Retirement

Another sport person retires, any guesses? It's Venkatapathy Raju. I almost forgot him and I wondered, why the hell he waited for so long to plan his retirement. There are guys like these and there are guys like 'Sohail Abbas', just when one thought that he would carry on and set the stage on fire, he hung his shoes.

I think one should understand that youngsters need and deserve opportunities and this can get a helping hand from seniors if they retire. We are not talking of un-timely retirement but at least when one is not performing to his 100%, then retirement should be considered as a best option.

I don't think we are ever going to have any retirement age fixed for sports person because even now I remember Robin Singh's performances. At the age of 30 plus, he used to make all youngsters feel guilty of commitment and power. You must be wondering whether I am making a note about a one off case here, but just imagine someone like Narendar Hirwani playing for Madhya Pradesh. I am not joking, he still does.

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Cristiano Dies

Cristiano Lima becomes another victim of ignorance and carelessness. Decent medical facilities in the ground would have saved his life. People as always have started the blame game but no one is taking steps to improve things that led this happen.

I pity the situation in which these guys play the game. May God rest his soul in peace!
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Contrast

In this era of e-age banking, how can some banks stick to their age old methods. Well, it doesn't sound that logical but I experienced it today.

I went to an ATM of a nationalized bank to withdraw some amount. Here are the things that I saw

There was (read is carefully 'was' and not 'is') a promixity card reader that would allow a person holding the right card to gain access to the machine, but it was left wide open.

I couldn't find any security in the gate, instead even the stairs leading to the ATM was filled up with shops.

People were queued up right from the machine till the road

People were very helpful, in the sense, they were keying in the PIN for you and even collecting the cash, counting it and giving it to you with the receipt. Reason: In the rush, you can't even waste 0.5 minute.

The rush was so much, it looked worse than a fish market.

I decided not to even stand in a queue and people who were standing behind appreciated my efforts as they got a KM closer to the ATM.

The mad rush was because of the machine was running slow. I thought of using a near by ATM of another bank, but couldn't as the ATM card issued by my bank was not compliant. Ironically, the ATM in which so much rush was there, was an ATM where you can use VISA, VISA Electron and everything in the world. I couldn't really understand, who this bank is serving?. In this cut throat competition, this Bank still survives, amazing, isn't it!

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Hinjewadi to SJM Towers

I have made a transition from Hinewadi, Pune to SJM Towers, Bangalore. I have hopped and have now migrated to Bangalore.

City seems to quite OK but traffic is like 'never seen before'. Pune was a good place and Bangalore is better.

As of today, I am 10 days old in Bangalore.

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Here are the pictures of my child "Srinidhi", she turned three months on 25th October 2004.

Click here - Photos and then choose "Angels" as album


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Rent a Caravan

I am not posting an ad here but that is how people used to call "Venkat Raghavan" during his cricket days. Funny isn't it.

Some more nick names of my friends, just out of nowhere.

Nagarajan Karuppiah - Naag S
Suman Kumar - SuKu
Bright Sam - Serial Killer
Sreenivasulu Chenupati - Lu

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My Child - Srinidhi

July 25th 2004, I saw an angel from heaven in my very own hands. My wife (Gayathri) gave birth to a baby girl and the moment was the most memorable one in my life so far.

The baby so tender, innocent and calm, finally life showed it's purest form of all in just 2.75 kgs.

"Srinidhi" is what we have named the angel. I shall soon post pictures of the little one for you all.

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Fascination

Since childhood, I have a fascination for the rails. I always used to dream about traveling in trains. We are six in our family (my parents + one brother + two sisters + myself) and whenever we got a chance to travel, we used to book a whole block for us.

traveling together has always been fun for me. My father who is a food freak, especially while traveling, always made sure that we taste each and every food at all possible stations. Be it a Rotis at Bhopal / Oranges at Nagpur / Dosa at Ballarshah / Idli at Warangal, I have tasted it all. My father knows the items that are famous in a place so, if you say that the train is halted at 'Chandrapur', he would say a dish which is famous at that place.

The place where I have moved now is very near to a railway station 'Chinchwad'. I make it a point to visit the station daily. I walk down to the station and buy daily newspaper from an agent. At last I am near a thing which I like most. One day I am planning to visit 'Lonavalah' by catching a local train from here and I shall post pictures for you all. Till then happy reading!


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Mirchi era

We owe a lot to these private FMs like Radio Mirchi and RED FM for bringing radio back to life. I hope everyone has tuned into these stations atleast once and they do a good job out of it.

Hail Radio Mirchi


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Leaving Scotland

I would be flying back to India next weekend. My stay in this place was
memorable, I would miss:

1) Football matches in sports bar
2) The food at marks and spencer
3) The Soups from opera
4) Cycling to Loch Lomond
5) Bar in my hotel
6) The Australian in the bar
7) The scotts in the lounge
8) TCS collegues in office
9) Capuccino in vending machines
10) Bounty in the retail machines
11) The ambience in the Night Clubs
12) The piper in my street
13) The fans in the park

Even though I fly back with a satisfaction of finishing my work as planned, I always wanted to stay one week more. I think there are so many things to see, so many things to learn, so many different things to feel, even if I would have stayed more, I would always miss more than I could cover.

