Shyam's Blog

Dec 31 2009 No plans of going out for midnight gala. Looking into this year, it has been a calm year for me compared to past 4-5 years. 1) Enjoyed each bit with our son. At the start of the year, he was 1-month old. Each milestone he crossed is a moment to recollect. 2) Career-wise, it was hectic year at office. Otherwise, 2009 was a year I didn't move geographically or even team-wise. Since 2005, I had been mobile upto 2008 - changing locations, companies, etc. 3) On the music side, I didn't focus much as I was busy at work.

It is rare for my wife and I to watch 2 movies back-to-back within 24 hours. Last night, we watched 'APKGK' (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani). Today, we went to theater to watch Avatar (3D). I had booked online for Avatar and had informed my wife about the plan. We arrived at the theater at 1:30 pm for our 2pm show. While we were in the line to collect our tickets, my wife saw a big poster of Avatar and asked me this aloud - "What is this movie? Is this a Hollywood movie? Looks like lot demons and ghosts!!! I thought this to be a Hindi movie going by the name." One person in front of us turned back and looked at us with surprise after hearing my wife's comment ;). About the movie - It is fun to watch it in 3D. Storyline is total fiction. As my wife puts it - "this is typical Hollywood movie showing full graphics and action."

In our office, I have a daddy bunch of friends. All daddies are one year old - meaning, all have kids who are around 1 year old. We share lots of fun talking about our kids. Today, it was the day to discuss about rhymes. One dad shared rhymes videos he had downloaded for his 10-month old daughter from youtube with other dads! I got those home and showed it to my son. He got glued to the screen and didn't move even when his grandpa distracted him. He has already started telling.. "baaa baaa..." (implying, show me ba ba black sheep).

We decided to get Digital TV at home this weekend. On Saturday, I had called for one representative from a Digital company, BA, to get the connection. By afternoon, I noticed that we get a discount if we book online. We then decided to book the service make the payment online. When I tried the first time, the payment section showed, "Error... Please try again later." After trying couple more times, I stopped redoing it. I checked my bank transactions online and found that the payments had gone thrice. After finishing customer center calls to refund the money of two payments and consider only one order, I finalized the installation for Sunday morning. Installation was done within an hour on Sunday. Now, the picture clarity is so neat that we feel like watching TV!

(courtesy - web) Traffic in Bangalore is a nightmare. People move at all speeds - right from empty autowala moving at 5Km/hr to zooming freaks at 120Km/hr. Seeing the current traffic, I can say that Bangalore will choke in the next 5 years. Though roads are becoming better day-by-day, it is the congestion which is a main concern. Just buying new vehicles every few years will not help anyone. It won't help the owner as well as the city commuters in Bangalore. What are the options of reducing traffic in Bangalore? We don't want more Nanos to block the intersections. Lets see the options: 1) Make Monday-Wednesday-Friday as 'even number vehicles on the road'. Vehicles ending with an even number must use the road. Other odd-number vehicles must stay out of road. Exceptions are - Public transport like buses/taxi/autos. On other days of the week, even-number vehicles must go to garage. Only odd-numbered ones should ply. 2) Keep a quota for driver's license issuance. Don...

Indian Television has taken many concepts from American/UK Television. Below are some which we know: 1) Who wants to be a millionaire - Kaun Banega Crorepati 2) American Idol - Indian Idol 3) Deal-Nodeal - Deal-Nodeal The list keeps growing...

Working in an IT company is a life of its own. It is way different than other work environments. There are few things which run in every IT company which, in a way, helps in the growth of IT and on the other side, is the cause for its debacle. 1) Fast paced and Fragile - It sometimes happens that nobody knows whats happening. Everybody is doing something. Work is so fast paced that within 2 years, the technology or tools become old enough to give way to new developments. Though everything starts with 'Keep It Simple' policy, pretty soon, the technology explodes to a very complex system. With many big-brains putting in stuff to that technology, simple solutions become round-abouts. Cooking so many things at once will spoil the whole stability idea. Just when we think, 'looks stable now', things start to fall apart. 2) Limited research - This is again a positive and a negative aspect of IT. Positive - new things come up in no time. Negative - Things which come up cripple ...

Experimented with Diwali photography this time. It was a nice experience trying out new things. Few things I kept in mind - 1) Have slow shutter speed 2) Have aperture of f/10 or so. 3) No night mode or preset modes. Used Manual mode One thing I did wrong was the ISO - I used a higher ISO. I should have used 100 or lower. One more point I missed was a tripod. That would have been handy for shooting 2-3 second exposure shots.

