Yahan Wahan kee

On the wheels!

2009-10-24T00:04:00.002+05:30

My first car!!!
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

Press the clutch, leave it slowly, no no...no accelerator, push the brakes, Oh no, you left the clutch too early, put the gears down, its too slow, hey come on you are speeding up and not changing the gear...blah...blah...blah.
This is what you come across when you are taking your first steps and learning how to drive and this is what I am going through these days. It's fun at times, irritation at others, can be exciting, can be tension-filled.
I hate it, no probably I love it, ok, I don't know!!!
With almost zero driving experience, have already commited to a long trip via car in near future. Time is moving fast, have to really pick up the skills in few weeks and be ready for hopefully an exciting week long trip.
Time to pen down and press the brakes, oops...accelerater, really :).

Kite Runner

2009-08-17T00:06:00.001+05:30

Cloulds and the kite
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

Last days of newly found idleness provided the perfect opportunity to do some reading. Manage to get my hands on Kite Runner while walking across some Banagalore street. One of the better novels I have ever read. Khaled Hosseini is an amazing story teller. The tussle of thoughts, the sense of guilt, desperate attempts to forget his moment of weaknesses, all that Amir goes through; is so lively presented.
There are moments in our own life when we really feel short on words, speechless. Don't know how to express oneself, And these novelists just reveal them so effortlessly. Yes, they have the luxory of time and the chance to edit and rephrase. 'Kite Runner', definitely a must read.

Test Feed

2009-07-26T01:21:00.004+05:30

It's just a bit, you know
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

Will it work will it not?
Blog to blogspot from flickr and then feed to Facebook....in one go.

far far away

2009-06-21T00:41:00.002+05:30

far far away
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

Its almost midnight and I am sleepless. A blessing in disguise as I suddenly have time without any obligation to spend it on anything pre-determined. Life seems to be going fast with these units of time passing by at a frantic pace.
I am pretty restless as usual and also without a 'plan' for the coming days in my life. I am careless and not a well organised person but still I want to believe that this is not a bad way of living your life. A lot of things which needs my attention and ofcourse needs to be done on priority. Hope I will be able to tackle them though somehow they seem so difficult.
May be, not a bad idea to wish luck to myself and hope the days ahead will be bright and sunny.

Mumbai

2008-12-27T12:36:00.003+05:30

Lone walker
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

Few weeks back I was in Mumbai. To be precise the same day when the unfortunate incidents of terrorism happend there on 26th last month. Despite all the incidents, I saw enough to feel that Mumbai is truely a great city which is not only a representative of Maharashtra, but whole of India. There were high rising buildings along the Marine drive which gave a Manhatten look and there were these slums which provoke thoughts that we still have a long way to go before we can claim to have food, shelter and basic amenities for all. There were people driving the most suave of cars and there were people struggling to put their feet on the overcrowded local trains. Extremes all over. Not something to be surprised of; considering we can take pride of technical advances like putting Chandrayan on moon while at the same time we can talk at length about the need to improve our basic infrastructure.

I wish if I could be there again, soon, and experience Mumbai even more.

Day before yesterday, I watched Ghajini. Nice movie with a little too much of action. The love angle is quite nicely clubbed with all the action thrown. I think Amir has done well except a few scenes where he seems to overact (screams and laughters) and hope to see Asim in many more movies.

Time to flourish again

2008-02-20T16:02:00.004+05:30

Time to flourish again
Originally uploaded by Sanj@y

This Tree have survived the automn and the chilly Winter. Its spring again and surely the time to flourish again.
[Blogging directly from flickr is cool :)].

Last few weeks have been quite a time. Living alone in a big apartment just provided the right opportunity to read a lot of novels, fictions actually :) ( 2 novels by Dan Brown and 10s of Asimov's stories). Besides this, watching a lot of movies, first 3 episodes of star wars included (They are actually 4, 5 and 6 as per the time space movie talks about).
Yesterday watched "It's a wonderful Life" and loved it a lot. A old black and white movie but a real treat. A must watch for all.

Visited Countries

2008-02-16T17:41:00.002+05:30

Countries across Globe, where I have been able to spend some time...

Warshaw Jan,08

2008-01-06T20:10:00.000+05:30

Its been a long time since I last put up a post here. Not much to write now as well except the fact that there is a snow fall happening outside (reasonably heavy) and the temperature are not very encouraging. Days are too short for anybody's comfort . Sun sets around 3:30pm these days and sunshine is a rarity.Yesterday morning while I was on my way to see off a fried returning to India, gazette in the cab was showing "-12 degree celcius" outside temperature. Thankfully it was warm and cosy inside.
Attaching some content I wrote on my first visit to warshaw (long long time back...) but just couldn't post it.