So, sayanora my friends back in Scotland. They say every thing ends for good and so my visit. Now, I have a more friends and memories to cherish.

Good luck!

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Small things, great deeds

I have been interacting with this Pakistani news paper agent for quite some time now. I go there once in a week to pick my calling card and during weekends, I pass through his store and usually talk to him for some time. We exchange the feelings that we have for our mother land and talk about our family back home and how we miss them.

This person is one of the first Asian to set up a News paper stall in Glasgow and he is known for his soft spoken nature. All newspapers have rated him as the best news agent in Glasgow. He seems to know everyone who comes to his store and everyone makes it a point to talk to him. His shop is situated in a subway near Queen Street station. He would normally greet everyone "How are you dear?, What can I do for you?", he picks up local accent very easily but one thing that amazes me is that he can't speak English. He just knows how to greet people, recognize the accent and correlate with the items in the store and that's all and he is doing this with ease for over seven years now. Great feet, I am flattened.

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Loch Lomond

Last weekend was a long one, third may was declared a holiday here in Glasgow and we (eight of us) decided to embark on a journey to Loch Lomond. Loch in Scotland means Lake and Loch Lomond is a famous Loch in Scotland situated some 25 miles away from Glasgow. You can reach there either by flight, bus or train. We decided to cycle to Loch Lomond.

Cycles in UK costs something from £200 to £400, my manager has a cycle which costed him £1200 so cycling is not the cheapest mode of transport in UK but since there is a separate traffic free cycle route to almost all places in and around Glasgow, we decided to rent cycles to make up for our journey. The cycles had eight speeds for ascent and five speeds for descent, all were mountain bikes. It cost us £18 per day. It was on a Sunday morning at around 9 AM that we started our journey, the temperature was not conducivesive for cycling as it became windy and cloudy with a overcast prediction. All these couldn't stop eight brave souls.

Aftravelingling for some six miles, we reached the cycle track just outside the city. The distance to Loch from that place as 19.5 miles. We had decided to take breaks so that we could enjoy the journey. The moment we crossed the city limits, the nature unfolded itself, the picture perfscenerynary, the old houses, the canals passing by the roads were so refreshing that we didn't feel the paintravelingling so far. Soon, the first break came by and we stopped at a store away from the city, we Swisswiss rolls and red bull each (a drink with taurine, preferred by athletes and footballers for instant energy). The journey resumed after about thirty minute break, now we felt it difficult to keep up the pace with each other so we formed groups of 2 each traveledlled in our own pace. My cycle puncturedtred and all chipped in by putting the cycle tube in the canal to check punctureutre, it took us 30 minutes to fix it, and we all started again. We reached Loch Lomond at around 3:15 PM aftravelingling for 5 hours. We witnessed a rowing competition in the lake for families and after spending some 2 hours we decided to head back.

Now, the distance took a toll on us. We found it difficult to even pedal for 5 minutes now and I started walking with my friend, who also felt Walking is better than cycling. We enjoyed each and every moment of the journey and reached Glasgow at around 11 PM in night. Someone who said, that the joy is in the journey than destiny was dead right. It was a memorableable journey and experience for me and probably the last one as I might be heading to India next weekend. The only thing that was not good was my "sour butts" (Sorry for the language but nothing could have described it better).

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S Sriram - Scotland

Sridharan Sriram finds a way to Scotland, he has arrived here and would be playing for a Scotland side. The move is aimed at bringing some discipline and professionalism to the Scotland side. May be People back home thought that Sriram is not a professional and didn't include him in the team.

Some may debate on Sriram not being loyal to his team, but what would a person do sitting idle and waiting for a call from a team which would never do so. There is this man who has braved the circumstances and there are others like Sadagoppan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das, who are waiting for a call from national side. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, I still can remember Kambli, deciding to play from a South African side. My thought is that in a land of billions, only 15 or 20 get a chance to play for a national side, it doesn't mean that others are not capable enough to find a place. So, the answer is migrate like Deepak Patel and make a name for yourself.

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Great Weekends

Last weekend was the first time, I got out of my room to see the world around. I don't drink or smoke, but I choose a bar next to my hotel as my hang out place. Soon, I was joined by two Glasgow residents, one Irish international and one English woman. I was accompanied by one of my Punjabi colleague.

We all had a ball talking about our cultures, religions and the kind of people in our country. I managed to click two photographs of the gang. Few things that I learnt from them

1> People in Scotland doesn't like them to be called English, they are OK if you call then British
2> Whisky is a product of Scotland while Whiskey is from America and other countries

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Read this

If you like fairy tales, then you have got the right piece. This article will make you go mad. I was going "oh, c'mon...." after reading this. Donno about you.

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Diana

Recently a US broadcaster showed pictures of dying Diana in their channel. It is believed that they have obtained the same from French agencies probing the death. The title of the program was "Diana's Secrets". The title and the content of the program didn't gel in too well and I was sickened by the program.

The Royal family yet to comment on the program, but it is obvious that general opinion is "please don't do cheap things....". All British channels decided not to show the making-rounds pictures in their channels. More than anything else, they wanted to respect the privacy of the individual. The same US has condemned a website showing bodies of dead US soldiers. Now, how can we justify this?

