Labor(ious) Day!

Phew! Labor Day was indeed a laborious day for me. I've been out shopping the whole time, but I'm not quite as finished with shopping as I'd like to be.
I think the biggest obstacle is the sheer number of choices I have!!
Can you believe it took me almost an hour to buy a single poster?!!!

I think this country has everything in excess. For instance, suppose you feel like having ice-cream one fine day. First you'll have to choose where to buy it from, from among the many super markets around. Once you get there, you'll be greeted by tall rows stacked with so many ice-creams that it would probably take more than a year for all the kids in your town to finish off. Say you pick the vanilla flavor, you'll still need to choose from at least 10 different brands. Once you pick a brand, you'll have 10 slightly different flavors of the vanilla flavor itself. By this time, your urge to eat ice-cream would probably have vanished, but you'll still go ahead and buy it because you've already spent so much time and effort in choosing it :)

Intuitively, one may feel that more the number of choices one has, the greater the chances that one actually makes a purchase. But apparently, this may not be true according to this article: Why we buy what we buy. Its rather long, but you'll probably find it interesting if you like economics and stuff.


With me not getting tickets on the days I want, and people in my team wanting me to stick around in the US for some more time; my assignment may just get slightly extended. We'll have to wait and watch how things shape up in the next few days.

No snaps to upload today...

Manipal Alumni Meet and AKKA World Kannada Conference

For the last 2 days, Anand & I have been making our way to Rosemont (about 20 miles north-west of downtown Chicago) to attend the Manipal alumni meet and the 5th AKKA World Kannada Conference.

The Manipal alumni meet was planned such that it coincided (in both time and place) with the AKKA convention. The meet was held in a conference room in the Doubletree Hotel. Anand and I were not only the youngest people in the entire room, but also the only MITians there. All the others were Doctors who had studied in KMC years before! We met the current CEO of the Manipal Foundation, Mr Bala Warrier and his brother Dr. Raj Warrier, the current Vice Chancellor of Manipal University. Both the Warrier brothers were friendly down-to-earth people with whom you could carry on a conversation on varied topics.
After the meet was over, Anand & I stayed around to help them collect their stuff and drop off in Mr. Bala's room. In return, he gave us guest passes for the AKKA convention, that would've otherwise cost us a cool $225!!

Thanks to the passes, we went back the next day (i.e. today morning) to attend the convention itself. There were some stalls put up by various organisations of Karnataka, along with some cultural programmes. Since we were not really interested in the whole thing, we just had lunch and left in some time.

<- Entrance of the AKKA convention

Anand & I at the lunch table ->

Tomorrow is a holiday (1st Sep being Labor day in the US). But I'm going to be busier than I am on a workday, since I have to go around shopping for stuff to take back when I return next weekend!!

A Great Woman; A Great Life!!

This post is dedicated to my Great-Grandmother who passed away yesterday at 8.30 pm Indian Standard Time, at a ripe old age of close to a 100 years. Her death didn't come as a shock, since she had been bed-ridden for the past few months, and everyone knew that the end was near. She was a highly respected and deeply loved lady who was known to everyone in the family simply as 'Amma'.
She had married my Great-grandfather (who was a Customs and Excise inspector with the then British Government) at an early age, and together they had 9 children.

She was my first teacher ever, and always had a proverb ready for any situation. For the last 25 years, I could brag that I still had my Great-grandmother around, but sadly I can't do that anymore.

She was the glue that held our entire big family together with everyone coming home to Mangalore at least once in a while to meet her and seek her blessings. How attached we all stay together in the years to come is something only time will tell...

May her soul rest in peace.

In the US again

So many times it has happened that I was doing something wonderful, something I would want to read about in the future and remember, and so I would tell myself that I would make a blog entry about it. But every time I either forget to write it, or am just plain lazy :(
I've given up now, and resigned myself to accept that this blog is always going to be on and off.

Here I am sitting in front of my laptop at close to midnight in a small village in the north west suburbs of the beautiful city of Chicago in the US of A trying in vain to remember all that has happened in the past few months and trying to cram all that information into a single blog entry. But the sheer magnitude of that task has already begun to demotivate me, so I'm going to cut the long story short.

One fine morning my manager comes up to me and asks me to start packing my bags because I'm to fly off to the other side of the planet asap. But my visa had expired so I had to start the long and boring process of getting a new visa. The visa interview in Chennai proved to be a welcome mini vacation thanks to some good planning and some great company. We could manage to sneak in a small trip to Pondicherry (now Puducherry). But we sure would've enjoyed the trip much more had the weather not been so unforgiving on the sweat pores.
Once I had the visa it was just a matter of time before I was on my way to the US. Many things about my workplace may be bad, but long distance transit is definitely not one of them. After all who would complain if he were treated like a King on Lufthansa business class and United Airlines first class!

