-: Dreamer's Den! :-

Huh...finally I am AGAIN making this!! A blog post in 2018 after a very long break... Welcome to 2018 friends!! HNY!!

Happy New Year 2011 and Happy Sankranti, Pongal to all!! Hope we all have a rocking and exiting 2011 ahead... Having missed out of the blog scene, lot of things have passed in past year of 2010 which I would like to write... 2010 - what an year of ups and downs and ups :-) On the professional front, I changed the job from one US blue-chip major to another US blue-chip major & apparently both being strong rivals to one another...Am talking about my job change from Hewlett-Packard ( HP India ) to IBM India ! Both are great companies to work where both of them share a great history of innovation and culture. However once inside a company and totally involved in your job, all these will take a second priority and there comes your job&role as the first priority. So my shift from the earlier Services based / project based job role to the current Labs which involve product development & support...A better long-term view than that of a short-term :-) One more interesting fact ...

I WILL BE BACK VERY VERY VERY SOON.... AND I like it.... I like it.. I like it....  {All in Uppi style :-)} Its been months, rather, close to an year that I have not blogged...Dont ask me why as their were lot of reasons and one prime reason, always, to escape is that "didnt have enuf time"...but no way, I wont say that :-) Coz though I had time, lot of stuff in mind took priority and this got skipped...But I am sure that I will retain this moment of coming back and will start blogging...starting with some general updates that has been missed to come out of me from past 10months :-) Till then...have a SUPER time :-)

Year 2010 will be an year of many Firsts to me! Here are almost all thatz crossing my mind now... First year of my fave Indica Xeta Car... First year of my brother's Thread ceremony... First year of my first-time Eye Operation... First year of my Dad's Operation... First year of my Mom's Operation... First year of my second-time Eye Operation... First year of my Sydney trip :-) I guess no one will be having so many 'Firsts' to their credit! :O)

Yesterday had been to the sci-fi movie thriller "AVATAR" by James Cameron. Initially over the past 1-1.5 months when the movie made news, I thought its just yet another hype movie and had neglected to watch this movie.  But yesterday I realized that I had made a mistake in 'neglecting' this movie coz I watched this movie yesterday with 2 of my friends (totally, we were '3 idiots') and the one-word which can describe this movie is 'mindblowing'!! The kind of creativity which has gone in, the kind of technology used, the amount and varieties of colors used is so beautiful that you will just be telling 'wow' thru out the movie! :-) This movie is technologically the best, atleast for next 2-3 years...the amount of creativity gone in to bring out this movie is amazing...i recommend every one to go and watch  and enjoy this superb, fantastic and mindblowing movie!!

The 1st 'Bus Day' @ Bangalore was 'celebrated' with lot of hype and hoopla on 04-Feb-2010. I am always a supporter to take the bus to your work - let it be our BMTC or the company provided transport. BMTC 's Volvos are lot better than any company buses in terms of cost, comfort and connectivity! (though sometimes you don't get it when you need :-))  From my personal experience, I take my company provided transport, which uses Swaraj Mazda vehicles, Tata Starbus and Big buses. None of them are Air-Conditioned (A/C) which Volvo's has an upper hand, especially during Summer periods. Also, sometimes I need to / like to work / surf when I sit in my bus, which I can comfortably do in Volvo's compared to any of my company provided transport. The Volvo's shock absorption is so good that any humps/potholes (never to go away in Bangalore!) does not affect you and you can easily and happily keep working/typing in the laptop. The same thing in my company prov...

Just back from my aunt's house (my father's 2nd younger sister) but this time the tragedy is my aunt is no more with us! Yesterday midnight got a call and we all went in a state of heavy shock! That is why I thought if 2009 was not a good year for my family, 2010 starting is getting no better... This news about my aunt's death was so unfortunate and untimely death that it has shocked the entire family. Nobody expected this death, so soon, and this is not an age for death...less than 50 years with only one daughter and she is yet to get married!  My other relatives who were next to her during her last moments told that my aunt (who passed away) was telling that 'somebody is calling and i need to get ready and go' and within some time, she took her last breath!!! It is so unexplained and unimaginable that you can see and hear death  when it is approaching you... Dont understand why so-called god takes away good people and leaves us with all filthy and crook...

2009 ending was not predicted this way, not in any wildest of dreams by any Kannada person.  Yesterday 29-Dec-2009 C.Ashwath the legendary Kannada singer passed away. Very (un)fortunate and very rare to find any person's death date = birth date and Late Ashwath became an example to prove this. 29-Dec-1939 to 29-Dec-2009 :: Let his divine soul Rest In Peace and let his 'kanchina kanTa' (Bronze voice - because of the high pitch singing which Ashwath used to carry on so well and people would be waiting to hear that!) enthrall the gods in heaven! Just 12 hours after his cremation and people still in shock with Late Ashwath's death, there came another major blow and shock to the people. Dr. Vishnuvardhan , the legendary and leading Kannada film industry superstar passed away in Mysore @ 0230hrs this morning (30-Dec-2009). As of now, his body has been kept in a huge ground where people are paying their respects and in the evening, he will be cremated with State honors....

