Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Tale of Two Friends - Part I

[Disclaimer: This is the only series of blogs in which I do not expect any comments, in the sense, every time any blogger publishes a blog, his\her intentions will be to get appreciated or at least criticized by comments from readers, in my opinion, and I am no exception to that; but this series, I write for my own self-satisfaction and I do not expect people to like it and comment about that (illana mattum, comment kumiyuramadhiriye pesuven naan :D ). Ultimately, what I want to say is that, this series may not be interesting.]

I just want to write at least one blog per month for this series and I will finish this series by the end of the year at any cost. The hero of our story is Aravind. The story will move mostly in his views. Okay, shall we start our story? On one fine Monday morning, Aravind, woke up and [ippduiyellam eludha aasai thaan... but let me follow my own style...]

The innocent Aravind entered into the room which was allotted for him. He was equally excited as he was afraid of the new environment, but he was not worrying about the school friends he had left behind in his village. Actually, he did not have remarkable friends over the past, the reason being, he was so innocent and sincere about his studies that he did not have time to make great friends. The room was empty. It was not fully occupied as it was supposed to be. The immidete fear was about the seniors of the college. Had the seniors entered into the room and had taken all of the first year students to rag? was it possible that they may come again to check for new comers again? "I should have asked my parents to stay with me at least for one day", Aravind told himself.

The fear of ragging increased as he could locate other suitcases and baggages of other room mates. The whole premise was very silent. So, he kept his luggages in the room allotted for him and ran down to talk to the securities about other first year students. To increase his fear and desperation the security was not there. Aravind wanted to search in other rooms in the building. Thank God, there were a few first year students available in other rooms. In one of the rooms, there was only one student sitting in one of the 6 beds. So, Aravind decided to inquire about the silence to him.

"Hi, I am Aravind. I have taken Computer Science. Do you know anyone from Computer Science?"
"You don't seem to be interested in knowing about me. First of all, you should have asked my name. Then you should have asked which department am I from. Or at least, you should have asked which year I am in!", threatened Murugan.
"Sir... sorry... I thought you are a first year student. Shall I leave?"
"You call me a Sir? Am I looking too old? Or have I taught you lessons before? Of course, I will teach you lessons now... but you want to leave? Where are going to go? Come and sit down near me. By the way, what is your name?"

Aravind became very pale. He did not know what he should to do now. Run away? or plead him to leave him? Running away will be most stupid thing he could ever do. So, with all the remaining courage in his body, Aravind went near him and sat.

"Look here... he is sitting near me without even asking permission... damn it... go and lock the door and come here. You are about to punished for the crimes you have done now...", said Murugan angrily with a slight smirk on his face.

Aravind now came to realise that his first day is going to be memorable throughout his life. But he wanted the day to be memorable in the other way. Fear mixed with anger made his eyes red and soon the red color got paled due to the water that had gathered in it. Tears in Aravind's eyes almost burst out when Murugan stood up.

to be continued...

[P.S. When I was typing in the desclaimer, "this blog may not be interesting", I myself chuckled, as many of you might have thought, 'this is not the specialty of this series of blogs.' :D. All the character and events in this series are supposed to be fictitious. This story may not be about any real person.]

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A Good Thief - but not the one like a Hero in a movie

It was 6 o'clock in the morning my friend woke up to get ready for practising Veena (here Veena means the music instrument :D and nothing else). Rubbing his eyes he went out to hall and was shocked to see that the door was ajar. It is so impossible for anyone else in my house to have gotten up that early, at least 6 o'clock is almost like a midnight for us. To make sure that nothing was wrong, he went to the other room to check anyone has woken up.

As you can guess, no one was awake. He panicked and woke up others to let them know that the door was ajar and everyone has gotten up (except me, I was in a good dream then). They were shocked to know that 2 of their purses are gone and one of the mobiles is gone. The friend who woke up first did not lose anything as he and I always lock our room's door. When the whole house was in panic and everyone was calling for credit card customer care to block their card, I woke up.

The moment I heard that some theft had happened, all my attention went to my purse and my purse was sleeping silently in peace. Happy that it was not abducted I went to inquire about how it could have happened. It is still a mystery. We locked the doors with 2 latches. How that bloody **** (any bad word that pleases you) has opened the doors and how he was so daring to enter the rooms and took the purses and mobile, only He knows.

So, we came out of the room and I saw a Rs. 2 coin was placed on the wall just outside our house. It was a good comedy then. One of the my friends who lost his purse had not kept any money in the purse. May be the thief indicated us that, *come on guys... keep some money in the purse... you just had Rs. 2... for this bloody stupid money I had to do Alohomora*. We laughed (yes, we laughed in that misery also). The friend who woke up first has seen the other side of the wall to find out the purse and the wrist watch. All the cards were intact.

