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.

To be or not to be

Well that's how it has been for last few days for me. I realized how bad i am when it comes to taking decisions. There were many situations where i had to take decision and i failed to do so! In future where i will have to take some stand and if i fail to do so then it will cost me more than what it is costing me today. I don't know why my mind is not able to decide upon one thing. I came across these line and they are very true, "part of growing up is taking your own decisions and living the consequences", i think i m too worried about the consequences to make a decision. I will make a conscious efforts to take a stand. It's not always you take a right decision, sometimes you take decision and make it right!

Blr 2nd Week

Getting used to Bangalore life. Still in hunt for appartment. Roamed around Kormangla, certainly a huge difference in culture. Its a great joy to experience a new city, i wish have lot more to explore here. Nothing great at Y! so far, i will be assigned to my project in coming week. Done with paper, still biting on my thesis, hoping to finish it of today! Would like to keep it short and crisp.
Signing off..

Y! Life 1.0.0

Last week was eventful......Started with my first step into the purple world! Still getting accustom to new things.

Didn't really get the corporate experience i was expecting. Yahoo! seems like extension of college life with no formalities, full of fun places and fun people. EGL campus is great. The whole tag line of "We are not serious guys!" suits me i guess.... Yahoo! gives us so much of liberty and freedom that we really have to be more responsible. I feel i got a great learning curve ahead and i am at the right place to start with. Yahoo! seems like a company who looks at employee satisfaction pretty seriously, in the coming few days i am gonna discover that!

Banglore looks like a nice city, good weather, good food.... Not really started searching for accommodations, which i need to do fast. Having great time with the friends i am staying with. Life will get to normal once i shift to my permanent-temparary accomodation. Still not finished with thesis, concentrating on the paper whos deadline is on 25th. I badly need motivation to keep up my blogging......

Preparing for The purple world……

Just few days away from the purple world. I hope I have a great time ahead. Bit exited and a bit cautious too. Want to grab this great opportunity with both hands. Looking forward to stay at Banglore, it’s gonna be a great opportunity to explore a new city. This is what I learnt with my stay at Delhi, new city, new people, new experiences, new education. I wish to explore many new cities in time to come.

Having good time at home. It’s just a week since I returned and within no time again packing my bags. Did a little bit of shopping and it was tiring, I don’t know how can someone enjoy shopping? Anyways I had no option. So everything is set to explore the purple world.

Life is spinning........

I am standing at a stage of life where you are under a big transformation. I think every one goes through this transformation, your further life more or less depends on this transformation. I am little worried how i am gonna cope up with this huge change. Looking at all this i feel student life was much better and school life even better.

Working at the thesis report i wish i could finish it off soon. Little bit paper work left 15th is the deadline so need to complete one more pass before i finish.

Mission IIT Delhi

Mission IIT Delhi is over, well almost! Few formalities left, shouldn't be a problem! It wasn't the fairy tale ending to the most glorious chapter of my life so far, well that wasn't expected too. Had my thesis presentation other day, didn't go well. Suban was all over me, but I believe my work wasn't that bad! Who can argue with the GIANT, anyways I still respect him a lot. I guess it wasn't my day but that's past now, need to concentrate on what's coming up.

Time to pack bags. Going home is always a good feeling. But I never thought leaving Delhi would be so difficult. It so unbelievable that I hated Delhi so much for first few days and now I am absolutely in love with it, wow! I think those “three” evenings changed it all. Trying to enjoy as much as possible before I leave. I am gonna miss so many things, I can’t even list. Coming back to Delhi will be a treasure.

Both IIT and Delhi will have significant contribution to my life and how it's gonna shape. They are placed very high for me! This is where I rediscovered myself (still a lil confused though!), this is where I met some of the most amazing personalities. These memories will be there forever.

Busy......

Its time for a quick post. Experiencing extremely busy two weeks. Last week was equally hectic with parties and work, this week it's been purely work. Will try to post the party pics soon. Last two weeks have been good for work, results are better than what i was getting but still far off from my target! It seems that i might need to work even after my degree on this project. Right now in process of writting a research paper i hope it comes out good.... its around 10 days since summer mess started, yet to have food there! Its clear that i will be leaving Delhi in the 1st week of June so bit happy and sad.

Try try and try......

