1311C Huérfanos

Exactly a year ago, to the day, was my first day in Chile. My first time stepping out of India. I received an email from Prateek Dayal saying

The address of the place is 

http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1440&bih=764&gs_upl=7151l9201l0l9344l11l7l0l0l0l0l264l1375l2-6l6l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&q=huerfanos+santiago&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x9662c5aeead41f25:0xa5f36ed22d10adde,Hu%C3%A9rfanos,+Santiago,+Regi%C3%B3n+Metropolitana,+Chile&gl=in&ei=PDDBTtfwNYnKgQfO6rCtBw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ8gEwAA

Apartment is 1311C

Well! What is more accurate than a Google Map link? Without much ado, I started my journey from New Delhi. The initial excitement of flying outside India turned to anxiousness when negotiating the never ending procedures of boarding an International flight. Finally, I was off the ground, marking the start of the first leg of my journey and the return of my excitement. After a stop over in Dubai for three hours, another in Sao Paulo for sixteen hours and 42 hours of grueling journey, it was relief when I landed in Santiago.

Outside the airport, I was greeted by a old taxi driver, who said

“Hola, ¿ ??? #### !!!!!! ?”.

Assuming he was asking for the address, I showed him the print out of the email. Armed with my address and a bit of help from Google Maps, the taxi driver led me away from the airport towards the lofty Andes at the foot of which lay Santiago. Soon, we turned off the highway into the orderly streets of the city centre. All addresses in Chile contain a number and a street name. Thats it! Not even a pin code. After a few traffic signals, we were on Huérfanos, which translates to Orphans! The taxi driver dropped me off at an intersection leaving me to tend to myself.

I was standing in front of a office building with a huge brass sign saying “1440” on it. I started my search for the number 1311 around the block with my luggage rattling along behind me on the stone pavement. The numbers of the building decreased exponentially rather than in increments of one and soon was way bellow 1311! Confused, I doubled back to check if I had missed it. But 1311 remained illusive.

I approached a street vendor and asked, 

“Hello, Where can I find this address?”.

She looked at the printout and then at me and replied, 

”???? ?? ????????? ?? ¿Espaniol?”.

Oh! She doesn’t know English! I smiled and moved on to the next vendor and repeated my query.

“No, Englees… Espaniol!”, he replied

A few more enquires, it became pretty clear no one knew English! Soon, I was pointing to printout for asking directions. After being led around the block a few times, each time making me more anxious, I decided that, either the apartment 1311 does not exist or its like Grimund Place!

Fortunately, Prateek had given his cell number, in case of emergencies. Well, the situation I was in qualified to be one and I headed towards the nearest telephone booth. I had a few thousand Pesos left and I put in a 100 Peso into the telephone and started dialing. To my dismay, the telephone only accepted six digits, where as the cell number was 10. After a few desperate tries and losing nearly 1000 Pesos, I slammed the receiver back in frustration. 

There I was standing alone with my luggage in a new city, my first time being outside India, where no one knew English, where the only guy I knew could not be reached because of 4 digits and I was running low on money.

All my options had run out and I was urging my blank brain to restart when my eyes caught something which put a smile on my face.

An Internet Cafe! I hurried towards it, sat in front of one of the computers and typed “gmail.com” in the browser’s address bar. (By the way, the browser was IE! Can’t whine or complain in desperate times) The login page came up on the screen and it was in…

Guess what? Espaniol!

Then I looked down on the keyboard and was shocked to realize it was a Spanish keyboard! The keys were out of place. Typing my email address was near impossible because <Shift + 2> was not the usual character “@”, even though the key had an “@” on its face. I tried different combinations of keys, but to no avail. I never had so much trouble in typing one of the most basic character on the internet. I was saved by my skills as a geek as I typed “@” using the OnScreen Keyword!

Finally I was able to access my Gmail and sent an SOS to Prateek. After a few tense minutes, I received his reply asking me to stay where I was. Fifteen minutes later, I was in another cab with Prateek, heading towards my actual destination. It turns out, the “orphaned” road discontinues for 10 blocks, leaving a big gap along the length of the road, which confused Google Maps resulting in a erroneous location! One of the banes of relying on technology. But it was the very same technology which pulled me out of the woods. So, I guess, the boon and the bane cancel each other out.

