Farid [n. unique, exceptional, unequaled, precious;]

I am back :)

2010-07-12T09:34:00.000+05:30

It has been almost 2 years since I have written something seriously, including my papers. OK last part is not true, have written my exams very seriously.When I used to write earlier, it used to be something different happening in the otherwise normal life. It doesn't mean that in the last two years everything has been normal, on the contrary things had been different very often which didn't allow me to write so often.

So now you might be thinking, why am writing again - when even though my MBA is not yet complete, nor I am on bench :)

Well what else can be done best - while sitting at hill top, overlooking a green beautiful landscape and Arabian sea further. This beautiful setting just make me think and I write best when I have my thinking hat on.

So this is just going to be our secret, hopefully my managers don't think I am too lukkha sitting out there and assign two more projects :)

What I am going to write - lots of pending things. Life during MBA, life back in Mangalore, relating the learning's and daily events and other things....

So stay tuned....

An evening at Elliot beach

2010-01-16T19:48:00.000+05:30

Thinking about where to be in Chennai right now, the place should be Besant Nagar beach or the Elliott beach. Well I am here by chance, wanting to grab a coffee from Barista wandered here, only to be greeted by jam, blockades and swelling crowd which is currently filling the beach. Occasion is the culmination of the month long cultural fest which goes on in Chennai. Well though I am not a person who appreciates a lot of these cultural thing neither I know a single bit of tamil in which all the traditional sings and dances are happening, but the huge crowd of people and the thundering applause which is reverberating the beach definitely crowds are loving it.

loss of being an "early adopter" - letter to HTC

2009-12-18T20:47:00.004+05:30

Long one, but tells the frustration of an avid "early adopter" of HTC products - who now lives every moment hating his decision to purchase so early.

Well I purchased the HTC Touch HD as soon as it got launched in India - in April end - unfortunately on my birthday as a gift for myself. Costing Rs 44,000 I assumed it to be a perfect gift for myself until now when looking at what HTC has offered as HD2 at a much cheaper price, making me think why did I tried to be an "early adopter" for this HTC product?

Within 8 months my gift is well Rs 8,000 expensive (as HD2 is coming in 36,000), is 0.5 inch smaller screen, 160MB less RAM, has one downgraded version of OS (Win 6.1 in HD while 6.5 in HD2) and above all is 496 MHz slower (almost half the speed of HD2). Looking at these numbers I just can't console myself that what I assumed to be a phone from HTC which would not die out in years have become obsolete within just 8 months and the next generation phone is way too far ahead.

Above all it has changed my perception and view about the company. From being a advocate for HTC products, I now have moved to a stage where I would definitely recommend everyone planning to purchase their next new phone to wait and not grab the current best one as the next best is just a few months away.

I would definitely like to hear what the company officials have to say about this. Waiting to hear from them.

an ex-HTC fan

Biased reporting - CNN-IBN too in that league

2009-04-23T09:39:00.002+05:30

Read this news about the death of a schoolgirl in the school: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/asthmatic-student-dies-delhi-school-faces-ire/90826-3.html and then this one: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-schoolgirl-in-coma-after-punishment/90482-3.html

Find any similarity in the news? Well both report the unfortunate death of schoolgirl in the school in Delhi and both these happened around the same time.

Did you find any dissimilarity? If you would have read carefully you would observe that in one of the news article the school name and location is not mentioned whereas for the other school almost the entire address is mentioned.

The school details which are not mentioned are for an "elite" Delhi school while all the details are mentioned about the municipal school where the other accident happened.

Clearly double standards by the CNN-IBN also. Goes on length to prove that news channels are definitely biased in their reporting.

It will definitely take a long time for me to start believing that CNN-IBN news are not biased.

Note: I left these comments on the CNN–IBN site, but looks like they don't like taking feedback on their biased reporting.

Just observed TOI's report mentions complete details - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Aakritis-parents-seek-action-against-school/articleshow/4437405.cms

A day in Hyderabad...

2009-04-05T21:10:00.000+05:30

another blog on the fly. well this one is while coming back from Hyderabad. yeah came here for few hours, well started from Chennai after bunking my extra class and reached here in the morning. For those who are still wondering how come I started bunking the class, I came here to meet my sister

Well Hyderabad pretty much looks like Bhopal as in the old Hyderabad city. With the latest addition of hitech city it is much bigger than Bhopal. The thing which brought the similarities of the two cities was people speaking urdu, watching signs in urdu and hindi (a sweet break from Chennai where finding someone speaking urdu is one of the great achievement you can count) and well the Necklace road seeing which I only think of bada talaab and the lake view drive.

This time it was just an 'overview' visit, where I did not go out at all. hoping to have a proper trip someday.

its time to blogout and go to sleep...

report indicts armymen for killing two civilians....

2009-03-15T17:30:00.004+05:30

The magisterial inquiry has indicted armymen for killing of two civilians in Sopore earlier in Feb 2009.

But the biggest irony of this case (and which also is there in Manipur) is that these army men cannot be prosecuted by the state as the army in J&K enjoy impunity for their actions under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

Let us see what the army and the defense ministry does to the murderers in army dress.

On Wiki
Bomai killing: J-K govt inquiry commission indicts Army

and then they say, they are anti-India

2009-02-22T19:19:00.006+05:30

Once more Army has done it. Throughout the world, the army personals do indulge in violation of human rights and get away with it. Be it US army personals in Iraq & Afghanistan or be it our own Army personals in J & K or North East. Time and again they have violated the human rights because of which people do not believe in their integrity. It is time for Army to think beyond that they are supreme and look into the humane aspect.

From CNN-IBN: Sunday Feb 22, 2009

Case registered against Armymen for Kashmir shootout

New Delhi: A case was registered against troopers of the Rashtriya Rifles for a shootout in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town Saturday that killed two civilians. The town remained tense Sunday as authorities imposed strict restrictions to prevent protests, officials said.

"An FIR has been lodged in the Sopore police station against troopers of 22 Rashtriya Rifles allegedly involved in the unprovoked firing on a group of youth in which two were killed and another critically wounded," a police officer said here.

Heavy deployment of police and paramilitary central reserve police force (CRPF) was made in Sopore, 50 km from here, in the wake of the indiscriminate firing by unidentified assailants in army uniforms.

"There are strict curfew-like restrictions throughout Sopore and our movement is being disallowed," Gulam Muhammad, a resident of Sopore, told IANS over telephone.

Protests, meanwhile, continued in Bumai village on the outskirts of Sopore town where the shooting incident took place Saturday. Hundreds of angry mourners shouted slogans against the army during the burial of one of the slain youth.

Locals had alleged that several youth were returning from a Sufi shrine when personnel of the Rashtriya Rifles fired upon them without any reason.

"The situation is tense, but under control. Those responsible for the unfortunate shooting incident would be brought to book," a police official said.

A magisterial enquiry has been ordered into the firing incident and will be carried out by the the sub-divisional magistrate of Sopore within a fortnight, officials said.

Mumbai: 164 v/s Chennai: 180

2009-02-22T15:57:00.000+05:30

Well this one was pending for past 3 months.... here it goes...

To this cricket crazy nation, this title would look like Ranji match or lately IPL/ICL score. Though some would recognize correctly what Mumbai - 164 means and very few souls would ever get what Chennai - 180 means. I would not further hurt your ignorant mind and will divulge, Mumbai - 164 is the number of people who died in one of the most daring terrorist attacks on Indian soil. Chennai 180, well is the number of people who died in and around Chennai due to cyclone Nisha around same time as Mumbai attacks were being covered "live" by all prestigious and other gossip channels (read hindi news channels).

Well you might think I am again one of those who is blogging to write "Enough is enough". Not precisely, I am writing here vent my anger on all those people who felt outraged by Mumbai incident. Why were they not outraged when terrorists bombed Delhi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur in recent times and where were they when so many innocent people have died till now. Just because the attacks happened in Taj and Oberoi where who's who of rich people are found does not mean that "Enough is enough". Media hijacked the whole thing that any other thing which happened in the country was ignored. Well 180 (16 more than Mumbai) died due to cyclone Nisha around the same time, so what, we should not sympathize with them just because those died here were mostly poor and because they died of natural calamity? No, a human life is equal and this should be remembered by all including the people who felt outraged by the deaths in Mumbai. For me, these 164 people who died are in the queue of names who I feel should get justice, list is very large, for me it starts with tens and thousands of people who died in Bhopal, tens and thousands who have died in terrorist attacks and thousands of innocent souls who have lost their lives in numerous riots in the country. Then these 164 people who lost their lives stands.

May Allah give them peace. and provide justice to all.

unknown people driving the republic...

2009-01-28T09:26:00.000+05:30

one of my blogs on the run.... am just waiting for my office bus. One of the traffic policeman walks to the middle of the road and waves to a bus to stop. I was still in process of thinking what the driver had done wrong, I realised he has stopped the bus for a foreigner who was standing on the roadside.

yeah I know what you are thinking, what if that driver had stopped for an Indian to get on. we would have been pissed. but this is the beauty of Indian culture - athithi devo bhava. some nationalists will hit me back saying we never get this treatment when we are in some other country, but we need to realise that there culture is not same as ours. that should not stop us from following the greatness what has been taught to us generation after generations.

small thing right, me too thought similarly but then it occurred to me that these small things often gets missed and we only criticise them on the mismanagement which happens on city roads. these small things by unknown people has only kept the country going. in CNN-IBN words these are the people who drives the republic.

this month's experience - Oct 2008

2008-10-26T18:31:00.005+05:30

Well i would say, one of the most adventurous month this had been. It was supposed to start with the good promotion mails but which got delayed. I was in Bhopal (yeah this was 3rd visit in this year ;) ), for last week for Ramzan and then definitely celebrate Eid. I dunno in how many blogs I have written why I love to be in Bhopal for Ramzan - well definitely its different. So here I was in Bhopal celebrating Eid, met old friends (yes school time acquaintance). Again this trip was refreshing as was away from studies, which unfortunately I had not planned. I had thought of studying and coming up to speed which definitely did not happen.

Just the night before I had to leave, I had severe pain in abdomen, which docs took care by giving me pain killers. As I was feeling well in morning, I started for my journey back to Chennai. I would rate this as one of the worst decisions of my life time - I don't think I had taken such bad decision not even while investing in share market :). Though till afternoon things were fine, the pain started to re-occur towards evening and by night I was not able to sleep in train (though the intensity of pain was still lesser than previous night's). Was just praying that I reach Chennai soon and go to hospital. Alhumdulilllah reached Chennai and then went home still having that pain. By God's grace Sabahat had reached a day back and so went to 'Lifeline Hospital' - whose image I am going to rip apart below.

We went directly to hospital with me still having pain. Initially doctor checked me out and observed it might be appendicitis pain and recommended me to immediately undergo 'UltraSound' before they do the "surgery" to remove the appendix. In Ultrasound, the doctors observed it was not appendicitis, but I had dilation in the proximal ureter (which in layman terms means I had swelling in the ureter near kidney). They were not able to identify any issues (which they said should happen due to stones). Till now I was OPD and then I decided to get admitted. They finally gave me pain killer to ease the pain and then put me on IV and antibiotics (I think just like that). Then in the meantime they decided to take CT scan (I think because now I was on insurance), which they reasoned to see if they can identify the stones as the reason behind dilation. Ahha I forgot to mention that till now I am patient of 'Dr J. S. Rajkumar' or Dr. JSR who is supposed to be one of the best Gastroentologist - Surgery here. Ok so I go for the scan, they inject 'tracer' in my blood so that in CT scan they can identify things in right kidney properly. Now, how bad the luck can be, in the CT scan the 'tracer' got into the left kidney and nothing went into right. Also later doc came back and told me (and also explained more to Sabahat) that why another CT scan is required. They had taken 10mm sections in the first one and still they were not able to identify the issue. So they wanted to take another CT scan with 3mm and 5mm sections - well later I used to call this procedure 'live testing and calibration of machines'. So has another scan which also did not give out any concrete results.

Now I had been referred to urologist - Dr. Pari. In all this Dr JSR once visited me and also explained me things would be fine and how if "surgery" is required it would be small one - which I never trusted. Mostly they were trying to look for any small stone so that they can have reasons of performing surgery or surgery like thing :). So I am still on IV and antibiotics, pain has not re-occurred with doctors trying to find what can be the reason and what treatment to follow. I dunno whether so much was required, but when I got admitted they brought one big bag with all this, which I first mistook is for other too :).

