The Indian Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 2

Continued -

“You must be thinking how I guessed that it was you and you had a little adventure of accident when coming here. Well, you know my methods. I know very well the distinct firing of your scooter, which has never been tested by pollution control authorities. That is how I knew that it was you. But when I expected the ‘clink’ of your side stand which declares the presence of the spring at the time you park the vehicle, all I heard was short struggle between a metal rod and concrete floor. By that I knew something was wrong with your stand. What could it be?

“But then you surprised me by ringing my bell in half the time you usually take to climb two stairs to get on this very floor. You could not have used the elevator as they are load-shedding right now. What made you run so fast? May be you wanted to hide from people looking at you. And sure enough, all your arm and leg are covered with mud. It must be the pipeline they have broken while digging on the side of road and never cared to fix it.

“Considering all the facts I had in my possession, it was a child’s play to guess that you had slipped over the speed breaker they have recently made on the blind turn. Not only it is on a wrong place, but also its height is much more than it should have been. I have written a letter to the road authorities, but it takes them few weeks and a dozen of more such accidents to realize that something has gone wrong.”

As was his habit, my friend never failed to surprise me. Pointing at my dirty linen, he told me “Now change these clothes and put on fresh ones, if you will. I will give you mine for the time. But first get yourself clean”.

Soon I found myself all fresh and clean as ever. By that time, he had made a cup of tea for me. I took a seat on his sofa, when the expected question came. “What brings you here on such a beautiful morning and in such a hurry?”

-  to be continued

The Indian Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Whenever I think of the amazing display of reasoning powers of my friend Sherlock Holmes, few cases stand out. I found one of those cases when I was re-visiting my records of our stay in India.

I was hardly half a dozen months after our arrival at the port of Bombay Docs in India. At that time we had settled ourselves in a mid-sized town in Maharashtra region, thanks to the ‘fees’ Sherlock got to stop the investigation case for which we were appointed. In the short period of first two weeks, the ever observing eyes and quick mind of Holmes had recognized the amazing potential of constant supply of challenging criminal cases and the hefty fees both the parties would pay him, one to stop the investigation and the other to carry it on. And as far as I was concerned, it was Holmes who pointed out to me that nobody checks the validity of your degree in India. So, I could easily start and run my clinic here. And so did I. I also owe the ever-increasing stream of patients to the departments of health, food and irrigation of Indian government.

It was a hot afternoon that day. When I rang the bell of Holmes’ flat, a voice belonging to the owner of the flat came to me. It said, “Pray come in, my dear Watson. How did you like your little accident aver the new speed-breaker?”

I was speechless even if I was well-familiar with the ability of deduction of the sharp mind sitting inside the head of my friend. The first thought which crossed my mind, was he must have been watching me from the gallery. But as I stepped in, I saw him coming out of bathroom wrapped in a towel and dripping wet. It was clear that he was taking a bath at the moment I had entered the building compound. Then how did he recognize that it was me, who is standing out of his door? Not only that, but he also knew that I had a misfortune of slipping over the speed breaker on my way here? Smiling at my face expressions, he pointed to a chair to tell me to sit down.

“Friend Watson, I know what you are thinking and I can explain” said he, his eyes twinkling.

to be continued -

The Facebook

Just watched ‘The Social Network’ for the third time. The makers say that everything shown in those two hours is true. Mark obviously denies. Whatever is the truth, but one has to accept that it’s an outstanding story. How many people get a billion dollars for a rigorous session of ASP coding? By the way, what is the income source of ‘facebook’? I mean, they don’t put any ads. I hear something about them selling private data of the users to marketing companies.

If that is true, then it’s the private little information of people like you and me who made this nerd world famous, youngest billionaire ever. It’s quite disturbing to know that MNC are ready to pour billions to peep into our lives. They want to know everything. What have you done? What are you doing now? What you plan to do next? How do you relate with others? What is your marital status? What you like to wear? What is your favorite drink? Everything.

There are phases when I enjoy conspiracy theories. That is one of my favorite pastimes. It’s amazing what different people pull out of same set of facts. There are all kinds of these theories. From “NASA never landed on the moon” to “the ultimate aim of Google is to rule this world”. And interestingly, they use YouTube, a Google service which is based in USA to spread their ‘message’.

Coming back to the topic, they show Mark writing a blog. When he completes a paragraph, he puts a </p> tag. What the hell? How a non-technical person is supposed to write a blog? Or was it just an HTML page Mark used to edit every now and then? Were there no blogging platforms there back in ’03? Whatever. But the typing speed is worth watching. I bet everybody who has watched the movie has, at some point, wished to pull up a keyboard and test his or her skills. They must have boosted the video speed.

Anyway, the movie is a treat if you are a nerd, not bad if you are a lover of sci-fi Hollywood movies and a nightmare if you are a regular watcher of Bollywood movies. So, go ahead, make some pirated copies ;)

Marry-Go-Round

Have you ever thought of getting married with someone? No, I am not talking about the common crush your class of 9^th standard had. Or the sweet looking next-door-girl who occasionally comes to you for help. Or the only girl in college who has ever asked you for notes and made a positive remark about your intellect. I am talking about serious stuff.

