Some photos on a partly cloudy evening
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Inbox?
There is some guy by name Micheal Vincent who keeps finding me jobs in Richmond. Every other day, I get a mail on my yahoo with a subject "I found you a new job". Udayan Mukherjee gives a statement on CNBC that "2009 will be the Year of Sowing". Someone by name Babu G from jeevansathi.com sends a wish (Happy new year, happy mid year, mid month etc.) for every new day and asks me to respond to profiles on their website. A scrolling add by Naukri.com saying there are 2 lakh jobs available. And then the biggest news of the seasonn apart from slowdown "Satyam: A big Lie"
Definitely want to mention another very very big news "Pakistan's denial mode"!
This is not just overview of my Inbox, but pretty much the only things being reported everywhere. Any newspaper, new site will carry mostly news about Satyam, Pakistan, ads on marriage portals and job sites and news about slowdown.
While talking with some friends the other day, we were thinking that Infy hasn't started any layoffs where as all other firms are in news for layoffs/pink slips etc. We never have heard Infosys laying off people. Is it that all people are so good that they can't be laid off! (hard to digest) or is it that things happen without media publicity? Whatever the reason may be, the day Infy announces layoffs, it would not be recession but depression in economy.
Thats all the news for the moment...
Friday, October 17, 2008
Socha hai - our recording
So that I dont forget about this recording :)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Life-cycle overview
Life on weekdays can be broadly classified into 3 -
1. Personal life
2. Office life
3. Bus life
Sleep consumes about 8 hours of a day.
Personal life will be consistant and predictable with same people around - 3 hours; Office life with high work load also remains pretty much predictable as even here you are interacting mostly with same set of people - 10 hours (including all breaks).
The third one, bus life where I spend almost 3 hours a day is the one with new people and things happening. Every other person in the bus feels like a strange character and as days goes by it only becomes clear that my initial thinking of character is indeed correct! :)
There are one set of people in the bus who are constant; every morning I board the bus, I am assured that I see those people sitting in the same seat everyday. We usually have a unique name for each of these characters. Then there is another set who are coming in the bus only temporarily. This set keeps on changing with time; some change residence, some change work location, some leave company and thousands other reasons. This changing set happens to be the most interesting pieces of the lot. The third set of course are random people who board different bus everyday, so there is nothing much to write about this set.
As I was talking, the second set - this is where I have seen lot of stranger(st) characters. By virtue of their characteristics, of course they get unique names (bean-1, tikla-1 etc.), but its amazing to see that these people live up to their names as long as they are coming in the bus. There are times when some people just want to come and sit next to me even though the whole of bus is empty, people just put all their weight on you and sleep with heavy snores (it was a tiring day in office after all).
And then there are some people in bus (esp. females) who I am terribly scared because of the angry looks they have all the time. Initially when I started going in bus, once or twice I flashed smile on some of these people, but the kind of cold response I got scared me and that was the last time I ever smiled at any stranger in the bus.
After much of search I managed to get a mobile with FM but no camera and now its mainly the FM (some station) and sleep along with economic times whenever I am awake that has become my companions for my bus life.
More on life cycle as life goes on ...
1. Personal life
2. Office life
3. Bus life
Sleep consumes about 8 hours of a day.
Personal life will be consistant and predictable with same people around - 3 hours; Office life with high work load also remains pretty much predictable as even here you are interacting mostly with same set of people - 10 hours (including all breaks).
The third one, bus life where I spend almost 3 hours a day is the one with new people and things happening. Every other person in the bus feels like a strange character and as days goes by it only becomes clear that my initial thinking of character is indeed correct! :)
There are one set of people in the bus who are constant; every morning I board the bus, I am assured that I see those people sitting in the same seat everyday. We usually have a unique name for each of these characters. Then there is another set who are coming in the bus only temporarily. This set keeps on changing with time; some change residence, some change work location, some leave company and thousands other reasons. This changing set happens to be the most interesting pieces of the lot. The third set of course are random people who board different bus everyday, so there is nothing much to write about this set.
As I was talking, the second set - this is where I have seen lot of stranger(st) characters. By virtue of their characteristics, of course they get unique names (bean-1, tikla-1 etc.), but its amazing to see that these people live up to their names as long as they are coming in the bus. There are times when some people just want to come and sit next to me even though the whole of bus is empty, people just put all their weight on you and sleep with heavy snores (it was a tiring day in office after all).
