Shyam's Blog

Visited Belur and Halebidu with my good old friend, Tanu. Started from Bangalore at 5am. Route from Bangalore -Reach Tumkur road, take Toll road upto Nelamangala exit. Stay left to join Bangalore-Mangalore Highway. Reach Hassan via Kunigal, Channarayapattana. Take a deviation to Belur from Hassan. Belur is 30 minutes away from Hassan. Total distance from Bangalore - Approx 225 Kms. Drive was calm and smooth. We stopped at Cafe Coffee Day in between and then for breakfast 20 Kms before Belur. We reach our first destination by 9:30am (4.5 hours of total time). After visiting Belur, we headed towards Halebidu that is 30 minutes away. The tour guide walked us through the temple and its sculptures. Ruins of the palace was found couple of hundred meters away from Halebidu temple. Our next stop was a kilometer away from Halebidu temple at the Jain Basati and the Halebidu prototype. These places are not in the visitors' list, but worth visiting. The last place seen was Hulikere tha...

Silk board junction is synonymous to 'mess'. Off-late, I have been using the Outer Ring Road and can't imagine a solution to this huge traffic on ORR. The cab stays around that place for about 30 minutes. Once we cross that junction, traffic is smoother. Only solution is to drive early to office and return early to beat rush hour traffic.

Purchases from Apple iTunes is not available in India, but is available in countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, etc.!!! Apple iTunes Page

Tomorrow is Annual Sports Day at our son's school. He is in LKG and this is his first sports day. We heard that he has been selected for finals that will be held tomorrow (Nov 30 2012). Our son has not told us what he is participating in. We just know that he is doing something! All the best son!!!

I see so many Ads on TV about online shopping in India. Below is a sample list. http://www.flipkart.com/ http://www.quikr.com/ http://www.myntra.com/ http://www.jabong.com/ http://www.junglee.com/ http://www.tradus.com/ http://www.olx.in/ http://www.ebay.in/ With fast growing Internet users, customer base for online shopping is increasing. I have started to do a bit of research on this market. Few questions that need to be answered... 1. Why are there so many players? 2. What is the business strategy to attract Indian customers? 3. How is online shopping in India different from that in the West? 4. Why is Amazon not a player in India? 5. How is 'cash-on-delivery' working compared to credit card payment? 6. What will be the scene 10 years from now? I haven't done any online shopping in India. As a shopper, I am more comfortable visiting the store and getting a closer look at the product. This seems to be faster than ordering something online and waiting...

I am a customer of BSNL in Bangalore and I find that they are the best and worst telephone service providers in the city. Coming to best part first - 1. Most cost effective service. 2. Broadband is the fastest among ADSL vendors. I can go on and on with the other side of the coin. 1. Worst customer support. I had to change homes twice in one year. Each time, I was out of connection for more than 45 days. It takes a lot of effort and follow-ups to get the connection transferred. The linesman, Assistant Engineer, Executive Engineer - none of them pick up their cell phone most of the times. Once in a blue moon, the phone rings and I get to talk to them about my transfer request. 2. If a fault occurs, we have to better keep our fingers and pray the Gods crossed to get it resolved. Once, my broadband account had got locked due to unknown reason. I had to struggle for 15 days to get it re-activated. 3. Bills don't arrive, but, line gets disconnected if not paid. Due to system ...

I have been noticing road traffic offenses. Some rules that are broken regularly in Bangalore roads are: 1. Two wheelers riding without helmet 2. Riders talking on cell-phone 3. Wrong side riding/driving 4. Changing lane without indicators (it is an offense as per rules) 5. Jumping traffic signal 6. Parking in the middle of the road 7. Overspeeding 8. Driving/riding without driver's license 9. Driving with alcohol influence 10. No proper headlights/tail lights. Now, to some fancy calculations: Number of vehicles registered in Bangalore - 36,53,368. (source = here ) . This is, as of 2009. I see an offense being made at every beat of my heart! If we assume, an offense every second, total offenses per day = 86,400 This is less than 3% of the total vehicles mentioned above. Minimum penalty is Rs. 100 (For complete of penalties and offenses list, see here ). Total penalty collected per month = 86,400 x 30 days x Rs. 100 = Rs. 25,92,00,000 (Rs. 25.92 crores). If 10...

