Diwali 2010, My

Come Diwali 2010, 5 day trip planned to Mumbai. I was in Hyderabad on Microsoft project, needing a respite from the hectic work and I was looking forward to it. It was a wonderful trip and here it goes.

For those who have missed any flights before they would no how important it is to be early at the airport, desolately I am one of them. Reached the airport 3 hours before the flight, damn I was so early the airline guy said I will get boarding pass after one hour. So just rested for an hour as I had done raat pali the day before.

Did get the boarding pass and I went inside. Hyderabad airport after long time, first thing is it does look like an airport…last time I checked it looked like a mall! Neways I did the security check and was wandering. A book shop ne where is an ideal time pass for me and there is one at the Airport and I went right in, checking out some books. I was already carrying Freakanomics to read, but still I feel like home in places like big book shops and library.

I found a book called “Love, Life & a Beer Can” by Prashant Sharma. Pretty catchy name for sure. Started reading it, read some 8 pages and then I thought, what the hell..it’s just 100 bucks and pretty cool book, I bought it. After than I was feeling hungry, normally I don’t feel like eating idlis worth 75 bucks and parathas worth 120 bucks, but I was damn hungry and Pizza Hut looked inviting, I had a Spicy Veg meal. Damn there were lotta chilly in it and barely any veg, had to remove the chillies which left me with only chees . Ne ways the meal was worth it as after boarding I had a good nap in flight..partly due to meal and partly due to my night shift. First time I believe I have slept while flying.

One thing which is always good to come home is the wonderful home food. This time no different…Dal dhokdi, muthiya, undhiyu, basundi, Puri, Gulab Jamun, etc. Also this Diwali was good because I meet lot of relatives, especially Dhruv bhai after long time. Had got gifts for everyone and glad everyone liked it . Wanted to see Golmaal 3 but didn’t find time, also I am longing to see Oberoi mall since last three trips but am unable to :( .

Obama has come to India and his trip has been pretty good for India as well as him. Today there was an official meeting after which Obama and Manmohan Singh addressed media and answered media questions. There was one question on outsourcing and Mr.Singh said and I quote: “We are not in the business of stealing jobs!” This line is like…I dunno simply magnificent. He is close to Obama but to make such a statement openly, kudos to Prime Minister. Also Aaj Tak went crazy…their headlines were like “Manmohan ne mara maidan!” ……..ROTFL. Many agreements and deals were signed. Obama also said, India is already an emerged super power! Sounds nice to the ears.

I travelled in local trains of Mumbai after almost 3 years, went all the way to Thane form Vile Parle. Went in the afternoon, so was not that crowded, but still felt good to travel, in the lifeline of Mumbai.

One of the great days in history for Indian cricket, India 85 for 6 in second innings with one whole day to go. Harbhajan Singh slammed his maiden test ton today…what a time to do it too!! India saved the test match and man of match was Bhajji. Also Liverpool are back, back and how, beating league leaders Chelsea 2-0. Newcastle beat Arsenal 1-0. Hope ma club MAN UTD can capitalize on this. It was Red Bull 1-2 in the pen ultimate race of F1. I believe they have sealed the constructors championship.

Overall, it was a very good diwali, quality time with family, great food, some most needed rest, some travelling….and yes I did download Kssha and Taio Cruz songs!!! Also saw Top Gun…that’s one of my all time movie! Also the new LCD in hall is awesome…everything going well :D.

Freakin...Sports

 Today I feel like writing something about sports. Major reason being India is doing so well in the current Oz tour of India and the tremendous success of the Common Wealth Games.

 Sachin made a staggering 400 plus runs in the two test series to help India get a clean sweep against the Oz. This happened after 22 years...clean sweep with Oz on the losing side. The current Indian test team looks really good. Mixture of youngsters like Raina, Murali Vijay, Pragyan Ojha and experience folks like Sachin, Dravid, Dhoni and Zak. More importantly everybody knows their role in the team and is contributing towards the success of the team. India is the number one test team in the world since 10 months I think.

 Common Wealth Games are also going chillingly well. India is fighting it out with England for second spot in the medals tally. Good to know that other sports also getting recognition...other sports and other sportstars like Sania Nehwal,  Manoj Kumar(boxer) and others.

