Follow your heart

Never thought that things would take such a drastic turn in a days time...when i left India on 14th September, the job market was quite cool and a day later when i landed in UK, Lehman brothers had declared bankruptcy, US govt was trying to bail out AIG and Lloyd's announced Halifax Takeover...How the heck did these guys came to know that i am searching for a job :)

All said and done, i am sure that things would work out fine...i realise that i am over confident and i am taking a stupid risk in my life but if i do not do this now, when will i get the chance to take such a risky decision again without thinking about all the dependency factors!!! Some well wishers advised me to take back my resignation but i am not going to - i have taken a decision and whatever be the outcome, i wanna go ahead with my decision.

Sometime back i saw a video of Steve Jobs delivering his commencement speeches to Stanford univ graduates . In his speech he mentions about how he dropped out of college, about him taking the calligraphy instructions, etc. Using the above instances from his life, he mentions about connecting the dots looking backwards and about trusting in something - guts, destiny, life, karma and trust that the dots will connect somehow in the future- this will give you the confidence to follow your heart!!!

Guess this is the time to follow my heart :)

Things that i miss been away from India

Was chatting with a friend sometime back who is in Australia and we were talking about the things which we miss been away from India...so here i go with my list :

• Food - i miss the morning breakfast for sure - hot dosa, vada, idli,pongal...Am bored of eating cornflakes and bread. Want to have nagarjuna/nandhini Biryani or the avakkai andhra food nowwwwwwwww.
• The refreshing tea/ coffee with vada / bhajji at the corner shop.
• Cable TV - I miss the regional channels like Sun music, movies and the comedy shows.
• I miss the long number of hours that i spend over the phone talking to my friends- what a freedom it was to pick up and call any friend whenever you like...Also miss the text messages a lot
• Hanging out at Garuda/ forum mall with friends
• Watching movies at the theatre
• The ice cream at Garuda mall food stop
• The office coffee breaks
• Times of India
• Lays Tomato tango chips - you get so many brands and flavours of Crisp but i do miss lays tomato tango

When will this end?

Terrorism in India in the last 15 years

12 March 1993 - Thirteen bomb explosions(RDX containing shrapnel) in Mumbai. 257 people dead and 713 injured.The first bomb blast was at the Bombay stock exchange at 1:30 PM and the last of the 13 bomb blast was at 3:40 PM

13 December 2001 - Attack on the Indian Parliament by Kashmiri militants - Five gunman infiltrated the parliament house in a car. 7 people were killed and 12 injured.

6 December 2002 - Bomb blast in a bus at Mumbai killing 2 people

27 January 2003 - A bomb exploded near the Vile Parle Station in Mumbai killing 1 and injuring 28

14 March 2003 - A bomb exploded in a train killing 10 people and injuring 70

28 July 2003 - Bomb explodes in a bus killing 4 people and injuring 32

25 August 2003 - Twin car bombings at mumbai killing 52 people and injuring nearly 150. One explosion was at the Gateway of India and the other near a hotel

5 July 2005 - Five militants attack the site of the destroyed Babri mosque. One civilian died and the five terrorist were shot dead

29 October 2005 - Three explosions in the capital of India , New Delhi just two days before Diwali. The bomb blast happened in two markets in Delhi. Death toll - 62 and 201 people were injured. The first blast occurred at 5:38 PM, the second at 6 PM and the third at 6:05 PM

7 March 2006 - This time the target was the hindu holy city of Varanasi. 28 people died and 101 injured. The first blast occurred in a Hindu temple and another occurred at the Varanasi cantonment railway station. Six bombs were defused from other ares in the city

14 April 2006 - Two explosions in the courtyard of Jama Masjid, a mosque in Old Delhi. At least 13 people were injured

11 July 2006 - Seven bomb blast that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Mumbai Suburban - 209 people lost their lives and over 700 injured.

