AND finally I DID it!!!

Well people! before you start imagining the "it" lemme warn you its not something which most of you would have in your mind ;)... well during the Memorial Day weekend I happened to go out on a bigg road trip.. covering around 2400 miles (approx. 4000 kms) in 4 days.. and IT was not like we were driving all the time.. we had enough time to visit places... so it was a trip to NYC, Boston and New Jersey... Awesome trip but will not get into the details of it (as that's not the "it" I am talking about here :)- )

Okay enough of beating around the bush.. While driving back home (to Chicago) from NYC.. we were fighting against time and I had the most crucial strech to drive.. and it was then that while driving in Pennsylvania, I CROSSED 100 mph (I touched around 105 mph (170 kmph)) and cruised at that speed for almost 10 mins.... From the time I have learnt driving, my only dream had to see the speedometer going past 100... A couple of months back I would have been happy if it would have been just 100 kmph but HERE I went way beyond... Speedometers in US are in miles per hour and when the pointer crossed 100 in it, I was at 170 kmph (way beyond my earlier dream of crossing 100 kmph)... and what you see above was the MEAN machine which helped me reach it - A Chevy Impala!!!!

Off to the land of opportunities.....

Around a month back I landed in the so-called 'Land of Opportunities' on December 23rd, '07 at ORD, Chicago. Well in the current scenario India is as good a land of opportunities (maybe better than US in many ways) but thats completely a different debate all-together. Ya so where were we.... actually I guess its a good idea for me to give a brief of events which happened earlier in the day so that you do get to appreciate this post.

This was my first onsite trip... finally after roughly 2 years of working my a** off in the IT industry my superiors decided that the time had come to send yours truly on a 'phoren' trip... maybe partly out of fear that if they dont I would quit and partly bcoz in all companies now-a-days we are part of a pipeline.... the beginning of which starts with some training, then project, then onsite, then project lead, n it goes on and on with a lit' difference here and there... and mind you the story is no diff in the so called "dream" companies.... so there I was all set to fly to US on a long-term assignment. Normally under such circumstances people are overjoyed but I had a mixed reaction...bcoz I had an amazing group of friends back in Blore n the thought of leaving them n the good times we spent behind was kind of overwhelming... but since this was the most logical thing to do I packed up my bags (temporarily) from blore and embarked on a journey to the 'phoren' land.

I have a habit of getting too excited at times and the same was the case with my first intercontinental flight... where regular fliers dont even bother checking the time of the flight more than a day in advance... I had done everything under the sun... be it filling up the information sheet online (this is generally done at the airport).. choosing my seats... checking the menu... and even the movies on the in-flight entertainment for both the routes (not that it helped in any way.. in my BLR- london (LHR) sector there was some problem with the screen and it kept shutting down in between movies much to my annoyance and in the LHR-ORD sector it was a pre-programmed one so I had no control other than just switching channels).. anyways as you would see later that would turn out to be the least of my worries....

Okay back to the day of my departure from Blore... I was flying British Airways via london and the flight was at 7 in the morning (much to my relief I was saved the pain of boarding a flight at 2:30 AM in the night in a semi-conscious state). I had asked my parents to come down to Blore to help me with my packing and man wasnt it the right decision. Thank GOD for them I did manage to clean up all my mess and pack everything within 3 days, a no mean achievement considering the amount of work I had left pending :)- One thing I like about my parents is that they are least nagging... my mom is really strong and she understands how this world works n my dad is ever-supportive (touchwood!).... so no tears were shed at the airport... they were more than happy to see me go out of the country FINALLY!!!! So after clearing the tons of formalities I sat there waiting for my flight to leave... it was delayed by half an hour.... I had a heavy heart (personal reasons) but at the same time was quite excited to leave... eventually the moment came and I entered the flight... well wasnt I shocked.... me being used to seeing Jet Airways n Indian Airlines was quite stunned with the huge aircraft which was waiting at the tarmac... but to be honest the economy class was equally cramped in this case maybe a tad better but nothing extraordinary....

