Stress and us

[Cross-posted on the FOSSEE Blog]
Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you, if you walk into our lab sometime and mistake it for a game zone in your neighbourhood. You are indeed in “the” lab. If you came looking for Prof. Prabhu you’ll have to return. You’ll only find PR vowing to see the end of baali, for having a nice time pawning him. You won’t find me around – I’m cloaked and busy creating havoc. Unless, of course, you are the seer KD. Watch your step extremely carefully or you won’t know when and how fuchmed’s GM hit you. And don’t dare venture anywhere near madrazr, jumping all around with a shockwave, unless you are capable enjoying some real nasty shocks. Well, the team is busy in one of it’s two SB sessions per day. SB (short for Stress Buster) sessions are intense 15 minute rounds of bzflag – 3D first person tank battle game.

Hope you didn’t start thinking, I’m just goofing off here, doing nothing at all. If it’s not already clear, SB sessions are exactly what they are called – Stress Busters. Just to refresh ourselves and get back to work, with greater force. What then, am I doing for the rest of my time?

Mainly I’ve been developing course content that we have been working on, called Software Tools, Techniques and Practices. I have been working on a session for elementary LaTeX and basic Linux tools. I’ve also been attending classes of Digital Control and trying to Python-ize the Matlab/Scilab code that the course uses.

But, that’s not all. I’ve helped a guy restore a Joomla site on Day-1. I screwed up a brand new installation of a server with some real skill; then expect to be screwed but get some encouragement with the words, “It was a good learning experience for us.” Seen a Debian server upgrade from Etch to Lenny in under 10 minutes. Installed an instance of twiki and struggled to configure it. Helped a Humanities Scholar with LaTeX. Attended a workshop on Instruction Design. Restored Qmail on an old Fedora 3 server. Goofed around in gimp, for a CD cover and a T-shirt design. Chipped in with bits, for mutating Ubuntu into “LivePython”. Did a bit of css and javascript tweaking… The list goes on!

Now, don’t you think we deserve the SB’s?

Filed under: College, Libre, Programming, Ramblings , bzflag, fossee, iitb, stress

A Confession

Lost in thought, in the maddening crowd waiting for the next train on a Sunday evening, I was staring blankly, looking at nothing in particular. I had come to see-off UC, Sunil and 9.

A man carrying a stretcher on his head, suddenly comes into my focus and I have an impulse to look down. But, I manage to look at people who are closer to the guy, and see looks of pity, shock and disgust. Most of them looked down, sooner than later. It was not long before the man, was right next to me and I could see an injured man lying on the stretcher with a stream of blood oozing out of his head. All I could manage was another expression of pity, shock and disgust. I didn’t want to act as if I had seen nothing. I didn’t want to stay as if I could do nothing about it. I didn’t want to look down. But, that’s all I ended up doing. The man carrying the stretcher was not exactly struggling, but I’m sure he would’ve more than liked some help. Not one amongst us moved.

Around half a minute later, I see a constable walking calmly (maybe with a shade of concern in his stride) in that direction. The next train was there in less than a minute and 9 got into it. I was feeling absolute disgust at my reaction. In the hope of making some amends, I walked in the direction that the stretcher guy took. Soon I found them. I didn’t have to search. There was an audience of onlookers, watching the stretcher carrying guy inspect the other guy. He was waiting near the entrance of the station and I’m guessing he had called for some medical help and was waiting for it to arrive. The policeman and a couple of others were standing next to him, while he was inspecting the injuries. Everybody else was watching — from the stairs, from the over bridge, the platform, the tracks. Everywhere. Being a part of that crowd was the last thing I wanted to do. I walked away.

PS: I (infact, we – uc, sunil, 9 and me) have had my own tryst with the Mumbai local. Keep your head on your shoulders, while you are anywhere near them. They are not the trains in your local fair.

Filed under: Ramblings , confession, local, mumbai