Two stories

This morning I was searching my outlook for some particular info in an old mail and I happen to end up with reading this old forward from a friend, and felt its worth sharing it here


NUMBER ONE


Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. 
He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was his lawyer for a good reason. 
Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also Eddie got special dividends.

For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. 
The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. 
Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.

Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly.
Eddie saw to it that his young son had the best of everything: clothes, cars and a good education. 
Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.

Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name and a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. 
He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name and offer his son some semblance of integrity. 
To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great.

So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. 
But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he would ever pay.
Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion and a poem clipped from a magazine.

The poem read:

The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time,
For the clock may soon be still.




STORY NUMBER TWO


World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. 
He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. 
After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. 
His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. 
Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.


As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold, a squadron of Japanese aircraft were speeding their way toward the American fleet.
The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless.
He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. 
Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. 
There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.

Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. 
Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. 
Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. 
Undaunted, he continued the assault, he dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. 
The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had in fact destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. 
A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this
WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO, WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Butch O'Hare was Easy Eddie's son!

Back to the Memory Lane - III

Back to the Memory Lane - III

Back to the Memory Lane - II

Back to the Memory Lane - I

We were busy into talking and it took a while for me to notice the airhostess who was standing near us holding napkins. She grabbed two napkins for us and I stretched my hand for one. I unfolded it to clean my face. I closed my eyes, kept it on my forehead and that was when these lines in a Book by Coelho came in my mind, "When trying to seduce a woman, a writer always says: 'I'm a writer', and scribbles a poem on a napkin. It always works". I took off the napkin from my face, but still kept my eyes closed, took a deep breath and smiled to myself.

"What’s so funny now?" her lips were moving louder than her low pitched voice.

I turned to her, her raised eyebrows were seeking for an answer from me and she was trying to tie her hair.

"Nothing and I don’t mind if you want to call me with names for laughing with myself"

"I was with an impression that I am the craziest and here we have someone to prove me wrong"

"Thank you"

“You are most certainly welcome, but before that tell me why were you smiling?”

I told her about why I was smiling. And she started smiling now and before I could ask her anything, she asked me, “Don’t you want to give it a shot with me?”

“What?”

 “You mean, you can’t write anything poetic or romantic?”

“It’s that you are not up to my level”

And that was when we got to know about each other. We spoke a lot and before we taking our own way, we exchanged each other’s email ids.

Excitement of going back home, even after 2 weeks break is almost overwhelming. I had totally forgotten about her until I received a mail from her, which I have checked 2 days after she had mailed. There was nothing special written in her mail except for she informing she is back in town and also she had added her contact number. I was one among many addressed in that mail. And generally I don’t respond to those mails addressed to mass. So, I didn’t bother to reply.



[Will continue this in the next post.. soon...]

Coverage

“Is it free for you during weekend?” he asked her.

I got shocked, not realizing what exactly he wanted to ask her.

She dint get it either, she responded back with a question mark on her face.

“I mean, is it free for you to make a call from your cell phone during weekend?”

She responded positively this time, “yeah”

“Which service provider do you have?”

“US carrier”

“Do you have network coverage now?”

“Yeah, we get it here; it’s the only one which has coverage in this area”

“Do you mind if I use your cell phone to make a call?”

Again a bit of hesitation on her face, but she responded with “yeah, of course”

He had to make a call to his girl friend and there was no network coverage for both T Mobile and AT & T service provider                !! Its surprisingly strange that even in such a well known tourist places, there won’t be good coverage by these well established service providers!

While I was driving through one such remote [or rather no coverage] area, suddenly I got a message, and it was a Voice Message. That was the only time I appreciated “You have a new Voice Message” getting displayed on my cell. I took my car to a halt at the shoulders and for next ten minutes, we guys were busy making calls!

===============================================

There is more of coverage problems, though very different one this time. One of many disadvantage of being away from home [in a different country] is Coverage of Medical Insurance. If your parents/dependents are away, then your medical insurance won’t cover them! I need get medical insurance for my mother and sister, who live in India.

===============================================

During our last meeting at office, out Product Owner told, “Team, our coding/software release standard says that we should be having at least of 80% coding coverage from now onwards and lets start with You [pointing at my friend]”

“But, why me?” was his immediate response.

I told him, “Dude, I have 2 tips for you, code it so that you don’t have many if else and switch statements and the 2^nd one is, if ever you have lots of such codes, comment out all else statements with #if 0”

Having said that, I started thinking on that on a serious note. It can be a good practice if we write code with ifs and not else.

