past three months...

Has been long since I wrote (though I have put a reminder for myself on things which I need to write). But could not write, mainly because I never got into writing mood in these months. Well today I am writing and there are lots and lots to write. So I will write a brief blog on the past quarter :)....

Well in these three months had made trip to Mysore and Ooty. Mysore trip was after a long gap of almost 4.5 years. After coming out of training in Mysore, did not got chance to visit the campus again. But this time we went. Raghav, Divya, Shweta and me. Loved to see the campus again but was agonised to see the amount of construction and the state in which this once peaceful and quite campus was. Now its more of university/college environment then corporate culture. We roamed around Mysore, tracked and travelled through vast strech of wilderness and through villages.

This was also the time when project was in slogging mode. Most of the days, nights and weekends went in project work. Each and every project in its lifecycle goes through this phase and for us it was this time. Inspite of work load, somehow managed to get out for trip tp Ooty with Raghav, Vaibhav, Geetha, Divya and Shweta (this remains the only trip where the whole gang is together), and this picture will remain one of the best one for us. Ooty trip was hectic (as are all trips) but this is nothing when we look at the beautiful valleys around. Apart from all the beauty around everyone of us will remember the trip for another thing - FFF. I won't hit my leg on the axe and blurt out what it means. But even after 3 months when we sit and thing about Ooty, we laugh at this for hours (man that day in Ooty hotel how much we had laughed on this...). This goof-up will definately make Bush feel consoled.

More fun-filled days in Mangalore. Trying out new restaurents / joints. Freaking out with freinds, sitting in CCD for hours. You would wanna be in Mangalore with frineds then be at some other place.

Started holy month of Ramzan and life completely changes. Waking up early morning for Sehri and skipping lunch break and then having Iftar with all in mosque. You get a feel of Ramzan whereever you are, but when it comes to Bhopal there is lot of difference. Only one who has been in Bhopal feels those things which we cannot really put in words. And finally this year I got to spend 1 week of Ramzan in Bhopal with family. And also after so many years (around 3) celebrated Eid with all in Bhopal. Bhopal has changed a lot too, lots of shopping complexes coming up and also in some years Bhopal's and Indore's airport will become International airports. Areas have been marked for SEZ so we will definately be seeing many companies opening their DC's there. That will end my quest and then finally I will retire in Bhopal :)

Two weeks holiday in Bhopal (and with no project load) was extremely helpful and necessary. It definately was refreshing. And now am back in Mangalore, back to the project work which is not that hectic.

Mangalore had never been so good. Lots of friends who make each and every moment special. But things keep changing, Shweta is at onsite now. Geetha has left for Mumbai and will get married on 11th Nov and then join Pune office. Raghav will leave for onsite in Dec and in Jan/Feb I too will fly too Chicago. This has been one of the best time I had and am having in Mangalore.

Ohh and not to forget, day before yesterday got the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Unit Champion award. Still need to get the text which was read out there, it was long and I need to find how much work I really do :)

Just a reminder

Almost 3 months and no new blogs. Farid have you gone crazy or have your life come to standstill?

It's not that, I have lots to write, but I need to find out time (which is scarce commodity nowdays) to write those.

Just jotting down what all blogs are pending
- Trip to Mysore (back in memory lanes)
- Wonderful weekned trip to Ooty
- Thoughts about how the company is growing and how people have forgotten theor own employees
- To quit or not to quit :)
- Ramzan in Mangalore (or any place other than Bhopal)

hmm I think thats it, these are the things which have been going around me, in my life or in my mind.

my dream...

when i was a kid, befre I knew about how software companies work I had a dream. dream which I feel is now fulfilled.

right from the beginning I had always wanted that my friends never leave and we all stay together forever. So when it came to work and job, I always had dreamt of building a company so huge that it is an entire city in itself where all my frineds will be with me and we would live like a big family.

now when I think I feel that in Infosys and specially in Mangalore its this only. there are so many friends here and we all live like a big family only.

so finally one dream of mine is fulfilled :)

P.S. - now I really should go to sleep. looks like i am talking anything now :)

friends and friendship...

