A blog of my feelings…ranging from commenting about other's blogs to commenting about stuff which happens in life and from posting mails which I like, to ranting on stuff.

Sekar (Calling his family from Amsterdam ): Good Evening Mom and Dad. Where is my wife Shalini?

Dad: Just now I called her. She is on the way to home after taking our grandson Rahul from his school.

Sekar: Let us wait for her few minutes and we will start this discussion.

(By that time Shalini entered in to the house.. Sekar continues the meeting)

Sekar: I hope you know the Agenda of the meeting which I had mentioned in the meeting request. Even though let me read out the agenda once again:

1. Status update/Discussion on Last Week Action Items
2. Family Strategy
3. Rahul’s Education
4. Medical Insurance for Mom and Dad

I hope every one have the printout of last week MOM (Minutes of Meeting).
Dear Mom can you please update the status of tasks which you are taking care of?

Mom: Sekar, I am taking care of kitchen module which involves making products like Sambar, Rasam, Curd Rice, Vegetable Biriyani. I am not comfortable in handling the tools for making Non Vegetarian products. You suggest some training in Hlite. However after making these products, I am giving to your Dad for Acceptance testing. Once he satisfied with the quality of taste, we pass it to Dining Hall. One more thing, I would like to share with you. As you have suggested during my appraisal discussion, now I have stopped crying while watching mega serials in TV

Sekar: Sounds Good.

Sekar: Now coming to Dad. Dad can you please update us?

Dad: Yes. My dear son. I have completed my tasks by paying the current bill and phone bill with in time.

Sekar: That’s good

Dad: But I couldn’t pay the premium amount of 9200.00 of the LIC plan which you had taken for tax reduction purpose.

Sekar: It doesn’t look nice dad. I have sent you the amount already and given clear instructions.
Can you explain to me what went wrong?

Dad: On Tuesday night suddenly one of our team mate (your mom) fell down on the floor when she was running to catch Rahul. Then we took her to hospital and spent that amount for her medical expenses.

Mom: Sekar, I would like to add on what your Dad said, that was true. I got heavy injury in my legs and I was in hospital for two days. So now we don’t have money to pay for the premium.

Sekar: Shalini..! Would you aware of this? As a home lead, I expect you to track these issues and send it to me on daily basis. What are you doing (With stress on ‘doing’) after coming from college?

Shalini: Will do it Sekar. You know that the college, I am working is very far from our home. Every day I come back home at 6 pm and sit with Rahul for assisting him for doing his home work.

Sekar: Ok. Coming to second Agenda point .Due to this financial crisis we need to change the strategy of running our family. I am looking for your cooperation in the following cost cutting activities. I want to see the cost benefit of 40 % in this month budget after implementing this

• Asking servant maid to leave her job
• Stop ordering Pizzas for dinner
• Avoid Tooth paste and use Neem sticks/Banyan Tree Sticks
• Switch on TV only for watching Sunday Movie and Friday Oliyum Ozhiyum (Well known program for film songs in Podhigai TV – A DD network channel in TN)
• Wise to listen news from our near by portion when they watch news in TV
• Every Saturday visit our relative’s homes and spend the whole day including break fast, lunch and Dinner
• Don’t invite anybody to our home. Sunday our relatives might come to our house. Just lock the door outside and do your work inside silently.
• Everybody assemble in adjacent street Perumal temple on Sunday for breakfast. They provide ‘Pongal’ as ‘prasadam’ which is good in taste
• Shalini stop going for gym and Yoga class. Use Attural (Made up of Stone for making Dosa /idly dough), Ammikal (Replacement of Mixie) instead of grinder and Mixie. Mom please give KT (Knowledge Transfer) to Shalini about this.
• Don’t buy excess of things and store it in Fridge. Use big Mud pots for cool water.
• Everybody go to bed early around 6:30 pm. Ask Rahul to do his homework when he comes back from school immediately during the hours sunlight is available. If not ask him to read under street light. He will become like Lincoln (Former US President) one day.
• Use as much of cycle for transportation to near by places(It will help you to reduce fat and Cholesterol content)
• I know you are eager to watch latest release ‘Fashion’. Don’t plan for that. Wail till next year Diwali to watch the same movie in Zee TV

Coming to third Agenda point. Shalini, can you please update me about Rahul’s Education. In which standard he is studying? Whether he got any double promotion? He was writing annual exam for third standard when I was leaving for Amsterdam .

