Monday, February 23, 2009

Delay that damned flight !

Sitting at Kamaraj Domestic Terminal in Madras waiting to catch a flight back to Pune, I was sitting and twiddling my thumbs watching updates by folks on a Facebook channel and hoping that the flight be delayed because the buses designated to take the passengers to the aircraft ran out of diesel or some such. The t.v. at the airport was tuned to a popular English news channel and there were dozens mouthing platitudes but one wanted to see the actual action. I counted 4 and that included Resul Pookutty winning the Oscar for best sound mixing . That was good and if any indication meant that Rehman should now win. One was rooting for AR Rehman to win and didn't particularly care if the movie won any other awards.

But with the conservative TamBrahm gene throbbing and growing up with the Indian cricket team lose out on many occassions in the past, it was too early to be saying Jai Ho. At this point of time when there was a needless presentation about how films get made in the ceremony, one's flight got called. I had to board it murmuring vague curses on the efficiency of Paramount, the ATC, the state of the economy. Colonel Murphy does rule after all.

However one was saved by technology - the humble mobile phone hummed and one got the news that led (an imaginary clone of yours truly) to do 24 cartwheels, 5 somersaults and an exhibition of the shirshasan inside the plane. However in the general interest of humanity and not willing to stress test the Embraer Aircraft or take pangas with Sky Marshals, one took it with a smile and promptly downed a bottle of water.

P.S.

Ella pughalum iraivanuke
(All glory and fame is to God)
- Rehman in his acceptance speech.

Jai Ho

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Tradeoffs...

Well blogging this as I am on a train from Leicester to Cambridge using my 3 mobile broadband data card, I can't help but marvel at the amazing contradictions in infrastructure. Whilst the train from Leicester to Bristol passed through regions without network coverage, atleast it did have power points for the laptop to be plugged in . However, the train from Leicester to Cambridge appears to go through areas served well by 3's network the train doesn't have any power points to plug in the laptop. A trade off everywhere. ...

Stop Snowing ...

Watching the snow come down over the past 2 days in the UK has left me with conflicting emotions. It's been the maximum amount of snow in the last 18 years in London and the parts of the UK that I am now in . I thought originally that walking in the snow would be more fun than walking in the rain but have quickly concluded that atleast in the UK walking in the snow isn't that much fun.

The temperatures aren't too much below zero, hence snow keeps melting and refreezing as ice . The other thing is the high humidity and the threat of rain that makes things even worse by converting roads into cesspools of slush , grime covered by thin layers of ice.

Other than the climatic consideration above, the pain also seems to be inhaling snow flakes, having them fall into your eyes while walking. One does read about concepts of reflection of light and so on, but you can actually see how the place really gets lit up with the streetlights and the snow - The whole city seems alight and the light effects are quite awesome.