Google and You :P

This is the first short story of Vikram Galgotia, one of the protagonist in my debut novel, Exotic Engineer Entrepreneur.

"Vikram Galgotia", Vikram lazily typed in Google.com not knowing what else to search for. Post lunch, after a heavy meal in the cafeteria, he was feeling extremely drowsy. He especially blamed the curd but could never resist gulping a cup down at the end of the meal. Curd and Code do not go together. Let alone code, with eyes closing and the screen getting blurred, it was impossible for him to direct the mouse over to the Outlook Icon. He tried twice but fell asleep when the mouse was almost there and opened Internet Explorer instead. After IE opened for the second time instead of Outlook he decided not to try again.
The Google search results made him jump. He never thought he was so famous. But there it was, the truth staring at him. The first ten links were his; his facebook profile, his LinkedIn profile, his blogs and even his school! His school? He never knew his school had a site. He clicked it. His name was listed under his tenth class photo. He went through the list and felt joyous remembering the names of his old chums.
"I am famous", he muttered to himself happily after Google returned with accurate links the second time.
"Well, though not very good academically, I was a boy scout at school. Topped two class tests which were especially tough, got admission in a decent college for higher studies. Engineering was not so bad too and now a job in an MNC", he started musing.
As he reiterated over his past, he began to wonder why he never realized he could be famous. This knowledge had made his day. No longer drowsy, he started working.

Thousands of miles away, in Googleplex
"Did you find a way to test our improved search algorithm?"
"Yes"
"How do you do it?"
"Locate someone who is very insignificant and run a search on him"
"How do you plan to locate someone so insignificant?"
"Through social networking sites"
"Did you find anyone?"
"We narrowed down to one person in India"
"Run the test"
Vikram Golgatia. The Google computers whirred and clicked and displayed the results successfully.
The room erupted in celebration.

That night, among millions of people who celebrated birthday parties, promotions, wedding anniversaries, golden jubilee etc etc., two celebrations were strangely connected. 
Vikram Galgotia celebrated because he realized he was quite famous, at least Google knows him. The employees of Google celebrated because their search engine could now dig out information about the most insignificant person on earth.

Killing shoes!

I never knew buying a pair of shoes could bring me closer to death(exagerrating a bit :P) than a ride in highest rollercoaster or the scariest bungee jump. Sitting in front of the computer, I was drowsily reading about Bezier curves, they seemed interesting but starting is always tough. I noticed a new mail in my inbox and switched windows. The new mail, from a member in Bangalore Bikers Club, read
"I had been Decathlon on Saturday to pick up MTB shorts and as I passed by the cycling shoe section happened to see 8 XC cycling shoes which was priced at Rs5,999 was being sold at Rs1,499..."

I jumped up! To hell with Beizer curves! "I am not going to miss this offer"!
I heard about these shoes on one of my cycling rides. Avinash and me were leading the group. We stopped for rest and he simple fell off the bike, just like that; ride, stop and fall. He smiled sheepishly and told me he forgot to "disengage the shoes". Taking a closer look at the shoes, I realised that when engaged, they stick to the pedals enabling the rider to pull the pedals too instead of just the usual pushing action. I resolved to buy them but canceled the resolution immediately when he told me the shoes had cost him Rs6000 and the compatible pedal set Rs1200, way beyond what I could afford!

Confirming the offer was still on, I suspended the computer and was off to Decathlon.
Within two hours, the bike and me were equipped and I was ready to try out the new accessories. Excitedly, I took a quick glance at the manual, read how to engage the shoes and sped away cycling. After struggling a bit, the right shoe got "engaged" and with a little lesser struggle, the left shoe got "engaged". The new cycling style felt good. Previously, cycling was like "right push... left push.. right push.." but now it became "right push left pull.. left push right pull...".
I saw a cluster of red lights a little ahead and slowed down, traffic jam! Suddenly, I realized I forgot to read how to "disengage" the shoes. I was slowing down but my shoes were stuck to the pedals! Struggling to free my legs, I watched in horror as a the tail lamps of a Honda City came closer and closer. I could not stop with my legs tied to the pedals! I would fall off!I decided to stop alongside the City and support myself with my hand on the car but maneuvering was going to be very tricky; the car was very close to the divider. When there were just a couples of meters to spare, the left shoe got free and I immediately braked hard coming to a halt. For a few seconds, I remained a bit shaken imagining what would have happened otherwise - fallen off, scratched the car, smashed against the divider? But soon I composed myself and burst out laughing. It was really funny to imagine myself falling off  because my legs were stuck to the pedals and I remembered Avinash's incident.

I crossed the traffic jam, practiced a little and picked up speed.
I am now pretty comfortable with my new shoes but questions still stare at me. Was it a wise investment? What if I had to brake suddenly? What if.. What it.. What if.. only time will tell :-).