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Deportivo - Bad luck

Last night I was with a (newly acquired) friend in a sport bar near our office. We were watching the match between Deportivo and Porto. It was a first experience for me to watch a football match in a projection screen. Because of my dislike to hard drinks, I made myself comfortable by picking up a fresh orange juice and a packet of peanuts. We were on time for the match and we were joined by equally crazy crowd in the bar.

The bar had some 20 TVs and 5 projection screens, an ideal place for a football / NBA lover. I loved the match but I have to say that Deportivo was a sure winner deprived only by the referee. Better luck next time Deportivo.

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Got a compliment

Today I got a compliment from an Admin guy in our office, he said "Inspite of being from India, you have a good English....". When I had asked about the other Indians working in the office he says, half of the time they talk in their own language. His perception is valid, he thinks that Indians are not comfortable in talking in English and that's why they converse in their native language. His perception could be wrong but what amazes me is that Indians tend to talk in their native language in front of Englishmen.

People who said to me that don't speak in Hindi was seen conversing in Marathi with their fellow counterparts in India and when I was in a call from India, people asked me why are you talking in English, are you trying to impress?. Can we change a little?

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In Scotland

This is my first trip overseas and it took me less than 11 hrs to reach a place that is exactly opposite to one I am used to. Scotland is cool, it's clean and it rocks.

From a plane you hardly see houses in this city. From a birds eye view, you see pieces of land sandwiched between water bodies. Being the home ground of Celtic, people are football crazy here. I could see those color full faces and white and green striped hats all around, after Celtic won the SPL (Scottish Premier League) with some 9 matches to spare. People say it's different from London and SPL is one of them. This place has lesser Indians than London has. Indians were there everywhere in London starting from a bus driver to garbage picker. Some even managed "Sau saal pehle mujhe thumse pyaar tha...", it was a heartening scene.

Glasgow is a small city with moderate climates 10-11 degrees in summer and 2-3 in winter, that's what moderate means in this part of the world :-). This is summer now and the temperature is around 6. People prefer walking than ride so you can find everyone walking to their office in the morning. Public transport is dominated by Scotrail (an underground rail service) and taxis which buzzes through the streets of Scotland at over 90 KMs per hour. People here fly to Newcastle and London during weekends.

Today I have planned to visit a Pakistani restaurant. Pics are not yet taken as I await my first purchase of a camera here, but shall be coming your way soon. Till then good bye!

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Taking wings

Yeah, I think I will do it this time around. I would most probably fly to Glasgow which is in Scotland this weekend. I am taking a flight to London and then to Glasgow from there.

It's a maiden visit for me and I am very much excited about it. I shall be updating my blog regularly with all the photos and the events that I come across, so don't miss. Till then good bye!

Note: Last time I had similar plans to go to Blythewood and after all the preparations the trip got cancelled. So, till the time you hear from me, nothing is certain :-)) my friend.

Here is a perfect example of un-certainity from my to-be-autobiography - Journey of a thousand mile

My manager once denied me off a decent incentive and this is what he had to tell - "Nothing is certain in life, in life we can talk only of possibilities. It was just a possibility that I could have given you a decent incentive. Remember only mother nature can assure you that the sun would rise from east every day...".Isn't that a nice reason to deny a decent incentive.

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Home Sick

Yeah, I am one. I am going back to Indore, to see my parents. I had been to my place just two months back but I feel as if I am away for years. That's what can happen to you if you are home sick.

So, I won't be updaitng my blog for the next three days, Happy weekends!

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MS Outlook - Ctrl+F means something else

To a common wired man, Ctrl+F means finding help in applications, thanks to MS Word and other applications from Microsoft who taught this lesson to us.

Now comes the most inersting part. Today I write a long mail in MS Outlook and I wasn't sure whether I have included a piece in it or not.I started to search for the text by pressing Ctrl+F and instead of getting the usual dialog box of find, find next and replace, I was surprised to see a new window opening with the same message. That is Ctrl+F replaced Ctrl+N's functionality. I even tried to search for a menu option to help me search but I think the software giant decided not to provide search option to newly composed mails. Beats me!

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Magarpatta – A success story

'Magarpatta' is a IT city in Pune and the thing that fascinates me in this IT city is that it is built by farmers. When 400 farmers in the 'magar' (a surname) dominated area were struggling to sustain their occupation of farming, they decided to pool in their lands and build a IT city. With some loan from financial institutions today they have realized their dreams. ‘Magarpatta’ has already got two fully occupied towers working and has plans for adding 4 more to their list with the demand growing. The city not only has buildings for IT infrastructure but they also have outsourced gardens, playgrounds, schools, hospitals and all necessary amenities.

The IT city is owned by all those farmers who are see in Lancers instead of their usual tractors. Their relatives, who were working outside Pune in reputed companies have left their jobs to take care of the IT city like electrical fittings, painting etc. What an example of Entrepreneurship. All the Business School may teach you everything that you may need in life but not things like common sense and presence of mind.

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Ga Ga

It was not long back that I published one article regarding GARUDA the volvo bus service from APSRTC. I think I have penned down things in a rush, there are more reasons for highlighting APSRTC as I have discovered them in my latest trip to Vijayawada. Look at these.

