Not that Easy

We caught one of my friends at the right time but our entry was also timely for him. He was very perplexed to choose between two handbags and was asking for our suggestion. We threw number of questions such as for whom and for what purpose etc. He was not satisfied much until he got the opinion from each one of us. Not an easy job for guys to find the perfect gift for any gal. As the present given by men is a token of lot of things to women.

There were times when I always wished I was born as a guy; it is painful being a girl. It is difficult to be on one's wheel for Indian gals, as our moves are always within a stipulated boundary. I am sure many like me would have felt the same at one point of time. But on the other hand I also sensed that women are a symbol of creation and an entity that consists of love, power and bond.

I heard shocking news from one of my offshore counterpart, it upset me a lot.
I read her personal mail and I got lost completely. Some horrifying incidences and mental strain sometimes makes me think why God created gals with tough health challenges in life? Gals in general do not have an easy life, our life has several twists and how quickly we recover from mishaps totally depends on the support a gal gets from her family and friends.

Trigger fight

One thing my teacher always sets as an example for focusing on goals is through Sales or Marketing people. No matter how many customers say "NO" to ignore their innovative approaches and no matter how or which customer yells at them, they have the smile sticking to their face and only focus on selling their products.

Today morning, I got triggered for a rough argument with the internet connection guy, but he remained calm and kept smiling and repeated the same dialogue.
I need to learn to control my temper and apply the sales people policy when required.

Change in Timing

I have been posting my blogs early evening rather than waiting till end of the day. I am little afraid that I might break the habit of blogging during our settling down process. I have rough date till when my blogging should continue. Only that date and the rough count of posts are driving me to blog everyday in spite of my health and busy schedules. Sometimes it becomes necessary that we adjust and sacrifice things for the benefit of others. Couple of days I have been holding off people to wait until I am done with the day's blog before we left for a sleep over in our new apartment. Just to keep me satisfied that I am not troubling someone and at the same time sticking to my daily routine, I have decided to blog bit early at least for the next few days. Anticipating to see some exciting things that might take place while moving our fragile and most cared things to our new apartment today evening.

Reading

In general I love reading articles only when I am fully awake. Read few interesting personal blogs today evening. I enjoyed reading every single post.

Promoted

Shifting from 14 to 15 and also moving from a single bedroom apartment to a double bedroom apartment. At 8 A.M, we had house warming in our new place with couple of friends. Busy in packing things and next few days will be pretty tight packing and unpacking boxes.

Eight in

Today we broke yet another record of accommodating eight people in a five seat car. It was fun travelling with eight people around the shopping mall parking lot. Though our trip was short it was enjoyable.

Wow

The parking lot was fully packed. The view from the spot where we parked the car, showed the view of a huge complex. While walking towards the complex, I saw several dome shaped structures attached to the building. We stepped the entrance and the first catch was the indoor swimming pool, the water was shallow and the ambience really tempted me to lose my childhood fear and jump in the pool for a second. And on our right there were many office rooms. We crossed the office staffs and comfortably got seated in the couch. We admired the ground floor tennis and squash courts. I was mesmerized by the look and feel of the Lifetime fitness center in Bloomington. It is one of the loveliest places to play tennis.

Great News

It all started at 10.15 P.M, I started getting calls one after the other. I couldn't complete one call properly I had to put someone on hold. I got good news from my friends related to their personal life; I had to spend couple of minutes talking to them. One of my prayers has come true today for one of my friends, happy about it.

Not well

Relaxed the whole day and didn't bother much about anything.

Medallion Hunt

Two of my clients were very seriously discussing about Medallion hunt in the car on our way to Lake Elmo inn for our team lunch. I had no clue about what they were talking. I was silent and they stopped for a moment and started explaining about Medallion Hunt conducted in Saint Paul during the winter carnival. In simple terms medallion hunt is a treasure hunt, Medallion hunt targets a large scale of people and the winner gets a prize amount of $10,000. My clients said, all that they like about this hunt is they get a chance to see crazy people searching for the medallion. They even mentioned about how they misinterpreted the clues last year and landed up being in the wrong spot. This topic was pretty enticing and I searched about this hunt. I understand that people really love participating in this hunt just not for the prize money but to see people's funny acts in the cold weather.

