New Life..New Beginnings

The other titles I had in mind are

Search has Ended
Love of My Life...At Peace..
Hitched ..And In Ishtyle..
Sandwiched..
Online Shootings..A Hit!

Well, forget the last one. It doesn't make sense to me either. If you are smart enough and have been keen enough and if you have known me enough over the last few weeks or know me through someone who has known me through last few weeks, it would be no surprise to what I am hinting at.

Yes,finally its happening. All those filmy targets that I set for myself, all those fiery feelings of 'If I am getting married, I will only marry someone whom I have fallen in love with' or 'My marriage is only going to be via register marriage' or 'What's the hurry with marriage? Let me just chillax and get married around 27 , 28' are swept off my feet. I have now reconciled to the fact that love just happens, you don't plan for it, you don't wait for it, and you have absolutely no control over the nature of things.

The Beginnings -

Anup and I just came back from some movie and got into the only remaining opened decent restaurant in Madhapur - Shanghai Chef. This is a point to be noted as everything nice is fast disappearing and we found ourselves racking our brains to find restaurants in and around Madhapur other than KKD or Shanghai Chef. That's beside the point. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, I keyed in the profile number that nanna had messaged me and waited to see the results. I liked her at the first sight and started seeing few more snaps. I had already been briefed by mom and dad that the shooting would happen not in a regular set-up but at a some designated place where it be more casual. They also did prod me to call someone and take with me to meet her. With all that in my mind, I was quite interested to meet her.

Over the next few days the place and meeting details were getting fixed. Nanna had told me that her father would be calling me and fixing up the place and time around Saturday and asked if I was free. I told him I would be going to office and anytime should do. Saturday came and I was happily watching 'Rockstar' when  the call came. I took the call and told him I was in a movie and would be calling during the break. It set me to thinking what if he is gonna call my dad and tell about how I was at movie when I first called rather than at office that my father must have conveyed. This would then percolate to they perceiving me not being truthful and cancelling out my meeting. Crazy eh? Mind is such a crazy thing when its not under our control. Luckily for me, nothing of that sort had happened.

The Meet - 

It was decided that it was gonna be meeting at Chutneys, Banjara Hills, 4:30 P.M. Even though this was all an informal set up I was nervous like hell, I phoned my mom and dad and told them I would be going to meet her. They were quite busy with their work and wished me luck and let them know. I was expecting a little more reaction than that but I realized I was making this out to be more than it actually was. I phoned Anup to decide if kurtha is a better choice. He said a big NO and asked me to go on with a T-Shirt and jeans. With wardrobe in place, sun glasses, I set out for the restaurant. As I was about to get in after parking the bike I saw her getting into the restaurant along with her father. I thought to myself it would have been better if it was only her. To my luck as our first introductions got over, I got to know he had come only for dropping her.

We got a seat near one corner. Looking at her nearby I could see her smile more clearly and it was much better than what was in the photos. We started off with usual questions about each other bio data of what was in the profile, what was not in the profile, our college times and I was more curious to know about her singing capabilities. Just as the mood was about to set in, I got a call from Deepak. Not wanting to sound rude and knowing some problems at stake, I picked up the call wanting it to cut short.

5 minutes passed and I was sitting there still talking, silently gesturing a sorry to her and continued hearing. It went on little more, so I took her leave, and went away from the table to talk. It was then I realized being a highly dependent candidate is both boon and a bane.The module that was hitting on, noone else knew about it and he was calmly asking me to explain in clear words all the flow! I wrapped up the discussion as fast as I can and told him I would get in touch with him in another 2 hours.

I went back to the seat and apologized profuesly and also told her about the importance of the call. We then talked a little more about food preferences, outings, the idea of marriage, what our expectations are.Meantime, we also ordered a plate of idli each as I had a late lunch. She also seemed impressed that I had actually cooked upma. I sensed I could connect with her as the talks went on. She seemed cool, smart, trendy (she wore a gorgeous dress that day :)) and affectionate. What I loved the most is her passion for music which she has been doing regularly for over 7 years after office/college, her sweet smile and effortless talking, her interests in telugu movies. We decided to call it a day and move on as it was over 30 minutes since we finished our idlis and she was afraid they might shoo us forcibly. It would have been wonderful had it ended there with just enough moments on a first date/shoot/whatever, it didn't

"Sir, Bill"

This has got to go down as the one of the most embarrasing episodes of my life. At the time of the bill, I saw that I had hardly any cash left excepting some 80 bucks and it seemed card wasn't accepted with bill being only 120. She took the cue and paid for it. It was  really complicated back story to why I couldn't draw money but (my PIN wasn't working) and I was living on borrow and carry cash policy. Unfortunately the renewal didn't happen in this case. What a Timing I tell ya! I hoped she understood and I gave her a weak smile. The bill was paid and I also offered her to drop her home just to compensate for the bill payment but she refused and went off.

Everything went good and I needed some time to think, this is what I have told my parents. What happened next ...wait and watch..

My friends this post ends here now with a follow up coming and 'Sir, Bill' story is going to repeat and haunt me for days to come. No complaints though.. :)

Life So Far..Random Ramblings

Every day I am so full of thoughts I just wish I had Siri to note them down for me.

*Siri. What an ingenious beauty Steve has left us with. An intelligent voice response system with which you can send message, do dictation, pick calls, check restaurants, get directions, make to-do lists, set up alarm so on and on. Its endless capabilities are mind numbing. Of course the directions and restaurants thingy is only in US of A. I spent some considerable amount of time pouring through the great things that this is capable of doing and the praise for it is universal. Period. Chitti was telling me the other day when we met that speech recognition softwares usually get almost 50% of them right but Siri stands at 75 percent. That's astonishing. I just want to own the darn thing. Last checked - 16 GB unlocked stands at 31K. Not bad at all.

*When has  the browsers stopped becoming news? Just checked today Firefox has newest version with 7.x, Chrome - 15.x, Opera - 11.3. I am surprised no tech blog is covering it be it Mashable, GigaOm, AllthingsD. Maybe the news of browsers have lost the fizz and people don't care about it anymore. As far as my personal favorite goes its Chrome,  through and  through. I do miss the nifty little feature of Firefox CoolPreview plug-in though.

* I am becoming a terrible sleeper. The last four days I have been sleeping around 3,4, or 5 sometimes and getting up as early as 7 or 9. I am sure some bits of such pattern is responsible for my laziness and lethargic feeling I get every now and then.

* These late nights have first started off with watching 'LOST' or 'Heroes'. Last week though I haven't been seeing them at all. Strangely though I haven't been able to watch the movies that I have downloaded and kept. I have around 10 movies 'yet to see' and the one that tops the list is 'I saw the Devil' a thriller from Korea that's supposed to chill your spine quite literally.

* With lot of gusto I started my morning walks last week. I got up around 6:30, dressed my self and set out to walk up till Hitech city. It took me just 15 minutes of brisk walk one way. Felt refreshed and powered. But then Diwali came up, adding to a holiday and then pattern broke up. I hope to continue from tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

* Of late I have been talking some things that I shouldn't be talking about in the first place. Talking about people on their back feels so terribly wrong and upsetting. I need to make sure I keep my mouth shut and not to crib about people. Its just not worth a conversation. Everyone has something positive to take.

* I got caught lying other day when I told someone that I have checked their website but I didn't. The other person found out as I told what I assumed would be on the site.  That's the first time it struck me small inconsequential things like that, there is no point in lying. Just tell the truth, that you didn't and be done with that.

* Saw this wonderful thing the other day in bus. As the bus arrived, all the people at the stop got in and there were two girls left standing. Within few minutes, two guys got up and offered their seats. They then got down the next stop to take the next company bus. Women are wonderful beings and they need to be respected. It felt  so great seeing that not all have forgotten about manners.

* Talking about bus, every time I start to get down the steps of the bus once it reaches the office, at last step in the foot board I hear this resound thump with every foot stepping on it as people leave. Thup. Thup. Thup. It reminds me of scene in 'August Rush' where the kid hears every single sound that is made naturally or unnaturally. Love that feeling.

* Did kichdi today after a long time after facing many ill omens as if nature is acting against my will to let me cook. I got up today around 9, saw that there ain't potatoes or peas to do my version of green kichdi.
So got my purse and wen to IDBI to draw the money. Says no cash. Then I crossed the road, went to the ICICI, said wrong pin. Deja Vu. I already lost my pin twice, didn't want to screw up again and wait another 15 days for new one. I put my card in again, punched each number carefully one by one. It worked. So got the money, went to Shilpa market and bought peas. There wan't alu. Just as I came up I saw that rice in the packet was minimal. Went down again to super market brought the rice. I cleaned the rice, got the mixture and just as I was about to light up the stove, the matchsticks didn't respond! One strike,two strike, matchbox out. I was in no mood to go down and buy matchsticks. Just as I though there is some mystical being watching me and having fun in seeing to it that I can't stick to my game plan, there it was hidden in some corner of the racks a small matchbox full of sticks.

