The Circle which made me go on a tangent!

Who doesn’t like Emma Watson? And I am a fan of her work. So when I saw somewhere about this movie she is starring, I obviously wanted to see it.

This movie has Tom Hanks too… Yay!!! But he looks a little creepy in this trailer 😕 Since this is based on a novel and it looked like Science Fiction genre, I was wondering if I should pick this one up. But then within a few seconds, I changed my mind and let Wikipedia let me know about the story of the book. And boy, am I glad that I didn’t read this one. I know that I started off with The MoonBorn, but I am not in a hurry to devour all Sci-fi novels as of yet, especially one as scary as this one. If you aren’t going to read this book, you should definitely read the story in the Wikipedia. There is already so little privacy with everything being online, irrespective of what mask we wear. There are always bread crumbs. All we have to do is find one. If that by itself isn’t scary, check out the last line and I  quote  from the Wikipedia, “The book ends with Mae looking at Annie in the hospital, wondering when the time will come that people’s thoughts will be knowable as public information, saying that “the world deserves nothing less and will not wait”.” Imagine that happening. Bloody hell! 😯

A few months ago, there was a very serious discussion between me and my husband (then boyfriend) about how the technology should be able to understand what a human thinks and convert it to text. He said that it will so much easier to convert our thoughts which would vanish even before we realized what they were. He was of the opinion that it was the route of the current technology and it won’t be too long when we see an app for that. Because all of our thoughts can be converted to waves. I wasn’t so sure. I don’t want anything or anyone interpreting my thoughts or even reading them or sensing them. Also with the speed that my thoughts keep clashing with each other, it will be a huge jumbled mess that I would have to untangle. And also sometimes thoughts that are random are just that. Random. I understand that a thought could be a seed of something. But if it was the case, I would remember it well enough to convert it to a tangible thing myself. I think I am probably going on a tangent here. But sometimes these things scare me shitless. I love how the technology helps me shrink my world digitally so that I can talk to my folks and it would feel like I am calling them from the next city, even thought I might be on a different continent, that I can share my view of everything through my photographs to my friends and family, that I can work from anywhere and still get paid without having to commute through the terrible traffic every day. All those are good. I just don’t like it when it starts to predict something to me and makes me try to be too dependent on it. And worse, starts to understand what I am thinking… That is PERSONAL. I don’t want anyone else in my head.

 

A wake up call!

Before I get into the wake up call, let me give you some context here.

When I moved into my flat years ago (this was when my ex was residing next door) I had installed an iron gate before the door for additional security (my ex had a set of keys for my flat and he was causing lot of trouble at that time). Locking that iron gate was mandatory. That was my primary safety door since I was the only one who had that key. Ever since my ex moved out of his flat, I haven’t been locking that door every day. I do it once in a while when I remember. My apartment complex is pretty secure and the watchman and their family (the watchman’s wife is my house maid) have kind of adopted me and they look after me. I haven’t had any issues so far. So I literally stopped locking my iron gate at nights. Also, unless I get up for my gym, I usually switch off my alarms (two with a half an hour in between them) and go back to sleep until my maid rings my door bell. And my door bell sings a song for close to a minute and then says ‘Please open the door’ at the end of it. Not an ideal one to hear in the middle of the night for sure. Not to mention that it is a plaything for my friends whenever they visit. Thanks brother for getting me that door bell.

Yesterday early morning I hear the door bell sing and I wake up thinking, I did it again. I overslept. Why can’t I get up for the second alarm…blah blah blah. And then make my way to the door thinking that it would be my maid. But then something felt wrong and I realize at the last minute (just one more latch to be removed to open the door) that it is still dark outside. I switch on the light and see the time and its 4 am. I am awake instantly. I am like what the hell! who is there at my doorstep at 4 am. My brother didn’t tell me he is on his way for his business or anything. I see through the peep hole and see a scowling fellow who had opened the iron gate (it was not locked but latched from inside) and ready to open my door. I have never seen that fellow ever before in my life. I instantly panic a bit and ask him with my rudest voice about who he was and what he wanted. He immediately looks around wondering where the voice is coming from and says that he is the cook. I am like why the hell someone would tell that they are a cook if they wanted to do me some harm. probably he is a cook…but what is he doing at my place then. I then ask him which house number he wants and he looks around wondering why he is being asked these questions. I immediately ring my watchman but then after a couple of rings cut the call and check through the peep hole once again to check if he was still there. Lo and behold, the guy has vanished. I wait for sometime to check if my theory was correct and there, after a minute I hear another door bell ring. And I decide that he had indeed got the flat numbers wrong.