So finally Dr. Pari comes and tell me that it might have been because of kidney stone which has now got dislodged from body. I can get discharged as soon as insurance things are sorted out. And finally I was out of hospital Friday evening, but unluckily started having little pain. Since I was already discharged and had medicines, I was like lets go to house then stay in hospital which I had started to dislike. I forgot to mention when I went to pay for my bills the hospital has sent estimation for Rs 41,500 to insurance company while they approved Rs 15,000 - making me wonder whether that's the reason why for any treatment option they were looking for "surgery" as solution.

I was again supposed to meet Dr. Pari after three days which was Monday. As I went to hospital (even after fixing prior appointment), he made me wait almost for 1.5 hours as he was still not in (there were other who were waiting since 9:00 AM ie well over 3 hrs) - how unprofessional of a doctor. As I told him, that for last three days, the pain occurs sometime and then goes, he started explaining another of the possibilities - that the problem might be PUJ obstruction, which is pelvic-ureter junction obstruction. He explained that this is since childbirth and problem starts occurring between 20-30 age group (again fitting my age). The cure for this is definitely "surgery" - I should have punched him then and there itself for repeating that word again. To confirm whether it is due to PUJ obs., he recommended me to undergo one more test (yeah go and get one more machine calibrated). This test was Nuclear medicine test - where they would inject me with radioactive material (to make me next spiderman?) and would study my kidney function under camera (like I am some reference material or what???). This observation from him, his inconclusiveness in identifying problem and his lack of confidence and flowchart type approach in trying to identify my problem led me to decide of not seeking his advice at all.

I came out, decided to get my reports checked through some other doctor and get their advice (I would not have to undergo any other test - I had all test reports with me - Ultrasound, CT scan, Chest X-ray, Blood test, urine test...). I stopped taking the medicine too, just to see if problem re-occurs or not. Alhumdulillah I did not had any problems after that day, the pain has also not re-occurred.

Everyone has told me that hospital - Lifeline, reputation is not that good. They have cases of mis-diagnosis and other issues.

So the month started beautifully with some pain in between and now towards the end of the month have got the promotion letter. Yes finally am a Project Manager, officially. Though I would say I always knew I will get it this time, the market conditions have been bad, there are very less number of promotions which have gone through this time. Still there are reasons to smile :)

Chalo I think now I should get back to study or else the future will not be that good as it is now.

Why Robert Reich Is Right About Corporate Social Responsibility

2008-09-06T22:18:00.000+05:30

I was going through Infosys blogs where I stumbled upon this article by Mark Kramer on why Reich is Wrong on CSR.

I admire Mark Kramer because of the work he has been doing along with Micheal Porter, but on CSR I have kind of mixed view of both Kramer and Reich.

Corporates are operated for profit. In my opinion, CSR is being used as another "marketing campaign " by the organizations rather then it being a conscious effort to bring in some real change.

For e.g. Philip Morris as part of CSR, will ever stop making cigarettes? Will Dow Chemicals and other chemical industry stop producing dangerous chemicals so as to save the environment? Will the manufacturers of SUV's stop producing it right away, so that there is complete stop of those fuel guzzling monsters?

Answer is no, a big NO. We as humans, will never do anything which affects the 'profits' for which the organizations have been created or in fact which in any way affects to our comfort.

Right now what is happening is we continue to contribute in the destruction of earth and on the other hand we try to reverse "some %" of that destruction. Is that right? That is what corporates have to ask themselves and if they really want to change the way Earth is getting destroyed, do something which really helps by changing themselves so that max of the damage is not caused.

This is true in IT companies too here in India. Every company is talking about CSR and some are taking it seriously, but for me that looks more to be "good boy" campaign so that they can "differentiate" themselves in this competitive world. Just last week I was reading an article in Times of India - Chennai edition, where they mentioned how IT companies are resisting the idea of having common buses for employees instead of each company having individually hundreds of buses. The reason why they are resisting is that they fear "their employees" being poached.

So here we see, on one hand we are talking about CSR, but on the other hand if we perceive any 'threat' we turn our face away, looking at the other side.

We have to remember, we don't have much time. This Earth which have survived for millions of years, might not be in position to support future generations if we continue with our destruction like this. Some scientists say we have only a decade left before we see irreversible changes happening. Other argue that these calculations are wrong, well what if these first set of scientists are right? Will these second set if scientists guarantee that they will bring earth to its previous state?

It's high time that we start looking at CSR seriously, not with any profit angle but with ways of saving the earth even if it means forgoing profits.

what a quarter...

2008-08-30T22:22:00.002+05:30

Today the first quarter for PGSEM got over, with test innings of end terms getting over after two gruesome - 4 hours and a 2 hour test. How I fared, well would say this quarter was an eye opener. Have a long list of not to-do or I would say definitely to-do items from next quarter onwards, which is by the way starting next to next week.

Subjects which were in this semester were interesting, Strategic Management taught how to evaluate and start thinking about strategies. Micro Economics tried to give good idea on how we should think in real life with respect to economic perspective and Financial accounting - how to decipher Balance Sheet, P&L and Cash Flow statements. Subjects were good, but I could not do complete justice by reading all the material which was given. But this is not going to happen going forward, otherwise will miss on lots of things.

So its time to have one last good night sleep and then start looking at the second quarter subjects :).

Let down by our own people...

2008-08-02T21:47:00.003+05:30

Whenever I think of Bhopal one thing which still pains me is the justice denied to us. And mostly it's not the Americans who are to be blamed, but our own people - our very own Indian people - Indian Govt., CBI and the 'great' Indian Justice system, which till now have not been able to extardicate Anderson or should I say, have not shown the will to get and prosecute him.

Till now, the very own government did nothing to move the poisonous material lying there in the factory which has now seeped into the ground water causing dangerous diseases like cancer. To add salt to the injury, our 'un-educated' 'illiterate' ministers point that the materials are not poisonous and have not caused any issues. Let's do one thing - why not make these ministers drink that water and let them use the water for sometime, so that we are convinced whatever they are saying is correct. But those unworthy people will not take risk with there lives.

Our great medical system, which still works on copying the drugs, or the best scientists which we produce, could not decipher the code of Methyl iso-Cyanide and come up with anti-dote for those. Why should we, even after 25 years from tragedy, wait for Union Carbide which is now taken over by Dow Chemicals to give the documents related to ill effects of the gas. Can't we ourselves try to solve the mystery.

And finally, even CSR, which everyone is talking about will not make Dow Chemicals, share the secret of MIC gas, even if it means further generations of people could probably be saved.

I will never forget the horrors of Bhopal neither should the world.

Note: I have intentionally not put one photo, of a young child being buried which is heart rendering.

Asaduddin Owaisi's speech text

2008-07-24T21:03:00.002+05:30

This deal is not between religions and communities. It is between two countries of India and United States. Why are you dragging Muslims into this? I would like to counter the canard that is being spread that the Muslims of this country are against the nuclear deal. I just want to ask why don’t the rulers of UP and West Bengal CMs single out and tell whether the Dalits or the Hindus of their state support the deal or not.

I am supporting the government because I do not want at any cost the leader of Opposition LK Advani as the Prime Minister.

I am very well aware of the Left’s hatred against the minorities. While there are about 28 percent Muslims in the West Bengal, why is it that their representation is merely 2 per cent? This is not the way to claim supporting the minorities. If you want to support the BJP, then go ahead. But I am very clear, if Advani becomes the Prime Minister who will suffer? I will suffer a loss. I have already suffered the loss of the Babri masjid.

I am a Muslim and I am an Indian and I see no distinction between the two.

2008-07-24T20:51:00.002+05:30

Here are the excerpts from Omar Abdullah's speech which he made in Parliament on 22 July, 2008.

SHRI OMAR ABDULLAH (SRINAGAR): Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I think that it is a matter of great misfortune for Parties like mine. … (Interruptions) I do not know whether the Rs. 1 crore that was shown here is genuine or not. But I think that it is extremely unfortunate that if nothing else, this Rs. 1 crore is seeking to buy the silence of Parties like mine who are not being given an opportunity to speak in a correct manner in this House. … (Interruptions)

I have been a Member of this House for 10 years, and I have never disturbed this House in these 10 years. I have sat with them and I have sat on this side, and I have never disrupted a speaker and yet here they do not have the courtesy to listen to what I have to say. … (Interruptions)

I am a Muslim, and I am an Indian. I see no distinction between the two. … (Interruptions) I see no reason why I, as a Muslim, have to fear a deal between India and the United States of America (USA). … (Interruptions) This is a deal between two countries. It is a deal between, we hope, two countries that in the future will be two equals. … (Interruptions)

Sir, the enemies of Indian Muslims are not the Americans, and the enemies of the Indian Muslims are not ‘deals’ like this. The enemies of Indian Muslims are the same enemies that all the poor people of India face, namely, poverty and hunger, unemployment, lack of development and the absence of a voice. It is that we are against, namely, the effort being made to crush our voice. … (Interruptions)

I am not a Member of the UPA, and I do not aspire the Membership of the UPA. But I am extremely unhappy with the way in which my friends in the Left have taken on this self-imposed position of being the certifiers of who is secular and who is not. … (Interruptions)

Until a few years ago, I was a part of the NDA and I was a Minister with them. The same Left people considered me as a political untouchable, and they considered me an outcaste because I was a part of the NDA. Today, the same Left people are telling me that all secular Parties must unite with the BJP to bring down this Government. … (Interruptions)

I made a mistake of standing with them once. I did not resign on the question of Gujarat when my conscience told me to do so, and my conscience has still not forgiven me. I need not make the same mistake again. … (Interruptions)

आप लोग अमरनाथ की बात करते हो, आपने अमरनाथ का आरोप लगाया,…(व्यवधान) आप एक जगह दिखाइए, जहां पर किसी कश्मीरी ने यात्रा के खिलाफ बात की हो, जहां किसी कश्मीरी ने कहा हो कि हमें यात्री नहीं चाहिए, जहां यात्रियों के ऊपर हमला हुआ हो।…(व्यवधान) हमारी जमीन का मुद्दा था, हम अपनी जमीन के लिए लड़े और मरते दम तक अपनी जमीन के लिए लड़ेंगे, लेकिन हम आपकी तरह फिरकापरस्त नहीं हैं।…(व्यवधान) हम आपकी तरह कम्युनल नहीं हैं। हम मस्ज़िद नहीं गिराते और मंदिर भी नहीं गिराते। …(व्यवधान) वहां एक सौ साल से ज्यादा अमरनाथ की यात्रा चलती आ रही है और जब तक कश्मीर में मुसलमान हैं, श्रीनगर और अमरनाथ में आपकी यात्रा चलती रहेगी। …(व्यवधान)

अध्यक्ष महोदय, मैं यह बात दावे के साथ कहना चाहता हूं कि इन लोगों की तरह मेरी सियासत बदलती नहीं है, आज इस तरफ और कल उस तरफ। …(व्यवधान) हमने सेक्यूलर फोर्सेस के साथ हाथ मिलाया है और मिलाते रहेंगे। The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (J&KNC) will vote to support the Motion moved by the Prime Minister. Thank you.

Why MBA? Why PGSEM from IIMB...

2008-07-13T12:12:00.000+05:30

When I told everyone that I am joining PGSEM, the first question people had is what is it? Next came what I plan to do after doing it? Some suggestions came in with respect to the course and what other have felt about it. When I announced, I am shifting to Chennai to pursue the course, came another one - why Chennai?

Well to be truthful, I was not thinking of doing MBA until sometime around Jan. Reasons were varied, I loved (and still love and enjoy) doing technical work and was expert in most of the work I do. But then there was something missing, which I had started realising. As I was moving up the ladder, the challenges which were coming up were getting reduced and I was not getting that much kick from my work. So I started thinking of venturing out into some new areas and looked for more options. Initially I zeroed on some certificate courses from IIMC etc which are conducted by Hughes and they were available in Mangalore also. The reason why I completely dropped them from my mind was that I realised those courses offered little value and there were no chances of class participation and creating some network.

My idea of doing MBA was doing it part time only. Full time was no-no :), so that's why was not thinking of full time PGP (through CAT) at all. I stumbled upon PGSEM through some of the websites and worked on getting more knowledge on the course.

Well the course is 2.5 years (min), part time, executive, general management course conducted by IIMB in Bangalore and Chennai. In Chennai it happens over distributed mode i.e. the class happeneing in Bangalore is transmitted over to Chennai classroom and vice-versa (since last two weeks profs had been in Chennai).

