Get Long-Lasting Happiness from Diwali

The festival of lights is around the corner. It would definitely have created a furore in everyone’s mind. All are set to celebrate by bursting crackers, eating sweets, visiting relatives so on and so on.. An usual way of celebrating Diwali.

For all those who have this usual way of celebrating Diwali….

Let’s celebrate this Diwali by sharing what you have with people who don’t have. The sharing could be anything like Dress, Crackers, Sweets or a simple “Happy Diwali”. There would be so many people in your place who is devoid of love or property. Let this festival of lights enlighten them. This sharing trust me will make your day. Spend some half an hour of your day for this deed. Visit an orphanage or any ashram near your place. Many a times we try to find happiness in ourselves. Now let’s find happiness from other’s happiness. I am sure this happiness would be long-lasting.

Wish you all a very happy Diwali. Have a long-lasting happiness.

IBN Ads - Making Headlines

After working for some 2 hours continuously, I wanted to give some break to my mind. I didn’t have a proper sleep yesterday. Already my brain was like filed with deluge number of thoughts. So I thought to hit IBN Live to check the headlines to relax my mind. Below is how the webpage looked like.

Is Cruze making headlines? I got completely exasperated. I am not able to look at the headlines. When I tried to close the ad, it led to the ad-home page. Big flak to IBN. I understand displaying ads are the only way to make money in the website. But don’t forget the primary purpose of your website. If you look at the screenshot, more than 50% of the page is covered with ads. I would call this as IBN Ads rather than IBN news. So for any exciting offers/ads please log on to http://ibnlive.in.com/

Gandhi Jeyanthi - Hurray, It's a holiday!!

This weekend has been a long weekend for everyone, thanks to Gandhi Jeyanthi. I know most of my friends who had planned for a vacation for this whole week as both Monday and Friday are Holidays. I am pretty sure most of them would have forgotten the reason why Oct 2^nd is a national holiday.

To me is it really necessary Gandhi Jeyanthi, or to this any leader’s birth or death anniversary should be a national holiday. It is to give respect for their sacrifice and the service they rendered to our nation, the government gives a day off. But are we really thinking Gandhi on his birthday or try to follow the principles he preached? The answer is a straight “No”. To add to this, all news channels telecast special movies on the day (Vijayakanth fighting against terrorism and bull shit… ). Atleast I don’t remember any news channel telecasting the life history of Mahatma Gandhi and the ideologies he taught. Obviously it will be boring to many of us watching the life history of Gandhi, but make it in such a way it’s interesting.

During my school days, we had so many programmes and competitions during Gandhi Jeyanthi. All programmes in one way or the other are related to the life history of Gandhi or which arouses patriotism in everyone’s mind. Should that be paused when we work? It should be made mandatory to observe silence in all schools, colleges and working places in India to respect our father of our nation on Gandhi Jeyanthi.

To make this happen, Gandhi Jeyanthi should not be a national holiday. Let us not think about work or studies on that day. Go to school or college or your office for half a day and do(learn) something that will make you remind Gandhi’s sacrifices and his ideologies; organize programmes, conduct quiz, or display videos that talks about Gandhi’s life and his ideologies. It is in practicing his ideologies, and making others adopt his ideologies, we respect him and not by enjoying this day as one of the days of our vacation.

Reminiscence

It was exactly before 5 years(August 30, 2004) I stepped into PSG TECH. I could never believe 5 years had gone by now(Same dialogue). It seems as though I am riding very fast in life. Wherever you are and whatever you are, a sense of nostalgia definitely creeps into everyone’s mind when one thinks about the college life.

College life is for most of them would be the most memorable one in whole of their lives. It is where they learn what they should and shouldn’t. It is where they shape themselves to fit in the competing world. It is where the fun at one’s life would have hit its peak. It is where they find their partners (or at least try finding their partners). And finally it is where the biggest word FRIENDSHIP finds its greatest importance.

On contemplating about my college life, so many reminiscences flash my mind. It’s all sweet memories and memories that I wish to have again in my life, specially my final year SU (Students Union). Though I had bad memories, I couldn’t remember any one now. That’s why College life is the best life one could think of. So guys take some and think about your college life (if u had passed out of your college life). I am sure your mind will be filled with beautiful thoughts. If you are in college right now, make sure you enjoy your college life to the most.

I take this platform to wish everyone of my batch all the very best in your life. Years may pass, but the memories stay with us forever and it never becomes old.

