My views of my world

A gift or a curse??

2009-05-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

There are so many exciting new possibilities when location radars like gps or google maps are combined with social networking sites today. I had seen in a science fiction movie where billboards in a mall change according to the person walking in front of it, but this is realistically possible now!!

Imagine if you are traveling on a highway and the billboard has your photo or your name, it will definitely catch your attention more which is half the battle won for advertisers. A sensor or even RFID chip in your car or phone or anything else can trigger a sensor in the billboard and through it the advertisers could access social networking sites to gather tons of profile information regarding you. I-phone today offers a lots of convenient features in a similar manner.

The only concern regarding this is the possibility of a total abuse of an individual’s privacy. This is already a concern in today’s social networking sites and this is only bound to increase in an effort to provide customized marketing.

Retail and Technology

2009-05-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

As technology improves, companies are trying to solve their traditional problems by using new technology. RFID can be an answer for retail companies to locate and track their orders.

Some of the biggest problems retail companies face are stock outs, limited visibility into their supply chain and theft. All these problems could be solved through RFID. This leads to the interesting discussion on how much of technology is necessary for a company. Is it necessary to track a single can of coke; the answer might vary depending on the industry, the company and the products. Normally it would be enough to track a case or a lot but the need to track an item as closely as possible was highlighted in a recent food contamination case where such information was valuable in tracking the source of the contamination.

Many times technology requires infrastructure and in this case too, the technology a company can implement is limited by the amount of infrastructure they are willing to invest in. More granularity in tracking means more data stored and that means larger and more complex datwarehouse systems.

There are a lot of benefits realized by companies today by the visibility into their supply chain by technologies like RFID s and location radars. Demand fluctuations can be minimized by knowing what exactly they sell and even their inventory can be reduced drastically by knowing where exactly their products are. Also recently, one of the major transportation companies found out that their trucks were losing a lot of time and fuel trying to make left turns at traffic lights. They worked out an algorithm where the trucks mainly take right turns which are much faster and found out that it gave them both time and cost benefits.

But such implementations would separate the suppliers who could afford such technologies from those who could not. For some of the leading suppliers this might be a good thing because they could get a lock in from the retailer which would ensure business for them but this would also make it harder for smaller suppliers to compete. It is really tough for the retail companies to bring out any new initiative throughout their supply base unless they have a buyer power like Wal-Mart. Most of the retailers bring out new technology in phases by targeting the suppliers with high volumes initially and then gradually roll it out to the smaller players.

Companies and technology

2009-05-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

I wanted to discuss the dynamic nature of technology and the direction it is evolving in especially the internet. Web 2.0 has given the user more control of data and the sheer number of users who can contribute to any application or service makes it so powerful. It has enabled more avenues for information sharing in the form of networking sites like facebook or various blog sites. New technologies have enabled sites like Amazon and ITunes to make a lot of money leveraging the power of long tail by reaching out to people more and offering services which could not be offered before. Even such blog sites are an example of the power of collective contribution of knowledge.

How do companies implement new technologies and assess how they will impact the way the company operates in the future. How do they align their strategy with the IT implementations and not treat it as an independent installation. For example, a successful ERP implementation is a transformation of the way how technology works in a company and also in the way how people operate within the company.

Another interesting discussion is Do companies need costly erp systems? And what is the tradeoff of spending millions of dollars on acquiring more information? In one of my previous classes, a professor had a very interesting framework which basically viewed the different elements of a supply chain as a whole.

Thinking from a retail perspective more information from an ERP system’s Supply Chain Module might reduce the demand fluctuation and reduce the inventory levels but the company needs to see if they can achieve the same or more cost savings achieved by lower inventory by reducing their transportation times or by building a new warehouse.

Code RED!!

2009-01-30T11:13:00.000-08:00

Being in the second year, chang (my roommate at Purdue) and I had taken the liberty to go back to school a week late. But we had received some flak for that decision from our professors and we were glad that we were at least going to reach Purdue 24 hours before class started and this would give us some time to sleep our jet lag off and get started on some of the work that had piled up in our absence.

