Razor's edge.

"An accident happens when something that normally doesn't happen, happens."
- An oft repeated quote of 'Bansal sir'.

Where I work, its rare for electricity to break down. So rare, that they actually don't have a backup supply. But, in a perfect world, something ought to go wrong sometime, and yesterday was the time. Something went terribly wrong with the power, and it passed out; but not before displaying huge jolts of fluctuations, and making all the computers beg and plead for their lives.

Rescue was sought and after a couple of hours, the electricity was restored. But as it turned out, the computers of all others in my lab were working, but the mishap had left mine unconscious; giving me good reasons to suspect that the hard disk had crashed. Then I tried to recall when was it the last time that I had backed up my work. And well, I couldn't. Cause I hadn't, for a long long time. [Ohh, what were you doing then?? I was busy working, of course. But u see, making a backup copy is as important; when where you planning to do that? Ohh.. tomorrow !.]. I realized that it had been tomorrow for a few months now. And then I tried to think about how much it would matter, if I lost it. Or, how much time and effort would it take me to recreate the same work. Well, that was pretty much it; I reckon it was extremely unhealthy for me to think any further. Whats more sickening was that I had lost loads of important things in a similar fashion little over 5 months ago. And that I was daft enough to pull off a deja vu of the same.

So, there I was, last night, with days (and nights) of my work on a razor's edge, waiting for the morning to find out. And I had only myself to blame, for repeating the blunder the second time, even after having suffered so badly in the past.

The morning came with the good news. The hard disk had survived. And I could breathe again. Sometimes watching your computer boot up can be so life-giving. Having been given a chance to live, I made three(!) backup copies of my work immediately.

So, what started as a serious threatening, in the end actually turned out to be a gentle reminder from the heavens to put this note up at an inexcusable spot on the working desk:

"Did you back your data up today ?
No?.
Then do it, you moron !!"

.................


Don't wait for the unexpected to happen. Let there be only one day per tomorrow.
..................

"Issued in public interest."

Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed tonight. Waiting desperately for tomorrow morning. Rigorously cursing myself at the same time.

If it goes right, I lose nothing. If not, I lose a lot. I lose tonight's sleep in either case.

.............

Double fault.

Speaking more on tennis, I just remembered a punch line that I came up with for the tennis events posters at one of our sports-festivals at IITK.

"You missed playing it ? ..fault !
You missed watching it ?.. double fault !!"

Perhaps I believe in it more now.

[:)]

AO 08

It was 14th of January when we casually dropped off to a friend's house for lunch and switched on the TV. A tennis match was being telecasted on one of the channels. Thats when somebody remembered.. 'Oh , the Australian Open was supposed to start today.' In lieu of the rendezvous with Indian cricket and Indian women's hockey team prior to that, everyone had almost forgotten about it. The match turned out to be a marathon(Jankovic v/s Paszek ), and we watched it till the very end.

What it triggered was two long weeks of amazing tennis. It was first time that I had followed a Grand slam so closely; and it seemed worth the time. I kinda wished there was enough representation from India as well.

Hats off to all Serbian players. For a small country that they are, they are producing sensational quality of tennis players, each of them was an eye-candy to watch. Federer v/s Tipsarovic, for me was by all means, the best match I've ever seen.

As much did I enjoy the tennis, the final stint by Djokovic, was more than perfect end to the tournament, which ended in his much deserved victory. "Its ok. I still love you guys." is a line thats going to go down in history books. At least I wont forget it. And probably so would the millions of fans that he made in that one moment; perhaps even more than what he made by playing or impersonations itself.

I savored it so much that I've finally executed today the long-in-a-pipeline-plan of buying a tennis raquet. I won my first singles-set today. Watch out, Djok !

[:)] .

Whats going through their minds ?

A passing thought on what must be going through these player's minds just before their big games:

Maria Sharapova v/s Justing Henin:
"Lets decide today once and for all who's the better player !"