Writing a typical blog... (How did we celebrate Diwali this year?) On the eve of of Diwali, we shopped new clothes for our son. Also, since it was our son's first Diwali, we wanted to show him some fireworks. My wife and I purchased a few flower-pots, 'bhoo-chakra-s and sparklers. We went to place where they were selling crackers. It was such a mad rush that we could hardly step in. Profit margin for crackers is so high that sellers just quota 60% discount for everything. If the total amount is X, they say, "ok sir... pay Y". No big calculations there. Just some random number approximately matching 60% discount. Diwali day was good. Morning oil shower (customary of Diwali) was a good relaxing one. Lunch was planned at my in-laws. In the evening, our son enjoyed the fireworks. Smoke coming out of flower-pots or bhoo-chakra-s is very intense. It was very hard to keep him away from that. Late in the evening, there was little bit of firecrackers on TV when RCB defeated De...

People keep asking me "how was life there in US?" or "how do you feel coming back to India?". It has been more than a year since we returned from the US and for me, answering such questions is neither easy nor short. One of my friends recently told me that he rejected an intra-company transfer to US as he thought that life there was not easy. Bad part is, he has never stayed in US for more than 2 weeks to decide that. Comparing India life and US life is completely based on one's priorities. If one dreams of leading a life in the US, then he/she has to overcome all the hassles. On the other side, if one thinks India is the dream place to be in, it shouldn't end up in -'kuupa mandUka' story (frog in the pond story) . Also, returning to India is not a good choice if children were born and brought up in the US. They will surely feel the change in lifestyle. Returning to India is the best option if one expects no growth in career and wants to spend more ...

Champions League T20 has been a great entertainment! Haven't missed any action live. Today, Bangalore take on Victorians at Bangalore. Should be a great match.

Every morning, journey from home to office is one experience I don't want, yet, have to bear that. Firstly, the cab (tempo traveler) is in such a poor condition that it resembles bullock cart with no shock absorbers. Secondly, the road in certain locations are so bad that I sometimes recollect Disneyland rides. Lastly, the road humps are so many that I counted them for my statistics! In all, 33 road humps. Picture of my writing that down in my dairy is shown above. Some of my markings are like legs of hen because I am marking right when the driver zooms on the road hump. It takes 1 hour to reach office. Going back, my statistics shows that there are 37 road humps; 4 more than morning because the return route is slightly different. Really, I got to utilize these 2 hours of my daily travel in a better way. Else, I will be wasting 10 hours a week and 40 hours per month and 480 hours per year!!! What else can I do than sit and wobble around??? Can't even read a sentence from the n...

I visited Mysore Zoo last weekend and was disappointed to see the maintenance of the zoo. Even though there are lots of species of birds and animals, the whole zoo didn't attract me at all. Things looked haphazard to me. For kids, I really wanted few attractions - like shows, games, and videos. Food and drinks inside are not adequate. Concept of 'zoo' is basically for kids to enjoy. But, this Mysore zoo doesn't seem to attract them. Just walking for 3 Kms and spending 2-3 hours in hot sun is all what kids experience. Zoo authorities must come up with better facilities to make it more kids-friendly. Just because people throng the place shelling out Rs.30 per adult doesn't mean that they shouldn't attract more. Hopefully, someday, authorities will improve the facilities inside.

View Larger Map Bangalore to Shimoga drive took us 9 hours with numerous stops and a visit to Amrutheshwara Temple near Tarikere. From Bangalore, reaching Nelamangala took us 2.5 hours due to traffic jam. After Tumkur, we took a deviation from NH4 to reach Mallasandra. We had our breakfast in front of Mallasandra Milk Dairy. Basic route was this: Bangalore -> Tumkur -> Gubbi -> Tiptur -> Arsikere -> Kadur -> Birur -> Tarikere -> Bhadravati -> Shimoga. Few Kilometers before Tarikere, we took a right turn to reach Amruthapura which is 7 Km inside. The temple of Amrutheshwara was built during Hoysala rule (10-13th Century). After visiting this place, we headed towards Shimoga to reach home at 3:30. A quick visit to Jog Falls was good. Route: Shimoga -> Anandapuram -> Sagara -> Talaguppa -> Jog Falls Talaguppa is the last rail stop. Till recently, narrow-gauge train was in service from Shimoga. Now, this track is getting converted to broad gauge.

Droplets I captured in Shimoga

Back from Shimoga road trip. Agenda of the trip was: 1) Participate in Dasara festival and Chandi Homa. 2) Visit Jog Falls. 3) See how Shimoga looks after 21 years. It was an eventful trip. On the way, visited 'Amrutheshwara Temple' at Amruthapura. It is a beautiful temple of the 12th century built during Hoysala rule. On the 2nd day of the trip was the Chandi Homa. Coconut decoration using 2000 coconuts was a sight to watch. On the third day, visited Jog Falls which is 103 Kms from Shimoga. Though water was less, it was a nice short visit to Asia's biggest water falls. In Shimoga, there is a palace of Shivappa Nayaka. This palace was a timber yard till a few years ago. Recently, Archeological Dept. is maintaining that premises neatly. There are also lots of sculptures stored here which belong to 10-15th century. I also hunted the two houses we lived in 1987-1988 period. Even though I was happy in finding out those houses, I really felt sad to see them in a very poorly main...

