Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Updates!!
My work is taking up toomuch of my 'alive' time. Besides there is the usual rigmarole of cooking,cleaning, laundry, ironing, reading and the list goes on. Life is getting more and more routineed and hence boring except for a couple of happenings. One is the job itself. Something new or the other is happening everyday to keep me at the edge. Another is the comments to my blog scripts. Some Anonymous person is writing venomous comments to my articles without letting me know his/her identity. This is interesting, as the person knows me definitely but wants to hide him/her self behind a virtual veil. It would be great if he/she let me know the name atleast.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
The Nomad In Me
I am updating my blog after a long time. I was busy grabbing and digesting my new responsibilities at my new workplace for the last one month. So a lot of updates are here all of your way.
I bought a new Toyota Prius 2005 just before changing over to the new office. I will write sometime about how I got hold of THE Car in just 12 hours when there is actually a wait of 3 to 6 months for this mind boggling 4 wheeler. Amazed!!
I drove it all the way from Chicago to down south Fort Smith in Arkansas. More amazing that I left Chicago for the new job I talked about in my last update and drove down to Fort Smith with my friend. It was long and tiring 9 hour drive and we took it; canceling all previous airline and hotel bookings as I wanted to 'run' the car a bit.
I will attach some pictures of Fort Smith's azure blue sky and my Prius. I named her and the navigation system inside as Ms Salsa Juicy. Well not much creativity here; the color of the car is called Red Salsa by Toyota and the car is juicy enough; it holds on to gas for long time say 45 miles per gallon.
Friday, February 04, 2005
The Interview
This is the story of an interview I had few days back. Now why is this The Interview?? Because this paved the route for a 100K job hop? Or because I attended the interview while travelling in a train, while negotiating with passengers to keep their voice low so that I can understand the questions, while pulling my luggage to a corner of the Chicago Union station, while taking another phone call from my friend, while providing help to a passenger about directions to another train!! Sounds interesting... read on.
It all started on a Tuesday when a consultant scheduled a telephonic interview for me with some one called SG (initials will do..) next day at 3 pm. Well Wednesday the interview happened at 8.30 pm and continued till 9.20 pm with a promise of another in-depth probing of me the following day (Thursday) at 3 pm. Thursday I was supposed to take the 5.05 Amtrak train to return from Springfield to Chicago. So 3 pm seemed good. At 3pm I got an email that the interview has been rescheduled.
The interview started at Thursday 8.05 pm when I was travelling in the double decker train; I was reading "Adventure Capitalist" by Jim Rogers till 8 pm when I discovered that the train was crowded and everyone was speaking with someone on their phone. So I took the stairs down and found myself a low, bright yellow colored stool (with few dark patches) that is used for passengers to get down at stations. I dialed into the conference number to find my interviewers;SG, the Client Project Manager and a Microsoft Project Architect. Intial questions from them lasted for about 25 minutes when the train entered the Chicago Union Station and the Tmobil bars in my cell got to zero; the phone got disconnected from the network.
Once I alighted the station, I found my self a small corner to dial in again. They were there. We started where we got halted. Before that I plugged in my phonecharger as the battery was going down. For next 55 minutes I was grilled by the Architect on anything and everything that is .Net. He was paused thrice; once when my ear was all hot and sweaty with holding the phone so long, second time my friend called up and third I had to provide directions to a guy looking for a particular train. During this time, I also had pull myself and my luggage to a new corner as someone also wanted to share the plugpoint for his laptop.
Once the interview was over we all marvelled at the uniqueness of our experience; we got disturbed by so many things but we achieved what we wanted to do. They questioned me relentlessly and mercilessly and I answered them obligingly, the environment and the circumstances just added a new paradigm to the concept of telephonic interview. SG knew of my blog and told me to write up the experience. I was amazed that they were doing background research about me, however I didnt write the story till now as I was still working with IBM. But now that I have resigned I couldnt hide the greed to share this with the world.