May 23, 2007.Its already more than 2 days in this beautiful city Warshaw, where sun never seems to set literally. I came here last weekend, Sunday, with my manager, with a lot of apprehension about the kind of *treatment* we are going to get. Last week was one hell of a busy time with a lot of travelling involved. A days trip to Nagoya was pretty hectic and energy sapping. "Sleep" was at a premium. Anyways somehow managed to compensate for that by grabbing every opportunity to sleep that presented itself, whether in the plane or in the hotel.
This is my first time in any country in Europe. Despite expected work pressure, I was quite happy coming here. My initial search on web, made me think that this will be a pretty dull city. Every site mentioned about the history associated with this city and the innumberable museums located here. To my utmost surprise, it was more likable than I expected.
Ppl here are pretty ok, and I must mention that avg. females here are absolutely beautiful. You really have to work hard to keep your eyes off ogling them :). We are having our accomodation right in the middle of city which makes it even more exciting.
Office here is more like a big joint family with hardly 10-15 guys. I suspect them to be PhD erudites rather than a 'run of the mill' employee. Friendly and informal. Work atmosphere is such that one would feel jealous of these guys. A truely open environment which allows you to work out of interest and not compulsion. Not more than 2-3 ppl sit in different rooms with all their accessories (like bicyle) right next to them. They are normally in their casuals. First day, we went to office in formals(coat-tie) and our boss here made no hesitation in commenting that we are overdressed :). He is a *tough/rude guy* and very practical(??? ;). Doesn't seem to leave any occasion where he can criticise things. But respect comes from the fact that this esteemed project of research labs is his brain child. He has even filed 4-5 patents for the same along with one other guy from Princeton. Though he is polish but he is settled in princeton and makes frequent to-and-fro to warshaw for work. Another person whom we interacted a lot with ___, is one gem of a person. Highly skilled with immense knowledge.
Having worked with Japanese and Indians only, till date, one thing that comes clearly when interacting with these ppl is their straightforwardness. No twisting of facts, abstraction or open-ended talks. Right is right and wrong is wrong.
As happened with my first Japan visit, there is no internet connection here also in my hotel room, which is a little irritating at times.
At personal front, I am going through a dull phase where I am in kind of a -ve zone, which is probably coming from the professional front. Not feeling enough enthusiastic doing my works and even the client pressure is not generating any pulses to take off and proactively look at things.
May 24, 2007------------Probably now I had compensated for all the sleep that I had missed last week. That's why last night I was not feeling sleepy even when I was in the comfortable bed provided by Hotel Metropol. I get up early, had a regular good b'fast in Metro jazz club. We were in office before 9 am. Being in company with my manager who is more than happy doing task assigned by client, I am having pretty relaxed time. Anyways I am not that excited or enthusiastic about the tasks to be done these days, which is a cause of worry. The lunch that we are having in our office is dirt cheap and reasonably tasty. It resembles our very own 'dosa' along with great salads. After 4pm, I just try to pass time before my manager calls it a day. Missed an opportunity to play fussball in the office today :), when Nasky(or something sounding similar) asked me for it. Surely next time I wont miss it.
Had a gud experince watching Milan play Liverpool in Metro Jazz where most of the guys were liverpool supportors, Thankfully this time, the team I was supporting won (Milan).

Unprofessionals!

2006-08-02T06:47:00.000+05:30

Read one interesting blogpost yesterday.
http://sabmaayahai.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_sabmaayahai_archive.html

The blogger, Bhagya (a consultant, by profession) had made some interesting comments about the IT professionals...

- The most unprofessional people ( i agree)

- Switch jobs like anything, say 5 jobs in 6yrs or 6 in 5, something like that. (God! help me, i also wanna change)

- very casual (euphemism for unprofessional , she is so kind :)

- Have "obscenely" high salaries (lolz, but i agree again that we are overpaid, so what, we compensate for those who are underpaid, the balancing act)

- don't deserve salary hikes rather a kick on their rear :), (what to say, give the kick but do accompany it with a salary hike of atleast 50%)

There were some other "kind" words also for us poor souls, but it was interesting to know somebody's perspective (though with a lot of intended pun) from outside the IT industry.

Even the companies/clients who take their services for hiring were not spared :). Ahmm...are we so bad?

The blogger was creative enough (and probably vella also) to write a whole parody. With her permission, i am copy-pasting (look, i am doing overtime) the parody here... enjoy...

The Song

Interview liya hai, offer tumhein denge
Daga nahi karenge, candidate
Rab ki kasam, Bhagya, Rab ki kasam.

Rukh zindagi ne mod liya kaisa
Hamne socha nahin tha kabhi aisa
Aata nahi yakeen kya se kya ho gaya.
Kis tarha main tormentor se victim ban gaya
Insaaf kar do, mujhe maaf kardo
Itna hi kar do karam
Interview liya hai, offer tumhein denge
Daga nahi karenge, candidate

Arrogance mein ban gaya diwaana
Maine kyun Ganju ko nahin jaana
Chaahat yahi hai ke, is qadar offer doon
CTC mein tere main, do zero aur daal doon
Chain mera le lo, khushi meri le lo
Le lo saare, lelo saare bum
Interview liya hai, offer tumhein denge
Daga nahi karenge, candidate

Mere ashq keh rahe meri kahaani
Inhein samjho na tum sirf paani
Ro ro ke aansuon ke daag dhool jaayenge
Lekien lootein hue modesty ka kya karenge
Offers hum denge, bhool ab na hogi
Karo na tum humpe sitam
Interview liya hai, offer tumhein denge
Daga nahi karenge, candidate
Rab ki kasam, Bhagya, Rab ki kasam

:).

Kon's new camera ...

2006-07-28T08:05:00.000+05:30

Got a new camera, IXY 800IS, not for me, but for a close friend of mine. Though i had myself recommended him the camera, but now after actually getting a hand on it, I am feeling Jealous :).

Its too gud feature wise, look wise and price wise, its value for money (though his miser nature won't allow him to agree to this). Thinking about how I can get him to shell out some extra money ;). Its a difficult job considering my past experience with him at chai walas and kulcha walas...

The camera bears differnet names in different parts of the world. Powershot SD700 IS in america and IXUS 800IS in europe. I bought it in Japan where the model name is IXY 800 IS.

Won't go into the gory details :), as I am sure, konky is going to do that soon in his blog once I hand over the camera to him.

In brief, it's fundoo, stylish camera, capable of taking great shots.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd700is/

The Lock Story

2006-06-20T07:25:00.000+05:30

Well this happens at times, when u just do things which contains a lot of entertainment value for others while proving that you are close to insane and not worth anything. I also did the same last week.

