Dreaming a Dream (Part II)

Read Part I here

He first smelled the intoxicating perfume that drifted in the air, and then he looked up and ... just kept looking. Twas the most beautiful face he had ever seen (at least in real life). A beautiful round innocent face with perfect skin and no makeup at all (Jeeeez... He hated when girls put excessive makeup), with beautiful flowing silky black (slightly brown) hair all the way down below her shoulders. Her eyes, the hazelnut colored eyes full of eagerness were the best feature by far. He kept looking at her. She put on a frown and started speaking. He suddenly jolted back to reality when she patted his shoulder again. He sheepishly took out his earphones and mumbled an apology and got up to let her in. She smiled and sat down. She took out a book and started reading (confessions of a shopaholic). He was looking at her and was thinking of saying hi, some conversation to kill time during this boring journey, but it didn't look like it would work out. He sank back into his seat as the train gave an unusually big jerk as it moved. He slipped and she slipped. He put his hand on the armrest just as she put hers onto his and held on tightly. As the train moved on and she removed her hand and apologized. This was his chance.

'No, not a problem. That was an unusual jolt. Did it scare you?'
'Yeah, that was unusual.' She seemed embarrassed to admit she was frightened.
It sure scared the hell out of me' he said.
'Yeah, I was a bit shaken too. Hi, I'm Urvi'.
'I'm Dhruv. Do you travel by this train every day?'
'Why do you ask?' Gosh this girl. What 'll she lose if she tells.
'I travel by this train everyday but I've never seen you before. So.'
'Sorry, I didn't mean to be "mean", but I'm new here. So just was being cautious.'
'Oh, where were you before here?' He saw a frown on her face and said quickly 'It's OK if you don't wanna tell. I won't mind.'
She smiled. 'Did you hear about the accident today? Do you know anything about it?' she asked changing the subject.
'Yeah, I saw the message in the station before the display broke. The ticket collector didn't have much info other than that the train derailed'
'Derailed huh. I wonder what could cause a train to derail'
'I wonder too. May be we should google it later.' he smiled.
'Google. The answer to all the questions for us software engineers.' she exclaimed.
'Sorry, but am not a software engineer.' he replied.
She turned a light shade of red 'Sorry, I assumed.' She began fumbling with the book but then looked up as asked, 'Where do you work then?'
'Oh I'm a writer.'
'Wow, that sounds interesting. I've never come across a writer before. Have I read any of your books?'
He smiled 'probably not. 'Coz I don't write books. I'm a feature writer for a couple of newspapers and magazines in town.'
'I stopped reading magazines after coming here. Maybe I'll start again, with your features.' She smiled and went back to her book.
'You are new here, so how do you like the place so far? Have you been around town yet?'
'Naah, its actually been only a couple of weeks, and I was pretty busy unpacking stuff and shopping for the apartment mostly.'
'So you are staying alone huh'
'Yeah, I kind of always have wanted a place of my own where there's no one to tell me how to and how not to do something. This is my chance.'
'Same reason I wanted to have a place of my own'.
'Hmm, another reason, I'm new here and I don't know anyone, and I don't want to be living with a complete stranger.'
He was about to answer her when the train rocked violently again.

Dreaming a Dream (Part I)

Hey guys. I'm very sorry for no updates at all for a long time. Had been preoccupied with lots of work, and just wanted to relax on the weekends. Anyways, here I'm finally. This here is a short story, its my first stint at story telling. I hope you'll all like it. Please let me know if you feel I can improve in any specific part. Now read on and enjoy.

There was water below his feet, a river, perhaps an ocean, he didn't know. He was sitting on a ride, and there was a girl beside him. He couldn't remember her face, but could remember that he wanted her to be there, with him, holding his hand in hers. The ride was about to start, he heard a loud thud and then he opened his eyes. He looked around the room and could feel the rays of sunlight falling over his face through the narrow slits in the blinds. He looked at the time with groggy eyes. It was 7:15, yeah that was his friend leaving for work and he was probably late today. He switched off the alarm which was yet to ring and decided to wake up. He thought about the girl, who was she again? He couldn't remember her face but she definitely was someone he knew. Or did he?
An hour later, he was on his way to work walking the now very familiar path with music blasting in his ears. Such a wonderful invention, the MP3 players, he thought. Twas a beautiful sunny day, but the breeze was chilly. He held onto his jacket tightly. There were two thought going on in his mind. His weekend plans and his early morning dream. He had made plans to go to the six flags. And on which ride was he in his dream? Too bad, he couldn't recall. He passed the lake on his way to the train station. The endless lake was as big as an ocean (his eyes couldn't see the end) but for the waves.
He entered the station humming some old hindi number and sat down at the nearby bench to wait for the train. It was late today. He looked at the flashing sign which read "Southbound train delayed due to an accident". Damn. He heard the lady at the ticket machine cursing loudly for gobbling up her change. He smiled. He knew which machine was faulty when you used cash. He was just wondering what else could go wrong on this perfect day when he heard a guy firing a flurry of curses at the birds above. He looked in his direction and smiled. He knew where not to stand. He looked back at the flashing LED display only to find that the messages were all scrambled. He was starting to feel a little uneasy. Was it really a perfect day? Nothing has gone right till now except for the weather, but even that could actually change its face in an instant in this particular part of the globe.
Finally the train came in, almost in time. It looked ominous and he had a very bad feeling about it. He walked towards the last carriage and just by chance happened to a few wires hanging. He got onto and asked the conductor about it but he shrugged it off. He went ahead and sat down just near the door on the aisle seat. The train started and he drifted back into his music with a book in his hand, deep into its plot. The train stopped and a few people got on but he was so immersed into the book and didn't notice anyone until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Wubi: Playing nice with Windows

