This and That...

“Is this your machine?”

This was the IT support helpdesk in response to my request to be added to the Local Administrator group. Why did I want to be added to such a ghastly directory? I have no idea. When I logged in for the first time this morning with my new NT user id, it told me to do so; I logged in a call at the IT helpdesk asking them to do so...

The above question may seem innocuous to most people with answers ranging from the normal‘yes’,’no’ to “I don’t know” in the rather extreme cases, but when asked on the phone, the question didn’t quite make a lot of sense to me.

“What?” (The obvious choice when you have zilch idea of what’s going on)
“Can you see your mouse moving?” (She sounded a little impatient with the fact that every little thing like remote desktop control had to be explained to techno-moron employees like me)

Suppressing another “what!?!” with great difficulty, I looked at my mouse, then the mouse pointer on the monitor. Sadly none of them were moving and I told her so. She made me repeat my IP address. I duly opeyed. A gasp and a “shit!” later, she sheepishly admitted that she had mistyped my IP address and had changed some innocent bystander’s admin password. What was more bizarre (or maybe funny in a corny way...) was that she had been remote-controlling the mouse of some other user. I could empathize with the unknown victim. To suddenly watch your mouse move on its own is not funny at all. That, this on a Monday morning can have disastrous consequences, is pretty obvious.

It would also be obvious that I am back at work. A week’s off at home and a fantastic reunion with your best buddies (Sau and Ani) can do wonders to your system. Guys’ night out reunions are all about talking about old girlfriends, talking about new girlfriends, about no girlfriends (That’s generally me...), about pep talks and exorcising old ghosts (Me again ...). The kind of night where a bill of Rs.1500 between the three of us at Apache’s at Pune doesn’t seem a lot. System catharsis - to cut a long story short.

I have also kind of resigned to the fact that life on weekdays begins at 815 am in the morning and ends at 8 pm when I get back to my room and is about lazing away the weekends. But I haven’t given up all hope. In the distant horizon are plans of renting an apartment and owning a guitar and a pair of Bose speakers of my own :D. So life goes on .....