BullishBear

After 2 months..

2010-08-20T20:30:00.002-04:00

Its hard to believe,but its already been 2 months since I began my new job. Certain junctures in life are true turning points, and at the moment, this definitely seems like a career switch I'm gonna enjoy !
Reading tons of logs and not getting enuff new code to beat out was frustrating. Its like putting a frog in water and asking it not to swim..
Anyways, the new journey and environment definitely seem positive and the learning opportunity sounds inviting for sure...

Off late, I have taken a liking into the spiritual world and regularly read up stuff on Krishnasmercy.org. It definitely helps to elucidate the purpose of life and guides us on the righteous path towards salvation. The trick is to walk the talk and I hope to make some headway on those lines in the forthcoming future.

Its sick as usual to see Manmohan Singh extend an olive branch to Pakistan, this time almost forcing them to gobble up the 'humanitarian' aid for flood relief.
First and foremost, we grow no olives in India, maybe its the Italian influence on the government that causes them to associate so deeply with olives...
Anyways, the writing on the wall is clear, the pipeline of aid will be routed by the benign neighbor to the needy Taliban and Lashkar, which is in dire need of funds, and will use the same to fuel further unrest in the Kashmir valley. The mango diplomacy is being stretched too far.
Its so ironical that the Mango people or the 'Aam Aadmi' as Three Idiots introduced it, would not benefit a trifle from all this shenanigans of the politicians..

The Kashmir unrest seems to surface at regular intervals every couple of years, only resulting in more deployment of forces in the Valley and talks of autonomy. Why can't India, which is trying to ape its Big Asian Dragon Brother, just take a leaf out of their book and crush this movement for once. Look what has happened to these Asian neighbors since 1989, one country marching along the Yellow Sea en route the Pacific to humble Uncle Sam. The other still reeling under issues like corruption, Naxalism, and being the bashing boy for Mr. President. This time in the form of hi-tech Indian companies sponsoring the illegal drug trafficking and immigrant problem along the southern Hispanic border of the US.

Back home in the national capital, Mr. Kalmadi has ensured that the CWG are in news for all the wrong reasons. And why is he enjoying such patronage from India's first family? Is it because these contracts have a leaky pipe that leads into the benami Swiss bank accounts of 'you know who...'. Its truly a shame that the python of corruption has firmly gripped us and crippled the fabric of our society..

Phew, this has been such a sorry tale. But today is Friday, and its time to cheer up and shout TGIF !!!

The Washington chronicle..revisited

2010-06-08T14:46:00.002-04:00

Sunday and Memorial day were action-packed days, and the soaring mercury resonated well with our rising spirits! Not once did DC smell like a ghost-town, in fact the long weekend and the perfect summer weather created a nice hue of colorful dresses and fragrances worn by the fashion savvy..
Washington monument was our first stop and was truly a delight to the eyes. What made it even more spectacular was that it was right in line with Capitol Hill leading further up to Lincoln Memorial. For a moment, I was reminded of the Peshwa era, where Pune's own historic monuments like the Shaniwarwada, Parvati and Sarasbaug formed the trinity frequented by Shrimant Bajirao Peshwa and his royal clan, that succeeded the throne.
It was fun to see road-side stalls selling candy, burgers, hawkers selling bottled water and ice-cream. Sucking at those popsickles in the sweltering heat brought much needed relief, and my kiddo did not take it too well in her stride that she was being deprived of this part of the fun!
What really stood out in DC was the grandeur, and cleanliness that is void in most Indian cities and places of tourist interest. We also had a chance to do a peek-a-boo into White House from a distance about 0.3 miles away, and it seemed like a mini-fortress that was well guarded for Mr. President.
The rest of the afternoon and the day to follow were thankfully spent in the cosy, air-conditioned confines of the Smithsonian museums, which gleefully offer free admission to the public. Each and every section made some interesting viewing, and we were left gasping for time and energy when viewing the exhibits.
I equally liked both, the Museum of Natural History that boasts of the Hope Diamond, as well as the Air and Space Museum. Although the limited security left me wondering whether most of the precious gems on display are indeed imitation 'American diamonds' craftily replacing the originals...

As if we couldn't have enough of the National capital, our itinerary included a visit to my bro's Alma Mater that was conveniently located 230 odd miles away, but who cares quoting Rabindranath Tagore 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high..'.
It proved to be whirlwind tour in the end with us scrambling to grab a meal in Blacksburg's only Indian restaurant, followed by a rapid fire guided tour from my brother driving us around campus...Felt good to be there though..
What followed next was slightly bizarre, with the Garmin GPS speaking a different language as if to say, entities like freeway were extinct and the only way to get back to Raleigh was driving thru country roads of VA, where winding roads was the norm, ghats was a way of life and houses were spaced almost half a mile apart.
With a sigh of relief we cruised back to the city around 2:30 AM, sleepy, tired and showing signs of exhaustion that usually accompanies such a crazy day.

But as they say, all is well that ends well and it was a nice memorable East coast jaunt!!!

Desis visit D.C.

2010-06-04T17:11:00.003-04:00

Last weekend was a roller-coaster ride without venturing into any of the theme parks. An East coast trip ensured that we were pumped with adrenalin and any dull moment was left high and dry in the heat of summer.

Now taking a baby on her maiden flight via the Red Eye express isn't the most rationale decisions, but when one is squeezed for time(and $) and wants to cram all the wonderful experiences in half a week, then it becomes an evil necessity. Luckily for us, Ishanvi was a good flyer, only providing glimpses of the weapon that children wield, tears and crying that would make a might army come to a grinding halt from the Battle of Waterloo..

I have always been an admirer of the East coast, a reality cemented by the fact that I only have its memories from Spring thru early Fall. This time was no different, and passing thru Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta was like a mini-homecoming, reminding us of the nice time we spent there before turning occidental in quest of Gold (err. greener pastures) ! The descent of the flight as it hovered over Raleigh airport was even more gratifying, and I was awe-struck again, watching the shades of verdant landscape interspersed with prisitine lakes that define the landscape of the South East hinterland..

A quick lunch and shower was all it took, before we hit the road. Looked like this time my body had caught up with the Sun shining on EDT much sooner, and did not gimme too much of a headache that frequent the jet-laggers. As we closed in on Uncle Sam's capital, the EQ, i.e. excitement quotient grew by leaps and bounds and the pinnacle of Washington monument perfectly personified the state of our mind. The lights that shone upon Capitol Hill truly make it a visitors' paradise. I could already identify myself with tourists decked up with the copyrighted 'I LUV DC'. The adventurous spirit that we were exhibiting took us close to the dungeons of the FBI/CIA headquarters in neighboring Reston/Herndon VA, when our GPS guided us via the backdoor into a no-entry zone headed towards the White House. Some driving skills put to test and clever maneuvers took us back to the safe confines of our Hilton Hotel, and I was a tad disappointed to miss any rendezvous with its socialite heiress Paris Hilton !!

To be continued...

Summer of 2010

2010-05-28T17:58:00.002-04:00

Lot of water has flown down the bridge, since I last put my blogging skills to use.

And yes, I'm still not an alien, with a blue-body akin to the Avataar lead pair, but still the blogosphere feels like a different place altogether..But I'm sure, a few hundred lines is all that it would take for my Shin-kan-zen to start rolling once again!

2009 was a year in which a lot happened, and its hard to believe we are knocking at the doors of June of 2010 already...Wasn't it just a few days ago, that 2010 came beckoning to be the year of economic revival, promising to usher in good times again, and make mends for the recession that gripped the world thru 2008 and 2009.

Of course, another kind of Dragon has got a firm grip on world affairs now, with China, shining like a star in the new world order and humbling the mighty Uncle Sam, whenever it gets an opportunity.

Now, I haven't read into the fineprint about the situation @Latitude 38 parallel North aka the Korean peninsula, but my gut feel says, its a proxy war between the USA and China, not South and North Korea..

One of the evolutions in my social networking history over the year was switching over from Orkut to the more sociable 'Facebook'. Now, being a die-hard Google fan, it wasn't an easy choice, but a decision made with due diligence and listening to my heart's call !!

To summarize, in the war between Mountain View and Palo Alto, PA won handsomely. I guess it was also easier to favor PA, since I moved residence out of MTV to the relatively more sunny, vale in the Bay Area.

Now I am not a big fan of Al Gore and his initiatives to save the planet, but the weather change being experienced recently has caused me to devote more than the occasional shrug to the issue of global warming. Here in Cali, you are supposed to pay premium for the Sun, but dude, where is the Sun, this yr ?? NorCal is behaving more like its cousin Portland and distant Pacific cousin Seattle in exhibiting a weather pattern that is as naive to me as a doughnut would be to a newborn !!

Spring has brought everything to life, but the chill accompanied by the erratic rains has really left me doing Brrr..for the past several months, with no respite on the horizon.

Back home, India is reeling under a severe heat wave that would offer stiff competition to the Icelandic volcanic ash that left Europe limping and got flights to a standstill. Could it not spare Europe, as it was already limping under the Euro-zone crisis?

40 deg celcius is the norm now, and its not uncommon for the Deccan Plateau to warm up close to the half-century mark (temperature wise). Guess, the only advantage is hotels won't need an oven any longer to serve the Tandoori chicken to its fans!

Have a flight to catch later, but hoping to bring back the blogging spirit in the Summer of 2010 !!

Blog abhi baki hai mere dost...

2009-01-28T19:28:00.003-05:00

This almost sounds like alien territory to me; revisiting it after a gorge that is around 8 months apart.
I had practically given up on blogging for the better part of 2008, and it is certain checkpoints like your birthday, that remind you that there is a life beyond the role of bread earning that needs to be exercised.
Reading is another of those long lost passions that I need to reignite in 2009. I'm already planning a dash to the Mountain View Public Library this weekend, to catch up on all the reading that has eluded my eyes since time immemorial. The last thing I remember devouring upon was the 'Godfather', which I enjoyed thoroughly. And then I took to reading the 'Last Don', but lost initiative along the way...
Celebrating birthdays in a place different from your home country has its own ramifications, and I wonder at technical aspects like when should I celebrate it? Should it be as per my current time zone or should I align it with India? Still haven't figured out the answer. I got around it, though, by making myself believe that its on both days, thus having a 36 hour window to rejoice...
We had planned to watch CC2C at the movies a while ago, when we last caught its enticing trailer while watching Singh is King. We were eagerly waiting thru mid January and were tuned to the theatres around that screen Bollywood films; lo behold, when the reviews came out, I was quite disappointed to see that it was a bomber at the BO. Well, that didn't mean we were going to give it a miss, especially in the era of streaming video delights, which friendly desis are eager to help their fellow Indians with. What a spirit of fraternity this movie sharing business is; doesn't it deserve some gallantry award, since the guyz have the cheek to brave the (C) word, in the land where 'sue' is a mighty weapon !!
So ultimately, CC2C or what I abbreviate as C22C or 2C2C or 22C was watched in the cosy confines of our apartment home, and we patted ourselves for being judicious and waiting for some public reviews. Its February and its raining here again; just waiting for President's day to catch up more sleep on the long weekend..ehhhh

A laid-back Friday

2008-05-16T15:35:00.002-04:00

Its one of those rare days @work, when the pace of life can match the pace of work. There are just a few things to take care of, and people are chilled out in general. What a surprise that this is happening in one of the most warm days seen by me in Nor Cal so far..Gave me the faint hint of being someplace closer to home in Pune, with a classic tropical climate, the winds confined to the Occidental coastline of the Pacific, and not trying to venture into the hinterlands of the Peninsula and South bay.
Today's a laid back Friday, and the scorching heat today means our office admin guyz have been thoughtful enough to order ice-cream and popsicles in the afternoon rather than the trite Beer, which can quench the thirst of certain souls but leaves tee-totallers with a bitter taste ..
In fact, it was the first time in more that six months last week that my entire team went to the HQ building to participate in the Friday evening bash. I was happy to move outside the confines of my solitary existence in office to a more social hangout. There was tons of food, mainly of the non-veg type that Americans devor and revel upon, with a bit of salad and veg rolls to satiate the palates of the green people...
Last weekend we went for a Marathi classical songs concert organized by the local Maharashtra Mandal, and it wasn't disappointing. Devki Pandit rendered a variety of beautiful compositions starting off with Raag Madhumati and culminating it with the traditional Bhairavi.
It was a good blend or cocktail, if you may, with classical, semi-classical, thumri, natya-geet, bhav-geet and bhakti -sangeet. Though I am not a big fan of hers, the mood and spirit of the occasion in the setting of the Jain temple @Milpitas was rejuvinating enough.
This weekend is going to busy for us, since we need to shop around and do other planning activities for the impending trip to the North East. We are really excited about this trip to NY and Niagara and guess the season is perfect for this excursion planned....

Finally some time

2008-03-19T20:03:00.003-04:00

At last there is some time at hand. I thought I was away from action for a couple of months, it so turns out I haven't posted since Dec..well that's pathetic..anyways..
To say that Jan-march has been quite hectic would be an understatement. Still we did a lot of cool things along the way..
We saw the nature's majesty in the form of Lake Tahoe, and did treks to Muir woods. SFO city as usual is a treat to visit, and we actually got great pictures of the Golden gate on multiple occasions. I always thought the city is taking time to accept us into its fold and finally it has...
Visitors from india has been another highlight, and the biggest advantage has been getting lots of home-made goodies on the opposite side of the globe..Hurray !!
Daylight savings happening last week and suddenly the day seems bigger. Its a treat to get back home in broad daylight and still enjoy the sunshine for an hour later. Also encourages us to get back on the fitness track and enjoy the spring weather. Barren trees have started showing sings of life again, and beautiful white and pink flowers are covering the tree tops..Birds are chirping and its Spring in Cali...

Pacifica

2007-12-07T19:10:00.000-05:00

Its been almost 2 months since we moved to the Pacific coast of the Americas, and looking back, it sounds like a wise decision. Good weather, lots of places to see and lots of friends and ppl you know..
Its taken a while, and now I am getting into the groove on the workfront too. It wasn't a simple start by any standards. Its a new company,new place, new colleagues and a new environment. On top of it, I was squeezed between buying essentials for our apartment, and work. To top it, my brainy had started to get a bit rusty for no apparent reason.
There was another contrast which I had to juggle with, and that was the difference in the working style I was used to, in India and on the East Coast vs. the one here in Cali. Now that I have realized what nuts and bolts need to be fixed, the jig saw puzzle is gradually finding its way out...
Though it will take some more time to get firmly rooted and have my juggernaut rolling..

