-: Dreamer's Den! :-

Last week, god showed me the path to a new stage in my life and 2 days back, that new stage started off! Still in the very initial part of that new stage and a new person is accompanying me in that stage! :) Hope I travel well on that god shown path, with his blessings! Will write more about this path, as it goes, after some time...:)

Just finished the 2 days event of Bar Camp Bangalore @ ThoughtWorks India, DD, Airport Road, Bangalore. It was a super cool event, got lot of gyan (AJAX, Web 2.0 and much more), presented my "Gift Your Sight" Initiative, met lot of people (from all over India and from Dallas, US) and had lot of fun!! My PPT is shared @ Slideshare and the photos of this event can be found @ Flickr (You can find me in some of the snaps there! :O)! Will blog more in detail about the event later...Watch out! :)

On Dec 2nd and 3rd, BarCamp is once again visiting Bengalooru ( http://barcampbangalore.org/ ), venue for which is ThoughtWorks - DD, Airport Road. I am planning to present the "Gift Your Sight" Initiative ( http://giftyoursight.blogspot.com ) and hope to bring awareness and spread the word for the need of this noble cause!

After a really long, long and so long wait, this day became my d-day for watching the real cute, hot, sexy and damn beautiful Deepika Padukone in her first film venture and that too in namma kannada - Aishwarya! Indrajith Lankesh has done an amazing job by adorning this doll called Deepika in the most possible beautiful way that anyone can expect! The film is good with ok storyline but full of colours thru out the movie and the most watched person is of course Deepika and namma Uppi dada..the genious Upendra and yeah, I also liked the bubbly character of Daisy Bopanna - very cute girl!! Deepika is no wonder the next Aishwarya Rai. Really hats off to that god who created this wonderful beauty called Deepika - really beauty blessed girl!! Proud to say that she is from namma bengalooru and kannada girl...Hope I can someday meet this beauty! :)

Last week (friday, 10th Nov 2006) was a special day for us, the organisers and many employees in the EC campus of my company. We had organized (money and idea pooled by us!) one-day event called 'Parichaya' (meaning, Introduction) and I was one of the members of the organizing committee! As the name indicates, we intended to give our fellow friends a Parichaya to Kannada language and Karnataka history, wealth and values! It was a roaring success!!! We had not expected so much crowd to visit us and get 'introduced' but as the day progressed, we were flattered to see the number! People stood in queue patiently to visit the event and this was the most surprising thing of the day! We had arranged lot of poster presentation, indicating the richness of Kannada and Karnataka - right from Poets to Tourism to Foods! I had organized a small Quiz program comprising of simple questions on Karnataka (mainly for our non-kannada folks) and man, it was amazing to be on the quiz-mas

This list I got from another blog, to which I visited for the first time, thru google search (Thanks to him!) This below list contains the romantic hotels/restuarants/eat-outs/hang-outs (whatever!) in namma bengalooru... 1. Spiga - Vittal Mallya Road, near Ffolio 2. Fresco's - Cunningham Road 3. Gufa - near 3rd Block Circle, Jayanagar 4. Blue Ginger – Taj West End 5. Fiorano - 100ft Road, Koramangala 6. Cosmo Village - Magrath Road, near Garuda Mall 7. Mynt - Taj West End8. Citrus/ Jamavar - Leela Palace 9. Take 5 - 100ft Road, Indiranagar 10. 100FT - 100ft Road, Indiranagar 11. Tangerine - 100ft Road, Indiranagar 12. Holiday Village - Kanakapura Road 13. Ebony - 13th floor of Barton Centre, MG Road 14. Magnolia - 3rd Block, Koramangala 15. Inchara - 6th Phase, JP Nagar 16. Guru’s Garden - near IIMB campus, Bannerghatta Road 17. Adigas - 8th Block, Jayanagar 18. Bangalore Bistro - Brigade Road, near Eva Mall 19. Lemon Grass - Sarjapur Road, Koramangala 1st Block 20. The Harbour -