It was the same team that did the road trip in the year 2000. Then, we called ourselves ‘Santro Team’.   Now after 12 years, we did a similar road trip with one person (Sumanth) less. We can call our current team, ‘DZire Team’. Destination was Kaidala and Aralaguppe. We started off from our houses as early as 6am. By the time we were in the outskirts of the city, we started getting hungry. Without much hesitation, we had a sumptuous breakfast at CTR, Malleswaram. One plate idli-vada and one dosa kept us through the trip. Kaidala was out first stop. We reached there by 9:30am. The priest there, Sri. Parthasarathi, gave us good information about the temple. The idol was destroyed by a person few years ago (about 10 years ago) because of land dispute. It was ‘re-assembled’ to perfection within a week, largely with the help of a   Sculptor, Sri. Jayannacharya from Chikmagalur. Chennakeshava at Kaidala is a marvel. He is standing on the lotus, on which is mounted Shiva...

Recently, I was driving on the NICE road in Bangalore. It is a tolled highway and speed of vehicles is as high as 120 Kms/hr. While I was driving at 80 on a curve, a car came from opposite direction! Because the guy at the toll-gate broke the rule and allowed this wrong side driver, this happened. Blame both involved in committing the mistake. There are so many offences I notice on road that I pity the ministry for losing money for not collecting penalties. Talking about NICE road, here are some of the offences: 1. Drivers change tracks without blinkers. Strictly speaking, it is an offence as per books we read before getting a driver's license. I see this offence with EVERY driver. 2. Trucks move at 30 Kms/hr on the fastest lane. It is clearly written that slower vehicles are supposed to keep left. Truck driver don't bother to read the sign boards. 3. Stopping on the freeway - It is written everywhere - Still, people stop for taking photo, or to pee! What a bad place for ...

My music guru called me and invited me for a concert of a 12-year old student. Nishanth made his debut on stage today. Son of Dr. Subha Madhusudan and Dr. Madhusudan, the boy has good talent and showed it to maximum extent. Music guru, Vid. D V Nagarajan has trained him really well and gave a go ahead to perform today. I am sure the guru was confident that his student would perform well. Nishanth was supported on the violin by his elder brother, Tejasvi. On the mridangam, it was Vinod (son of Vid. Anoor Shivu) and Sunaad (son of Vid. Anoor Datta) was on kanjira. With three elder supporting artists, it was like a small deer in between 3 tigers. If that was not enough, there were so many musicians and experts in the audience. Hope the kid didn't feel the pressure to perform in front of such audience. The program was started off with Bharavi varna, Veeriboni in atta taala - a good one to prove Nishanth's maturity. He sang his favorite raaga, Shubhapantuvarali. The song was ...

As a Project Manager and having experience in performing Carnatic concert on stage, I find a connection between the two - both need good planning, have requirement of good delivery and are delivered to customers. Planning: Carnatic concert is neatly planned. It has a structure and rules to follow, same as project management. A project or a concert, both have historical data to refer to. Concert might have a specific theme. So does PM with a specific intent or objective. Delivery: A project is delivered as per requirements. It has specific timelines and stakeholders expectations. In performing art, there is delivery in real time. The audience is the customer. While performing, it is mandatory to maintain good quality.If this is not met, an artist will fail to satisfy the audience similar to how project manager fails in project. Risks and uncertainties: There is no better place to find risks and uncertainties than in a live concert. Right from artists not arriving on time to micro...

