Ahh… it’s always fun to have your office in the heart of the city. You can go partying anytime. And with a office group like mine, it’s more fun :-). Fridays are fundays and these days they are McD days. Today there were bunch of sweet desi-angrez* kids using the whole McD area as their play ground. They were sprawled over the floor like it were a garden and playing with their pokeman goodies and proud moms looking over. And there were two chinki kids watching them with saucer eyes. I almost asked the attendant “Can I take home one of them :-)”. There is no other beautiful sight than watching kids engulfed in play.
The other good news is, they gonna open a multiplex in the Sigma Mall soon (soon == within a week or so). So its gonna be movie time everyday… yippie. We have even chalked out a plan to sell tickets in black ;-).
Any takers there?!!!

Talking of side-businesses, there’s one more brilliant plan in making, dubba-supply company in Bangalore!! We have heard a lot about Mumbai dubbawalhas and their efficient supply chain etc etc. Now no more of it… we will be creating a revolutionary dubba-supply system with saaptware-engineering brain advantage.
I will be in charge of food (hence the best food quality guaranteed :-D) and other two guys will be handling delivery. Our dubbas will have GPS enabled so you will be able to track their delivery status second by second using your cell phones. You will be able to tailor your menu as per your likes; to be chosen from wide range of items. You can chose your menu and place the order online or even can get the list on your cell!
Everything will be served hot and fresh to your plate!!!

So rush your entries today, we believe in quality and not quantity.
Limited spots left!!!

(*desi-angrez = desi kids who use angrezi more than their mothertongue. Something which I really hate to see :-( )

As good as it gets!!!

They have done it again !!!

The much awaited Apple iPhone is here. -> http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Boy O Boy! The demo is amazing...Just watch it. I was awestruck!
It has the widescreen iPod, just as I imagined (most of the Apple fans for that matter :-) ) it.

It tops my wishlist now!! It will come to Asian markets in 2008 though :-(

New Year, New Resolutions!

Its 2007, New Year again… time to make some new resolutions and break few :-). Last year was the first time I made resolutions and guess what… I have followed quite a lot of them. That’s pretty interesting!

Last year has been one of the most happening years for me. It’s been a total roller-coaster ride! To be honest, I started the year with a sad sad note, I was all upset and depressed but … here I am back to my original self. It feels so good to be myself :-).

So here’s review of my year

- I have been doing things I never thought I will be doing.
First one was theatre. My company’s theatre group was planning a play for annual day celebrations of specially-abled children’s school. I got involved with the project just as a volunteer and because I love kids. Things went so that I was involved in every department from coordinating the whole project, to coining the story and writing the script, arranging rehearsals and finally acting in the play! Whoever saw it think it was not a bad performance at all :-).

Second one is getting involved into different volunteering activities. During the theatre project, I met lot of people who have been involved with volunteering activities at small and large scales. It fascinated me and I got involved too. It has turned out to be one of the best things I have been doing so far. With weekly visits to the school to the Chrysallis party, it’s been neat experience. All credit goes to Resh for pursuing me in the first place :-)

Third one is my writing skills. I have managed to be quiet regular at blogging and managed to write poems too!

Then there was trekking. My first trekking trip to “Savandurga” was one of its kind.

And yeah how can I forget the two rock shows I had been to. First came Bryan Adams, my all time favorite and then there was Deep Purple. I always wanted to hear Bryan Adams in live from the day I listened to “Everything I do”. I had missed his previous visits to India. But this time I made sure I was there and that was one rocking show!

- My trip to US of A was rocking as well. My PL there made sure I would get too see as much of the country as I could, Niagara, Boston, New York and the unexpected trip to Minneapolis and off course local places in and around Nashua. In those two months I have tried so many different food varieties; there were pancakes with maple syrup, mexian , thai, ‘American’ Chinese, local ‘New England’ delicacies, mint ice cream, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream… ahhh too many to remember!
- I have two new additions to my gadget list. My long long awaited laptop and two-wheeler.
- I am back to my reading habits. And I have collected lot of books (and read too), most of them being angrezi.
- Now, I am the official event organizer of my group.
- I was careless about my work the most
- Biggest asset has been the friends I have got. With getting involved in lot of activities, I have made lot of new friends in and out of office. A couple of them are really really good ones :-). There was a time I used to be complaining about lack of social life in Bangalore but not anymore!