It all started on a Tuesday when a consultant scheduled a telephonic interview for me with some one called SG (initials will do..) next day at 3 pm. Well Wednesday the interview happened at 8.30 pm and continued till 9.20 pm with a promise of another in-depth probing of me the following day (Thursday) at 3 pm. Thursday I was supposed to take the 5.05 Amtrak train to return from Springfield to Chicago. So 3 pm seemed good. At 3pm I got an email that the interview has been rescheduled.
The interview started at Thursday 8.05 pm when I was travelling in the double decker train; I was reading "Adventure Capitalist" by Jim Rogers till 8 pm when I discovered that the train was crowded and everyone was speaking with someone on their phone. So I took the stairs down and found myself a low, bright yellow colored stool (with few dark patches) that is used for passengers to get down at stations. I dialed into the conference number to find my interviewers;SG, the Client Project Manager and a Microsoft Project Architect. Intial questions from them lasted for about 25 minutes when the train entered the Chicago Union Station and the Tmobil bars in my cell got to zero; the phone got disconnected from the network.
Once I alighted the station, I found my self a small corner to dial in again. They were there. We started where we got halted. Before that I plugged in my phonecharger as the battery was going down. For next 55 minutes I was grilled by the Architect on anything and everything that is .Net. He was paused thrice; once when my ear was all hot and sweaty with holding the phone so long, second time my friend called up and third I had to provide directions to a guy looking for a particular train. During this time, I also had pull myself and my luggage to a new corner as someone also wanted to share the plugpoint for his laptop.
Once the interview was over we all marvelled at the uniqueness of our experience; we got disturbed by so many things but we achieved what we wanted to do. They questioned me relentlessly and mercilessly and I answered them obligingly, the environment and the circumstances just added a new paradigm to the concept of telephonic interview. SG knew of my blog and told me to write up the experience. I was amazed that they were doing background research about me, however I didnt write the story till now as I was still working with IBM. But now that I have resigned I couldnt hide the greed to share this with the world.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Springfield ain't Fun
Me and the Toyota Echo on a snowy Springfield road
My latest project is in Springfield, IL with the State Education Board. And believe me its no fun to be there after staying in Chicago for so long. There are few things about this place which have left indelible marks which includes:
Lincoln: Mr Abraham Lincoln is everywhere in Springfield. Starting from the Old Capitol to the bars, libraries and museums, cobbled road and Amtrak station:even on the walls of the restrooms of bars and coffee shops, its Lincoln and excerpts of his famous speeches all the way. Even the Amtrak train from Chicago to Kansas City via Springfield is called Ann Rutledge, the name of Lincoln's first girlfriend. People eat, drink and sleep Lincoln. Amazing guy he must had been to exercise such a tremendous influence even today.
No Fast Food after Sundown: All the food outlets in the downtown Springfield are shut down by 7pm and there is no food anywhere. My project mates are helpful; they drove me around to different places for dinner. You have to travel westward and eastward to get food or visit the restaurants of 3 star hotels to fill up your belly every night if you are in downtown.
One way Every way: This is fun. 90% of the streets in Springfield are oneways. I rented a Toyota Echo for a snowy weekend from enterprise. Small and powerful, this new model from the Toyota stable is pretty with not-so-good brakes (may be I was making it more hard on the melting snows).Besides the car had a bad blind corner on left turns. So the fact that every street is one way was actually helpful. It was fun to discover that you never can get lost with this one way strategy.
Small secrets: The pool table in Hilton Springfield does not have the Ball number 8. According to the bar tender, it always gets stolen. This is a very old hotel with broken closet doors, small bathrooms and slow showers. Hi speed internet is not available in all the rooms. They have parking charges.However they have a big complimentary breakfast.
The hotel Renaissance charges $10 extra for Hi speed internet. They too have parking charges.
Try out Hampton Inn. Very modern and up start. No parking. Free internet. And good gifts.