Last month was great on the excursion front. Rahul, Aditi, Vaidehi and I had a great day in San Francisco, the cute city.The weather was chill and at its foggy best...The golden gate park and the golden gate bridge were real treats for us. We also had our first rendezvous with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, and it was biting cold to say the least...Its almost winter here, and the beaches of Cali are know to treat people coldy, they say..hehehehe
The Golden Gate bridge was truly marvelous, but we could just catch a glimpse of it, due to the extremely foggy conditions..Good reason for us to catch it later in the summer.
Thanksgiving weekend was an even bigger outing for us, with the Kakades and Deodhars setting off to Southern California on our maiden sojourn. it was an action packed trip for 4 days, starting with the riches of beverly Hills, Rodeo drive, thru the scintillating Hollywood and LA city, and leading us to Universal studios. The next day was in the sunny town of San Diego, just off the Mexican border, where we got a more than fair share of oceanic fauna, amongst sea lions, manatees, whales and dolphins, not to forget the flamingos...
On our way back we took route 1, going thru Sa Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, and I had a nice adventurous 3 hours of driving in pitch dark along the winding state road besides the Pacific. What a shame we could not enjoy those moments of exuberance felt during a game of roadrash by the Pacific drive...There's always a next time, ain't it ?

My favorite season

2007-10-26T01:47:00.000-04:00

The last quarter of the year more often than not tends to usher in good tidings for me.
Until last year, way back in India, it marked the onset of the festive season, with Navratri coming with a big bang, and Diwali crackers adding that icing on the cake....
The air gets so better, the scorching heat is gone, the monsoons have retired back to their abode in the oceans, and winter is round the corner. Its a trilogy of sorts; as a student there are more challenges to be faced in the form of mid-year exams, but once you are out of the clutches of this education system and onto a job, then things tend to get more relaxing on this front.
Its not just big festivals that leave an impression and give that feeling of gay to us, even the smaller and yet fun filled ones, for e.g Kojagiri Pournima today leave a distinct feeling of elation on my mind...The radiant, resplendent fully waxed moon shines its riches upon Mother Earth and we human mortals try to capture this parent-child romance in ounces of Milk and devour upon its crisp pure creamy taste ...Kojagiri makes me reminiscent of the nice dinners I had with my family in Pune on the terrace and more recently, the Sharad Pournima on the beaches of the Radisson Inn in Goa last year, with a bonfire and waves lashing incessantly onto the shores, with us folks merrying amidst all kinds of music and dance....
Even as I sit in my living room on the other side of the globe, the feeling of joy is pretty much the same..On the personal front too, I have begun this period of the year with lots of reasons to cheer for. The brand new job @Vmware, the brand new car-> Yes, the Honda Accord if you missed those sound bytes from me. I cant but help remember the commercial of Asian paints where Sunil babu gets a naya ghar, nayi gaadi, nayi mrs.. (well, my wife is nayi too, and I am still a naya husband) :-)
Being in the temperate part of the world has other side effects and advantages..I got my first exposure to this phenomenon called Fall (aka Autumn). ANd then there is a big gung-ho about how the leaves turn into rainbow colors and display the Fall colors to mankind... Its almost like a competition between states like Maine, MN, WI and NH as to where the carotenes and xanthophiles are most vivid and colorful....
We came down to the West not expecting any kind of Fall in Cali. But Palo Alto has had its fair share of Fall and its beautiful colors, and has been a treat to our eyes...
Overall, it feels good, being in the hub of Silicon valley, in the midst of the Googles and Yahoos and VMwares of the world..........Enjoy the season guyz..!!!!!!!!!!!

The new dawn...

2007-08-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

The summer here is turning out to be better.
Vaidehi is in Atlanta now, and suddenly my mundane existence has sprung back to life.
The ghar ka khana is back and I am already feeling at home now.
Got some plans with Abhi for the labor day weekend, we might go around the city a bit, and probably further, time permitting.
Last weekend we spent a handful of hours in Atlanta downtown, and being here for almost 5 months, I hadnt ventured anywhere close to that part of town. Suddenly I explored the East-West Marta link for the first time, and also took a bus ride.. Underground Atlanta wa buzzing with activity and some pockets there reminded me of Tulshi-baug in Pune :-)
I had a few more exploits of interest in the last month, and some force in me has sailed me thru the objective I had in mind, cant spell it out here for fear of pre-maturely leaking out the news...but yes, life does promise to get even better in the next few months....
Haven't read any novels in quite some time, the last one being Five Point someone, and not Harry Potter, which is what people would expect to have read latest by default :-)

My culinary skills have been put to rest. Thankfully..Yeah, I was almost reaching a point where I wud rather succumb to burgers rather than spent a few hours daily in the kitchen besides the electric oven, trying to get tadkas and Indian cuisine cooked for my stomach.
Planning and will power are the keys to success, i have realized, and I hope to be more and more systematic to make this mortal existence one with lot of substance.
I Pray to thee Lord...

I'm still here

2007-08-04T17:02:00.000-04:00

Last month was a blog drought for me, without a single post. And its today that for lack of better alternatives, I find myself blogging again. Also once in a while I need to send KeepAlive(), so that people know my blog is still on :-)
July proved to be a routine mundane month, lacking the action of any sorts....
and now its August, getting warmer day by day in the Southern state of Georgia....
When I suddenly look back, its been 3.5 months out of India and still there are those moments, where I fail to come to terms that I won't be going home anytime soon....Luckily my wife would join me soon later this month and this is a big reason to cheer, since I hope it takes away half of my boredom.......
I have been planning some other things too in the meantime, and am hoping that by dint of my efforts and that element of luck, I should sail thru and successfully complete the project which I have set sail for.....
Today for the first time I went to the movies here, and watched the Bourne Ultimatum, and it was good to watch..Lot of action packed, a bit too fast to palette at times..but some kind of entertainment in general. I also came to terms with the buckets of popcorn that are gorged upon by fellows here. What a contrast compared to the small plastic tini-wini bits of popcorn we used to buy back home, from the market in Pimpri for like 2 bucks...(Rs..not $ hehehehe )

Exploring the US is going to be my next part of the agenda, and I hope to really see some good places and enjoy with Vaidehi when she's here...That would be really something to look forward to...
Let me end with an expression which I learnt from the Wonder Years which ran in the late 60s and early 70s...Have a neat summer !!!!

June te June..will naveen be sone ?

2007-06-27T16:51:00.000-04:00

Before I realize the last week of June is here, and as the Sun passes over the weekend, July will dawn. Not that any of these months are real special to me, but I am suddenly faced with the stark reality that half of 2007 is gone..and also means another thing, that it will be 6 months since I got married. Now whenever I look at my marriage photos, doesn't it just sound like yesterday ?
With office chores, this week has been a listless one, and one where my Ashwamegh of triumph, success and glory has been suddenly halted, also stealing away my luv(love) and kushi (khushy) feeling ..
I guess there are always these moments of lull which help us to reflect back on life, take a breath and analyze what has gone right -n-wrong, and whether the boat of life is steering in the right direction. So, I too have taken stalk of the situation and have set the ball rolling for what should lead to my heart's desire.
Tony Blair has resigned today, and for some strange reason, I felt a tinge of emotion for him, guess its always big news when the excited electrons need to return back to their normal state. Back home, the rains are continuing their now yearly routine of lashing onto cities, towns, mohallas and dwarf villages, bringing life to a standstill. As if to remind people, that the surge in technology cannot annul the forces that Nature is made up of. But it does mean a good year ahead for farmers, agriculture, and even the manufacturing sector in general, and makes the bourses even more bullish...
With Presidential elections in India reduced to a two-way battle, the sword-lines have been drawn, and I am a bit unsure myself whom I want to support. I would also like India to have its first female President, and notwithstanding the fact that she hails from Maharashtra, I have some respect for our VP too..anyways..good that this is one election where I do not miss out casting my ballot..
Far away in Western Europe, a bunch of 11 guys belonging to Team India are playing a game called cricket, and I hope it remains sincerely confined to such corners of the world rather than Hindustan, so that our nation continues to be more productive and stress-free...anyways, hope the desis back home are listening....What I am really missing this time around is the tennis action, since the absence of a TV is preventing my thirsty eyes from savoring the green lawns and strawberry with cream that defines the persona of Wimbledon.!!! too bad...

Rains in Atlanta

2007-06-08T16:39:00.000-04:00

Its getting warmer here in SE of USA in Atlanta. I can easily feel the contrast in the weather now vs when I got here first in mid-April. Then, it was touted as spring, but the early mornings and nights were really chill, atleast by Indian standards; now its much warmer early in the day and stays like that until late at night. In fact, the sun is scorching at times , in the afternoon..they say more so because of the lack of the ozone layer in this part of the world.

Its been overcast here for the past few days and the weather here reminds me of the monsoon season way back in India. One good thing is not having to face the potholes for sometime now..:-)
On work front, I am really liking the new technologies I am working on, which have been truly refreshing. Its fun to learn stuff urself and then implement it in code. Already new buzzwords like WSDL, web services, SOAP, XML, C# are making me feel elated, and increasing my knowledge.It does feel good to work on cool latest technologies in this fast-paced world of IT.
The new domain also feels nice for a change, outside the BE-lake, where I swam for quite some time. Its only when u get outside the lake, that you realize its a big world outside for us to explore...

This weekend, I will be taking some driving classes, before my test next week, and I hope I do learn the nitty-gritty of parking so that will pave the way for me to get my driving license..and then I can rent cars and visit places and have more fun...
Its strange but already Atlanta sounds like a home to me, i.e when I go outside, and come back it does give the feeling of being in familiar territory, though it lacks the warmth and charm of good ole India and amche Pune...well kuch paane ke liye kuch khona padta hai ...

After a month..

2007-05-24T16:48:00.000-04:00

Its hard to believe, but its been just a month since I have been in the US. It sounds like much longer...and believe me, most of the time and energy gets spent in booting up.
Yes, there are things you need for survival here, and each one comes in a specially packed Pandora's box. its all about ur SSN, then debit and credit cards, leasing apartments, paying deposits, setting up utilities, and credit checks.
This must be the only place which trusts credit more than cash. sounds ridiculous to me at least..
Anyways, who can change the law of the land of Uncle Sam?
I am now almost into the groove of coming to office, doing my job and going back. There is a monotony of sorts about it, since there is a traditional difference in the office culture I am used to versus what I find here in AT&T. Its so much sombre and business oriented here..yes, its good to be professional, but don't know what harm a few playful moments or chatting with ur cubicle neighbor would cause...
And in my team, there are just too many Indians, still haven't got the feeling of working in the US in the true sense, since my work and interaction remains more or less shielded from the Amrus.
This time, trying different international cuisines is also conspicuous by its absence. I remember being in the US for just over 3 weeks last time, and trying Chinese, Mexican, Thai, and a few more other places. this time the farthest we have gone with respect to a non-Indian meal is the Pizza..LOL...
India has changed a lot in the past 3-4 years, and so being here doesn't make you feel necessary more privileged. save the cleanliness which is next to Godliness here..(well almost). Is it because In God they trust ? :-)

company gave me a laptop to work, so its good at the moment. Not having internet at home has advantages like not having to check office mail from home, nor bother about work. and yes, i can coolly watch movies and catch up episodes of Wonder years which I was dying to see after some rave recommendations from some colleagues..
One big thing for me to get here has definitely being getting out of the atmosphere at Symantec India, which was turning out to be maze, without the outlet that the free man of today aspires for...
Looking fwd to the Memorial day weekend coming soon; me and my pals planning a nice trip to the Smoky mountains..it should be fun...

Samland blog

2007-04-27T14:55:00.000-04:00

Its been over a week since I stepped into US territory. The first few days were gruesome and very boring. Just wanted to take the first flight back home, its only now that tings are getting a little better.
Cooking meals for dinner is a good past time and also allows us to taste the Indian cuisine which is some much in demand by my palette.
I decided to go out blogging with hihg spirits, but looks like i have got bored along the way. So just have to prematurely truncate this one till I really feel like it..Schuuz

Just for gags

2007-03-16T08:51:00.000-04:00

Ambivalent feelings run thru my mind at this juncture in life, when I am ready for yet another leap. Though this is not a leap year,I have suddenly accelerated things happening in my life. First I got married, so as to solve the all important issue of companionship, and with this mission having succeeded, I set my issues on other goals in life.
Change is always a difficult thing, and it was this inertia or the affinity for homeostasis that made me stick to what I was doing for the past couple of years. But finally, the simmering within, with the help of a few external catalysts made me take steps towards a brighter future.
With things shaping up well now, I am ready for the Occident to propel myself into the orbit.
Suddenly, since the past couple of months, i find in myself a new sense of confidence about work. Things sound within grasp and my sharpness seems to have increased. Ideally, I would have expected this transformation to be a gradual process, but some kind of magic wand has done the trick, or so I feel. How else would I be brimming with confidence out of the blue, atleast on the work front....
Its not been all hunky dory, though I make it sound that way. At times, the feeling of wretchedness takes its toll on me and sags my spirits to such an extent, that the frustration manifests itself in different forms like anger, anxiety etc. But some kind of divine intervention ensures that I come back on track in some time, only to repent for my actions in the last few moments.
One good thing in the process is that good sense seems to prevail and things dont get out of control. Maybe its just those minor adjustments that need to be made in life. I should be learning to enjoy more out of life, and be more open and magnanimous..this will make life a lot simpler than what it sounds in some trying moments.
Some blogs are from the heart, some out of the mind, this one seems to be a good blend of both...So its as natural as it gets when the mind is without fear and the head is held high, just to quote Gurudev Rabindranath !!! just for gags :-))

Spring has arrived

2007-02-08T07:16:00.000-05:00

The new regimen after marriage is still taking a while to get normalized. This has led to procrastination of several tasks, very alike blogging regularly. I just decided that before people think I am out of this world, I need to send in a heart-beat message. Also its important to train oneself to cling on to good habits, which take a while to develop and be ingrained in the mind, but just require a few loose threads to be snapped off easily !
Days and nights are more eventful than they used to be say about a couple of months back. Well, classically speaking a couple of months more than a couple of months, since I was already in the transition phase from single->committed->engaged, until the ultimate wedlock happened. But coming back to the point, the monotony that had set in got broken and was replaced by a more welcome set of changes.
Joining office after that marriage vacation hiatus hasn't been that simple, since getting into the groove sounds simpler in theory than in practice. The pace of things has suddenly picked up for me, after the new work assignment, and being a feature owner gives the feeling of having to shoulder a lot of responsibilities. Also, you become the cynosure of public attention and have to learn to take the credit as well as the blame...
There have been a lot of personal chores to attend too as well, and they are keeping me and my mobile busy for quite some time...This weekend we will be traveling close to my erstwhile native place and meet up with Vaidehi's old granny, and I hope the blessings of the left and right trunk-sided Lord Ganesha will prove to be a double beatitude for us...Spring has arrived, and I can smell the freshness that is floating around in the ambient air like a lilting melody !!

