Check out some of the one-liners this guy comes up with... from a recent CNN interview:
CNN: Now you are something of a rock star in tech circles...
Linus: I don't notice that in normal life. I don't actually go to that many conferences. I do that a couple of times a year. Normally I am not recognized, people don't throw their panties at me. I'm a perfectly normal person sitting in my den just doing my job.
:-)
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Yeh Jeena Bhi Koi Jeena Hai Lallu...
That's exactly how I felt after my recent trip to Mumbai. It's not that it was my maiden trip to the city -- I've been there a number of times before. But I've been mostly confined within my hotel room in VT during the night, and within my client's office during the day.
It was only during this trip that I ventured away from what is called the "town side". I was putting up at Malad at a friend's place. And was visiting Andheri during office hours, shopping at InOrbit Mall and Bandra during whatever free time I had. And I've never seen so many people every-fucking-where. There was not even a single place where the people-to-floorspace ratio was relatively less. Every place was as crowded as the other.
It was a mad house. For two continuous days I had a headache because of the humid heat and the constant noise of traffic.
What's the use of earning a package of 7 lakhs plus, in a city like this when you end up spending 7,000 for a measly little room which you don't even feel like calling a home! It looks more like a prison cell with the iron grills jutting out of the holes in the walls people like to call "windows"!
What's the use of earning so much when every day of your life you have to leave home at six in the morning cuz it takes two hours to train-hop and reach your office? Covered in someone else's sweat!
What's the use of living like insects crawling, fighting, jostling for space every living moment of your life?
It was only during this trip that I ventured away from what is called the "town side". I was putting up at Malad at a friend's place. And was visiting Andheri during office hours, shopping at InOrbit Mall and Bandra during whatever free time I had. And I've never seen so many people every-fucking-where. There was not even a single place where the people-to-floorspace ratio was relatively less. Every place was as crowded as the other.
It was a mad house. For two continuous days I had a headache because of the humid heat and the constant noise of traffic.
What's the use of earning a package of 7 lakhs plus, in a city like this when you end up spending 7,000 for a measly little room which you don't even feel like calling a home! It looks more like a prison cell with the iron grills jutting out of the holes in the walls people like to call "windows"!
What's the use of earning so much when every day of your life you have to leave home at six in the morning cuz it takes two hours to train-hop and reach your office? Covered in someone else's sweat!
What's the use of living like insects crawling, fighting, jostling for space every living moment of your life?
The Train to Hell
I was in Mumbai over the weekend. I had to board a bus from Bandra at 9:00 PM back to Goa. So I boarded a fast local from Church Gate to Bandra at about 8:00 PM. And that was the biggest mistake of my life!
I was smug about getting a seat at Church Gate and had a HUGE bag which was kept on one of the overhead racks. Bandra was about five or six stops away, so I was busy SMSing people left, right, and center.
The train stopped at Dadar.
"Bandra next station hai kya?"
"Haan. Aapko utarna hai kya?"
"Haan"
"To aap baithe kyun hue hain yahaan. Nikalna shuru kariye warna utar nahin paayenge"
I got up -- my bum was not even an inch away from the seat and poof -- someone else's butt was warming the wooden plank. I managed to pull my bag from the overhead rack... and that's all I managed to do. I was stuck! Literally stuck!
"Arre itna bada bag lekar kahaan chad gaye"
"Bhai sahab kahaan utarna hai aapko"
"Bhaiyya Bandra utarna hai"
"Arre toh dhakka maaro -- aise nahin utar paoge Bandra"
Shoving and heaving my way from out of the sitting area to the area right in front of the door I realized what I had just done. I had moved from an area with a packing fraction of 0.99 to an area with a packing fraction of 1.00!
Suddenly everyone in the compartment knew that there's an idiot with a huge bag on his head who was supposed to get off at Bandra and who still hasn't reached the door. Can you beat it -- I was just three feet away from the door!
"Bhai sahab -- so rahe the kya abhi tak, pehle utarna shuru karna chahiye tha na!"
Everyone around me was trying to inch me closer to the door. It's not like people were not trying -- but no one could fucking move! No one! It was a deadlock! Never in my life could I have imagined that so many people could squeeze into so little space.
I wasn't sure whether the sweat on my skin was mine or of the ten people I was in close contact with. I had to follow a seemingly dismembered elbow up to an arm up to a shoulder to a face to figure out who was hooked onto my arm with all his weight. The bugger was actually sleeping with all his weight hooked onto my arm -- bloody hooker!
Bandra came and went. More people got onto the train. Yes -- MORE PEOPLE!
Then finally, when Andheri came a BIG push from behind helped me traverse the last three feet to the door. I was out -- freedom at last!
I rushed back to Bandra on a fast local in the opposite direction, which was thankfully empty.
I just don't know what to make of my journey. Should I be amused about the state of affairs? Should I brush it off as "Life"? Should I be apathatic?
Why do people still come to Mumbai? Go back! No place -- house full!
I was smug about getting a seat at Church Gate and had a HUGE bag which was kept on one of the overhead racks. Bandra was about five or six stops away, so I was busy SMSing people left, right, and center.
The train stopped at Dadar.
"Bandra next station hai kya?"
"Haan. Aapko utarna hai kya?"
"Haan"
"To aap baithe kyun hue hain yahaan. Nikalna shuru kariye warna utar nahin paayenge"
I got up -- my bum was not even an inch away from the seat and poof -- someone else's butt was warming the wooden plank. I managed to pull my bag from the overhead rack... and that's all I managed to do. I was stuck! Literally stuck!
"Arre itna bada bag lekar kahaan chad gaye"
"Bhai sahab kahaan utarna hai aapko"
"Bhaiyya Bandra utarna hai"
"Arre toh dhakka maaro -- aise nahin utar paoge Bandra"
Shoving and heaving my way from out of the sitting area to the area right in front of the door I realized what I had just done. I had moved from an area with a packing fraction of 0.99 to an area with a packing fraction of 1.00!
Suddenly everyone in the compartment knew that there's an idiot with a huge bag on his head who was supposed to get off at Bandra and who still hasn't reached the door. Can you beat it -- I was just three feet away from the door!
"Bhai sahab -- so rahe the kya abhi tak, pehle utarna shuru karna chahiye tha na!"
Everyone around me was trying to inch me closer to the door. It's not like people were not trying -- but no one could fucking move! No one! It was a deadlock! Never in my life could I have imagined that so many people could squeeze into so little space.
I wasn't sure whether the sweat on my skin was mine or of the ten people I was in close contact with. I had to follow a seemingly dismembered elbow up to an arm up to a shoulder to a face to figure out who was hooked onto my arm with all his weight. The bugger was actually sleeping with all his weight hooked onto my arm -- bloody hooker!
Bandra came and went. More people got onto the train. Yes -- MORE PEOPLE!
Then finally, when Andheri came a BIG push from behind helped me traverse the last three feet to the door. I was out -- freedom at last!
I rushed back to Bandra on a fast local in the opposite direction, which was thankfully empty.
I just don't know what to make of my journey. Should I be amused about the state of affairs? Should I brush it off as "Life"? Should I be apathatic?
Why do people still come to Mumbai? Go back! No place -- house full!
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