So my first day in Chile was more eventful than I had bargained for. But that was just the beginning of six months of adventure!

Story #Hack

Last weekend, I was back in Bangalore, back at the Write Club attending a Story #Hack competition organized by Campus Dairies. The theme was “Impulse”. Here is my try:

Kleptomania

Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items for reasons other than personal use or financial gain.

It was the beginning of the day like any other. Ramu was up early and attending to the task of offloading the supply truck. Hundreds of boxes of all shapes and sizes containing computers and its accessories were delivered to the Saukar Babu’s store everyday. Ramu’s job was to carry all the boxes to the godown, go through the inventory and sign off the shipment. It was a job with responsibility and Ramu had earned it. Ramu was about to lock up and move on to his next task when he felt searing pain in his head and heard his inner voice whisper..

“Go on steal one of the boxes… No one will notice…”.

———

Ramu was manning the front desk of the store. The business was thin. The headache was gone. It had been happening to Ramu for a while now. He could clearly remember the day it first happened. Ramu, as usual, had gone to pick up ten boxes of brand new Sandisk Flash Drives from neighboring Hameed Bhai’s store. Hammed Bhai had place the ten boxes in front of him. Hammed Bhai had not counted it yet. He was busy making a huge profit with an unwary customer. He suddenly tensed and he could hear his inner voice turn malicious 

“Take two…”

“No. I can’t. I had enough trouble the last at the other shop”, Ramu replied.

“Hameed or Saukar do not know about that. There is no risk”

“But, Saukar has warned not to steal from Hammed Bhai”

He had come back with twelve Sandisk Flash Drives even though Saukar had gifted him one just last week.

———

Saukar Babu could see the distant look in Ramu’s eyes. He had seen it many times. But Babu didn’t care. The kid was a good investment. The kid’s meals and the room he paid for had made him a millionare. He had the biggest and busiest computer shop in all of SP Road and maybe in Bangalore. Babu had noticed the kid had a knack for stealing. All street kids do. But Ramu was exceptional. Babu had used this to his advantage. He had hatched a plan to eliminate two of his competitors. The items from one of his competitor’s shop started showing up in the other. Soon they were down each other’s throats and had ended nastily. It was all fun for the kid. 

Recently Babu had given the kid a computer and a flash drive. The kid had teared up, confirming kid’s loyalty to himself.

———

Ramu opened the latch of his old, battered trunk. He removed all his clothes revealing stacks of dust covered, unopened boxes of various brands of flash drives. Not all that Ramu stole for Saukar made it to the places they were meant to go. Ramu added one more to his collection and sighed. He didn’t know what to do with them. He could not return it back to their owner. He didn’t even know who were the owners as they were many. Infact, he might have stolen from almost every shop in the street.

“You are pathetic!”, said his inner voice.

“Shut Up! You are the reason for all this. I can’t stop the urge, the impulse to steal when you are around. I want to steal from myself now!”, Ramu shouted out load.

“You didn’t seem to complain my presence a few years ago”, sneered the voice.

“It was fun back then. I could not comprehend the consequences. Now, I realize it resulted in two deaths!”, Ramu shuddered.

The voice was silent.

———

It was a hot afternoon. Babu was standing in the middle of godown sweating profusely. The place was completely ransacked. Ramu was standing beside him in disbelief. Babu, in his head, was narrowing down the list of people who could have done this. He knew all the big players in the computer Mafia. He was one of them. Only a few dared to pull off something like this. He stormed off in a rage - to act on impulse.

———

Ramu was sitting in a truck. His long time friend, the delivery guy, was behind the wheel. Ramu knew Saukar would be in his favorite drink hole or will be dead. Ramu didn’t care. Saukar had used him and made him do things which had given raise to his voice. He was off to a new place to start a new life. The trunk contained half of the boxes from Saukar’s godown which the delivery guy and himself had taken before they ransacked the place. This was his ticket to success. He will soon do big things, will have his own store…

“And, steal more”, smiled the voice.

I can write poems!!

I always have been a hater of poems and anything Shakespearean. When I heard the next Write-Club meetup is all about poems, I considered skipping it. But I ended up at the meetup and braved myself for a boring session. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The session was all about poems; poems which are fun to write! We started out with a form of poetry called Acrostic poems

An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message.