The dawn of 2007

2007-01-18T06:32:00.000-05:00

2007 has dawned and the first month has slipped past pretty quick., well almost. The month will always remain special to me as the one in which I got married, besides it has the dubious distinction of being the month of my birthday; winters in India are excellent and that's because the weather is just perfect for that travel recipe. Me and Vaidehi did travel to Udaipur and were truely mesmerized by the lake city, resplendent with its gardens and palaces surrounding the beautiful expanses of pristine water bodies. It gives the city a nice bohemian look, and gives the impression of a European setting.

Mt. Abu also turned out to be an excellent getaway, and not many people go there for the post-marriage trip, is what someone quoted. But within a span of 2 days, I met two people saying they went to the same place when it was their moment of pleasure and joy !!

Vaidehi flew her maiden flight and me my maiden one in the new year...Looking back the whole ceremony and trip sound like a nice dream which came and passed by smoothly. There are moments when I think if this has really transpired or whether it is just a figment of my imagination. Our family watched the marriage CD and it seemed like a fairy tale to us; but it was thoroughly enjoying to relive those moments again and again. I guess, there will be many more iterations over the same before they r back in the wraps, waiting to be watched again....

The pace of life is picking up again, especially this week since I joined office. There are some tasks that I need to gather momentum on, plus some personal priorities to factor in...Abhijit flies out this weekend and I hope i get to see him much sooner than the chasm of 18 months like this time...

Guten abends..

Mixed feelings

2006-12-21T07:06:00.000-05:00

The day began on a moderately hectic note and after attending to my household chores I was off to office. The mind was without fear, and head was held high, and this remains my state at the end of the day, although the magnitude of the fear and the high headed-ness dropped by a minuscle through the happenings of the day...
My wud-be gave splendid piece of news thru the middle of the day and her promotion was catalyst enough to make me feel a few notches higher. Now I realize additional advantages of getting married, where the joy of sharing happiness mutually is so wonderful a sentiment...
The evening turns out to be a sudden date to quickly celebrate the success ! I discovered this new thing about coincidences and wish making when you utter the same word simultaneously with someone, so we decided to give it a shot and hope for the best outcome to give us company in the near future...
This last week has been a true connoisseur's treat, and I have already tasted a wide variety of delicacies, with many mouth watering sweet-meats. On multiple occasions, our kind hosts actually guessed what was on my mind and I got to savor those food items to my heart's content.
A good message came in last week by telephone, and I only hope it translates into something fruitful, so that I can bring fruition to my plans..Abhijit's homecoming has been such a wonderful experience and suddenly the home is buzzing with activity. It almost sounds like our lives had gone to a frozen state, lacking the energy and enthusiasm, and spring has returned with blossoms of those fragrant flowers and we r up and running again as we were about 18 months ago. I also got to relive those moments of him troubling me again, which were conspicuous by their absence, and I had to make solitude my dear friend !!!
I sent in quite a few marriage invitations this week and looks like the fag end is approaching, although a tad far...I pray to God that things work out smoothly and any worrisome factors are ironed out before the D-day. Looking forward to a big vacation from next week onwards, probably been a long time, maybe after my Engineering exam breaks. I wish my blog readers a Happy new year in advance, since I'm not sure I'll be signing in soon before 2007 dawns..Happy holidays folks..

2006-11-27T04:39:00.000-05:00

Blogging, which was an obssession at one point in time, has now suffered a setback. Today its just when i ran out of options to do that I decided to login and pen a few words here. The office was jampacked with action last week, which never seems to run out of steam, as there is lot of ammunition which is added to keep the flame alive ! My principle of detachment helps me cope up with these daily bouts of anxiety, as I stay aloof looking for the bigger principle in life. This Saturday me and family drove to Khalapur off the Pune-Mumbai Expressway for this 'Kelvan' which becomes a treat if you will, in the pre-nuptial, post-bethrothment era of mankind. Panchpakwan or the five delicacies were the speciality of the house and it was refreshing to be in a village, abundant with rain, and some glorious gift of flora and fauna. It is at these junctures that I inadvertently put on the thinking hat and ponder over our purpose in life. Is it just to lead an action packed life, full of work, TV and other material comforts or is it to discover your true self? Happiness is truly a state of mind, as it cannot be multiplied by the sodium vapour lamps that add color and illuminate the dark city streets, but are not incandescent enough to uplift the human spirit !!!
At times, ridiculous though it may sound, I experience in myself, a miniature Buddha, who felt compassionate towards his fellow beings and reached enlightenment in due pursuit of a solution for the same. I really empathize with the sorrow around and feel I need the power to transform lives to make this world a much better place, devoid of the vicious elements and even the natural phenomenon of life and death. Of course, this thought is too far fetched, since it amounts to transgressing the boundaries of my mortal existence and attempting to barge into the domain of the One God, who very well knows how things should be...
Getting rid of the cricket mania has done me a lot of good and every sorry performance by our team does not penetrate into my system any longer. In fact, I wish people got more wiser and did not look upon victories in a game of cricket to serve as a feel-good factor; the media gets fresh meat on their kabab stick with every dismal loss and tabloids are currently too busy tracking how the heart beat between Ash and the Jr B is getting faster and passionate.
Music is a true refresher as was proven Saturday nite, when I caught up Gazals by the maestro Jagjit Singh on my local cable channel. Felt like it was a true moment of bliss, and was one of those rare moments, when you feel life should just come to a standstill ...

The ball gets rolling..

2006-11-10T05:07:00.000-05:00

This is a phase in life where things seem to be moving rather than gathering moss. The last month has not changed life dramatically, but clearly brings along that lilting melody of the hummingbird, which seems to have come back after a rather long migration and hibernation..
Life is set for a change when one gets married, and i can sense that from the fact that i am set to lose my bachelorhood, albeit willingly. The self will be lost and a couple will replace it unknowingly and from what it seems so far, happily. The Atlantic sea of turmoil on this front has turned pacific, and suddenly it sounds like a mission accomplished. A couple of nerve wrecking feelings have also made a stopover at times, but I have managed to quash them under the blanket of optimism. There have been quite a few first things over the past fortnight and while it sounded so intriguing and exhilirating at that time, my objectivity has returned back only to make me feel as normal as the winters which have just started casting their spell over the city of Pune.
The days are getting smaller but my sleep is burgeoning beyond the normal, and for the past few days, I seem to wake up amidst the chirping of birds, but the inertia to get moving takes it toll and forces me to turn back by a right angle into a comfortable prostrate position.
The Champions' Trophy came and went like an unwanted guest and no wonder the enthusiasm was at its nadir. I must have barely watched a total of 15-20 minutes of the entire tournament and did not regret that one bit. What made news was the final, and no, it wasn't the lop-sided match, but the post-match presentation which was such a newsmaker. I must say the Aussies did it in perfect style, very akin to their blood, and the roots of their ignoble origin surface at times like this, causing embarrasment to the folks around. Made me ashamed to Australian cricket of which I have been an avid fan since the Summer of 1999 when India toured there after 8 long years.

Goan Rhapsody

2006-10-17T09:52:00.000-04:00

Its been more than a week since the culmination of our Goan Rhapsody, but time has been flying at lightening speed and lots of eventful things around caused me to return to blog-board at an interval greater than the usual.
This trip was special to me in multiple ways; right from the inception of the idea to the planning and successful execution of plans. Our team has been so much used to be shown carrots which never really flourish, and trinkets that can charm babies but not bombastic software engineers, that we tend to look at every object with a jaundiced eye. So it was no surprise that when the news of this trip was split to us, the initial reaction was that of complete disbelief with that distinct element of sattire ! Even a couple of weeks later, when the dates came really close, dark clouds loomed large over us when the impending release was as if stuck up in a bubble gum, unwilling to make the egress. Expectation is the root cause of misery felt really apt, since our blase reaction ensured that news of possibly not going to Goa failed to dampen our spirits...
Sometimes Lady Luck also decides that enough mockery has happened and hence, the lucky BE team actually got the green signal to make gala plans for Goa. A string of unpleasant events in the course of that month, which came to visit me like ghosts of the past almost made me jump off the bandwagon as a silent mark of protest to the ensuing happenings, but ultimately good sense prevailed and all of us were on for the jaunt!!!
Then the angel or the good guy in me stepped up to the challenge and decided to enjoy this to the fullest; that's how I landed in the .org domain and was soon looking at travel arrangements and catering related activities. This was also veiled by my hidden agenda to network more with people and increase the feel-good factor within myself.
When the Goan Rhapsody day arrived, we were in high spirits and set off vy Goa Express towards Madgao. A couple of hours of train delays only confirmed the reliable and predictable nature of the Indian Railways. Rains seemed to be playing spoilsport on Friday morning and looked like we were in for a lot of indoor activites, courtesy the rain gods, but the Sun came shining down upon the ocean waters the moment we stepped into Gomantak territory and this was enough to cheer us up.
The Radisson White sands resort was exquisite and classy in its design and service. The room was pretty cosy and had great interiors, befitting any 5-star hotel. The next 3 days we gorged upon the choicest of desserts, fruit, bread and Indian delicacies during every meal..Non veggies savoured upon sea foods and Goan fish curry. What stood out during the visit was the team spirit which was rejuvenated or rather created for the first time since a long time...
The length and breadth of activities we did there were really stupendous. Just to name a few, got a taste of steam bath and a jacuzzi followed by a nice head ache :-) . Beach volleyball turned out to be the ultimate charmer, in addition to water polo interspersed with some mocktails and pints of beer for few of us.
Kojagiri night celebration on the beach was a truly romantic setting, though I lacked the ammo (read wife/gf) to fully exploit the situation. The campfire experience which never really caugght fire still remains etched in my memory.. Our cultural nite was another highlight of this Rhapsody.
As if this was not enough, we did manage to snuggle in a few more activities like the bowling alley, air hockey and dancing on the discotheque to the tunes of Indi pop and Samba.. Some nice firang dancers were icing on the cake and were really soothing to our sleepy eyes.. And then the great fun we had in Charan's room was remarkable to say the least...
Did have a lot of fun on the trip and made quite a lot of friends and acquaintances as well. Was indeed a Rhapsody !!!!!!!!!

Lage raho Akshay...

2006-09-27T08:41:00.000-04:00

Watched LRMunnabhai last weekend, and needless to say it has thoroughly impressed me. Was truly refreshing to watch a pure breed film replete with entertainment and those subtle social messages which will strengthen our Indian fabric !
While non-violence and non-conventional techniques of achieving success have been on my experiment list for quite some time, Gandhigiri has re-consolidated my faith in such philosophies. I think the Lage Raho part of the film title is so apt, and again makes us persevere without feeling exhausted..
My X-factor seems have to have gathered some momentum, and I couldn't be wrong if my friends shower that dose of occasional praise upon me and my personality. Feels good. Also my sixth sense is working a bit or seems to have got the catalyst to pick those ambient signals, which usually just turn into entropy for want of transistors tuned to the right frequency.
Fancy and exotic dreams are also the flavour of this season,and while some of them make logical sense, while others just seem to reflect the ebb and tide of my oceanic waters !! Some of them are feel good and help cheering my spirits, giving me a high feeling without using any spirits :-)
Have a lot of things lined up thru the next week, including a TechSupport session, some Windows Networking readup and then co-ordinating the logisitics of our Goa trip..Keeping me busy and improving my 'networking', after all that has been one of my preset goals. As if the One is saying, don't worry 'Lage raho Akshay' !!!!

Mexican wave

2006-09-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

I have conjured up this prose-like poetry to break the monotony which i think has set into my blogs....

The year came like a messenger of growth and excitement,
Gay were my spirits and i was lilting like a butterfly !
This Indian spring would usher in that flavor of merriment(I thought),
Would I pair up with melodies of that childhood lullaby ?
Enjoying every success at work; my mind, body and soul
Felt elated at times with occassional tinges of ego massaging
Then it was almost half-time, but there wasn't any goal
Emotions were running high, but my luck was just relaxing !!
Then came the fresh showers of monsoon, soaking all my emotions
But life had by then become hanging stalactites and stalagmites
Painful swords of Damascus filled my heart with divine devotions,
The hermit crab in me was day dreaming and flying kites ........
Neither a bed of roses nor strewn with the choicest of thorns
My reflections upon life and beyond have exalted my mortal existence
Would I really be exaggerating by saying I was just reborn ?
The market bulls are roaring, but this Tauran(bull) is lacking that ambience
Fall in the West and Autumn in the East is round the corner
My negative beta helps me rise against the massive oceanic tides ..
The final quarter will boost my reputation & replenish my armor
Truimph will be mine with 'name' and 'fame' in my stride !!!!!!!!!

Wishful thinking

2006-09-12T10:21:00.000-04:00

Day dreaming has become a habit of sorts for me these days. Many a times, the flurry of thoughts is so rapid that my mind travels like blitzkrieg , making it difficult to apply the brakes. I have to consciously steer my mind towards more worldly things, much against the wishes of the 'mann' !
This effect is more pronounced on weekends when the idle mind is a devil's workshop, and ironical though it may sound, I look forward more to week days when work and even office worries serve as a pleasant retreat compared to the volcano that fails to cool off ...As if to compensate for the paucity of US travel and roller-coaster rides in those theme parks, this wishful thinking has all the elements like fear, suspense, thrill, ecstacy etc and that element of surprise too.