This course is one of the most misunderstood while being not as famous as its full time counterpart (i.e PGP). I will just explain all the facts in post below and all these are my thoughts. In my opinion, in everyone's mind the perception of an MBA graduate is a person who is working in an Investment Bank (IB's) and draws the highest salary. Well that is true in some of the cases, where the IB's take in people from IIM's with grand salaries. This may not be true for all the MBA's from IIM's. There are varied reasons, people are exceptionals or they may have prior experience because of which they are taken. Well but that is true for only x% of total grads (am not debating on what that x is). But this has set the perception in minds of everyone about what an MBA from IIM does.

My reason for chosing and deciding on PGSEM from IIMB were very clear. It is one of the best MBA school, PGSEM is a part time course thereby allowing me to continue the job and I did not want to shift into an IB (if that was my aim, full time MBA would have been better option). With these clear aim in mind I decided to go forward.

Entrance I say is tough. Admission is through CAT / GMAT or PGSEM exam (happens in March). I gave the PGSEM test which is very similar to CAT, but as usual IIM threw in a surprise for us. There was an extra essay test givem on a case. Well I would say, this move was definately in my favour. Then we had two rounds of interview - Alumni and Faculty after which only seats were offered. Don't unestimate the competition for the course, for a total of 150 seats for the course, 4-6 people were interviewed for a seat and so you can see there were lots of rejections too.

There has been some concers on the placements not available after the course, but dude, you are pursuing the course since you are already in job. Now if you want to utilize the course and get into some other area, then you should be proving that in your company and move, I don't think everything should come one a plate :). I am very clear on how I will proceed further, which area I will move into is still being thought off in my mind.

From these 4 weeks of going weekly for the course, one thing is very clear to me. It going to be tough. Daily working till evening and then leaving early from home for classes (as they happen in MCity which is outside Chennai city) and contiuing over Saturday also. It leaves just one day which I was mostly spending on sleeping, but after yesterday's test I will be studying properly on Sunday's as well as other day's of the week :). One more thing, nowdays the wishing on Saturday evening, which is when classes ends it like 'Have a nice day', no reference of weekend by anyone. In the past there has been some drop-outs from the course, people who might find it difficult to manage the time between work, studies and personal life.

So people who have come out of this course are more hardened than probably the full time (we have to earn the same credits as the full time people to get the degree) but in no way we should be comparing the courses as all are distinctively different.

Useful information about the program:

IIMB PGSEM site

Yahoo group for PGSEM

PGSEM - Students Network

Wiki

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) - Post-Graduate Diploma in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM) - Orientation Class for 2008 batch

2008-06-04T06:37:00.012+05:30

Now since I have decided to pursue the PGSEM program from IIM-B, it was very likely that I would definitely attend the Orientation class which has been organised for 2008 batch by IIM-B and PGSEM seniors. Orientation classes were to start from 30th May - 1st June (with 30th May being optional day) and these classes were overlapping the annual industry-academia event named LCube.

It was a great opportunity to meet, interact and know almost all the class mates, seniors and professors. I would say finally this aim was achieved but by the end of program there were some more realizations which have crept in the mind.

It was a residential program so the arrangements for acco had been made by IIM-B in the hostels. Well to tell about IIM-B campus as such (where I had been twice earlier - for alumni and faculty interview for PGSEM), just as u move off Bannerghatta Road and get into the campus the world completely changes (no I am not talking in spiritual terms). On the other side of campus i.e. on Bannerghatta Road, there still will be thousands of vehicles trying to capture and win every inch of road space which they can, dust all over the place and vehicle exhausts (pollutants) which you will be breathing (off course with some amount of oxygen for you to survive). But inside the campus it is serene and quiet environment. When first time I had visited I was trying to figure out whether there are any buildings or not as the entire campus is covered in green. I had liked the architecture, no high rise buildings in the campus, the building design in such a way that it merges well with the environment and trees and creepers inside the buildings (walkways etc).

This visit was going to be completely different from my previous visits. This time I was walking-in as a student of one of the most prestigious institutions in India - The IIM-B. It was a very proud moment for me and my father who definitely would have been watching me from heavens, something much more bigger than the one which I experienced more than 5 years back when I walked in Infosys Mysore campus as an employee.

So I was in 'the' campus and went straight to the hostel so that I can be ready for the session which was going to start at 8:30 AM. Well this time I had not trusted the train in bringing me on time and really the Mangalore - Bangalore buses are running on-time.

After moving in to the hostel room (not mentioning checking in as it was hostel and not hotel room), I started to decipher hostel life (I had never stayed in hostel either in school or in college). It was good. In the meantime had met some of my classmates too.

Day 1 - 31 May, 2008

After getting ready, moved towards breakfast area with my new found friends. After having light breakfast we had the welcome ceremony followed by the team building workshop. Since I have very recently attended the team building workshop I was enthu about this one too as it would be more of games and less of theory. I was conducted by Rahul Kapoor, who was very energetic guy. It was a good team building and ice breaking session where I got introduced to more of my batchmates (I would have loved to remember each of you guys name, but unfortunately that's going to take little more time). There were quite few good learning at the end which definitely are going to help in life.

Post-lunch it was time to go over do's and dont's, which is very important for everyone who is part of any institution. Till this time it was all well and then Prof. Shankar Venkatagiri, Chairperson - PGSEM, painted what initially looked like a terrifying picture of life (with work, life and PGSEM all together)which later I equated to a challenging life which I will be facing each day in life going forward. I think I should have been mentally ready for this earlier, after all it's IIM-B (I think name itself rings the bell) from which I am doing my post-graduation. I am really grateful (and I think all my other batchmates will be too), to Prof. Shankar for taking the eye-opener session. This was followed by couple of more sessions by professors on the subject (and mind you they are really among the best in the world). After this there was corporate quiz organised as part of LCube. Mostly realised that it would take some more effort from my side for studying all the subjects.

It was evening and when things looked like to settle (hopes of a great evening and sound sleep in night) we were given with the first assignment. It was a case study which was supposed to be mailed before 6:30 AM next morning. On the first day itself we were accustomed to the life of being in an IIM and it was great but little busy :). After dinner worked on the case study (and skipped the IPL semi-finals) and finished it before dosing off to sleep. Next day sessions were to start at 8:00 AM sharp (profs and seniors had already reiterated 'n' number of times how much punctuality is required from our side).

Day 2- 1 June, 2008

Woke up at 6:00 AM to be on safer side and got ready. After the breakfast when we reached auditorium we were in for a surprise quiz. It was on Quanta, score which I got made me realise how much I have lost touch with core subjects. Well during this quiz, it was really showed what punctuality means. The gates of the room were closed (as has been mentioned that some professors do this in class). Quiz was followed by case analysis which we had got last night. One of the groups were made to present there analysis on which we had discussion. Prof YLR Moorthy was great in the analysis and other points which he brought forward. Following the analysis was session on presentation skills by Rakesh Godhwani who is ex-PGSEMite. Only difference from other sessions which I have attended was that he has shown movie clips in this one to bring forth some of the points. After these sessions it was time to go through the core subjects, how and what to study in those subjects and question & answer by seniors who have scored 4 in those subjects. GPA calculation I am still not clear on, but as time passes I know I will get accustomed to it.

These induction sessions were followed by last event of LCube, keynote address by Mr. Som Mittal (President, Nasscom) and panel discussion on "DNA for the next generation of IT Leaders". In his address, Som presented lots of number and facts about where industry is and what the projections are. After his address it was time for panel discussion with good number of senior people (Mr. Som Mittal, Mr. Subash Menon [CEO, Subex Ltd], Mr. Sudip Banerjee [President - ES, Wipro], Mr. Vijay Anand [President - Server Tech, Oracle India], Mr. Jairaman [SAP] and Uma Balkrishnan [CEO, Axcend Automation and ex-PGSEMite ) . What lacked in them was real zeal what you see in panel discussions on TV channels. Probably it was late Sunday evening which might justify that, but in the end there were couple of good points to be taken from it. Mostly in the room it was our batch people only, not many from senior batches which was surprising to me.

Finally it was end of two days, with a nice dinner, which at least gave me a glimpse of what is in store for next 2.5 years. Life is going to be hectic including weekdays as the entire thing will surely test my limits everyday. That will be real fun :)

One blog which I am still writing is on my decision to join the course and "my" reasons.

Some more blogs on Orientation from Karthik and Pravin.

Sweet Home Bhopal

2008-05-25T18:42:00.001+05:30

So I have to go home. Marriage of another family member and that's good enough reason for making the trip. Well to be truthful there were other reason also. I was in Waitlist for IIMB (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) PGSEM program (well some blogs on this subject will be published) and if that gets cleared then it will be little difficult to make trips to Bhopal as often as I would like to make.

So with this I booked the tickets and got both side as Waitlist tickets (yeah the waitlist was 'the' keyword attached to me at this moment). Even though by the day I was supposed to travel, the waitlist did not get cleared, I thought of trying my luck little realising that it was summer vacations which was going to end and I was in long distance train. So I boarded the train with TTE mentioning that there are no empty seats. But what to do, habit of 'never give up' does not die easily. I waited patiently for TTE to check all 3AC tickets and then he gave me a berth. I was lucky as a group was travelling and there were few less people there. So had a good journey, slept for most of the travel duration.

After reaching Bhopal there was not much time to do other activities. But it was too hot (looks like old habit of being able to cope up with that heat is becoming lesser), and still I would be going out :). Some things never die. Yeah drank lots of shikanji and panna to beat the heat (man by staying in south I miss so many things). Bhopal as usual was as beautiful as it always had been. Walking past the bylanes or driving down the Lake View drive would always bring the long cherished dream of coming back to Bhopal but alas still there is no IT industry in Indore (I would not like IT industry to come in Bhopal and disbalance the social fabric which is there. After seeing what has happened to cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and others, I would prefer to work in Indore and stay in Bhopal).

I have always noticed something when I am in Bhopal. Whatever number of leaves I take my vacation ends up very quickly. Same was happening now and I was feeling bad. But just before my vacation could end, I got the good (dunno what to say) news that my IIMB waitlist is cleared and they have offered me a seat (but in Chennai as there were no seats in Bangalore). I discussed the situation at home and as usual got full support there. So I had to come back, start the proceedings for my transfer to Chennai and think about what's in store for me now.

While coming back I tried my luck again but this time it was not that good. The train (2AC and 3AC) were overbooked with lots of waitlist people travelling. For the night I could not find an empty seat (unlucky me), but then the 3AC attendant offered me his seat (yeah the hard one which is near the gate), offcourse for a price :). Atleast got something for that night. Later in day got another berth and slept for sometime. Finally reached back Mangalore with a heavy heart and sad feeling on missing 'the' Bhopal. But the dream still is there. One day (this will be mostly after 2.5 years as I have to complete my MBA now), I will definately work and settle from Bhopal.

Back to Munnar, Kerala - 02/01/2008

2008-02-05T22:17:00.010+05:30

So here I am back again with my travel tales. When I was a kid, serial used to come 'Arabian Nights' where every week a new travel tale used to be shown. After travelling so much and writing about these trips same feeling is sinking in.

The trip plan started as there were couple of holidays coming in. But this final date choice was made because of the fact that Neil was travelling onsite (which he has not done now). So we wanted it to be sort of final trip before group looses one more person. Whenever we want to go somewhere, the biggest problem is not logistics (we have become great planners now) but about the place where to go. So this trip was not different. We started looking for international vacation this time (thinking big P:) ) and the first though was Malaysia, for which we did some initial ground work then backed off. After this we thought of executing Pondicherry plan but it was also killed. After this we spend few evenings and few days checking out for Shimla (yeah something in north this time). Had almost finalised on this but per person expenditure was going over budget and also it required taking some leaves (for people like me some leaves is a very big thing). Before finally deciding on Munnar, we thought once of Goa which we dropped as it is very regular destination for us. So finally we had a place to go - Munnar. Biggest of the things is decided. Rest of the things would not take so long. So we quickly booked tickets for people who were coming and also to put pressure on others who were still trying to decide whether to join the party or not. Finally it was group of eight (8) which was going to enjoyyyyyyyyyyyyy - me (otherwise this blog would not have been there), Vaibhav, Neil, Sadashiv (isse Shetty keh ke pukaarte hain), Vinay, Avin, Divya and Swetha (nopes not the Shetty from Ooty trip, woh to onsite main hai ab. This one is different Swetha).

This trip was different from my last trip to Munnar is couple of ways. Firstly it was planned one (last time everything was runtime) and secondly because it was planned we had booked rooms in the resort :) [yeah me and Neil called up almost every resort in Munnar. That was fun too, sitting at desk from 6:30 to 9:00 in evening trying to find acco in 'decent' resort]. Also this time we were going to Alleppey, which I had not gone last time. Vaibhav got the contact and booked the houseboat.

