Its all about me and mine!!

And the culprit was caught!

2009-09-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Follow-up to my previous post. It always helps to have a corporate account, be it your bank acc, medical insurance, or the PF acc. On submiting the complaint to bank officals, we saw quick action on their part. To add, our security chief at office followed up with them too. We received regular updates about their investigation and within days we got few details about the bike the culprit used, names he registered at purchasing the new mobiles, his present mobile number noted in the form, IMEI num of the new mobile etc. Also they had got hold of CCTV footage from the ATM where my friend had forgotten his card.

CCTV footage did the job. The scene on the footage was something like, my friend withdrawing some money and forgetting to take back the card from the machine and within minutes the person waiting behind comes to use the ATM, sees the card left unattended, silently pockets it and vanishes from the scene. Then he goes on a shopping spree with the card. The culprit was easily identifiable and was caught within few days. He was caught and taken to the police station. My friend got his hard earned money back and the humane side of him requested the police to let go the culprit. we are pretty sure he got some proper bashing before let gone... All ended fine with we paying price of some time wastage for the negligence. It was an expericence;) and the lesson learnt would not be easily forgotten.

First visit to a Police station....

2009-08-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Yes belive it or not, I realised that this was my first entry into a police station since my 24yrs of birth:P One of my close friend lost his debit card and I happened to accompy him to register a complaint for the same. Sadly, he realised that the card had been lost only 2 days later on getting a call from the banks cust care. OOsh, nearly [xx]k was swiped out by some merciless shopaholic. Petrol, shoes, dinner, mobiles etc....you name it, he had spent on it untill he cursed to know the card was blocked.

On letting pple around know about the debit card losing episode, my poor friend received only pessimistic advices of forgetting about getting back any cash from the lucky spendthrift who found his card. But yes, I did try and convince him that w'll try our best to get back whatever we can. We did realise thats theres been slight negligent behaviour on our end which has already cost us dearer. But we could point some lapses on part of the bank too. On my friend reporting to the bank, he was asked to get a complaint registered at the police station and they be given a copy of the same. He had already approached a police station in his residence limits, but was directed to find a station in vicinity of the place where the card was lost.

I accompanied him to the police station few kms away from office. We were greeted by some kind lessons on our lax attitude towards money in life;). The same old stories of you software engineers earn so much money and this makes you so careless abt it...blah blah stories continued.... We were told there's no use of getting any complaint registered as the money is from debit card and its long gone. But we did insist on getting a complaint in written and we would try our best to push the bank folks to do some investigation. We wrote a complaint in our own handwriting and managed to get a seal and signature on it from the PS.

My friend has submitted the same to the bank and they have asked for some time to carry out some investigation. Lets see how it goes.....

A visit to the "Gods own country"

2009-06-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to visit this wonderful state in south-western most part of India.Hafis (my colleague at cisco) created this opportunity for me, by way of fixing his marriage right in time;). Given the popularity of rail transport in India, we booked the tickets well in advance of 2 months. Our boarding point was at 7.10 from Banglore(K.R.Puram) to Ernakulam on 5/6 Friday night. Had to WFH as I had to catch the evening train. As is the usual case, train arrived late of about 30 mins to K.R. Puram station.

We six ( Sanu, Sourabh, Venkat, Sunil, Ajith and myself) had reached the station well in time. TO train journey was not that great as our berths were split among different coaches. Reached Ernakulam by around 7am. We had lodging in Karthika Residency. Freshened up in about an Hour and got a scorpio booked to take us to Allepey backwaters. This place was around 80 Kms from our hotel. Reached here at around 11am and straight away got into the houseboat that we had booked in advance. We spent around 5 hours in the boat. The climate, the place its been, the ambience, the beverages, the company, were just ideal setting for a perfect weekend chillout. Intermittent drizzles are characteristic of this place and that just adds to the pleasant climate. After having savoured the aura of backwaters for more than 5 hours,we headed straight to cochin beach. Here the cleanliness was not upto mark. Nevertheless, the roaring water bringing with them enormous energy was a pleasant view. Spent sometime here and headed to marine drive at the Naval zone of Cochin. Got into a mini boat which took us around to view the ships of Indian Navy. The ride was dissapointing as it was raining heavily outside and the sun had already set, leaving us very less chance to enjoy the outside view of ships and ocean.Headed straight back to our hotel by about 8pm. Freshend up and left to Grooms house for dinner. Once back, enjoyed watching Ind/Bang T20 worldcup match in the hotel with the gang.Thus ended our first day of Kerala visit.