"Touch-me-not" flower taken from the new camera (Canon SLR)

!! Happy Dasara !!

Performed at Veda-Nada during the weekend. It was a very good experience to practise and present Devi Krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar in this concert. End of the program, like always, I thought that on-stage performance is not my cup of coffee :( With hectic work schedule, I hardly get time to rehearse. When I do plan to rehearse regularly, I can't spend time with the family for any shopping or outing. Bottomline - There is always a trade-off.

It has been something like Philately season for me these days. Brother sent me 4 albums full of stamps which we have been collecting for more than 2 decades. Those 4 new albums are really better compared to the ones we had earlier. Also, my FIL and MIL returned from a visit to Switzerland. They gifted me a stamp collection of all the releases made in 2008. Switzerland stamps have their nation mentioned as Helvetia which is the female personification of Switzerland. Similarly, there are few other countries that mention their native names - one more eg., Nippon for Japan. In our collection, there are many sections which are my favorites. Infact, each section is unique and distinct. Below are the some of the themes which we have right now: 1) Flora 2) Fauna 3) Pisces 4) Indian Monuments 5) Bollywood 6) Children"s day 7) Freedom fighters 8) Mount Everest 9) Festivals of India 10) Arts of India 11) Anniversaries of India - Republic Day, Independence day 12) Indian Postal Dept and India...

I have been rehearsing for the upcoming concert and it has been a wonderful experience to sing krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar. Nearly 12 songs are packed for the 3-hour duration concert. I will be starting off with a krithi in GowLa on Lord Ganapathi. Selection of songs has been made keeping in mind the variety and tempo of each song. A song in 'saama' (Annapurne..) will follow the first Ganapathi krithi. Theme of the concert is 'Devi Krithis of Muttuswamy Dikshitar' and sticking to that, 3rd piece will be a 'hindoLa' one (neerajaakshi kaamakshi). I have planned to elaborate the anupallavi with neraval and swara-prastara. 'Shri Bhargavi' in 'mangala kaishiki' will be followed by a song in the raaga, 'jyoti'. Main piece of the evening will be in 'purvikalyani'. This song has a story behind it. On the chaturdashi day of 1835, Dikshitar told his students to sing a song on Devi. They sang 'meenakshi me mudam'. Dikshitar tol...

I was watching TV and saw one Ad in which I saw this Magnetic Hill in Leh region. Vehicles which are parked in neutral gear move uphill. Be it a two wheeler, a car or a truck - they move uphill at 10 Km/hr speed which defies gravity! Search online for "Magnetic Hill, Leh" to watch videos of travelers trying this out.

All are welcome Venue: Ragigudda Sri Prasanna Anjaneya Swamy Temple Premises

It has been a hectic week (week+weekend) and is expected to be a very busy week ahead. When a team upgrades and releases a new code to customers, I think it is expected to get tested in the first week. This is exactly what happened on my side. There are lot of 'take away'-s for me with this. If everything goes well, it is a 'smooth release', if not, it will be, 'tough, yet successful' one. Release started on Wednesday and completed on Friday night. Weekend was the 'post-operative period' (a term mom often uses just after a surgery). This is the time when system has to be carefully monitored. In my case, there can be margin for errors (unfortunately, there were many). But, in case of mom's surgery, there is hardly any scope for things getting wrong. There are no 'patches' for medical surgeries! On these 2 days, I was supporting the system and moral of the story is - Ergonomics at home was not planned. My sitting posture was bad on a couch and ...

Somehow, this Ad irritates me a lot. It comes 100000000000 times a day. Dad has not seen this Ad. I am sure he will hate the concept ;). His argument is, 'if you don't answer your cell phone, you better don't subscribe to it' In the ad, a) everybody sings in their own style - voices are crude to listen 10000000000000 times. b) The gym-guy does too much of acting. He is cycling and eating one big bowl of junk. He shows over acting when he says, "just working out".

I am working on a project on Muttuswamy Dikshitar - a project which will be on display during my concert on Sept 20 on the occasion of Navaraatri. I am requested to sing Devi krithis composed by Dikshitar. After reading articles about the compositions made by Dikshitar and the life he led, it is a very divine experience to sing his compositions without even elaborating the raaga or kalpana-swara. Some of the snippets I found out which were interesting to me: 1) Dikshitar composed more than 85% of the songs using M1 (shuddha-madyama). 2) Maximum krithis are composed in Shankarabharana and its derivatives. 3) All his krithis are in Sanskrit except 2 - 1 in Telugu and 1 in Manipravalam (combination of Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil). 4) Shiva has been the main theme of Dikshitar songs with nearly 130 krithis. There are lots of things which was new to me including the 'shri-chakra' and its importance. More info at the concert!