1. All buses are Bharat-I and Euro-I emission compliant
2. They give an awesome mileage of 6 KMs / L
3. They all have speed lock, which prevents the bus from accelerating beyond 80 KMs / Hr.
4. Some of them have Global Positioning System attached (tried as a pilot), which enables the passenger in other stations to know the location of the bus at any point of time.

More reasons to travel by one now...

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Goof up of the year

Just when you thought that Maruti has done everything right from slashing prices to airing ads where Sardar kid jumps all around, you get this heart shocking ad. The ad reads out

Happy? then you must be having a Maruti

Here they have assumed that the answer would be Yes, what happens if the answer is No?, yet the reason is Maruti?

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It's coming, free and it's everywhere

Precisely this is what was communicated by IBM in the LINUX add recently aired, did anyone of you got a chance to look at it?

It was a refreshing change and a most awaited one.

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BIW

I accidentally landed in a interesting blog BIW, having some interesting article, this is a sure to be read blog for all the valid reasons.

Now all you bloggers, blogroll this site, which is a blog to watch!

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Take my advice, I don't use it anyway

Last day I got a chance to surf at Sify. It was a broadband connection and
all I got was a customized desktop, a shareware office application to work with my word documents and the worst part was that the right click was disabled. I was deprived of accessing "My Documents" folder in the computer and most of the web pages won't load all that happened was that the page would load half baked with an error, internal server error. The only thing to work very fast is sify.com website.

What a pity, they charge you 25 Rs. per hour if you are not a member and 20 Rs. if you are a member and they give you such things to handle.

My advice: Please stay away from such cyber cafes.


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Definition of GOD

This discussion has been for long but I got a very different opinion from my fellow friend Kannan Swaminathan here is how it goes

"Who is God? He is like the Poochandi who never came. Read how... Remember the poochandi story when we did not take breakfast? Our mothers told - poochandi kitta pudichi kuduthuduven(means- I will let the poochandi-"one who vanishes away with the kids", take you away). But tell me if that poochandi ever came. Even if he came,did our mothers give us away? For the innocent kids, who wont have breakfast it is POOCHANDI(source of just fear) For the thinking adults, who wont live properly it is GOD(source of veneration) Though Poochandi and God are diametrically opposite - Evil and Good, the response that they are supposed to evoke is GOOD BEHAVIOUR! Theist believes = To ensure Justice, Discipline and Love, there is someone called God Atheist believes = To ensure Justice, Discipline and Love, there is no one called God LOOK ONLY AT THE FIRST PART of their beliefs- IT IS THE SAME. Let us spend energy and time on that part. They both are aiming at the first part. They only find different resources to achieve that. In a society, 1. If atheists exceed in number, chances are indiscipline creeps in, since there is no one above human rationality 2. If theists exceed in number, chance are that humanism loses importance, since theism gains importance. Both 'ists' are needed in equal proportions to maintain the equilibirium. Thiru Vi Ka says - Aanmeegam illadha pagutharivu arakkathanam. Pagutharivu illadha aanmegam moodathanam.(Rationality without spiritualism is HOOLIGANISM. Spiritualism without rationality is STUPIDITY) Its never important, to which school of thought you belong to. YOU HAVE EXCESSIVELY, ELABORATELY, PROFUSELY MAGNIFICIENT literature for both sides. Dont care - What is important is - Humanity is to be celebrated and let Love and Samaritanism Survive! Please think. Cheers! Anbe Sivam!"

Now at last we have a different opinion all together.

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Getting it wrong always

While election parties in India are fighting hard to please the voters, common sense seems to have taken the back seat. While one party has changed the punchline from "..party ka haath gharion se saath" to "...party ka haath aam aadmi ke saath" the other is busy in making glow sign boards at the cost of government's money.

I don't think people are going to fall for these traps. The best thing that is about to happen is the inclusion of "None of the above" in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that would put the power of choosing no one and expressing the feeling of trusting no party in the coming elections. I think the idea is a great one and should be implemented from this election onwards, but some parties have come strongly against this, we know why! after all this is democracy.

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Movie Review - Tum

I don't understand why people make movies like these. The movie has got nothing in it. After seeing the movie only, I realized that the movie was supposed to be suspense thriller. Surprises were in store, when I realized that Manisha is acting as a mother of two children (10th class). Even though I was seeing the movie for the first time, I was able to guess the sequences of the movie, it's that bad. In the climax, the characters were more surprised than the audience. I would say three hours of waste.

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HoliDAY

Come ‘Holi’ everyone of us gets into festive mood, as a kid we always wanted to play colours like others do but nobody would colour us or involve us as they would assume that we would get hurt or we would be taken ill.

In south though we don’t observe holiday during ‘Holi’, we surely make it a point to play after our school time but in north come ‘Holi’ we all get into it with full enthusiasm. Though the things have changed but the spirit remains the same, share happiness with people around and spread happiness like you spread colours. I am out of my hometown this time around and would surely miss the fever. This net has given me an opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Holi, enjoy and one more thing, take care these days colours are also adulterated !