* Shocker of all the things - I have just finished seeing back to back two awful movies - Beastly and Blue Valentine. Beastly - a modern retake of the the classic 'Beauty and the Beast' with a modern twist. It dragged on midway and then it got predictable. Had some nice intimate moments though. Blue Valentine was outright pathetic. It's such a crappy film about two people's lives alternating between their current constant fights and irritations with each other to the initial romance when they hit upon. Neither of them was appealing and it had hellava skin show which wasn't appealing either. Just when I want to get back to the days of enjoying some really nice off beat movies I end up with this duds. Next on the list are - Cedar Rapids, and 'I saw the Devil'. Hell yeah!

*Have been stuck with the book 'Tigers wife' for what seems like eternity. Need to get over it and get to 'The Glass House'. The book is terrible but again I hate leaving books unfinished.

Started off the posts with points 1,2,3 but then things started popping random. Stuck with stars. 

Online Shootings - Status Call

As expected, my interest has dwindled considerably. There has been so  much pressure at office that I am exhausted thoroughly. There hasn't been any mirch masala action so far excepting seeing some snaps of the prospects that my dad kept sending. I haven't liked them much. I have been in touch with Sravani though through occasional chats. I am getting to know about her interests, likes, her daily routine and then there came work and its almost a week to try and get back on track. 

Random Rants of the day

Yesterday I had decided that I was gonna work only for 8:30 to 6:00 come what may as I saw no point working 12 hours per day. On top of that I want to do my own homework after I get back after proper relaxing. Anyways, it didn't happen and I am really surprised to see my lead tell me "why are trying to rush like a girl?". I need to start setting some protocol upfront and tell him straight things aren't going to work if I am pressurized.

I should also start cutting down on lot of relaxation time especially the time when we enter the office in the morning and the time it takes to settle down and do the tasks. Added to that there is a snack break which is totally avoidable. Let me see if I can start tuning myself to the timings I set for myself.

I read 'Frozen Thoughts' today and I loved the concept of incremental progress and start doing anything any day by treating every day as a new beginning. So here I am today about to read MDX for an hour before hitting the bed.

Turned 5

Today I complete my 5 years experience. Recollecting the post I had written quite long time back about the expectations and the pressures around, its starting to show the effects now. I have gained tremendous insights and had a great exposure in Paris, meeting different people, holding meetings, getting client rapport. Its been a great smooth ride so far. Appraisals this year around put me in the third place. I was little hurt as I believe I deserved a better rating for all the amount of hard work I had put in and the client appreciation I have received. Talking to Chandan on the same day I have got some rationale behind the concept. From management perspective they need to do justice for all and since I had been given an onsite opportunity, it was compensated in this manner. This is what I have gathered from good many people. I can't do anything either excepting that I believe I need to put in lot more effort for the upcoming year to have a speedy scale.

Turning 5

Coming to the matters at hand, I am not really happy with the way things are and it's high time I pick myself up and start taking my life and career seriously. I have always wanted to learn and master the SQL Server Analysis Services, that aspect of SQL server which deals with real intelligence. I am so looking forward to the next 2 weeks when things will heat up considerably and then we are forced to learn and master the technology to be able to meet the deliverable in this new heavy duty project release.One disturbing thing though is that I am being forced to work on SSIS and SQL big time as all our effort is still focused on the first stage of our data transfer that purely deals with this aspect. To make the matters worse, Chandan currently roped in on to our project is going to handle the aspects. I am happy that it helps the overall progress of the project but it bothers me a lot when not being in a position to take up the role myself.

Anyways its just a matter of time now when things will heat considerably and I will be treading on the SSAS once and for all. The larger picture of course is that I need to make myself as strongly proficient as possible and become self independent and to able to master and command all the aspects of SQL Server BI stack. This includes extensive reporting, cube building and MDX querying.

Deviating a little here, I absolutely hate the discussing the topic of salaries or colloquially speaking, remuneration with my colleagues or with anyone for that matter. With my close buddies, especially banda, hari, mote, venky, chitti it feels ok to tell. Again I only them if they ask and never ask in return. For me, what matters the most is my job and how I deal with it. There is one stand out here though - Venky (SwamiNaidu). More than just hearing and occasionally jabbing fun of my incremental progress as others do, this guy just rips the heart out with his candid assessment and makes you feel like a imbecile and stupid. Any other person I wouldn't bother but with this guy it feels like a wake-up call. He tells me on the face of it (over the phone) that I am doing worse than most people among my fellow class mates.

With marriage on the cards, this becomes even more relevant and if I don't do something, I might become just contended with the life and take it as it goes. Without taking names, I indeed feel really low and in the heart of hearts I want to really go out and get into the best leagues out there. I remember during my first shift I was desperately searching for a break and Accenture proved to be the only best thing I could hold on to. Of course, MS plans were also partly responsible. Now the reality is different, and this time around I wan to be the guy calling the shots, with at least 4 to 5 offers in hand and to chose and decide what I want to be in. For this to happen, among many things, I need to get focus and concentration, the kind of passionate learning I was doing during my initial stint at Satyam.

Turning 5 indeed has now hit this point hard and hope to achieve the great heights in future both for my life and my to-be wife. 

Choosing a choice - Darn difficult

Somehow yesterday I just got to thinking about few things that where we need to make a constant upgrades and it ain't easy at all. Here is how they go -

Facebook Profile Pic-

Facebook has so become ubiquitous that it has now become a common practice for everyone to conciously smile and always lookout for that profile pic. It's a huge thing amongst all the folks. Getting that right facebook pic is like a million dollar thing. I have observed this when I was roaming around countries. People literally shriek "Yeah! Got my facebook pic". Once you get it, you then start eagerly looking forward to comments and stuff. Needless to say I fall into this category. Its been ages since I updated my pic but I don't see any good ones yet, so I will let it pass.

Wallpaper-

This is the toughest of all. Ask around any geek folks you will find that the most difficult task of the week is to get a right wallpaper.One keeps searching for that elusive wallpaper that you want to get noticed by at least 2 or more people. This is more to impress others than having something that looks good and again this is the most sought after by Indians. If you start searching google the top most would be santa banta.and the wallpapers there suck big time. I am guy who loves wallpapers of animie or animation or  movie wallpapers and they are darn hard to find. Relentless search for one stop solution for my next best thing literally takes up weeks sometimes and now I have a permanent solution for it - wallbace.cc. This is THE greatest wallpaper site ever much better than the other chincese sounding wall paper site.

Ringtone/Callertune-

Both are difficult choices. I can't believe myself that I have had this ringtone of 'Ninne Pelladutha' for almost a year now. Before that I had the tune for 'Manasa' of Munna movie. I would love to keep one classical sounding music -calm, non disturbing and soothe full to hear.

Well, frankly when I started off I had so many things to write but the week itself was very hectic, so right now I am just wrapping it. Would definitely write a sequel to this.

Online Shooting - A month Later!

Funny how time passes so quickly. It's been a month now since I first started searching for my soul mate, my would be, my should be or my love. So the much awaited "shootings" didn't happen as somehow the Rajhmundry party were not ready for the shooting yet. Sad I just thought I can bank on this first experience to gain in-depth knowledge on what exactly happens in a shooting.

Anyways there are 2 more prospects that are actually offline that my dad has shortlisted. One by the name Sruti and the other girl who Mohan Rao Tatha knows  but are just waiting for the nakshatra match. Quite suddenly yesterday I got a 'Express Interest' from Sravani in Shaadi.com with all the favorable conditions both to my parents and myself. Looks cheerful, sporty, trendy, and one with modern outlook. Currently as per what she said in the profile, she is at US on onsite deputation and is expected anytime soon. She is smart enough to keep her full name with which one can find her easily on Facebook. That gets me to thinking it wouldn't be such a bad idea to keep mine too.  I am now very excited and curious on how to go about now. Should I or should I not become a premium? I am in the same quandary as before. I think she also has kept her profile very recently. Let me have round 2 talks with my folks and based on that I will proceed.

And yes, it turns out I gotta kuja dosham because of timing of birth. Tough luck now with all the mindless people zeroing on that aspect. That's about it. 

Mom's Pleasant Surprise - True Lies

Mom had me completely flummoxed with her ingenious act today and I would remember this for long long time to come. Early this week my parents had called me up and asked me to come to Guntur for weekend for my first debut (the details of which will come soon). Keeping mote's points in view I agreed as food is a major weakness for me. Since mom is staying at Guntur while dad is in Eluru it was decided that both mom and I are going to come to Eluru. Mom, a highly devoted worker, was very much reluctant to take leave on Saturday and top of that Saturday being only half a day, there was no point in taking a holiday.