A lazy Thursday afternoon

2006-08-31T05:57:00.000-04:00

Its a Thursday afternoon and laziness has gripped me tightly. Planning to make a pre-mature exit from office today and dash off home, core working hours are over anyways and I am all set to enjoy a long weekend by taking Friday off...Planning to make a nice jaunt to Kolhapur this Sunday, and I hope that rains will not play spoilsport in this scheme of things. Its been a little over a year since we went there and the urge grew stronger after a couple of dreams I had last month envisioning the Goddess Shakti herself. As if to say, my son, do not worry, your mundane worries will be solved if you come to me.
Peace and a beatific state of mind have made longer stop-owers in my body and soul since the last few weeks; while I have traditionally had the pleasure of being stoic to circumstances, my 'sthitapradnya bhav' and cherubic demeanor have been supplemented by doses of spiritual reading. I was a bit surprised myself, when I heard people say some 'nice' things about me and experienced that I could relate better to nature and its tiny creatures. And all this transformation happening in a fortnight was truely unbelievable.
I was lucky to have the benediction of reading the English xlation of the Guru Charitra and my faith in the Lord has multiplied several times, as an outcome..
The weekend is not all fun, as it may sound though; there is a pile of exam papers waiting to be evaluated and it feels good, although scary at times, that I contribute to the future of the student populace and future software engineers. And then the holy scriptures and their teaching remind me that its not me who governs this, but the Supreme lord who uses me as a tool to get things done..
Did quite a bit of interviewing since last week and things are getting more fluent with time.It also has additional advantages of brushing up technical skills which tend to rust over a period of time like any good tool..
I decided to try my own miniature fear factor by donating blood. I wanted to get rid of the fear psychosis associated with injuries and blood in general and so I decided to overcome it by being in the midst of things. Was trying to use a thorn to draw a thorn :-) . I did go ahead with the blood donation, but the vasovagal shock which is the natural companion of the activity did make a short visit.I went blank for a couple of seconds and thankfully I was prostrate and this was followed by a streak of sweat, enough to stir a mild anxiety amongst the personnel there, but a couple of cans of mango juice and I was pretty normal then.
My blood group is O+ve but my attitude is B+ve. ;-)

This blog compiled @home

2006-08-26T00:53:00.000-04:00

It is always essential to be occupied with some or the other activity. I don’t know that this is the best start to my blog, but today the domain, terrain and environment are all different and this causes me to try harder than usual. [To demystify this puzzle, I am blogging from home for a change and not the usual seat in my office cubicle]. The stream of thoughts is not as streamlined as usual but who cares..:-) .

The end of a release is strange in many ways. While I am happy that the job is done, there is a twilight zone in which ambivalent feelings tend to soak my soul. More important than anything else, it creates a sudden void in the daily bug bashing routine and it takes a while to steer the ship in a different direction.

One good thing during this gestation period is to concentrate on those P3 goals which are otherwise, nothing but ornamental in nature to the goal-setting exercise done every year or six months. I am trying to be a bit more organized and have set a few professional and personal milestones to help utilize time better.

This fortnight, I did manage to put my culinary skills to test on more than a couple of occasions and without letting my alter-ego getting a massage, it is worthwhile to admit that I have passed the exam with flying colors. I have seen that I tend to enjoy this activity and that makes the process enjoyable and has the additional advantage of satiating my palate, ensuring that gastric juices have some good company of mirch-masala. Chapattis are the next on my agenda and that will make me feel a mini Sanjeev Kapoor, I guess.

Today I was amused to ready that our solar system has lost Pluto to dwarf hood reducing the magical number 9 to 8.It is apt though, that in numerological terms, this should happen in the year 2006, which adds up to 8. Though any kind of reductions are welcome to the ever dwindling memory of mankind; generation Y or maybe Z will have one free cell in their grey matter. I was a bit skeptical when earlier in the month, they planned to augment the count from 9 --> 12 and I must say that good sense has finally prevailed.

I am planning to step up the gas on a different plane and see the results for myself. That requires a lot of courage and grit, though the resolve is much stronger in my heart. More on that as things fructify and the Harry Potter in me shapes up lumps of clay into a nice pot. I wish my pot becomes a pot pourri of good luck and has my coveted flower smiling happily in it. Touch-wood !!

Lord of the Rings.

2006-08-11T08:10:00.000-04:00

I have been planning to leave office early for the past several weeks, but there’s a catch 22 situation at hand. Making an early egress means having to skip certain rituals, which now define my new persona; and my mind, has been conditioned into not making those compromises. And somewhere around 7 or 7:30 pm, when office chores and personal agendas are attended to, it is traffic jams which force me to wait in the secure confines of a security company rather than venture into the dark murky boulevards, with not tinges of water, but overflowing gargoyles of rain-water which have been pouring onto the city and the Deccan Plateau incessantly for the past few weeks.

After finishing the succinct version of the Bhagavad-Gita, I had the privilege to read more philosophical literature in the form of ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ and followed it up with Deepak Chopra’s Seven Laws of Success. Some of the techniques in there are truly marvelous if applied in the right spirit and I am willing to make a gambit to get back what slipped thru my cuff last month. Oh, I get goose bumps when my thoughts travel back in time…

I did quite a bit of religious reading too last week and have been continuing this routine. The story of Shani (Saturn) sounded intriguing when my mom told it to me and I aptly chose a Saturday to read thru it; it was indeed absorbing, revering and gave a great sense of peace in the end… Its indeed the Lord of the rings i.e. Saturn who is lord of the planets!!

Another therapy that I am practicing is the one on Anger Management, and the crux is to not generate those anger impulses in the first place; aka prevention is better than cure. It’s an uphill task and I know that the going is tough, but not as tough as I thought it would be. It amazes me how you look for conventional and unconventional ways and means when the ride is a little bumpy and light at the end of the tunnel is usually a train rather than the bright sunlight in an azure sky. :-)

time pass chalu hai boss...

2006-07-28T07:59:00.000-04:00

Its one of those days when I have all the time to do what I want; of course the expectation is that the defect at hand be addressed, but its turning out to be a pain point to say the least.

I have become a great fan of ‘Fanaa’ songs and listening to them everyday has become a routine of sorts. Doing that at this very moment too :-)

Recently read ‘False impressions’ by Jeffrey Archer, I believe the first bestseller from him in his post-jail days. His literary style suits my interests and I remember I wasn’t too amused to hear him face a prison sentence. Also, this one was out of money from my own pocket after a long time, and I must thank the imitation folks who created a wonderful copy of the original with bar-code and stuff !!

Another good short-story collection I remember is ‘A quiver full of arrows’, it always had this element of surprise that left readers on tender-hooks towards the end.

My life has become a quiver of arrows in itself over the last six months or so.

Every other day I pull one out and aim it as if using the ‘Gandiv’ bow which was proudly possessed by Arjuna. More often than not, it fails to hit the target, or even if it does, it ends up meeting an aegis of defense.

I am still left wondering what foundry those shields are made of, that my arrows fail to pierce. The problem is not with the bow or arrow, it’s in Arjuna himself, who has lost focus or finds the bonding forces of Prakriti causing his plans to fall like nine-pins. The need of the hour is to blow the ‘Devdatta’ with full vigor and raise the war cry to enter the battle-field with a renewed sense of confidence.

Orkutting has become pretty pedestrian for me these days and I have come across many lost connections. I find it funny the rate at which some folks keep scrapping like regular IM chat, since I find it the least user friendly. In any case, it’s just for the one-off message was my belief. But with Yahoo messenger in office under the scanner from the IT dept, I must acknowledge the service it does to humanity.

Microsoft is coming to Pune shortly, is the news making rounds and spreading like wild forest fire, and adding fuel to this is the latest update that they are paying BE freshies a whopping 9.1 Lakh of rupees, that’s almost a million, by GOD !! Where is the IT industry headed towards ??

Planning to give today evening’s conf call a miss, since I see it more like a sheer waste of time and not paying the kind of dividends I expected it to. There was one good news btw, this week which lifted my spirits to more cheerful levels. When it was summer, I thought it was the heat and was longing for the monsoon. Now monsoons have gripped the peninsula, and that makes one feel lackadaisical at times. Human tendency I guess, to long for what is on the other bank of the river, and to long harder for things which seem out of control !!! I am trying to refrain from that though..Does that mean I am not human then ? :-)

Fresh like a flower

2006-07-21T08:06:00.000-04:00

Life is a great teacher and a great leveller they say !
While I am still to see-n-believe the second part, atleast the 1st one sounds really true. Example is better than precept is such a true maxim, but why are these examples not always like the sweet nectar of flora ?
Anyways, chronicles of that chronic ache lie hidden in a mysterious Pandora's box waiting to be opened at the right time to uncan a lot of goodies for the benefit of posterity.
Watching TV has become a problem nowadays, with the FIFA out of fan focus, and its good old daily soaps that are giving company again. Of course, with stock markets swaying like the Columbus boat, there is no paucity of entertainment or news.
A couple of defects (or can they be coalesced) are keeping me relatively busy, and its been quite an experience trying to unravel the mystery of their origin; a fix sounds ages away at the moment. But I have accrued some benefits along the way like learning some Oracle backup commands along the way of the likes "alter database noarchivelog"....I also got to know what strace() does on Linux, with the caveat that it interferes with Oracle while trying to debug child process logs..Its been good in general though !!
The middle of the week was at its excellent best (i don't care if this is amounts to some kind of insult to M/s Oxford dictionary).
We had a ball with a game of football and it was a great game with fun and frolic all along and displaying a rare feeling of camaraderie which is limited to a limited circle in office at other times of the year.
Wednesday evening was action packed spending some quality time with friends munching over those subways and chips to give some crisp company.
At an emotional level, while last week was chequered this one has tried to be mildly volatile, but the calming influence of the Bhagawad Gita ensures that my nerves are in full control and I am brimming with confidence which was hiding in the closet for a long time.
The compliments keep coming from guys and I hope gals start noticing sooner than later that I am fresh like a flower, glowing with resplendent beauty like a lotus in a pool on a full moon day !

Physique and Chemistry

2006-07-07T03:05:00.000-04:00

Blog titles come naturally to me at times and I need to craft them at times. Even the crafting is natural on occasions like this one today, whereas, its just a patchwork of a quilt on less rosy occasions.

Physique has been at the forefront of my fruitful existence in the past few weeks or months and I have every reason to cheer. Seeing words of praise and adulation being thrown upon me every day from unknown and known quarters makes my heart swell with pride and lungs swell with fresh air.

The last quarter has been good on the health front, and my body weight has corrected along with the stock markets in India and other BRICS economies !

Of course, I wud say its been a trend reversal for me, and I hope not to be bullish on my weight, since I think agility and nimbleness are much dearer to me than those lipid globules which should rightfully be a part of milk, ghee and cheese, rather than occupy pockets in my body..

Exercise is a stress buster and I am no health guru to re-state something new. Its just that ‘Experiential learning’ has its own joy, and when I tried it myself, the results are here to stay and devour upon.

Physics and chemistry go hand-in-hand and probably so do physique and chemistry. After all haven’t we gained adulthood riding our adolescent days on the sweet fairy tales of beauty and the beast. Well, maybe this is not the best possible parallel to draw, but think a little big and you know where I am getting.

In office, there are tasks which keep coming and going, and there used to be a time when a pile of defects was a shocker of sorts and the attempt was to call the routine FlushQueue( )

int FlushQueue()

{

if ( !emptyQ )

{

WorkHard( );

Panic( );

}

else

{

Party() ; // read AOE

}

While legacy code changes less, what has happened is the Panic() function is becoming less of a bugbear now, and is no longer an excuse to skip enjoying daily workouts or a happy weekend. Attitude changes a lot over time, and confidence is the key when things are looking nice..

Of course, the rain gods have probably been commanded by Lord Indra to wreak some havoc, and they have rightly obliged. Maybe the buttermilk which has long evaded the ruler of heavens was not offered in umpteen doses last year and so he’s unhappy with the state of affairs. The Sun was hiding in the closet of clouds, dark grey clouds probably called Nimbus and Pune city had become like sleepless in Seattle. But today is a different day and we are back to Sunny days, looking fwd to the last two football encounters of this mega world cup, which I have religiously followed.

Futball Mundial

2006-06-23T04:55:00.000-04:00

I am totally zapped and engulfed by the football fever which is talk of the world. Though I am not an avid follower of the club championships, the aura of the World Cup is too celestial and magnanimous to ignore.
The round robin stage is almost over and its separated the chalk from cheese.
The real fun now begins, with extra time on ties at 90 min, and then the goalies' delight, the penalty shoot out. I think that is what fans look fwd to and adds that extra zeal to soccer.
Such is the effect of football, that it makes cricket go pale and our national game hockey completely outside the radar of public attention, though India is playing there and doing well for a change.

I had written a nice blog few days back, but I forgot to hit the SAVE button, and 30 minutes of literary wisdom went down the drain; felt sad to lose that masterpiece which occurs rarely, it was a Jungle book theme blog. Let me see if I can recreate that magic sometime in the future.

Back to Corba

2006-05-26T01:56:00.000-04:00

Since last week, I have been back to working on CORBA, something I did a lot a couple of years back. And while I didn't fancy the idea, I had to take it like a bitter pill to swallow, since it seems there aren't too many experts in that area. Feels good to possess a skill that's a rareity in this software job market.
While the initial few things were pedestrian, its the new band of enhancements, that are making me feel pains. Well, add to this the pangs of separation I feel from a certain RD, and its only funny that I have a notion of spearation without really being together.. Sounds cryptic isn't it ?
That underlines the truth of the prophesy that I tend to hang on to certain things, and those thread leaks make my process sluggish. Amazing that concepts in OS can be matched so well to real life. Our life is like a round robin scheduling algorithm, and we keep dong certain tasks over and over again, hoping there are no deadlocks.

No wonder the legacy writers of OS thought of intuitive terms like sleep(), which we do when ee haven't got much to do..
This week, I look myself into the mirror and feel a zillion times better. This morning in fact that ecstacy to see the waiste-line recede like the tidal waters was so messemerizing that I literally started a salsa and followed it up with a dance ball with my image in the mirror.
The winds of change are indeed blowing and I think, a little more thought into my actions will give me exponentially better results.

A much better week

2006-05-12T02:23:00.000-04:00

You know what, when its Friday AM and I am blogging, it can mean lot of things.
To make a few guesses myself:
1. I am already in a holiday / weekend mood trying to freakout.
2. The level of frustration is so high, and I don't have a friend around whose patient ears can take the venom I plan to spit out.
3. There is some very exciting news around the corner, and I am dying to share it with folks around.

Being realistic, its none of these reasons really. But just that I am feeling much better about myself than last week. Of course, destiny would argue that when you are sitting on Mariana trench the only direction you can take is northbound. But still I'm gay (no, not Karan Johar eshtyle) that my tryst with fate always has some light at end of the tunnel. Maybe karma decides to punish me for some wrong doings in my earlier births, but also provides a beacon to guide me thru the storm.

Without get more heavy on words, to put it plainly, I am feeling elated since the last weekend, or to put it rightly, in a positive frame of mind and that seems to be showing on my mind and soul.
Last weekend was busy and unlike regular ones when I go in for a voluntary claustrophobia , this time it was time spent outdoors, braving the heat of the MaySun.
Meeting friends and yes, doing another thing for the 1st time was a good experience in general. Sunday too was spent in some external activities with domestic connections, and shopping for trousseaus (curtains) !