So finally the D-day arrived. We almost reached station on time to catch the train. Avin too made somehow (we that day only realised he will be coming from the Infosys SEZ office). We were travelling to Cochin from where we would then travel to Munnar by road. From evening (when we had boarded the train) till around midnight no one slept, because no one was in mood to sleep and we were just chatting. But later, TT told us to be quiet (because other passengers were sleeping) and we dispersed and went to our seats (which were scattered in the bogey as we had booked tickets only few days back). Me, Neil and Vaibhav sat and chatted for more time in hushed voices. By the time we were sleepy train was approaching Cochin.

Luckily the driver was there and our journey started. Well before it really started we all had tea, 3:00 AM in the morning, nothing different for me as here at home we have tea at 1 or 2 :P. So now the journey to Munnar which would take around 3 hrs had started. It was all hilly terrain, so even though we were sleeping no one slept properly. Travelling early morning has its own advantage. Sunrise which you often don't see normally can be enjoyed. So from somewhere in between Cochin and Munnar, from a Sunrise point we saw the beautiful valleys getting lighted by first rays of sun.

We had our breakfast in Munnar town. There was a good restaurent (have forgotten the name) and had nice tea. Afterall if you can't get great tea in Munnar, where else would you get then. In sometime we reached our resort. Well let me take some lines to explain our resort, because this is going to be one place where we spent lots of time and enjoyed the most (other being the houseboat which was next plan). So this resort is Ayur County's resort and was on hilltop. One thing to note was that this resort was at higher altitude than Mahindra's resort which we could see (as it was on opposite hill). So we had this resort on the hill and the rooms which we got were overlooking the valley. It was great sight, only valleys and forests in front of us and no human construction. There were two rooms and a big hall, quite spacious for us.

So here we were and the day has also started. We quickly had our breakfast and then some of us took rest, me being one of them. My vacation has finally started. So first day we went as usual to the tea gardens, Mattupetty Dam, Echo point and a tea museum. Our driver was also a talkative and interesting fellow. First time I came to know how Munnar got its name from him, Munnar means three rivers and since the city is on confluence of three rivers it got its name. There were few changes from what I had seen last time. Some places near the lake now had barbed wires, not allowing us to enjoy the beauty of the lake. Apart from this Munnar was still at its best. So much is there in Munnar to enjoy that just a couple of hours or days are not sufficient. In evening, we stopped at sunset point which was on way to our resort. But damn, final part of sunset happenened behind the clouds :), but still it was good to see lights shutting out in the valleys.

So after the hectic day, we went back to our resort. They had arranged for bon-fire, where we just spent some time. Finally came back in our room and gapshap went on for long long time, not sure exactly what time we slept.

Next day, we woke up aaraam se and after getting ready checked out of the resort. Destination was Alleppey where we would be spending the night, but that we were supposed to board only by late evening. So we stopped in between at places, quite a few good places. Finally we were in Alleppey and we directly went to the beach. It was a nice beach and was full of kite flyers. After spending time there, we went to the backwaters where our 3 bedroom houseboat was awaiting out arrival.

Houseboat was too good. How much rest I took, was sleeping most of the time :). After boarding, they took us somewhat in water and then anchored. Night they are not supposed to travel because fishing nets are dropped all over the place. Along with us there were three people, who were supposed to take care - navigate the boat, cook and take care. Was kind of royal treatment only, that was the reason I too was lazy :). After dinner again gapshap started, our coordinates not known. After a while, it started drizzling. One of the best incident was Vinay asking Vaibs "Can you open this bottle" when Vaibs was not in his senses at all, looks like Vinay too was not far behind. I dunno when I went to sleep, can't remember the exact time. When I woke up in morning, it was amazing. It was raining. Also you could see houseboats returning, all around you were houseboats only. So we sat there, enjoyed the rains and tea came :) Then anchor was taken off and boat started, also the breakfast was ready. What a life, want anything more!!! Eat, relax and sleep - this is what I did there. With mobile switched off (mostly because network was not that good), no tension of office work too. It was soooooo relaxing, eat, sleep, wake up and then eat and then dose off :). Went off till evening, when this amazing journey ended. This was a proper holiday :), nothing to worry and just chill. Evening houseboat dropped us back and since our train was later in night, we went directly to beach. Spent last moments of Alleppey watching sun set in Arabian Sea. Later we boarded our train from Alleppey station which is walking distance from beach, without any bag it is walking distance. But for Vaibhav, Divya, Swetha it was not walking distance with 8 people luggage.

Finally as with every trip, it was over. One of the most relaxing trips have come to an end.

past three months...

2007-11-01T23:02:00.000+05:30

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

2007-09-23T21:25:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-07-02T00:34:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-07-02T00:15:00.000+05:30

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...:)

2007-06-30T14:10:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-24T21:58:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-06-24T12:49:00.001+05:30

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

2007-06-18T09:00:00.001+05:30

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

2007-06-17T23:00:00.000+05:30

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

2007-06-17T19:29:00.001+05:30

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...

2007-05-20T16:17:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-04-26T23:21:00.000+05:30

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

2007-04-04T21:47:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-01-20T20:18:00.000+05:30

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...

2007-01-20T20:17:00.001+05:30

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...

2007-01-13T21:28:00.000+05:30

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.....

Why “Justice for Jessica” only???

2006-12-19T04:22:00.000+05:30

Media is patting its back; activists are smiling and the general public happy about what they achieved. This is the general sense after the court found Manu Sharma guilty of murdering model Jessical Lal seven years ago.

My reaction - what a shameful day for media, activists and us. Shocked, baffled about my statement? Read on…

A cold night of Dec in year 1984. A beautiful city, filled with lakes, was converted into gas chamber. Yes I am talking about Bhopal. On the night of 3rd December, 1984, 40 tonnes of highly toxic Methyl Iso Cyanide got released from the tank of Union Carbide factory (now owned by Dow Chemicals). Initially 3,000 people died and over the years till now more than 20,000 people have died (Greenpeace figures). Average amount paid per dead person USD 2,200.

Till today, neither the officials nor its employees have been prosecuted. Warren Anderson who was CEO of Union Carbide is a declared fugitive but United States Govt. has not handed him over for prosecution.

(http://en.wikipedia..org/wiki/Bhopal_Disaster)

Case Status: Awaiting Justice

There are countless cases where people who committed crimes are walking free, be it gangsters, politicians or people in uniform. They are free. Not held accountable for the crimes they committed.

Where were those 2 lakh Indians who signed NDTV’s petition against lower courts’ acquittal of Manu Sharma, when other criminals were let off the hook? Why did media only propagate and make a big issue for the Jessica Lal,or Nitish Katara murder cases? Is the life of a model, a politician’s son or an industrialist more valuable than those who sleep on the roads?

We (media and us) should not be happy just because 1 person out of those thousands has been convicted. Those who were active in bringing Manu Sharma back to court now have a responsibility to bring justice to all those who have been denied it. After all, justice cannot be only for some chosen few.

bhai stuff... (in someone's words...)

2006-10-31T12:09:00.000+05:30

Someone wrote me this cute poem :)

farid bhai, faird bhai, hes on his way,
to help the sisters and save the day,
hes not so big and hes not so tough
but when he works with sisters
hes got the right stuff!
heyyyyy farid bhaiiiiii

(inspired from the song from the cartoon 'wonder pets')

me and my thoughts... again troubling my own self..

2006-10-28T20:54:00.000+05:30

Its me, back again after holy month of Ramzan putting on my thoughts or would say the issues which burns me from inside...

where should I dwell finally, in India where our great politicians are bringing down the country whereas some great souls are still trying to make it more greater or should I start thinking about some other country where the discriminations does not happen on what caste, religion or my political backings. A place where a human is respected based on him being a human and not based on his attributes. In India, the reservation policy is being extended. Politicians are pressurring private companies to include reservations in jobs. What will I tell my children, why they cannot study in a premier institute because even though they are better intellectually than 30% of those selected they cannot go just because I am not a backward / OBC category person. When its time for job, waht will I say that even after fighting and studying they still have to fight to get a job.

When I think more deeply I was not able to find that a single place where this is possible.

In West, though its better than in India but still internally there is a clash of civilization which is happening between people of books. In US, everyone is respected as human but still there are some laws which can send chill down your spine, which if used will send you to unknown territories with no access to any law. In Europe again the clash continues as is seen with whats happened over the past few months.

Holy month of Ramzan did not cause any respite in the killings of innocents in middle east. People are being executed by death squads, people are being killed by blasts. Finally after bringing Iraq on brink of civiil war where potentially it could cause a breakup in three separate regions - managed by Kurds, Sunnis and Shias, US its puling strings on the Iraqi govt. to tighten its grip. When US / Iraqi soldeirs raid against the death squads in Sadr city the Iraqi PM lambasts it just because people who were raided are part of the govt. How can Mr. Nouri al-Maliki forget that as being a ruler of a county he might not be accountable to his people (though by rule books he is) he will be accountable on the Day of Judgement to Allah Subhanahutallah. How can he forget that ruling a county is not about just clinging to the chair, its all about going what Allah has mentioned to all the rulers and have also shown the rulers that there is no ruler who can override and go against the rule.

Its only hope which keeps the world going. Its complete belief that keeps this hope going and its the will that keep oiling all this machinary. May we all get values so as to we do only right and keep away from wrong as is the caption of CNN-IBN "Whatever it takes..."

ohh man.. how many times the ultra-brains will change there mind :-)

2006-08-24T21:35:00.000+05:30

Now have to re-learn things.. These scienntists just keep changing things. Hope they do not refine their defination of planets more going forward...

But now sure what Pluto will be defined as going forward!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/24/content_5003641.htm)
PRAGUE, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The International Astronomical Union (IAU) on Thursday adopted a resolution on planet definition, according to which Pluto had been stripped of the planetary status.
Pluto had been regarded by international astronomers as a planet along with other eight planets since its discovery in 1930.
The decision, made by the IAU at a meeting in Prague, defines a planet as "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."
This is the first time that scientists have a formal definition of a planet, which disqualifies Pluto as its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.
Thursday's definition left just eight classical planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The IAU, the world's largest astronomical society, was founded in 1919. It holds its international conference every three years. Enditem

Attack on Qana

2006-07-31T08:12:00.000+05:30

History will never forgive the leaders who inspite of having powers to stop the massacre of innocent people, just wait without doing anything.

No where in history of mankind you will find a person as George Bush, who is not moved by the loss of more than 500 lives with 34 'children' getting killed yesterday night.

When WTC were attacked and some 5K died. America's response was to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. Thousands of civilians died in those wars. Were those life not of any value?

Israel attacked Lebanon as 2 soldiers were captured and now more than 500 innocent people are dead, is that the value of 2 soldiers who are still alive?

One day all these leaders/countries/armies will be tried for 'war crimes' which they are committing right now. Till then we can only pray that Allah show mercy on the opressed people.

Value of life...

2006-07-30T01:46:00.000+05:30

How much can materialism bring a man down? I think it brings him down to his lowest point where he considers a life's value as worthless.

I will take it backwards....

Current war in Lebanon - Lives lost: 472 (Lebanon) + 47 (Israel)
Reason: 2 soldiers kidnapped Prisioners in Israel: more than 10,000 (inclusing women and children).

This was clearly demostrates how much powerful regimes value an opressed/weak coutries population. Instead of targetting millitants, civilians and U.N. peacekeepers are being targetted. World's opinion/voice/concerns are not being heard. This is height of arrogance and shows how much these countries value life.

War in Iraq - lives lost: I lost the count, but it is in thousands with more still getting killed everyday.
Reason: To despose a ruler who was not in line with powerful regimes and to gain control over Oil.
Cost: USD 300 billions and count increasing forever (http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182)

War on Iraq has not served any purpose apart from getting thousands of people killed and paving way for countless more to die in future.

War in Afghanistan - lives lost: I lost the count, but it is in thousands with more still getting killed everyday.
Reason: To get oil route opened up by putting a puppet government. To destroy terrorist base.
Cost: USD 500 billions and count increasing forever.

War on Afghanistan has not served any purpose apart for putting up a puppet government. On the contarary it has galvanised people's opinion, either towards the side of Bush or towards the side of Laden.

All the other wars before that. Millions of lives lost. Trillions of dollars spent and infrastructure destroyed. Harm not done just to man made structures, mother nature also not spared.