Just because the ship is grand and big, it doesn't mean latching to it even though it is sinking. It is wise to take a rescue boat and reach the shores. I think, that was the story of Titanic too!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi Thought of decorating for Ganesh Chaturthi by arranging all Ganesha idols at home next to the main area of pooja. These Ganesha-s are very special to our family. One Ganesha (right of black big one) is carved out of sandal wood. Even for today, sandal wood fragrance is fresh. Lambodara, which is the one looking like bronze and shining is not made of metal. It was the one given by my classmates after my Bachelor's degree. Lambodara has traveled from Bangalore to Dubai to US and back to Bangalore. Right in front is the Sangeethapriya playing the Mridangam. On both sides of him are two Ganesha-s enjoying music. Leftmost one is Vinayaka gifted by our friend for our wedding. He sits on a lamp which can burn for hours. Few more in the picture - Sumukha playing flute and NAtyaganesha (won by dad in All-India Music Competition).

It was 11 am and I was suggested by my manager at office to go home as I was not feeling well due to cold/cough. Other than office cab, auto-rickshaw was the transport. This time, I wanted to try the local air-conditioned Vajra buses. Within 2 minutes, I got the bus and for Rs 33, I got to reach home in an hour's time. These buses are confortable and convenient. Even though they run empty in non-peak hours, I was told by the conductor that it runs overcrowded during office hours. Office-goers prefer this and don't mind standing inside for 40-45 minutes. Features I noticed in this bus: 1) There is facility for wheel chair passengers. 2) Driver rear view is shown in a monitor near the steering wheel. A camera sends input to this screen! 3) These buses have auto-transmission gears. 4) Tickets are electronically printed and issued. 5) A/c is good! We can also travel enjoying some radio station without getting disturbed by outside noise.

Are donkeys becoming extinct? This was today's cab-topic.

Recession bites! This is the view of our fruit basket in office now-a-days. Once upon a time, this basket was filled with apples (each apple Rs. 45) and bananas every day. Now, they are replaced by guava which are 70% cheaper than apples.

I am in Jayanagar and I want to know if my friend 'A' is nearby so that I can meet him. It is a calm Sunday evening and my friend is passing by in my locality. He wants to say 'hi' to me since it has been a long time. He doesn't want to call me to check if I am in. He wants to locate me on his cell phone to check if I am around. With a quick SMS, he will drop by. I will accept only certain people into this 'track me' feature in my cell phone. That way, I can maintain my privacy. Question: Can we recommend this to our cell phone companies in India? What does it cost cell phone companies? Nothing. They track users via 'cell'. So, it is easy. Does it come with added cost? May be 10-15 rupees extra per bill is OK. On the business front, is this feature elastic? Yes. If friends meet in a shopping area, they might drop by somewhere for a coffee/dinner/etc. If a visitor drops by at home, there might plan for a dinner-n-movie, etc.

Our son is 8 months old and for the first time fell sick with fever, cold and cough. His mom and granny were nightmare for him as they used to give him syrups which had awful taste. After they did it for 5-6 times in the span of 48 hours, he never sat on their lap. If they took him, he assumed that they will give medicines. Even regular food like cerelac was thought to be medicine :(. Whenever he saw me, he used to jump for me to take him away from them. Now that he is feeling better, his mom and granny can relax a bit.

Mom and I visited Ace Iyengar Home Products stores in Jayanagar today. Got a bunch of snacks from there including 'gasagase paayasa' which matched dad's formula ;). All the snacks are delicious and matches home taste! After checking the history and background of Ace, it is interesting to note the owner of this company - Vikram Seshadri . He is on LinkedIn! Idea is neat and one should say, it is not unique though. Only unique thing is the way they have branded their products. They also market themselves in their own way. Watch a small clipping of this place here - Video here . Am sure this place has a bright future ahead. Something big is really cooking!

(Photo: Courtesy gizmodo.com.au) I was watching TV last night and saw an aeroplane in a residential area. Not just that, I saw a pilot, air-hostess, introductory safety instructions being given, snacks being served, etc. This is Bahadur Chand Gupta's plane parked in his backyard for people to enjoy the experience of a real aeroplane. Watch the video below! Video of the Backyard Airline Experience in India More details of that flight here . Shared via AddThis

My I-day was spent by watching documentaries from 2-6pm on Fox History Channel. Some of the points I want to gather here: 1) Britain ruled 1/3rd of the world in the early 20th century - from Great Britain to India, from Singapore to Australia, from Africa to Canada. Their imperial rule has a history of about 250 years. 2) In 1942, India was promised independence when she agreed to support Britain in World War II. 2-million Indian troops fought the war with a serious question in their minds, "Why are we fighting FOR British when we are actually fighting for independence?" 3) Lord Mountbatten was made the Viceroy in March 1947. Within few weeks, he had numerous talks with representatives from Indian Congress and the Muslim League. With no end to debates on freeing up India as ONE, it was decided to be split as two countries. 4) 100,000 or so White population which ruled India for more than 2 centuries had to leave India in few weeks! It must have been a very dramatic event in W...

