Life in Auto-Pilot mode

Yes, that's how i describe my life for last few months, call it easy or call it boring. Sometimes you don't have things in your hand, sometimes you don't want to take them. I am finding difficult to match up with the pace of life. After two years sprint at IIT, the job somehow seems slow and low. In past my most of the nights have gone with the thought about the challenges of tomorrow, the emotion about failures or achievements (no matter how small), the fear and the anxiety. But in last few months i sleep with a plain mind just like a blank page asking to write something on it.

I am still the worst when it comes taking decision and people around me know it well. Is it Phd or MBA? India or Abroad? Bangalore or Mumbai? Indian food or Chinese? KKR or DD? Now or never? They say follow your heart and you get the answer, but the heart with divided loyalties and strong head makes it worse. Jack of all and master of none doesn't help either. I wish i could outsource my decision making system.

Cooking has been stress buster for me. Thanks to my mom i could learn enough to serve myself for 7 days in row with variety of food. Jokes apart but i never thought cooking could be so much fun, but i hate to do the dishs :(.
I haven't been regular to gym as i used to be, still go there discretely to give my instructor his share of surprises. Worked a little on running. Running is the thing i enjoy the most. I took part in sunfeast10K marathon, for the first time i participated in competitive marathon race. I struggled more than i thought i would, the humidity and some of the section of the track were not easy for ametures like me. I could not i achieve my goal of 1:15:00 which i missed by 10:00. My experience of this year will surely make me better equip for the next race, which i am eagerly awaiting.

Tried a lot of new restaurants and new places but i am lazy enough not to write about them, same implies for movies. I though i would take my photography little seriously but could not manage more than 2 pics/month. This blog is my first attempt to take my self off the auto-pilot mode, Lets see how far i can go.

Travel Blog : Coorg, Mysore

As mentioned earlier i did a little travelling around. I visited Coorg and Mysore, couldn't get to explore much as it turned out to be a short and a little unorganized trip. Coorg is around 5 hrs drive from Bangalore. Once you get into the Coorg roads are bumpy but since located on mountains journey becomes thrilling. On the way we halted at the Golden temple that gives feel of visiting Tibet itself. People, monks, shops and everything else is cast so much into Tibetian style that becomes an unlike south indian destination.Next was the Nisargadhama, it's a tiny island formed by river Cauvary. Nisargadhama has a small deer park, bamboo tree jungle, elephant ride and a foot-over bridge. There are many water falls at the Coorg since located on the Nilgiri mountain ranges, Abbey falls is one of them which is not far from Madekeri. I managed to visit a few temples, amazingly all three temples I visited were vastly different. Temple Omkareshwara is "Catholic mixture of Kerla, Islamic and Gothic architecture"(not my words), Where as Bhagmandala is typical Kerla style temple. Talacauvary, which means the head of the cauvary, the temple built at the origin of the Cauvary river. Steps uphill from Talacauvary lead to Bramhagiri peak, view of Nilgiri mountain ranges from the peak is worth watching. Ended my Coorg trip with honey and coffee.

Spent even lesser time at Mysore. Visited Mysore palace, Chamundi hill. there is famous temple of goddess Chamundeshwari at the top of the Chamundi hill. The striking attraction for me was the statue of Mahishasura in front of the temple, which is big and colorful. There is this huge Nandi present at the Chamundi hill. Chamundi hill is known for trekking one can either choose between steps or trek trough the jungle, on my next visit i am sure gonna trek till the Chamundeshwari temple. My favorite destination in Mysore was the Hotel Pai Vista, it has couple of theme restaurant, Gufha and Jungle. I tried Gufha, the decore was little dark to give it a cave like feel, food was good and i didnt pay the bill :).

I happyly back in Bangalore, it was tough writing. Phew....

It's the Chrismas time*

So the Christmas is back like a year after another, but this Christmas seems more merrier. What happens when working for US based MNCs is that you become more aware of the western festivals like Thanks giving day, winter festivals, etc. Most of us are already aware and celebrate few of them like Christmas, New year's eve, Valentines day and so on. After all this, I still love Indian festivals more because they outclass their western counterparts firstly in terms of shear number and then values, variety, culture and countless other things subsequently.

The reason why this Christmas seems merrier to me is because its a world wide Yahoo! shutdown. which leaves me with no office for next 10 days. Wow 10 complete days of laziness. I'm surely gonna catch on some much needed sleep, already making progress on that front. What this 10 days bring to me? Time and loads of it! A much needed entity for me.

It's time for me to look back at the year, It's time to plan my coming year, It's time to think! I would like to give it a check on what i did this year as it has been year of extreme ups and downs, the year when i was questioned the most both professionally and personally. Some relations got stronger, some weaken, time to reason it out. The year which grown the pressure of responsibility and expectation exponentially.

Apart from the serious stuff it's time to catch some movies, some Boxing Day cricket action. Complete A&D which has become no less than a chewing gum. It's time to roam in and around Bangalore, already mapping Mysore and Coorg plans. My hunt for new hangouts has just begun. Most important of all investments and Tax planning that too for the first time :( And last but not the least infact "list" of my new year resolutions, believe me guys it's already looking cluttered there.

PS - Starting to Count my sins for year 2009 as soon as i finish.

God give me some motivation to write...

Huhhh..... it's been a while since i wrote. Things have changed around me. I am some what settled into my job (enough know my way to office), my room is looking familiarly messy now, got back to IIT D schedule of late nights and late mornings, started cooking a bit and very very unlikely but started reading a little apart from playing dumb facebook games.