This week I took it a little steady in office, and preferred to be laid back at times and enjoy, rather than go into a vicious cycle of cribbing and it helped. Suddenly out of the blue, my exercise routine is shaping up well, and hopefully so will my muscles, over a period of time, with regualar doses of gym workout.
Fixed a lot of small defects in office, and small though they might be, I suddenly realized how much better off I was compared to a year ago, when instability was my relentless companion and things like checkins and defect fixing seemed age old concepts. It feels good to contribute in whatever way to a nice li'll backup software, which is consumed by millions of customers round the world.

Have a presentation to make this afternoon, and that should consume the rest of the afternoon for me, preparing for the same and making ancillary arrangements to marshall stuff.
Looking fwd to this week as a precursor of the good times to come.
Hail the Kingfisher, the king of good times...

Tumultous times...

2006-05-04T08:10:00.000-04:00

These days, things are in a horrible state of flux and the air is full of ambivalent vibes. Atleast for me, on a personal front, its a listless, blase period, and not to say, a negative bias is the order of the day for certain events. I was experimenting with matter waves to turn things in my favor for the past quarter or so, since philosophy propheses the merits of experiment.
The outcome was never close to what I wish it had been; didn't even give me a glimmer of hope that something stupendous would come out. But then that ray of hope kept me going, wishing that the Lady Luck wud bestow its kindness on my gentle soul, later than never.

Incidences of this type make us realize the limitations that are congenial by nature in our deteriorating species. "Where there is a will there's a way" fell flat and i mourned to myself; especially since I thought and genuinely believed that it was 50% of my life (can't get more explicit) !
Introspection is done for the sake of fault finding, but often turns out to be a futile, time-consuming exercise which had rather be spent in real physical exercise LOL.
Maybe I didn't push the limits, and executed a plan, not so perfectly, and will now repent for a while till those bruises get a healing touch. Atleast, regarding the part of experimenting, I can stand tall and put up a brave front, that there was no hesitation to try.
I haven't read Gandhi's 'My experiments with truth' yet, but the urge to do that becomes stronger now, to see how he had the vision to turn his convictions into fruits of freedom.

My convictions work better for the stock market though, and to save the disgrace of any plagiralistic assault on my moral character, alike the one and only Kaavya, I must post a disclaimer as well. May be they are not germinal convictions of mine, but an assimilation of belief in some other people and religiously following their advice. I hope I land a source of conviction in matters of the heart too....

As if these score of events were just minor tremors in a placid ocean, professional concerns of a different nature ensure that peace and tranquil remain in theory and perhaps limited to certain blissful times of the day, which otherwise remain surrounded by dark clouds of uncertainty and a chain of volcanoes, like Mt Vesuvius, waiting to erupt and engulf the calm in its fumes and flames...
Inability to digest injustice has made me a Maverick of sorts, also justifying the name given to our class newgrp, although I wud say that adjective applies to a select coterie including me !
Maybe its just the heat in the system that's getting onto my nerves and makes my blood boil at times. Would the first pre-monsoon showers and the dip in the soaring mercury help calm things down and usher in a new era of greenery and prosperity ! I wonder in these tumultous times.......

Blogman's back

2006-04-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

I invented a phrase 'Blogosphere' only to find a few weeks later that a leading English daily was already using it. Who knows, maybe they just checked it out on BullishBear and exhibited a classic plagiaristic stunt, perfected by Indian media.
Today's blog title is another bow from my quiver of artistic, prosaic or poetic sense, if u may.

What's a blog after all, its an open ended letter to the Internet community which is glued together with the webspider. And very much akin to a postman delivering letters, these portals of fame deliver blogs, and I fancy calling myself a Blogman !
I hope there is someone sitting in a nook or recess in Antarctica or Australia or Armenia or Ajerbaijan looking fwd to these posts of mine with great enthusiasm, similar to the 'Chitthi aai hai' number' by Pankaj Udhas.

Last week I learnt and imbibed Gandhiji's principle of Non-violence the hard way. While its premature and not in my interest to open that chapter in digital format here, it has given me a glimpse of what can happen when u tread the path devoid of calm and tranquil and resort to uncivilized ways to bring things under control...

The Indian stock market is truely undergoing a mega metamorphosis and at this juncture everyone is either a BullishBear or a BearishBull. Taurus, being my moon-sign, gives me a birth right to be bullish and that perhaps explains the positivity that I exude in general. Not to mention that bulls come with their baggage of weaknesses too, stubbornness, a tad lazy at times etc...Rashiranjan on E-tv Marathi is doing a noble job of enlightening the classes and masses abt these occult things !

Anomalous blog

2006-04-06T02:02:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted my last blog, and its definitely not the case that I forgot abt it suddenly. On the contrary, I opened this blog window on a couple of occassions only to retreat like a 'Ranchoddas' for paucity of thoughts and perhaps lack of time to ponder enough to scribble.

It so happens that a Friday night is very busy on my calendar. There are hordes of pending leftovers to be done in that small window of opportunity, before jaunting home for a nice weekend. Con calls at 20 hours is not the best on the temporal scale to lift sagging spirits on Friday night out, and then there is the status report to contend with, which takes its own sweet time to inflate LOL.
In the midst of this thick, my creative side of the brain says "Hey Akshay ! Take it easy and why don't you do some blogging at this hr". I have been wanting to get rid of this ritual of a sermon if you may every Friday nite, and so today's edition is poles apart from any Thursday tadka or Tehelka.

The Spring equinox came and went past by relatively unnoticed, atleast for me. A couple of weeks ago, I had been to a Bharatnatyam dance rendition by one of my school pals and her troupe and they demonstrated the changing hues and emotions with every passing season, and it was indeed refreshing to watch. This month a few more of my school mates have gone to diametrically opposite time zones, and there are ambivalent feelings everytime some news of this sort trickes in.

I see some pile of workload accumulating on my desk, err email, so .....

Sandwich

2006-03-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

I would like to best describe this week as a lackluster one, with nothing happening on most fronts.
Not that the news flow trickle had dried up, there was the odd one like our India office chief being changed, plus a few things that tend to happen in any office. But such has been the dragging effect in general, that it has failed to liven up things.
One kewl thing to point out is this is a boring week sandwiched between 2 exciting weekend.
Last week we went for a nice trek to Rajgad fort, which was replete with the usual fun elements and extreme exhaustion which is inevitable for the non-bohemian person that I am, despite having the crutches of a pretty regular jog workout to support my stamina.
The coming one seems to promise a lot too, with meeting friends and watching a classmates dance concert !
Last Monday my aching body and the lack of penchant for going to office made me take a nice holiday @home, and the day before, it was a thoroughly and once in a lifetime opportunity to watch that Aus-SA match, which is as intense as ever and fiercely fought . It sounded like almost a super human effort to maul the target and the Aussie pysche in that process. Such were the irnoy of things, that a true blood Kangaroo fan like me was supporting the Proteas just for the sheer determination and fighting spirit which was abundant on display. Plus I wanted to be privy to the event and get my time's worth, which I achieved at the end of this run feast.
My defect Q count in office was in a state where the tail was raring to push defects alike our Indian team tail, but unfortunately, no such fortune came along my way.

In the middle of the week, I did a lot of yoga and meditation and have been reasonably high on confidence and self esteem. I have tried doing a 'Manav' of sorts like in the Showman Ghai special Taal, and as they say experimentation is the key to success. I have set my target in mind firmly and want to see whether matter waves, that we learnt in Physics and things like telepathy really materalize. Imp thing to realize is to be +ve in the process and not hope for anything but the best.. I am assuring my fleeting mind and jittery soul that the checkmate is round the corner. Keeping my fingers crossed ..

Happy weekend folks

I know what it feels like..

2006-03-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

The last fortnight has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for me. There have been ebbs and crests, reminding us of those gigantic oceanic waves that surfers relish upon.
To share the good news, I got promoted to the next level, and am a Senior Software Engr now ! Time to party for sure .
I just put in a request for new visiting cards today. While I haven't had the good fortune of given Valentine's day card to anyone, business cards are the coward man's ticket to heaven, I feel.
Spring - if there is any such climactic condition in India, brings in its own set of chequered feelings. While on one hand, things looks beautiful, there is that characteristic feeling of solitude and a longing for the unknown ! Swings in the weather from 13 to 39 deg C only manage to keep umbrellas and wind cheaters active in unison.

Sometimes, you hear things about yourself from someone just out of the blue and are caught totally unawares. In fact, as they say, truth is a bitter pill to swallow. An incident on similar lines shook me out of slumber and the very natural phenomenon happened. First of all, I wasn't willing to fully accept my fallacies, and it was almost like my picture perfect image in the mirror was torn apart by a little pebble. Then followed the regular phenomenon, going into a shell. When things go wrong, they have this Saturnine effect of throwing self esteem for a toss and you almost look for an opportunity to curse your existence. I went thru one of the lowest nadirs ever in recent years; but that uncanny knack which God bestowes upon me sailed me through.

I think I have emerged stronger after this period and atleast will consciously try to set things order again.
And I also know what it feels like to FIL .

The week after cupid

2006-02-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

Its been a week since the Valentine fanfare and things are back to normal, even with love birds, I surmise. Boyfriends must be feeling lighter wallets as they ponder upon the fond memories of Cupid which struck last week, almost as predictably year after year as the Halley's comet does every 76 years.

Celestial megalomania thy name is Valentine's day, for loveless creatures, its a day in vain, which pinches harder and turns nerves of steel like the Steel Moghul Mittal into a listless corpse.

This week has made headlines because the avial flu aka bird flu has finally struck India, another feature in the cap of globalization, where none of us are insulated from the pandemic wonders of the modern world and nuclear weapons are available in countries ranging from the deep valleyso f the Amazon to the rain forests of the Congo and are available in 'desserts' if you wish in the Middle East.
The culling of chicken makes my heart ache, but little do I realize that these chicks are destined to die one way or the other; its just that they do not find a place in the plates and palates of carnovires and omnivores, which are teeming in urban society like never before....

India bt Pak 4-1 and it was a good series to watch and win for the country. The fresh blood that oozes thru the arteries and Aorta of Yuvi and Dhoni is truly remarkable.
Life in office is as medium-paced as it should be... While a routine life sounds a bit boring at times, I think its also something that we look fwd to day after day, rather than surprises at every alley and nook....

Blogging is my birthright

2006-02-13T02:45:00.000-05:00

I visited my blog on a couple of occasions last week and my hand was itching to pen down a flurry of assorted thoughts as usual onto my blog. It would have been more of a blob, to computer nerds as against a blog, but Shakespeare's not to be won this round of the battle. Messers Time ensured that there were enough roadblocks along the path to procrastinate my passion to participate in this pluralistic pleasure of pine (err mine) !
Finally, Monday morning blues were conspicuous by their absence, and so I decided at this hour that that a bit of bravado would do no harm to blemish my boisterous self, bamboozed with a bit of bugs.
I don't know why so many alliterations are filling up this void today, but it just goes to prove the point that I have a natural flair for blogging. ha ha.

We had a small g2g of friends last week and it feels good to be in touch. We grabbed a few sandwiches at Subway before going to sip some coffee @Barista. Both these places seem outrageously expensive, and seem to take undue advantage of the heavy walets and purses that young dudes and dames seem to be flaunting around.
Last week has been memorable for my blog as the senses hit 10k and stayed there with ease. The bullish bear in me seems to have manifested itself beautifully and the cornucopia of wealth it is spreading around seems marvelous. The recent happenings on the bourses espouse the spirit of a resurgent India, that stands tall amidst filigreed beauty.
No amount of gerimandering by politicians or filbustering by the likes of bureaucrats seems to stem the tide of energy that we are experiencing. The 'bear' part suggests a word of caution at this juncture so as not to get carried away by the situation.

While Lokmanya Tilak said almost a century ago that swaraj was his birthright, and I feel that 'to blog is my birthright' so are Bharatvasis saying that 'A developed nation is my birthright'.
Don't sit back and enjoy this movement, for our Gita says "Keep doing your duty and the fruits are bound to follow".
Enjoy.

Flames and fumes

2006-01-20T07:51:00.000-05:00

While things are sounding rosy on the personal front, it is not as sweet on the professional front.
Circumstances have been responsible for my gullibility, but its also my lack of self-conviction and the fear of failure that this can be alluded to.
I have decided to take this up as a challenge and turn things to my favor at the earliest.
While procrastination has been like my soulmate, I wish to bid adiue to it now and act in the living present. It was some Alice in Wonderland kind of dubious existence that I have been leading for a few years; now when I look around myself, I suddenly feel the world has moved too ahead to catch up. Not that this feeling sunk into me for the first time, but this time, the chasm of potential vs actual has acrued into a Grand Canyon of sorts, and its only the right time to build a Hoover dam or a Golden gate bridge over it to make a smooth sailing in future.

Sometimes, you realize your pitfalls and tend to ignore them, even if it hurts badly, since what kind of life it is if not strewn with shards of glass which we try to trumple underneath our feet, and hurt ourselves in the process, still not accepting the fact that this masochism is no good. There is a nice flat slab of pure, vitreous glass, waiting to cushion you feet, but just that it is a few miles away.
It takes a small pebble to shatter a mirror; and sometimes it takes one small incidence to cause a topsy-turvy in life !! During such times, it is not fair to curse the pebble, in fact its Thanks-giving time, though this one comes in January, not November, since it is enough to awaken the giant within.
I have read quite a few books talking abt realizing the inner potential, and making life successful. But it has been my unfotunate-ness, not to derive an iota of advice and apply it to life. But what sermons from parish fathers and pedagogical gurus cannt achieve, can be learnt from the live experiences in life.

Well, I still remember my new year "wish-list" not to get philosophical in my blogs, but I will treat this one as an exception, though v early in the year and ensure that I take steps to prevent such kind of posts in future.....

Tschus !

Happy new year

2006-01-10T08:02:00.000-05:00

Wishing all my fans a very happy new yr; I am trying not be modest this time, and taking the liberty that people reading thru my blog admire me for something, if not everything.
Life seems in much better shape and size, so to say, since I have re-paid partial debt to the Earth.
This is by virtue of getting rid of a few kilograms of mass, which has been gracefully docked off my body.
The compliments have flown in from a couple of a quarters and has done my self esteem a bunch of good.
Controversies in India are something as commonplace as potholes were on the streets of Pune a few months ago, when rains wreaked havoc. Firstly, there is the ensuing phone-tapping controversy which has made the govt go weak in its knees. Surprisingly, this symptom can occur when there is either a gush of positive energy or a tide of negative waves floating around. Luckily for me, I belonged to the earlier camp a week ago, when I suffered a blow of voluptuous infatuation. Makes one 'praise the Lord' at such times, since that is how I realize the meaning of his omnipresence.