And what would be resolutions for this year?
- Continue with my volunteering work and be more regulare and more active there
- Be more social and make lot of friends. Be more outgoing.
- Improve my professional communication skills and relations with the office people
- Go for more treks. Explore new places in and around Bangalore.
- Continue with blogging. I want to try my hand writing fictions as well.
- Be serious towards my career. Last couple of years I have been careless a lot lot. I need to shed that laziness and get going again. If possible I want to get involved in some small time open source projects.
- Take more dancing lessons. Last year I have missed dancing so much. I want to continue with my salsa classes again.
- Learn guitar and swimming
- Learn Kannada (at least I should be able to make normal conversations)
- Build my own library. Right now I have good enough collection of books. The more I read the more I realize how many books I have to read (mostly English books). I want to add more to my collection and have my own small library of English as well as Marathi books.
- Watch lot of movies. Now this is something new. I have released that there are so many movies I have missed watching or never cared for (again most of them being angrezi :-)). With my fundu lappy I can do that at home now :-).
- Get my two-wheeler license done. Six months and I still don’t have a permanent license :-D. In fact, for first two months, I was driving without license (Shhh… don’t tell the traffic police)
- Get serious about exercising. I tried to do some aerobics but turned out useless. I used to go for the class once in a fortnight :-D. But I should be more serious now. And guess what, I have started burning calories already. On landing in Bangalore, as protest to autowalla’s, I walked all the way to home from airport. On 1st Jan around 8:30pm, if you happen to see a girl dragging red bag on footpath from airport to wind tunnel road, that was me!
- Be less lazy, less procrastinating and more organized :-).
- Be myself !!!

I just realized its first birthday (since I started posting regularly) of my blog too!
Happy Birthday ‘blog baby’!!!

Of vacation, journeys and (missed) plans

I am back after long vacations! Today is going be spent savoring on sweets and chocos from all over the world (some people returning from US) :-).

It was hell of vacations, I say. I didn’t want to spend the furlough period (that’s what the vacations are called in my company) at home so the obvious plan was to go to Mumbai. The place I love and miss very much. Since I had very less time (3 and half days to meet 3 uncles and numerous friends and do shopping too!), I had planned the whole trip again and again so that I won’t miss a thing. But as it is rightly said … ‘the more you plan more things are bound to go haywire’. As per original plan I was going to stay for couple of days at home then go to Nani’s place and from there to Mumbai stay there for 4 days and head back to Bangalore.

Plans started missing right from the moment I stepped out to catch a train back home. I was on the road at around 8:20pm to catch a train at 10:20pm. There were hardly any empty autos and available autowallas were true to Bangalore tradition, simply refusing to come to the railway station. I was almost in tears. Finally a friend dropped me to the station, just in time. Worst part was the train started almost 30 mins late :-(.

At home, it was fun fighting with sis, meeting school friends and lots of gyaan from mom. My first greeting at home was “What have to done to your hair!” (my dear mom of course :-) ). We were supposed to leave on Wednesday morning for Nanded, my nani’s (mom’s mom) place and catch train for Mumbai from there. Sis was also planning to leave at the same time. But lazy gal wouldn’t get up in the morning so her departure was delayed and so was ours. My nani is always over-enthu when it comes to treating her grandchildren. She wants to make 100 different dishes at the same time. This time was no different :-). But whatever she makes is too delicious to resist to eat.

