Smelly THing Called Love

Smelly Thing Called Love

The Crush

I had started to believe in her, when Gina called up, “How are you doing Mandy,” I hadn’t heard from her in 10 days and my last interaction had been a positive albeit a cautious one, I had been flattering myself that she would take an interest in me or my work, after all I was in love with a woman with a ring on her hand.  I had known Gina and Martin for 2 years and only recently realised that I might have fallen for her, apart from having won the “Woman of the Year 2014,” she was a softie, an angel and a die-hard Gene Hackman fan.

Ever since I had met her, we had seen a dozen Gene Hackman movies on her large screen Plasma TV which was Google Chromecast enabled.  Two years of being intern in her company and I was feeling a distinct heady buzz in my brain whenever she turned up wearing her Gucci perfume, smallish earrings and the large blob of a wedding ring that always gave me a headache when I saw it nowadays.  Martin was a great guy and I could see they made the best possible couple, they were smooth, the two of them and could glib talk, woo and entertain any of their guests at the regular Saturday night parties.  The social media was abuzz about their relationship and it turned out every time I turned on Twitter, there were at least 100 mentions of them making news.

I was jealous for the first time in my life, this goddess who was so close and yet so far away

, who took my breathe away was way beyond my reach.  Angrily I had decided that I wouldn’t go to work for 10 days and not call anyone at work, it was April 2007 and New York was glistening with the slightest dews of summers, they said the weather was changing and the summers would come in earlier, global warming and all the gossip mongering we thought it was in those days.  Stories were ripe in my ears from glaciers melting to terrible catastrophes touching planet Earth, and my mind was dizzy with the thought that this one woman had never shown even a hint of affection towards me, “Gene Hackman be damned,” I thought as memories of Rio filtered in, an older woman but so much of class that she could put pretty Julia Roberts into the kindergarten.

The Squeeze

Seven days went by and not a thought or a phone call from her and on the eight day I decided that I was not going to have a bath for the next three days, in penance to Jesus that may be, I was even willing to call upon Satan to further my cause, at least a call, a message, something to keep my heart ticking, I was sure I was going to be heard somewhere.

I spent the first day of unhealthy tenor thinking of her and writing my heart, love letters that would never be announced to the world, I wrote 10s of them and then suddenly I changed track on the second day, my mind slipping into an angrier frame of mind.  I thought of ways I could kill Martin and elope with her, Martin the gentleman he was would have died of heart attack if he had ever heard these thoughts that were ringing in my head.  Then suddenly on the third day, smelling of something I couldn’t fathom, my thoughts started targeting Gina herself, as I began by writing out an out and out hate letter to my Juliet, through the day the tenor of my letters turned blinding and singing in their intensity, there was lose paper littered all around the bed and since I chose to write with an ink pen there were blobs of ink on my clothes as well. 

The Juice

I was smelling, this room was telling me and every time I ventured out of it, the blast came to all the other occupants of the house, I hadn’t gone out of the house for 3 days and hadn’t taken a call either and smelling like a load of goo, when the call came, it was Gina, “Mandy, are you alright, I haven’t heard from you ever since you went on leave,” I sighed relief and spoke to her for 5 minutes and then put the mobile down. My mind snapped back at me, “Mmmmm, I hope she hadn’t smelled my unheralded body odour  #whatsthatsmellboss over the phone,” and then another thought pushed it aside, “Of course she couldn’t have, Oculus had been bought over by Facebook and they weren’t virtual yet.”  I quickly put the lights on my Racold Geyser and decided to have the first feel of hot water in 4 days, the water was already at 45 deg. C, just the right temperature for cool evening, smoke rose up and the water came down stinging my body in pins and needles, my Racold Solar Geyser, always got me home with zero billing, it had been worth the wait.

                                 “Don’t go by the Name, They Serve it Hot at Racold.”