Shalini: Sekar, I am bit worrying about his education. I have tracked his efforts, schedule in our OHM+ tool. I found 20 % in Effort variance and 35 % in schedule deviation. His learning curve goes down in the control chart which you can see in the report, I have sent you yesterday.

Sekar: Thanks for your measurements. I will review the report and we will discuss it on next week’s call. I have a client meeting now. So we will discuss the third agenda item next week. Mom and Dad.. can you please drop out from the call. I wanted to talk to Shalini about few personal things and Dad, don’t forget to circulate the MOM(Minutes of Meeting) to every one.

Shalini: Hello Sekar..

Shalini: Hello…Hello…

Shalini: Hello…

<Tring…Tring….Tring…Line Got Disconnected>

This post is an ode to Bengaluru – Inspired by constantmotion. Though I might not be able to put my thoughts in a poem, I would definitely put it in paragraphs.

This post was framed in mind during the first bengaluru tweetup which was named as “chat over chaats”! We are expecting more pics of the same.. till then, a few of the pics are herehere and here. and

The idea was just to meet and have fun. This was in the pipeline from the past 3 months. What started off as a discussion between @hnprashanth (of techbangalore) and @pqrshanth (of payaniga) was interrupted by me who thought of joining in for the chaats @ the chaat street.

This blogpost is being completed after bengaluru had its second tw-eat-up.

A few pointers abt namma bengaluru are listed below.. This list is definitely not exhaustive and is purely my view of the things here:

• You can compose a blogpost on the way to office – courtesy traffic jams in namma bengaluru!
• People honk on the roads though there are no vehicles in front of them
• There are alternate routes to reach the place in question, but not many people know of them and not many people take them.. at times, you can reach from silkboard all the way to Basavanagudi without going through a signal or getting stuck in a traffic jam
• If you think you can see hot babes in bikinis or topless beaches when you hear the name FLORIDA, you will be shocked to know that you have a NURSING institute named FLORIDA in HRBR Layout, Bangalore
• People are so dedicated to their work that they drive to office one handedly, the other hand, no not on a call, but in a sling after having had a fracture!
• You wait at the same signal for 4 consecutive green lights and you pass the signal at the 5th green light – esp. in ring roads or near BTM Layout
• Your vehicle starts moving after the signal turns red – in almost all the traffic junctions, unless you are leading all the traffic and are waiting in the first lane during the signal
• In a 22 seater van, you have only 1 girl and 6 guys sitting incl. the driver — economies of scale or is it LUCKY Girl???
• You have scumbag bosses who feel that if you work continuously for a couple of months without taking any leave, your productivity will go down!
• There are roads on which the traffic would be at a snails pace at times, but on which you can go at 80/90KMPH at times during the day time itself e.g. JC Road
• You can jump signals during day time and might be caught while jumping signals at night!
• When you are doing drunken driving, cops might not stop you, but when you are in a hurry to get home and you are not drunk, you will be stopped thrice, within 1 KM.
• A cop who asks for RC book would not recognize it if you present the original one.. he would be used to only checking the xerox copy of it. (Courtesy @pqrshanth)
• Though Bars / Restaurants are supposed to be open till 1130PM, if you go into a Bar at 1030PM and ask him to serve you food (without drinks), he would say Kitchen closed sir!
• Not many people know that BTM Layout is the acronym for Byrasandra, Tavarekere and Madivala Layout – called so as it borders all the three mentioned areas.
• There are parks for walking in almost every locality and there are a lot of fitness oriented people walking their fat out in these parks.
• You can see PDA happening in every nook and corner here and though it is so common, you can also observe people gaping as though they have never seen a guy and a gal hugging on the street!
• Street Harassment happens, not only by guys to gals but also vice versa, esp, near colleges.
• People stand in Queues outside pizza outlets/chinese restaurants during weekends after 900PM. Before that, the eateries would have seating space.
• You book a restaurant in your name, esp. in Koramangala and you end up finding that when you reach the restaurant someone has already taken your place!
• Bangalore traffic remains the same even during weekends when the so called bengaluru junta would be going out, but their population would be compensated by the junta coming from nearby villages and towns to look @ bengaluru.
• Bangalore North and Bangalore South have the maximum number of eateries.
• Where even cars of cops are not let to be parked at NO Parking areas :