Few other inputs about Medallion hunt are as follows:

History of Medallion Hunt
(Courtesy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul_Winter_Carnival

Starting in 1952, each year during the carnival, there is an annual Treasure Hunt. The Saint Paul Pioneer Press prints in their newspaper 12 clues on 12 consecutive days. These clues point to a local park, where participants race to the park they think the clues point them towards, and start searching for the medallion. The clues are often cryptic until the 12th day, when people line up outside the newspaper offices, cell phones in hand and partners in parks, when the 12th clue gives them almost the exact location. The medallion has previously been hidden in a diaper, a White Castle hamburger box, a pop can, inside an Oreo cookie, and frozen in ice. The finders of the medallion are awarded up to $10,000 and receive a place of honor riding in the closing Torchlight Parade.

Have a glance of 2009 Medallion hunt rules from the following site:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=46217803303

One of the sample clues for the Medallion hunt is given below. The clues are generally vague and misleading.

CLUE NO. 6
(Courtesy)

http://www.twincities.com/ci_14241849?source=most_viewed

You'll want to go shopping where things are hopping
And storeowners once dropped anchor
Go down the main drag but be sure not to lag
You'll have plenty for which to thank her

There are many discussion forums and groups who work together to trace the medallion.
Check out the following sites for more details:
Discussion Forum:

http://forums.prospero.com/kr-tcitiesother/start

Cooler Crew:

http://www.coolercrew.com/history

Below Video showing people's excitement in finding the medallion:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_14240989

Check out the winners of 2009 Medallion Hunt from the following link:

http://www.twincities.com/treasurehunt/ci_11577420

I am waiting for Monday morning to hear from my clients about their dotty things to figure out the Medallion.

Does it matter ?

Does it matter if I graduate from MIT or IIT? Absolutely not, all that matters is what one can do with what one has. It is very important to strive for our progress even when we do not have basic facilities.
What matters the most in life is how confident we are about our future?
My cousin brother usually says people in Bombay are very sure-footed about their life as they believe in themselves. That's exactly what matters at the end.

Following speech from one of the average persons is definitely worth listening:
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html

Richard St. John's speech though short, his presentation style is worth admiring.

Metro transit

Traveling in Indian Public Transportation was something I loved from childhood, as every day’s bus travel had new experiences and learning. It was fun passing money from passenger at one end to the conductor (one who issues tickets in public transport) at the other end, traveling in one side tilted bus, as Indians had the liberty to stand in the footboard, and it was interesting to watch people fight for the last 6 seater.

Giving seats to elderly and pregnant women, adjusting third person in a two seater and having right change were some of my life long learning from bus travel.

My first experience in Metro Transit was on 20th March 2008 on my way back from Driving License office to Sunray. I traveled all alone and was little scared, as I was not too familiar with many places in Saint Paul. I boarded the bus (I think it was route 63K) and saw the vending machine very next to the driver’s seat. In United States the driver plays the dual role of a driver and a conductor. Very quickly I pulled out $1.50 from my pocket and was ready to insert the dollar note in one of two slits visible in the ticket machine. I was spending couple of seconds to use my software analytical skills to determine which of the two slits should I insert my dollar note. The lady driver gave a broad smile and said “U need to insert the note in this one” .I thanked her, inserted the note dropped the quarters in the other one, took my ticket and asked the driver to inform me when Sun Ray stop approaches.

In India the conductors would be so busy in issuing tickets and rendering change that they most often forget to remind people about their stops. This has caused me to miss the right stop many times in India. Thereby I didn’t want to risk myself in United State, so I decided to sit diagonally opposite to the driver’s seat.
The bus started to move and I was enjoying the outside view through the glass window .We would not have traveled more than a mile (1 mile = 1.609344 kilometers) and I heard an announcement from the driver for the approaching stop. I could neither follow nor understand what she said but managed to figure out that the bus was going to stop at some place.