Yesterday, one of my close cousins and me planned 2 have lunch...we were meeting after a very long time and thought it will be good meet for lunch! So, after some thoughts, we zeroed in on a place in Jayanagar 3rd Block...a new hotel called 'Hotel President'! This new hotel has come up in the Elephant Rock Road and the good thing about this hotel is that we have different 'sub-hotels' in this building to choose from! So, we chose a place called GUFA (Den in english), which is in 5th floor of this building! As the name suggests, GUFA interiors is so well modelled that it lives upto its name! All wooden interiors to give a den-like look, candle-torches in the place of bright lights and wooden table/chair for seating and much more...Boy, they have invested good amount in this and it is simply good! Zara hatke from the rest! :) The lunch was good where we spoke lots, different topics, remembering our good old days too...stayed there for around 2hrs and wrapped up our lun

For the first time today, in the 25 years of me having to wear glasses, I forgot to bring the glasses to my office!! Now, am sitting here in front of computer, typing without glasses...Not that I can't see anything without glasses but it has become a habit and my face identity from past 25years! How it happened was daily while commuting to office, I drive with my sunglasses and I keep my normal glasses in my pocket...today for what reason I dont know, I forgot to put it and hence just drove away from home only with my sunglasses! So, today first time experience without glasses, in public...hope it goes fine! :)

Take 1: I am driving and approaching a traffic signal. Fortunately, the signal is green and I am around 200 meters from signal. I try to cross the signal but by the time I come near the junction, the signal turns Yellow. I stop showing the stop sign but I observe that many other vehicles just pass the signal without caring the sign! More than this, the person driving behind my vehicle gives me a 'why did you stop' look! - coz I stopped and now have to wait for another X mins to move ahead! - Clear sign of "Impatience"! Take 2: I stand in that signal and there is a countdown timer in that signal, showing how many seconds left for the signal to turn yellow/green. The moment the timer approaches 20secs or 15 secs, some crazy people start honking there vehicles as though everybody are just standing even if we have got green signal! The moment timer turns 11..10..9..people start off from the signal without caring much about the other side traffic! Really cant understand w

Wish you folks a very happy, safe, fun-filled and prosperous DeepavaLi / Diwali! :-) On the terrace of my home, was having a 360-degree view of the firecrackers lighted around the city...Its good to see but the side-effects of these crackers has a killing effect...Anyways, just remembered the science theory which says that "Speed of light is faster than speed of Sound" - very much evidant when you watch firecrackers burst from a distance! :) Once again, happy 'festival of lights'!!

It had been around 1.5 years that I worked in city office (1.5years in Whitefield and earlier in Koramangala and Airport road, typical city offices!) Wondering what in the name is 'City office'?? Ok, ok... city office is nothing but the office which is in the city premises! Now-a-days, given the space constraint as well as corporate tax exemptions, most of the companies (read: IT/BT) are moving to outskirts of the city (In my case, Bangalore outskirts means 2 fave destinations 1. Electonics City (Phase I and II) 2. Whitefield / ITPL) So, given this scenario, even my company has a huge 20-acre Bangalore Corporate office in E-City but luckily I fell into the project/product line who work from city office and my city office is in Cunningham road (nearby landmark/s: very near to the prestigious Vidhana Soudha and also near to Shivajinagar bus terminus) Working in city office has both the pros and cons (as usual!) Pros are: 1. Flexible working time (many people in my office come b

The last 3 days was amazing, filled with fun...didnt know how time went by...we just wanted that the time stay running for long time so that we could still enjoy more time roaming around in the midst of the nature!! Marriage, functions are just reasons to come out of our day to day routines...and Marriage out of our town is one good thing to come out and explore other places on earth! Yesterday we had to attend the marriage of one of our close friends in the place called Hassan, situated in the South Canara region, around 180kms from Bangalore. So, we all friends (11 of them) took this opportunity to explore some of the nearby places along with our attendance for the marriage and hence we set out on Saturday to explore 'Shravana BelagoLa' (World's tallest single rock carving of Lord Bahubali), the world famous 1200AD sculptures at 'Halebeedu', the evergreen mountain range of 'Kemmanagundi' (Z-Point in particular) and above all loads of enthu and fun filled

Hiya there...if u r a user of any Hewlett Packard (HP) product and if u wanna give any kind of COMPLAINT or COMPLIMENT on any of the product/s, do let me know... Do drop me a mail about your feedback @ giftyoursight AT gmail DOT com I, as a concerned employee of this company, will ensure that it is taken forward and will reach the correct person. We call this as Customer's first...:)

Its been a long time I changed the 'look' part of my blog...and today marks the D-Day for the same...and here it is...the new look part of the blog...:) Hope its nice...any comments??

