Bangalored

Back in Chennai. Nice trip. A bit cliched though-pubbing,brigade road,forum,central mall,M.G.road......Nice fun though. Will post photos tomorrow. Ive got some zany ideas with regard to the Bangalore photos, will post them tomorrow.Met Sathya, my first 'blog friend'. It was nice. Will blog about this and other things tomorrow. Feeling tired......too much travel this last month.......

Off to Bangy......

Off to Bangalore for the weekend. Staying at Aravind's place. Polishing off those Dubai Posts. Will post when I get back. Got another post bout another "Ghost from the past" who i bumped into yesterday. In other news, life looks rather bleak in the next few months-joining may be at the end of June or midjuly- too (@#$ing delayed!!!!!!!!! What am I gonna do in Chennai???? Alone!!!!!!!!!!! Aravind off. Avinash off. Andrew off. Manoj off. EVERYBODY IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These are moments when "I am happy to be Single" sounds hollow. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the heck lemme enjoy the last moments of friendship!!!!!!!!!!!!
Evam has announced its new season line-up. NOW, i have to motivate Avinash to come with me!!!!! Thats easier said than done. He thinks english plays are for "Peter's". I tried calling all the girls I know(which is about 1) for the play--same result. Oh people!!!!!!!! English play's arent only for "Peters"!!!!!!! When will u guys realize this!!!

Dubai photos

Ive uploaded some of the dubai trip photos here.Will blog in detail about the trip tomorrow. CP, this set has sathya's foto.



"Number 6, Viveknandhar Theru, Dubai Koorukku sandhu,dubai bus stand, DUBAI." :)

Back

Back in Chennai. Lots of stories to tell. Lots of lesons learnt.Will upload photos later.Dubai was great.But the behaviour of SOME ppl left a bad taste in the mouth- Arabs treating Indians like shit,Indians treating Indians like shit,Indians behaving as if they own Thai Airways-just spoilt the fun a bit. In other matters, ive researched the Indian travel Industry a lil bit, looks like I can only make it to Singapore with a year's savings. That too looks bleak considering my "saving potential".I'll blog bout the "Lessons for the Interprid Indian Traveller" in the next few blogs. One of my relatives remarked something to the effect, "Travel is the best teacher a man can get". Hmmmmmm, ya he is kinda right. I just want to add,".....a man can get provided he travels with the right people" to the axiom. Not that my parents were not good company, just that 'Priorities' can be a big sucka. All together a nice experience-if u leave out chennai airport- that was a rude shock-moving from one of the best airports in the world to one of the crappiest airports in the worlds(am even willing to hazard a guess that "Mogadishu Central" is better than Chennai Airport).Too tired now. Will blog later.

From The Airport

Writing this from the sify net cafe in the chennai airport. THANK GOD NO PROBLEM WITH THE VISA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will try to blog from DUBAI.
CIAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dubai'ed

Alright people me leaving for Dubai tomorrow.FINALLY, the visas have arrived. Kept all of us waiting till the last freaking moment.Ive not even informed my friends properly.Anyway all is well that ends well. Have a nice big shopping list. Digicam and i-pod shuffle for one. Am hoping there are pre-loaded i-pods in Dubai;i dont have firewire OR USB 2.0(NOW do u beleive how archaic a system ive got). I also have a problem paying 70cents a pop.Lets see. Will try to blog from there.Will come back and post pics. Till then CIAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!


P.S.:- A brainwave just struck me. There are all those NRI tams with i-pods on oneside,and there is the tamil music industry on the other side. There is a H-U-G-E market out there for a service to bring tam music to tam ppl all over the world.Why isnt anyone doing it???????

Group Mails.......by dodo's

Back in Chennai. Great Dharshan. Thanked the good lord for getting me into 'The Company'. Still no mail from them though. Hopefully will get this week. Talking bout mails, ive been getting some rather peculiar e-mails these last few days. Sample this, its from a future colleague in 'The Company's yahoo group,


hi frienzs ...