8 September 2006 -Series of bomb blast at Malegaon, Maharashtra. One bomb exploded next to a mosque at 13:15 IST(just after the friday prayers) killing 37 and injuring more than 125 civilians

18 February 2007 - Bomb blast in the Samjhauta express (a twice-weekly train service connecting Delhi & Lahore). 68 people Killed and at least 50 injured

18 May 2007 - Bomb blast in the famous Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad. Blast was caused by RDX bombs which were activated by mobiles. Death toll - 16 and atleast 100 were injured

25 August 2007 - Two bomb explosions - first one was at Lumbini amusement park and the second at a restaurant. Two more bombs were defused in other parts of the city. 42 people died and 54 injured in this blast

13 May 2008 - Nine bombs exploded within a span of fifteen minutes at Jaipur, Rajasthan. Tenth bomb was defused. 63 people died and atleast 216 were injured

25 July 2008 - Nine bombs exploded in the IT hub of India, Bangalore. Thankfully they were low intensity bombs. 2 people have been killed and 20 injured

26 July 2008 - 16 Bombs in Ahmedabad killing 30 people and injuring 100

=====================================

We are not a country who is in war and still we have lost 891 lives and 2685 lives in the last 15 years to these cowardly act of terrorism. Think about the fear & unrest that spreads among the Indian people when such a bomb blast occurs - people from all over the country are trying to reach their friends and relatives in the city where the bomb blast occurred and it takes a couple of hours and sometimes days for peace to return.

We cannot expect the police to have an eye on the one billion population to find out who is going to trigger a serious of explosions next and there is no way for the civilians to protect themselves against these terrorist. We would have to eliminate the root of terrorism...We all know where the roots are but are we too soft as a nation to hit back on the cowards who have been playing with the life of Indians? Should we not teach them a good lesson?

Praying that someone puts an end to all these meaningless killing of innocent civilians and just let us live in peace.

Learn to respect your nation

I have got this "Know it all" Indian colleague of mine. Just to give you an example of his "I know everything" attitude- He is a pure vegetarian who has not even had egg till date but can talk about chicken and fish food varieties for hours togather starting from how it has to be cooked till how the bone tastes!!!

For the last one week, a colleague from prague has been joining us on our way to office and back home. The Prague colleague asked us as to how the Metros are in India and Mr. know it all blurts out "Not as good as in Prague". He has not been on either one of the metros (he has not visited Prague til' date) and still he says that the delhi metro is not good. When asked about the crime rates in India , his response was that the crime rates are too...How many times have you or your family been robbed or beaten up?

Come on guys- If we dont respect our country and the good things about our country, how will the foreign nationals respect India? Are we not the brand ambassadors for our country? Lets spread good things about our country

The wait...

Every day has 24 hours, each hour has 60 mins and each minute has 60 seconds .........hrrrrr...Why the heck do we have so much time in our hands - this is the way I feel now - waiting for two important decisions but i have no say in both the things...

Dasavatharam - 3 hours of unadulterated fun

Before i start, let me make it clear - i am not a die-hard fan of Kamal [:)]

If we take a look at Kamal's previous movies, it would fall distinctly into either one of this - A serious movie carrying a message or a full fledge comedy movie. Before going to dasavatharam, a friend forwarded a link to a blog about dasavatharam which tried to explain Chaos theory and Butterfly effect - the theories which forms the base of the movie. Read the blog and got the impression that it would be a movie with a serious base.

Got a team of eight musketeers and stormed the theater on a saturday afternoon - a week after the movie got released. The 12th century scenes at the beginning of the movie confirmed my thoughts of dasavatharam being a serious movie. The song "Kallai mattum kandal" is quite meaningful and is well filmed. When the movie moves back to the current times, it is jus another normal movie - good guy vs bad guy. Initially, I was trying to figure out as to where the theories fit in to the movie and after sometime gave up and started enjoying the movie for what it is...The movie turns onto a lighter note and has all the usual masala item that is required for an entertainer. Balram naidu character makes the theater roll with laughter.

10 characters by kamal - kudos to him for the idea but were the 10 roles necessary? Fletcher, Balram naidu, the 8 foot giant, Poovaragavan and Krishna veni paati avatars are commendable and Kamal has once again proved his mettle.

I was not able to understand as to why chaos theory and Butterfly effect was needed for this movie - dumb me :(. This movie has been hyped too much with the 10 characters and some theories and i think it is the high expectations which has got the bad reviews for Dasavatharam. Do not go to see this movie with too much expectation and you will enjoy the three hours of this movie - a fast paced movie with good comedy.