I dont know why I remembered this classic song at this moment but yes, it definitely needs a mention... This song is: " Deepavu ninnadhe, gaaLiyu ninnadhe, aaradhirali beLaku...kaDalu ninnade, haDagU ninnade, muLugadirali baduku... " track from 'Mysore Mallige', written by the great Late K S Narasimhaswamy. Somehow, as i said, i remembered this song now (for no specific reasons!) and this song, believe me, will take you elsewhere...out of this world...gives you a feeling of nothing on this world is permanent, everything is the Lord's play... For me, when I hear this, I get so emotional...dont know why...but this is the most beautiful song with lyrics that is priceless.... (Can somebody share me the lyrics of this song please? in text format?)

This week joined a new company, leaving my 2.2 years of the journey in my previous company. This hop is the 3rd in my 4.8years of my IT experience. As of now, going good... Some hint on my current comp: 1. Fortune 11 company in the world and kind of very well known in all over the world 2. US based with around $85Billion in revenues... 3. In India, it has entered the IT market and is considered as Challenger in Gartner survey. 4. Around 15000 people work in India for this comp and in IT, around 10000 people work, basically out of Bangalore and Chennai. Hmmm...hope the hints are enuf 2 guess the comp...:) Will come back soon with more stuffs...Mainly on the greatest corridor of the century - The one and only Hosur Road, road leading to Electronics City!! :)

4 Months back, thought twice, thrice and many more times, when my project manager offered me a new project in the 'City of Dreams', the 'Financial Capital of India' and my all-time favorite city - Mumbai! Now, its the day when I have to say Sayonara/Ta-Ta to this city. Today, am flying back to Bangalore and joining my roots, my folks and my friends! But am leaving here a lot of friends whom I met and made friendship, thru my 4 months of journey!! This friends and dudes list includes my client himself, who I see as a very passionate and enthusiastic person! Wanna thank all and god who gave me this opportunity to work here, get some good experience, get to know different people and finally taking back memories of the time! Life hei...toh chalna chaahiye!!

Tuesday is considered to be very auspicious day to get darshan on My fave lord Ganapati aka Vigneshwara aka Ekadanta aka Ganesha aka .... So, me and my friend thought of visiting the famous Siddhi vinayak temple (not for the first time but for me, 3rd time). Had heard from people and net that there will be a huge rush on tuesday where you need to stand for hours together to get darshan of Mr. Ganesha. (Other days are pretty normal, you can get darshan within 15 minutes) But still we wanted to make it on tuesday itself. So, got up early and went to Siddhi vinayak at 0700hrs itself! What we saw was amazing rush and a big queue of people. Thought of standing in Queue but saw one more alternative where people where entering the sanctum sanctorum freely, without any queue. And when we entered we found that this leads inside the temple and offers good view of Siddhivinayak but we have to stand from distance to get the darshan. I mean, we cannot enter the main 'garbhaguDi' but be wi

Its been almost a month I blogged...dunno why...even though I had many things in my mind to blog, and even though I could find some time to blog, I could not do that... Hopefully, I will continue to blog frequently from today! :)

My dude has written a small and good write-up on how our gud old BMTC has transformed itself and is wooing people 2 take a ride in their buses...especially on the giant, INR 50-lakh red Volvos!! :) Herez the link for it...He has dutifully provided the links to BMTC website providing info on volvo timings and non-volvo bus routes/timings also...Very appreciable! :) Go 4 it @ http://anveshane.blogspot.com/2006/08/public-transport.html Take BMTC, decongest namma bengalooru!