Interesting places for lunch and dinner: Here are a few of the places that I had my lunches and dinner and they were pretty good
*Capisce--at the top of Hilton
*Saputos--just behind Hilton
*Thai Kitchen---on 9th Street
*Gateway to India--for delicious sumptuous Indian lunch buffet
*Steak and Shake
*Alexander's Steak House ---Free style self grilling of food
*Sebastian's---Contemporary American cuisine
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Monica Belluci with an Indian
The time has come to leave Chicago. Life of an IT consultant is nomadic; set up your tent (and hook up your laptop) at one place only to move to the next. My next destination is not Chicago. Definitely I will miss Chicago; the vibrancy, the jazz, the glitterati, the pubs and bars, the parties and drinks and the people. And certainly I will miss Monica Belluci (name purposely concocted to avoid publicity. Monica Belluci wouldn't be a friend of a confused H1b holder. I just used her name as the person in concern has Italian origins; people who know Belluci: don’t be jealous, my friend is nowhere like her and people who don’t know Belluci: its time to Google her).
I was so much feeling marooned in Chicago once the last project ended and my colleagues got dispersed to different parts of this continent. Gym, books, Borders, acquaintances, jogging, working, social gatherings- everything was so incomplete without good friend(s). I met Ms Monica Belluci at a concert of the Chicago Orchestra playing Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. And she changed everything I knew about Chicago or for that matter US. She not only plays Andrew Lloyd Webber on her piano, she is good with her trumpet. We became friends in no time. She was as new to the city as me with not much friends. And she has a good heart. She cooked for me fine Italian dinners, got me Thanksgiving food from her home, drove me around to far off suburban shopping centers for discount sales and allowed me to drive her car a few times. Suddenly my lonesome existence was finding a meaning of having friends, having good company who can be fierce fully competitive during a game of bowling or dart or pool and equally sensitive and sharing over a dinner watching a movie.
Life may take me to many corners where I find it’s difficult to turn around and come back but I know she will be one I can count upon any time.
Thank you Ms Belluci for being there for me.
I was so much feeling marooned in Chicago once the last project ended and my colleagues got dispersed to different parts of this continent. Gym, books, Borders, acquaintances, jogging, working, social gatherings- everything was so incomplete without good friend(s). I met Ms Monica Belluci at a concert of the Chicago Orchestra playing Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. And she changed everything I knew about Chicago or for that matter US. She not only plays Andrew Lloyd Webber on her piano, she is good with her trumpet. We became friends in no time. She was as new to the city as me with not much friends. And she has a good heart. She cooked for me fine Italian dinners, got me Thanksgiving food from her home, drove me around to far off suburban shopping centers for discount sales and allowed me to drive her car a few times. Suddenly my lonesome existence was finding a meaning of having friends, having good company who can be fierce fully competitive during a game of bowling or dart or pool and equally sensitive and sharing over a dinner watching a movie.
Life may take me to many corners where I find it’s difficult to turn around and come back but I know she will be one I can count upon any time.
Thank you Ms Belluci for being there for me.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Ghai Vs Ramu: the debate starts afresh
My blog is getting visited, I know that, however Iam disappointed at the irrationally poor number of comments. May be my subjects are not shared well by the readers. Well, I think now its time to write to the audience. I chose a subject that I will think will fetch some comments. Iam hungry for some comments. And the topic is who is best, Subhash Ghai or Ram Gopal Varma. First I will discuss them both as glossed as possible and then do a little comparison, leaving the rest to the desi readers to comment on. My nondesi friends who visit my blog, Iam sorry if you feel left out this time.
When I say who of the above 2 mentioned directors are greatest, I don’t obviously mean to insult people like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy or for that matter even Raj Kapoor.They are beyond compare. It just a popular choice as both of them have now two new movies in the bollywood...Aitraaz by Ghai and Nach by Verma.