In the stop, I saw an African–American woman with a baby in her hand, immediately I heard the next announcement from the driver to free some seat for her and the baby. It was little surprising to me as in India the conductors never come and free some seat for pregnant women or elderly people, it is individual’s interest to offer them one. A Young guy seated next to me offered the seat to the woman with the baby. I was feeling little guilty, as I was little reluctant to offer one for her.

I can only remember the way most of us in India disobeying conductor’s words “get in …don’t stand on the footboard”…. but it is little controversial in United States as people obey the drivers.

The bus stopped every 5 mins for some stop or the other… as it has stops at a distance of approximately 200 meters. I was little bugged and was waiting to see my Stop. Finally!!! I reached my stop.

My first travel in Metro transit came to an end but not my learning and here go few of them those would be useful for others:

I. Have exact one dollar note and two quarter coins change
II. Pull the white metal string located above each seat to stop the bus.
III. Visit www.metrotrasit.org website or dial in 612-373-3333 to know your route from your place to the respective destination.
IV. Remember your ticket is valid for 2.5 hours from the time of issue. So travel as much as you can within this duration.
V. Before you get down, don’t forget to thank the driver for your safe and exciting travel in the metro.
VI. Human nature that exhibits courtesy, helping tendency, modesty etc. is the same whether it is in United States or in India.

I wrote the above blog on 21st May 2008. I am keeping a record of my old ones now.

BalderDash

This was the word of the day in our TT meeting. I thought the word sounded little complicated and doesn't look familiar, but later I realized it is the most frequently used word among most of us. In today's meeting everyone used this word in their style and ensured to use the word at least once in the meeting as we had a prize for the speaker who had used the word for the maximum number of times. This word only reminded me of a TV show titled Non-stop Nonsense.

Black and White

Third Monday in January is devoted to Martin Luther. I didn't find time to dive deep to understand why especially Third Monday in Jan is declared as holiday in many states in U.S. But got a chance to listen to his speech "I have a dream" from the below site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Australian Open 2010

The first grand slam of this year has started on 18th Jan. Couple of matches in round one has already completed and the Australian open will continue till 31st of this month. I am keeping track of Australian open from the first day. One interesting category in Australian open is, caption the photo. Check out the following link for more details.

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/caption/index.html

Tamil Sangam

Last year I missed it, but this year I managed to attend the function. I was happy to see many Tamilans through this occasion. Kids performed dance, fancy dress and skits. I enjoyed everything performed by kids and adults. The events were well organized and were well timed. Excellent compeering and background music.

What caught my feelings today was the Father-Daughter dance? Fathers danced along with their daughters for a mix of songs. It was not something performed on the spot rather it was a very well practiced dance. I really loved the concept behind this combination of daughter and father. It was a treat to eyes, as everyone danced in sync and the garb was perfectly chosen for the dance. Dance in general has special effects on people and helps improve the bond between the partners. And this father daughter dance was just amazing

Friends R 4 Wat?

Friends are the ones to whom we share things that we generally can’t even think of speaking to our parents. Friendship is all about how and what difference one makes in others life. You are blessed if you have at least one good and reliable friend around you.

For any fun
For any help
For any flattery
For any company
For any redirection
For any motivation

For any of the above we completely depend on our friends. In general we are not comfortable seeking for help or opening up our feelings to every one, we feel secured only in few hands and those become our friends in the short or long run. One would not wait for their friend to ask for help rather one would volunteer themselves to serve them. When you are down, you feel good when your friend boosts your confidence level and gears you up.

Definition of friendship has changed a lot these days. You can find friendship based on either the same status, religion, nationality, educational ranking or interest. If we rewind back to 17th century friendship between Lord Krishna and Sudama they just had love and deep understanding of their relationship. Sudama's needs were totally understood by Krishna even when Sudama had not stated his situation explicitly.