Finally I settled down in my seat...well to tell u frankly it did feel a bit alien... I am used to seeing mostly indian faces on a flight with (more importantly) an indian crew at the helm... but here it was diff, there were more phirangs than indians and the crew had a weird accent. I dunno if you wud aggree with me but I am more comfortable with an American accent than a British one... I am not really going into the debate of british english being superior than american english but blame it on the pseudo-american living in Blore/India, american accent is easier to understand.... so there I was in the middle of an alien population with people speaking a known language in an alien tone and I was already feeling homesick (rather Bloresick).. anyways my flight was pretty ordinary... I had ordered an asian veg meal which was okay.. in-flight entertainment had options but I had an annoying screen n headphones which spoilt it... I slept intermittently in the 11 hour long flight which finally gave me a headache. One thing which I liked was the view below... I could see these amazing snow covered mountains n towards the end I did get a glimpse of the Big Ben and the Giant London Wheel before it went all foggy... I always wanted to see Heathrow from air but sadly the weather was really bad with visibility under 2 mtrs....

Finally I landed at Heathrow and after an irritating round of security checks (where they rip you off everything other than just a top n a bottom) I went into the lounge... I found LHR beautiful to say the least... it was huge and had a grrrrrrreat varietly of shops n lounges... but you do get bored of all that after a while... thanks to the horrible weather my connecting flight to Chicago was around 3 hrs late so my total transit time was close to a horrifying 7-8 hrs... After what seemed to be an eternity I boarded the flight and after another eternity the flight finally left... I was dead tired by then... I was up since 3 AM (IST) on sunday and my flight to chicago left at approximately 1 AM (IST) the next day 22 hrs without sleep.... and more was yet to come.

My second leg of the journey was on a smaller aircraft, with crappier food n in-flight entertainment BUT better seats n to an extent crew n fellow passengers. Anyways I was too glad to leave London that I would not have mind anything at that moment. I slept most of the flight and woke up an hour before we were supposed to land at Chicago. We finally landed around 10 PM CST (9:30 AM IST).... AND just before disembarking my worst fear came true... I was dreading all along the sub-zero absolutely crazy weather of Chicago and to my dismay the weather had been particularly bad that night.. with snowstorms n a severe weather warning doing rounds.... all this sent a chill up my spine... just a day before I was a part of the beautiful maritime weather of Blore and now the Captain's voice announcing "Welcome to Chicago! blah blah blah the weather outside is -15 deg Celsius .......... " was enough to drive me crazy....

I got down from the flight after wearing every piece of warm clothing I had (panicky!!!) I went on to clear the immigration. I was greeted by a huuuuge queue which eventually took me around 2 hrs to reach baggage clearance... this was the best part - after waiting for a freaking 1 hr I got to know that both my luggages have gone missing... these BA dumbo's have left them in London itself... this was it... I had gone nuts first of all nothing was going right that day and on top of that I am in an alien land with no luggage other than a check-in bag. Anyways after a 2.5 hr long wait I finally got my luggage (they had sent a lot in a diff flight)... it was already 1:30 AM CST (1 PM IST) and I could barely stand on my legs... now the part was how to reach my senior's house with whom I had planned to stay the initial few days. No one came to pick me up (cant blame them as the weather outside was scary) and I could not find/book any taxi after repeated tries. There is something funny in the US - all public booths work only with quarters and TRUST ME they are the most difficult to find in US. Obviously I had no quarters with me and to manage one (for calling) I dont remember how many times I had to buy a coffee (to get the change). Eventually I did manage a taxi - a guy of pakistani origin who had been in US for 18 years now. He was nice and sweet and we struck a conversation. It was during the course of discussion that he managed to ask me about my monthly income and guess what was his reply, and I quote " well you see we make something similar driving a taxi" TRUST ME I dont care how truthful his statement was (in all probability it wasnt) but at that point of time after such an ordeal that was the last thing I wanted to hear!!!!!!! Finally I reached home after a 38 hr long ordeal.....

Well to everyone who did read so far :)- let me tell you that I have plans of writing the sequels to this post but they would paint a better picture. Actually nothing can beat my first intercontinental experience.... it was unique in more ways than one!!!!!