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Two Snakes in Love

I bowed to the wishes of the Lord today and knew that there was no getting away from this thought that I was in love, the more I tried to get away from it, the more it came to me like a rush of blood in my head, like the waterfall that gushes away at the rocks carving niches and its own path.  I have been love before but never known this feel of having loved and lost and wishing that there was someway that I could get back this one who just flew away.  My life till 2 years back was a life of wishful thinking and hope, probably false hope, generated by giving in to people who thought knew better than me.  There is no better way to explain what has transpired, but to take a green leaf sprouting off a tree, and then look at it for hours, till you saw the texture and the veins that carried its life giving fluids and see them in full health

probably revitalised by the touch so soft and so divine that they would never know what had touched me.

I am sad and extremely so, the lamp that gave me life has gone, there is darkness all around, nothing today even matches the sorrow that I feel today.  I met her and lost her, isn't that a lonely thought.  Forget people who have forgotten you, there is nothing much you can do today, it hurts and it hurts bad now.  She says "why is there sorrow in your life today."
"Don't you know, I am just you today."
I just think of that brush and that lock of hair on her head, "I have been hurt and hurt so bad, that its hard to explain where it hurts."
"Forget, my heart, the pain is eternal, love will probably prevail, she will probably marry and I will lose my hope to live."

I put in my papers at work today, got back and sat down to think, its 2 am in the morning here and you know how fast the nights fly nowadays, I looked at the glass in my hand, ice and bottle of Chivas Regal, looking up to the ceiling, then at my laptop, and then decided what has to be done has to be done.  I have to get over her and ofcourse I have been thinking of moving on for 4 months now. Ha' what do I know about love now, nothing, having been pushed to the nadir and back to the nadir.  Love has a habit of coming back and repeating itself.  However much I want her, it will never be more than wanting her to be happy wherever she is, with or without me.
Two Snakes in Love and So We Had To Bite Each Other.

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X-cuse Me Please

X-cuse me Please

There’s Always Music Somewhere
“It’s a beautiful piece of equipment,” she said, sure that I was going to like it, I had looked around all over for this equipment that would bring me the joy of my past, I was in Denver at a store that didn’t look out of the ordinary.  These streets looked familiar, it was like the by lanes of Navi Mumbai, and thoughts came streaming from those days of old, of breaking house windows and starting gang wars in Lokhandwala, we were kids, just breaking the rule to prove a point and then I had moved out of the scene.

Years later the news had come filtering in that now there were actual gangs in Lokhandwala holding people to ransom, that was the fate of a third world nation.  “I am happy to be here,” I said to the sales girl and got talking to her, she was from Tennessee and “damn, she looked familiar too,” something about this town, my mind snapped back at me.  It always did these days, especially when I sat on my “hiney” on that old armchair wondering and dreaming.  “Am I drifting,” it would ask me and get me out of my coffee induced reverie, “damn how I hated this feeling of nothingness,” it felt like I was a 100 years old with my legs on a stool and staring at the fire glowing deep and this warm, some would say “stupid” feeling inside me.

Suddenly she pointed out to a device lying invitingly on the glass rack all by itself, did I say her name was Chara, “Chara, it looks divine.”  She smiled finally, the tension of not knowing what the customer wanted out of the way, and walked me to the aisle where the device lay.

Logitech Squeeze Box Radio

She turned it ON; it was a small intuitive looking power on and the light flashed on a medium sized square panel of the black piece.  There was a huge dial in the front “for navigating the Menu,” said Chara, she was beginning to like the look in my eyes. 

I twisted the dials and got to a menu that said, “Internet Radio,” wondering what next, “press the damn dial,” my mind said again, and I did softly pressing the large dial, suddenly the world had opened up in front me, stations from all over, music, talk show, sports shows. “I am beginning to like this device,” said my mind, “Can you afford me,” the squeeze box seemed to be saying and just as I started to look around for a tag,

Chara pointed to the other specifications and my interest began to develop even further, I could even play repeats and to top it all it’s a wireless.

Chara was packed with energy and it all came out now, “Fantastic device, you are going to love this one, it will give you company through the night, especially the lonely ones and sir, I will pack in a battery at discounted price so you could go cordless on the grass lands.”  The pitch had me convinced, “damn, how did she know I loved the grasslands,” this time my mind was curious. “Don’t,” I told my mind, the deal was done.