The flight from Bangalore to Delhi was on time with no delays (unfortunately for us we later thought) and the airlines told us that we don t even have to pick our luggage and that it’ll go directly on to the international flight... Life was good...

People in Bangalore often ask why the domestic airport was shifted so far along with the international airport and a compelling counter to that would be go fly international thru Delhi and find out!! The international airport is an hour long drive from the domestic airport and when you are traveling in an AC bus with the AC not switched on and you don t have the option of lowering your windows... It feels like eternity... or eternity as we thought then: p

The bus drops us off on the sidewalk at an extremely crowded and confused airport terminal and drives off!!! The passengers are standing there saying "now what!!"
I felt sorry for some foreigners in our midst, imagine their situation if we Indians felt lost and worried in this chaos..!!
Then, someone figured out where the counter was and we started moving towards it and this airlines agent comes and says "all flights out of Delhi delayed due to fog and please find your luggage; I think it’s lying around there somewhere!!"
I am not kidding the moron used the same words!!!
So we search frantically for our luggage and the pain of traveling with more suitcase than you have hands was just starting.. Luckily for us we find all our bags to only realize that the flight has been delayed by more than 8 hours!! Fortunately (or not), the airlines said they all be shifting us to a hotel for the night.

Trolleys are great!! Trust me, u realize that wen u need them and there no trolleys!!... so with the help of this man’s great invention, we move our luggage onto a bus and we drive for another hour to reach this nice place I guess...(forgive my cynicism here, but I was pissed off as hell and I don t know why they could not put us up at a place which did not require us to travel for 2 hours up and down)... so we reach this place at 12 in the night and they tell us they’ll give us a wakeup call at 3 a.m.. See what I mean by putting us up at a nearby hotel... so chang and I are hungry and being put up in a 5 star hotel with no dinner means that we pay 500 Rs. for a plate of Biryani!

I receive a call from a lady at 3 and she says "sir, your flight has been delayed by another 5 hours and we all call you in the morning to give you an update" I am too sleepy to care and I go back to sleep...and then in the morning at 7, I realize that the checkout time is 8:30 and there’s free breakfast!! (Not if you believe time is money, then we are being ripped off right now :-) )
What happens when there is a plane full of people trying to go down from their rooms with 3 pieces of luggage all at the same time and there are only 2 small lifts???
Operations students will say “the throughput is low and the input is rate is high and it leads to a queue in the system (Little's law for all the geeks :) )” So we spend half an hour in this interesting exercise and the hustle begins!! By the way in midst of all this I am asked to pay 120 Rs/minute to make a call home from the hotel...

So the airlines people book 3 busses to take back people to the airport and soon passengers realize that it’s not enough to fit everyone and it was fascinating to see international flight passengers trying to jostle each other (yours truly included) for a seat in the bus :-) I read somewhere people are hardwired and our instincts remain forever, it seemed that people had reverted back to their hunting days when it was survival of the fittest :) ... predictably, the bus's luggage compartment gets filled with people still yet to put their luggage’s in. I don t know if the airlines was trying to save some small change or it was a case of miscommunication but I do know that it was extremely badly managed..

So we arrive back at the airport only now it s sunny and thankfully, yes, thankfully less foggy.. And the flight s on time and we hear some rumor that there was ice in Chicago and stuff... Actually thinking back, I am flying from fog prone Delhi and snow/ice prone Chicago in January and I had actually hoped to be on time!!! :p

The flight takes off at noon Delhi time delayed by more than 12 hours now and our buffer time that we were glad about has now been reduced to less than 12 hours.....

So now we are 4 hours away from Chicago and the airhostess has just served dinner or breakfast (so when you are flying international, and before you land, are you on your source time or destination time??)
Anyway, I see a chocolate mousse and am eager to get to it...all of a sudden an airhostess runs to the mic and starts shouting "CODE RED!! CODE RED!!We have a CODE RED!! “There’s panic in her voice and the other hostesses serving dinner just push away their carts and run towards her...

Imagine this if you can... You are 10,000 feet up in the air and these people panic by shouting code red!! We have a code red!..
Now! What the hell is a code red?? My heart skipped a beat!! I had seen too many movies and my mind came up with thoughts like terrorists, engine failure, are we landing in a river?? Landing gear not opening.. (We were not even preparing to land... but this I thought of later.

