The army had denied this fact earlier! An army official had told the Times of India that a DSC(Defence Security Corps) unit was engaged in firing practice around that time. The bullets were the same, and the bullet had apparently travelled 4 kilometers before hitting her! I couldn’t find an online version of that article, looks like it hasn’t been uploaded or something, but you can take a look at the e-paper provided by the Times of India.

Now that they have confirmed it, it remains to be seen whether they take the necessary steps to prevent bullets from going all over the city.

“Stray bullet injures techie”

I was intrigued and continued reading! Apparently a lady by name Niharika Jeena, an employee with Cognizant Technologies was returning home when something hit her. This happened at the Ejipura Signal, next to the Intermediate Ring Road, Bangalore, holy crap!! Thats the route I have been taking every working day for more than a year now!! Apparently it hit her in her abdomen and then she was taken to the hospital by some wise passer-by in an autorickshaw. She is said to be out of danger now, thank god!

But now I am paranoid about taking that exact route and was almost bracing myself for impact on the way home! The cause for this unfortunate incident is suspected to be the Iblur Military Camp which is in the vicinity where routinely firing practice takes place. Apparently a bullet could have ricocheted and taken a different direction to the road, though the army vehemently denies that the bullet could have come from one of its weapons, saying that firing was stopped at 2:oo PM that day and this incident happened at night around 7:15 PM.

Getting fired at your job is one thing. Getting fired on your way back from your job is a totally different thing! I hope they investigate and find the root cause for this, or if nothing is taken up, I guess all of us using that route should add a kevlar helmet and a kevlar jacket to our ebay wish lists and hope we dont get fired at either end!

Fortunately, the previous night, I had left my laptop plugged in and it had full power to last atleast for a couple of hours at the bare minimum. Also, with my Data Card on, I figured I could atleast be online for sometime before having a mosquito infested sleep.

I switched on my laptop and sat wondering how I was going to pass the night, the landlord should have slept and that was the reason that I decided to go and ask him the next day about the power cut. Then after feeling restless, I decided to go and find out if it was a blown fuse which I could identify if I could lay my hands on the electricity meter. I searched around the house with the faint light of my mobile phone which was in its last stages of its power. I finally found a hound of meters at the side of the house in a dark section. I thought I figured out the right meter when I saw one which was not showing any moment at all, With glee I decided to open the mesh gate that was enclosing it when to my dismay, I found that there was a lock in place and it was locked.

I returned to my laptop and just sat there wondering how I was going to pass the night when I got a call from my room-mate! My initial thought was that he had left something behind and was calling me to get it for him. He informed me that his baggage was overweight by over 10 kilograms and that it was very expensive to pay extra and hence he asked me to come and get it from him. I started for the airport around 11:30 PM amidst a slight drizzle. I reached there and met him and started transferring all of the artifacts which we figured he could get it there, though most of them were Indian edible items which would not be available at Sweden. Out went all the food items and some heavy clothes. He asked me to wait and went to recheck.

Unfortunately it was still overweight by some seven kilograms and he came back again, this time too, we again took out some stuff, but there was not much left to take. There were very few items that could be removed, we figured that the bag on its own was heavy. This time, he told me that he would pay extra if it was overweight. It was overweight by three kilograms, but the lady at the baggage counter who was stubborn all along allowed him in without any extra expense which I got to know via a phone call from Mohan. Finally!

I returned home around half past midnight and settled for the night with my laptop. I woke up around 11AM the next day and met the landlord and we opened the mesh gate and on investigation found that the wire leading to the fuse box had melted away completely and had to be replaced. Everything was done and I finally had electricity by afternoon. I switched on the geyser to take my bath and found that there was no water. I decided to switch on the motor and found that the motor lay dead!! I figured that they had switched off the mains of the motor and went and confirmed my thoughts. I went upstairs back to my landlord to get the keys to the mesh gate and found that there was no answer at the door, they had gone out. I came back, pondered for a moment, went searching for something long and found a new pencil that was lying around. I used that to turn on the mains switch for the motor.

Water and Electricity finally!!

Then my dad came over and relieved him of his duty! I couldn’t catch the next flights out of Bangalore to Coimbatore and hence decided to take the usual bus. I landed home the next morning and a couple of “rasam” sessions from my beloved sis, was back up and kicking. I am currently seated at a bus terminal waiting for my bus back to Bangalore which is a half hour late. After being at home for more than a week, I dont feel like going back to work, but work is work and responsibilities are always there. So off I go! Back to the whirlwind I call “Professional Life”…

Then deciding to troubleshoot, I checked if the petrol flow was open, then I checked if there was any petrol in my tank and then when I saw my spark plug, I found out the reason for my bike not budging to start.

It was removed from its spot! There was no way that it would have come off during the course of my journey the previous day as I had parked my bike at 1:00 AM alongwith my friend the previous day.

There were some onlookers who were watching my antics. And one of them said that some idiotic element should have done this and I agreed, Then I started my bike after fixing my spark plug and started towards office and after riding for some distance, I wanted to make some move and tried to look if there was anyone close behind me on my rear-view mirror and to my surprise!! I found one of the rear view mirrors missing!!

Crazy punks!