Left for Mumbai by train on Thursday evening. When we had reached near Jalna, a fellow commuter informed that there was a train accident near Manmad station and the train might be delayed. We thought this might be some minor station and traffic should be resumed soon. It turned out to be a major one… a carriage train and passenger train brushed each other, fortunately no lived were lost. We were held at Jalna station from 9pm till well after midnight when the finally announced that the train has been cancelled and it would not go any further. Bullshit! What were supposed to do at the midnight! Fortunately there was another train coming from behind which would go till Aurangabad which is an hour’s journey from Jalna. So we decide to take halt at my uncle’s place leaving there. Rang him up at 1am telling we are coming. Once inside other train, the passengers had no idea that their train will go till Aurangabad (that’s like only half way to Mumbai) so they won’t let us even stand in the sleeper coach and the train was moving at snails pace. Mom was already tired by all this hustle. The train finally pulled at A’bad station at 2am and there were not many autowalhas again. Uncle came rubbing his eyes and we were home by 3am. I so much wanted to leave in the morning by bus but uncle wanted me to cancel the Mumbai plan altogether. Finally we convinced him to get tickets for evening bus. The bus was very nice, it had births just like train sleeper coach. What followed next two and half days was hopping from one uncles place to another and snatching few hrs to meet couple of friends (only :-(). If you idea of Mumbai geography, I was hopping from Vashi to Nerul to Dombivali and back which is like making 2-3 (or more) full rounds of Bangalore :-).

This trip gave me few realizations.
First that, with all the running around, I have visited almost 90% of my relatives residing in Maharashtra. The train wreck ensured my visit to A’bad which was not at all planned. I was meeting most of them after a gap of almost two years.

Second one; my relatives plus food makes a lethal combination. All their love is stuffed in food (I had to have lunch thrice a day!). Next time I plan a visit home I will be fasting for at least a week in advance to be able to digest all that food :-).

Third; I am very much ‘Bangalore’d. Here I am big advocate for how good Mumbai is and all. But there I found myself advocating for Bangalore, trying to educate people about Bangalore culture and comparing everything with Bangalore; road conditions, traffic discipline, autowalha’s and people’s attitude in general, the language, lifestyle. I don’t speak ‘Mumbaiya’ language anymore L. It was actually hard to digest for a while that people around me speak a language that I can understand :-) … I felt as if I was in a wonderland!

I MUST not end without saying thanks to two of my sweetest friends. When leaving for home, I was not able to get a single auto. I called up U asking if he could drop me to the station. Poor guy was all hungry, tired from day’s work and had almost reached home. He came right through and drove me to the station on his bike. It was bad bad ride in the heavy traffic and with my heavier luggage :-).
And while coming back to Bangalore, I was planning to meet another friend at the Bombay airport. I had called him there at 5 pm and had flight at 6:20pm. He came all the way from Andheri and I reached the airport at around 5:45pm due to traffic and timing miscalculations giving me just enough time to say “Hi” and “Bbye” in same breath. And he didn’t complain a bit.

Ahh… I want to go back there again!

Going… Going… Gone!

Yippieee!!!

Today is last working day of the year and payday !!!

I am going home for holidays… long, long holidays! Can’t wait to see mom and sis and Mumbai… yeah I am gonna go to Mumbai !!!

Hmm… this has been amazing year for me, especially the last quarter :-). Tried my hands at things which I never thought I will do like theatre and writing poems, traveled to the US of A, started exploring my passion for social service, made couple of really really good friends :-). Ooh ooh… I have two new additions in my gadget list, a 17” screen, fully loaded lappy and Honda Dio, the ‘EW’ baby.

More ‘review’ of my year will be done sometime later.

I guess the emotional turmoil is almost over and I am ready for new changes and challenges. Bring it on baby!

That was a happening year in true sense!!

Here is wishing you all a very very Happy and Happening New Year!!!

Merry Christmas

This weekend was full of fun. I did write about the ‘rocking’ part but that’s not the only good time I had. It started with dinner at a friends place on Friday night followed by amazing (raised to the power n and n tends to infinity :-) ) Christmas Party on Saturday morning. Now you will ask, Party in the morning? Yeah it was hell of a party. First ever Christmas party I attended and it will not be the last one for sure :-).

This year round, I have been involved with small time volunteering work here and there but this was different. Imagine having close to 2500 children around you singing, dancing, jumping, clapping (sunshine claps and star claps and rocket claps, have you ever heard of them?)! Just the idea of having so many kids together at one place is scary and how you keep the glued together for continuous four hours? You have to be part of such function to get the answer. There were just kids, their teachers and we volunteers, no ‘dignitaries’, no speeches, praising each other n stuff like that. And there was face-painting, magic show, rock show, dance performances, singing, Santa clause, gifts all exclusively for kids and by kids.