She told me that she would be coming by Saturday evening. On Friday with all the packing done, I first phoned dad to find out if mom had taken the laptop away to Guntur as I was planning to do some work on it. He said no and that the laptop is still there. I then asked him about what he had for dinner and which movie was coming on t.v. It seems that he had a nice pizza with veg puff for accompaniments and he also told me that he was watching 'True Lies' and then we cut the call.

After 15 minutes I got a call from my mom. As I was really busy packing my stuff I didn't have time to pick up the call and only phoned her after reaching to the pick-up point near Keshav Reddy sweets. I told her about the huge baggage of clothes that I was bringing and also told her that as planned we would be picking her up on her journey mid way back to Eluru at Vijayawada to have a nice wholesome lunch. I again talked to her for 10 more minutes asking her about the dinner plans and what she was doing. She also told me that she was watching 'True Lies'. I immediately quipped "Arre nanna kuda ade chustunnadanta. Manchi movie maa" and I cut the call and told her that I would give a message once the bus starts.

Time moved on, I went from Madhapur to Nampally, pickup point where there is another 1 hour waiting time. During this time nanna called and asked me about where I was and I told him it doesn't look like bus is gonna come anytime soon. He in his usual tones blasted all the private road transport folks for harrassing people and then told me to give him a call once he reaches and he would tell the directions to take by auto. Got in the bus, enjoyed the movie, came to Eluru, got down, came home and cow-a-bunga! - Mom was already Home! Awesome mom! I gave her a tight hug and told her this was one of the best moments I would cherish. Even though it wouldn't have mattered waiting till 5 but I always wished she to be there to spend my 2 whole days. THE best surprise indeed. Now I know the WHOLE meaning of 'True Lies'. 

Big cheers to my mom and dad for playing his role well! 

Fun with Movies on Volvos!

Yesterday I was on the bus from Hyderabad to Eluru. Unlike the regular buses that start as expected and land at the destination as expected these buses are one hellava exception. They first take you from Madhapur to a pick-up point and then your waiting starts. I had waited almost hour and a half. Quite Irritating.

Much before net on the phone, I always used to spend my time reading some novel. They just whisk away the time and make you wonder if there was any waiting at all. Now I have altogether interesting way to do the same by reading the blog posts via the fantastic Google Reader app. Of late I am not having the time I need to read the blogs at office, hence the unread count keeps going on and at certain point you lose it. I can't remember when was the last time I was updated with Mashable/GigaOm posts. If I see any of my friends posts I would of course read it then and there and the same applies to some rare and best blog that I folllow especially Jabberwocky. There I was flicking through the Likaeable Bloggers category and reading all the new ones. I loved reading the one on Sports and one with Xena. So cute.

Once on the bus my thoughts were focused on the movie that was being played. Getting very impatient with the guy blocking my way in the middle who couldn't figure out his seat number and kept asking the driver (emandi seat number 44 ekkadandi?). It was right at the end. I pushed him aside, got my window seat and then got immense unbelievable satisfaction of watching the T.V. on a volvo. It was Allari Naresh movie and good fun too. It looked recent and I was little sad that the movie was in its second half. I unconditionally love all the journeys in the Volvo's for the sole purpose of watching a movie in it. I get so pissed off during those rides when I find that for some mechanical/electrical trouble, movie becomes unavailable. There is something about the journey and luxury of watching a movie alongside that makes the ride so very comfortable. Has anyone felt that? Of course that's not to say every movie they keep is a blockbuster but most of it, even though I might have seen it before, I still enjoy it. I think that's one of the great things here in India. Back at Europe when I was touring between the countries those buses lacked this basic commodity. I used to pity them a lot for missing this out but again they had WC fitted in the bus. That's something we need to catch on. Anyways if I haven't been clear enough so far, I LOVE volvo bus rides with movie in them.

Mom's Action Points and tasks ahead

One of the things about my mom and to lesser extend my dad is that they have certain things to tell and they want it done exactly that way, right away. Mom had two major gripes about me and she has her own way of telling it - like repeating it at least minimum 5 times. In those 5 times the tone first starts patronizingly, and then slowly picks up the speed and at the end I become a useless creature unable to maintain my daily life. Such it goes. I don't know, why don't they just stop with saying it once and hearing my response out. Nope, the show has to go on and you just can't do anything but listen.

First item on the menu is the maid's money. 
How in the world are we agreeing to pay 800 bucks just for cleaning the house, cleaning the utensils (which again I hardly cook, or don't cook at all according to them). Instead why can't we just pay 200 more and get our clothes washed by her? Unnecessarily I am just wastng away money. Frankly I am also not sure if we are paying high/low as I remember back when I was with Nikmo it was somewhere around the same price. Also, did I even think about asking around how much others are giving? It is certain that I am paying exorbitant price just for nothing.
Action Point - Fire the maid, ask around for cheaper options, or pay more and get additional work done (see point below)

Next up is Washing Machine.
Why didn't I get my stupid washing machine fixed even though its been one week since I moved? Why don't I get a plumber and get it fixed rather than watch a stupid movie on Saturday? (Just to be clear here my movie was in the evening and I don't know how these two link up). I am therefore utterly lazy and just don't care about the basic necessities of living. If you haven't figured out yet this and the one above together form a single point. Just for sake of clarity I am splitting into 2 pieces. The wholesome conclusion is that I either fix the machine soon or give little more money and get it done by the maid.
Action Point - Get the machine fixed.


Next is my hair. I have a huge dandruff problem.
Among umpteen ways to tackle it the best way according to my mom is rubbing lemon on my scalp on a daily basis. For some days I did and then I became lazy as I prefer to shampooing every day. When peddiah and peddama had come recently to Hyderabad they suggested some shampoo that they say is highly effective. Being the lazy person I am I didn't note it down which never went unnoticed by mom. This came to the surface again and then she tells me I have completely stopped caring about you. Why should I tell you? It's your problem and you should have written it down. I don't know what will happen of you. That small hair you have also will disappear soon and no one will marry you. Of course the last bit was in slightly humorous tone.
Action Point- As Indrani atha suggested to me I would consult a hair specialist as it is a problem within that cannot be cured by external shampoos or conditioners or whatever. It needs to be attacked on the source. When/Where? yet to be sorted out.

Lastly its the bed.
Suddenly when I am moving all my stuff out of I realized I didn't have a bed to sleep on in the new room This was on Monday and I definitely knew I had no choice but to borrow a bed from there temperorirly till the week ends. The first weekend though whisked away as I spent time getting things needed for the house like mugs, buckets, chair, shampoo, heater rod, etc. Also that was just one weekend where I spent my self fully occupied by going to Aliens Space Station and in the evening to a movie. I wanted to postpone this event to the next week. Only this week I am here in Eluru. Mom is understandably livid with fury as I didn't have the decency to buy new one and return back the old one soon. How did I not think that Avva's house would require beds and Avva would get tensed arranging the beds? Good point actually. As you grow old and knowing my Avva fully, if the guests start pouring in, which is expected sometime soon this month, she would want to arrange beds, linen and everything. With one bed missing she will get upset and starts getting cranky. That effect is seen on Amma and in turn on me.
Action Point- Go to Kurl-on and buy the bed as soon as I can along with a cot. 

Well..that's for now and lot more to come. Man, I enjoy having it written so that I can know where I stand in all these.

Masala Dosa maane Red Chutney is a must

After years and years of having Masala Dosa it is an unwritten rule that when you ask for Masala Dosa its not just the aalu that one should keep inside but also the red chutney made from onions. That's how it always has been in any tiffin center across Andhra for good number of years. This was one of major gripe when I was at Bangalore.

Sadly this is how it has become now in some of the tiffin centers here too. I really hate seeing Masala Dosa without red chutney spread in it. Period.

Online Shooting - Lost Opportunity

The girl who had accepted my interest the day before rejected me today. I guess she was waiting for the response and as it turns out another major fight had occurred between my dad regarding how in the world did I express interest without consulting them. I hate to say this but my dad is fully into the community thing. He feels the culture and the caste of a person is everything.

First I phoned mom and told her about this. She said go ahead, pay and talk to her. I then phoned dad and that's when the whole fight began. He also told me to wait for sometime from my end in the search process. We have now made a rule that I will not express any interest till they see and they say that it is okay to express my interest.

So yesterday night I sent the sms about my details to my dad and I don't know still what's the response for it. Today I logged in and see that girl has now declined my interest ( :( ). I feel really terrible now. I should have gone ahead and paid and phoned her.

Even now I can pay and give her a ring and find out about her. Something is holding me back. Anyways the search goes on. I can now foresee major fights ahead with my dad as I know that the only check they are ready to do is the caste and nothing else. I have decided that I will go through this process of first short-listing, sending them mail, wait for their approval, phone and fight about validating the disapproval two times max. After that I will entirely stop online thing and just go with what they say even though it might take LOT of time.

