SpiceJet SG220 – Delhi to Bangalore

Relieved that I had made it in time for the connecting flight to Bangalore( by the skin of my teeth!), I made my way down the aisle of the packed plane. Reaching seat 3E, I noted with not a little irritation that I was stuck in the hated middle seat. My neighbours were already in place, a fat woman at the window and a nondescript, bespectacled uncle type in the aisle seat, who politely got up and moved aside to allow me access to my seat. I squeezed in, called and reassured all the people I had called in a panic at the idea of missing my flight and pulled out ‘On Wings of Eagles’ by Ken Follett that had kept me company on the flight from Leh.

A few pages on, the gent next to me suddenly took off his glasses and stretched out in his seat in a nonchalant manner that sent my creep radar whirring. Kicking myself for not claiming the vacant aisle seat in the row ahead, I shifted slightly away, in an unobtrusive gesture that all Indian women have mastered by the age of 16 (Most perverts assume that a woman who does not move away from them wants to jump into their laps). Sure enough, a few moments later, the guy I had absent-mindedly dismissed as nondescript leaned familiarly towards me with what he no doubt believed to be a swoon-into-my-arms smile and his best imitation of a bedroom voice and purred,” So where do you live in Bangalore?” to which I retorted, “I don’t live in Bangalore” and went back to my book.

Undeterred, he continued,” So where do you live?” Taking my time, I answered (through my teeth) “Leh”. This earned me another why-haven’t you-swooned-into-my-arms-yet smile (read oily leer) and ”So what is the temperature now in Leh?” “14 degrees. Do you mind if I read?” I asked curtly, indicating my book. “No” was the generous reply. I had just inwardly sighed in relief, when a few seconds later I heard, “Does it also go below zero?” “Yes. Look, I really would like to read.” My teeth had begun to hurt.

Finally something seeping through the haze of testosterone, he sat back reluctantly in his seat.  By then, the regret of not having changed my seat had been replaced by fury that I was being backed into a corner, pushed into defending my personal space, all because I lacked one measly Y chromosome. This, by a wimp of a man who looked like he got beaten by his wife if he so much as changed the parting of his hair.

As I sat seething in my seat, the grey haired Casanova got up and swaggered back to the rear of the aircraft. To ooze his oily charm on the hapless airhostesses, I thought darkly. Focused on my book, it was a few minutes before I realized how much more comfortable I suddenly felt, how much cleaner the very air smelt. After a brief battle with my pride (or conscience, I still wonder) I picked up my things and moved to another seat, caught between equally potent feelings of sheer relief and shame at not having stood my ground.

Then the seatbelt signs came on and the captain announced that we were approaching Bangalore and all else was forgotten in the anticipation of going home again.

Fiddler(!) on the Roof

Lying in bed around nine in the evening with one of my favourite novels(Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts) I sighed in contentment. What a perfect evening! I had come back early from work, cooked myself an amazing chicken and rice dinner(nobody around to challenge that!) gorged on a giant slice of chocolate cake that I baked from scratch(diet shiet, who cares… months to go before annual medicals), managed to catch Desperate Housewives on TV and now lay back with my book, finding all at peace in the world. Comforted by the familiar sounds of the TV and Dr Bhalla’s dry voice from across the paper thin walls, I turned another page.

Lost in the world of blood thirsty vampires and handsome knights, I didn’t hear the creak at first. When it came again, I assumed it was the good doctor opening his creaky cupboard. Unperturbed, I kept reading, one ear cocked unconsciously for the sound of it closing. The noise came again, but this time it was a definite scratching and it seemed to come from overhead. Puzzled and okay, I admit a little freaked out, I tried to figure out what the noise was. My eyes unconsciously went to the chimney outlet directly over my feet(cut into the false ceiling for the bukhari, or heater), widening as I registered two gleaming eyes staring out of the hole directly at me. Flicker of unease turned into full blown panic as I squinted, trying my best to get a better look. Half blind without my glasses, I gave up and looked frantically around for a weapon, not even realising that I had jumped out of bed. An ugly black head poked its head into the room, those horrible silver eyes never leaving my face, never blinking. By then I had found and put on my glasses. My brain witheringly told me that I was looking at the stupid black cat that prowled the rafters in search of mice and had probably poked its head into the room to say hello. But too far gone by then, I let out a battle cry(could also be called a shriek of fear, but the cat didn’t have to know that) I let loose my first missile. The slipper bounced harmlessly off the ceiling and squaring my shoulders, I threw the next one, which found its mark. The demon cat reluctantly withdrew, its eyes telling me that the encounter was far from over and it would be back…soon.