 One shocking thing to happen is the sad state of the Liverpool club. They are on the verge of selling and are in the last three spot in the standings. Hope they don't get eliminated this season from EPL..they are a club with lot of history and trophies.

 Vroomm.....Schumacher came back to F1..the dude aint skwaking yet this season. What is skwaking??? A word coined by Mr. Kartik Vyas today...figure out yourself what it means! Mark Webber from Red Bull is leading the pack rite now..yo Ostralian doin good here..or rather skwaking good! Alonso and Wettel are tied for second place, followed by Hamilton and Button. Still three more races to go this season. My prediction is, its gonna be Webber and RedBull all the way! Excitingly...next year we are gonna have a F1 GP in India..Delhi is the place where circuit is being buit..kool!

 What other sport I follow?? Rafa...used to be Fedex couple years ago...I guess its Nadal time now. Well frankly I get aint no time for watchin ne sport...very rarely I do...just check the news and stuff.

The Impact Thing

 I am here doing raat pali in office. Thankfully in my new project I have complete internet access :D, so I do get to do some surfing in free time. I just read a post from my college buddy Dhaval's blog and that made me write this post.

 I still remember July 29, 2008. I had written a post called Life ,people who know me very closely would know what this is about. Also whenever I am asked in any interview or anything, what you wanna do with life? I answer, I wanna do something revolutionary, something which will affect the whole of mankind, something for the good of mankind.

 Well the reason for this post is, I would like to share my thinking with you all and see if you can think as I do. Ever since I can remember, I believe that there is a purpose, or rather there should be a purpose to life. Each and everyone must try to do something significant in life, we have a very short life compared to the life of the universe or the sun or the earth. We gotta do something more than education-job-marriage-kids cycle. Get out of the rat race people.

 Apparently we have the technology to reverse and stop the aging of a bacteria, I can say this because one of my cousin does this as a Microbiology scientist. 50 years down the line we'll be able to do the same to humans. Earth is not gonna be permanent, neither is gonna be our solar system. According to Stephen Hawkings we have to colonize in outer space in next 200 years.

 This is where I come in, or rather I hope to do so...my knowledge of IT, well which in the above problem is of little use, but my passion of cosmology and astronomy as well as biology and genetics, I hope, I dream and I wish that one day before I die, I would like to do something that would make an impact for our future generations.

 My theory is, if the closest inhabitable planet is 200 light years away, we need medical science to help either increase the life span of humans or stop aging. Powering a space ship to travel so far and so fast, only thing that can do this is anti matter, I guess. The bottom line is, I dunno if I will able to actually do what I want to do, or if I will be able to contribute in any way. One thing is for sure, I will try to make my impact and I will hopefully make some post in this blog about it one day...

Welcome to Pune...finally!

 It's been a long journey and yes I do believe life is a journey. I remember the days I used to blog from Bangalore airport, during my training days. I had wonderful time in Hyderabad with friends. Bangalore was a place where I had my first big project, and finally after almost two years...Pune :D

 Pune is a beautiful campus, one of the newest of Infy. There are two egg shaped landmark buildings. The ECC is well, really really huge. Best thing is, it is surrounded by mountains and I get a mountain view from my ECC room. Feels like dream does'nt it!

 I met all my all my old friends here and there are a hell lot of them here, so its lotta fun as well. Also I am now in Microsoft project, so that's a good thing as well. Only drawback I would say would be that the campus is way too far from city and it is almost mandatory to have a vehicle here. Also the nearest residential area are a bit far.

 Today I saw Step Up 3D. Hehe...funny thing is, this was my first 3D film. My friend thought the movie was amazing. I think its like ok, not that gr8! Glad to see a 3D movie though, don't feel like watching 2D now :D . Also I believe the best utilization of 3D effects would be more apparent in action films.

 Nothing much really, my dear sis is roaming the chapa chapa of US ;) , goes on crazy long drives every weekend, glad she is having fun. Hope to join her some time soon :) . Big bigger Vishal is roaming  internationally, I just came to know he is now director of 4 companies, I am happy for him. Vaibhav is always there with me and even today while going for movie on bike, I remembered how crazy bike rides we used to have in Mumbai.

 Some say life is a journey and they say life is an adventure, I dunno what to say, just live in the moment and enjoy it!

