Shyam's Blog

Left home at 10 am - closed work at 5:30pm. I am not at work, but, am roaming from one office to another to get my tasks done. 1) 10 am - Started from home to get transaction entries on bank passbook. Canara Bank, Hanumanthanagar is one of the worst bank branches I have ever seen. Nothing seems to work for me till now. I have been there 3 times this week to get the entries done. Each time, they give the same old reason, "computer not working". 2) Headed to another Canara Bank Branch- this time, it was N.R. Colony. For my surprise, I got it done in one shot! "Nice start" - I thought. 3) Next, headed towards BSNL office to change my internet plan as I will be away from home due to work. I had got the letter printed and that made things easy. I got an acknowledgment for my request. Only problem which I see is refund of the money that I have already paid for the next 12 months. This needs to be tracked in future. 4) My next stop was at Bangalore One center, BDA complex...

Search for "Indian Passport" in Google Search. You will be shown "passport.gov.in" website as the first link. This week, the passport office has changed its official website. It is now "passportindia.gov.in". I don't know when Google search will start showing this link! Should we sue search engines for showing old/obsolete websites? Best solution is to tell the IT guys of Passport office who maintain the website to put a redirect rule on "passport.gov.in" servers so that when customers/users hit that website, they should be automatically taken to "passportindia.gov.in".

I hate this place. Recent past has made me believe that this is not the best place on earth to live. Having run from Govt. Office A to Office B, I find it easy to come a conclusion that India will not progress in the coming years if the system is like the way it is. I have made several trips to offices to get things done which still remains 'undone'. Passport office is a big pain in the a&&. After my pain, it is turn for my son's passport application. It is more painful now as the procedure has changed overnight. Nobody knows what to do and I am roaming places to get this sorted. BBMP is another dirty place. Having paid the tax last month for the coming year, I am yet to get the receipt of payment. First, they told that they are busy receiving payments and cannot write the receipt. Next, they are telling that the cheque is missing or misplaced. They want proof from our side to show that money has been credited into their account. This requires few trips up and down ...

Company 'A' had called me to write a test as part of their recruitment process. The test reminded me of GRE and also the tests which most Bachelor of Engineering (BE) freshers would take. The whole 3 hours went so fast that I couldn't realize that I was hitting evening traffic while heading home. First impression of this Company 'A' was good. I had no doubts that it is one of the premier companies when it comes to branded software products. There were 4 sections in the test. The first two were Analytical and Quantitative, followed by, Engineering section. The last section was a section on Java and J2EE. The first two sections consisted of questions similar to the ones I saw during my GRE prep. In Analytical, questions like, "A sits next to B... B doesn't like C and D, E wants to sit with G.. What is the right order of sitting?" took me to my old days (nearly 10 years ago) of Engineering when we wrote such tests every Monsoon season. The Engineering sec...

It has been a nice break from work since Monday as I am in the process of switching jobs. Today, we had been to a Kannada movie 'Aapta rakshaka', which is a sequel of 'Aaptamitra'. The movie was very nice with lots of thrill and suspense. For me, I enjoyed Komal's acting as a comedian in the role of Vishu's assistant. Last night, we had dinner at MTR. The menu was a huge list which they should distribute before serving. That will give us some idea what is installed and what we should prefer eating. They started serving with 'raagi rotti' which was a heavy starter. Next came 'Bisi bele bhaat'. For some reason, I have started disliking BBB. It makes me feel full within the first two spoons. With rest of the meal being the customary items, I settled for fruits and ice-cream in the end. My take on MTR after this dinner - I can skip MTR dinner in future. Other days of the week were more of spending time at home. I am reading few things about Indian ho...

For the first time, I tried making rasam powder as I wanted to taste a fresh rasam :). Finally, it turned out to be real good and fresh rasam. Recipe was taken from online and I made some changes to suit my taste.

With reference to my earlier blog ( here ) written almost 2 years ago, I got to write this one as a closing ceremony practice. Friday was my last day at Y. By 4pm, my paperwork formalities were completed and I was ready to say good-bye to everyone there. I did sent a few emails personally to some of my close quarters and got a reply back by the time I shut down my laptop one last time. The team had arranged a farewell party just before leaving. It was a nice experience working in a company like Y. Everybody had two questions in mind - 1) Why are you leaving? 2) Where are you joining next? Frankly speaking, there are only few options left to answer both the above questions. It is so simple and straight forward. For 1), options are: a) Got a new job with better salary - We call it, "better career opportunity". b) Didn't like what I was doing. c) Want to experiment something different. d) Didn't like the management and the way things were progressing. For 2) options are...

Submitted for passport renewal today. This task which was in my mind for the past 3 days has been completed without much fuss. Today, I was in Passport office at 8:30am. By then, around 500 others had already gathered. I didn't know in which line to stand. After few queries, I stood in the right line. By 9:30am, line started moving in to the building. It was hot-hot-hot outside with no shelter. By 10:30am, I had my luck when I was inside the building with a token number in hand. By 11:30am, I was called to the counter. For my surprise, the counter representative told that my passport is damaged. There was little bit of damage due to spilling of water couple of years ago. Without much doubt, I asked him the steps to resolve this ASAP. An extra Rs. 2,500 (for damaged passport) was the solution given. By 12:30pm, I was done with payment of fees for my renewal. I should be getting my passport in the next 7 days. Moral of the story - 1) Keep all documents ready and handy along with phot...

My current task on hand is to get my passport renewed. I am opting for the Tatkaal scheme which should take 3 days from the day I apply. Today, my agenda was to get the paperwork done for the application. For Tatkaal, two things are important - (1) Verification certificate from an officer of certain cadre and above, (2) Affidavit, with seal and sign by notary. I went to Income Tax Office to get verification certificate signed by an authorized officer. The office is a treat to visit (if you are not evading to pay tax). It is so neat and welcoming to visitors! I was waiting for the signature in the corridor. One assistant requested me to be seated in the visitor's lounge. Once I went there, it was not an office for me, rather a five-star experience. The visitor sitting area had A/C, a TV, newspaper/magazines, and couches to relax! I got my sign done in a few minutes. End of the day, my paperwork is half complete with notary sign pending for tomorrow. Bad part about the affidavit proc...

In the sea shell