US experiences - second opinion

After a few shitty days (both emotionally and otherwise) I'm ready to be the same sarky, thoughtless guy that I was all the time. (or so it would appear to the others) I'm back in the US the second time (Most of the blogs that I had written the last time around, was when I was there in the US and I continued the bad work for some more days coming back - but then the effort was huge and daunting. So, I did what I generally do when I'm doing something that I would like to do, but would be so much happy doing without because of the effort involved in it - not do it. *I wish the bloggers have a concept of a postscript for a blog, these brackets generally go tangential to the main topic and it becomes a real pain to actually come back to the main topic. Maybe, I should contact the Google guys.*) and the US does not seem to be a pretty bad place to survive after all!

The plan this time around was to be in Boston for a week and then change bases to Chicago (where the real fun starts *for the people who don't know me, I'm being sarky here, I hate working*)

The Boston part of the trip was good. There were lunches and there were dinners, and there were more lunches and more dinners. Loads of cheese everywhere, lots of iced water (I haven't been able to figure out the obsession that the folks over here have for ice - there is ice in the water in the winters in water, there is ice in the water in the summers here, there is ice in the cola, I'm pretty sure that these guys must have been the ones to start the concept of iced coffee *here I go again.*) and loads of coffee. (this is one thing that I absolutely love in here - enormous cups of hot piping coffee.)


Other than the food and the cuisines that my stomach had to bear everyday, I did meet up with a couple of friends of mine. One was a school friend and another a college mate. Interestingly, I had not met the school friend of mine from the time we left the school and I'm sure that we might mot have met up had we been in India in the same city. I guess that's what happens when one comes in so far away from your emotional bases. :)

That was all about the Boston trip which spanned for a week. The week was good, no real work (the fun is going to start in Chicago, remember?) and the food was good (most of the times, at least) Just waiting and watching what is going to happen in the next few weeks.

Chicago experiences in the next blog. Chow till then.

Exciting times

New year is around the corner and I'm here alone in my house. Exciting times indeed...and add no plan for the new year with going to the office on the 1st, and it indeed becomes a new year to look forward to. Nice isn't it? Well, all this did not happen instantly, it all happened because of ill luck (which I seem to have all the time) and too much dedication on my part. (which in my college time I thought would never happen)

Firstly, the plan was not to go with friends back to college because I had my GMAT (damn that stupid thing, messing my life forever!) date on Jan 8th. Then, when I had plans for postponing it to some other day (which I did yesterday without fail, one of my firsts - finishing some task before the last moment) some things in the office came up which forced me not to take a leave on the 1st. So that's that. End of story.

And I am here all alone (which I seem to be most of the time now a days) with a stupid laptop in front of me typing a stupid blog which I know is not making me feel any better and neither is going to change anything in this world.

So here I am waiting for the dawn of another year (I'm already feeling older, I see a lot more younger people around, and I've stopped calling everyone - "uncle" which I used to some time back. Not good signs atall. sigh! ) typing this insignificant blog, hoping that it would make me feel better, and more importantly make me pass some time (which I seem to have way too much in my hands).

Exciting times indeed...

The aftermath

The trip back home was uneventful and I thank my good fortune for that. After the eventful (??) trip to the US, this felt was a lot better.
The next few days went off in readjusting to the new timings, drat, I feel damn sleepy in the afternoons! Now I really don't know if its because of the dull training that I am attending or if it is because of the body clock not getting acquainted with Indian timings. Anyways, the trainer knows that I sleep and I know (obviously) so it turns out to be a pretty decent unsaid understanding.
The next big thing is the new year. All my roomies will be going to the place where we studied and will be having fun there and I will be all alone here in the house without any plans. Such situations can be dangerous but then after staying alone in the US for 2 weeks, this does not seem to be an insurmountable ordeal. Anyways, I think that I can do all the things that I did not do till now because of lack of time.
Other than that, there is the GmAT preparation which was the basic reason for me not going with the junta to the college. So I think that I would be pretty busy these days. (touchwood) The work scene is pretty sad now a days, theoritically, I'm supposed to be working in 2 projects and should be super busy, but then there are problems in both the places because of which I haven't been able to start off the tasks in full steam. And anyways, it seems that I have lost the zeal to work, actually to do anything atall. I really don't know the exact reason, but its there in the background all the time. I have a theory which goes like this - I have not been able to do anything because I'm supposed to be preparing for the GMAT exams which I will postpone to sometime at the end of Feb, and hence have not been able to enjoy things atall. It has just curbed my entire routine. So I'm hoping that the new year's March should be a good month when I start taking things lightly (not that I'm not doing that now) and start doing interesting things again. Amen to the very thought. :)