So, we had some hunch that, the other purse may also have been thrown some where and we started to search. The same friend, who woke up first and who found the first purse, had somehow managed to find the other purse, which was hidden under clothes. Again, all the cards were intact and only the money was looted. But the mobile which was gone is gone. So, we made fun of the friend who woke up first, to find (or give back) the mobile also. We were very happy that at least the cards are safe.

This incidence made me to write this blog, the next day of my previous blog, which the market made me to write. A Good Thief. The thief had some soft corner on as and left the purses and the cards. Though it will be impossible for him to use the cards, as we would block it before he could use it, he might have simply thrown it some where. Or, who knows? He might have noted down the details of the cards and he may use the details to purchase a flight ticket to America in some days. But I strongly suggest to you that, do not give place to good thieves. They may get better and become the best thieves.

It is always better to think how anyone could break through your doors and loot; and take necessary prevention or precautions for that. I heard similar incidences from my friends many times but was lethargic that it wont happen to us. And, it had happened to us no matter how much we were cautious. So, be double safe. Think like a criminal and do the counter part by yourself. Keep your doors locked always and only open it when you really need to go out. Or, you can do one thing. Write a blog about your experience also, when it happens to you in the future :D

[P.S.: If you do not know what is *Alohomora* please read Harry Potter, at least the first part]

Monday, January 21, 2008

Don't Catch a Falling Knife!

Its been a long time since we talked about Share Market isn't it? So, I just wanted to share some of the theory I have heard about Share Market. Again, I want to tell you that, I am not even close to novice regarding Shares, but I have heard about them a lot. And the theory which I want to talk about it is: Don't catch a falling knife. And that too, at this point of time, this one will prove to be a good theory everyone (every novice in market) must bear in mind.

It is a common mentality for people to do exactly what is to be done and unfortunately that applies to Share Market as well. We tend to sell rising shares (shares whose price increases) and to buy falling shares (vice versa). According to theory (why I say *theory* very often is that, there is NO PROVEN technique which could gain you money in shares. Please click here to know more) we should buy rising shares and sell falling shares.

What one might think when a share falls is that, they can buy it and sell it at a later stage. But no one knows when it will start to rise. It may continue to fall for a long time and it may take still longer period to rise or it may be there in the low price for years. So, some share is falling, it is always better not to buy it, unless it starts to rise. (Again, it may rise one rupee and fall 10 rupees).

This could also be a common case. Someone buys a share. The price goes down for some limit and then it starts to come up. The moment, it has touched the buying price, anyone will be tempted to sell it for very less profit. This could also be wrong. Since, it is in rising phaze, it may go up for some more limit. The buyer could wait for some more time for the share to go up for some more limit. (Again, it may touch the buyer's price and fall 100 rupees.)

So, enna dhaan da solla vara ***** (some bad words) nu neega kekalaam. One advisable thing to do is to, when the market crashes i.e. when it falls, do not buy any shares until the market gains some support and start to rise. (Again, who knows when, the real support, comes to market? It may act as though it has got some support and when many buy shares, it may again fall still more... enna koduami sir idhu!!!)

Monday, January 14, 2008

Forward Mails

[Disclaimer: Not recommended for very sensitive people. I am not responsible if you are hurt by this blog. If at any point of time, you realize that you may be offended, please do not read further. I want every customer of my blog to be happy and I want everyone to come again.]

Hmm... nothing new of course. What to do? Having some free time. So, thought of talking something about Forward Mails. To make this mokka topic (still more mokkai or) somewhat interesting, let me tell you a story first, which was published in the first or second edition of Chip Magazine on 1997 (First Chip came as Chip and then it got renamed to Digit and then again new Chip started to come. I do not know whether both are available nowadays).

One of the authors of the magazine got a mail, with a story: A lady (or for 100% sure, in the name of a lady) writes a mail that, she has gone to a hotel and had a special dish that she did not inquire the price of the item that it turned out to be very costly that she was embarrassed for not having enough money that she wanted to take revenge for the hotel that she has somehow managed to get the recipe for the special item that she is going to make everyone aware of how to make the dish that she is sending a mail with the recipe that we all (all fools and vettis) have to send the mail to everyone they know of. The author with a shame admitted that he even forwarded the mail without analyzing that he later recognized that that was a junk mail, I am not clear.

Those were about 10 years earlier, when very few knew about these junk mails. Later, this has taken multiple forms and the most irritating (sometimes making me to talk very [really very] bad words) form is: AOL and\or Microsoft has admitted to give you 5 paise for every time you forward this mail that we have to forward the mail to everyone we know of. Bloody shit! what the ****? Why in the **** AOL or Microsoft has to give us money for simply creating junk traffic in the internet world?