“Squeezebox eh? This one was special and she knew it”

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Abstract - Dealing With A Love Story

Dealing with a Love Story

Abstract

Very often there is this need to be able to form concrete plans to tackle hard problems that seem to be inflicting the industry and the company in general.  It is important to understand that there is no one person who can possibly solve the problem nor identify the problem in the first place.  The ideal deal is to be able to get to a resolution that satisfies all and in the time available.  Often enough there are numerous solutions that are available and these might be the cause of various people trying to implicate or bundle a quick try solution for a potentially hard problem.  Here, as will get obvious there are only the following things that can be done : 

1. To quickly outline a theory and demarcate a boundary condition in which the solution can be scoped out.  

2.  To slowly define the problem and the gradually reach a solution using the profound logic, that is there at our hand due to the scientific community.

There have been a number of people who have tried and very often got to it by logic and this far exceeds the people who normally use the solution 1.  Technically speaking if Bill Flower, a good friend of mine was to identify where he got the idea to solve the problem from then it would be probably be from his perspective.  On the other hand there were like, multitude of noises just beginning to get into the head that there were going to be a million of like minded people who  probably wanted this to be worked out through and through.  It was the normal gambit of taking the logic that if we try to become the problem then there would obviously be a solution to it as well that would occur when the time was right.  

Bill and an another close friend of mine Kathy Lambert closely identified that the Solar Industry was going through a bad patch because there was turf war going on.  There were the dealers who were fighting the customers into believing that they were getting a raw deal from the company, the company was fighting the customers to tell them the dealers had to be bypassed as there was precious little that could be done.  The customer on the other hand were confused what to buy and where to buy it from.  If the customer was confused then it could be safely assumed that they were not going to be any sales.  

Here is where the thought of going through a system 1 falls into place.  Intuition and gut feel often has the ability to overcome anger, anguish, selfish and all other traits that prevent human beings from reaching their full potential.  There is a lack of this in the modern management terminologies where it is only a number crunching game, reaching targets the only motive.  A study of the Harvard business school of management has identified that if there is a need to develop it is this instinct for business and not the core principles of business on which a whole lot has been written about.  Truth be spoken, this feel comes from connecting with inner self and understanding how the terminologies and existing implications impact our business decisions. 

So the business as a whole was going through a bad patch, it had been 2 years since a good deal had been cracked in the region.  The site was well developed and the area had been notified as the subsidized zone.  What was not being felt was the impact that in truth was the result of the cultural and other such mismatches in the region.  People thought of the solar business to be run and identified with the aspects as dictated by the market conditions and by the dealers and distributors who developed and nurtured relations.  The customer is always right is the only idiom we believe in. 

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Feather In The Crown Day

Feather In The Crown Day

What Do We Know

Deanna was quiet and peaceful when she came from Reno to visit me, something had clicked in her mind and that in itself was a lot to say, going to a strange place was never easy, but I think she had handled it well. Top that with having made up with me, I wasn't surprised at her wanting to see more of the country, journeys had always set me thinking and more often than not the philosophical thought process would rub on to my fellow travellers.  I had already fixed a deadline for the trip, a small town to the South of Punjab, Nabha, and the following weekend we took the train to head to the princely town of Maharaja Hira Singh. There was history to the town and and though it was small, with a population of 50,000 odd residents, the town is a thriving with activity.

When we reached Nabha, it was cold afternoon though the Sun was

was out and it was dusty, in general the state of the roads was a little on the broken side and it had been a bumpy ride to reach Nabha from Ambala.  The SaravPriya Hotel, Nabha is one of the budget hotels, Paramjit Singh, my friend and guide met us at the hotel, he had already booked two rooms for us.    

The biggish Punjabi Sardar gave me a large hug and patted me heartily on my back, "How have you been veerey."

"Lords mercy is on us."

"Wahe guru is always with us," he said jovially as he said a quick hello to Deanna, who had suddenly turned pensive, strange places initially always got her into that mood.

"Its pretty," she said staring at the lawn which centred rooms around it, there were a few tables and chairs with umbrellas basking lonely in the sunlight. "I figure all the guests would be busy with their sightseeing, I don't see many around."

"You will in the morning," replied back with his usual large smile.