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Times have changed

Elections are round the corner, so what! is the question raised by everyone. But I am not talking about India, elections are round the corner at US, now people take me seriously. Gone are the days when people used to ignore elections, "You better take interest in whatever is happening otherwise you run the risk of loosing the job.." advices a Technology Evangelist.

It's a serious matter nowadays and I am not surprised that this would continue to be so

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Another case

Another girl aged 18 years died on the spot when her head got crushed by a tempo, the police have registered a case and have arrested the tempo driver but what amuses me is that these youngsters never learn the importance of a helmet. My heart goes out for parents of these teenagers. I see girls with a one meter cloth all over the face while driving, the time is not far off when they are going to land in accidents because of chocking or whatever, can't we get the basics right.

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Headstrong and Haughty

We software professionals think that we are superior to others, that is we earn more money as compared to engineers from other streams and so we become headstrong. We think that everyone in this world should have at least average IQ level and we even think that stupids have no right to exist and they should die but think, we may be stupid to people around us. We never realize this fact, I think the money we earn takes away all the human values from most of us, we try to be aggressive always and at times we become arrogant.

I can quote one instance when I was traveling in a bus, I was holding the same seat as by another person and this person turned out to be a software engineer. When he approached me to know my seat number, he screamed as if the world is falling down "Oh s##t, it can't be possible". I told him, cool down and told him to take his seat, I resolved the issue with the ticket conductor. The boy didn't realize that I am also a software engineer because of my attire. As these young grads perceive, a software engineer needs to be in denim and t-shirt with sport shoes. A stop came where we got down to have our dinner, we were given 20 minutes to gulp it down and our own SE sat down to get a grand dinner, he ordered all the things that he could try to show off that he has the money. We all finished our dinner and were in the bus but for the SE who was enjoying his food, the ticket conductor screamed at him in local Marathi+Hindi and his English didn't work now, he climbed the bus and everyone was seeing our dignified SE with such a grin that he could barely lift his head.

I somehow get a feeling that we software engineers are headstrong and we should try to be polite and cool down at times. We may know all the things in life but there are people who are superior to us and superiority doesn't mean rudeness in any dictionary. I think because of our attitude and likes to jazzy things we are robbed royally by even the illiterates. Just think!

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GARUDA - A dream ride

When people are getting more familiar with private operators for their day to day activities, bringing up government as one of the competitors is a huge task and I think AP Government is doing it in style. When there are already hoard of buses operating between Pune and its adjacent cities, AP is not way behind in positioning itself as a prime choice for people commuting.

I had got a chance to travel in one of its vehicle "GARUDA" recently and it was nothing less then floating-in-air experience for me. If you are used to a government bus then you would first have difficulty in identifying this bus as it doesn't inherit even a single value from it's predecessor. Clean, vibrant colors, tall, punctual are some qualities that would use to describe these buses. When someone told that it is by Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation then I was searching for a sign or atleast a poster of our politicians depicting them as "discoverer" of this vehicle but contrary, it just had a small edging in one of it's corners "Govt. Vehicle".

The pricing was perfect to tempt me buy one ticket from Hyderabad to Vijayawada (just 80 Rs. more than normal bus) and the bus started it's journey at 8 AM sharp. To my surprise I was offered some refreshments by the attender in the bus (of course chargeable) in addition to the usual water bottle that is given free of cost. The quality of the air-conditioning, seats and curtains were perfect and to add to the ambience the TV was functioning without a single glitch. At the end of my travel, the attender distributed feedback forms to help them improve their services; I was impressed to say the least.

I was home by 1:30 PM, after traveling for 5.5 Hrs. And on my way back to Pune, in one of a poster regarding the schedules of these vehicles, it was written that the traveling time between Hyderabad and Vijayawada is 5.5 hrs (isn't that punctual). Now, when I wanted to take a bus from Hyderabad to Pune then I was having no doubt but to opt for GARUDA.

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Make it happen or rest in peace

In life we all experience ups and downs, moments which we would like to hold on and moments which we like to forget forever, people who we want to have as friends forever and people whom we don't want to get associated with, companies for which we want to work and companies we hate, things which we aspire and things which we get. The best thing that could happen to us is that we get all the things that we want and reject all the things that we don't want, but things doesn't happen that way and we have to live with whatever we have and then try to achieve whatever we want to do.

There are people who wait in a well of darkness for a ladder that would help them climb up outside the well and there are people who cling on to small branches of hanging trees that could help them climb some portion of the well. Nobody is sure whether the darkness would be totally removed or not but people half way are happy compared to people who are still drowned and waiting for that long ladder to be placed. It's all how you perceive things in life, if you see the light at the other end of the tunnel to be a train then you better stay where you are but if you can take a risk and consider it to be the path outside then march ahead. What we do to our own lives, are we ready to go in for a decision that would put us into the right path but progress would not be that great? Or wait for that express way that would zap us through the journey with the uncertainty whether that would happen or not.