Maria Sharapova v/s Anna Ivanovic:
"Lets decide today once and for all who's more beautiful !"


....................

Size matters .. !

For most people, 'Size does matter' is not a very happy statement. Probably because it sounds painstakingly true, but most of us would like to believe otherwise. For me, it has worked both ways though. It has given me some tough and humiliating times for obvious reasons. For example, standing next to girls here in australia whose torsos would start somewhere near where mine ends. But barring that, other incidents have atleast given me a good laugh.

This one time for example, a group of us friends were traveling in a train and I was peacefully snoozing in a blanket on the top birth. As our destination approached, the others started packing up. One of them pulled down the blanket, under an impression that there was no one beneath it ! (Followed by announcing the same.)

Then there was this one during the placement season, when someone came up with an idea that I would be ideal for Shlumberger or Shell because they can simply put me down inside one of the wells with a probe and I can look for oil in crevices never accessed before.

Now, here is a recent one. I was on a little trip to Gold Coast, a place with lovely beaches and 'associated entities'. On one of the afternoons, me and one of my friends decided to go for a surfing lesson. Here is a part of the conversation that happened while we were buying tickets (H = Hemant, F = Friend, C = Cashier guy).

F to C : How much for a two hour session ?
C : $55 for adults, $45 for kids.
F to H: You fine with $55 ?
H : Yes. But I brought only 50. Can you pay it on your card ? I'll pay you back later.
F : No problem.
F to C : Dude charge both of us on this card.
C : Okay, $100. Here you go.
H to F(whispering): Shouldn't it be $110 ?
F to H: Abe chup reh na [;-)].
C to H: Problems ? Oh .. whats your age ?
H : 23.
C : Ahh. Sorry !
F to C : Yeah, but now that you've charged, we really don't mind [:D] .
C : Its okay, we'll figure something out. Have a nice time !!.

And then we did have a nice time[:-)].

..................

Happiest days of our lives..

14th January 2008.
I don't really remember how I've spent this day in last 8 years.

All I know, is that preceding that, it used to be the most sacred day of the year for me. It is celebrated throughout India for various different reasons, but for me, it was the grand finale of the season of kites. A day of fierce battles, a day of emotional highs and lows.

Well, kites for my place, to winter season, were what cricket is to Australian summer (Both coincide, by the way [:)] ). I don't think I've done anything more gripping ever, than spending hours and hours of my winter afternoons in sun, fiddling around with kites, fighting off the other ones in the sky. On other days, when the pocket money quota for the thing would exhaust, or mom would get tired of repeated requests, I'd experiment with whatever I have, or make new ones on my own, or do anything I could find even remotely related. Anything to make a piece of paper fly.

It was a mania that nurtured throughout the season, starting November. Two months of pure passion. It was like a preparation for big day, when there would be an open test in the sky. It was like a one day series, the learnings from which would ultimately be employed in the world cup.

I would have a sleepless night before the 'big day'. Which would be filled about thoughts of how my performance was going to be. I've been preparing hard, had learnt few good techniques, but my success rate for the season was barely 50 %, probably just slightly better in last few days. Gosh, when would I stop succumbing to pressure. When would I stop screwing up on peak time.

And then, it would happen. I would have a long day. Starting from as early as the morning starts, and ending till the time the eyes could make out anything flying against the dark sky. Having high times, when I'd score a few withing seconds, and low ones, when the air would stop, and everyone would have trouble putting up their kites in the sky. The bad ones, when I would loose many of them consecutively without scoring any. And the best ones, when mom would come over to the roof to serve Aloo paranthas, in the lovely winter sun; because we've been too ignorant of her constant calls for lunch for hours.

The day would end with a retrospection of an intensity unusual for a kid of that age, and a gloomy gaze in the sky for the one last glimpse of the colors which would disappear for, like ever.

I don't know if those were the happiest days of my life. But I could think of very few that surpassed them.

Happy Makar Sankranti !

..................