(Pic Courtesy a friend of mine through a forwarded email)

• Where “For Rent” Boards are fixed even before the building is completed
• Cops ask you whether you are drunk and even if you say YES, they let you off based on the slur in your voice and the smell of ur breath
• Traffic cops ask you for your DL and have the nerve to ask you if you have kept your DL “at Home or with you?”
• Traffic cops suggest you not to take a matter seriously in case of an accident and just chill, to close the matter mutually
• The traffic cops are real helpful to guide you during the day and to get you out of any soups that you might land up in.
• Not all cops accept bribes… and a very few who do accept it, won’t definitely demand for it.
• Where parking tickets are attached inside restaurants for the refrigerators
• Where multiple helmets are attached to a bike for convenience sake
• Schools have Independence Day parades and practices in September and October too at times, same goes for Republic Day – in February and March
• Kannada Rajyotsava is celebrated not only on 1st November but for months later than that.. at different localities on different dates!
• Ganesh Chaturthi puja is done after a week of the festival getting over – probably coz of the advantage of lesser cost of idols!
• Cycles too have number plates here
• It is a tech city for sure coz advertisements of ERP being sold is put on buses
• If you try to do manual labor, people look down upon you. Even your prospective employer checks if you are in a right state of mind when you go asking for employment
• You have an authentic punjaabi dhaba in the centre of the city at Ulsoor – the minimum waiting time during a weekday for lunch is 45 mins.
• You have a “ANDHRA STYLE PUNJAABI DHABA” at Hebbal – I never knew something like ANDHRA STYLE PUNJAABI could even exist.

I’ll update this as and when I get more points to add.. And as mentioned earlier too, this is not an EXHAUSTIVE LIST!!!

UPDATE: 27th August 2008

• The weather / climatic conditions here are just amazing. Hot and sunny in the morning and all day long, and it would rain only at the time people start towards home daily.. is this Murphy’s Law in place?
• A road, that looks awesome during the day time when dry, would become invisible under 3 feet of water when wet! And scary part is you never know which pothole is open where and which manhole is open where!
• The weather would take a drastic change all of a sudden without prior intimation which makes it a great place to have the practice as a doctor – a general physician at that!
• Namma bengaluru has so many “covered” manholes that even with a slight falling of rain, the BWSSB would be put to action by overflowing of the sewage and the drainage!

Whatever it is, I still love this place!!!

[Kit kit kat kat, kat kit kat kat, Kit kit kat kat, Let's code] 2
Hai bachelor (hai bachelor), Has lotsa dollar (lotsa dollar)…
Hai bachelor, has lotsa dollar…
Spectacular! He’s a developer (he’s a developer, he’s a developer)…
Pappu ka dimaag tez hai, Pappu ko breaks ka craze hai…
Pappu ka chashma thick black, Pappu dikhta geek hai (geek hai)…
Swatch ki ghadi hathon mein, Gale mein tag company wala…
[Par Pappu can't code saala] 2
Han Pappu code likh nahi sakta!

Paida Pappu hua to outsourcing aa thamki…
Angrezon ke muh se nikhli gandhe gaaliyon ki dhamki…
(hey array array) Pappu karta hey cut copy paste…
(hey array array) Tester logon ka time karta hey waste…
(hey array array) Pappu manager logon ka yaar hai…
(hey array array) Pappu beer peene mein toh star hai…
[But Pappu can't code saala] 2
Haan Pappu code likh nahi sakta!

Papa kehte the bada kaam karega…
Nahi patha tha Pappu bus maska marega…
(hey array array) Pappu ke paas hai MBA…
(hey array array) Manata hai onsite jaise ho holiday…
(hey array array) Pappu keyboard bajata hai…
(hey array array) Jahaan bhi jata hai, wapus aa jata hai…
[Cos Pappu can't code saala] 2
Haan Pappu code likh nahi sakta…
Yeah…Pappu can’t code saala…!!!