My Life

Bench..

2008-08-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

I know it evokes feelings of a paid vacation for a IT professional. For the non-IT folks, on bench is a term we use to denote a period when a resource is not generating revenue and is waiting for his/her next project.

Usually on bench is a time people dream of. In TCS since there is computer allocated to a project and never to a employee , so we never have a PC , or a cubicle to sit when on bench. So all you do is drop your phone number to RMG(Resource Management Group) and stay at home.

I have had the pleasure of bench more than once. When I was on bench in offshore(noida) for the first 15 days I was really thrilled as I finished up all my pending tasks. No more scheduling office work so that I could leave early and finish just 1 of the so many tasks. Now in just 2-3 days everything was done. No issues with having to travel to other part of delhi for a trivial issue.

But it soon becomes boring and irritating as all you do is watch everyone rush to work every morning. Then you realise that you are the only one on bench, all your friends are still working !!! So I thought that I should pick some certifications, attend "six thinking hats" training. But soon that also turned to be really boring, I cant just be reading the whole day.I then started spending time in office playing TT and burning calories in gym, but that still did not help.

It was then that I realized how important office gossip is to my health.I wanted to know who had a fight with his onsite counterpart, who has a crush on whom, who are the new freshers in project, who fought with his Project manager and so on and on. Ya my phone bill went through the roof during those bench months

These days I am again on bench, this time at onsite, ya I know people go WoW!!, but it is not that great.First because I dont get months to stay on bench, if I dont get a project soon I might be bundled to Delhi. Second I dont have a office to go and play TT or kill time in gym. Besides that I have to spend time anticipating client interview and then the day ends with no phone call.

I had recommended to lot of people to pickup some new to learn, but it is actually not that easy, because you are constantly worried about your future project/allocation. Hope my uncertanity ends soon or I will go nuts !!

How to drink right

2008-05-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

I know very few men who do not drink. Most of the people start to drink in college days and usually in college all that we drink is whisky with Pepsi or beer. It is usually spur of the moment decision and a competition among friends to drink as much as possible. This result of all this is that we just don't enjoy our drink that much and neither do we know various fusion possible with alcohol.

I had also experienced the above, so decided to find out more about drinking. I found couple of interesting links.

Vodka is my favourite, so I was really curious how people manage to drink so much of it in Russia. I got my answer here.

Tequila is also a very popular party drink, the link here mentions some variations to try out.

I have never tried brandy, so this website served as a good introduction.

Beer !!! who has not drank beer ? and what possibly could be there to learn about it ? Apparently there are still some things that most people don't know. Some of it can be found at this website.

Wine !! Wish I could find time to visit vineyards at napa valley to witness the actual process of making wine. Here's a little introduction on how to drink it.

And finally, something I am truly amused about and am going to try tonight. Ice cream with Rum.

Lonely...

2008-05-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

As you wander as a lonely
You wander as a lonely at night
You wander as a lonely on sight
You wander as a lonely at day
You wander as a lonely and pray
You wander as a lonely each day

Slow down, slow down
Shut down, shut down
Shutdown the lonely before you drown
Embrace your friends with warmth
They can give you assistance
Deliver you from your lonely existence

You keep fighting love
Bending it around like a curve
With your glowering face
Reserving only a lonely place,
Halting happiness to arrive in your life

Do you ever stop to wonder?
Do you ever stop to ponder?
Are you the reason for the lonely blunders?

Slow down, slow down
Shut down, shut down
Remove from your head that lonely crown

You wander endlessly as a lonely
Searching for a spot called homely
But your face is missing that vital smile called lovely

Copyright 2006 - Sylvia Chidi
Sylvia Chidi

Scrap BRT, but why ??

2008-04-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

All of us must have read dozens of articles about how BRT has been a nightmare. For a change I saw a different view in Times of India. The author is absolutely right. May be the government needs to go another step in discouraging people from using cars. Anyways the rate at which we are adding cars in Delhi, it is pretty clear any number of expressways and 8 lane highways will not solve the problem. Swaran jayanti expressway is a testimony to this.

I have been to San Franciso,New york and Washington, nowwhere does government encourage people to bring there own cars in main downtown, public transport is efficient and is the preffered mode of transport.