<- Frankfurt Airport

East coast of Lake Michigan ->

It didn't take long for me to get over the jet lag and settle down to work here. This time I'm alone on an assignment here, so it can get boring sometimes. But I've been trying to keep myself busy with some trips over the weekends.

I had been to Oshkosh, Wisconsin a little ago to meet Liz (through couchsurfing). It was a fun trip with some violin play, some sun tan, some river walking and a lot of cultural exchange.

<- With Liz at her apartment


Last weekend I drove to Canton, Michigan to meet Kiran uncle and family. Saw my youngest cousin (as of today) Neel for the first time.

<- With the Canton cousins!

Almost in Canada ->

Later Kiran uncle took me to downtown Detroit where we tried our luck at some of the slot machines in Greektown Casino. Also went to the Ren Cen and walked a bit along the Detroit Riverfront (with Canada on the other side). Had some amazing home food prepared by Swati aunty (she also froze a lot of it so I took take it back with me!!).
The drive back from Canton was a really long one because I went down south to Ohio, drove along one of Ohio's scenic byways, entered Indiana from the west and then traveled north-west towards Chicago.

<- The Man and The Moron (at Fort Recovery, OH)

St. Augustine Church, Minster, OH ->

Stopped for a break at the Indiana welcome center just before entering Illinois, where I found an unclaimed red suitcase. This prompted me to make my first ever 9-1-1 call. A cop showed up soon enough after which I was back on the road. Reached home after midnight after a 9 hour drive!
Drove 833 miles this weekend :)

27 Dresses

Watched 27 dresses at Inox..
Okay type romantic movie - the kind most girls would like.. I wouldn't say I totally enjoyed the movie, but at least I wasn't bored..

Navin's good news...

This last weekend went by in a flash, and it doesn't even feel like there have been 2 days between the last post and this one. I was working late into the evening on Sat so thats one day down right away. Sunday started off as a boring and lazy day and I wouldn't have gotten out of bed had it not been for Vance's phone call. Met Ballu after more than a year (he was down in B'lore on work). Had lunch at Empire with Vance, Ballu and Roshan (Vance's cousin).

Navin called later in the evening and broke the good news about his wedding to Smitha on the 27th of April. It'll be great to meet my dear old pal and one time room-mate when he comes down. Kini also will definitely come for Gupta's wedding so it'll be like a small time reunion :-)

Watched Die Hard at P's place late into the night. Finally going to sleep at 2...

Christina & Soni - Part 3

P and I met Christina & Soni for lunch today, after which we gave them a guided tour around the office. Like everybody else who comes to Motorola for the first time, I think they were pretty impressed with the entire facility.

Later went to Ice & Spice for dinner, where I finally took a few snaps...


Then went to Majestic railway station to see off the 2 girls.

Later discovered the letter that they left for me!

Christina & Soni - Part 2

It simply would not be right to call this post "Christina & Soni - Day 2", the reason being that I left for work even before they'd woken up, and I reached back home from work after they'd slept off :)
But I'm still going to keep that title for this post, for lack of a better one.

More people from my team quit today. Over the past couple of weeks, I've suddenly become one of the most senior people in my team! This definitely means a lot more responsibility for me, and a wonderful opportunity for me to prove my worth..

Christina & Soni - Part 1

Rewind to 21 Feb 2008 - Its been yet another boring and uneventful week at work, and I'm totally demotivated with my pay and my growth in the company and the kind of work I'm doing. My uninterest obviously shows up in my body language because Krish pulls me into a conference room in the evening and asks me what's going on? I ask him for some time, go to my cube, collect my thoughts and go to him again. We go to the conf room once more, and I tell him all that's bothering me the last few months. He understands everything and tries his best to justify the way things are; and finally asks me to take off the next day and get a long break. I obviously jump at it, because a long break is exactly what I need. I remember I slept like a baby that night, because I knew I would have the entire next day to do nothing!!

That's how I ended up in P's house on a Friday morning burning DVD's using Prerna's laptop. And that's when I saw Jana's mail sent to some of her Indian friends, asking for help. Two of Jana's friends were coming down to India in March, and they needed some place to stay in Bangalore; and someone to help them the first few days. Without a second's hesitation I shot off a reply saying that I would be more than willing to help.