My mother quite often insists it is better to manage life with what you have than borrowing/seeking things from others under any adverse situations. I most of the time follow my mother’s words blindly but I always felt inside that she was wrong.

In today's lunch we had a conversation about being responsible as an individual and when and when not to depend on friends. Everyone felt to allow one of my friends to handle his stuff individually but I felt inside, he should be given a feeling that we are with him even, if he had committed a small mistake. To make someone realize that he has done a blunder can be handled in a smooth manner rather than making him feel that he has been cut off from his friends.

Now applying the formula of Krishna Sudama's friendship will not work in this century where even after years you can’t afford to call your friends for help. Undoubtedly now I accredit my mother’s principles for the fact not everyone loves to help people be it be even your close friends. The secret for strong friendship in the current decade lies only when you reduce your dependency, expectations and become more self-reliant.

Cool Meeting

I love the meetings with this person. She is extremely enthusiastic and low keyed in all her meetings. And today's meeting was no different from the usual ones. It is very difficult to sit for an hour and pay attention to something that is purely technical or business oriented. If the same meeting is spiced with a blend of gags, mimicry and chitchats of our own funny mistakes in the past, wouldn’t it be more enjoyable?

That's exactly we had in our one hour meeting today. We had talks on varied heart touching topics such as earthquake in Haiti to funny videos acted by celebrities. Room was boisterous with everyone's laughter. I undoubtedly had a great time in the meeting.

Sony Memory Stick

We were exploring our new camera (Sony Cyber shot W190 model). The fun started when we started to click few snaps of our teddy and our apartment rooms.
We were desperate to view the photos in the laptop. We inserted the Sony memory stick pro in one of our machines and it got stuck. We tried little push and pull and somehow managed to pull it out. My roommate being a very determinant person, wanted to give a try in her machine. She placed the card in the SD card hole provided in our laptops, it got worse in her machine as the hole was small we couldn't pull the card out. At last we used safety pin to pull the card out. Later we both gave up the idea of seeing pictures from Sony memory stick; we used the USB port to view the pictures taken in our camera.

Little Infected

I have wondered many times what would happen to India in terms of education. Will India land up being a developing nation for ever? As rich become richer and poor become poorer. Have any of us felt for the families working in the sewage drain, in constructions work, farming and shoe making. I always pitied when I saw children working in hotels, carpentry and fireworks. These children are pulled to work in tender age just to meet their daily needs. In a way poor families pose their burden on their children. When there is hard struggle to meet ones need for food, cloth and shelter , there is no question of education for these families.

In India, government has taken adequate measures to promote free and fair education to the poor. The Indian government has tried different means such as free meal and mobile education to attract under privileged children to school.
The government targets to provide basic education up to the age of fourteen. It is difficult to survive in this world where at one hand educated parents are preparing for their interviews to get an admission for their kids in a high profile school while on the other hand there are group of people who are unable to understand the importance of education in their day to day life.

Exceptions can not always be set as examples. To consider our Missile Man of India (Abdul Kalam) as an example that people in spite of their status can fair well in education might not hold good for many others living in similar conditions. How to inspire people to get educated has always been a big challenge to our nation.
Why is education so important to an individual? and why does NGO's and other government organization strive to provide the basic education to all its citizens ?
Such genuine questions are important to spark our minds and to empower our talents in the competitive world.

One can understand the true happenings in our nation after listening to one of my all time favorite song Punjaiyundu Nanjaiyundu song from Unnal Mudiyum Thambi film. If you are a person like me who thinks education is a must for our little ones no matter if they are from a hut roof or from a cement ceiling. I strongly recommend to listen to the speech given by a beautiful lady Kiran Sethi. Her thoughts about child education has infected rather has poisoned me a bit.

Laughter is contagious, passion is contagious, inspiration is contagious ....

The continuation of the above speech can be grabbed from the below link.
http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge.html

I have kick started my first goal for this year to improve my listening skill. Addition of new habit to my routine from this day.