What is the feeling when somebody finally decides to marry someone? I don’t know. As a matter of fact, sometimes I get really terrified by just thoughts of getting tied with someone for the whole life. No, I am NOT telling any tell-these-marriage-jokes-when-you-can-not-come-up-with-anything-else sort of stories. I am trying to imagine the state of mind one has when he or she becomes sure that “this is the face I want to see every day”. What people see in each other? And what if it wasn’t there at all? What if he or she developed something else after getting married? What if he or she had something else, something which casts shadow on all his / her good things, which you did not notice before? What if you are not up to his / her expectations?

I am a person who is not sure even when he buys a pair of socks. And whenever I buy stuff, my mind is trying to ease itself by reciting thoughts like “this thing is not going to protest, no matter how I treat it” and “I can always buy another pair if I make a mistake in buying this”. But n case of a marriage, none of these can be said. What drives the marrying people forward, when they know there is no turning back?

May be we can drop those who had a love-marriage, as they know each other enough. But what about the majority who is forced to get their marriage arranged by someone else? What if they put it on a secondary place what I value most? What if their definitions of beauty do not match with mine? What if they do not think that I may deserve someone better? And this list can go on and on.

The bottom line is : Getting married, if I get married ever, will be the most courageous thing I have ever done!

Are You Sure?

Have you ever had the feeling that the whole world is an illusion? That anytime, you may wake out of this ‘dream’ known as life and face a much better reality? Or everybody else, as they seem to have some abilities you do not posses, knows every damn thing about you; but they just don’t show it off because they want you to feel normal?

No, I’m not talking about human psychology here. I am just trying to check if I am as normal as you are. And I bet, at some point of time, you too had this urge. I remember reading somewhere that everyone, at least once, thinks of committing suicide. May be those who take these little mind games seriously are the creators of the films like ‘Matrix’ and ‘Inception’. And talking of these films, an idea just crossed my mind. A formula to give a hit and widely discussed movie is to take one of such little fantasies everyone has and give it some rules and regulations. You think this is a virtual world and the reality lies somewhere else? They threw in some rules for moving back and forth through these worlds, some rules to be obeyed in each world and came up with ‘Matrix’. You think there’s magic somewhere in the world? Yes, you got it. They regulated and standardized the use of magic and created ‘Harry Potter’. So, the next time any such little question bothers you, drop a letter to Warner Brothers Ltd and make big bucks!

Anyway, back to the topic. Sometimes, I wonder that how he (or she) can remember what I cannot? The logical part of my mind tells me the reasons. It tells me that every brain registers different things about the same event. It tells me that there must be a few things that you can remember, but he (or she) can’t. But somewhere in the back of my mind, doubt survives. Mathematical genius, musical sense and electronic circuitry expertise amazes me in the same manner. I think of those as aliens, who can solve Rubik’s cube. Thinking of this on macro level, you may have noticed that every Indian, by comparing to foreigners, tries to find out that is he living a normal average life or not. (Though, thanks to the population blast, the average value of everything in the world is shifting towards its value in India.)

So, the question is, “Do you feel the same way?”. You may have different specific questions. But I guess, if I am normal, the general feeling should be common in all of us.

P.S. – Asking such a question is useless, though. Because, if I am normal, the answer will be ‘yes’. And If I am what I sometimes fear, they you will answer ‘yes’ to make me feel normal! J

The New Year Resolution

You might be little surprised to see this post is not dated First of January. This post is not even the first one of this year. So, what’s the point?


From my (not so inspirational) experience of all the new year resolutions I ever thought of at the beginning of every year could not last for more than a week. This year, I was determined not to make one. At least, not in the over-enthusiasm of January, the First.


As I thought on the problem, I realized that rapid draining of driving force was the culprit. Solution? Why not to make the resolution when half of the first month (and all the temporary flash of “New Year Enthusiasm”) is gone? May be, even this trick won’t work on my mighty laziness. But new year resolutions are all about trying something new in the new year, aren’t they?


Secondly, I never expected too much from myself. So, I was very generous excusing myself for every request. Let me try the other way now. Why not to put you on the brink?


So, here I am, trying not to get loud mouthed. The only resolution I have for social life is to stay connected with old friends. Through every mean at my stake (which includes, I think, this blog too). Regardless of what I thought of them earlier. No matter if I have to take some time off my very busy schedule[;)].


You gotta fight the Dunbar’s number whenever you know it’s affecting your social contacts!

Why? Oh why?

Life begins and ends with “why”. Life starts from a why and runs for a why. It pauses for a why and resumes for a why. Works for a why and waits for a why.

They say life is a gift for those who dare to start with a “why” and also for those who dare to start with a “why not”. Why is the reason behind every deed, every act, every happening, every good-bad luck. Why is the reason behind the growth of a child. Why is the driving force of a wise man. Why is the reason behind the respect an old fellow gets.

“Why” is the reason behind the creation of all the worthy things. It created science, it created philosophy, it created astrology, it created astronomy, it created economics, it created nations, it created wars, it created nations, it created common sense. And the most important creation : it created God!

“Why” is a very important, but often ignored element of every aspect of our lives. When we forget to ask “why”, we are left with senseless traditions and corrupt system, weak concepts and endless slavery, extremist views and Bollywood films.

As they say, ‘Behind every successful man, there is a woman’. Because she keeps asking her man, “Why? Why did / didn’t / couldn’t / do / don’t / would / wouldn’t /should / shouldn’t /have / haven’t you?”