This is !@#$%^ here ... got placed in !@# .. I am from ECE dept,
!@#$$%%^&* .. I am really exciting about my birth in a new world and
if get a nice company of friends tab to mazaa hi aa jayega... so
friends start having fun ... Leave the tension of joining letter
and all... Cheer up guys and gals...
With lot of smile
!@#$%^^&&

Well nice to know u sir. But what is all that bout being "exciting about my birth in a new world......" . Am sorry, am a lil slow, why are u excited????? Where is the new world?????

I got this from a class-mate. He got placed. Nice thing. Nothing wrong with this mail,

Hi Everybody,

This is to inform all my friends, that I got placed in !@#$%^&^. My job basicaly deals with embedded systems,all other details abt my work will be informed to me during my training period. My training starts from june 1st (6 months training period).I will be receiving my appointment letter next week.

urs luv,
!@#$%^&*

But do check out what follows in the group,

hey da,
congrats , all the best.
with regards,
xxxxxxx.

Hello !@#$$l
Congratulations. Do well at your new job. Best of Luck.
Bye,
yyyyyyyy

congrats!!!!!!!!!! #$%%^&
All the best.
-regards
eeeeeee


hey @@#$$%%l !!!!!!!
really happy for u da.....best of luck...
-vvvvvvvv


If u are REALLY concerned bout his future and u REALLY wanna congratulate him ,then mail him personally. Dont !@#$ing waste my !@#$ing inbox!!!!!!!!!!!


One more from the company's group. Unfortuntely, i know this dodo.This gem was titled, "I want to know".

Hai Friends,
How r u? Hope all are happy after our four years of study.
About me, well... sathyabama college boys know me and to others iam
!@#$%^&* from ECE dept, Sathyabama college, Chennai joining as
GIS intern. Be in contact with me so that we will know some what
eachother when we see first time.
Have u got the joining letter? If not, any idea when will.
I like to know who have all joining as GIS intern. please reply if u
r one of them.
Take care where ever u go in this world.
Friend,
!@#$%

"Take care where ever u go in this world."----hey dodo am coming with u!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i assume so is everyone in the group.awwwwwwww, u see what i have to deal with here!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The next mail in the college group gets the oscar, it was titled, "ITZ MEE". Yeah, the subject line was very useful.


Hi friends,

*ALL THE BEST TO ALL ENGINEERS(MY FRIENDS) FOR COMING
UNIV. REVIEWS. CONGRATS FOR SUCCESSFULL COMPLETION OF
THERE COURSE .
TILL 11 MORE DAYS FOR OUR COLLEGE LIFE .COUNT DOWN
STARTS NOW..11,10,.....................

BYE BYE

xxxxxxxx TRUE SON OF
Mr. yyyyyyyyyy

*****WISH U A HAPPY TAMIL VARUSHA
PIRAPPU**************



SPECIAL CONGRATS FOR ENGINEER Mr.VENKATA SUBBHAIAH FOR
GETTING INTO STC TECH. ********************************


Am sorry, I thought everyone in the group was an engineer!!! Am sorry man, maybe there are some doctors and lawyers out there in the 'Sathyabama ECE' group some where.And whats all that bout being ".....true son of Mr.yyyyyyyy". I never questioned ur loyalty to ur dad. Yes u r indeed a true son!!!!!!!!!1 I give it to u!!!!!!!! But hey what bout the rest of us????????


Next in the mailing oscars is a forward. Am trying to understand the logic behind forwards. I understand we are all techies here--lots of free time,lots of bandwidth. But why would u want to send Napolean Bonaparte's favourite quotes to someone u met only twice???? Why would u want to do that??? Am sorry am still trying to understand the 'Forwarding Psychology'. No answers so far. I got the following as a part of a forward. Check it out,

From: Sampath Kumar, Gowri (Cognizant)
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 2:25 PM
To: Bakthavatchalu, Kasthuri (Cognizant); Balasubramanian, Iniya
Meena (Cognizant); Chandran, Reshma (Cognizant); G Sankar, Srinivasan
(Cognizant); Guruswamy, Somasundaram (Cognizant); Jacob Leo,Ashok Raj
(Cognizant); Kotha, Sai Kumar (Cognizant); Krishnamurti, Sriranjini
(Cognizant); Kumar, Vinitha (Cognizant); Murali, Parthasarathy
(Cognizant); Muralidharan, Pavithra (Cognizant); Parshi, Pradeep
(Cognizant); Rangan, Balaji (Cognizant); Sambamurthy, Manikandan
(Cognizant); Seshadri, Sangeetha (Cognizant); Sethumadhavan, Sarath
(Cognizant); Sivakumar, Ramya (Cognizant); Srinivas, Malini
(Cognizant); Subramani, Balaji (Cognizant); Subramani, Mythily
(Cognizant)


