Another Chapter in the Life of a Software engineer

UAT, deadlines, release, Timelines are all the stuff of nightmares for us unfortunate people..It was yet another of those damn nights...when nothing seemed to go right and the whole floor in the office was empty...the lone tubelight shining on me and my hapless neighbour as we slogged away to deliver...fixing... testing...fixing..Delivery done...QA testing begins....Time 11.00 in the night...Already 12.30 in the US....Onsite screaming...QA testing...nothing much else to do...ORKUT ............
Preparing for the Long haul and the night ahead...GO buy an instant cup noodle and a bottle of cold "Vennilla" flavoured milk from the canteen...Settle down into my chair..I log into the communities and start looking....in plain mallu speak...Vaay nottam....some interesting things people have got going in orkut...I am not speaking normal stuff....a "Jayalalitha profile"...a Karuananidhi profile...Karunanidhi asking for amma's friendship...but strangely both seem to have queer preferences..check out for urself..cant say more...without putting u off this blog for ever....
Religious communities..a lot of really flirtatious ladies....some too much for my liking...and slowly started looking up friends...friends of friendds...and so on and so forth and started leaving scraps....clearing the night was getting to me...left a lot of scraps in a short while and started getting responses ranging from "Hey sexy", "get lost" to "get a life"..and the response kept coming thru the next day...so had to be online all day....and a normal response from one of the addressees, had me pleasantly surprised....only short lived as after a couple of scraps the next day...she stopped altogethor...Zilch...no more...maybe i am not as suave and sophisticated as i try to be sometimes ...Sigh
The clock flies to 2.15 AM and QA has all but wound up and we decide to call it a day....A slight problem... my feet suddenly seem to be wavy....and the floor seems to be uneven...i steady myself with a cold splash to my face...and get on the bike....the cold breeze from the sea refreshes and i am cruising on the road...1 km from my house..and the desolate mile... I continue down the road and pass a couple of stray dogs who start chasing....A smile appears on my face as i imagine lissome babes not dogs chasing me...only for the slightest trace of the smile to be wiped off in a flash...
A good 100 metres ahead all i could see were lotso gleaming eyes glistening in my headlight beam....and i slow down and the mass orgy of Dogs on the road reveals itself.....i guess it is that time of the year that a dog doesnt need a calendar to tell (a mallu proverb).....The orgy is interupted and the canines r not clearly amused....i stop and survey...a mexican stand off if u can say so...I turn around only to have the chasers staring from afar.......The lesser of the evils....My brain cells firing left right and center....
Will I be able to turn the bike before the dogs get to me...will i be able to accelerate faster than the dogs.....where do i keep my legs...Dogs like to eat bones...i am bony...no I am slightly fat now...ok.....Who gets my personal fortune in case I dont survive.....Who will respond to my emails...What do i tell all my disappointed blog readers...and what is thaaat smellll.....What is that sound..........IT is suddenly so much more brighter......and what is that sound...I see the morbid fear that has over come the menace in the canine eyes...Maybe it is god coming to get me...Give me a painlesss death....but god's vehicle doesnt sound like a corporation garbage truck ....
I turn back and there i see, barely 100 meters behind me a beautiful garbage truck...fully loaded and stinking...in all its rusted glory...with the driver gesticulating at me....i move aside and let the chariot pass......The enemy rank is in disarray and using my slightly superior brain I mange to ride away to glory alongside the garbage truck...Not complaining about the stink one bit...
But those few minutes had given me one hell of an adrenaline rush, one that ensured that i was fresh as a daisy...not a hint of sleep...and thinking clearly ...clearer than in along time...A small incident that put things in perspective....

"Cleanliness is sometimes next only to godliness"