WINNING!

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while; you do things right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only on place in a game, and that’s the first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. you’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different from running any other kind of organization-an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win- to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there-to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get into the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules-but to win.

And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don’t say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or the man must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in GOD, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour- his greatest fulfillment to all the he holds dear-is that moment when he has to work his heart out for a good cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.

---- Vince Lombardi
(P.S. For those of you who dont know, Vince Lombardi was one of the most successful head coaches in the history of American Football. He was the driving force of Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967 and won 5 NFL tournaments during his 9 year tenure.

The 153rd day of 2007

Today was a different day not because it is the 153rd day of this year (for those of you who are still scratcing their heads trying to figure out the date its June 2nd) but because how this day made me do certain things I would never normally do.

What started as a very ordinary and to an extent boring day ended to be one of the more fulfilling days. After getting up horribly late and having one of the laziest afternoons in recent times, I had got ready to go for my cross-country walks ( a desperate attempt to burn up those extra calories, or maybe more of an escape route to make me feel less pathetic about my growing waistline). Well I was just about to leave when I got a call from one of my friends who actually had got his long awaited car delivered and was proposing if I am up for a drive. I could already see a silver lining :-). Incidentally Aerosmith was performing LIVE that day in Bangalore (and even though I never made a sincere attempt to get tickets for the show) suddenly the whole idea of going to the show (of course without ticket) seemed quite appealing. And the whole idea of driving a new car on Sat night in Blore roads (incidentally thats the only time Blore roads are a bit empty) was just too much for me. So off we went, 3 of us for the concert and after some moving around reached the concert venue. Well we started walking towards the stage, expecting anytime a cop would spring up asking for tickets and we might as well have to end our adventure there. To my surprise none came, we kept walking in till the point where we were next to the VIP entrance of the concert ( a freaking 1800 bucks). And what served as the perfect icing on the top was the fact that the show wasnt over and we got to see them performing arguably their most famous number "I dont wanna miss a thing".

Well I am an optimist but I guess this exceeded all my expectations. We returned after the show feeling like warriors after winning a battle, proud of our accomplishment. Well that was not all, after the show we ended up going to one of my friend's place (who was leaving for US the same night). We reached at 1, scared her mom who mistook us for some thugs :-) helped him pack up a bit and after exchanging the normal pleasantries finally reached home (ya this time I meant my home sweet home) at around 2:30.

Incidentally this was the first time I properly drove a car in namma bengaluru........

300 Dor

Well to everyone wondering what the title all about, its simple. I happened to watch 2 awesome movies on the same day and couldnt stop myself to write about them. They were 300 and Dor. Hugely different subjects with magnanimous differences but nevertheless a class apart in their own right.

300 based on the book by Frank Miller, directed by Zack Snyder is a masterpiece from every sense of the word. The story as most of us knows was about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC between a humongous (close to a million soldiers) Persian army led by King Xerxes and King Leonidas of Sparta (with only 300 of his elite guards and few others). The battle is said to have inspired all of Greece to band together against the Persians, and helped usher the world's first democracy. Whatever be its historical/mythical significance, the movie is just awesome. Right from the first scene to the end, you just sit down holding your breath. Great direction, just awestrucking performances never let you forget the movie. Gerald Butler does complete justice to the role of King Leonidas and is quite impressive throughout the movie.

DOR on the other hand is a timid love story,shot at the backdrop of Rajasthan and Shimla! yes thats correct its as vibrant as the desert of Rajasthan to the greenery of Shimla, to the oppressed, simple village girl from Rajasthan (Ayesha Takia) to the "never say die" girl from Shimla (Gul Panag). The story was so cute and so elegantly picturised and portrayed that you cant help but feel spellbound. Indian cinemas have really come a long way and it is these directors like Nagesh Kukunoor who are leading the way from the front.

Cracking CAT for Dummies

Before I begin, a honest confession. The post below is not my original creation, received it as one of the forwards but I was so impressed with the same that I couldnt help posting it in my blog :-) Here it goes .................

