10 00 Hours:-

I opened the door, to be greeted by a blast of high velocity air, and water. I closed the door in a hurry, dragging the newspaper inside as I did. That was the first time I was reading a newspaper dipped in water. Not much of a read. I wondered how there could be so much rain in Chennai, for this place hasn’t seen rain in about four years. Good for all of us, I guess. I called up my colleague to find out what he was up to. Apparently, he was as dumbstruck as I was. I guess the poor guy must have lost his senses; he left for office in the maddening rain, in a state transport bus. They declared a holiday before he could make it.

13 00 Hours:-

I looked out of the window. There seemed to be no sign of the rain letting up. That meant I would have to leave the safety of my enclave and venture out into that inclement weather for my morsel. So be it. I donned my under-sized raincoat and left the house, struggling with the rain cap (the blasted wind wouldn’t let me keep my cap on) before I realized it was to be tied the other way round. The road next to the house seemed pretty dry for all that rain. So, it wasn’t going to be so bad after all, I thought. I walked out of my street and entered the main road. Whoa! Wait a minute! I didn’t tell you about that god-forsaken dog that started barking again, as it so often does. The stupid dog thinks I am after its bone. The moron doesn’t seem to be able to tell a man from a dog.

Anyways, back to where I was. I entered the main road and behold; all I could see was knee deep water up to whatever distance my limited eyesight could afford. This was going to be a really grimy lunch. My first foot in the water; quite cold. I was walking in the middle of a road, in knee deep water; not something I get to do everyday. It was pretty exciting though. I must have been walking, no wading, for about five minutes, by which time, I usually would have reached the food joint. Today, I had modestly managed about 10 feet into the water. I had been advised, and wisely, to be on the lookout for fallen electrical wires. There were none. Neither were there any fallen trees, for the time being.

The ordeal ended, briefly, as I entered the food joint, dripping. As I started with my lunch, I came across an acquaintance from my CAT class. The guy had come with an umbrella, and was pretty dry. I fail to understand how he pulled that one off. Well, he asked me about my tests, and as usual I cribbed about the whole thing. So did he.

The wind had grown stronger by the time I finished. It was raining harder as well. It had grown to an extent where I could hardly see where I was walking. The walk back was much more taxing. As the wind increased in intensity, I fought my way through the water, watching the all too familiar strangers, waging their own private wars against nature's fury.

16 00 Hours:-

I managed to reach home in one piece. I was about to open the lock, when I realized that I hadn’t bought anything for the evening. I had been told that the weather was going to get worse as the day went by. So I set off again, thanking my stars that I didn’t have to go back to that same road this time. I came back with my purchases, which comprised of a couple of biscuit packets, a loaf of wheat bread and some cheese. I sat down on the bed, determined to put some hours of solid study. I fell asleep.

19 30 Hours:-

I woke up with a start; the weather had gone from bad to worse. I could hear the howling of the wind. The windows occasionally opened by themselves, only to be thrashed against the window pane; ghostly. I was reminded of movies like ‘The Haunted House’. Suddenly, as if by cue, the light went out. I was thrown into the infinite reaches of this black rainy Thursday. Feeling my way through nothing, I managed to reach the main door and wrenched it open. The wood had expanded and the door was starting to jam. It wasn’t any better outside. I was reminded of the snakes and bandicoots I had seen as I ‘served time’ in this house. So I went back into the darkness closing the door behind. Not much choice, I reckoned. I sat down on the bed and leaned against the wall, pulling the bed-sheet over me. Time had stopped, for it seemed as if the heavens would fall any moment. The weather was intimidating.

21 30 Hours:-

I woke up to the inviting brightness of my tube light. I was hungry again. I thought of the bread and the cheese, and thanked my folks for having brought the toaster along. But I realized that they alone wouldn’t suffice, what with those biscuits and groundnut balls. I looked out of the window for the n-th time that day. There was but a slight drizzle which seemed to be waning away. So I set out again, in search of some vegetables to stuff into my sandwiches. There is a vegetable shop nearby; my only hope of getting something as time slipped by slowly into those familiar small hours. I got into this shop where I noticed some onions at the far end. I got around to inspecting them. I must admit, that I hadn’t seen more rotten entities in my life, my ignorance of vegetables notwithstanding. But so did this other woman who looked equally lost in the ‘sea of the rotten’. So, I wasn’t the only one! After mining some more, I hit upon gold, or so I thought. I took home my ‘prized possessions’; cut them one by one. Rotten they were; every one of them. What a pleasant day!

00 00 Hours:-

I made another weak attempt at study; struggling with no-brainers. CAT isn’t for bird-brains, you know. I am yet to figure out when I dozed off.

So, would you like a sandwich?