Fortune favors the brave, don't forget that, even though you may not believe in fortune, you would get paid for being brave. When I walked into a company for an interview the panel put across a question: will you work for your current employer, who gives time to study, who gives enough holidays for you to relax and where you know the kind of work and people / With us after knowing that we wouldn't give you that many holidays, you can't study here in office and you may be required to work on weekends also added to this, you would be put under tremendous pressure as this is a new setup and we want to have all things in place. My answer was to select the second option, for I knew that I am capable of doing a good job no matter whatever the situation is and I emerged victorious, I soon found out that the situation was just the right kind platform I wanted and gave me all the experience of great importance in my life.

Be brave and break your shackles, I am sure you deserve more and you can do more. If Gandhi would have just remained a student of law then 1947 would have been just a dream. To transform dreams into reality chase it and make it happen, nobody can judge you better than you yourself and never underestimate your potential and capability. The situation in which you are at present may not be that great but you know that you can make things happen. Make it happen or rest in peace.

Reach me at hifromsriram at HOTMAIL.com

Technology makes life simpler

The first example of this came to light today when I wanted to open my ICICI bank account in Pune. A representative came in and wanted me to fill in the account opening / relationship form. Just the thought of filling this form gave me all the nightmares of putting down all your details from your childhood to employment in detail and in 10 places but my thought soon vanished when I just had to put in bare minimum details like my name, mother's maiden name and nominee details.

The convenience didn't stop here when I was finished filling the form and gave a photo to the person, the person handed over a welcome kit, I now thought what a wastage of money from the bank, there is no need for this but the welcome kit had 1) Cheque book 2) ATM / Debit card 3) Debit card instructions 4) Telebanking number and password 5) ATM / Debit card pin number 6) Internet banking username and password 7) Internet banking instructions..ufffff

I got everything in 5 minutes flat and everything was working also. I think this is what we would want technology to do to us, I could remember in Indore I had filed an application for enabling internet banking in my account and I am still waiting for the instructions from the bank. A great beginning by the bank and for me too!

Reach me at hifromsriram at HOTMAIL.com

Open it up

Group of guys talking "thu bhi...chal re...bore mat kar". If you enter this scenario then you would take these guys as white collar gundas or people without manners, that's how corporate world would put it but these guys are just enjoying their work. No barrier exists between these guys, they communicate in whatever language they want and in whatever manner they want, no bureaucracy, what others want from them is that they should work together and achieve the objective. At the end of the day nobody should be complaining about anything and they are achieving that quite easily.

I can remember people waiting for emails to start their jobs even though they might be situated next to you, Thank God those days are gone and now what we have is a real open culture, I am not talking about the buzz words of the MNCs but what I feel when I go to work is what I am expressing. Designations and management levels are things of past, what we have now is respect for co-workers and the objective of maturing together. This kind of culture is really heartening to see and I am sure most of the Indian companies are yet to break their shackles and that's because of us (Indians) only.

Informal atmosphere is what that keeps people motivated. Companies tend to do whole lot of things for people to get comfortable but if people around you are irritating then I am sure all those thousand things will not make you happy. I remember one of my friend who is working as a clerk in an Indian firm, has a habit of getting 'pan' for his boss. I ask him, what if you tell NO for which he is s##t scared. You can't help it and have to wait for your bosses to die and get replaced by someone else who is more mature and is exposed to this open culture. I really pity those guys who toil day and night to earn their living in such suicidal environment.

People admire such companies as world leaders, pioneers but nobody is concerned about what they do internally. I think there should be some report which should get opinions of people working in all big companies and publish them, it's high time that we live with such stupidity in place.


Reach me at hifromsriram at HOTMAIL.com

Software blues part II

Are you a software engineer? Are you married? How many hours do you spend with your family?. I am sure most of us, just want to avoid these questions and carry on with the job but just pause for a second and think of the family that is living for you, wife who is waiting so that you would make it on time at least twice in a week, children waiting to see your faces before they go to sleep. You get married to stay together; you have children so that you can groom them along. You never set out to take this job so that you peacefully forget your family and carry on with whatever you do. Just think yourself in your spouse's shoes, you will feel the pain.

I think, we software engineers are setting wrong examples as far as personal life is concerned. As a bachelor, we try to hang out with our friends in places like Pubs, cafe shops, restaurants just because we can afford it but we never think whether it's absolutely necessary to do this, spend like this. Once in a while, things look great, but I am sure most of us do this daily.

I remember once I asked a question to my manager that why can't he give me a soft loan as he has the permission to do so, the answer was simple, "just because I have the access to the money, I shouldn't spend it as I like..". Just because we can afford such great prices for simple things, we shouldn't encourage such practices. Today, a decent food in a IT City comes at a price and Nobody is there to be blamed for this but for software people. Anything you pick in an area near IT park, you pay a price for it. Same facilities in other places is normal except for areas where people are dictating terms for software people. Our same people who feel proud of the services that we do to the nation by putting ourselves in the IT map are doing this.

It's high time that someone intervene and put an end to this, otherwise even drinking water would be rocketing in such places, what's the use of IT when civic amenities are sky rocketing. Our government gives so many discounts to cos. setting up offices in the city but doesn't care about it's own people working there, strange isn't it. In this field of software most of things are strange because nobody's cares about other things but for earning a million from this field.