I had met Paramjit during my college days travelling on the bike to Patiala, he was a large hearted guy, and loved to drink and would worked hard at his motorcycle workshop near Patiala Gate.  He guided us to the rooms where our welcome drink awaited us, Deanna took to the flowers really well, they were a nice bunch of Orchids purple in color.

"These are so pretty."

"I had them ordered especially for you both," said Paramjit, "normally they put roses, but I was told that you liked Orchids."

Instinctly Deanna gave him a peck on the cheek, "Thank You."

Paramjit blushed, he was not used to public affection from woman, this was a small town and after all he was a mechanic, so what if a highly skilled and special one.

Intuition is my Best Weapon Against God

Most mechanics don't know what they are getting into when they open up a machine, they tinker over with the spanner, get the electronics in, open up the machine and then decide what to do and normally what they do is totally contrary to what the customer would want..  Machines are like relationships, not totally and the angle is not immediately evident, but what forms a machine is multitude of inter related parts and what is that if not relationships.  If people fit well into each others lives then what we get is a perfectly functioning machine that has a purpose.

Parmajit was a very intuitive mechanic, and when I met him during a college tour I had seen his workshop totally scattered with tools and machines.  To the casual observer it might have looked like there was chaos all around, but Paramjit could find his way through the chaos, he would sit next to an opened up vehicle and without seeing what was happening pick up the right tool for the job.  He had during those days achieved the job of fixing the looseness in the cylinder-piston fit in 2 hours without even me knowing that the job was being done.

"How is the garage doing ?"

"The government has given me permission to acquire more land."

"Paramjit, my Dad once told me that he trusted mechanics more than Doctors," Deanna said.

"He He He, I don't know."

"Paramjit's wife cooks very well, how is she veerey ?" I asked, I had met Shiromani once, she was a strong willed woman who would never let Paramjit rest on his laurels.

"She is doing well, she cooked some Biryani and sent it for you, I have it in my car."

"Will make piece meal out of it during dinner." All three of us laughed, the conversation was moving.

Paramjit lounged himself onto to large couch in the room and poured himself a drink of water, he had an Ipod attached to his waist and Deanna opened up her suitcase and took out some Bluetooth speakers.  She paired the Ipod with the Bluetooth speakers, and the sound of some blissful Jagjit Singh Gazals filtered the room.

I looked around, overlooking the balcony was a market place, and the main road, called the Circular Road on which the hotel was located led to a Gurudwara that I could see in the distance.

"That's the Samadha Wala Gurudwara, its located in the Beed Forest, and is a great place to visit, we will visit it tomorrow."

"Sounds like an interesting place to go to." Deanna smiled.

"Do they have animals in that forest."

"I think they do," said Paramjit.

"Not lions though, just some deers, buffulos, some Neel gaen and the likes.

"Where else can we go tomorrow ?" Deanna asked curiously.

"Well there is the Glaxo factory we can visit, I have visit planned, its popularly known as the "Horlicks" factory."
"I would love that, as also to meet your wife Param," Deanna replied back.

"Yes, then tomorrow we go to my house for dinner, Shiromani is a good cook," Paramjit replied back, I could see on his face that he had liked the idea of Deanna wanting to meet his wife.

I wondered at Params upbringing, a God fearing man, he was the perfect example of a morally upright person, religion played a huge part in his life, whether it be work or personal relations.  I had no right to ask him but I did ask a question that had been troubling me for a while, 

"Do you see Wahe Guru in your work ?"

"I often do and that as the case may be are two different Gods, the one that handles my work for me is so meticulous, there is wonder in almost every part of the machine that I fix, there is a method and logic to every part in which He resides, like he takes care of my machines for me, forewarns me when Mother Nature is out to seek revenge from the metal parts and provides me with logic to solve even the most difficult problems that SHE throws at me.

I stared at Param, my heart skipping a beat and my eyes wide open, this was the most profound logic I had heard in years, and the journey of my last two years seemed to be reaching a more forward looking thought. Nabha was going to be a fantastic outing, I could sense and that made me happy.

                     "When You Are In Misery, All Your Friends Will Flee"

This Is Where The Healing Starts

A Solar Water Heater is a precision device made with machines that shave metal away millimetre by millimetre till the equipment is manufactured.  In my previous posts I have touched on the Solar Water Heater that can be used with Space Heating.

