Entry to Exit : A Journey called life ...

Life Lesson#5

2011-10-22T14:27:00.002-05:00

"LookOut vs OutLook : during situations ppl react diff, some get into a shell when they have to peep out and sometimes let their neck totally out when they have to just peep out , both not good for their outlook "

What A ShamE .......

2010-02-01T04:27:00.004-06:00

"What a shame......." were the exact words Michi , told me when we were having a conversation and I had told her that I don't remember my Mom's bday....Then there was a barrage of words stringed into sentences which I could only standstill and hear ..was stripped naked by those words..
started with the 9 months wombtime, feeding ....and what not !!! This triggered an unusual thought process in me, we complain even when a small good activity of us is not recognized but I've never thought of recognizing the unconditional love - my parents have always been showering ! I have always tried to be nice but being nice is not enough - she is working almost 24x7 with no returns - her world revolves around my dad,sisters n me. I have got a big world to be happy , she just has this little world of hers to be happy !!

Got into a cursing mode thinking how selfish I've been in ignoring this simple fact of reciprocating - its better later than never.I had a good flashback of all my budding years and how she was supporting me invisibly from all angles - I couldn't hold back messaged my sister to find the date and then ordered a couple of stuff for her to be delivered on her birthday.. Hope she doesn't have a heart attack as I've never even wished her on her birthday ;-)

I've decided not to miss a call to her (she needs me to call her atleast once a week to answer the same questions - did you have your food, are you OK, how is your health etc and now I know why ;-). Now I feel lighter and happier,its not the promotions, the appraisals , the salary hike, the project successes that brings you real happiness - the real deal lies in small actions like these !!

Its better late than never.......Love u Mom - the only girl who loves you unconditionally from day0 of your life (courtesy Cata) !!!

Bar by the beach in UY serving Vadaiss ???

2010-01-29T05:10:00.002-06:00

It all started when I was sitting and chatting with a friend of mine with a bottle of ice cold beer,on the deck of the life guard hut on the beach...She was just back from Mozambique and we started discussing all her experience - scuba diving, Night safari at the Kruger & I was telling her how jealous was I of her just coz of the amount of travelling, camping, adventures she has experienced............
I admire when people can follow their heart for a little while.. and she was flowing on and on with stories - that even I started to listen - which is rare from my side ;-) !!

We were thinking of 2do options in UY - Skydiving was deemed unsafe - also joked about people packing the chutes with a hot mate or burning cigarette and the chute having a hole when opened (at a height of 10000+ feet hmmm... ), No scope for bungee - you got to fly to Argentina or Brazil , no to SCUBA - they do it in a pool ahhhh,,,, and the one left was camping... I took the bait as always something is better than nothing.........& wanted to get out of my office framework for a while coz it was biting a bit into me ..

Plan etched to go camping to La Paloma - 3 hours by bus from Montevideo... One of her friends had rented a house and we could pitch a couple of tents by the garden of the home and a group would join us.

DAY0: Finished all my pending work at office and left a bit early to be at the bus station for the 3 hour comfy journey to La Paloma.Packed my Nikon D60 with all three lenses & had charged both my battery packs the night before. we reached La Paloma around 2315 or so .. and some calls from work had to be attended to but didnt play spoilsport - they managed to behave !! Seafood paella and some lamb for dinner at a nearby restaurant while we waiting for our friends Juan and Caro to pick us up - we were hauled into a Mitsubishi pickup = i liked the rustiness of the place and the people incl the pickup truck - like the ones in Texas and those from those hostel series movies ;-)
We got in and were double minded on whether to pitch the tent tonight or just make ourselves cozy in the hall of the wooden home .. not to miss the fun from day0, we started unpacking the tent and fixed it soon.. and were ready to dig ourselves into our sleeping bags...

DAY1:My biOclOck always disturbs me a little early than the normal standard, so couldn't resist waking my friends up at oh-eight-thirty.. some frowned some just said ..its a vacation day relaxxxxxx tranquiloooooooo.. hmmm !! But the sun in UY can sting your skin when it is directly above you , so its always better to wander in the beach before or after.Diappointment#1 came down here - I took my camera and wanted to click the sleepy faces but as i got a good angle and clicked - the most disappointing words flashed on the display "No memory card inserted" - in the haste had left the memory card in the laptop slot. Leaving the disappointment behind We all walked to the beach and it was not so crowded.. just the right kind.. families,, children making sand castles,, dogs playing fetch with their proud owners,,

Too many jellyfishes in the sea didnt deter us from swimming and then hitting the beach for a bit of tan (hahah dont laugh even our skin gets a bit darker .. should i call it black than tan). After a couple of trips to the sea , ended up on the wooden chairs at Juan's beach side bar - and had some cold Kaipirinhas with some Buñuelos de algas (deepfried sea algae in a little batter of flour and beer), fresh mussels boiled in salt and a bit of garlic with the shell - thought i wont like it but this was just soft and melted in the mouth !!

After a great lunch from the sea, decided to take a walk to downtown for a bit of grocery shopping.We were walking for hours, confused on our bearings (no we didn't smoke though).. if we had walked straight probably couldve crossed the boundaries of UY.But the walk had its own surprises - a good beach where the water was clearer with lesser population of Jelly fish - better to spend some more time at the sea, a bakery with tasty masitas and churros and then we moved ourselves to the fish shop - my eyeballs from end to end searching for crab ,, its been long since i had it ! But there was no crab, but the meat was available of the smaller variety called Cirri - ok whatever get it was my reaction ! We bought some fresh prawns and crab meat.Still we didnt know our way back and the sun was threatening to go down his blanket to sleep ! After about 5 or 6 calls to Caro and an hour more walk on the beach with some questions to strangers on the way - reached our tent lovely tent ! Indian food with rice, prawn curry and crab masala with wine - cant get better with the company being awesome.

DAY2: Read DAY1 one more time, as if it is put on writing it would be boring but believe me after a month of streching on work you can do the same thing again and again without getting bored and the same thing should be defined as - swimming, lying on the beach, drinking kaipirinhas and eating sea food from Juans bar .. lol
The only different thing we did today was - to get smarter and do the shopping with Caro in Juan-s pickup - veggies , prawn , wine and crab meat.This time the group was going to be about 10 - Caros and Juans friends wanted to taste some spicy food as they missed it (Most of them had worked in Indonesia).
Thank that someone who invented automobiles - reached our place early enough to prepare - fried rice with veggies, prawn masala even topped with coriander leaves and crab masala. For drinks there was Mango cocktail from chile which my friend presented and Wine from Argentina. We sat outside on a clear night with lots of talk and food - I could hear the whoooos and aahs from most of them , Juan was ranked#1 in accomodating spicy food ;-). We had the antidote of curd and pappad ready for those whoo-aaah sickness and it was well appreciated.Juan has forwarded an invite to me to cook Indian food (vada, prawn masala etc) at his bar.A nice day ended nice.

DAY3: you know the start ... now !! The different thing is we visited the the "youngster" beach at La pedrera about 20 - 30 mins from La paloma. I loved the countryside ride on top of a pickup. The houses are different the scenery is different.Too much visible energy on the beach.
A bit of souvenir hunting and then back to the bus base for our return back to Montevideo and Monotony (a different kind which i dont like)

Next Action Item: A Weekend camping but as an employee of Juan at his lovely wooden rustic bar by the beachside , not only sipping free kaipirinhas & munching on sea food but also cooking some Indian spicy food for sale - awesome a part of my dream come true - owning a restaurant starts in the kitchen !! I am all for it .............and being employee of Juan for a weekend means free surfing classes !!!

Crashed by Car & Washed by Wits .........

2010-01-09T14:17:00.003-06:00

This working week ended on a great note with a meeting with the ex-CEO and current vice chairman of my company. He was on a tour to south america , and was a lucky to share a meeting table with him. It was a great eye opener for many of us.. and helped us put a different perspective to what we do...

Then there was a "cant say NO " invite from a group of friends to a place called El Pinar - the goodies on offer were a great home by the beach, lots of music, BBQ , the twin W's - wine & Whisky, and great beautiful friends to chat off the night...

Was so thrilled to get off to a beach home with a energetic group as this NY eve was spent alone by the beach lying half in water and half in sand.. watching the firework lit sky ....

2230 my friend picked me up from my home and then as my lovely jinx always does wonders - the car goes dead !! We tried almost everything common sense (the little we have) ordered us to -- I now remembered my Dad's words during my university years when I was trying to graduate in Mechanical Engineering : " Try to be a real engineer not a one on paper" -
I think I couldn't keep his word on this, apart from many others of course ....

By the time we needed some drinks 4 thought and the first W to speed into our throats was the 12 years old Walker. Then the 4 of us had a crazy idea of why not spend the night at the beach in carrassco... LOL we were laughing at the idea but the sleeping bags.. and the right rocky place we scouted in a bit ensured a 100% participation !!!

The wind the rhythm of the sea, little guitar tunes from Juan kept us going the whole night - did I miss Luci's songs ??? We should have slept about 2 - 2.5 hours , then the early morning sun , the waves and the birds woke us up !! It was awesome just like the one I spent on a catamaran back in india - but this one was on the rocks rather than in the Sea ! the effect on the crazy meter is the same .. believe me or not ....

How could we resist an early morning dip if the stay place offered a very large pool with depth varying from an inch to a few 1000 meters ,moderate temperature, no lanes, no time or space restrictions ;-) ? We all swam in the morning water for sometime .. wiping off all the sand that had made love to us the night ....

