one very peaceful day after such a long time...

The past 15 days have been very hectic, very traumatic. Meetu's operation was due on 18th and in-laws were expected on 17th itself. But then they changed plans, included Chintu, Ruchi and Vidit too and then on 17th, managed to miss their connecting flight to Goa from Delhi. I had applied for a half day leave on Monday and then booked a taxi too. But then on learning that the darned flight had indeed left w/o my in-laws (the nerve of them), I had to cancel the taxi as well as the 1/2 day leave. Talk about stupidity...
Then on 18th, Meetu was taken for operation at around 11:30 and then no news came in till 2 PM. I was very very surprised. From the room to OT and then back, I kept asking for answers when I only got assurances. At 2:30, I learnt that Meetu has been moved to ICU and that appendix has also been removed along with the gall bladder. Everyone arrived at hospital at 4:30 and then there was chaos. Meetu was moved to the room at around 6 PM and so started the ordeal. The next day just flew, what from commuting from home to hospital and back. Then Meetu was discharged and we all came home. I joined back office and learnt that contract was being written. Now this contract had always put me at an unease, a growing sense of discomfort. Well, on Saturday, car broke down and I and Chintuji took it to Chowgule's service centre. While walking back, i got a call from VS that AW wanted me to come to his home. I refused hiding behind my car's breakdown and my wife's condition. A lot of discussions centred around the possibility of what would happen if i won't sign the contract. Eventually on Monday I had to go to AW's place and there after deliberating over it for 1 hour, I refused to sign the contract. AW got understandably angry but then relented and let me continue working. Then on Friday 28th, another drinking session occurred and I was told to move to Pune. I don't really want to but this time he doesn't look like relenting :-)
On the work front, I learnt about JXTable from Swinglabs which allows for row sorting from column for the application developed using JDK 1.5. I integrated it in the code of java poker client for mac and it worked like a charm.
Finally this Saturday 29th was the most peaceful of all. I was so relaxed, so at peace. Only my ma-in-law is here, there is no pressure on work or home front and I had time at hand to actually relax and just be here. Loved wasting every minute of it :-)

jeeves is really outstanding

I had read some of P G Wodehouse's work, esp those of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster but that had been a long time before. Last week, when I saw a collection of short stories of Jeeves, I couldn't control myself. And so far the book has been outstanding. I had forgotten the way Wodehouse crafts sentences and I am really really enjoying it. My reading speed has gone down a lot. Initially I used to read very fast but then I realized that by doing so, I was doing a lot of disservice to the author and to myself. Books are to be enjoyed, to be read slowly, to enter in their world and to experience it the way the author wants to. Wodehouse works belong to that category as does Dorothy L Sayers'.
India has been knocked out of T20 world cup. The way they were playing they didn't deserve to be in semi finals. Would Dhoni lose his captaincy? He should. He is tactfully very naive and he is also arrogant. Doesn't deserve the captaincy :-)
Meetu's operation is due on Tuesday in the JMJ hospital. We checked it out yesterday. It looked ok to go so be it.
On the workfront, we have got in touch with the Rounders client so let us see what transpires now. I learnt a new game STUD, fixed some bugs in the client and server and ensured that the remaining bugs be fixed by VS. Nice card game though.

constant change

things keep on changing constantly all around us. We change ever so slowly that we don't even realize we are changing. Relationships evolve or devolve ever so steadily constantly. At the workplace also, things have changed dramatically. I have been included in the inner circle of AW and some people are unhappy about it and some are happy but I don't care for either group. AW is a horrible man and his drink sessions and his lectures have become unbearable for me. I need a huge break from him and especially from this company.
On the workfront, things have stabilized very quickly. Now most of the issues are resolved and the client and server are performing well. Rounders n/w may even make the payment next week so things are looking really well over there.
Meetu has been diagnosed with stones in gall bladder and may need surgery. Her folks are coming here next week. We will have a second opinion on surgery and if the surgeon says so we will go for surgery.

sucess has many fathers, failure has none

When I decided to do an mba, the idea was to jump ahead and abroad, get a good job and a good salary hike and you know just settle down in a haze of admiring eyes. I had never thought about the worst case scenario where in I would fail to get a decent job and would have to come back. That's exactly what happened and well, this is all now an old story :-)
But this particular event had other repercussions, most notably of the change in the relations structure. The barbs, the taunts continue till this day. The snide remarks are still repeated. Insinuations of being poor and of being foolish are still made. The hurt and the pain are now dissipated and i don't feel angry or hurt when I hear about such remarks. But I have started believing in the adage quoted in the title of this post.

Where to now?

Recent events have really unsettled me. First VS's outburst which was followed by RN's departure and finally last night's AW's solid drama culminating in AK's outburst. Now you must understand VS and AK are solid, loyal soldiers of AW and if these people start protesting, issues are serious enough to warrant attention. What's going on? What is making these people react in such ungainly way?
One reason would be that AW's boorish behavior has simply irked them so much that they can't control their emotions. Or another reason could be to psych me out so that I start believing that things are really bad here and I should make a move somewhere else. why? because then it would be one person less to rake in the moolah. I don't know who to trust :-)
On the work front, I managed to fix one really pernicious bug. The behavior was very strange. Randomly, the moves buttons won't disappear on the client. It took me close to 7 days to figure out the bug. The issue was due to network delay. Once server sends a message to client, it would start its timer to monitor move time. Once client receives a message, it starts its own move monitoring time. But if n/w conditions introduce some palpable delay, then the server and client would be starting timers at different instants. So the server might even time out the client while the client is blissfully unaware. And then when server sends another message to client to inform it of whose move it is this time, the client should clear the moves. But it was not doing so :-)
Well the issue is fixed and done. Another step to make the client more stable...