A typical solar heater comprises of these Solar Parts:

1.     Solar Collectors                                5.  External Electrical Heater

2.     Solar Tank                                        6.  Tank Stand

3.     Solar Plumbing                                 7.  Collector Stand

4.     Electrical Accessories                       8.  Mechanical Accessories

How Does A Solar Collector Work

We might evince some interest in the Solar Collector in the post, the design of which is the key to the Solar Water Heating System.  Collectors are of two types a)Flat Plate b)Evacuated Tube , though a majority of them today are the Flat Plate type.  These type of collectors consist of a black absorber plate, water conduits and insulation at the back and glazed glass in the front.  Since they have to withstand tough winter weathers the absorber plate must be able to gather energy and the insulation store that energy.  Also the typical temperature of a absorber goes up to 200 deg C when the collector is empty, so all plumbing within it should be able to withstand that temperature.

   This is a home made design for Solar Collector plate where the black absorber plates are made of black coated Shelf Heat Spreader Plate, which are basically sheet metal

 made of poly or metal with grooves that are, built in, the absorber plate for the conduit.  The front is then covered with high intensity focussing glass sheet typically St. Gobain or other equal brands.  The back of the collector is insulated with insulation like Rock Wool.

More on this later, suffice to say, that a great Solar Collector is the key to all your water heating requirements       

       

“As I Perused All This in the Light Of The Sun, It became Clearer.”

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The Kitchen Sink

The Kitchen Sink

Like A Ghost From The Past

She had calmed down by the time she made the second call to me, “Were you listening to me the last  time?” she said quietly over the phone, “I want you here with me.”  There were some worries with her boy friend, I had sensed it the last time around.  “I am ok,” I said and asked her about her house in Reno. “It’s looking lovely up here now, the summers are upon us and the winds have changed direction, the Solar Energy System you had us install is doing very well too.” There was anxiety too here, but we spoke nicely to each other and put the phone down.

I had forgotten about Reno soon as I had got back, like a buried past

and got on with my life here, there were things to do and connections to revive and a job to look for.  In the meanwhile Deanna had gone from one stepping stone to another, she excelled in her profession and had made her moves in the journalism industry too. 

Soon it was 2012 and her first call had been in the month of December that had left me wondering but I had been eager to talk to her, she had been a friend beyond all boundaries and I had forgotten the animosity of the past.  Her tone had conveyed to me that something was amiss now, which was unusual, she normally handled her profession and personal life with aplomb.

Whatever it was, now we would manage it without any problems, like always after talking to her, life was looking like a fast car on an open highway

                             “Life is a Highway, Gonna Ride it All Night Long.”

The Art Of Enchantment

de·sign : to plan and fashion artistically or skillfully.

Still wondering about her, I said to myself, “Let’s Sketch,” it was late night on Saturday, nowhere to go, I took out out an A4 sheet and my sketch pens and laid the margins, I had the T-square, the Compass, Oil Paints, a splash of colour is never appreciate by corporate audience but then this was me. I started to create what I had dreamt of for 6 months now.

 Once I had the sketch ready, I put it into my design folder neatly

stacked up with all my other work, life was getting lonely, there were hardly any friends and work kept me extremely busy.  I took the scanned copy from my Design room and walked to Tech Lab and started to render it out on the machine.  It was taking time to render it and I still had 30 minutes to go, so I walked out for a smoke, heart heavy and feet numb, I took out a Marlboro and lit it up while this voice kept saying in my head,    “Honey It’s Time To Design,”   I just didn’t know where to look, so kept staring out of my window, it was dark, gloomy and dark, just how I had seen the world for months now, a place to eat, sleep and work, the noise on the computer woke me up from reverie and I walked back to the Tech Lab and stared at what I had, it looked perfect, “It always does, it always does, till it goes to the market,” my mind snapped back at me.

Money drives the world, from the marketplaces to the oversized malls; the moneyed economy was ruining the minds of people who still had it in them to create.  If I took the market driven path then I give you what everybody gives you, content, graphics, design and code, its easy isn’t it ? Just do what everybody is doing, stay with the herd and earn bucks for every single effort of yours, pilfer and plagiarize, a big house and Buick outside the house, a pretty wife and two kids standing on the porch.