Had to wake up early as the bus to Kollam(place of marriage) would leave at 7.30 am from Hafis's place. The journey to Kollam was around 3-4 hrs. Raingods were showering all through the route. Reached the marriage choultry by around 11.30 am. It was a nice experience to attend marriage of other religion. Enjoyed the typical Kerala food. Got our train back to Bangalore from kollam at 2.00 pm. Spent the FRO journey playing cards, dumb charades and with some friendly badinages. The visit to as they say "Gods own country" remains one to cherish.

Snaps:

Gods own country

FAEA Scholarship

2009-06-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

FAEA invites applications for scholarship for the academic year 2009/10. I'll soon come up with a post on what all one can expect from this scholarship. For now all I can say is, this is one of the best Grad/PG scholarships in the country. Scholarship includes entire course fee amount and hostel/mess charges ( If you are a localite you'll get maintainence amt). In addition you'll get to attend confidence building and personality development workshops in FAEA member colleges identified all over India. Above all, you'll get to interact with great personalities who are member co-ordinates of FAEA.( http://www.faeaindia.org/governing_council.asp )

Selection Criteria: Highly meritorious and economically weaker students. They'll be interviewd in different centers all over India by the governing council members. Sorry for the SC/ST quota in the add... This has come into effect from last year and some funding reasons are involved.

If you know any such really deserving students let me know or inform them to apply online.

Click on the image for newspaper add.

Random Thoughts....

2009-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

* Got my camera(Canon Powershot SX110IS) delivered yesterday. Dont want to be a professional in this regard, but surely would like to capture all beautiful memories in life. I'm usually not an elec-savy guy and dont spend money on electronic gadgets. First major spend on elec item was my w810i(13.6k) mobile. Got this one mainly for the 2MP camera in it.After around 1.5 yrs of usage, it became a victim of the skills of some unknown pick pocketting veteran in Bangalore BMTC bus:(

* Tagged along with the G-gang ( T.S,Sharma & Naveen) to attend Rakshits engagement at Mudbidri (50 kms from Mangalore). Would cherish the journey, ambience, Mangalore's special ice-creams, beach and company of buddies from college days.

* Rafa loses to Soderling...Sigh! I have always detested domination.

* IPL ended last week. For yours truly, IPL has turned out to be very predictive.Infact won bets both times (no money business here:)) Wanted RR to win last year and DC this year!.... what was common among these?? Take a guess..

* First session of Lok Sabha begins.
New health minister's comments on on-screen smoking ban was shocking.He considers indian viewers are sensible enough and its impractical to ban on-screen smoking. Common, whom are you kidding when you have surveys which say 32% youth follow onscreen divas religiously. When you have seen so many innocnet children jumping of building expecting Shaktiman will come and save, when you have crazy fans worshiping idols of khushboo and namitha....
Discriminatory politics has already kicked off with allegations against our new railway minister making some chages in trains routers plying via Bihar. 2 trains have already been burnt.

* Air France flight 447 goes missing. No clue about whereabouts of 228 passengers. Lifes so unpredictable. So many lives, their dreams ,aspirations, all washed away in matters of minutes....:(( --- "Live life as if there's no tommorow"

* Its appraisal time. Have done lot more quality work than expected. Hoping not to be greeted by dissapointment this time around.

A visit to the city of Nizams...

2009-03-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Been to Hyderabad this week. It was a sojourn for approx 2 days. Left Bangalore on Thursday the 19th with 3 other friends. Reason for the visit was to attend Naveen's bros wedding, meet some `longtime no see` frnds and at the sametime know the place better.

Having been in Bangalore for the past 20 odd years, I didnot find much difference b/w Bangalore and Hydb.Both places looked the same concrete jungles. The segregation of IT Hub from the rest of city, the congregation of apartments surrounding the Hub, very high traffic at specific parts in the city, JNTU like our BU in city center, made them look all the same. But relatively I felt Hydb has less traffic than Bangalore. Hybd roads looked well planned and simple to keep track of, on the other hand I've always felt its a confusing labyrinth in Bangalore. Also I did find the rickshawalas more accommodating than their Bangalore counterparts. With just 2 days in Hydb, the place looks so familiar.