Obviously passengers were scared as hell... This went on for a minute and then somebody said it’s a medical emergency... I am sorry to say this but it came as a relief to most of us... (Human instinct to live won over compassion) so then they called for any doctor's on board and 5 doctors volunteered and one of them even wore a gloves and asked for IV!!
They debated on what to do for half an hour or so... when Chang famously commented "too many cooks spoil the broth"

So much for the food... I lost all my appetite and the chocolate mousse did not fulfill its destiny of being eaten that day (though chang happily finished his meal thru all this.... for once chang world helped!!!)...for the rest of the journey we could hear intermittent moans of pain from this passenger. Finally it was time to land and after we landed we were requested to be seated for another half an hour so that paramedics could come and stabilize this lady and shift her to a hospital... we did see a puddle of blood when we were getting off the plane...

So after all this, it was only fair to the story that there should be more... because of our delay, we missed our coach to Purdue and we were left with a choice to spend the night at the airport or drive in the snow and after some 30 hours of travelling... anyone want to calculate that buffer time we had left??

So we decide to drive and decide to help another student at Purdue who is in the same plight by giving him a lift home...so if you have seen the TV show 24 you would probably guess that when you think you are done with it... there’s something more... yes, 30 minutes from my destination a cop flashes his lights behind me!!! I was supposedly going slightly over the speed limit!! Did someone say "Murphy’s law??"!!
Well fortunately for me, my record was clean and the cop just gave me a warning which obviously goes on my ex-spotless record :-(

So it’s around 2:30 in the morning and we finally reach our destination easily after 35 hrs of leaving Bangalore...all hopes of catching up on work long gone...

A visitor to India

2009-01-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

Sitting in an airport waiting for your flight gives you lots of time and limited choice of activities. I am charging my laptop and having no internet I have decided to pen down my thoughts about the last 30 days which I have spent in India.

A month ago, I board my flight to India eager to meet loved and missed ones but I also think will my dog remember me?? Will I be able to drive on Indian roads?? How many of my friends have moved on??

I was picked up from the airport by my mom and everything seemed so different, somehow unfamiliar for a city in which I have spent 24 of my 26 years!! I blame it on the new international airport which is like a city away and the traffic which according to me has worsened. The irony was the only thing which was familiar was the total lack of road sense or courtesy shown by autos and taxis!! :p “ I won’t be able to drive in this madness!!”

Being a foodie (believe me it shows L) I used to prize myself on knowing most of the eating joints in my city, but on familiar roads I saw unfamiliar restaurants and lack of some known ones. Some of it saddened me, others looked like new territories to prowl and conquer J ( I am among the ones who live to eat :p)

I reach home and I rush to meet Leo (my dog) and I hesitate just a second coz after that he was all over me licking me and jumping on me and there was so much joy on his face. And there I was, stupid enough to doubt a dog’s loyalty… J Concern #1 down the drain J

Concern #2 : I start my car thinking, Can I use the clutch? Will I drive on the wrong i.e the right side (sorry couldn’t help not pointing it out :p)…I put the car in gear and instinct takes over…I am cautious for the first ten minutes entering into intersections and wary of bikes and autos zigzagging.. but as soon as I stop searching for the non existent lanes, the concept of lane driving vanishes and I become a part of the chaos which is Bangalore traffic..

Concern #3: I meet my friends and we finish the regular, U have become pale, U have lost weight formalities J ( forgive my 2 secs of vanity here J) it was weird coz I have not been a part of their lives for nearly two years now but I realize now there is just more to talk and catch up on J and a trip together of some close friends for 3 days is just what the doctor ordered and by the end of it I was up to date (read “Rolling on the floor laughing” J ) on each of the stupidities committed by them.

So I am sitting here at the end of the trip trying to think of some good reasons why I am leaving all this behind and the answer is unfortunately “yes, for the greater good” J.. anyway, my flight’s been announced so I have to go.. but I am thinking of the cliché statement “Home is where the heart lies” !!

Hey wait, little did I know the adventures or mis-adventures I would have on the return journey.. so look for my next blog “CODE RED!!”

