So what if you quit IT ??

The lackluster life of an IT Engg, sucks big time.

If at all someday I am able to quit IT, here is the list of my dream jobs.

1. Start a Micro-financing NGO: Would love to work more towards Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship sectors, empowering rural India

2.Start a vintage car and bike restoration store: This is something that my heart wants to do more than my head.

3.A lone traveller: Travelling through India on a bike, living in a duffel-bag, clicking photos for magazines for a living.

4.Chef: Would love to have my own restaurant someday.

5. Teacher: Definitely not computers, may be history…

So what if you quit IT ??

Just another post

Aloha !!!

Past few days have been quite uneventful for me, thus there was nothing to write about. This post is an attempt to capture the nothingness over the last few days. Reader discretion is advised

Work : This is perhaps the only thing in this world that I am not interested to do, yet I have to do it. Well there has been some changes at work, work schedule has changed from 2×2 shifts to 4×4 shifts, so now I get to work for 4 days and do nothing for the next 4 days. Well most people would raise an eyebrow with the thought of ” 4 days off “, but believe me thats what is causing the emptiness. The sudden silence after 4 days of hectic work, is like braking your life from 100 – 0 in 3 secs. Just to kill time I am planning for an Agra tour sometime this month.

Home : Well there isn’t any for the “unmarried” kind, anyways there has been no change to the lair except for a routine clean-up session.

Food : Aha this is the best part of life since the last few days. It’s always a treat for the taste buds during Ramzan in HYD, coz its Haleem time then. On a quest to find the best haleem in HYD, till now Pista house rocks !!!

Read : Started off with a fiction “The girl with the Dragon tattoo – by Stieg Larsson ”, a day later “Above average – by Amitabha Bagchi” joined in. Both reads are good can’t comment much on the books as I have just started them.

Movies : Have been watching a lot of movies since a few days, liked some, “Perfume, the story of a murderer” , ” Offside” and “Divided we fall” are some of them.

World around me : On cloud 9 to see Mayawati pushed to the corner by SC for the statue farce, woohoo !!! Don’t know whats the problem with indian media if Shashi Tharoor wants to stay in a 5 star hotel, or if Congress wants it MPs to cut down on costs, all they want is a topic for debate at 9 PM. RIP YSR. Did you notice Indian media has forgotten the BJP episode, since a few days, guess its all well with BJP now

Time to go now, hope the next few days will be a lot more happening — Amen

A tryst with NH 7

When I was young, my Dad used to do a lot of road trips in one of those oldie Jeeps, much of the trips were on Highways, ever since I have always been fascinated with highways, the so called NH Always wanted to go for a long highway drive, but some or the other thing did let me know. This sunday was watching TV with my roomie KDB, it was well past 1 AM, and suddenly I decided go for a bike ride the next morning. Where was the next question, quickly browsed through my TTK India Road map and found a small place Basara some 220 kms from Hyderabad. Off I went to pack my bags for the trip, I was really surprised when KD came up to me and said, “Bro m also coming”, he doesnt like bike trips much, and that too a 450 odd circuit and he has to get back and go to office !!! But he was determined, so we packed our bags and went to bed.

Dont want to write down a lengthy travelogue on it (KDB has already written one here). Next morning we started at sharp 6 am and reached Basar at around 10.30, had a quick darshan and back at HYD by 4.30 PM.  The 450 km circuit was done in approx 10 hrs with stops for tea, breakfast and lunch and a 1 hour break at Basar. Statiscally the circuit was done with an average speed of 50.88 kmph and that too on a bike Max speed reached was around 105 kmph.