Day 2 of the conference was an eventful one. Dr. Harish Hande's speech on poverty alleviation with sustainable energy was great. Winner of many awards, Dr. Hande focussed on creating opportunities to the poor. Mr. Satish Grampurohit of Infosys gave a presentation on eGovernance. It gave an idea of how an IT company can create and implement a project to reduce power loss in electricity distribution. He gave examples of challenges faced by Govt. and other organizations while working on such projects. Mr. Elango R, Chief HR Officer at MphasiS, gave a motivating speech. One thing I noticed from the conference is that not all have the ability to stand in front of a crowd to convey something. Few speeches, though by eminent people, were not satisfying the audience. Such people must learn how to present a presentation. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today was Day 1 of Project Management Practitioners' Conference 2012 here in Bangalore. It was held at Nimhans Convention Center. More than 750 attended today's event. Dr. Trivedi, Secretary, Govt. of India, Cabinet Secretariat, gave an introduction to Results Framework Document (RFD) - their website is here .This is the framework that is used to measure performance of Govt. ministries. Bhaskar Bhat, MD of TITAN, gave a speech on Industry perspective of Project Management. He gave example of TATA projects - Tanish (jewelry) that failed initially and then picked up after understanding the market requirements. He emphasized that we learn more from failed projects than successful projects. Dr. Mohan Sundara Rajan, Science Writer ended the day's proceedings with his talk on Nano technology. With lot of humor and interesting words, his speech was very entertaining (I should say, infotainment). Few quotes from the day: One person asked, "Why have train time table...

I think my wife will pass the exam next week. She has taken all the pain and spent lot of effort in teaching my son. Result: Son is in a condition where he(we) can attend the exam confidently. Our son is in LKG and he is facing his first exam in life! Syllabus: Written - A to O; a to o Written - 1 to 20 Oral - Rhymes, 1 to 60. Story telling - A thirsty crow. Drawing - coloring. His mom has meticulously taught him alphabet writing. I was happy that he can write A to Z in plain paper. But, my wife is specific on neatness - she says, "he has to write the alphabets within a given frame/lines." Initially, it was hard for her to make him follow the instructions. Slowly, she learnt his language, cars language. In order to write B, she narrates the instructions, "go straight, stop ahead; start from up, go straight, U-turn, reverse gear, U-turn." If someone had listened to her loud instructions coming out from the bedroom, I don't know what they would have tho...

It was a nice Sunday evening and I thought of having nice potato bun. I was lucky to find an Iyengar Bakery nearby. Being in Bangalore, it is easy to find one, but, hard to find an authentic one. I saw the cashier-mama and guessed that this is indeed an Iyengar. I have found few fake Iyengar Bakeries and their products are not good. wah re wah! what a bun it was! Simply awesome. People outside Bangalore really miss this. I can understand how much they miss these lovely buns and dil-pasands.

Shot this picture in our Apt complex.

1. LPG cylinder booking has been made easy by booking the refill online or via automated phone system. I did it for the first time and found it helpful. 2. I was planning to buy UPS/stabilizer for my computer and found APC UPS with the specs I wanted. Within minutes, I ordered one online. It took me 4 hours to get the UPS delivered for free to my doorstep. Thanks to online shopping! 3. Passport application in Bangalore - I was told that it has been made simple and straight forward. It is a good move after many hassles and complaints. Right now, there is no scope for middle-men or agents. The applicant has to book a slot online by submitting the application. Nobody other than applicant is allowed inside the passport office. Sorry touts.

Newspaper says, "Govt. has directed temples to perform pooja to invoke rain-god". Cost of the pooja is around Rs.17 crores. I don't know how such magic can bring rain! Rain being a scientific phenomenon, it has very little influence from supernatural forces. It will be wise if Govt. saves such money to give compensation to farmers who face crisis because of poor monsoon. On the other side of the coin, if India has to become #1 country in terms of money, let it use the funds of all the people who put money in hundi. Govt. has to open one payment method that will make 'paapa parihaaram' simple and instant. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It had been 3 years since I got the Sony DVD/HDD recorder. It allows us to record tv programs on to its hard disk OR on a writable DVD. Till now, I was not able to get the right connections. Now, after connecting the right way, I am able to record tv programs! The manual recommends connecting TV antenna to DVD recorder. This is not required. I took the LINE OUT from my TV and connected to LINE IN 1 of DVD recorder. While recording, choose L1 as the input.