Experienced Cooliris today! It is a small plug-in to Mozilla Firefox browser. I loved it's look and feel. In Firefox, Go to "Tools --> Add-ons" and search for Cooliris to add it to your browser. Enjoy!

Religious means really religious! My cab-mate and I today discussed about how we could be religious at work and it was indeed interesting. Some of the rules are mentioned below: 1) We will start our day with an 'aachamanam' and by looking into the 'panchaangam' for details of the day. We don't want to work on 'yEkaadhashi' because we will be fasting! 2) Whatever we do, we devote our work to 'nArAyaNa' - करोमि यद यद सकलं परस्मै श्रीमद नारायण इति समर्पयामि. 3) End of the day, we conclude our work by saying - मध्ये मंत्र तंत्र लोप दोष प्रायश्चित्तार्थं.... That way, we can say sorry to whatever mistakes we might have done in the course of the day. 4) We release our software only on auspicious days and at specific time of the day avoiding 'raahu-kaala'. There is no week-end holiday for us as we don't go by English calendar.

August is when festival season starts in India. Gokulashtami, Ganesha festival, Dasara, and Diwali being the main string of festivals. Coming to business angle of these festivals - What is the cost involved in these festivals? I will say, nearly half a billion USD! Ganesha festival is round the corner and we can see stalls put in every corner of the street. Let us calculate an approximate turnover of selling Ganesha idols. NOTE: This money is purely unaccountable and Govt. cannot track this business. No receipts given to show proof of purchase! Calculations below: Total Indian Population - 1,000,000,000 (1.17 billion to be exact). % Hindu Population = 80% (82.4% to be precise) => 800,000,000 Hindus in India Lets assume only 10% celebrate/participate in Ganesh festival. Rest either don't celebrate or are below poverty lane => 80,000,000 celebrate Ganesha festival. Assuming average family size of 4 => 20,000,000 families buy idols. Each idol will cost on an average Rs.100. T...

How does recession look from inside?

Yellowstone National Park, Summer 2005

Bid farewell to BIL who headed to CMU for his starting his Graduate program. This reminded me of my first flight to US. I didn't have blogging habit then. Let me see how I would have blogged that event.. Taking back the story to Jan 2003. It was Jan 13 when I had to board my flight from Bangalore to Chennai first. In Chennai, my friend who was working there came to meet me. He got me a masala dosa in a hotel near the airport. After Chennai, my hops included Singapore, Tokyo, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Nothing was in my mind when I started from Bangalore. It was a relief to get my visa which got delayed for many reasons. School had already started a week ago. When I sat in the flight, all I had was to reach my destination and start studying next hour. International travel was not new to me as I was working in Dubai after my bachelor's in Bangalore. That made lot of things simpler in case of getting the logistics right in the airports. Singapore transit was fruitful with an ar...

Watched the movie "ಆ ದಿನಗಳು" (those days) today. It is a very well made movie which is based on real story of underworld in mid 80's. End of the movie, they narrate the status of each character now which really shows how movies can turn in to real life stories! Story is about rivalry of Kothwal Ramachandra and Jayaraj along with Oil Kumar. All three were eventually murdered between 1986 and 2005. Acting is good with not much of melodrama. Only couple of songs are placed in between the storyline. Music by Ilayaraja is clearly a plus point of this movie. He himself has sung a very popular song - 'sihi gaaLi..' online-here . Other song is sung by Vijay Yesudas; his voice clearly resembles his dad.

Internet has become a major tool in current lifestyle. Initially, it started with people getting used to email. Even before online search was in the picture, we had email. Slowly, things started growing on the net. Next to email came search. We had the chance to search for anything on the internet. It was a great tool to know any detail we wanted. It became a quick reference book for us. Messengers also started evolving. Yahoo messenger was the most popular with its typical smilies. They were also the first to get audio and video chat. Their competitor was MSN messenger which had similar features. When Google landed in to non-search tools, they targeted mail and chat client. Without much doubt, for many reasons, gmail gained huge customer base. Their voice chat with clear sound and better quality than their rivals made gmail a popular voice chat client. Searching and buying products online started becoming a medium of easy shopping sitting in the bedroom with credit card in the pocket....