For example:

Rather than writing code with lots of ifs and elses, I think its better to write it so that, we avoid else conditions.

Advantage being:

(i)                  well readable [lots of if else confuses me a lot]

(ii)              maintenance is easy [maintaining blocks of if else or to modify one is a tough job]

(iii)          don’t have to worry about code coverage!

One such sample code [which I wrote now, though this might not have lots of significance]

int AddContacts(ContactDetails* pContacts) {

      int res = OK;

      if(pContacts){

            ContactDetails* contacts = new ContactDetails;

            if(contacts) {

                  if(pContacts->name) {

                        contacts->name = new char[strlen(pContacts->name)];

                        if(contacts->name) {

                              strcpy(contacts->name, pContacts->name, strlen(pContacts->name));

                              //copy other data similarly...

                              ...

                        }

                        else {

                              res = ERR_MEMORY;

                        }

                  }

                  else {

                        res = ERR_ARGUMENT;

                  }

            }

            else {

                  res = ERR_MEMORY;

            }

      }

      else {

            res = ERR_ARGUMENT;

      }

      return res;

}

Re-writing the same with avoding the else condition.

This function below takes care of all the error condition that above code is doing and also the same functionality.

int AddContacts(ContactDetails* pContacts) {

      int res = ERR_ARGUMENT;

      if(pContacts){

            //set error as ERR_MEMORY

            res = ERR_MEMORY;

            ContactDetails* contacts = new ContactDetails;

            if(contacts) {

                  //set error as ERR_ARGUMENT

                  res = ERR_ARGUMENT;

                  if(pContacts->name) {

                        //set error as ERR_MEMORY

                        res = ERR_MEMORY;

                        contacts->name = new char[strlen(pContacts->name)];

                        if(contacts->name) {

                              strcpy(contacts->name, pContacts->name, strlen(pContacts->name));

                              //copy other data similarly...

                              ...

                              res = OK;

                        }

                  }

            }

      }

      return res;

}

And also, one can write C++ codes very effectively and efficiently by avoiding if else statements with polymorphism [by constructing an object of different type for each such cases and directly invoking that functionality on that object]

===============================================

When asked us about who is suppose to work on a task, my colleague/friend of mine told my Product Owner, “I am done with my part and now its Girish’s responsibility”

I said, “Ok, I will do it” though I seriously got pissed off with this, but I dint utter a word at that time.  I came back to my desk and avoiding a conversation with him as I knew that if I do, I might take a toll at him. Even after giving more than an hour gap, I was still unhappy about it and I wanted him to know about it.

“Since when you started deciding upon what I am supposed to be doing?” I asked him.

And this time he got pissed off for me asking like that and he stopped talking to me ;)

===============================================

When we were entering office through the main entrance, we saw few of our colleagues standing outside the back side entrance in a group and into some serious discussion. We ignored them and got into elevator, and I could not resist my curiosity and asked my friend, “what would be they doing down there?”, but I asked that in kannada (my mother tongue].The lady who was in the elevator with us, got that context though the last thing she would know is a word from Kannada and told me, “Few Indians and few Chinese are trying to communicate with a Spanish to guide her to USA Embassy”

To Kill a Squirrel

I think I have killed a squirrel this Sunday.

When we were kids, they used to tell us the story of Squirrels helping (Lord) Rama in constructing the bridge to (Sri) Lanka to find his wife (Sita). The moral of the story was to convey us that every little things matter. One doesn’t have to think about how big/huge (quantity) is the help, but the idea of helping someone, doing those small little things also count.

Rama was so impressed with the aLilu Seve of these Squirrels that he took them all in his hand, one by one and with his three fingers he marked three lines on its back, which represents Rama, Sita and Lakshmana.

We were told that touching those lines on a Squirrel’s back means good fate for us and seeing a Squirrel before exam means good luck! During our school days we used to spend more time on looking out for a Squirrel than to study for the exams. We used to throw stones at all the birds and monkeys if they try to eat any fruits in our neighborhood, but we never used to do anything even if Squirrels finish off jack fruits or mangoes.

Last week, I drove to Missouri with two of my friends to visit few of the Springs in Shanon county. We were on our way back home through a hilly road which was going in all zigzag passion. I saw this Squirrel on road from certain distance away from it. I could manage to apply break and the Squirrel, which was on its way to cross the road stood for a while and it seemed to me as if it has made a decision to go back from where it started. So, I turned the steering towards right, which is away from it so that it gets its way. But half way through, it changed its mind and turned back. So, I had to turn the car towards left now, to avoid me running over it. I don’t know what exactly went in its mind, but I was so damned afraid that I would kill it by then. I dint had much time to apply the break to get the car to a complete halt and this guy sitting in the back seat of the car had motion sickness and I was worried that he might end up vomiting as he was totally uncomfortable with that hilly road. But still I could manage to slow down the car a bit; I managed to avoid it coming under the front wheels, but then came this small jerk. And I end up running over it!!

