Author: Tarique Sani

Seeing the predicament of some of the younger geeks (boys all of them) at Bangalore I had joked that I will write a HOW-TO for them on flirting and dating, after coming back some events also made me consider the point seriously BUT when I got down to it and cut away all the fluff about how looks don’t really matter and how to be charming and which kind of girl etc etc it all boils down to a few simple lines

Will she go out with me – ASK
Will she like me – ASK
Is she already going around – ASK
Will she let me kiss (or fill in the blank with your preferred activity) – ASK

Don’t get stuck in the “what if …. …. ?” fill in the blank with your favorite dilemma

There is no fool like the one who never asked.

Lastly – Rejection from one does not mean rejection from all even if you *right now* feel she was *the* one

May be the ladies around will have some more things add to this but in my experience this should suffice in 99% of the cases

Have put up the pictures I took at Bangalore here . Not many of them and none of them are too great either, basically due to the fact that most digital cameras come with flash which is too weak to take pictures in a hall and mine is 2 years old now!!!

Still those pictures do fill in some of the missing links, specially those of the impromptu gathering at Windsor Pub post Phenom Rock Show 😉

Saturday evening went to my Aunt’s place and found myself examining a couple of kids. As I was washing my hands I again realized how much I miss being a doctor BUT had to firmly remind myself that I have put that behind and I don’t go back to things I have put behind… …

Yesterday morning got a call from my elder brother that I was ignoring him… … Well I was indeed!!

Have always had a love hate relationship with him. I know that I will go to the ends of earth to help him and he will do the same for me BUT then we also do have some fundamental differences in the way we think, He is in the navy joined it for a cause which I always felt is going a bit too far and will lead to no where. He realizes it now. He always was the best at school in whatever he did and most people rubbed that into me which was not so bad BUT they also rubbed it into his head which he interpreted as being invincible / infallible – he was a peoples person. I, on the other hand, was an introvert and an egoist who from the age of 13 knew that I am good enough to be myself. Sometime in my pre teens I had also picked up the concept that if you have enough money then most of the problems are not problems at all, so for me life really still hasn’t gone much further than making enough money of myself with the least amount of work everything else is just a by product or a side effect.

Last time Bhaijan visited with his family here I was too busy with the Bangkok projects and problems to spend much time with them. This was not liked and was also made clear to Swati (on Railway Station ” Next time we will come only if you say you have time” ) Hmm… … Why do people think that their work is important where as ours is not- just because we work from a home office?

Since I really did not have time to indulge in public relations exercises I just entrusted Swati with the job 🙂 Yesterday I guess my dear brother understood the POV, good for everyone … …

Yesterday afternoon was spent at my aunt’s farm, Aasim loves to go there but till yesterday he always resisted our suggestions to come along. Don’t know what happened but yesterday he insisted that we also come. It was very relaxing mentally to be away from all the gadgets and spend time picking fruits and vegetables and then cooking over open fire a lovely meal of Jawari rotis, Baigan ka bhurta and Tamatar ki chutney. Aasim likes bullock cart rides just as much as jumbo jet flights!!!

Almost made us wish for a farm of our own, but 15 min of discussion brought us back to the fact that I am not sure I want to be here say 5 years from now. In the very least I don’t like the way political scenario is shaping up. Maybe I am a coward but I would rather be a foreigner in a foreign land than an outcast in my own motherland besides we have Aasim to think about.

Returned yesterday from Bangalore after attending the LB/2002. Since the event already is all over newspapers and news sites both national and international I will not write much about the event itself, Apologies for not using LJ cut but I guess more people would want to read this post than not.

We stayed with , Dr G.R. Bhat and Vinod Unny were also staying with him.

When we reached there on the night of 2nd at nearly 2300 hrs the place already was overflowing with the event managers and ample supply of Pizza, coke and beer making rounds, but everyone dispersed by midnight, well almost.

Staying at was a blessing because Aasim quickly felt at home with Judo, the german shepherd and a bevy of cats. In fact he felt so much at home that he opted to stay back with Shubha most of the time instead of getting bored with us at the conference. A BIG thanks to Shubha for having taken care of him. I / We did feel a bit lonely with him not with us and his constant reminders that he did not want to come with us in the first place 🙁

Hmm… we raised him to be independent now that he is, we feel lost. We knew that this will happen BUT not when he is just five… …

Next day at the event Swati was busy with organizing things for the press and media. This years event was really well covered and due credit was given in BLUG in most of the places. Midway thru the keynote address I exercised my choice and skipped most of the talks for the day. Meeting with people and old friends was much more fun. Met a whole lot of LJ friends as well, could not recognize when he introduced himself as Pradeep!! unfortunately could not wait for the LJ meet, well did it happen?

Swati and my talks were scheduled on the last day, Swati having not spoken in public for nearly 10 years was understandably nervous. Also the fact that this was a technical forum (well mostly) and she is not a techie… … BUT she did manage (!?) to prove the point that Linux on Desktop is no longer for a techie and most of the tool similar to other OS are available for Linux as well. Also all the techie friends around were present at the talk as her “Geek Guards”- a term coined by her for people who act as geeks on her behalf.