I can remember right now at least quite a lot of films by the Ghai which I have enjoyed, starting from Kalicharan (his first movie) to Joggers' Park (which he co produced). This son of a dental surgeon has a repertoire of movies, which have mesmerized audiences for over decades and that includes Vishwanath, Vidatha, Karz, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Taal and Pardes and undoubtedly he has been awarded titles like "The Dream Merchant", "The Showman of the Industry" for his acumen to churn out such blockbuster box office hits over and over again. He has captured the mind of audiences both in India and abroad as is evident from big earnings Mukta Arts (his production house) has made from Pardes and Taal from offshore markets. He is business savvy and made Mukta Arts the first production house in India to go public (http://www.valuenotes.com/SChhabria/sc_MAL_22may04.asp?Writer=&ArtCd=33794). And he artfully directed successful actors like Dilip Kumar Raj Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar. He is equally adept in handling fresh heroines like Mahima to more established ones like Madhuri and Ash; his latest movie will have a British actress called Antonia Bernath. And he is establishing a film school near Mumbai too. So it seems like he has done it all and keeping up to his comment "I need to give back whatever I got from cinema,to the younger generations, whether its knowledge, experience or capital" (http://www.muktaarts.com).
Now ladies and gentlemen, get ready for Ramu or Ram Gopal Varma. He is a civil engineer famous for making bollywood masala films with a panache. Like Ghai, his first movie Shiva shot him into fame instantaneously. He had his share of unsuccessful movies like Ratri and Money before he started out belching hits like Raat, Rangeela, Satya, Shool, Jungle, Company, Bhoot and Mein Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon. If you have seen his movies you would know that there is a definite pattern in the madness of his films, they are not run-of-the-mill boy meets gal movies. Jara hatke. Check out his entire repertoire at the following link (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0890060/). Now I don’t want to eulogize either of the directors and neither do I want to write their obituaries. To me and my senses, Ramu's movies are definitely much more attractive to watch for rather than Ghai's. Ramu is urbane and classy and sophisticated, Ghai is more earthy and much more for the normal. Ghai's heroines are so mundane and so traditional sati types while you will be dazzled and shocked at the characters Ramu's heroines enact...they are fanatics, they can be killers, they can be possessed, they dress wild, they can do anything. To me Indians in USA (h1b crowd is hopefully young, urbane and sassy type) ought to identify more with Ramu's heroes and heroines than those of Ghai's as the former types are more assertive,aggressive and arrogantly normal; unless you are on the wrong side of 45, when you start thinking that everything traditional, everything romantic are good you would hopefully appreciate the thinking behind Ramu's movies.
That was my take on them. Iam definitely waiting for some juicy comments this time.
When I say who of the above 2 mentioned directors are greatest, I don’t obviously mean to insult people like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy or for that matter even Raj Kapoor.They are beyond compare. It just a popular choice as both of them have now two new movies in the bollywood...Aitraaz by Ghai and Nach by Verma.
I can remember right now at least quite a lot of films by the Ghai which I have enjoyed, starting from Kalicharan (his first movie) to Joggers' Park (which he co produced). This son of a dental surgeon has a repertoire of movies, which have mesmerized audiences for over decades and that includes Vishwanath, Vidatha, Karz, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Taal and Pardes and undoubtedly he has been awarded titles like "The Dream Merchant", "The Showman of the Industry" for his acumen to churn out such blockbuster box office hits over and over again. He has captured the mind of audiences both in India and abroad as is evident from big earnings Mukta Arts (his production house) has made from Pardes and Taal from offshore markets. He is business savvy and made Mukta Arts the first production house in India to go public (http://www.valuenotes.com/SChhabria/sc_MAL_22may04.asp?Writer=&ArtCd=33794). And he artfully directed successful actors like Dilip Kumar Raj Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar. He is equally adept in handling fresh heroines like Mahima to more established ones like Madhuri and Ash; his latest movie will have a British actress called Antonia Bernath. And he is establishing a film school near Mumbai too. So it seems like he has done it all and keeping up to his comment "I need to give back whatever I got from cinema,to the younger generations, whether its knowledge, experience or capital" (http://www.muktaarts.com).