Is this all justified. Not at all.
Instead of spending $800 billion (from just last two wars) in killing people and destroying things, if that money would have been spent on infrastructure development, primary health care, primary education (to all in world), housing needs and for research against diseases, there had not been any need for wars. For Bush, there had not been al-Qaida, as there would not have been disgrunted people ready to die for Laden. For Laden, there would not have been US as enemy #1. As this country would have been treating less privileged people and helping their with lives. Better this earth and people who abode this planet, the ultimate creation of God.

In Islam, there are detailed rules of war. On the Day of Judgement, all those who broke the rules will be answerable.

"If any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people" - Quran 5:32

"Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors." - Quran 2:190

"Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman... She was not fighting. How then she came to be killed?" - Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.)

Abu Bakr, the first caliph or successor to Prophet Mohammed established a detailed set of rules for Islamic conduct in war. He gave these instructions to an Islamic army setting out for Syria, then still part of the Byzantine Empire:
"Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone"

Trip to Wayanad, Kerala (Project team trip) - 02/11/2006

2006-02-14T08:29:00.000+05:30

Here I am. This is me. There's another place where I have been.

So here I am back again with another trip experience. This time place was Wayanad which is also in Kerala (My previous trips in Kerala have been to Ponmudi and Munnar). Funding for this trip came mostly from the project fund which we have accumulated (or collected or u can say extorted for various reasons).

It was Team Kmart (Mangalore offshore team) except for few who left out because of various reasons. Here's the team which went:
Sandhya, Ketan, Divya, Thaman, Naina, Kiran, Mehul, Sandeep, Nishant, Manoj, Alkesh, Shashank, Farid and ShriShyam

We had booked a mini-bus for the trip. As per the plan we started from Mangalore on Friday night. Had some fun, singing in bus till people were tired and wanted to sleep. But as you know, problems occur in every plan. So in the middle of night we discovered a problem, which was that our driver was not aware of the route which we were taking to Wayanad. Some how by finding people and asking for directions we were trying to reach our target. One stop worth mentioning is when we stopped at an intersection not aware which way to go (either straight or take a turn). There at 2 in morning, 16 people were trying to stop vehicles. After sometime we realized why people instead of stopping were turning away. We seemed like some bandits trying to rob on highway ;). Somehow we managed to stop a truck and a sumo and confirmed the directions. After that the way was found after confirming with some soul who could be found on the road.

We reached hotel somewhat off our target time, but not much delay. We revised our plan of visiting places. First day we planned to visit Edakkal Caves, Meenmutthy Falls, Neelimala view point and then to camp at some place at night.

We started for Edakkal caves:
"An interesting trek up the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to the fascinating neolithic cave site of Edakkal. Etchings found on the walls of these caves have drawn the serious attention of archaeologists and historians worldwide.With at least three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back over 5000 years, it is assumed that the Edakkal caves had been inhabited at various stages in history."

It was good trek up the hill (half of which we did in Jeep :P ) and remaining on foot. From the top where cave is located it was nice view of the surrounding. Also from telescope which is installed there you could view the surrounding. Major view point was Phantom rock (a rock in form of human scull). Once inside the caves it was interesting to see the etchings which we could not initially understand at all. But the guide there showed us the patterns which were made there, a man, woman, child, tiger, dog and elephant carved on the walls. After that it was our imagination running which tried to decipher rest of the paintings. Also on the walls was some things written. I vaguely remember what guide told us, but that was about someone of that time. He translated some more lines for us which were clear. It was nice to see the old carvings and decipher them. After spending sometime there it was time to move to next destination which was Meenmutthy falls where water falls from 300 mtrs and its the highest waterfall in the area.

When we reached the place where we have to track for the falls, localities told us it would be 7 kms trek and most of us were not in mood to trek that much. We decided to skip this and instead go to Neelimala view point which gave a nice view of the falls. We reached and started to trek, which initially was some 800 mtrs (from where there was not good view) to some good 2 kms. When we reached the top from where we could see the waterfall we realized how amazing the falls were. They were huge with water thundering noise coming to the place where we were standing. It was amazing. After watching the beautiful falls we decided to move on. Some of the people went towards the mountain top while remaining (including myself) decided to go on the path which we can see. Later this decision which we took seemed excellent. After trekking up and down the mountain we reached the cliff, it was just end of that mountain. In front of us was a valley, covered in green. The view seemed to look like some film shot, but it was real, we were standing at the end of the mountain with valley in front of us. Since it was sunset time, we decided to see the sun set behind the valley before traversing back. The moments spend here were one of the best, I wished I could just stay there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. But alas we have to go back as it was getting darker. We trekked back to base location where bus was waiting before it got dark. After this hectic trekking it was time to go back to hotel. We could not arrange for nice camping place so had to drop that idea. After reaching back to hotel we celebrated Divya bdday and as per tradition painted her face :-). After having dinner it was time to fall on bed. After the tiring trekking it was really a good night's sleep.

Next day plan was to leave the hotel, go to Pookote Lake, then to Kuruva Island and then travel back to Mangalore. We had some delay initially in leaving the hotel and then also when doing brunch we got late. While going towards the lake we got tea gardens. We wandered for some time in the gardens which was nice. Had some nice pictures in the gardens and then again proceeded towards the lake. The lake was full of water :P and surrounded by hills and greenery. We took three pedal boats and then had small race, boat fight, tug of war (yes tug of war between two boats :-) ) and water fight between ourselves. It was nice time pass there. From the lake we had to travel to Kuruva Islands. But before we could pass the city our bus's tire punctured and changing the tire too so much time that we decided to drop Kuruva Island plan (third place to be dropped :P) and after the tire got replaced decided to start for Mangalore so as to reach and have proper sleep. While the tire was getting replaced, we had ShriShyam on guitar playing some tunes for us and also teaching how to play guitar. He made lots of locals his fan also.

Traveling back through the jungles was awesome. Saw wild elephant but did not try more to venture out for more dangerous animals.
We reached back Mangalore sometime around 2 AM and dropped people home and as soon as I reached home I too was fast asleep before I could blink (I tried to blink but I fell sleep :P).

This was also one amazing trip with couple of hiccups, which by now you will know is integral part of all my trips :). Would like to go back to Wayanad, so as to spend more time on Neelimala point, trek to Meenmutthy falls and also trek to Chembra peak (which we had not planned in our trip) as it is one whole day trek. "At 2100 metres, the spectacular Chembra Peak located towards the southern part of Wayanad is the tallest summit in the region. Climbing this peak is a challenging mountaineering endeavour and would take a full day. The surrounding areas offer exceptional photo opportunities. Camping on the peak is a unforgettable experience."

Its good bye from my side for now. I will be back soon with a new exciting trip to some part on this planet Earth. Hope to have some trip very soon.

Trip to Munnar, Kerala - 01/26/2006

2006-01-31T08:28:00.000+05:30

Here I am back with another of my trips. This time the location is somewhere in India and not US :-) Its a long mail (mostly all my mails are long), but I hope you too enjoy this trip :-)

Not going to home in long weekends brings the problem of deciding what to do, how to spend time. This long weekend we faced this problem. Issue was where to go. Place discussion started with Wayanad, switched to Munnar, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep etc before we decided to go to Munnar. It was all runtime with no bookings, not even for bus / train. From Mangalore it was me, Shashank, Sandeep, Shailesh and Ravindra Tandel. Sandeep's friends, Arvind and Puneet, were coming from Bangalore and they reached Mangalore Thursday morning.

Thursday we took bus tickets for Cochin and at night started the journey. In morning after reaching Cochin at 7.30 we decided to continue our journey before taking a break so we took KSRTC bus (that is Kerala state transport :P) and continued for four more hours towards our destination of Munnar. Journey was quite good in the sense that the surrounding was tooooooooooooo good... It was shades of green splashed everywhere by God. On high peaks to the leveled ground, it was green.

In the long journey to Munnar, the conductor became our friend and gave us lot of important information. Also before reaching Munnar he made arrangements for us to stay in a lodge. So first hurdle cleared before reaching. After reaching lodge, we rested for some time and then also started to get ready for the trip. We were all very hungry also. We reached town which was very near and had our lunch.

The plan i.e. what all places to see and where to go was still in rough stage :-) So we took help from restaurant's owner who guided us and told the places which we could visit in the half day. The route which we decided to visit was Rajmalai, Eravikulum National Park Attukkadu water falls. We hired a jeep, yes Mahindra jeep and started for our first destination which was Rajmalai and Eravikulum National Park. It is one of the highest peak and also home to Nilgiri Tahar (ie the mountain goat). The route and view was again full of greenery and also from that high point the view of far away peaks hidden in clouds was amazing. After this it was turn to go to watch the blue blue water in Attukkadu water falls. The road was quite difficult to navigate, by jeep, but driver was quite experienced. In some time we reached the waterfall's base. After some time we bid adieu to the falls and started journey back to hotel. Everyone was quite tired and needed sleep so as to recharge for next day's trip.

After reaching hotel I just fell asleep in sometime. We have called the same driver next day morning to take us to the most amazing and beautiful route on which I have ever been.

Next day we got up somehow as it was cold and no one wanted to wake up :-). Some how everyone got ready and also driver cam on time. After small delay we started for the Mattupatty Dam - Echo Point - Kundalay Lake - Top Station (6300 fts above sea level) route. I fell almost in love with Munnar as soon as we reached Mattupatty Dam. The lake was surrounded by mountains covered in green. There we did boating as it gave an amazing view of surrounding. After spending time here we started for next stop which was Echo point. On the journey we were not sitting inside jeep but standing on footrest, this single thing (though risky) made the journey pleasurable. Echo point is not at hilltop as I had earlier thought, but at the level of lake only. After screaming and hearing our voices back we started for Kundalay lake where we did not spend much time. We just had tea and started for Top station which is one of the highest point and he route is through tea plantations.

This part of the route is the best. When we reached at some level, it was only clouds and fog which can be seen. We could not see any tea plantations. On reaching top station, we had some makeup with tomato (as that person said). It is the red juice from the fruit that is on my face and Puneet's face and not blood :P On top station nothing can be seen (as everything is covered in fog) but it is still beautiful. There we tracked down till a cliff, from where you cant see anything below, but you know that there is nothing, it is steep fall. After staying there for some time we came back and boarded our jeep. Plan was to get back to Cochin and go to Alleppey for house boat ride.

From Top-station to Munnar city and then to Cochin it was hectic ride, one because we were all tired, had not had proper lunch and also because we were leaving such a beautiful place behind. We reached Cochin back at night. From this point onwards it is another set of adventure :-).

After reaching Cochin we first went to look for tickets back for Bangalore and Mangalore. To Puneet's and Arvind's shock (which we were also to get later), there were no seats available for Saturday (we reached back Cochin on Saturday) or Sunday. After some searching (which made us very accustomed to MG Road :P), we found a bus which was leaving for Bangalore in 10 mins and which had seats. So Arvind and Puneet without any hesitation or any thought of missing adventure in Alleppey boarded the bus back for Bangalore. But by this time we also had decided to start our journey back for Mangalore and keep Alleppey trip for next time. We found out that there were no seats available for Mangalore for next two days (no idea how come so many people were coming here). After some searching, some thinking we decided to come back by train which seemed better option. We reached station. tool general comp ticket for train at 11.30 and had dinner :) Proper food after a day.

Decision to go by train and that too general compartment was taken after doing some analysis. The assumption was that it was Saturday night, people might not be traveling that much and also as it would be reaching all major stations in middle of night people will prefer another train which is at 1.30 night. But when train came, general comp was full and so all our assumptions and calculations and analysis went for a toss. We boarded sleeper class as we were in no mood to stay in Cochin now. We decided to get seats in sleeper and come sleeping arraam se. We captured a berth and waited patiently for TC to come. After some time I decided to take out the ticket from my pocket so that when TC comes it takes less time to do dealings, but the trip back home seemed noty to be easy. To my utter astonishment I could not find the tickets in any of my pockets or purse. After this great loss everyone suddenly have seemed to lose their sleep :P. After some discussions we decided to approach TC and explain him things instead of him coming and then we explaining. So myself and Sandeep (who has made his face look serious, though I was trying to control my laugh) went and talked to TC. Here is the transcript of the same as I still find it interesting.

Me:"Sir we have a problem. Actually a very big problem?"
Me:"We took general ticket, but after finding the compartment full, we boarded sleeper class. We boarded from ...." (now here i forgot the station - Cochin - name, but Sandeep filled the gap and told we boarded the train from Cochin.
TC:"hmm.. so the amount which you will have to pay will be (250 + 90 ) * 2 plus extra for berth"
Me:"Sir we are five people"
TC:"You lost all five tickets!!! :O" (amused expressions)
Me:"Yes sir. All tickets were together"
After some thinking he told it will be better if we get down at next station and take tickets and board next train as it would be cheaper. I would say and on which all of agreed that this TC was a really nice person. He helped us a lot later also.