Returned to my home around midday , with a smile cut across my face thinking of the last 10 or so hours ... life has its twists and turns...its easy to accept and improvize than to resist and ruin !!!

The unexplicables... donno if it exists !! ;-)

2009-08-21T06:27:00.001-05:00

its 0823 and I got 7 mins to washoff my thoughts to the keyboard....Y'day as my friend and me were walking towards the morning pickup point.. it was windy..
I thought out loud .. hope this wind ceases ..automatically my thought went to what I had just said and dwelved a little deeper ,which is very uncommon..

think of a situation where we have to tell our kids what a breeze or wind is , considering that they dont exist anymore...I found it really difficult to find an explanation..

some things are just felt .. they cannot be taught or explained ...Now i got no complains abt the day being windy ...
its 0827.. and just the shoe laces to go.............what a relief !!!!

Somebody's loss.....

2009-08-13T11:02:00.002-05:00

There are some moments that get you for no reason - like someone whom you had known at school, whom you admired , made a long route to catch a glimpse, whom you wanted to be yours... open up now to say they had the same feeling towards you !!!

What a day ... it was yesterday,when I heard that from her; it takes your state of mind to those horizons where you've never been...Great friends for sometime, lost touch building our own careers, forked towards diff directions ,but now a slight brushup of memories brings miles of SmileS - from the heart !!!

All I can say " SomEbodY's loss is SomEbodY's GaIn " - no pun intended ;-) I am smiling now........ as I write !!

the most tiresome greeting in my life...

2009-08-01T23:28:00.001-05:00

Friday evening at the restroom, I said hi to a friend of mine at work...I had a similar 'Hi' experience when I was in the Officers Training Academy...When we joined the academy as gentlemen cadets, the first and foremost thing that was taught was to behave..
The mandatory rules included saying 'good morning/afternoon/evening sir' to all of our senior batch.we were even adapted to say the greeting how many ever times we see the same senior or even sometimes say it like thrice if we see them in a group of 3 - like one per senior. It took us a couple of days to give this kind of forced respect to our seniors, after a while it became a mechanical and automatic thing - just like breathing !! Thats what the armed forces want - respect your senior automatically...

The Hi story starts here, it was around 0300 hrs and I went the mens room for a shave(as we used to shave twice daily to ensure that we are groomed to standards). One of my seniors was there at that time and instinctively I jumped to say " Good morning sir" with all the energy I could gather at 3 AM with like 2 hours of sleep. What I forgot during this was that we were also taught not to wish seniors in restrooms, that is the only place you are exempt from the forced greeting...How can I ask brain which was working all day with map reading classes/human psychology/field trainings and got rest only 2 hours to have all the factors in mind ..poor guy he too collapsed..

what followed was a cold stare and a roar ' Give me 20..." meaning do twenty pushups.. we all knew that it means start with 20 pushups.. LOL then i had to roll around our bunkers like 2 or 3 times and then my senior gave me a pat on the back and said ok Shave karkae , 0500 report for shave parade...it was already 0430 or so by then..

looking back to all these little incidents Still brings smiles to me .. am sure my dear senior is now a Major and is somewhere serving his motherland being proud and loving what he is doing... " If I see you sometime in your OG uniform, I shall with all respect wish you - Good morning Sir "!!!

IN vs UY - thru my XP

2009-06-28T18:58:00.001-05:00

One of my friends @ work wanted some inputs reg my XP of working in IN and UY - the similarities n differences for a paper she is doing.. this is what I shared with her

A) Family first
Respect for family is almost prevalent in both the countries. I have also been to North America and there is a striking difference in how people place and treat families.
Here I do find that like India they do respect their family time and family get togethers and occassions. With a fast pace getting to India due to IT and other developments, people are now struggling to make this value stay back in India, But in UY I do find it deep rooted that it might stay along.
In both countries - parents are taken care in their old age by their children, I find that missing in the americas.

B)Love towards food
This is a very very common thing I found in India and UY , though US might shy away from many varieties of food as it is not a 'healthy' food ;-) or is not made in USA ;-)
Jokes apart India has a wide variety of cuisine and people do love to taste good food and throng good restaurants. Here though UY doesnt have its authentic cuisine as most of the inhabitants are either from Spain or Italy, the love for good food (maily asado) certainly unifies the nation

C)Helpful nature this is another thing that I found common between the countries, the people are very open minded and willing to help. They even go out of their way to help us out - a stranger escorted us till the 'mercado de pescado' in pocitos though he was going for a morning walk in pocitos. I can never imagine somebody from other nations doing it.

Now coming to the differences , just listing a few I came across

A)Non-biased society
I somehow feel that UY society is very unbiased , it doesnt show any difference based on sex,color,creed or nationality. In India sometimes the sexual discrimination is very much evident in some places. For eg the Indian army's infantry wing doesnt allow female officers into its cadre. There are not much Indian females in high positions in the government.This is changing with the new IT enabled growth and social development. With more and more Indian associates travelling to the West, this image is also changing for good.

May be the sex ratio of UY also plays a crucial role in showcasing the country as a equal opportunity employer.Most of the females in rural india are not highly independent, they are happy playing second fiddle to their husbands who is a bread winner. Here I find that most of the ladies are independent and find their own avenue for work.

B)Greetings & PDA
Indian culture is very deep rooted, rich and on top of it conservative. The greetings usually are done from a distance of about 2-3 feet and is not even remotely intimate. Here the kiss on the cheeks irrespective of the sex will not be found in India though an occassional hug between well known friends is not uncommon.
I found it pretty odd initially men kissing men but now am used to it.

Public display of affections like kissing and hugging cannot be found commonly in India, Indians are very conservative in nature and the social laws would be abided by most people.Only in the recent decade have some of the dance clubs have become popular and youth is showing some energy and breaking some shackles (but even this is limited to the metropolitan cities of India).

C) Dating & Weddings
As earlier stated being from a conservative social setup dating so far has not taken any official status ;-) most of the weddings are arranged by parents looking at various attributes ranging from caste, ecomical background, astrological match etc., Modernity has brought some changes in some of the minds of youth who opt for love marriages(meaning they choose their bride.and spend some time before the wedding).this is very unlikely in either UY or US
Also wedding is mostly a one time affair in India and hence divorces are not so common as a widow/widower has a negative social stigma attached to him or her that is not warded off easily.
Premarital sex is also considered taboo

D) Economic Divide
India being the second most populous nation in the world has also has a wide economic divide amongst its different working classes. It can be compared to Brazil in economical divide. This is one of the area that the govt has to work hard to atleast minimize the gap. UY with its very controlled population seems to have it under total control, donot see much of diff between the rich and the poor.

E) Eating Habits
Hinduism that is the major religion prohibits consumption of beef or beef products as cow is worshipped as a god.Many of the castes and subcastes even have strict vegeterian food habits enforced on the followers. Mostly eating habits in India would be a matter of religious beliefs than personal preferences.
Other religions like Islam and Christianity have their own idealogies.

F) Religious Sentiments
This is one important factor in any Indian's life - he is deeprooted to religious sentiments. It governs most of his or her actions. People go to temples, mosques or churches fairly regularly and the feeling is in the blood.There have been riots in the past on religions - which is a bad thing.. that just shows that how people are driven by religious beliefs and the extent of their reach.

G) Stressed & Very competetive
Again as a by product of a larget population, though India is very rich in all natural resources - there seems to be crunch always. The top notch education system produces intellects by the millions every year, leading to cut throat competition to get into the right career paths. This has inturn made the stress levels high in the Indian cosmo soceity (comparable to Bs As , Argentina) and is easily evident in the hurried paces and faces of people living in the metros(Chennai,Delhi,Mumbai & Kolkata). In UY the way of living is very much relaxed and it is evident from the higher %age of happy faces found in a normal distribution

a Q - do you love what you Do ??

2009-06-21T11:55:00.002-05:00

I am not an expert in music , though I love to listen to some neither am I after a particular kinda music or a music director or band.. Just pick my flavor as I go.. I have listened to people have a conversation or an argument over a particular guy's music or voice being the best.. somehow i dont have that kind of gyan to be pro or anti in those situations .. so I just listen !

You feel very happy when you do what you love - be it as simple as having a hot filter coffee in your sit out watching the rain ,cracking a new puzzle or driving your bike as fast as it go... Think of a situation where you will get paid for what you love to do ... this discussion came into play after some colleagues and me got lucky to watch a concert by Krishna chakravarthy at Montevideo...

She was so engrossed in weaving the music and the mixed cultural audience was united in the applause that followed - music really has no bounds !! I loved the Tabla along with the Sitar though the tamburu was a bit irritating at times ..I know it carries some significance ;-) Even the most music-ignorant illiterate guy like me applauded the effort that really brought joy to a friday evening......

Sure the group loved what they did and its their profession - I envy all the cricket and soccer players and I am jealous of the Andrew Zimmerns, the Anthony Bourdains .......

somewhere deep in my heart , I do still believe that ..life has more in store for me to make someone jealous of me and my profession ;-) " who knows = dreams may come true" .........

Life Lesson#4

2009-05-10T15:40:00.001-05:00

Conflicts are good and lead to positive outcomes, if both parties are mature enough to respect each other's views...

Life Lesson#3

2009-05-10T10:31:00.001-05:00

the easiest way to be always happy is to change the perspective of your thoughts...