If government sticks to BRT soon people will realize the time they save by travelling in bus. Government has already taken a decision to add more international style city buses. I believe soon it will be as good as Metro. Remember people cursed metro big time all along its construction period.

IF.....

2008-04-08T23:04:00.000-07:00

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

My friend shaifali suggested me this link. Thanks a lot shaifali

(www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm)

For those who dont know shaifali, she is a FMS graduate and also a budding politician. She contested from Lucknow seat for MP and is an active member of lok paritran party. It amazes me how she can be active and brilliant in so many things.

Research in India

2008-03-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

I was reading TOI and came across this nice article. click here to read it. It is so very true, phd in india in most of the institutes except for IIT's and IISc is done in this fashion. Although my friends at PEC would be really upset, but I must say that is the case at PEC,Chandigarh also.

I still remember being told by my guide at PEC in subtle language to look for some repetitive thesis, rather than original one. Let me quote him "Think of research as a tree , so if someone has been on one leaf, then you should try to be on the neighbouring leaf". wow !! what better way can you find to instruct your student to copy some one's thesis. Now I don't remember what I was thinking of researching on ,but I googled on some topics and came up with a published thesis. From then on I thought of it as a programming assignment.

Though I do remember Prasad Sir, who used to scold us like anything for not devoting enough time at research ( and sitting like couples at verka drinking coffee with friends). We were all told to devote at least 4-5 hours in library, but he was all alone in his quest. Guy in above article mentions of thesis on bank in every university( that had me laughing for 10 minutes ), I think we in IT have our own equivalents, like neural networks ( yup I did my thesis on it).

I think that research is in this state because it is just not paying enough. A guide should be thinking above the meagre allowance they get per student.

Having said all this , I must still say PEC did take my career to great heights, but it rocks because of the efforts students put in.

Holi @ San Diego

2008-03-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well today was the festival of Holi and I must say we celebrated it as we might have done it in india. Infact last couple of my holi in india would pale in comparison. Expect for one unfortunate incident, everything else was real fun. Had I known that we would be playing real holi , then I would have brought some eggs and lots of other stuff also.

You gotta watch this video

2008-03-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

This is really awesome. Hope you liked it as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkBLHDEoXg8

My Flight

2008-03-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well you guys have read the fun I had in India, so now it was time to head back to San Diego for work. I thought 20 days were plenty, but time just flew by.

Anyways I started early(or so I thought till I reached airport) from Noida at 3:45am for IGI because my cab had arrived at 2 and I didn't want to keep that driver waiting.

Reached IGI soon enough and was pleasantly surprised that there were no long queues right outside main entrance to airport. I straight way went in, only to be directed to the other end of airport. It was there I realized that the baggage scan queue for Air India was so long that I had to step out of airport to be in that queue,but that queue still moved really fast !!..ya you got it right fast compared to what I saw later. I moved to check in queue soon which was slow but then it was not that long. I got my preferred seat ,window seat in the front section of plane. so far so good. I must say there were far many "May I help you" executives that i remember seeing last time, not that it made lines any faster but at least you knew where to go. So after checking in I went to immigration queue which threatened to take over the whole airport and the worst part it just wasn't moving !! I saw people in front of me become a really frustrated psycho. And then to make things worse Air India would announce over PA system that its flight (AI 111 for new york to be precise) is leaving, even though it cant since half of its passengers were still stuck at immigration. Now since AI did not announce that it has been forced to delay its flight and did the exact opposite of that, people on that flight just started bulldozing their way through the queue. Of course nobody wanted to be at the end of that queue, so rest of the crowd also started doing the same. Net result any kind of system that existed just broke down and everyone was still stuck. It kind of reminded me of mumbai local at peak rush. So after 3 hours I finally cleared immigration, I soon realized the reason of this slow speed, there were just 4 immigration officers for more that 4 long distance flight. As I got out of immigration I prepared for the next big thing, Security. I was pleasantly surprised that it took less that 5 minutes at security and I did not have to wait for boarding call either. So I made it to an empty plane at 8:05 for 8:20 flight.

My flight AI-137 to Los Angeles with a technical halt at Frankfurt took of at 10:30 on March 1. I was to fly to San Diego on United Airlines and reach there by 7pm March 1 local time. It was kind of emotional when I saw Delhi fly away and become smaller in plane window, but then I consoled myself that I am not going away forever, I would return in sometime.