I had to grow up from being a kid to what I am now, I had to relocate to USA two years back from Bangalore [Bengaluru], and this Friday, I had to drive all the way to Missouri from Dallas to kill a Squirrel.

Ah, its bothering me a lot, I think I have killed a Squirrel L

Back to the Memory Lane - II

Back to the Memory Lane - I

"Yes!!" I told to myself while taking off my sweater and keeping it on the seat next to me as it was not occupied. With that positive note in my mind, I could able to read the novel peacefully.

I heard someone saying a "Hi" and I ignored it as I was not sure whether it was addressed to me or not. Again a louder "HI" and the voice were not that pleasant. I looked up with expressing kind of some light irritation in my eyes. There was a surprise for me. She was standing there looking at the book that I was reading. I immediately expressed happiness in my eyes overriding surprise and that stupid irritation.

I responded, "Hey".

She smiled back to me and that was the first time she smiled at me. There was something special in her smile, name it as "different". I said, "Please sit", taking my sweater and placing it on my lap.

"How do you know that I came here to sit beside you?" she said.

May be she was trying to be very smart with me? But I didn’t care much about it. I replied, "Until now nobody took the pain of walking all the way from that corner of the row till here to say me a Hi!"

"Yeah, you are right. I was getting irritated by the guy sitting next to me. When he is awake he tries to be extra nice and when he is sleeping he snores like a frog"

"Hamm, that’s sad to know. By the way I was not trying to be extra nice to you. I was trying to help someone"

Shit!! Words came out of me! I hate it when people start giving explanation to defend their actions, but it was exactly the same which I was trying to then! I felt like I would not have uttered that line.

"Thank you, you made your point clear though I dint look for any clarification"

I smiled back to her cutting that conservation as I realized that I got into a strange conversation with a stranger!

There were a few moments of silence between us. I was looking outside the window, trying to imagine how nice it will be to fall through that thick layer of clouds below the flight.

"So, you are a software engineer"

"Don’t tell me that your other hobby is face reading!"

"I don’t have to look at your face to tell that" she answered with a smile.

"Yeah, I am one among millions of IT professionals. What do you do?"

"I am pursuing my Law"

"Hamm, Good! Good! We need some good lawyers in India to take up all old cases and give them an end before it’s too late"

"I don’t have any plan to do a revolution in that aspect!"

"Oh come on, you young generation have to change India"

"Can you make it as we young generation?"

I replied with all possible seriousness in my face, "yes, your honor".

She laughed. "Looking at the enormous count of pending cases, it takes ages to close them. And let’s talk something other than law and computers"

[Will continue this in the next post.. soon...]

If ever I had let the madness takeover...

From last couple of days [after this Day Light Savings Time] I am having tough time to fall asleep on my regular time [which is 11 PM]. And it was the same even yesterday. So rather than wasting my time by rolling from one end of the bed to another, I decided to do something different, like how differently I would have responded to some past situations if I was mad at that.

Incident#1:

“I need two years of commitment from you, to work with me” – this is what one of the manager told me, when he wanted me in his team.

I had to smile at that statement and responded, “I guess this is something which I can’t do right now”

“No, I want you to promise me that you are committed for next 2 years” came his reply!

“Nope, I really doubt about it, I think I am the wrong choice if you want 2 years commitment”

If I were mad at him at that time, I would have told him, “I dint even give 2 years of commitment to the company when I was joining, why would I give 2 years of commitment to you, that too after completing 3 years here!?, You must be kidding or how else you end up asking me something strangely stupid like this!!”

And I was telling my friend about this incident and there came his words, “You would have told him that you were not ready to give 2 years of commitment to not even your girl friend”

Point duly noted buddy.

Incident#2:

Many a times when I speak to a friend of mine, he talks about girls, girls and girls and at times it becomes a repetitive pattern. And one of few things which pisses me off is “repetitions”. I can absolutely hate it if I am not interested in that.

