Rain Rain Go Away

Another dull Monday morning today, and what better to make it even more dull than my worst enemy..'Rain'. Supposed to be summer now, but these rain-clouds keep blowing around and pissing (excuse my language) on my head. Sometimes I wonder why would this city ever need rain when every inch is covered with tarred roads or concrete.

Wish mother nature had some better plans of keeping rain away from people like me. May be there should be a special kind of equipment in every city which could attract these clouds over them and squeeze the rain out and fill it in tanks. How nice that could have been. The rest of the city could enjoy the wonderful sunshine and at the same time also have its water supply.

Walking around in the rain with a raincoat or umbrella, the splish-splash of the watter puddles, the chocolate sludge, the spray from vehicles zooming by, oh gosh, its a horrible time. You must've known by now that the rain is an unwelcome friend in my life.

Call Center Movie

Yes, that's actually the name of the movie. A friend sent me the link and I found it to be very interesting. It's a short comedy film which brings out the tough situation that a person in the Bronx faces when his call gets routed to a Babu in India. This guy in India keeps getting calls from customers and at one point of time, he is unable to face the pressure. To check out how he handles the customers (specifically note the use of different call-center lingo) you've got to watch the movie.

Death of the Internet?

Feeling shivers down your spine? No, this ain't a page from a nightmare, but a fact of the future. The big shots are planning to control the internet. The same thing that happened to the cable TV system sometime ago is gonna happen to the internet, i.e. Conditional Access. What you access is going to be controlled based on the whims and fancies of the people who offer the connection to you.

After reading about it I felt like someone just shoved a gas-mask over me with a valve-controlled tube supplying air from outside. I've become so dependent (I know many have) on the internet that it's almost second to oxygen in terms of importance. I definitely wouldn't want anyone controlling the air that I breathe, so why should anyone do it for the internet? Moreover, the internet is not owned by anyone, so why this change all of a sudden? Has someone discovered a business case out of all this?

Anyway, I feel anything that affects the internet today is almost on par with a global catastrophe. Not convinced? Then check this to know more.

Sparking Static

Zzzzzzaappp.....Ouch! That is probably the 1724th time that I've been zapped by this phenomenon called Static Electricity! He is the first guy who wishes me every morning when I touch the office door handle. That reminds me of Peter from Office Space (1992 version), when he gets so irritated with the zapping from his office door handle every morning that he finally decides to drill the whole handle out. I wish I had that much liberty to do that.

I don't remember being affected so much by static when I was in India, it's only after coming to Germany that I had to meet with this crazy stuff. That's partly due to the fact that Germany is a cold country, so we need to wear warm clothes most of the time and those are good agents for collecting charges when they rub against each other/the body. The shock is not harmful as plugging your finger into the socket at home, but it does scare the daylights out of me. There have been instances when I've hurt myself by banging my elbow somewhere due to the reaction to that shocking experience.

I planned to eliminate this misery so I read through the internet about a way to prevent the sudden reaction and found that it could be minimized if I held a conducting object which made contact with my body over a larger surface area. I planned to check this out, so the next morning, before I could touch the door handle, I took my key from my pocket, held onto it firmly and approached the handle very carefully. Just as the tip of the key was about 2 mm away from the handle, I saw a bluish-white spark zapping between the key and handle. I was like Yeeeiieeekkkk! But, wait a minute, I didn't feel anything. Yippeeeeeeee, I felt like proclaiming what Archimedes proclaimed years ago.

I imagined my problem was solved, but I was proved wrong in a few minutes. I imagined that I got discharged completely, so I went in, settled down at my desk and went to the coffee kitchen. I touched the tap and Zappppppp...Eeeoouccchhh! Oh my God, I wasn't completely discharged after all. I touched the tap again and this time nothing happened, obviously I got discharged at the tap. I got my cup of coffee and went to my desk. I touched my laptop and Zaaappppppp....Yeeehhaaaaaa! At this time, my mouth was brimming with filth that was waiting to be dumped out. This was getting to be crazy. Oh God please save me!

Through trial and error (the way engineers work) I found out that my laptop and the tap in the coffee kitchen are oppositely charged. So if I get discharged at one place, I get charged at the other. My understanding was proved right by the key technique. I was amazed (shocked infact) to find out that my key sparked both at the laptop and the water tap. This has just gone over the limit now.

Solutions to the problem? Well, I would consider wearing rubber gloves, however I hate the stink of rubber. Wish I had some special kind of goggles (or something like that) with which I could see 'Charge' and determine if it is the same charge as my body or not. It could possibly include colour coding to determine the potential so that I can know if its gonna be mild or strong. Anyway, till some bright Spark comes up with a good idea, I've got my good old key to save me. If anyone has a better idea please do share it coz I would like to know about some permanent solution.....Zaaaaaappppppp........Yiieeeooouucchhhhh. Sorry, my colleague just discharged himself through me.

Yippeeee I've got my Blogspot!!!

Phew! That was a tough decision to make. To have a blogspot or not. But, I guess it isn't such a bad idea after all. I've managed to muster enough courage after seeing my friends appearing to be Pros on this relatively new territory.

I decided to name my spot as Virtual Vindaloo. Virtual for obvious reasons, and 'Vindaloo' to have a connection with my cultural roots. My mother tongue is Konkani (for those of you who have no idea of it, it's spoken along the western coast of India; around Goa, Mangalore) so I wanted to bring in a cultural 'taste' to this blog. For all those who guessed that Vindaloo is the name of a microbe on Mars, here is something to enlighten you. Personally, I just love the food cooked in a traditional konkan home. Especially the fish and pork mmmmmmmh!

I need to thank my friends Anu and Arun for giving me the courage to start my own blog. Hope I could cook up a special Vindaloo for you guys. Anyway, now that I've got started, I hope I am successful in making this blog as tasty as possible.

Tumcho Flavin!

(That's konkani for Yours)