Can something be done to stop this ! just think

Software blues part I

When we enter into this line with all that struggle, I mean all that mug-slugging acts for getting a seat in IT either in BE, BTech, MCA or any other PG, we dream of so many things that we would want to do in life. I am sure many of us would have anticipated the field to be full of challenges and with the much of hype created by the media and other, we would have got the impression that the so called Knowledge Workers are not here to do simpler tasks that any tom, dick and Harry would do but to do things that require some special knowledge, something special that only few can offer, but things change and I really mean it. As a college passed out you might have that fire in the belly to do things that you would really want to do, even I did it as I worked for a pager company as a Customer Service Executive, contrary to what I aspired but I constantly upgraded myself, I learnt C and other languages and soon was famous as a techie, though I could never use the knowledge into use.

Though I am managing enough to quench my technical thrust, I am hardly going into the direction in which I wanted to go to. People call me techie and even they go a step further to call me super techie but I know from deep within, what's my worth is and what kind of techie I am.

The journey continues for me from one company to another who can quench my both the thirsts; Family and myself and I fear that any company you take will fall short in one of these lines. I am in search of something, which is close to my dream of becoming a true software engineer. It's pity that when we are at in our college days, we are not being told about the true work that is existing and how hard it is to become the select few in this Industry. In a country, which chunks out some 50 Lacs professionals yearly, nobody has the time to tell the generation next as to what they are up to if they take computers as their subject. I think as a country we have not matured enough to understand the nitty grities of this line, we may boast as the IT hub of the world but deep in hearts we know the kind of work that we do and the capability that we possess.

I am not saying that all should do high profile jobs, i.e. super techie jobs but at least we can set example for our next generation, in US they have a lots of people to follow, but is there someone like here in India (known nationally), I doubt. I think it's high time that we realize our potential and set high standards in R&D and Innovation too. I am very proud of the ripples that we have created in such a short span of time but I want these ripples to become waves and sweep the world one day.

We should all realize that we are a part of the ripple, so if you think that you are earning your salary then continue otherwise seek one and do justice to your aims and others too.

First day first show
The impression of my new company was ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, such a beautiful
building, I should have trusted the words of Suman but you know, how trust worthy he is :-).

Well inside this beautiful building I entered starring at a whale sized reception looking for that HR guy who interviewed me, I was not at all nervous, thanks to some earlier experiences of entering a new company as a new recruite. Dozens of people sitting besides me made me comfortable for I know that the guys at the reception is not only looking at me but others also there to grab their attention, I made myself comfortable by picking Economic Times to start with and then diverted to Times of India, cricket was un-stoppable.

The momemt came when finally I met a guy from HR, he was a different from one with whom I was talking but neverthless my first contact with a person, all dreams ended here the guy didn't even shook hands with me when he heard that I haven't brought the papers with me... I didn't panic, I said this is the way I have come from Indore, it was just a small fault but if you say then I shall join on Monday to which the HR guys wanted to have discussion
amongst themselves, when they came back it was obvious that they wanted me to join on the same day with an assurance that I would be giving them the papers on Monday (The ever dependable Nags and Sam gave me the strength to say YES to them).

My joining process started, I was given to fill just about 50 page document, it was enough to give me headache, I somehow managed to fill all the documents given by them, it took me nearly 5 hrs....but at last I met my
project manager (a medium aged guy), I didn't made the mistake of calling him Sir, I called him by his name and introduced myself. He lead me to a group of Lotus Notes professionals who were already in the job, 90% of them
were tamilians, so it gave me enough opportunity to know abt the project etc...etc..(Suman, I know you don't like etc..but please adjust). By the time I made my face look familar to them, it was 6 and it seems they
are just back from San-Fransisco and so they decided to call "Bandh", I went with the gang and sat down in Shanmukha(Old friend from my previous employer)'s cubicle to write down this note....well this was the one for which I was waiting the whole day long.

So far so OK (I wouldn't say good, the HR guy should have shook hands with me)

Sriram Shining

Hi All,

I am moving on, have got a new job and so won't be updating my site for a while. Bear with me !

I thought about it in September 2001, acted on it in December 2003 and got a job now, moral of the story is don't think unless you want to do it!

Happy weekends

Horses and Elephants

Now India is getting all the required attention whether it's Outsourcing, Cricket, Hockey, Chess or even politics, yeah you read it right. Politics has taken a new face in the largest democracy, in which the public is hardly takes, a note of things. Almost all are amazed to see politicians taking help from horses / elephants to win polls.

Politicians in Bihar are now fighting politics in a new way, buying horses and elephants and impressing the public, this shows how ignorant people are and how focused the politicians are. Most of them who are contesting from Bihar now own a horse / elephant and almost all of them have criminal cases against them and that too in plurals. If you want to ask for logic then there goes the story, it goes back to the times of Tipu Sultan and Sivaji, all had horses and were prospering so why to lag behind, stumped right!

When Maneka Gandhi can complain to merceeds regarding the leather seats that they were offering in their expensive cars, then why not these politicians who are buying these animals just to contest elections. Why, animal trade at all! Will the election committee intervene? Dare not, beware of "lathi politics" recently a candidate purchased an elephant for whooping 8.5 lacs.