Now I understand that u guys worked fairly hard to get into the company of ur choice.I understand the feeling. But have u guys lost ur identity sooooooo much that u have to call urself Sangeetha(Cognizant) or Reshma(Cognizant)?????? Or is it a case of snoberry?????? Showing off to ur TCS cousins, eh???? Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!Unbeleivable!!!!!!!!!

Reminds me of ppl who wear the slogan " IDAHO STATE 33" on their t-shirt in the gym. I dont know, i can never wear "SATHYABAMA DEEMED VOLLEY-BALL" on my t-shirt. And these guys are pretty proud of their t-shirts!!!!!!!!


Bottom Line: These companies spend a million dollors on "Soft Skill Training". I think in this digitized, e-mail oriented world, the need of the hour is "E-mail writing for dodo's".

Govindha Govindha

Going to thirupathi with family. Will be back on Sunday.

Blog Testing

Am just trying out various permutations for posting pics on the blog.Btw,thats me.

Lakshya

Just a random snippet from the Orkut group of 'The Company',

"bhaiyon lagta hai hamari pyari company !@# jiske hr !@#$%^^& hai aur jo hamein mail kar ke pooch rahi thi ki naam batao jagah batao kab exam khatam honge kab results expected hai etc etc hamein bhool chuki hai.kuch logon ne java bhi padhna shuru kar diya tha. aur kuch log ye pata karne mein jut gaye the ki khana kaisa hai (ill remind u its 13rs only) etc etc. par bhiya letter kahan hai . ham log jaa kahan rahe hai .pls koi to puch kar batao. pls keep the info flowing in the group .there has'nt been much going on in the group."

YUP, he pretty much hits the nail on the head.Everybody is on the edge of their seat by now.Hopefully, we'll get the letter within the next few days. Am going thru the 'NOIDA vs. Hyderabad' dilemma. I keep oscillating between the two cities. Ofcourse, there is a very real possibility that they might not ask us our choice of cities at all. Ofcourse, NOIDA and Hyd. are emblematic of what I am going thru. NOIDA represents the "party scene" of India(atleast for someone from Chennai for whom "party" means 10 guys getting drunk and sleeping). Hyderabad is the conservative small town that reminds me too much of chennai(just semantics though, i understand Hyd has a very active "party scene").

Dont get me wrong, Chennai is a GREAT place. Ive spent 21 years here and its been great. But I think its time for a change. Too many ppl I know. NOIDA gives a lot of "opportunities" in this regard, if u know what i mean(*winks*). On the other hand, Hyd is the place preferred by most of my friends in college who have gotten selected by 'The Company'. So clearly its a choice between 'new ppl, new city' versus 'comfort zone'. Best option would be to try and 'market' NOIDA to my un-suspecting colleagues. I also have to figure out which is more suited for professional growth. "Party scene" comes second to career. NOW, i think u ppl understand what am going thru--its a freaking strategic consulting problem, for gods sake.Lack of any info,in the form of date of joining, only compounds the bloody problem......AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH........


Talking bout career, I found a couple of articles about what I am bout to do in 'The Company'. But just watch out, these are extremely pedantic,long winded articles. DO NOT read them unless u are REALLY curious bout me(i dont want the architect and advertising types to leave my blog).Article1,Article2,Article3 and Article4. Here's a link to what CTS looks for in infrastructure positions. I am eyeing one area in the Infrastructure space, lets see if it fits in. As far as the Indian IT industry is concerned the Infrastructure business is a very niche area. This hopefully means that competition for talent is less compared to say JAVA talent.