What were we in-charge of? Work! The work ranges from decorating the place, to packing food parcels, painting the kids faces (Christmas trees, Santas, hearts, stars, smileys), dancing on the stage (yeah, one school needed volunteers to dance with the kids. Not to mention I was the first one to go!), taking kids to the loo, clearing the place (we actually swept the whole basketball court!). Some volunteers had started early morning (around 4 am or so) to collect kids from their schools. Everybody was working in such a close coordination; nobody was needed to be given instructions twice. And how many of them I knew to start with? None! Isn’t that the true spirit of working together?

The party was called “Chrysallis 2006” and is organized every year in Bangalore for under-privileged children by organization called Chrysallis. You can join the yahoo group here and orkut community here.

If you love kids, this is the place to be!

Rapture of the Deep

They came, they rocked and they won hearts!!!

The BAAPs of rock were here and they rocked Bangalore like never before (as least for me :-) )

First time I came to know about the band “Deep Purple” was when Kalpana Chawala died. She was a great fan of their music and had carried their music to the space! Next time was when I copied rock music collection from my colleague’s machine. I loved “Hush” and “My woman from Tokyo”. But to be honest I was never die hard fan like I am of Bryan Adams or even my recent favorite list additions like Dire Straits or Metallica :-). Yeah yeah yeah… I am becoming a metal fan!. So why did I go for the show? To attend a live concert that too a rock concert! How could I lose such an opportunity and it turned out to be the best one. Oh yeah I have been to BA concert earlier but I was too away from the stage and couldn’t see more than a black clad figure jumping on the stage. How I wished I were 10 feet tall!

This time no mistakes made. We were there much before the gate opening time. ( I mean my friend was there at 3 pm to be right at front of the line. Yours truly reached leisurely at 5 :D). We were right in front of the stage, in 2nd or 3rd row (Mind you, that is hardly 10 feet or so away from the stage!). A local band played to start with. They were not bad. The guitarists were good and vocalist was eye-candy ;-). Then there was again break of half hour. I was already tired of standing for 3 hours. Three hours standing among crazy smoking stinking freaks, no place to move and no Deep Purple :-(.

Then they came out of purple haze. What followed was 2 hours of non-stop head banging and foot tapping music. Sigh I have no proper words to describe it. Steve Morse rocks on the guitar. The pieces he played on guitar were tooo mind boggling. So is the lead singer Ian Gillan, perfect entertainer with his ‘air guitar’. No talking, only music and serious music for that matter. If I had not seen in person I would have never believed the kind of music was being played by guys in their 50s. Unstoppable and unbelievable energy! “Smoke on the water” is still banging in my head. The recorded versions sound so lame now! The crowd could not stop screaming in excitement. My throat is still sore and feet hurt like anything. But who is complaining :-).
What a rocking show!! Whaaaaat a rocking show!!!

In the words of the band vocalist Ian Gillan, I would say “What a perfect way to end a rocking year!”

How much to change?

I have been talking to lot of friends about relationships. Some of them have more that one failed relationships and other ones are happy with the first person they met. I always wonder what makes a person to be or not to be in a relationship. One friend was particularly complaining about, how we get blind and change for the other person or how the other person makes us change and make us do things we don’t generally like to or how we are compelled to behave so that the other person is happy with us.

Well yes, that is very much true. We do change a lot for the sake of other person, willingly or unwillingly. But can we completely blame other person for that? I don’t think so. It is two sided affair, if someone expects us to change, don’t we expect other person to change. Are we kids to let other person take control of our life? And it is not changing completely, can’t view it as adjusting with the person because we absolutely like him/her. Just like the weather change, I like my sleeveless dress but I can’t wear it in the winters. If I want to go out in cold weather I must wear a sweater and I don’t complaint about it because I equally love the cool weather. So it is matter of choice and mending with the situation.

Oh yeah I am not talking about letting go of your identity. I don’t pack up my dress for life. If someone forces you to change, against your will and your sub-conscious tells you it is not right, you MUST stop before going any further in that relationship. And it is not just about a girl-boy relationship. If we look at any relation in general, be it parent-child, siblings or even friends, same rule applies. My mother doesn’t like me wearing western cloths when I go to my native town but she wouldn’t protest if I trim my long hair to shoulder length (which I know she absolutely dislikes). So it is absolutely mutual. I believe being understanding and accepting and not adamant is beauty of any relationship :-). I mean life is never absolutely black and white, isn’t it?