HAPPY BATCHDAY J

'In'Dependence Day

Happy Independence Day to all. When I was a giving a second thought to the previous statement, I still feel we are in the period of ‘In’ Dependence days. Even after 62 years of Independence from the Britishers, I feel we are still in dependence of the nation where poverty, illiteracy, bribe, corruption, terrorism, pollution leads the race. One cannot (should not) taste victory at the cost of other life. Here, the rich get richer, poor get still poorer. Most of the poor people are denied of their rights. Only when there is equality amongst all, I feel I can be happy of living in an independent nation. Till then I am ‘In’ Dependent nation.

The Twist – From ‘Huh’ to ‘Hehehe’

“Blame it on a simple twist of fate” .. To me I thank fate for this simple twist…

As both of my roommates are so affectionate with their hometowns they went to say a hello to it. So I thought the weekend would be a big ‘Huh’. As usual it was a lazy Saturday morning, woke up around 12 pm(sorry late afternoon ;) ). I slept late night around 2 am after social networking, chatting, watching movies etc etc.. I didn’t want to get up but couldn’t sleep because of the sunlight that flashed straight into my face. After some time, went to balcony in search of newspaper. Grabbed the paper and went inside the room. It’s all Swine Flu that occupied the headlines. And then scrolled down and read the message from Karnataka CM Yedu reg the opening of Thiruvalluvar statue in Banglaore. And the pro-Kannada activists had called for a bandh on Sunday(kelambittangaya kelambittangaya). I still remember the hazards that arose because of the Cauvery issue between the two states. So decided not to go out anywhere on these 2 days. Logged on to my laptop and a did a quick check on my mailbox, facebook, orkut, twitter.. then switched on the comp to connect to cable via TV tuner card. To my dismay, no proper cable signal. Called the cable guy and blasted. Fed up and was about to go for lunch. Ring Ring.. from our Landline.. It’s the call from my Rajesh Natpu(Friend). I told him I was alone and the next second he told he would come to my house (He stays near Electronic city). Excited. And I started thinking about the plans for 2 days (It was like the call from God in the film one night at the call centre).

Around 3 pm natpu came to my home. My joy knew no bounds. He told that we would go somewhere out in the evening and then cook at home for dinner. Perfectly fine (He is an expert in cooking). After a long time, I thought I was gonna have some delicious food. Around 5pm, we were all set ready to go to Food World (a place where they accept food coupons. I didn’t have cash in my hand then). We were talking about the professional life, had reminiscences of what happened in our college life, aspirations, goals, girls, love, wife, family, children so on and so on. Entered food world (as usual bloody crowded), got lady’s finger (vendakka pa) and other vegetables, chips, groundnut, a diet coke and a sprite (as we read Rs.10 discount on coke products). When we billed the items he told there was no discount for diet coke. I asked him the reason. He told it was for only coke products (what the fuck). I asked him if it was not a coke product. Then he reiterated that the offer was not valid for only diet coke (diet coke is costlier.. appadi theliva sollu). Again all crap talks on the way to our house.

As soon as we reached home, we started slicing the vegetables. We have induction stove in our house. He found it hard to use it in the beginning but later got used to it and was in full flow. He was preparing sambar(I was learning from him how to prepare.. pinnadi useful agum la). After some time sambar was ready. We got some 5 eggs and prepared Egg burji too. Boiled rice in cooker. Around 8 the dinner was ready. Sambar was awesome and so as egg burji. Had a great dinner. The next day we went for shopping to Brand factory. Both got a pair of shoes (I wanted to take 2 t-shirts for some 500 bucks but ended paying 1200 bucks..).We then proceeded to Madurai Idly shop in Koramangala. A typical Tamil restaurant. I had been there once but then i didn’t have much affinity towards the shop. But this time the food was too good. Hats off. After dinner, I wanted to have a juice. I asked for two pomegranate juice in the nearby fruit shop. I heard him saying 18 rupees. I asked him again to confirm. Then he told its 40 bucks. 2 juice 40 bucks I thought it was fine. I was about to give Sodexho coupons, when he gave a big shock saying the cost of one pomegranate juice is 40 bucks. (poda…… ) It was an ordinary shop. I asked the reason for its exorbitant price. He told the juice is made up of only pomegranate (velakenna pomegranate juice appuram ethula podu vaangala). I couldn’t resist laughing. Both natpu and I felt it’s not worth paying 40 bucks for a pomegranate juice. Then we started moving towards the bus stop. Finally it was time to say Good bye to my natpu.