My Email to the Editor of Times of India

A Proposition

 I watched Indian Idol 5 last night and I realized the power and importance of mass media in today's world. I realized the magnitude and reach of mass media and the impact it has on everyone in today's world.

 India is the biggest democracy in the world with over 120,00,00,000 strong.Indians are the smartest and the brightest in the world, if you think this is debatable, just recently I read about a couple of Indians, one girl who won the International Physics Olympiad and a guy who cracked the P v/s NP. These are just a couple of drops in the Indian Ocean.

 If we are so good, why is it that we have only one Sachin Tendulkar, or rather despite having a Sachin Tendulkar, we could never win a world cup in his era. The major part of software industry in US is run by Indian minds, still we Indians in India depend on US companies for work. The iterations and hirings in Indian IT companies is dependent on US and other economies, at least till some extend.

 I am really happy with the 'meter jam', and I hope it is just the beginning of the things to come to make India clean, from politics and corruption. Speaking of corruption, it reminds me of politicians. How often we read that lakhs of crores of money, is either waster or converted into black money of corrupt politicians. Why is it that a great guy like Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam was not given second term in presidency.

 It takes a lot of sweat and hard work to earn a few thousands every month, for millions of people in this country. I think we should have the right to know where our tax money is going, ideally it should come back to us in some way. I propose a bill in which during the annual budget the finance minister is responsible to disclose where all the tax money was gone of previous year, right down to the penny, there should be a proper and systematic disclosure of income tax revenue collected and spent. It is a tough ask, but I am confident that if 'meter jam' can succeed, so can this.

 I am just one of those millions, who pays taxes, just felt like sharing my point of view with you. I also know that things are comparatively much better now than before, but still I dream of a day where illiterate and corrupt people will not dare enter politics with the motive of corruption and the country will be run by educated and honest people. Also I would like to say that 'The Times of India' is an impartial newspaper, keep up the good work. Likh likh kar...phad do!

Languages I know!

 While having paratha, aloo gobi masala and mutter palaka with Sudipto, we were chatting and I realized its amazing the number of languages I know.

 Four languages: English, MArathi, Hindi and Gujarati I know since childhood. There are many additions to it since I joined Infy.

 I have very good malyalam friends in Infosys since more than a year now. Malyalam even though being as complicated as it is, I do now around 20 words in it :). My room mates in Hyd were Tamil, so I learnt quiet a bit of Tamil in Hyderabad and now my roommates in Bangalore are mostly Punjabi so I am learning Punjabi as well.

 I have learnt some Bengali from Soumita/ Moumita in past. One of my room mate here Sudipto is Bengali too.I find Bengali easy to understand. Also a very good friend in office is from Orissa, so I am listening to that language as well. I have Telegu friends as well.

 Hmm thats quiet a handful of languages: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, English, Malyalam, Tamil, Telegu, Punjabi, Bengali, Orissa. I know 10 languages, BEAT THAT!

13th Feb 2010

Kemo nacho! Bhalo ,khub bhalo! I said to Sudipto when I came home some time back. It was indeed a very fruitful day.

 Got up at 0830 in the morning. Was in the mood to study and remarkably I solved around 75 sums of GMAT in an hour or so, that is certainly remarkable, GMAT quant seems so bull shit in front of CAT quant!!! Neways not settling with that I started critical reasoning too taday. Did around 10 questions and it went pretty well.

 When you are in appropriate mood to study, you can do a lot in very little time and when your mind is somewhere else, even if you sit for hours it won't result in too much. Well we all know this by now.

 How can I forget PArshubaba, sada super cook. Made multicuisine breakfast today. We had punjab de garam gobi parathe and south style seviya bath. Quite a handful breakfast. However as I found out later Parshubaba didnt come to prepare lunch explaining it with the fact that he hade made parathas in the morning. Rite now sirji is preparing dinner" Palak mutter and roti/parathe."

 So back to my day, after studyin for couple of hours in the afternoon, I went to buy sada belt. I had thought of buying it from a mall, however it was out of my budget, so I got from a local shop. I got a pretty cheap deal, lets hope the belt lasts long. Fingers crossed.