Rio Day 2 : Christo Redentor n da city tour

2009-05-10T08:18:00.001-05:00

got up around 0700 - my bioclock never a min late..freshened up .. found MC & Sri still in their dreamworld.. so went to the chillout lounge - a room with a couple of bean bags and hammocks, rested a while on the hammock.. The best thing about staying in hostels is that you get to interact with a wide varierty of personas from around the globe.. and the best place to start off a conversation is where you have your food or drinks..
The complimentary breakfast consisted of the usual continental stuff, there was one thing that stood out in Brazil - the freshness of the fruits - pineapple, the watermelon and even the orange juice tasted different on the +ve side..
After our breakfast, we headed to the reception and we had a surprise in store - the cute brazilian bluntly said that she couldnt find reservations for the city tour for us.. she was a heart breaker - by looks and deeds ...
we invoked our BCP and after a few financial checks, it was decided to rent a cab for the whole day on our own. The new Fiat adventure along with our friendly driver cum guide were to be our partners all through the city tour.The vehicle was spacious for its looks ..

We started by skimming through the beach roads along copacabana and Ipanema.. the most beautiful beaches I've ever been - the people making it that way.. long legs, sexy bods and great energy !!The cameras were busy in taking census of all the cute chicas on the beach - quick fingers on the button !!

As the sky was clear we started for the corcavado mountain peak through the Tijuca forest which has been put on the world tourist map for being the home of 'Christ the Redeemer' - one of the seven wonders of the world..The drive recreated nostalgic memories of the bus ride through the hairpin bends to my native place..mountainy terrain and dense tree growth ..We also caught a glimpse of the Favela (poor and dangerous neighbourhood) on our way towards the peak..

After a shortwait in the queue we were taken in vans to the top of the peak (700m from msl) where the 38m statue stood with the arms open..will remember the
sight for sometime to come.. The world surely needs a redeemer of this size for sure !The sight was awesome, the Statue towering high and looking down to the city with outstreched arms - it was made of concrete and sandstone. We all were dumbstuck by the enormity of christ and the effort it would've taken to erect it on top of the mountain with an inherent risk of lightning strikes (but god created lightning so why worry ;-)

We could see the other attractions of Rio from top, the Maracana stadium, the race course and pao de azucar. Then the photography session began with all of us scrambling for space between other tourists to find the right angle .. too many ppl on the stage , we had to bring out our flexibility skills in taking pics at all angles including Sri getting his new puma t shirt soiled to get it just right....

Some souvenir shopping and we were back to the van for our return journey .. to the Maracana. I have read about Maracana in a local daily back home in India during world cup soccer and now here I am visiting the place that will play host to the 2014 world cup final ;-)
This stadium can house around 100000 spectators and has a little history etched into it . It was built in 1950 for the world cup, the final between Brazil and Uruguay.The strong Brazilian team fell to the small country 2-1.

We went inside the stadium and the atmosphere airs a feeling of camaraderie, the spirit, the attitude and what not. Most of the walls were lined with posters of all stars that I used to admire from my room back home - on TV.We walked through the hall of fame which had footprints of many famous stars including my all time fav Pele - still rem his signature where the P is shaped like a ball - he lived football !

Walking through the locker rooms , with amenities like bathtubs, a massage room, a warmup area, gym etc makes you wonder - what a life.. play and earn. I know they have their share of tensions@work or rather tensions@play ;-)There was a guy dressed in Brazilian colors doing wonders with the football - great skill. He could keep anything rounded from a small stone to a soccer ball in air for as long as he wanted .. now I know what it takes to don brazilian colors as you got to be the BEST - considering there has been no best practice sharing between Indian cricket selectors and brazilian football selectors

Bidding bye to Maracana we were dead tired as we didnt have lunch due to our financial manager's cost-cutting measures ;-) We moved to Pao de Azucar or Sugar loaf if translated. Those are a couple of mountain peaks by the beach.I just wanted to stroll along the waterfront just making my thoughts wonder on how small the world is - it was enormous when i was at school..as I never thot in my wildest dreams I would visit Brazil ... Our strict finance manager allowed us a small ration of tender coconut and bites of hot churro filled with dulce de leche.

Return back to the hostel we saw some monuments by downtown Rio.We were ready to feed our bellies for the evening - set out to search for some crabs as i have never tasted crab after landing in south america. After a couple of raids, we hit upon one seafood restaurant and they served blue sea crablegs. Had a portion of it and moved to an Arabian restaurant by copacabana beach. It was really nice to have some rice and lamb along with some local brazilian beer.

Hats off to Sri's attitude of just going along with the tide and also ensuring he tastes everthing before commenting. He did like the tasty lamb..Traced our way back to the hostel and the youth gang went for their nite out...I went to the bamboo bar and spent till 0200 sharing thoughts with a backpacker from australia and a guy from germany.. The life they have seen is different and totally interesting.. Someday I wanna do it ..I know with all the strings and the rigid mental setup - it is difficult but the optimistic in me makes me think different - may be someday !!
with all the things going around my life in the personal front this trip was a stress buster.. great company and lovely place.. day 3 follows soon..

Rio Day 1 : Not really the Rio de ´risk´ janeiro

2009-05-02T06:43:00.003-05:00

I had set myself an internal checkpoint of completing my ´hippie trip´to Cabo Polonio and then penning the others.. but the first night stay at Rio makes me break that and write about day1 of this trip today from the hostel I am staying at. Rio was on one of my must visit cities when I landed in LATAM.Earlier had planned to be in this portugese city during the colorful carnaval gala.. but due to constraints at work couldnt make it...Here I am (along with two of my friends from work, Sri and MC) after 2 months of that in the city of Rio De Janeiro, playing host to one of the wonders of the world - Christ the Redeemer...
DAy1: Travel from Montevideo to Rio took us around 02:45 hours and was pretty smooth except for the airport tax fee, you use the airport you pay a fee and that is never included on your ticket when you purchase em.Always add the airport fee for knowing your right expense. Had done some research on rio on the web and 99% of the travel blogs deemed it very unsafe ..so travelled lite - no expensive goodies on me...
Arrived at the Galeão airport on time, thanks to Pluna air.We moved out to the transportation area and MC wanted to avoid taxis not just to avoid the extra$$ (he is our official trip accountant) but to also check the local flavor of the place.We waited for an hour or so for the local bus to arrive. The bus left us at our destination Copacabana..smooth ride and most of the sights on the sides resembled me of a mixed mumbai the old and the new..The place and the people,atleast the males have an Indian touch..are our greatgrandparents to be questioned ;-) ?
Searched the map and took a walk through the streets of Rio to reach our destination , the cool hostel named mellow yellow.I loved the the definitie soothing theme and also the compact arrangements they have put up - a bamboo bar, a spa , a recreation room and a very friendly crowd to help you. We got our room (Named Futebol - you know the brazilians) and beds named as players .. I got a good one Ronaldinho. We are sharing our dorm with a friendly couple from Canada...
After a mini siesta, local exploration brought us to the copacabana beach .. beautiful with the sea and a mountain overlooking it..the sides were dotted with many restaurtans including an arabic one - plan to shell some reals there..The beach walk resembled me of the Chennai Marina beach walks..We had our first tender coconut in latin america on the beach and also tried out the a Brazilian drink called Kaipirinha (cane rum, lemon, sugar and icecubes, think the Brazilian version of Mojito); Rain added a little excitement to the walk midway , managed to reach our hostel little dry..
While travelling ,one of my aims (many dont go with it..) is to taste as much local cuisine as possible.. and here I am in Brazil how can I miss their speciality steakhouses , the Churrascaria. Sri is a born veggie but self brought up as a chickiterian (in every sense of the word chick). He was kind enough to spread his options to all cuts of meat at the churrascaria. Though I used to frequent Fogo De Chao in Minneapolis, some cuts were unique here like the chicken heart, didnt like it much as it had a rubbery feel to it all muscles ...
Friday night ,the most happening place in south america,a good dinner, age & marital status at our side ;-), what else can we three think of ? We headed to our cute receptionist and got one-way tickets to a local ´lapa street party´ which starts at 0030 hours...
To spend some time headed to the bamboo bar and had a couple of drinks - tasted the mellow yellow special one - condensed milk, passion fruit juice and liquer. It was not bad but on a personal front like my alcoholic beverages to be light..Our pickup cab came in by 0040 and we were packed like sardines in the van..most of them were drunk and also carrying to-go packages of their beverages.. the atmosphere inside the cab was crazier when there was a brawl between a couple of guys when somebody made fun of the Irish and it happened one of the ladies was from there.. It got a bit physical but the President of ´society of the drunkards van´ resolved it ;-)
We reached our destination - it was nothing but a street dotted with lots of clubs n pubs n police patrol cars !!! There was lot of activity happening around and we just weaved our way thru the mixed crowd who were enjoying their nite out..all drunk ,doing the samba , the grind and above all the kisses. MC was stunned to find and note that all the grids got filled out when it comes to kissing the normal M-F, the other abnormal ones that too to the extremities..
We walked through some crowded streets and when the alley became narrower and we became aware of the premises ;-) decided to call it a day .. day1 ended with a ride back to the hostel in a wild car. a 'blind' schumi from brazil took the wheel... he took 90 deg turns at 90kmph ;-) what an end to a day.....all of us reached the hostel in one piece by 0300 .. time to hit da bed..
The first nite at Rio was positively eventful.. planning for the city tour today... Relaxing me in every way as there were many things mostly personal troubling me off late but my mind always says to me - this is the only chance u got...