Have you seen “Runaway Bride”? It is the best depiction of what happens when someone tries to change himself/herself change against one’s wish. The bride runs away right away at the altar because she realizes she has been fooling with herself.
Does she find her perfect man? This proposal explains it all …
"I guarantee that we'll have tough times. I guarantee that at some point one or both of us will want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.
Because I know in my heart -- you're the only one for me"

Samanewali line se!

Have you ever seen a movie sitting just next to the screen? The actors look like coming on your face and the sound is loud enough to turn you deaf. The front row public is the real “public”, they won’t mind whistling, clapping or even dancing to funky song tunes. And if the movie is packed with cracking dialogues and “dinchak” music then ‘kya kahane’ ! Have you ever watched movie in a village theatre where people are rubbing noses to the screen and ready to jump with every dialogue. They will throw money for the dancing heroine, boo at the villain. Believe me it’s a site worth watching than any other movie. In the town where I grew up, the front row fever is carried till last row. So you will hear whistles for every song/dialogue coming from all over the theatre and yeah, there will be bulbs flashing along the movie screen on hero-heroine’s entry and during song sequences :-).

I have seen quite a few movies sitting in front row. Naah not in my native, I would never dare to go there :-). Fortunately Bengalooru people are too sophisticated in front row as well, they won’t utter a single word of protest even if the cinema screen goes blank for 5 minutes right in the middle of nail biting climax, except for some people like us. I have enjoyed movies like “Bunty aur Bubbly” and “Lage Raho Munnabhai” more due to my company. For B&B, there were only two people making noises in the theatre, one guy whistling to “Kajrare” tunes, other guy clapping and singing loudly. A girl, sitting next to them was hiding her face from stares of whole theatre. The scene was different for “Lage Raho …”, surprisingly the whole theatre was screaming and so was the crazy bunch of 8 sitting right next to the screen. This time the girl wanted to dance but nobody allowed her :-(.

And may be she was expecting same kinda fun when she got tickets in front row for Dhoom-2. But to her bad luck, the movie didn’t provide enough masala for that. Now you won’t expect guys whistling at Hritik Roshan (He is tooooo gooood… *Sigh* I can’t whistle loudly). How much will anyone waste energy on artificial Aish anyways?
Overall it was good movie, worth watching if you promise yourself not to remember laws of physics (especially anything related to gravity) in the theatre :-).

Finally ... !!!

Finally the wait is over......
I got invitation for blogger beta … yippeeeeeee !!!

This so cooool. Flexibility and super usability, just the google way !

I am loving it !!!

What do you want from work?

There was supposed to be some skip level meeting for which we were supposed to give feedback for our manager and work condition requirements in general. A teammate was taking responses. There were usual answers like more money, better communication etc and one guy got over enthusiastic he demanded he wants a laptop at home with wireless connection and 17’ TFT monitor in office. Then the serious discussion took different route, one guy wanted work place tree shade in the garden and freedom to use any place as workstation in the office. Other one wanted closed individual cubicle so that no one will be able to disturb him work (or no work :-D). One wanted a bean bag instead of chair. Another wanted a masseur to relax him when he gets tired of working continuously. Another one wanted a personal refrigerator loaded with all kinds of drinks and food. One wanted monthly personal purchasing allowance (his claim was some other company gives it). I wanted a sofa with foot rest, also a bed to steal nap once in a while :-), ability to switch my mind off in boring meetings. And then our imaginations started running really wild. I couldn’t stop giggling.

I think when it comes to demanding facilities we "IT" people have always something or other to demand. Free food, drinks, more money, holidays, onsite trips, team outings and what not and we still are not happy. Just look at people working in other industries. Being daughter of a dedicated private medical practioner I never knew that people can actually take few days off from work. I saw my uncles working with government offices, they would give their life to save a late mark in office and here no one even cares what time I come to office or not. When I tell my uncle that there is no fixed timing for my office he gets astonished, He always says “what kind of office is yours? How do they manage to pay you money with such working style?” I have no answer. It is also not acceptable for him that I refer to my manger by first name and don’t call him “Sir”. For my friend working in Finance sector, Saturday off sounds luxury and for another friend from school it is difficult to accept that I don’t need to write leave letter. Life has changed so much.

