The never ending "Quest For Hapiness" !!!

I wonder whether "Life" is planning on me,but isn't it supposed to be other way round ? I am writing this blog in middle of the night between a rather uncomfortable sleep with this very common but widely neglected thought of 'Whether in my life i am where i wanted to be or is that i have taken life as it comes and accepted whatever it had offer to me for my sheer luck and "capabilities" however insignificant they may be in determining what i am today'.All answers that i have derived upon seems inconclusive.I may sound crazy here but I just don't "feel right" about what i do 'day in & day out' & i really don't think that baby sitting before a glaring screen and doing "Crap" work for rest of my life will make me any happy.I may be good @ this "Crap" work (Cutting Edge as someone i know puts it as) that has been bestowed upon me from ppl who have no idea what "crap" they themselves are doing and will continue "plan and execute" for rest of their lost life.

I may sound cynical here to ppl who love their jobs in this busy industry as mine,but you lucky bast**ds form less than 5% of the workforce who feels Complete and Happy.I am here speaking for the rest 95 % + ppl who are seeking happiness in a work they are not carved out to do in the first place.Most of us (almost unknowingly) has one and only one scale for measuring success "Money" and that's the reason why we continue to do Crap for Money.More Money implies you get to have all conveniences,luxury & comfort may have eluded you in your dependent days and brings you stature and recognition in a Society made of pure materialistic people.I find the "Complete Man" advertisement from Raymond an impossible dream.You may have everything in life but u work for something u didn't want to become a part of and hence inadequately complete.A wise man once said "Find a Job u love and u never have to work for a day" .

Sujays Performance @ RM

Enjov---> Way to go bro !!!

Chikamagulur Trip : Disaster or Ruin ?

'A horrible trip where almost everything went wrong'. I was in penury when this trip was planned and still i decided to come aboard.Even a vague recollection of this uneventful trip years from now will remind me of the lesson "spend money wisely".

We (trip members) were famous fifteen from Windows differentiation team with 3 core committee members Kaaru (Kareti),Venkatesh (Benky),Shashanka (Shawshank ).

Lets start with 'WHY' and 'HOW' trip idea came into being.It so happened that MyCommunity 1.0 team members had just concluded a technical meeting,where ppl realised that Community was almost feature complete and then aroused the question "NEXT IS WHAT ?',we hit on the idea of a trip which started off as a "trip exclusively for community team".Then we listed the all the possible options from kashmir to kanyakumari .One by one all options disappeared for many not so apparent reasons .Mathematically following happened :
(Many Possible Options)/(Not so obvious reasons for not visiting a place)="Chikmanglur"

So,it was fate as you may like to call it that of all the possible places we pin pointed a small circle on the map of karnataka called "Chikmanglur" to be preffered hot found favourite destination.Then it so happened that this information got leaked to win-diff group and other members expressed their desire to waste money and we readily joined them in.It was finally decided that trip will be a all win-mobile differentiation team trip.

Kaaru who is also popularly regarded as 'Sinister of General Affairs' in win-mobile had precariously planned booking of the trip bus.He deserves a special mention here as he made sure the bus had a push-back,a TV ,a sound system and most important of all ,a Telugu speaking driver.Its for an another matter that TV never worked and sound system produced utter nuisance but surprisingly push back worked well.On paper he kept his promise though almost ignominiously.Then there was this 'finance secretary' Mr.Benky sir,who ofcourse kept finances of the trip and clever Shawshank who was the trip coordinator.Both abetted in kaaru's master plan.Plan was definitely well thought and the committee to adhered to the plan perfectly.The main and the only problem was to visit a wrong place at the wrong time of the year.

Things started off pretty well on the day of the trip.We started off early morning from office premises and collected other trip members on the route to the infamous place.We were in a merry mood in the bus.This is a good time to make a mention of key actors in the trip,"Biggest Boss" (Ramesh),"Big Boss" (Ashok),"Big Sir" (Sanjay),"Sena" (Ashok sena),"Ranjuu" (Ranjan),"I-Gireesh" (Gireesh-"I" borrowed from "I-Phone") and others.