Last day

Well, it did not turn out to be as big a damp sqib as I had indicated in my earlier blog. I did my part of getting familiarized with Boston today and I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. I had planned to take a T till Boston Common and then walk on from there, but the weather had improved considerably and hence I started walking after having my lunch of sphegetti and bread. I had a map in my pocket and loads of enthu in my heart, and I started off in earnest pursuit towards Boston Common. There was a bridge that I had to cross and that to me was the high point of the walk other than the final destination. (of course) It was amazing coz from the bridge I could see all the quaint little buildings of Cambridge on one side and all the huge Boston buildings on the other side.
Boston was bristling with people, very unlike Cambridge, where there were not many people around all the time.
The Boston Common park was good too. There were many families that had come over there to enjoy their saturday evenings doing something out of the ordinary. And then there were a few families who had come with their little kids just to have fun. Kids can be real funny sometimes (if not all the time), there was this one kid who had his brother(I presume) in the baby crib that he was handling. And they were going down the slope, so he comes up with this brainwave of leaving the crib off so that it goes down the slope on its own, and gives nice background music to keep the kid interested in the proceedings too.
Other than that, there were lots of points in the park commemorating the brave soldiers who had died at some point or the other.
While coming back, it was almost dark and so all the Christmas light's effect came to the fore. It was a beautiful sight, lots of trees glowing in the dark with lots of small bulbs. It gave a nice festive feeling.
Then I was back at 5-5:30 types and then started on with this novel that I had got from the office library. Still reading it. Its been a long time since I've read a book, so far 3 people have been killed, waiting for more gore to pour out :)
Ok, guess I should get back to the book, need to finish it before tomorrow and return it back before I leave Cambridge.

AntiClimax!

Today was the last day when I had the chance to get familiarized with Boston for the last time. I was determined to a certain extent mainly because of a colleague of mine from here in Boston who cringed at the fact that I did not know much about Boston. She was so disappointed that she even offered to drive around the place, other than giving me a map so that I do not get lost when I go to my excursions alone.
But it rained today.
It wasn't raining yesterday, it hadn't rained for the last two weeks, but it had to rain today, because I had plans. And its not raining heavily, its one of those irritating rains which does not look all that heavy but will drench you for sure if you go out. One of those in between things.
So, I am still waiting for the rains to stop and I'm just hoping that I'll get a couple of hours to go out and get a feel of Boston, so that people back home also don't cringe when I say that I didn't do anything in Boston. (which I'm sure my room-mates will if i say so, and will add a few sarky comments in a tone of disbelief too, you don't know them, they can kill people with their talk, and so do I :))
Still waiting and keeping my fingers crossed.

The last few days

So finally its going to end. There are lots of people who might be dying to go to the US for some reason or the other, but given the circumstances that I had to face in the US, I guess I'm feeling quite happy to go back to apna des. First things first, over here the food is, uhhmm, the same all the time. I try not to experiment much with the food because then that would lead to me being in the loo all the time :)
Then, the main problem over here is that there is no-one to go out with. Since I'm the only fortunate one to be sent over here all alone, this has been a problem right from the beginning. And I'm not one of those guys whom you'll find going places without company.
But, this saturday I'm going to make an attempt to roam around Boston for sure. A lady in the office today was shocked when I told her that I had not gone anywhere in Boston. So, for her, I'll have to go to a couple of places atleast. Might go either to the museum or to the aquarium. Either ways, its been decided. And then on Sunday, I'll have to rush to do a bit of shopping. Actually the list is not all that much, have to get 2 cameras if possible and a few other assorted things. And have to pack too :)
The only bad thing is that the flight could have been on sat itself in which case I would have got 1 day to rest back home.

After going back, I have lots of headaches waiting I'm sure...well, I'll try to enjoy life while I can.

First experience of the US.

The signs were not all that great right from the beggining. As soon as my boss told me that I might have to go to the US, I felt ill. Then recovery(maybe not) shopping and knowledge transfer about the project in here made the rest of the days go like a blur.

Along with all these good things happening I later on found out that the flights from Bangalore were all booked and hence I'll have to go via Chennai. This meant that I would have to wait in the Chennai airport for about 4-5 hours till 3 in the morning. Nice isnt it?