UK - from Hate to Love

60 days have passed since i came first to UK and there has been some serious changes to the impression that i had developed abt UK in the first few weeks.

The first 2-3 weeks here... i was seriously wondering as to how i am going to spend the next 13 months out here - i had my reasons for that but now i am enjoing my stay ...People who i have been meeting in the last few days have proved to me that the impression that i had earlier about the UK public in general is wrong. Folks out here are very polite... Thanks / sorry and please are the words that you hear very often but sometimes you feel it is a bit overdone - ex a friend went to have a haircut and told the lady at the reception -" I want to have a haircut " and the lady at the parlour corrected him "you have to say - i need a haircut PLEASE"...and at the end of his haircut, it looked as if he had a fight with the lawnmower. The country side and the beaches out here in the Uk are awesome . I also love the fact that you wind up your work by 2 PM on fridays. Indian food is much easier to get in UK

Some drawbacks - Cost of living in Uk is a bit on the higher side. Taxes here are crazy - you have tax for anything and everything...even "Garbage tax"- come on whey do you have to pay tax for generating garbage. The cost of a liter of petrol is close to 1.2 pounds (100 Rs) and 62% of the cost is tax.

Looking forward to make the best out of my stay at UK...Cheers!!!

Will it be an adventure?

Planning to go home this evening - there is some tension prevailing in the TN-Karnataka border and people form both the states have resorted to violence and they have been pelting stones on the buses that ply between both the states - hoping to reach home safely!!!

Back home

Prague trip was cut short and i had to return back to India four weeks ahead of schedule. Got a call from the Indian embassy on the 25th stating that my passport is ready and i could collect it... My travel desk was super efficient and they got the ticket booked for the next day at 6 AM. My colleagues in prague wanted to have a farewell party that night and i was in the pub till 1AM - rushed back to the apartment and finished packing by 3 AM - the cab was waiting for me and i rushed to the airport.

Landed in Bangalore at 2 AM on the 27th and had to wait for 1.5 hours to get the luggage (Am seriously waiting for the new airport to be operational - hopefully things should get better than but the distance from the city is scary!!!)...reached home at 4. There was a mandatory training scheduled that day and i was hoping to sleep through the training...unfortunately i walked in 10 mins late and the only place that was vacant was the one right below the trainers nose.

F1 2008 Australian GP

It was jus 5 months back that we saw the last race but it really seems like a decade has passed. Was really looking forward for the 2008 series to begin - the excitement factors being Alonso returning to Renault and India been represented in the big event by Kingfisher (Force india). Force india looked promising during the test drives at barcelona and spain - not that i expected them to finish in the top 3 but was hoping that they have a good start.

The first race was the australian grand prix - the race starting was good with hamilton taking off from the pole position but it was disappointing to see Force India's Fisichella getting knocked out in the first corner itself. It was not a good week for ferrari for sure - massa had a spin in the first lap and he lost a couple of positions. Raikkonen as usual exhibited his magnificent driving skills - he started 16th and by the mid of the race he was 3rd - he gave a tough time to Kovalainen but it was sheer bad luck when he was not able to control his car after overtaking Kovalainen - felt bad for him but this is F1 - a second loss of concentration can cause a lot of damage!!!

The race was action packed and only 7 cars completed the race. Hamilton's drive was almost unnoticed in the race (he built a lead and was way ahead) - McLaren really deserved a win here out at the Australian GP - would have been good if they had a one-two. It was nice to see BMW and Toyota on the podium. Though renault (Alonso) did not leave a big impact in the first race, they are sure to come back with a bang in the future races (Alonso started 12th and finished 4th and he did a brilliant job while overtaking ferrari and Mclaren)

A memorable race and a good way to start the 2008 GP - looking forward

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

Got this as a forward message - good one

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda

I want you to know one thing.
You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon,
at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists, aromas, light, metals,
were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly you forget me do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners that passes through my life,
and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots,
remember that on that day, at that hour,
I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.

Face to face meet with a man i adore

It was way back in 2001 - i was in my final year of engineering and we had our department symposium "prodigy" scheduled in the month of February 02. It was the final year's responsibilty to conduct the event. we all debated as to who should be the chief guest for the event - we finally decided that it would be a great honour to have Dr.Abdul kalam preside over the event. At that point of time, he had retired from DRDO and he was a faculty at Anna university. So Jaggu and i took the responsibilty of going doen to Chennai to invite him for the symposium.