Last few days have been real pain with project. I have been trying numbers of things, but still that's not enough! Research isn't an easy job, one needs lot of patience. And I think I am running out on my patience. Every night I sleep with a new idea, new thought only to find a new disappointment at the end of next day. It seems that right solution is around the corner just like a mirage, as I start pursuing it turns out to be mere illusion. I wish I don't run out of options before I run out of time. But like the golden edges to the dark clouds, like the pleasure in the pain every morning comes with a new hope of success...........

Talking about dark clouds it's been cloudy week in Delhi. It rained 3-4 times since last week, only to take down high averages maintain by temperature. It's not as hot as two weeks back. With couple of parties coming my way, I'm looking forward to enjoy my time in the coming week. Of course with all due respect to the project work.

Back to Delhi, Back to work!

It's long time since i posted here, somehow it feels today is a nice day to write something! Lets see how far can i go!

I m really struggling with my project but i m feeling better with my efforts over last few days, at least i am putting it in, results will follow soon....(hopefully :( ). Its good that i took break and went home, feeling better after coming from Mumbai. I really had some good time with family and friends. Mean while doing just some formalities and paper work with Yahoo! hope to finish it soon.

Days are really moving very fast, its a hardly a week gone before i was in Mumbai. I am really involved in my work so much that i forget about time. Talking about time, my tenure at IIT Delhi is about to get over. 2 Years, hmm may be among the best days in my life. It feels as if i came here just a month back. Had many bitter experiences and few very very sweet moments, i will have them all with me for my life time. Every time i hit the road, it reminds me that these are among the last few days in delhi, its kinda sad. Delhi will always have a special place in my heart.

I started playing tennis until i stoped last week because of heavy work load and Delhi heat. its around 45 deg here. One cannont dare to go out in the afternoon. Protective sunscreens are already out on the table! One of the reasons i am working these days is that because of heat i have no where else to go but the labs thanks to cooling over there :) .

well well well that's a lot i managed to write, not bad. Will try to be more frequent!

Micro blogging!

Micro blogging is such a amazing tool, specially for the lazy people like me. It helps you put forward your ideas in precise way. Thanks twitter! its quick and simple! (hey that's less than 140 chars)!

Recession

So, finally i got the first "direct" impact of global economic crisis. Received a letter from Yahoo!, saying they are freezing the salaries of current employees. As an effect the 2009 joinees will find the difference in indicative salaries projected and that being offered actually (dont know how much)! The great thing from my point of view is the line saying, Yahoo! is committed to bringing on board all the students who have been selected and the joining schedule will remain unchanged (Thx Yahoo!)! Well not too bad, huh (i mean the pic)?!

Stressful days..........

Last few days have been real stressful and its not over. Its too disturbing to concentrate on any thing else. I'm trying my best to work things out. Its like standing in side room with the walls trying to crush you from all the directions. I hate it when you have very little to do, all you can do is just wait and watch and your mistakes keep getting magnified. Troubles are coming one after another, i wish i have cooler head on my shoulders, because its gonna do major work.

Back to work!

After a adventurous week its time to get back to the work. There is lot of work pending. I have not worked on the project after the presentation. I think i will have to put in twice the efforts. I really had a nice week off, journey the northern India was simply superb.

Family Function

27-02-2009

4s Chinese

“4s Chinese”, Food was good. The restaurant had variety of Thai & Chinese food. Ambiance was just perfect for a Saturday night outing. I ordered ‘Crispy To Fu’ and ‘Phat Thai Noodles Phak’ (sorry for any mistake guys that’s the best I could remember!). Then went to my favorite hangout i.e. Cafe Mochas.

Adventure trip.....destination Sawantwadi

Back to Delhi after a week of traveling. It was great to visit places where your grand and great grandparents once lived, it gives a sense of heritage. It was a nice trip to Sawantwadi, my native place. I went there after around 6-7 years. People are still the same simple and soft-spoken, city hasn’t changed a lot.

My journey started at sleeper class compartment in the train, I was traveling by sleeper class for the first time. It was little less comfortable compare to 3AC but lot more enjoyable. Traveling by SL class gives the feel of traveling unlike 3AC. The journey was fine, avoided eating for almost 36hrs. Food wasn’t too exiting too (e.g. fried banana….yummieee!!!). Got down at Kankawli around 70-80 kms away from Sawantwadi. I completed remaining journey by ST bus (another fun part of my journey..). Could not try variety of food at town as I was busy with some family stuff. I did roam around some places but temperature was too high to stay out for long. Some of temples I visited were really nice and different.