Radio Uy airing Hindi...be prepared..

2009-04-19T19:50:00.001-05:00

Imagine my harsh voice(custom made to command in the Army ;-) on the radio, yeah Uruguay being such a small place I also got a chance to atleast record a few phrases on the local
radio. It all started as one agency was preparing a ad campaign for shopping centers and the theme was that the offer is spread across the world..
it meant an ad with the phrase repeated in different languages , and for me it was in Hindi .. Thanks to my friends Guille who opened this to me and Beena who helped me put on a fuzzy flavor to the phrase..

We had the recording on Friday and if its aired will be richer by 10K local currency at the expense of the hatred of the guys hearing it..owe something to my friend too ..
small country R.I.C.H experiences !!!!!!!

My own Bubble theory !

2009-04-05T16:40:00.000-05:00

I've observed a strange phenomenon in many walks of life - be it at work or during a long journey ..
As more and more people tend to group together, there is always a tendency for new sub-groups to be formed. It is analogous to the bubble-theory , as more and more air molecules tend to occupy the space inside a bubble, some of them like to break away from the larger bubble and form their own... No wonder why one of the largest parties in my country has groups from A to Z...The logical explanation could be that each and every molecule (person) has his own persona and if the governing mother group doesn't carry those traits , he or she tends to be there till there are enough similar personas to create a new group... and then burst out from the mother bubble !! Just some crazy thot on a Sunday evening after a refreshing game of football with my amigos ......

Happy B'day Driver duDe ...

2009-03-17T18:46:00.000-05:00

The whole day I was bombarded with issues at the work place but everything got negated out with the smile and 'muchas gracias' i received from my friend...Fernando

Fernando is the one who makes sure that we reach our homes safe and sound after a day's work. I donno how it all started because , he doesnt speak or understand my language, he doesnt share my cubicle, he doesnt share my apartment nor are we distant relatives....

We greet each other with a hola and a com estas when I board the bus , then once all are in Fernando takes over with his humor making the bus ride a joy for ppl who understand spanish - he could make a fortune if he tried his hand on 'stand up ' comedy.. I liked the way he mingled with the A.. Z in the bus !! His smile, versatility, body language,humor sense all makes the ride back home really comfy - just the reverse of the morning ride that we take...

So yesterday he was telling me that he turns 32 today ;-) so thot of surprising him and presented him with a bottle of Tannat and feliz compleanos instead of the usual hola and com estas .. and i got in return a great smile and the best 'muchas gracias' straight from the heart !!!

Once again happy b'day my friend !!

Flu finds me again

2009-03-04T16:21:00.002-06:00

from last nite till today afternoon spent most of my time in bed - courtesy the flu virus !!
temps went up, nasal congestion and it was boring to stay at the same place and with eyes heated up.. not good !! need to take a cold shower to flush them out... anyways thanks to barathi n karunakar for making me lazier by providing my all time fav dosa (though cudnt relish due to the taste bud issue..) and to the paracetamol i took later which enabled me to write this............

Life Lesson#2

2009-02-22T18:13:00.002-06:00

" Law can be enforced, Love cannot be..."

Little drops of rain >> ocean of happiness !!

2009-02-10T16:07:00.004-06:00

Nature had a little surprise in store for me as I stepped out of my office after a tiring day...a lovely drizzle .. I just stepped out a little so that the droplets pampered me supported by the breeze.... they dissolved all my thots .. except for the little one - how easy it is to be happy ...
&
to top it all - had some spicy roasted groundnuts with a cup of coffee in my patio watching the rain !!

Senorita chau chau ....

2009-01-31T19:11:00.001-06:00

One more thing added to my regret list.. one of my greatest n closest friend ever didn't give me enough time to explain my situation .. My friend shut all doors at once..
If only she had given me enough time and lend a listening ear .. things would've been much more easier for both..
Coz i feel i miss her and if the times we shared were true.. she would also feel the same....

There is noway for me to reach her.. she just disappeared..anyways its for good as she thinks .. chau chau and all da very best

I've torn down the pages from my book of life ... returning to my sMILEs !!! Total liberation !!

Remembered atleast in 155 daily prayers...

2009-01-31T17:41:00.000-06:00

Hats off to Chesley Sullenberger the pilot who had the nerves to pull out a stunning landing as smooth as it could get on top of the river surface.. I really admire these real life heroes who earn themselves a para in history..

Just imagine the moments prior to the landing..once he knew that both of his engines were dead weight, how many messages would have passed to and fro from his brain..
The calculations on whether to take the usual emergency landing procedure or to innovate something according to current scenario.. how to minimize the casualities..his own family. I am sure the usual 'short-video' of one's own life that runs through ur mind during situations like these wouldve also eaten into some of his neural CPU

After all the adrenaline rush the return to calmness is the last step required to bail all of the souls out of the situation and dear Chesley - u did it in sytle . may be the F4 flight hours with the USAF would've given you enough situation handling skills .155 souls on board owe you their life.. You will be remembered by all of them and their kith n kin in their prayers...

My salutes to you...

Sweet Deal that went wrong !!

2009-01-27T04:47:00.003-06:00

Early mrng coffee is one of my necessities to keep my day going.. my mom used to do that for long long years and that taste and smell till lingers around.. Here in a bachelor pad what can u expect other than nescafe with milk and sugar ??
Today got up and brushed and had mixed my coffee with extra sugar as I was feeling the need for that extra sugar !! A couple of cookies along with coffee and some old kishore kumar songs on the bg ... to kick start my morning .. the pleasure lasted just one sip of my coffee... salty coffee is one that you should not be serving even to your worst enemy !!! Emptied the cup into the sink and have to start to work without my mrng caffeine dose as the milk was also under the 'replenish me asap' list.
Grabbed a couple of bites of hersheys cashew chocolate to build my morning sugar...and off I am to my 0915 cab......

Nothing Official about IT

2009-01-22T04:27:00.002-06:00

For a machine to run smooth all the gears need to be aligned and should support each other on the run.. Even if there is a slight disorientation at one of the gear wheels, the whole machine rattles, then leading to more vibrations and failure...
Some of the parts play a pivotal role and the others play the supporting role ... if at all all the gears had intelligence of their own... that would be the most ideal machine ever built !!

Something that happened today that made me write this... am a bit down in my spirits but thats good to make me bounce back to a greater height ...

Shopping - The "baraTHnaTYam" way

2009-01-13T07:08:00.004-06:00

I used to curse my parents every single breath while cycling from my home to the market as it bit into my play-time.Even the mundane shopping task has turned e.x.c.i.t.i.n.g in this small Latin american country named Uruguay...My competency level in Spanish is comparable to my ice skating skills (always fall backwards..) , but here this trait adds s{pice} to your shopping curry.
Usually start off the shopping dumb C with a 'Hola' and then its all over to the mudra or point-n-ask strategy. I love the mudra one because most of the times it is more expressive and is kinda fun. I love sea food and the 'Makara or Matsya' mudra came in handy to get me some laughs around, and my fish ..the hunt for crustaceans is still on and it was a hard time to act it out. I was successful after a couple of attempts of making my fingers walk sidewards and showing my own claw-clutch-mudra. Crabs are not in awe here near, so may be have to travel 100s of Kms to grab and taste one. Back in Trichy , Crabs travelled from chennai thru train and buses and then to the front of our defence quarters on bicycles ;-) how convenient...
The most surprising part of my research on crabs was that - there is one of the mudras for Crab - the Karkala Mudra, well done ancestors. I've had tortoise in India without having to use the Coormah mudra - but here the food is the sole source of entertainment ;-( , now I've started a liking towards the 'art of aquiring the food.'.
If I walk the aisles and shop quick enough to make my movements continous, I may even think of my arangetram in 'BharathnatyaM' - keeping it slow to save a cultural landslide in India..!!
Bored in Uruguay - ?? Grab a few 100 pesos and go to the nearby super mercado and play Dumb C with all of 'em

Sunrise @ Rambla

2009-01-13T05:07:00.004-06:00

The bio-alarm overtook my usual mobile-alarm by a margin of more than 2 hours so ended up moving my butt off the bed earlier than usual.. I have a bad habit of being unable to sleep again easily if the continuity is broken - I hated those early mrng pages when I was handling some apps at onsite... What would be more perfect than to start your day with 'Surya Darshan' .. It was a treat for the eyes and mind alike - the black tarred road, tanned people jogging , the white beach and the lovely Red Sun rising above the horizon..the colors fading from pitch black to the brightest red .. nature's own palette of paints..Always surprised of the sun ever not getting bored of the monotonous task... should be asked for a management pep talk to keep the morale up ...I shall make this task a daily one to absorb all the positive vibes of the 33 orientales ... ;-)

The Tempest - Not the Shakespearean 1 ...

2009-01-10T22:09:00.003-06:00

Was woken from my deep sleep, in da wee hours of Monday by the loud banging of my kitchen door... not knowing who the uninvited intruder was... Switched on my lights , but cudnt find even a single soul around..

Could hear the wind whistle sarcastically at me.. The wind was spitting fury along with rhythmic whistling as it rushed through my hard venetian blinds and the glass windows.. Though it meant a sleepless night , it was in a way enjoyable too ... it was some kinda music to the ears... if you know what i mean when i say "i love to hear the waves.."