Here is some road and route info:

The route is quite straight forward, Hyderabad to Medchal, get on the NH7 from Medchal continue through Tupran, Ramayampet, Kamireddy to Dichipally. Take a left exit from Dichipally and head towards Nizamabad, cross Nizamabad and go upto Jankampet. Take a right exit at the Gandhi Statue there. Basara RS is around 12 kms from there and Basara temple is around 2 kms from then on. The road (NH7) from Medchal to Kamireddy (10 Kms or so from there), is excellent, balack top 4 lane (6 at places) and very good signage. The road from Kamireddy to Dichipally (same NH 7) is a two lane, undivided, balacktop road, the road quality is good but lack of a road divider slows you down. The rest, I guess its a SH is good but not excellent. Loved the NH7 all the way, named this post as a tribute to it

What I liked about the trip:

The sense of you and you bike on an open road is an un-expressable feeling, there is a sense of freedom and an unknown sense of peace that sets in your mind when you drive on a NH. Bike trips do teach a very important thing in life, they harden your patience, at time your arse will go numb, and you will feel like speeding away quickly to your destination, but the road wont allow you to. You ought to remember one very simple rule “On a road trip the road rules and you follow… “. I beleive one is on a learning curve for the first 100000 kms, and I have just completed around 60k, there are still some miles to go …

And it goes on ...

The Indian Car Buyer …

In the US, people love cars with muscle, hot-rods to be more specific. They really dont care about the FE or aerodynamics nor do the like the curves on it thus we have Ford Mustangs, Pontiac GTs, Chevrolet Camaras and so on. The Europeans loved style, design, agility and safety features, they got us Ferraris, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Renaults and so on. In the east (AAP) people wanted FE, they gave us the Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas which are now the most sought after cars worldwide. Until late 90’s the Indian car buyer was absolutely non-existent. But in the last 15 years or so the Indian car market has proved to be the most difficult car market in the world. Why ? Because the Indian buyer wants an American hot-rod engine fitted in a European Ferrari which should have the FE of a Civic Hybridz and should be in the price range of 4-8 lacs INR !!!

I don’t have any grudge on anyone, I myself am such a buyer, I have been looking for a car with all the above features in one package Lot of good cars which have performed very well in global markets have went bust in India, the best example is the Renault Logan. The Logan is one of the most successful European Sedans, the reason it was pitched as  the cheapest entry level sedan globally, in India its bit expensive as a entry level Sedan! The new Fiat GP is perhaps the best hatchback in India today, but it wont work, the GP uses the same MJD motor thats on the Swift DDIS but it wont be as successful as the Swift. Over the years Maruti has cast its spell on the Indian car buyer, they have created such good brand value, A.S.S, resale, and customer delight that the Indian car buyer follows it blindly.

Why cant the Indian car buyer, break the shackles and welcome the next gen global brands into India? Yes of-course its gonna take a lot of effort from the manufacturers also, if GP wants to be as successful as the Swift, then it needs to be faithful to the Indian buyer and stick to the market long enough as  Maruti has done, not just sell 10-15k cars and head back home.

I know this post wanders around, but guys I am bored with the Hyundai’s and Maruti’s just wanna see some great new cars on Indian roads.

What goes UP, must come down …

Sensex surges to highest level since June 2008, the 30-BSE Sensex surged by 253.92 at 15,924.23, after hitting the day’s high of 15,963.36. Sounds good, yes I am getting a ROI of 30% now !!! But where is it headed ?? Here is my prediction, whoa I am no expert, I have been in this trade as a novice for over 2 years. Just wanna write it down somewhere, so that if it happens, then I would say “Aha I told ya”

What we are seeing right now is an economic revival, there is enough liquidity (CASH) in the market, thanks to the various bail-out packages by Government’s worldwide. Interest loans, be it home, car, commercial is at a all time low. Inflation is at all time low, rather its at a negative figure now, (defaltion). People are quite accquainted with the word “Recession” a slight upsurge in the markets leads to frenzied buying. Everything is just perfect for the markets to roar, but it does’nt have any steam in it. So my guess would be the problem would start if the economy revives, if it happens at all. Read an article on TOI, “At 8.5% EPF gives you better return than FD”. Banks would never let it happen, they would increase the rates, in turn the lending rates increase, the inflation increases, and utopia doesnt exist any more !!!

Lets see how my prediction goes BTW, I am on a frenzied selling mode now.