i have always written about my love and preference for staying back in India then going back to US. This had been mainly due to only one reason - friends... Yes, family in Bhopal for me is my first priority and will always remain one, but I can be in Mangalore or in US - both places are away from Bhopal and so saying that is the main reason is not entirely correct (though I am much nearer in Mangalore then I am in US - added advantage :) )

when i think it comes to only one set of people, who make life wonderful in this part. They are my friends here in mangalore. and its because of them, that I am here and I am enjoying or I would saying living my life here in India.

there were friends, when I first came to Mangalore in 2003, those were my training batchmates. They went onsite, I went onsite, things changed and so those friends were there or at times they were not there. I always miss those good old days. But its the beauty of 'friendship' which always take you go forward in life, people who one might not be knowing become friends instantaneously. This time, I dunno how, but I have found lots and lots of good friends in Mangalore crowd. Though I know one day will come that I may have to go onsite or they will move out to some other place, but these friends will always be there and so will be the friendship.

Thank you guys for being there.

P.S. - If some things are confusing then it might be because of sleepy feeling which I am having now after a wonderful and great day :-) and its alsmo 1 AM here... gotta sleep now, tomorrow office have to go :(

Start of our VOYage...the making...:)

Following has been composed and written by 'Divya Prabha Acharya' on the first release of Mangalore Infosys - Voice of Youth's Newsletter - VOYage. Though she mentions that it's her personal experience but I feel that it beautifully summarizes the feelings of all of us who were involved in this newsletter's creation.

Here it goes...

"Newsletter will be out on 29th June..." --was this for sure? that too the first newsletter from VOY...? what to include? with all of us having project(s) in hand? All these made us atleast have a kick-off meeting on Sunday(24th June'07..). Farid, Shweta and me decided to meet in Rec block..to decide, what are we supposed to do..and how.. and by when...

As usual, until the deadline is actually near...all meetings are for namesake...we checked couple of newsletters, templates, events in mlore..etc and finally decided on some contents to place in the 'so-called' VOYage...
Little did we know at that moment, it was the strong base for our newsletter!!

Can't exactly recall, when Nitin and Shastri got involved, but work started - getting contents, reviews, template, new ideas..some which made sense, most didnot :) Farid did a great job, making us realize we are all in right direction, also making us realize we are still far from the destination.

Draft version was sent by Farid,which had all in place, when Shastri actually woke up from sleep(;)), said he can use iweb/MAC for the newsletter creation.

First thing came to our mind was..Dude, it is already late, are we going to finish by Friday?Shastri did reply safely, sayin he will give a try.

Well, one of those instances which makes you realize, no harm in giving it a shot..and it worked...if we realize it now!

Reviews on articles, contents, english, grammar, look of the newsletter..all being worked on by us..making sure, we catch every free moment we have inspite of appraisals, project work, parties..Suddenly comes to our mind..VOY logo..research on that, different ideas from people..finally we decide on one.

Day before the release - is the review..whole team was called..all happy with the way it is progressing, though we had 101 things yet incomplete..little did we bother about it, since somewhere in our mind we had a feeling we can somehow give a nice shape to the newsletter.

Draft version mails kept coming..reviews back for changes...bad reviews, good reviews..working on it...whether one liked it or not..took us to the final day of the release..

VOY Mailbox, well became Nitin's headache..guess, he can write a BOK on it now;) Newsletter took real good shape on final day...

Now came the Promo mail..oh..this me and farid had thought on a collage like format..which we forgot until the D-day..Again, me, shweta and Farid..thought, why to ditch this idea..when the newsletter has come this far..work started on this...luckily we had time, and call it my luck....customer call got cancelled;)

All would appreciate the different creativity..of the promo mail...Farid's patience was the big-winner, which I feel rest of us lacked..then..

All set, a nice ceremony for the release, suddenly looked as if..everything fell in place for good...
Good feedbacks started pouring in...everybody around, checking the newsletter, a great feeling...your work pays..all talking about it...and that was the birth of VOY newsletter...

Well, that looked like a long Journey..though this VOYage..looks as if it has just begun...