Then I wonder, isn’t it stupid of me cribbing about bad work? I guess not, work does matter more than these facilities.

What do you people say?

Weekend trek

Someone has complained that I am getting too senti with my poems. So I have decided to stop writing (I mean posting :-)), unless I come with a funny poem. Yeah that's what I want to write next time. Mission humorous poem! Also my brother is taking pains to read my poems and I want to save him from that (for the time being :-)).

Here is my account for a weekend trek I had been to. I had started writing it loong time ago but just was lazy to finish it till today :-D. Tell me if you like it.

========

What is your dream place like?

Well... mine would be a place with loots of greenery and fresh air and away from all the hustles of city life. Sounds like heaven naa?? It does to me; and guess what, I had chance to come closer to what I dream of.

Last Friday, my friend asked if I could join him for a biking trip. Biking trip? Now this something I have never done. Given my special affinity with two-wheelers, specially the back seats (I was thrown off bike TWICE!), I am always bit hesitant to be in non-driver's seat. But he promised to be good driver plus early morning trip to fresh nature is irresistible, Isn't it? So the plan was to start at 5 in the morning, drive all the way to the place called "Savandurga", around 60 km away from Bangalore, go around for some time and come back by lunch time. Good plan, I can finish my sleep after coming back :-). I had absolutely no idea about what the place is like.

So like an "acchi bacchi" I got up 4 o'clock, was ready by 5 (This has to be special mention cause only I know how it is painful to get up sooo early on a Saturday morning :D). U picked me up and we were supposed to meet other people joining us whom I didn't know at all. They turned out to be nice people, a couple and two more guys, everyone being enthu and regular trekker/explorer. Most imp thing, no one knew exact route to the place :-). So there was usual ritual of asking auto driver for direction and everybody insisting he knows the better route. It's the best part of traveling on Indian roads; everyone is more than willing to tell you direction and their own free opinion about the road condition and everything else. We being the least literate about road followed our fellow bikers all the way. It was amazing to see the amount traffic on roads at those wee hours, do these people ever sleep? After asking here and there we set out for our (unknown!!) destination.

There was no chance to steal some sleep on bike ride because I had little confidence on my driver's direction sense (cause he thinks even 8 km is tooo away to remember directions :P) and the road was too bad to allow me not noticing the bumps for a while. Also he threatened me that he might fall asleep while driving so I had to be on vigil :-D. But being awake was worth the view around... absolutely breathtaking! There were huge rocks spread on the green background, like brat has spread his pebbles all over in a green garden. Bikes were stopped at a place to take pictures around It was beautiful site and while we were busy admiring the view S exclaimed, "That's the place we have to go!" pointing to a looong standing peak, it was solid rock structure with a cloud ring around its crest like a white crown on its head. And my reaction was "What? Weren't we supposed to just bike around". I was not prepared to actually trek :D.

We reached the mountain base huffing-puffing.. drivers exhausted with driving the bikes with skill of rally-biker, finding patches of road in the pot-holes and poor bikes exhausted of climbing the rough road (?). Apparently this place is an "eco-tourism" spot and there is park at the bottom for weak-hearted people like me and fort + temple at the top for trekkers and devotees. It looked like a steep rising above our head and boy oh boy I was scared to climb that up (seriously). We crossed lot of locals on our way up and climbing up the slope seemed to daily ritual for them :). At the bottom of the mountain there was again confusion on which path to take. A bunch of enthu kids took us to right place. The way up is clearly marked with arrows and we were advised not the leave the path if we wished to come back alive. The way up WAS steep. Since it was solid rock it was difficult to climb up wit shoes on. The best solution was to tie shoes around neck... yeah yeah yeah most of us did that. And no, I didn't, cause I was wearing slip-ons :D.
Me and S almost gave up twice on the way up but the toiling was worth it. It was a beeeeeautiful day with not too bright sun and not too many clouds. It showered in between but that was just for few seconds.

