Young Networking Engineer

I had logged into my orkut account. Found a new friendship request from a person.
The profile picture was that of an actor and I could not get much information from the user profile description either. Hence I had rejected the friend request.

I was on my way home when I came across the kids in my area playing street cricket.
It brought back nostalgic memories of the happy days that I had playing in the very same place. Hence I stood there for a couple of min and watched the game. Suddenly a shot was played in my direction and my instinct made me stop the ball from going to the boundary.

The kids in the fielding team started cheering and dancing when I did tat.

Kid with the bat: Anna (Brother) why did you stop the ball? You’ve cost us the match. We needed 3 runs of the last ball to win the game.
Me: Sorry kanna (kid). It was a small mistake. Why don’t you re-bowl the ball again?
Kid: (With a frown in his face) No according to our rules it’s not possible. You’ve already made me lose a bet and now you’ve spoilt the match.
Me: What! (Totally confused!!!) Are you playing a bet match?
Kid: No Anna (brother). I had a bet with my friends that I will have 200 people in my friends list in orkut. I had sent u a friend request but u rejected mine. I ended up with 197 people.
Me: Sorry kanna (kid). I’ll get you whatever you had made a bet for! (I was half hoping that he would not say XBOX 360 as the bet. Boy that would have cost me a month’s salary)
Kid: You can’t. We had a bet that the winner would work on assignments together with Shreya for 1 month. (Wow what a bet!)
Me: Now I was dumbstruck. I stood still unable to reply.
Kid: Even those 10 akkas (10 Sisters) in that house (Pointing to an apartment) who are also working in a company like you accepted my request.
Me: I felt like fainting. I never knew that there were 10 girls staying in that apartment.
Kid: Anna! Anna! (Brother! Brother!)
Me: (Coming back to my senses). How did you manage to make friends with them?
Kid: I had hit the ball into their house one day while playing. While collecting the ball I told them my bet and they all laughed and then told me they’ll accept my request.
Me: Send me a friend request again. This time I’ll surely accept.
Kid: I know why you would accept it this time. It’s because those akkas (sisters) are my friend.
Me: (I never got this idea! Sounds good) No kanna! (No Kid!) I didn’t know it was you when I got the request. You never told me also.
Kid: Ok Anna. Thanks! But after that I’ll send request to all your friends to. You should ask them to accept too. My next bet is on reaching 250 friends in orkut.
Me: Ohh…Ok. I’ll tell them. Bye
Kid: Bye!
I was pondering over the conversation that I had with the kid on my way back to home. Suddenly someone called up my name. I turned back and found that it was that kid’s mother.
Me: Hello Aunty!
Kid’s Mom: I saw you talking with my beta! He’s a very bright child. Isn’t he?
Me: Hmm: Yes Aunty.
Aunty: He seems to be having a flair for computers at this young age. He does not play games like other kids. He seems to be learning new things always. (Her face was beaming in pride as she said this)
Me: Oh.. Is it? That is good.
Aunty: When I asked him, he told me he’s learning networking. What’s more, he says his future ambition is to become a networking engineer. Do help him in realizing his ambition.
Me: (I almost broke into laughter on hearing this). Sure Aunty. I’ll do so.

P.S : This is not a work of fiction but a real incident that had happened.

Butter Knees

The term butterfingers is used to describe a person who tends to drop things. In the context of cricket it is used to describe a person who tends to drop catches or who tends to get his fingers injured a lot while playing.

In this context, I must say that I’ve contracted butterknees syndrome. It is as though my knees suddenly decide that it needs a break from supporting my body weight.
It first happened when I was running in hard to bowl during my cricket match in the beach. Bowled a superb delivery to clean up the batsmen’s stumps but ended up rolling on the ground clutching my knees. The pain was excruciating. More than the pain it was humiliating to paint a sorry picture in front of my teammates and on-lookers. My friends quickly pulled me up and carried me along to sidelines. As though reading my thoughts, they immediately stopped worrying instead made some humorous remarks that made me a lot more comfortable.

Excerpts from the conversation below:

Soko: Machan unakku body strong a irukku but basement weak da. (Buddy – your body seems to be strong but your basement is weak)

Myself: Had a slight laugh in agony.

Hemu: Machis (addressing other team members in a serious tone) The first thing we’re gonna do after the match is to take him to MRF pace foundation to Dennis Lillee. We need to have his bowling action corrected and we can’t afford to lose a strike bowler. (As if we’re playing in an Indo-Aus match).

Myself: Started giggling a bit.

Dinesh: Machi, there’s nothing wrong with his legs da. It’s just that this month is not good for left-handers. There seems to be a bad omen lurking around for them. Zaheer, R.P Singh, Yuvraj and Hayden all got injured during the Indo-Aus series. We better let him rest this whole month.

Myself: Wondered what Zaheer, R.P Singh or Yuvi would have said had they heard this remark.

Even the on-lookers broke with laughter on hearing the conversation.