Charminar

Being in Hydb was a wonderful experience. Was amazed to see the celebration of custom called marriage in this part of the country. Meeting some very close frnds, ambience shown by them(nice to have frnds in new places and much nicer if they have time for u:) ), the lavish wedding, visting Charminar and surrounding places, Hussain Sagar, IMAX (watched "Straight" here), shopping at Hydb Central, Biryani at Hotel Paradise, pesarattu at Chutneys, were moments to cherish.

Feels nice to take a break from routine chores, travel, meet frnds, know places and bringing back sweet memories. And also yess, to add, a small blogpost to make sure it remains in memory for ever :)

And it didnot snow!:(

2009-01-11T00:02:00.000-08:00

This was my first National Level Trek...At first I declined the idea of goin on this trek, which would take 11 full days as per our schedule. But then succumbed to the temptation of covering most of the places in North-Western India. More than everything, the very idea of getting to meet new pple from different cultures n making new frnds was quite an inviting idea...

[Bangalore-->Delhi--->Amritsar--->Pathankot--->Dalhousie-->
-->Kalatop--->Khajjiar--->Chamba--->Dalhousie--->Pathankot-->
-->Delhi-->Bangalore]

The trek was well planned by Abhinav n folks... The complete schedule can be found in my previous post..The schedule was followed most of the days, except some delays in train departures and arrival timings due to foggy conditions around Delhi and Amritsar places...

Our Janta for Trek

Things that deserves a mention....

The fun of journey (approx 6 days in bus and trains, and then trekking...wasnt that journey too;) ), the chilling temperatures, 6-7 layers of dressing, spirit shown by Indians at Wagah Border, Long Break from hooking onto lappy, exploring Delhi,Amritsar and places in HP, meeting some passionate trekkers who have been there and done it since ages, disciple wrt time exhibited at YHAI hostels, Fog at D & A, Zorbing at Khajjiar, Delhi Metro, the Mafia Game and our crazy logics, life on the edge throughout the trek, Rajdhani, photography, Josh filled Dances, Washing plates in frezing water, No-bath-for-3days Saga, The New year Celebs, The "Horse is red, horse is brown and cat is dead" episode, Harsh's photography, Viral's accent, Kiran's imitation of the same, The lasting wait for snow....And overall the EXPERIENCE.

Briefly Phrasing how the days slipped...

Left bang on 24th night.....reached Delhi on 26th morning at 11.30. am..had got a feel of the cold and Fog by then...Moved straight to YHAI hostel in Chanakyapuri, Freshened up...roamed at Cannaught place for the evening...then headed towards Nizzamudin to catch our train to Amritsar....Reached Amritsar next morning....had booked a hotel beforehand....stayed there, roamed around Golden temple, Jalianwallah bag, Wagah Border...Rested for the night at Amritsar...Left on next(28th dec) morning to on Bus to Pathankot from Amritsar...Hopped onto another Bus to reach Dalhousie( the base camp of YHAI) by evening 7....

Had to head straight for dinner (with our never forgetteble plate and cup;)). Thus started, the bond with out plates and cups, remained untill the last day of trek....then there was cultural evening of songs, shayaris, poems ...this was followed by cake cutting and bournvita...Then there was our own mafia game at bed.... Thus ended our first day at Trek....

Next day was reserved for Acclamatisation.....so as to implement the subject, we were woken up early in the morning at 5....and taken to Subash Chowk.....this was followed by some exercises which looked quite grilling in that stiff cold...

Day3 of trek, Dec30th, we walked for 11 kms from Dalhousie to Kalatop. Apparently Kalatop is the highest point we reched during our trek. Its 8k+ feet above sea level.."1942 love story" is said to be have some scenes shot here...Sunset point was main attraction here...The evening passed with funfilled competitive antyakshari...Night was fun too, with Kiran's heroics...

DW-10 Batch

Day4 of trek, Dec31st,...we trekked from Kalatop to Khajjiar. This route was comparitively the toughest of the trek involving long steep trails of climbing the hills...Khajjiar is referred to as mini Swiss because of the grassland vegetation here...Enjoyed Zorbing here...Missed the paragliding due to time constraints....Fellow friends had some nice plans for new year...New year cake was colourful to mark the occasion too..The euphoria of new year celebrations took a backseat due to some extra josh of localites....Anyway, didnot miss the chance to wish all our fellow frnds a very happy year to come....This was followed by some sound sleep..

Day5...was the usual trek.. Took time off to move around chamba and do some shopping...Also visited the Lakshmi Narayan and Chamundi temples, palace(which is now transformed into a college).....Evening passed with some dancing and mafia games....Some part of "Taal" is said to have been shot at Chamba....