And then there are some people in bus (esp. females) who I am terribly scared because of the angry looks they have all the time. Initially when I started going in bus, once or twice I flashed smile on some of these people, but the kind of cold response I got scared me and that was the last time I ever smiled at any stranger in the bus.
After much of search I managed to get a mobile with FM but no camera and now its mainly the FM (some station) and sleep along with economic times whenever I am awake that has become my companions for my bus life.
More on life cycle as life goes on ...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Karnataka-Goa Road Trip!
Mini Version!
The use of some catchy words especially "DushkarmigaLu" by our guide in Chitradurga fort, bad roads from davanagere, worst roads from dharwad to goa, beautiful beaches in Goa, surprisingly cleaner than expected beaches along the karnataka coast, tasty food in Gokarna mess, long long drives and much more were a part of our Karnataka-Goa Road Trip. Driving 1900 KMs over a period of 9 days doesn't seem like a big thing, it is hardly 211 Kms per day to take an average. The bad state of roads added to my fears of car performance and repairs but to my delight, the car was extremely good in good and bad roads and had absolutely no problems over the long drives.
Started from bangalore @7 in the morning and reached Chitradurga at 11.
Don't think, will continue as its almost an year... so posting whatever writtein :)
 |
| Karnataka-Goa Road Trip |
Friday, September 07, 2007
Morning Blues in BTM!
After much negotiations with my laziness from 6:45 in the morning, I managed to get out of bed at 7:00 AM to get ready to catch 7:45 bus to Office. I had to run and stop the moving bus as I was slightly late, late by a minute to reach the bus stand which is next to my house. Looking at my discharged iPod, I thought I could sleep through for an hour to electronic city. One hour was the average time it used to take for 7:45 bus. When I opened my eyes, our bus was just few yards behind Jayadeva Flyover and traffic had stopped all the way till there. After sometime, I realized the road was choked all the way till Silk board and traffic hardly moving. It took over an hour to reach Silk board, a distance of 3-4KMs and I could see scores of IT people with badges hanging around their neck waiting for their company buses with available seating. Our Bus finally arrived at company campus after 2:15 mins travel.
Total Distance: 20 KM
Time Taken: 135 mins
From my high school knowledge, an average speed of 8.8 KM/Hr, pretty cool. The improvement in timing here could be result of lot of factors - continuous increase in people inflow to Bangalore, construction work on Hosur road, traffic (mis)management, (in)sensible driving etc. I heard from one of my friends that they have reduced the green signal time at silk board junction for traffic entering Hosur road to make Hosur road clearer. Well, I haven't stood there and measured the timings, but if that is the case then the recent increase in traffic on BTM road is well explained. As more traffic gathers on BTM road and less traffic is let out to Hosur Road, can we expect a day when traffic is still from Silk board all the way to Banashakari Temple? This could be something for Limca or even Guinness Book of Records.
Friday, August 31, 2007
America! America! - Part I
Posting this is a bit late though had written couple of months back :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The trip to Maine for white water rafting completed my 20th state visited in US out of the total 50. Wow! That feels good. I know I could have done better than this but 20 is not at all bad for 3 years and all these states are the ones where I have stayed atleast one day and/or one night.
Richmond happens be my second most favorite place to stay after Mysore not only because I got used to it after staying over 2 years but also for the wonderful group of friends I had there. My first 2-3 months in US was a hell; I had no idea what to do, where to go, I dint know much people and also am not very good with new people. Finally after this, I got a car and started to move around. I never took that car for a long drive though because of its old age, but got the momentum to go around the place. I dont recollect if my first big drive was Niagara falls or Indianapolis, I think its Niagara Falls. In US, I started driving from my second week of arrival and got local drivers license at the end of 2 months. Immediately after getting my drivers license, we (Soumik, Satya, Hemang) went for Virginia beach which was a 2 hr drive from Richmond. Before going for my first big trip, Niagara falls I had done quite a number of trips to Virginia beach. Niagara falls was followed by (I think) Indianapolis for Formula1 and then to West Virginia for white water rafting in New River the next weekend. Yup, that month with 3 back to back trips put life back in my life.