Sacrifice.. the greatest gift?

2009-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Nestled amidst the heavenly hills
Lies a lake with its water green
Misty clouds make nature look its best
With a setting sun, a sight it is to be seen.

This paradise it seems, created by a god in love
Looks lost on a boy sitting here
There is a chill in the air there is light rain
His face is so sad; oh he is in so much pain.

Clutching at a pendant, trying to rewind time
Sobbing he sits, looking back at his life
In this silence, his soul cries aloud
How can my friend become another’s wife?

The birds here seem to share his grief
There is no other sound in the air
They respect him for they all know
To love is easy, but to sacrifice is great.

A party without sound

2009-01-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Sitting here i am going mad
feeling lonely, oh the world is so sad
Was it always like this i think
i get the answer before i can wink
Clear is the voice in my head
NO!! it was fun is what it said

Struggling thru life week after week
for fear of being branded meek
Acting strong even if u r weak
all for praise, which everyone seek

People told me reach out for the sky
all i had to do was to ask them why
When i was havin fun on the ground
did i make life a party without sound

Pretending to be what u r not
I wonder now, achieves what
Life stares at me right in the face
even to hide i dont have a place
What choice do i have but to act
so with myself i make a pact

Leading life without a care
i ll try to make it a happy fair
Work i will, but i will also play\
consequences come what may
For i know no price is too high to pay
to go through life happily day by day

CSR is changing!!

2008-07-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” – William Penn

CSR activities should form an integral part of work in any company. An organization should strive to achieve a more equitable sorrounding society by creating small, but effective opportunities in the areas of healthcare, education, social rehabilitation and the arts. Corporate social responsibility, according to me, has changed dramatically over the past few years. Previously, CSR encompassed philanthropic activities which enhanced the organization’s commercial benefit and raised its reputation with customers. I believe it is now about using the core competence of the organization to establish linkages between the internal and the external communities.

In addition to the CSR’s obvious benefits to society, it builds a positive image of the organization among the employees and encourages their social involvement. Today’s employees increasingly feel the need to contribute to the cause of creating a better society. This leads to a dedicated workforce that is proud of its employer. Therefore, I believe CSR is a two way street, where the companies help the society and in turn reap the benefits by improving its image both internally and externally. This has caused CSR to emerge as a strong force in the corporate world

The business side of China!!

2008-07-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

Chinese economy has been booming since the 1950’s; the economy has been increasing so rapidly over the past decade that some analysts predict overheating but the Chinese analysts feel that this boom is supported by the substantial improvement in the economy’s potential for further expansion. This claim is supported by the rapid advances in industries like electricity, coal mining, petroleum and infrastructure etc. China has more than enough funds to sustain this phenomenal growth. The people of china have built up a large amount of private wealth and one of the reasons for this is the development is funded through FDIs. There is a solid inflow of foreign investments in china due to the huge potential for demand in China. Some of the economists feel that the Chinese economy size is undervalued since the Yuan is undervalued. One dollar is nearly equal to 7.0 Yuan whereas if we consider the goods that we can buy in a Dollar, the exchange is around 4.0 Yuan.

The analysts feel that China is moving from being the world’s producer to the world’s market. Therefore all the major companies want to cash in on this huge potential market. The accumulation of private wealth in China is making the baby boomers in China a huge market. The domestic consumption in China has seen an increase since 2002. The rural population has seen an increase in their earnings due to the income re-allocation scheme introduced by the government in 2002. The government has even allowed people to shift into the cities by providing PR status. The analysts say that this situation has improved due to government’s efforts to lay more emphasis on public welfare of pensioners and rural workers.

This dispensable income with Chinese people has had many benefits to the economy; one of them is the growth in the fashion and luxury goods industry a Louis Vuitton brand manager talked to us about the growing need for luxury goods in China. China is already the third biggest consumer of luxury goods. The manager also talked about the prestige value associated with these goods and how the Chinese people place a lot of emphasis on this prestige value. But the problem facing the government is the rip-offs or the lack of a system of intellectual property rights of these luxury brands. The fake markets are hurting the brand image and the sales of companies like Ralph-Lauren badly. But the big brands are still going to China because their researches have shown that there is a section of rich Chinese society that doesn’t mind overpaying for these luxury goods and this segment is increasing. Even sports like NBA recognize the importance of China and its huge potential market for the sport. The NBA created a separate entity called NBA China this year to promote basketball in both rural and urban part of China. A speaker involved in this process talked about the huge expected revenues this body can generate by popularizing this game in China through TV rights and selling NBA merchandize.