“She was one real b#@$&, I really had good time with her. Bla bla bla..” and continues [Sorry, I can’t get into the details]

If I was mad about listening to his stories, I would have yelled “Oh enough of this, I have had enough of this already, I am done listening to this part of your life. And yeah, if ever you think that it’s an achievement, you are hopelessly wrong! I bet you, there are better things out there to do”

Incident#3:

I remember this conversation with a friend of mine, when I was chatting with her:

She: u know what, it’s raining here, I stood in the rain

me: wow :)

She: I got totally wet

me: Hamm

She: u like it? I love to get wet in rain

me: At times I like it when it rains

She: yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I love, I got totally wetttttttttttttt and then could not go anywhere with that dress

me: :-)

She: yeah, I was looking very transparent. so dint go anywhere

me: thank god!

I got myself out of the conversation that day, but given a chance, my madness could have responded to that situation this way “What exactly are you trying to tell now, and what is that you expect me to do now? Can you please stop this crap and yeah, you have got the wrong guy here”

Incident#4:

Though for being here [in Dallas] I get enough time to do “certain” things and I don’t do many things. But one thing which I do is cooking and I enjoy doing it. I do it my way and at times I try out different recipes which I find online and get to know through my friends.

Me being from Udupi [which is south west coast of Karnataka], I use coconut [Believe me, not as much as my mother or any Udupi people does] while cooking, though not always and not for all the recipes. And I don’t like direction unless I am trying out a new recipe. A friend of mine says, “Lets prepare chicken/fish. But don’t put coconut in that”

I simply say “yes” with a smile. But if I let my madness take over me, I would rather say, “What, now you are instructing me on what I am suppose to do and what I should not? If my cooking is a problem, why don’t you do the honor? I am more than happy to eat anything that you prepare, irrespective of how good or bad it is! Do you want any more discussion on this?”

Incident#5:

After reading few of my write-ups, someone made a comment about me, “Is he living in a dream world, can he manage to do something like that?”

Immediate response from my madness would be “Oh come on, you are here to judge me now for what I write? They say don’t judge people according to their appearance or what they wear. I guess we need to discuss on that, why don’t we catch up on this a bit sometimes?”

“It’s my own space and I could write anything – real, fiction, fantasy, I don’t really need to give any damn about what others wants to read out of it or I don’t need to be told by others about what I am suppose to be writing and what not!” ;)

I could not help myself from laughing after recreating all these situations and I slept wearing a smile on my face J

Back to the Memory Lane

I can still feel her smell, like early morning jasmine which is covered by dew. She always liked it whenever I play with her long curly hair, curling her hairs with my fingers, immersing my face on her hair and taking a deep breath, pulling her towards me and spreading her hair on my face. She always felt like a real women when I appreciate her hair. She would say, "Boy, you seems to be in love with my hair and not me"

It was during my trip to Finland when I first met her. I was in Frankfurt, hurrying up to catch my connecting flight back home to Bangalore. Immediately after getting out of elevator I saw someone trying to grab few stuffs spread all over the floor. I saw her from backside and the first thing I noticed was her long curly hair. I went to her and asked, "Do you want me to lend a helping hand?"

"No! Thank you!" was the immediate response from her. I looked back at her and that was when I saw her face. She was young with a beautiful face, but it was stiff and unfriendly. I dint care to bother much and got back to my business of locating my gate number.

I started reading a novel which I do most of the time during travelling. When the boarding started, I got into the long queue and I noticed her standing much ahead of me. Once after occupying my seat, I looked around, not to get a glimpse of her in particular, but I saw her sitting in the same row as mine. She was talking to someone sitting adjacent to her and she was smiling as well. I was still looking at her and changed my sight after realizing that I have been gazing at her for a while. I leaned back to take a nap as I was very tired.

I had slept for an hour before waking up. And the next thing I did after wiping by eyes was turning to my right to get a glimpse of her. It came so naturally that I dint even know what I was doing until I could see her curly hair dropped all the way till her lower back. She was sleeping, facing the closed window. I dint make any effort to shift my view. I knew that I was in love with her hair. And that was the first time I ever liked curly hair. Otherwise I always used to appreciate girls with silky long hair.

I closed my eyes only to continue seeing the images of her stiff face and curly hair flashing in my imaginary world. I tried hard to focus myself on the novel. Probably after an hour or so, again I looked at her as if I was there for that business. Couple of seconds passed by without any happenings. Sitting at the very end of the row, finally, for once she turned quickly and glanced at me. I have been waiting for her to turn and look at me. I dint waste a single second, I gave her one of my best little smiles, dimpled one. Though she dint return the smile, she sounded very happy, I could make out that. It happened in a flash, but still for once I had this feeling that it’s just the beginning.

[Will continue this in the next post.. soon...]