Have posted my review on the mouthshut.com site, that might help the interested in exploring this place...chk it out...:) http://www.mouthshut.com/review/ Tungareshwar_Wildlife_Sanctuary-105361-1.html Have a nice and safe trekking! :)

On Saturday, me and my friend decided that we go out and do some trekking...So, we planned a lot, searched places that is nearby and that can be covered in one day and we found a place called Tungareshwar , pretty close to Mumbai. (Please click on the title to check out the snaps of this place) So, on Sunday, with some food materials and with full enthu, we started to this place at 0630hrs itself! We had to catch local to Vasai Road (2 stations before Virar) and from there we had to catch a bus to Khaman village but have to get down at a stop called Tungareshwar Phata! Andheri to Vasai Road took around 40mins and from there, luckily a bus was about to leave to Khaman village (not sure about its timings) and we got into it. The ST bus took around 20mins to drop us down at the Phata. From there, our journey began! We walked around a mile (have to cross the Western Express Highway - Highway that connects Mumbai and Ahamedabad) before we hit the gate of the Tungareshwar Sanctuary! (This pl

First of all, my hearty condolences to yesterday's terror attack on Mumbai's lifeline!! Being in Mumbai from past 2 months, and being part of the people who travel in that route (Yup! I used to take that route, from Lower Parel/Mumbai Central to Andheri but from past 2 weeks that travel is cut as my office shifted near my stay place!), I was totally shocked and flabbergasted to hear/see this attack. If not for my office near my stay place, I would have been in that chaos yesterday...either dead or injured or safely stranded in any station! Because 1. Used to travel in First class compartment, as I had my pass done for this 2. Used to travel in both Fast local as well as slow, depending on the mood of that day and that time! 3. Used to get hold of local between the 1750hrs and 1820hrs time itself!! (the time of blast!) So, above 3 reasons are well enough to thank god for not involving me and my folks in this tension...but I am deeply concerned with all families who are underg

Last week went for this awesome CHIKKI town here...the one and only Lonavala hills!! Posted my small review in one of the websites... Check it out @ http://www.indiaresortssurvey.com/memberreviews.php?Destination_id=440&stateid=20&fromDest=yes

After a lot of search in Bangalore, atlast I found what I was looking for on this saturday...in Mumbai! On saturday, me and my friends visited a shopping mall on the Western Express Highway, near the Jogeshwari area, called the 24-Carat mall!! Inside the mall is a multiplex as well as McD and some more shops including a music store... For timepass, we visited that music store and out of the blues, I found the one that I never expected!! I found the VCD of the superb, my all time favourite movie..." The Shawshank Redemption "!! The caption of movie, just 2-liner, is enough to pump up the enthu of any caring individual...Kudos to each and every person part of this greatest movie... Words cannot describe this simply amazing movie...just watch the movie and you will come to know why!! I took the chance of this weekend and watched this movie yesterday...really ultimate!! Fine...apart from this single surprise, I got one more surprise, though not of this magnitude of the first o

Yesterday I was watching CNN-IBN, where a program called 'being' started! This week's guest was the giant Mahindra's boss Anand Mahindra. The interviewer was Ms. Anuradha Sen Gupta This episode was great and I enjoyed the speak and humour and passion of Anand Mahindra...really a true professional gentleman! Here is the link of the interview: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/being-anand-mahindra-in-top-gear/13299-3-single.html Happy Reading! :)

Last (2 last) weekend, had been to Haji Ali with my buddy and there, we 'trekked' on the rocks to reach somewhat a place where we could feel the Arabian Sea water! Hmmm...now, this snap is taken from that point...:)

Was reading TOI on net and found this piece of article...' Mumbai is the rudest city in the World! ' - Good, atleast they realized now!! My full votes for this...Read this report @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1664913,curpg-1.cms Even in my earlier blog , I had quoted about the life in Mumbai...almost the same instances which the report has covered!