Thursday was my car day. Couple of visitors from our US office were in city for a week. I thought of inviting them for dinner. Thursday night was their dinner time at our place. Our plan was to drive home after office and then I would drop them back to their hotel. Morning drive from home to office at 7:30 am was very good. I was fresh once I reached office in 30 minutes. Evening, it was the opposite. I got stuck with work. We started from office at 8:30pm and it was drizzling. It was stop-and-go traffic all 12-kms. It took nearly 90 minutes to reach home :(. After dinner, it was zoom time again. I dropped them to their Hotel on MG Road in less than 15 minutes! While driving back, it was faster on the K R Market Flyover. Once I was in Chamarajapet, I experienced one peculiar thing. Police were stopping all vehicles for checking 'drunken driving'. It was the first time anybody stopped me to check me for that reason (which is invalid to me since I don't drink)!

I want to relax and think about my daddyhood. What was my first expression when I saw our son few minutes after he was born? How has it been these 7+ months? Quick answer - Everything is happening so fast!!! First time I saw him, I was very excited and my first thought was - "He resembles his mom so much!!" Initially, he was very tiny and I had to handle him with great care. Few months down, his neck became stronger and he could keep his head vertical. Every milestone is a moment to remember! The first flip from back on to stomach, his first moving forward, his first crawl, etc. - All are so exciting to watch! If I missed it, I will get report from my wife or mom. If they missed it, I report to them immediately. It is said, Kids are equivalent to Gods. I am sure on that note. We get 'theertha' very often. If we are too fortunate, we will also get 'prasaada' when we are courageous to carry him without his nappy ON. Time has been an important factor now. It is v...

There are not many restaurants in Bangalore with a chance to enjoy Classical Indian music and food together. Kamat Bugle Rock in Basavanagudi is one place for that. On Friday night, one of our music friends was performing and it was a good change for my wife and I to visit that place for dinner. Apart from music, 'jOladdh rotti' (corn roti), North Karnataka's main food, is the attraction of this restaurant. When we were listening to music, hot rotti-s were being prepared across the aisle. Cooks were patting the rotti-s (an authentic way; here, rotti-s are not rolled or automatically pressed) with their hands and were directly baking them on low flame stoves. Men with white 'Gandhi cap', green kurtha and white dhoti help in serving these 'jOladdh rotti-s' to customers. Unlimited dinner for little over $2 is worth the price.

There are many stories to narrate about our son. Things he has learnt: 1) He can identify my voice! After I am back from office every evening, I shout from the door and he starts searching for me right then. Once he sees my face, he greets me with a big smile. 2) He likes to eat whatever I give him. I give him odd stuff compared to his mom who gives him tasteless Cerelac or Lactogen . He doesn't make any fuss when I give him the breakfasts I eat or evening chocolate session when I give him a bit of Eclairs. 3) He loves music more than food. When he practises music on the keyboard (practise?? not really practise, though), he doesn't want his mom to disturb him for food session. If she does, it is sure that food wont be eaten at any cost. He becomes so much involved in music that if the auto-music in keyboard stops, he indicates me to switch it ON again. 4) Since yesterday, he has got the capacity to understand the tone of his mom and dad. He can understand if we are talking swe...

Got a new cellphone as my old one crashed twice because of software issue. The phone looks good with a unique keypad. When using as phone, numeric keypad is shown. When we shift to music mode, same keypad transforms itself into a music mode. Screen clarity is awesome - very clear text. This offer comes with 1GB micro card. We can put upto 8GB card for storing music/photos/videos.

Dad and mom did tasks for decades they had known, Today, we had those same tasks to own! For the first time in India, my wife and I are working on housekeeping after returning from US almost a year ago. With mom and dad Out of Office (out of home), we were the POC (point of contact) for all the tasks at home. Last time we had this situation was way back in Aug 2008. This time, we have a added task - baby care. Last night, I did a quick shopping to get vegetables. We did rasam and ladiesfinger palya. Calculations were perfect w.r.t quantity and taste. This morning, we had everything ready by 7:30 am including my lunchbox for office - courtesy, my son for having slept longer in the morning. Main thing to keep in mind - Time is precious. Every minute has to be planned and utilized!!!

It was Saturday morning 8:30 am. I got an SMS when I was still in bed. It was like a wakeup call in the end. That SMS was from my friend who had sent about Prasanna's Jazz concert in the evening. Next moment, I called him for more info. Plan was confirmed by the time I was up. The concert was held at B Flat, a Jazz place in Bangalore's Indiranagar area. As I had mentioned about Prasanna to many of my friends around before, they always wished to listen to him live. To help them do that, I made a few phone calls to my friends and they were all geared up for evening program. The Concert started off with typical Prasanna style - A lightening and thunderous start! He played his compositions from his albums, Peaceful, Be The Change and Electric Ganeshaland . In the 2nd half of the concert, he jazzed with Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) and many other local artists. The whole place was doubly overcrowded!!! There was hardly any place to stand, I believe. The concert was truely amazing wi...