Now, guess the name of the horse owned by Laloo.... yeah you got it right it's Chetak. God save these horses and elephants if not the politicians :-)

Liberty

We tend to take liberty with people who care for us. People whom we think will stand our anger, our agony and our brickbat, sometimes I wonder why?

People are always nice to strangers (especially a woman) or to someone in office than their own close friends or relatives. It doesn't mean that they totally ignore them, people tend to lend a helping hand to friends then to their own relatives. Somehow, I don't understand this behavior and I have noticed a bunch of people doing the same thing.

Just to quote on instance, A guy was talking to him mom over phone, just when he started the conversation his boss came to his seat for some work, immediately the guy put the phone down and said to his mom that he shall call her in 2 mins. Probably she wanted to tell something to him, she thought that he would say to the manager to come after sometime or something like "can I call you in 2 mins..." But all that concerned him was that his manager is standing next to him and he needs his attention.

What a dreadful feeling when someone just hangs up, giving importance to things in life that doesn't matter at all. Giving importance to things that matter to you most is what should be our motive, ok...I am going to call my wife ...So bye for now.

Wise decisions

In life at some point of time, we have to take decisions, decision to choose money over security, prosperity over stability, family over work, personal objective over professional objective. I think decisions taken at this point of time makes or break a man.

We hear of so many successful people around and I think they all would have taken the right decision at some point of time, again none of them is a wrong choice but just that at any given situation only one can be chosen and if you make a wrong choice then there is nobody else to blame to.

There can be other situations also in which you would come across equally compelling decisions, it's then your character is tested. If you think that you have never been offered a choice then it's your mistake, you have never opted to choose rather live with whatever has been provided to you.

One interesting story that comes to my mind is “Mr. Sen once complained to the railway station master in 1909 that while he was attending nature’s call the train was flagged off and he had to rush all the way back, he wanted the station master to take a decision to punish the guard, instead the station master took a wise decision to install toilets in train….”

Wasn’t that a wise decision!

Outsourcing cribs...


The recent publications about outsourcing jobs to developing countries for reducting costs has picked up, now you see these posts everywhere. You even come to know that there are associations being formed to stop outsourcing from happening.

I am very sure that Indians are not seen as Job seekers but job stealers. If this is happening just to get a bunch of votes then this is most bizzare thing happeing to the world.

Any comments?

Being away is breathing away

Just had a sip of the things to come in my future was away from my family for 6 days. Living at a place away from home was like a ball tied to a spring, always willing to go back to the center of gravity.

Not only me thousands of people who stay away from family will feel the same, I am very sure. Having given a chance they would like to peep back to their home even for a single day, that’s enough to rejoice the moments that you have spent together, to refill your memories to cherish from a away place. Things seem so simple when you remain with your family it’s only when you move out, you feel how cozy you felt when you were with them.

It’s nice experience that I think everyone should have, being away teaches you so many things about bonding, about being together and about sharing things. Now, I am back in my home town and I feel as if I am filled with energy, I have so many options and so many things that I can do here, well you do get accustomed to your new atmosphere, it’s just a matter of time, no matter how long you spend in a new place, coming home is like a thing that you would never like to miss.

I read somewhere that a fish comes back to it’s breeding ground irrespective of the distance it covers, so my line goes “if fish can, why can’t I……..”

Long walk back…

Well, the time has come when I have to bid goodbye to my own Indore, which without a second thought accommodated me for almost 11 years now. Even though I have been abusing Indore like a politician does to opposition party, the city has never let me down whenever I need it the most.

I started this journey of 11 years as a school student and even though I couldn’t pick up thick friends like I had in Jabalpur / Chennai, I was content with the way things turned out. There were enough opportunities for me to hang on when I finished my graduation and I could continue till this point, really it should go into history books. They say “Faith bows to him, who knows how to wait” and I think I did the right thing. Spending 5+ years in a company, which I dreamt to be working with, was a great achievement so far in my life but as we try and reach to our expectations, aspirations tend to grow and the same happened to me also. Once as a part-timer in college and full timer in office I dreamt of becoming a software engineer and now when I have achieved that, I don’t want to wait for my own company which gave me everything so far to come out with a plan, instead I have decided to make my own fortune by venturing out.

I don’t know whether I am doing the right thing or not but I am sure that following your instincts is not wrong and I am doing the same. Leaving a city like Indore in which you have lived for so long (longest ever for me….) is not an easy choice, for you know that when you return from office there is always someone to take care of your needs and there are family members to fall back when you need them to be in your side. Living in Indore is like no cost for me, now when I think of setting up a new place at Pune then it seems like planning a career for me. Though things are not worse but you tend to fall back to your safest option whenever you come across such choices in life. They say “taking the path least traveled makes difference…” let that be true in my case (fingers crossed)

I think my heart would surely burst into tears on 4th of February which would be my last day in the company, I have to go against my sub-conscious to not to go to office on 5th, oh boy, is this what I wanted from the company, surely no. I don’t even want to complain at this point of time for I have got whatever I wanted from the co. and just that the pace of things didn’t suit me.

So, I shall be starting a new innings in a new civilization, (for me it’s like that only :-)). Like a opening batsmen I would like to start cautiously and then aggressively trying to keep the momentum going.

Till then, Good Bye! Indore, may be we were destined to live together for 11 years only.