We reached "TexWoods Resort" ( Resort ??? huh...) @ chikamagalur.Resort had promised so much in their website.Indoor games,Swimming pool,Bonfire,Music,Fishing and seeing "Tigers" etc etc etc most of which it never had or were simply exaggerated.For Example:There was a Swimming Pool but without water,there was bonfire convenience but there was also rain,there was a Music system but i am not sure whether it worked and then there was also this eighteenth century "Carom board",which was the only indoor game which they shamelessly proclaimed so boldly on their website.Anyway the food was great there for Non-Veggies but was equally disgustful for Veggies.Luckily i belonged to the former minority set of ppl.

After a late lunch we marched towards the coffee plantations.It was raining consistently but not very heavily.We were blissful and were hoping for a good time. On the way Amith innocently said that if i managed to find a blood sucking creature called "LEECH" then i show this disgraceful worm.We continued our journey by walk towards the plantation.There somewhere we took a steep turn where mud was particularly moist and damp.we continued the march.Suddendly Amith experienced some thing which i am sure he never wanted to experience.He found a leech hanging by his naked feet and sucking the blood out of him.He panicked and he appeared as if someone had put a burning iron rod on his backside bottom.With some Salt we managed to resue Amith from the slimy and stubborn clunges of Mr.LEECH.After seeing this everyone became prudent and started checking their feet.Some were lucky in getting 2-3 leeches hanging by their shoes or feet."Sena" in particular was extremely lucky as he had a staggering total of 8 leeches on his feet by the time the trekk ended. -----> To be continued

Comprehensive Coverage on Famous Wayanad Trip

If there is heaven somewhere in the world,then it must surely be in Kerala - God's own country. Wayanad trip was an enriching experience. Greenery all the way.Trees,Rivers,Streams,Wild animals,Mountains covered with morning mist,its all there in kerala.Trip came up @ a good time too,fatigue had creeped into our minds with project work, daily tensions, deliverables, milestones blah blah and other technical jargons which makes our daily routine a hell .A Good Break was an absolute necessity and thank god we got that....It was a well deserved 3 day break .