Sensex surges to its highest level since June 2008, the BSE Sensex surged by 253.92 at 15,924.23, after hitting the day’s high of 15,963.36. Sounds good, yes I am getting a ROI of 30% now !!! But where is it headed ?? Here is my prediction, whoa I am no expert, I have been in this trade as a novice for over 2 years. Just wanna write it down somewhere, so that if it happens, then I would say “Aha I told ya”

What we are seeing right now is an economic revival, there is enough liquidity (CASH) in the market, thanks to the various bail-out packages by Government’s worldwide. Interest loans, be it home, car, commercial is at a all time low. Inflation is at all time low, rather its at a negative figure now, (deflation). People are quite bored with the word “Recession” a slight upsurge in the markets leads to frenzied buying. Everything is just perfect for the markets to roar, but it doesn’t have any steam in it. So my guess would be the problem would start if the economy revives, if it happens at all. Read an article on TOI, “At 8.5% EPF gives you better return than FD”. Banks would never let it happen, they would increase the rates, in turn the lending rates increase, the inflation increases, and utopia doesn’t exist any more !!!

Lets see how my prediction goes BTW, I am on a frenzied selling mode now.

Friendship day, is it a scam ?? Who cares …

01:00 am, got a tweet  that says “I so hate this #friendship_day crap btw. Its a scam IMO. “ OMG its friendship’s day today!!!  Hmmm, there I go into the flashback, back when I was in school, me and couple of guys get a bunch of friendship bands and come in early this day, no points for guessing where these bands went ofcourse to all those pretty gals

Ok let me get back to the tweet, it sounded interesting, what is the history/origin of Friendship Day ? Took some googling but found some interesting answers here are some of them:

Theory 1 : International Friendship Day celebrations takes place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. In 1935 American Govt had killed a person on 1st Saturday of Aug. The next day his friend committed suicide in his memory. Since then American Govt declared 1st Sunday of Aug as friendship day. Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries.

Theory 2 : With the devastating effects of the First World War still showing and increasing hostilities, mistrust and hatred between countries, provided the perfect conditions for another imminent battle, there was a greater need for friendship and camaraderie not only among nations but also among individuals. Hence, the US Congress decided to designate the first Sunday of the month of August as Friendship Day and with a formal proclamation in 1935, officially declared the occasion a holiday dedicated in the honour of friends and friendship.

Theory 3: Just after the the first world war, when the economy slowing down, people spent their money on basics, the gifts and card industry was badly hit. Friendship Day was then created by wealthy business-men, as another merchandising opportunity to make up for the slow period between the previous splurge and the next splurge.

There are some other boring theories which date back to the Bible and even Mahabharat ages, but I found them to be kinda boring and pointless.

Ohhh I got one more tweet “Aug 2nd is apparently Friendship Day! I hate such commemorative days. As if you need a day to remember your friends. I do that *everyday* “

Come on guys why do you wanna spoil the friendship spirit, take this day as one more day to celebrate friendship, are we going to crib the same way 3 days later when tying rakhi’s to our sisters, why do we need a special day for sisters, we love them everyday !!!

Winnie the pooh- World's Ambassador of Friendship

Anyways wishing you all HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY !!!

Today – 06/11/2009

Its such a boring day today … absolutely no work. Its like one of the days when you get tired of browsing and want your manager to assign you some work

Thought this was the right time to checkout twitter, heard a lot about it and wanted to try it. After creating my profile, I was wondering what do I do next ??? Searched for some friends, found a few, started following them. Posted a few updates, but no-one replied, felt like it was like talking to a wall. Then started searching for topics and posted replies to it, aahh now I got it why do they say it twitter Have you ever been near/under a huge tree (preferably a Banyan tree) sometime late evening? All kinds of birds return to their nests and keep chirping like hell, as if , as if the sky is falling down, whith abolutely no-one understanding who is saying what !!! Felt twitter to be the same, there are some many people talking with so many others, its like you are in one big room with the entire world in it, you can talk to anyone and whatever you want. It was like I was lost in this room while trying to find someone to have some meaningful discussion. It was frustrating. Will give it a try again tommorow