Niagara falls was a good trip and I was surprised to see so many Indians there. The place looked more like a tourist place in India with handful of non-indians. For every desi in US, Niagara falls is like mecca for muslims. Everyone would have seen this place, taken their parents once and/or any other conditions that can be imagined. The drive to Indy was more gruelling than Niagara. We were only 2 and I was the only one to drive. Watching F1 race at Indy was something I wanted to do for a long time and it finally happened June 2004. The race was amazing and I still remember Schumi overtaking Barrichello exactly in front of our stand which was on other side of pit-lane exit. FERRARI ROCKS! RED RULES!
The very next week, I went to white water rafting in West Virginia in New river where some of rapids in this were simply amazing. Infact our raft almost overturned in one of them. Couple of other rafts did overturn but somehow we managed to keep our raft straight. We also camped there the previous night and cooked in campfire. As usual, there was some struggle with veggie stuff but overall was fun and I surely would have enjoyed the serene beauty of Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia if I had stayed longer.
These trips were soon followed by New York and Atlantic City, my first time to a Casino. I had heard from others about the huge casino complexes but inside the casino, it was way bigger than anything I had seen or imagined. I started slow with slot machines of least denomination and losing some money, but then it got boring and I took to blackjack. I was reading and learning blackjack for more than week and that paid off. I indeed won a good amount in the begining but at the end lost. Well, I had a budget to lose and lost that plus some more.
The complete list of US states I have visited:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia
First VA Beach Trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.5jgbfhwn&x=0&y=oq5thg
New York Atlantic City - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.cchm16yj&x=0&y=a797rs
Indianapolis - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.1mdfe4sb&x=0&y=-q9jv41
New River Rafting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6u3v4kzj.btdgihh7&x=0&y=qndkxn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The trip to Maine for white water rafting completed my 20th state visited in US out of the total 50. Wow! That feels good. I know I could have done better than this but 20 is not at all bad for 3 years and all these states are the ones where I have stayed atleast one day and/or one night.
Richmond happens be my second most favorite place to stay after Mysore not only because I got used to it after staying over 2 years but also for the wonderful group of friends I had there. My first 2-3 months in US was a hell; I had no idea what to do, where to go, I dint know much people and also am not very good with new people. Finally after this, I got a car and started to move around. I never took that car for a long drive though because of its old age, but got the momentum to go around the place. I dont recollect if my first big drive was Niagara falls or Indianapolis, I think its Niagara Falls. In US, I started driving from my second week of arrival and got local drivers license at the end of 2 months. Immediately after getting my drivers license, we (Soumik, Satya, Hemang) went for Virginia beach which was a 2 hr drive from Richmond. Before going for my first big trip, Niagara falls I had done quite a number of trips to Virginia beach. Niagara falls was followed by (I think) Indianapolis for Formula1 and then to West Virginia for white water rafting in New River the next weekend. Yup, that month with 3 back to back trips put life back in my life.
Niagara falls was a good trip and I was surprised to see so many Indians there. The place looked more like a tourist place in India with handful of non-indians. For every desi in US, Niagara falls is like mecca for muslims. Everyone would have seen this place, taken their parents once and/or any other conditions that can be imagined. The drive to Indy was more gruelling than Niagara. We were only 2 and I was the only one to drive. Watching F1 race at Indy was something I wanted to do for a long time and it finally happened June 2004. The race was amazing and I still remember Schumi overtaking Barrichello exactly in front of our stand which was on other side of pit-lane exit. FERRARI ROCKS! RED RULES!
The very next week, I went to white water rafting in West Virginia in New river where some of rapids in this were simply amazing. Infact our raft almost overturned in one of them. Couple of other rafts did overturn but somehow we managed to keep our raft straight. We also camped there the previous night and cooked in campfire. As usual, there was some struggle with veggie stuff but overall was fun and I surely would have enjoyed the serene beauty of Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia if I had stayed longer.
These trips were soon followed by New York and Atlantic City, my first time to a Casino. I had heard from others about the huge casino complexes but inside the casino, it was way bigger than anything I had seen or imagined. I started slow with slot machines of least denomination and losing some money, but then it got boring and I took to blackjack. I was reading and learning blackjack for more than week and that paid off. I indeed won a good amount in the begining but at the end lost. Well, I had a budget to lose and lost that plus some more.
The complete list of US states I have visited:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia
First VA Beach Trip:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
New York Atlantic City - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
Indianapolis - I
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
New River Rafting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)