Some of the analysts felt that to have a successful business in China, it is necessary to follow both differentiation and cost leadership. While this strategy might not work in a developed market like United States where the brands are established and sales are possible through differentiation only. In China’s developing market cost is very important and it is tough to sell items only through branding. This concept was highlighted by Lenovo’s success over other competitors like HP and Dell. Another very important aspect necessary to succeed in China is to build strong relation with the government as the government is strongly involved in most of the successful businesses.

Who has answers!!

2008-07-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some thoughts...the internship has been highly structured.... the projects are exciting and we all have gr8 visibility within the company...well i guess the situation Sears finds itself in is "change now or go down"... so this means that every process can be optimized and there is no complacency regardin the existing processes.. if i have to point out the negatives... it will be, the organiz'n wants to change but do ppl want it.. i mean changin anythin is more work and some ppl s motto for work is avoid anything which involves anything extra coming to them... :( ever organization has its faults i guess... so what is happenin to Sears?? the retail industry in general is down in the US but Sears is into home appliances which is affected also by the subprime crisis.. so Sears is more hit than Walmart or target...

Having said this, there is more to it.... walmart has an exceptional supply chain which reduces the costs of every product and it has grown soo huge that it get s a lot of economies of scale.. so its tough for any company to take on Walmart on cost.. it is the mighty low cost retailer targetting the massive middle class suburban segment of the society..coming to target, target has grown exceptionally over the last ten years.. they have successfully differentiated themselves from Walmart by providing better stores with brighter lights...better carpets.. more store associates.. they have created a better experience for the customer.. therefore the customer who goes to target is willing to pay that extra dollar compared to walmart...they are targetting a slightly more affluent part of the society...
So two major retailers have a clear strategy but where does tht leave Sears... should it go after walmart s customers... tht s impossible w/o walmarts supply chain effeciency and economies of scale... or should it invest a lot in making the stores better and try replicate the target model... thts more money and if it doesn t attract customers, it leaves the company in a worse situation... so the questions are simple... sears is stuck in the middle it has to get out... but go wer?? which direction?? and how?? the key is how to get the people to come to the stores??
I don t think anyone has the answers unfortunately :(
so currently the company is talking profit and loss view and goin for different initiatives, some tried and tested and some really innovative.. i think everyone is keeping their fingers crossed for tht one success story which will kinda have a ripple effect all over the company... but kudos for the positive attitude of the mgmt and the associates in such difficult times!!!

Speed Boating!!

2008-06-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

The weekend saw 4 boilermakers head out to lake geneva some 2 hours away from Chicago... the journey to the lake was fun with 4 of us trying to play 20 questions.. trying is the operative word here since people (read madam dee) were making this relatively simple game insanely complicated by including some imaginary characters in the game. Nandu was the only one who had come prepared for the road trip.. she had a basketful of goodies !! :)
This lake is known for its watersports like jet ski s and motorboats...we rented a motorboat for an hour.. and this boat guy gave us instructions on how to drive the thing and how we should avoid the rocks since they r dangerous.. we all thought that given these simple instructions we shud be good but none of us accounted for nandu s driving skills!!
Dee went first, she was quite sober with her driving, it acted as a good starter for wat came later... then i took the wheel and i went a little crazy.. the water was choppy and i was doing some neat turns :P i managed to hurt two ppl (score 2 :) ) nandu fell once.. little did i know i was jus setting the scene for the last driver.. deepak went next he was jus getting a feel of the boat enjoiin the ride.. nothing drastic there... and then it was nandu s turn.. boy did she go mad.. she was doing all these weird stunts while the rest of us hung on for dear life :P haha but she forgot to hold on herself and after she did one crazy stunt, she went flying onto the floor and the boat was going at crazy speed unmanned (or unwomanned) it was hilarious!! try to imagine a speedboat going at 60 kmph with its driver on the floor :) at this point all of us were hurt and laughin like crazy thru our pain.. we manhandled the boat soo badly that we broke one of is windows for which we fortunately didn t have to pay :) and we ended this trip by having a nice lunch in one of those sailor joints kinda place... all in all it was an awesome trip.. we were all bruised but happy :)

