Shyam's Blog

Above were the gifts given to us for this year's Diwali. Our office has a holiday on Tuesday. With people taking off on today (Monday), it was a deserted look. Went to office in the morning and not to be surprised, I got a big gift pack. Every employee gets it! Early morning 1AM, we had a new baby in our family. My brother and bhabi got a new baby boy. I listened to his cry over phone and his pitch is good to become a singer :). Happy Diwali to everyone!

It is the same guy who stands at that place every day, that lady waits for the bus right at that corner, this driver drives in full speed right at 7:32 am, and this coconut vendor starts opening his stall by 7:35am - So many faces I do see every day when I am heading to office in the morning. To start with, I start my house at 7:25am and walk for couple of minutes to reach the stop where our office shuttle arrives at 7:35am. On the way, this is what I see - couple of moms with their kids walking them to school nearby, few senior citizens finishing their morning walk and few getting to stores nearby to buy something urgent. At one specific corner, I daily cut across cow dung on the street. That's because, there are 4-5 cows in the house adjacent to that corner! Once I reach the stop, my waiting time starts. In that busy street, same set of shuttle buses pass through everyday - few college buses, couple of school buses and many office shuttles. Two college goers always stand there wi...

1) From yesterday, I started back my music lessons. It was great to get back to my guru after many years. Song taught - 'karimukha varadha' in 'naata' composed by GNB. 2) One market which is opening up in India is DTH (Direct To Home) television. All we need is a dish antenna. Current players - Tata, Airtel and Reliance. 3) Watching television is so monotonous - all channels are filled with so many competitions that it is easy for anyone to just open a channel and have some competitions in it. Television before was run by actors/television stars/news reports, but now, it is run by common man. Even news channels have Ads saying that common man can send in videos/news clippings and they will put them on their channel. In a way, television channels are making money (if at all they are) by having such shows for which they don't have to pay much to 'common man' to be part of the show. 4) Today, my wife and I visited Big Bazaar shopping mall. I am hunting for Febr...

Jan 10 1999 , Jayangar , Bangalore April 18 2000 , Fort High School, Bangalore April 18 2000 , Fort High School, Bangalore

Jan 26 1990, Hubli 1991 , Karnataka Medical College, Hubli Our debut concert - Nov 1997 , Bangalore June 18 1999 , Bangalore Singing at Jayanagar National College Auditorium (College in which I studied 95-97)

Found this old audio archive. With the tape getting older, I converted this to mp3. I have sung this playfully without seriousness. If I see a kid now sing like this, I think I will be impressed. When was this sung? In my primary school! I had recorded 30 minutes of audio with 10-12 songs in it for my grandma. Here is the mp3 now.

It was a day-out for both of us as we spent time in the Forum Mall here in Bangalore. After a short shopping in Jayanagar Shopping Complex, we planned to watch the movie, A Wednesday, which was running in PVR Cinemas. We reach the Mall by 3pm and bought the ticket at PVR Europa Cinemas. We had couple of hours to do some shopping/window shopping. With a quick snack at "Transit" (this is the food lounge), we did some window shopping. After a while, my wife wanted to sit and there was no seating area. We went inside a home-theater demo area and tried to sit there for 10 mins and see the features of that 60K-odd rupees home theater! By then, it was time for the movie, A Wednesday. The movie is a suspense thriller and a good one to watch. Moral of that movie - Every common man has the right and responsibility to couter terrorism. Don't take this moral as "authority", it is just "responsibility". Forum Mall is indeed a nice place to spend a day. So many peop...

Got up this morning to notice a laddu kind of swelling in my throat. Reason - viral throat infection called Mumps. It is painful to swallow anything and remedy is to take painkillers and leave it to heal by itself.

We got a Hyundai Getz today. One of our colleagues sold this car which he had hardly used. It is a 2006 Hyundai Getz GVS. We chose this car as it was in a very good condition and a brand new would have costed us 40% more than what we paid. On the occasion of "Ayudha Pooja", it was good to get the keys for the car! A few of Getz from the web... Technical Spec: Dimensions and Weights Overall Length (mm) 3810 Overall Width (mm) 1665 Overall Height (mm) 1515 Wheel Base (mm) 2455 Ground Clearance (mm) 160 Front Track (mm) 1450 Rear Track (mm) 1440 Front Headroom (mm) 980 Front Legroom (mm) 1180 Rear Legroom (mm) 880 Boot Space (liter) 290 Gross Vehicle Weight (kg) 1500 Kerb Weight (kg) 1095 Fuel Economy Mileage Highway (km/liter) 15.3 Mileage City (km/liter) 10.7 ...

Wishing everyone "Happy Dasara"

Bangalore is ready to host the first test match of the four-match series between India and Australia. It rained heavily last night and for 9th, hopefully, we will have clear skies to have a complete 5-day contest. Why am I blogging this? I am few inches (put it as miles) closer to watching this match live sitting in the Stadium!

It has already been a month since my wife and I returned to India from US. So fast! I have to answer people one question - "How do you feel returning?" Answer - It is good! I knew what was at stake and I was ready for it. We had discussed pros and cons and we are happy that things are going as planned. There are many pros 1) Home sweet home - being here is always sweet, no matter what. 2) Family is near - our parents are near, always around to help us in everything (we miss our brother and SIL who are in US). 3) India has changed on many aspects compared to 6-7 years ago. This helped us a lot in getting adjusted. 4) Music and masti is always round the corner. Cons?? 1) Miss the liberty of online search for shopping goods. I am not able to search for the right stores for the right goods. If I go to store across the street, I am afraid that I might get a duplicate product. 2) hmm. For now, missing the car I drove there in the US. Same car is available here too. But, it is too t...