Oh Calcutta!

No this is not the shout of despair in seeing the crumbling infrastructure of the city… it is a expression of jubilation when I went to the restaurant named "Oh Calcutta" in Bangalore… this restaurant is operated by Anjan (the same guy behind Mainland China) and I believe have an outlet in all major cities of India… Its an upmarket restaurant and if you enter this place be prepared to burn a decent big hole in your pocket. Here is my review of this place :-

1. Ambience - (3 out of 5 stars) I thought they could have worked a bit more in this department. Though I like subtlety decorated places I found this a bit too plain.. c'mon you are charging a fortune atleast put in some decent amount of wall - hangings and posters of the city for the people to get a feel of Calcutta

2. Service - (4 out of 5 stars) the place has knowledgeable waiters who can guide all non-bengalis through the maze of tongue twisting bengali dishes and will suggest you something good depending upon your interest.

3. Food - (5 out of 5) if possible I would have given it a 10 out of 5 stars. the food is absolutely delightful… I for once have NEVER had yummier bengali food outside of my home in my life to date. Right from the starters to their in-house drink (Aam Panna) and to the Entre's it was a delight… a word of caution though - I am not sure how much it is going to appeal non-bengalis and specially vegetarian non-bengalis. We for one did not order even one dish which was vegetarian so am not sure how is their veggie dept. For the rest some of the fish dishes (esp. Hilsa) may not appeal to non-bongs as they are a pain in the butt to eat but as every bong worth his salt will swear these fishes are a class apart in taste.

Will I suggest this restaurant to anyone? Depends… For one you need to have money in your pocket and for two you should be ready and open to experiment with authentic bengali food… if you have never eaten beyond your home and McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Subway are your idea of outside food, then this place is not for you!!!!

As for me…. I happily burped away into the night echoing Oh Calcutta Oh Oh Calcutta!!!!

P.S. I was right.. its rated as one of the top 5 restaurants in India

The state of "Joblessness"

Well its some time since I read about the finite state machines in college but my current state of activity can also be categorized as one of the "states".. maybe we should open up another branch of finite state machines and call them "life-state machines"... okay enough of nerdy PJs... here I am with few salient features of self-proclaimed life-state machine - "state of joblessness"

You know you are in this state when

• you do not have any fixed time to get up in the morning
• when you get up, you are at a total loss of how your day is going to be or what needs to be done during the day
• you brush your teeth at 11 AM and then again go off to sleep
• you spend 90% of the time you are awake staring either on your laptop or the idiot-box
• you have only food in your mind the rest of the 10%
• you are at the peak of procrastination
• you need to kick-start your brain for the most basic of its functions
• you are too lazy to do things which you swore on doing when you were busy

(am too brain-dead to think of anything else)

Also for advanced courses, the state of joblessness can be categorized into two :-

1. Happy - when the joblessness is self-inflicted... typically the period of inactivity before something big.. the lull before the storm... u know this is your time and you want to make the most of it because these happy states of joblessness do seldom come in your life....
2. Sad - when the joblessness is some third-party cause... this can be depressing as you did not want this state but was forcefully thrown upon you... typically resigning from ur job due to discontent, fired, etc are causes behind this... God forbid but I hope no one falls into this state as its not at all pleasant and probably the least wanted....

now that my gyan is over.. time to again get back to my HAPPY state of joblessness... duh I took 20 mins to type this much... thats around 2% of my daily time.... too bad...

lets go back to inactivity!!! :D

The year so far….

Not very long ago, I was fighting one of the fiercest battles with myself on few issues which had been eating up my head for a long time. It had spread like a cancer in my brain and all attempts to diagnose it were failures. I happened to visit NYC to one of my dearest friend during the Christmas weekend and had an amazing time, and during the same trip he kinda remarked, that the new decade should be different for you. Though it may sound kiddish, but sometimes all you need in life is a little encouragement and an assurance that things would change for the better. So in I went, into the new decade, into 2010 with a lot of hopes and determinations. I had one of the best New Year celebrations in a long long time…. couple of my friends went to a local pub and ate, drank, made merry… and on 1st I surprisingly got up really early, went for a drive, paid regards to the Almighty and saw Avatar! Pretty much a perfect start….

