Happy Deepawali!

Wish all those reading my blog, a very happy deepawali. I am celebrating deepawali in India after a break of over 5-6 years. I noticed now there is more festival spirit, higher spending on crackers and sweets. Beyond this, the automotive and the consumer electronics companies are offering tempting deals to the customers, reminding me of the Thanks Giving occasion in the USA. I think very soon, we'll have a black friday kind of sale during deepawali eve!

Mumbai Sight Seeing

I worked for a Mumbai based company a decade ago. I was lucky enough to have a lot of friends in Mumbai who worked with me earlier. We would get together once in a while and go visit places. My Hyderabad roomies Anil and Mahesh were also there in Mumbai and Anil had self declared fan of Mumbai and unofficial tour guide. One Sunday evening, we set out first to Marine drive, walked about 2-3 kms and then went to the Bandra Band Stand Area. After going around the obvious places, we walked in the fashion street ( not sure of the name now) and visited a famous old church in the same area. We spent about 30 mins in the church and headed to Prabhadevi, to the famous Siddivinayak temple. The temple required no introduction as Anil had created a virtual image in our minds. It was around 7:15 PM when we got in to temple, an announcement was made that the temple doors will be closed for aarthi. We assembled in the prayer hall and I could tell there were more than 200 people. Soon, the aarthi started, the 200 people in the hall sang the bhajans which were in Marathi and Sanskrit. The entire place had so much energy and the audience was completely immersed. The audience continued to stand and chant the bhajans for over 30 minutes, the drum beats in the back ground added more rhythm!!. I became an instant fan of this temple and have not missed visiting this temple whenever I go to Mumbai.

Coming to our original story, after consuming the prasad, we headed back to the Dadar Railway Station and we were hungry. Anil was alcohol hungry, we ended up in a small bar and Anil had a mug of beer. In one day, we had completed a pilgrimage trip and signed off in a bar!!

Bangalore's worst flyover at K.R.Puram

I spend like approximately 1 hour each way in my daily commute and I don't complain because I get on to work as I soon as get in, my driver will take care of the wheels. The traffic is by and large flows through, the stretch around the KR Puram takes around 20-25 minutes. This is one of the most chaotic intersections in the outer ring road where there is a railway station, an ocean of pedestrians trying to board buses towards white field road, hoskote and further. The great hanging bridge across the railway station sits there waiting to help....I wonder why the flyover designers wanted to have the outer ring road merge in to old madras road and again take a deviation!!.

The return journey through this stretch is the rewind of the onward events. It is very interesting to note there is at least one vehicle breakdown in that stretch every evening!!

STD/ISD Phone Booths in Bangalore

About 15 years ago in Bangalore, you would find the STD/ISD pay phone booths almost every 50 meters in the residential and commercial neighborhoods. Over the last 5-6 years, cell phone penetration is so high the the phone booths are phased out. I remember the day after I returned from the USA. I had some urgent official international phone calls to make. It took me more than half an hour to locate a phone booth. It took me couple of days to get my own cell phone with international calling options. While the earlier phone booths are phased out, they are compensated with the "yellow" pay phones for making local phones. These are installed in many groceries, restaurants and public places.

So is the case of internet cafe - with the entry of so many ISP and wireless services, cyber cafes faced the heat and many of them are out of business now.

Update: March 2013: Applies more to India
The way people use their cell phones has changed dramatically since last 3-4 years. Smart phones have literally phased out the home phones in all segments; urban, semi-urban and some rural areas. The person living in a semi-urban place now has a facebook account and there are the subsidized internet packages available on a daily basis!. The most rural areas are better served by cell phone networks than the basic telephone framework. There might come a day when a newborn baby is "assigned" a cell number, just like the social security number and may be used for tracking all the life events from then on :)

Aayo Rama!

"A...a...y...o R...a...m....a" : A tired man, a guy having difficulty getting up after sitting for long time, an angry mother unhappy with her kid's tantrums. All these people utter this phase, it is hard to tell whether it's voluntary or not. Well, this particular expression is very popular with kannada speaking people in India.

Other phrases or expressions people make when they are in the situation like above, "Rama Rama", Shiva Shiva, Panduranga, Sairam. Aayo Rama happens to be most popular with the people. I am not sure what's popular in the other Indian states.