Lot of learnings, difference of opinions, fun and what not...Will never forget this memorable VOYage...the long journey we had in a short time...

mungaaru male - मुन्गारू मले - monsoon rain

In my previous blog I have mentioned about trip to new DC campus। After visiting the campus we went to Nitin's place for lunch. Way towards his home is very nice (one through which we went). Small winding road, then walking through paddy fields in light showers we reached his home. At his home were five cats and 2 very small kittens (shooo cute), Shweta loved playing with those cats :P. hehe actually she doesn't like cats, as per her - cats should be where they belong and not on her. But we made sure that cats are on her, with her screaming and making faces. At his home we were treated with kori-roti which is the mangalore speciality dish. After filling our stomach with tasty moth watering food we started to return.

When we were returning others (Nitin, Shweta, Divya and Shrinidhi) planned of going to watch 'Mungaaru Male' which is the latest Kannada movie (has been running for over 25 weeks)। After some coercing they convinced me and Arvinder (both of us doesn't even know k of kannada). I agreed and this was my second regional language movie - first being 'Chandramukhi' in Tamil which I watched in US. And as others promised that they will translate the dialogs for us I had agreed (same reason I had gone for Chandramukhi too). Vasu dropped us at the theater - which again is something different which we did. Since the time Adlabs has opened I haven't ventured out to these other theaters but for this movie we had to go this theater.

It was fun standing in queue to get the tickets, pulling each other leg (college ishtyle) and enjoying the light rains. Movie started and so the translation. I would thank Divya for translating almost all of the dialogs with Nitin pitching in and providing more inputs apart from translating for Arvinder also, Shrinidhi was translating for Shweta. Movie was really good and a well deserved super-hit. In between there were dialogs like 'something has fallen on us' from someone in group :P (don't hit me for putting it here)। Story is good with songs so good that even though I don't understand what's being sung I am listening to those nowdays. Though the end is a little bit sad but overall movie was excellent, far better than hindi movies which was coming like Shootout at Lokhandwala, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, junk junk junk....

Mugaaru Male means monsoon rains, exactly the first monsoon rains। With this beautiful season starting in, I am enjoying each day when it rains, enjoying beauty of mangalore and its surrounding. Beauty of getting wet in rain, forgetting about what if I catch cold, just as I used to play in rain when I was a kid. I think my longing for becoming a kid again is making me do these things, but who is complaining here - I am enjoying what I am and how I am.

This was one day which I definitely will remember for long. Because every bit of this day I enjoyed and I enjoyed it fully forgetting about any other thing.

VOY's day out...

It was an initiative which sprang suddenly on Friday evening in one of the meetings. Why not VOY visit the new DC campus Saturday morning and have a look around ourselves. It was decided that everyone will meet in office at 11 AM in morning (mind you it was Saturday so can be too early for some of us), some of the members could not join because of plans which they had made earlier. Vasu, Divya, Shweta, Arvinder, Shrinidhi and Farid met in office and started in Vasu's vehicle for the destination. Nitin had planned to come directly to new DC site as his home is nearby.

Before we started from office, Vasu mentioned it would not be the best day to visit campus, because we will be seeing some destruction caused by yesterday’s high velocity winds (something we started seeing just as we came out of office and saw throughout the route. Later another news came that a ship has sank off Taneerbhavi beach).

Note: From this point onwards are all my views which may or may not match with other’s view

Winding roads, trees lined on both sides and valley, all green, welcoming you along with a river in middle (Netravati river) is perfect location for a vacation resort in some hill-station. All along the route this is the only sight which just makes you forget everything and enjoy the scenic beauty. In between you will come across small towns (which definitely will develop in years to come, will come up with high-rises, malls and complexes). Reality is, this is not a resort which I am talking about, but a dream which every mInfoscion has cherished, some for almost 10 years, other like me for almost 5 years and for the new joinees a dream which just begun and is now taking shape. This is an extension of the Infosys’s most happening DC – Mangalore DC, which surely is going to bring envy to other Infy DC’s as well as other companies as goes the tagline – ‘Neighbors’ envy, owners pride’.

Construction which started this Jan is progressing on good pace and already structural blocks of what will be huge 1700 capacity food court (FC) & recreational bloc and SDB-I already in place. There will be a picturesque view from the FC overlooking a green valley and on a clear sky, Arabian Sea in view. Ohh did I forgot to mention that this whole campus is located on top of hill 165 mts above sea level and the only other construction which is at higher elevation than our campus is a church. View from any part of campus is going to be beautiful, and I am definitely sure it will be difficult for people to work from inside the office and some will definitely be found appreciating the beauty outside (another job for managers to search for their team in that huge campus).