As part of my client's company policy i was supposed to lock may machines with a number lock. My manager told me this with an expression conveying this is perhaps the second most important thing for me in this world (first is don't forget to take breath, so that u keep alive to do this second thing).
It was a simple thing. First set a number which I did. The number was "1234" :) (its the most complex combination, i could think that time). I also showed it to the manager who like a typical japanese was a bit hesitant in seeing the secret, sacred number :). Anyway i literally forced him to see it.

When u r free, u do things which are not necessarily required. After he left, i thought may be i should change the number and make it a little more complex like "0123" ;). So i was there with the lock trying to change it when "somebody" passed in front of me and i couldn't help not ignoring her looks. But the damage has been done. The number got changed to a value which i couldn't see (i was busy seeing other better things which this place offers :). WUfff.. what to do now? I took some deep breaths and started trying different combination which could possibly bring the lock back in control...

But it was not to be :(. I spent an hour doing this exercise. I was wondering if somehow i could act Feyman for a moment and open the lock.
Left with no other option, went back to my manager to let him know the tragedy. He after listening to me, looked left, then right and then opened a very small notepad window on his laptop. Slowly, with great care that nobody could see it, he typed "1..2..3..4" and with a smile of a winner told me, man this was the number. No, this i had changed, i told him. Suddendly it seemed some calamity struck him, and his face turned blank. I was scared. He mumbled a few words, which i couldn't understand (may be cursing me in japanese). He gave me a new lock. As soon as i left his place, i could embarassingly listen to all the laughter that suddenly surrounded his seat. He along with other jappus were enjoying it , may be wondering, how this person can forget a simple things in a matter of seconds.
By next day, everybody (means every japanese) in my group knew it. I could only curse myself and "somebody" who passed before my seat just at the wrong time.

A good weekend after a long time

2006-05-07T15:26:00.000+05:30

Ah, after a long long time I had a free saturday/sunday. No work, office or else, so complete rest. Though my last whole week was off :)(Golden week), but still it was tiring. Last week I was in tokyo looking around places. There for even reaching the nearest station we had to walk for atleast 20minute to half and hour from the Leo Palace apartments where we were staying. Anyway it was a great trip (will put in blog sometime later).

This saturday, I slept all through the day. Obviously this meant no sleep at night. Used it watching few movies and realized its not that bad a time pass. Luckily all the four movies that i saw this weekend were good.

First was "Almost Famous" a different kind of movie about a young journalist spending time with an upcoming Rock star band on a tour to know what they really are in their life. "Two Weeks notice" was also good, Hugh Grant has a dashing personality and I really loved his acting also. Sandra Bullock was the producer and central character of this simple and sweet movie. It was about a lawyer who just want to get rid of her job as his boss is too demanding and dependent on her.
"Meet the parents" was too good. It really set the mood. Nice comedy with Robert de Nero and Ben stickler doing really Great job. The diaglogues in the movie are really funny.

Last one was "There is something about Mary". I had already seen the hindi version of the movie and it didn't take long to realize that the two are copy scene by scene. Still Cameroon Diaz was good enough ;) to keep me watching the movie. Ben Stickler really looks well suited for these kinda roles. Even in Meet the parent it was like trying to do things and continuously making mistakes. Matt Daemon and Akshay kumar looked perfect choice for their roles in the english and hindi version.

All in all, it was great time pass. I still have some time left before i join office again from tomorrow. hopefully will be able to see a few more movies by then.

April 30,06

2006-04-30T21:24:00.000+05:30

30april.
Last night I had a 9 hr bus journey frmo kobe to tokyo. Initially i was a bit confused whether i should take the train or bus. But it seems now, i took the right decision. A very comfortable double seating bus with beautiful outside view in the morning made it really memorable. Today was complete rest with just a little shopping in the evening. Looking forward to explore Tokyo from tomorrow :).

Struggling to survive

2006-04-28T16:21:00.000+05:30

These days me and my roomies are going through all sorts of problems and last thursday it reached the peak. First of all, finding this new apartment was an herculean task, but now it seems we are going to loose it soon. And no wonder if some or all us may be sent back (kinda deported) from Japan becuase of the way things are turning out.
Last thurday my roomies boss recieved a call from our apartment building person. To our surprise our below door neighbours have made a serious complaint against us :(. As per them we make noise throughout night which is disturbing them greatly. My roomies boss was equally tensed to recive the call and in a typical japanese way he explained to my roomie how important it is to keep quiet in our apartment. This happened when we were just talking normally and none of us was drunk:).
Don't know what to say about these people. But sometimes it is just horrible.

Jappu pugan-pugai :)

2006-04-27T20:04:00.000+05:30

Guess every body in our part of the world knows about pugan-pugai. Just to recall, it is used to normally make small groups/teams out of 4-5 ppl.
Here in japan also there is a very similar thing like pugan-pugai, just a litle different than ours. Similar as it is also done using participant's palms.
Basically there are three positions which you can keep your palms in: palm open or a fist or the middle finger and small finger pointed like scissors.
Now an open palm denotes a paper, a fist denotes a stone while open fingers denotes a scissor. The basic idea is that a paper can wrap a stone so it is a stronger position than stone, similarly a scissor can cut a paper so a it is stronger that paper. Finally a scissor cannot cut a stone so stone is a stronger position than scissor.

Its very interesting and kinda logical also ;). While participating in one such ordering exercise i was continuously making mistakes. Instead of opening two fingers for scissor, i was opening 3-4 fingers ;) etc. It was fun since others could only laugh as it was difficult for them to explain me things due to language barrier.

badminton... in an unfamiliar territory :)

2006-03-25T22:51:00.001+05:30

Well as they say "language is no barrier to sport", i had this opportunity to experience the same this friday. Me with no knowledge of Japanese, found myself playing badminton with some Japanese guys in a wonderful gym facility.