Bon Voyage to me

2007-08-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Haven't written here in a loong time... one of the reason is I have been too busy preparing to change all that is now... Its less than two days to go now and I am jus starting to feel a little weird.. I wonder how it ll be to start everything all over from scratch.. But it sure is exciting and i embark on this journey with hope of having a lot of fun..so wish me all the best and to my indian friends i say " I dont like goodbyes so v ll just say until we meet next :-) " my next post will be from US of A...

ManOwar

2007-07-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

The warriors of old believed that to battle was their destiny and the ultimate honor was to die in a battle for it showed courage and valor. .. It fills me with inspiration coz all you need is the courage to give it your best !! for then there is pride and glory even in failing !!

I Surrender My Soul Odin Hear My Call
One Day I'll Sit Beside Your Throne In Valhalla's Great Hall
Like So Many Before Me I'll Die With Honor And Pride
The Right Of A Warrior Forever To Fight By Your Side
Send A Sign Raise The Sail Wave A Last Goodbye
Destiny Is Calling Immortality Be Mine

PS: How many stories of valor include wars and victory of good over evil..but someone said "who s actually evil?? coz its normally the victor who tells the story" :-)

Chaos

2007-07-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Unemployment is fun!! I have been travelling a lot in the past few days..doin my tirthayatre before flying across the seven seas :-) .. had been to tirupathi with a friend.. it was real good fun climbing the hill.. the weather was really awesome and there was a slight drizzle keeping us cool all the way.. but inside the temple it was chaos personified!! I wonder if the ppl there had ever heard of the queue system.. it was like a race wer everyone wanted to finish before the person ahead of them!! I wonder if I missed a sign saying "blessings are limited offer only, HURRY!! "

Final Day

2007-06-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Its time to get nostalgic!!! Its been raining since yesterday night and the weather is so dull. After two years in infy,today is the time to say goodbye. Its kinda sad because for the last couple of days I am meeting colleagues who have become friends and saying goodbye not knowing if our paths will cross ever again in this wide world.

I must say Infy does not let you go easily, i guess one of the methods to retain an employee is to make the exit formalities a big pain!! Some of it is fun, like my exit interview. The interview starts like this, I walk in and hand the guy a print out, and he says Congrats!! and I say thank you, is it because I am leaving infy.. he doesn't see the humour and just says NO, for getting a seat in a good college :) .. I told him what I thought of the company, it was mostly positive except for the dreaded night shifts!! He finally said things will change for the better and being an optimist I believe him.

OK, now its time to take my camera, get a couple of pictures.. meet some more friends and bid farewell to a place where i've spent more than half of my past couple of years... It was a ride with its ups and downs..but i guess looking back now i see more ups than downs :) .....

"Change is difficult but often essential to survival" Exactly my thoughts!!!

Passion

2007-06-15T02:07:00.000-07:00

I visited my uncle's farm house recently.. He is an agricultarist who has won many state and national awards for his innovative techniques and research in the field of agriculture....It was like going to a theme park!!! When you think of an estate you normally don t think about science and maths...but here everything was different... For starters he believes in making use of everything available in nature.. all the dead wood becomes manure for the newcrops and all animal and human waste becomes gobar gas which powers his estate!! There were mobile ladders which were designed using physics and maths..I saw it all from soil testing ground to an olympic standard skeet shooting range inside his estate !!! but what impressed me the most was his passion for agriculture.. after 50 years of agriculture he is still soo enthusiastic about it and is constantly innovating and using science to automate agricultural processes!!! There s so much of talk in IT these days about employee burn out and stress but i feel if you are passionate about what you are doing then everything else becomes immaterial.. My uncle has spent 12 hours everyday in his farm for the last 50 years and even now and i am sure he would rather do this than anything else in the world....

"Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark."

Wedding!

2007-06-13T12:16:00.001-07:00

The weekend saw me attending my cousin's wedding..sporting a formal attire in this heat is not a very comfortable thing but such is the constraints a society imposes on you.. it was an inter caste marriage and the good thing about it was the difference in the rituals performed. I have been to many weddings but never have i seen rituals where the groom has to run from the mantap and some body catches him and brings him back only for the bride to run and somebody again has to catch her and bring her back!!! I cudn t help but wonder what wud happen if one of them was a very good runner :p ... to make matters more interesting there was even a mini skit which had to be performed by the groom... everyone had fun but the poor groom was a li'l embarrassed... it was entertaining alright!! and as usual got to meet sooo many ppl,some after a very long time. some one at the wedding was saying, "given everyone's busy schedules these days, weddings and funerals are the only ocassions where all us relatives get together" blunt as it is I couldn't help but agree.

Somethin i wrote :)

2007-06-08T03:32:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the jungle so dense
there roams a beast so immense
The night looks so still
the beast looks for a kill!!

Fiery are its eyes burning bright
scanning for food in the night
Happily ignorant are its prey
knowing not, DEATH is on its way!!

Ever so cunningly he stalks
getting closer to a stag as he walks
A final lunge, the tiger roars with all its might
the ground shakes in the jungle of the night!!

going for the neck, he s swift as light
the act is done without a fight
Sorry for the soul which just died
necessary it was for another to be satisfied!!

Who said life's fair..

Musings..

2007-06-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Its less than 20 days now!! After nearly 2 years in my company, i have decided to move on.. Last night wen i was waitin for sleep to take over, i got thinking about my time in this company..normally when ppl leave, its fashionable to have a list of complaints but I realized that I didn t have too many. Yeah i always thought I was not allowed to work on something I liked but in hindsight I've realized it wasn't all that bad. So when you are OK with what you are doing and its not too hectic..You don t have too many reasons to complain do u ??

And anyody who joins infy as a fresher would remember his training days in the sleepy town of Mysore.It was rigorous no doubt but it was definetely fun!! Staying in the lab till ungodly hours regularly and walking back to the room well past midnight..its strange that I remember those walks more than I do the training :) And who can forget Roost!! our regular watering hole for 5 months.. I remember we used to go there to rejoice and to mourn... and even when there was no reason..wonder why :) With more than 5000 employees of more or less the same age, u can't help but make a couple of frnds..and I too had my fair share..tht s the thing with infy mysore..it s such a young crowd that it jus becomes an extension of your college life. But some ppl called it just a glorified prison, but is'nt there a term for ppl like me who end up liking their captors.. oh yes the Stockholm syndrome.

Shopping!

2007-06-03T23:26:00.001-07:00

Some people actually like shopping!! With a couple of formal events coming up and also my impending trip to a far away land in mind, I went shopping for clothes yesterday. When you are planning to spend your next 2 years in a different hemisphere it actually adds another dimension to your shopping. Have you ever tried standing in 30 deg sweltering heat and trying to choose clothes for a subzero climate. That is exactly the situation I found myself in :-) All in all I can say that I enjoyed the juice I drank after the shopping more than the shopping itself.

Boys Day Out

2007-06-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

After loads of research we finally decided on a place to get away from the chaos of city life (at least for a day). Varun, Viinayak, Shailesh and me decided to go to Sangama a place around 95Kms from Bangalore on Kanakapura road and trek to mekedatu from there.

The initial plan was to meet up at my place by 7 in the morning, but like in all tentative plans there was a change. We met up at 8 and by the time we had breakfast at Adigas and left Bangalore it was 9 o clock!! (We blamed the cricket world cup finals for the delay but Vinayak who was the only one among us who watched the entire match was the first to arrive). The journey to Sanagama is very scenic and there are a lot of photo opportunities along the way but the road is not too great with many potholes and in some places the road is very narrow with deep cuts on either side. Considering this, we covered the distance in fairly good time; and we were in Sangama by 11.30. I feel that my excellent driving in some very difficult terrain played a part in this though my friends might not agree on this point.