My weekend turned out to be great because of the single phone call. Thanks natpu. A twist that made me happy. Went to bed with a smile in my face (after writing this blog).Hehehe.

Bangalore - A heaven to be in

Being in Bangalore for more than a year, I thought it would be worth mentioning about this beautiful place as to what I have seen. After many hiatus, finally some time for blogging and I pen down about Bangalore. I had been to Bangalore when I was doing my third year for a 3 day trip but drastic changes had happened since then(yup, 3 day is too small a time to judge about a place, still…) . I wanted to work in Bangalore.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I was placed in a company which has its abode in Bangalore. Below are the reasons I feel why it is a heaven to be in Bangalore.

Awesome Climate: When one talks about Bangalore, the first thing that strikes their mind is its ‘Awesome’ climate. It has got a pleasant atmosphere throughout the year. The Sun doesn’t make our body sweat, Rain doesn’t splash throughout the day, Chillness doesn’t make the body numb or freeze; Overall it has got an infallible climate.

Global City: One more interesting asset that Bangalore has got to its credit is its Global Nature. Being India’s major IT hub, you can find plethora of people who differ in region, language, culture and so on. It makes me really think I am living in a nation of diversified culture (never before).

No communication problem: For most of the people who move to other states, their major concern is the language. But Bangaloreans I guess would have never faced this problem be it they are from Tamil Nadu or kerala or AP or northern states. Most of the people here know English or Hindi. I never thought of learning Kannada because I rarely find people talking in Kannada. Even if you find people know only Kannada, put a ‘maadi’ behind every tamil word you speak. Easy maadi..

Huge Job opportunities: Being the IT hub, there are loads of job opportunities in Bangalore. There are many Tech parks like EGL(where my office is located), ITPL, Bagmane Tech Park etc. which is the store house of all smart brains. Even If people are fed up with their job they can easily find another in Bangalore.

Recreation: No one would say I am bored on a weekend in Bangalore. There are so many malls and food restaurants to eat your time in a memorable way. It’s also a spiritual place featuring famous Infant Jesus Shrine, ISKON Temple to find some peace of mind.

Though all the above will make people say a big WOW to Bangalore, there are on the other sides ‘The worst’ traffic jam (Metro OTW to prevent this hassle, but at a dead slow pace), pollution, high cost of living, double metered Auto Rickshaw(frequently), high bus fare which make people say ‘YUK’. And I seriously doubt if Bangalore can anymore be called as ‘the Garden city of India’ as most of the trees have been cut for Metro project, though the officials promised of planting saplings.

When I call my friends or meet my friends who are in Chennai, the first thing they say is I am very lucky to be in Bangalore. I had been to Chennai some 5 times in the past one year, and every time I brought back some illness with me(Except for the climate, Chennai is good). I love Bangalore. I am happy to be here. It allays all my needs of a good living. Bangaloreans, Enjoy maadi..

Insipid Indian Cricketers!!!

June 16^th, 2009 had been one of the most disappointing days in my life when India marched towards victory and finally gave it comfortably to England in 20-20 World Cup. Indians did know it was a do or die game for them, but what an insipid playing!. The target was not so huge to be unachievable and given the strong Indian batting line up, the match should have slid their way so easily but rather slipped. Irresponsible cricket by Dhoni and Jadeja had cost the game so much. I really didn’t understand why Dhoni didn’t even try to hit hard when the required run rate/over was more than 10. The way how Dhoni played was too casual, not showing any enthusiasm or interest towards the game. And it’s always a big question of what made him decide not to give RP Singh bowl the final over, after his excellent spell of 1/13 in 3 overs. India being portrayed as the favorites to win the World Cup didn’t even qualify in Super 8. And if you look at the teams they won against, are Ireland and Bangladesh. With such a very good balanced team that every other captain would be envious of, what went wrong? Was Overconfidence the obstructer? Or Dhoni and his boys were too busy acting in advertisements (Dhoni features in almost 50% of the advertisements ranging from watch, fan, network, drink and what not)? Or the fatigue that set within the players after IPL?

In addition to this, there are too much speculations and rumours on team's unity. And with all senior players like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni leading their IPL teams, their ego also rises (That could be the reason for Sehwag’s injury even). And obviously a team without Sehwag is a great setback. However, the rest of the team could have very well managed without him. With huge expectations floating around, the loss was a big shock to all fans. So where is the Indian team heading to? Are the glorious days coming to an end? Are days of pride over? Time will answer these questions. Dhoni, who lead the way all around winning the world Cup last year, now leads the way for the Indians in returning home. Bon voyage, Indian team. Welcome back defending champions (empty handed).