It was finally a success setting up the new wireless modem, Beetel 450TC1. After struggling for about 4 hours, I got everything right and internet was working! Our dad had been asking me to put a wireless modem for 2 months now. I had to get it done as this task was pending for a long time. 1. I took the old modem settings as reference. At this point, I could not decipher the existing password with BSNL connection. After trying out few permutations and combinations, I failed to move further. Only solution was to make the current password display on my browser. After checking out Firefox add-ons, I got one that displayed password in clear text. Password cracked! 2. Setting up Beetel 450TC1 modem was interesting. At 30 minutes past midnight, I had luck in getting the right tutorial from a youtube video. Let me give some details on setting up this modem. 1. Access modem settings by going to 192.168.1.1 2. Default username=admin, password=password 3. Go to Interface Setup tab. 4...

 

My car Odometer reading 8888! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

For people in Bangalore, try out www.bigbasket.com It is an easy was to shop groceries, fruits and veggies online. You have home delivery. Free delivery for orders over Rs. 1000 and Rs. 20 if order is less than Rs. 1000. I tried ordering Alphonso Mangoes and they were fresh and yummy! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bangalore has wasted 3.7 million USD today to adhere to Supreme Court rule of removing tinted films from vehicles! As per records, there are around 40,000 cars/4 wheelers. Putting a film costs Rs. 5,000. Calculating the cost to put those films comes to 3.7 million USD. Above numbers are for Bangalore alone! What if Govt scraps the rule? I want to open a tinted film service shop to earn some quick buck. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Got our son introduced to swimming pool today. He liked his first experience that made me more than satisfied. Hope he loves to swim in future. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I saw an unique vehicle on NICE road. Above photo taken to show that unique vehicle in my rear view mirror. Enlarged version of original image showing a wrangled vehicle. Surprisingly, it was moving. I don't know how that driver was driving at 80Kms/hr! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I traveled from Electronic City to Silk Board on Bangalore Elevated Expressway. It was good to start with and ended up in nightmare traffic jam. It took an hour to come out of the flyover. I don't know how people use it on a daily basis. It is waste of money and time to travel on that expressway. Reached Forum Mall by 8:45pm to attend an official dinner. Experienced Bose Noise Cancellation headphone at an outlet. Price is just Rs. 17,000! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Captured from iPhone. Edited in GIMP to give Motion Blur effect Learning to get motion effect. Used GIMP to create this effect for the first time. This picture was taken in Jurong East, Singapore in the year 2011.

Saw this tree canopy in Gandhibazaar area! Don't know when BBMP will cut them for expanding the road. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Clockwise from top left: Nano car, house, sun I was baby-sitting my son today. To engage him in activities, I gave him a brush and colors. He was able to paint the above! He used to do similar things with his fingers on iPad. Now, he got to do these with his hand.

Did this painting yesterday. It had been a long time since I held a brush in my hand. This is Ginger flower, popular in China and surrounding regions. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Very few people talk about these Indian cricketing legends. Trivia: C K Nayadu - India's first captain in an International match; played his last first class match at the age of 68! Vijay Merchant - holds second best first class batting average, next to Don Bradman! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We contributed to Earth Hour 2012 by Switching off lights between 8:30pm and 9:30pm IST.

In Bangalore, it has become very easy to watch movies in theaters. There are Android and iPhone apps to check movie timing and book it instantly on our phone. Once we reach the multiplex, we can print the ticket in a kiosk. No need to worry of house-full. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Very few people feel they are passionate about what they do. I am one of them. I don't think I would have become an engineer if I was left to choose my career in-line with passion. My brother and I were doing so many things that Engineering came to us very late in our life as an option when we finished our college. I was checking this website of Karnataka Secondary Education Examinations - here . We were so much in to painting that I am sure we could have made Painting/related art as our passionate career. We had passed the exam when we were in High School. I will surely recommend all schools to have this exam in their curriculum. Another certificate (exam) that we got was Music Junior - link here . Though this certificate was of little importance then, I do feel that we took music very close to our heart. Seeing the publicity that today's generation get in media, I feel that we had very little opportunities. There were many other streams that we (my brother and I) participate...