The next morning a private bus was booked to take the entire Gang of 50+ to Dalhousie....Reached Dalhousie...After collecting our luggage, headed directly to catch a bus to Pathankot.....Took a train from Pathankot to Delhi.....Thanks to Fog at Pathankot....our train arrived 3 hrs late which gave us some shopping time here...Jammu mail was the train we boarded....worst ambience...train reached Delhi 5 hrs late...thus spoling our planned 1 day Delhi Dekho trip.....We headed to YHAI hostel....left for some lunch to Cannaught place.....We non-veggies went to Kake De Dabha for lunch....whereas veggies preffered Saravana Bhavan...Boarded metro...switched at some points...ended up in some market...did some sweets shopping....came back by metro too...Was very impressed by the way things are planned at Delhi metro.....Thanks to metro,places where we need min 1 1/2 hrs...we were able to reach in just under 10 mins....Eagerly waiting for the Bangalore metro to kickoff.....

Then boarded Rajdhani to Bangalore....good experience it was for 40hrs in Rajdhani.....Reached home by 11am on Jan 5th. From that point started our usual Bangalore routine starting with WFH......Next day newspapers read...."One of the coaches of Rajdhani caught fire when it was moved to some cleaning place"...that was the same Rajdhani we had travelled in.......Also there was photos of fresh snow in Dalhousie flashed in almost all the newspapers....It had just snowed after we left:(

Snaps:

Himalayan Trek

All set to hit the snow!

2008-12-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

Its Recession time and as part of cost cutting measures, cisco has asked us to go on mandatory PTOs from 25th Dec to Jan 5th.

Thanks to our visionary Abhinav, who had forseen[;)] this and planned for Winter Trekking at Dalhousie. Am quite excited to see new places, meet new pple and experience nature at its best!. The pic below gives our schedule (courtesy Abhinav)

Merry X'mas and a very Happy New Year for all folks who stumbled upon this post. Cya soon!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S......

2008-12-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

F.R.I.E.N.D.S... Man, what a show!...I've become completely addicted to this sitcom. Looks like thers no way am gonna stop unless I finish all 10 seasons or, will I rewind to the first season again?!:O. Let it be when am feelin lonely, or kinda confused as to what to do when thers lota work n study to do, or as part of that routine before I hit bed, this has always been my source of ultimate entertainment :).

Was kind of wondering, how did I get to like this show so much? I mainly watch television as an object of relaxation. So thers no room for serious stuff. Thats been the reason I always distance myself from hollywood stuff, most of which I believe fall under the action, thriller or full of logic kinda movie category. With FRIENDS, I've found a new era of interest in sitcoms.

FRIENDS is one show which guarantees a smile on u'r face (guffaw would be the right word here) no matter what mood you are in. Apart from the non-stop laughter guaranteed, it touches one with the keen frendship qualities displayed by the characters.

The best thing about frnds is the characters themselves. Amazing characters, with amazing acting to portray the meaning of the very term F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Instant comedy in every minute of the show is in store for u ...Each character is exemplary in their own way...Chandlers rhetorical questions, Joeys expressions, Ross's body language, Monicas never give-up attitude, Phoebes music and 'child at heart' behaviour, and Rachael's way of pulling Ross's leg is simply unmatched. Lastly, the way Janus cackles "Ohhh My Goddd!" deserves a mention here.

A question popped up....whoz the most famous character afterall..a quick check in orkut shows...chandler has 52k fans, joey 183k and phoebe 106k. FRIENDS as a show has 551k, expected na...afterall its the bonding among the six that everyone loves...

Some of my fav dialogues....

The way Phoebe introduces - " Hey everyone, this is Mr. XYZ and Mr.XYZ this is `everyone` "
Joey's famous one, " Hey, how u doin?...."
Joey's innocent way of protecting Chandler and Monica, " I am Joey. I am DISGUSTING!" (so I did the silly thing, whatever you are blaming C and M for)
Chandlers rhetorical questions starting with "Could this be any more...?"

Offlate, I did watch some episodes of "How I met your mother", a similar sitcom of 5 frnds. But I did feel this ones no match for F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

CCIP.... Finally!

2008-07-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Longtime since I blogged...The reason being the subject itself...hectic work and plans for personal growth, kept me kinda busy these days.