Finally, the D day arrived. Reached Chennai safely. It was a madhouse out there. Then the long wait in the airport began. Since I had left for the Bangalore airport at 6:30 types, I didnt have anything to eat. Finally it turned out that I would be having my lunch/dinner/whatever in the connecting flight to Paris and a time that I had no clue of. The yucky food was tucked in the tummy and I went back to sleep.
By that time, I was getting a light headache which was not a good sign. When I landed on Paris, the mild headache had become a full blown migrane attack and I had this really high temperature too. Somehow did all the checkins as fast as I could and the airport officials could and caught a seat to sleep. The fever was not going off.
On top of it all, there was this really cute chick who was there next to me in the flight. Poor me, I was acting like I was drunk or something, sleeping all the time. Well, yeah, I did talk to her, but that was just me asking for a pen :)

Anyways, reached Boston finally. At 4 it had become pretty dark over there. I went through the motions once again and fortunately, my colleague from Bangalore had come to receive me. We quickly caught a cab and went home.

The story does not end here. I had fever for the next 5 days, which gave me a reason not to work too, but it was not a good feeling all along. So that was the first experience with the US for me. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed the next time I'm planning to come to the US :)

What should a blog have?

Ive started wondering about this after reading the blogs of a few friends of mine.
*BTW, Im neither an avid blog reader, nor an avid blogger, which should be obvious from the infrequent posts that I make in here.*

There was this one guy's blog which had some arbit junk about heart and sky and stars.hmm, and it does not end in one post...it kept happening in all his posts. It seemed as though all he did have was a heart and two hands(to type the blogs) and nothing else...no brains (Im sure about that), no stomach (I think that if all the people become this way then there would not be any food scarcity problem again.) and nothing else.

It seems that when a new blogger comes in, he seems to be hell bent on coming up with something new and in the process doing the same thing all over again. After all, we are humans and to err is human it seems :) (which gives a very nice reason for people not to get things right the first time around all the time.)

The other thing that I noticed in a lot of the blogs is that people write blogs with their dictionaries open. If things can be written in simple and concise language, there wont be many people to appreciate the vacuum that you have written about. So since there is no matter, there should be lots of decorations to the language. And then would come the accolades..."amazing piece of writing maan" and "I didnt know that you could write" and stuffs like those.

Guess, that's is what is getting used in the software industry too. So I shouldn't be complaining :)

More on nothing in particular....after a break, where we will take a crack at the post that I have just written. :)

Back from the mini sabatical

So finally it has happened. An internet connection has found its way into our house. It did happen pretty easily in the end, but that was not the case a couple of months back.

Flashback to 3 months back...
1st Roomie: (Tentatively) Hey, what do you think about getting a net connection here at home?
2nd roomie: I dont mind, what di you say sid?
Sid(me): Well, if you get into the practicalities of it, there is none. We all are there in the office for 10-12 hrs and then I dont even think about looking at the lappy, leave alone opening it and browsing. But if you think that you need it, we can get one.
*Talk about oxymorons!!!:D
It didnt help their cause by asking me such question when im half asleep*

Now to 1 month back...
*All are in synch to get a net connection, alteast there are no 2 opinions on that.*
1st Roomie: Now, if the net connection comes in, then shouldnt we get a wireless router so that all the lappies can connect to the net without getting bogged down in one place?
2nd roomie: Lets c about that, pehele net connection tho aane do!!
Sid: Anything will do guys....but need the net connection to think about any thing else.
*The first roomie snubbed again. He should be really mad by now :D
But the thing is that he gets 1K reimbursement from his company for net connection.
Now considering this point, its not a good idea to snub this guy :)*

15 days back...
Sid (Thinking [lets not get into the specifications of whether i can think or not :P])
I need a net connection desperately, what to do now? Oke, ditch all. Have to do something about it on my own.
*Jugging people/ convincing people that net connection is the most imp thing that one could think about, without which people will die.
Net connection is the next best thing to happen after the creation of the earth's athmosphere with liberal amounts of oxygen in it.*

Yesterday...
Sid:
*Put on my pants and off to the ISP. Parted with lots of dough. But it was pretty easy.
Now the only thing that needs to be done is the router configuration. Then we will be all set.*

Phew...This makes me realize that one should never take sides in an extreme kind of way...flexibility always has its advantages. :)