This is like hearing the wind and feeling it against you...I let the wind caress and pamper me all night long and slept off in the morning in her arms ....

the windy nite , brought memories of Chic-ago , but the wind here seems to have an additional element of humane tenderness to it.. though it sounded rough n tough , it was soft enough to connect me with my dreamzz again... the " munchy" wind ... nature is never boring .. !!!

Love My Solo Numero !!

2009-01-04T17:28:00.006-06:00

In Love with my Single NumbeR that...

ain't shared by my siblings or friends
is reachable anytime
is an active member in ma emotional voyage
smiles off my stupidity
opens up my corridors of imagination
delights me with never ending freshness
is unconditional

Your LOVE makes me say " eh !! dil mangae M.O.R.E - u make ma heart meltttttt !!

Revenge was his(Mr.Murphy's) Reply

2009-01-04T17:10:00.003-06:00

I knew Mr.M would come back hard at me for exposing him in my blog.. He was just waiting for the right opportunity and what better time to strike than when I am at my weakest moving from the nOrthern hEmisphere to the south !!
Started the month of Dec'08 with a request for travelling to Uruguay for work - I gleefully accepted the offer as I wanted something new in my work, love travelling ,meeting new people & trying out new cuisines !! Never expected that the journey would be a good adventure on its own ...

Started with the visa as the consul general was OOC(for us its out of office, for consul gen its out of country) for a couple of weeks, then I had to arrange through a different consulate. Visa appointment was fixed, ticketing completed from MSP to Miami to Montevideo.

Waved goodbye to the ones I shared my life @ Minneapolis ! Murphy started poking his nose into my affairs a bit rough from here, I came to know that I cannot check in my baggages through to Montevideo as I had no Uruguayan Visa , although I scrambled through my bag and took out numerous papers to show that I am not planning on an illegal entry the representative was adamant on the stand and rightly so...could have written some complimentary messages for her to her boss ..

This concern flew away as I was flying first class, first in ma lifetime ;-) , relaxxed and enjoyed the caste system in the airlines !! I landed in Miami , In'l ;the land of the lords. Now I had to think on how to get my visa done and take care of my baggage. I decided to leave the baggage at the carousal, anyways it would be at the counter as unclaimed baggage and I could always come back to the orphaned ones later.

Sprawled my way through the miami crowd and hired a cab.she took me to the consulate, I asked her to wait till I am out... Went inside the consulate and waited for an hour to get my chance, the citizens of Uy were given preference over any Visa processing , appreciated that spirit of theirs and I sat there in the small room with Gen Artigas staring at me from a corner ;-) No much fanfare as in the US consulate as Uy is no World of Opportunities ..

Got my Visa stamped and the scan through the streets brought me my next surprise , my very friendly cab-driver had deserted me..Made up my mind on the fronts that she might have got a better ride and on my luck of getting a free ride from the airport to the consulate.

I waited to wave yet another taxi and half way through I asked him if he would accept cards, Murphy strikes again to say that out of the 1000s of cabs in Miami this one doesn't accept cards.

I didn't carry cash, the lucky b!#@! I am , had a cheque book , wrote a 20$ for the cab driver - checked my account online after I reached here and could find it debited .. Atleast was not so lucky to get a free round trip from the airport to the consulate.

Found the way to the baggage claim area and the friendly clerk helped me regain my 'unclaimed' baggages. I found the cart vending machine and slided my cards - Visa & Amex decided to play along with Murphy. Helpful humans can always be found, one lady offered me her cart as she had another free one..

Lots of hours to pass, how long could I play watchman ;-) , though the crowd was colorful and pleasant.The airport internet came to rescue, paid up for a 24 hr connection but the authentication wouldnt go through.. i was cursing my luck but sensed the opportunity of talking to the cute girl at the reception of the hotel that provides the inet service.. off i went in a flash and talked to the blondie after a couple of calls the connection sprang up on my HP pavilion

Felt a sense of relief after checking emails work and personal. Chatted with ma amigos and sent mails regarding the lovely travel.As I handled the above scenarios with little bit of help from lady luck, Mr.M decided to test with some other avenues - the time had come to board and I couldn't go to my gate as the Trams at Miami called up a strike ..There was total chaos in the airport with ppl who could miss the flight and no connection coz miami is one of the connecting hubs from NA to SA.

After a while, the authorities arranged for buses to ply us to the gates.There was a lot of crowd and it was not regulated, - the survival of the fittest game ensured for sometime in boarding the buses. I reached my gate 15 mins in advance and the relief turned to desperation again as the PA announcement came in - There has been a gate change for the Miami Montvideo flight..

I was sure of missing the flight as the buses were crowded and I had to run to get through to the bus facility.The bus took me to the gate and somehow I had to thank Murphy as the flight was delayed for 30 mins. We all boarded the flight, after a couple of mins of taxiing , the captain announced that there was some malfunctioning computer on board and it needed replacement... Great news, coz this announcement in mid air would have had me read thru the safety instructions manual ASAP.

Miami airport can boast of a great engineering crew as they rectified the malfunction in less than an hour, whereas sometimes during crucial meetings we need to have around 5 software engineers work for more than half an hour to fix a projector issue ;-)

Having said that , the slightest shudders, which I may have earlier attributed to turbulence took a new dimension in my thoughts - did they fix it right ?? or they had got into engineering with fake degrees ;-) ? Anyways I landed at Montevideo in one-piece and was greeted with a SmilE ,by Mohan - the sweetest I have experienced !! Will report further from Latinoland !

Life Lesson#1

2008-12-28T06:04:00.001-06:00

You can stand

the peak summer
freezing winters
mails from your bosses questioning what you've done
numerous complaints from your subordinates
curses from your teammates
insulting looks and words when you are walking the streets , but mate

what you can't withstand is words of deject from your loved ones !!!

FrEEdom @ 13000 Ft, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane

2008-12-27T17:19:00.005-06:00

I think it was around a time when my stach started showing up on my face that I had watched this program on DoorDarshan on a Sunday afternoon - it was about skydivers ! I was awe stuck to watch them do maneuvers in the 14" portable B&W TV we had at that time...somehow this got etched in my mind as a lifetime to-do...
I had to wait about 11 years for this to-do to be checked off my list. Three of my friends and me got together and planned on the possibility of going for it. I was 100% for it and all of my adrenaline junkie friends voted for – no Veto the skydive-bill was passed !!

Couple of weeks went in googling (I just added it to my winword dictionary), watching youtube vids on skydiving and we circled into a place called Baldwin, in the neighboring state of WI. At that time none of us had a US DL, and had to book a cab shelling out some valuable $$$ for the trip. We arrived at the “ Skydiving Club” around 1000 . 3 of us wanted to do the Accelerated Free Fall and one of my friends opted for the Tandem(where you are buckled with another skydiver, you get the rush only from the freefall none from you being alone – waste of money).

You need no training for the Tandem jump and my friend went in right away with the jumpmasters and did her jump. We were so thrilled to watch her from the ground – kudos to your courage !! We were put into a training course for 3 hours , verbal instructions and video presentations took most part of it. We were told what are the 100+ things that can go wrong and how we can try to come out of it, the signaling etc etc.

A tornado warning played spoilsport on that day and we returned home dejected with nothing under our belts. We rescheduled the jumps to next week, this week we were lucky enough to rope in one of my great friends vivek to drive us in a rented cab to the place, saved a lot of $$.

The D-Day had arrived, we just revisited all the lessons and had to give a short written exam to do the AFF. My jumpmasters were ready and we were all suited up and got into the plane with 20 others most of them who were pros. We cruised to an altitude of 13000 ft , my heart started beating faster and I could sense some rush into me even before I leaped out of the plane..

Hovering at a height of 13000 ft, I was waiting for my turn to jump out of the plane. All the pros were jumping as we take the dip to the pool. My jumpmasters took me to the door of the plane, I could see the fields and houses down below as small boxes. One of the jumpmasters asked me , do you wanna jump? This was the only moment when a little bit of fear conquered me watching the space below , hearing the roar of the propellers and seeing the wing of the plane near you, but regaining my composure I replied in the affirmative .

In minute we exited the airplane along with my jumpmasters , wowwwwwww the feeling the adrenaline rush cannot be explained in words – however hard I try !! You feel like you are floating in the air but in reality you would be rushing down at speeds of around 150 Kmph. The vertical fall against gravity and piercing the clouds lasted only a minute, because you are advised to pull your chute at 5500 ft, by closely watching your big altimeter on your left hand !!

I waved my signal and pulled my chute at 5500 ft, the upward pull that you experience was never told to us, as all the momentum gained from falling at enormous speeds is absorbed by the opening chute you are pulled up to some height ;that is the dividing line between the adrenaline rush during free fall and the serenity of floating around in a fully opened chute. After the chute is completely open and you gain control over your senses , then you experience the real 360 deg of freedom on earth. Its no one around you, and you take some moments gliding about all silly thoughts on how small a speck we are on this earth ….The moments are worth their time in gold ,,

It takes about 4- 5 minutes to descent from 5500 to the ground, the final descend has to be carefully done in order to have your bones intact. You got to watch flow of wind and then get into the opposite direction so that the speed of your landing is reduced...