The Indian gods must now be tired of helping people who have orthopedic issues, the younger generation does not involve the gods for such "simple" tasks. "Shucks", "Shit" or f... is enough for these guys... :)

IT journey from Ameerpet, Hyderabad

IT journey from Ameerpet, Hyderabad

Astrology & India

Astrology and India have strong connection since thousands of years. Kings were known to have a team of astrologers advising him in strategic decisions. Common people took help of astrologers to plan important events of life like match making ( horoscope matching), marriage dates finalization, house warming, child naming, baby showers, etc. While there is a significant portion of the people who don't believe, I think there is a strong following too.The present day astrologers have specializations matching the present generation needs; a) Education & Married life; b) Internet consultations;c)Politics; d)Corporate astrology/numerology; e)Vaastu Shastra; f) Naadi Shastra; e)Bollywood/Sandalwood movie naming; many more. While the low profile astrologers continue to operate from the word of mouth or referrals, the big time players use different advertising channels like print, television, internet to reach the masses. The advertising for internet/telephonic consultations have gained momentum in the last 5 years, especially in the US.The indian politicians are known to take astrological predictions/recommendations very seriously. Deve Gowda is known to offer puja/homa quite often, while Jayalalitha changed her name to get lucky. Some chief ministers are known to seek some structural changes to their residential quarters based on the vaastu recommendations.The genuine sounding revelations I have heard are related to the Naadi Shastra recitations. I believe there is a particular group of Naadi Shastra readers ( will add location details later) from Tamil Nadu, who are capable of revealing your past, present and the future - all looking at your thumb impression or finger print. I heard they can get your dad/mom/wife/sis/brother(s) names so accurately that it is hard to believe - Please note there are a lot of fake Naadi Shastra readers, so check around before you consult one!

Portland - Florence Trip

Our recent trip to Florence, OR was quickly planned within 2-3 days. Our travel involved 15 adults and 4 kids. While the guys worked out the logistics and the trip schedule, the ladies put together a quick plan finalizing the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The trip was eventful from the word "go". Some GPS systems could not navigate to the final destination. We had some official work to care during the trip. The first evening pot luck followed by drinks was awesome and relaxing. Saturday morning was a Rava Idly mela - more than 100 idlies were made and consumed. The guys enjoyed the ATV rides in the sand dunes. The families with kids took the bus ride in to sand dunes...this is was breath taking as the bus ride up and down the sand dunes provided a good sight seeing and a thrilling ride.

The spot light of the trip of the kayaking!!. 2 Kayaks and a canoe were part of the vacation rental. The funniest part was we tied a small rope to one of the kayaks to pull it back if the rider lost control or was scared. Saturday dinner was again amazing with over 5-6 items to choose from!!. I got locked in the bath room for over 30 mins and all my attention seeking efforts went in vain. My friends came after some time and flipped open the lock within a minute. The other spotlight was the horse ride along the 1.5 mile trail along the ocean. It was the first time horse riding experience for all of us and we had good time navigating, controling and talking to the horse!!. The return journey was along the Oregon coast (101N) which presented some breath taking views of the ocean. We took some beautiful pictures and reached Portland in the evening.

Good Bye America

While we are wrapping our current visit to USA, I wish to take few minutes to recollect some memorable events that happened during this time. One lovely gift was the arrival of my daughter. Except few unsettling events on the personal front, it was a wonderful, memorable years, time well spent.


Some of my key observations on the common man's life in the USA;


1. Reliable power & water supply - Except during major snow / thunder storms, there was never any serious disruption of power. The same goes with water supply


2. Influence of internet: Internet has become a way of life for working class people and above.

3. Car: Except few select cities, you need a car in the rest of the country to commute to work or for pleasure.

4. Medical Facilities: Amazing. In the beginning the process appears to be time consuming and unfriendly, but once you get used it, nothing like it.

5.Schooling: Not a major fuss, if you are moving from India. Primary education is free and state run schools do a great job here.

6.Libraries: One can borrow as many books as possible. The free library services far exceed the ones offered by the hifi libraries in India like british council library, etc.

There are still more ....but stopping here. What about things that I did not like? The list again is long ...but what is the point in cribbing? Instead appreciate the good things around? what say?

A pleasant dinner!

The warm weather was a welcome break and I could literally tell people at the office and outside were enjoying the sun break. This evening we decided to try out a new place for dinner. Since we had to return on time for a work related telecon, we picked a near by restaurant called Mary Callendar's. It's a cozy, medium sized restaurant. Their welcome lobby displays their specialty - freshly baked pies and pastries which are appealing. The other thing I noticed is their uniqueness in the menu. They were extremely friendly in offering the vegetarian options. While I tried the unlimited soup and salad, my wife had pasta with alfredo sauce. The kid's meal came free with one entree and a beaverage. The food was excellent and we did not have room for the pies!. Once back home, I did some researching; their online address is http://www.mcpies.com/ and they are present in the west coast. They are a big chain listing more than 130 plus restaurants and the PERKINS chain in Mid West, Pennsylvania belong to the same group of companies. PERKINS - We frequented this lovely pancake restaurant, during our stay at Mid West and North East.