Again going back to the profile her partner preferences only reads for Sr. Managers, VP, Team Leads, from India, US, UK. Maybe she had accepted me by mistake or maybe she realized something wrong with my profile. Am I being stupid? I don't know, its all so confusing. 

Online Shooting - May Day! May Day! Got a Hit!

Finally after almost 30 rejections in 4 sites (yes, my counter need to be updated) I have got a hit yesterday from a beautiful and smart girl in Bangalore. She is of age 26 and working as an Architect and interestingly she was one of those persons who had in the partner preference with mother tongue as Kannada. Aaduvari matalaku arthale verule anna pata loni satyam ippudu bayataku vastundi. 

Anyways the flip side is both of us turns out to be Free Members. So all we can really do is just see the name and nothing else. I need to become a Premium member and that's where I am now little hesitant. It costs me about 5k for 6 months visibility which gives me the provision to send messages, chat with the fellow members, get profile highlights for 90 days etc. Should I take the plunge? As Patnayak says, "Really yaar, this is your long term life partner, you shouldn't be thinking about all that". Doing this would mean, going in with the Shaadi guarantee that says - "We guarantee you Express interests or money back". This in turn would mean something really might happen in the next six months which is kind of pressure situation for me.

Because of such thoughts, I have for the life of me I can't understand, started doubting the authenticity of interest expressed. Why did she chose me when she clearly had her preferences as people from US/UK/India? I know I am turning out to be a jerk but I really am getting tensed and worried about it.The thing is though I want this to happen, I don't want it happening real fast and I am looking at marriage somewhere next year.

On second thoughts I can always tell the would-be to be that I am ready for marriage only next year. The only problem now is broaching this subject with my parents. First about Shaadi.com which shouldn't be a problem but again I will put to grilling for my preferences. I hate to see a repeat telecast but I would need to do that.

And yes, finally I would like to admit that I was having a wonderful and over the top feelings all throughout the day yesterday. Getting your interest accepted is a real special feeling. It is now left to see how this will culminate.

Stats-

Interests Expressed by me - 45

Accepted so far - 1

Declined so far -30

Waiting for Responses - 15

Interests Expressed by others - 3

Accepted - 0

Declined - 3

Yippie!

Online Shooting - Week 4

As expected my interest levels have come down a bit with the lack of responses. I still do check the sites regularly to the extent of seeing if anyone has accepted or rejected my profile. All the people I liked or expressed interests in mostly had their partner preference to be of certain Mother Tongue or Religion/Caste specific to a community.

I see lot of good looking profiles from Bangalore/Delhi/Mumbai and also occasionally from Andhra/Kerala. Even though I knew that they had certain partner preference with those two criteria I was hoping they actually meant that first preference would be that and they are open to everyone. Apparently I am proving to be wrong. You see the site also gives you the ability to put 'Any' and 'Your Preference' both. Its up to the user to decide what she means. So number of declined have increased.

Over last week all I did was search and peruse through profiles all the way till page 33 when I thought enough is enough. Interestingly one good thing I have found out quite accidentally and which should have been obvious is giving me good reasons to take it as the way it is going. You see all the sites have more or less called me to inquire when I will be willing to change to premium membership, when I am planning to get married. Somehow I felt a bit choked and told them I will apply when I think time is right and not to push me further.

While 3 of them have just called once, the ones from my community site have called me at least 4 times by different persons so far urging me to jump. It is in one of those calls that I heard the guy tell me "Sir, daily we get at least 4000 profiles, premium membership will give you maximum availability". They don't end the call the usual way, "thank you sir, Is there anything else I might assist you" they just slam the phone down abruptly. No Kidding. Anyway the point to take away being 4000 profiles a day I know if I keep my frequency of checking weekly once I will now have new set of 30,000 profiles to check. Even if 100 people are logging in I would have 700 new people to look for.

Of course this 100 would come by taking out preference, salary, mother tongue etc.I also think its time I change my bio. This I have felt middle of last week much before Mr.Mote woke up from his slumber and gave me valuable tips. Somehow I know that what I wrote isn't as appealing as it should be and I don't see any emotional punches in it. Will give it a grilling tonight.

Knowing the Enemy -

The other major change I have done is to change the profile pics and play around it for a while. This morning I have also seen the other way round i.e. knowing the enemies. I began going through grooms and I see that I stand fairly good chance with this ( after setting some specific filters of country-India, Working as -"software", Age-"25-29", with photo visible to all,caste -...) on page 3. The first 2 pages the people were looking really bad. By removing the filters of 'software' and 'caste' I am nowhere to be seen in the first 10 as all the folks from all parts of country are getting piled up. Well that ain't a easy task pushing everyone aside.
Profile tweaking would be the first step definitely and then I am still not sure if I need to jump on the Premium bandwagon yet.

Stats -

Interests Expressed by me - 27

Accepted so far - 0

Declined so far -13

Interests Expressed by others - 3

Accepted - 0

Declined - 3

Online Shooting - Week 3

Finally the confrontation has begun, the one I didn't want and the one I know I will fight for. Ever since I have ventured online I knew that I had to do it in private and on my terms. Having my privacy intruded is a huge source of  discomfort for me and the way mom and dad keep asking questions I was sure my search wouldn't be pleasant.

So far there have been 2 major verbal brawls

Rejection - How to properly say NO to no -

Last week Nanna had sent me the photo of a girl which he had found the most perfect and rightful girl. He also went on to tell me that if I was okay getting married in the next year early months. The icing on the cake, I was told, was that usually in our community finding girls of that height and that fairness is nearly impossible and that this was a God sent gift for me. Anyways burdened with so much expectations and fully knowing that this girl doesn't meet one of the mandatory criteria I had kept for myself (a working girl), I finally had a chance to look at the photo.

I didn't like what I saw. I just felt she was little short, little stout, looking little aged and this is all from the photo.This is what I told them on the phone. Dad wasn't happy, Mom too wasn't happy. They kept persisting that in photos sometimes the girls don't come good and I need to see her in person. Like that's THE golden rule. Furthering adding to this bizarre logic is that the girl's is hailing from a town where Balu annaya's wife is hailing from. Even after telling them not to bother finding about her, my parents went on to do their own background search and their joy knew no bounds.

Everything was just perfect except me agreeing to it. I now am forced to see the girl even though I don' want to see her. Just irking them further was my stupid admission that I rejected a girl on the matrimony website hailing from Kadapa. I had a good 30 minutes hearing from my fuming mom and dad on the phone with my side of conversation being only saying 'ok' for every 30 seconds literally. I just wish they first had seen the girl and why I declined.

Drinking and Non-Veg- Really? How can I?

This is more to do with my profile. One of the things that I hated the most during Prat's profile set-up was my parents insistence that he keep his profile as 'Vegetarian' even though he loves chicken like a second skin. He later turning out to be a vegetarian for the respect for Gowthami is entirely different subject and yes, he has now turned back to non-veg.

I hated such display of profile. Its a blatant lie and I firmly decided then that I would never want to do the online matrimony with my parents hanging around. Circumstances now forced me to relent to them and I had my profile put up in the site few days back with the way I wanted.

Yesterday was when finally they really read that I had kept 'Drinks Occassionally' and 'Non Vegetarian'. So over the phone I had 20 minute duel strongly arguing with them, putting out all the sentimental punches like 'I don't like it but I am doing it for you. Please don't expect me to be happy with such display' etc.

Rethinking over what has happened I now feel 'Drinks Occassionally' can never be justified in the eyes of the  Indian thinking of uncles and aunties, no matter how truthful I am. As Chandan says "Your occasionally might be one week, how would they justify?" So I am not consciously hurt now when I have changed my drinking habits to 'Never Drink'. Besides it's the bride I need to impress upon not the father-in-law.

Putting it as 'Vegetarian' though is completely out of question.

This is the decision I have now come upon - I am no longer going to visit the site that my parents have forced me to change my preference.

Interests Expressed by me - 23

Accepted so far - 0

Declined so far -10

Interests Expressed by others - 3

Accepted - 0

Declined - 3

Online Shooting - Week 1 - Induction

As I now decided to start my search for my ideal soul mate I have begun the process of registration into marriage matrimonials. Just with few searches on the net I zeroed in on Shaadi.com and Jeevansaathi.com. I also then tried my hand at Bharatmatrimony.com.

Of course not all at same time in the same day. The first one was the Shaadi.com where I spent considerable amount of my time filling in all the necessary details, taking time talking about myself, my partner preference, doing some profile searches etc. I then observed few patterns -

1. Almost all of the folks don't prefer people who Occasionally drinks (i.e. me)

2. Real good looking beauties were looking at salaries of 7-9 lakhs

3. Searching for partners who have self-registered narrowed my searches down to 200 of which majority weren't that good looking and those who were were from either Bombay/Delhi (and yes they had Occossionaly drinks to their habit)

That's for now. After 2 days I edited bit of my description and re-posted my profile. Here is how it goes -

Hi, myself Karthik. Something about me - I love reading novels, films are my second life and friends come the next and family is always the first especially my loving mom. I am cheerful, happy and try as much as I can to avoid getting into any arguments. I always love to maintain peace around and am also easy to get along with. I like going out on trips at least twice over a year and love hanging out with friends.