It was kind of raining while we were visiting the campus. We visited the food court and saw the construction and could imagine the beauty which one will be able to see from there when it is completed. One level below food court lies recreational block (yeh you guessed correctly, this is something opposite from our DC where recreation block is above FC). Below all this construction (FC and SDB), lies the area which will be our cricket stadium – probably another first where a stadium will be overlooking a beautiful view of valley and sea. One day I hope we will definitely be host to Indian cricket team just as MyDC were hosts some days back for India Bowlers camp.

Hats off to hundreds of construction workers who are working 24x7 (be it sunshine or hot summer sun or Mangalore rains), because of whose dedication our new DC is taking shape and work is progressing and will be completed in time. It’s one of those times where all of us should appreciate their effort in making our dreams come true.

It was now time to wrap our trip. Nitin has invited all of us for lunch at his place. Before we started for Nitin’s place we visited the church and from there also the view of our campus was beautiful. It was another nice experience going to Nitin’s place, walking around the paddy fields and then reaching his house. After this nice trip to campus it was now time to full our stomach with great home made food. Thanks Nitin for being such a great host.

P.S. – For those of you wondering what VOY is.
‘Voice of Youth’ was constituted in mid-April in Infy’s “Happening DC” mInfy (as it is popularly called), with the main objective to brainstorm, innovate and rollout strategic initiatives along with the Extended Operations Council, provide peer feedback on the initiatives and to infuse fresh ideas to the DC Management. This group was created consisting of 2 mInfoscions from each of the Units which are working out in mInfy (REU, RETL, IHL, HTDM and ES) and 3 from Business Enabler Functions.

test blog - thru mail

this is blog testing how blogs are published thru mail. If this goes fine then probably I will be publishing all by blogs thru this only.

 

Hurray… it succeeded to get posted…

मेरा पहला हिंदी का ब्लोग

यह मेरा पहला हिंदी का ब्लोग है मैं तो बस देख रहा था की गूग्ल हिंदी मैं ब्लोग लिखने मैं कितना सहायक है। अछा हे अब मैं कुछ ब्लोग हिंदी मैं भी लिखूंगा, लेकिन हिंदी मैं लिखना थोडा मुश्किल है।

अछा हो कि अब उर्दू मैं भी ब्लोग लिख पाऊँ तो।

अभी के लिए अलविदा। फिर मिलेंगे कुछ समय बाद।

Retailing - It happen in India

Does the title sound similar? I think many of you who had been venturing out to Big Bazaar will recognize as it is similar to the title of the book which is on story of Pantaloons and Big Bazaar by the Rajah of Indian Retail - Kishore Biyani (KB).

There is no coincidence that this title is similar, because in this article I am going to write about Retailing in India – now and how it will be in future, the great Indian consumer and of course Big-Bazaar and Pantaloons.

Since the day I have been back from US (in Jan 2007), I have seen one big change in Mangalore. I have seen crowd of people, children, young & old. Why I am mentioning this here is because in earlier 2 years (2003 to 2004), I had not seen or I would say I was not aware that so many people exists in Mangalore. Coming back to the point, I have seen this crowd doing one thing most often which is thronging Big Bazaar and crowding it like anything. On Saturdays and Sundays you will not find place to walk as its completely clogged by people trying to get the best deal.

Organized Retail which is the new buzzword is luring lots of corporates. Walmart/Bharti, Carrefour, Reliance, Tata and Birla all are venturing into Retail with big-bang. There is a shift in shopping pattern of those Indian consumers who shop at these retail chains. This shopping pattern was/is Indian consumers reluctance to buy something without any choice to be made. Everyone knows that when we used to go shopping (be it anything) we will go to multiple shops, check out the quality and prices, try for the best deal and then purchase the item from the place where we get the best deal. This pattern had multiple advantages, one being one used to be satisfied on quality which one gets, one will be aware of value for money and above all one would be satisfied on the fact that best deal was made. But this fact is fast changing with emergence of organized retailing which is cashing in on the fact that Indian consumers as like consumers of other developed countries are now short of time and high on cash to spend. This is the basic philosophy which is driving all these retailers.

