഏകദേശം ഒരു 20 വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് മുന്‍പ്, കമ്പ്യൂട്ടർ ഒക്കെ പരിചയം ആയി വരുന്ന കാലത്ത്, desktop-ൽ Norton anti-virus-ന്റെ ഒരു notification കണ്ടു.

"A virus was found and has been quarantined. Please click here for more details."

അന്നാണ് ആദ്യമായി ക്വാറന്റൈൻ എന്ന വാക്കിനെ പറ്റി അറിയുന്നത്. അർത്ഥം അറിയാത്തത് കൊണ്ട് dictionary നോക്കിയാണ് ആ notification എന്താണെന്ന് മനസിലാക്കിയത് .

ഇന്ന് രണ്ട് വയസ്സ് പ്രായം ഉള്ള വാവകൾ തൊട്ടു തൊണ്ണൂറ് വയസ് പ്രായം ഉള്ള അപ്പൂപ്പൻ/അമ്മൂമ്മക്ക് വരെ ക്വാറന്റൈൻ എന്ന വാക്കിന്റെ അർത്ഥം അറിയാം .

#ലോകം

Adulting

My wife and I decided to have a movie night yesterday. Thanks to Covid-19, movie night does not mean going to a cinema. Nowadays a movie night means watching a movie on Netflix or Amazon Prime on our bedroom TV with 5.1 surround sound - the closest we can get to a cinema experience in these times.

We spent more than half an hour to select the movie - Cast Away by Robert Zemeckis starring Tom Hanks as the protagonist.

Not very late into the movie, we are shown a family Christmas dinner scene - a pretty big family dinner.  

At this point, the wife comments to me, "Who is going wash all those dishes?" 

I take 10 seconds to process what she just said and respond, "Really?" 

She: "What?" 

Me: "You actually thought about who is going to do the dishes while watching a movie? That's some high level adulting!" 

She: *sheepish*

Man, adulting has hit us hard, very hard.