A seminar was organized In Gayana Samaja today. 10 musicians answered questions from the audience of around 600. This session should have been for people who don't really know music, but it was otherwise. Most in the audience knew music and 90% of them were senior citizens. Don't know if that served the purpose of having this seminar. Highlights of discussion... On fusion music - Panel was open on this topic. Seeing the development of music in the past 5 decades, there is no reason to worry on fusion. If people like it, that will become an integral part of concerts in future. Overall, music is something very big to be made impure. On own compositions by current composers - Nothing bad. If the songs are good, they will stay, else they will perish. On structured way of basic lessons - it is important to have basics right. If the kid has talent, lessons can be taught faster. Also, teaching small songs initially will make the kid interested in music. First duty of a music teacher i...

It was a wonderful experience to be at Annual Day of our son's school (Planet Kids). It is actually pre-school! The program was arranged in Town Hall and it was done very professionally. All kids from age 2 to 5 participated. Our son was part of dance with theme as Sports. He wore the Hockey dress! All the dances were good. Only thing is, it is hard for kids to face a huge audience! They are moody too. Some were even crying:(. Nice thing is that the choreographer of each dance stood right below the stage and did the dance for the kids to follow. I appreciate their patience! Program ended with the National Anthem. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Having problems with my iPhone 4's home button made me to try out iOS 5 to resolve the issue. It took some effort to install it, had a few hiccups on my way. Overall, I got an onscreen Home button. Got iCloud too which I will be trying for the first time. Once installation was completed, my contacts were empty and all the installed apps were closing out before opening. Somehow, it got resolved itself after a few minutes. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We now have 2 Android consoles at home - one on Touchpad and another on smartphone. I installed a racing game called Racing Splitter. It is a simple game. Both my son and I are enjoying the game as competitors. I have to see myself not to go beyond the limits in playing such games. It is truly grossing, but have to limit playing it with my son. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It is Summer time in Bangalore and people talk about water and electricity problems. I am thinking of a scenario - what if we share some of these day-to-day problems with the peole in USA. How will they react? Lets see. Mercury News says-Power shortage in Bay Area this Summer. People will start thinking of how they will survive without AC. Few companies have come up with solar power options. Though it costs more, people are planning to invest on solar power for hot water and lighting. With 4 hours powercut everyday, kids and students are requesting their parents to get them emergency lights! So much concern about power has led to companies shifting out of CA if crisis continues. Now coming to water problems... Mayor of San Jose, C upertino, and other counties are holding a meeting to discuss about water crisis. People are told to use less water and stop using sprinklers. Parks and gardens are looking dry with no lawn and mud everywhere. Plans to get water from neighboring states have n...

I installed Android OS on HP Touchpad. It was an easy process following this link - Link . Touchpad is now simply wonderful.

Started playing with a new tablet - HCL ME. With price 1/4th of an iPad, it is worth the features it provides - USB port, microSD slot, HDMI port. It comes with Android 2.3. It didn't have the Android Market and I checked on the net to get it installed.

Hero Pen - Courtesy: Web Dad was searching the whole house for one small thing this morning. He wanted a pen! Do you 'own' a pen in today's world? It has been more than a decade since I owned and used a pen. It has become so redundant these days. Go to meetings, use laptop write notes. Talk over phone, use notepad on your laptop to write down something important. There is very little need for pen. It has become a borrowing item, "swalpa pen kodtheera?". Owning a pen goes back to my school days. I have to write about stories how pens played a role in our lives then. Good pens were saved for the exams. If those pens turned lucky, they would be used only for the exam, and not for class notes. Ink pen, ball pen, and the so called expensive pen, 'hero' pen. Out of reach was Parker pen. My brother hated pens. In first place, he hated writing :). Schools didn't permit using ball-point pens. Only ink pens were allowed in the class. I don't remember him usi...