Courtesy goes to another guy who was indonesian by nationality and introduced me to those Japanese. So the experience was, in a way, truely "Asian" :). But apart from that, it was all badminton and the language of symbols which did all the communication :).

Frankly speaking i am not even average in any sport but still i always try to find ways to participate in one sport or the other. And luckily this habit has continued even in Japan. I had never imagined that I will be able to play TT, Cricket, LawnTennis and now badminton here.

This badminton experience was really memorable as apart from getting a chance to try my hands at badi.., it also helped me make a few more friends.

We played for around 2 hrs getting around 6-7 games and with different partners. I lost some and I also won some but the way i was communicating with my partners was quite funny and interesting.

Just looking forward for the next time and hoping that the cramps in my legs are ok before the next working day i.e. Monday :).

KHICHDI

2006-02-17T18:35:00.000+05:30

The following poem is from a good friend of mine, Nutan.
I liked this poem of her very much.
To see more of her writings check:
http://lekhni.blogspot.com

KHICHDI
=======================================
Ek wo hain premi jo tajmahal banaate hain,
humne kaha, suniye ji!
tajmahal nahin naa sahi,
chaliye taj mein khaate hain,

mere kadke pati ne ghabra kar kaha,
jaaneman taj nahin,bas ab aur aaj nahin,
chalo khichdi ghar mein banate hain,
bacchon ke saath picnic manaate hain,

athak parishram aur anginat bahane,
rang laaye ki bacche maane,

hawala diya tradition mein modernity ka,
kaha,five star mein kahan wo baat hai,
fikr na kar tere papa tere saath hain,
picnic mein chaar chaand lagayenge,
khichdi mummy nahin, papa banayenge,

masoomon ki udasi ab toh dekhi nahin jati,
ghadi mein do aur chehre par baje barah,

kisi tarah aakhirkar huyi khichdi taiyar,
pura hua tab chaar ghante ka intezaar,
padosiyon ko bhi tha magar khichdi se hi pyar,

ain waqt aa dhamke,
swagat kiya khichdi ke dam se,
haan ji, hum bhookhe rah gaye,
dil ke armaan aansuon mein bah gaye.

Helping out of their way!

2006-02-05T20:42:00.000+05:30

Even in Japan, things can fail, train can come to a stand still, power cut down, passenger lying down on the railway platform waiting for trains, whose timings are not known.
Sounds like i am joking or telling a lie.
Believe it or not, it's a fact. Something that i had myself experienced.

But also, it is only half the fact. Even in these situations, the system works and works well. The backup plans are so implemented that they are in action in no time. And even after this if still there is some problem, people have enough patience to bear this all without making noises.
I experienced all this last week when after reaching the station to take the train, i realized not everything is well today.

This happened last thursday. On reaching the Minatogawakoen station, I found a lot many people on the station, much much more than i normally see.The station is normally empty and ppl appear only seconds before the train is schduled to come :). And once the train leaves it is again empty.
On enquiring, i found that there is some power related problem and the trains will be delayed. I had to wait for around 20 min before the next train was ready to leave. We boarded the train but after only half the stations were covered, it stopped again at a station which is still some distance from my office. There was some announcement made in Japanese and all the passenger starting moving upstairs outside the station, but me along with my friends didn't realize it and stayed there only.

There was a japanese woman standing nearby who was continuously watching us. Finally she came to me and said something in japanese. I told him that i don't know japanese (And she didnot know english :). She still tried to speak with us, making all kinds of symbols so that we can understand her, but it was in vain. She appeared to be getting frustrated
and worried. Finally she called the train driver and told him something in japanese. The driver knew a little english. The driver then told us that train won't go further and we need to catch a bus from outside :)(the bus was again provided by them only without any extra charges).

Actully, that lady saw us standing there and realizing that we couldn't understand the announcement about leaving the station was trying to help us.These kind of things happen only in Japan where ppl go out of their way to help others. When we came outside, she told that she knew very little english so couldn't help us much. But we knew she has helped us
more than enough :).

Finally when we reached our destination station, there we were given a coupen in which it was mentioned that trains services were late by more than half an hour, so if the person is late at office,its not his fault :).

By Mistake

2006-01-23T18:33:00.000+05:30

Not knowing the language of the place u are in, can sometimes lead to very funny situation and can make you look silly. But it also helps you do things which u wouldn't mind doing but had not done in case you were aware of it :)

Yesterday i found myself in such a situation. Here in Japan, trains are the most popular means of transport. You use trains even when travelling very small distances. They have reserved seats/compartments etc. for women. And thanks to the language problem me and my friends found ourself in one of such ladies compartment

We boarded the train and didn't realize that there were only ladies passengers in that train. Also we didn't notice the co-passenger staring us.

The best part was, right in front of our seat there was a sticker which read "THIS CAR IS ONLY FOR WOMEN" along with some other message in japanese. But we misunderstood it and thought that probably this is some advertisement for some car(cab) service which is available only for woman passenger :).

There was one japanese woman sitting next to us who was having good time listening to our conversation on "the car" funda. She appeared having a hard time controlling her laughter. But here people have this expertise of looking ignorant even in the most abnormal situations.

Only minutes before we had to get down, we realized that probably the compartment is a ladies one :). It is tough to explain how we spent rest of our time in that "CAR".

nihon jin dewa nai

2006-01-03T17:40:00.000+05:30

Long story, cut short
The title means *i am not a japani*, but still i am in japan, the country of rising sun, or nihon (nippon) as the japanese call it. Its first time i had come outside india, travelled by air plane :), so its kind of -every moment an experience in itself. I don't have an internet connection here and will not be in future also atleast for some more days :). But i had managed to find an internet cafe so just mentioning a few expereince of my early days in japan which i had managed to remember.