RAT-A-TOOEEEEE!!

This is one of those weird incidents that seem to happen only to me. Now, I am quite accustomed to lying awake for hours on end after watching a spook movie, too terrified to breathe, starting at every little noise, real or imagined. What I am not used to however, is coming from dead sleep to fully alert in one second, without knowing the reason. On this particular night, I lay motionless in the dark as my senses whirled, trying to figure out what had woken me up. I almost fainted when I felt something brush past my neck. Convincing myself that I had imagined it, I willed my heartbeat to slow down and almost fell asleep when I felt it again. Sheer terror of the unknown(especially cockroaches!) had me brushing violently at my neck and I cannot say I felt relieved when I heard a sickening plop a few feet away. Bang in the middle of the five hour power cut every night, with no torch or mobile nearby, I had no choice but to lie in wait , praying that whatever the thing was, it would curl up in a corner and go back to sleep. After a few seconds, or minutes, sleep overcame me and I slid happily into Morpheus’ waiting arms.

I don’t know how long it was before I was jolted awake again, this time I felt movement under my knee. By then I decided I’d had enough; being woken twice in the middle of the night warranted atleast some kind of investigation into its source(especially since the electricity was back ) Taking a few calming seconds to gather my ‘chi’ , I jumped out of bed with my best war cry, spinning around on one foot to catch the offending….ummm…being….expecting the worst. What I did not expect however, was the sight of a tiny little rat shivering with fright in the middle of the bed. Mortein Rat Kill, I grimaced in comprehension. The combination of the lethal poison and the equally lethal Leh winter forced the rodents out of the rafters into the relative warmth of my heated room, or in this case, my body warmth. Now I am not Attila the Hun, but my love of animals extends only so far and most certainly does not include rodents, cockroaches(ugh!!)and the variety of other creepy crawlies that hitched a ride on the ark. No, I did not enjoy it, but I had to do what I had to do. A slipper soon dispatched the little cretin to its keeper. Feeling a little like Lady Macbeth, I washed my hands(twice), remade the bed and went back to sleep.

Photo update

New photos uploaded…..

http://gallery.me.com/aiyappa

The Alchemy of Hatred

Hatred. The emotion that has been mainly responsible for sculpting my identity and making me what I am – a mostly angry young woman. It gives me a high that I have been riding for years now. Along the way, I have come across people who have sensed the sheer power of it and cautioned me, a number of them going to some trouble to point out the long-term effects it would have on me. While I always agree with them, in theory that is, I have gotten too used to the strength I draw from my hatred. A very laid back person otherwise, hatred fills me with a grim sense of purpose and ambition. While I am only too aware that I am being poisoned, slowly but surely, my system seems to feed on it as greedily as if it were champagne. Now that I think about it, they are both equally intoxicating, but then, the latter does not bring with it a deadly red haze. Maybe this haze is what has begun to colour and destroy the most valuable relationships in my life and has finally forced me to see the writing on the wall. While the faint voice of reason says that I have to let go and “detoxify”, so to speak, the other voice, that foolish one from the heart is reluctant. Drugged with the power of my hatred, I stand at the crossroads angry, confused and undeniably lost.

Geeks in Uniform

Hey people, I’ve been away for a really long time, and have no excuse except laziness. Well, i’ve snapped out of my stupor now, and unbelievably, Christmas is around the corner again! Taking up where i left off, here’s one of the funniest incidents that i’ve ever seen in the recent past. Ciao!

Sitting in my company commander’s office one morning, it was brought home to me exactly how slowly the marvels of technology reach our men. As those were the days when CPUs required complex bodily contortions to reach the USB ports fixed only at the back, Maj Saurabh called in his runner, and with a terse, “Fix this below”, handed a USB drive to him. It was a full minute before we realized that the dedicated young soldier was crawling around on the floor behind the officer’s chair, carefully searching his company commander’s ample derriere for the USB slot!