As I said earlier, I had interviewed with a Fortune 10 US Telecom service providers Chennai IT practice.And I did land the job. I dint accept mostly because of the nature of the job offered- HARDCORE CODING. Trust me, i can write some fairly good code(atleast for someone who is left-brained). But I dont think I can EVER compete with those code jocks who seem to have it in their blood. And i'll always be number 2. Plus the prospect of being in Chennai was just way too big a turn-off.

Am hoping that I wont rue this after sometime, this company is a fairly sought after one. And the money is better then 'The Company's, atleast as a fresher. Well, thats the second time in a year that I am walking away from "more money,more women, more drink". If thats not a sign of maturity, i dont know what else is :) :)
I dont know if am doing the right things or not. Am just hoping I am. Like someone said, am driving by the seat of my pants, all I can do is buckle my seat belt and hope for good luck.


P.S.:- I'd like to network with other professionals from the Infrastructure space. One of the purposes of this blog is to network. So please feel free to catch me on messenger if u r from the infrastructure space :) :)

Random Insane

Lazing around.....doing nothing...gyming...loosing weight.......transition phase between student life and corporate life.In the middle of a fierce insurance claim......i feel like Rudy Baylor......though the amount involved is Rs.2393......what the heck,still feel like Rudy Baylor......reading "Made In Japan" and "Straight From The Gut"......have a few thoughts......will blog about them later......booked Bangalore tickets.....waiting for Dubai tickets.......Andy gone.....Aravind gone.....above all,anxiously waiting for my date of joining.......and trust me, BSNL DATAONE S-U-C-K-S!!!!!! Not in mood to blog......will catch u'all when i have more to say.......Ciao........

Travel Plans

FINALLY, the bangalore plan has been finalised. Me,Avinash and Abishek are leaving to bangalore on the 27th of this month. Coming back on 29th night.Mr. Shiva, u r invited. I'll ping u in messenger about this. Staying at Aravind's place in bangy. That should be interesting--ive never done the 'bachelor' thingie(apart from the odd IV and the final year tour, that is). Should be a nice experience. Only problem is that he lives away from the city, in Koramangala. Oh ye brothers and sisters of Bangalore , I need ur inputs on how to go from the railway station to Koramangala. Sathya, lets meet on the 28th or 29th, whenever u r free. I'll ping u in messenger.

Avinash will be joining us from hyderabad. He is looking for space there as he will be moving there for work. I wanted to go to hyderabad also. I wanted to visit the place b4 I make the 'NOIDA versus Hyderabad' decision(inputs also welcome for this). But avi is staying in his "friends girl-friends sisters place". So, i'll be the 'sisters boy-friends friends friend'. Somehow that doesnt feel right. So me not going to hyderabad. Should be nice koothu for 2 days.

I am not too sure bout my feelings for Bangalore. Last time we were there, for the final year tour, it was a bloody culture shock. I mean even the most 'hep' guys in the group couldnt take one hour of bangalore. That place has bloody "taken off"--its a freaking global city. We felt like village bumpkins in a city. As Venkat says, Bangalore is just not for the Tam middle-class.

Well....Well.....Well......

This entry has hurt someone.....I am sorry for any hurt caused.....it was meant as fun and it was taken as fun......anyway this entry will be back(as requested) in 2 years.......till then this entry will be missing in action.......and thanx meera and dinesh for the appreciation.....this whole blog is inspired by Sidin only :):)........

Mail Of The Day-2

hi da,
how r u people. i got my laptop today it has lan connection so unlimited net .thats all good with the company but i am home sick and missing u guys a lot.i hink by monday i should get my number and also move to my flat .its very far off from city ,actually its only 15 min fron hosur . whats hapening in chennai any hot news??? anyway i dont think i can chat with u guys so ill keep mailing u guys . other fellows who have joined with me r blore guys and also !@#$%^&* so u people can understand my position .anyway hope to meet to guys soon.i dont think andy will ever come to meet me so i am not hoping he will come too.my company timing is 9am to 6pm .weekends r holidays if there r no project or else its workin in sunday too. after training v should b ready to go either to singapore or states . dont know what i am going to do here. anyway be now and ill keep in touch with u people.take care.


My Reply

Dai no chatting????? wat the hell da!!!!!! seri anyway we are firming up plans to come and meet u by 28,29 of this month. dont kalaichify the !@#$%^&*, like we did here.stay professional da. u r not a student anymore.tell me something about ur job profile and training ciriculum.stay in touch thru mail.byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.