Both my parents are working as bank employees. My dad works as Senior Chief Manager in Andhra Bank while my mom is a clerk. I love my mom the most and of course dad the second best. I have been very fortunate to have such sincere and hardworking parents teaching us all the live's best values.

I always believed in getting married a la filmi style finding the right woman at right time at the right place and had told my mom vehemently that if I get married its going to be love marriage. Reality seems much more different though. I have now decided the best way to go about is through net to which I have quick access most of the times. I realized matrimonial sites are fantastic platform to look for people who have similar set of interests and ideas and am thoroughly enjoying the process of finding my wife-to-be.

I like blogging and I reel off all my frustrations or my feelings through my blogs giving me absolute peace. Am an avid movie fan encompassing all genres be it English, Hindi, Telugu, Japanese etc. Love eating food and a huge fan of Chicken Biryani/Noodles. I also enjoy reading about latest gadgets and gizmos. Am a huge fan of Apple products. That's about me in short.

Hoping to find the nice and caring person with whom I can share and enjoy the life's next adventerous journey.

I added few more photos, got my cell number registered and before anything else I created another gmail id. Interestingly my activity monitor says it's a healthy 100% and also tells me its important to maintain so.

Basically I hate caste system and am pretty much open to anyone for marriage except people of Muslim religion. Nothing against the community but just that I may not be comfortable with it. Keeping this in mind I hadn't really gone to any community specific site so far.

After a week of searching I realized everybody has set of preconceived notions and reservations with their own communities hence I have relented to put my profile there too. Surprisingly the site is much more friendlier and sophisticated, quite in the leagues of jeevansaathi or shaadi.com

Well here is my ranking of the four sites in the descending order -

1. Shaadi.com - Fantastic site, excellent search features, large database.

2. Jeevansaathi.com - A naukri.com venture is sure to get full marks. Perfect.

3. Aryavysyamatrimony.com - was expecting large crowd of gultis being here. I then realized this community is not specific to Andhra, its all over India. So I guess searching here I won't be losing much. Just registered to it today.

4. Bharatmatrimony.com - Horrendous site. After signing up, I got a call, a real call from a person enquiring all my details when I am in the middle of my work such as my name, occupation, father's name, address, etc. Every other site had an IVR with press 1 to confirm option. Secondly, site itself looks like an outdated garbage version of v1.0. Not aesthetic and not good profiles too. It put my interest off.

So far in the first one week the stats stand as follows -

Sites registered - 4

Interests Expressed by me - 12

Accepted so far - 0

Declined so far -4

Interests Expressed by others - 1

Accepted - 0

Declined - 1

I guess I will be doing this series of posts and quite frankly am enjoying the process. The whole wait time adds to the fun. Let me see if my interest levels are maintained as I go on.

Shooting has Begun!

After years of appearing unfazed and quite happily shrugging it off as a nice family joke where everybody has fun asking questions like "when, why so long, shall we start searching now, people are asking etc." the time has now come to get to the reality. This has been a post in making for almost months together now but never materialized just because I never though I would go on bride-hunt and the whole process looked very cheesy to me. The time now has come to be part of it and its proving to be much more entertaining and adventurous than I thought. Before I proceed to it I just want to recap about how this renewed interest has first begun.

Around a month back I had almost 2 hour long discussion with Mote on Skype. This was our third skype conversation and the last one during my stay at Paris. He is one guy whom I have lot of faith in and look forward to his opinions and thinking. For this particular time I poured my heart out about my thoughts on marriage. Marriage for me has always been knowing someone through months or years, understanding their likes and dislikes, and then finally tying the knot. What I really want is to get married by falling in love. If every step of your life all you do is select, why is it that when it comes to marriage you go by the traditional way of hunting a bride purely based on looks, weight, height etc. I always stuck by this reasoning. On top of that how compatible am I to accept someone , a complete stranger into the life I have set for myself.

I have been leading wonderful life so far in the last 4 and a half years since my job has begun. I thoroughly enjoyed my bachelor's life hanging out with friends, roaming around, spending lot of empty time doing nothing, downloading movies, reading books endlessly on weekends, just sleeping, not tiding the room, having binge parties on the weekend so and so forth. As the last year started ending I realized much of fun has come down and quite frankly life started becoming boring as most of folks have spread out and it wasn't that great. I started going alone to movies, started spending time all alone by myself.

This was exactly what Mote had told me. Same life cannot come back and that one has to move on. This is what maturity is all about. It doesn't mean that marriage life cannot bring back the fun with friends, it is just that life has to go on. Moreover looking around be it Chitti, Niks, Nikmo, Venky all have some or the other criteria stopping them from taking the marriage step. I had nothing in the pipeline. So what was it holding me back?

I couldn't come up with proper answer except that by next year( which was how I had planned to start of my bride hunt) I wanted to reduce at least 5 kilos and make myself fit. I know it was foolish thing to keep but reality is easier said than done. So there was nothing really stopping me and I am not looking at Post Graduation anytime soon. He again advised me to think it over and start taking steps. Finding right person requires right amount of energy and time to be spent.

We then ended the call and all the remaining days marriage thoughts weren't on my mind. The topic again took a solid shape with my recent meeting with the other alter-ego Nikhil. Nikhil, Rajavardhan and me had a nice dinner at Cafe Bahar relishing on the mouth watering kebabs and chicken biryani. Just wanting to catch their opinion I brought the subject of marriage.

Deja vu, they exactly said what Nikmo, my mom, my dad, my uncle had said -"What exactly are you waiting for? you don't have any plans yet, why don't you at least start searching?". That is when I made my decision to start the hunt. What am I losing anyway but instead would be gaining much needed distraction and engagement from my current kind of stressful life.

I came back to home and told my mom that I was ready and that they can start putting the word out to people. As expected mom got all excited and went on telling about getting the gothram done, this done that done. Since there was a huge function gathering next day in order to avoid embarrassment of people checking me out and telling me "Finally we heard you are ready" 20-30 times, I told them to broach the subject up till September 1st.

Until then I have started my own bit. Read on to the sequel,

Random ramblings

First off, when I was talking to Srinu today, he casually asked me when I was planning to marry. I casually told him maybe next year or year after that.

"2 years aa..vaddu babu..chala late aipotundi"

Then there was this one from my mom "tvaraga pelli chesuko ra. andaru oka la vundaru. kondari age avute face mudaraipotundi. Pratap chudu ippatiki koncham young ga unnadu". Mom was so darn clever. She conveyed exactly what Srinu said albeit in a circuitous roundabout manner.

I strongly believe in the dictum "If I think it doesn't apply to me, I ignore it and laugh it off". This applies to any taunting, teasing, that my friends do. It really doesn't bother me as there are too many things in my life apart from these to bother with. Age is something that has stuck a little hard.

I can see whale of difference between mushy-me and no-mushy-me and thank god for the brave step I took to take it off. Maybe back then I realize now that everything was perfectly justified when they kept referring me as looking aged, looking old etc. But now with the new look I certainly don't feel old but why do people still referring to me as old. When it comes to age, they go ballistics on hearing I am still 25 (when i was 25). They always say I am somewhere around 28, 29.

I thought I had two solutions for it -

1. Reduce weight

2. Reduce Weight

and Reduce weight

As Balodi bhai puts it "If you are slim and fit, even if you are bald you will look like a hunk". That thought put me in high spirits for very long time until someone else told me "Bhai, i think its got something to do with your shoulder length. You look okay. "

And here is where I rest my case. I am happy the way I am and the way I look.

Unlawful law of Temptation and Control

I am so sick of writing all my weighing troubles now that I don't even feel an iota of guilt for the airy promises I have made such as the ones below -

Anu, if at all you really read this anytime, understand some day very soon without bloating about and keeping it under wraps, I would show you how disciplined I can really be and prove to me, myself and me alone that living healthy and fit is the best way to live.

I have been promising Anu that I will jog for the last three weeks and I haven't been able to fulfil the wish though.

I vow now to stop eating rice, oily foods and anything that got to do with fat inducing crap. And to Nikhil - "Dude, I definitely am going to keep track of number of days starting this vrath/fast". Watch out!

Those are the golden words going around ages and none of this I have kept up. Some thoughts that keep recurring in my mind are

"If there is one and only one thought that keeps recurring in my mind day and night, every single minute, every passing hour, every passing day that is of losing my weight and staying fit, how hard is it to control my mind and discipline my body? " (Apparently it is hard).