Big-Bazaar or KB's philosophy - 'Sabse accha Sabse sasta', doesn't hold good. One might get some product cheapest there, but quality is not guaranteed. Now for me Big-Bazaar is just a place where I go and watch people searching around things (myself not buying anything from Big-Bazaar), trying to get best deals, buying things which are not needed (another philosophy for organized retail), standing in the check-out queue and in the end of this 1-2 hour marathon saving 50-100 bucks (I am not taking example of monthly ration supplies here). I always have this one question - is this saving of 50-100 bucks worth? Wouldn't had it been much better if the same product could have been brought from some kirana shop saving time and also saving on unnecessary spending?

Currently Big-Bazaar might be cashing in on the fact that in organized retail it does not have much competition. But by next year when Walmart/Bharti, Tata and Birla join the bandwagon it might be difficult for KB and Big-Bazaar to hold on to the tag-line 'Sabse accha Sabse sasta'. They will need to bring in quality and standards (which is evidently lacking now) for the 'Sabse accha' part of the tag line while keeping the 'Sabse sasta' part intact. It will not be that easy, given the fact that Walmart is a master in Operational and Supply Chain efficiencies. Already Walmart has suppliers in India and China, so for its foray it will just need to increase its sourcing, it already has quality standards set (though everyone know about Walmart's quality with respect to other US retailers).

Here I would also like to bring and talk about KB's philosophy that consumers should not save but spend their earnings (this is US consumer pattern) which is given in his book 'It happened in India'. There is great difference between US and Indian economy, its consumers and spending habits of consumers. Even if organized retailers are coming in and spending power is increasing one fact which will still differentiate Indian consumers spending habit from US consumers will be social-security. In US, social security is assured for each and every citizen while in India its still a long dream. Here people save and they will continue to save. They will save until they have their own home, they will save for their children's marriage and they will save for their future security. Changing this pattern will be difficult not even for KB and Big-Bazaar but even for any or all the organized retailers working together.

There has been numerous discussions on entry of big retailers and their impact on our kirana shops. I feel that there will not be much impact and these kirana shops will continue to exist and thrive. Only that they will have to bring in some differentiation with respect to services they will provide. Another thing which big retailers will need to take care of is not to upset these kirana shop owners, our farmers or the lower income level people, whose livelihood depends on these unorganized sectors. Buying power may be concentrated with a few but if the majority of these lower income / poor people people gets upset over the fact that their livelihood is taken away and no other alternate jobs are made then the situation will definitely take bad shape. It might take shape of violent protests (as seen from ransacking of Reliance Fresh shops in Bihar some weeks back) or legislation could be brought in (as these are the people who vote).

Though I feel there is nothing wrong in giving big-retailers a chance to establish retailers should be aware of their responsibilities with respect to pricing, quality and the shopping experience which they provide. Profit should not be the only parameter for which these retailers are coming.

In the end, it's up to the consumers on how they react to this explosion and expansion of organized retailers. As it has always been said – customer is the king. It will be sometime before we see what the king decides and who has the last laugh – king or the rajah (KB).

Why I hate high-end brands...

It was year 2007, yeah this year only, when I visited Pantaloons in Mangalore (where it has just come up in a newly built mall) and purchased a trouser. Before that I have visited Pantaloons once in Spencer, Chennai but till this my view was neutral. I will correct myself here, I had never been "neutral", but have always hated these "brand"ed merchandise. Reason being only one, inspite of not much production cost difference they sell their items at much much higher price which actually I feel is draining the much needed money into the coffers of these retailers, which in turn doesn't end up back in our economy but ends up outside the country. After working in Retail domain for more than four years and that too working in Cost and Price systems, I have realised how these people end up fooling people.

What I was mentioning is that I purchased a trouser from Pantaloons (my last from this chain), at a price which I always felt was high for that piece of cloth. But still I bought one, thinking that quality will be better than others which come up at lower price. But to my surprise the quality of this "John Miller" (I would tell you about this brand in another blog) trouser was much worse than any other trousers. In its first wash only, the buttons broke in two, while my other trousers have gone through painful washing both in washing machine or sometime with dhoobi who would mercilessly beat it. But still the buttons were still intact.