It was 7:00 am

It was 7:00 am. Yup, I woke up so early but for a reason. Only one hour to go. There was a call with my manager @ 9:30. I should leave from my home by 8:45 so as I could reach my office on time.  Thought for a second, one of the quotes I adore the most (when you wake up from your bed, you have two options, 1) go back to sleep and dream 2) Wake up and start chasing your dreams). I finally settled to go to bathroom not to chase my dreams but you know, ya you know to have a bath ;) . The clock ticked 7:35 and only 25 more minutes. I got dressed up in a few minutes and opened my company’s laptop. Switched on the Wi-Fi, opened the website and I am ready but still 15 minutes to go. Yes, I have to book a Tatkal train ticket for my uncle from Tuticorin to Chennai. He told me to book in 3-Ac, and I know there will be a very few number of seats. He told me to book for 7 people. Only after opening the website I realized the website only allows a maximum of 6 persons to be booked. I told Mouli to switch on his computer so that I could book 4 tickets and he could do the rest. He told me to do via Quickbook. The page is opened and I noted the train number and passenger details. We were ready!!

7: 58  7:59 Go…

Yes, the Tatkal seats were open. 20 Ac tickets. I had to book 7(a tough task rite). I started filling the details as soon as possible (may be in less than a min) and clicked the “Pay” button. I love Google Chrome and I was using that (until then I realized about its compatibility issues). I was waiting for the payment gateway option and gosh, damn I found “The webpage could not found. Please try again later”. Completely taken aback, I opened the website again but hardly opened. In the mean time my friend entered the payment gateway using his computer and he was filling my credit card number and other details for payment. I told him the CVV number but in a hurry he typed it wrongly and clicked ‘ok’. Gone!!! (Master Security sir!!) Again he had to start from the beginning and I was not able to open the website itself. Finally I opened and he too. By the time the seat count had gone to 7. So I told him to book for 6 and I would book for one person (this damn laptop or Wi-Fi was bloody slow). He entered the details for 6 persons and checked the availability. The count had reduced to 5. Deleted one person and clicked the “Pay”. I told him to enter the credit card number and pin with no hurry and finally the ticket was booked for 5 persons.

My friend checked the 2-Ac ticket availability and there were 5 seats available. I called up my dad and got the approval for booking 2-AC ticket. Entered the details for the remaining 2 and he once again checked the availability and it was still 5. Having heaved a sigh of relief, we proceeded for payment. Payment was done and we were completely numb on seeing the e-ticket. It showed WL1 and WL2.

It was 8:45 then. Losing my patience, I went to the office with heavy disappointment. Since then I was checking the PNR status. Both the 2-Ac tickets got confirmed 2 days before the journey.  Finally I getting up at 7 am(very rarely happens) was not futile.

Overall IRCTC Tatkal ticket booking to me is

 “Insane Resentment Camouflage Tiresome & Conscientious“

 

My Trip to Hyderabad

Last weekend mouli and I went to Hyderabad to meet our close congenial pal Prasanna & Balaji. The whole 3 days was awesome except for the roasting and toasting 35 to 40 degree hot climate. We visited so many places but our early bike trip to the new airport is worth mentioning as we had some thrilling experiences. We had the trip to airport planned for Saturday but got postponed to the next day due to our laziness. 

I got up at 5 30 am (a great achievement infact) and got the job of waking up others. By 6 after having a filter coffee, we set out for the trip. We had a Honda stunner and Honda shine. Prasanna and balaji took stunner, mouli and I took Shine. I was a little bit drowsy but the cool breeze refreshed my face. The road was devoid of traffic that made the speedometer touch 80 plus with ease. I heard people saying Rajiv Gandhi International Airport(the newly constructed) is the best airport in India in all aspects but it was an anathema to me, so I desperately wanted to have a look at it. The road to the airport was very well maintained and we were just 1 km away from the airport when we were stopped by the security in the check board. I didn’t know why he stopped us alone (Prasanna and balaji didn’t face this), by the time I realized I was wearing a shorts and that would have made him to stop my bike. Mouli found the right time to blame me for wearing shorts. As usual License, RC book. I had my license but Rc book was found missing. We tried to explain him that we came for a trip to Hyderabad and that is our friend’s bike and in hurry we left it at our home. But it fell on deaf ears. Finally he asked 50 bucks and reiterated to myself we are in india and this is common. Mouli out of his mind gave 100 bucks(karnan parambarai). I was shocked and exasperated. I abused him for being so generous and he started his justification with a cocky speech. I told him to belt up and the argument continued( as usual) . I was mesmerized by the scenic beauty at dawn.