Now ladies and gentlemen, get ready for Ramu or Ram Gopal Varma. He is a civil engineer famous for making bollywood masala films with a panache. Like Ghai, his first movie Shiva shot him into fame instantaneously. He had his share of unsuccessful movies like Ratri and Money before he started out belching hits like Raat, Rangeela, Satya, Shool, Jungle, Company, Bhoot and Mein Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon. If you have seen his movies you would know that there is a definite pattern in the madness of his films, they are not run-of-the-mill boy meets gal movies. Jara hatke. Check out his entire repertoire at the following link (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0890060/). Now I don’t want to eulogize either of the directors and neither do I want to write their obituaries. To me and my senses, Ramu's movies are definitely much more attractive to watch for rather than Ghai's. Ramu is urbane and classy and sophisticated, Ghai is more earthy and much more for the normal. Ghai's heroines are so mundane and so traditional sati types while you will be dazzled and shocked at the characters Ramu's heroines enact...they are fanatics, they can be killers, they can be possessed, they dress wild, they can do anything. To me Indians in USA (h1b crowd is hopefully young, urbane and sassy type) ought to identify more with Ramu's heroes and heroines than those of Ghai's as the former types are more assertive,aggressive and arrogantly normal; unless you are on the wrong side of 45, when you start thinking that everything traditional, everything romantic are good you would hopefully appreciate the thinking behind Ramu's movies.
That was my take on them. Iam definitely waiting for some juicy comments this time.
Friday, November 05, 2004
the lap story
Ever wondered what does the word Lap mean?? Well it can mean anything...i mean literally anything...from "the upper side of the thighs of a seated person" to "touching with the tongue" to "link access protocol" and "Licence Area Plan" and swimming 'laps' in a pool and what not. Just give a search on Google as "what is lap" and see the interesting possibilities (note:search also the images and you will find the diversity of the word LAP). So if lap can have such a wide connotation think what havoc can laptop play?? I chose this subject of laptop to write the day I got my new IBM laptop (ibm likes to call it t40 notebook..they don't like laptops :)). So what is now a laptop? A dinky keyboard married to a great LCD screen with unpredictable battery life to give a portable mess. Thats the normal definition. But have u considered the other mutations ..say laptop dancing....ooohhhlalala...or say puttin your head on someone's lap and looking up the clean blue sky on a sunday afternoon. I can already feel that your imagination is really stretching out ...and you are thinking aloud. Nothin wrong. After all lap-tops are supposedly for resting..whether its your portable computer or someones relaxed head. Now think about the most tabooed lap thing-the lap dancing. How many of you have actually experienced that and not enjoyed that?? Touch your heart and say that. Probably you stared impassively, as if watching the share prices on yahoo; your friends and companions will usually be too polite to claim a free eyeful, and so tend to talk among themselves, or look away at other dancers arranging themselves gymnastically around a chrome pole on the stage. Forget that, just checkout this link for more unadulterated fun on laps http://www.jimmcneill.com/dance.html
Saturday, October 23, 2004
surviving the rush
The labor day weekend and the 2 weeks blanketing it were awful. There were so many things happening ...and none of them were guaranteed to be beneficial.
*Suddenly the current project was terminated...left with 2 weeks to search up another project
* The rental cars we (me and my desi colleagues) took out for travelling to St.Louis met with a couple of accidents before we decided to come back home (Chicago)..tired and frustrated..
*I lost my debit card ..and actually someone used it to buy something...wow..i tracked the proceedings on the website of BoA (Bank Of America) before suspending the card
*One of the desi consultancies proposed me an abominable offer of 50K pa salary for company change, when there were others in the range of 75K.It was really humiliating.
*Opinions of people (regarding project termination) at home were divided.Most said "do what you feel good"..the rest was like "dont come back..make there or die"
*I gave a good interview for a new project for my existing company (IBM).But they soon realised that Iam too good for their job.