We were each given a picture for which we have to assign a theme and construct an acrostic poem around it. I got an image of a sunset and this is what I could come up with (Warning: These are my first poems)

Theme from the image: THE FIERY SKY

The sun dropped down the horizon 

Hesitant to leave behind his beloved sky

Enraged to be conquered by the silent moon


Freeze! ordered the sun

I am the king of the sky

Earth gave no heed and continued on

Raged, the sun lashed out

Yellow went the sky


Surrendered, the sun at last

Kneeling to the nature’s feet

Yellow then turned to black


The second part of the session was even more interesting. We were thrown into a difficult world of Shape poems. Poems which conform to a particular shape in structure and in meaning. For example, if the shape is a triangle then the writing should start in a negative mood and end in the positive. 

The first poem is a single narrative. I hope the shape is apparent.

                                               I laughed aloud, This is easy

                                               I ran up the mountain

                                               Had my first fall

                                               It hurt bad

                                               Pain

                                        Blood       

                                 Fear to fail

                          Evil Cruel smile 

              On the mountain’s face

Dejected, I bowed to the mighty


The second poem is a two narrative. My poem is from the perspective of the good and the bad in the same person. Read each vertical half separately.

 He                                                                       I

  Is in                                                           am in

  trouble                                                  trouble

   Find solution                             Find solution

    As soon as possible      As soon as possible

     We both must survive, here and now

    We are all but one        I need him to feed

   In symphony                      All I built in vain 

  We live                                           If I die now 

 Forever                                                    in pain

Once                                                              ends

I never thought that I would one day write a poem. Hope you enjoyed these. Critics always welcome :D

Startup Freedom

Originally Posted On: 2nd April 2012

Its been an year since I joined SupportBee and the kind of learnings is huge. I want to share some of the highlights of these learnings.

Usually the word ‘freedom’ has always been associated with startups, but at SupportBee we take it to new heights. To give a perspective, in the last year I have worked from four different cities without losing much of productivity. The concept of office has been taken out of the four walls (or cubicle) and pushed out to the wilderness. (You can work from the space station if you want ;) ). These philosophies line up with those of successful companies like 37Signals as clearly stated by Jason Fried, CEO of 37Signals in the following TED talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html

My time at SupportBee has taken me from Bangalore to New Delhi to Santiago, Chile to my current location of Valparaiso, Chile. My current ‘office’ looks something like this

And to top it all, the locations of my team members are entirely different.

Processes

We follow certain processes which allows us to be flexible.

When I started out a SupportBee in Bangalore we had an office where we used to work out off. Even though the entire team was in the same room all conversations used to happen through a group chat tool called Campfire. More Info

The advantage of this is two fold:

  • The obvious advantage of this is that it immediately removes the need to actaully talk to get this done.
  • Secondly it serves as a documentation of all the discussions or decisions made every day.

The other tool which helps us keep all our tasks streamlined is PivotalTracker.

All the discussions in group chats or Google Docs end up as a task in this tool which can be picked up by anyone who wants to work on it. Again this removes the need for any kind of interaction to get things done. This particularly helps if the team is spread round the world and work from different time zones.

These processes have helped us to make the world our office. Now this is the ‘freedom’ I am not ready to lose. Exciting days ahead..

It was a pleasure to burn

Yesterday I decided to do something about my craving to write. I went a Write Club Bangalore meetup (More info) I had an awesome time meeting other writers and learning something from them. One of the exercises was to write about 200 words starting with “It was a pleasure to burn”. So here goes my attempt.

It was a pleasure to burn. For too long I was locked up in the dark and dingy cell. I had lost all my shine and purity because of the fine brown dust that settled on my body. I had to endure the sharp edges of sheets of paper thrown around me which cut deep into my body. My head hurt of being useless. The constant counting of the days to the end made me miserable. I always dreamed of the nights I would shine brightly, radiating light outward in full glory. And then, out of the blue, I was standing again. I could feel the hard wood of the cell in which I was shut all along. I heard my friend, giver of light, scream in joy and touch me.