Days started passing by and I was totally consumed at work… broke a number of professional records of putting in uninterrupted number of hours at a stretch and also coped up with Ishan’s travel out of the US. Jan for the most part was uneventful and I was busy planning the next phase of my life.. cursing myself sometimes of messing up few great past opportunities. An email at the end of January changed everything… yes it was an interview call from ISB… I had little hopes of getting an invite especially since I felt I couldnt put my best in the applications….the next few days around 10 to be exact went in preparing for the interview… it was easily one of the most stressed out weeks for me, with tons of work, rescheduling of the interview and managing social life left me exhausted… finally the interview happened and again I felt that I could have done better… honestly I felt I had a 50-50 chance and was cursing myself left n right for not doing a better job!

The historic day of Feb 12th changed everything…. I got an invite from ISB, actually 3-4 days before the actual results were supposed to be out. It took me some time to digest, for the feeling to really sink in that I had finally made it to one premier b-school after years of trying, deliberation and messed up schedules. What followed was to an extent unexpected – the process of exiting from Infosys and Kraft! I was not very happy the way my professional life was shaping up.. though I was currently working in a very challenging project, somehow things were not right. More than anything time was running by and I wanted to finish my education fast before I get too bored/old to study… so in that effect ISB happened at the right time. I was ecstatic and was sure that the next few days are gonna be a breeze….well it was exactly the opposite!

Today is Mar 9th, approximately 3 weeks since I informed my managers of my intention of leaving Infy and within just a few days (3 to be exact) I would bid goodbye to my friends and colleagues at Kraft/Infy and embark upon a new journey after a short break of 20 days! What has touched me is the way everyone has come forward to wish me the best in this new endeavor… my clients (absolutely lovely people) had been so supportive and encouraging… seriously this had been a dream account to work for.. seldom do you meet such an understanding and motivating group of people (clients) who make your work literally a treat!

Kraft I will really really miss you!!!

Another touching and unexpected behavior was from my friends at Infy… now that I am leaving I truly realise how blessed I was to have so many friends around me to hang out with.. watch movies.. gossip.. chat.. do anything under the sun. Even their reception towards me had been so warm… had one of my best dinners ever in BD’s and I am sure there are few more send-offs planned in the next few days….

Really people (you know who you are) I will truly truly miss you all!

Well I guess thats enuf of senti-talk for one post… have to finish off with packing and other pleasantries… clock is ticking… tick tock tick tock!!!!

Loyalty is seldom rewarded!

In an age where credit card companies are stepping onto each other to come up with their most alluring programs to reward customers who had stuck with their bank, I have increasingly come to notice a lot of other closer-to-life places where things are exactly the opposite. Let me give you two examples :-

1. In the (Indian) IT industry if you stick with a company for 4-5 years without jumping around like a frog, in all probability you will be earning a lot less than the next door "Mr. FROG" (a.k.a someone who has changed say 5 jobs in 5 years). Our frog would have received atleast a 40-50% hike with every jump. Poor you, who has worked your a** off with the same company is deemed worthless. Even if you are the top 5% of the company, you would at the max get a 8% jump in your salary year-on-year. So much for loyalty. Its like if you are at the same place you must not be good enough to jump like a frog!!

2. This is something peculiar I witnessed in US especially with Cable companies and Apartment offices. Lets take apartments first, if you religiously keep jumping every 12 months, there is a huge chance that you will end up paying around 100-150 USD lesser after a year, even if you would have moved from say #421 to #420. If you stick around (poor you!) you end up paying a premium of 30 USD extra per month, so yes your rent is actually increasing though you are living in the exact same house from the past 3 years and your neighbor (yes Mr. FROG) is reaping all the benefits.

Now comes cable companies - almost all of them have promotional tariffs for the first 6 months. Also prices for the same kind of service reduces over time but who gets these benefits?? NO, not the loyal customer who took this connection 3 years back but the cheesy Mr. FROG who had been religiously changing service providers every 6 months.

So what do we do? Is it good to be a Mr. FROG?