This weekend I visited namma bengalooru (after a break of 1.5 months) and had a good nice time...And the time I got was simply amazing...1 evening, 2 full days and 1 early morning...all thanks to Vitamin-M factor!!! Wondering what is Vitamin-M, the powerful tool for all, anytime, anywhere?? Yeah...It is for what we are working...MONEY...Cash Money...or simply call it as Vitamin-M!! Just like any other biological Vitamins required for our body, this Vitamin is required to keep us alive and kicking in our life! Coming back to my time, the price I had to pay to get this fantastic relaxed time is around Rs. 5500/-!! Yes, I flewed both the ways, courtesy, one of India's low-cost carrier Spice Jet Journey in this carrier was pretty comfortable (one way opted for Emergency exit seat that gave good leg space!) and reasonably on-time also (except for some traffic delays)...nice cabin crew people...:) So, the point here is, the more you can afford to spend money, the more comfy and more t

On Saturday, many days 'wish' came true...I was thinking of visiting the Shri Siddhivinayak Mandir, right from the day I landed in Mumbai...last time when I was here (Dec 2004), I did not know much of it and hence could not make it...but this time I thought I should not miss by any chance... This temple is amazing...(Just go thru the link of this title to enter their website)...beautiful 'building' and super security and a great Lord!! I will cherish this visit for lot of time to come...(Hope to make it to temple every week!) Jai Vigneshwara!

This was the much awaited movie of all times 4 me...dunno why but when I finished the novel last year ( Dan Brown 's The Da Vinci Code ) and sometime later, the news broke out saying a film is being made of this novel..I was just thrilled!! Just anxious to see my thoughts, my imaginations running in a movie... And yeah! it proved true...The movie is shot extremely well...Every cast of the film is superb! I personally like and admire the actor Tom Hanks and my hero proved it yet another time! The photography is very good and at some point of time, when Prof Langdon (Tom ji) starts explaining about the ancient times of Knight Templars and the fight that broke out, that picturization and photography is amazing...They have mixed the modern London (where this guy walks and explains the facts) with the ancient times and boy, it has come out really well... Film-wise, since I had read the book one and half times (before coming 2 Mumbai, I was re-reading this novel!), I felt the movie as a

Hmmm...almost in continuation with my previous blog... I daily take local ride from Andheri to Lower Parel via the Dadar station [as my friend calls - Deadly Dadar ! - as this is one of the most crowded stations in Mumbai and all d time, u see ppl, ppl and more ppl!! As my friend says, its not our cup of tea to get in/down of this station during peak hours...am yet to experience this...:)] ...the point here is in and out of the station, there are so many people that you just cannot walk freely anytime of the day...u r always in the midst of a thick crowd...The crowd that does not care who is the person in front of them or back of them...only rule here is to RUSH, RUN!! I have had many experiences and to quote one of them, last week when I was walking out of the platform when suddenly 2 guys came running, in opposite direction, at an amazing speed and within notime, b4 my mind cud give me signal 2 move out of their 'track', one of the guys came almost face 2 face with me and wa

Mumbai is host to lot of varieties of people...people with varieties of lifestyle...Right from our own Bollywood people, who have the ultimate luxuries in life to people who have no place to sleep...Forget about their food...They sleep in footpaths, dividers, below the flyovers and more than all...besides drains!!! Sometimes I work in shifts here [Customer is the KING..So v need to support our customer, in London, 4.5hrs behind us!! :((] and from past 1 week (this week also) am into 2nd shift (1430hrs to 2330hrs)...So, when I go back to home [in a chauffeur driver Ford Icon A/C car!! :))] @ around 0000hrs midnight, I see these variety of people, trying to get sometime out of their daily routine for sleep...in places mentioned above! Atleast I haven't seen this kind of BPL (Below Poverty Lines) ppl in namma bengalooru, but seeing here, I just kept wondering the different faces of life one can have/face in this human life! Just to fill their stomach, ppl have to go thru wat all in t

Today am doing night out after a looo...oooong time...that too in Mumbai..:) We have to stay as we are supporting US client and today they demanded for this...so, cant put down a client right? Customer delight! :) But am feeling kind-of good...doing whatever u want, full silence (except for some cool music playing from FM stations!)... hmmm...no beauties around though...:))