We reached the airport, parked the vehicle. I could sense the amount of planning that went in constructing the airport. I had been to Old Bangalore airport and Coimbatore airport and it is 100 times better than the two. It got a huge space, and showed a great diligence behind it. Had a cold coffee in café day, saw a few take offs, had a gossip for some 1 hour about the politics, airport, technology and all crap( vetti manga) and headed towards the exit. 

Then we started to ISB campus. We took the ring road and the sun started to show its might. I handed over the bike to mouli as he was in his initial stage of driving a bike. He started asking so many questions of how to release the clutch, how to apply the brakes, is it necessary to hold the clutch when applying brake and so on.. A typical starter… As we approached the city, prasanna stopped near a road side shop for the breakfast (Pras I thought u would take me to a decent hotel). We had poori and it was good. Then we reached the ISB campus, took a few pic standing infront of the campus imagining ourselves as students (atleast in photo). We also had a glance of Microsoft and Infosys campus. Unable to bear the loathsome, scorching heat we started travelling towards our home. Again on the way we got trapped by a traffic police for not having an RC book and again 100 bucks. But this time the police himself asked 100 bucks with mouli not voluntarily giving it as he did before. 

Overall, the trip was full of fun and frolic. Thank you prasanna and Balaji for making the trip awesome. It will cherish in my mind for eternity. 

The Unforgettables!!!

For the past one week (only) I have not been slogging much with my work. I love the job that I do as it provides a great scope for learning and improvement. As it is a start up company, there is a tremendous amount of ownership in each and every individual. And that makes us to really own the project rather than being a part of it. Between all these, we have great fun in our work. Let me share the three most interesting incidents that I had in my company so far. Here we go………..

1. Our whole team was having a meeting with our CEO in the conference room. He asked everyone to tell something interesting about them. It was a highly rambunctious discussion. He was talking about recession and everyone’s responsibility and it suddenly went very serious. Suddenly there was a sound ‘ring ring….’.It was from the phone, and fortunately or unfortunately I was sitting near the phone. As on site managers and our director have joined the meeting through VoIP, I thought they or some senior most officials must be calling. I gazed at the CEO. He signaled me to pick up the phone. I did and said “hello” in a soft tone. On the other side I heard someone saying “We are calling from HDFC bank. We were offering personal loans to selected customers and you ….” I abruptly cut the call. With a smile I said “It’s from HDFC Bank”. The whole team burst into laughter.
2. The whole company was excited about the town hall meeting we were about to have with our CEO in the afternoon. Everyone was anticipating the news about our new office (as we have space constraint in our current office). The last time when he spoke about the new office, he showed videos of the new building and created very great anxiety in everyone’s mind. But ultimately it didn’t work out. It has been a long wait for us (still waiting). I was discussing with my team members of what could be the possible options of where our office would be shifted. Everyone was telling ‘embassy golf Links’. I wasn’t happy as I felt the distance would be much longer from where I live (the fact is I don’t know where ‘embassy golf links’ is). I interrupted and told I would prefer “EGL” which is in the inner ring road (as it is very close to where is stay). I started to become the brand ambassador of EGL. I wanted to somehow convince EGL is better than any other than Tech Park. I said Microsoft office (our client) is in EGL and we can enhance our client relationship by visiting their offices directly rather than talking through phone and the building is awesome and it boasts a huge food court. The whole team started laughing. I couldn’t understand. And the next statement they made I was completely embarrassed,” Anto for your very kind information, EGL is Embassy Golf Links. “Oh my god…… How ignorant I was?? (Is it right to call Ignorance is bliss??)
3. This incident was shared by Sriram(my friend). Whenever I think of this incident, I couldn’t resist myself from laughing. The incident goes like this. He and JK (his friend and mine too) were standing in the bus stand. A man came near JK and asked him in Hindi (he doesn’t know Hindi), if they accept daily pass in this bus. He out of sheer enthusiasm (as though he understood Hindi) replied, Delhi pass will not be accepted in Bangalore, they accept only in Delhi. The man started laughing (or wondering am I look like a moron). Then he realized he heard it as Delhi instead of daily.
   

If you have something very interesting, please do post it as comments.