Little did we know at that point of time about the formality of fixing up an appointment before visiting - Jaggu and i landed up in Anna university and we directly went to his office. We managed to speak our way past the security and met his secretary. Dr.Kalam was not there in the office and we were asked to come back in the afternoon. When we returned in the afternoon, his secretary was not sure if we could meet him that day (we were to return back to trichy that night). We guys had almost given up all hope and were about to leave. All of a sudden, Dr.Abdul Kalam steps out of his room to say something to the secretary and he notices us sitting there. He asked the secretary as to who we were and as soon as he knew we were students from REC, he came down to us and spoke to us. He was a man down to earth and he listened to us patiently. He politely declined to preside over the function - we did not achieve our goal of getting him to REC but we were happy that we were able to shake hands with the undisputed leader of the indian misslie program who breather life into Agni And Prithvi :)

This is one memorable meeting which i would carry to my grave

ATM - Alltime Torture Movie

Decided to watch some movie over the net - the usual website tamilblood was not available - the next option was videodhuniya and there were two latest movies available - Azhagiya tamil mazhgan and Bheema. A few freiends told me earlier that bheema is not worth watching so decided to watch the "illaya thalapathi" in action.

ATM - Vijay gets introduced in his usual style with a competition followed by a song - this reminded me of Gilli and a number of other movies- when will he change this style!!! Shreya's introduction is another comedy where she feeds the ants and they have graphics to show the ant walking away with the food. The first half is filled with the usual concept of the guy and girl falling in love. The reason for Shreya to fall in love with vijay lacks creativity - well, they need a reason for the heroine to fall in love with the hero and voila - the director came up with that real stupid reason and the way she proposes to him - how dumb. They than start getting the approval of the parents - i started snoring by the time they got the green flag from one and all!!!

In the second half the second vijay makes an entry - he looks really cool in the introduction scene. The fake guy moves in and makes everyone - including the actual guys friends, lover and parents believe that he is the real guy - Excuse me - pls do not tell me that the actual guy has scripted his min to min biography in a diary and the fake guy just picks up everything and makes everyone believe it. The first half is really slow and the second half lacks logic in each and every scene (well - it is too much to expect logic from movies but still...). Shreya as usual looks good :)

Comedy track has also failed miserably in the movie. The real comedy in that movie was the climax - the way the bad guy jus realizes his mistakes and walks into namitha's hands- Heights!!!

Prague

Landed in prague on the 3rd afternoon - first thing that stuck me was the cold weather - It was 30 degree celsius at bangalore and at prague it was 3. Coming to prague office was like a home-coming - it was really nice to see the Prague colleagues after 4 months and there were a lot of stories to catch up on :)

Wait is finally Over

When i landed in India on the 1st of Feb, i was already looking forward to my next trip - not that i do not wnat to be in India but there were other reasons. I was planning to escape to Czech by the 10th of Feb but things did not work out as planned...the wait was long. Finally i got my visa yesterday and i am flying to prague on sunday.

This visit is going to be different for sure - whenever i travelled outside India, i had my colleagues there and weekends were fun to hang out with them. This time, i would be the only guy from HTS out there in Prague. I am all excited to find out as to how i am gonna spend my weekends all alone over the next two months - will be a different experience for sure.

Everything has a reason!!!

There are times when you feel the worst thing possible has happened to you but hold on friends - let the moment pass through and wait for some days. After a reasonable amount of time, sit back and look at the things that happened - you will for sure see somethings good even in the worst scenario.

I sailed through one such rough patch and at the end of it , when i look back, i am happy that it happened. It was a tough time for a short duration but for sure it saved me from a lot of things in the long run. It was a decision that i had taken in haste and now when i look at what i had done, i feel really stupid. In addition, the tough time helped me to understand somethings about my friends and more about my parents that i failed to notice for the last couple of years...

2 much funda for a day!!!

All in a days time!!!

Have you ever wanted a day just to end ? Have you ever waited for the clock to strike 12??? I did – it was the 18th of sept 07.