Scary But

We generally think we have lots of concentration while driving but we are actually risking someone’s life on road. Believe me I always considered myself as an awesome two wheeler rider. I talk non-stop to my mother when I am with her no matter where, be it on the road, be it be on the kinetic Honda or be it be on the bus. Only after this incident I started avoiding distractions during driving. As usual I was taking to my mother for some shopping I kept talking to her while driving, I got so involved in the conversation that at one point I forgot to turn on the indicator/wave my hand while taking the right turn. The vehicle from behind collided with mine and my mother fell down unconscious. She got a scratch on her knees and a minor fracture on her hand. From then on I am bit careful when it comes to driving.

I don't even call my friends when I know for sure that they are driving. I call someone else who is riding along with my friend. I got into trouble with this approach too. Once it so happened I kept calling my friends friend and she got angry on me for not considering her as a close friend and approaching her friend for everything. I had a hard time explaining things to her. We had a big fight on this. However she later understood that I was more concern about her safety while driving.

My women's team captain gave a ride to indoor court from my place. She was talking to someone while driving. We started little late from our place, so she was riding the car bit fast. I was very afraid to sit next to her. She swiftly changed the lanes while talking to people and at times it appeared as if she didn't even look forward. It was very scary to sit next her watching her reckless move while driving. While parking too she crossed the curb. I reached the court and my tennis friends all grinned and asked me did you ride with our captain. Wasn't the ride scary? I nodded my head and acknowledged that it was. Thanked god for safely reaching the court.

Turbo Hockey

Pull it this side, nope place it slantingly, wait get seated first we will place it and you can hold it. Oops we are unable to close the car door. It does not fit in the boot either. Can we ride the car keeping one door open? You might block the lane. Think of other option, how about keeping the trunk half open? Somewhat idea seems fine. Those were the conversation that I and my friends had while accommodating the turbo hockey pack in the car boot. We could only push two third of the box inside the car trunk and the remaining part was protruding outside. The trunk was open and we were little afraid of it falling down while taking turns. At last we safely reached our friends place for our little friend’s birthday party. After the party we spend couple of hours in assembling the turbo hockey table and playing the game. Basically I just chilled out completely today.

Finding A

It is difficult task to find gifts for friends. We need to consider lot of factors such as longevity, durability and monetary value. After consulting with my friends I found an apt gift for one of my friend’s kid.

Yet Another

I had a dingy day. I was feeling sleepy and somehow couldn't concentrate much on anything. In the evening I packed my bags for the first mixed doubles match this year. I had confidence in myself that I would do well but things didn't favor me. Of course every match teaches me something new, but I can't afford to learn things at the expense of losing a USTA match. I am hopeful that I will do better in the next match.

Peak of Tension

Lot of things troubled me today out of hyper tension.

Architect's Style

First time when I talked to this person was from offshore. Initially I found this person’s tone to be very pompous. Even after meeting him in person I was not getting along with him much. I sensed his talks to be aired with high tech things. Though I am not a big fan of technology, I like to know new things from people. I maintained lots of distance with this person but fate forced me to work hand in hand with him for one of my assignment. I was little hesitant to hook with him but he treated me with full respect and showed a meekness behavior.

I slowly started getting comfortable working under him. Any meeting set for half an hour by default would extend more than an hour, as most of the time he states the history of every small implementation done in the past. He is very sharp and alert. He is extremely enthusiastic when it comes to any current affairs topic. He keeps himself up to date with new technologies. He is an amazing personality to work with.

Another learning I had from this person is he values things; he still has the 1980's calculator I guess gifted by someone in working condition. Every meeting with him teaches me new lessons. He is very speedy in finding solutions for a problem. He is hyper active, extremely accountable and reliable when it comes to project issues. Though he is in late 40's, he has an excellent memory. He enjoys his work and really appreciates very damn thing in the application.

I had taken a day off today and at around 11 A.M I had to view my office mails out of compulsion. I went through couple of chain mails flowing between my clients and architect. He has done a fabulous job in fulfilling all the needs of our clients in a very short span of time. I like my architect’s style of working, in turning out impossible things to possible within a chokepoint deadline.

