Shyam's Blog

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 :).