Its three a.m.; and my week doesn't seem to end. Who would have thought, when coming through those glass doors, that he would be really fortunate, who would be able to make it back home before its morning. I sometimes wonder; how an eight hour day might look like, for, its us, who create the culture of nights out in office. It has become quite pronounced of late. Those going to eat are looked upon as those 'living to eat' rather than the other way round. Those who skip lunch or dinner, as I just have, today, are seen as the true workaholics; appraised for their sheer commitment. Anybody leaving at the end of eight hours; oh! this guy seems to be out of work, 'on the bench', says corporate jargon. Substitutes, they are treated as. I hear of work culture in the US. They leave at five sharp, it seems, not one soul in sight after five minutes past five. Except, of course, our dearest onsite co-ordinators, who keep slogging their behinds off, in hope of, i don't know what. There was a time when I used to look down upon such guys; well!whaddaya know! I am one of them.

I am at a loss of words. So don’t expect anything profound. The fact is, I have gone to almost everybody on this floor, in search of the perfect person who could teach me to get a decent web service up; not much luck. People have ended up in this place with as half-baked knowledge as mine. Ok. Not as half-baked as mine; maybe a little less.

In about a week's time the condition is:
"Sriram, can I ask you something?"
Oh, no!!! It's the web service guy again!!!
"Sure."
"What is a namespace?"
Dumb fellow; wonder how he got here. What is a namespace?!!!
"A namespace is a ......" The sermon lasts a couple of minutes.
"Thanks for the information."
"You're welcome."As long as you don’t come back.

I am back at my seat, trying fiercely to put down the profoundly enlightening piece of information I got from this guy. My memory has failed me yet again; I don’t remember a thing, because I didn’t understand a thing. My musings continue.

Oh! There comes my project lead.
"Hi Venkat."
"Hi!", with an emphatic smile.
"So, whats up with our web service?" says he.
"Uh....I am trying to construct a SOAP container for the XML data we are going to pass into the web service. The point is to make the web service interoperable so that it is accessible across platforms. The web service is going to pull the XML data out of the SOAP container, parse it and ping the database for corresponding database requests."
"Makes sense."
It does?!!! Doesn’t make any sense to me!!!
"And what about the business logic?"
Ah!!! Now you're coming to the point. I reel off all the garbage gathered collected by months of being in the same account(consider an account synonymous with a client).
"Cool!" Walks off.

Back to square one. Don’t know what that godforsaken namespace means.

Warning: You are headed towards a pile of garbage. Please refrain from using your brain cells.

I started from home in the morning, hoping not to see his darned face again. But alas, there he was, waiting for me, right in the middle of the road. I slowed down a little; maybe he would comprehend that I have to pass by, and give me some space, and not embark on his daily ritual. But he seems to be pretty brainless, because he just stood there; he had not moved an inch. He was confronting me right there and then. As I accelerated, he moved to the left with lightning speed. And the next thing I knew, he was running right alongside me, howling and screaming like never before, his teeth pretty close to me. I lifted my legs, in a sort of high jump posture athletes take when they get off the board, and gave a generous acceleration to the vehicle. Going by the standards, I expected him to stop after a while, lose interest in his quarry. But he was professional; he was perseverant, diligent and most of all shrewd. Shrewd; here is why I say that.

It was about 9 pm. He saw me coming down the lane towards the house. Believe it or not, he pretended to be going into the neighboring house, one foot through the gate, as if trying to deceive his quarry into believing that he is going to be let off today, that he can sleep peacefully tonight. I neared the gate, with rising trepidation, almost believing that I had gone unnoticed. Suddenly he turned around, and started towards me again, with everything he’d got. I rushed toward my house, barely managing to make it into the gate. He just stood there, glowering.

Every journey into and out of my house is equally adventurous; thanks to such a loving dog,
supposedly an ex-pet of one of the neighbors.

I woke up to the scream of the velakaari.
"Perukkanamaa?!!".
I got out of bed, mercury rising inside; fuming before I could get to the door. "Yevalavu kekareenga maasathukku, shanikazhamaiyum nyayathikazhamaiyum varanum?", I asked, smiling politely.
"400."
"Oru manshanukku, vaarathukku 2 naal varathukku, 400 aa?". She had shaken the daylights out of me.
"Pinna!!!" Yeah. Why not! I could ask my company to start paying you instead. I was still recovering from the assault, when she added, "Kodam roppi kudukka 100 kudu."

"Vendaam ma, 500 ellam kudukka mudiyathu." I said, smiling yet again.
"yeaa!!!", she persisted.
"Illai ma, kudukka mudiyathu. Romba jaasti." I said, holding my ground.
"Athu thaan ivvalavu sampathikkariye, koncha kaasu kudukkarathu thaane!!!" she retorted. Why you...!!!