Being a typical 1977 aquarian, Iam proud of my nonchalant, indifferent, detached perspective.However these mudslide of events left me completely flustered. I lost 7 lbs in 2 weeks. And really speaking, no one was there with whom I could relate to all these.
But I survived.And I survived good.
The survival story kicks of fine.
BoA credited all the doubtful transactions to my account pleasing me immensely.
Hertz and Citibank and the insurance companies settled most of our claims and dues for the rental car thing.
The existing project actually got extended by 2 more weeks giving the precious time to look up for other projects.I did get a project in chicago.My project mates landed long term assignments at Florida,Texas and Michigan.So things got settled down.
Those few weeks were really rough.I got ruffled up a lot.And there was a whole lot of tensions boxing me left right and center. The whole world seemed so cruel and unempathetic.No one in sight to help.However, the silver lining was there for sure.Few of the consultancies were eager to help out and transfer my H1B. The job market was looking good.BoA was eager to help.And overall I kept my head on my shoulders.
Hope this experience will help others in their resolution to stick to the battle when hardest hit.
*Suddenly the current project was terminated...left with 2 weeks to search up another project
* The rental cars we (me and my desi colleagues) took out for travelling to St.Louis met with a couple of accidents before we decided to come back home (Chicago)..tired and frustrated..
*I lost my debit card ..and actually someone used it to buy something...wow..i tracked the proceedings on the website of BoA (Bank Of America) before suspending the card
*One of the desi consultancies proposed me an abominable offer of 50K pa salary for company change, when there were others in the range of 75K.It was really humiliating.
*Opinions of people (regarding project termination) at home were divided.Most said "do what you feel good"..the rest was like "dont come back..make there or die"
*I gave a good interview for a new project for my existing company (IBM).But they soon realised that Iam too good for their job.
Being a typical 1977 aquarian, Iam proud of my nonchalant, indifferent, detached perspective.However these mudslide of events left me completely flustered. I lost 7 lbs in 2 weeks. And really speaking, no one was there with whom I could relate to all these.
But I survived.And I survived good.
The survival story kicks of fine.
BoA credited all the doubtful transactions to my account pleasing me immensely.
Hertz and Citibank and the insurance companies settled most of our claims and dues for the rental car thing.
The existing project actually got extended by 2 more weeks giving the precious time to look up for other projects.I did get a project in chicago.My project mates landed long term assignments at Florida,Texas and Michigan.So things got settled down.
Those few weeks were really rough.I got ruffled up a lot.And there was a whole lot of tensions boxing me left right and center. The whole world seemed so cruel and unempathetic.No one in sight to help.However, the silver lining was there for sure.Few of the consultancies were eager to help out and transfer my H1B. The job market was looking good.BoA was eager to help.And overall I kept my head on my shoulders.
Hope this experience will help others in their resolution to stick to the battle when hardest hit.
Friday, October 22, 2004
CheeseCakes for the new borns
CheeseCakes And what NOT
You will need this
1. The day you decide enough is enough...or have made enough dollars ...
Major Airlines
2.To explore this country more
Usa Maps
USA for Beginners
3.Send free SMS to your country (only for Hutch)
Free SMS
4.Know more about Banksavings,Rates and mortgages and Taxes
Financial Interests
Alien Taxes
5.For free Net telephony
SkyPe
6.Send those dollars to apna desh
ICICI
7.All about H1b Xfers, GC timings and what not
Immigration
Immigration hints
IRS
8.Indian Consulate Addresses
Consulates
You will need this
1. The day you decide enough is enough...or have made enough dollars ...
Major Airlines
2.To explore this country more
Usa Maps
USA for Beginners
3.Send free SMS to your country (only for Hutch)
Free SMS
4.Know more about Banksavings,Rates and mortgages and Taxes
Financial Interests
Alien Taxes
5.For free Net telephony
SkyPe
6.Send those dollars to apna desh
ICICI
7.All about H1b Xfers, GC timings and what not
Immigration
Immigration hints
IRS
8.Indian Consulate Addresses
Consulates
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