Was standing in front of a bank this morning. Met the owner of a music recording studio. He informed me to drop by at the studio to meet a popular music director. Went to the studio and met Praveen , a popular music director. It was nice meeting him. I got a chance to do the audition. Would be interesting to work with him in future.

I was checking out our coin collection (Numismatism). Found the below rare ones. 1/4 Anna = 1.5625 paise; Copper coin; today's value=10,000 times. 1 dime=0.1 USD; Mercury coin; today's value=1,00 times. Unfortunately, this coin is a correct one :(. There was an error in 1 dime of 1941 and 1942 where 1942 got press over 1941. Such coins are available on ebay for $900 as of today!

Statement - A taxi driver in the US has better job satisfaction than a manager in India! After reading a few things about motivations to work and related satisfaction at work, I deduced how different it is work in cultures with different environmental setup. Parameters considered: 1. Money - How much of a factor money is playing on their life? Are they achieving their goals? Is money a motivation factor for them to work? 2. People/Customers - People at work place and customer behavior has an impact on job satisfaction. Better these values are, job satisfaction enhances. 3. Work environment - Support from policies, processes, organization system, etc make it a factor to make or break positive attitude at work. 4. Stress (de-stress factor) - Stress creates a sense of fear, in turn affecting performance. Hence, it is a factor to consider. In my calculation, higher the de-stressing value, better is the effect. Driver 1. Money - In India or US, person in this field will be little satisf...

Do not submit bank details online. Today, I got a bogus email (which looked genuine). I got an email to my gmail inbox that I am getting a refund (from Income Tax). Email screenshot I clicked on "To Submit a request, CLICK HERE". It took me to a typical Income Tax Website. I noted the URL (website address). It is a bogus address and is a hacking method! Income Tax Website with WRONG URL Next, I selected a bank and it opened up a page similar to my bank page. Again, the URL is a bogus one. The page looks similar to 'your' bank page. Bank Website screenshot with WRONG URL Do not take any action to such emails. Income Tax Department doesn't ask for any account details via email.

Visited Lalbagh this morning to see the flower show as part of Republic Day celebrations. This was also Lalbagh's 100 year of flower show! The flower show was similar to previous years. I felt that flower show will be lot attractive for Independence Day (Aug 15) because it will be lot greener due to rainy season. Few points for visitors who plan to visit show: 1. Parking is sufficient. No need to worry on this aspect which is one of the major concerns in Bangalore. 2. Food stalls for snacks and icecream are plenty. Only thing is, you should have the habit of eating out. Else, you might feel low on the hygiene front. 3. Crowd was huge as it was a weekend. Don't plan for a picnic during the show period (Jan 20-29th). 4. Crowd management is not the best. Need to adjust a bit. 5. If you are there for the first time with your camera, you will have lots to click!

My iPhone grahachaara (fate of iphone) is not seeming good in the past few weeks. First, it was not functioning as per requirement and I had to resolve it by checking online forums. That same day, I had lost that phone for couple of hours before I found it in office cafeteria. Today, my iPhone was not responding at all. Few minutes ago, I had used the phone and an hour later, it was hot like a pan and was dead! I tried charging it with wall charger. Still dead. Hooked it to computer to restore its life. No response yet. Then, my only rescue was googling for solution. It recommended to hold "Sleep button and Home button" for 10 seconds. I did that and my heart started beating faster seeing the Apple come up on screen. Ufff! Phone is working now. Having costly phones is a big risk in India! I have heard lot of stories of people forgetting phones in restaurants/meeting rooms/etc. I think, we have to come up with solutions to these problems at the earliest. Simplest one is, buy s...

Had this wild spider at the door one fine morning!

My iPhone started off this morning with a bug. When I put that in silent mode, it's vibration feature was not working. My initial check of settings didn't help me much as everything looked correct. I googled online for solutions. I got to know that the motor inside is jammed. To resolve the problem, just struck the phone to my palm a few times. It worked!!! This is similar to many of the 'Indianesses'- starting the scooter being a great example. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone