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...