Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Catch Thief

The 'night-out', if I can call it that, had not ended and the best part was yet to begin.

Saturday, 24th May, Anand and me hit the streets on my bike at 9.00 pm. First stop was at a super cool burger joint and after a heavy meal; we decided to travel all the way to South Mumbai. The ride on the eastern express highway was exhilarating and the only down side was my bike. She could not do 100kph! Well, considering that I weigh in at 95 and my friend no lesser than me, I guess I was being pretty hard on her. The highlight of the night was the movie shooting we saw at Nariman Point.
So, after all the sight seeing I dropped Anand off at his place and headed straight home. It was 3.00 in the morning the society gates were locked. I honked for the watchman and guess what? Three of them started running towards me with sticks in hand. Now I am aware that I've pissed of a lot of people but I certainly did not expect my sins to catch up so soon!!!. As I braced my self, the watchman hurriedly opened the gate, let me in, and ran off in the opposite direction.
Whew! "Its (still) Alive".
I obviously followed them and found one among them standing below the building adjacent to mine and staring intently at a flat on the fourth floor. When we got to him, he whispered "they're there". He said that he heard noises coming from the flat which was supposed to be empty. The head watchmen was already sweating and very nervous. I soon learnt that there had been an attempted robbery at the complex that very afternoon. I wondered if the robbers had watched "Grindhouse". So here we were, three "watchmen" and me staring at the flat and expecting the worst. Their leader said "Chote, tu upar ja ke dekh". Very convenient. What he meant was, "Chote, tu upar ja ke dekh aur main neeche dar ke chup jata hoon". Chote definitely did not take the order and an argument ensued. I stepped in and suggested that 2 of them go up and 2 of us stay down. They all agreed and soon they were on their way. While we waited, the head watchman gave me a lowdown on all his problems - understaffed, overworked, underpaid, threat from the local goons etc, etc. I was keeping an eye out all the while and trying to sympathize with him when suddenly Chote frantically ran out of the building, minus the stick and his chappals. I grabbed my "shield", my helmet, tighter expecting the robbers to follow him with knives and swords. Instead Chote's partner walked out of the building laughing!!. We were like "what the hell!!?." What happened was, Chote and his partner climbed into the lift to get to the 4th floor, but in their excitement and fear did not close the door. When the lift refused to budge, they sensed that something was wrong, jumped back out and slammed the door, this time closing it. The lift as expected started to move up. The supermen thought that the robbers are making a break for it, (in a lift?), and scrambled.
After reprimanding them the head decided that its best to call back-up and then charge them robbers.
So we locked the entrance to the building and went to get back up. Although they wanted me to stay with them until the operation was over I had no such intention. For my own safety I requested one of them to accompany me to my flat on the 6th floor. Hey, you never know where the goons could be hiding all right and I stay all alone! After securing the flat, I soon fell asleep. I thought I heard some commotion below, but was too tired to go back and participate.

And by now I was rescuing Celina Jaitley and Ishaa Koppikar.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Parallel computing...

Why do people get where they get to and how do they do it? Is it by choice or is it just the natural order of things? Is it because they've wanted to "get there, do that", or was it something that instinctively made them do it? There was a doctor I knew way back, in Pune who ended up opening a string of beauty saloons!! well well well what do u have? A MD hair stylist!!
Now these are a few questions that are unanswered for me.
I have on my part, followed my instincts (the natural order defined for me!), and have worked hard; every time, for every goal that I've set my eyes on. Now, I don't find myself belonging to the "been there, done that" group. The simple question is - why?
Am I just jumping to a conclusion, too soon(thats double speed!) or is my Instinct Recognition System (IRS) is flawed?

Only time will tell. :)

By the way, the title is not misleading - here's the prologue:
I dropped my colleague at his home a few minutes ago and on the way back happened to notice a few people unloading 15 rack mounted servers for their organization. I happen to work in an IT park and so this sight did not take me by surprise. I instantly recollected my dream of being, at least, a security guard at a supercomputing facility, if not a developer. No prizes for guessing that I'm nowhere near fulfilling the dream, either in terms of technology or distance or designation!!