This episode gave me a good learning, big brands are just good for window shopping, its much better to buy from Peter England where the trousers cost almost half of these prices but the quality is superb. At least their buttons doesn't break in its first wash :)

This is not just related to Pantaloons but to any other brand. In Mangalore, my most hated brand (which I never visit even for window shopping) is "Will's Lifestyle". What surprises me more is that when I look at the parent companies, all of them are Indian companies only. Pantaloons is Indian, Will's lifestyle is ITC brand.

More than 4 years and still here...

Some questions made me think about me not having switched my job. Why I am still with Infosys even after more than 4 years in job? Why I am still staying in a city which is probably not know my many people and more ofter when it is named it is ofter confused with Bangalore.

Some people will see me with suspicion as I have still not switched from my first company even though the job market is booming and people now make sure that they switch every 1-2 years. Some will wonder whether I am incapable because of which I am not venturing into much greener pastures.
But when I think about it, which I did today there are solid reasons for me to stay in Infosys and also in Mangalore. A person works so that he can get satisfaction out of it. What can be more satisfying to me, when I am working on a technology I love, mostly I work on develeopment projects and here in Mangalore I am getting all that exposure, visibility and responsibilities which I know anyone will not get in IBM or Accenture.

Mostly people switch for a higher pay package, to get to city of their choice or to get promotion. But I think that one can get all these things in same old job also. Mangalore is a perfect city to be in (some disadvantages might still exist), but I reach in 5 mins to my workplace. If I have any appointment in city, I can finish it off by spending 10-15 mins in travel, the greenery in the city and its vicinity make you love this place. I have so many people who know my face, lots of friends with whom one can spend time. And above all, no dearth of people to whose place one can drop by if in need of home made food. This is this city's culture. A small city culture where everyone know's each other. And this is the thing which I like about this city the most. Entire DC is part of your home. This feature one cannot find in big cities. All these values gets lost in those big crowd, where everyone is running to complete his work, earn his livelihood.

Trip to Goa - Biggest trip which we organized

After a long time I am writing again, thinking back its not that long too. Though I started writing this sometime back, but due to various reasons could not complete it.

Month of April was one of the best which I had in many years. This month started with trip to Goa and ended with my birthday.

Trip to Goa was long over-due. Funds for the party were transferred from onsite some 3-4 months back, but due to one or the other reason it did not happen. There were other complications too, biggest being the trip was to be organized for more than 50 people and not just couple of guys. But still there was lot of help. Many people pitched in to complete the tasks of identifying mode of travel, place to stay and the whole itinerary of roaming around in Goa.

“With greater people comes greater responsibilities... and greater risks too”.. This is not from any movie ;) but from the experience of organizing this trip. We had to figure out how to transfer so many people from Mangalore to Goa and then around various places in Goa. So bad that the “Teleport” technology is not available in real life. But still we managed to get hold on an AC sleeper bus (after lots of roaming around in Mangalore – I realized Mangalore is not that small too :) ) and got train tickets for the remaining people. Good, so one thing done. Alkesh arranged for accommodation (it helped being a localite) and along with some other (Abdul, Janmin... ) finalized the itinerary for sight-seeing too. So now all the things were finalized, but one thing was remaining. Goan beaches at times have been risky and have taken lots of lives of those who have adventured into some of those unknown territories. We had a meeting with all people where we made this thing very clear, 52 people were traveling and 52 have to come back.

Finally the D-day arrived (30th March, 2007). There were 40 people traveling by bus and 12 people traveling by train. Plan was to pick these 12 people from Madgaon station in early morning and after that be together throughout the trip. [A word of caution here, since I traveled by bus this blog will not contain much about what happened during train journey, but it has to be assumed that the people in train also enjoyed a lot and did not sleep neither let others sleep]. We (bus) started around 10 PM and initially it was dull environment but as time progressed it was back-benchers who lit up the environment by starting Antakshari. We would have slept around 12 or was it 1?, just because we had to be active during rest of the trip. But poor me, I had to wake early morning (around 3 AM) when we reached Goa border as we had to pay road tax. But after that I could not sleep much, one thing here to mention is the beautiful view which was outside. In the moonlight the whole area looked beautiful (or some can say haunted also). We reached Madgaon station early morning 5/5.30 AM and now it was time to wake up people :). Train was a bit late so we had time to have some early morning tea at station. After some time the other group arrived in its entirety and it was time to start for our main stop – the hotel.