Networks has always interested me and so have been those certifications since college days. It was in Jan 07 that I finished my CCNA paper. The initial euphoria had made me think, I'll read CCNP for a month, practice for a month and become a Cisco Certified Network Professional in about 2 months. Thats when I skimmed through CCNP Syllabus, was aghast to discover that CCNP like CCNA is not just a single paper but its a set of 4 papers. Started off preparing with BSCI which is the common paper for CCNP, CCIP, CCVP and other professional level certifications. This subject is like our first year engineering wherin you get to read all different branches. Here it forms the base for all different certifications as it includes an introduction of all Interiro Gateway Protocals (IGP) and Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGP). Got hold of a book by some specific cisco author and began my preparation. The book started with the basics of each protocol and gave an indepth explanation of the different configurations, outputs and explanation for the same. Was so happy with this book that I never cared to have a look at other BSCI books and went for the exam in about 6 months. Flunked the first time.Only at the exam did i realise that I had reffered a book which was outdated and had some important chapters which were added offlate,missing. DHCP, IPv6, Multicast as I remember. Flunking was pretty dissapointing as I had slogged like the way I used to back in my college days. But yes, the fact also remains that BSCI syllabus is vast compared to any of the professional level papers.

Browsed a lot, used to read a lot of blogs related to success stories and also learned to use IOU, dynamips meanwhile. Decided I'll read cisco student guides to get a better understang of the concepts. And also got to know these were the syllabus followed in network academies. By referring to latest student guides I was atleast sure that I'm not missing out any topics with respect to the examination. At this point had to change my team. This is when I realised CCIP would be more appropriate for my responsibilities at work than CCNP. Started working on a project related to QoS broadband related areas. So decided to take up QoS certification first.Finished it and went back to BSCI (didnot change the book though :)). Got hold of those extra chapters I had missed and prepared well and passed BSCI in my second attempt. Then it was the time when confusion cropped wether BGP next or MPLS. Started with MPLS as it sounded the hott technology.Mid way through realised you needed good understanding of BGP to understand MPLS well. Eventhough BSCI had introduced to BGP topics,I didnot remember much about BGP as it was 6 months since I took the exam. So started preparing BGP in parallel, felt pretty interesting and finished studying most part of it. Speaking to seniors realised it was better to take a combined paper of BGP+MPLS. So prepared for both the exams and took a combined paper. Finished it by end of july 08. So it needed 1 1/2 years of weekend slogging to finish of my CCIP. Hope I'll constantly implement the concepts I've learnt at work and see to it that I'll develop more knowlegde in the ever expanding cisco technologies. But should accept, CCIP gave a good base for understanding basic concepts of multiple cisco technologies.

What next? Well have some non-technical plans in mind. Meanwhile thinking of giving some break and setting up a home PC with all latest configurations and high RAM to run dynamips and practice most of the concepts learnt all these days. This would make some serious sense if I decide on preparing for CCIE in near future. Works been really hectic from the last 8 months. Feeling a sense of satisfaction that I could pull of my professional certification inspite of hectic schedules. Much more happier that I finally found a topic and some time to pen down a blog here.:)

Long Weekend.....

2008-04-07T02:35:00.000-07:00

Insomnia strikes yet again at the end of a weekend! And am here bloging at 2 am on a tues morn after a loong weekend. Stop, its not because of fear of the weekdays ahead;), its just the effect of afternoon slumbers on weekends :)

Numbers say that we have max number of long weekends in 2008. And here again one more just passed by.

Weekends for me basically include movies, swimming, meeting frnds,long rides,dining out, watching reality shows on TV and yes some work too. But most of the time the joy of long weekends is lost when you remember the proj deadlines at job fast approaching. Monthly time lines at work tend to wash off the essence of long weekends.

This weekend I ended up watching 2 movies. First one was Accident ( kannnada) directed by Ramesh. Had gone to this one with my cab frnds. The movie was meant to be a thriller, and yes to some extent it was. The story basically is the sudden death of our heros better half when hes out of the country. Media reports our dead heroine of having an affair and the reason for accident being drunken rash driving with her then boyfrnd. Not able to believe this, our hero decides to unravel the exact cause for the accident. The movie then is how he with the help of his frnds solves the mystery behind the murder. I would rate this movie as once watchable.