Sangama means union in Kannada and this place is called so because the river Arkavati joins with Cauvery here. A friend of us had told us of a secluded spot near Sangama and we made our way to this point first. We were not disappointed as there was not a single soul to be seen in this beautiful place on the banks of Cauvery and that too on a Sunday. The water is not too deep here with very less currents and is ideal for people who want to get into the water. There are some really old boards warning people of crocodiles but I had read somewhere that crocs also live for a very long time so we were careful. We did some fishing from a discarded paper cup, as my friend Vinayak wanted a couple of fishes for his aquarium. As you probably guessed, we were not very successful.

After this innovative experience, we were off to Sangama where we have to cross the shallow river to begin the trek to mekedatu. When we reached Sangama we were again harshly reminded of the population problem facing our country. It was jam packed with people and the irony is this crowd from the city had probably come here to beat the city crowd. Anyway there was a new hotel named Tender Coconut in Sangama and as it was already time for lunch we found ourselves in this restaurant in no time. The heat was such that we first asked for tender coconut and for our surprise found that they don’t serve tender coconut in tender coconut.

After a humble meal of chapatti and dhal we started our trek to Mekedatu. There is an option of taking a bus to mekedatu but we wanted to experience the journey on foot. Varun and Shailesh even wanted to jog to mekedatu. (Ah the exuberance of youth) It’s a different matter that 100 yards further Vinayak and me found them catching their breath under a tree. Somebody heard of the story of the rabbit and the hare??

It is a 4 km trek amidst the forest and its really good. We could hear some monkeys giving some calls and being a Kenneth Anderson buff I interpreted it as an alarm call and was on the lookout for a panther. But the only animals we met on the way other than the monkeys were a couple of thirsty dogs. It was the middle of summer and we were trekking in the hottest part of the day, and naturally we were bushed by the time we reached mekedatu.

There is a gazebo kind of structure as soon as you reach mekedatu where you can replenish yourselves with some soft drinks and biscuits if needed. But on this day there was something interesting happening here. There was a person sitting here who was playing a game where there are three tokens and one of the token has a marking on it. He keeps interchanging these tokens and we have to guess which of these tokens have a marking on them and we get 100 bucks if we guess right and we lose our money if we guess wrong, Well it was a sort of gambling where your observation skills were tested and yours truly was also tempted into applying his abilities and in the process losing a 100 bucks. In hindsight I realized that there were less powers of observation being tested than there were a group of people making money by cleverly conning people like us. My friends had a good laugh at my expense but I guess that’s normally what people do in hindsight when something goes wrong or when some one is taken for a ride.

Mekedatu in Kannada means the point at which the goat crossed. The Cauvery river here becomes very narrow and flows with a lot of force, at one point it flows so close that the legend has it that a goat jumped across the river at this point and hence the place got its name. There is a deep gorge here and standing on top of this we can see water gushing at tremendous force beneath us and I could not help but imagine the plight of anyone slipping and falling here. This place somehow reminded me of the place in “Paatshala” song of the movie “Rang de Basanti”.

After spending sometime here we unanimously decided on catching the bus back to Sanagama (Case of the heat sapping our exuberance of youth I guess). When we came back near the Gazebo structure to catch the bus we found the cops arresting (read as belting) the con group which was a very bollywood style ending for the financially unfortunate set of events. The bus back to Sanagama took only 10 minutes, which made me think of how the concept of distance varies with our mode of transport.
After an eventful trip it was time to head back home and we were a tired group of people who sat in the car in the evening. We tried to play some car games to make the journey interesting but after a while I guess only Shailesh, who was driving the car was awake enjoying some supposedly competitions with other cars on the road. Having said that we reached Bangalore pretty early in the evening due to some good safe driving by him and thus came to an end a very satisfying and eventful but in no way relaxing weekend getaway of four old college friends.

Introduction

2007-06-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

I guess I had to start this!! After reading many such blogs and after thinking many times of starting my own.. i finally start my own BLOG!! I had soo many ideas, but when i start writing they seem to disappear..maybe this is what is called writer s block. wonder if it should happen in the intro post tho :p ..Well lemme give it a try..