Hmmm...Mumbai...the city of heavy population....city of the riches...city of the dreams!! And the city of beautiful gals...:) On saturday evening [forget morning times...u cannot step out of house...its 2 hot and humid here...daily I sweat like anything...:(], me and my friend went to a shopping mall in Malad(W) area, called INORBIT. This mall is pretty big, I can say, twice bigger than Forum or Garuda mall of namma bengalooru!! This mall houses all big brands, including Shopper stop, Lifestyle, Crossword bookstore and many more...There is a fud court in the 3rd floor that surely makes a big hole in your pocket! The prices are so expensive and astronomically exhorbitant that I felt namma bengalooru shopping malls oota price itself is gud enough antha!! :) Anyways, after we 'window-shopped' all the 3 floors of the huge mall, we entered shopper's stop to buy SUNGLASSES!!! Yeah, first time in my life I was spending on a sunglass...that too I was pretty impressed with Fast-trac

Am taking break from Bangalore for around 3-4 months and traveling to 'aamchi' Mumbai city tomorrow!! This is for business reasons and I hope everything goes fine...Hope to have lot of masti there! :)) C u blr...Hello Mumbai!

In my company, there is a practice of giving away awards for the individuals and teams, depending on many criterias...2 weeks back, the awards was announced for the Q4 '06 where my project (and the team) got the award for 'Quality delivery and Execution Excellence'!! Given this, last week our salary reflected the award amount of 50USD to each person!!! :D Yday, we received individual certificates for this achievement!! Cert seems good ya...pretty thick paper used and suitable to enclose in a frame...:))

On sunday, I was feeling damn bored in the house and thought I will check-out some books [as my free time fave is reading, reading and more reading...whatever I can grab, I read it...:)] So, I went to one of my fave shops in Gandhi Bazaar (Sri Book World) and was looking for some interesting titles when this book ' Leadership and Self-Deception ' by Arbinger institute caught my eye... Looked fine with good information (kind of self-help) and hence it went to my bag... Have started reading it...pretty interesting and knowledgeable...:)

Click on the link (above title) to read thru the article... My opinion goes on the same line as this article... Adding more to this, I can tell that by the end 0f the day, it is we, the middle class (real) Bangaloreans who suffer...Even though I am in IT industry I will say this... By god's grace, 2 years back, I bought a independent house in one of the good old locality of Bangalore...this was one of my dream, a dream to fulfill the dream of my parents! Now I pay 50% of my take-home pay towards the home loan!!! The time I purchased the house was the time when the landprices were rising day after day...to give a picture, when I bought, the landprice in my current locality was Rs.1300/- per sq.ft...now, after just 2 years, it is Rs. 3000~3500/- per sq. ft!! Now imagine, could my parents, hailing from a very much middle class family and having 2 children to take care afford to buy a house at this rate?? Am not boasting that I have bought but given the current scenario, there are lot

2 Weeks back I joined this very well known and great network community ORKUT. It is working out really well...met lot of my friends and other people and hoping that this continues...:) My profile link: http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=800059811444025136 If u wanna get invited 2 join this community, then ping me so that I send u an invite... If u r already there, then u can add me..:)

Wednesday, 12th April 2006, post-lunch, saw the collapse of a major icon of all of us kannadigas, Dr. Rajkumar...He passed away due to cardiac arrest and my due respects to him and his family! Let his soul RIP... But, Bangalore witnessed activities that had never before happened and that nobody imagined in their wildest dreams...violence, violence and more violence... Hearing news about the death of this icon, some unruly mob started to throw stones to vehicles, irrespective of police or other govt or even personal vehicles...nothing was spared...some even went to the extent of putting the vehicle on fire!! Hearing these things, everybody of us left office that evening, in our company transport (lot of people left their personal vehicle here and boarded the bus!)..And u know the front glass (windshield) of every other bus/cab was pasted with a photo of Dr. Rajkumar! This was just to avoid people pelting stones at the vehicles!!! This was a awesome crazy thing happening .... On Thursda