Alkesh has arranged for accommodation near Miramar beach and also planned for breakfast and lunch in the same place (this was one good idea which saved us lots of time). After some lengthy journey we reached hotel. There was initial hick-up as the rooms were not vacated by other people, but after a wait of some 30 mins we got hold of rooms for us. We got ready and had breakfast and were all ready and excited to start for the first place which was to be – St. Francis Church, where the mummified body of St. Francis had been kept. I had been to this church other times also and one thing which we made sure was to take the group photo (at the same place where we had taken HBR group photo 3 years back). After the church it was time to pay courteous visit to the place where Dona and Paula have supposed to commit suicide. Though it was hot outside, but the enthu of people was not lowered. We all spend good time there and the best part was to watch 2 young dolphins play in the waters there.

After giving tributes to Dona-Paula it was time to start for beach and have fun. What would have been better than to go to Bagah beach. Thing which I hate about it (or any other beach in Goa) is that they have been overly commercialized. But that was in no way coming in our way to enjoy the place. We grabbed a piece of beach (just temporarily) for us to start various activities, some started playing cricket, some football and other decided to go in for beach-ball and there were others who were happy playing in water. After playing, it was time for some water sports and some of the enthusiastic souls negotiated with the people there and brought down the amount which they were asking. Most of us did para-sailing, in the middle of the sea. Sea was getting rough and evening was getting converted into night, para-sailing at that point of time was another experience. When we reached shore it was already dark, some people have walked from Bagah till Calungate and we were supposed to pick them up and then go for dinner. Dinner was arranged on the beach at Dona-Paula which was another nice experience. But at the end of the day, most of us were just too tired to think about something other than sleep. After reaching hotel and taking a bath to remove all the sand, it was time to hit the bed and sleep tight which each one of us did.

Next day was again going to be as exciting as the previous day. People were all ready in the morning, done with the breakfast and ready to go by 9.00 AM (note that this was a Sunday ;), when mostly morning happens at 11 AM, ok I will correct 12 PM – atleast for me). We started our next day by reaching Wagator beach and tracking up to the fort on hilltop. Each one of us climbed till top and in meantime Himanshu and myslef became bit adventurous as we climbed the fort wall (some 20 feet high). After capturing the fort, it was time to take team photos of these brave and fearless souls (who conquered the fort in this hot weather). As it was getting hotter we decided to start back for the bus.

In that hot weather it was as difficult to climb down as it was to climb up. After this exciting trip to fort it was time to feed our stomach which was shouting loudly for food. We reached the hotel and had nice lunch. Though after the hectic track and heavy lunch most of us felt like sleeping (or I would say most of us were sleeping in the bus), but a few souls (Sangi, Geetha, Vijay, Himanshu, Dhanashri and myslef) decided to play dumb-charade (its worth mentioning here as this would be going on for a long time). In the meantime we had reached “Panolem” beach which was our last stop in this trip. There again people started playing cricket or beach ball, but Sangi, Geetha, Nithya, Vijay and me decided to have walk to a point which seemed to be the end of the land (at least there). And after some walk, crossing over small rivers we reached a point (a rock) which was really end of that land. It was different from the remaining beach in the sense it was not crowded with people (which is a normal in all beaches). It was a good decision to come to this place and watch the sunset with no crowd noise in background. As sun went down, feeling that the trip was coming to an end started to take over. But in the end, sometime it had to end and we were lucky that it was all ending with only good memories to cherish for the lifetime.

We started from Panolem for a Dhaba in an jungle where our dinner was arranged. This again was a truly amazing experience. After having dinner we dropped the people to station and remaining of us started back for Mangalore with so many sweet memories to cherish. While coming back we continued with dumb-charade till 2 AM in the morning and that was the ending point of this trip for us.

We will surely have more trips like this. And now be ready to explore India with me :)

Skating experience...