Few weeks back the CAT results were announced. For those of you fortunate enough to not have had a brush with this monstrosity, CAT stands for Common Aptitude Test,something that these Indian Institute of Management blokes hold once every year to have a good laugh with the complete expense borne by the participating jokers.This time round there were nearly quarter of a million of these jokers who usually come from all walks of life for their 2 (now 2 and a half) hours of tryst with destiny.CAT is something like the Daddy-promise to get the He-Man toy on my birthday if I stay good for the next six months and do my homework everyday and help mother out in the kitchen and.....and .....(Parents always have their camouflaged win-win conditions. don't they ?). Anyway quite similarly,this bunch of jokers slog for their He-Mans to come and make life simpler for them.

These jokers,and I'd restrain the discussions to the ones originating from the engineering sector, hereby referred to as Jawans,usually start talking about CAT during their first years in college with the firm decision that they'd specialize only in finance and nothing else when in all probability,their extent of knowledge about the financial world is comparable with Mallika Sherawat's affinity for clothes.Gradually once the ragging period is over though and no one anymore feeds you with information of the type that Balubhai who sells eggs in the First hostel is also an electrical engineer passout from our college,the Jawans usually ease out and dedicate the next three years in search of pornography in the internet.

Then comes June of final year ...its 5 months to CAT and many rediscover their long subdued passion for feenance. This time round the Jawans come armed with loads of Business world magazines and months of Economic Times which all of course goes to Balubhai who uses it to demarcate his omlettes from the half-frys.Red paper-Omlette,White Paper-Half Fry.Simple rule of finance.

The poor souls lead a non engineer's life during the next few months trying to figure out things like who was Ramu's father if his second cousin was married to Sheela who had three daughters,all females one of whom was a school teacher and neither of her cousins Jatin and Rani were doctors. The lawyers in the family were not vegetarians and Deepika was the only ShahRukh Khan fan. Their pet dog Jimmy was allergic to vodka without any lime cordial and Ramesh and Jiten were not brothers!!!

They compare and analyse the sugarcane production, wool generation and alluminium output of 12 South American countries with bar diagrams, histograms,Chi-Square tests,normality tests and remaining sanity.The hapless souls burn many a candle to try and figure out what Carl Gustav Jung meant to say when he spoke of integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm and then deciding whether the tone of the author in the paragraph was fuzzy,pedantic,obstreperous or regressionist.Four unknown words as choices are all that he had till last year! This year they added the choice Confucian and so Jawan has 5 choices now to direct his destiny.

Jawan takes simulated exams named after all available species of Cats and by the time he reaches the actual exam hall on a nice November Sunday morning ,he can barely remember his name and it is for this purpose that such cases are provided an Admit card with a name,photograph and address so that people can help these poor souls find their way back home.What happens during the next three odd hours will certainly need another post so I am skipping that portion here.

A month or so from that Sunday ,the results are announced in a website and if you wished to see your score on the same day that the results are released, then you might as well type the website's address, press enter and accompany your mother to her long awaited trip to Amarnath and on the way back maybe make the visit to Rishikesh and Haridwar and then if you've washed away some of your sins of this life and the one previous to it,then you may be blessed with the home page of the IIM on your return.Now you may click the link which says CAT 2006 results and doesn't Dad always talk about the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and the serenity there? So why not make that visit with family and the Rameswaram temple is something to be seen to be believed !!

While some Jawans come back from their trips, type in their CAT registration number, ask their mothers their date of birth, type that in and wait for their results to appear.......some, like ME, just wink and go on with their lives.

Keep Walking!!!!

Check out the figure above! You must be wondering what is this pic doing in my blog. Well I just got this as a forward and found it worth sharing.

Many of us already know that the Organs of our body have their sensory touches at the bottom of our feet, if we massage these points it provides us with relief from aches and pains as can be seen from the figure. Note the organs on the right and left foot, such as the heart which is on the left foot.

These are covered in great detail in Acupressure studies or textbooks. The nerves connected to these organs terminate at our feet. God created our body so well that he thought of even this. He made us walk so that we will always be pressing these pressure points and thus keeping these organs activated at all times. So, keep walking...