Forward to the evening of 11th March 2008, i.e. yesterday. I take 4 print-outs from office with "Christin", "a & Soni", "Welcome " and "to India" printed in huge letters. I reach home, stick the 4 sheets on a chart paper to carry with me to the airport in the morning. Then I frantically try my best to clean up the mess in my place (cleaning up may not be the right term - hiding all the mess is more like it). Finally around 1 am, I lie down to sleep with a satisfied look because now my home is at least resembling a place inhabited by a human. Sleeping so late cost me bad, as I had to wake up at 4.30 am, take a lightning quick shower and head to the airport. By the time I parked my motorcycle, and reached the arrivals area, the Jet airways flight 9W2411 carrying Christina & Soni had already landed. I spotted 2 'firang' girls looking like fishes out of water, but before I could call out to them, they went right inside again. I waited with my big banner for another 10 minutes, and they came out once more. This time I started waving my big banner to catch their attention, which thankfully worked. The smiles that crossed their faces when they read it told me that I had found the right people!!

We took an auto home and chatted away till 7 am. They told me things about Germany and what they did back there; and I gave them some gyaan about India and the people here. Then we went to one of the small South Indian places on Thippasandra main road, where they had their first Masala Dosa!!
I also got Jana's gifts - a letter, a T-shirt and a German bar of chocolate through Christina.

Met Jana's close friend Vinod later in the evening and went to Hard Rock Cafe and Leela Barista. Unfortunately, somebody flicked my cellphone at the Barista :(
But as they say, "S*it happens!"

Liar liar, pants on fire!!

The last post in this blog ends with "to be continued...", but unfortunately thats a big lie; because its never going to be continued. And that's not just because my chain of thought at the time I started that post has been long broken, but mainly because I'm just way too lazy to even bother to complete it. So, here's a new blogging resolution: I'm never again going to end a post with "to be continued..." bcoz there's always a big risk that that may also turn out to be a lie.

Had I not gone back on my word of continuing the previous post, you would probably have read about my 6 month long trip to the United States and my 2nd Ladakh trip with my MIT pals. The 2nd Ladakh trip is something I'll cherish till the end of my days on this planet. Those were 3 weeks for which we had planned for 5 months. 3 weeks when the sound of those Royal Enfields would ring in our ears as we tucked ourselves into bed each night. 3 weeks when our laughter echoed through the Himalayas through teeth chattering with the cold. 3 weeks when a bunch of close friends got bonded forever with the glue of having achieved a long held dream. 3 weeks when our motorcycles broke down a million times but our spirit never did.

Check out Sushil's amazing work that sort of documents "The Breakdown Gang"'s memorable Kalkaji to Khardung-la ride:

More than a year later

The title of this post describes just how lazy I am [:)]
And look how I'm writing smilies within sqaure brackets now; only Orkut is to be blamed for that. Orkut has caught on in a big way in India, because I can find almost everyone I ever knew, and thought never would meet again... on Orkut!
I remember the days when I first joined Orkut. It was almost entirely a Brazilian crowd in there, with scraps being mostly in Spanish. But once the Indians got to know of it, there was no stopping them :) Now its with great difficulty that I can find a non-Indian profile!!!

Anyways, the year that was must've been very eventful indeed, because I don't remember any event from it. The best times usually pass by so soon that one doesn't even realise. The highlights of last year would probably be my Ladakh trip, and our great Salsa performance in office!

The Ladakh trip was just a crazy adventure. Just packed my bags and left Bangalore. Met Alex (a German guy who I'd only talked to a few times on the phone) for the first time in Delhi, and off we went to one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It was 15 days of bliss in the midst of the clean (but thin) mountain air. I felt fresh for almost a month afterwards.

The salsa performance... My vocab is simply not good enough to put the feeling in words. Practicing for the event were easily the most fun-filled days in Motorola. It'd be really hard to top those for sure. The first time our group went out was probably for the charity dinner organised by FSL India at the Leela Palace. I could never describe that night as well as my pal Prashanth does here.
(you should read some of the other stuff he writes too; take my word for it, that guy is simply hilarious)

I also remember going to Manipal sometime. I just had to go one last time before Kini left bcoz after that it wouldn't make much sense since none of our guys would be left in the beautiful place. At 10.20 pm I was lazing about in our bean-bag at home watching some B grade hindi movie that my roomie Vinay had managed to get his hands on from somewhere :) At 10.30 pm I was ripping on my bike towards Majestic. At 10.55 I was on a KSRTC bus headed to Manipal. Totally unplanned trip...










<- Kini & Shiva at Manipal

Playing for the Motorola soccer team ->

to be continued...