We were around 3000+ feet above the sea level. There was not a considerably big human population in the range of sight, save the small town at hill base. On one side I could see there were solid rock hills with huge rocks place on each other in unbelievable asymmetry. Looked like they could fall any time and crush 10 people at once. Patches of green grass grown everywhere they could find place in between those rocks. On the other side there was huge flat land with lush green fields and a river twisting between them. Since the morning was little bit cloudy, I could see patches of sunlight scattered on the green fields. It was astonishing sight, one circle of the field lightened with sunlight like taking center stage in the clouded area around it, river water adding sparkle to it. The sight took away all the fatigue. I wanted to get drenched on the mountain top... but no luck :-(. Just took a nap the fast blowing wind.

Ahhh... now that's the place I would love to build my home and settle down for life. We were actually discussing the idea of building a direct path from there to our offices, may be another flyover for our dear Bengalooru. How wonderful that would be!!
Go trekking people!

Sad Demise

Today has started with a sad news...
We lost one of our colleagues. He died of heart attack. He was hardly in his mid 20s,soft spoken guy.
This is shocking and alarming for all of us working in IT industry. Do take care of you health and work-life balance. The stress virus is creeping slowly and claiming many lives.

May god bless his soul.

New iPod is coming !

I have always been fascinated by Apple products.
I was awestruck by the iPod when I first saw it and so by the iMac. Man that is my dream machine :-)
here's sneak peek into their new 6th gen video iPod.
http://www.previewgadgets.com/gadget/ipod_6th_generation_touch_screen


I want it! I want it!! I want it !!!

PS: Any takers for my iPod-mini :D :D ??

Quotes

Ayn Rand is one of my most favorite authors. I worship “The Fountainhead” and now “Atlas Shrugged” added to my list of favorite books. Before reading these books I was advised against reading them because they are meant for “psycho” people. No wonder many of so called book lover friends haven’t even heard of her. And I am glad that I didn’t go by the advise :-). I identify myself very much with her view of world (May be I am also one of those “psyco”s :-) ). I wish to write my views on both the books and so about many other books I love to read (depending on how many laziness permits me to do so :-D).
I just finished first iteration of reading “Atlas Shrugged” (marathon reading I should say :-) ). There is one quote in the book that goes with title of my blog and I can’t resist publishing here

“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”

And some other quotes from her books

Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man’s values, it has to be earned.
Atlas Shrugged

The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt.
Atlas Shrugged

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.
Atlas Shrugged

Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it.
Atlas Shrugged

Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another’s values.
Atlas Shrugged

To say "I love you" one must first be able to say the "I."
The Fountainhead

Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing buy rational actions.
Atlas Shrugged

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved, but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Atlas Shrugged

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them.
Anthem

Thinking men cannot be ruled.


Most important, theme of “Atlas Shrugged”

I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

And theme of “The Fountainhead”

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Blogging from home

Yahooooo !!!! After my timeless efforts to get internet connection at home and then to get it working on my laptop... the day is here when I am able to blog from home!!!

I mean its real trouble to get an internet connection in Bangalore ... to many techies I say. I tried hard for 2 months only to know that AirTel does not give connection only on the lane I live in and BSNL has 6 months waiting list... other ISPs don't even exist in this area (and who says I live in prime area of Bangalore). Finally I have decide to share connection with my roomie. But how do I get the cable to my room? Someone suggested me to get a wireless router so I can setup wireless LAN at home. Waah ! what a dream. Naa jaane kaunsi woh manhoos ghadi thi jab maine yeh man liya... I had to wait for a month for the router to arrive and another 2 weeks to get it working. (Well it still is not working... donno whats the problem :-( .... I am gonna kill the guy for giving me that suggestion and making my walllet lloooot emptier). Today, at least I was able to connect my lappy directly to the modem and get it working. So here I am blogging from home and I just realised that I can't surf as efficiently as I do in office ... :D.

Well ... in all, Its been a good weekend. Did nothing ... Spent most of the time talking to my bro. It was nice long chat :-). Dropped movie plans out of sheer laziness :-)(I think I can give galrfield a beating in laziness quotient :D)
...Mmmmm I am loving it !

Happy Diwali !!!