Later all the fools recognized that they were fooled, that they did not even ask for bank account or anything that the money could not reach them. Later it took another form that if you forward a mail to your friends, someone else will get the money (aanalum idhaiyum namburaangapa, I do not know how). Someone who lost a child and husband needs to undergo operation or someone who is very poor needs money to undergo operation something like that. AOL and Microsoft does not have anything to do and they have created a very complex algorithm to track where and all the junk (and ****ing) mail goes and they will one day knock your doors and give you a cheque. Is that so?

People somehow recognized about this nature of mails also. And now, it has taken a very sensitive form which is what confusing me. A 2 year or 3 year old child needs to take a open-heart surgery and they need blood and that we have to forward the mail to everyone we know of so that someone could help them. Since this is very sensitive, I can not simply say that it is junk. I have never known anyone who personally knew the subject-in-need. So, if at all you do not know (or at least you know the someone who knows the needy person directly) please do not forward the mails.

Just because there are 1000s of junk mails a real needy person should not miss what he desperately wants. I never forwarded any mail which asks me to forward it (unless the theme of the mail is to make the other laugh). I have it as a policy. I might have done a mistake of not forwarding a real genuine mail. But the chances for the Forward mails to be genuine is one in a million, in my opinion.

There is one more form which is also equally irritating. Asking us to forward a mail with a friendhip band (****ing band) that we have to send to all our friends. And the most ****ing part of the mail is that, it will ask us to send to the sender itself if he is our friend. This will create an infinte loop isn't it? Bloody ****! We don't have to be a bloody fool to be friend of a bloody fool. If that is the only way possible to prove that we are a friend to the sender, lets part from them, in my opinion.

But this is not the only medium these junk things are availble. It is present for centuries I hope so. I even got a letter (postal letter) when I was studying in school that I had to write the same content and send letters to 20 or 30 people. If we do that, we will get luck in a week, otherwise, we will die (or lose something or something disastrous will happen). God does not have anything to do and he watches and makes sure that all the people he created are behaving like fools. Is that so? This is even available in e-mails also.

The tougher part of the story is that, even brilliant, educated people send these junk mails. That is what disappointing. Lets hope these junk things are extinguished at least in the future or make sure that at least we do not do these junk things.

[P. S.: Sorry for writing such a big blog. Everything I told is in my opinion. Your opinions are most welcome. I am sorry, if any of you are hurt.]
[A.P.S.: To make this junk blog a junker one, I wish to say this: *Please let everyone you know of to read this blog* :D eppudi, mulla mullala thaan edukanum [diamond cuts diamond])

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Water, the elixer of life!

The problem with my blogs is that, I tell what everyone knows and what everyone is tired of hearing. But what else could I do? I could not find anything unique to talk about. So, let me tell what everyone knows in a way that not everyone knows (oxymoron?). The unique advice is, drink water! (how is it? you could never have heard this advice :D)

The reason why I give so much of importance and spend a decent amount of time (in vain), is that, I learnt a lesson and I wanted to share it. May be a life lesson, who knows. In the recent times, I am spending quite a lot of time in front of a computer. Actually, I spend most of my time in front of the computer, but in recent times, it is very high! And obviously, my intake of water level has come very down. Drinking water when I have breakfast, lunch and dinner and before going to sleep.

Didn't realize the effects for some time. Spending happily a lot of time in front of a system. My eyes got affected (many may think: wow, what a discovery? bull-shit, don't I know that?). But, my eyes got affected in a different way. It was watering and I was not able to continuously look at the monitor. Water kept coming out of my eyes. Horribly distracting. I was wondering, if my eyes got weakened, it should pain. It should not behave like Niagara.

Luckily I got a forward mail. I usually do not read forward mails (click here to find how much I hate forward mails), but that one I read (may be because I did not have any work at the time) which compared the Water and Coke. I thought of deleting it right away, but it said about the goodness of water, with some valid points. As I kept reading, I saw that "
A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page".

Though it is my policy, never to believe anything that comes from a forward mail, I took that seriously and started drinking water madly. Every now and then. As much possible. And you may not believe me, I felt better. My eyes don't water now. May be it is because of something else... or mere psychology.... I do not know. But I think drinking more water could not harm us, but if we take less, we will surely suffer.

[P.S.: We can have a habit like this, to drink a lot of water, I mean a lot of water, whenever we visit rest rooms (of course, not in the rest room... but where you could get drinking water :)). In that way, we will have to visit rest rooms often and drink water often. It may also help us for avoiding back-pain by not continuously sitting and also, it could give us a break. Your views are most welcome! Let me go and have some water.]


[A.P.S.: One of my collegues said that I even became fair. I was happy; that, my theory is right. His intake of water should be less :D and that his eye sight has terrible problems (A.P.S. = Another P.S.)]