The other one is from one of my can-be-watched-100-times-without-getting-bored list of movies 'Sister Act I' - "If you wanna be somebody, if you wanna be somewhere you better wake up and pay attention". Actually this applies to two things one for writing, one for maintaining my body.

Both these dastardly thoughts too go pfff the minute the main topic of this post kicks in i.e. of Temptation. What happens is this, I start off my day with thought of not eating any rice, any oil, anything that is fat worthy. If anyone of these law is not abide, my mind automatically states that it is perfectly okay to restart the next day as I have already violated the rules.

"I ate pongal today that is made of rice and dal. So I can eat chicken biryani today."

"I worked so hard man. What am I working for if not for food? I can and should eat something substantial today to fill the hungry stomach- chicken noodles. Tadaaan"

"What are you having today? Noodles? Nahi yaar, you are tempting me too much. I will also eat noodles today"

"Choclates at the desk. Run..Run..Run."

"Second serving, third serving, gobble it up"

Temptation and control make your mind take crazy decisions. Even if I have successfully maintained my controlled diet for a single day, it is enough for my mind to tell my body that I am at liberty to celebrate and bombast about it to all the town with an excuse to eat as much as my heart desires. Amazingly, I was not alone in this as I discovered someone else telling me the same.

One great thing I have learnt is shopping is the best thing one can do to get back to reality check. Ill fitting clothes, lose shirts, really broad pants are enough to make you feel disgusted with your bulging stomach. Add to that the ridicule that friends bestow upon you and the ill reputation that one builds up around as with me -

"Karthik, kabhi bhi chicken se door nahi reh sakta hai yaar"

"arre bhai mein ek saal se dek raha hoon, he is not going to change"

"He is pathetic. Absolutely no control. Happily asking for one more cake. You should control dude"

Again an open question now, can I or can I not keep up my promise this time until the next post? Only Karthik can tell and he will.

P.S. Started this post 2 days back and feeling so relieved to complete it.

P.P.S Wanted to make this as short as possible but I realized I have absolutely no control on the length of the matter be it in official mails or the blog posts. Quite heavy on the head I must say.

Not so good feeling

I have done something today that I am not happy about and feeling terrible about it. After having collecting my bike insurance papers from the agent around 7'o clock, I had dropped Debasis (my team mate) at his place at Begumpet. We then sat together and had burgers chatting away for a while. I then started off back to my place. Just as I was about to increase my pace, I saw a small handicapped kid asking for lift.

I slowed down and he got on the bike. He said he had to go to Ameerpet. I told him since I was going to Jubilee Hills, I would be dropping him at the Panjugutta junction. The rain has started pouring heavily. As I kept on going forward, he was telling about the difficulties he was facing in finding a job. Knowing someone in Uppal he had come here from his village to find a job only to find that he had no way of contacting them. Having exhausted his money in searching for them, he wanted now to go to SR Nagar as someone had told him that there are some opportunities for work and that was where he was heading at 7:30 P.M. in the rainy night. He also told me that he had 500 when he had come to the city and now it was over.

That ticked me off on hearing it as I knew what was coming next was if I had any money to offer. Instead, he didn't do any such thing. He was just telling about his current situation. Since I did not how how far SR Nagar is from Panjagutta and vaguely remembering that SR Nagar is really from Ameerpet, I mentally decided to drop him off at the cross roads as expected.

That is what I did after 15 minutes. I dropped him off and it was still raining badly. He thanked me, looked around for a while and then started walking ahead with one leg limping. I moved a little and then gave him Rs. 200 and told him he can get catch any bus and that would take him to Ameerpet or SR Nagar.

In the next 5 minutes the rain stopped completely but by that time I felt terrible and really bad on not helping the chap. I could have easily dropped him and maybe come to Jubilee Hills via Krishna Nagar road, though I am not completely sure. Still, I had nothing to lose as this was a Friday and neither anyone was waiting nor I had any plan.

All the way back I was thinking about the same thing. I hope he does get some job and do well. From now on I would be more kind to people and not close off any affection.

Come on its not Common

Nothing much but exactly as the title says, ' come on' is not ' common'. Its a mistake I make and also by many I know of constantly using the latter for the former. The first time it came to my notice was when Anu brought it up on facebook when she replied back to something I said "What is common?".

From then on I have ben very conscious of my usage. To my utter horror I discovered that in my play such occurence had crept in several times.

Its really funny how people just accept it and move on. Have you also been doing it? Time to make it uncommon now. Come on, you can do it.

P.S This is my first ever post through mobile using swype and in 13 minutes tops with least amount of correction. Freaking awesome, ain't it! Now I no longer need to crib about holding back my thoughts to blog and forget about it.

Blogging anytime anywhere guaranteed! Take that Iidiots!

Laptop Blues..

I love my laptop and having been relentlessly using it for the last 3 and a half years, I can't see myself living without one. In fact my connection with cyber world dates back to pre-engineering days of downloading hundreds of softwares such as anti-virus, desktop gadgets, utilities, games, anything under the sun be it free or commercial. It then moved on to more suave pass times such as torrents and then I never looked back.

In my addiction to my passionate hobby of movie watching I sometimes overstep the boundaries and have resulted in abusing my laptop to no end. Within 2 years it lost all its cool and literally has become a oven of sorts. Within span of 20 minutes it goes uncontrollable heat levels and if you are new to using my lappie you would be shocked with the first taste of that emanating heat. I am used to the heat now. Changing the battery, motherboard at the cost of over 10,000 rupees didn't help my cause at all and the only respite I have is that I really don't use my laptop on the 'lap' but on the 'top' of the table. The freedom of working on my laptop without the power has been taken away permanently.

Making my life much more miserable is the fact that it cannot run without power. Power cut, you are cut is the mantra. All your information GONE, unsaved information GONE, movie download in the middle GONE, data transfer halfway completed GONE, GONE GONE GONE ...pfff...vanished in thin air. I have experienced each and every one of this and much more that I care not to remember. Since last year's July I had been seriously mulling over buying a new one for my own. For me its just pointless working with some piece of metal garbage that puts my heart and mind bitching constantly against each other. I just don't deserve this. It was driving me crazy.

I knew this was a highly sensitive topic that needed to be carefully handled before broaching it with my mom and dad. I was fully determined to get one during last year boxing day period of US. That dream was broken and shattered when I came to know about my Paris trip. Nothing much to complain and it gave me some consolation of avoiding any major fights with my folks at home and I totally forgot about it.

During my stay at Paris, around March I had come to know that all employees who were SSE and above (that's me) will be getting a compensation of 50,000. I was completely stunned and I could literally see some lappies with wings circling around head. For the first time I wanted to ask myself, and believing myself God indeed is a GOD! THUD! Stamped - Laptop this christmas - Guaranteed!

Chapter closed! Zipped! Boom! Hurrah! Party..party..party..

But, yes there is this ugly butt problem. Something unexpected had happened. This is usually not the way that can ever happen with Prat but it did. He had accidentally broke his laptop and the cost of repairing was almost as good as buying a new one there. So tadaan, smart that he is and also now living with his lovely intelligent wife, decision making wasn't hard. They needn't consult anyone. Two days later they had brand new kick ass laptop at their doorstep with over the top configuration and all the bells and whistles that comes along. Next logical and stupidest thing they did was to send it back to India into the safe custody of my parents during the last 5 months.

If you are a smart-ass, by now you might have figured out the dilemma I now face. Since you aren't, by looking at your dumb quizzical look, here is how it went.

1. Dad call tech
2. Tech come take laptop
3. Laptop fix, working,
4. Dad go tech, take laptop.
5. Dad go attic, put laptop

Around a week back, I accidentally slipped my thoughts to my mom that I am planning to buy a laptop this year. I have been doing a lot and I mean a lot of searching for the dream laptop that I needed with reasonable price and I was confident, totally 100% confident that I was completely in reach of getting it around 33K max during the sale period. The config, just to drool over it, was was Intel i5 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 640 Gig Harddisk, Dolby speakers and DELL. At least once in a day I keep checking if it has got cheaper, little cheaper at least.

From the wide range of history that I know of the folks who got their laptops I was 1000% confident that I can get the same damn thing around 29K too. Come on, the other icing on the cake being the US market is under going one of the worst sale crisis and discounts are the only way PC market can stay afloat. This christmas its gonna be like no other. Every dream that I have built around this beautiful desirable thing has now been rammed against the wall.

My dad truly is a genious. Even though I had told this to my mom more than a week back and we did have a minor tussle arguing about the use of buying it, I adamantly told my mom that this has been something I have been waiting for years and not a random decision. Also, I added that compensation can take care of all this. She agreed and I had won the battle only to realize it was to be fought again.

Last Sunday, as we were coming back from darshan at some point the topic of money had come.

"Nayana, ee vache year varuku dabbu jagrataga karchu pettukovali..pelli chesukundam anukunav kada. ala ani enjoy cheyyadam maneyaku, baaga tinu, bayataku po. ee time lo ne nuvvu baga enjoy cheyyalsindi."