Once on the ground , I looked up and thought about the vertical-journey I completed from 4 Km above ..A laminated certificate and a DVD will allow me to cherish and share this memory for ever !!
Video @ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6583827058668610913&ei=BL5WSa-RJZj8qwKPw_2qBA&q=first+free+fall+-+13000

Would love to experience the rush on a rocket or a space shuttle someday .. dreams do come true !!

@ my Best FriendS WedDing !!

2008-09-20T22:54:00.012-05:00

Hola Amigos...
It has been a long break from blogging - i wouldnt ever say time was the constraint , time and the "mood" never came in together.
There is no better way to break the break with a note about my best friend's wedding which has been an adventure in every angle of it

A little look into history/...
Vivek a.k.a Kumbz was one of my best friends at work, a couple of years ago he moved out from our common place of work...
We(The smart Kart, Cricket fanatic Maddy, iyengar Kumbz and me) were a close knit group of four at our lovely apartment in snow clad minneapolis..Our fav pastime was to chat with our laptops at different corners of the house and also communicating abt dinner or outing plans thru Yahoo chat ;-)

Kart had a chatfriend from Texas and one day she wanted to talk to all of the roomies, we were all excited and the order was decided on descending order of age , that failed me or madhu getting the first chance... Vivek started to talk to Ana and the chat never ended .. the sambar he was cooking burnt out and even the smoke didn't deter the " cultural , political and geographical " discussion in progress.

Anyways to close it - madhu or myself didnt even get to say Hi to the invisible friend of Kart's. The initial discussion led to many late nite discussions mainly revolving on how can the Indo-US relation improve etc etc and ultimately leading to a gr8 decision from both of em to get married.... Out of the group of four I couldnt attend the marriage of Kart and Madhu as I was at onsite,, so this was the chance for me to attend the wedding of my friend...

Kart and myself love to travel and do crazy stuff including attending the machine gun firing festival at Kentucky , skydiving ,going to the range and stuff like that.We made our plans to be at the side of the groom.. I was also to be the best man at the wedding, i scrambled for my suit and packed my bags.I flew from minneapolis to Dallas and Kart joined me at the airport from Chicago. Kart is one of the finest guys when it comes to planning and execution - he has a flair of his own !! He had planned the trip to the hour..I was so hungry at dallas that before we started the Toyota Prius ,took some bites of the delicious stuffed chappathi rolls that Kavi had prepared for us (my mouth still waters thinking of it.. awesome). We had to play with the Key Fob of the prius as both of us were not used to it, it even had a camera to help when we were backing up..Kart took the wheels and we took turns with the prius all thru the 9 hour drive ,, stopping for some red bulls and chips.. we are great company together and the topics of discussion matches always...

We drove through to McAllen, the southern most tip of TX , seperated from mexico by just a river..we could see the Border Patrol guards patrolling the streets looking for illegal immigrants...It is always advisable to carry your passport with valid visa, as the state IDs are very much scrutinized and may take a lot of time to get validated.We reached McAllen and met my friend and his would be family !! The warmth was awesome and we could sense the vibes of love all around !! Vivek and ana were in great spirits and the groom was very happy to see our faces ...

That night we decided to hunt for some mexican food at a local taqueria , had some coronas and some mexican food dont remember the dishes now.. but they tasted lots different than the pancheros , the baja sols or the other american "customized" mexican restaurants !!

We had an invite for breakfast the next day, Ana's parents and relatives joined us for breakfast. As I wanted to taste some authentic Texan stuff , Ana had bought some barbacoa from the flea market. Barbacoa is a dish made of Cow's tongue, seems chewy but i believe me its very soft and with the right cooking time its delicious.We were served with barbacoa and nopalis (dish made out of cactus). I loved the barbacoa and kart voted for the nopalis. We had tamales prepared at home and had some soup made of cow's intestine(I didnt relish it much because it had a leafy flavor to it , and not the gamy one as on mutton soups) = the cows dont go a waste in TX. I have never felt or seen such closely knit family in the US heard the more we go South the more strength the family bond has .. may be true !!

We were all set for the W-Day, though Vivek seemed all cool, we could sense the pressure he was going through - i thanked myself for coming down here to be with him , the same I couldnt do for kart or madhu !The wedding had a very small gathering comparing to the Indian wedding galas. I doubled myself as the best man for the wedding and after the ring exchange it was all tears of happiness. We had the tradition of the $dance where we can dance with the groom or bride and pay them for that !! After all emotions settled , there was enough time to make new friends from his extended family and it was all fun.. the senoritas are better than the made up ones up north ...

All ended well and we bid adieu to the new couple and we had to drive early AM to Dallas for our flights .. It was a truely a great experience and hats off to you Mr."Gaucho" Kumbz for being one in a million !! One thing still missing is - the CD of the pictures that my friend promised to send it to me -- vivek if u read this plz ship it to south america , you cudve saved some $$ if it was done to mpls...

Lastest flash news : " Kumbz weds again.. same girl , different place, with Indian customs.. " 2 weddings, 1 girl , different styles - one life, u rock senor !! Salutes to you mate !!
Chao chao guys !

Stalactites,Stalagmites, Catfishes & Spotted bass;-)

2008-05-26T22:35:00.009-05:00

I know the title doesn't make any sense - like my previous weekends !! Most of my weekends were wasted either worrying abt some escalations of that week or worrying abt meeting preps for the coming week ... The worst scenario being @ the receiving end when you clearly know that you donot have direct control over the situation , but that is called team work ;backing up your team eventhough that means you being christened a "bad boy " ;-)

Lets get to the fun part - I wanted to enjoy the outdoors this long weekend , as most of the times I was dungeoning in my single bedroom apartment..So Sunday morning we (two married couples + myself an odd man out) drove to a place called crystal caves - its abt 1:30 hr drive from our place.. We had a tour of the cave and the story in short - a brother-pair accidentally discovered its existence in 1881 and then later it was commercialized by a OOB-thinking entrepreuner in 1941.. The cave has three levels and is well maintained (obviously its in private hands and a money-maker) and they provide a guided tour for 10 bucks.. The cave must have been real scary when the Vanasse Bros hit it first , its real scary without the lights even now.. There are three levels in the cave and an artificial water body adds glamor to the aesthetics.. We had the unique experience of experiencing 100% darkness , no light whatsoever and if you think you do see something thats just ur brain doing a mental mapping (coz for us to see we got to have light reflected). Then we had a unique experience of seeing the stalactites and stalagmites - used to be always confusing during my geography study days - the guide gave a hint : stalactites - they hang 'tight' from the roof & stalagmites - they 'might' reach the roof ;-) smart aint it !! If I had visited it before may be cud've added a couple more marks in my geo exams ...Then there were bats and it was a real batty experience .. not the vampire ones of course these were less than the size of ma thumb for height ...batliputs ;-)
Then we moved on to our best thing - eating , there was food - biriyani, chappathi , egg curry and my own prawn tandoor. We heated them on the stove we carried and to top it we had good wine and some beer . We still had around 6 hours and how can we waste sometime off our lovely life ? we made our move towards our second destination the St.Croix river - we rented out a boat that served as our home for the next 4 hours , bought some minnows as bait for some river fishing - believe me those minnows were big enuf to be fried and eaten ;-)
We had our luck in fishing like 8 catfishes and a spotted bass ..we also had a small thunderstorm pass us when we anchored midway in the river - the boat swayed at varied angles but it held good .. late at nite we had some thai dinner ..
The fishes had to wait till the next day to find their spots in our bellies - marinated & fried.My friends and me had a fun time in my balcony with music and some champagne along with the roasted fish...

One of my friends had rightly pointed out that my "blog is never complete without description of food ", the reason being all good things that are happening to me mostly revolve around food - whose fault is that ;-) I am a complete socialist when it comes to food , and believe me all the vegeterians owe me big time for keeping the food chain intact ...

Smile Manufacturers - "no artificial flavors"

2008-05-05T21:21:00.009-05:00

I had a couple of tiresome weeks at work >> really long days tiring me up mentally , so planned to chill out the weekend .. so part of the plan i watched the movie 'motorcycle diaries'.. am a fan of Che , there was a part in the movie that touched me the most when Che swims across the river dividing the leper colony and the doctor's quarters to celebrate his birthday along with the lepers.. That was really a great thing to do as Che was asthmatic and the river water was very cold to venture, except for the True Smiles there was no other 'return on investment' ..

They are the true smile manufacturers - the others in the list who come to my mind and little knowledge are Baba Amte, Mother Teresa etc. I am a stern believer that if you can extract the real smiles out of people around you - you have done something great and it always brings a genuine 70mm on ur face too ....