Blind Count

One thing I really appreciate in U.S is the number of provisions that this country has for physically challenged people. These special people are given importance in parking lot, metro transit and other public places. People though handicapped can still live their life independently in U.S. One can see automatic door switches in most of the places. These people are given equal rights in everything starting from education to work. If you are the first one in the queue to board the bus and someone in the wheelchair is found waiting at the end of the queue, the person in wheelchair is given first preference. The bus driver personally boards the physically challenged person and secures him/her under the safety belts. Such things are very uncommon to see in India. Somehow I find U.S people to be more challenging and confident about their future. One can see a ray of confidence in physically challenged people in U.S.

I love climbing the stairs whenever possible. Today late afternoon, I opened the staircase door and was stunned to see someone jump on the last step of the fourth floor stairway. He turned perfectly towards the door and tried pulling the door. He reacted differently as he expected the door to be closed. And I was holding the door open for him. The person whom I am describing about is completely blind. He walks only with the count of steps. Usually it is said blind people are very smart and brilliant. Today I had a taste of the blind count.

Ego Clash

Sometimes it is very hard to understand what runs deep in my mind. I knew what I was arguing doesn't make sense but still fought with my team members when it came to our release level testing. I couldn't comprise my thoughts and thinking. Later I calmed down myself and understood what I put forth was absolutely wrong from all angles. Not sure whether my headache, hunger or tension made me behave that way. Whatever I should have avoided such an egotistic act, it is important to think in terms of what is beneficial to the project and the team rather than my interest and convenience.

Lacking Zest

Believe me I got up at 12.30 P.M today. I slept for more than 11 hours. I got up when one of my friends tried to reach me for some help. Though it was 12.30 P.M I didn't even feel like getting out of bed, somehow I felt unenergetic. I have been skipping lunch/breakfast for many days last week and it showed its effect today. I still feel restless and tiring. I need to eat well and should stop worrying about putting on weight.

Vijay's Reception

Day started off in rush, as we got up late we had very minimal time to complete our cooking. We arranged all necessary things in the party hall. It was almost 1 P.M; we started to feel hungry and were very eagerly waiting for the arrival of our friend and his wife. On the sight of the couple, we kept our camera and handy cam ready. At the doorstep of the party hall door, the kids greeted the couples with a rose bouquet. We immediately attacked the food and ragged the newly wed couple with few spicy questions. The couple showed no willingness to open their personal story to the group. We had variety of food for lunch. Our newly married friend was guessing who cooked what, he was very curious to know who did what for his reception party. At the end of the party we had a game for the couple followed by photo session.

After the reception I came home running for my tennis practice session. Day was tightly packed with different activities.

Avatar Magic

We spent more than one hour waiting in the queue in order to watch Avatar movie from the 4th row from the last. I initially missed few dialogues as I was trying to correlate and understand few gaps that I had in my mind. There was couple of humorous dialogues in the movie which I believe the whole crowd enjoyed. Don't know why, somehow few scenes such as hunter test where the hero had to establish a bond with one of flying dinosaurs reminded me of Harry Potter movie. The dressing styles and languages spoken by Navi clans from Pandora planet flashed the memories of Apocalyto movie. I finally lost the core essence of the movie as I tried understanding the miniscule details of each move made by the director (James Cameron). After the movie I had a discussion with my friends to fill in the missing gaps that I had while watching the movie. Overall Avatar movie can only be watched for the special effects and not for the storyline.

I liked the reviews from the following sites:

http://screencrave.com/2009-12-11/avatar-movie-review/
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/teenage/TA-Dec-22-Avatar
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2009/1217/Avatar-movie-review
http://www.examiner.com/x-29916-Davidson-County-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m12d19-Avatar-movie-review-Avatar-both-awesome-and-disappointing-in-theaters

Complete crew of Avatar movie can be found from the following link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/fullcredits