Any tips on twitter are welcome

Blogging on the move …

Recently I got myself a new mobile handset, Sony Ericsson W350i. Last night I got the internet configured on it. Got the basic apps like GMaps, GMail and Gtalk downloaded to it. Browsing through the various options found two cool thingie in it. First the RSS feed option, you just need to add the feeds to it and it keeps on updating on the go Next is the Blog this feature. You take a picture, on the go add your text and subject on the phone itself and publish it, and in seconds its there on Blogspot…

I took some pics and posted them here. I know most phones now a days have these features, but was really surprised to see it on a phone worth just 5k, guess technology is getting cheaper, faster than I thought The Blog this feature is something that I wished on my mobile phone. The only drawback, I can post them only on Blogspot not on WordPress.

An Appeal : Missing Apurva

Received a forwarded mail about this missing 8 year old Apurva, this post is an attempt to help her parents find her. I was touched by this story, it has been 5 years since Apurva went missing but his father is still searching for her. I tried to validate this email and did a google search, and found the below excerpt from a News interview… ”I want to see her at least once,” says Sergeant Ravi Shankar of the Indian Air Force, breaking down.

Mr Ravi Shankar was posted in CAR-NICOBAR in the year 2004 as a Sergeant in the INDIAN AIR-FORCE. On 26Th of December that year his family fell victim to the unfortunate Tsunami that struck out the eastern coast. He along with his wife and two children (photo below) were washed in the deadly waters. Reaching out his wife managed to cling onto a tree but his small son (picture insight on the left) had swallowed too much water and passed away in her arms. Ravi also in desperation to swim lost grip of his daughter’s (APURVA) hand. She was washed away and was never to be found again. Until one day they came to know of her being sighted at a relief camp. On contacting the authorities they came to know that this little girl was abducted from the relief camp and was missing again. Since then Mr. Ravi Shankar has been travelling to Chennai every year with a hope to see his daughter. He has been publishing  MISSING columns in major Dailys in Chennai.

This is APURVA's picture taken in year 2004 with her younger brother.

I request people who own there personal blog pages to post this girl’s picture there as it could be of significant help. In case any news of any nature is found regarding her (APURVA) please drop in a mail at the below mentioned mail id’s or the following address.

1. James mathew( 123.mathew@gmail. com )

2. Amit kumar ( amitkumarmajor@ hotmail.com )

3.. khem chandra pan ( khemchandrapan@ yahoo.com )

Or contact:

Mr. RAVI SHANKAR

SMQ – 17/2

AF VAYUSENABAD

TUGLAKABAD

NEW DELHI-110062

Obama swearing in today !!!

The swearing in/inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States begins at 10:30 a.m CST (10 pm IST) today at the Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C. For the first time in the history of Indian television this ceremony is going to be aired live here in India. The Joint Congressional Committee has published the detailed scheduled for the inauguration ceremony. Most of the activity is scheduled late night (here in India), which I am going to miss … reason I have morning shift tomorrow.

There are several news reports circling around since last few days, some say he is gonna use his full name during the oath thats Barack Hussein Obama instead of the planned Barack H. Obama, questions have been raised regarding his religion, there are some claims that he had swore in as the senate on a Quran. I don’t know whats the truth, I am just interested in that famous “Obama” speech. Looking at the schedule I believe the speech will be scheduled around midnight, not sure though, hope I am still awake. Punters are betting on the duration of his speech, there are websites which are counting down to the swearing in ceremony, crowd count at Lincoln Memorial is gonna be somewhere around 2 million, what a welcome Mr Obama. Just imagine the atmosphere there, when Mr Obama delivers his speech, and when he utters those magical words “Hope”, “Change”, “The Right Way” and then the whole of 2 million spectators cheering out for him … 

The inaugural ceremony airs only on HBO at 9 PM tonight.