One more instance when i've seen that real smile was when myself and my close friend made a trip to pondy. We had reserved a hut styled room alongside the seashore for a a couple of nights .We enquired what the taxi fare must be and it was around 1500 - 2K bucks for up and down - we thot we can put that use at some good place in pondy. The mrng we packd our bags and just hopped into an mtc bus to pondy - 22 bucks each with a movie for free ;-) and lots of passengers for free-looking and commenting .. We reached pondy in abt 3 hours - around 830ish.. checked into our hut alongside the shore..it had a mini fridge - we didnt dare take anything out of it coz the small water bottle (ironically named himalaya) had a sticker on it "saying loud - I would cost u 70 bucks" (now i got the naming convention being followed).We then wanted to walk by the beach ,but my friend and we being nature lovers didnt want the resort's barrier to stop our morning walk - so we planned to jump the wall and have a free stroll>>>
Call it destiny or balancing the food chain - while enjoying da waves and walking we came across a group of local fishermen , huddled together and picking out fishes from their net - their overnight catch !! My eyes popped out and my friend could sense that all - we sat there and as i am a lover of crab , asked them to pack some crabs for me. I paid 100 bucks and they had about half a bucket of fresh caught crab for me - and trust me they pickd the best ones. You end up paying more than double of it for about 1/20 of the quantity - now i know what supply chain means .. ;-) Then i started a convo abt how i wanted to taste them right now but handicapped for a kitchen etc etc., they were so happy to help us out - come back in an hour we shall have it ready - golden words of the moment !! We left the beach - took an auto - bought a bottle of bacardi white - at chennai we cud've ended up with green label or bagpiper >> and returned back after an hour. I still remember the smiles and gleam on their faces when we returned and positioned ourselves in their sheds by the shore - far more comfy and lovable than our 1500 per nite cabin. We had a great meal - fresh crabs cooked in local ground spices . hmm i donno how much i ate - but again its for balancing the food chain as many guys dont take crab - think of a situation if crabs were not eaten find crabs walking sideways all over our roads - not good right ;-) thank me !!! Got new friends in pandian , bhoomi etc etc. We spent a gr8 amount of time talking - their worries were mainly abt their children growing up and their education. So the next time we went we had taken some books along for them ... the smiles on their faces were instantaneous - the 100% genuine smiles .... We took back three things 'lotsaa satisfaction' , 'tons of genuine smile memories' & a promise of spending a night in the catamaran with open skies and sea below with lots of crabs and us between
One thing for sure - a genuine smile doesnt just involve ur lips - it needs support from ur eyes too; same thing holds good for a genuine kiss tooooooooooooooooooooo .. the meaning of the word genuine is left out for ur judgement !!!

Those grapes are Sour ++++++

2008-04-27T22:29:00.006-05:00

I was having my weekend bubble bath, with a glass of zinfandel by my side to give company - then the red wine stirred up some thoughts on da grapes front and this led to the fox and da grapes story .... great thoughts on a weekend in warm water !!
I had created my own version of "those grapes are sour" story to ease the agony and going on smiling thru my life.Here we go ..I donno when my love towards the uniformed corps started - I remember how excited I felt when my grandfather gifted me an army uniform for my 10th or 11Th b'day; one of my great friends' whom I shared the bed during our summer vacation to hear his INA stories -Subhas chandra bose and Captain Lakshmi became my heroes.. hats off to you grandfather. He had mastery over many languages and his thoughts were crisp, rational and clear - he mastered the languages all by himself through books...
Will cut the story short : I did my engineering and then landed up a job in a software company in technopark,then I got the call for my SSB interview in Allahabad - was so excited to get it as I had given my CDS exams way back and forgot totally about that - cursing my fate of entering the s/w industry like millions when I wanted something else for sure..
I immediately reserved my tickets and attended the SSB interview - spans for 5 days the best I've had - they cover you from all angles and stress interviews are the best in their league. 3 got selected out of a batch of 78 and my grandfather's grandson was one among them.. I resigned my job and landed up at OTA , then I had to resign due to some circumstances ...
One of my friends took me down the memorylane for a couple of mins yesterday during our phone call - so here am making a conscious postmortem effort to ensure that i am free of "regrets" ..
why those army-grapes are sour:
1) No lucrative pay check
2) Element of risk in work environment
3) Minimal Civilian population to mingle with
4) Starred-power politics
5) No chance to Visit different continents as part of work

Everything said - even now when i see an OG / Camos uniform - my heart wanders off to the past with a little adrenaline rush, so i think my mind is not accepting the fact of those grapes being sour ;-) Takes time !!!

Old Wine - in a new Bottle !!

2008-04-26T12:44:00.005-05:00

I love saturdays as you got a lot of time with your cozy bed .. I was prejudiced that nature doenst lie but it declares spring time and here comes snow ... not good snow means no fishing , no cricket ...

I was thinking of making use of this home-time to write something up but was not getting the spark - may be after a couple of shots of tequila i would .... I was searching for one silly article that I wrote like 5 years ago just for some fun ... couldnt find it then i had sent mails to all my colleagues to search it for me .. the magic mail landed in gmail as an attachment !! So am reproducing the original copy - with no changes in its original immature format !! It has all to do with the work in ma project - may not make sense to all and the characters can easily be mapped if u know what i mean ;-) Ignore the flow and the mistakes as this was me writing like 5 years ago , I love Burkha Dutt the way she reports and the way she takes convo - may be the kargil war reporting impressed me lots !! There is contest for guessing the General's original identity - he is posted at a different location overseeing a vast & critical operation !!
Here we go :

THIS IS BURKHA DUTT REPORTING FROM CAMP F0

DAY/TIME : Saturday , 1515 Hrs IST

Hi this is Burkha Dutt reporting live from CAMP F0 – the most happening place @ TCS SHOL.
Even on a Saturday afternoon , the camp is alive ..The atmosphere here is always pumped up and I’ll be reporting one of the many battles LIVE ,that are taken up here !!!!Hope we don’t have to wait more …

Ring Ringgggggggg ;;;;;;;;;;

Just now a call from Boulder ,USA has landed up at the CAMP COMMANDER’S desk (code named: Service Coordinator) .General Stern Looks picks up the call , he remains cool and calm even though he knows that the starting shot of a new battle has been fired.

The General patiently takes down all the initial details of the battle like the location of the battle (code named : Host Name/Company name) , the gravity of the situation (code named : Severity of the ticket) and jots these down in his log book.

Gen.Stern is a decorated soldier with lots of medals glistening on his chest and a lot of battle experience behind him.The Platoon Commanders under him are newly recruited ,inexperienced , young Lieutenants.

General is on his duty .He checks out on the type of the strategy employed by the opposition and assigns (code named : warm xfer) the role of temporary commander to one of his Lieutenants(code named: oncall #1).

The Lieutenant is a bit worried as this one is his maiden battle .So he tries to find from old war docs(code named : previous occurrence) whether such a scenario has happened earlier , but he couldn’t find any.In the mean time Gen.Stern orders that this battle should be taken care of immediately.

The General is now looking a bit concerned because its his responsibility to see to it that the battle (code named : low sev .. sev 2, sev 3) doesn’t magnify itself into a full scale war (code named : high sev .. sev 1, GC) .

Just then the hotline rings again and it’s the call from the Top Brass confirming that the battle has become of high gravity now as civilians are also being targeted by the enemy (code named : guest impact) .

The General wants immediate action, so the young Lieutenant decides to get help from his senior officers.The Lieutenant summons up enough courage to wake up his senior ,Major Atonsite (code named : Oncall #2) who is at an undisclosed location..

Major Atonsite is a veteran of many such battles and he has enough valour to deal with these kinda situations.He just gathers required info and in a short while he sends in superior strategy (code named : $jobs) and reqd ammunition (code named: good n backup datasets) to counter the attack.

- I see the Lieutenant is a bit relaxed now and the battle half won.

The Major yells orders and the Lieutenant takes ‘em down clearly in his mind( as far as he can understand).

He passes marching orders as given by his Major and after all the plans executed , voila
the job is done – yet another battle wonnnnnnn !!!!!!!!!!1

The Lieutenant wiped off the remaining sweat from his forehead..The General congratulates the team and before they can party the hotline rings again..

Ringggggggg ringgggggggggg …………………

Hello this is General .Stern from CAMP F0…..

The cycle repeats all over again ….

Before bidding good bye to all the officers out here lemme sum up some of the popular war cries I heard here of different Platoons ;

Guest Platoon :

Oh ! SPAMuji zara jaldi chalo baba jaldhi chalo …
(babuji zara jaldhi chalo tune..)

HR Pay Platoon :

Roz roz hum sochtha yehi ki aaj humko ek abend
Mil jaayae kahiiiii..

(rangeela roz roz hum tune…)

Credit Platoon :

It’s the time to new accounts . aaj milega kya LOS ??

(it’s the time to disco frm kal ho na ho tune )

n maroon-beret.
n CAS-MVS GUEST

Murphy's Law - is it only me ???

2008-04-22T18:59:00.004-05:00

The day started off with great news - the 0815 daily recurring meeting has been cancelled with immediate effect - what a relief , the last minute scramble for the telecon number and the passcode can take rest , no more sprinting of the last lap of my morning jog- so that I am by all means ready (shaved and dressed with a tie & smile ..) before the telecon and for the 0830 carpooling with my friend ..

A day's menu is always sprinkled with all recipes - its not always sweet or sour !! By noon we had an all important 'effort planning for all resources' to be updated into our database. I made all preliminary calculations and had the resource and effort estimate and was ready to get it done ..

We being great S/W engineers had much faith on the stress testing done on the tool - but once our updates were ready after 2 hours of mix & matches and when the magic button 'SAVE' was clicked - there was a software silence (when one of ur tasks gulps down 99% of ur CPU) and we waited for that miracle to happen but to our dismay murphy's law prevailed - giving it almost a 100% success rate ... the updates didnt happen and when it was almost needed very importantly..

During da drive back home - all through the freeway - my thoughts raced on who is this Murphy guy and how come his law is 100% successful whereas even Newton's had exceptions ..So I hit upon my shoot-me-ur-Q secretary Ms.Wiki and got the below answer :

"Murphy's law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that if anything can go wrong, it will. "If there's more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way." It is most often cited as "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong" (or, alternately, "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way" or, "Anything that can go wrong, will," or "If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment"). The saying is sometimes referred to as Sod's law or Finagle's law which can also be rendered as "Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment".