Interesting conversation

This happened when I was going from Churchgate to Chembur in a taxi. The driver was from Allhabad (people from UP are supposed to be kinda talkative, have learned that from personal experience :)) and since I was getting bored, it was obvious that we ended up talking about everything and nothing. Guess that another reason for he talking a lot to me was that I let him talk me into taking me to Chembur instead to the VT station :).
Initally I asked him a few questions on the average number of customers he gets and things like those. But later on it so happened that we started talking on the corruption in India. It seems that he was dillusionised by the amount of corruption existing in India and how the honest people are having a hard time surviving (no prizes for guessing whose side was he on).
It was kind of heartening and disheartening at the same time to see a person who's 50+ years old who still believes in plain old hard work and doing things honestly but looking at the way his perspective was getting changed because of the things going around him.
There was another very nice idea that he had. He said that all the bombing that had happened earlier in Mumbai was because of money and not because of religion. "A hindu will steal from a temple and so will a muslim from a mosque."
I just wished that there were more common people like him so that atleast the politicians who devide the population on religion so that their vote banks are secure, do not get in the positions that they are occupying.
Im hoping against hope that the resurgent India has an able set of people leading it into the developed nation's group (if that ever happens).

First hot seat experience

It all started with George asking me if I had an easy schedule for the next couple of weeks. Since I always am jobless, I gave the obvious answer...and then came the info, I was supposed to be helping him with a few interviews.

Initially I was aprehensive about the entire thing. I knew that I would be sitting one fine day for the interview without any preparation. In that sense, its going to be a test for me as well as for the person sitting in front of me. And I was pretty sure that there will be no preparation because time has got this sense of unaccountability with me like money with dishonest beurocrats. And that means that I would be doing stuffs on an Ad-Hoc basis. Even though I try not to do things on such a basis, finally all get done this way only. Maybe I was destined to do things this way all the time. But I do make it a point to keep in mind that I will never ever do it this way again. It goes easy with my concience.

So back to the main point, it started at 8 in the evening. This guy was from the same college that i had come from and had done a few things. The initial apprehension lost its way sometime in the middle of the interview and before I knew, it was done.

Then I realized that it was not a big deal atall. But sometimes i really do feel for the people who get rejected along the way too just because of the interviewer's perception (i would say that even the interviewee has got something to do with it...but then...)

Only two imp points to keep in mind:
1) Interview is the art of making people talk about the things that they are comfy with and trying to get people talk about things that they are not comfy with.
2) Remember that these people will be working with you, so choose people who will fit in the company's environment, which will reduce a lot of heartburn all along in the future.

Other than that, have fun and njoi. :)

Interesting article

Pretty interesting article considering the fact that I have been on both sides of the Q's. :)
http://bhuvans.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/50-common-interview-qa/

Really jobless

Humans can never do anything but complain. If there is lots of work, then people complain. If there is no work, then they complain. In short, I have never seen a person who is satisfied in life. I used to be that guy, but then I guess, I have started gelling into the mainstream homo sapien way of thinking.

Till the last week, the complain was regarding too much work. And, now to think of it, I was not even in a position to complain because it was my mouth that was responsible for the amount of work that I was doing. (not to mention the couple of other people who had to slog their ass off) There were times when I used to get into the vacation mode but it was all in mind, wishful thinking, hoping against hope, daydreaming off to some place where I was dozing off in a sunny beach, till someone comes in and shakes me back to the real world.

It seems that firefighting was the order of the day (the week rather). One problem after the other, and we getting finger pointed without any blame of ours. And then tempers flare and then the long clarification emails that were sent out with lots of photos and all (just to keep the readers interested. Graphic ideas are more attractive than things put in plain words) So that's where the major time was getting sucked in. Along with that, ofcourse, ther would be the issue of fixing the issue which causes such heartburn on both the camps.

So that was the scenario till the last week.

Now for the last week, all I have been doing is to surf the net all the time, chatting, and if i get really bored of all these things, search for work...seems like the good old I-flex days have come back. And then the frequent coffee breaks.

You will see that I have become really active in Orkut, there will be lots of blogs and things like those.. the latest project that I have in mind is that I will send an email to all my old friends with whom I have lost touch. That should take a bit of time.

And then this week will get over and I'll be back to Bangalore...where the actual fun will start again :) and life will come back in a full circle.

Back for good?