Starting of this month, had to say goodbye to Sydney where I spent nearly 2 months in this visit and more than quarter of this year in the city! Saying bye was getting difficult as the departure date came closer but unfortunately had to...Wish I could have stayed till New Year day when Sydney would be the first city to Welcome 2010 with its amazing fireworks in Sydney Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour areas! YouTube videos of this fireworks will leave you in awe and sydney government will be spending some millions of dollars for this amazing show!! Anyways, back to namma bengaluru life now...had been to office for a week post-return and then took off for couple of weeks (and this also is getting over :-(() On the first week of my leave, my parents and my wife and myself drove to some long-pending 'temple tour'...This was the route taken and places covered. Bangalore -> Kukke Subramanya (via Sakleshpur and Shiradi Ghat ) -> Southadka Ganapathi -> Dharmasthala -...

Somehow, somehow, somehow....I could not blog though I wanted to...sometimes it would be either time constraint or lack of interest or having logged into the blog page, something pops up and distracts.... Anyways, update from past weeks is that I am in Sydney, Australia and its been now 5 weeks away from home...miss all my folks except my better half who is with me :-) 2 more weeks to go before I re-join my folks :-) More later...Will surely blog...

This year, for my family, I can term it as Year Of Surgeries!! The reason being this year saw 4 surgeries till date in my family including myself. I just hope and wish that there will be no more surgeries for anybody in the future! Starting from February this year where I was operated for Retinal Detachment (RD) surgery (a major one), my father got operated for the prostrate removal (major again) in April, followed by my mother on the table for a benign Lipoma (fat deposit) removal just a fortnight back and the 4 th one and the latest being mine (yes, again!), a 1.5hours left eye surgery to remove the Silicone Oil plus the correction for Cataract using ' Phaco Emulsification ' technique...just yesterday morning!! Fortunately my parents and myself are doing fine post-surgery (I am on a week's leave right now) but I believe this is too much for a family in just 9 months!! But if I think bit deeper, as per my principle, "whatever happens, it happens for good",...

I am enjoying this book reading to the core...From the previous post where I mentioned about completing "The HP Way" and "The Toyota Way", I started reading couple of books related to Management! I dream and love to be in the management role and wish my dreams come true...:-) I want to be a Leader more than a Manager :-) Related to this and to understand more of Management wrt Software, I am into the PMP Preparation Guide Fifth Edition by Rita Mulcahy . ( PMP = Project Management Professional) This book really gives insight on what goes into a 'real' project management and its processes. I am feeling that rarely we achieve 50% of the actual PM process!! But anyways, for me this book is a good bible to find out the in-and-out of a good project management process and wish I can start adopting them in the near future!

Last month I got back / resumed my favorite activity - Reading! :-) Till last month, since I was working from a different location which required commutation to the office in my own vehicle, I had lost time to devote on my fave activity - This has happened from past 3 years but now, after coming back from Sydney in June mid, I have a chance of resuming Reading. The primary reason being my office location got changed and now I have to commute by company bus and the best part is I get nearly 45mins time in morning and 60mins time in evening - dedicated to Reading! Hurray !! :-)) From last month, I was reading one of the good monthly magazines in India - Reader's Digest ( RD India ) {March to July series} which fills in lot of knowledge to your mind - lot of things to be learnt! Post completion, I read "The HP Way" - written by one of the co-founders of Hewlett-Packard company - Mr. David Packard...Its very inspirational and tells how HP was built right from a small Garag...

Yesterday we (my family) decided to go to Mysore and come back in evening...It had been a long time and long pending visit to my favorite city :-) Also this visit was by our car and for the first time we were taking our car to a long drive!! So, we started in the morning and my brother drove till Channapatna, where we gave a break for our tummy's :) Then, for the first time I took position in the driver's seat to fulfill my long pending wish of driving on this beautiful road...I drove and pushed my dear car to the max of 120 (could of gone further but my parents resisted me for going :-)) in the Maddur-Mandya stretch...The most lovable stretch is from post Mandya to Srirangapatna...road is good so is the view and the drive :) Finally pre-Mysore, my brother took over again and drove inside the city. While coming back, I again drove from Mandya to Channapatna but could not go beyond 100 as traffic was pretty high at that time :-( Overall, good experience, good drive in a ...