 Sukki. One thing famous in our area is Sukhi. It is like hybrid of sev puri and pani puri. Well not exactly as neither does it have sev nor pani...lol. It has everything of the both apart from those two. Asi, PANjabi and jassi had the signature Sukkki at our Sukki point. Today it tasted fabulous.

 After that as I was well dressed, I thought of going to Oasis mall, then I thought lets go for a big ride. I went all the way to Forum on bike! First time. Actually I was tempted to go all the way to EC(Electronic City), but my logical mind told me not to as it is too far.

 So I did reach Forum by myself on bike. I have been to Jayanagar before on bike, but that was early morning. This was right into the peak hours of Bangalore and I proved ,myself that I am a good enough biker ;) .

 So I went to Forum, roamed around inside for an hour. And yeah incidently today was the first time I did a paid parking :P. Hmmm so many firsts today!

 So I had a nice time in Forum. I started my ride back home. Had to ask an autowala, just to be sure of directions. But, I reached sada home sweet home 126/A safely in one piece to write this post.

Lessons learnt:
You gain confidence in anything by doing it and doing it often.
Bangalore traffic is bad.
Lot of pollution at red signals, everybody keeping their engines on!
Always keep an eye on passing gas stations if you are like me, who always rides in reserve ;)
Be happy in whatever you do and make each day count!

Wisdom comes with age.

 I was just thinking, comparing myself now and myself a year ago, or may be three years ago. Has anything changed?

 Certainly with time and by staying by myself I am learning a lot in life, I am getting more mature with time. I am able to make better decisions in life.

 Of course my family and friends have always been there for me throughout my life. My parents have done a lot for me during my torrid times in Mumbai and my sister has always been ready to give me much needed advise whenever I have seeked from her.

 I have been lucky enough to have wonderful friends in life and had wonderful times with them. The time I spent with them in Mysore, Hyd and Bang will be cherished by me forever.

 Also I have learnt how to work and succeed as a team, how to prioritize work and how to manage finances. I seriously think dad has been a major help when it comes to handling finances, I owe a lot to him. Also I cant forget all the wonderful food mom has made for me, the weekends when I used to go to Milan mall with her. I am really lucky to have such a wonderful family and I thank God and my family for the same.

 I just felt like writing this post, to express how grateful and thankful I am to everyone and I promise to reciprocate whenever I get the chance.

Rann

 Yesterday I saw this movie Rann. Very nice movie with a message. Amitabh Bachan proves again he can do any kind of roll. What is good to see is Ritesh Deshmukh in a more responsible and mature role. Good performance and nice story.

 The movie shows to what extend media can go to make news and make money. How politicians do anything to come to power and how there are still few good man who stand up for the truth and the right.

 Paresh Rawal is in a negative role and has done justice to the character. I would definetly recommend this movie to all.

 What else, really looking forward to go home after a long time. Job is going pretty good, learning things everyday and enjoying to work in a wonderful team.

 I would like to quote something which my friend wrote in facebook: "Behind every successful man there is a women. However women go only behind successful men" Some people crave only material wealth...and suffer.

 

Settled in Project

"The most difficult part of the project is the transition, once you enter the steady state it would be smooth". This is what my team lead used to tell us from the beginning. Now we are in steady state and yes I do agree with what he had said, life is very good and relaxing now.

 I worked in night shift last two weeks, sometimes I did feel sleepy a lot and was wondering if only I could have a bed to take a nap. But  I had volunteered for the shift and cannot complain, good think is, that is over.Now I am in day shift and no night shift this month. Also am going home at the end of this month, Pav Bhaaij, Vaada Pav, Undhiyu, RK Veg Biryani, etc etc I can hardly wait. Long time since I went home.

 Also first time I am going home after coming to Bangalore, I remember how I used to go home from Mysore via Bangalore and write a post in this blog from the Airport. Those were the days I was in training in Mysore, what we called honeymoon period in IT industry.But I feel very relaxed now. Also,I am glad I got such a good project.

 Last Saturday again we had a team outing, we went for the movie Sherlock Holmes, very nice movie. Also we had lunch in Sind Sultan in Forum Mall, had a nice time. Next month again we have our project party, we had it in Christmas last time I think, we are supposed to have it once every quarter, so basically life is good. Certainly time is running very fast!