                              

The Code “P”

Design is all about :

Pattern                                                                            

Panache

Personal

Poise

Perfection.

These are the 5 P’s of design that I have known for centuries, right down from the design of money to the design of websites.  I have adored history, knowing that through centuries, and especially after the World War – II, design has always been shy of media, it hides from publicity, likes to be subtle and sure, defining moment for me during this night.

An umbrella during the rain with water trickling down the sides, the clouds that look menacing before the burst and so beautiful, “Hey, what’s up ?” and I am thinking if it rains today I could design the night away and it did rain today. 

My Tech Lab was looking a little like cluttered and I started to look around for my Book on Design, it wasn’t really about making money, it was me who wanted to design this for myself and I was going to be patient, it always paid to wait around these parts, it was forbidden around here to finish the task before time, it wouldn’t do to ramp up, it was forbidden.

  

Design is a very clean process, and the more we talk about the more we learn, for instance, that special design you thought you saw up there goes into the dustbin, it is all a right brain process.  The design is to the left brain what the code to the right brain and once we have a layout ready I would merge code with it.  I prefer doing everything on my own, it’s all in the design, nobody wants to know what makes it work, but if it looks great then everyone is floored.  So here’s what I came up with after a cup of coffee of course.

  clean and simple, 

                   with straight lines and

                                                   classic colours to which the coder gives

                                             give a classic 2 column,

                                       with custom graphics.

                   “I got The Blues Tonight and The Rhythm is Awesome”

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All The Best - Efficiency and Excellence

All The Best – Efficiency and Excellence

You Were So Good To Me

She calmly sat in the car as I drove her to the house, she kept talking about something and I wasn’t listening, the Chief’s vote had been in our favour and of course, she had forgotten that she had shouted at me.

It had taken a while to calm myself down, “Seeing her true colours?” my mind had snapped back at me, and I had told myself to calm down, I had seen this before so why was it hurting me so much today, I drove the Dodge V8 slowly while she spoke of what we would do now, maybe eat and get to the house again. 

I was the chaperone I knew that, my role was all figured out

until today, then it had dawned on me that I was nothing to her.  I had side stepped questions from her friends in the city council building and had walked out, seeing from the corner of my eye Chief’s approval only.  

I ran around the back soon as we got home, looked around for my bag and started packing clear in my head that it was time to get back to where I had come from; truth had been made abundantly clear to me, leaving me in doubt what my next step was going to be.

“Aren’t you going to be making some dinner,” she shouted from the living room, I quietly left the house and walked on to the stream that flowed close to the house, there was a cluster of trees where I usually sat down to smoke.  I sat there and waited for a sign, ten minutes turned to fifteen before this old man appeared out of the background, he wore a thick robe, it was cold, he was smoking a cigar with a Stetson on his head, I wasn’t sure about the gun running laws here but I think I spotted a holster around his belly.

“You waiting,” he asked, I just nodded my head and pointed to the stream, “Fishing then?” he said with a grimace, “It isn’t allowed here.”
“Yes sir,” I said melancholically, no peace today here either, “Goodnight boy,” he said as I walked away.  I took the long route home and reached at 11pm, late enough to avoid her.  Next morning I sold my Dodge V8 and took the train home.

                                    “I Just haven’t met You Yet.”

Taming the Shrew

I have been hearing a lot of talk about why should we change equipment to get Solar installed, shouldn’t solar work for our existing equipment?

A few interesting points here:

1.     Solar will work for the existing equipment

2.     It will work as efficiently as your grid does for the equipment

3.     Savings on the Grid are magnified when converted to Solar

4.     Grid and Solar are both electricity

What constitutes an energy efficient system is the Energy Star Rating, so let’s break it up, bird by bird, stone by stone, to the top 5 in each category:

Ceiling Fans

Refrigerators

Television

Computer Monitor

More on how these efficiencies affect the electricity that we pay for later on, for today I think I could rest my case.

                   

                  “I got The Blues Tonight and The Rhythm is Awesome”

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