I had entirely fogotten about this blogspot of mine till now, when I, on a ego searching spree, came across my own creation :) lying in tatters.
So i thought that it would make sense to add a few posts so that...hmm, now y should i post something.
Y do people post things on the net that can be viewed by all and which reflects his/her innermost feelings?
Questions, lot of it but no answers. Guess that is in the realm of the psychologists to research on.
Now where were we? oke, a post so that our blog does not look like a sofa set which was brought in 1950's and even though it has never been used, it looks out of sorts.
Talk about sidhuisms.. :)

H2G2

For all those who think that this is some new compound that has been discovered by some obscure professor with thick soda glasses and wierd, white, unkept hair and who suspiciously resembles someone whom we all know as einstein, whose sole purpose in life is to discover some cryptic compounds in some outlandish part of some laboratory whose sole purpose is to increase the weight of some chemistry books, then he's wrong. This is a abbreviation for 'The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy'. Today, when i didnt have anything to do that remotely involved utilizing my brains,(not that i use my brain that much...after all conservation of natural resources is an international concern now a days) i set on a quest to google out if there are any sites that are interesting and related to the topic mentioned above,and voila, i got an official H2G2 site that has been hosted by BBC itself. For the people who are interested, the site's name is

www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/

And it has got quite a few interesting links to other cartoon characters like calvin and hobbes etc etc.

So i would recommend all the guys who like a bit of fun in their rather boring lives to visit the site. Or else who knows maybe tomorrow the earth may be demolished by some Volgon space ship so that some inter-galactic subway can be constructed, so I would suggest you all to check it ASAP.

yesterday!!!

yester was one hell of a day...too good...firstly it was one of those days where i didnt have to go to the office...thats in itself would have made that day special...i really had lost track of the last holiday i had,weekends included...so the first thing that one does logically on a free day...get up late in the morning...10:30...well,actually if u see it my way,i dont sleep...thinking abt life and afterlife would be more appropriate to describe what the other people consider sleeping...oke coming back to the topic...then i generally loafed around...after all life/afterlife is a pretty boring concept in itself and u shud restrict urself to think abt it only either when ure sleeping of ure soo desperate to do something so worthless that even the most worthless guy in the universe wud applaud u for the effort...then my roomie..rohan...who has already proclaimed himself to be the next super washer and who is all set to overthrow the kelvinators and onidas in the field of washing m/c....came up with a nice idea...to go to watch fahrenheit 9/11...so we, the dynamic duo ( not to be confused with a certain batman and robin)...braving the fear of rain and the blore traffic started on our path of making up of most of the afty that was left...got the tics cooly(no dramatics here)...had 1 1/2 hrs to loaf around... then we had to do what we hope never to do again...going thru the brigade road side lanes on a weekend bfore diwali...it was damn crowded...but one good thing about crowded streets is that u dont have t0 put in much effors to reach from pt A to pt B coz thats where most of the people are going...so all u need to do is to stand there...someone will push u from bhind...ofcourse it follows all the laws of conservation of energy...but the imp thing to note here is that ur energy is saved...

so somehow we managed to reach church street...and then the worst thing that i feared...happened...i was hit by book mania...i had this itch to buy all the books that i saw(irrespective of the price of the books...that pinch of ur wallet will come later)...so i ended up in buying 3 books...total cost 500 bucks...

somehow we came back to the theatre...then wow...the sarcasm with which bush was protrayed was amazing...too good...well, it was terribly one sided by the way,but then bush was portrayed as one amazing greedy guy who had no scruples...it kinda reminded me of our own beloved laloo prasad yadav...but i think that bush doesnt have the charisma that our laloo has...

then to some nice restaurent to have dinner...EOD...wow,what a day!!!

Random thoughts

i really dont no what to write...actually its not a problem atall...afterall since the topic is random thoughts one can write anything that one can think of...at the moment the main thing that is in my head is that when will i go back home and have a nice sleep...but it seems that its not going to happen in another 1 hr atleast...
ever wondered why is sleep so important???actually ive got a comfession to make here...i was and still am one of those guys who treasure their sleep hours...i can never say no to sleep...and even after i have a nice 8 hrs snooze i still feel sleepy...and it actually reflects in my face...and then again after lunch that same thing happens again...but then if ure doing something very interesting then mebb u tend to forget abt sleep altogether...so what i feel about sleep is that its all psychological to some extent...if u stop thinking about it then u wont feel all that sleepy...
chalo guys i have rambled enough..i just hope that i dont think about sleep..oops...i just did it!!!zzzzzzzzzzzz...