Drunkard!

There is this guy I know, who drinks a lot. I mean, really a lot! And then he comes up with very innovative ways to irritate me! For instance, he suddenly realises he’s a rock fan! Last night, he was in a pub when he called me up.

He: Dude! Do you know which song is this?!

Me: Yeah, it's ‘Sultans of Swing’ by ‘Dire Straits’

He: How the hell do you know it?!

Me: Because I’m Einstein! Now why did you call?

He: To make you listen to the song!

Me: Uh?! Hang up, dude! I’m busy!

He: You have to come here sometime, dude! Okay, bye!

Well, how thoughtful of him! He calls up so that I can listen to the song they’re playing at the pub! With him, and the other drunkards, screaming on top of their voice!

I just get back to doing whatever I was doing. And he calls again!

Me: Dude?

He: Do you know which song is this?

Me: It's ‘Show Me How To Live’ by ‘Audioslave’ (by the way, it's an awesome song!)

He: Yeah dude! But how do you know it?

Me: Dude, haven’t I told you already?

He: They’re even playing the video! It's like, awesome, dude!

Me: Yeah? Good! I can give you the video when you come to my place next!

He: No, dude! You need to watch it here!

Me: Okay dude, I’ll come with you next time. Now hang up!

Now obviously he was beginning to irritate me a bit. I decided not to answer his calls for the night. He did call a couple of times, and when he realised that I wasn’t going to answer, he sent a text message, which read:

“Dude, do you know which song is this?! Ha ha ha!”

I, was speechless!

The Call!

There are a few people I’ve met in the past, whom I don’t want to meet, in future! I guess it’s a pretty natural thing to do and most people do have their own ‘people to avoid’ list!

Anyway, one way to get pesky people off your back is to not give them your mobile number when you have changed it! But what if they do get your number from a common friend, and call you up?

It can end up being really embarrassing, as it did for me! I was at the office pantry yesterday morning, chatting with friends while I got this call.

Me: Hello?

She: Hello, is this Ashwin?

Me: Yeah.

She: Hi, Ashwin! This is Megan! How are you?

Me: Oh hi, Megan! I’m doing good! How have you been?

She: I’m doing good, too! How have you been? And where are you now?

Me: (Huh? I just answered that, didn’t I?!) Good, good! I’m at work. So what are doing these days?

She: I’m in the eighth semester now. Can I talk to you now, or are you busy?

Me: Hey, I can talk! (I’m in trouble!) Are you in your vacations now, or has college started?

She: College has started, but I don’t have to go to college, as we have to do our projects.

Me: Oh? So where are you doing your project? (How did she get my number?)

She: HAL. (And she went on about the details of her project) And why haven’t you messaged or given me a call?

Me: (Oh crap! What do I say?!) Aah, I had a problem with my phone. Lost all the numbers.

She: Hmm, its been long. (I think she figured out that I wasn’t being honest!)

Me: Yeah, it has. (Its been about a year and four months, actually!)

She: I’ve got placed!

Me: Congrats! Where?

She: Thanks! (And she tells me the two companies she’s got an offer from.) So, how are you? Aah, how’s everyone at home?

Me: (Is she playing a tape, or something?!) Everyone’s good. What about you?

She: Everyone’s fine. So which company do you think I should join?

Me: (Huh? How do I know?) Aah, I don’t really know much about what goes in a software industry, as I’m in a mechanical setup, so, I don’t really know if I can help you out with this.

She: No, just tell, na?

Me: Pick the one, which is closer to your home! (Duh!)

She: Training isn’t going to be in Bangalore, and then I could be posted anywhere.

Me: Oh? Well, who is paying you more?! I mean, is there like a big difference is the pay package? (How difficult could it be?!)

She: Not really, just about two-three thousand. (She tells some more about the offers!)

Me: I can check with a my friends and let you know. But I think both these companies are good, and to start off in either of them is great!

She: Hmm! So, what’s new?

Me: Well, have I told you that I got transferred to a new department last year?

She: No.

Me: I’ve changed my number too! (I thought it was more polite to bring it up this way!)

She: Yeah I know! I called you old number now. Your friend gave me this number.

Me: That’s my dad! (Okay, I agree that I am really stupid!)

She: Oh?

Me: Then, what else? (Yeah, what else?!)

She: Well, I'll call you up sometime. Keep in touch!

Me: Yeah, okay! Bye! (Strange, she’s hanging up!)

She: Bye!

I was a little uncomfortable after the call. I felt I shouldn’t have done this, at least not to her! I think was probably more disappointed with myself, than embarrassed. I was thinking about it once I came back home too. I did send her an apology message before I went to bed, but even now, I still feel bad about it!

(Some names have been changed to protect their identity!)

What a frigging day!

If something can go wrong, it will! But why does it all have to go wrong on the same day?!

Had planned to go early to work today. I wanted to check the results of an analysis run we had started on Saturday evening before we left office. To my bad luck, the alarm clock ran out of battery just about a couple of minutes before the damn thing had to ring! Result – I woke up about half an hour late, than usual! I had no time to get a shave or even to iron my clothes.

After rushing to office (barely making it on time), the first thing I wanted to do is check the analysis. To my rotten luck, all I got to see is an error message saying some crap, and also that the analysis wasn’t completed. Honestly speaking, I was glad that I didn’t come to office early to see this! But I was a little disappointed too.

After debugging the file, with some help from a colleague, we guys started the analysis again. This time I was pretty confident that the analysis would be completed!

I thought I’ll move on to other things, while I got a call from a customer. Whoever said ‘customer is always right’ probably would have apologized if he had met this guy! I once read on the internet that ‘most people are alive because it is illegal to kill!’ I now realized that its so true! To make matters worse, he wanted to have another, longer discussion later in the day!

After lunch, things just got worse. It was quite embarrassing to have a mistake pointed out to us by a dude, with CC’s to everyone he knows! I did feel like a big idiot at this time!

And no, it doesn’t end here! Had another discussion with the customer, which almost brought tears to my eyes! The less said the better! After redoing a few things as asked by him, I thought of checking up on the analysis run we had started earlier in the day. Guess what, that dumb Murphy’s Law was at it again! Aargh!

Some more debugging, and we guys were able to give another run, before we called it a day. Walked back to the parking lot, feeling relieved that the day was finally over! Well, it wasn’t over yet! The rear tire of my bike was punctured! And you know what? It was a ‘screw’ that had caused it! It was a little late to get it fixed right away, I decided to leave the bike back at parking lot. I did have to walk back to office to leave my helmet and jacket. Have I mentioned that its almost a kilometer separating the two?

A friend offered to drop me home (God bless him!) and I did appreciate that a lot! I was too scared to think if it was over until I reached home! To finish off, there was a power-cut while I reached home!

Nothing else went wrong until the time I wrote this. Frankly speaking, I don’t think there is anything else left!

Just January!

What a month its been. Started off in style, with new year celebrations at a friend’s place. It’s kinda hard to believe that it’s gone by so fast.

It was a great month at the work place. No approaching deadlines and no boss breathing down your neck! Was involved in an interesting project, and got to learn new stuff, and thoroughly enjoyed it!

It was a special month on the personal front too. Brother got engaged, and I just booked an apartment! It’s another story that I am now completely broke!

As far as my resolutions for the year go, well - I had resolved to stop swearing, and to keep my temper in control. While I’ve been very successful in the latter, I’ve been swearing out of control! In fact, I even swear at work these days! Hopefully, I’ll keep it in check in the coming months!