"sure nanna..nenu konni office wear konevi unnai ante..prastutaniki peddavi emi konevi levu..flat gurinchi nenu kuda alochistunna"

"good..adi rami reddy to matladanu, kani kudar ledu ra. evi kaali levanta. Inkoti chuddam le."

"sure nanna.."

"adokati..nuvvu inko laptop kontannanavu anta amma cheptunde..."

Silence. I knew the first bomb had been silently dropped. I know where this was going and also knew where this will land. Sadness just enveloped within myself and I could feel that sorrow was beckoning me to lie in its cruel arms and padding me to sleep with it, making me silently cry and challenging me, in fact daring me to go ahead. So I went on...

"avunu nanna..naaku eppadnundo konalani vundi.."

"nee laptop vundi kada ra.."

"adi old aipoyindi nanna..chala heat kuda vastundi..power idi adi chala problems.."

"ok, mari anni di vundi kada DELL..manchi laptop, baga repair ayyindi, chala bagundi adi teesko.."

Another brief silence. I lost it. I do not know how or why but i knew there was no going ahead now. Life indeed is a cruel thing. Why am I getting this treatment? As my thoughts rattled on in my depressed brain, the rationalization went on..

"utta cinemala kosamaite nuvvu laptop teesukoni waste..ledu naaku project kosam kavali..naaku aa high end config daani kosam avasaramu..deento kaadu ani aite cheppu..ok..naaku no problem..teesuko kottadi..emi ok na?"

What am I to tell? It's precisely for that very reason I need the new laptop, enjoy the movies in better aspect ratio 16:9 widescreen, dolby. Ever since I saw it in Kalyan's laptop I couldn't come over that feeling. Also yes partly it would indeed help me with my work too, I can take it along anywhere I want, I don't need to be constantly plugged in, no longer heat and goddamit its Win 7 Home Premium with 640 Gig and 4 GB RAM! Isn't that reason enough? Isn't that joy enough? Why should some things in life always have to be a justifiable cause.

"pratap di chala old nanna.."

"old sare le..work cheyachu kada..adi kakunda nuvvu antunna DELL ee laptop kuda. anavsranga enduku waste cheyyadam. nuvvu daani kavalante higher configuraiton ki marchuko extra vi add chesi"

Another silence. On the contrary, trying to get back to my rational mind, maybe I can do some upgrades to the laptop much cheaper, more RAM, more Harddisk, better processor, just maybe, i don't need to spend that extra 50 grand. So the supposedly sensible, truthful, thoughtful, budgetful, rational mind of mine keeping in view of the PROS and CONS of the situtation has rationalized and made me say

"avunu le nanna..correct ee..chustanu..enta hard disk add chesaru nanna"

"emo ra..teledu..chudali..initiki vellaka nenu teesi chupistanu..chudu..nuvu actual ga teesukoni po..mememi vadatledu daani.."

Fast forwarding to the present day moment, yesterday I had mind boggling sound effect when I switched on the laptop to see the movie 'Shutter Island'. I was content and delirious at this unexpected outcome. Maybe somethings can be adjusted, maybe I didn't need the new laptop, maybe I can upgrade, just maybe..

I sealed my fate today just around 3 hours back when I told my dad that laptop indeed was great and I liked it. Dad kush and he also told that he felt he had forced upon his decision and was in fact planning to shell out all the money for the new one by himself. Hearing my verdict he pointed me rightfully about how good the money can be utilized for something else..True indeed or is it?

Have I shot myself in my arm again.. I think so. Pouring my heart out in this eloquent post, I indeed realized I speak too soon and I should have stuck to my stand. I just want my laptop. I just realized how much of turmoil I had gone through and the mountains that I built upon for the new one as I write this post. I even had checked out the local prices at the Dell center the very first week I came back from Paris.

Good lord! Why am I such a pain in the backside? Why do I chicken out? I guess the only way to find out is to first by figuring out the costs of upgrade. Maybe mentally it may give peace and the true joy is only in buying a new laptop.

Amen!

DTC Memoirs

Yet another farewell gives me a chance to refresh and go back to those wonderful peaceful moments of the past, when things were just settling down. I have so much to say that I thought I will have a post on this for my blog. Here it goes.

The Beginning-

On the first day of landing here at Hyderabad, during my orientation, it was a very unpleasant thing to hear that I was put on bench. It also had some weird bay name to it too. I had been promised skies (was told that I would be working for Microsoft you see, thank God that didn’t happen) but landed in gutter. How stupid can it get? Over the next few days my grumbling came down and I was enjoying my bench days bunking right after lunch/gym in the evenings. Even during those times I met up some wonderful people who were in the same soup. Human mind is really funny. The joy of finding someone who is undergoing the same emotions with the unexpected results ( be it bad marks, bad dress, wrong address or as in this case sitting on bench after moving from company). It was during the same time that Nikmo and I were on full on diet mode, eating minimum food, doing some small exercise in the morning and staying light. I had also joined the golfing sessions by my aunt at Boulder Hills. On one particular day I got a call from Pranav asking me to meet him the next day for a project assignment.

For some reason the next day I was running late to office as I had completely forgotten about the call. I was doing little extra golfing time, when it suddenly struck me that I had something important to do that day. Putting my helmet on, I zoomed like a maniac on a high snaking through the heavy traffic and landed HDC around 9 minutes flat. Still panting, I called up Pranav and got the room number. Went to washroom and cleaned up myself to make myself bit more presentable. I just stayed there for two more minutes silently thinking and telling to myself that no matter how the work is, I hope I have a good team to work with a nice lead. It is a statistically proven fact that 90% of the people quit because of the managers/leads and this being my first move, I was little apprehensive. Entering the room, the first relief I got was seeing the young, fresh smiling faces. That kind of did it for me, hate being with budde log. No offence to nobody. I settled down and Pranav rattled on about all the abc’s of the project. Sounded good, with a transporting background and my ears pricked a little higher on hearing that the project was being done in collaboration with Paris team. I had also joked to my mom that I may go to Paris on that day when I called her up to catch up with the new project. Just drifting off a little here, in one of my first ever play that I had written, one segment carried off a conversation between wife and husband arguing over the issue of ownership of T.V. as wife want wants to see Bigg Boss whereas the husband is all rooted for IPL Semis. There is a dialog where the wife chides her husband that he tells virtually everything to his mom, even being as stupid as telling about the bug status. A bit of confession, I may say, I am slightly like that in reality and maybe the inspiration was rooted in me. I really like telling my mom everything and sometimes I tell her unnecessary things about deliveries, deadlines etc. So that day it was all about what my project was, number of people in it etc.

Work initially wasn’t much as I was given the task of testing. It was around December I had joined and team at Paris were going on long leaves leaving behind substantial amount of work for offshore. I was introduced to Anuradha and was told to take the KT from her of how the Corporate Website and Back Office works. One of the legacies I carried forward from my Satyam Days was my ability to go to trance-like sleep state where I am half-awake twirling the mouse up and down and staring at the computer. I was notorious for this and I do this usually when I don't have much work and right after good lunch. Sushma, another team mate of mine, along with me were involved in taking the sessions. Much to their horror and my embarrassment, during the course of KT, having Anuradha in the middle and we both on the sides, I was literally drowsing through the session yawning sometimes, struggling to keep my open. Luckily, being the genteel lady they were, they never complained and in fact Anuradha used to continue the sessions with slight remarks of ‘Karthik, I think you can go have a face wash now’ with a huge smile on her face. It also happened that sometimes even that was not enough to keep me awake. The sessions have been the toughest to attend to. To justify my stance I would say it wasn’t their fault but it was the objective of the session that’s at fault. Imagine a person teaching about website navigation as simple as ‘Go to this Menu->Click on this sub-menu->Click on this item’ for every page there is that we maintain and then after reaching the page explaining about all the elements of the page – ‘here you give your first name, here last name’ for over 40 minutes in same monotonous tone without a break. Why couldn’t it be as simple as ‘This is the website, do whatever you want and discover it’. That’s how my second project induction was at my earlier company which again dealt with a website front. The next month the work was at bare minimum with one task of a package and some debugging of reports.

Recollecting my initial times, chatting with clients was a bit funny. Back at Satyam, we dealt all our communication through mails or meeting and never with office communicators/chat. I remember asking Mote about how I should reply for a smiley and when to put a smiley, which is appropriate etc.? There is always the line that we shouldn't cross and all that crap were there. As we moved through cycles, through weekly status meetings, through the bug fixes, life began to gain momentum and for one particular time it got pretty hot with 5 whole days of torture for fixing a peculiar bug. I also got one of the best compliments too by our then manager Benoit for value-addition for a job he had assigned to me in quick time. There is whole new back story to it which I definitely ought to blog sometime.