Back to Iceland

This is my second week back in Leh and … no surprises, its frrrrreeeeeeezing! I keep checking to make sure my hands and feet are still attached to the rest of me, because, honestly, I can’t feel them there. And since I have ambitiously started cooking for myself, I HAVE to be able to feel the difference between an onion and a finger. Makes you realize how much fun cooking is when you have the friendly Chinese place nearby… for me it is no cook, no eat. This place has shut down for the winter, and looks like a ghost town, with the only homosapiens around being lonely locals and frozen faujis. Hard to believe this is the same place that looks like Ibiza in the summers. The most exciting event in my office is signing a letter, where I have to first hold my pen hand over the heater to thaw it out, then rapidly dispatch the letter before it freezes again. Of course, that does mean that I reek of eau de kerosene all day, but what the heck, better smelly than frozen. I burned my second pair of gloves today( forgot them over the heater) and now am the proud owner of two pairs of greenish brown woollen gloves . Am going to console myself with a chocolate cake this afternoon…. lets hope that doesn’t let me down either( with cakes, that’s literally possible)

New Year

It’s the New Year, and as usual, I am afflicted with new year blues….. strangely enough, I prefer the end of the year to the beginning. Maybe because I seem to associate it with the colours of Christmas, all night dance parties, cozy winter nights huddled in front of the fire, steaming mugs of coffee, long, dreamy conversations, the smell of baking, and the promise of the year to come. I am bang in the middle of some kind of a baking frenzy… and luckily for my fellow officers who have been forcibly included in my guinea pig program, I have been having a reasonable measure of success. I tried an apple cake yesterday, and the smell of apple and cinnamon baking almost brought me to my knees! (Good food always does that to me, and no! Don’t even think of asking what my weight is now!) That is also why I am escaping home before my annual medicals become due, so that I can get back to normal size. The only problem is, by the time I finish baking, I have no energy or time left to cook regular food(Read dal, chawal, sabji, blah blah blah). Have to figure out a way to beat the unforgiving hands of the clock

For the phone…

Admit it or not…..but i feel that the N95 is the best phone money can buy today. Yes, there is the iPhone and then there is the battery life problem in the N95, but overall features and high customisability outrank the N95 by miles.

If you want a plane jane phone then any phone will do. But if you have N95 then customisation is what makes it superior.

Some apps that enhance the phone:

One feature that the iPhone has is the rotate function. Tilt the phone and the screen goes automatically to landscape mode. Well thanks to Samir, its possible with the N95 too with ‘Rotateme‘. Ever since Nokia gave the suprise declaration of an inbuilt accelerometer in the N95, many possibilities have opened up in the telephone. Another feature that Samir is developing is ‘Shutup‘. Say you are in a meeting and your phone begins to ring…..al you have to do is to flip the phone over to hangup. Ofcoarse you can press the end call button, but then we are talking about convenience and coolness factor arent we?

One other great app is ‘Widsets‘. If you have a Mac then you would know about ‘Widgets’. In Windows Vista – Gadgets. This app gives the same functionality on your Nokia mobile. You can have little ‘widsets’ on various topics and they update themselves when you start the app.

Going the iPhone way is also ‘Conversation‘. All your SMSs from the same person are stored as ‘Conversations’ just like in a chat client. Very useful as it keeps all the messages sorted and one can delete messages from a certain ‘person’ in one go.

‘Opera Mini‘ is one other extremely good web browser for the mobile. Fast and highly navigable, makes it a worthy replacement for the default browser on the Nokia.

One worthy VOIP app is ‘Fring‘. Widely popular – one can log into various chat clients like Skype and Yahoo. Fring involves signing into their service. Once ou add more ‘Fring’ friends you can use it to make calls (free) on your mobile through GPRS/3G/WiFi. Have used it through GPRS and have found it quite satisfactory with good voice response, though there was a mentionable voice delay….but that maybe due to the slow GPRS connection. But the possibilities are immense with Fring, since if you have an unlimited data plan then free calls anywhere in the world is within reach.

Among chat clients for mobiles, the one i currently use is ‘Slick‘. Though in the Beta version still, is simple with no jazz and gets the work done. It is also able to give status messages for your chat clients and new message alerts directly on the standby screen of the telephone.

The N95 has a built in GPS. One app that glorifies this feature is ‘Google Maps‘ for the mobile. In tandem with a data plan, Google Maps along with the built in GPS in the mobile, is able to give significantly accurate positioning on a map. What more you can change to sattelite vie or hybrid view as per your convenience. Very effective app and have personally used it to great benefit in unknown cities. Unlimited Data plan recommended as the maps get downloaded as you travel.

One cute little app is ‘Calcium‘. Simplifies the calculator app already present in the phone to less that 6 button presses. A worthy check out.

Though there are many sites that offer free themes for the Nokia, one that deserves special mention is Pizero. A lady in Italy who makes some of the best themes for a mobile device I have seen so far.