I missed going home on Diwali due to some work at office. But I went to Mumbai, Delhi and Ambala later week. Though the trip was a short one, had a great time. Kunal's marriage was nice and fun experience. Mumbai to Ambala 26 hrs train journey was the icing on the cake. My 2 years in Delhi made me fall in love with trains, but my 5 months into the job has made me forget about the trains due to the shortage of time. Though I hate flights even more these days largely due to distance between Bangalore Airport and the city, it takes as much time from any part of the city to the airport as your total flight duration. I love roadways and railways, and will start exploring soon.

I spent couple of days at Delhi. Its was like going home, nice and cold. Places like def col, SDA market, Green Park, GK2, Priya's got back old memories, still i felt a void "Places were there but people were missing".

Not to forget i participated in Great Delhi run. 41 mins for 7 km not a bad effort after all. This was my first experience of marathon, never though i would be able to complete such long distance, but watching people around you running helps you motivate yourself. Also my regular workout at gym helped me build some stamina.

We had a "Showcase" event here at Yahoo! last month. Showcase provides a platform to present your work and achievements throughout the year. Though it sounds serious but it's a fun event. Our team won the best team award, yay! Our theme was "Avolution", which is Evolution of advertisements. And i got opportunity to revisit my paining, "acting" and "singing" skills. Showcase'09 Pics.

I am reading a bit these days. Started with "Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, a good book, i enjoyed reading, nice writing style (i wish i could had it). Then hurried my self through "2 States" by Chetan Bhagat, it is good in patches where the writer is sarcastically funny, a totally masala bollywood book. Still it was a decent book to read on the move. And currently i am into "Angles and Demons" by Dan Brown, the movie was good but half way through i was told the suspense of story :(, i am amazed by Dan Brown's intelligence. Open to suggestions (any language, kannada most preferred).

These days i am becoming a regular face at super markets around. Started cooking on weekends (depends on mood and level of laziness). Cooking is fun (only if you manage to convince your self and other that what you have cooked is tasty :) ).

I was never a fan of long posts. Being regular will make me keep it short.

Nice week

This week was a balanced one. I could balance my work and my personal life in a better way. After getting my own house things are looking good as i get a personal space after office. I managed to catch office cab almost everyday despite of sleeping late in the night. I badly want to change this habit of sleeping late in the night.

Work load was decent not too hectic, but heavy enough to keep my self at the desk all the time. Wasted my friday setting up my new system, i hate it but i had to do it. Work is getting more and more interesting, hope this turns out to be a nice learning opportunity for me. Workout after work was good too.

Since i got a small LPG cylinder last week, i manged to make coffee and other tiny stuff after office, few more experiments coming up soon. After ages i clicked few pics from my cam, will upload few better ones. Want invest my weekends into something more useful, enjoyable and interesting stuff rather than sitting at home or spending hours infront of laptop. This weekend i will work on my paper as the deadline is nearing.

Settled

It took me some time to settle my roots in Bangaore, but its a nice feeling altogether now. Finally i rented an apartment which is pretty nice for me. Office is around 30 mins distance, decently connected from my place. The area seems safe and variety of food options available (yummy....). Still buying little stuff for my new home which was not more than a box made up bricks when i moved in. Had great time shopping all those small thingys which i never thought of while consuming before. The apartment looks more or less like house now, but still thinking about what to do with the hall which i use only as a passage to move to my bedroom :). Ahha, so finally i am settled and well connected to the net, so no excuse to delayed blogging like this.

Got the Reliance datacard, trust me guys their service sucks. Those service center guys are just bunch of idiots (what can you expect with Reliance?). Those guys have almost consumed my half month's mobile bill to get my datacard activated. Still struggling with reliance folks to get my plan right or i will have to bear loss of around 1.5K. Happy with the speed though.

Work at office is in full swing. Enjoying work so far. Got few more deadlines to meet in coming few days. Have been irregular to gym due to work, apartment, etc.... but trying to be regular from this week.

Good news, manage to add another research paper to my tally to take it to 2! Wow feels great! I am excited! And another good news is that i might get an opportunity to go to IIT Delhi again this winter.

Saw Quickgun Murugun today! Good light movie, but not worth 200/- Rs. But getting a ticket on weekends at Bangalore is a big thing. Movie halls over here are so crowded, one cannot blame video piracy.

My To-do List growing faster than i could manage it. There are so many things on the list. I really want to be little serious about it! Well i will try to be.....

After a while

It's after a while i am back to my bloggin space...oops please spare me, i even forgot how to write. Last few days have been really unsettling. Coincidentally this blog comes on the eve of an eventful day, when i finally "decided" upon renting a house after exactly two long months in Bangalore. House is good lot of things needs to be fixed, will take a while to settle down.

Yahoo! is going great, just finished my first hectic week, i am sure many to come. Enjoying the work so far. Recently moved to place called white field for a week. Office is around 15km from here, but this is when i realize how traveling can be so much enjoyable. It takes me 40-45 mins by Vovlo to reach office, i make way though with FM, which is my new discovery. Then around 1.5km walking, reach office at 11 :) Lets see these all equations are going to change as move to my new house sooner. Visited some new food joints here but this time alone :(

Went to Mumbai for couple of days. Couldn't go for convocation, the thing for which i worked really hard for last two years, missing IIT D days badly. Looking forward to some good days at Bangalore. Rest everything is constant. Waiting for PReMI'09 results.