The dullness in my head cleared as it slowly dawned on me that I was alive. I space around me lit up with golden light filling me with joy as I served the purpose of my life. I was a pleasure to burn.

I hope from the above write up, you guys can guess the thing personified here. 

The “Me, Too” Startup Syndrome

funtrepreneur:

Twas the night before YC deadline, when all through the valley

Creatures were stirring with excitement for the big night in Cali

Thousands of applications were typed with care

In hopes that the golden ticket will soon be there

And a few girlfriends slept alone in their beds

While visions of exits danced in their boyfriends’ heads

when out of the blues my iPhone lets out a loud ring

It was an old friend I was meeting that night for a drink...

Read More

The Magical Sky

While researching places to visit in Chile, I stumbled upon two videos that captured my imagination. One was a video called “A Story of Tomorrow” featuring most of the spectacular spots in Chile from the north to the south. This video inspired me to go to Pucon.

The second one was one of the night sky in Atacama.

Atacama is considered as one of the best places to do star gazing. It offers clear skies almost all round the year. It has a number of “Very Large Telescope” observatories peppered through out. This inspired me to go north to San Pedro de Atacama a small town in the middle of Atacama.

I was suggested to contact an agency called “Observacion del cielo austral” who conduct star gazing tours from San Pedro. The tour is conducted by Spaceobs started by a French astronomer Alain and his team in English, Spanish and French. Due to bad weather, few of the recent tours had been canceled. The weather gods showed me mercy and cleared the skies on the day of my tour.

I had booked for the English tour (finally something in ingles!!) which would last for two and a half hours starting at 9.30 in the evening. I was bundled with a group of Americans, Canadians and Australians and whisked to the middle of the desert. The bus slithered through the desert to a spot off the main road guided by a set of lights like an air strip.

We were greeted by the guide for the day, Les Nagy; a hilarious Canadian astronomer who moved to Atacama for his love of the sky and who talks like Anthony Bourdain. Blankets were offered to people who forgot that nights are cold in Atacama. 

I really wish I had a recording of Les’s tour of the sky. It was a well planned and performed act like a magic trick. It had a Pledge, a Turn and a Prestige.

The Pledge

We were standing in a light glow from the sky filled with hundreds of stars. The Milky Way spread overhead exactly like I had seen in the video. I soon realized that the moon was missing from the sky! The whole ground was lit with pale blue only by the stars above us!! This in itself was a awe inspiring sight and we were just getting started. 

Les explained that it was not the best sky with the black patches of the clouds blocking some areas. The tour started by transporting us back thousands of years, when our ancestors observed the sky with the naked eye.

Soon we were on our way of identifying the Southern Cross and hence the southern pole on the sky where no star is present!! The north star had already set and was below the horizon. Now that we were oriented in the sky, we started identifying the “wandering stars (planets)”. We were able to see Mars and Saturn high above our heads.

Our ancestors being hunter gathers; with lots of time to spare started drawing shapes in the sky and giving rise to all the constellations we know today as the zodiac. It seemed they were drinking while they were doing this because as we moved from Gemini through the zodiac,it required all the imagination that one could posses to recognize the shapes in the sky!

Our ancestors soon realized they could use the stars to track seasons. They in-turn built the Stonehenge to keep track of the stars. Some brilliant people thought if stars can predict the season then it could predict humans leading to the formation of early Astrology. 

For years the sky was just twinkling stars, five planets, the sun and the moon circling around the earth inside different spheres. 

The Turn

By now we were acquainted with major parts of the sky which our naked eye could make out. It was all about to change thanks to Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus. We all know the bloody battle which raged afterwards. Finally with the telescope and much needed proof we knew the skies as we know it today.

We were all led to twelve telescopes of different kinds, shapes and sizes, setup all over the field. Soon we identified Sirius, gas clouds in the milky way, star clusters like Omega Centauri all the while discussing Light Year, distances of stars and colours of stars.

A few telescopes were motorized designed to follow the point in the sky all through the night. These were pointed at Mars (supposed to be red even though I didn’t see the color) and Saturn (surreal with its rings). As we moved along, the size of the telescopes kept increasing. The brightest star Sirius through the telescope looked spectacular. The Omega Centauri made up of young stars all of the same brightness and same age (formed from the same gas cloud) could be seen clearly. The Jewel Box looked vibrant made up of stars of different colours. A few of stars that we saw through the telescope have already escaped the confines of my brain.