I was in Prague then and it was raining cats and dogs. I had to collect my passport from the embassy that day. I collected the passport and to ensure that it does not get wet, I kept my passport in the inner pouch of my laptop backpack. My cabbie was not ready to wait for me so I walked down to the metro station in the rain and took the metro to the office. Reached office and a friend of mine wanted to see the visa. Took out my passport and was shocked to see that the passport was fully wet – to my surprise there was not a single drop of water in any of the other pouches in the backpack other than the one in which I kept my passport L With no other option left, I dried my passport in the microwave

I had booked a gift for my friend through the net – the gift site had an option that said “Message to be delivered on card” – I thought that it was a greeting card and had left a personal message for my friend. The gift got delivered on the 18th and my friend was wild at me – reason- the gift company had posted an open card with my message. The security guard and the receptionist had read the message completely and had passed across the gift to my friend with a sly grin. Dumb me!!!

The day at office was really hectic – stopped a couple of issues from getting escalated at the last moment and I was more than happy at 9 PM to leave office. A friend of mine was there with me. I wanted to use the restroom so I asked him to wait in the lobby. I go to the restroom and when I try opening the door, it was locked. I tried all means to open the door but hard luck was smiling at me that day. I called my friend on his mobile and asked him to get the security. The security did not speak English so my friend had a hard time making him understand that I was locked in the restroom – finally he managed to get the security to the restroom with the keys and I was released after 30 mins. The office is usually deserted after 8 PM but on that day when I came out, there were a dozen guys staying around and looking at me as if I was a dino walking out from Jurassic park…

Man…was I happy that the day ended!!!

Back to Reality

One word gets you back to reality...thanks to a friend who got me back to the real world by just using one word "Sorry" - jus one word but that spoke volumes of meaning - gave a hard slap on the back and said "Wake up karthik - come back to reality".

I believe in what my friend PP said "this too shall pass...". This incident has shown me as to how my friends and family stand with me - thanks to u -"the so-called" friend and thanks to my true friends - you mean a lot to me!!!

Two choices

This was a forward message that i got and it was a real touching one :

At a fund-raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

English!!!

I was all set to go to Prague - my first visit to Europe and it was like a dream come true...i was waiting for a number of years for a trip to Europe and i was really excited. Did some research on th net and found that Prague had a rich history and beautiful architecture. The only thing that was troubling me was the fact that only a few locals speak english.

Landed in Prague and wanted to take a taxi to the hotel. Got a taxi at the airport and tried telling the cabbie the hotel address. unfortunately the taxi driver did not speak english - well a problem that can be easily handled - i had the address printed so i had to just pass it on to him and Voila, he took me to the right address. Day 1 went on fine without much trouble

Day 2 - i decided to shop for the basic cooking stuffs so i visited a supermarket TESCO. It just took me 3 hours to get some 10 stuffs - reasons - all the stuffs were labelled in the local czech language. I tried asking the shop employees and the other customers and i got reply from everyone - the only problem was that they spoke back to me in the local language :(

Day 3 - wanted to purchase my monthly metro pass. I was well prepared this time - i asked my hotel receptionist to write for me in a piece of paper saying that i need a monthly pass. Did not expect any trouble. I go to the counter and i see an elderly women in the counter. I hand over the sheet that the receptionist had written for me and the women hands me out a form to fill up. The form had just four columns to be filled out but it was not in English. I decided to try my luck. The first column had four checkboxes so i select one, the next two looked like places for first name and last name and the last column looked like a date column so i write in the current date. I then hand over the form to the lady at the counter - she takes one look at it and she starts screaming at me in the local language and she pushes the form out. i tried pushing it in along with the receptionist note and she pushes it out again - tried pushing in twice but she was stubborn.

I pick up the filled in form and when i reach office, i handed it over to a colleague to ask what was wrong in the details that i had filled out. She laughs her stomach out (along with a few other colleagues) and then she explained it to me

• The first four check boxes were for student, Physically handicapped, elderly people(over 60) and regular. i had checked elderly people
• I had just swapped the last name and the first name (not a big deal!!!)
• The date column was actually for date of birth and i had keyed in the current date

Now i know why the lady at the counter wass so frustrated with the form!!!