The other controversy is always "Ganguly", and I believe this will continue till curtains fall on his chequered and illustrious career, but will still be remebered for the controversies that he leaves behind as a Pandora's box, full of legends. I can see beyond the mere coincidence that Raj Singh decided to wear the cap of team Manager to ensure that the Prince of Kolkata felt like a dwarfed nobody, struggling to wear the crown !!

Was watching the 'Legend of Tendulkar' this weekend on Star Sports and it was resplendent with his past glories; I really liked the centuries he made in my land down under, way back in 1991-92. I know pundits and fanatics of this sport will be breathing for my blood, but I am sure that Ricky Ponting, the Tasmnian Tiger will overshadow his record of Test centuries at the end of his illustrious career.

Cuff and Cold

2005-12-28T08:42:00.000-05:00

It hasn't been the best of weeks for me, atleast on the health front. The troika of soar throat, cough and cold has taken toll on my body. Sounds ironical and difficult to believe, but this bout of illness juts struck me when I was boasting about my well-being to myself.
Sleepless nights have become order of the day and cold gusts of wind lashing the Pune-city do not make things more clement to my fragile, ailing body...

While this is the most vital factors to sag my spirits, it is not the only thing at the back of my mind. They say what you think reflects on your body, and perhaps this diktat is not false. Life is surely not a bed of roses and this manifests itself day-in and day-out as the Sun of life rises to shine brighter. What accompanies brightness for free is the heat, which sounds so warm and cosy during childhood (shielded from parents and well wishers), only to become scorching as time progresses.

My blogs are more intense and replete with the so-called 'gyan' which people do not care a farthing about. And so, its my pre-mature new year resolution to make it more narrative than instructive.
A huge bunch of 73 papers are sitting home welcoming me to visit them and appraise them just like my own appraisal in office is around the corner. One sweet outcome of this exercise is that it makes your pocket feel heavy for a while and forget one's mundane musings...

Planning another outing this weekend, within a fortnight's span this time towards North-East, unlike South-West last time. No, I am not going to quasi-Chinki land, the land of seven sisters. Its just that direction relative to Pune within the confines of Maharshtra Mazha, that I am venturing into this time around. While I would have loved to go to Guwahati for campus recruitments, those plans didn't materialize for the better ! All for the best, they say !!!!!!!!

Welcome vacation

2005-12-21T07:17:00.000-05:00

The last month was very eventful @office, and I was thoroughly enjoying being a part of the development cycle, where punctures and deflated tyres are part and parcel. And veri alike Forest Gump, its ecstasy to complete the race and emerge victorious having treaded the path thru sun and sand, thru mist and hue and finally having settled down at a nice rendezvous, chewing upon nostalgic elements of the past and taking a sun bath in those fond memories !

This time the timing was a perfect 10, akin to what Madame Nadia accomplished more than a score ago at the Olympics. Nik , Ram and I set sail southwards to this beautiful, virgin sea-resort in the realms of Ratnagiri. Well, since water-ways are not our forte, we stuck to more routine and predictable means of our jaunt by taking NH-4 going towards Bangalore. If I were writing this blog a year from now, the Kannadigas would be jeering and mocking at my contemptous bliss( ignorance is bliss, reads a famous English quote) or rather maliciously witch-crafted anti-Karnataka stance; since Bangalore would be cut-pasted by Bengaluru by then.

The IT population sitting in Silicon valley and other habitats of the US would heave a sigh of relief, for once atleast, since their bread-butter would no longer be Bangalored.
Anyway, popping my stack of thoughts back to the Ganapatipule trip, it turned out to be really successful and refreshing to say the least. Konkan is called the land of Lord Parshuram and grabbing the opportunity to see it twice within a span of 2 months was a record of sorts by itself. It not only duplicated my joy, but actually quadrupled it.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2005-12-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Its spectacularly true that efforts are means to an end, the final destination. But its imperative to thorougly sweat it out to purify the blood; just like the massochist pleasure we derive during a harsh and enduring work-out. Its a conscious choice to make our body go thru the grind, for even the noble metal cannot be spared the flames of fire before getting that 24 carat certification.
What comes out at the end is so divine, very difficult to put on paper, or even on this web log ...
Its like errotica they say, you got to reach that orgasm , the flashpoint of benediction.
But isn't foreplay equally important ??..This para dedicated to pop-queen Madonna for "Erotica' !

Aurum and Argentum are at close to life time highs and looks like the bullion trade there is relentless, and is now under a new bout of momentum, when money chases gold rather than the other way round. Rationale and pure wisdom are set to rest, when speculation becomes order of the day. I thought these are niche areas for just the stock market, but recent news rounds have proved otherwise. Even commodities like channa or pepper are subject to this chequered cycle of ups and downs, depending on the flavor of spices that punters like....

Life itself is a journey that we embark upon and keep running all life like an endless infinite hurdle race, where embargos are order of the day, whether it is social norms or pleasantries or ettiquetes or that big 'decorum' factor. Isn't the animal kingdom not happier following the jungle raj where 'might is right'. But without being too agnostic of these factors, we need to be like Pied Pipers from that famous Scottish legend, who play to guide the lost and forlorn shipwrecked people around us....Entering the gates of Paradise after leading such a utopian life would be worth every ounce of troubleshooting, I guess. But when things are out of control and incomprehensible, the motivation factor drops down rapidly. Even in a marathon, the Kenyans know that the distance is no more than 42.195 kms, after which victory is guaranteed, but what about death ? Probably being philanthropic in a small way may provide us our small passage to the land of bliss, Heaven, the kingdom of GOD, the light at the end of this dark, murky tunnel !!!!

Big Bad World

2005-12-02T04:18:00.000-05:00

Morning was great today; waking up to the chirping tunes of the aviators was so refreshing indeed.
Some bad memories of last evening were almost erased with hopes of a better today.
The jog-yog routine was at its ultimate best.
On top of that I had doned my new shirt sent to us by our US manager...

Unexpectedly, I received good help from diametrically opposite me, in a totally skewed time zone; things looked like they were on a roll. And then this chirpy, bubbly image of the near-perfect rosy life was pricked with thorns.
Why do roses have to follow thorns ? It seems that the law of nature needs to get its due credit and respect.
But when thorns prick from close quarters it hurts hard.

Can't help but getting spiritual; it seems to have answers to allqueries that have been pestering mankind since time immemorial. Why are we so selfish ? Why are we so pre-occupied with ourselves so much so as to forget the parts make the whole... I hate whims and fancies; I would rather prefer someone to be openly animos rather than make a false pretense of solidarity and camaraderie...If wishes were horses, Akshay would fly....

Is this a big bad world, fast collapsing under its own weight; under the influence of the unknown entrophy. How else can we attribute victory of the evil and the setbacks suffered by men of virtue.

Here's Robert Frost quoted 'Asking for Roses'

A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses.

I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary;
'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.'
'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy,
'But one we must ask if we want any roses.'

So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly
There in the hush of the wood that reposes,
And turn and go up to the open door boldly,
And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses.

'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you?'
'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses.
'Pray, are you within there? Bestir you, bestir you!
'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses.

'A word with you, that of the singer recalling--
Old Herrick: a saying that every maid knows is
A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,
And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.'

We do not loosen our hands' intertwining
(Not caring so very much what she supposes),
There when she comes on us mistily shining
And grants us by silence the boon of her roses.

Blogosphere

2005-11-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

Coined this term off the cuff, without much prior thought or deliberation.
Perhaps reflects the impact of the record ingrained upon my mind by Vijaypat Singhania, by conquering the skys using a tool that even toddlers would relate to and use as a trinket at times.
If he made it past the troposphere, I wish my blog makes it's to the blogosphere, where blogging has reached meteoric proportions !
What I liked best about the event was that it was done at a ripe old age when people get less risk averse and want to lead a life of bliss and solitute rather than try such stunts, which maketh the 'Yuva'..His son, Gautam seemed to be glowing with pride and was beaming with pleasure..

Its been about a decade since I moved to the new office . Well, isn't decade supposed to stand for 10 years, but when things are not exactly as expected, a day sounds like a year..
Some good news was in store today morning as I opened my mailbox, the Patent's dinner is finally being scheduled in Jan. and the best part is its Go-GOA; so its going to be just about the perfect time to go there and have a blast.

Fan club

2005-11-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

The other day, I caught up some movie action on ZMZ, and my grey cells fail to generate correct nervous impulses to retrieve that name; now since when have I become forgetful ? Are these the first signs of ageing ? I don't think so, giving myself the benefit of doubt, since I dream well these days. That has marked a paradigm shift in my thought process, since my sub-conscious is feeling the positive vibes and the glow of radiance which the Winter is trying to camouflage !

Mornings in winter are the best, and while Occidental springs bring out the best in people, its winter in India that gives people a chance to flaunt their in vogue shawls, sweaters and what have u ?
I liked this 'what have u' phrase, picked it up from a stock analyst on CNBC. Its truly amazing to see the great strides that Eves of the 21st century have made, especially in the arena of economics, the territory considered the monopoly of Warren Buffet and the hegemony of the folks from Mars...

I have always considered women to be far more superior in their language skills, very few males educated in convents are able to maintain that charm and dignity when they step out of the cosy confines of their Alma Mater. Its probably got to do with the ruff-tuff image that they need to live with all their life, its one of the many burdens that they need to shoulder.

Just snapping off this one, since I need to send one mail pretty soon........

Movers and Shakers !

2005-11-17T06:25:00.000-05:00

Stability is precious to mankind if not the thing dearest to heart. Civilization finds its roots deeply buried into this basic instinct of mankind, when leading a nomadic, bohemian life had caused his worries to multiple and manifest manifold. Well, this alliteration was partly instinctive and partly deliberate, for the purists of the Windsor age, believing in jewels called Figures of Speech.
From the hustle-bustle that is the trademark of any 21st century cosmopolitan city, to the outskirts, this journey tomorrow is, as always, not without that pang in the heart.More often than not, its the fear psychosis, of the unknown. Mankind doesn't like too many surprises, atleast discounting the ones who can be branded as ravagely ambitious.

Baner is not too much of a well known sub-urb, atleast until the recent past. But ever since the floorspace hungry IT population set its eye on this area, the spotlight has been too bright to ignore. One may call it a glow of numerous 100 W bulbs and nowhere close to the Sun or Moon; but one thing is certain, the bhumiputras there have raked in a lot of moolah. If realty costs Rs 2100 per sq ft there, then u know what I am aiming at....

So tomorrow will be time to bid adieu to Pune-1, so close to the GPO and move on to Baner, Pune-something....As some poet has fondly said,
Ring out the old and ring in the new !!

Let the Movers and Shakers come and make merry tomorrow !!

Weepy Wednesday

2005-11-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

The day began on sound note.
Getting up when my mobile alarm chimes doesn't sound like fighting a battle of panipat any longer. Probably my subconscious has been fine tuned to the biological clock that my exterior is used to.
The ceremonious walk/jog, followed by pranayam etc, almost sounds too perfect to be true for me. But it only proves that 'where there is a will, there is a way" !
Those extra kilos which are piggybacking on my stomach (aare, pounds for you Amrus), must be exhumed from my body; since I believe its not a deserving abode for them....

The week started on a rather rusty note, and the Diwali vacation hangover was too heavy to shed in a hurry. It has taken a couple of days to move from a bohemian, rustic Konkani habitat to the truly urbane Puneri requiem.

Some bad news was brewing in office, and the coffee beans got spilt out today. Its just that, when things are about to sound rosy, some thorn pricks you and brings you from Cloud No 9 to Seventh heaven to the humble earth...And Mother earth is so loving, she preaches the slemn virtues of introspection, the laws of karma and reignites the 'never-say-die' attitude that is my hallmark.
I wouldn't like to be labelled a narcassist, but I genuinely believe I am the Phoenix, who needs to go to the ashes every now and then to be reborn as a better, more evolved and mature individual. Take the world in your stride, not Dinesh, but Akshay !

So, its not that weepy after all, India are doing well in Cricket.
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But the semi-tough still see lurking shadows of uncertainty, and that makes a gullible guy like me fall into the habit of drawing superstitious conclusions. Its almost like whenever India does well in cricket, I suffer temporary setbacks in life. That's why I live and breathe Australia, rather than India. Go Aussie GO !!!!!!!!

Shanghai Noon

2005-10-26T03:52:00.000-04:00

Noon is perhaps the best time of the day. Its when a hearty meal has satiated one's appetite and every microcosm of our body is in a slumberous mood. Things around us are generally sombre and peaceful. Important thing, unlike the night blues, broad daylight gives a sense of comfort and safety to the perenially unsecure Homo Sapien.

Whether it be Shanghai or Shirdi, noon is probably no different. WHat really differentiates geographies is the people and perhaps the weather there.
Of course one of these is a commercial hub and the other is a divine abode, a confluence of religious ideologies, perhaps call it a spiritual hub.

Jackie Chan has been romancing Mallika Sherawat off-late, and she seems to doing her PR in full swing. For Mallika, the path is well chalked out, and she seems to have an impeccable roadmap to guide her all the way to Beverly Hills; she dreams big that lady, and she isn't daydreaming for sure. No wonder, her 'efforts' seem to be bearing fruits, which ripen very soon. But remember, don't ripe fruits run the risk of decaying a tad too early...Whatever.

Office-humor is the flavor of the season for me, and shamelessly, it is at the expense of a 'few good men'.
Here are excerpts of something that we managed to conjure for the 'do na' man.

His favorite Bank :- ICICI (Hum hain na)
His favorite film :- Main hun na
His Nike punch line:- Just do it na !

Looking fwd to make this a full fledged collection involving all spheres of life...

German touch

2005-10-13T11:41:00.000-04:00

Don't have much to say today, but I just visited blogger in the early hrs of nite.
Some cc_info seems to have hit upon my postings and seems to congratulate me for that...

Well-well, today's day wasn't exactly bad at work , but not so fruitful either.
Clusters are making me flustered and u bet, I am sick of them already. They seem to e more unreliable and capricious than women...Now isn't that some comparison ??

Have to go home and correct the Q papers too. That means work from home.
The bears r now looking strong in our stock markets. So better watch out.
Need to give them some honey to please them..
Sorry if this did not make nay sense, but that's a mirror reflection of my psyche at this moment of time..

Schus..
AUf Wierdersehen !!

Work is worship !!

2005-10-06T10:48:00.000-04:00

Getting up in the morning to rushing to the workplace is nothing unusual. Its rather too mundane, too pedestrian...But there r books on "What drives you to work ?"
And there are lots of witty answers spruced with humor, satire, like "MY wife drives me to work"..Jokes apart, for me DLE drives me to work.
Its playing , juggling with these funny structures that is making my life feel like a frying pan. Its tasty, but not without feeling the heat. And better be timely and punctual, lest you face the wrath of fire. Fire is a good slave, but a bad master they say.
But its fun feeling a part of the team and contributing my $0.02.