9/12/2005 - 10/12/2005

I was scheduled for osaka japan at 11:15. It was my first at any airport international or domestic. I was a bit excited, bit nervous, continually ringing my friends to ask what are the processes to follow at the airport. Though i was calling them continuously, but my nervousness was just not allowing me to listen to any of them.
I reached airport at 7:30 (don't remember the exact timing), and it was really early. My elder brother along with one of my cousion had come to see me off. We passed around 1/2 an hour outside the terminal. At around 8, i finally entered the huge terminal, a strange kind of feeling just made me shiver, i kind of realized for the first time, that i will be away from my family and friends for months and it may even extend. Somehow i took the steps forward, but thanks to long delay in flight at Indira Gandhi Internation Airport, Delhi, i was soon having other worries. The flight was scheduled for 11:15pm but it took off at around 5:30 in the morning, only a six hour delay :). I was just wondering, how, for so long i thought that the things at airport are much smoother and better than at other places like railway station :). There was no reason mentioned for the delay and they deliberately kept on showing that the flight will leave at 3am.
We were served dinner at the airport and i realized that they also follow the same principle that whether there are 50 ppl or 500 they can easily manage by simply adding plain water to their curries :). It works for them and perhaps for all. The IGI airport is no different from any railway station in terms of crowd. The only difference is perhaps you pay a lot more to be a part of crowd at airport than at a railway station.
I met two interesting guys at the airport, and their company really helped me pass the time. As per them they fly frequently to hongkong, almost twice a week. They were carrying very little luggage, and they had a lot of information about the airport processes, flight delays and all. One of them was making good use of the delay by continuously irritating airport female staff. He was continuosly asking about this air india flight from staff of air france, air china etc :). Every now and then, he was also passing comments on them not worth mentioning here. The other guy was having some problem with his stomach, and he was interested in talking only about that.
Finally when i managed to enter the aircraft, it was again a surprise (courtesy bollywood movies :). I had imagined that plane would be on the runway and ppl would be actually taking a long walk from the airport pavilian to the aircraft in open space to board it :), but it was so different.
Nothing interesting happened in the plane only that while getting off the aircraft at osaka, i was the only indian in the plane. Thanks to air hostess who send a japanese staff with me to complete all the processes.
The osaka airport or the Kansai airport is surrounded by waters from all sides. It is constructed on land acqired from the ocean. It is also said that it is sinking at a slow rate, don't know if these are rumours. From the airport itself you start getting to know that ppl in japan are very helpful. Two police woman helped me get a local calling card :) and also board the right bus to my final destination.

11/12/2005
Today is my first day in kobe, Japan (actually i landed here last night, so today is the first "day" :) ). Got up at around 8:30 in the morning. My apartment is at the 9th floor of Miwaboshi building and it present a very beautiful, very scenic view of the city. The city is surrounded by hills. Luckily got my teammates precious time to go to sanomiya a central location is kobe having a lot of shops. Vending machine seems to be a very important part of daily lives of japanese. Almost everywhere you can see vending machine for different kind of items. Bought a coke worth 100yens, but the glass came out only half filled :). Kobe is a very clean city, probably the whole of Japan. The sense of traffic is great, pedastrians are given respect and time :) to cross the roads. Every body, be it drivers or the paedastrians follows the rules very religiously.
On the return journey from sanomiya, did some shopping of household goods, bought hangers, plastic tiffin box and a pair of woolen socks from a 100 yen shop. "100 yen" shops are like fix price shops where almost all the things are priced at 100yen.
We came back home at around 1:00pm. So in all i spent around 3 hr out side. Yes also got to board the Japnese rail service. Again its a class thing, very neat, very clean. People sitting on the seats with some space in between, not falling on each other as is the case at other places :), it reminded me of our own railway system and how much we actually need to improve.
Since boarding this city (last night), i had had only a burger from a nearby McD, but don't know why i was just not feeling any hunger ( cause to worry :( ). Anyway after returning, i had some rice and dal which my friend had cooked. He is very active guy, currently busy with marriage plans. Spends the whole of saturdays and sundays chatting with his fiance, don't know what they discuss for so long :). Thats why it was really nice of him that he could spent 3 hr with me on his otherwise busy sunday.

On returning back i slept till evening. Since there was no point in disturbing my teammate (busy chatting), i decided to go out myself and just wander around. Frankly speaking i am a bit nervous whenever i encounter ppl, and the same thing is happening here. I had my dinner at a small indian restaurant "Rupya". There were only 2 ppl in the restaurant, a chef and waiter (probably the owner also :). The TV was showing the famous serial "Mahabharat" and the two were discussing each scene with great interest. I also felt a little better seeing and talking to the two indians. There were some japanese customer also in there.

One of the major problem is i don't have the internet connection and probably won't get any in the coming days either. It makes things difficult, believe me. Right now just waiting to get a few minutes of internet time from teammate who is residing in the next room.
Tomorrow will be another testing day when i join office here. The client has become more and more demanding these days. Probably things will turn into my favour and hopefully i will see some good days ahead.