Mom didn’t allow coming back to Delhi because of length of journey and again I had to rush to Belgaum to catch the train. So I decided to come to Mumbai and take rest for a day or two there. It was not more than 48hrs and I was set to go for Mumbai. This time I came by Volvo B12R, it was so luxurious that I did not even feel I was travelling though I was little cramped at the last seat. The journey was comfortable but I was too tired to enjoy it.

4-5 days were hectic but I really enjoyed those days. I tried Tendulkar’s at Mumbai, food wasn’t the best, décor was great except for the one cockroach I spotted at the end.

After 2 days of rest I took my regular Rajdhani Exp. I was hoping for a “good” company but I was denied that once again like always. Food was too bad to consume, new menu sucks little more than the older……..

It was a great experience where I was forced out of my comfort zone. My experience with small towns has been excellent so far. I wish to visit many hidden heavens around India. Now since I m back to Delhi I need to start working towards my project since it is in its final state. My aim is to finish my work by mid may.

IMF

Had a nice session at IMF. First attempt was good, couldn't match it in the remaining attempts. For the first time touched (could not hold) the top of the wall. Army fellows were nice and friendly.

Lazy me!

I am rather angry writing this post. I have become an expert in wasting time. Life has been slow since this semester has started. I thought I would get to work freely since I have no subject this semester but……….! I spent the most boring day of my life on Saturday 21st feb, as I got up at 4 “PM” (I wish it could be AM, atleast some day), and did nothing but watched movies on lappy…

Anyways I had lot of fun after coming from Mumbai. I went to places around IIT Delhi it was great, also tried some new handout. Some of them were worth returning again.

I had great time participating Yahoo Hacku competition, which we won unexpectedly. Hacku was amazing experience something different that what I have been doing. I hope my tenure at Yahoo will be as exciting as the competition. I am still worried a bit as I am waiting for my offer letter.

I started working again as the mid semester evaluation came, I worked a lil but it was quality work. I need to work more efficiently and systematically to do well in my current project. I think I am on right track to reach my goal. The presentation went ok if not good but really missed suban there. I got some more ideas about future work in project but I will try those once I am returned from my mini holiday.

I went to IMF with Niloy, my first experience was amazing (took me two days to recover) I hope I will make more trips to IMF in nearer future. I got lot of challenges unfinished there. I played tennis for namesake mean while.

I am growing with a bad habit of midnight snaking, I wish to cut down on my midnight junk sooner rather than later. I successfully cut down on my Cold drink habit with last month’s intake not more than 1.5L (hmm….not bad), which earlier used to be my daily intake! Since last week I am more regular on breakfast, thought the mess quality has gone down considerably

I am very excited about upcoming Ind Vs NZ series with my fantasy league team already registered. I believe India is not the best team yet. They have got lot to prove starting with this tour.

Kudos Rehman for the great achievement. I really don’t give damn about these academy award and stuff, but these awards do give appreciation for your work and who better that AR Rahman. I am still not the great fan of slumdog. I felt it all about the negativity about Indian people, right from the police inspector to the KBC host. Indian characters were ill painted on the screen. I wasted money on bad movies like ‘Luck by chance’ and ‘Dev-d’ for which I regret till date. Of late I started with the bond series don’t know how far I will watch. Dr. No was decent by that era.

I wish to be more regular with my blog. It helps me to keep check on my self.

It’s either too hectic or too boring

It’s after a while I m returning to my writing desk. Last few days have been mixed for me either too much to do or nothing to do…..

The year started with the project presentation, as always I did more work in 7 days than in 7 months. Here the presentation is nothing less than the roadies auditions (guys trust me I m not joking). The presentation went well. The word good from Suban felt the best (only till the grades were out :D). Anyways I m happy with my work. My project is about detecting actions from the video. Here you can have a glimpse at my work.


Then went to home afterwords for long and much awaited holiday. I did nothing but spent most of the time dozing off. I think I should better utilize my time when I come down to Mumbai. Train journey both time was “exclusively” boring.

After coming to Delhi I m doing nothing but wasting time. I m trying to be in cost cutting mode because I am falling short of money almost every month. This year’s R’Day was special to me; it left me with more food for thought. The day was celebrated with Prabhat’s awesome “Poha” party.

Next few days are going to be hectic again, need to get back to my project too as presentation has lined up on 19th again (another roadies audition).

Nice Shot

Mantra for 2009...

i came across these motivating lines

To follow the path:
look to the master,
follow the master,
walk with the master,
see through the master,
become the master.