We reached Frankfurt at 4pm local time on March 1, we all deplaned and waited for buses as our flight did not get an aerobridge terminal. It was cloudy and windy, so my leather jacket was put to good use. Soon we reached departure terminal after going through security and boarded the plane again. It seemed that we might be able to reduce our initial delay, enabling me to be on the same connecting flight to San Diego. But wait as soon as the plane started taxiing pilot noticed some problem( we later came to know it was fuel leakage). Soon we were told that we might be delayed by another 40-45 minutes. There was some nice Hindi movie going on, so even though I had to hold audio jack to listen to movie, I did not mind waiting for another hour. After an hour, instead of taking off we were served refreshments which are usually served in flight, that seemed ominous enough to me.

After we finished our refreshments captain told us that flight will take of tomorrow at 2pm and we would be provided accommodation, It was supposed to take of at 4pm, so this meant a delay of 22hours. Americans and guys with German visa where deplaned first and taken to hotel. Rest of us were some 150 people and were taken to gate B58. Air India staff then took our passports for transit visa. They returned after another 2 hours and told us that German border police have issued visa only to those with babies, health problem and people over age of 60. We were really irritated. I along with another lady went to speak with Border police official. This lady had been green card holder for last 28 years, but nothing worked out. Funny thing, a couple turned up immediately after this announcement that his wife was pregnant !! So we were given some sandwiches, water,food coupons, calling card and a whole big airport to spend the whole night. Unfortunately all flights out of Frankfurt had been cancelled on the day before we arrived because of storms all over northern Europe, so all flights out were already full. I roamed around a lot and found out some comfortable seats, but was afraid of missing developments so went back to rest of passengers. I managed to sleep for couple of hours and then at 6am got up for breakfast. Had a heavy breakfast at McDonald, thankfully even in Germany they have menu very similar to that in America. When I returned back I realized that AI was distributing alternate flight tickets. So I also joined the queue, this was at 8am on March 2. After standing in queue for another 5 hours, AI staff announced that all passengers with connecting flight should make another group and wait. They were trying to book all passengers to LA on American Airlines flight scheduled to leave at 2pm. After 2pm just 7 of us were left, we thought it would be easy to accommodate us in any flight. We were still standing next to transit request counter and we could hear staff searching for all available options. At one point they were also considering Frankfurt--- Amsterdam---London---Washington---Los Angeles---San Diego, but that did not happen because of transit visa problem we would have had all over Europe.Soon we were told that all flights to US were full and that the only available option is to take a flight on next morning that is March 3. This was at 4pm on March 2 We were too tired to protest since we had been standing since 8am and had had nothing to eat or drink since then.They proposed me to take United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Chicago next morning i.e. march 3 at 8am and then take connecting flight to San Diego. When I did see the itinerary proposed , I realized that I would have very less time at Chicago airport. I asked them for another flight but was denied the same, though UA had another flight to San Diego after 3 hours. This would have saved me another hour in queue at Chicago, but guess this was not my lucky day.

So we were given another set of food coupons ,calling card of 5 Euro. The calling card got you less than 2 minutes of call to India, so I ended up with a phone bill of $140 on my credit card that too for just 2 calls to India and 1 call to US. Anyways, since we had accumulated a lot of food coupons we just went and had some beer and went to sleep as you can see in the snap. Since there were no shops in the whole airport, open 24 hours we took dinner with beer and again at 9pm and then went to sleep. Got up pretty early as we were desperate to leave Frankfurt. Got through screening eyes of security, they were really suspicious as we looked really scruffy and smelled horribly. Flight to Chicago was nice, as United economy plus had good leg room. I did not drink any more beer as my throat infection was getting worse. I slept for most part of flight. At Chicago I realized my luggage had not arrived, but I was still happy that at least I made it out of Frankfurt. In Chicago at least I could go out of airport stay with friend if it got to that. So even after rushing through immigration and security i missed my connecting flight. Thankfully United had automatically put me on the next flight, so apart from standing in queue for an hour everything else was smooth. Finally reached San Diego on March 3 at 7:30 ,delayed by 2 days, without luggage. Filed a report with United Airlines and did some shopping for immediate requirements before I finally reached home. And boy a hot shower never felt so good. As soon as I touched bed I was off to sleep.