The second one was the much hyped Pavan Kalyans "jalsa" (telugu). Hype I guess was basically because of the well known characters in the movie, well know director and music director. And yes the title too adds to the hype, "jalsa" means enjoy having bindass time. Well to tel what the movie was all about, ohh yaa lemme think, yes the script was so bad that I seriously have to think all over about the 21/2 hrs to make some sense of what exactly it was about. All I can remember is "Pavan Kalyan", yes it was among those typical south Indian completely hero centric movie. Hero centric bcoz, you'll only hear the hero speak for most part of the movie.Some dialogues making sense and most of the time absolute non-sen se. Fights filled up in the movie and hero thrashing hundreds of rowdies throughtout single handedly. All in all it was complete crap, except a couple of gud songs and some gud dialogues. So beware before you plan for this much hyped one.

To overcome the disaster of spoiling our weekend by watching such a movie, we frnds headed straight to "The Lagoon" a new restaurant in our area. Had some typical kerala dishes and lots fun at the dinner...

Third and final day of weekend. Its Ugadi...our new year. Pujas at home, work for most of the day, heavy lunch followed by heavier slumber. So the long weekend is past now, get back to work pple:)

Bday...just another day?? Nah!!

2007-10-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

10/10 was a special day. Had less sleep the previous night as expected. A very warm feeling when pple wish u at 00 hrs from all over. Late night, early morning and all day wishes...hah!..afterall it was my day:)

Celebration at office has always been special, afterall its expected when u have some very special frnds:) The suprise barging into my cube, the cake cutting, leg pulling, the bday song singing, and all along staying at their decibel best was the best part. And finally the GPL:( ...was the way it went.

Ond group Snap:)

My Shimmoga gang..... Feels happy to have such grt frnds. Always always you pple have made me feel special:).

As far as works concerned, it was one of the hectic days. Early morning meetings, long travel to office, celebration at office, and also making sure I had time for my frnds:)...the day had a mixture of everything.

Honours for the day..

Thanks frnds for all the time, wishes, gifts and kicks ;)...Also needs a mention...The msgs from unknown numbers, the status msg , the 1Re belief...and the Red Uniforms[:P] too!!

Thanks guys....this blog goes to u all..:)

One year at Cisco!!

2007-09-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

This one particular blog gives me immense pleasure to write. The very topic says it all. Its been a very memorable n eventful year at cisco.Can write pages about my experience in the past one year.;)..hah!! dont worry ...will try to put in here with a compendious approach in mind.

It was 26th june, 2006....exactly an year ago...when i stepped in DC office of Cisco Systems.And writing this blog exactly an year after, and trying to just ponder over the past year...my brains swamped by immense nostalgia.

Past one year at cisco, in particular work life at Divyashree Chambers would remain in memory for ever.The college atmosphere we created at cisco, coupled with flexible work timings helped us to have the experience of fun at work, at its best. Its been a place of fun at work, right from day one. The work culture, the pple around and our ever enthusiastic group of college grads added a pinch of masala to all the fun. Life here has had a share of everything. Some extremely good pple, and some contrary to them.Those initail months of extreme fun, those fun at office and work at home days, those extremely time critical SRs. All in all... its been an experience!.

In cisco u'll get to see pple of all tastes....some extremly hard working nerds and some exactly d opposite;) We were a small gang of 12 frnds at cisco DC. I've had some very great cherishable moments with his gang. At the sametime have had some very sad moments too. Being with this group, I've had the fun of life. The never ending threads on our mailer lists, the lunches at cafetaria,the laughs that echoed "no one can beat this noise":D , the carrom , badmitton and TT games , the fun games on christmas eve, the birthday cakes, the birthday bumps, the gifts , the get-together at tea in every 2 hrs:)

I have learnt a lot in the past one year. Let it be technical, interactive or managerial skills or the art of getting along with pple with different tastes.Getting very close to pple, blabbering all sense n non-sense, and later realizing its always in everyones interest to maintain that "one arm;)"distance.Frankly speaking, me not among those guys who enjoyed my college days. It was always a count of days for me to just get out Eng college and get into a good job. Having transformed from being an extremely introvert guy to what i have been offlate says it all.My frnds often say, its kinda confusing the way i dealt with my college days and professional life.

Not to forget..."Cisco Sportunity" needs a mention. It did made me play all sorta games which i had never played but always wanted to;).Hah!!..just missed by a whisker in being cisco's "Asafa Powell":D

FUN it was...in the true sense!!

Commuting to Office : An Intro of Bangalore's landmarks on the way

2007-06-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

Motivation: Bangalore's traffic which ensures that I'm cosily settled in my cab for nearly 2 hrs a day commuting to office.

Purpose: Enlighten the reader about some well known places in Bangalore ;)

I stay in Mathikere ( kere = lake, a place which is said to have been a huge lake some decades back)...haven't heard?? Its adjacent to Yeshwanthpur on its right, it has IISC(Indian Institute of Science) to its front and MSRIT( M.S. Ramiah institute of Technology) on its left. Guess u got a fair idea now:).

IISC

I have 2 pick ups to office. One at 8.30 and other at 10.30 by Cisco cab. I usually get the 8.30 one to avoid traffic jams at busy 10.30hrs.I take the 10.30 cab mainly when i get that extra dose of sleep. As I start-off my 45-50 mins journey to office, I am writing here about the route n the landmarks we come across.

Here we go...fasten u'r seatbelts....n Happy journey.;)

My pick-up point is nearby to MSRIT, abt 7 mins walk from home. MSRIT is one among top 5 Eng colleges in Karnataka and it got its autonomous status recently.
In 2 mins, I pass IISC, which i guess needs no introduction. The most coveted institute for Science and Engineering Education in India, GATE toppers first choice and where u'r Phd career can flourish to glory. +2 mins drive u'll get Yeshwanthpur.It houses a well known railway station ,which in Lalu's recent railway budget got sanctions for new trains to ply to different corners of India.Space constraints at the station and pathetic planning of roads in Bangalore has seen to it that most of these have remianed on paper.

chowdiah memorial

+5 mins, I'm at the CET cell of Karnataka, where counselling is done for Engineering, Medical and different PG seats in the same stream.This is the place that gave me entrance tickets for RVCE and BMC. Next to it is the playground( known as 18th cross ground ) where i cherish the memories of playing cricket matches and the ground which helped for my practice for NDAphysical examination. In front of it is a well known lake (Sankey Tank) , which has a cool joggers track circumferencing it.Adjacent to it is the K.C.Reddy Swim Center, which was onof our favourite hangouts in summer vacations. Opposite to the lake is the ChowdiaMemorialHall where u'll often get to watch some good plays.

Seeing thru the lake I reach Sadashivnagar, which is the place where most of the politicians and film stars of Karnataka have their habitats. It also has a prometric center where i recently got my CCNA certification. +2 mins drive and I'm in front of Cauvery theatre, usually plays Hindi New Releases...but right now I see its jam-packed with fans for "Shivaji".

Le Meriden

Continuing my journey on the same road , I get to see Windsor Manor, where we had a 2 day orientation programme by Cisco.Opposite to it is the Ashoka Hotel, where we celebrated our recent 7500 EOS.Next to it is Le Meridien, where we celebrated Kiran's recent success, the party which was a get-together with most of my RV frnds.This road has the golf coarse on its side... spreading all along with lush green grass.

Chinnaswamy Cricket Std

10 mins drive from here we reach Infantry Road, where we pass-by the Indian Express office and then the Income Tax office. +2 mins drive we get Chinnaswamy Stadium(Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble,Javagal Srinath are some names that echo here...) on left and Cubbon Park on right.As you move on u'll get Kasturba road, which houses Vishveshwariah Museum, Govt Museum and the large Aquarium Museum.

Bangalore Golf Course

Then we pass-by St. Josephs school, Mallya Hospital and Kanteerava stadium (for athletics
in Bangalore).2 mins drive , we reach Richmond circle, 5 mins traffic here and u'll get langford road where u'll find DivyaShree Chambers which houses my office Cisco Systems with Sun Microsystems as its neighbour.

Soon in a months time my office gets shifted to Sarjapur Road, hope to enlighten u about much more landmarks in Bangalore then;)

Sakleshpur Trek

2007-06-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Me basically that sought of guy who loves to hang out with frnds, explore places , gather interesting info abt them...And thats the root cause for goin on with this trek....

The planning for the trek from my side was a perfect NULL :). It was Anantha who asked me to join them and I instanly decided to join them.Nice to have buddys like Anatha n Santosh who had well planned everything in advance for the trek, let it be from gettting allstuff for survival on the trek or surfing the net to get a fell of the place from others experiences.

It was 1st june 2007 at 11.45 we had booked tickets to sakleshpur in Rajahamsa. It was a cool 4 hr journey, and we landed at Donigal( 7kms from sakleshpur) at about 4.00 early morning. There was this small hotel call "Pic Nic" where they were playing some cool local tracks. We decided to fresh-up thr n have some breakfast, as this would be our first n last hotel on this trek.
Then after about half n hour we decided to set our legs rolling ;) and with instructions from the hotel cashier, set off walking on the highwayin search of the Donigal Railway station. Our torches did play their role in seeing that we r on the highway. It was a brisk 11/2 hr walk to cover a distance of about 3-4 km that we finally reached the Donigal Railway station at about 6am. The actual trek started off at the Donigal Railway station. We freshed up here, distributed our loads equally and set-off.After walking for a km we began to get the feel of toughness to walk on a railway track. But chitter chatter talk on the way kept usgoing. Estates n the banks of streams of water, were a good place to take rest.