So me and Sandeep came back and told others what has just happened. At next station we got down, but again no one was in mood to wait till next train and after confirming form TC we boarded the train again. When later TC came to us he had a brilliant idea with him, he told that one person get down at next to next station and take tickets and then he will just take extra amount for reservation and seat. He also told us which comp will come in front of counter, so me and sandeep went for the "ticket sprint" - to get tickets within 2 minutes. When train stopped we ran (as that comp did not came in front of counter) got the tickets somehow and came back to train (later Shashank and others told that TC had also come out and ran behind us so that we find the counter). This quick sprint lasted a minute (and I assume can be a world record :D). We boarded the train, got three seats, initially TC asked us 1000 bucks which we gave without any bargaining as he had already helped us a lot, but he was quite generous and returned us 200 bucks :).

We reached Mangalore Sunday morning thinking Arvind and Puneet missed some excitement. But on Monday it was news from there side.

Now I take you to the trip which Arvind and Puneet started from Cochin to Bangalore. Time is 3.00 AM and location: unknown (somewhere between Cochin and Bangalore). The bus stops and these two also get down to have tea. But when they are back they find that the bus has left without them with their luggage. So we have two people stranded somewhere in middle of night with nothing :-). Luckily there another bus for Bangalore was there which they boarded after giving money and then started "peecha karo". Well they caught up their "actual" bus at 5.30 AM in morning and so they also had their part of adventure.

So this is the adventurous trip which we had in "God's own country", the beauty of which can not be told but shown or experienced.

Reached Mangalore - 12/4/2005

2005-12-04T08:23:00.000+05:30

Today morning reached Mangalore from Trivandrum. After a year am back to the place, but it has changed a lot. Not the place, but the people around. It’s just 3 hours after I have reached and I am facing the stark reality of being lonely and also the fact that whatever I left a year back is not there anymore.

But this is life. Tomorrow I might be meeting some people who were there and others who are new and life will continue on its course.

B2T - 11/21/2005

2005-11-21T08:22:00.000+05:30

What a hectic week. It all started with my journey back home and ended with me in Trivandrum (atleast now this is the case, not sure about future).

When I started from Detroit, my flight got delayed by 2 hours as there were some problem (good that they found out before it took off). Because of this I missed my connection flight from Amsterdam. At Amsterdam, I was re-routed through Dubai (with stay of 12 hours and that too in night L ) and then to Mumbai. So instead of reaching Monday morning, I reached Bhopal Tuesday morning and got calls from my offshore. Wednesday my Manager in Trivandrum called and asked me to join on Monday L. So here I am, for two weeks in Trivandrum. After this I will go to Mangalore for a week and then will again be taking leaves for two week and go to Bhopal (tentatively 11th Dec I may be in Bhopal till 25th Dec).

Just reached 3 hours back and came to office. Today will be working for sometime according to Eastern Time Zone :P

B2I - 11/12/2005

2005-11-13T08:20:00.000+05:30

Worried about subject above? No thats not any new IT related term, but means Back to India :-) Yesh tonight I am flying from Detoit via Amsterdam to Mumbai. After reaching India I am on vacation for 2 weeks and will be in Bhopal till 28th Nov. I will complete exactly one year outside India somewhere over Europe :-)

I would like to inform regretfully that I am NOT getting married :P That is not the reason for my 2 weeks holiday :D (hehehe pple have been thinking a lot here when I told I am on 2 weeks vacation, so just wanted to clarify with you all before everyone starts bombarding me with questions).
So guys whoever is in Bhopal, do let me know your contact details.

Canada Trip - Toronto & Niagara Falls - 06/05/2005

2005-06-07T02:30:00.000+05:30

Last weekend had been to Canada - Toronto and Niagara Falls. This time, no loooong mail on the trip :-).. Just see the beauty of Niagara and you will know why words will not describe those. Hannaford team went to Montreal also. Its also a beautiful city.. Planning to go there next time..

Trip to Portland, Maine - 05/14/2005

2005-05-17T08:07:00.000+05:30

This week, my quest for Unknown took me to Portland, Maine (Hannaford account where I previously worked is located here). You might be thinking, what is this Unknown, actually I too am not sure what I am looking for or why do I travel so much :-), that's why Unknown. When my search is over, and I come to know abt the Unknown I will let you know abt it with my last mail on my travels :-)

Portland is a place far away from Mangalore but where you can enjoy as much as in Mangalore. Reason is very simple, there are people here who have worked together for years, used to have coffee breaks everyday (twice daily :P) and have gone for trips. We have spent lots of time together and so meeting everyone and spending time again was lot of fun.

This trip was to be sort of secret mission with only Sagar and Nithya knowing abt the plans (since I wanted someone to provide logistics support at the location :P). But the plan was out well ahead in advance. And Sagar got the surprise instead :P. Planning was done in secrecy so as to give Neeru surprise on her bdday which was on 14th May. But she was knowing. Well then also the tip was really a good one :-).

Stranded on Detroit airport's runway and not able to call and tell Sagar and Neeru that I will be late by an hour, allowed both them to see the beauty of parking lot :P. Portland is very nice place, which I saw from the sky. Flying over the Atlantic and with sun setting the beautify of land (with mountains and some lakes and so much greenery) increased manifold. Had reached from Pacific in west to Atlantic in east in just 2 weeks (pretty fast I suppose). Moving out of airport, met Sagar (and he was like just scolding me for not calling that he will be late and also was telling that he was dumbfounded when Neeru gave him news some days back that I was coming to Portland, to his surprise). Went to Sagar's apartment and there met Vikas. For dinner we went for Chinese buffet. Man lots of variety there. Vikas found nice way of getting drunk. He would make crab drink beer and afterwards eat the crab (if you don't believe me, just watch the first picture). We were last people in the restaurant and also got the privilege of seeing how Chinese people clean (it was somewhat scary with all types of sounds coming from inside kitchen). As sounds were getting louder and people coming more and more closer to us for cleaning we decided to move out as none of us except Neeru is karate expert. And we did not want her to destroy that beautiful restaurant :D.

With some more time to 12, we went back home. At around 11.45 we went to Neeru's place. Nithya and Mrudula brought ice cream cake and we forgot to keep it in fridge, so it had started melting. There was no way of "cutting the cake". Neeru's bdday was celebrated in special "spooning the cake" way :-). (Term is coined by me, so please do not start checking the dictionary :P) After cake ceremony, comes most important part of bday. Glowing face ceremony :D. With cold cream on the face skin starts glowing in 5 min and we did painted whole surface area of neeru's face. Mission was accomplished successfully - With threats coming from neeru about not painting her face, we had done a great job :).

Next day, we first went to Fort Williams which earlier used to be US Army's fort. As I had not told about my trip to many people, light house which was getting renovated was not complete (should have atleast told Portland Mayor abt my visit :D). From fort Williams we went to Old Orchard beach and then went home and took some rest. This time at home I saw telegu movie Arya (Songs and dance were great :) ). In evening Neeru told that we will be going to Lake Sabego. Dale also joined us. At the wheels was Neeru and myself - poor chap, sitting and praying in back of the car, but she drove pretty well. After moving around 4-5 cities, we finally reached Lake Sabego - as Dale finally made announcement "I officially announce that we have reached Lake Sabego". Previously we had heard some comments like "We are officially lost" from Dale. It is a beautiful place. Pass through the jungle (reminded me of Mangalore trips) and then reach lake shore. Its so quiet there. We spent some time there and clicked some nice snaps and while coming back we met Mr. (or might be Ms.) Deer. :).

For dinner, we went to Thai restaurant. My first experiment with Thai food. one recommendation - do not order "hot". Let spices be "medium". Hot is toooooooo much spicy. Next day we went for shopping in Maine mall and had wonderful lunch at Sagar's place which was prepared by Sagar (hey Vikas did you helped??) and Nithya and Mrudula.

After lunch time it was time to catch the flight. Well trip was really good. Met most of the HBR gang :-)

Trip to Holland Tulip tulip everywhere - 05/07/2005

2005-05-10T08:04:00.000+05:30

"Deekha eik khawaab to yeh silsile hue.... Door tak nigahoon main hain yeh gul khile hue....."

Remember the song from movie "silsila" where they have shown tulip gardens..

This weekend (7th May - Saturday) decided to go on trip to Holland (yeh.. holland.. as in H.. O.. L.. L... A.. N... D.. :-) ).. Whomsoever I mentioned this asked me one thing "What about Visa". So before you ask will tell you. Holland is a city in Michigan situated in Lake Michigan. This city is inhabited by Dutch people and thats why the name Holland. It is no different then any other actual Holland city.. Things are pretty much same.

It is 3 hours drive from Detroit and we started (after some initial delays.. as usual :D) in morning.. This time it is going to be one day trip only..

As Tulip time festival was also starting on same day (Tulip time festival is one of USA'a top festivals to be in. http://www.tuliptime.com/) This festival starts with start of Spring as this is time when Tulips starts blooming.. Its the best time to see tulips without going to well Holland or Canada (canada also has lots of tulips in some cities).....

As soon as we reached the city we started seieng tulips everywhere.. in front of houses on streets..
We first went to windmill islad. This place has an actual original working Windmill imported form Holland (before Holland nationalised windmills which prohibits takking them out of the country). This mill still runs and grind wheat to flour :-). It also was having lots and lots of tulips and lotsssss of varieties and diffreent colors of tulips.. atmospehere was all mela types as we have in india :-).. I tried all my photgraphy skills :P taking pictures of all tulips and all I can take. Besides windmill is a small farm where tehy have lanted tulips in a rows.. just as we seen in movies :-) It was soooooooooooooo beautifull.. Lots of tulips and lots of colors.. Just wanted to pluck some, but kya karoon US main apna indian ishtlye phool toodna nahin chalta hia :P... We spent lots of time in the graden and seeing around the place..

From windmill island we then went to holland downtown. In the city streets they have planted tulips everywhere.. ots around 6 mile routes where we can walk and see tulips all around :-) There was tulip tram service which takes around the place, but unfortunaley (or say fortunaletly) it was all booked.. So we walked around the strrets ourselves :-) There is one Cenntanial Park also where all tyoes of tulips they have planted. We missed the Dance performance there :'( but we were able to take snaps along with some performers :D

It was time to move on to next destination.. "Dutch Village". This place they have put up everything related to holland in small place. good place to experiance how thinkgs work out and how they live there.. how they do things.. here again we missed dance performance :( but were able to see how they make wooden shoes. yes in holland still 1 million people wear wood shoes. It all started some centuries back when they once had scarcity of leather and someone came up with idea of making shoes made out of wood :-). We also saw "making of was candles"... not normal candles which we have but artistic candles.. (last of the pics are of those - taken from mobile as battery of camera got drained out) they make these beautiful candles in just 15-20 mins (before the wax gets cold) and we saw its making from start till end.. they are really fast in making those.. and color combinations and all are really too good :-)..

As sun was setting we have to start our journey back home. But this journey also was excellent one and worth everything :-).... have missed out going to tulip farm (commercial farm - having millions of tulips)..., So will plan again another trip to this great place..

BDay Trip - San Francisco - 04/30/2005

2005-05-02T07:59:00.000+05:30

To celebrate occasion of completion of my quarter century on third rock from sun, i decided to go to west coast. This time state being california and place being santa clara (my college friends were here) and san jose (one of my collegue) and both these places being near to San Francisco, a very beautiful place which I will say to be in :-) This trip is important and memorable because I was visting and meeting a friend, a very very good friend, after a gap of almost three years.

Well start was not all that good. While going to parking before my flight to SFO, I missed exits twice and so was wandering and trying to figure out how to reach parking lot. After sometime I somehow reached parking lot and after parking car reached airport. This time at airport did not have any trouble and was through with security check in 10 min. Flight was from Detroit to Charlotte (which is in east coast) and from east coast to west coast. Both flights I slept well so as to cover up for lack of sleep before the trip begins.

I reached SFO at 10 PM (29th April) and Divya, Sachin and Nitika were there to receive me. I was meeting Divya after almost two and half years, sachin for the first time and nitika after two months (had met her in Chicago). From airport we reached Divya and Sachin's home. These people had prepared for my bdday :-). They have brought ice cream cake (hey its still there in the fridge... I forgot to finish it yaar). At 12, I cut the cake or better say ice cream :P and was very happy to not have my face painted. For those who are not aware of mangalore tradition (our tradition), at office during cake cutting there is face painting and at home along with face painting there used to be hair painting and also ear filling ceremonies. So this time it was all clean clean :-) And yeh forgot to mention that no one gave me bumps :-). After cake cutting and off course cake eating ceremonies we all chatted for some time and then slept. To start journey for next day which was going to be continued for two days.