I have been told that the things-girls-should-not-do manual says that girls are not supposed to be gadget freaks. But I don’t read manuals anyways :D :D. So continuing with my obsession I have new addition in my list … Sony Ericsson w700i cell phone… Yaay!!!! All I can say is … its toooo good with walkman music player with amaaazing sound quality, 2 mega pixel camera(yeah yeah), biiig screen (just as I wanted), expandable memory upto 1GB, sexy interface just the Sony way :-). Its very easy to use and most of cell phone exploration is already done. I miss my nokia phone keys though. I have been told that I am brand savvy and I go for costly brands like Sony phones and Apple iPods. But why care, they are the best anyways :-). I wanted to buy the w810i but the cost was too much, so settled for this one. And I love it. Best thing I liked was … I can set any song as my ring tone !!! So I am searching for a niiiice song and any suggestions are welcome. My last phone had Rang De Basanti tone. But now I want some English tune but most of the songs I like are soft ones and I am not able to decide for faster/rock song.
Isn’t it the best Diwali gift I can give to myself :-)?
And…

Wish you all a very very very Happy Diwali !!!
May this Diwali bring you lot of light to your life !!!

I am off for looong vacation.

Does it happen to you? You are forced to do something you don’t want to do and you do it for the sake of it and then you screw up badly. And then people start barking at you left and right and you wish you were invisible.

It happens with me many times and happened again today … I just wish I were invisible… *sob*

Bad start of day … reaaaaaaal bad start…. *Sob*

I HATE this IT world.

Arranged Marriage

X is some lady/man related to me by some relation. Apparently they always seems to be very concerned about me .. or should I say my marriage.

Me : Hey aunty, Good news. I got salary raise.
X : Wow. Very good. How much you will get now?
Me : I will get xxxxx per month now, Isn’t it cool?
X (with sad expression on her face): Errr… that’s good.
Me : Why? What happened? You are not happy?
X : Ohh… no nothing like that. I am happy for u. But just concerned, already we are having hard time finding a guy to match ur current salary and again raise means more problem.
Me : What?? Mine is just normal one. Not even “Good” as per industry standard.
X : I don’t know all that. See all we want for you is to get you a good boy from good family, get married and settle down.
Me : What about my job and all the study I have done?
X : Girl has to always sacrifice ,dear.
Me : So you want me to scarify my career for some junk guy u are searching. You shouldn’t have sent me out at first place then.

… I can bear comments on my short nose, even shorter height, weight, tummy, teeth … everything else but not this, definitely not this. I know what my father had gone through to get me where I am. And I am not gonna leave it for such reasons.

I don’t know what is with all these people my so-called relative and well-wishers. They can’t just think about anything else than my marriage. And they will find the “junk”est guy. These guys and particularly their parents (GP) think that their son has come from some heavenly place. See some examples (they are real incidents)

Case 1:
GP(with loot of pride) : Oh all that is fine. But our son is very brilliant do you think you daughter will be able to match up his intelligence. He has got blah blah blah. (sidey degree from some sidey college)
My Mom: Great!!! My daughter has SSC rank, GATE score and won state level quizzes. I think they will make good pair
GP(scared voice): Errr…
Not to mention they never contacted back.

Case 2:
GP: We are very open minded people. We will give all the freedom to our daughter-in-law.
My Mom: Oh very well. So I think our children should meet once since they are working in same city. If they like each other, we can talk further.
GP: Uh oh… that will happen only after we have finalized the girl. See, We are respected family and our relatives would not appreciate this. We would like to see the girls first here with all the family. (mind you my place is at least 1000 km away from here and it takes at least 5 days and 2000 bucks to and fro journey)

I didn’t go.

Case 3:
GP: Oh your girl has spectacles. I hope she wears contact lenses all the time. Specs don’t look good on saree you see.
(What the hell? You want a new family member or show-piece)


And the list goes on.

Current mood: Reeeeeaaaaaaallly frustrated

I got fed up with my last template. I thought the orage was too bright and too boring. (Taurus gal always needs a change you see :D)
I have been advised to move to wordpress. It seems they give more flexibility to organize my posts and all. But given my enooooooormous love for goole things I have decided to stick to blogger for a while :-). And the blogger beta seems interesting too !!!
So for the time being I am just happy with new template... yay !!!
I think it looks cooooool :-)