The images seen through the telescopes are so spectacular, it made me think if all this was a trick!

The Prestige

Take the telescopes away then everything seems normal. Its just the night sky. Even if its a spectacular one. We all went towards a small hut illuminated by dull red light from the telescope field. The third part of the tour is a Q&A session with Les and a large cup of hot chocolate (drink orders were taken during blanket time).

The atacama desert is the location of constant astronomical activity. Our discussions during the hot chocolate ranged from ALMA which will soon be the world largest telescope  to Google and James Cameron’s audacious plans for asteroid mining. I came to know that at any moment one can see 3000 stars in the sky (without a telescope).

As the hot chocolate emptied I realized that this magical act is about to end. We got on the bus amazed at the things I had learnt. For the whole journey back I could not take my eyes off the sky. Truly Magical.

Foodie Passion

My activity on saturday evenings here in Valparaiso is usually a long walk along the bike track by the sea and listening to live music (surprisingly English songs too!!!) on the old pier. 

But today I stay back home watching Gordon’s Great Escape . Its a British television series
featuring my favourite professional chef Gordon Ramsay . If you follow any cooking shows outside India (I do!! Huge fan of MasterChef Australia) then you will know this guy. He is the owner of more than 20 restaurants and holds more than 10 Michelin stars. But he is most famous for his temper and ‘on the face’ comments.

In the Great Escape, Gordon, considered to be one of the best chefs in the world travels around India to gain expertise in the cuisine which baffles the chefs of the west. My interest in the show was to find the answer to the question ‘Will a chef from the west ‘get’ my mom’s cooking?’

My experiences with food here in Chile left me very doubtful of the answer to be ‘Yes’. For sure Chileans cant. The basic knowledge of how to use salt and pepper which even a novice cook like me is a master of, cant seems to find itself into the local dishes here. Also the concept of vegetarian completely baffles people here. ( Chile is supposed to be far better than Argentina. A fellow traveller suggested to me that if I ever go across the border, I should tell the locals that I am allergic to meat instead of explaining ‘vegetarian’) 

 Coming back to the show, Gordon travels to all corners of India exploring different cuisines and also challenging himself to create dishes from what he has learnt. This passion of learning from a top chef of his caliber, is truly an inspiration for me to keep honing my skills everyday. In the end, being the world class chef that he is, Gordon masters our techniques of cooking and even cooks the main course for the Mumbai’s elite at the Taj. 

Also the show has inspired me to enter the kitchen more often when I go back to India!! So Mom/Sis here comes the long overdue help you always wanted in the kitchen… or at least you pray I will be of help ;) 

A chat with Volcon Villarrica

  • Me: Hey! Volcan/Volcano Villaria (VV) I am gonna climb and conquer you
  • VV: Hey Kiddo! If I spit you are smoke!!
  • So the fight began...
  • The chair lift which takes climbers to half the volcano broke down.
  • VV: ;)
  • Me: Grr...
  • So began the climb through rocks and volcanic mud..
  • After 2 hours of climbing ( felt like 10 hrs )
  • Me: Haha.. we are near the ice... only 600mts to go..
  • VV: So sure of yourself are you? Take this...
  • The wind blew at 60kmph and the volcanic smoke (poisonous) was right in the path of the climb.
  • VV: :D :D
  • Fortunately the climbers with me had their eyes on the summit. They willed against going back.
  • Me: So crampons on!! Here I come..
  • After a few minutes
  • Me: How the heck one balances on ice??
  • <thud> First Fall
  • The more willed and "used to snow" fellow climbers left me and moved on.
  • VV: How are you feeling? :P
  • Me: I will have the last laugh.....
  • After jumping some crevices and more climbing.
  • Me: <panting for breath> Just 200mts now.. I will get you
  • VV: Ha ha.. Here I will make it easy...
  • The wind was gone..
  • 15 mins later.. I quit.
  • VV: Go back home Kiddo!! Get fit and come back..
  • I sat there in the shadow of this mighty smoking volcano and I was finally awarded for my effort. The most beautiful and picturesque view of nature.
  • I bow to you Mother Earth