Next day (30th April), Anup also joined us and we all started for the day. Divya's and Nitika's plan to take as many parties as possible was not getting successful. Will tell you as had some occasions where there plans failed :P. First was as we started we decided to go to eat ice cream and when we reached shop it was closed :) As there was still around 30 minutes before it was opening we decided to move on. I was saved at that point but to be later bakrofied next day when they all took ice cream party :P

Our first major sight seeing spot was Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Before that had seen, headquarters of many software companies. As name suggest it is very mysterious place and we drove through forests and beautiful mountaneous landscape before reaching this place. In mysterspot, gravitaional pull is bent.. that means it is not perpendicular to earth. but is bent at an angle... so one has to stand slated at an anle other wise you will fall.. We all tried some Matrix stunts :P and also Anup reached my height (only for the time we were in that place :P). Find out more abt the place from http://www.mysteryspot.com/.. Its a nice place to see something unusal and see how physics which we have always studies is not correct at some places of the world and which we are never taught.

After Mystery spot we went to 17 Mile Drive.. man what a place.. its road along Pacific and on the hills are posh houses.. overlooking pacific.. i want one of those. they are so beautiful.. also they have golf course just opposite pacific.. i think fishes willl also now be playing golf deep under water :-) That is so beautiful drive.. amazing.. there are so many beautiful places and spots in here :-)

From 17th Mile drive we went to another longgggg drive... That was on CA 1 (intra state California highway 1).. This highway runs along the pacific coast and gives wonderful view. it has become now my one of the best driving places :-)... Some day will drive the whole strech :-) One side are mountains.. green mountains and other side is pacific.. blue pacific.. it feels so good driving about there.. Drove there for hours and then decided to come back.. While coming back we took photos of "Happy Cows" also (ab jinhein nahin amaloom yeh kya hai uske liye : California ki Happy Coes ka yahan Ad aata hai :P ) heheNow was the movie plan and decided to watch "Kaal".. bus yehi pe maat khaa gaye... saali philum ghatiya nikali :( barbaad movie.. DO NOT WAtCH... Ajay devagan bhoot hai aur wohi sab ko maarta hai.. shaa. kya barbaad movie banayi hia.. in loogon ko aur acchi story mill sakti thi :P

Next day plan was to visit SFO downtown... So we staretd... Crossing various beautiful sities.. Pacifica, Salisuta.. all on teh coast and overlooking Pacific.. All having beautiful houses... All sch that you will feel like spending all yourlife there.. California is beautfiful plac eto live in :-)... First we went to Golden Gate bridge... its amazing.. between two mountains which forms border of Bay and Pacific.. driving over it was amazing.. Tried some stunts also as came out of moonroof to take some snaps.. We walked over the bridge and from there bay area and downtown have good view.. We can also see Alcatrez prison (The Rock fame :)).. there are some vista points on the hills from where we get better view of bridge.. When its foggy. its looks morfe beautiful and bridge will be hidden by fog and we can only see top points poking above fog, but Sunday was clear day..

From there we wnet to downtown SFO.. and to Fisherman's Wharf.. from here starts the Crises to Bay and also to Alcatrez.. Since Alcatrez cruises were sold out we wnet for Bay cruise.. In Bay area there are lot of people foing sailing and all.. Its always full with people doing water sports.. We again went till Golden gate, but this time under it and how magnificient it was.. What a human mind can think and what humans can acheive, these all magnificient peices of work reinforces the felings...Cruise also took us to Alcatrez, we just saw it from outside and did not get chance to explore it or do some Nicolas Cage like stunts :-)

After bay area cruise it was time to see downtown :-) And for that wee took tram journey :D.. its an open tram and indian ishtyle main latak sakte hian :) downtown is built like steps.. sleep hill then a step.. and then again steep hill and that tram took us up and down .. :-) toopk whole journey and back in tram, which was good :-) saw most part of downtown and this beautiful city of artists.. this place surely tells that it has artists in there.. because everything is so beautifull there is one crooked strret as name suggests its serpentine.,, aadhi teedhi.. and on both sisdes are gardens.. pics did not come out.. all are shaky :'(

It was time for my flight and so we came to airport..

it was such a wonderful trip.. wonderful in many ways.. which can't be put as words.. so ma not putting.

Now, before I close this trip details and tell u links for pictures.. here is smalll contest..Count number of times I have used the words "amazing", "woderful", "beautiful" and "wow". Send in your answers and you can win trio to San Francisco *

*Terms and Conditions:Will be discussed after contest finishes :P

Memorable Trip - Boston-Hartford Trip - 02/14/2005

2005-02-14T07:56:00.000+05:30

Once again I am back with another details of trip which I went for. Well this trip is somewhat different from rest, this will be one of my best and dearest trip forever. Because meeting someone dear to one and that too after many months is very very very... hmm exciting... dunno what to say. This weekend (12-13 Feb), went for trip to Hartford and from there drove to Boston. Well in Hartford lives Piyush :-) and Neeru came from Maine to Boston. So this trip was re-union for three of us and that is why this is so dear to me :-)

This trip plan was instantaneous.. Booked my tickets only on Wed for Friday night and back on Sunday. Well reached Hartford (which is capital of Connecticut) at 11 in night and Piyush had come there along with his roommate Emil. I was meeting Piyush well after some 5-6 months. He has changed somewhat (when you meet you might also find out :-)). From there we drove to his place which is around 30-40 min drive. Friday it was nothing much. Just meeting and talking to him. After reaching called Neeru and troubled her :P. Had to sleep early cos we have to leave for Boston (2 hours drive) and Neeru would meet us at Boston's International Airport. We reached Boston at around 11.

From here actually started discovery of one of best city in US which I have visited (well haven't been to many places, but still I like Boston very much).We came out of Airport and somehow reached Harvard Square. There we parked our car, as plan was to travel whole city by T. After parking car stated our long walk for the day :-). It was very nice weather in Boston that day. Somewhat windy but not cold. We reached T station just to find that it was temporary closed. Oops many of you might be wondering what this T is, well in Boston they call their underground metro service by this name. So went on B ride.. :P no no in Boston they dont call bus service B service, just I call it :-)
We went to Museum of Science. Its a good place to see with different wings segregating models on different branches of science. Just roamed around seeing the exhibits and talking and all.. Manu exhibits we good specialy Evolution of computer section where saw old computers which we have read about some years back :-)

After seeing Museum we took B service till a T station and then we wnet for a ride to shopping mall. Idea was just to spend time and see, and to shop :-) Went first to Copley Plaza, one big mall and also very expensive.. Did lots of shopping... window shopping :P. After some time we got bored so went out from there to another market Quincy market. Now here I have a sugesstion "never go on by names". Since it was Quincy market, we took T from Plaza to station where we would get another T for Quincy Central/Quincy Adams. So we asked ticket guy which station to get down to and you know what he said.... Quincy market is not in these two places. It was at station which we just had passed :P so again a T and back to Quincy market..

It is good place. Lots of people walking. That market was also good.. Just roamed and did some window shopping.. Now it was time for Neeru's bus. So we all started back for bus stand. Went there dropped her and came back to Harvard Square. Now non of us was remembring where we have parked car (well the street name :P) so somehow reached parking lot :D. Journey back was boring because all of us were too tired...... Reached home and then just slept...

Next day was also best of all because we just slept :-) Woke late got ready and started for airport at 3 and by 3 I should have been at airport since flight was at 4.10 . Reached airport at 3.45. After getting boarding pass reached security gate to find a very long line... If I would have stood in that line definately would have taken 1 hour to clear.. Went to start of line and requested a guy to let me in between, thanks to that guy and others behind that I was in line. But here also I just had 15 min.. somehow cleared security check jaldi jladi and ran for my gate.. Reached successfully :-) That lady after cheking it asked me to tie my shoe laces :-) Chalo was in flight so nothing to worry.....
Flight was ok. lot of turbulences and acrobatic stunts (not the ones shown by fighter pilots) shown by our pilot.. And in 2 hours was back in Detroit.....

Well in this trip there is nothing much which I can share, words cannot explain all this trip and also many photos will be ours and not of building and sceneries...

Hoping to have another great trip like this in very very near future......

Live from Detroit - (with some transmission delay :P) - Motown Winter Blast - 01/23/2005

2005-01-25T07:54:00.000+05:30

Again new weekend and again snaps and news from Detroit.... just remembered the song "New day has come".. it should have been.. "Another weekend hasssssss come... "..

All snaps which I have send till now, from this cold place, were in covered and heated places :) Well till now I was not having guts to go out and stand this cold.. Last weekend it was something different. Last weekend we planned to go to Motown Winter Blast (yeh yeh.. it doesn't mean that you will blast winter... I assume it meant winter will blast u :P)... In Detroit. next year they are going to have Super Bowl game (now don't ask me what is that.. I am still confused whether its rugby or baseball or kabaddi :P)... So they are promoting Detroit.. For this the city authorities have planned this event.. Now since city authorities have planned it, so they organized it on their property.. yeh you are right.. on the Roads of Detroit... In open.. its okay till the time its not windy... But to add to this cold, in this part of US we had Storm (snow of course).. which dumped 14 inches of snow in Detroit and more than 3 feet's (36 inches) in some places east.. so if Ramsay brother's decide to make hooror movie they will name it "do gaz baraf ke neeche"....

Saturday we all were at home.. spent whole day as roads were full of snow and the cars were skidding :-) And temperature was somewhere around -15 or -20 degree Celsius....
Sunday came.. sunny day.. but when u go out of home.. its toooo windy and chillyyyyyyy... But still we went out to get blasted by snow.. :D...

Amazing ice sculptures greeted us when we reached there (now reaching there is also a story but not as much interesting so am skipping it :)).... From the start there were beautiful figures crafted from snow... moving ahead some distance there was a loooooooongggggggg queue.. queue was for dog sledge and snow slide.. then we went inside "comfort zone".. actually since it was very cold outside companies (like GM, ford etc..) put up tents which were heated.. so that pple can warm themselves... after warming came out and went to see skating rink,... there even small children were skating perfectly...

saw some more sculpture and also went to a maze (which was such that even if u get lost u can come out :D)... then there was performance in skating rink.. it was tooooooooo good.. some three performance.. it was very good.. how we see in TV.....

by this time my body parts which were not covered.. like nose, cheeks :) all were frozen.. I think I saw some snow on my nose tip :P..... after being there out in cold for almost 5 hours (my longest stay in cold.. ) we came back.. and I was alllllll numb.. my fingers.. my toes.. came to conclusion that my leather shoes are not in position to stand to snow.. :D and that now I am becoming somewhat immune to cold weather.. dunno when I go back to India, I might not feel cold out there at all :D

so that's all from Detroit News channel. keep looking into your mailbox and I will be bringing you more live news from various events right here from Detroit..

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnchhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii (oops got cold it seems :) )...

International Auto Show, Detroit - 01/16/2005

2005-01-17T07:50:00.000+05:30

Yesterday the first auto show of year 2005, the North American International Auto Show was inaugurated in Detroit. All automakers release their new cars and also showcase the cars which will be released afterwards ( a prototype of sort). Also there are "concept" cars on display also. "Concept" cars are basically cars of the "future" :-)

So today we (10 people from Kmart team) went to see that. believe me, I am here since 2 months but this was the first time had gone to Detroit (have been to other corner of US, but not to this corner of city :P).

Temperature was 15 F (u can convert it in Celsius with that formula :P) and it was windy.
Exhibition is at the COBO (yes just short of COBOL ;) ) Convention Hall. While traveling through highway we saw the message that parking in the Convention Centre is full. As we reached near the venue we got parking in the Renaissance Center (which is GM's Global headquaters). From there we took a tram (overhead tram) which connected all the offices and reached the exhibition venue.
It was full of cars and people :-). There we saw lots of cars, new cars which are being released, which will be released and on which companies are working. Saw some costliest cars, one was Merc costing around half a million USD, 465,000 USD to be precise.

Also there was "hummer", this one is also a vey costly military type vehicle. I probably will be buying this one, if I stay here for some 4-5 years or more.... (hmm yeh i know a nice dream :))
it is a big exhibition and you need lots of time and offcouse energy to see aorund all the places. We might have missed many cars (hope that none of good cars or to be seen cars were missed).
One more this which was quite impressive which was in GM area was the water work. Water was faaling from top and it was making design which said Jeep, and GM logos and other thing. That one was too good. But the processing gone to make that thing happen will be too much, the amount of water and all that.. mind boggling.......

yeh one more thing.... here in Detroit they have a International Speedway where they have races and all. So I am plaaning to go in for races when they start. Will report on that sports event as and when it happens.