Murphy has made me cut sorry faces many times - I can remember a couple of times in recent past - There was an all important monthly meet which I was to report at 0800 so had made all arrangements and when I was about to get into my car the fuel gauge was down below abnormal so made up my mind and went into the nearest gas station but it was locked down for renovation (Murphyyyyyyyyyyyyy plans perfect...) and then my car died in the nearby lane and had to wait for my lazy - 0930 - office - going - frnd to give me a lift and miss my meeting @@@@@@@

Next super event was when I wanted to do a status check on my DL, required my passport . I made the discovery that I had misplaced (or rather put it out somewhere so safe that noone including me could find it) my passport and after thoroughly searching all over the places I had been and in the new apt i moved to - had to look for options of getting it renewed and visa stamped.. I checked the official website of the consulate in chicago and they had around 10 numbers listed , tried each of those and I got the same audio message . Then I tried calling my home to send me the copies , the phone rang a countless times but no one picked it up(Mr.M had cut the bsnl lines in India too .., what thorough planning)..
Murphy - u the man !!!

Savouring meat : da AadhimanaV $tylE !

2008-04-21T01:13:00.001-05:00

While I'm staring at the bottle of Wal-flu handed over to me by my friend , thinking whether to gulp down the chemical concoction dissolved in 'OL or to spend yet another sleepless nite with congestion and may be disturbance for my neighbour ;-) , got an idea of pushing my blog numbers to the limit for the day (err it just occurred that the day has passed and its 0117 hours , hmm may be will try to create records some other flu-day..)

But anyway i have made up my mind to save a 911 call for my old neighbour, so before gulping lemme finish this short xp off :

We as a team were looking for a restaurant to lunch as a celebration of clearing some certification of some sort (the doublesome tells how good i was at the certification, though i cleared).. While we were looking up our manager came down with the idea of a Brazilian restaurant named ' Fogo De Chao' , I was game for anything but most of the other team members straight away refused.. I thought might be coz of the $$$ , but when its on the house why worry.. stupid me it was because it was a meat lovers paradise , for me meat = all other living beings except humans but for most of our folks meat is synonymous with chicken(as if chicken doesnt have life ;-)..so we scratched the plan and ended a day after up at applebees having "northern walleye with rice and veggies" . I had no complaints except for missing out on trying an unique dining experience. Then my thoughts boiled and steamed and ended up as a calendar request to my manager for lunch.We were on our way thru - this is 3 mins from our office and inside the building opposite to the earlier TGI fridays - hmm there were veggie salads like 50+ varieties to choose from but guess what I didnt hit much of those just went for the smoked salmon on the salad bar. Smoked salmon was fresh and it has a different taste , unlike our aachi or sakthi masala's which spoil the real taste of meat .. i was savouring salmons that way with a tinge of pepper and lemon on it..The best part was yet to come , this restaurant serves like 15 types of cut meat including sirloins, steaks , tendorloins, ribs etc., just to name some that i could catch of ..we are given a double colored disc , RED on one and GREEN on another , we just have to have the green side on - to indicate fire-roasted traffic to flow to our plates - pork, beef , chicken , lamb they got everything and the best part was all the meat was cooked on direct fire - aadhi maanav style : back to the basics !! the service was so electric and quick that you could find ur plate dumped with what not if u forgot to turn ur disc ..I think we were chatting and it must have been around 20 servings that we felt filled .. and atop that they had a sweet topped roasted banana for dessert and i loved it !! I wouldnt say that i would go in everyday but i would love to be part of this experience once a month may be .... Though it drills a bit of a small hole in ur wallet , it fills ur stomach and ur apetit .worth a try !!

Catch a glimpse @ http://www.fogodechao.com

Congestion - traffic ones are better !!

2008-04-20T20:05:00.001-05:00

I always considered myself to be a life-time member of the high-energy group , can find me among all activities which have atleast a .01% of RoI in form of fun !! For the past 72 hours one of the tiniest beings in the universe has been hacking havoc in my body - it has a name for itself , if i spell it here it can rest itself on the word in a count of millions - yeah u got it right the flu virus ..
Always my only and worst enemy - i was unable to do many things amongst all not even talk to my friends over phone.. it is causing congestion to my nasal (good that its not attacking my oesophagus as i just cant stop eating - am a foodie) and chest .. having hard times just to pull in enough O2 for my lungs .. Its been boring as I cudnt put my 100% in the usual activites - I had friends over friday nite and had a potluck going on saturday - the best i cud do was to don my fatigue driven smile ;-) Hopefully the virus is happily reading thru and sending out notes to its gang to say - the damage has been done and also to find a new apt to stay - hope they had rental histories too - I wud've screwed it to the extent that they won't find a new abode -- really traffic congestions dont last 72 hours and they are lot better on u !! I am against intake of any chemicals in form of tablets but tonite have decided to take in some decongestant just to ease and make me think for the upcoming week - am on an all out war against the flu gang - watch out >>

Tantalizing Templebay !!

2008-04-20T09:58:00.001-05:00

One of the best memories of a worry free (coz it was on the house - house as in 'company') , quality filled & ambience draped dining experience was @ temple bay near mahabalipuram... I had an opportunity to play host to one of our clients . Unlike other bossy and rusty ones he was a happy-go-lucky guy with a lot of knowledge on cultures and places.. he had backpacked to middle east during his college days , we were never short of great conversations ..

Our day started off when our driver Krishna picked up John from his hotel and later on picked me up from my home around 0900 on a weekend.. We had one of our conversations going and we always tried to involve krishna too so that he doesnt feel that he was alone with his corolla !

First we visited 'dakshin chitra' - located on the East coast Road or the ECR road (the kaaka kaaka jeep song fame.., would love to ride a open gypsy alongside this road with my gf) , and honestly i was not so eager to visit that place. Usually these kinda places according to me were to woo foreigners and to get their oohs & aahs! along with their $$ & pounds( there is no pound symbol on my kb, need to get a 'made in UK' one i suppose) >>

But once i got in and had the chance to see the intricate handiworks of local artisans(when i say local its India , most of them were from the NW part of India) , was totally overwhelmed. They had great talent that was passed on from generations to generations - am not sure if these kinda values are on those X-Y chromosomal combinations ?? .They were drawing on an inch square of dried palm leaves and we couldnt beat them for symmetry with our engineering drawings. The other thing that i noticed was the speed and concentration they had - speed of an F1 and concentration of a snake about to hit its prey ..

J was very happy and yeah to make the artisans happy - he bought a couple of the palm leaf drawings - its still happily resting on his fridge door back home in minneapolis - a long journey for a palm leaf to make. He also bought a painting of the wealth goddess for his boss - to make her happy !! The puppet show was one another thing that amazed all of us - it was put up in a mix of english and tamil and it was so nicely edited and directed by the one man that the mixed crowd almost erupted to laughter many times during the show - and importantly simultaneously !! side kick : ' sometimes we laugh coz we have to '

After a couple of hours being intellectual and appreciating art - we wanted some food for all the thoughts we put in.. K suggested temple bay as I hadnt been to mahabalipuram for dining I also was not sure - I called a couple of places and all had the same opinion - GO FOR IT.

We parked and then moved to the restaurant area - it has a thatched roof with coconut palm leaves and the best part was it was overlooking the pool and then the ' bay of bengal' - wow i would've just stayed there sipping some beer all day long ... We got a great table too .. along the frontlines .. J was enjoying it and it was the company of the true-blu (thats ma fav color) waves that was making us intoxicated ..
I am a good listener and am inquisitive (not on the technical front) , i love to hear real life stories than reel life - it started off with my grandfather telling me about his days in the INA under Netaji : ok lemme reserve a different place for this..

We ordered a couple of beers( J wanted authentic Indian beer, as corona is from mexico kingfisher is from India, we added a couple of $$ as profit to Vijay Mallya). To go along with it direct from the tandoor we had tiger prawns - grilled and cooked to perfection it was awesome...i loved it . I love good food and drinks topped with great company - J was talking about all the fun times he had backpacking ..and hours flew by. For the touche Indian we had some roti and dal...

The waves were crashing and it was too nice to just sit there and enjoy with blank minds and wondering when wud the next wave crash ... we talked and watched ...it was around 1800 when we thought of leaving - around 3 hours of wave counting and being with nature (some alive and some dead and tasty of course) .. temple bay is one place where my lucky(??) gf and me would dine when the time comes !!!

Starting blocks ....

2008-04-20T09:43:00.000-05:00

Its been ages since I also wanted to have my own blog - the neo version of the old diary that was always presented to me by my dear father by the start of every year ... from standard 6 till my college days.. Then it came from friends and relatives and sweethearts ;-)

Even now I love the old version of writing with a reynolds fine carbure pen over my diary (may be am from the older generation.. truly so.. the 80's are no more new), but as the situation of lack of diary gifting friends/sweethearts and no place to vent or throw my emotions has pushed me to find a little spot for me over the i-connected-world ..

I started my diary writing by cursing my classmates who didnt return my eraser back in time, who came to school late etc . Then I grew to venting out my anger towards my own parents when they asked me to go to get grocery when i had my all important cricket match to watch ,, may be on the i-blog i may have such silly things with a mature touche to it

So here am I jotting down my first post to see how it looks and take it up from there >>>