When I wait for my cab every morning, I see many street vendors pass by. First, it is florist. He exactly knows his customers and does a quick halt in front of their house. Next comes Onion-Tomato vendor. This guy doesn't see any other thing! Once, he was shouting "X" rupees for Tomato. A lady from inside was asking for "X-1" rupees. He got pissed off and demanded her to come and check before quoting. He said, "don't quote from within, come here and check." From other direction comes a vendor on a bicycle selling green leaves. Only problem with this guy is, he walks really fast. By the time customer reaches the gate, this seller is 50 meters away. This makes many to revert back from buying. 60-feet from our gate sits an old lady supplying milk for our neighborhood. By the time I board the cab at 7:30 am, I see her almost done with her sales. Her day starts as early as 4:30 am. I sometimes think, "what if we popularize this mode of shopping?...

It was a memorable tour of visiting the historical places of Hoysala Kingdom. This tour was organized by Arun and Lakshmi . We started from Bangalore on Saturday morning at 6:30 am and reached Srilakshmi Temple at Doddagadavalli (near Belur) by noon. This temple is a unique one with Kali as one of the deities. Near the garbhagudi of Kali, we see 2 guards with skeleton structure as shown here. This resembles the statues in Egypt! Sri Lakshmi Temple, Doddagaddavalli After checking in at the resort and finishing our lunch, we headed to Belur's Chennakeshava Temple. Chennakeshava Temple, Belur Day-2 of our trip started with a visit to Coffee estate in Biccodi (Pictures here ). With idli-vada breakfast, we continued our heritage tour by visiting Belavadi. Veera Narayana Temple, Belavadi Hulikere tank is a very nice place to stop by near Halebidu. This tank is said to be the bathing tank for the then queen, Shanthala Devi. Hulikere near Halebidu Hoysaleshwara Temple, ...

Few days ago, we inaugurated a website for our music institution. It is http://www.balajisangeethavidyalaya.org/ . Also, for music students and music enthusiasts, we have created a blog where we discuss about music and its experiences. Blog is available here . Please visit that blog often.

Today, I had to contact one of our colleagues in Japan for the first time. I pinged him and said, "Konnichiwa". His first reply was, "wow, you know Japanese..". We chatted a bit about our work and also about some Japanese movies I had seen. Finally, I really wanted to tell, "thank you" in Japanese. Searched for that online and got it too. Sent him that in Japanese ( Dōmo arigatō). He replied back completely in bits and pieces! i.e., どうもありがとう。 Later, I told him I was looking to buy Oshin DVD. He vanished for few minutes and gave me one amazon link. I opened it. I was not understanding a bit on that page. That was because, the whole page was in Japanese :D. It was nice to chatting with him :).

My wife keeps singing this to our son. She had her own version! She says... "Build it up with needle and thread, Needle and thread, needle and thread, Build it up with needle and thread, My fair lady." I searched for the origin of this song on the web. It is fascinating to say that this song was first written in 1st century A.D. Complete song and its origin can be found here .

We had a photo shoot session today with family. We were 6 of us and had our 6-month old son too. The rule was simple - ladies had to dress in silk sarees and 3 men will dress in formals (Suitu-bootu). The reason for this session was simple - We had not taken good group photos after our wedding. We were late by 2 hours to the studio. Our son's smile was the most precious one for the session. We tried to save it since morning. When we reached the studio, we thought we still had his smile in stock. But, the place made him nervous! It was very hard to make him see the camera or smile. Out of dozens of pictures shot, only a few captured his smile. How did we make him smile is a long story. Mom, grandma and great-grandma sang and danced only one song all through the session - "ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯಲ್-ಒಂದು ಗುಬ್ಬಿ ಗೂಡು ಕಟ್ಟಿತು, ಗೂಡಿನೊಳಗೆ ಹುಲ್ಲು ಹಾಸಿ ಮೊಟ್ಟೆ ಇಟ್ಟಿತು..." Photographer's assistant too tried to make him smile by doing more tricks. Most of these went in vain. That assistant wo...

Kalasmelogra - noun and adjective - A word our dad often uses when everything in the plate is mixed up before eating! Usage - 1) "What have you done there? Full of kalasmelogra." (adjective form) 2) "Don't mix things up like a kalasmelogra." (noun form) This blog is a kalamelogra of topics. So, expect this to filled with mixture. 1) Couple of weeks ago, my cell phone stopped working. Reason - no reason! Took it to someone nearby and got to know that it was 'software crash'. I don't know what he really meant. Couple of days ago, I wanted the phone repaired. Started walking from home and reached one marketplace. Rightly found one "Computerised Cellphone Service Center". Went in and for Rs. 250, got the phone repaired. Downside - All my stored contacts got wiped off :( 2) My wife is happy to see the hardcopy of photos of our son. She was asking for it for the past couple of months. She did a big project of selecting a few from around 1000 pho...