Getting to set question papers is another lovely thrill, without frills.
Its the best possible chance to seek sweet revenge on unmindful bunch of students, and feels good to be on the greener side of the grass , if there is a thing like that !
Of course, triumph wud have been supreme if I ever got the rare dubious distinction of making the likes of Barry, VJ (not a video-jocky, but the class of 2001 wud know for sure.) go thru the grind and enjoy the foreplay of intimidating them with syllabus. Wonder if that is the sarcastic , bad guy in me, hidden under the garb of the unsuspecting, pedantic look that my face exudes...

On hindsight, all of us are hypocrites, and its better to admit that we are, rather than project a false sense of philantrophy to this WORLD. Even the Mahatma, with due respect to him, had his share of experiences in a chequered life, before making this nation iridiscent with his non-violence mantra. My obesience to him on his recent birthday !!

From work ---> worship. Ganpati has bid adieu to us for the year, but bappa will come back next year for sure. It was a rather silent bye-bye to him this year by virtue of the honorable Supreme court judgement.
And the inauspicious period was not a trifle unlucky for the bourses, which have ringed in lots of coins and raked the yens and kroners and what not.....
Navratri is here now, and its like a series of festivities are going to follow suit now...

Saturday 'Day' Out

2005-10-01T07:02:00.000-04:00

On NTDV, we have Saturday Night-out fever. Today was Sat 'day' out for me, since I was not in the cosy confines of my lare, but in office for a change.
Spending a weekend is very unlike me, I disapprove of it , as a matter of principle.

Why call it a holiday and then expect people to come-in and slog out for the 6th day in a row ?
But that's the way things are, and i suddenly discovered and experienced a phenomenon called as peer-pressure. When too many ppl around you are frequent revellers in the office cubicles on Sat, how can I be left out ?

When I started off with the task at hand, it sounded peanuts to me, or Ok, call it cashewnuts. A rather nutty-job, so to say. I even expressed this as a concern, before shouldering te responsibility.
While I would not call it Rocket Science by any stretch of imagination, its not child's play either. The situation being aggravated by a BFS traversal of our product. Every single day I wake up, its thinking about how to cross the next hurdle. Well, let me not keep blabbering abt that..

I have become a great fan of Britney Spears . The number "Oops I did it again" keeps my WinAmp busy all the time, and sounds exhilirating to me. Probably, purists of Western music might not consider this choice numero uno, but I don't care. Its for the masses, and my conviction says "Be with the masses, if you please" After all that's what democracy is all about.
Old Mr Lincoln picked up randomly selectly prepositions and constructed this institution of democracy, which has its firm roots in America and with its desi-flavor in India.

Nowadays, I don't like the word India so much. Bharat sounds much closer to heart, and while Hindustan sounds communal to a 'select coterie', it comes from the river Sindhu, whose nomenclature was changed to Indus by the British Raj.

The empire reminds me of our own emperor in the cricket fraternity, Ganguly.
While I think he deserved accolades in the past, this is the right time for brickbats. Greggie has stirred the hornet's nest. Any guesses who the Hornet is ? One businessman, having a cornucopia of wealth, sitting in East India, Kolkata, Jaggu Dalmia.
When he's around, no need to worry since, Dal me definitely kuch mila hua hai :-)

Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar is trying hard to wrest that crown, which is like the Kohinoor of World cricket. Since the hand that rocks the BCCI, rules the ICC, stakes are too high....

Meeting friends last week provided much respite to a mundane routine that I am used to now.
We had Pizza and stuff in truly Amru style.
The middle of the week was a nadir of sorts, with not good news from office. It almost felt like betrayal; giving a whiff of what heart broken couples might be going thru. Each experience makes us richer, that way or the other. Samazhe wale ko ishara kaffi hai ..........

Google talk

2005-09-03T13:08:00.000-04:00

Its Saturday night here, atleast in India, and almost the right time to get a good night's sleep.
But fortunately, my net connection at home is rocking at the moment, and I am involved in downloading a bit of s/w which seems to take hours here, rather than a quantum of few seconds, if it were office.

Anyways, Google talk was the flavor of the week.
Google Talk is really as lite as promised, and all Google fans will be hooked into this in a few days time.
I already used it across India and it seems to deliver what it promises and I guess, that's what customers really want.
This should definitely have set the warning bells ringing in the Yahoos of the world and also for M/S Bill Gates at Redmond, WA.
Sleepless in Seatle would truely sum up the state of mind of Mr Gates at the moment. The news that's making the rounds is that Google wud soon have their own web browser, and that must have not passed without a chill down the spine.

Today, Hindustan is jubiliant with the Dahi-Handi celebrations
and Mumbai usually leads the honors. Lots of pride and money is at stake and its quite eventful to watch the human pyramid scale great heights. Long live the human spirit

The struggle within

2005-08-23T11:10:00.000-04:00

I sometimes think of titles to my blog, without a true reflection of my state of mind, and then start writing abt it, I prefer it that way since it puts no obligations on what and how muhc to write.
I guess it improves the flow and the fluency as well.
More often than not, its a manifestation of the sub-conscious , which is eager to express itself.

I am still to read Hitler's Mein Kampf, which approx translates to 'My Struggle'.
For some occult reason, I don't like to buy books, I wud rather prefer a library which has tons of books that one can borrow, without the onus to maintain them in cupboards ans treasure them for a lifetime....Probably just an iota of the kind of person I think I am, who doesn't want to carry the past baggage around...

My internal struggle is happening incessantly for the past few months, and its all the more difficult to decipher the root cause. Its more like an assorted bunch of niggles that cricketers live with and then sound lacking cent percent fitness.
Its probably got to do with the nature of mankind, to always want welcome change in life. Sometimes, it helps, since we all know that a rolling stone gathereth no moss. Of course, the roller ocaster ride and the ultimate destination are also equally important !

Ramdev Maharaj is doing some fabulous work with his pranayam discourses and truly contributing to a stronger India, by helping ppl get rid of their woes. I admire him quite a lot. And he seems to have that charisma that glues me to his lectures and demos, whenever I see him on TV.

India are beginning another uneventful tour and I guess its no brainer that an India-NZ match is on cards with India scrapping thru to the finals and then losing to NZ. The only way Indian team can surprise its fans is negatively, by failing to qualify for the finals !!! Don't mistake this for pessemism, its more of realism ....

Ta ta

TODAY

2005-08-12T11:10:00.000-04:00

Today is a friday, and I am abt to rush home for a nice long weekend.
It has been quite hectic at work , after a long time, and I seem to be enjoying it.
Hoping to contribute some good stuff in the release this time...though that means less time for exercise. Need to watch the weighing scale more closely.

Ajit was at my place yesterday and we chatted for a couple of hours, remembering nostalgic moments and discussing future plans. It was fun in general.
MSN audio has proved to be an excellent voice over IP technology and I am using it regularly to talk to my bro sitting 9 and 1/2 hours behind me.
My parents coming to Pune meant some upbeatness in my mood and good home food , that they brought along :-)

Monday is our holiday and may our country make great strides of progress.
Jai Hind !!

A long week ahead

2005-08-08T10:44:00.000-04:00

Its yet another Monday evening, and life is at its monotonous best !
My brother has left for his MS and that leaves me all alone at home for the rest of the week.
I gotta get used to this pretty soon.

While Abhi has left for US for doing Master's, I got my degree this weekend and so I have finally completed graduation...It feels good and gives a sense of personal satisfaction...

Yesterday's Ashes test was simply a beauty and has setup the tone for the next 3 matches.
India, as usual have scrapped thru the finals and will manage nothing more than a drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka in the finals tomorrow. Its almost habitual for our team to build up false expectations and bring ppl down from cloud no 9 bang on the earth in a jiffy !
But as u might guess, I wud still religiously follow the match till the debacle sounds irreversible.

At work, I am having to look into and work on some networking issues, so I hope it helps add to my domain knowledge there. Let's see !!

I got the VISA power

2005-07-21T09:51:00.000-04:00

When Sachin says 'I have got VISA power' I would just tend to overlook that.
After all, was it a great achievement for the master blaster to get a VISA.
Last time, I got VISA power, there was this Pandora's box, rather the drop box, which made things so simple.

But the war against terror has also turned into a game of suspicion, where flawless people are also under the vigilant microscope of the West. And so the elaborate process of personal interview bla-bla.Anyways, all is well that ends well, to summarize on this.
Braving the Mumbai rain, things have reached their good logical conclusion !
Another delight was watching the plus South Mumbai area, and the lovely gilttering , glimmering Queen's necklace at Marine Lines. Wish I had a sea-facing bungalow there.
If wishes were horses...u know what I wanna blabber ....

Being politically incorrect seems to be in vogue for politicians of 2005.
Advani's faux paus on Jinnah was followed by another classic entertainer from the Turbanator himself, well our PM Manmohan Singh. Showering words of praise on our rulers of yester-years was in poor taste. I mean, we all know how advanced the British were, but for a state-head to say so, was quite perturbing.

I have been orkutting a lot these days, trying to get some networking going...
Signing off this Wednesday, since my fingers refuse to type any further :-)

Dhamakas

2005-07-07T10:24:00.000-04:00

After the rains stopped lashing Pune and other parts of Maharashtra, something else has come up.
There was an attempt of arson planned at the holy Ayodhya site. And then today even the old man of Europe, England was not spared.
Perhaps London's joy of winning the 2012 Olympic bid was too ephemeral.
At Russell Square, there were a series of blasts by some hooligans.

To me, there is always a delicate balance between the 5 forces of nature. Looked like water had had its time-slice and it was the turn of the 'fire' element to ignite revengful passions in the mind of terrorists.

At work, things have reached a 'nadir' of sorts, but every time I say so, something even darker and murkier seems to crop up. So this time I am putting up a brave front and smiling thru the sea of turbulence. Luckily a protocol called 'NDMP' has been a messiah and I seem to be relishing it in bits and bytes ( Now that sounds like a computer geek, ain't it ? )

Roger Fed-Ex, as he is fondly called nowadays, was an absolute delight to watch last weekend at Center Court. Well, i am sure the Brits wud be unhappy with the way I spelt 'Center', but isn't this spelling much more intuitive than what the conservative Englishmen think it to be !!

Tomorrow our office gang has planned a fun-riot at exotic Splendor Country, but suddenly most of my pals have dropped out, and this Thursday evening, I find myself in a state of ambivalence.
Do be or not to be ? That's the question posed by Shakespeare, and today by Akshay ;-)
Looks like I have started fancing the UK a lot these days. This is surprising, since those who know me well enuff might also remember my obsession with the country down Under, the arch-rivals of Britain. Well, not exactly in an Indo-Pak sense, but more historical.

Crude is already above $61, and I know its going to kill ppl around the globe for sure.
Gives me a reality check of sorts. Nothing is 'Akshay' in this world, and defintiely not natural resources like oil, metals and other goods..

What to say ?

2005-07-01T08:37:00.000-04:00

There are days when you have time , but don't know what to do or write.
And there are some others when there is no time to catch up with thoughts and pen them down.
Today, I find myself in the prior situation !!

I have started orkut-ing regularly now. Still haven't really tracked someone who was "bichda hu dost" etc. or Bollywood ishtyle "Kumbh ke mele me bichade the types" folks; but I am losing no heart yet.

One of my friends who quit last month, or perhaps a couple of months ago, is coming over this weekend, and plans have been made in advance to hang-out. So don't be surprised to find me at E-Square on Sunday morning. It's surprising that though I stay so close to the place, it has hardly increased the frequency of my trips there...

When I go home this Friday evening, I would be walking out of VERITAS and when I enter office on Monday, it will be a new company. Well, this is absolutely no magic..nor am I quitting my job. Its just that our company would officially merge into this security giant from California, named Symantec, and so I would become a Symantec employee, by default.
Guess, there is slight emotional turbulence, since VERITAS has been my first job and close to my heart.

Rain has been lashing hard at Punekars and India in general, incessantly for the last week or so, and it's good that the Khadakwasla dam has become 100% full i n June itself.
Its raining hard at the stock market too, with every all-time highs falling like nine-pins.
I don't know whether to become a BullishBear or a BearishBull..
I keep pondering, what does it mean anyways ? What to say............

Monsoon Masti again

2005-06-23T07:15:00.000-04:00

I was almost aestivating all summer, atleast as far as blogging is concerned.
Frogs had some company for sure..
Today I had the time and inclination to do some blogging and so here I am again !

It rains 9-10 months a year in Pune.
Ok, hold on before u start firing salvos at me; let me defend this postulate.
In any given calendar year, running Jan thru Dec, I count every single month having even a single drizzle / shower of rain as a 'rainy' month. And the statistics I revealed over the past 18 months of intense research ( I am sure that would bring shame to professors of repute or even the local weathermen) is that, Pune has 9-10 months of rain. I am sure this should go into Ripley's believe it or not !!!!

Well, jokes apart, the real Monsoon showers have made their presence felt and the weather is excellent here, just in case ppl from other places are planning a visit during the season.
We know that Pune is called Oxford of the East, but it is so in more than one way.
Of course for the pedagocial comparison.
But there is another connection which I discovered and wouldn'd mind patenting..its as follows:-
Pune enjoys a West European kind of weather (alike Britain, alike Oxford of the West).
Agree with me, folks ?

Near the real Oxford, sporting fever is peaking in sync with the summer.
The Aussies still seem to be in a deep slumber and are in no mood to trouble even Bangla players, let alone the gentlemen with the white flannels from England !
Our own Sania was playing well at Wimbledon, but unfortunately she lost in a closely fought match.

Few F-1 races were as intriguing as the previous one at Indiana, marred by the Michellin controversy. Anyways, probably , it gave a lease of life to Schumi and Ferrari. But I hope that is it....

This Monday evening

2005-03-28T09:09:00.000-05:00

This Monday evening is special, just because I choose to make it that way !
Well, one can really exercise the choice of remaining happy or gloomy, and in this ephemeral life, why not lvie every moment to the fullest....
Recently, an acquaintance of mine advised me to practise some meditation and pranayam, and I have tried to follow suit ever since, as far as possible; I must admit that I am feeling much more relaxed after that...Though some other +ve vibes have also been around, I am taking no credit away from these recommended therapies.
I must feel like watching the movie Godfather, and hopefully, I should be able to catch hold of it pretty soon.
Sometimes, I wonder, can't one progress without a Godfather. And yes, by godfather, I do not mean one who will condone my mistakes or fight a lost cause for me. Its more like one who will be like Lord Shir krisha in Mahabharat, who sided with the dharma against adharma...