P.S. And yes - you guessed it right. Both of the above are chronicles of first-hand experiences.

The decade that was!

Its 8 PM Central on the 31st day of the 12th month of the last year in the first decade of the new millennium! Sounds complicated.. eh! Fine - its 31-Dec-2009 20:00 CT and I just thought a blog would just be a nice idea to wind up this decade. For most, a New Year is either a reason to party hard or just another day in the calendar. It had been the latter for me most of the 26 odd years of my existence. So what's special about it this time around? Well a couple of reasons actually!

I hate to admit but the last decade - yes the entire 10 damn years had been primarily an era of under-achievement(strictly by my standards) for me with some minor exceptions here and there. The first 5 years professional and the last 5 personal. My belief system had been shaken a bit and also life has taught me some important lessons; 'not to take life for granted' being the most important one. On the positive side, I think I had come out as a much stronger person than I ever was determined to turn things over more than ever. Also I have grown out of a shell - from a shy immature teen to a decently smart chap (again strictly by my standards LOL). It had been a learning experience, and also a time to perform under pressure and live upto expectations.

All in all now that I am armed and hopeful that I can turn things over - its time to party! So in just a couple of minutes I am off to a sports lounge to dine away into the New Decade/Year. I think this would be a fitting way to welcome something which could very well be considered "life changing". The Yard House - here I come... CHAO.....
And yes!
Here's WISHING EVERYONE A GREAT NEW YEAR AND A ROCKING DECADE AHEAD!

Love Happens....

Okay this is a recommendation from me to everyone who wants to watch a nice emotionally inspiring movie. Pick up a DVD and watch "Love Happens". The title is definitely misleading.. yes its about love and it does happen out of the blue but still the movie has a message. Its like a self help book on the silver screen and I definitely know and relate to people who would benefit themselves with the ideas of the protagonist of the movie. So without much thought, go ahead and watch the movie....

IMDB Link

Njoi!!

A waste of a weekend!

Duh! What a weekend!! [8th/9th Aug 2009]
Generally such exclamations are symbolic of a great weekend but mine was juuuust the opposite.. it seemed I got up on the wrong side of the bed (hey wait a minute! I didnt even sleep on one!!) okay then must have got up on the wrong side of my couch!! Whatever may be the reason it was a disaster!
Here goes the list :-

1. Suddenly out of the blue, got the news that there is a faint possibility that I may have to relocate for some time.. Where my frenz are finalizing their Miami trip, I have to just keep waiting for my manager to confirm his plans for me!! (gimme a break!!!)
2. Caught up on tennis just 1 out of the 3 days.. that 1 time I did play somehow did not enjoy 1 minute of the game...
3. Exercise - ZERRROOOO! The maximum I walked was from my apartment to the parking lot!
4. Study for GMAT - sucked biggg time.. am now behind schedule more than ever!
5. Study for certifications - ZERRRROOOO!
6. Visit to the theatre - nah!! this was atleast 1 thing I used to do religiously but this week even this eluded me...
7. Socialize with friends - Negligible!
8. Had kind of an argument with my cousin 'sis and Raj for not visiting Blore the last time I visited India!! What more it was on my sister's bday!!
9. Cooking - ZERRROOO! Weekend is one time I cook properly and have a nice 3-course meal. This weekend was shit load of junk food... what more yesterday wanted to have a Sub and literally toured the whole of Greater Chicago to find one damn 'Subway' OPEN at 10 PM but returned empty handed... panera bread (closed).. even Taco Bell (dont they advertise "Open Late" and crap!! So where did 'yours truly' finally manage to eat - BK (Burger King)! again full junk....
10. Finally had some pending office work which I thought would assign my offshore and sleep peacefully on Sunday night but damn.. he 'supposedly' is down with fever.. Incidentally he is sick once every damn week.... the other one is happily on vacation and then I have to listen to their pep talks!!! aaarggghhhhhhh
    
    The only 'worthy' thing - watched Frost/Nixon!! Looooved the movie.. what acting!!
    Hopefully for my coming weekends I have something better to write about... cant afford another disaster in this crunch time!!