Kerala didn't seem to be obvious and popular choice at first & we did have other places in mind but when we realized Wayanad was just 6 hrs from Bangalore that choice was most obvious and extremely tempting (Especially since not many in our team had visited kerala before).We began in evening from Bangalore straight from office work with our team mates in famous 'Toddy Sumo' (Toddy Sumo ???, Well i have an explanation for the odd name,keep reading).'Toddy Sumo' had 'Amith-Einstein','Ashok-Anna','Senapathi-Sena' (the leader),'Ranjan-Dennis Ritchie',Sumit-'By God Fellow',Sena's cousin bro and 'Gazli' but not grizzly (surprisingly given his size) - Abhijit.Einstein was the proud owner of 'Toddy Sumo' for many obvious reasons.I was in particular missing Baby Elephant-Pradeep in our trip.It would definitely had become a even more interesting trip with his big butt in 'Toddy Sumo'.We had to pick 'By God Fellow' from Jeevan Bhima nagar.We had promised him to be there in 15 minutes and bechara had to wait for nearly hour for our grant arrival.Though irritated he got inside 'Toddy Sumo' and he got his due share of vengeance subsequently on Einstein,Me and bechara 'Toddy Sumo'.One by one everyone was picked from from streets of Bangalore & in no time we were all rearing to go.Plan was simple,we had to follow a standard protocol (in anna's words).
Trip was in two phases:
a) Beer Beer and more Beer in Mysore
b) Wayanad Trip in kerala
We reached Mysore that night and city greeted us with lighting show @ Mysore palace.We checked in some hotel (name i dont recall now,given my memory power) and soon rushed onto the streets of Mysore.Mysore palace looked magnificent with its lighting.After lots of camera clicks we continued our way to a near by hotel (with bar attached ofcourse).That dinner was indeed a special dinner.We were en lighted with 'Dennis Ritchie's' love affairs,met Sena the RoadSide romeo ,Abhijit the silent night (though he is a vivid drinker and outstanding singer),Anna the adarshwadi studious son and Me.I did think i talked too much out there on that particular night though any regret for that is the last thing on my mind.After lots of beer we hit the roads of mysore again but this time we were different.'By God Fellow' and 'Sena' in particular was singing the famous 'Ban** ch** sutta,sutta na mila'.Had we seen so much energy in their coding,our code had been 'crash proof' instead of 'find the crash' code.We slept quietly in the room late night except sena,whose legs were traveling over all parts of the bed.'Dennis Ritchie' complained of sena's heroism on bed last night.Bechara it seems all night along sena was kicking his butt and he patiently taking all his kicks.We all freshened up and after checking out ,straight way starting heading for Kerala.Sena's bro had to drop off from here back to Bangalore to some emergency.We had enjoyed the company of that jolly good fellow.On the route Anna expressed his desire to have his way with 'Toddy Sumo',Einstein handed over the control and there began our journey again.
We reached wayanand some time in the afternoon and we decided we have to trek the very same day.We started off quickly for the trek after checking in a decent hotel in wayanad.The distance of meenmutty trek and waterfall site was '28' Kerala kilo metes' Yes,Kerala kilometers.This is a old standard of measuring road distance in kerala.Suppose you are traveling on road and see a board which states '20 km' to your destination and then after 5 minutes of traveling in that same direction you may again see an another board stating '25 km' to your destination,don't be surprised.The reason for this anomaly is that kerala ppl are by far most intelligent ppl in India,they measure their distance based on displacement and not the actual distance.We failed to understand this early but then Einstein enlighted us with his very intelligent logical reasoning.We reached meemutty waterfalls after 28 Kerala KMs.We hurried down the rugged terrain with a even more rugged but almost broken single piece jeep.After reaching a place vehicle couldn't go any further,we took a guide from there - Mr.Sunil and started off trekking to famous meenmutty waterfalls.After 30 minutes or so we reached a difficult place (for someone) where we actually had to jump across a very narrow gap of two rocks.Gazli trembled and fear of jumping overwhelmed his desire of reaching waterfalls.The great warrior had fallen and we saluted him with our goodbyes promising him that we will meet again soon.We continued through jungles,coffee plantations and rugged terrain and finally heard the falling water sound.We knew we were near,but bloody we were walking walking but no signs yet ,then finally Anna had the first glimpse of magnificent waterfalls.We did pause a minute to understand the breath taking view...Einstein and me galloped down and 'By God Fellow' and Anna soon followed.Einstein was the only swimmer who claimed can swim and rest were just ponies and me being biggest among all.Water was cold and we had a good cold bath.After the bath @ waterfalls ,we were told by sunil chettan that there is an another waterfall some distance down from there.Half the team had their tongues on the ground thinking of the reality that we may have to go another half a kilometer up on their way back.We didn't surrender to that though and we decided to pursue the next waterfall too.Ever energetic Anna's adrenaline was an inspiration to all others.We did follow him and conquered the next mile stone too.Then sunil chettan suggested he knows a short cut and we were ready to follow him but 'By God' that short cut didn't seem short by any distance.We went on and on ,stopping,sweating,almost down and lost but finally we managed to reach the top.We all had some rounds of buttermilk though we would have proffered some good cold beer but that ofcourse was not an option especially to find it on top of some hill.We struggled back to our 'Toddy Sumo' assuming 'gazli' and 'Toddy sumo' might have become good jolly friends by now.But yet again 'Gazli' surprised us with his absence,bechara 'Toddy Sumo' was all standing there in solitude.We had to find gazli and we knew the gazli was there in the forest and also did know gazli will keep of danger from him.We tried reaching him on his cell,thankfully he picked the call and me and 'sena' was on our way back to bring 'gazli' home from forest' , We found him surprisingly a good shape on our way back."gazli' was clam was usual and explained his share of adventures alone in forest.We all left for the hotel and slept well.Next day we knew we had a tight schedule to meet ,we had to return way to Bangalore on the same afternoon and before that we had to visit one more place in waynand.We reached some river stream some 50 'kerala KMs' from hotel and there we crossed one stream ,then soon an another and then an another.The first first stream crossing was special.Anna said "Wow look @ the magnificent vicinity and look at beautiful water stream".Vicinity was indeed beautiful but about water i tend to disagree especially after seeing some human excreta floating more beautifully cross the water we were crossing.The very idea of crossing such a water was nauseating,we all did cross then crossing became a routine.At one point Einstein almost gave up but we persuaded him to continue.We had taken cricket bat with us but cricket was the last thing we did to that poor bat.Most of the time,we were drowsing the bat into the water checking for sharp stones or slippery edges.Poor bat was murdered brutally in our careful hands.We made our journey back across the stream on leaking boat and finally we did get some place to play cricket with the bat.We played and sena was smashing balls left and right ,that ofcourse did not help our play as most of time we were running to pick the wet and drenched ball from different streams.Photos came out well in wayanad and Anna has this one big wayanad photo set to his Desktop too.We started off our journey back to Bangalore.'By God Fellow' was complaining to me that i could not get him famous Toddy (Kerala version of beer,there is a kerala version substitute of almost everything).He was nagging and nagging,finally i decided to get him some.On the way back we saw a big black board with 'TODDY' written on it.We halted and i got the fellows some toddy.'Big Fellow' was bit disappointed with the taste initially but 'Sena' could swallow any alcohol readily.'Sena' got some toddy for friends and we continued our journey.On way back 'Sena' was the navigator for Anna and he was a terrible navigator by all means.He was asking ppl way to 'Sultan's Battery' instead of 'sultanbetterry' which was the actual name of the name.He did somehow managed to get us back to track and we continued our way back to Bangalore.'By God' suddenly then felt that toddy had actually hit his brain cells like no other alcohol had done before.He said 'Toddy Toddy ne mujhe Jolly Jolly kar diya'.Saala he wanted another bottle of Toddy and i got him one on the way back.We crossed Kerala and finally reached karnataka back and there somewhere 'Dennis Ritchie' had to free some liquid out of his body.We again halted and then happened the famous disaster.'By God' fellow opened a toddy bottle inside the Sumo with poor me sitting comfortably just by his side,Toddy suddenly rushed out and there came out another toddy version of meenmutty waterfall inside sumo.It was like opening a well shaken cold soda bottle.The 'Toddy Bomb' had blasted and there was two critical and one minor injuries.Critical injuries were sustained by me (Toddy Bomb had sprayed toddy in my left eye) and other most critical injury was sustained by Sumo itself.There was toddy everywhere in Sumo.The culprit 'By God Fellow' just had some hair bath with toddy and sustained minor injuries in eye too (and that's how the name 'TODDY SUMO').We sprayed some or rather all of my deo onto toddy inside the sumo to ease the toddy smell but it was all in vain.Then we got over that and resumed our journey back to Bangalore with gazli singing along.We reached bangalore sometime in the night and indeed mera dil 'TODDY TODDY' hogaya with Wayanad trip.