Ya I think he'll be OK. Its gonna be tough without other freshies, but I think he'll make it. If u can get thru 4 years of ECE in Sathyabama u can pretty much walk thru fire. I think i'll tell em bout the blog in a few days. It'll be nice for him to have a link with us. DAMN, i love the blogging medium, its helping me a LOT.

Back In Your Face

Trip went rather well. Grandpa is back,and this time we hope permanently. Man is 85(to give u some perspective, the year he was born gandhiji started the non-cooperation movement, which basically means that we still had a LONG WAY TO GO b4 our "tryst with destiny"). We are kinda hoping that he would move in with us permanently. The trip to Thanjavur was rather different. It involved my father asking and getting answers to a lotta questions. Some of his responses, " What the @#$% is a CAT???", "Why do u want to give up a six figure salary in the USA for a crappy techie job in India???", "MBAvaaaaaaaa???????????", "Do u have any plans of starting off on ur own????".

If I told him the truth, which is that I am as clueless about the MBA thingie as he is , he would have pushed me off the car. I should've guessed--6hour drive all alone without my mom--i should've guessed. Thanjavur itself was pretty cool though. We went to the Big temple(bragadheeshwarar koil). Its one of those marvels of Indian architecture(apparently its one of those buildings which doesnt cast a shadow). And I did get some ideas on "plans of starting off on my own". You see, there are two places in thanjavur which confound even me. One is the "military Bridge". Basically during the World Tamil Conference held a few years ago the TN govt. felt the need for more tourist attractions. So they asked the Indian Army to build a floating bridge across the Cauvery. So now what happens is that people pay 10 bucks to wait in queue for about half an hour,then jostle for space with others and their vehicles only to cross a bloody bridge!!!!!!! And u know what happens after that???? Thats the best part- they have to wait for another half hour to cross the bridge AGAIN. So basically wats happening is that they pay 10 bucks to cross a bridge 2 times in one hour!!!!!!(now I know where I get my intelligence from!!!!!!).

Well if this is strange then all you have to do is go to the Mani Mandapam. There they do the usual Thanjavur jig--they pay money to get on a lift, get to the 4th floor,spend some time there and then they get back.Looks like the only past time in this city is to go from one place to another and then come back. Here I got my first plan to "...start off on my own". Basically what am gonna do is am gonna build a building with two floors. Then am gonna install an escalator between the two floors. Trust me, this will sell like hot cakes in Thanjavur. Boy, I love my heritage.

Return trip was even more interesting. 7 hours in a car with my dad and his dad, well, it answered a lotta questions. If we ever do a Family Business kinda jig, we would last bout 15 seconds. Then the gang would break into 3. But it was a lotta fun(i'll tell u lotta my grandfather's stories in the coming blogs.after 45 revisions all the family history is soooooo fresh in my mind).Oh and CP, all the relatives in Mannargudi want u to fly the 'Ponuswammy clan' flag in Texas. Do us proud tiger.

My grandpa's brother(born during the Cripps commission's visit,just so u know what we have to deal with here) lives in Mannargudi. One of my cousins there is just a year younger to me(CP, u remember Dinakar????). I think I had a nice lil motivation session with him. I gave him my usual 'India shining-come to chennai-IT is great' speeches. There are only few ppl on earth who dont fall for my 'India Shining' speeches. I hope I made a tiny bit of difference to his life. Aspiration levels are definitely changing across Tamilnadu. I just hope i made him aspire without sounding too condescending.Basically he realizes that he has to improve in cerain areas like communication skills. That is very important--i know freshers who have,"c++,java,oracle 9i,Siebel,mainframe....." on their resume--the surest way of getting whacked in an interview. Once u realize that your knowledge of IT is close to the company watchman's then there is nobody who can stop u. Atleast, this guy has the heart to acknowledge his weakness. Gave him few fundas bout companies and their exams--the "Network Effect" in action--that is one thing we can learn from the Tambrams.

I also made some critical life decisions. I've decided to go with 'The Company'. Will blog bout this in my next blog.