We need somebody in life, who empathizes with us and acts as a true friend, philospoher and guide. Most of all, he trusts our ability and is willing to channelize our efforts in the right direction. I feel I have re-discovered such a force in my life, and it's gonna take me miles ahead.

Its the year end , well the financial one this time, and I must mention it in all fairness to pay due respects to my blog , called bullish bear. So finance is at the core of affairs. The crashing stock market is the flavor of ths season.....and India has lost today's match, they have been Bangalored by Pak...

Nice wednesday

2005-03-10T07:10:00.000-05:00

It was a nice Wednesday yesterday.
One of my friends and colleagues will be leaving for US soon, and so he threw a party , or gave a treat, wud be more pat. It was at Pizza Hut and that was good fun.
Pitchers of Pepsi and garlic bread added to the aroma of the evening.
As if this was not enuff for the evening, we decided to watch a film at night at E-Square.

Since the show was to begin close to the middle of the night, we made ourselves comfortable at the malls inside. Visited Crossword for the first time at this place, though my previous visit to any crossword store was just 2 months new :-).

Window-shopping for the books was great fun and then we just sat back to watch a game of pool that some guyz were playing.
The film began around 12 midnight and it enthralled us from the first shot itself.
It was great humor, but completely adult stuff. This kind of disappointed me, since I expected "Meet the Fockers" to be inline with "Meet the parents", a family movie.

Nevertheless, the film was paisa vasool. and so I wasn't complaining a bit.

Marchester United !

2005-03-08T05:35:00.000-05:00

Don't ask me what the meaning of this title is, for I don't know myself.
Just thought of it and coined the title without bothering about the meaning a lot.
Probably we can treat it as a hybrid of this month and the illustrious football team of the EPL, Manchester United.

Life is not a bed of roses, and this has proved itself time and again for me, more so in the last few months. Being tossed from one project to another hasn't been the best for my career. I should say destiny has taken me for a toss, and any amount of reassuring words do not give solace to my heartburn in this regard.
The equanimous, tranquil person, that I have known myself to be, is facing tremendous pressure. Truely, time is the best healer and so the only thing to do is to let the tough get going.

The work on Linux was looking promising, and would have turned out to be a great learning experience. But nature had something else in store for me, perhaps !! So, bottomline is I am back to the Bill Gates camp. Can't help saying "Ghar ka bhula agar shaam ko laute to use bhoola nahi kehte". :-)

It isn't that things are completely out of place as such. Some positive vibes can also be felt, but the warm hearth of positivity is not heating my spirits enough.

TGI Friday

2004-12-03T06:23:00.000-05:00

Ya, I'm tanking God because it's a Friday, and its close to evening.
This simply augurs another weekend is round the corner.
I have been looking fwd to weekends on every week day, for no special reason at all !

The past 3 weekends in a row, I have been out on the B'lore-Mumbai by-pass on Sundays,
and I have completed the trioka last weekend.
Yet it seems that I may be destined to make the quadruple trip on the same road this week on Saturday .....

On the Padwa, day I went to Abhiruchi, and the next SUNDAY, it was time for a mini get-together at my Phoopha's wedding anniversary..
While there was absolutely no reason to step out of doors last Sunday, Abhi and I decided to explore the outside territory. It was almost like we wanted to conquer stamina and display our adventurous spirit. So, we headed off to Sinhagad fort in the chill of the morning.

The drive was quite enjoyable, since the road is very good , if not extremely scenic.
Still it took us almost 1 and 3 quarters of an hour to get to the basement.
Without looking left or right, we started the mission on a high note.
It was 9 am, but we had still put on our gloves, to beat the cold and it really helped.
My allergy or , rather aversion to cold weather was exposed another time
when I got my fingers, especially the thumb swollen.

The first 15 minutes were real fun, and then we started grappling with reality; it was not going to be a cake walk. The climb started getting steeper, and though the Sun was out, it didn't seem to bother us much, due to the chill in the air and the mountain interspersed with few trees and shrubs.....

The initial plan was to get to the top and then have some beverages, but the loss of salts and sugar made us have some buttermilk and nimbu-paani; not that it helped greatly but it was a booster to our pysche !!!!!!

At times, I got so tired and the palpitation of my heart sort of worried me....Was almost like it would breakout any moment, luckily the heart turned out stronger than expected and it would heaved a sigh of relief when I got to the top safely and it got the much needed respite under some shady boughs.

In office, this Thursday we had a party to celebrate the release of BE 10.0, our latest Windows based solution. Our team went to Flags restaurant, near Inox, and it looked like a nice place.
We had a food riot, to say the least, almost idential to the description you would find in an Enid Blytonn novel. We relished the appetizers and the starters, and there wasn't much room to eat the main course after that. We ended the luncheon with a pizza and some ice-cream.
One of the few meals that turned out to be exotic and that would be remembered for some time to come.....

At work, US is still in slumber or so it seemed, things became pretty clear when it was announced that my US manager had opted out of his managerial hat and had decided to go back to basics..to coding.. YES.
Sounds quite surprising that a person at his age and experience still wants to delve into the debugger.........................................So guess what, we have a new US manager now, and lets see how it gets..

The India-SA matches were not that exciting, on the backdrop of a lackluster performance against Aussies.Nevertheless, we merged victorious, with Kumble adding another feather to his cap...
I was expecting Sachin to be dropped for the B'desh tour considering his horrendous form off late, but in India, where cricket is religion, and Scahin is demi-god, saying or even thinking of such a remote possiblity amounts to sacrilegious behavior.

Sensational season

2004-11-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

That Diwali is the best among all Indian festivals is beyond doubt, atleast as far as I am concerned. No other festival can match the zeal, enthusiasm, vigor and glee of the festival of lights.
This Diwali was a bit different from others for me, for a handful of reasons...
It was a bigger vacation this time, due to lot many holidays round the year falling on weekends.
Having a 5 day vacation was definitely a delight !

It was a privilege this year to be first of sorts in many respects....
It was the first time I started filing Invention disclosures this year and it has been a fairy tale since...
It was in 2004 that I was asked to set the Question Paper set for the new Autonomous PIET.
It was also the first time that I was called upon to assess the papers..
Doing this has been an enriching experience, and I have had the chance to reform the education society by playing my wee bit .
Doing paper correction in the midst of Diwali sweet-meats and firecrackers didn't sound encouraging at first thought, but that was a golden chance to undo those wrongs which have come to stay with the Engineering Exams in Pune University....
It was good to see that most of the students had fared pretty well, and had taken the new exam format in their stride....

After almost a decade of getting to know 'Abhiruchi' it was the Deepavali Padwa , the first day of the month of Kartik, which finally marked our visit to Bhide Baug.
Now, while i thought we should have gone there much earlier, since I sounded like a misfit among those young toddlers and infants, having a gala time there, it was nevertheless a nice refreshing experience.
The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect; the guava gardens added to the scenic beauty of the place. Taking a nice nap under one of those trees and resting on the zhula were truely divine moments....................

Why do I blog ?

2004-11-02T09:17:00.000-05:00

If you think that the bug of regular blogging has bitten me, then it is indeed not the case.
For me, it just comes out of the blue and then I have to conjure up something for the heck of writing, every time a background thread telling me that I have all it takes to be a an authoritarian literary figure...
I don't know if this is mind-games or true, but I always have a feeling that I deserve better than I get and I have the potential to do better than what usually manifests itself.
Probably its a shade of ego, or who knows it might be the truth, but the bottom line is that this feeling keeps coming....
Just to cite an example, I have shown strides of improvement in playing TT, and many friends appreciate it. But it has been a tough task crossing that level and getting even better.
Just like electrons need some push, some kinetic energy to move to the higher orbit, I am always on the lookout for the ever-eluding catalyst which will propel me further. I guess, its all in the mind and what is really needed is better application and loads of practice.

Last week was Kojagari Pournima, and it was a treat as usual having the sweet milk interspersed with the gentle, yet enigmatic and seductive rays of the moon....
Also gives us an opportunity to get onto the terrace and take a look at the surroundings...
The season is perfect for outings, parties and travel !
I also had an opportunity to wear some ethnic outfits; the chance provided on the occasion of VxDhoom. Wearing the traditional Gujju/Rajasthani pheta added to the glee of the evening.
The nice delicacies and the ambience added to the rising spirits....A nice evening............

Final Frontier Collapses

2004-10-29T07:24:00.000-04:00

I write this blog in an ambivalent state of mind.
The reason for euphoria is that my prediction has turned out to be true till now.
I expected the Aussies to win in B'lore and they did.
I expected India to win in Chennai and they would have, if rain had not played spoilsport..
In Nagpur, it was always a tough call, with +ve bias towards Australia. The moment a green top was offered, the Aussies pounced upon the opportunity and romped home in style.
Victory in the test is not as important as the manner in which India were vanquished.
We looked like a jaded team all along, and resting on past laurels can only do worse for Ganguly and co.
In this process of nemesis, Steve Waugh must be ambivalent too.
Happy because the Kangaroos have conquered the final frontier, and a shade of sorrow since he could not do it leading as Captain. Ricky Ponting must also be cursing his injury, since now the victory credit goes to Adam Gilchrist...:-)
The approach of Aussies this time along was truely commendable.
There was no shade of arrogance this time , nor was there any sledging.
Though I love Aussies at their sledging best, this time there was a more humane touch to the tour. Their eyes were set on the Border-Gavaskar trophy and they have won it like silent killers.
In the process, they have reaffirmed cricket as a game played by gentlemen in white flannels !!

I am veri sure that India will crumble at Wankhede too, and even quicker, without offering much resistance....That would make it a nice 3-0 washout.

Vijayadashmi

2004-10-21T09:26:00.000-04:00

Morrow brings in a new hope,
Vigor, zeal and a precursor to bundles of joy !
9 days and 9 nights of bellicose turmoil,
And Mahishasura was finally foiled....

The monsoons have come and gone,
Leaving the earth green and clean...
The oceans have swelled, their waters are pristine
The festive mood has set in, its time to wine and dine.

Some legacy

2004-10-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

Well, I am not talking about any fortune here, but more mundane things.
As a child, I read a book called Mr. Pump's Legacy; unfortunately just caught hold of vol 1 , which left the story hanging at a point of delicate balance.
Veri similar to what the viewers of LOTR would have felt after seeing the "Fellowship of the ring".
My legacy was related to a class called LegacyPlugin, in some code.
I was stupified to see this code being called, instead of another Plugin.
The worst thing is to trace the flow of code, jumping from one dll to another, with the NT.dll coming in between, which renders one almost helpless..
Probably I need a revision of assembly code, to understand and unearth what each instruction and opcode means and then do a mental conversion using my super computer to high level C instructions....
It was almost as if the code was desperate to trace its routes or exhume some Legacy, but the amount of heeart-burn it is giving me is remarkable !

Waiting for the Exit polls and then poll results in Maharashtr to see who emerges victorious..
Lets see..Needless to say, I have been a true citizen, reiterating my faith in Goddess Democracy by exercising my ballot.

The 2nd test starts at Fort St George / Fort St. Williams , i.e purana Madras or the modern Chennai at Chepauk. Hoping for a nice duel there, and as per my prediction we can expect to win only here..so the Indian team had better perform here......

Of predications and predicates

2004-10-11T05:37:00.000-04:00

The last time I made a prediction, it wasn't on this lovely Blog Spot, but on rediff blogs
and it was around May of 2004, where in the scorching heat, the NDA and what is (un)fondly called as UPA were engaged in a tussle of supremacy.

Well, it was not a battle for land, or was it ?
Though the Englishment came up with this saying 'Uneasy is the head that wears the crown', everyone wanted that cherished crown.
I made a prediction then that the NDA would romp home with an unsurmountable margin of 330 seats in the current Lok Sabha. Elex results were out, and I had to bite my tongue, since I couldn't even say I made a typo; clearly the NDA had refused to garner even 230 seats in all.
Well, polsters do go wrong, so the novice like me need not worry.....

That's why with the cricketing fever gripping the sub-continent again, with our favorite opponents back here, the mates from Down Under, I have gathered enuff courage to prophesize.
They say, failure is the stepping stone to success, so my previous failure makes my resolve even more resolute.
Here it goes, I predict that Aussies will succeed in conquering the Final Frontier, India this time,and that too in style.

Guyz, don't be surprised if they crush us 3-1 this time, because the law of averages suggests that, and more importantly, for the aesthetics, sheer determination, homework, team spirit and talent are difficult to crush even inside a Lion's den. To worsen things, the Indian lion is either aged or in a deep slumber.
Without extending this further, here's a breakup of how I landed the test score above
Bangalore :- Australia
Chennai :- India
Nagpur :- Tough call, could be a draw (but Aus will pull off a victory here)
Mumbai :- Crushing defeat at Mumbai inflicted on India

In office, my current group lead haas resigned and all I can write on this blog is that it was an unexpected move, though I welcome it.

Freaky Friday

2004-10-08T05:56:00.000-04:00

Though I titled this blog freaky Friday, it has been a listless day with not much happening in office...
Eagerly awaiting the release of CAICOS so that our next release CRETE can get started.

I recalled and revered Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October and thought of his autobiography
"My experiments with truth". How veri true he was !
I had to only settle for 'my experiments with blogs'.

I used blogspot 2 years back and was regularly irregular in posting.
One fine day blogspot decided to punish me and wouldn't allow me to login and post again.
The egotist in me said, so what, its not the only place in the world to rite online stuff...
So I switched loyalties unlike a steadfast general and moved to the rediff camp.

This kind of sounds melodramatic like countries switching sides between US and USSR, the erstwhile, during the cold war era !
Things looked fine on rediffblogs, and I was at my blogging best. I thought it was a wise decision to associate my literary work with rediff, probably more desi than others...
But my moment of happiness was ephemeral, and a gap of 60 odd days between my 2 posts had taken its toll.

My trusted lieutenant RediffBlogs ditched me, and I thought at first hand, let me give him the benefit of doubt. I expected it was a server side issue which would get sorted in a few hours, or a couple of days as the worst possible bargain !
My hopes were all dashed when this security guard refused to accept my login credentials and kept me out of the realm of blogging...

When you run out of options, what do you typically do ? Well, just what the mouse called Scabbers did in the Harry Potter book, you run back to the lesser evil.
So though BlogSpot sounded like the one-who-must-not-be-named, I decided to name him and owe allegiance to him again.

And today's blog is precisely an effort at achieving that....

Only after posting will I realize if the attempt was worthwhile or not...

If yes
{
expect lots of blogging from me
}
else
{
// do nothing
}