Wubi, is a tool that lets you install Ubuntu on your windows machine. Now what's so great about that? You could always install Ubuntu alongside Windows provided you have the installer disk. Well, this is where the magic begins. Wubi lets you install Ubuntu on your windows machine like it's just an application. No modifying the MBR to install the GRUB boot loader. No changing the partition table. Absolutely no impact on your current Windows installation. Wubi even lets you uninstall Ubuntu from your system leaving behind your Windows installation untouched. If you had installed Ubuntu before, you would know it is just a 6 step process. You answer some questions and you are well on your way to running Linux on your computer. Now Wubi cuts this even shorter. You are now three steps closer to Ubuntu installation.

1. Run the Wubi installer and choose the installation drive, size to be allocated, user name, password etc.
2. Wubi downloads the CD image from the Ubuntu website. (this might take a while depending on your internet connection)
3. Once that's done. You have to reboot and choose "ubuntu" from your Windows bootloader menu.

That's it. Installation begins here and you'll be prompted to login after it is complete.

That's all it takes to have a beautiful Ubuntu installation on your computer. Don't waste a minute thinking if you have been wanting to instal Linux your machine. Things couldn't get any easier or more beautiful.

I would like thank Agostino Russo and Evan Dandrea for creating Wubi, Mark Shuttleworth for giving us such a wonderful Operating System and the whole community that made Ubuntu what it is now.

Here's the Link for downloading Wubi.

Here's the Original Post by Mark Shuttleworth.
Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » Playing nicely with Windows

CEO Speaks...

I work for a start-up company and so get to speak to my CEO everyday (That's is whenever he's not out on sales calls). We have lunch once in a while in the small kitchen in our office or go out to one of his favourite places somewhere nearby. He speaks a lot, and I don't mean some useless stuff that some people speak but very entertaining and sometimes very deep thoughts. He's a very philosophical man and it shows very clearly when we are sitting in our small kitchen having lunch.
Yesterday he had some very interesting things to share with us. Someone somewhere had conducted a study about what the correct retirement age should be. Can you guess? I'll give you three choices, 50's, 60's or never. Anyways, this is what the study said according to Alex (That's my CEO). If one retires in 50's, he still has the zeal to look for alternative things to do to keep oneself busy, be it a hobby or a way of earning some lively-hood. So the person remains sharp, active and happy and lives a long life. If someone decides never to retire and work as long as possible (can give you some examples in Ratan Tata, Warren buffet, John McCain, JRD Tata etc), then too the brain remains active and sharp till the end. But if one retires during 60's, then the zeal is lost and its difficult to find a hobby you like, or to be creative enough to think of something to to to keep oneself busy. That sure was an interesting study and I never thought so many scenarios could happen. So guys and gals, what do you think, when would you retire?
There are a couple of more things that Alex talked about. Elders usually find very simple answers to very complicated questions. Alex once asked is mom these questions,
How do you know what's the right thing to do?
Her answers were very simple and precise. If you have a choice of doing something, then the hardest among those choice is almost always the right thing to do. I tried to think of some decisions I had taken which would prove her wrong, but 99.99% of times, she was right. What do you think about this guys? Now I guess its easy for me to know what decision to take next time I'm undecided. Thanks Alex, I'll remember this one forever.
How do you know if a person likes you?
And for this question, she said, If you like a person wholeheartedly, then that person sure likes you too, but if you do not like someone, then you can safely assume that you are also not liked by that someone. This sure is a very simple answer to a very very complicated question. I personally am not 100% sure of this, but I'd be delighted if this is the case. let me know your views guys.
This last one, I would keep open ended for you to think about and discuss. How will the world be if one knew the exact date, time and manner of ones death the minute one was born. Would it be better, worse or would there be no change? Am very happy to have met someone like Alex and its wonderful to be working with him. I'll post more such discussion as they happen.

Fly Away...

I saw this beautiful video today called Glósóli, and wanted to share it with you all. I don't know what message this video conveys or if twas made for any special reason but I liked the music and the video very much. I was wondering what its actual purpose could be, 'cause everything is made for a cause right. When I see it, it just fills me up with new hope and belief, belief that I can achieve anything if I set my mind to it. That even I can fly.
Watch it guys and tell me your views about it. What do you think of it? FYI Glósóli is icelandic for "Glowing Sun".

Info: This music video is by Sigur Ros performing Glósóli with Nicola Doring, Arni and Kinski. (C) 2005 Geffen Records.