Some learning... 01/08/2005

2005-01-09T00:14:00.000+05:30

today a big tragedy happenend :(... after dinner i was sitting browsing, had put all utensils in dishwasher... washing powder got over so i used the liquid detergent....

after browsing quietly for 10-20 min.. suddenly i hear shout from my roomie, i thought he is playing jokes.. but he called me... and when i went out to kitchen to my initial shock whole floor was having foam... actually that liquid detergent had made lot of foam and it spilled out of dishwasher and not it was all over kitchen floor....

after a min, me and both my roomies burst into laughter.... it was so funny... at 12 PM in night we were cleaning the kitchen (with no outlet for water.. we had to clean with tissues... ) after removing foam from dishwasher i again started to remove all water and all.. but again it oozed out foam.. haha that was sooo funny... all utensils which we had taken out, one of my roomie was wahing in bathroom under the shower :P and me and other roomie were cleaning the floor....

learned a lesson:
SO USE LIQUID SOAP IN DISHWASHER (as it cleans acche se :)) but DO NOT TAKE LOT OF IT FOR CLEANING :-)

now our utensils and also the kitchen floor are chakachak :-)

its 12:14 AM and the dishwasher is still under observation as we have to dry out the foam and soap water :)

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon trip. 12/2004

2004-12-28T06:52:00.000+05:30

Christmas we had three days off. So we had gone to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. Here is a write up on my trip (actually its quite long, but it is for 2 days ;)). Do read when you have time.

Enjoy reading....

Friday 24 Dec:
Woke up at 3.00 so as to get ready for the flight. Flight was at 7.00 AM and Detroit airport is 1 hours drive from Royal Oak. We had to return the rental car and also since it was Christmas we had to reach early do as to catch the flight.

Started off from home at 4.00 AM in morning with some 8-10 inches of snow outside and still snowing. We reached the rental car company, returned the car and came to the terminal. While going through security check my luggage had to undergo extensive security check. Actually what happened that I had put my laptop in my cabin bag, and while screening they found some electronic device in my luggage. So my luggage had to undergo checks for explosives. or any other dangerous material traces. In the end it was found clean. And we all proceeded.

Yunus, Ayesha, Diya, Leo, Vishwesh and myself were in same flight from Detroit to Minneapolis. From Minneapolis Leo and Vishwesh had different flight which was lqater then ours. We boarded our flight for the Sin City (Las Vegas). We reached the city of casinos at 11 AM local time (till now we have changed time zones twice :)). From the terminal went to get the rented car, eneded up renting a minivan :)After that we reached hotel and since it was already 1.00 PM (time for Leo and Vish to come) we decided to take rest and wait in hotel before moving. Around 2,00 PM they both came.
Now began our trip to the Sin City. To see everything what this city has to offer. In Las Vegas, there is only one place where everyone goes and that is 'The Strip'. As soon as we reached the Strip we were in for a Big surprise. In front of us were Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building. We were thinking whether we are in Las Vegas or have reached New York (as our initial plan was to reach new York). And the place which was having all that was New York - New York (name of Casino) and in front of it was MGM Grand. We parked our van in MGM Grand and then started for the long walk which we all had after a very looooong time. First we went to MGM Grand and say its beauty. The beautiful sculptures which they have erected. There is a biggggg lion and also some sculptures of Hercules :-) Then from there we went to NY-NY. It was awesome, huge building similar to actual NY building were there. We went inside and saw shops and all. Then it was time to go to place which had given Las Vegas its famed name "Sin City", we went to the huge Casino floor of NY-NY. It was hugeee... And bustling with people. We saw the casino, walked through it and as we all wanted to play, but not in Casino we went to Gaming zone. There we played some games, Yunus was able to retrieve a soft toy after many attempts :-).

Ohh I forgot to mention, there is a roller coaster also in there which we all decided to try :P but since it was cold we decided to take the roller costar on Sunday. So we all came out because it had already become dark and we were still in the first place we went. We came out and went to see Monte Carlo. We saw it from outside as we not planning to go to more casinos and spent time. From there we went to Aladdin.

Inside Aladdin, all architecture was Persian. Roof was not normal roof. It was articial sky and if you look up you will feel you are seeing the sky only. In Aladdin we also saw articial rainstorm :-) The place was awesome. From Aladdin we went to Paris... Ya we has till now traveled four cities of world (NY, Rome, Persia and Paris). When we mention Paris, first thing which comes to our mind is the Eiffel Tower and so that's what we had in front of us. Multi storied Eiffel tower, all lighted up. The view was awesome. We were seeing all things in one single place. From Paris we went to Ballegio and there the fountain show had staterted. (To tell you all, we were not knowing that something of this sort happens there, our mistake we should have researched more. But luck was with us.) What we saw cannot be explained. The musical fountain was awesome. It was really awesome. Those who all have watched musical fountain in Mysore, I will say, that is nothing as compared to this one. The fountains were so big, it was in so big area and also the formations of fountains was too good. It was a sight worth watching.

At this point we all decided to give up for the day (with half of Strip still remaining) as we had to take dinner and go back and take rest. We all came back to hotel and all were sooooooooooo tired. So the day started at 3.00 AM EST and ended at 12. 00 PM PST.

Saturday 25 Dec:

Yunus woke us up at 6.00 AM in morning (we did not wake up with our alarms). Today's plan was to start for Hover Dam and Grand Canyon (one of greatest natural wonders on earth). Today Vinayak and his wife has also joined us (they were in different car). As we got somewhat late (8.00 AM) we decided not to do sight seeing at Hover Dam. We started at 8.00 AM for the 5.00 hours drive to Grand Canyon (which is in Arizona, Las Vegas is in Nevada), with Yunus on wheels and me as Navigator :). Initially the sights were not so good as we were in desert area so not much to see. But as we reached nearer to Hover Dam (actually its on Nevada/Arizona border and we have to cross over it to go to Grand Canyon). The sight was too good. We just passed over the dam and clicked some snaps :-) One thing worth mentioning is that since the Dam is on Nevada/Arizona border, there is change in time. So while going, we crossed 1 hour in just 10 sec. I mean on Nevada side watch is there which was showing 9.05 and when we came to Arizona side the watch was showing 10.05 :-) haha kya to hai yaar yeh. From there the roads were good. At points we will just see road in front of us leading to some hill or sometimes just ending in the horizon. We took rest after driving some 3 hours at Seligman (Exit 121) and ate lunch there. After break of some 40 min we all again stared. After another 3 hours we reached the Grand Canyon National Parks limit. We had driven most of the journey at 100 miles per hour and now were driving at 35 miles/hr which was quite boring.
Grand Canyon is spread over hundreds (probably thousands of miles) and is divided in two parts. One is the South rim (which we have reached) and another is the North Rim, which will be covered in snow at this point of time.

We had 3 hours before sunset and so we decided on some points in the South rim for sight seeing. We covered every point and were on time to see sun going down in the canyon.. just saw it going.. it was so beautiful... Grand Canyon is not a place to go only for 3 hours.. Its a place to go for at least 3 days. In there are resorts on side, so stay there.. track in the canyon.. go for rafting in the Colorado river.. that will be fun.. :-)

At 6 we left from there as we have to reach back. We came back in some 4-5 hours and this time I slept at back and Leo was driving with Vishwesh as navigator :-). When we reached Las Vegas, since we have missed seeing night sight of Vegas from Stratosphere (112 floor tower), we again decided to go to the Strip. We reached the Strip and we got the tickets to go to observation floor which is at 107th floor. List there moves at 31 miles/sec, so did not realize when we reached. Some things about the tower, It is 112 floor tower with only observation point at 107 floor ($10 entry) and at the 112 floor you have one roller coaster, one big shot (one tower where the ride goes up and down - free fall) and the most dangerous and scary of all, one ride which will make u hang from 112 floor.. that was too scary ;)

So we reached at the top and then saw Las Vegas form there. It was so beautiful. Everywhere lights and all and the Strip with cars and all (actually u could not see cars but can make out :P) after seeing we decided to go for rides ;) Now the question was which one, all three seems to be scary. In end we decided that roller coaster is least dangerous, less scary. So we went for it. It was sooooooo good to be in roller coaster on 112th floor ;) Somehow I sat al the time, and when came out, could not stand, but it was tooooooooooooo good :-). It was 3 AM in morning. So after this hectic day we came back to hotel :-), but I could not sleep that night. So was awake all night (slog karne ki practice ;)).

Sunday 26 Dec:
In morning we had to checkout. So at 10.30 we checked out from hotel and then our plan was to go to the Strip again and see the remaining casinos which we could not cover. We went first 'to Circus Circus. There we say one circus show, then went to Treasure Island. There also we roamed around. Basically its theme is on Pirates. Every casino is theme based. After that we went to Mirage which has biological garden inside it. There we saw tigers. And also it has Dolphin Habitat. We went to it, but by that time it was closed :(. Time was running out for us, as we have to go to airport. From there we went to Luxor ( which is having Egyptian theme). It has big Sphinx and the shape of building is Pyramid shaped. From there we went to MGM Grand and NY-Ny for window shopping.
After some window shopping, we had our dinner and came to return the rental car. There me and Vishwesh checked our e-tickets and saw to our horror that our tickets were for next days flight. We came to airport and since luckily seats were there they gave us that night's tickets but charged $25. I was soooooooooo tired, after all had not slept at all. In airport I slept for some time as we had come earlier expecting Christmas rush, then in plane I went to my seat and slept. I was woken by people noise and saw everyone was standing, I thought I had woken in 10 min only, but then saw some people taking out luggage. I was confused :( looked out and saw snow, then realized that I was in Detroit (because of this time zones bohot confusion hoota hai :( ). Phir kiis tarah utha and came. That was the end of the great trip, which I will be remebering throughout my life.

MyDC Short Cycle batch - One year complete - 13 Jan, 2004

2004-01-13T09:20:00.000+05:30

I dunno how I missed putting this on my blog. That's fine, now it is here. This was what I wrote when I completed 1 year in Infosys - on 13th Jan, 2004 (yeah that's 3.5 years back)...

Here it is...

It was this day but the year showed 2003 in calendar. 180 young enthusiasts first met at Infosys Mysore DC (MyDC). They were to undergo rigrous short cycle training in the MyDC. Young budding professionals from various backgrounds, coming from the vast stretch of this great country has come to MyDC to show their potential and knowledge and take this company forward.

From the word "go", everything was hectic. We all remember those training days, when we used to rise from bed along with rising sun. Most of us had seen the rising sun after 4 years (in engg. who used to wake so early :O). Moving to the FC and grabbing whatever we can get as class start at 9. Those heavy doses of technical training whole day would have taken its toll. But this batch showed what dedication really is. Whenever getting time, wherever, be it FC or break btwn class, just relaxing. Still remember the lunch and dinner timings where more trainees were to be seen then the employees. I remember the days which we spent in the Guest house, walking at nights... Styding late nights.. or just realaxing in lawn (inspite of warnings :-))

Specially remember Sundar Sir boosting the morale, during the compre time. When people from development region complained, it was Sundar Sir who took responsibility on himself. Never had he said that you people are doing, I always remember he used the word "we". It was the dedication of these teachers especially Sundar Sir that this batch scored so well in compre.

After compre it was time to go to base location. Whole training we had enjoyed. Made friends with people whom we barely knew 1.5 months back. It was time to say "bye" to many of our firneds. Still remember the last day. I think no group slept that night. All were talking, all were with their friends. Everyone wanted that night not to end. But alas morning came, first were people from pune people to leave, then chennai, bangalore, hyderabad, mohali, and the last to leave the Mysore campus was a lot of 35 poeple who have been sent to the coastal town of Mangalore.

We all have still continued to enjoy. We meet each other some or the other time. We are doing good in the company. Initial reaction when we got Mangalore was, why me? why me sent to mangalore when it was my last option :P. But everyone has accpeted this town, its beauty. And has merged himself/herself with other Minfoscians.

I can continue writing about the past because everyone had such sweet memories that no one will ever forget. But its the present which we have to see. We are still in contact with all our friends. Regularly mail them :) and sometimes start chain-mails also (most of the time courtsey Zakki). We have moved forward in th company. Contributing to it. Many of us are already onsite, with many leaving in short time.

Thats all what i have to say. Thats all what i wanted to share. And its quite a long mail :).

Bye,
Miss u all and the training days.