We as a team were enjoying the whole process before the honeymoon period ended as Benoit was taken over by another lead at Paris - Idriss. His way of dealing things had shook each and everyone out of their happy cozy lives and united in a way we never wanted - frustrated and angry. Nobody liked giving status updates every half an hour, nobody liked doing multitasking and yet maintaining all the deadlines, nobody liked multiple meetings, and most important of all nobody liked escalations. Too many problems but we had one cool head Babar for us, shouldering all our responsibilities and to see that we weren't under scanner all the time. In fact, we went one step ahead and were firmly in the director's seat dictating our terms. There are lot many more things that had happened after that and not everything was exciting in terms of the workload. I was working on DTC part time and Presto most of the times and was in this mode for quite long not really facing large brunt of the project.

Let me now just highlight the best times -

Coffee Breaks -

Babar spear heads this meetings with his amazing in-depth knowledge of Indian history, mythology, Real estate, police, love, kidnappings ..err.. almost everything under the sun aptly named by all as the 'walking wikipedia' a.k.a wikitalkie. Between 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on most of the days we gather as a team and go to our tea breaks. Once we settle down, we are transported into a whole new world and time cease to exist. We start with some topic as trivial as everyone's favorite food and then see the discussion going to abc's of lodging an FIR. Sometimes we stick to one and everybody has something or the other to say or add and it will be good 30-45 minutes before one of us realize that we had come to office cafeteria. This break up is done with huge reluctance. I can still savor those lovely moments. Happily enjoying the fantastic unexpected sojourn with your lead right their leading the party.

Meeting Minutes:

Meetings..hmm..meetings..just the word itself gives me that warm pleasurable feeling. Having worked in projects before that had not many meetings and little less people too, the meetings at DTC gave me ample scope to vent out my feelings and blabber rubbish continuously. For the first two months it was chaired by Pranav and it was like attending a convent congregation, performing the task of taking down the defects methodically and mechanically, planning for the upcoming weeks and ending the calls.

Enter Babar, exit Pranav, and voila it was just , AWESOME! We were no longer under the 'Eye' and free to do whatever we want. We enter the room and Babar starts off the calls. Meanwhile Joey, Sushma and I will be busying ourselves with games on my kick-ass phone only to lend support when its needed. Sometimes, we just go to the call fully knowing it was gonna be a 10 minute ritual but we utilize it to the full 1 hour booking doing nothing but good amount of idle chit-chat pulling each other's leg, discussing about vacation plans, thinking about a possible trip (it's still an open point, if you ask me), discussing about parties, or just idling away time. During the not so busy cycles of delivery this was quite common and we used to have ball of a time during the 'DTC- Meeting'.

I am attached to it so much so that, even though I was completely out of it, with a great reluctance and nostalgia, quite painfully I removed the 'DTC Weekly Meetings' from my Outlook calendar. I also took a screenshot but somehow I am not able to find it now.

Joe -

Am singling out Joe here because he is fit to be singled out like a Joker in the Pack. Mostly funny and mostly dumb (sarcasm). Joe is one of the best people I have met in my life and I admire his outlook towards life with clear focused intentions, his religious discipline, his conventional views on marriage, his affliction to food. Its precisely for these that he is gullible and easy to get started off on a conversation and bug him to no end. He just can't accept some things and I have never fought so furiously with anyone trying to rationalize certain arguments. It is so much fun poking fun at him. There was this one tiny little time when this went overboard (and I did behave like a jerk) which had a cold war feel to it. It just cooled off immediately the day after anyway.

His greatest weakness that I have observed is his inability to get along with Hyderabadi food and marriage views. Somehow we both as a pair are nicknamed 'tom and jerry'. Ironically I am supposed to be the Tom (the loser who gets hurt no matter what he does), when in fact I should be the Jerry (the clever, witty, innovative, creative mouse that gets away with Tom in whatever it does and in style). It was a open-and-shut-case, I win all the matches. Since its the majority that gets the say I let the case rest with all of them truly believing in the fact that Tom is the best in taunting and getting what he wants i.e. ultimately winning. On second thoughts I would rather be cat than a whining mouse. Howzzat!

Team

The team as a whole have been one of the best I have worked with. With absolute no egos and ever helpful to each other we have well supported our tasks and sharing our duties. In times of trouble, we huddle together, have a 10 minutes discussion, laugh about it and let it go.

Carole's visit

Another great highlight. When Carole, our onshore big shot manager, had come to Hyderabad for meeting sessions we were completely floored. That two hours meeting we had with her, we felt as if we were given free tickets to avant-garde theatrical performance I had ever witnessed. Mesmerizing to say the least. Tracing the history of e-Ticketing, DTC, talking about the government problems, project handicaps, challenges facing ahead, road maps and it went on. Never once was she off-the mark and it was completely impromptu performance. I was literally spell-bound. We also had a quite nice time with her during the AFMS bash with Joe, jumping like a kid, to get a solo pic with her. Such a sweet kid, ain't he?

Twists-

Around November last year, we were supposed to shut the shop. It was in news, it was in papers (Danish i mean), it was in their parliament, it was everywhere. The writing on the wall was clear. The landmark judgement was doomed to failure. We also had a farewell celebrations too. Personally though all of us were quite sad knowing it and were also little taken aback with calmness with which Babar had taken the news. Somehow miraculously 90% certainity became 0% and BAM we were back on track doing same things again. Only this time around my percentage of involvement receded gradually.

Well, that's all there is to it. I know I am missing something but it will be for later posts. Let me end it all with some personal notes -

Babar garu- For the life of me , I can't remember why the thought didn't strike me to bring more chocolates exclusive to team. I really feel bad about it. I am at loss of words right now to express my feelings except to say that you have been one of my greatest inspirations.

Narsingam - You have been the unseen glue sticking our spirits of undying passion to the cause by being there and helping the team all the time. You have excellent leadership qualities and though it may have felt like a joke when I kept mentioning you would be the next 'TL', I did mean it. With your soft entry to PNG, I hope we will get to work on some common tasks. Even otherwise I definitely would like to seek your counsel on movies, inner gossip, and life in general.

Joey- refer above

Sirisha - Silent and hard-working. Hope you have great time under Babar and reach fantastic levels. You are in one of the most enviable positions ever and am sure you will have great learning experiences of your life going ahead.

Cheers!

Money Matters a LOT now

Being away from home for 5 months at Paris, I have started to see things in India little more differently now. In particular, the money, paisa, dabbu.

Bapuji..bachao hume

Right on my first day at office, during lunch I got the first shock of the peaked prices. One Chicken Biryani - 175, 1 Drums of Heaven - 245. Actually this is little funnier. The menu was divided into two columns for Appetizers and this item was among the list of other non-veg items. A huge left hand flower bracket grouping all these were listed as the price quoted. "So all these put together would be 245 right? Like a platter I mean", I inquired with Sushma who was sitting beside me. "Come on yaar, its only one item. By the way, don't worry too much I am giving the party", she replied back with a smile. I smiled a weak response. Once the orders were placed, we were then continuing to discuss about other things like the bygone days of DTC, the new faces in AFMS, the new building.

Someone then had asked me how I came to office that day. "By auto, I had to pay 150 bucks!" I replied. By this time Sushma was exasperated with my over attention to money and declared to the bench "Guys, I think from now on we can expect that anything that Karthik is going to talk about will be followed by a price tag". Funnily, I never bothered so much on the money after the initial one week stay at Paris. Coming back, I feel all the prices have shot up and people were utterly apathetic about it. Maybe this being a party nobody was really paying much attention.

The following day I tried out the common cafeteria. Woof. Smoking! Chicken Noodles - 65! Wait. Look over there - 'Sub of the Day - 99 Only!' Since when did 99 become only? Is this a mock BATA rate? Of course I knew the prices here would be more compared to our usual cafeteria. What I wasn't prepared was to have a meal with a drink one would be shelling out at least 100 bucks.

The third day, Wednesday was when I felt I was back on the ground. Lunch this time I had at our cafeteria and just like 5 months back the prices were still intact at 18 bucks for 2 roti/ paratha. So things weren't as bad as I started imagining. I am definitely sure though that something is not right. Prices did skyrocket but I am yet to sink in that feeling.

The climax of the episode was when I was filling my petrol. 1 Ltr - 72 that's a 16% increase from 62 when I had left. Why is it that such inflation is being accepted without any major protests or for that matter by the blogosphere community. I admit I haven't been following national news but heck I have been on to the blogs as good as ever.

With such steep prices, and slow moving salaries, how are they expecting us to continue to live our lifestyle of binging out once in a while, movies, shopping and then the enoromous work that the job demands? With my now renewed focus on my health and diet, it is indeed giving me an incentive to watch how much I spend over eating, drinking and making sure I stay healthy without leaning towards extreme starvation.

Speaking of spending I have almost spent 3 grand buying clothes and books. Whoopsie, where is the monthly calculator!