She was getting on my nerves. I shook my head, trying to act like a disappointed customer. I wanted to chase her out to the end of the street, actually. For a moment, both of us fell silent. I reiterated, "Romba jaasti ma. Vendaam."
"Ennaya, vendaam...vendaamnundu!!! seri yevalavu tarai?!!"
"200." I said, mustering up all my courage, quoting less than half as I was.
"Poyaa!!!" She walked off.
And so ended my ordeal, me emerging the supreme winner in the "Battle of the Velakaari".

I plan to shift to another house in about a fortnight. And I plan to stay alone. I believe that by staying alone, I will keep up the drive to work towards my goal single mindedly. I have sometimes.....no; most of the times felt that the attitude around me has kept me from pushing forward with an open heart. I would say that I am more afraid of failure itself, rather than what it would mean if I failed. I intend to purge this one fear from my system. And the first step to this, as I see, is to be away from any negative elements. Elements that keep that fear in me; elements that don't allow me to think rationally, but force me to look out for ways to slip out of such decisive situations. Failure would mean ridicule; not at my inability to succeed, but at the futile effort put into the process of trying. It would amount to bad decision making on my part; something which is given utmost importance in a world that is glutting with managers at breakneck speed.

Fear. Fear is the key to everything. Get the key, open the doors. There is no one to stop you from anything. I sometimes wonder how I would be without fear, and it gives me immense confidence. Alas, only for a moment. There's usually something or the other that I am not happy about; some trivial thing which makes me ponder and ponder; mostly thinking of what the fellow facing me must be thinking of me. How, in the name of God, does it matter?!! It does not. He doesn't know me, nor is interested. And even if he thinks I am a fool, so what? How does it matter to me? These words come easy, what doesn't come as easy is the attitude. As I write, I am more certain that I shall get over this silly thing once and for all. There will always be locusts and pests ready to pick on you. The key is in not bothering about them; not just showing from the outside that you don't bother, that is, with the idea of discouraging them; but from within. Fear is the key to freedom. Get the key. Open the doors and let the sun brighten up life.

I don’t know why I had these dreams. I have never felt like this before. I felt no pain, no fear, no doubt about what I had to do next. I was smiling in the face of inevitability.

Over-whelming.... - I was driving my bike on the road well into the night. There were vehicles coming from the other side, and I was getting blinded by their headlights. There was an urgency in me that kept me back from slowing down. I don’t know what it was, but in my dream it was so obvious that there was no need to think of the problem. I could hardly see any one who seemed to be crossing the road in front of me. I had a helmet on, and the visor kept coming down. Suddenly, as I lifted the visor one more time, I found that my visibility was getting hampered by the helmet, whose open front part seemed to be closing in. With every passing second, I found that I was seeing less and less of the road, and still I had to keep going, as if knowing that there was no meaning of my existence if I slowed down or stopped now; as if it didn’t matter anymore what risk I took to get where I intended to. I just had to keep going. It must have been a few seconds of driving, when this huge thing came right in front of me, all of a sudden……….

This one was too much!!! - I could not see anyone on the beach, though I knew they were there. The waves were getting wilder by the moment. There was someone else with me. Someone whom I knew better than myself, and who would never leave me for anything, and whom I would never leave for anything (like the mother, who would never leave her child, or like the son who stays by his mother, come what may). It was so obvious that I didn’t even care to realize who it was. I was only happy that we were together again, at last.

The first big wave came right up front. There was a brick wall, behind which we were sitting. It hit the wall, and water splashed all around us, but we didn’t seem to be getting wet.

Then suddenly I realized that she was actually chained to something; albeit for some safety reason, which was equally implicit, but chained all the same. And then I was climbing down an underground structure, which seemed to be made of some kind of white metal to release her(I don't know who dug the hole for me to climb down). I found the member which had been put in place by one of the respected elders before(?!!!). It had mattered then, as it had been life saving. But now it needed to be removed. I released the ring on the end of the chain (the chain looked like the one we use to lock our luggage in the train, with rings on both ends). As she pulled, the ring got caught between two members of the structure. She pulled it out with a calm that I have never seen or felt before. I got out and as we moved away from the brick wall, the next wave broke right through, to exactly where we were sitting moments before. We silently congratulated each other for anticipating this. It was then that the final blow was dealt. Another wave came from the east, this one, bigger than anything anyone has ever seen; taller than a hundred buildings put together, bigger than any tsunami; an enormous wall, just like in the movies. A round structure broke off from its foundation and started rolling along with the wave, directly towards our group. I wasn’t feeling anything; fear, panic, nothing. Apparently, neither was she. We started walking towards the oncoming wave……..