Yesterday night me, Ejaz, Sofia and Ayaan (Ejaz's 2 month old son) went for skating. My first in the open fields, though I can say I know the technique (theoratical), but bringing that out practically is not that easy... holding the wall and railing and trying to skate and falling on floor made few kids (apart from us everyone else seemed to be kid only :) ) smile and laugh..

And then there was this young guy who came and helped me by letting me again know how to skate, even then I was not doing properly so he told me to hold his shoulders and he will skate.. man i was in middle of the field and falling.. falling and falling.. in those 5 mins I would have fell almost 5 times :).. and with me taking this much time that young guy too asked me to practice more :D

Probably I need to practice more and need to keep my balance.. not just for skating but for anything in life in which I want to succeed... otherwise I will keep falling and will never learn... nice learning from yesterday....

btw was nice to see young kids skating so well.. one day i too will be able to skate similarly...

God's decoration...

In last two days I have such beautiful decoration around me that no human can ever plan or do. For the last two days, everything outside is decorated in ice. All the trees and shrubs have ice on them making them shine in the sunlight….. Many of the roofs have ice drapery increasing the beauty of this “crystal” design. And today it snowed, creating a perfect background of white sheets.

here i am...

Here I am... just sitting blankly and was staring at my laptop monitor thinking which news site to search for news... Its all and the same news everywhere... Then decided to write something on blog which will be something new for me to do.. you might be wondering that even after writing 20 posts why I am saying its something new, its because those 20 posts are post-event ie after some event happened then I wrote about my experience and now here i am writing blankly...

Its surely a tough job to write without knowing what you want to write...

From the time (some 4 weeks back) I came to know that I will be travelling back its mixed feeling going inside me.. not sure what are those.. Are they the sadness of me leaving my almost set life here in Detroit or is ot more of happiness of going back to India where I will have to set up everything back again.

In my initial years on planet earth, I was scared of setting up life somewhere else, somewhere other than Bhopal. For me Bhopal was everything and still today it remains the same. Though there is no Grand Canyon in Bhopal but there are those beautiful hills, there is no Niagara falls but then there is bada talaab, there are no big malls but there is new market and old markets of chowk, ibrahimpura and jumerati. There are no skyscrappers but there is the magnificient Taj-ul-Masjid (Asia's biggest mosque), there is no super-bowl but there are those kids playing on streets. There are no Red Lobsters, Olive garden's, Coldstone etc but there are those chai ki gumthis, those small shops making best of the chicken dishes which beat the best hotel chef's dishes. Well wow, I have almost finished on things which I liked here but there are things which still remain and which I like about Bhopal.
Hearing the Azan from Fajr to Isha, time during the festivals specially Eid when you see sea of humanity converging to Idgah for prayers, time after that when there is Ijtima (congregation of scholors) where on dua day around 5-6 lakhs people (including people of other religions) make dua. Most important is the way how you can use jugaad to get anything done, which I miss a lot here in US. Surely I love Bhopal and Bhopali's more than any other place on this earth. "Are khaan miyaan tum kya baat kar riye ho."

Oops I forgot, what I was sayiing is that I used to be scared of going out of Bhopal. I still remember when I was in Calcutta for IIM-C interview, the day interview was over I was on my way back even though IIM-C had made for our staying arrangements for some more days, or when I travelled back from Bhubaneshwar without confirmed ticket on overloaded train after a job interview. That time it was so difficult for me to stay in an unknow place. But now here I am on the opposite side of globe. Shifting between Mangalore, Chicago and Detroit which have become my other homes apart from Bhopal.

Why do people seach for something better in other places when they could find something good at same place. I can drive a BMW in US and not in Bhopal (or India) but I can definantely drive my bike at crazy speed doging the traffic back in Bhopal (or India) but not in US. For me happiness lies in both driving BMW or my bike, but I can't do that both together.

Only issue to me staying in US is that making social contacts and relationships is so more difficult. For me in Chicago and Detroit there were tens of friends, in Bhopal I had hundreds (now probabaly its very few) and back in Mangalore its in few hundreds - (yeh from the strength of 2000 odd people working in MInfy there would be hundreds of friends)...

Wow after writing all this I realise that I am very happy about thinking of going back then the issue of setting up. I am comingggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg.....