12/12/2005
Today was my first day at kobe office. I was instructed to wear tie also on first few days. Actually i was instructed to wear suit as well :), but i had never been in formal cloths like this before (yes, this is true) and i wanted not to make things complicated for me by wearing suits etc, so i decided that it would be fine even with a formal trouser/shirt/tie combination. Still i was a bit uncomfortable with my dress with those over-size inners inside, which were kind of necessary to face the kobe cold. The way to office is a 10min walk plus a 25 min train plus again a 10 min walk. The 25 min rail journey was again a experience which is kind of unforgettable. Actually it is going to become an integral part of my life in the next few days/month. Don't know how much i will miss them when i return home. They are on time perhaps with a resolution of a "second".
My office is situated at the outskirts of kobe with a beautiful lake nearby. That area is relativelly less populated with few buildings. I had my introduction with client along with the other contractors. The way you exchange your business cards is a art in itself and the way you are supposed to greet people asks for a formal training :). I somehow manage to get through all this. At one occasion i exchanged cards with a senior manager, he gave me his card and bowed, i took his card and said in hindi "theek hai" :). My colleague had a tough time in stopping his laughter. I also attended a meeting where i hardly said anything. Frankly speaking i got very little out of that meething.
The lab at the office is simply superb. I had never seen such highend machines before. The best part was that you were allowed to play with them, explore them as much as you like. This i think is really a previlage. On my way back, did some shopping, this time from a "99 yen" shop (last time it was from a 100 yen shop :). Preparing your meals is really a tough task. Let's see for how long i will be able to manage this.

======

salaam ale-kum

2005-11-20T16:04:00.000+05:30

i greeted one of my muslim friend: "salaam ale-kum",
he replied: "walekum assalam wa barkatahu jannatul makam dozakhul haram"
...........i fell down ! ............
and still trying to find out what it means :)...............

arz hai!

2005-10-26T11:22:00.000+05:30

Read it somewhere, ghajab hai:

Lagi hai bheed aj kuch aisi mai-khane mein
Lagta hai gam bahut hai zamane mein
Hai dard ke do ghoont har kahani mein
Aur maut ke do ghoont har paimane mein...

A "tryst" with "GOBI"

2005-10-23T20:00:00.000+05:30

Is there anything better in this world than "GOBI". Even the slightest mention of "GOBI" is good enough to raise my excitement levels. I just "love" it. Just the thought of winter with "GOBI" everywhere around sounds like heaven.

Stop! if you have mistaken this for some adventure trip to the great "GOBI" desert, sorry my friend, you have lost your way, there are better and exiciting things in this world and they taste good also.

Well this is about my "tryst" with "aloo-gobi", my first real experience with cooking, this is about the outcome of my "accidently" watching a Sanjiv Kapoor "cookery show".

This gr8 thing happened last saturday, Oct 22, 05 to be precise. It was a fine saturday morning when i got stuck on some channel (don't remember the channel, sorry for them, they lost a free advertising :)) showing a cookery show. This chap Sanjiv Kapur has a gr8 TV presence, he could easily have anchored many a non-cookery shows successfully.

For a change he was presenting how to cook this "aloo-gobi" stuff instead of some tongue-twisting, mouth-watering, shahi blah-blah stuff.

Well "gobi" is something which is enough reason to attract my attention but when presented by Sanjiv, the famous cook, how could i have missed it. I followed the recipe with great enthu and was able to remember it also (with all those masalas, durations, colors etc).

I was somehow able to convince my mother that i will be able to do this "aloo-gobi" preparation correctly. She agreed and here i was with all sabji, chaku, thali etc around me. With slight help from my ever encouraging mother (yes only a little bit), the cutting-shutting of vegetable and supporting stuff :) was done and it all landed on the Gas.

Well those were some of most tension-filled moments as i made to-and-fros with an eye on the watch and the other on the vegetable. Yes He, the COOK-GOD has said, it will be ready in 10 min (not a second less, not a second more). I waited for that duration restlessly as my family was having a good time watching me.

Finally the moments arrived i was waiting for, i removed the "plate" from the top of "kadhai" ( i was a minute late, but still i was hopeful :), wow, what a perfect view, it seemed the "gobi" was a having a real good time with the "aloo" and all the masalas were playing a good supporting cast. The taste was perfect ( close to perfect actually, with me showing some "kanjoosi" in adding the salt).

It was a succesful start unleashing my cooking talent :-) and now i am quite excited about trying my hand at other stuffs also.

Best of luck to all those who haven't tried this cooking but will like to.
Don't be afraid :) and just go for it...you never know when this may turn out to be a disguised blessing :) (imagine a trip to italy, ask prashant he will tell you how an indian pizza is 10 times better than an italian pizza :)

Happy Cooking...

Chemistry Poem

2005-09-14T10:04:00.000+05:30

Copy-Pasted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Na Chmistry hoti na main Student hota
Na ye Lab hoti Na Ye Accident Hota

Abhi Practical main ayee nazar Ek Larki
Sundar thi Naak Us ki Test Tube Jaisi

Baton main Us ki Glucose ki Mithas thi
Sanson main Eter ki Khushboo bhi sath thi

Aankhon se jhalakta tha kuch is Tarah ka Pyaar
Bin Piye hi ho jata hai Alcohol ka Khumar

Benzene sa hota tha Uski Presence ka Ehsaas
Andhere main hota tha Radium ka Abhas

Nazrain mileen, reaction hua
Kuch is tarah Love ka Production hua

lage Us ke Ghar ke Chakkar aise
Nucleus ke charon taraf Electron hon jaise

Us din hamare Test ka Confirmation hua
Jab us ke daddy se hamara Introduction hua

Sun kar hamari baat wo aise Uchal pare
Ignesium Tube main jaise Sodium Bharak uthe

Wo bole, Hosh main aao, Pahchano apni Auwqat
Iron mil nahin sakta kabhi Gold ke saath

Ye sun ker Tuta hamare Armanon Bhara Beaker
Aur ham Chup rahe Benzeldehyde ka Karwa Ghoont pee ker

Ab us ki yadon ke siwa hamara Kam chalta na tha
Aur Lab main hamare Dil ke siwa kuch jalta na tha