I enjoyed my own talk very much because the people enjoyed it very much. It could have been perfect had is not been for a last minute mood spoiler from Mahendra about removing the words “Naked Ladies” from one of my filler slides. Sheesh… … there is a limit to how juvenile people can act, besides there was a complete week to review my slides. Anyway since he backed off, I changed the words to “Night Clubs”

The event ended with a Rock Show from Phenom which was the best fun we have had in ages. ‘s voice is still haunting me… … that kid should not give up singing.

After the rock show we (about 40 people) ended up at Windsor Pub and had more fun with fabulous food. The highlight was managing to dump the steak on his jeans and then beer on his shirt and gulping about 5 full mugs, saying … … After which I no longer sat by his side 😀 It was almost 1:00 am when we reach back

will soon be putting up the photos …. the slides from all the talks will also be available soon.

Was thinking about the project in Bangkok. At the outset the project itself went off OK but could have been better.

The most important lesson learned was never go to for on site implementation of a project specially if the specifications and scope has not been made very clear from the beginning and you are 100% sure that there is not going to be any new unexpected features added.

Another disadvantage which came to light was that the client expects you to adopt *his* working styles and hours. Which does not really suit the way we work at SANIsoft

In short while doing on site implementation you are no longer 100% your own boss which suxs.

Go on site only for presentations and at the most deployment… …

Yesterday finally landed back in Nagpur. No place like home 🙂

But there is too much to be done here…. ….

Monday we leave again to attend Linux Banglore 2002 with sponsors like HP, IBM and today Ministry of Communications and Information Technology it promises to be a great show.

Hmmm… better polish up that talk of mine 😉

(09:39:15) Tarique: Thank god for SMS Internet and cell phones
(09:39:20) Swati: yes…
(09:39:34) Tarique: imaging if we had this when we were going around
(09:39:37) Swati: i remember the days 10 years back
(09:39:44) Tarique: yes
(09:39:45) Swati: we wouldn’t have got married
(09:39:50) Tarique: 😀

An IM conversation I just had with Swati.

Yes, our long distance love affair was really long distance in todays context. The was no Internet or Cell Phones. We use to write letters to each other daily and if we were lucky the letter would reach in 3 working days. It was a routine for me to write a letter while sitting in the evening OPD and then post it on my way back at the GPO, so that it did not take one day extra, in those days I had a motorcycle and I would ride right up to the postbox at GPO drop the letter in and move on without needing to stop the bike… … Guess I wouldn’t try that now.

We had telephone BUT we did not have much money, so talking was restricted to 2 half an hour talks after 10pm when the rates were 1/3 the prime time rates.

Yes love, we have come a long way – thanks for being there with me – We still have a long long way to go and I am going to need you always … …

(18:23:25) *** ******: LOL….ok….don’t worry. …not much time there…
(18:23:34) *** ******: have fun as much as you can…since Swati is here 😉
(18:24:11) Tarique: No fun without her
(18:24:33) *** ******: ah….OK! both of you ….ogle at each other…eh 😀

Snippet from an IM conversation I had very recently. No guys you don’t realize. Watching people, specially women is not much fun if you cannot discuss/analyze your subjects with your buddies. We (me and Swati) indulge in it a lot and it is specially fun in a foreign land where you can freely talk in your native language without drawing too much attention.

Yesterday night I decided to go on a prowl of the hotel at 00:30 hrs just to see what goes on. Nothing much except for a couple of very good looking hookers whom I would have paid just to have coffee with me had they known any English beyond “Just 2000 Bhat!!” The 24hrs cafe was indeed open though the disco was empty well almost. I sat and chatted with the cafe hostess for a while

We leave Bangkok on Wednesday. I am throughly tired, bored and homesick.

Have finally cracked the mystery of the near perfect and firm looking breasts in most of the ladies here. The revelation dawned upon me when I tried shopping for lingerie for Swati. most of the women here prefer bras which have 1/3 hemisphere cups made of some material with consistency between rubber foam and styrofoam / thermocole so what is seen is actually the shape of this cup…. ….

Arrrgghhh what a rip off.

There were some with lycra , lace and under wired (the kind I was looking for) but all the good looking ones were the ones padded with fakes. Sheesh!!! what a turn off. What ultimately depressed me was hip pads 🙁

Damn the B*******- Embassies are set up in foreign countries so that citizens traveling to that particular country can be helped. BUT my experience with the Indian Embassy here in Bangkok Thailand was exactly the opposite.

The place is full of typical govt Babus replete with red tape wrapped around in 100M bundles !!! In the very least they are rude and on the other side spectrum they provide erroneous information leading to a whole lot of anxiety and needless running around.

I had a doubt Emigration Check Suspended Status in Vinay’s passport and had thought that it needs to be extended or something whereas nothing more needs to be done. No one gave us a straight answer and we spent about 3 hours in the embassy…. ….