This weekend was bad for me...it started off well (except my daily walking rounds oat 0515hrs), where i got up from bed royally at 0830hrs! Post this, I went to check Emergency Light for my house (as now-a-days, there is very common power cut in bangalore) at around 1000hrs, enquired with few shops and came back. Then again, as I was feeling bored, I thought I will do some as usual 'weekend food shopping' and hence set out to (not to the usual Food World, where I am a very loyal weekly customer!) a place that I explore very rarely...so I went, shopped for half-an-hour and got Frooty 2ltrs bottle 2 cool-off this heat along with some chocos and my favourite Butterscotch Ice-cream, family pack! Everything was going fine till now...but while i was driving back, near my house, there is a small hump but that does not look like a hump now as it has become very much levelled with the road itself. Here, I usually slow down and this day also i slowed down but applied around 40% brakes o

This day, that year - 3 years back, god gave me a chance to play 2nd/3rd innings in life...This is the day i saw death in front of my eyes, death of my close friend... Now, its been 3 long years that he passed away but his memories are here to cherish it... Last year, on the 2nd death anniversay, i had blogged about this incident and here is the link: http://deepsworld.blogspot.com/2005/03/unfogettable-29th-march.html I once again pray god to give peace and courage to his family! Let his soul RIP... I miss u jetty babu....

This weekend was an awesome one...everything went fine as planned! After a long 6-7 years, i visited my dad's village 'Kalale', around 4 kms from the Nanjangud town, which in turn is 25kms from Mysore city. It is the time of the 10-day festival / Jatra in the village and saturday, 18th March 2006 was the day for the grand Kalale Rathothsava / Kalale Ther!!! Me and my cousin-bro started off from Bangalore on friday evening @ 1745hrs in his car...We took the banagalore-mysore highway, the new 4-lane road with a 2mtr divider in between the road making it one-way on either side! The road is awesome and you can move in breathtaking speed (we drove at the speed of 120-130kmph!!!) and i stongly feel this is the ONLY good job (on the infrastructure front) the government has done! :) Its the kind of worth the wait for this type of beautiful road...The most happiest person to drive on this road will be our good old KSRTC drivers, who would have gone thru hell for so long years...now,

Yesterday i finished reading this book 'The World is Flat' by Thomas L Friedman. I really appreciate the author for this fantastic information collection, from all around the world and putting it into papers! Especially i liked the part where he explains the Supply chain management of Walmart and Dell..This really rocks! :) India sure gets a good importance in the whole book; this is so nice to see and hear and read about my country and 'indirectly' to be part of the book is also good...hmmm...what i mean here is IT is the major talk becuase of which the World had become flat and India is put on the world map..Now, I being in this IT industry, will naturally be part of this right?? :)) On the same lines, i was thinking of how within India, the 'World had become flat'...India is part of the World flattening process and within India also, therez no exception...Sure that Intranation has become flat! :) For instance, i am working in a Indian MNC where i interact wit

Last week, i was called by my manager and asked me a small question that would affect me in a huge way! The small and simple question was: Are you ready to travel to Mumbai, for a project, for a period of 4-6months? Around 5 people are planned to be put into this project. This was a difficult question for me, as i am 50-50 for this oppurtunity. If I look from the Work perspective, as per the inputs from my manager and other concerned people, it is really good, where you go and study an existing system, get Knowledge Transfer from the client and come back to Bangalore and start that project by setting up a team. But the catch here is Mumbai...i would like to work in Mumbai but given my current situation where i have got a valid US Visa, i dont want to miss the oppurtunity that *may* come to me inline with my Visa! So, here is the dilemma, a 50-50 scenario for me...:( Finally, after discussing with my parents and applying some self-thought :) and leaving the things to god and following