Vijayawada Trip

Firstly my apologies for the long delay in publishing a new post.I have been busy till recently because of project work but here i am back.Nothing much as happened since my previous post except VijayaWada Trip.The motivation of taking Andra trip was my team mate's marriage.We were a group of 6 people all working in Samsung.My perception of Hot and Dry Andra changed once i visited the beautiful andra coast line.Food ofcourse was a probelm...They add tons of chilli in food...seen people having only rice and chilli powder...huh ?That didn't help my appetite either...Had a short but breath taking boat trip on mighty Krishna river.Marriage was not in vijayawada as you might have perceived,instead it was 130 km from here in place called palovancha...Our Sumo driver was so slow that we could see scooties overtaking us...But good cold Beer helped us recover from that suffering :) .... So after 4-5 hard and slow driving we finally reached palovancha...The place was so green,with paddy fields everywhere and the vicinity even reminded me of kerala for a while.We then after getting refreshed we visited a famous and big Ram temple,25 km from palovancha in the evening...After a couple of rounds of beer in night,we slept early keeping in mind next days big wedding...Marriage auditorium was very near to the place were we actually stayed and we could smell breakfast as soon as we entered.For they served famous chilli chutney with idle and i suspect even the tea had chilli powder mixed within.

Got a New Bike....

Always a hard time commuting in the city without one.Got a Brand New Honda Shine and it did burn my pocket.Had paid less if i had gone after a Bajaj Bike.Got all accessories and it cost be around 57K+.A good amount to part from my personal kitty savings.Travelled 500+ kms in 10 days....hehe...I am quite a good traveler.

Moving from Aricent

Hmmm.....There are many good things about Aricent as any other company but the most important of them i personally felt was the flexible timings.Yes,thats rite we can any time to office and leave from here anytime we want.Now for what reason i moved out from Aricent ???.Answer is not very clear in my mind kindda mystic.Apparently i am not good with taking decisions.It could have been work pressure. The culture was very good and so were the ppl working there.Feeling bad that all these two years the strong relations which were made has actually weakened with me moving from the aricentian social circle.Well,hope its for good as i have already moved to my next company and for many who know me would say 'This was obvious' and thereby confirming my poor decision making. [:)]