Zindagi ho gayee Unsaturated Hydrocarbon ki Tarah
Aur ham phirte hain Awara Hydrogen ki Tarah
~~~~~~~~~~~~~END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dominating Aussies vs Resurgent English

2005-08-27T01:28:00.000+05:30

Wow, Can Ashes get any better? The answer is simple. NO!
Well the series started with a 5-0 white wash prediction from Glenn McGrath, the Gr8 aussie fast bowler.
After match 1, it appeared how true he was. It seemed, the ashes is again going to be a one - sided affair which is being repeated over and over again for a long time. I even wondered why there was so much of noise for this boring series which is more important for historical reasons :) rather than any cricketing brilliance.
But the match 2 had something gr8 to offer. The cricket touched its height with 'freddie' Flintoff proving himself to be true successor of Ian Botham (others may rank him better than Botham). It was a photo finish with resurgent english showing the aussies that this is not going to be usual cake-walk for them.

In Match 3, englishmen showed that their resurgence is complete and now they want to be the dominating one and what a match it was. Ponting played a real gutsy knock to save the match before McGrath playing out the 4 last overs on the final day.

Well i would say its a good omen for cricket and probably some sort of sanity is returning on the cricket field :)

I will definitely throw a party to my dear friend konark (who i guess still believe that aussies will come out with a series win :), if England can win the series and prove they are not fluke.

Bravo party in 50 Bucks

2005-08-03T23:06:00.000+05:30

This is mail sent by me to some of my dear friends summarising the bravo party that i managed to host in 50bucks only (believe me! i am not lying :)

HI ALL,
So we finally managed to have a successful party.
Here is the MoM (Minutes of meeting/party).
Participants:
=============
Sunilvi (senior bravo, SMTS HCL Technologies)
Konark (senior bravo, MTS+acting lead HCL Tecnologies)
Sanjay (new joinee to Bravo gp ;)+HOST
Absentees: Priyanka, Gaurav, Nutan.
The original plan was for Reenas.
Then I suggested for Break point (a little cheaper option).
Then our respected Sunilvi came up with the cheapest option of Logix Park Canteen.
We all had a leisurely walk to Logix park canteen enjoying the nice breeze and full blowing sun :)
Because of the number of varieties of delicious food items, we were finding it hard choosing the food of our choice. The little master Konark along with our senior Sunilvi showed some decision making capabilities and managed to choose the dishes of their choice in quick time. I opted for the more traditional thali.
The aroma of food was mouth watering and we finished the food in no time.
It turned out to be a very informative and enjoyable lunch as we discussed our future job, salaries, etc. etc. :)
But like all "good things" these magic moments came to their end and we departed but not without having the fond memories of a delicious lunch.
For your kind reference, these are the breakup:
Breakup
=======
Sunilvi: 1 Dosa + sambhar Rs 15/-
Konarkg: 1 Dosa + sambhar Rs 15/-
Sanjay : 1 thali Rs 20/-
==========================================
Total Expenses: Rs 50/- :) (yes you have to believe it)
In the end we all left Logix park on a happy note, but not before having the distilled, chilled water served in beautiful plastic glasses which made the experience even more enjoyable.

I extend my condolences to Nutan, Gaurav and Priyanka for missing out, but don’t get "dukhi" as future will make more "BRAVOS", "STAR of the quarters" and "Champions" leading to bigger (more budget wali) parties.
Yours Host
Sanjay

Its appraisal time once again!

2005-07-23T17:41:00.000+05:30

Well its appraisal time once again :). The time of the year most eagerly awaited.
Everybody is worried, curious, confused ... Rumours are already in the air when ppl are going to get their appraisal letters as it may ultimately prove to be the ultimate "reference" DOCUMENT for future decision making.

Each passing day is making the wait look longer and longer.

Initially expected dates (of APPRAISAL DELIVERY :) were july last, then first week of august and now finally seems to be August mid (still its a rumour only).

PPL are busy coming up with never ending guesses that how much "increment" will be given this year. Every talk somehow seems to be related to the appraisal. You tend to take special care of your bosses :), as you don't know which way he is going to process your "fortune" form -the "GOD" or the "GOD DAMN" way.

Some are hopeful that it will match the industry trends while other are less optimistic seeing the company's previous trends.

This time of the year seems to be a good time for migrating:) be it migratory birds or the potential job switchers. At this time the birds find flying long distances easy while the new job aspirant finds it easy to switch to new company with a better salary, better work (this is a misnomer, believe me) etc. etc.

Quite surprisingly at this time of the the year when ppl should be enjoying their increased share of fortune, they are rather busy grinding their mind and skills not to do the assinged company tasks but to identify their potential new employer.

Its really a tough time for managers (atleast i think so) who with little control on the appraisal exercise (this is what they say) are just praying to retain as many ppl in their team as possible. If fortunes are not good (or good, different ppl...different view) they may end up with a complete new team while the other disappears.

Its still some time for the final (appraisal) scoreline to come, till then enyoy "Ashes" and
Delhi Rains.

Bye-Bye Gaurav "kernel" khurana

2005-07-13T12:11:00.000+05:30

Well "kernel" khurana is leaving finally. Got relieved from the company in reasonably little time of just 14 days.
"Save Our Soul", yes this is the message which whenever originated from anywhere/anybody in the group, (used to) find its "the end" at Gaurav's seat. He was almost everytime, if not always, guess 99.99 percent of the time ;-) able to "save the soul". But this "soul saving" process used by Kernel Khurana was not necessaryly meant for those with a faint heart. It generally looked like a critical/complex cesarian performed by a very experienced doctor who least worried about what all emotions the victim/patients is going through.
He generally start his diagnosis with these "simple" flags$gcc -Wall -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -masm=intel -fverbose-asm -pedantic -fno-common -fno-default-inline .......... yoursoul.c (any inconsistency in the combination of flags is purely/totally my fault :)