Stir/Protests/Demonstrations

Isn't it surprising that we find so many protests/stir/demonstrations in India than the other democratic countries? While the answer is not simple, many things have changed in the recent past and still requires a lot of changes. I mean some time back, the administration in Bangalore came up with a list of places where the affected parties can hold their demonstrations. But is that implemented? I am not sure. The political parties lack the nerve to ban any large scale demonstrations or marches because these very steps are perceived to be the tools to demonstrate the authority or the popularity.

It is during these protests or demonstrations that the common people are inconvenienced. The roads are blocked, children cannot get to school, essential services are disrupted and there is a possibility of mob attacks. While disagreements, open forums and public meetings are required in a democratic setup, they need to moderated in a frequency acceptable to the local communities. It is the responsibility of each individual to raise his/her voice against these type of inconveniences to daily life.

traffic stoplight......

I took a long break from blogging, I am now back!...

Everyday when I get to work, I pass through about 7-8 stoplights and 3 rail road intersections. Every stop provides an opportunity to look around and catch up on things that I've missed - like an advertisement bill board, an apartment community or a restaurant or a store. In contrast, the stoplights at Bangalore offer a variety of time pass options...most of the busy lights have timers which count down the wait time. A lot of hawkers get on to the roads to sell flowers ( seen this in New York, no where else in US), news papers, auto cleaning products, sun glasses, etc. The "organized begging" goes on too...I have heard off late eunuchs are showing up on the Bangalore stoplights, trying to "beg" or extort money from the motorists. While the car passengers have an option to shut themselves in, the 2 wheeler riders at the mercy of these guys...I had seen eunuchs in Mumbai, where they ask for some money, when not obliged, will snatch from the shirt pocket...

About the technology associated with traffic stoplights, US is far ahead in terms of configuring the lights to support movement of emergency vehicles, red light camera, sensors for low traffic areas where lights change upon arrival of a car at the stoplight. Policemen rarely do traffic management, unless there is an accident, road construction or some special event. In contrast, the Bangalore stoplights are also being upgraded. I heard, some of them have still cameras, video surveillance. In addition, most of the stoplights have 1-2 policemen manning them. The mix of electronic controls and manual intervention work in tandem to support the massive vehicular flow. Hats off to the Indian traffic police, they do a tremendous job in keeping the traffic under "control" inspite of so many dynamic variations every day. When the lights turn green and the vehicles surge forward to criss-cross in the opposite lanes, that sight reminds me of the epic kurkshetra war where the warring enemies rushed to each other in full strength.

Good Bye 2008

Wish you a very happy new year 2009...Thanks for taking time to view my blog.

The year 2008 came and went in a flash. On the personal front, there were significant milestones or changes. We moved to a different city, I started working for a different customer and we visited India on vacation. I got an opportunity to visit my customer's vendor, which is quite a rarity in my area of work.

Welcoming new year is always refreshing. Over a period of time, there has been some difference in how I am celebrating the new year eve:

College days: New year eve used to be mostly at the Sardarji Dhaba on the hosur road near Madivala. It used to be popular choice for the engineering college guys, mainly due to the attractively priced menu and excellent taste. Also, drinks would be served from the near by liquor stores with absolutely no service charges!. All such parties would be complete only with a dessert at Arun Ice creams at Koramangala...The shop would remain late in the night!

After college : We would target few restaurants and pubs in the brigade road area...Then gradually we moved towards the resorts and far off restaurants. We also ad few celebrations at our friends' houses

While in the USA: Mostly with friends at their or our house. Focus is on having good time with family and friends. The parties generally start off around 7pm and go all the way up to 2-3 Am in the morning. A cake is cut to mark the transition to the new year!. Some new year celebrations that I remember in the US mainly due to some travel involved with each of the events;

2005: We drove from Pittsburgh to Waukesha, WI to meet with friend's family. Together we traveled to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. We then came back from LA to his place to celebrate the new year eve.

2006: We were in Space Needle, Seattle to witness the wonderful fireworks display

2009: We drove up from Portland to our friend's place at Seattle and had a good time