Wikipedia

Though i have visited wiki before, never spent much time on it or analysed it.Recently checked this wikipedia and it sounds amazing.Its very interesting to know that wikipedia is one of the (?!!) largest ever growing open source encyclopedia.Its opensource since anyone who registers with wikican add articles to it.Due to this very reason, the quality of its content is doubted. Just to check this, i randomly searched some topics on it like,

1.my city
2.a south indian god
3.compound interest
4.Serialization (some hard core technical stuff)
5.love

I should say the results are great.Putting it in simple words,There is something for almost everything.Looking for something ? check it out in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/

Missing all things indian

Being away from india for an extended period of time, im missing all things indian. Although life is good here, its never like being in mumbai or chennai. One miss all those small pleasures that makes life more beautiful.

Here is a list of few things that comes to my mind and makes me nostalgic about mumbai now :

• the Mani's cafe/Madras cafe food from matunga.
• Going to siddhi vinayak temple once in a while.
• Watching a weekend tamil movie at aurora theatre,matunga.
• catching the last train to andheri at 1:19 AM from elphinstone.
• having the first tea from chaiwala, on mornings after full nite deliveries.
• watching sun tv songs late nite / as well as keeping it loud and pissing off the house owner.
• Buying latest hot selling books (paperback) for really cheap price @matunga/churchgate.
• visiting my uncle's home.

and the list goes on...

I think the songs writer knew how it feels when he wrote "sorgame endraalum athu nammoora pola varuma".. meaning "Even if its heaven it wont be like my village".

An evening with cowboys

Last week on friday night we happened to be at Ranchman's, calgary.One of the most authentic cowboyish hang-out places in calgary.From the beginning since i came here i had the dream of meeting authentic cowboys,and it was time to see some.Luckily it was st.patrick's day and the theme being green on that day, most people wore greenish and the boys got their first serving of Green beer which is available only on that day of the year.

On one side the dance floor was vibrant with a couple of instructors teaching and helping people perform "Line dance" a special for the Irish event.We had our dinner and it was quite good i should say.Later it was fun watching people trying to ride a mechanical bull that keeps rocking.Man, i thought once my project is over, im gonna give it a try before returning to india.Hmmm..an evening well spent.

First day on ICE

Last saturday we had a friendly invitation from a local hockey(ice) club (whose coach happened to be a colleague at our clients place) to watch them practising and try our hands on the skates. It was lots of fun. We a group of 4 boys , 3 of our business analysts, and the coach went to the arena on the evening. spent some time watching the ladies hockey team practising there. Then our turn came and we were in a separate dressing room that was
allocated for us.


We got all the kits for us to wear for our first outing (Jersey's, skateshoes, kneepads, helmets etc.,). Wearing the skate shoe was the tough part damn, one has to wear it tightly in such a way that it is compact, or else you could twist your toe.We were all set to go. I was the one to first enter the Ice. I swear its so different from what we see.As soon as i entered i fell down for the first time.Its so hard to get the balance.But the members of the hockey club helped us stand on the ice and taught us a few lessons on how to do skating.We spent some time on the ice.It was fun anyways.

Once the session was over then we got changed and the coach took us to the ladies locker room and where the whole team of playing ladies were present. They shared some drinks and smoke. That was the first time we saw these ladies so casual and it was so different for conservative boys from india.Well, it was a different experience.

Feeling of Despair -- coming out of it.

Last weekend was a tough one. It was one of those moments when you feel tremendous pressure to complete something in time. How do you feel when you reach a long awaited milestone and when you were thinking everything is fine, a last minute glitch happens and spoils the party, delays the milestone.Especially, when the progress of the project depends on this and a big sum of money is involved. Literally I was feeling like "My ass on the burner".I was so upset about this.But there was no time to even feel bad or sit and whine. Hmmm...thank god. My team plunged into firefighting mode and worked relentlessly, somehow solved the problem and made it happen. After a couple of days we saw some light and we reached the milestone.

Now feeling little relieved. Hmmm...now the sight is set at next milestone(s). That's life. you got to keep running.

Again this reinforces some of my beliefs:
1. Always be prepared for something go wrong.
2. Dont panic...when a problem hits you hard.Dont run from the problem. Find how to solve it.
3. Team is more important than the individual. If you have a solid team with dependable guys, half the problem is solved.
4. All problems are passing clouds, if we handle them in the right way.