Morons like me find it hard to remember all these frightening gcc flags and generally are happy with the final positive outcomes.
As a next step, he will open his trace toolkit and bring out his most reliable tools like strace, ltrace, gdb etc. etc. using them with all the redirections possible in the (linux)world.And yes the logging and dump are also being carried out simultaneouly in the background to keep a "total" check on your "health" status.
Under normal circumstances your "soul" is at peace by now, but in case yours is a serious/critical soul which needs special attention, he will bring out "QEMU" to give his last punch.On this mysterious "thing" he will emulate a virtual processor, running his favourite OS image over it and firing some of the most unknown commands that ever existed.

YES the problem has finally been correctly diagnosed and treated, your "soul" has been saved and you can breathe happily.
Bye Bye till he finds another "soul" looking for a "saviour" (in a new group/company).

PS: This is "cut-down" version of the whole diagnostic/treatment process. A complete description will require hundreds of pages.
Kernel Khurana has a "very" soft corner for the opposite sex. Though this "corner" is big enough to keep account of the phone nos/addresses of every beauty that ever met him.

Rain Rain, (don't) come again

2005-07-08T09:50:00.000+05:30

For the last two days (and nights also :), I am kind of forced to enjoy the Delhi Rains.
They are not those of thundrous ones, which starts pouring heavily (like 1000 drops per second per unit area :) and finishes quickly but the irritating ones which are hard to predict, kind of 100 drops per second per unit area:). You find it difficult to decide whether you should continue with your journey or take shelter somewhere and wait for them to stop.
Wednesday night i left my office with my friend with a reasonably clear weather. By the time we reached toll bridge (around a km from my office) the (un)wanted thing started. We decided to keep on travelling hoping that it will stop and let us reach our homes, but it was not to be. The holes created in the roads due to rains added to the adventure(does it qualifies as an adventure, i think yes :).
Driving through the traffic of Delhi with an spectacled eyesight which was further challenged by the wet flap of the helmet, creating a kind of rainbow in the night, was indeed quite a experience.
Finally we managed to reach home safely without making a single contact with other vehicles (my bike is quite used to making such contacts, specially when I am driving.)

Luckily the morning today is relatively bright and is making me believe that "hum honge kamyab in reaching home without getting wet"

Microsoft goes BANKRUPT

2005-07-07T11:55:00.000+05:30

Just a passing thought.
What could be the worst possible news for IT industry?
I could think these as the possible candidates:
1. Bill Gates is no more ( debatable, others may look at it as the best possible news).
2. Open Source turns Close.
3. Organsiations back to using manual ways of doing work instead of computerisation (due to blah-blah reasons).

And there may a lot many.
But one news which i think would really shake the industry is this one:
MICROSOFT goes BANKRUPT.

If you think your imagination can go far beyond these and come up with news worse than those mentioned above, do mention them here :)

Google Earth – Explore, Search and Discover

2005-06-30T11:45:00.000+05:30

Till some time back, I used to think of google only as one of the many existing search engines, out of which you can pick anyone at random to satify your search needs (or more clearly, to find things/code snippets/ideas/design which you can proudly show to your boss claiming it as a product of your brilliant brain :-).
But of late, Google's continuous innvative ideas coming from the Google-labs force ppl peek into Google related news every now and then to see what's new Google is offering( ofcourse for free :).
Today I learnt about the latest of them: Google Earth
Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips. It provides you with 3 dimesional view of EARTH.
To Learn more about Google Earth visit:
http://earth.google.com/

The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

2005-06-29T07:10:00.000+05:30

The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is a concept taken from Douglas Adams' science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the story, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is sought from the supercomputer Deep Thought. The answer given by Deep Thought leads the protagonists on a quest to discover the question which provides this answer.

To read the Storylines, go to this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything

shero shaayari

2005-06-29T03:27:00.000+05:30

Posting these here without permission of Amit Agrawal who has written this shaayari and consider it his intellectual property :-)

1)SUB: wo haan thee ya na thee
=================================
Woh Haan thee ya na thee..
Janae woh kya thee...
Meri jindageko jis nae pal main swarana
woh teri ada thee ya teri khafa thee

Woh Haan thee ya na thee..
Janae woh kya thee...

Yun Najarain uthana utha kar girana,
Yun soorkh hoton sae batain churana
Woh katil ada thee ya mohabbat bayab thee

Woh Haan thee ya na thee..
Janae woh kya thee...

2)SUB: mukh se nikle shabd
=================================
Jo niklae thae shabad mukh sae humarae,
woh unko bahut na wakif gujrae...

Jo dekah kiyain unko reh reh kae chup yoon...
to salaon(year) sae lambae humarae pal pal gujare...

Chalta raha yeh silsila umar bhar yun hee
Phelae woh gujrae phir hum gujrae....

ultimate joke :)

2005-06-17T03:03:00.000+05:30

Doctor, "What seems to be the problem?"

Patient, "Doc, I've got the farts. I mean I fart all the time,"

The Doctor nods, "Hmm."

Patient, "My farts do not stink and you can't hear them. It's just
that I fart all the time. Look, we've been talking here for about 10
minutes and I've farted five times. You didn't hear them and you
don't smell them, do you?"

"Hmm," says the Doctor,

He picks up his pad and writes out a prescription.

The patient is thrilled, "Great doc. This prescription, will it
really clear up my farts?"

"No," sighs the Doctor, "The prescription is to clear your sinuses.
Next week I want you back here for a hearing test."

Supreme Stunners

2005-06-14T10:02:00.000+05:30

'Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old'.
Lets check if you are growing old or you have an eye for beauty.
check out the link for top 10 "supreme stunners"...

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/01holly1.htm

test mail

2005-05-29T03:16:00.000+05:30

Just testing if this is the first thing which i could complete correctly in the first chance ;-).