From Donigal to Yedakumeri , its 17 kms of railway track with full of greenary, mountains ,streams of water, bridges amd tunnels all the way.After covering about 4 kms we decided upon cooking some stuff , so as to muster some energy for the 13 kms left. We cookedyummy MTR stuff. Here we stumbled upon one more gang of enthusiastic, not so well planned trekkers from i-gate S/W firm. Then it was a hare and tortoise race all along:).
We reached Yedakumeri at about 5.30 pm. We were all exhausted n happy that we had seen thru it. As per our plans we were all set to take rest at the railway station for the night. But the station master had his own share of owes to forbid us from staying there overnight. We were compelled to leave the place at about 6and enter the forest to cross it n get to the highway which was 4-5 kms away.

The real trek started on entering the forest. The staffers at the railway station waved in some direction,saying thats the way to enter the forest to reach the highway. Aghast!! we were, as it was just a path left by a stream of water.The walk in the forest ..infact running...infact sliding at some places...was really horrifying. With apparently no clue wether we were on the right path and the fear of darkness embracing us...we had to rush through one behind the other. We were 9 of us here...we 4 + 5 trekkers from i-gate.After walking for about half n hour did we realize that leaches were hanging all over from our shoes, legs, pants....The salt we had didnot suffice to remove them all...so we had to bear with them and rush thru to reach the highway. This continued for an hr more, with leaches all the way n elephants on our way at some points. Then came a sigh of relief when wesaw the buses at some distance on the highway. But this feeling didnot stay long....

We had to cross a river to reach the highway,( guess we had lost our way in the forest and had missed a bridge at some place to cross this river).The water was flowing with enough pace not to allow anyone to experiment their swimming skills. Fortunately there was a point form one side on the banks with huge stones at intermittent places till the other side of the river. The stones were very slippery and everyone had their share of fall into the river.Finally we made a human chain n were able to reach the other end. It was about 8pm when we stepped on the highway. Got a bus there and reached Sakleshpur by abot 10pm. Got into a lodge and got rid of all the leaches on our clothes n shoesand took rest for the night and left to Bangalore the next morning.

All in all, it was an adventourous weekend for all we software engineers , a change from our routine monotonous life and the feeling that we would cherish for ever:).

Have a peek at the snaps here

sakleshpur

Introspection....

2007-06-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

Even though this word is synonymous to secrecy, ones within...I dare an attempt to alter its own worth in d process of introspecting myself.
As i sit down to write about my thoughts...u'll get to know where i stand in life, my views about friends..the good ones...the not so encouraging ones...what makes me think so...my priorities in life..my past , my present and a peek into my future....
Life's a challenge...everyone would've faced them throughtout...but only magnitude n intensity of it differ...But i strongly have that feeling ....have faced more challenges and have been successful in overcoming most of them, than pple of my age group.Sometimes have that feeling...No need to read any auto/biographies...just have to remember my past to grasp enough inspiration to make my future a successful one.
At the sametime looking at my present.....Have the feeling..that i am in that position in life where I always dreamt, to be in life...But the irony is that when u are where u always wanted to be, dreams change n infact grow into bigger ones as u advance in life.
To know more... guess u have to wait for more posts here....

The Prologue....

2007-06-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Blogs!!!...why have i started now??..Why was i hesitant to write inspite of always wanting to startoff..??Well the reasons are a few n common too..... The instinctive feeling of hesitation ...Will pple read what i write....?? Will I end up putting in some non-sense stuff....?? Will... will....will...lots as such..:)

But what really kicked me to start-off is.....

English....is a beautiful language...n has its universal appeal too..So writing blogs to improve my hold over it over time.Me a guy who values my heart more than mind...naturally likes to put forth all intersting thoughts i come accross, my experiences that serves as a knowledge atleast for a minute population;)... Also the nice feeling when i read my frnds blogs....n the urge to get the same feeling imbibed in my other frnds.... N more importanly put my lappy n time to its max usage when travelling in the not so encouraging bangalore traffic.