Orphanage Painting

Went to Makkala Ashraya Kendra at Cubbonpet (near Hudson Circle) for painting a room in an orphanage.
We painted only 3 walls because the 4th wall had the children's hand prints and they wanted to keep those. After the normal painting, we were supposed to draw something on the wall to "entertain" the children!!
Since I'm not much of an artist, I drew the "Motorola Batwing" and "Jerry"...

My roomie's parents left for the Yuhnited States (as Ajay Rao likes to call it) last night leaving behind their car (but obviously, do you suppose they were going to drive down!! Well, they could, but...). So now my roomie Wineye has a car for 4 whole months..can you beat that!
Went to the airport to see off aunty & uncle; heard lots of advice as well ;)

Later went to see off Wineye's cousin who's going back to Dubai (where he works). He's invited us all to Dubai in December, so there's a remote possibility that come December, this blog may get an update from the land of the Arabs!!
But before that happens, I need to get an ECNR stamp on my passport

[My passport is issued in Goa, so I need to get the ECNR from the passport office in Panjim. I had tried that sometime back, but imagine my surprise and horror when the officials there refused to put the stamp on it stating that MAHE is not recognised as a university! I need to write to MAHE regarding this, but I keep procrastinating on this. Sure hope I don't repent my laziness later]

Anyways coming back to the present, I will go the gym in sometime to move my legs to some sizzling salsa tracks or as Es (our pal who's an amazing Salsa dancer and trying hard to get us there) would say it, "to spin the bellas around and burn the dance floor :)". Once again I have to pull Pyoo out of her seat and drag her to the gym... Is she lazy or is she lazy?!!

Tomorrow is a working day :( Compensatory work day for the holiday on April 13th (owing to the Rajkumar demise episode)

Took Jana Home!!!

Can you believe my audacity?!!
Bcoz I sure can't..

[voices in my head
CGIM => conservative guy in me
AGIM => avant-garde guy in me]

CGIM: This is India for Gawd's sake; these things don't happen here!!
AGIM: But its not like Jana is my girlfriend or something..
CGIM: But still man, she's a girl
AGIM: So.
CGIM: She's white!!
AGIM: So.
CGIM: She's elder to you!
AGIM: So.
CGIM: What was the whole purpose dude?
AGIM: It served a dual purpose actually. Let me explain:

1. My relatives think that I'm just another simple guy (which is correct) who will do exactly what they tell me to do (which is totally incorrect). So this trip helped me to drive home the point that I will do as I wish, when I wish. Period. I am a rebel, and they'd better get used to that.

2. More importantly, Jana is a student of intercultural communication, and this trip would've taught her a lot about Indian families and stuff (hands-on experience in industry terms).

CGIM: Don't you get it you d*mbass? She's a foreigner. Atleast you could've taken some Indian girl..

AGIM: Dammit man, did you already forget what I just told you. You're beginning to sound like a conservative old aunty; even my relatives were more chill. This is the year 2006 man, the world is not as small as it used to be..

All said and done, it remains that last weekend was a totally exhausting express trip to Mangalore and back with a European girl. Caught a Friday night bus to Subrahmanya. Met my Dad and visited 4 temples. Reached Mangalore in the afternoon. Introduced Jana to many aunts, two uncles, my grandmother and my great-grandmother.Caught a Saturday night bus back to Bangalore.

<- Sujata Aunty & Jana

Jana & Vicky ->

<- Granny & Vicky

Jana & I made fried rice on Sunday ->

Leaning Tower Of Pizza Hut

The beautiful Leaning Tower of Pizza Hut that used to adorn my otherwise untidy cube...
This was before Venky's arse decided that it had to come down :(
Anyways, our chief Architect, Mr. Vishal Patil has promised to rebuild it soon :)

<- attending conf call with Vineet & Vineet!!

Some random pics..

<- With Gupta on the first painting day

Kini & I getting ready ->

<- With Kini on the bike

Sania Mirza (Bangalore Open Doubles Finals) ->

<- Vijay, Simon & I at Mc Donald's (PG meet)

French music concert at Alliance Francaise ->

<- German jazz concert at Max Mueller Bhavan

Shiva temple behind Kemp Fort ->
(You can find a much better picture of the same Shiva statue here)

3 Months Gone!!!

A lot of water has flowed in the Ganges in the last 3 months and a lot has happened in my life.

Sometimes I regret not keeping a diary like I used to in college.(I have 4 diaries of my 4 years of Engineering in MIT Manipal. Man, I really treasure them!)
Someone told me that life won't be so interesting once you start working, so I stopped writing my diaries. But I have realised that life never stops being interesting - school or college or work or old age, I guess its just how you look at it.