This baby squirrel visited our house today.

Last night, I got a chance to meet one of the popular Hindustani vocalists - Arati Ankalikar . My colleague was hosting her in Bangalore during her visit and he invited me for an informal session with this artist. Around 25 had gathered at his house and we had very good time discussing the nuances of music. Some of the points which came to my mind: 1) People gathered there were all young musicians and were talking a lot about music. One thing to understand is - As performers, one should make sure their music is kept simple which can really touch the common audience (who might not understand music). 2) Classical music is something which needs some basic influence to like it. My brother compares it to Coffee - the more you taste it, the better is your experience. Initially though, both are hard to taste. 3) For being a musician, it is just passion - no money can drive a musician. Nobody will say as a kid of 10 year old, "I will become a musician and earn my living". Even a mu...

I was realizing that I have never blogged about the song I learnt in my music classes! Today is my first chance to do that. The song I am learning right now is srikantha neeyada . Last class, my guru taught me the above song in the raaga, bhavapriya . The raaga is a unique one - the first half of the ascend is like shubhapantuvarAli while the second half is like shanmukhapriya . I was very much caught in the loop during the lesson. Just after coming out of the class, I was completely confused with the question, "how to sing this?". I went home and slowly started singing this raaga. I soon realised that I had sung this raaga in a concert in front of 600 people! That too in a Jazz concert, 5 years ago. Coming to the most trickiest part - Listening to Dr. S Ramanathan's rendition of this raaga in the song - ' bhavapriya ', we get an impression that it has resemblance to todi . If we check the 7 notes of bhavapriya , shanmukhapriya , shubhapantuvarALi and todi ,...

ಮಗನು ಆಟವಾಡುವ ಸಾಮಾನುಗಳು ಹಲವು. ಆದರೆ, ಅವನಿಗೆ Computer ಹಾಗು Cell phone ಬಲೂ ಇಷ್ಟ. Laptop-ನ ಮೇಲೆ ಇರುವ Windows logo ಅವನ ಕಣ್ಣುಗಳಿಗೆ ಮೊದಲು ಕಾನಿಸಿಕೊಲ್ಲುತದೆ. ನಾವು ಪುಟ್ಟ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿದ್ದಾಗ ಈ ವಸ್ತುಗಳು ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಮಗೆ ಚನ್ನಪಟ್ಟಣದ ಗೊಂಬೆಗಳೇ ಆಟದ ಸಾಮಾನುಗಳು.

Visited Mysore today to attend our colleague's wedding. My friend and I decided to see the Mysore Palace. We took some pictures from outside and when we wanted to enter the actual palace, we had to leave our footwear at the counter. The counter guy took 15 minutes to collect our footwear as there were too many people around the place. We decided to wear our shoes back and catch the bus back to Bangalore.

ಇದು ನನ್ನ ಮೊದಲನೆಯ ಕನ್ನಡ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್. ಇನ್ನುಮುಂದೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವ ಕುತೂಹಲ! Maybe, ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಬ್ಲಾಗ್ Open ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ ಕನ್ನಡಕ್ಕಾಗಿ.

Yahoo! is the official partner of ICC and its events. Twenty20 World Cup which is scheduled in the next couple of weeks is the latest hot news. The Cup was in our office for display. The crowd was so much that I didn't get a chance to have a glimpse! This picture was taken by one of our colleagues. Visit Yahoo! Cricket for latest cricket news.

Met one new friend at office few days ago. K is a very interesting and enthusiastic person. He has a degree in Architecture and has been working in our company as a researcher. I had kept a perpetual motion toy at my desk and as was walking by, he dropped in to check with me. That is how I got to know him. There are many things interesting about this person. Recently, he has been working on collecting information about 'Indian Toys' which parents/kids design and play with. It could be just a toy made out of old tire or something made out of bricks (kids of construction workers often play with these). These toys are not available in stores! You need to see his blog about these toys here . Apart from working at our office, K teaches a Design course in one of the colleges here in Bangalore. Lastly, he is a fan of our 'annavru'.

Bought a bunch of CDs today. VCDs and DVDs have come to a rock bottom price. 3 movies in one DVD costed Rs. 45. Tenali Rama, the one on DD few years ago, was available in DVD for Rs.200. Got few other Kannada/Hindi VCD/DVDs.

Neighborhood outhouse. Picture taken to experiment shooting rain. It was a rainy Sunday evening. I just reminded my mom the fun of rain + ---. She understood my mind and came up with pakoda-s. It was an awesome effect!!! Thanks mom :).

Old building of Mysore still standing tall as grand offices.