I received luggage after another 2 days, have filed for compensation but don't have very high expectation and I am never flying Air India again !

Updates !!

2008-03-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well Its about time I wrote something about whatz happening in my life. Spent last 10 months at San Diego. Now I am pretty used to this place, wont mind spend more time here.

Went to India in Feb for almost 20 days and boy was it hectic...phew. Spent initial 2-3 days just meeting friends and more importantly delivering goods they had requested. So my dear friend ashu because my chauffeur and drove me around. He tells me he drove lot more in those 2 days than what he would have otherwise done in whole month !!!.

Had a really stupid experience at my TCS office at Noida-2. They would not let my friend in even to canteen. I don't understand how that helps in improving security :( So after those 2 days went to Tauji's place in Dwarka. I thought people would ask me my well being and ask 10000 questions....but no...I was told to be ready to go for shopping even before I stepped in. So the welcome I got was , "leave your luggage and rush for shopping, you are already late"...man talk about people missing me :(

Anyways shadi was mix of traditional way and faster way of doing things. The good part was I got to meet lots of relatives, some I met for the very first time. That justifies me taking a vacation so soon.

I reached kota on 20th and from then on since I had had a really hectic time in delhi, all I wanted to do was to relax. Dad n mom wanted me to try as much diverse indian menu as possible, so I had all kinds of halwa, jalebi, ladoos, lassi, kachori and not to mention visits to restuarents. Whereas all I wanted was just plain home food. well they were all too good to resist for long.

So as my last day in kota kept getting nearer, my pace of buying things and tasks to complete got more frantic. I did the most shopping on last day. I thought of bringing Sangam barfi (It is the most popular sweet in kota) to San Diego, but alas it did not taste the same over here. So I left kota on 29 in Golden Temple mail. Reached noida that night and partied with salil and dang. Slept for just over 2 hours that night and then started for IGI at 3:45am.

My travel will be another big blog. I will post it pretty soon.

Life's good !!!

2007-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well I am writting after a really long time....Moved to San Diego 3 months ago...now I am well settled here and out of my gloomy self...enjoying life after a really long time...I am in to lots of things i missed out earlier...trying to learn surfing....try to be regular at gym...and (thatz not all) I have started playing volleyball...so i got something else to do than just bugs abd logs.

At Central Park ,Cannught Place

2007-03-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a gr8 day...actually day before yesterday I had gone to Ravi's home...we tried to get IMAX tickets..but there was no show even when price had been dropped to 110 !!!..anyway we just had dinner and went to his home.....saw a movie...next morning ravi was the the chef for d day....he made a delicious poha for breakfast.
....well it didnt end there ....he topped it up with a gr8 lunch.....he made some delicious dal chawal...of course with some generous help from deepa...who by the way would be really proud !!!....no snaps of that will post video for that....anyways at 5 was time for rendezvous with salil and trip to cannught place....we all were pretty sick of all the Malls.....nothing natural about them.....going out simply meant going to a Mall......going up and down 3 floors.....then having just have dinner......so Central Park at Cannught Place was a pleasant change.....

after that just returned home and had dinner...watched india lose Bangladesh :-((....but a gr8 day for us.

life sucks

2007-03-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

well pretty much nothing to write....got no achievements...no calls from anywhere...i dont know what to do except dream...should have tried of onsite lot earlier ...anyways lets see...

Accident :-(

2007-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

so today wasn't a gr8 at all....had a minor accident...with a auto.....but luckily escaped with just minor bruises....nothing serious at all.....and yes it wasn't my fault at all...really..anyways so gym is off for atleast a week...i guess i will have to spend time reading.....

preparing for storm ahead

2007-02-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

these days i got just nothing to do...except prepare for a switch....I dont see any onsite oppurtunities in TCS :-(.....well problem is that there arn't any interview call lined up as well.....may be companies really start recruiting after march....lets see.....first i got to give some interview to judge my standard.....soone MATC here at noida2 is going to kick me into some project......

Great CSS site!!

2006-05-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

Hi,
This site is an absolute must for improving UI of ur page.

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex2/

My Life

2006-05-15T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well Saw Posiden on saturday....good one....just like titanic minus the romoance :-(...I m trying to curb my hunger for movies....

First post

2006-05-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
This is my attempt to put down what ever i feel like...