After a long wait, i finally managed to see the much-awaited release of this year and the movie which is on the way to be a super-duper hit...yeah, am talking about Rakeysh Omprakash Mishra's, Aamir Khan starrer movie 'RANG DE BASANTI' (RDB) !!!! On saturday, me and my friend went to the Urvashi theatre (Balcony seat costs you INR 60/- only!!! This is awesome price compared to what the other guys, the INOX and the PVR charges you...INR 170/- and INR 150/- only, respectively!) to see this movie RDB, evening 1800hrs show! We got the ticket easily because i went and collected the tickets at 1545hrs itself! :) Finally the hour came where the film started, with a cool music... The movie is awesomely rocking!!! It keeps up the spirit, brings enthu in all... I personally felt this movie is a type of 'Old Wine in a New Bottle' but with a good and healthy message to the people! JUST DO IT attitude..:) I enjoyed a lot...Last year, at this time, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's

Find below the link for a small write-up about the campaign to create Awareness on Eye Donation ('Gift Your Sight' campaign) that i conducted in my company on 22nd Feb 2006. http://www.freewebs.com/giftyoursight/Gift_Your_Sight_Awareness_Campaign.doc As i am part of the wonderful Volunteer group called Mukta Foundation, the writeup or as my friend calls it a Perspective is available @ http://www.muktafoundation.org/perspective3.html If anybody is interested in conducting such campaigns, i am ever ready to provide my full support. Please contact me at: giftyoursight@gmail.com "Light up the darkness in life. Enable blind to see this beautiful world, thru your eyes! - Pledge & Donate Your Eyes, Gift Your Sight - Make it your WISH!"

Courtesy: http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedcountries I have just visited 2% of the world!!! And this is including the transit visits to KL, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand! :( Hope, in days and years to come, i take this figure up by roaming more around the world...This is one of my 'top priority' dreams too......:)

14th Feb 2005 was the day i started to commute to my work place, from my house which is 30kms away (one direction) and yeah....today marks 1 calendar year of this journey!!! On simple calculation, i get 1 calendar year = 365 days = 365 * 60 kms = 21900kms of commutation!! :) Also, each day i spend on the average 3.5 hours on road and that gives: 365 * 3.5 = 1277.5 hours on road!!!! An acheivement right?? :) God knows how many more hours i need to be on these roads and how many more kms i need to travel! :)

I have a blog and an webspace on Eye Donation..Made for the purporse of increasing awareness and educating people on the importance of eye donation. ( http://www.freewebs.com/giftyoursight and http://giftyoursight.blogspot.com ) Here, the latter one, the blog is maintained by Google and its wonderful i should say. But when it comes to search, some blogs are searchable and some blogs are not. Even though i have added both of the links to the google, they dont list me. And u know, here comes the irony/funny part [whatever u name it :)] My blog and webspace are both searchable using the keywords 'giftyoursight' or 'gift your sight' in MSN search!! MSN being the numero uno rival of Google, lists my blog but Google maintained blog does not come in Google search!! Do you call this an Irony and/or is it funny??

On Saturday, i visited the Lions International Eye Bank (Off JC Road) and spoke regarding the upcoming activity of setting up an 'Eye Pledge Counter' in my company premises. Post this talk, they took me to the Lab and showed me the 'Gods greatest gift' to humans....the eyes!!!! Yes, these were the eyes that were gave vision to a person and now, ready to show this world to a blind person! Amazing right...yeah...i saw around 5 eyes kept in the refridgerator and soaked in some preservative, wating to get their new life! They had removed the whole eye (including the White portion called Sclera) and it was kind of a thrill to see the eyes...just the eyes and the cornea. To remove the cornea (this part is the only needed for eye transplantion...to give sight to a corneally-blind person), they have an equipment that does 'Button cutting'! This name can be mapped to the button shaped cornea in the eye, the part that gives vision and shows the world to us... Apart from t

...In the year 2086!!! Hmmm...loooooong way to go, but i will definitely donate my eyes when i say tata to you guys...How about u? "Light up the darkness in life. Enable blind to see this beautiful world, thru your eyes! - Pledge & Donate Your Eyes, Gift Your Sight - Make it your WISH!" To know more, Visit: http://giftyoursight.blogspot.com/ OR http://www.freewebs.com/giftyoursight