Today it will be marked as THE sad day in the history of world music....The "King of Pop" MJ death has brought so much sadness to millions of his fans, thruout the world...count me in that..:-(( It is so difficult to build an image like his,who is followed by millions across the world...forget the religion and language..the only language his fans know is the pop music by this icon! He has written such a history which can never be forgotten for the many many years to come... My all time favorite will be "Stranger in Moscow", "Remember the time", "Jam", "Thriller",....list will not end so easily.... God should not have cheated MJ and his fans like this...MJ, still 50, deserved lot of life ahead with his planned comeback but...:-( Anyways, the world has to move on...but this will be a very sad day in the music history! RIP MJ, you are always the King of Pop, yesterday - today - tomorrow and years to come...

This is purely my personal opinion and does not reflect anything to anybody! I am on business to Aussie and my deep and heartful condolences to my fellow Indians who are in the troubled times. I too condemn the attacks, I join the protest to treat everybody fair without any racism. But this alone, Melbourne attacks, does not make Aussie bad. Its a very good country and the people here are so nice and helpful. There are always good and bad people in this world - in India, in Aussie and everywhere! So a bad element making this stupid junk stuff happening does not make this country bad. I have traveled lone to many places here and the people around are so helpful and nice. They will guide you if you need and respect you as any other person! Infact, they like Indian food and know couple of Indian places!! Today afternoon, in ABC television, two Aussies were discussing the "Onion Bhaji" (bhajji) - one of the favourite South indian snack!! I know some Aussie people who only sa...

Had this long weekend ending today and thanks to the Queen here, due to her we got a holiday today (June 8) - Happy Birthday Queen! I had a fantastic weekend, starting from Saturday...Lucky me as the weather here in SYD co-operated with me to be too good with all blue sky! :-) On Saturday, went to a suburb in Sydney called Parramatta...Access is thru Rail, Road and Ferry. I chose ferry which takes 50 minutes to reach this suburb. Super it was and I enjoyed the ride to and fro...About Parramatta, it is a nice place to have a one-day visit...a huge park and a huge shopping mall (supposed to be the largest in Aussie, some time back!) The snaps of the same are uploaded in my photo share @ Snapfish; The URL is: http://www2.snapfish.in/ thumbnailshare/AlbumID= 1053264013/a=100718913_ 100718913/otsc=SHR/otsi= SALBlink/ All access requires authentication; here are the credentials to use: username: pradeep.guests@gmail.com password: password On Sunday, went to the much awaited and long p...

AM back to the Harbour city of Sydney and staying in the same place as before..Darling Harbour area!! Winter is in strong force here with occasional rains...very cool outside and very romantic weather out here...(miss you Ro!) Day is very short here...starts at 7am + in morning and ends by 5pm itself..post 5pm, it gets pretty dark and cloudy with lot of rains (some days)!! Overall, weather wise I am enjoying a lot (and hate the blr weather right now!) but missing my dear and my family...anyways 3 more weeks to go :-)

I like the may month very much...reason being its the month with many important days, starting from my parents Wedding day to My wedding day to My birthday to My wife birthday to my father's birthday!!! lots right?? :-) But this time, My wedding day (04-may) and my birthday (today, 10-may!) is special as we are celebrating it in the family this year!! Last year my parents missed my wedding day as me and my wife were out in Dubai and we celebrated it on our own! So, my 2nd year of wedding day could not be missed this time as we are around with my family... With respect to my birthday, last 3 years I have been out of Bengaluru and missed my family on this day...1st miss was when I was in Mumbai for a project from iGate, 2nd miss was my HoneyMoon with my honey! and 3rd miss was Dubai, again with my honey only :-) So this time, my parents and my brother are very happy that I am around...nothing great celebration as such but the presense is more than any celebration...:-) I was gi...

Bit long time gap between this and my previous blog...hmmmm...sometimes it so happens that you want to write/blog but you cannot do it...:-( Anyways, here is some of my updates from the last 10 days! :-) As my post title indicates, I am back to the reality and back with my life...in namma bengaluru :-) Flew back from Sydney on Sunday 26th April (supposed to be on 1st or 2nd may but some last minute changes forced us to travel earlier...our tickets were preponed and reconfirmation was available only on thursday evening!) Prior to our travel on Friday evening, we (with 5 of my colleagues who had travelled) went to watch a 3D film in the World's Largest 3D Screen!! This screen is in IMax, Darling Harbour - 10 minutes walk from where we had stayed. The show was about an underwater exploration for 45 minutes and narrated by Jim Carrey! It was a very nice experience and a awesome huge screen!! On Saturday, we planned and went to the most famous beach in Sydney called the Bondi Beach...