I lost my sleep in the process wondering about all the what if’s. I was thinking if this wake up call was for me to be more careful here on and lock the iron gate irrespective of whether it is safe or not. I almost opened a door for someone in my sleep addled state without checking. If the iron gate was locked it would definitely be an added protection in the worst case scenarios too. I told my maid in the morning about this incident because she was wondering why the iron gate was not latched from inside. She knew the cook and told me that she will talk to him. And by that evening she did indeed tear him apart 🙂 Poor fellow.

The result of this early morning wake up call was that I ended up locking my iron gate again, at least during the nights and I also realized that even in my extreme sleepy state, I managed to think rationally and not panic and cause a commotion. I did end up sleeping after 6 am until my maid came and rang the bell again 😉

I would rather

Skydive than walk through this bridge! Hanging / Suspension bridges always scare me and I remember an incident, when I was a kid, calling to all the Gods of every Universe, to help me cross a very small bridge near my place and that was just  20 feet long 🙄

What did I do ?

Do you see a pattern between these two pictures ? The first one was taken in Wayanad during our last year’s trip and the other one was taken in Dhanushkodi early this year. But this is no different from the look the cat in my apartment gives me. Or is it a universal look ? I admit that I haven’t been close to any cats. I had a dog once and my friend’s dog is very friendly with me, in fact almost all dogs, even the street ones are. But cats, its another story. They seem to have a aversion to me , at least that is how I feel from the looks they give me.

When I thought that I saw the end of them knocking at my door at mid nights, they proved me wrong. Or may be I am not hearing them because I have been closing the room doors at night because of the cold. They are still trying to get in I think. I have been hearing them again scratching at my door. Since I have closed the gaps with a cloth they really can’t get in and give me a scare in the mornings. But still they try. Damn their tenacious nature. I wish I had that in me. And they are so adamant that they want only my home. What did I do to you oh Cats ? Was I cruel to you in my previous birth ? Why Oh Why!!! When will you give up on me ?

What on earth week !!!!

OK, so everyone is celebrating Earth Week this week right ? My organization is celebrating the Earth week this week, so as part of it there are few things that will be done to save the carbon footprint. That is all good with me. I am so happy about it all. But they forgot a few things actually.

So as part of it, they switch off the lights for an hour or so during the peak lunch time. So the whole work place is plunged into darkness except for the blinks of the computers and people like me who are still in their conference call till almost the end of lunch time. That is also fine, I often work with dim lights. But switching off the lights in the washrooms is a little bit too much. Well, I do know where the things are at but still it is too dark in there. We should atleast have that dim light there. What is the point of having that dim light in the hand wash area and not in the actual rooms? And no , it is not a stall, it is actually a fully closed room out here.

And today while coming out of the wash room there is a turn to come to my work place. That turn always is risky because it is in a 90 degree angle and people from both sides can’t see the other until they bump on each other. I usually walk a little faster in that section with a wide angle given for people coming in (like we do in driving right?). But today unfortunately, I almost ran into another guy who was walking merrily on his way. I am not a screamer. I hardly scream even when you do boo at me but I gasp. So I sort of gasped, which sort of echoed because the whole place was empty (yeah , every one had been away for lunch and I had just finished a conference call). This guy , who had just crossed me and we both missed each other by an inch, got really scared , jumped around a bit and yelped. I couldn’t help but laugh out (couldn’t suppress it even with all the effort I put) and said Sorry and came away from that place. Thank God, it is the end of the week already because seriously I don’t like playing peek a boo or scare the human game in office especially on an empty stomach after a extended conference call where my brain cells are already fired.

Hope next time, they invent some better ideas to implement for Earth week or at least put on the dim lights in these kind of intersections.