For some reason, as I write this I remember a saying that, "Sometimes its better to travel than to arrive". The words may not be perfect but you get the meaning right? If you've read "The Alchemist", then you would recall the merchant who used to work so that he could save enough to go to Mecca. Finally, when he can easily afford to go to Mecca, he doesn't; because he believes that if he did then his sole aim in life would be over and there would be nothing left to live for!!

Anyways, coming back to the last 3 months, lets see what has happened!

The highlight definitely has been me meeting Jana (pronounced Yana). It was destiny that brought us together at the tree plantation in November: http://googz.blogspot.com/2005/11/great-week.html
Had I not gone for that tree plantation, I would probably have been just another software engineer in Bangalore, blowing away cash every weekend without doing anything worthwhile. But thanks to this wonderful lady from the Czech Republic, I can say with some pride that my Sundays are not going waste anymore :)

<- Jana & I at some pub on Residency Road

After a successful slum school painting project ->

<- At an orphanage for the next community service project


Besides that I had been to Delhi for my US visa interview (stayed one night at the Hyatt Regency, and the next one at Priya's place - and liked the latter more!!), followed by Bhavik's reception in Pune, followed by New Years Party @ Nasik (party pics here: http://www.world-noma.de/gallery2/v/Till/INDIA/NASHIK/New+Years+Eve+_+Taj/).

Some misc pics:

<- Priya at her home

With Adreen & Wesley at Bhavik's reception ->

<- met Arun & his wife at Mumbai airport (its a small world indeed!!)

Hmm

Thu: Left office early to go and watch a movie. Reached Innovative with Vance but couldn't decide on which movie to watch. Finally settled for.. oh no, don't make me say it - 'Home Delivery'. How was I to know then that 3 hours later I would be willing to pay to get my ass kicked by any stranger on the road? Damn!! What a terrible terrible waste of my hard-earned, khoon-pasiney ka 120 Rs. Sat through the entire movie simply bcoz I had paid so much. But that was only Vance & I. Gupta had given up long back and left. The only solace was that the theatre was jam-packed, today being the first day... Indeed misery does look for company!
My review: A pathetic piece of shit. Vivek Oberoi should be re-christened Vivek BOREoi.The funniest part of the movie was when a SINGLE guy in the whole theatre, I repeat, a single guy found some scene so hilarious that he burst out laughing.

Fri: IMS VT finally working. Hurrah!! Had a small celebration in the office itself.

Sat: Went to meet relatives in Jayanagar. Sudham anna bought a new Maruti Swift. Went for a small ride with him.

Sun: Watched 'The Great Escape' on the comp. Awesome movie. Paid just 20 bucks for this. Compare it with the 120 bucks for Home Delivery... well such is life!

Great week

Aahh!! Long time no blog ;-)
Thursday:
Participated in "Vocals Unplugged: Hai Dum?" antakshari contest in office. Sailed through the first round like champions, but not-so-lucky in the finals. My team, "Early Exit" in pic, from right to left: Anand, Rajit & I.

Friday:
Had a townhall in office with the corporate vice president Allen Burnes. We were given a consolation prize for reaching the antakshari finals. It was great to shake hands with the one of the biggies of Motorola....
Went riding in the rain to Styx pub on MG road with Rajit and Venky... had good fun.

Saturday:

Went to some place near Sarjapur to plant trees as part of an afforestation programme organised by the Texas Instruments India Foundation (TIIF). Around 15-20 of us planted a total of 300 trees.. (got a free TIIF cap as well)

Later went for a PG meet at Pizza Hut on Brigade road. Turnout was good (~25 people I guess)

Went to the Forum in the evening to meet Aparna. It was her b'day and dinner at Aangan was on her.
Meeting Daksh was a pleasant surprise!!

The weekend that was

Saturday morning 3.45 a.m. -- dragged myself out of bed
4.50 : on the way to Jayanagar
5.20 : reached Jayanagar 4th block and no-one was there (the agreed upon time was 5.15)
5.30 : met Kates, had early morning tea and waited till 7 for the others to turn up
7.20 : Finally onto the bus and on our way (Kates went back with my bike)

Lost all track of time after that. Had a lot of fun in the bus.
The guy driving the bus was such a slowpoke!!! It took us ages to reach....




This post was in my drafts folder all these long months, and now I've forgotten the finer details of that amazing Perotas trip to Bandipur and GS betta to celebrate our survival in the software industry for one year!!
I think its best that I leave this post incomplete; and let posterity wonder what the World would've been like had this post been completed :)